Learning new things everyday

Everyday that I go to class I learn something new. Sometimes you say that but don't really mean it. You wouldn't expect it to happen in a Kindergarten classroom but it does. So far I have learned new things about each student, what their likes and dislikes are, who their friends are, a little about their families, and how they all learn best. Getting to know your students more and more everyday is so beneficial. I have seen the way that my CT is able to work in all different learning strategies to incorporate their different learning abilities or how they learn besr. She changes it up often, while also letting the children learn the way they do best by choosing different stations in the day, or given two options to do something on the same topic. This also helps so that the students are paying attention longer, because they like that they can do it, and it's something they may be interested in. This is also helpful knowing what their interest are because then she can incorporate them. She finds this out by survey, sharing time, asking them questions about their day, or then coming to tell her. I am impressed by the way that even when kids talk out of turn she does not get mad or tell them to talk about it later she normally asks them a question about it or comes back with a nice comment. This happens often and most of the time they are not discussing the topic at hand. It shows her patience and how you need it so much with younger grades. Also she lets things go right away. For instance if a kid is acting out and has to be told multiple times to stop doing something or to focus, still the next time they raise their hand she calls on them. My CT is able to brush it off which gives the students a feel of community in the classroom and that they can come to her for anything. It may be little ways she gets to know the kids or how she treats them but it all adds up to being a great educator.

Morning Meetings

Elizabeth and I had the opportunity last week to do two morning meets together. Because it was Thanksgiving, we did a turkey hand greeting around the circle telling each other "Good Morning!" On Monday, our sharing was about what we did over the weekend. On Tuesday, our sharing changed to "What do you like to eat on Thanksgiving with your families?" For our activity both days, we did a Turkey Hokey Pokey song where the kids got to get up and dance and wiggle around before we started the day. My CT likes to keep the greetings and the activity the same only because for kindergarten, it is easier for them to keep a routine so they learn it by the end of the week. Usually the activity is a song so she likes to have that stay the same so the kids have a chance to learn it. At the beginning of the week they don't know it at all. By the end of the week , they will be dancing and singing along to whatever the song may be. I think morning meetings are a great way to start out the class because, especially for my class, the kids come in, eat breakfast, and then they don't know what to do with themselves. Morning meeting provides a structure in their mornings to tell them that its time to be serious and learn.

Specialists!!

Today, I had the opportunity to stay a little later than usual because my college courses got cancelled. I was pretty excited because I got to experience what happens in the afternoons! In the afternoons the students have specialists (art, gym, music, and media). Particularly, today they had music and gym. For about 30 minutes we were in a music classroom, then transferred to about 30 minutes in the gym. Each teacher had different ways of classroom management. I thought each teacher was creative in their own ways of getting the students attention, and the students seems to respond very well to each technique. The students loved singing in music class! They were so excited to be up and moving around. Because of my observations, one of my goals when I become a teacher is to incorporate music within my classroom. Has anyone else gone to their classroom specialists? If so, what did you think about the experience?

Collaboration

One aspect of teaching that I am very happy to have seen is collaboration among the other teachers and staff in the school! My CT was absent the first day and a staff development coach came and taught the class; another first grade teacher was out due to an emergency surgery and the entire first grade staff worked together to plan lessons and assist the sub when needed; the teachers all share their "teacher tools" (laminator, cutting board, electric pencil sharpener, etc.). I think that working together to make every classroom run smoothly is important to having a successful school.

My question to all of you is this: what examples of collaboration have you seen during your field experience?

Reflecting on Read Alouds

In our classroom, my partner and I do a read aloud everyday! We are each responsible for brining a book and we read our stories to the class after our morning routine (morning meeting). Our teacher lets us go to the library and check out books under her name and we can take them home to read ourselves before we read them to the class. Two weeks ago we discussed fairy tales and fables with our students. They were able to make connections between the books we read to them and the qualities of those types of stories. We also read fall themed and Thanksgiving books during the appropriate times. Some books that have gone over very well in our class are:

- The End by David Larochelle
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
- A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
- Press Here by Herve Tullet
- Memoirs of a Hamster and Memoirs of a Parrot by Devin Scillian

What are some books that others have read that your students have enjoyed?

Read Alouds

As I mentioned before, our read alouds are very curriculum based. So, when I am instructed to read in front of class, it is imperative that I ask the students comprehension questions and/or "retelling" the story where I can ask them what they learned. My CT and interventionist (ELL teacher) introduced visualizing as a tool for the students. This is a way for them to close their eyes, think, and picture the stories in their own minds.
Although my previous read alouds went really well, I am not as confident in the read aloud I accomplished today.  However, with the help of the ELL teacher and my CT's input, the students learned a lot from it. My CT is constantly giving my partner and I meaningful feedback and constructive criticism. I think from these 5 weeks, I will have taken with me more information than I could imagine.

What kind of feedback has anyone else received after a read aloud, morning meeting, or other lessons in the class?

What an incredible couple of weeks!

These past few weeks have been more than I could have imagined. The classroom I have been placed is in great. My CT has me and my other classmate very involved. There are 21 students in this Kindergarten classroom. The first 3 hours of the day is spent on the morning meeting, then the remainder of the three hours is spent working on language arts. My CT does a wonderful job breaking up the lesson into mini lessons, station time, and motor breaks. This keeps the students attention much longer, as well as then being able to spend more one on one time with them for guided reading, hand writing, assessments, and such. One thing that my CT also does to keep their attention is having students that aren't able to listen go take a break in a chair instead of sitting on the rug, then she also has secret signals to bring them back to the lesson. During morning meeting she does all 5, but she repeats all of the games and greetings. During sharing she either has the children whip share where they all share one thing, or she has three in one day share either how they feel or something exciting they want to share. During her mini lessons she normally reads a book, goes over the vocabulary words and introduces the main lesson for that week. In stations while the CT is at a table working on guided reading with different tables, I am able to go around to different tables and see how the children are doing and see if they need any help. The stations have many different levels of difficulty and they are able to choose from whichever they want, though they all have their favorites. Other days during station time I have been able to do some work for my CT. I have taken each student into the hall and worked on assessing their letter sound accuracy, and rhyming words, counting to 50, and one day interviewed them about their favorite things in school. The children are all very involved, and well behaved. They listen to me and my classmate as well as any other teacher that comes around. They love the help and love learning new things. I have learned to love working with this age group, because they are all so excited to learn and still so kind to one another.

The Short Week Last Week

Last week was a two day week as I'm sure everyone else had as well. In my classroom we had a substitute on Tuesday. Since it was a short week, it was already pretty crazy but adding a substitute teacher made things pretty chaotic. Students who don't typically cause trouble were acting out. Many students come from less than ideal households making them anxious about weekends and especially anxious about long breaks. I think the behavior of many students stemmed from this anxiety. There were points in the morning where we had only three students in the room. The rest of the students were in the special education room or in what is called the "tool room." Has anyone else noticed anxiety in some of the students on Friday or last Tuesday?

A great resource

Over the past couple of weeks I have seen my CT teach many language arts and math lessons.  During both of these type of lessons she has used the website abcya.com.  They give games/activities for every K-5 level.  The lessons she has primarily used it for is counting money, addition games, word finds, and spelling games.  I would definitely use this website in my classroom because it works great with the smart board.  Not to mention that when you click on a subject there is multiple different activity's for each area.  Every time the class uses the website all of the students are engaged and involved in the activities.  Have any of your CT's used any particular websites or app's that you think are beneficial to use while teaching?

A Week Full of Morning Meeting Planning!!

I cannot believe that this is the final week of our very first field experience. It felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. With this being the last week of field experience my teacher asked my field experience partner and I if we would be okay with planning and instructing all of the Morning Meetings for the final week. My partner and I jumped on the opportunity! Our teacher gave us our prep time on Friday to start planning for the next week ahead. She also gave us a Morning Meeting book full of ideas that we could take and implement into our next week. My partner and I took planning that Morning Meetings for the week day-by-day. We knew that it would be hard to plan for a week of meetings without knowing exactly what was going to be taught the day before that way we could tie how we started our day into what our students had previously learned. We are getting to implement old tasks that our teacher uses daily as well as come up or introduce new ideas into our morning meetings as well, making sure to follow the routine that our teacher has already put into place when instructing their morning meeting.
I am so grateful that our teacher has given us the opportunity to plan and prepare our very own morning meetings for the last week of our experience, to me it shows that our teacher is putting their trust into us to instruct our morning meeting to their standards.
It has been a pleasure to be apart of the classroom that I am in and I am beyond thrilled to have gotten the opportunity to actively participate and be involved in this field experience! I cannot wait to see what the rest of my education has in store for me!

Thanksgiving Break

Last week was a short week at my field experience school, they only had school on Monday and Tuesday.  The kids were really excited to have a couple days off, but my CT told them they still had a lot to do.  My CT still did they everyday lessons while incorporating the thanksgiving holiday/turkey's into it.  The students loved doing the activities/lessons because they were fun and that it correlated with the holiday coming up.  When Tuesday rolled around the students were even more excited because it was the last day of school for the week and they couldn't wait the play in the fresh snow.  My CT decided to have extra sharing time on Tuesday because of the holiday coming up.  So during sharing time the students had to discuss what they were going to do over thanksgiving break or if they had any special plans. 

Did your CT do anything special for the short week last week? If so, what did they do?

Flexibility, Post #3

One of the most prominent things I have learned throughout this field experience is that flexibility is key. There are so many unplanned moments and changes throughout the day that it's hard to even keep track of what is happening. My CT has stressed multiple times that being flexible is a major part of teaching. Sometimes lessons aren't going as originally planned, so you have to come up with a whole new approach right on the spot. When school was released 3 hours early a couple weeks ago we had to move the entire afternoon lesson to the next week, which the students were thrilled about since it meant no weekend homework! So many things require flexibility when teaching, especially anything involving technology, which has become such a vital part of the classroom. My CT has told me about times where she went to use her interactive whiteboard and it just simply would not respond to her. Since almost all instruction is done using the board, she had to improvise and use just a regular flip chart and marker. This method worked well for her, but the students were not able to interact with the lesson as they were used to doing on the whiteboard.

One of the biggest things about flexibility is that the students don't notice when you flow through the day smoothly, but if you were to struggle and lose your composure students will notice. Setting a good example for them is so important which is why we must be ready for anything and everything!

Anyone else have any examples of when they, or their CT, had to be flexible in the classroom?

Leading a Lesson

My CT had me lead an art lesson with the other St. Cloud State student. My CT gave us time to prep for the lesson and plan how we were going show the students how to make the turkey. We took time and made the turkey and did not really talk through how we were going to show the students what to do. We taught the lesson twice, and I could tell we were unprepared. Our first group was a little confused and did not get to finish the turkey. The second group I figured out some tricks and kind of took over the project. I figured out some ways to make the project faster but still engaging. I had the students do all of the cutting, then glueing, finally drawing. This way we did not have to worry about grabbing the scissors again or throwing garbage away. What I really took from leading this project is that we should have a taken time to talk over how we were going to do things, and how it would be the best for the students.

What planning strategies have you picked up from being in the field?

Morning Meeting Ideas

One thing that I have taken great notice of is the variety in greetings during the morning! My CT has the students  use the same sharing topic everyday, what they did last night, but the greeting is different. I know it is a small change from day to day, but the students love trying new greetings and getting to pick old ones they enjoy. I think adding this simple variety in the morning is important for students to engage and be aware of their classmates. The students in my first grade class all love the shoe greeting the most, where everyone takes off one shoe, put them all in a pile in the middle, and each person grabs another's shoe and greets them!

What are the favorite greetings in your classroom?

Thanksgiving Book

This week my CT decided the students would be making books about what they are thankful for. These books are made from brown paper bags that are folded in half. The front of the book will have a turkey's face and feathers will be on the back. Before the students started making the books though they had to brainstorm some ideas of what they are thankful for. The students came up with a whole list such as, cake, toys, baby sister or brother, teacher, Christmas, and Eid. Eid is a holiday celebrated by Muslims; before this holiday they fast for a month then have a big feast on the day of Eid. 

The first step to making this book is writing one thing they are thankful for on separate white pages, then draw pictures illustrating their ideas. One of my kids wrote Eid thinking it was Easter, another kid wrote Eid thinking it was Christmas. I couldn't help but laugh when the little girl told me Eid was Christmas. After going through each of the children's books to make sure they had correct holidays and proper spelling they had to paste each white page onto a brown paper bag page. Most of these first graders didn't know which way a book opened, nor did they know how to paste on their pages; even though we gave instructions and showed them. One little girl was doing her book wrong in every way possible, we tried to help her fix her book but, she told my partner and I that we didn't know what we were talking about. The boy across from her stood up for my partner and I and said "they went to school just like us and went to college because they got so good at it". This project was super fun and they all turned out super cute, but it took a lot of work to make sure all of the students were making them correctly. 

Here is a link of how to make the book and what it looks like when its done; 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Book-2218026 

Morning Meetings

During the week before the holiday break, Kaylin and I were in charge of the morning meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Our CT gave us some ideas on what we can do with the kindergartners. She keeps the greeting and the activity the same all week long! I find this important because then students can master the morning greetings and activities. I love that she sets them up for success. We had to find something simple enough to have the students do, but also creative enough to challenge their brains.

I've heard of my other classmates doing morning meetings multiple times each week, and after doing my own morning meeting, I wish I would have done more! It was really exciting to lead the students and find activities for them to greet and share with each other.

Preparation Time

This last week was very short due to Thanksgiving and it was a lovely break.  However, I have noticed that teachers do spend a lot of time in their day preparing for new lessons.  Next week is our final week and my partner and I have a lot to do.  Tuesday and Thursday we must plan a morning meeting, along with a community meeting on Friday.  A community meeting is when we have second graders and first graders get together and do a morning meeting together.  On Tuesday, I have my final read aloud and I get to teach a lesson on reading! I am thrilled to get to teach a lesson to the students.  But, through all of this I have realized how much prep time it takes to be a teacher.  Practicing organization skills and time management is important and I will continue to remember this through future field experiences.  Has anyone else seen or felt this way about prep time?  I have noticed it also varies by grade.

Thanksgiving Activity.

On Tuesday November 22nd it was the last day before Thanksgiving break. My CT read a book about being thankful and showed the students some facts about real turkeys. Then my cooperating teacher designed a creative art project for the children to do. They had to cut out an outline of a turkey. They had to add an eye and a beak. I assisted as they cut and glued all of their pieces together. Then when the turkeys were all assembled they got to pick out five different colors to make their feathers. On every feather they had to write five different things they were thankful for.  This is definitely an idea I would consider for my future classroom. I think it was a perfect activity to showcase their writing abilities while allowing them to be creative  and have fun at the same time. It was also a bonus that they were learning a valuable lesson along the way.

One Week Left

This past week was a short week due to Thanksgiving break, but that still didn't stop us from learning. This week I got to start working with other students who were struggling with money and time. It is interesting to see how the kids are able to come up with certain answers and then are able to explain how they got those answers. Students who don't understand time or money I will then offer them a tip, and then it works out very well, seeing how fast they can learn. I am quite impressed with how well the students are learning. I hope to see these students pass their tests with money and time.

Also this week, students began working on a PowerPoint Presentation. The students had the chance to learn about animals, and then would be able collect information about the book, such as the habitat and what they eat. After they gathered the information, they have to put it into a Power Point. This is the student's first experience with Power Point, and it is pretty chaotic to say the least. The kids don't have that much experience with it, and since they don't know they are asking all of the questions imaginable wanting help on how to find everything, or even how to type. It is crazy to think that this is something that the CT goes through every day, with all of the kids shouting for the teacher at once, it gets loud and challenging.

It will be rewarding to see the kids present the information, at the end because of all of the hard work you have seen the students put into these presentations.

Questions for this week are, Have any of you seen your students work on any projects? How did that work for the students, were they able to understand it or are they constantly asking for help?

New Student Chaos

We were supposed to have a new student joining us in our Kindergarten classroom last Wednesday. Our CT thought this was strange to start in the middle of the week, and so she called the parents to make sure the school had the right day. They replied that the plan was to start on Wednesday, even though their other school had him registered until Friday. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday all came and went without our new friend arriving. Our CT assumed they were waiting until the start of the this week, but this week was only two days long and would still be a strange time to start. Monday morning came and went and we were all a little confused. Around 10 AM, this little guy showed up and joined our class. Everyone was super excited to meet him, but he seemed pretty shy (understandable). The next day came... and he did not show up again, all day. It is hard to imagine planning for this new student, when the teacher is not even sure when he is going to show up or not!

This is the fourth week in the schools, how the time has flown! Last week on Friday (November 18th) we had a huge snow storm in central Minnesota. It started to rain at the beginning of the morning as the students were entering the classroom. Then as our morning meeting got started it started to sleet, and was creating a noise as it hit the window of the classroom. Of course, the students were immediately distracted. However, my CT is a classroom management wizard, and kept the children on task. It then started to snow when the kids began to eat lunch. Then the principal came on the speakers and made the announcement that school was going to be let out at 11:05 because of the bad weather. Let mw just say, the kids went nuts! My CT asked me to stay and watch the students as she went into her classroom and called parents. My CT goes above and beyond with communication with her co-workers, parents, and even with her field experience students. She made sure that the parents of the students knew the announcement, and also made sure that they had a safe way on getting home. I have learned so many valuable lessons from her, but this week I learned that communication with your student's parents is key to success.

I Will Be the Teacher They Are Thankful For

Since today was the last day before their Thanksgiving break, the second graders were given a turkey with four feathers. The feathers were supposed to have at least one thing on them that the children were thankful for. A lot of the kids were putting my CT's name down. As I probably mentioned before in my introductory blog, my CT said most of these kids come from poverty and/or traumatic backgrounds. That being said, the school is their safe haven from anything they experiencing outside of the institutional walls. If anything, this actually inspired me to continue to go be an elementary school teacher. I know I want to be there for at least one kid per school year no matter what it is going their lives. This is because I have gone through some tough situations myself, and I know how hard it is to feel like you are doing it alone. I will be the teacher they are thankful for.

Morning Meeting

Week number four is officially done! Only one more full week in the field, which is absolutely crazy to me! This morning I had the opportunity to take on the role of the teacher for the first three hours of the school day. I didn't think I was going to get the opportunity to lead the classroom during this field experience, but I was really excited to have the chance! My CT had to work on testing some students so we had a sub, and she pretty much let me take over. First of all, I will NEVER underestimate the power of a kindergarten teacher again. It takes so much work to keep control of a room full of 5 year olds! I knew my CT accomplished a ton in the short amount of time I'm there during the day, but I had no idea what a challenge it could be! I'm glad I've paid close attention to the routines of the classroom throughout the last few weeks, because I had a pretty good sense of what needed to be done/how to do it. I was also very fortunate that my CT left detailed notes! Overall it was a great experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to take on such a big responsibility 😊

#3 NEW STUDENT!!!

Yesterday we got a new student, this was a new experience for us as a class. My cooperating teacher found out on Friday that we were getting a new student on Monday who has no english language verbal communication ability, we think that the student can comprehend and understand what we are asking and saying but they have no way of communication back without a translator. We expected that the student was going to arrive in the morning before school hours had begun but the student didn't end up showing up until about half way through our first Readers Workshop groups. When the student entered the room my teacher introduced the new student to the class and the teacher helpers that were in the classroom. The they looked around for one of our students who they knew were fluent in the Somali language, this student happened to be in my group. It was very difficult experience working with a student with no english communication for the first time in my experiences. I would explain what I wanted my group to do during the Readers Workshop and then I would have my previous student explain to our new student what to so in Somali and then have him communicate any questions back to me. This was something that was challenging but still eye opening at the same time just to see how challenging it can be to introduce a new student into your classroom and especially how to difficult it can be to introduce a student who has no english language.

Have any of you had a new student introduced into your classroom? If so how was the experience for you guys? Did you face certain challenging like an language barrier?

Morning Meeting

My partner and I had the chance to conduct our own morning meeting! We started by greeting the class and having them greet each other with a "butterfly float away handshake". We have a "helper of the day" who gets to show the class how to do the calendar and count the number of days they have been in school. This is the most important part of the classroom management as the students are getting ready to settle down  into the classroom for the day. After morning meeting, our CT had us "dance" and get the wiggles out with the class. This is where she incorporates the Interactive Whiteboard. She usually plays a song and has a short clip play where it shows the students the dance moves so they know how to follow along. It really helps with their self-control and creates a fun learning environment.

How do your CT's conduct morning meeting and how do the students respond? Does your CT give "brain breaks" by allowing the children to dance along or play with the Interactive Whiteboard?

Morning Meeting and Read Aloud

Last Wednesday I did a read aloud with story cards on the Fable "The Boy who Cried Wolf." My CT gave me some really good feedback and said I did a nice job. It was fun and challenging at the same time. Today, Elizabeth and I did our first morning meeting together with the kids. For our greeting we made our hands looks like turkeys and went around the circle saying good morning to our neighbors. For sharing, we came up with words that started with the letter "T" because that's the letter they are going to work on this week. For the activity, our CT found this video online called the "Turkey Hokey Pokey" and we did that with the kids. I really enjoy the class I'm with this semester and everyday is a new experience that I get to learn so much from. One thing I noticed my CT does is when the kids answer a question as a group and they seem to all get it right she will say "Great Job! Kiss your brain!" which means they kiss their fingers and touch their brain. When Kindergarteners are doing it it's so cute and it makes them all feel so smart!

Second Read Aloud

Today, I had my second read aloud with the second graders, in which I read Marc Brown's Arthur's Pet Business. To start off the read aloud, I made sure to ask if any of the kids have seen Arthur the television show or read any of the Arthur books. That way, if not a lot of them had I would have introduced it in a more detailed manner.

Since the most of the children knew who he was, I addressed the main theme of the story in a sense of a question, so I asked what does being responsible mean to them. The few kids I did call on said it was "to do something" or "make sure you are careful." I combined the two to say, "Yes, it is to make sure you careful when you do something important."

Due to the fact this book was a little bit longer, I made sure during the read aloud to stop and ask questions. Some were comprehension checks while most were in the sense of predictions. A lot of the students were using the pictures to help explain themselves. Meanwhile, others were trying to utilize the words within the story to support their answers.

Finally, we got to the end and everyone knew Perky (the dog Arthur was watching) was going to have her puppies. I was stunned to hear everyone know this. Turns out, they had watched the episode within the classroom and they remembered it. That being said, I turned it quickly into a compare and contrast lesson to see if they could elaborate any ideas further. The only one situation we could find was when Perky had her puppies under Arthur's bed in the book versus behind the couch in the television episode.

End of Week 3

My time at Kennedy has gone very well and I love it! I still can't believe that we are in week three.  I have learned so much from my CT and all the students I am working.

Throughout the week my partner and I have been in charge if word work time and making sure they are all on task.  It is fun to see how successful the students are during word work time.  But sometimes we have to remind some of the students to stay on task. For a couple days I was working with students who need a little extra help with their learning to make sure they are understanding what they are doing.

On Friday I experienced my first snow day with the kindergarteners and it was true chaos.  It was hard to figure out how all the kids were all getting home and making sure they got home safe. When the kids found out they were going home they were so exited to go home and play in the fresh snow!

Working with Challenging Students

Our classroom is very unique and our CT has stated numerous times that she has never had one like it in her 20+ years of teaching. Our second graders are some of the sweetest kids I have ever met, but they also have their difficult days. We have 20 kids in our classroom. Of those 20 we have several who have ADHD and emotional behavior disorders (EBD) and one who is autistic. Many kids in our class receive special services that has them in and out of our classroom all morning.

Some things that I have learned while working with our students are:

1. Try to be aware of their home lives. A few of our students have extremely complicated home lives. Coming to school each day is difficult and when they arrive they are not motivated to complete their work. When a student acts out there is always a reason behind it. They might be bored, seeking adult attention, or attention from their peers.

2. Help them make small accomplishments. When working with students who are unmotivated, I try to help them get their work done slowly. Breaking their work down into smaller sections has helped greatly. Last week one of our students was one the verge of tears and said, "I hate school." After encouraging and reassuring him that he can complete the work assigned, we made a deal that he has to at least complete the first row of problems and then can take a break for a couple minutes. He agreed and ended up being able to finish the whole sheet, after a few breaks.

Does anyone else have any similar experiences in their classroom? What are some other things to keep in mind?

Morning Meeting, Post #2

My third week went really well, and I was challenged on Friday to lead a morning meeting for a combined classroom of about 50 students. This was fun because I got to think about morning meetings on a bigger level and had to see what kinds of activities would work with a group that large. With Thanksgiving coming up, we based our morning meeting around thankfulness and what it means to be thankful. Due to their young age, keeping it simple was my goal so we ended up doing a modified version of an activity called "A cold wind blows", which ended up being called "The turkey trots". It is an activity where we call out things that the student might relate to, and if it does relate to them then they get up and move to a different spot in the circle. It was a nice way to see what the kids enjoyed doing and see which students were able to relate to certain things. We also included a poem for the students to keep in their poetry notebooks that they keep in the classroom. We read the poem in an echo format and the students did really well with it. Overall I really enjoyed the challenge of creating a larger morning meeting and encouraging a positive classroom community!

My 2nd Read Aloud

My second read aloud went great.  I read Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch which if you haven't read this book, you should.  Its one of my childhood favorites about a girl who changes her ponytail every other day; her classmates and teachers copy it the day after they see it.  My class was so engaged and laughed so hard.  I almost couldn't keep going towards the end because hearing their laughs made me almost start laughing.  After I finished I had three students ask me if they could borrow the book for their book box.  It was so great to see them so interested in a book I loved to read during my childhood.  My CT asked the students questions about the book like what their favorite part was and why.  All of the students raised their hand.  Did any of you have books you read that all of the students were interested in?  What book?

Getting Prepped in the Classroom

While I am in the classroom with my CT we have about 20 minutes of prep time before it is time for me leave. My CT either talks with us about what she expects of us from the next couple of days or has us help her get prepped. I can tell that my CT values her prep time and that it is very important to her day. My CT is very organized and has a plan for her prep time each day. Some ways she makes things go faster is she has things pre-prepped from the year before.
Examples:
Art projects: She has an example already made, sometimes from a previous year. She has stencils that she made, then she traces them on the the right size paper. She has everything ready so that the students can be successful during the art project. My CT also has tidy bins that she puts at the tables so the students can put scraps in there instead of constantly walking to the garbage.

What  I have really learned from her prep time is that you want to save your lessons, but also know your students will vary so much you might have to completely readjust your lesson plans.

What are some ways that you have seen your teacher get prepped in the classroom?

Week Three

I cannot believe we finished our third week in the field. Time is flying by! I feel like I've become a meaningful part of this classroom and I get so sad when I think about the fact that I only have a couple weeks left with the students 😞
We've established a routine and I look forward to it every day! So far I've done one read aloud, and it went pretty well! I know that I tend to read a little too fast when I get nervous (which I definitely was) so I need to work on that, but the kids/CT really liked my book choice and how I connected it to their weekly unit. So if anyone has any tips on how to stop getting so nervous, let me know! I've also been helping students work on a "Thanksgiving Day" themed project where they write down what they're thankful for, and draw a turkey with the outline of their hands for their parents. This was a major highlight of the week for me because I got to sit down with every student and have them tell me what they are thankful for. A few of my favorite included, "I'm thankful for skirts", "I'm thankful for my baby sister" and "I'm thankful for my grandma". These kids find a way to make my day, every day!

Tricks for Teachers

My partner and I have now done four morning meetings and I have completed two readings for the class.  Now that Thanksgiving is approaching, the class is participating in activities that involve thanksgiving traditions.  At our community meeting on Friday, the students discussed what they were thankful for.  I was very proud of many of the answers that were given from the students.  I have also noticed how there just doesn't seem to be enough time throughout the day.  It is crazy trying to get everything done on time, but it has been good practice observing how my CT is quick on her feet.  She stated how she thinks that is one of the most important things any teacher can know.  "You must know how to be flexible and how to adapt to new schedules," she said.  This was also true for snow days and the holiday season.  I hope to learn more ways to be flexible with schedules, to help me as a future teacher.

End Of Week 3

The time is flying by in the classroom. I love getting to the classroom and welcoming each student as they come in. It is great to see that no matter what happened the day before they are ready for the new day. My CT has been telling my partner and I more about the students and how difficult the classroom can be. She says that this is by far her hardest class yet. There are many kids who act out for most of the day. There are students that are very emotionally unstable. It is most defiantly hard to see kids at such a young age struggling in school.
What does give me home is their willingness to move on. - One little boy in the classroom was having a really bad day on Thursday, he ended up having to leave the classroom and eventually his mom had to come get him early from school. Even though his day was bad he came Friday morning and said he was sorry to all of the teachers in the room and that he was going to work on a better day today. On friday he still had outbursts but nothing like the day before.

My CT does a great job at handling the students. I admire her flexibility with the students and her patiences. She does a really good job of keeping the students focused on the lessons and work even while there are other students struggling.  It is truly eye opening.

SNOW STORM- 3 HR EARLY RELEASE

As I am sure most of you experienced, we had a snow storm on Friday! I had originally not thought much of this storm, since I live closer to the cities. When I arrived at school on Friday, it was raining and super windy. The morning went on and still no snow. Our Kindergarten class had computer lab at 9:30 and while there, my CT let me know that school would most likely be ending early. Sure enough, the principal made the announcement 2 minutes later. The snow had started. What surprised me most about this day was that everyone still had to eat lunch, even though they were closing at 11:05 and it was currently 9:45! The staff was extremely efficient at getting everyone through the lunch line, and back to their classrooms to eat. I felt chaotic and panicked inside for the teachers and students, but they did not seem to reflect this same feeling. Whether they were feeling it or not, they did a wonderful job at staying calm and getting what needed to be done, done.

Week Three

Everyday I wake up excited to see my first graders. They make me laugh and teach me new things everyday. I wouldn't trade this classroom experience for any other, but being in a tough school does really make me thankful for everything I had while growing up and makes me think about where I want to be in the future. My CT has been teaching at this school for four years and recently we were talking about her experience. She expressed that it's draining, emotionally and physically. 

Today I experienced what it was like dealing with some of these emotional and physical challenges. One little girl who doesn't come to school very often taught me a whole lot all in a matter of thirty minutes. She is very smart and catches on to subject material quickly. Today I experienced a new side of her. In our school we have special teachers that help with troubled students, this little girl happened to show up with two of these teachers today. I walked over to this student and talked with her. I asked her how her day was and why she seemed so sad. All she told me was she wanted her mom. As the two teachers saw I had her attention they started to leave. Seeing them leave, the little girl then too tried to leave. I had to hold the door close as she cried and kicked me. While still holding the door closed I talked to her, although she really didn't say much back. Eventually she seemed better and started to do the work the other students were around the room. She had moved away from the door and grabbed her literature book. She then hugged me and within seconds of me thinking she was feeling better she had sprinted back towards the door. Eventually with a lot of extra help from both my partner and I we successfully got the little girl to do her school work. 

This experience melted my heart. Her hug made me want to cry. Learning that her home life was really bad made me sick. All these emotions flooded over me and as I left I had to remind myself not every classroom is like this. 

End of Week Three

This week has been very busy. My CT had conferences on Thursday night so she had spent a lot of time doing assessments to show parents how their children are progressing. There was a substitute teacher on Wednesday so my CT could finish assessments. This gave my partner and I the opportunity to have a bit more responsibility in the classroom. I was even able to assess a couple of students on their ability to recognize numbers. I noticed some of the children progressed immensely with numbers in the three short weeks that I've been there.
The book fair was at the school this week and it was fun watching the children look through all the books with excitement. When I was their age, I looked at and got the books that came with toys but most of the students chose to look at books based on their interest. Unfortunately, not many students in my class had money to buy books and the students who had money were only given a dollar and bought erasers.
Lastly, like many of you, the school was dismissed early because of the weather which made today pretty crazy. They were all excited about the snow and leaving early that getting them to focus was difficult. So instead of the regular curriculum, they did an art project, played games on the whiteboard, and had free play.

Snow Day and Adjusting the Schedule

Well as many of you are aware, it is snowing a lot right now. I wasn't sure what exactly that would mean as a result for the class throughout the day. Going into school today, I was curious when the snow would be falling down. During class, I was not paying much attention to it, and then around 9:30 this morning I was working with students and helping them with their writing skills. One of the kids had yelled out "It's snowing out!!" Which resulted in a little bit of chaos throughout the classroom, my CT, and the other student and I had tried to get every student back to their table. After getting all of the students back to their tables, there was an announcement that had said teachers, please check your e-mails immediately. At that time, the adults in the classroom figured that meant they were shortening the school day.

After hearing that announcement, my CT had gone and checked her e-mail and made an announcement to the class. My CT had said that, we are going to be going to lunch now at 10, instead of going to their specials for the day. (Lunch is usually around 11:30). After getting back from lunch, the CT had said they were going to watch a movie, and then the school day would be done. Then would wait to make sure all of the students would be able to get a ride home.

My questions are, how did the snow affect the school day? Did it cause for your CT to adjust their schedule at all? My last question is, how did your teacher try draw your student's attention away from the snow?

Substitute, Sight Words, and Snow Day!

This was a week filled with activities and schedules out of the norm. We had a substitute on Monday and the students definitely took advantage of the lack of my co-teacher to goof around a little more. As my co-teacher said, give them an inch and they take a mile.
My focus this week was reviewing sight word booklets for the second time and recording the improvements of the students. So far, all of the students have increase their number of sight words recognized! As we have been learning more reading strategies, I see and hear the students using the strategies to figure out the sight words we are working towards mastering. The use of the strategies is not the only tool they have; it is wonderful seeing all of the different SMART board lessons that incorporate student interaction in learning these words.
Today the school closed at 11 am for the snow storm, but my class had their pajama party anyways!

My question to all of you is this: what are some ways that your CT is teaching and reinforcing sight words to reach the most amount of students possible?

Classroom Fun with Read Alouds!

With Thanksgiving coming up, my CT has incorporated many Thanksgiving activities into the classroom, including read alouds. This week I got to read about being thankful and what it means to be thankful. It has been very difficult for this bunch of VERY energetic students to sit with a calm body and pay attention. My CT stresses that we keep on each student who tends to "drift away". With this being their first year of school, they are just learning the basics of self control and keeping their body parts to themselves. During my read aloud this week, it was easier to keep the attention of the students being they could relate to the text so well! I asked each student to silently "make a connection" (which is where they interlock their fingers to show that they can relate to what is being read to prevent interruptions). At the end of the book, I asked each student to name one thing that they are thankful for and it went really well! Sharing time is so crucial for my classroom of students, makes for some pretty good laughs sometimes! 

What are some techniques your CT uses for "connections" for the students to make? Or what are some management skills your teacher uses for the students' sharing time during the morning meeting?

First Two Weeks and High Frequency Words

These last two and a half weeks I have had with my second graders has totally changed how I viewed the elementary classroom. In the morning, they are so excited to be at school, and my teacher said this probably because they come from really traumatic backgrounds. Despite the rough home lives, the most particular assessment that has done this alteration to my view is when the other co-teacher and I assessed their comprehension of their high frequency words. I attached is 300 of the top high frequency words with 100 per page. This means, they know the word just by looking at it and not sounding the phonemes out before they say it. Apparently, the kids are expected to know at least 125 before they move onto third grade. The one that starts with “ball” is the one we tested. From what I saw, some of the children who were English language learners had a higher success rate than the English speakers. If anything, this is incredible! All of this being said, us future educators have definitely to teach every child they can be successful despite whatever possible challenges get in their way.