Well, I knew it would be my turn eventually, and now the time has come. It is my turn to be sick! I only have a cold though, luckily. A cold I can handle. And honestly, compared to the sinus infections and stomach flus that are going around I feel thankful that all I have is a stuffy nose and a congested head. :)
The only thing that I really don't like about the head cold is going to teach and to school with it. It's not that I still have to function but that I feel like I'm just infecting everyone else there! :) Moral of that story is going to be wash my hands constantly to make sure I am limiting those germs as much as possible.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Oh these kids...
The students I have are funny, annoying at times, and goofy. But more than anything they really do have good hearts, and almost always have the best intentions at heart.
I was walking my group back from recess today and one of my students walked quickly to catch up to my and slid her hand gently into mine. She told me, "Miss D. You are just so pretty and so nice. I wish you were my mom." I honestly didn't even know how to respond to that one. While some part of me was thinking that was so sweet that my student liked me enough to want me to be her mother, another part of me was wondering how her mom was that she was wishing for another person to be her mom. Oh these kids...
They are just so goofy, funny, observant, and dying to love someone. It is funny to see how much a part of your lives these kids become. You just think, oh they are just my students, at the beginning of the year. But as the year passes, and you grow attached to them, you realize they are kids that you want to succeed, and that you want to take care of no matter what. And some students need this more than anything else. Their classroom teacher may be the only one in the world that they feel cares about them or loves them, which as sad as that is, it is something that is a reality and makes teaching that much more important, valuable, and worth while. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
I was walking my group back from recess today and one of my students walked quickly to catch up to my and slid her hand gently into mine. She told me, "Miss D. You are just so pretty and so nice. I wish you were my mom." I honestly didn't even know how to respond to that one. While some part of me was thinking that was so sweet that my student liked me enough to want me to be her mother, another part of me was wondering how her mom was that she was wishing for another person to be her mom. Oh these kids...
They are just so goofy, funny, observant, and dying to love someone. It is funny to see how much a part of your lives these kids become. You just think, oh they are just my students, at the beginning of the year. But as the year passes, and you grow attached to them, you realize they are kids that you want to succeed, and that you want to take care of no matter what. And some students need this more than anything else. Their classroom teacher may be the only one in the world that they feel cares about them or loves them, which as sad as that is, it is something that is a reality and makes teaching that much more important, valuable, and worth while. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
More Funnies from Room 107
Kids are funny. They really are. Especially at this age where there is absolutely no filter about what comes out of their mouths.
Today is the perfect example. My students were working in small groups on representing data. I walk past a table and hear something about a boyfriend. Naturally, I stop by and ask who has a boyfriend. One of the quietest students in the class explains that she has a boyfriend and he gave her a butterfly ring. Almost as soon as those words had left her mouth the little boy in the group hysterically, and in one breath, says, "And get this, Miss D. She says that she holds hands with him and every time she sees him, she kisses him on the mouth! That is SO gross! I think I am going to puke on your heads because that is so gross!!" I had one of those moments that could have gone one of two ways: chuckling and brushing off that comment, or breaking into laughter. Guess which one it was? The second of course! Luckily my cooperating teacher was in charge at the moment so I could head to the back of the room and stop my giggles. Boy was it hard to do that though!
And even better than than was yesterday in another math group (apparently math brings out all of the funny comments in my group!). One of the kindergarten teachers in pregnant and the kids are all fascinated with it. So, a group (of all boys, no less) are discussing where babies come from. So, as my CT walks by she hears one boy explain that sometimes the doctors just have to take the babies straight out of their mother's stomachs. Then, the other little boy, explains that his mom has a special hole down there (gesturing to his crotch area) where the baby comes out! Wow! Who would have thought that a second grade students would have come up with that. Evidently his parents have already had that chat with him! Needless to say I am sure there were a bunch of questions to moms once the boys got home with that little nugget of information!
Each day I am student teaching something happens that makes me laugh, which really is why I love this profession. Even with all of the pressures of testing, standards, and meeting all students' needs, the kids really are fun to be around and boy do they have some entertaining things to say!
Today is the perfect example. My students were working in small groups on representing data. I walk past a table and hear something about a boyfriend. Naturally, I stop by and ask who has a boyfriend. One of the quietest students in the class explains that she has a boyfriend and he gave her a butterfly ring. Almost as soon as those words had left her mouth the little boy in the group hysterically, and in one breath, says, "And get this, Miss D. She says that she holds hands with him and every time she sees him, she kisses him on the mouth! That is SO gross! I think I am going to puke on your heads because that is so gross!!" I had one of those moments that could have gone one of two ways: chuckling and brushing off that comment, or breaking into laughter. Guess which one it was? The second of course! Luckily my cooperating teacher was in charge at the moment so I could head to the back of the room and stop my giggles. Boy was it hard to do that though!
And even better than than was yesterday in another math group (apparently math brings out all of the funny comments in my group!). One of the kindergarten teachers in pregnant and the kids are all fascinated with it. So, a group (of all boys, no less) are discussing where babies come from. So, as my CT walks by she hears one boy explain that sometimes the doctors just have to take the babies straight out of their mother's stomachs. Then, the other little boy, explains that his mom has a special hole down there (gesturing to his crotch area) where the baby comes out! Wow! Who would have thought that a second grade students would have come up with that. Evidently his parents have already had that chat with him! Needless to say I am sure there were a bunch of questions to moms once the boys got home with that little nugget of information!
Each day I am student teaching something happens that makes me laugh, which really is why I love this profession. Even with all of the pressures of testing, standards, and meeting all students' needs, the kids really are fun to be around and boy do they have some entertaining things to say!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Exhausted...
Wow, today was exhausting.
It started off with our class having a sub since my teacher was sick. No problems there until the sub shows up and doesn't want to do anything. No copies, no lamination, no teaching. I have no problem with teaching for the day since I generally do, but it would have been nice to get a little help with the copying. And he informs me that he has had no formal teacher training. As the day progresses this becomes increasingly evident.
Then I am being observed. Again, no problem there since I was ready for the day. However, as my lesson was just getting to the part where students really start to actually "dig in" we have a fire drill. Apparently it was planned, but I did not get the email notice so I was caught by surprise. After getting the students out and making sure they were safe and accounted for, we headed back inside to finish the lesson. Luckily the kids weren't too distracted to continue. Since my sub needed to go out for lunch, I took the kids down to lunch really quick and came back for my debriefing during lunch.
Then it snowed. Hard. The kids came in drenched and really hyper. I realized quickly that the blinds were becoming an issue because probably half of the students were watching the hail storm rather than listening to my math instructions. So the blinds were shut and we pressed on.
Then the sub that he was going to teach science for the afternoon. I had given him the FOSS Insects curriculum that we work with in our class earlier that morning. He promptly flipped through the pages and set aside saying, "I can teach them things that they won't learn from this." And so he went, lecturing (with some minor audience participation) for nearly 40 minutes. Needless to say, my already antsy group was not engaged, incredibly distracted, and 80% were doing anything but listening to him.
When the day quickly ended, I started the first day of the after school academy for building reading fluency, after frantically finding the bus passes that had been created for the students to take a later bus home. The group went well, and quickly, but the students seemed to enjoy it.
As the last kids left I realized just how exhausted I was and the fact that I had not sat down for more than 5 minutes for the entire day, since 8 am this morning until 3:30 pm. All in all, as hectic as the day was at times and scattered I felt, everyone ended up in one piece and I learned that I can do it. No matter how crazy the day feels during the moment, I can handle it, and everything will work out.
It started off with our class having a sub since my teacher was sick. No problems there until the sub shows up and doesn't want to do anything. No copies, no lamination, no teaching. I have no problem with teaching for the day since I generally do, but it would have been nice to get a little help with the copying. And he informs me that he has had no formal teacher training. As the day progresses this becomes increasingly evident.
Then I am being observed. Again, no problem there since I was ready for the day. However, as my lesson was just getting to the part where students really start to actually "dig in" we have a fire drill. Apparently it was planned, but I did not get the email notice so I was caught by surprise. After getting the students out and making sure they were safe and accounted for, we headed back inside to finish the lesson. Luckily the kids weren't too distracted to continue. Since my sub needed to go out for lunch, I took the kids down to lunch really quick and came back for my debriefing during lunch.
Then it snowed. Hard. The kids came in drenched and really hyper. I realized quickly that the blinds were becoming an issue because probably half of the students were watching the hail storm rather than listening to my math instructions. So the blinds were shut and we pressed on.
Then the sub that he was going to teach science for the afternoon. I had given him the FOSS Insects curriculum that we work with in our class earlier that morning. He promptly flipped through the pages and set aside saying, "I can teach them things that they won't learn from this." And so he went, lecturing (with some minor audience participation) for nearly 40 minutes. Needless to say, my already antsy group was not engaged, incredibly distracted, and 80% were doing anything but listening to him.
When the day quickly ended, I started the first day of the after school academy for building reading fluency, after frantically finding the bus passes that had been created for the students to take a later bus home. The group went well, and quickly, but the students seemed to enjoy it.
As the last kids left I realized just how exhausted I was and the fact that I had not sat down for more than 5 minutes for the entire day, since 8 am this morning until 3:30 pm. All in all, as hectic as the day was at times and scattered I felt, everyone ended up in one piece and I learned that I can do it. No matter how crazy the day feels during the moment, I can handle it, and everything will work out.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Social Studies
This week was the first week of my black history month that I planned out. Boy was it a lot of work, but it is something that I think of as having high start up costs but once you do it (or plan it in this case) you have it forever and small tweaks can then be made to adapt it. However, regardless of the amount of work that was put into it, it has payed off for sure. With all of the major events that happen linked to our timeline (i.e. first slaves arriving, etc.) the students make an artifact that reminds them of this event. So far we have made three artifacts (1) a ship to represent the slaves arriving in America, (2) a confederate flag to represent the start of the civil war, and (3) a scroll with Emancipation Proclamation written on it to represent that event. I wasn't sure at first how much this is actually helping the students remember the events we are discussing but more of an opportunity to do art, since it is not a huge focus in the class, so I decided to test the students. I asked the group what each artifact represents and why they were important. They got them all right! I couldn't believe it but I was so excited that the activities were successful! It really goes to show me how important it is for teachers to really plan out thorough, and thought-provoking lessons to students, while also giving them something that is interesting and can connect their activities to prior knowledge and existing schema. It also helped reinforce my idea that teachers really need to put in that extra time to plan and that extra effort for their students because the return in their investment of time is an understanding that is much greater than would have been previously achieved. This will definitely be a unit I use in my future classroom!
Monday, February 2, 2009
It is February!
It is February, and boy do the kids know it. I think I was asked no less than 10 times today when Valentine's Day is. Apparently that is the only thing important about February to students.
Not only is it Valentine's Month (spelled and pronounced Valentimes by 90% of my students) but it is also Black History Month. Today was the first of 18 (Wow that sounds like a LOT) lessons related to social studies that I planned in a Black history month unit for my students. I spent a very long time, and continue to spend a long time planning the unit so I hope it goes well. Honestly, though, it is my first attempt ever planning a unit and two major revelations came from the process:
Not only is it Valentine's Month (spelled and pronounced Valentimes by 90% of my students) but it is also Black History Month. Today was the first of 18 (Wow that sounds like a LOT) lessons related to social studies that I planned in a Black history month unit for my students. I spent a very long time, and continue to spend a long time planning the unit so I hope it goes well. Honestly, though, it is my first attempt ever planning a unit and two major revelations came from the process:
- Unit planning is a lot of hard work to make a unit engaging, educational, and fitting in with time constraints. I'm still not sure if I got it right. I guess time will only tell.
- Regardless of the outcome of my unit I will have learned a lot. If it is successful, I know that I can be successful at planning a unit independently. If it is not successful, either throughout or at some point in the unit, I know that I need more work on unit planning but can still feel confident in the fact that I attempted something that was somewhat out of my comfort zone.
Either way, I am proud of my unit plan and hope that all goes well. I will post pictures and more information as time passes and the Black History Month unit continues!
Friday, January 30, 2009
A Much Better Day
Today was a much better day. The kids were a little bit wild at the beginning of the day (probably excited because I was back today and they thought that they were going to have another day where they got away with everything), but by the end of the day they shaped up quickly.
It really is true that consistency is everything. Students, no matter how young, have a sense of how far they can push their limits, how much they can get away with. I think of it like an animal being able to sense or smell fear. When the students can smell that the teacher is not going to follow through with their "threats" for discipline, all hope for order is lost. Reflecting back on Wednesday, I realize that that was a big issue of mine. I hate having to put the kids on "steps" because I want students to make their day and I want to make sure that they are able to participate in my instruction. But I definitely realized that the students very quickly realize that if I am not going to put them on steps that they can do whatever they want with essentially no consequences, not at all what I hope for.
It was important for me to have that frustrating, disaster of a day to really realize the importance of classroom management and being consistent with the classroom management that is established in the room. Without these structures, learning cannot and will not take place. With the structures AND the consistency of enforcement, learning will be able to occur in an optimal environment - really the goal of teaching!
It really is true that consistency is everything. Students, no matter how young, have a sense of how far they can push their limits, how much they can get away with. I think of it like an animal being able to sense or smell fear. When the students can smell that the teacher is not going to follow through with their "threats" for discipline, all hope for order is lost. Reflecting back on Wednesday, I realize that that was a big issue of mine. I hate having to put the kids on "steps" because I want students to make their day and I want to make sure that they are able to participate in my instruction. But I definitely realized that the students very quickly realize that if I am not going to put them on steps that they can do whatever they want with essentially no consequences, not at all what I hope for.
It was important for me to have that frustrating, disaster of a day to really realize the importance of classroom management and being consistent with the classroom management that is established in the room. Without these structures, learning cannot and will not take place. With the structures AND the consistency of enforcement, learning will be able to occur in an optimal environment - really the goal of teaching!
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