12:4

I forgot this morning that today was the day that we got to color our hair. How convenient though that I just colored my hair this weekend (the bottle of spray color says something about not being able to use it for different reasons, and just highlighting it was one of them). I honestly forgot about that when I got it done, it was basically because the lady had an opening that Saturday, I had the money, and it NEEDED to be done. Enough rambling about my hair. A lot of students were disappointed because my hair wasn’t a different color, but they settled for glitter, as well as the reason. There was one student who was really upset with the fact that my hair wasn’t going to be pink. I apologized to her later, and she eventually just gave up on it/accepted the fact that it wasn’t going to happen. It almost seemed as though she is always disappointed with things, promised things, and those promises are always broken. I felt really bad, and I was deep down really excited to be one of those silly elementary teachers. I wasn’t worried about what others thought of me, I could honestly care less… I just didn’t want the color to stay, and I would have wasted a ton of money!

Math today went really well, I’m really excited with how things are progressing. Students understand three digit subtraction (as long as there isn’t a zero placed in the middle of the numbers, which is discussed a little later in the chapter) and understand the rules. I think they catch the pattern, and can do it! I am so excited, and I feel really confident. It just takes me back to addition where I wish I would have been able to redeem myself, because I know I could do it!

Tomorrow is integration day at school. It is RRC’s turn to host this time around, and I’m kind of excited to see how it goes. The day is exhausting, I’ll give the teachers credit for that… but it isn’t a horrible, I actually think it is a TON of fun!

12:3

Mr. P was here today. I always enjoy when he comes because he always gives me the best advice. He said that I should certainly get my 5 year short time license, as well as getting my 5 year full time. I may have to pay double, but it can also guarantee that I get to sub, that my butt is covered, and that I can start doing what I love to do, the minute that I can. He also always points out things for me to keep in mind when it comes to finishing. He is a lot of fun to talk to, and to work with. We started subtracting 3 digit problems, so regrouping tens and ones. I think the lesson went really well, and the students really understand. I am planning on having another day of working on this, and then Friday after the integration day festivities, and the other schools leave, working on math (subtraction of course). The students who I thought would never get it, or have the hardest time getting, are the ones that are getting it the best. It really helps, and I hope that they can remember the rules, and continue to use them throughout the rest of their schooling/lives. I subtract all the time.

I haven’t even started Chapter 3 in science yet…. This is getting on my nerves! Ha, it really isn’t, because we needed to finish our math assignments, and have the help available to students who needed it.

12:2

Today went really well, we are working really hard on subtracting in math, and I really feel like the students are getting it. We have a set of rules… we called them “subtraction rules”. How creative, I know… but it is certainly working for the students. They have to go through the steps as a class before they can move from step to step.

Subtraction rules-
1. See if you can do the problem.
2. See if you can subtract the ones.
3. if you can- subtract the ones… if you can’t regroup the tens
4. subtract the tens
5. check

Students really seem to get it, and I also made sure that the Title teachers had the same steps, so that if students were going down for math title time, the teachers could keep working with the students with the same rules.

Week 12: Day 1

Wow- I’m excited for this week. We raised $200 at school for toys for tots so on Thursday we get to color our hair funky colors. It will be interesting to see the different teachers with different colored hair.

I got my hair cut and colored this weekend, and it is quite amazing to see the reaction on not only the students face, but the teachers. I look like a completely different person. Many teachers said they didn’t even recognize me.

I’ve been working really hard to get these last couple of weeks busted out. I want them done right and everything perfect. I want to stay on top of things, and keep things organized. I am so far behind on correcting; I’m going to be correcting things for the next 3 years!!! I have got to stop assigning worksheets! This week we will be having anywhere from 2-4 tests in school- Social Studies, Science, Reading, and Spelling. WHOA! I would definitely hate to be these kids. I’m going to try my hardest to keep them on separate days, but as of right now, it looks like we are going to be having 2 of them on Thursday.

I fell behind already on science today, but I’m hoping to be able to catch up right away tomorrow morning so that I can keep working on my unit (keep the days where they need to be!).

10:5

Today went really well. Man what a crazy day, though. I think Friday’s are student’s favorite days and teachers too. I like Fridays, but sometimes I don’t want it to be Friday, I would love to be in school all the time (maybe then I’d stay caught up!). Sometimes students are really crazy on Fridays. I don’t know what it is about third graders. I don’t know if it is this every class or just this one. They seem to think that they can pick and choose what homework assignments they get to do, and what ones they get to skip. A lot of them had math homework assigned to them from Miss M, and a lot of them didn’t do it and return the books. I just can’t figure it out, no matter who assigns the homework, no matter how easy/fun/hard/boring it may be, they just choose whether they want to do it or not. One student today we were working on our “dictionary definitions” sheet that was assigned yesterday in Reading, and a student came up to me and told me she didn’t want to do it. She wasn’t even kidding, she was hoping, and trying to get me to tell her that she didn’t have to do it. She could get away with not having to do it. There was also another student who was working on his weekly English letter to me, and spent over an hour not writing it because he didn’t want to, and also because he didn’t know what he was doing this upcoming weekend. I made him stay in at recess, and he decided he could now do it, but couldn’t do it before when he had a classmate helping him, as well as me helping him. He just chose not to do it, he was hoping I wouldn’t make him do it, and he could take it home for homework. When he started he wrote his 3 sentences within two minutes, and I told him I wasn’t going to accept it, because he rushed through it done so he could go play outside. I had him add to the letter to give it a little bit more meat to body, rather than just tiny bits.

We had our first parent visitor today, and I was unsure as to why she came in, but she seemed very nice, and wanted to know how her son was doing.

10:4

I didn’t get my chance to show that I am capable of teaching math. I may have also stuck my foot in my mouth the other day, and it comes across to Miss M as me saying I’m not capable enough to do it either. I shouldn’t have said anything, and shouldn’t have asked her to make sure she was here during the math time, in case I got stuck. I don’t want to get stuck, I don’t want to stand at the front and look like an idiot either. That is how I feel when she butts in (with good intentions) while I’m teaching. I feel like it makes me look like I don’t know what I am talking about. I know that isn’t the case, and that isn’t what she is actually trying to do. I know it is her job to make sure that her students are getting the right information and understand what they are doing. I also know that it is my job to get the information out the way I am going to, and sometimes she says things right before I am going to say them, so then it makes me look like I have no idea what I am talking about, because I am rewording the information that she has already presented. I’m trying really hard, and I don’t let it bother me, because I know why she is doing it, but at the same time, I’m really scared.

The reason why I say this is because I’m not 100% confident in myself when it comes to teaching subtraction when regrouping. I know that I can do it, and I know I’ll be fine, but I’m still worried that I will confuse them. I also think that I am a bit nervous that the same thing is going to happen to subtraction that happened when I tried to teach addition. I don’t want it to, by any means, and I’m just nervous. I’m angry that it got taken away, and I’m even angrier that I didn’t get to redeem myself. The school where I teach, there isn’t going to be someone who will take it away from me after a day of students not understanding, I am going to have to redeem myself and come up with a new strategy to figure out how to fix my own errors in judgment.

10:3

Today was a good day. Almost every subject went smoothly, including science with the sandwiches. There were quite a few students who were upset because they couldn’t finish making their sandwiches because the directions they got were not detailed enough to allow them to. The students learned pretty quickly on how sometimes listening and following directions is quite the good idea. Not only was this a lesson on sequencing, but it became a bit of a lesson on direction following. I wasn’t even the one that made it into that lesson, the students brought it up, and had great points to it, so I went along. I was excited that they did so well with this “experiment” as the last one hadn’t gone very well. There was still a lot of small talk, but it wasn’t bad enough that it drove me nuts, and it was at an appropriate time (I wasn’t giving directions, or helping with the next step). I was very pleased and I even told them that numerous times. I’m glad I did this, it taught them sequencing, as well as how to follow directions. It also taught them the hidden lesson (that I didn’t even see) that listening and following directions is completely IMPORTANT! Thank you third graders, you most definitely made my ENTIRE day… actually my WEEK!!!!

10:2

Once again, math SUCKED! I just don’t know what to do. I am getting a lot of information, and a lot of help on different ways to teach math, and especially this kind of adding, but I wish I could have found it on my own (the thing she taught last Thursday was the SAME THING we had discussed and she told me I should try after she was finished working on place value). I could have done it!!!!

Anyways, my journals are always going on and on about this subject. We started something in science- sequencing, and tomorrow we are going to be making peanut butter sandwiches based on what the students write down for directions on their sequencing paper. We even talked about how you must have a step 1, or a first, before you can have a step 2, or a next. I’m really excited. This was actually a lesson that came to me last minute. I remembered doing it in upper elementary and I thought that these third graders could definitely handle it. I’m excited to see how it goes.

I left a little early today to make it to the City Hall in town to get my tabs, hopefully that doesn’t look negatively on my records.

The last thing I want to talk about- I was approached by the gym teacher today, about a Jr. High Girls Basketball coaching position that they had available starting in a few weeks. I said I was interested, and he called the AD. The AD faxed over an application, I filled it out and faxed it back. Later on (not much but shortly after school), the AD called me and basically said the job was mine, seeing as I was the only one who showed interest in the position (is that a good thing, or a bad thing?). Practices and such will start while I am still student teaching, but I talked to the last coach (she coached last year) and she said that she didn’t have practice until almost 5. So if I could do the same thing that would work perfectly. It also comes at a good time, because I am basically no longer at my job (I will work weekends, but not anything else because of hours changing).

Week 10: Day 1

Today after a fairly rested weekend, I came back in with a new attitude on the Miss M taking my math over. Then math came around. The new attitude, literally went out the window! She STILL wasn’t moving backwards, and was still working on my lesson that I was hoping to get a second chance at last week. That isn’t going to happen. I have a feeling that math will be something Miss M teaches until it is my turn to take over the two weeks- which is coming up very soon, and I’m not ready for it! WOW. I realized today too, that I have actually been teaching all the subjects for a long time. Last week, the only thing that really kept my head on straight was that she explained to the students why she started to take over math again… and she said something along the lines of me being a great teacher. I don’t know what to do. Should I be angry, or should I just get over it?

Social studies, I LOVE geography, and teaching geography. We started that section/chapter today in Social Studies, and I was sooooo excited because we talked about climate, and the weather (based on the equator). We also talked about different countries/continents! I’m sooo excited to continue on with this chapter! Pulling down those maps to show the students was such an adrenaline rush, I can’t even explain my excitement!

9:5

I don’t really know how today went. Honestly. I very much dislike Halloween. And I kept a happy face, and didn’t let it bother me, but talk about chaos. We took a spelling test, but other than that, the day was basically a blah blurb of school. I have decided that Halloween might not be so bad when I have my own kids, but I have always dislike Halloween (because my birthday is so close). It wasn’t horrible, I can handle it. What I can’t handle is the getting nothing accomplished. In the morning, there was a movie and that took almost all of our teaching morning. The afternoon we had a little bit for math (which don’t even get me started on--- Miss M taught again, and she STILL hasn’t gone back to place value), and then we did bingo/got costumes on, and then it was the Halloween dance/party/Masquerade Ball (I think that is what it was called). WOW today was crazy hectic.

9:4

Today I was surprised by Mr. P coming in. He showed up while we were in computer. I should have checked my emails! I wasn’t teaching math today, as it was “taken” away from me. Yesterday I was so mad that I wasn’t going to be teaching, but I got over it. Then when math came around today, I got even more mad then I was yesterday, because Miss M was teaching the stuff I was suppose to teach!!! She said she was going to go back and teach some of the things she should have taught a little bit more in depth, but she wasn’t! She didn’t even go back to that. She said she was going to go back to place value, and she hadn’t. She worked on adding. That was what I was suppose to teach. I WAS SOOOO ANGRY! I didn’t say anything, and I tried to keep a straight face. I’m still mad at this point, but there isn’t much I can do. I wish I would have been given the chance to try again. Especially after finding out that she wasn’t going to go back. I don’t know. Other than that, that was my day. It was all going really well.

Today is my birthday. Man do the kids love the fact that they get to celebrate your birthday with you! How exciting!!!!

9:3

Math was absolutely HORRIBLE today. I will never ever teach math the way I did ever again. WOW! I don’t even know where to begin. The students just were not grasping the concept, and after talking to Miss M, part of it is my fault for doing things differently then they have ever done before, and not stopping when I first saw the sign of trouble. She also had said that I just wasn’t ready to take this on. Whether it meant math in general, or whether it meant the lesson we were on. We are doing 2 digit additions, and the students just don’t seem to understand. They can do the problem, but they don’t understand much more than the math algorithm that goes along with it. Miss M said that last year one of the teachers (if not both) in second grade were teaching the algorithm so that students could get the questions right on the NWEA test so that she/they could get the points they needed. That screwed us up because now the students aren’t willing to listen because they already know how to add it. Miss M also said that she had been contemplating before on whether to take the chance and let me give it a stab, or if she should just teach it. It many ways I wish she wouldn’t have let me do it, but at the same time, I’m really glad she did. Now I can see what it feels like to completely mess it up, and have to start over (except I don’t start over tomorrow, she is going to teach tomorrow because she needs to get them to the point they are at, and re-teach some of the things she has taught them earlier in the year). It’s hard for me to be handed something and then have that same something get taken away because I failed. I know that something needs to be changed, and I’m glad that Miss M is going to let me see what is going on, and how to teach something when it fails… sort of a where to go from here type of a deal. At the same time I want to try to fix my own mistake.

Science, I feel a little guilty, like it was my part my fault, but at the same time it isn’t even close. I warned the students, and they chose to ruin it. We lost our science experiment today because of goofing around at the water fountain, not listening, talking when not suppose to be, and plain period being disrespectful. I had students evaluate themselves (they would have had to at the end of the experiment anyways), and give themselves a grade, with a reason why they felt they deserved that grade. I’ve read through a few of them and plan on writing or speaking my own comments to each student individually. The students will not be getting a grade, the slips will not be sent home and we will be discussing one last time about being respectful, following directions, and behaving. I don’t feel the need or want to ever even bring up a science experiment for a while. I don’t want to deal with it. It won’t be for a bit before we do another one, but I’m not going to keep it from them for forever. Just until they can prove to me how much better they can act as a class.

9:2

Today was a day from crazy town. There was a fire drill in the afternoon (good thing it wasn’t too chilly out), found out there will be a lockdown tomorrow. We also had to work on our science experiment that we will be doing this week. It seems that students are really getting into it and it really only does take us five-ten minutes during the morning to get it finished. On our way down to art, I saw the art teacher and gave him a little heads up that we were having a bit of a listening and following directions problem today. Mr. H then said ok, and I went back to the classroom. I went down to get the students from art, and I was patiently waiting while Mr. H finished his directions to dismiss the students. Mr. H had to give his simple direction 10 times!!! Guess what that simple direction was- SIT IN YOUR SEATS! Seriously, that isn’t a direction that should need to be given 10 times before students listen. At least now I know that it isn’t just Miss M and I that are having problems with them listening and following directions. I’m so confused on what to do and where to go to next.

The rest of the day seemed to have just gone by without knowing what happened. We once again didn’t get social studies and science in because there wasn’t any time. Students were given time (by me) to work on their corrections, and also to finish their math papers that seemed to take them an hour. I was doing the lesson, and was going to do more, but the students seemed to get it. They seemed like they understood compatible numbers, and they understood rounding (as they had worked on it for days on end). I gave them their worksheets and students right off the bat had questions, even though each one could answer the questions I asked them during the lesson (which were the same/similar to the ones on the worksheet). I helped students, Miss M helped students, and so did our aide that comes into the room during math. We were all walking around helping student after student. They took over an hour to do the 2 worksheets. It was crazy. Next time I’ll know to slow down, and really make sure that they understand what is going on before I move onto the worksheet (even though I really did think that they understood).

Week 9: Day 1

Happy Monday! Man am I tired. I got nothing done this weekend (I got a few things corrected, but other than that I am looking at a huge stack of things that need to be completed). Today was a day of catching up, and starting new things. Basically everything last week was finished up by Thursday so that we didn’t have to have finish up work on Friday/today. The only thing that really was a continued concept would have been science, where we started a science experiment relating to the chapter we just finished in our book.

The science experiment was a question in my head, on whether or not the students could handle having one. I gave out the expectations that they were going to show me they could handle it so I could assign more of them, a little more often. There was a slight bit of talking and goofing around, but nothing too serious. We did the science experiment during math time, and then just pushed math backwards into science time. Math was a normal day, where we talked about estimating, and a little bit about rounding and problem solving.

Social studies… that subject really did take a while to get through. All we were going to do was quickly go over our social studies test we took on Friday in between our recess and concert times. I asked simple honest questions, and literally went right through the ENTIRE test. There were a few students that needed to make corrections on their tests, that if they were following along they could have had all the corrections finished by the time the class was over. They had a bit of a trouble coming up with examples. A few students instead of writing examples re-wrote the definition from the page before. Some of the examples I was looking for were a little bit more on the tricky side (Name an example of a National Park), but they had three days to study off of their study sheet. I had a hard time justifying that fact that maybe they didn’t know what an example meant. That was a hard concept, and I still feel that they know what it means, they just didn’t carefully and fully read the directions (which I know they don’t do).

8:5

Today was Grandparent’s day. The other dreaded day (day of concerts, and programs) that I have been warned about. It wasn’t completely horrible, but it seemed to be a day of complete and utter chaos. Students were in and out because of Title, and we had practice and an AR ribbon ceremony in the morning. They were in the classroom for not even an hour before they headed down to the gym for the ribbon ceremony. After that they had their practice for the concert later that afternoon. They came up to the classroom and were there for 15 minutes before they needed to go back down for gym. After gym is the usual lunch and recess, and then followed by that they came up to the room and listened to their story, and did corrections in their daily math and daily language books. They also had some AR time if they were finished with their corrections. Students were in the classroom for roughly an hour before having to head down to the concert. Then it was the end of the day.

It wasn’t a horrible day, but it wasn’t the greatest either. We didn’t get anything accomplished, and it felt like I didn’t even teach them one bit. What a weird sort of day, but at the same time, it was kind of a refreshing, relaxing day to spend some quality time working with students rather than rushing to get things finished.

8:4

Today was definitely the day after the students had gotten in trouble for not listening and following directions. They listened intently, they followed the directions, and they were a decent rate of noise. I couldn’t believe the difference between yesterday and today, it truly was quite amazing. There was a student at the end of the day, who had gotten quite enough guts to ask me if this is how they were suppose to act, and I quickly responded with a “should you have to ask, and should I have to answer?” followed quickly by a silent nod of the head.

The day seemed to just fly by. It is amazing how fast a day can go when everyone listens and follows along. Not much happened today, it honestly flew completely right past my eyes.

8:3

Today was quite the day. It was a battle all day long to get students to listen and follow directions. No matter how many times you gave directions, you almost always had to give the direction another time. Finally by the time that math came around, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. It was so bad that I wasn’t even the only one that had said something. Miss M was in the hall with a student and I was teaching math, and working with them on a new lesson. The students could not listen at all, and it was so hard to keep the students listening to me. I was frustrated, students who were listening were frustrated, and those who weren’t kept talking. I finally just said, ok since most of you know what is going on and how to do it, then you can do it on your own. I grabbed the math book, and sat at the desk. Students just looked at me, and had a look of awe on their face. They couldn’t believe that I had done that. They then realized that I was serious, and started working on their assignment. I had gotten out before I quit that we needed to do #’s 1-4 on page 70, but they didn’t know what to do after that. We were supposed to do more problems then that, but we couldn’t even get through those 4. I sat down, and didn’t help anyone. They needed to work on their own, and figure it out. Most of them did it, but there were a few that were so mad and frustrated that they didn’t know what to do they chose not to do it. The consequence for them not even trying is that they have to come in during recess tomorrow to hear the directions, and do it correctly. Other students have the option that if they want to come in and get proper directions so they know how to do it, then they are more than welcome. I then after school talked to Miss M about how frustrated I was, and if it was ok that I did that, she said that it was, and that if she would have thought of it, she would have done the same thing. I told her I was done yelling over them, and didn’t really know what else to do. So I did the first thing that came to my mind, and hopefully it works. We then had talked about if I didn’t have a recess period what I could do to get those students to do their work that they didn’t do today.

Today during reading group, I also had a student who didn’t do his homework last night because he “didn’t feel like it”. I told him what his consequences were, and that he still had to stay in at recess time to get his story written. He wasn’t very happy about it, but I feel as though he can’t just not do it because he doesn’t feel like it. Everyone else chose to do it, and finished their work without needing to have a consequence.

Today was a bit of a difficult day, but I made it through ok. Hopefully tomorrow and Friday are a lot better.

8:2

As the week moves on we seem to be dealing with more and more kids getting sick. It is quite ridiculous to see how many students have an upset stomach throughout the day. We had one student who was gone yesterday, who should have stayed home again today, as it was quite clear she still wasn’t feeling very good. Students seem to be dropping like flies, and it really does make me a little nervous (I was invisible to H1N1 earlier, before school started, and even shortly after, but now I’m getting scared)! I’m really just hoping that I don’t get it, because the last thing I need is to get sick and not be able to come to school for a week. I would probably go nuts!

I had time with my university supervisor today. It is interesting to see the way that I have progressed. I was impressed with how I’ve been doing and some of the things that I am doing right. Miss M asked me yesterday if I minded her leaving the room as often as she does, and I’m not going to lie, I don’t mind at all. There are times that I might have a question, and wish she were here to answer it, but I always figure it out on my own. She said that if she didn’t trust me in here, and didn’t like what I was doing, she definitely would not leave the room at all, and would be glued to her chair making sure I was saying things correctly, and giving out the right information. Mr. P also had a few comments to add about how I am doing, and I was brave enough to tell him that sometimes I am having a hard time (and especially this week) keeping up with my lesson plans. I know that they should be done before I even teach, and it isn’t that I’m not thinking about my lessons and what to do with them, but I run out of time to work on the actual lesson plans, and just can’t seem to catch up once I’m behind. I’m planning on staying at the school late today (since I don’t have to work after school) and finishing lesson plans for this week, and working on next weeks, as I won’t have time to do next weeks this weekend, because we have a HUGE project going on at our house (insulation in the attic, and wiring of the house) along with my entire family coming up for the weekend.

Hopefully things work out, and excited to get moving ahead tonight!

Week 8: Day 1

Today is the first day that I get to teach everything. I have the whole day to teach everything. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. Not that I wasn’t preparing myself before, but I really felt like I was taking the time to work on different things and make sure that I was fully prepared. I also had to write plans for the Title 1 teachers today, who work with students with their math. That was something I had never done before, and I wasn’t sure if I did it right, or did a good enough job, but I will find out soon enough. I also made plans for all three of us to use with our small groups.

We had quite a few students missing, last I heard in our class alone we had 5. The whole school had 30, which Miss M said was about 15% of the school. To me that seems like a lot of students to be gone at once, she even said it was. The H1N1 bug is definitely catching up around here. I actually know a few older adults who have had it, as well as some of my parent’s friends in the cities. I hope that it stays away from me, because the last thing that I need is to be sick and out for an entire week!

It was a long night last night, and I didn’t get all my lesson planning done, so I have to finish that up today.

7:5

No school, MEA WEEKEND :)

7:4

No school MEA weekend :)

7:3

Today seemed to be quite a laid-back day. There were many times that we just did “fun stuff” as we had finished many lessons the day before, and didn’t want to start new lessons right before a long break. The students would have lost everything. We did our weekly spelling test, and we also did a math test, but other than that we did more “fun stuff” like I had said.

The fun stuff pertained to interesting things that I found on the SMARTboard. Games such as hangman, and a sorting game where we sorted singular and plural nouns. We also got to play some sparkle, which seems to be something that the students enjoy a lot! I read a new Alexander book that I had never read before, something about him and his family moving, but Alexander was not going to move, there was no way! It was interesting, I really enjoy reading! Other than that, it was a lot of make up work, and talking/reading as it was the last day for AR of the ribbon period!

I’m excited to start the weekend, and work on all of my projects that I have to get done before next week, as well as planning for all the subjects in the class 

7:2

Today seemed to be a blur. I honestly don’t remember a lot about today. It seemed to fly by. We took a reading test today, that I think the students did fairly well on. There are a few students who still don’t quite understand authors purpose, but we will continue to work on that. Other than that, it was a day of getting things finished, and working really hard on math as there is a math test tomorrow. We did quite a few things in social studies with communities, we talked a lot about rural, suburban, and urban communities. I even drew a picture of these on the board! I will attach that picture here. Students were interested in that more than they were in any other activity.

Miss M and I after that had talked about a town that came up, that in my opinion would be a surburban community because it is big enough, and close enough, but Miss M would have catergorized it into the rural area, because it is still too far away. I guess that is something that will always come up, there are going to be things that we are going to differ on, and I don’t know if that is going to change. I took what she said, and thought that maybe she was right, and that I shouldn’t do what I think of something when I’m not 100% sure of the community, or area for that matter. I just took what I knew and applied it. We had also talked about how you shouldn’t tell students that you can’t draw, because the students were laughing at my drawings (which doesn’t really matter to me), but if I wouldn’t have said that I couldn’t draw, they wouldn’t have even said anything and accepted it as acceptable work.

Week 7:Day 1

Today was the student teaching seminar.  It seemed to have been placed on a really weird day.  It was the Monday of MEA week, so we had the seminar Monday, and then had Thursday and Friday off (some of us even had Wednesday, or half of Wednesday for inservice).  Even Miss M had said something about how it would have been nice if it were on Wednesday so that she could finish lessons that I was working on, rather than doing things halfway through the lesson, or starting new ones out.

Things were brought up such as lesson planning and how much of a tedious job it is.  It was discussed in our mini-groups that some mentor teachers don't even want to see the lesson plans, and that all of us talk and discuss our lessons with our mentor teachers before we even do anything.  It doesn't make sense as to why we have to do all this work, but it does.  It gives us the opportunity to think our lessons through, but it is tedious work that makes student teachers (in our minigroups anways) feel as though all we are doing is concentrating on lesson plans, and possibly not even giving full attention to making lessons better, and getting things to be more worth while, and exciting.  Its a hard thing to do, but sometimes it is necessary.

Other than that, the best part, and really the only part that was worth while (talking in mini-groups was nice, and we could share common stories) was talking and hearing from the principals.  It helped a lot and gave a lot of information that I have already heard from my University supervisor, and other teachers around, but it came straight from the mouths of the principals, who would be doing the actual interviews.

Long awaiting the much needed break
Miss A

6:5

Integration day.  Doesn't that just make you want to jump for joy.  I'm excited to go, and see what the schools do, and also for the theme (book making) I think it would be fun to incorporate some of the ideas that they have/made the students make into an actual classroom setting.  I really think that students will enjoy it.

Bus rides- car rides are bad enough.  Bus rides, I don't even know what to say about them.  I wasn't excited, knowing that I get car sick, and I have ridden on a bus with students before, when I went on a field trip with a bunch of pre-schoolers before.  I don't know why, but it seemed as though the 3rd graders were way more obnoxious and loud than the preschoolers.  HOW RIDICULOUS!!!!  GRRR.  I was so mad.  They sang at the top of their lungs, talked really loud, and I seemed to have to just sit back and leave it.  At one point on the way there, the students were literally screaming the alphabet, and the bus driver looked at me in the mirror, and I just felt like I had to say something to the third graders to get them to STOP singing/screaming.  There was absolutely no need for it.  Other than that, and being car sick, it went ok.

Integration day was good.  I learned a lot about the book making process, and saw the teachers make a few really good books (I now just need to find some lesson to use them with!).  It really wasn't as bad as everyone else made it seem.  If it weren't for the bus ride, I would have enjoyed myself even more than I did.  I got to see other teachers rooms, and what seemed to be their teaching styles while they taught their groups of third graders.

That was my friday, plain and simple.

6:4

Thursday.... the day of returning to school after being sick for two days.  I guess I didn't realize, or even believe that it really was a TON of work coming back after being gone.  I have been told that sometimes you have subs (just like having aides) that are willing to help grade papers, and get things finished, as long as you leave them plans to work on, or sometimes if they find papers ungraded, they grade them.  How nice would that be.  My mentor teacher strongly believes in one rule (two actually) when it comes to grading.  Aides don't grade papers (they are there to help students.  Good point, but sometimes helping you can be a plus... I know this because my boyfriends mom is a paraprofessional), and if you teach the lesson you grade.  Well technically when I was gone, she should have graded the papers, right?  ummm wrong.  She didn't, and wouldn't.  She I had to go through and do about 2 days worth of daily math and daily language, plus do work from that day.  I had a really hard time catching up, and I actually didn't get it all done before I needed to get home.  So I did as much as I could, today after school, and planned on saving the rest for tomorrow morning, even if it meant doing it right after the students started to come into the room in the morning.

Besides still not feeling 100%, I had to sit and have a discussion with the third graders about how it is super important for them to pay attention, and listen.  When someone gives a direction they need to follow it.  They were simply asked to find their seats, quickly and quietly.  I had to tell them 4 times, and they finally listened on the fifth attempt with a raised voice.  It was really hard, I didn't yell at them, I just had a discussion about how important it was for them to listen and follow the directions when they are given the first time.

In the morning it was time for a spelling test (right away).  I had told them to take out the spelling books because we were going to have our spelling test.  They whined and moaned and complained because they hadn't studied, so I told them that I warned them last week, as well as on monday when I was in school.  They didn't care, they still whined.  They had to take the test anyways, and you could tell who studied and who hadn't, and 99% of them hadn't studied.  Miss M then gave me a piece of advice of rather than saying warned you, say I told you.  It does sound better even as she said it to me. 

Other than that, not much.  Tomorrow is Integration day, doesn't that sound joyous.  Everyone I have talked to complains about how horrible it is, so I'm not even remotely excited about it.  Not to mention one of the schools that does ID with us, has H1N1 in their high school, and it is so bad that people are wearing facemasks so they don't catch it.  Yippy Skippy!

Miss A

6:3

Home sick again today :'(

6:2

Home sick today :(

5:5

Can’t believe today was Friday. I feel like the week just flew by. Mr. Petersen came today to watch Social and Science. There really wasn’t much that happened or went on other than that. I think the lesson went really well even though I felt as though I were batting things out of left field. I knew I was going to teach, and I knew what I was going to teach on, but I just didn’t know if I was going to do a good enough job. I think I did pretty good, knowing what I knew, and doing the different things I did. I wasn’t prepared for the students to not understand the different between urban and suburban and definitely stumbled on that during the lesson, but I think I may have pulled it off. I realized that just because I grew up by the cities, and know more of a difference between the two, as well as a rural area, doesn’t mean that everyone can understand that… not to mention they know where places like Apple Valley, Lakeville, and other suburbs are.

Mr. Petersen suggested that I find something’s to do in science for hands-on work to help students learn. This has been a hard process for me, as I find it so boring, and Miss M hasn’t given me very many thoughts or ideas, not that its her job to provide me with that, but she has given me hints on other things, just not that. Hopefully I can find something ASAP so that the students are a little more hands-on. The idea of just bringing in the roots to show them when they were learning about roots was a great idea, maybe on Wednesday of next week when we are reviewing the roots and stems and leaves I will have those available.

5:4

I feel like we haven’t done social studies or science in FOREVER. We finally did a little science today, but we still haven’t gotten to having both of them in a long time. Because Mr. Peterson is coming tomorrow, we are going to work really hard to make sure we get everything in, as well as have time to do both social and science.


Everyday that I watch Miss M teach math, I am more and more amazed. I am really good at math, but sometimes I feel that I may be good, but that doesn’t qualify me to be able to teach. The ideas and thoughts that I am getting from Miss M is really quite amazing!

Today she played a game with the students using cards. She called it “beat the teacher”, and continued to use the learning they were doing with place values in this game. Anyways the students would choose as many cards as Miss M said. She would have on her board automatically generated cards. The students would flip the cards and make the biggest (or smallest number) they could using those cards (depending on the rules that Miss M made). Miss M would then flip over her cards. All cards would be used besides the King and Jack. The Queen would be a zero, and the Ace would be a 1. It was really interesting to see what the kids would do with the numbers, and also what Miss M would have the students. At one point she had the students make a number after she made one for her. She would make the smallest number she could (or any number for that matter) and then she would have the students make a number (either not much higher than the one she already has made) and then she would make another number, not knowing what the students numbers were, and the students had to be in between the two numbers Miss M made. The rules were pretty simple. If 4 students beat the teacher, students got a point; if not Miss M got the point. It was really neat to see.

I won’t be teaching math until not next week, but the week after, so hopefully I get to learn a ton more! Multiplication starts on Monday in our daily math books, so hopefully Miss M is willing to take that on, because I’m not exactly sure how to go about that. The other thing is, on Tuesday of next week there is division in daily math. So it is really weird that one day they have the third graders learning multiplication, and then the next day they have them learning division. I am shell shocked, seriously!

5:3

It really seemed as though today has come and gone and I don’t remember a thing. Its almost like when your driving, and can’t remember if you actually drove the entire time or not. The students are I starting reading the story called “How My Family Lives in America”, and the students are going to be doing a food project with this story next week. I’m a little nervous for it, as I know it is going to be a little crazy. The students don’t know it yet, but I think once they find out, and when we do it, they are going to enjoy it. Students seemed to understand. We went through the book and discussed the vocabulary. I made the mistake of not looking in the book for the vocabulary as already stated in Mondays entry. The students were read to, and when the vocab word was found and brought up, they had the chance of answering questions and saying what the definition was for each word.

The day went so quickly because once I was done with school I was there for almost 2 hours after I needed to be. I was volunteered to do the October bulletin board, so I stayed back after school to finish hanging that up/finish getting things together for it. I also stayed after and did some correcting. All in all it was a good day, and like I said it seemed to have just flew by.

5:2

Today is Tuesday, and it felt like Monday all over again. The very first thing that happened was the Miss M and I found out that a student was moving schools for the time being, and no one has any idea how long she will be gone. She switched districts, un-enrolled from our school, and re-enrolled into a different school. She will then un-enroll at some point, and re-enroll into our school. It seems to be a complicated situation, and doesn’t really make sense other than the fact that this particular student can’t afford to miss school, and really needs to stay in a school district. She is one of the students who is in the bottom percentile and really needs as much help as she can get. Hopefully she gets that in the new school, and can come back and not be so far behind the class.

Spelling I saw the final piece, guess the covered word. I can now completely take it on. I have been doing all the lesson planning for all the subjects besides math and English, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of lesson planning (doing the elementary schools stuff, and then doing the college’s stuff). I am trying to get it all done, and need continue to work really hard. Sometimes its overwhelming, but I know that I can handle it. I also don’t think that it would be so hard if I didn’t have another job (which isn’t much, but once I get home, I’m exhausted). I know that I shouldn’t be working and my main priority needs to be student teaching, and it is, but I can’t afford to not have a job. I spend 90% of my time on Student teaching, the other 10 on my other job, and no time on myself. I need to find a comfortable place between all of these. I’m surviving, and am used to multi-tasking, and it is also nice that I can do some of my school work at my job. I just wish that I didn’t have to double dip myself.

Anyways, enough of my rambling. There really isn’t much different on the day to day front. I think that I am getting on my best part of keeping the students on task, and listening. It is really hard sometimes to get them to be quiet, and yesterday Miss M and I talked about how I should try to change that and make it better. We came up with the conclusion that I need to come off as more of a boss figure, rather than a friend quiet type. I need to take control, and show them that I am in charge of the classroom. I knew this was a problem, and I thought I was handling it ok, until yesterday. I worked on that today, and I think I did a good job. I am also doing well with, if I say we aren’t doing something, or aren’t moving on until something is finished, I stick with it.

Things are going well, I hope they continue to work up to me being even better.

Week 5:Day 1

Today was the day that I basically am teaching everything. Everything that is, besides English and math. We had our last NWEA test today, so that threw the schedule off a little bit, but it wasn’t anything drastic. Basically it took away our AR time, and our math time, so we skipped social studies and science and did AR and math during those time periods instead.

Spelling Miss M taught today, as she wanted to show me how to play the game, sparkle before I started teaching spelling. She also wants me to see guess the covered word, so hopefully she teaches that tomorrow, and then spelling is all mine! Reading went alright, we didn’t have small groups, so Miss M talked to students about their AR records, and how they have to be more careful and her rules along with that. Students then had reading on the new story, and I was in charge of reading (and will be from now on). We started the story “How My Family Lives in America”. No reading yet, we just went over the vocabulary from the story. The students at the end of the week (or beginning of next week) will get to eat sesame noodles (or something like that) with chopsticks. Students did a good job. I thought the words were highlighted in the book so I had students get their reading books, and look for the vocabulary words, but they weren’t highlighted. We went through the words and found them together. I made a solution to my wrong thinking, and unpreparedness. I should have looked in the books prior to the lesson, but I thought since they were highlighted/underlined in the teachers book, that they would be highlighted in the students book. It was my fault, and a learning experience was gained.

The students again had to be called down to music. I always forget that music on Monday is at a different time than music on Wednesday and Friday. That makes it really hard to remember, and I forget it. Miss M seems to have a bit of trouble following schedules, and has said that before… she asked me to watch the time and get students to where they need to go at the times they need to go. Oh well, I’ll keep working on that, hopefully next Monday I can remember that they need to be down there at 9:20 rather than at 10:35.

The last NWEA test was right after lunch. It was the language portion of the tests. Students had questions that dealt with grammar, and other things like letter structure, and author’s purpose. It is interesting to see the difference in test scores, and how students are doing.

Other than that it was a good day. I have a lot of work ahead of me for this next week, and hopefully it all gets done. I am going to be more prepared when it comes to students/teachers book, and will keep my eye on things to see if they are as I want them to be. If not I will find other things to do instead, or change my plans.

4:5

Talked with Miss M about yesterday, and how I thought it went. She surprised me with switching desks, so I am now at her desk and she is at my little table desk. We talked about how yesterday went, and if I got through everything. I talked to her about how I missed English, and at first I thought it was because of spelling taking so long, but it wasn’t spelling, spelling went quickly. It was the Daily Language books that took us a while because of the relearning of the quotation rules. We talked about other things, and discussed how I felt about yesterday. Then I was surprised again with the fact that I was going to teach almost everything again today (besides math), I had to determine what we were going to do with reading because one of our Para’s was gone today and she takes one of the reading groups, and we also had NWEA reading testing today. Not to mention I had to be flexible, give the geography test today in the morning rather than in the afternoon, and then also give a spelling test in the morning.

We went immediately down to do testing right away in the morning. Some of the questions on this test, I would have been able to answer, but I don’t think that the students knew the answers. They also had LONG reading passages and then had to answer two part questions. It was interesting to see, and even more interesting to see the scores. After that, I took all but two of the students up to the classroom to start English. The other two were still working on their tests. We learned about interrogative sentences, and then I decided that I would get the other two tests that needed to be done that morning in, and do it before they had music. We got them both done. With the geography test, only 14 of the students had to take it. Those other 6 students had AR time while the rest took the test. I had to limit them on the time, so that we could get both tests done. The thing I could have done differently with this test, is to give students a little more of a clearer set of directions. They didn’t understand at first, and a few students started the test to get it done right away rather than listen to directions. Next time I will be a little more clear, take a little more time, and then wait to hand out the test until they have heard all the directions. We then took the spelling test, and got done just in time for music.

Miss M and I then rearranged the students seating to go from pods of 4, to rows and groups of anything from 2 to 4. I helped move some of the students to places I felt they would be good in, and then was asked to make a new seating chart so that on Monday morning we could move students again to better places. I spent some time while students were having their AR time to set that up. I got it finished and made a few changes after Miss M discussed some ideas on where other students could move to make it a better way.

The day went good other than that. I watched Miss M teach about renaming to get students ready to do regrouping in subtraction. It was interesting to see how she taught it, and it is something that I have stored in my mind for when it becomes time for me to teach.

I’m excited for next week to come. I have basically every subject in the morning besides English (and some spelling), and everything in the afternoon besides Math. I am gaining it all very quickly and I am liking it!

4:4

Today was the day that I had really been looking forward too. It was a day that I imagined would go wonderfully, and the day that would basically determine whether I really wanted this as bad as I thought I did. I found out a few things today. You have got to be flexible, and determine what is most important. I also found out that being a sub, or getting a sub, are both hard things. I did all the lesson planning basically for today, all I really got from Miss M was where she was going to be. So this wasn’t anything like being a real sub, which I would have enjoyed having the pleasure of doing, but that’s ok. It was a lot of fun being the classroom teacher for the whole day, and I have decided that it would be my dreams come true. I enjoyed every aspect of the day, and even enjoyed having a new person watching me teach all day. I was nervous at first, because I didn’t know Mrs. W. I had now idea who she was, or anything. So it was fun to talk to her when she came in that morning. She was a nice lady, and gave me a few tidbits of information she had found throughout the years.

The day went wonderfully. I only missed English, but that is because spelling and Daily Language (part of English) took so long, and by the time I would have started to teach about exclamatory sentences we would have had to stop doing what we were doing. Students seemed to have a good day. Nothing else really went as hard as I thought it was going to go. There weren’t many problems, and I think I did well. I would have possibly changed up the Daily Language, and cut spelling a little shorter so that I could teach English, but stuff happens I guess. I also think that math went well (when Mr. P was there). I tried something using the little chips. Students really enjoyed using them, and I hope that it helped students to understand a little more. I would have changed it around a little more, and gave a few more expectations when using them, such as no touching, no playing around, and you have to listen. I think that students would have stilled played with them, but with more expectations and consequences, I could have taken the chips away if they were playing with them. Either way I think that the students would have played with them, and they really weren’t being too disruptive with them, but just an idea.

I started to put into effect the key to learning classroom management plan today. I don’t think that students really were waiting for them, and listening because of the tickets, until the tickets were taken out and I had begun to pass them out. I passed them out to quite a few students, and I did have to take a few back because they were talking and were not paying attention. All in all, I think it might be a good idea.

4:3

I’m glad that today is Wednesday. It means that tomorrow is closer than ever to being the day that I can attempt to have the whole class all day to myself. I’m really excited. There are a few things that have been going on for a while. There is a couple students who are just sitting in the wrong places and today was finally the last day that I allowed the touching and talking. It may not have been my place, but I was the one teaching, and Miss M wasn’t in the room. She was running copies off downstairs for her lessons tomorrow. I finally told the two students who have been talking, and touching, and kicking and messing around too much that if they didn’t stop I was going to move them. I then after school today talked it over with Miss M and told her, and she said that it was completely fine. I had every right to tell them that, and that she was ok with my decision. The only thing now is that if something does happen tomorrow that I need to follow through with what I said, and get that taken care of. We also sat down today after school and re-did the entire seating arrangement, and hopefully that can take care of a few other talking/not listening problems. I am also going to try something out with the students that Miss M had suggested (and I thought about, but didn’t think of anything when Miss M approached me). We (more me) are going to do a “Keys to learning” thing using listening. I am going to be watching for students while I am teaching and awarding the ones who are, and can answer questions, get their work done, etc., while I am teaching the subjects (hopefully mostly just using this in the afternoon but all times if it is needed). The students who are caught will get either a ticket, or a slip of paper to write their name on, and place into our “prize box”. Then a name will be drawn out every day at the end of the day. The name that is called gets to have a key put up on the wall. At the end of the week, whoever has a key hanging, will get a chance to win a prize. The more times you’re caught, the more tickets you get, the more chances you will have at getting a key! Students will get tickets taken away after being caught listening, if they stop listening or are interrupting/playing around with the tickets. I’m thinking this is a good idea, and after explaining it to the students, they also seemed to think that it was a good idea, and the minute that I said we were going to practice today, so that we can get started right away tomorrow… students perked up and started to pay really close attention. I think it might work. They were listening before, but got easily distracted, and were not willing to answer questions in case they were wrong.

Today the only thing besides student behavior that I really have to talk much about (because it is different then every other day) is the daily language book. One of the questions was using quotations and the students didn’t know anything about quotations. I gave it my best try, on why you have to have a comma before you have a quotation. I understood the rule, and thought I was doing an ok job, until all the students stared at me, and Miss M tried then. They still looked at her somewhat in the same look, but seemed to have understood it a little better. She said it would take a little bit before the students would fully understand the concept, hopefully by December or so. I guess I would have thought it would be sooner than that.
Miss M also taught her students to slant. Which means- s=sit up, l=lean forward, a=act interested even if you are not because you might become, n=nod when appropriate, t=track the speaker. The students understand and started using it, but I think it should have been taught awhile ago. Then students would be doing it already, and hopefully would be better at paying attention. Can never tell, but hopefully some of these things will help in the afternoon, everyone being tired and hot problem, and not wanting to listen.

4:2

I felt much better this morning, there really wasn’t much going on other than I needed to get things corrected this morning when I came in. I got it all done before even 8 am. I enjoy coming in and getting work done right away in the morning. Today I taught the usual things- handwriting, daily math, daily language, social, and science. It all went really well. I think I lost the students during science. It is a very boring subject- and I tried to make Venn diagrams interesting, but in science it really isn’t. They are reading a paragraph about two different things, and then they compare and contrast them using the Venn diagrams. I’ve never been a fan of graphic organizers, so having to teach one that I do in my head makes things a little weird. I did my best, but I need to make it more interesting. I’ll see what I can do to finish it up tomorrow, so that we can keep on moving into the week. As for social, I LOVE using the SMART board. They have an interactive map, the students can move the continents into their own place, and each continent is a different color. It is a lot of fun to do things with it! I can’t even explain how much I enjoy having it!

Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. I did have a conversation with the 4th grade male teacher today. We talked after walking the students to the buses, and he said stuff about how hard it can be mentally on teachers. We are exhausted at the end of days, but it isn’t a physical exhaustion, it is a mental exhaustion. I totally agree and I have only been doing this for 3 weeks (4 weeks if you count workshop days), and then I head to another job because I have no choice. I had also talked to the PE teacher today about how in almost every other internship gets paid, while student teaching isn’t only non-paid, but it is also an experience that we have to pay to do (he brought the subject up). We had also talked about a few of the benefits about commuting to work how it can be times to collect thoughts, or sometimes even collect yourself. I find it nice when a teacher is willing to share information, or insight

Week 4:Day 1

Today was a good day. Today went really well. It was a rainy day, and students seemed to be a little more talkative, but also seemed to be busy-bodies. I thought that this wasn’t really an effect, but maybe it is. The other day I was pointed out to a certain student in Miss M’s class by a Para, and she said to keep watch of a little boy because he was always grabbing. I didn’t realize, and have been trying to pay attention to it, but I haven’t really noticed. I was hoping that I could find a reason for why he was doing this, but I haven’t really seen him do it. I have also noticed the third graders obsession with the scent of things. They smell EVERYTHING!!!! They also have an obsession of hand sanitizer, but almost all the students in this elementary school do. They insist on using hand sanitizer instead of soap and water, no matter how many times you tell them that it is BEST to use SOAP AND WATER. They just don’t understand. If one students gets up and blows their nose, and then uses the hand sanitizer, they all have to get up and either blow their noses too, or use the hand sanitizer. It drives me nuts because my hands are sensitive to the stuff, and I break out in hives when I use it. It is ridiculous the amount of times these kids think they need to use it.

NWEA testing had gone on today. The 3rd graders took their math portion of the test. It took some students 20 minutes to do 52 math problems (some were so hard, that I don’t even think I would have come up with the answer without giving myself time to think). The problems on the test ranged from super simple questions that every one of the third graders could answer, to questions that made students drop their jaws to the floor.

Times of day have been crazy busy. The one thing I have noticed about this classroom is that I really enjoy having the SMART board. If I could ask for one thing to be available to EVERY classroom teacher no matter what, it would be a SMART board. The things that are available to you, and you can do on them, is outstanding.

There really wasn’t anything different in today, other than the fact that I taught Science and Social Studies, and will continue to throughout the rest of my time. There was also a staff meeting today after school. There wasn’t really much said, other than the Paraprofessionals were going to take back their lunch duty, and teachers were going to go back to the way it was. Apparently it is because the teachers would give the para’s dirty looks if they were not in the lunch room on exact time when they were suppose to be, and the paras didn’t like that. The teachers were very happy about it! I didn’t really care, because I didn’t know really any different, but I kind of enjoyed having lunch with students, it gave me a time to get to know them. I know that teachers shouldn’t be students friends on to much of a level, but it was just nice. I’m also very glad that we don’t have to be down there anymore also though, because it gives me more time to be upstairs working on my school stuff, or time for me to be with other teachers, and talking.

3:5

Today was a good day. I felt a little better, I wasn’t as sick as I had been the rest of this week!


I did the spelling test this morning. In the middle of it, I had a coughing attack, but other than that I think it went really well. The only problem with that is that its really hard, because the students have to turn their desks around (so that they are not looking at the wall because their spelling words are on the word wall {spelling is word wall based}) and then they had to understand that there was absolutely no talking, and no turning around. Besides the coughing attack, I think I did pretty well. Next spelling test, we have to cut the test in half for one of the students, so I need to know what the first 7 words are so that he knows what words to study. The students test on the same 14 words for a month, before they get a new list, there are September words, October words, etc… and then each month also has a few bonus words. Spelling is weird because it isn’t the way that we did spelling in elementary, but I’ve seen spelling that is even more different than that before. So this isn’t the first time that I have seen something strange during a spelling class.

Other than that, basically everything the students did today, for almost every class involved either a test, AR. Math they did their daily math (which I taught, like usual) and then they had a test, reading had a test, There was no science or Social again today, as they spilled into science with their math test, and had to watch a movie on making the constitution (yesterday was constitution day and Miss M forgot, and I didn’t even know it was yesterday). Once the movie was done, students who stayed for social studies got time for AR, and to correct mistakes in their daily math books, and their spelling test books. As well as Daily language (I forgot we did those books yesterday).

That was basically my day yesterday. I watched Music class. That was interesting to see. I felt as though the music teacher didn’t really have control of the room, and the students were playing bells/xylophones. It was loud, and the students couldn’t stop playing them, even when they were asked to. Students were constantly hitting them, she would tell them to put the mallets on their shoulders, they would for a bit, and then start playing again whether she asked them to or not. Either that or they would mess with the mallets. Students were asked not to hit the bells hard, but they would anyways. It seemed like the teacher yelled more than was necessary, and it was just loud.

Next week should be good, but I have a TON of lesson plans to write (I have my week planned out; I got that done while students were taking their reading tests… I think Miss M was quite surprised that I got it done that quickly, I was doing lessons for Science, Social, handwriting, and then daily math, daily language, and also a reading group). So I had just as many subjects to plan for as she did, and all she got done was 1 spelling day, and I think she decided that we were going to do a poetry unit in reading, which works well because I was going to do a poem with my reading group! I also have to do plans for the day that Miss M will be gone. There will be a sub in the room, and I will basically be doing all the teaching. I’m not sure on what I think about that… I’m excited for the teaching point, and being able to teach the entire day, but then at the same time, I don’t think its fair that I should have to plan for her lessons… I’m ok with doing it, and I need the practice, but I should be doing her plans for the lessons (she is going to be giving me where the students will be at on Thursday by Monday, but what if they are off, what if they aren’t at that point?) I’m not complaining because it gives me practice, and it gives me an idea… but at the same time, I should be able to follow sub plans as well, and I think that would be the fairest idea! I’m not sure though, I guess we will see!

3:4

I honestly am not at all sure what to think of today. It was picture day, and I was still feeling a little icky (or maybe a lot icky). I did everything in my power to stay upbeat and alive today, just in case! Be on my toes, as Miss M put it, just in case someone showed up to watch how I was doing. That information is something that I knew before, I had just never really thought about it much. Even though I am battling a headache, and cold-like symptoms (its not H1N1, as far as I know, I checked my symptoms), its quite rough to have a bad day, even though all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep for ages. Other than that, today was picture day (I was almost forced into taking a picture for the yearbook, they did get me to take one). Students were excited, Miss M wasn’t very excited at all, but we were flexible (on more than one occasion- they kept calling and changing our picture time, as well as scheduling it during library, and things just kept getting jumbled up). She doesn’t like pictures at all, but has told me that you can try to get out of taking one, but they will find you… no matter what you do, they always find you! As for the flexible thing, I have learned this entire time how flexible a teacher can be, and how flexible a teacher can make themselves. If you are willing to be flexible to get an assignment finished, or to take more time with students so that you are helping them understand what is going on, or taking time to explain every little detail about how the classroom works, you may be using other periods time slot. I also think that if you are on the opposite end of things, what do you do when students don’t understand a concept, do you drop it and move on the next day like you had planned, or do you pick it up tomorrow. I would probably either take a little more time (depending on frustration level with students) or give it a little more time, plus tomorrow. We have yet to follow the entire schedule, and have yet to complete the schedule. It bothers me because the students are not getting in their social studies, science hours, and sometimes even their English time is cut short. It really bugs me… keeping track of time isn’t really that hard, not in my opinion anyway. It’s hard, and I should say something to Miss M about it, but the one time that I did, she kind of snipped at me and that was the end of that (she wanted to finish what she was doing and wasn’t ready to move on yet).
Onto what happened today. Today was my first day of teaching an actual math class lesson. I thought I was prepared, extremely ready, knew exactly what I was going to do, had stuff run off for the class, and felt prepared. When it came time for the lesson, I was prepared, kind of. I had stuff done, plans done, etc., but the lesson in my opinion just stunk! I worked really hard on completing it, I worked hard to get it so that students could learn what really needed to be learned, and thought it would be wonderful. The ideas were good, I’ll give myself that, the thought behind the lesson was great as well, but it just didn’t work. For one, the pages the students were going to do had re-group subtraction in it, and I wasn’t allowed to teach that (Miss M ran in and took over at that point, more on that later). Next, the students didn’t understand it. They understood the four plan concept, that there were steps… but they didn’t understand what they could do to solve the problem because they couldn’t do the regroup subtraction, and the pictures were too big to draw. I had a hard time also when Miss M took over when the re-grouping came up. I wanted to give it a go. Try it and see how it went, and see if I could do it... I couldn’t, she didn’t even think about letting me... All I did was basically write the problem on the board, and then she interrupted and took over. I had a hard time with that, I was mad and still am a little on the not so happy side of things, but i have to understand that this is HER classroom and I need to respect her decisions and her thoughts/ideas. I wish she would have given me the opportunity to try it, or to even give it my best shot, because I think I could have done it, but she didn’t, and I think that is what bothers me the most.
Other than those few things, the day went pretty much the same. There hasn’t been science since Monday, the Title I kids are pulled out during Social studies (going to be a daily thing), and math takes forever!
I also (before I forget) watched the PE teacher today (I got his permission on Tuesday to make sure it was ok that I watched). The class was a little unorganized, he just had the students play soccer. There was a no wristband team, and a wristband team. Then there were 2 balls out on the field (great idea being there were about 40 students on the field at one time). There really were no rules, not guidelines, not really anything (students were wrestling with each other and pushing/shoving and then were just asked to stop. Students weren’t participating, and weren’t really forced to be a part of gym.). It really was interesting to see!
Tomorrow is Friday, and I’m excited! I like Fridays! Hopefully I feel better tomorrow!!!! 

3:3

Today is a really bad day! I am sicker than a dog! It was really rough this morning to get up and get ready, it was even more rough to pretend as though nothing were wrong (until it was a little later in the morning, then I kind of woke up, and perked up, for whatever reason). I wasn’t looking forward to the day being here, I just wanted to be back in my bed. I don’t know at about what time I perked up, I think it was a little after spelling, but I’m not quite sure. Things just seemed to drag. I did morning everyday counts and watched a practice spelling test. The students then had reading, and I led a small guided reading group again. We continued the book from yesterday, and worked on that. Tomorrow we get to take an AR test on the book! I had to tell the students that I wasn’t feeling very well, and didn’t want to have to talk louder or repeat myself, and I wanted them to listen (as they were not before then, they were all over the place). They then had music, and PE, followed by lunch and recess (Wednesdays are a long break, as well as Fridays I think). When they got back we worked on their daily math workbook page for the day, and then actual math (place values), and the students were not really grasping the idea. In the middle of the class, while students were working on their homework sheets, a fire alarm went off. We had to go outside, and then we came back in. The students had previously been told how that all works, and what the expectations are, but that didn’t happen, they didn’t follow them. I didn’t see this, but some of the class was running down the stairs, jumping off the bottom steps, talking really loudly, and other things that Miss M had told them not to do. She then had them upstairs and re-went over the expectations she had for them, and that was to walk slowly, keep their mouths closed, and not to do anything they shouldn’t be doing. We went back in and worked on some more math before it was time to start social studies/do Title I. Except the students staying in the room didn’t do social studies, they did AR time.
Starting next week, I will take on reading, spelling (maybe), social studies, science, and daily language. The only subjects I will not be teaching yet is Math, and possibly English (I don’t know if I am doing this subject yet or not, I haven’t really seen it taught… :-S)

3:2

Today right away in the morning (well after a little bit of time) I went with the third graders to watch Mr. H teach art. He had the students write out their own rules on the board- the never’s, and the always’ (I think grammatically that is wrong, but that’s ok!). He didn’t tell the class that he had already written the rules of the classroom until after they were finished making them up. All of the rules the third graders thought of were on the wall showing the rules of the classroom, it was quite interesting. Mr. H then had the students draw self portraits. That was interesting to see the students’ imaginations, and what they could and will think up. Some made pictures of themselves like they have seen it, or something that they have actually done, while others made silly drawings of their hopes and dreams (or imaginary times). It was really neat to see these ideas.
Mr. P came to visit today; he came while I was teaching handwriting, and guided reading to a small group of children. I taught guided reading first, and he just listened and watched while we did that. The students were reading Dooby Dooby Moo and answering questions that I had asked them, as well as some other things. I felt as though this went really well. I had a student who was asked at the beginning to sit by me, so that there were no behavior problems, and it seemed to work really well. Mr. P said that I did very well, and asked many higher order thinking questions. So that is a big plus for me, because I didn’t even realize I was asking them! I then taught handwriting, I thought that it went well, but there were some things that I would have changed. I had a student answer a question, she had the wrong answer, and I thought that I knew the right one, but I mixed them up too. So now everyone is messed up because I messed them up, so next time I would make sure that I double checked to make sure I knew them, and if I didn’t I would study them to find them out. I would have given students directions to put pencils down while showing them something, instead of just saying look up here; I want to show you something. Students were still writing in their handwriting books, and not paying attention. So I would have done that differently. I also got word from Miss M that I should have modeled the strokes before allowing students to write them on the board, in case they have it wrong, then if they see me model one, then they will be able to get it right (hopefully) and then the student and the rest of the class won’t learn the incorrect stroke. So that is something that helped me out. There were plenty of good comments that I had heard from Mr. Petersen, and the one that is the best, and will always stick out of me is that he heard many good things from Miss M while I was not in the room (he got there early before the class and I were back from Art), as well as the comment about putting children down gently rather than tearing them apart. This made me feel as though it really mattered the way I was doing some things, and that I was doing them correctly. He also pointed out something that Miss M did while she was teaching, and that was to get the students attention and to have them focus without being harsh. She told the students that she loved to see their eyes! The way that she said it and how the children responded was very good!

The rest of the day ended up being a jumbled up mess, and it got really confusing. Miss M wanted the students to do some AR (accelerated reading) work, so she had them do that during math time rather than, well, math. So students learned how to do that (the idea is the same, but the rules and logistics is different between last year and this year). The students enjoyed that time. The end of the day ended with Title I kids being pulled again during Social Studies time to do Math, while the rest of the students learned about the 5 oceans, and the 7 continents!

Week 3; day 1

Today seemed to be a long day. It wasn’t long in the sense of taking forever, but my allergies had kicked it, and they just wore me out. It seemed to be hard to walk up steps without having my breath taken away, I couldn’t smell, nothing. It just seemed to be a really hard time.

Other than that, the day in my opinion seemed to go very well. I started doing the morning opening today, and was able to get that figured out, and roaring to go. I’m excited to do this, as well as the end of the day preparation/getting things ready for when they leave. Students are doing well with finding the patterns in their opening; I am quite surprised, and am ready to possibly throw a new pattern into the mix. They are also doing fairly well with the money, but we haven’t done a whole lot being that they only moved/changed money once. Hopefully they will move money again on Wednesday.
I also taught handwriting and daily math. I think that these are going very well. I was asked for daily math to keep it under 10 minutes, and I did that. I thought it went really well, and students did a great job understanding the math. When I corrected the workbooks at the end of the day after the students left, there were only a few who needed to make corrections; either they really got it, or they just understood what was going on. The math problems in my eyes are not that hard, but I am also a 22 (almost 23) year old college student who has always been very good at math, so that could be why. The problems were ones such as 5+6=11, and 9-5=4. There were a few different students who needed a little extra help, but we didn’t even take the 10 minutes (or we went a little over and we weren’t told that it went over. We also discussed a few of the math problems that Miss M said 3rd graders had problems with, and those problems are ones such as __=4+5, or 2+3=___+4. Spending time on those, it seems as though students either get it and understand that is still going to be the same answer if it were written the right way, and that the problems just have to have answers that equal themselves (man that is hard to explain in writing). I have a feeling that it is going to take some time in order for the students to understand these concepts, but I will work on it and see if I can get them to understand and work on these and have them down. Miss M said that they were on tests, and that no matter how much she tried last year, she could not get the students to understand the concept so they actually got them wrong on the test.
During social studies time, some students were pulled out to go work with Title I teachers. The students then didn’t have any social studies time because they were down in the Title rooms working on Math. I’m not 100% sure that is the right choice, because I really do feel that students should be working on math but they should be getting social studies time as well. I have a hard time with upper-grade levels and “teaching to the test”. I have heard it so many times that it almost makes me want to barf. I feel that social studies (although it isn’t quite as important as math) is a subject that students should have knowledge on especially since they were learning today about maps (North and South Pole, the Equator, the continents, and the oceans). I feel that those things are extremely important as an adult, and if students are being pulled out at an early age, when learning about things such as maps that is something they will use in real life.
Today I also followed JL to the Special Ed teacher’s room, Mrs. S. While watching her, I realized how patiently she worked with JL, and what she was doing. She was working with words, and their sounds/blends. She used cubes, and had each sound have its own cube, and then would change a sound, and the block that the sound changed a new block would have to be moved into its place. I really thought it was interesting how she worked with the students. I’m glad I took the opportunity (or had to, this wasn’t my first Special Ed classroom experience, but its still nice to see).

2:4

Last day of week 1 (or week 2 if you count inservices).  This week has been a lot of fun!  I have already learned a ton, and am super glad that I decided to wait, take my time, push things back, and student teach in the fall rather than the spring.  I have been in many classrooms already where I have come into the middle of the year, and don't really understand the starting of the classes, the rules, the procedures the teacher has set forth and everything.  But now I have an understanding, an idea of how they tell their students what is going on, how to do things, etc.  It's an exciting time, and it really is a great experience!

I forgot to tell about the child study meeting I went to yesterday morning.  It was a set of teachers who watched, tested, and stuff like that for students with special needs.  Miss M was a part of that.  She volunteered me to join, so I just sit and listen, and hear what is going on.  It was interesting what they talked about, and what they were doing with each individual student.

I have a bulletin board that I need to do, for the whole school, by october.  I'm not real sure on what I am going to do yet, but I will find something interesting (I have a couple ideas-- joke of the day, get to know the teachers {each teacher has a random fact by their name and their picture}, and something to do with Halloween).  I don't know exactly what I am doing, but I was volunteered to do it!

Friday was a good day.  I taught Handwriting and Daily Math.  Handwriting went really well, and so did daily math.  The only thing I kind of wish were different is that math is in the afternoon, and I think that is a bad time for it to be.  Students are tired, and don't really want to be there learning math.  It gets hot at that time, and students are really thinking about going home and not being in school anymore.  I lost a bunch of students, and kept trying to get them to come back in, but I just couldn't get them.  It really is interesting, because I know Miss M loses them as well.  I will have to work on that.  I'll see if I can make math a bit more fun.

Miss M and I also stayed quite a bit after school yesterday to look at STAR scores.  STAR is a test that kind of places students in their AR reading level.  It will also kind of help Miss M place the students in their guided reading groups.  We also talked about what subjects I will take on next, and gave an assignment to start in the morning.  Starting Monday I will be doing the morning "everyday counts", the handwriting, the Daily Math, and then by thursday I will be doing Daily Language.  I might be taking on more subjects also by the end of next week, like social studies, and science, but English-Reading- and full on math I will not take on until I am a little more comfortable (or have seen it being done a few more times).  Math will probably be the last subject that I take on, because there is a new  book, and Miss M wants to make sure that she has a hang on the book before she hands it over, and also wants to make sure we have plenty of time to talk about what she is doing.

All in All it has been a great week, and I really am looking forward to the next 13 or 14!  It's almost to the point where I don't know if I'm going to leave :P

Ready to have my own classroom!
Miss A

2:3

Today was a good day, it was very hot, but it was good. Students worked really hard, and got all their work completed. Not only have we not been through the whole schedule yet, but there are many subjects that haven’t been touched on, or haven’t even been mentioned more than just going over the schedule.


I watched and helped students the whole day, and did end up teaching an impromptu daily math lesson. Students seemed to have fun working on the SMART board. It was a good opportunity for everyone to be able to see, and know that they will be able to sometimes do this.

I had a visit from the university supervisor today. He managed to show up right as I was teaching this impromptu lesson (Miss M had to leave the room to run and do something). I think the lesson went well, if I could have done more, I would have. The students knew what they were doing, and could have probably done the whole page by themselves without me helping them. The only one that they may have had a little trouble with would have been the last problem which was the word problem. Following directions seems to be hard, and there are a few students who tend to need one on one direction in order to get something. A student has asked me many times after going over it with the class what he is suppose to be doing. I don’t think it is because he isn’t paying attention, I just think that he needs the support and one-on-one, face-to-face instruction. He also tends to need a little help, and a little extra of a push here and there.

There are a few other students who have some problems. There is another student who either is stubborn, or actually needs the extra push (Miss M and I have been told by last years teachers/paras that he is stubborn because he wants attention). Another student has ADD, and she has a hard time paying attention, following directions, and sitting still. Today she had asked a few questions when she shouldn’t have because they didn’t have anything to do with what was going on, and she had her pencil taken away.

The rest of the day was pretty normal, like every other day. Still haven’t looked at social or science. The students also got to draw a picture at the end of the day of something that they did over the summer.

Tomorrow is the last day of the first week!!

Miss A

2:2

Today was quite the day!  I'm amazed at how quickly it went in the morning, but then it slowed WAYYY down in the afternoon (I think it might possibly be because it was way to hot!!)
The students are slowly getting used to the new schedule, and the new rules.  The procedures have definitely changed for a lot of students from 2nd grade to 3rd grade.  It actually surprises me how completely different they two grades are.  Morning routine, classroom jobs, rules, even the way they can get to their classrooms have all changed.  Yes I know, these are 3rd graders, but they are now allowed to be upstairs.  A stair case they didn't even know they could go up, brings them to their classroom on a daily basis.  It truly is amazing!

I also find it really funny/cute to see how innocent these kids are.  I told a child today that when they played with their necklace, it turned their neck red (from pulling on it, I was trying to get them to stop).  They looked at me, and said "are you serious?", like it was something they couldn't even imagine.  It was definitely something that just made me realize how much I will love my teaching job (and currently do, even though it isn't really my job).  The love I have already made for these students is so unexplainable, I don't even know what to say.
Onto what happened during day 2!  Students came in, some remembered the morning procedure, some did not! They learned how spelling was going to go, and did a practice test.  They then moved onto their reading and English portion. They spent quite a bit of time learning how the pages in their Daily Language books are corrected, and how to know what to do when they see different markings.  This took some time.  The students had music today, but Miss M. forgot so the students went down late (after getting a call from the music teacher).  The students then went to gym, lunch, recess, and then came back to the room and listened to a story being read.  They then had math, and discussed again how their daily math pages were corrected, and what different markings meant.  The students then had a meeting around a pod of desks, where Miss M told them the expectations of third grade.  It was not to get the right answer, if that was what she was looking for, she would have given them the answer book and they could copy from the answer book.  Instead it is about knowing how to do the problems, figuring them out, and plain period knowing.  The students disbursed and started working on Tuesdays (day 2) daily math sheet.  The students worked on the problems that they were told they could work on.  Some students asked me/told me that they could work on other problems, so I was telling them that if they knew how to do it, they could move on.  Then Miss M told other students the opposite, so she told the whole class that they should only be doing the problems she had said to do (I didn't find this fair, or right by any means, I thought that if they knew how to move on, they could, but they also needed to listen when the problems are explained).  Miss M then worked on fractions, and the other 2 problems from the daily math sheet.  Students then worked on their worksheet for math.  I worked out in the hall with a student who hadn't quite finished when Miss M wanted to move onto handwriting.  In the hall I realized that the student knew what he was doing facts wise, just couldn't apply the pattern part to the problems (or wasn't trying).  It was then the end of the day.  I walked astudent down to get her sister to take to the bus, waited with them until the driver/outside staff came outside (we got out earlier than expected).  Went back in, asked Miss M if she wanted or needed me to correct or do anything, and she told me no.  Even though she had plenty of pages to correct, she has a "law" you assign them, you correct them. That's fine, but I don't want to hear her complain anymore about how many worksheets, and workbooks she has to correct.  I offered my services.
Tomorrow will be a trying day, as I really messed up my ankle today, I pray that everything goes well, and that my ankle heals nicely so that tomorrow is a good day!

week 2:day 1

Today was the first day with students!
Hooray, it was a great day!

The students came in, some with parents, some without. We made these bead counters (beads on a string roped together to kind of form an abacus type thing) while we waited to head down to the gym for a welcoming from staff and teachers to parents and students. I was introduced; the lead teacher had a hard time pronouncing my last name, so I corrected her after a bit. After the introductions of faculty and staff the students, parents, and staff went and had cookies and milk/juice and played outside for a bit. The students then returned to their rooms, and the learning began. Miss Moll spent the morning explaining rules, things that were being sent home with the kids, the jobs of the classroom, how the SMART board works, and many other miscellaneous things.
I lead the students to basically all the activities that they had, and helped students later on in the day when they were working on their daily language and daily math worksheets (in their workbooks). I also helped with a few other things. After school the teachers had a staff meeting. I sat in on that while they talked about the open house they had that morning, and the ideas that went with that. They also discussed things that had to do with lunch duty, and then committees.

1:3

Well, week one is over.  What an experience.  It was nice to meet a bunch of new teachers... hear their ideas.... see their things... and be a part of something neat.

I have had a lot of fun, and plenty of times where I had no idea what I should be doing!  My mentor teacher is quite weird, a lot of fun, and very unorganized!  I also learned that she likes to be in control, and has some issues with that, so hopefully we can work through that.  I wish I could teach full days more often, and sooner... but I'm not sure that will happen.  I will be able to teach a lesson here and there, but nothing that will be set in stone/full days.  Some here and there, but that is about it!  Hopefully that goes ok, and I can have the reins a little bit.

Yesterday was a day of going over our teacher/student student teaching handbooks.  We went over almost everything in there, talked and discussed things I need to do, planned what I can do for my unit (science, not my favorite, but its ok, I don't mind science), rules she has in her classroom, a few expectations, and then just other general information.

First week went really well in my opinion... it was a long week, and I am completely exhausted (why I'm not sleeping in today, is a new story to me {trying not to ruin the new sleeping pattern too much}) I'm ready for this relaxing, teaching material filled weekend (working on units, lesson plans, and other teaching stuff).

Sorry this is short, and late!
Miss A!