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 :)