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!