On Fridays my students have time to spend with their reading buddies - a class of 7th grade students who comes down to our room in which the students are buddies with one another. My students absolutely adore this activity because they get to either be read to by their 7th grade buddy, show off their reading skills to their buddy, or a combination of both. Generally at the beginning of the session we have some sort of article from National Geographic for Kids or small activity to give the time a sense of direction. However, when that activity is finished the kids know that they need to spend the rest of the time reading something of their choice.
During this last session, I saw something I have never seen before in my students: an absolute excitement for reading and literature. My classroom teacher and I have been doing a folktale unit where we read a different folktale to the students each day. The kids really seem to be enjoying this activity because the stories are short, very entertaining, and have great illustrations. While the students were with their reading buddies this Friday, the students were so excited to have those books to share with their students; absolutely could not wait to show them the great stories we have been reading.
I have never seen such a unanimous excitement for literature before from my students. Generally there are just the select few that really like reading and will always enjoy books. As for the rest of the students: they could probably care less about reading. It really made me think about how important it is, as a future teacher and a current student teacher, to expose students to a wide variety and a large quantity of good literature. There may be a genre exposed to the students that had never been introduced to before, or a genre that will spark that interest and excitement for literature that we hope to instill in all of our students.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
What is it About the Thought of Lice that Makes You Itchy?
I don't know what it is about the word, and the thought of lice, that just absolutely makes me itchy all over... especially all over my head.
As I am sure you can guess, we had a student with lice in second grade. Granted he wasn't one in my class specifically, but rather from another class. However, second graders all intermingle during recess, lunch, before and after school. There is no telling what kind of contact he had with students in my class and if it is going to be a bigger issue.
While it may be a slight overreaction, everytime I even think about lice, aside from itching like crazy, I think about my health class for the education program. We had a guest speaker who was a nurse for some of the Bellingham School District and she said explicitly that if we are elementary school teachers we need to accept the idea that during our teaching career at some point we will get lice... no questions about it. Now the idea of lice is even more disgusting than it was before. Before that lesson I had never seriously considered the idea that I may get lice at some point. Now, it is something I think about whenever someone mentions lice... "Oh man, I hope this isn't the time I get it!"
I don't know why I have such a mental issue with lice, but it just makes me so itchy even to think about!
As I am sure you can guess, we had a student with lice in second grade. Granted he wasn't one in my class specifically, but rather from another class. However, second graders all intermingle during recess, lunch, before and after school. There is no telling what kind of contact he had with students in my class and if it is going to be a bigger issue.
While it may be a slight overreaction, everytime I even think about lice, aside from itching like crazy, I think about my health class for the education program. We had a guest speaker who was a nurse for some of the Bellingham School District and she said explicitly that if we are elementary school teachers we need to accept the idea that during our teaching career at some point we will get lice... no questions about it. Now the idea of lice is even more disgusting than it was before. Before that lesson I had never seriously considered the idea that I may get lice at some point. Now, it is something I think about whenever someone mentions lice... "Oh man, I hope this isn't the time I get it!"
I don't know why I have such a mental issue with lice, but it just makes me so itchy even to think about!
Teaching Test Taking as a Genre Study
On Tuesday evening I went to a meeting of the North Sound Reading Council, of which I am a member, and heard a great presentation by Michelle Hornof. Michelle is a reading specialist and third grade teacher from Bellingham, WA who has published an article about teaching test taking as a genre.
I was a bit skeptical at first, if I am going to be completely honest. I really didn't see how you could teach test taking, the same way you teach mystery, nonfiction, or any other literacy genre. However, her session really opened my eyes to the possibility.
There are so many test specific vocabulary words and text features that are virtually only found in standardized tests that students are often unfamiliar with when taking tests. If we, as educators, teach our students strategies for taking tests, as well as test specific vocabulary and text features, our students are so much more likely to perform to their full potential on those tests, whether they be state mandated ones or just another in class exam.
I would encourage all educators to read her article, which can be found in The Reading Teacher, and think about teaching this unit to your students to demystify the tests and allow students to perform to their full ability.
I was a bit skeptical at first, if I am going to be completely honest. I really didn't see how you could teach test taking, the same way you teach mystery, nonfiction, or any other literacy genre. However, her session really opened my eyes to the possibility.
There are so many test specific vocabulary words and text features that are virtually only found in standardized tests that students are often unfamiliar with when taking tests. If we, as educators, teach our students strategies for taking tests, as well as test specific vocabulary and text features, our students are so much more likely to perform to their full potential on those tests, whether they be state mandated ones or just another in class exam.
I would encourage all educators to read her article, which can be found in The Reading Teacher, and think about teaching this unit to your students to demystify the tests and allow students to perform to their full ability.
Monday, January 12, 2009
My First Full Day!
Today was my first day teaching the entire day by myself. And oh boy, was it exhausting.
We started the day with our standard entry, calendar, flag, weather and community meeting. Then we started introducing literacy centers today. We are not doing the literacy centers in the traditional way that is commonly described in many literacy handbooks. The literacy centers are leveled for our students, so today we introduced three different literacy centers, but only to the groups that were interacting with those literacy centers specifically. I was a little bit hesitant to do the centers in this way but it ended up being incredibly successful. The groups were quiet, and on task, both of which are rare for my classroom. The students seemed to like it because they were a nice change from doing SSR every day. The students were also excited see that they would be doing a different literacy center every day of the week, which was especially motivating for the students.
Then we moved onto our leveled literacy groups, of which I teach a standards group. The kids were a little bit crazy since we haven't done guided reading groups for so long, but they were excited to have a new teacher and a change of scenery. For guided reading groups I teach 28 grade level standards students in another teacher's classroom, bringing 6 of my students with me. The entire second grade participates so the students love to see new people teaching them and have a change of classmates twice a week.
After recess we had writing, where we started expository writing. This lesson went a little bit rough. The introduction to expository writing is that the students were to work with a partner, have one partner draw a snowman and then give their partner directions to allow them to draw an identical snowman to show the importance of giving very specific directions. Evidently I could have used some lessons of my own on giving specific directions because the students were slightly confused about what the purpose was and how to really give specific directions. Eventually the students began to understand how to give clear, specific directions to draw the snowman, which will be helpful since our writing prompt is "How to Build a Snowman".
After lunch we continued our reading of folktales. We finished Bearhead by Eric Kimmel and started Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg. The students really enjoy the folktales and laugh constantly when they see the illustrations. It is really a good way to get kids into good literature or just reading in general when so many are so excited to hear the stories.
Math brought a continuation of math centers we started on Friday that the kids really enjoy. For some reason my students cheer and clap every time I tell them we are doing stations. I think they would anything if it was put in station format (a great teaching hint for me!).
We ended the day with words work, or spelling practice. Since it was my first day teaching I wanted to try out a new game to see how the students liked the spelling practice where everyone gets to participate, the students get to move around and they get to chant! The activity I chose was called "Spelling Bee" and the students absolutely adored it! Spelling Bee is played like this: one student is chosen to be the "spelling bee". That student walks around the classroom and as they do, the rest of the classroom chants, "Spelling bee, spelling bee; Buzzing on your spelling spree; Ha, ha, hee, hee; You can't sting ME!" When the word "me" is uttered, the spelling bee stands behind a student. The teacher then chooses a spelling word for the seated student to spell. If the word is spelled correctly, the seated person becomes the new spelling bee and the old bee sits in that chair. If the word is spelled incorrectly, the students find the word on the word wall and the whole class spells the word in unison and the spelling bee remains the bee. I have never seen kids get so excited to spell before I played this game so it is definately one I will use again and will use in my future classrooms to practice spelling.
We ended the day in somewhat of a rush since so many students chose steps for talking when they were given instructions not to. However, I made it through the day in one piece. And had my first taste of full time teaching!
I am anxious to continue with the full days of student teaching to get my feet wet with more science, social studies and writing since those are the areas I feel that I need more practice on. Either way though, I can now say I have taught a full day, and that is SO exciting!
We started the day with our standard entry, calendar, flag, weather and community meeting. Then we started introducing literacy centers today. We are not doing the literacy centers in the traditional way that is commonly described in many literacy handbooks. The literacy centers are leveled for our students, so today we introduced three different literacy centers, but only to the groups that were interacting with those literacy centers specifically. I was a little bit hesitant to do the centers in this way but it ended up being incredibly successful. The groups were quiet, and on task, both of which are rare for my classroom. The students seemed to like it because they were a nice change from doing SSR every day. The students were also excited see that they would be doing a different literacy center every day of the week, which was especially motivating for the students.
Then we moved onto our leveled literacy groups, of which I teach a standards group. The kids were a little bit crazy since we haven't done guided reading groups for so long, but they were excited to have a new teacher and a change of scenery. For guided reading groups I teach 28 grade level standards students in another teacher's classroom, bringing 6 of my students with me. The entire second grade participates so the students love to see new people teaching them and have a change of classmates twice a week.
After recess we had writing, where we started expository writing. This lesson went a little bit rough. The introduction to expository writing is that the students were to work with a partner, have one partner draw a snowman and then give their partner directions to allow them to draw an identical snowman to show the importance of giving very specific directions. Evidently I could have used some lessons of my own on giving specific directions because the students were slightly confused about what the purpose was and how to really give specific directions. Eventually the students began to understand how to give clear, specific directions to draw the snowman, which will be helpful since our writing prompt is "How to Build a Snowman".
After lunch we continued our reading of folktales. We finished Bearhead by Eric Kimmel and started Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg. The students really enjoy the folktales and laugh constantly when they see the illustrations. It is really a good way to get kids into good literature or just reading in general when so many are so excited to hear the stories.
Math brought a continuation of math centers we started on Friday that the kids really enjoy. For some reason my students cheer and clap every time I tell them we are doing stations. I think they would anything if it was put in station format (a great teaching hint for me!).
We ended the day with words work, or spelling practice. Since it was my first day teaching I wanted to try out a new game to see how the students liked the spelling practice where everyone gets to participate, the students get to move around and they get to chant! The activity I chose was called "Spelling Bee" and the students absolutely adored it! Spelling Bee is played like this: one student is chosen to be the "spelling bee". That student walks around the classroom and as they do, the rest of the classroom chants, "Spelling bee, spelling bee; Buzzing on your spelling spree; Ha, ha, hee, hee; You can't sting ME!" When the word "me" is uttered, the spelling bee stands behind a student. The teacher then chooses a spelling word for the seated student to spell. If the word is spelled correctly, the seated person becomes the new spelling bee and the old bee sits in that chair. If the word is spelled incorrectly, the students find the word on the word wall and the whole class spells the word in unison and the spelling bee remains the bee. I have never seen kids get so excited to spell before I played this game so it is definately one I will use again and will use in my future classrooms to practice spelling.
We ended the day in somewhat of a rush since so many students chose steps for talking when they were given instructions not to. However, I made it through the day in one piece. And had my first taste of full time teaching!
I am anxious to continue with the full days of student teaching to get my feet wet with more science, social studies and writing since those are the areas I feel that I need more practice on. Either way though, I can now say I have taught a full day, and that is SO exciting!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Finally Back!
Well Friday's weather finally let us get back to school... though it was a two hour late start. Regardless, it was fun to get back to see my students since I hadn't seen them since December 11th on craft day!
It was really nice to ease back into the school schedule with the two hour late start. I didn't realize how fast my mornings generally go because I am usually rushing around tying up loose ends before the students get to school. With the two hour late I had plenty of time to figure out my assignments for my university classes, as well as catch up and get the classroom back into working order for the day.
That day what somewhat of a whirlwind though. The two hour late start, for starters, makes the day completely fly by. On top of that, I had 4 students absent and one student leave at lunch time because she vomited just before I went outside to gather the students in from lunch. After that point in the day I was so aware of the germs in the room, every sneeze and every cough, that I washed my hands almost to a compulsive degree, whenever I had a spare moment. The stomach flu is definitely something I do not want!
I also realize how much of a difference one day really matters in our planning. Before going back I kept thinking, "Yeah, we missed a day. But it's only one day... that won't really matter!" Boy was I wrong! Missing one day makes a huge difference in our schedule. All of the math lessons got pushed back, assemblies had to be rescheduled, reading testing schedules had to be moved, and many more little things that one doesn't really think about until they have to be rearranged.
So now we are back on our standard schedule (fingers crossed!) and getting started in the new year with new classroom activities (I developed some literacy centers for the students to engage with) and more time with me up in the front of the room since I will be teaching full days Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! Exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time! :)
It was really nice to ease back into the school schedule with the two hour late start. I didn't realize how fast my mornings generally go because I am usually rushing around tying up loose ends before the students get to school. With the two hour late I had plenty of time to figure out my assignments for my university classes, as well as catch up and get the classroom back into working order for the day.
That day what somewhat of a whirlwind though. The two hour late start, for starters, makes the day completely fly by. On top of that, I had 4 students absent and one student leave at lunch time because she vomited just before I went outside to gather the students in from lunch. After that point in the day I was so aware of the germs in the room, every sneeze and every cough, that I washed my hands almost to a compulsive degree, whenever I had a spare moment. The stomach flu is definitely something I do not want!
I also realize how much of a difference one day really matters in our planning. Before going back I kept thinking, "Yeah, we missed a day. But it's only one day... that won't really matter!" Boy was I wrong! Missing one day makes a huge difference in our schedule. All of the math lessons got pushed back, assemblies had to be rescheduled, reading testing schedules had to be moved, and many more little things that one doesn't really think about until they have to be rearranged.
So now we are back on our standard schedule (fingers crossed!) and getting started in the new year with new classroom activities (I developed some literacy centers for the students to engage with) and more time with me up in the front of the room since I will be teaching full days Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! Exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time! :)
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Weather, Weather, and more Weather!
Well the Northwest is being hit really hard by a TON of rain for the past couple of days. I believe Lake Stevens (where I live) got something around 8" of rain in the past 48 hours. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I know that I have got soaked on more than one occasion this week walking to my car during a down pour. And I had a rain jacket on!
Due to the excessive rain, and the abundant fields that are near Lucille Umbarger (since Skagit county is a farming community is many places) the schools were cancelled today due to flooding of so many roads the buses couldn't get to the outlying areas. I think we might be in school until July this year to make up all of these weather days, due to both snow and now rain!
I am crossing my fingers that the schools will be open tomorrow, though I am not counting on it since the rain hasn't let up all day today. It just varies between a sprinkle and enough rain it feels like someone is above you pouring buckets of water down on you. I guess we will play things by ear and deal with whatever the weather decides to give us. Rain or shine.
Due to the excessive rain, and the abundant fields that are near Lucille Umbarger (since Skagit county is a farming community is many places) the schools were cancelled today due to flooding of so many roads the buses couldn't get to the outlying areas. I think we might be in school until July this year to make up all of these weather days, due to both snow and now rain!
I am crossing my fingers that the schools will be open tomorrow, though I am not counting on it since the rain hasn't let up all day today. It just varies between a sprinkle and enough rain it feels like someone is above you pouring buckets of water down on you. I guess we will play things by ear and deal with whatever the weather decides to give us. Rain or shine.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A Great Book!
Over the winter break I decided to get caught up on some reading that I was long overdue. But not only that, I got 4 great books for Christmas and Birthday so I thought that I should take some of my time (and the time I had on my plane rides to and from Phoenix) to make a dent in the books. I decided to start with The Freedom Writer's Diary by the Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell. It is definitely one of the best books that I have read, especially related to teaching. The students in this book write very candidly about all of their life experiences and their feelings about school and life. I recommend all teachers to read this book, regardless of age level that you teach. It inspired me to be a better teacher, but also shows me how much students benefit from the extra time that teachers can put in for their students.
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