Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. Albert Einstein

Well, my first try at being a teacher for the week is over. Now I get to try again after my break in two weeks. I say try because if it was perfect then I wouldn't be student teaching... or even teaching for that matter. I would probably be out there lecturing and writing books making a lot more money than I am now.

Anyway, my first week overall went pretty well. I had my good moments and bad. And I learned a lot more during that one week than during the whole time already there. My biggest lesson was to always, always, always be prepared for something to not go the way you expect. During my spelling test on Friday I had the three lists made out for the three different groups. I had post-it's on the paper of the names of the students and I was going to tell them their groups color i.e. approaching was red, on level was blue etc. Well, I lost the paper. As soon as I took a second to look around while giving instructions to the class "please turn your desks so that you can't see others papers, write your name and 1-20.." the class started to unfold. This group seems to need a lot of structure and constant supervision. I honestly feel that I couldn't trust them if I had to leave for a minute. As soon as something changes they begin to talk or get up and move around, start going to find a book to read. Other classes I've been in seem to do fine when being told to just wait patiently for a second. Well I couldn't find the paper so I just had to wing it. I kind of remembered what the groupings were since they were the same for the reading groups. This was a new way for the students to take the tests. While one group was receiving a word the others were just supposed to wait. They were instructed to look over their words or sit quietly. This seemed to be an impossible task for them. I stopped giving the test and had them look at me. Then I told them that sometimes people make mistakes, and that I had made one. Then went on to telling them that everyone makes a mistake but we need to help each other out by doing the responsible thing when this occurs. This seemed to help the behavior and I think they understood what I meant. My week of teaching was filled with these teachable moments. Students behaviors, or lack of behaviors, need to be addressed before learning can happen. I think a lot of the times we need to stop to address an issue is often not only needed for in the classroom, but they are expectations for the real world.. i.e. don't talk when someone else is talking, pay attention, time management etc.

I took two ideas from the last seminar. One was to have a mystery student. The class seemed to really enjoy this idea. Since I only had Thursday and Friday to try it out I chose a student each day who I knew would do a great job. Then as the reward they were able to go home before the rest of the class. The students loved this idea because we have often had to sit back down after lining up because they can't form a '1' line. The student that got the reward was able to by pass this and just go home. When I start back up after break I will have a whole class reward for the first 3 or 4 days for the mystery student then we will have 1 or two days of an individual reward. The other idea I took was to have an answer notebook. I have two students who are above average and always want to answer the questions I ask. Then either they are bouncing in their seats to get my attention (and disrupt those around them) or they get really upset if they are not called on. I gave each of them a notebook and assigned them to sit towards the back of the class. (this is so when they are writing it's not distracting to the students around them) Then when I ask a question they can write the answer down, and then once it's written I may call on them if no one else has the answer. I told both girls that I want to hear from them for each question, but this would be unfair for the other students. Then I told them that they can write in the notebook and I will check it after class and read their answers. Both of them seemed to really enjoy this idea an I did see them writing in it. I think it's a great extension for them as well because they would be able to write more down while other students are answering my questions and I am able to give them more support as well when I respond in the journals. One teacher commented that it is a lot more work for the teacher. Yea, but isn't it part of our job to meet each students needs?

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai Lama

Today was a much much much better day than yesterday. I'm not sure if it was just because it was a new day or because we went over our community circle and talked about what we could do to change our behaviors. I also decided to wear the microphone during instruction time. I think this also helped to get more attention from the students that sit a further away when we are in the learning area. I also worked on giving a lot of compliments and saying positive things. Then at the end of the day I put a note in each mailbox. The note said something I liked about the student and something they were really good at. I heard a lot of commotion and students talking amongst each other then on the way out of the room a lot of them gave me very sincere thank-yous and had the biggest smiles on their faces. I am excited to see how tomorrow goes!

“The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude.” -- Dennis S. Brown

Today was my second day full time in the classroom. It was really hard to stay positive and keep a smile on my face. The class, as my teacher said, was treating me like I was a sub. And I could tell. They were seeing how far they could go before I became upset. It was interesting because some of the students that are normally very well behaved were talking a lot to their neighbor, not wanting to work, or blurting out answers, when they knew from lessons I have previously taught, when they should be raising their hands. My CT was out of the room a lot of the time working on other things she needed to get done in the hall way while I taught. I'm not sure if students were being disruptive more so than usual because she was out of the room and I was teaching or because normally when she was teaching I would be watching students from the back who were talking and being disruptive and then stopping them or standing behind them to let them know I was there. They have a lot of stuff also coming up. Tonight was our second half of teacher conferences, tomorrow we have an early out, they don't have school next week, and the week they come back we have a field trip.

I started out trying to teach how to write a paragraph. I was going to incorporate the promethian board and we were going to identify the parts of a paragraph then I found a cool format that looked like a cheese burger (Top bun was main topping, the middles were the 3 details and the bottom bun was the wrap up sentence). As soon as I began to tell them that we would be learning about how to write a paragraph at least three people began to complain and proceeded to blurt out that they already knew what to do. I told them that it was a good thing they knew and that they could help by answering questions and refreshing the minds of those that didn't know. One of them like the idea the others started to talk to people near them and became a distraction to the class. I tried being positive by calling out those who where doing a great job and giving out stickers (part of our rooms positive behavior system) to those who where answering questions. We got through the question part. I try asking them first what they know and they normally seem to want to share their knowledge. This helps me learn what they know as well as help refresh the students who have forgot. I then told them that they needed to sit quietly so that they could see the board and I needed a light person (one of the jobs) to turn the lights off. The then lead students to begin pushing students to get to a different spot and even though I reminded them to be quiet they continued to talk. After this I realized that they were not going to get a lot of learning done and needed to be separated as well as needed a moment to be told what they were doing wrong. So I sent them back to their seats. At the beginning of the day the CT and I decided to give them an extra recess at the end of the day. For every letter in RECESS they would get 2 minutes of outside time. If as a whole class they were being bad a letter would be erased, if an individual was being disruptive their name would go up and they would miss time. When I went to erase a letter and was telling them why I was erasing a letter I had a few students say something like "so", "I don't care" "I didn't want the recess anyway." I was baffled by this behavior because as a student I would want to have that extra time. My CT heard what was happening and then came into the room and proceeded to tell them that I was the teacher for the week and they were being disrespectful. Then even at Music the teacher asked me to erase one of the letters for our recess because they were unable to listen then.

Luckily after this was lunch (and 3 students had to stay in because they couldn't like up properly after a warning). This gave me time to reflect and gather myself. I wanted to come back in a better mood and more positive. My goal was to give out more compliments and rewards. Maybe if they saw that I was giving out rewards for good behavior they would want the same rewards.

My first lesson after lunch and recess was to introduce vocabulary cards for the week and then read a short story. Normally the students are well behaved for the CT during this time. Students know that they would be asked to come up with a sentence for each word (7 of them) and I would call on multiple people. A lot of the students were ready to listen and paying attention. Unfortunately a few of them were not and this caused the others to be distracted as well. After the cards we transitioned into reviewing about fantasy and reality which we learned the day before. I reminded students multiple times that I needed their full attention, (red voices and eyes on the board). The next activity was a story. The group is normally attentive for a story or a movie. It was not the case during this time. While reading if I caught students talking their names would go on the board or they would get a check. This was done without saying anything so that my story would not be disrupted. Students already knew what it meant. Even this did not work so well. Students were still talking and not paying attention. Ok, I thought, let's get them moving. I played a quick game of simon says in order to get them moving and hopefully listening. It also allowed me to ask the questions I wanted because I said 'simon says whisper... to your neighbor. The students then began to get even more hyper and there was some pushing and students being disrespectful to each other. Once settled down we started word of the day. This went a lot better, but still a little rough. They get to play hang man in order to find the word of the day. I had a lot of students (who normally didn't) blurt out answers when they knew them.

To skip ahead we ended up having a community circle instead of doing math. I knew that learning wouldn't happen anyway with all the problems. We went around with the quiet mouse and said what we were doing wrong and how we were disrupting the group, then they were to go back around the circle and had to say something we were doing individually to help the group. There were a lot of people passing for this one and I mentioned to them when I got the mouse back that their inability to think of something they did good reflected their own individual behavior. Even though this only really effected them for the next lesson, it was a start. They were back to being chaotic right after the social studies lesson and had a hard time lining up to go home.

The good thing is, tomorrow is a new day (as well as a half day). Tonight I've done a lot of reflecting. I feel like a lot of the day was negative. I was trying to address those who where being disruptive to others and the group as a whole. Tomorrow I am going to start out the day positively. As each student comes into the room I'm going to give them a compliment in order to let them know I do notice the things they are doing well. It seems that we often only notice the 'bad' things that the really good things get over looked. Tonight I am writing a note to each student to put in their mail. The note will say something that they do really well. For example on student "I like how you bring a lot of good energy to the class. There are a lot of students who look up to you because of your kind acts" I think doing this will also help me as a teacher see the good things about each student and it will cause me to start off tomorrow with a positive attitude!

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts." -- C. S. Lewis

Today was my first day taking over for everything except the social studies lesson. Since the teacher had taught the whole lesson about Brucemore I thought it would make more sense that she ended it. It's amazing how exhausting teaching really is. I think I used to take my teachers for granted. It used to seem like all they did was sit at the front of the room, present us with information, then have us do work at our desks. As student you don't see how teachers have to keep track of each student and what they are doing all while teaching. You don't see how teachers need to read students and how they react to the information in order to check for understanding, also during teaching. As a student you might have a question for the teacher but you don't realize that teacher also has to answer 20 other students questions while at their seats doing work. A student also doesn't see the before and after school prep time teachers have to endure. I for one, stay until about 6pm every night with the teacher getting the classroom ready for the next day, figuring out the lesson plans, pulling out the needed materials for activities and grading papers. It might seem like I am complaining, but I'm not at all. I think it's more of a realization and a thanks to all my teachers that did that for me just so I could learn and grow up to be the teacher I am today.

Ok so back to what I was saying. Today was my first day full time teaching. It felt great! It was also interesting that before when my CT would leave the room for a minute or two the students were asking right away where she was or what she was doing. Today while I was teaching she was out side of the room a lot working with individuals or doing her own work right outside of the classroom. The students didn't even notice her absence. This was a great feeling for me because it meant a few different things. First off, it meant that my teaching must have got their attention enough for them not to notice. It also meant that they are now getting used to me being in charge of the classroom and they feel comfortable enough with me as their teacher.

The class had a great morning and even earned our 5 of our 12 stars. Our mornings are also broken up a lot more than our afternoons. In the morning students break off into small groups for either reading or math, then we have writing, then they are off to specials, then are back to finish up prior work or have a morning meeting or another lesson. In the afternoon, unless they are pulled out for something such as speech or reading they are in the room from noon till the end of the day. We often try and have a restroom break or give a recess as a reward for good behavior (which we haven't been able to do for 2 weeks now). It seems that the students do a lot better if they can get out of the room and wiggle a little bit. I think I want to find some transitions that help them get up and move a bit, but also are not to silly or googfy, because then as I said in a previous blog, I loose their attention.

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” Dr. Seuss quote

So it's been awhile since I've been able to blog. Part because it was a super busy week and part because the internet was out at my apartment. It's really amazing how we take small things for granted, such as internet access at the tips of our fingers. Literally. I had to use my phone to check my email. Not sure what I would have done without it!

So this week was Filled with a lot of learning, teaching, and all that goes in-between. I took a lot of notes but I forgot what day they were from since it was just scribbled down in my book so this blog will be filled with different ideas and events from the past week. Sorry to those who like things in chronological order.
This week we had parent teacher conferences. It was interesting for many reasons. The first being I figured students would be on better behavior knowing their parents were going to be talking to us. For some it was exactly opposite. We even reminded students at the beginning of the week that we would be talking to them and they should be on their best behavior. It didn’t work. I also found it interesting how some teachers did a lot of prep work for the big day, while others said they just planned stuff the night before. I already know that I will be that teacher that has everything planned at least the week before. I like being prepared and ready for such events. The night of the conference was also very hectic (another reason I would want to be very prepared).  Our first conference was right at the end of the school day. This left no time to set up the room or even give us a moment to collect our thoughts about the day. The conference that was at that time was also one that we knew would take a bit more time because it was for our newer student. I was surprised by how many people also sat in on a parent teacher conference. Depending on the student, we would have their reading specialist or any other teacher they worked individually with, sometimes one or two of the special teachers as well as the parents and both the CT and myself. With each person wanting to but their two cents in our time went by quickly.
There isn’t much time for side talk during the first conference. The teacher has to first present any new programs to the parents (we had a new math online program, and head sprout), make sure we had all the correct contact information, read through a contract that the teacher, the parent and the student had to sign, then talk about behavior or school work. Luckily I was able help with the beginning part of the conference. While one parent was outside the class room waiting and my CT was finishing up the previous conference I explained the new programs and introduced myself to the parent waiting outside. This then gave my CT more time to talk about the student. After the conferences she said how my part helped out so much because she wouldn’t have been able to fit everything in to the 20 min time slot otherwise. It’s especially more difficult when parents have a lot of questions or comments for the teacher.
This week I was able to teach my unit. I created one from scratch. I made mine to teach about bully’s and what to do if you are being bullied or if you see someone who is being bullied. Our class filled out a survey and 70% said they are currently being bullied or have been bullied before. To help show my third graders how much this is I had 4 of them stand and then one sit down. (The math isn’t exact but it did the trick). The students were shocked by this. I think it helped show that if one person was being bullied they weren’t the only one. As well as how important it is to learn about how to handle a bully. The reason I chose to do this instead of just taking over an existing unit and re-creating that was because I didn’t like the lessons the Parrt program had for bullying. It didn’t address the issues our class was dealing with and didn’t really go into all the different kinds of bully’s. It just basically told about the physical and verbal abusive ones. Our class has a lot of the non-verbal bullying. My lesson also taught about what to do if you see someone being bullied. I think this was important for my class because a lot of them are afraid to say anything or wouldn’t know who to actually go to. In the quiz I asked what would you do if you saw someone being bullied and 30% said they would just ignore it.
Overall the lesson went really great! I added a few youtube videos and the kids seemed to really enjoy these. I used newer videos so that it didn’t seem old fashioned. We had a ‘police pal’ come in and used one of the old McGruff crime dog videos and they seemed bored by it. The videos also had a little older students playing in them which I thought worked better because most of them look up to the ‘Hannah Montana’ or Justin Beiber group type group.
One of the biggest differences that my CT and I have is our organizational styles. I like to have things kind of planned out and have a plan B if something else comes up. I also like to have everything written down as a way for myself to remember. My CT on the other hand has a loose schedule and normally just has an idea of what she wants to do but will fit in at different times. This was really evident during our apple day. (If we get 12 stars for either doing a really good job as a whole class or get a compliment by another teacher we get to have a special day)  We had some ideas of what to do, but as the day went on she rearranged a lot of the plans and added or took away some things as well. This was a little confusing for me because I didn’t know what she wanted to do next. It also made it a bit more difficult to transition into the next activity when I had to stop at the end then ask what was next. I think this wouldn’t be so bad if just one person was teaching because they could just change whenever they wanted and the students wouldn’t know any different, but when there is someone else the transition isn’t as smooth because that person doesn’t know what the other one wants.
This week I taught a cursive lesson and it didn't go as well as I would have liked. I like to make things fun and joke a little bit with my teacher. We were learning the letter t and we were going to add i to it. The book tells us to give bad examples which I agree and disagree with. (disagree because I think the teacher really has to emphasize that is the wrong way). What I did was showed the wrong example by making the top of the t go really far above or below the line, made it look like a "mountain" or a capital A. The kids like that it was fun, but then because the group is still somewhat immature it was really hard for them to settle back down after laughing a little. My teacher and I talked a bit about how it's difficult to determine when a group will be able to handle being funny, and when they can't. For our group it's hard to just be a little silly because you loose their attention. We are also really trying to grab their attention and keep them focused. It seems that this year they really want to either talk to the person next to them, play with their jewelery or shoe laces, and even examine all the little bumps on their skin while sitting on the floor. (Which, silly bands so far are the worst distractions!)
Our apple day was really fun. The students made apple puppets to use when saying our new apple poem, I read aloud a few apple books, we added apple ideas into our learning, learned about the life cycle of an apple, then at the end we used an old fashion apple cutter/peeler to have apples with caramel. Unfortunately we didn’t get to our movie or make apple star prints. The class had difficulties with lining up and not talking during work time. At one point when lining up we had to try 3 times before students had a ‘1’ line and were not talking. It’s still amazing how these little things can take away so much of the fun stuff or the learning time. My teacher got on her soap box as we call it and told the students about how much prep goes into these ‘fun days’ and how disrespectful it is to us that they just goofed off and wasted time. It seems that the students will then be really good for awhile after we have one of these class talks, but then go back to the way they were before an hour or two after. It’s also really frustrating for those students who are doing the right thing and are listening because they have to suffer because of the students who are being bad.
Well, sorry for the long blog but it was 3 days worth of stuff J. This week I promise to do better at keeping up with it!

“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” Richard L.

Today was a great day for our class! We got a lot of learning done and with less interruptions. It was also a great day for our class considering they were all coming back from a three day weekend. (It was also a good break for me too!) I started my bully unit today and it went great! I had students watch a child made video about bullying and then we talked about it. I also introduced the 4 types of bullying. I thought this would all be review for many of them but the different types was new. It was also interesting that a lot of the students I thought wouldn't pay as much attention really did. We also talked about why certain kids are targeted to be bullies and why kids might become bullies. Then I told them that we will be working on what we can do when we are being bullied and about what a bystander is and their roll in bullying.

After school I was able to attend a meeting for a student to help with behavior issues. To me this was fascinating because there were 5 people at the intervention for just one student. Each person played a different roll in the student's learning process. I thought it was awesome how each faculty member was so interested in helping the student and they really cared about getting them help. The meeting was about an hour long and in the time we were able to collaborate on what was being seen in and out of the classroom and then create a plan of action.

Tomorrow I'm going to start teaching math. Yikes. This is the first time I've been this nervous since the first week! Math is my weakest subject and I know I will be doing a lot of prep work after this blog is finished. It's reminding me that I have to let the students also know that I'm not all that great in every subject and I also have to work hard at things even though it might 'look' easy for me. One student commented on the fact that I could write really fast. (I was re-writing what was on the board onto a sticky note because it was hard for them to look from the board to their desks) I then told them that I wasn't always a fast writer and it had taken me a lot of years to learn how to write as well as write fast. They thought about that for about 2 seconds then began writing again.

A funny conversation started in the lunch line today. They were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and that conversation lead to me and how old I was. This lead to them thinking I was only 18. I said that I'm a bit older than that and then another kid piped in... yea your like 30. It made me laugh because of the way he said it making it seem like that was really old :/. Oh the things kids come up with.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. Epictetus

I can't believe I've already been in the classroom for three weeks! I have also learned more than I thought I would. It makes the job even more exciting knowing that I will never really know everything, and I will continue to learn more and more throughout my teaching career. It's fun reading back through my blogs and remembering all that I had done this week.  It feels so long ago already and yet everything seemed like it just happened yesterday. It's fun listening to my CT tell her stories about teaching and it seems that she too has those 'feels like yesterday moments' except hers were quite awhile ago.

Friday our new student was not in the classroom and I decided to observe what the class was like without her. It was like night and day. The students seemed to be less on edge (didn't worry about the new student bothering them). They were a lot quieter in the hallways because they weren't complaining about her doing something. Sadly before when she sat in the learning area there was a space all the way around her because she had a hard time sitting still and keeping hands to herself. Yesterday the students were all sitting close together and closer to the front. I feel bad for the student because she doesn't really understand what she is doing yet and she just wants to be accepted by others. It's amazing how just one person can change the dynamics of the classroom. It goes to show that teachers really have to adjust their lessons for each class and must really know their students well in order to grab their attention and so that they understand.

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.~Dr. Seuss

Our class had a really easy and fun day. We went on our first field trip! It was awesome seeing how excited all the students where. It was also a good feeling knowing that we are giving these students this awesome opportunity they wouldn't have had otherwise. It also seems weird that almost half of the class hadn't heard of 'Brucemore' before our Cedar Rapids unit and they have been here for most if not all of their lives. With how our class has been the last few weeks I was anticipating the worst. This was more so that I would be happy if it turned out good. And it did! The third graders where broken down into four groups of ten student and two adults. My group was very rambunctious but in a good way. They were excited to be there and really did want to learn about it. The hardest part was not touching anything for the students. Since a lot of the items in the house where from 1900's they didn't want people to touch things because the oil on  your hands can ruin stuff. I can see  why they had a hard time. There is such cool stuff right in front of them with all this awesome information about it why not hold/feel/touch! I think it would be cool if there where replicas of items that kids could hold and look at. They had books that were hand sewn by the first family. Even I thought it would be really cool to just flip through the pages. This would be something easily replicated

I was able to teach a lesson that I created pretty much from scratch. This was also an observed lesson by my supervisor. I was going to teach a parrt lesson but really didn't like how it was set up and the activities for it. So I took the format the original plan had and plugged in what I wanted. The ending activity was a 'funeral for put downs.' We wrote down our mean comments and then buried it (under a plant in the room). The students seemed to be really  interested in the activity. It was interesting that they could think of a lot more 'put downs' than they good 'put ups.'  I think this  reflect more on how much more we remember when someone says something mean to us then when something nice is said.

Tomorrow we have to get back to work and we have our unit test to finish. Hopefully they will be calmer by then and we can get right back to work!