Matter Matter Everywhere!

Well, we are a few days into my unit and so far everything is going great!  Yesterday we had a two hour delay so we had to skip the lesson for the day...that means today we doubled up and got knee deep into the matter unit.  Solids and liquids are what we have been focusing on and the students had a lot of fun on the Smartboard today during my lesson!

Tomorrow we are going to be doing our first hands-on project with Oobleck!  If you did not know, Saturday is Dr. Seuss's birthday so it worked out perfectly that we were able to do this project at the end of the week.  I am reading a Dr. Seuss book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck where a power hungry King demands that something other than rain, snow, sunshine or fog falls from the sky.  He orders his magicians to make Oobleck, which ends up causing terror all over the kingdom.  After we finish the book the students are actually going to be able to work with the Oobleck that I oh-so-conveniently was able to get a hold of! (It is water and cornstarch with green food coloring!)  Tomorrow is going to be lots of fun!

Science Unit Here We Go!

Today we are starting my science unit on matter!  We are trying to mix matter into everything we are doing throughout the day...so this morning I will do a read aloud about matter and then we are starting the full blown lessons this afternoon!  

For my big portfolio we have to write four formal lesson plans, even though the entire unit is about two weeks long.  I have two of the lesson plans done so far and am hoping to get one more done tonight or tomorrow!  

Here is a picture of what we are making throughout the unit: 

Cute, right?!

I glued this to a piece of big construction paper and then folded it in half so the students will be able to create their own little book with all of the information throughout my unit!

Thank goodness for the website teacherspayteachers.com!  It is the best online resource I have come across so far!

Wish me luck ;)!

Observation Number Two

Yesterday was my second observation by my Marian University supervisor.  I decided to teach a lesson about president's day in which we compared and contrasted George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We have really been working with students to improve their skills with informational texts and modeling for them how to pick out key facts while reading.  Last week Friday I had taught a lesson where students used short informational texts to put together a timeline of Lincoln and Washington's lives.  So for my lesson they had to look back over the information and complete a Venn diagram.  Once everyone was finished we came up to the board and all of the students had written out a sticky note of what they thought was the most fascinating fact that had found while making their chart.  I had displayed a huge Venn diagram on the Smartboard and we stuck our little sticky notes up there.  Afterwards I had students finish the sentence, "If I was president I woud..."  Oh my goodness did I get some funny answers!

My professor was very positive and and gave me some great suggestions.  She feels more like a coach, someone who is cheering me on and only wants to see the best!  I only get observed one more time, it's hard to believe that I am almost halfway done here.

Next week I start teaching my entire unit which I have been working very hard at over the past few weeks.  I am doing a science unit on matter and we have a lot of fun projects in store.   I have come to realize that Pinterest and the site Teacherspayteachers are my best friends when it comes to coming up with fun and creative ideas.  Once I get started on the unit next week I will be sure to share some of my ideas on here!  My unit is going to last approximately two weeks, I am really excited to get started.

Other than that, not a whole lot more going on in my world!  Keeping very busy with school and work.  Life is good :)

Valentine's Day!

Oh my goodness...if you want to have an exciting Valentine's day be sure to spend it with seven and eight year old children!  We had so much fun yesterday!  Basically everything that we normally do during a school day, we added some Valentine's flare to it!  Morning work, reading, math, etc...

 My CT had secretly sent home a letter to parents asking them to send a love letter to their child for Valentine's Day.  So in the morning we all sat in a circle and got to listen to the love letters that the parents sent their children...I was definitely holding back tears, it was so sweet!  Since the students are working on letter writing right now, we had them write their own letters back to their parents.  Some were sweet, others were funny, but all in all it was in awesome idea and I was so glad I got to be a part of it!

In the afternoon we had a little Valentine's party and the kids all exchanged Valentine's with one another.  My favorite were the ones that said "To: MRS. Narges." Some of the parents sent in snacks so we could have a little party.  I guess I don't really remember there being SO MUCH candy with Valentines but there was a lot of sweets!  I ended up making cake pops to bring to all the kids, so that on top of all the candy they were getting they had juice boxes and other food AND cake pops. Then we sent them to gym class! :P  I was so certain someone was going to throw up!  I mean...they were roller skating!  It seemed inevitable!  But thankfully, they all made it out of gym class puke free!

After school I ran out to Kewaskum and got together with Rachel, another student teacher from Marian.  She is doing her first placement in her hometown which is close to my house!  It was so nice to get together with someone else who is in the same boat that I am in.  And to just catch up on life!

During the school day I got an e-mail from Facebook saying that I had received a gift from Alec!  Facebook is blocked at school though so I had to wait until I got home to be able to look at it....Here is what my e-mail looked like:

 

I think I almost peed my pants.

Anyways I got home and got online right away and you open this cute little card thing and it turns out he ordered me chocolate covered strawberries to be delivered to my house!!!!!!  How awesome is that?!

Today we are working on a big art project that the PTO uses as a fundraiser, so the majority of our day is dedicated to art today.  This afternoon I will do a little prep work with the kids for my observed lesson that I am teaching on Monday!

Happy Friday everyone!

Week Numero Four

Well, I've entered into the fourth week here at my placement!  I can't believe how fast the time is going!  After this week I will be more than halfway done :(!  I am so not ready to ever leave here!  This week is jam packed with Valentine's day activities, but I think the most exciting news I have to share since the last time I posted is that I am teaching my own lessons to the entire class every afternoon now!  My CT set me up with some National Geographic for Kid's and I have been using some of the lesson plans that came with the magazines as well as whipping some up on my own!  It is really nice to have the lesson plans there to fall back on, but I am really enjoying being able to come up with some on my own.

Yesterday and today we were reading an article about inventions, so I had the students work in groups to do some advertising.  I asked them to imagine what a world would be like without that particular invention they were assigned (toothbrush, microwave, stop lights, etc).  Then pretend they were billboard producers and create a billboard for their product!  The final products turned out pretty funny!

So without even realizing it, I have been teaching for about an hour every afternoon since last week Thursday!  I also have my small enrichment group that I pull every morning which takes about an hour as well and I am still reading to the students every afternoon after lunch!  Slowly but surely I am gaining more control over the class!

We are now gearing up for Valentine's day on Thursday!  Tomorrow night I am going to make cake pops and we have a lot of prep work to do during the day!

Field Trip and 100th Day

Yesterday was the field trip and ohhhh what a day it was!  We arrived at school in the morning and at 8:25 we had to head out to bus duty.  This was something I haven't helped with yet in the morning and it was certainly interesting!  Instead of the kids just going in right away when they get off the bus, they have time to run around and play outside before the bell rings at 8:40.  My CT is teaching the trick of greeting and scanning.  That way the students know you are always on the lookout! 

Since the kids were going on a field trip to the Y, they had a lot of things they were carrying to the field trip and one of the other 2nd grade teachers was saying to me that she was hoping that the students wouldn't misplace anything...well not more than five seconds later a student came up to her carrying a little pink swimsuit and one boys shoe.  HUH?!!  It was so funny we just had to laugh.  Well the morning only got more interesting from there.  We had a student forget a swimsuit and a student that was going off the walls he was so excited!  In the fifteen minutes we had to load the bus though, my CT somehow managed to find a swimsuit and handle the little guy who was off the walls.

One of the things that I really enjoyed seeing in the morning and throughout the day was the Pre-teaching that I saw my teacher doing.  Lucky for me, my teacher is trained in PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) so she has been showing me this training in action.  PBIS advocates pre teaching, which is where the teacher goes over the situation that is coming up, whether that be a lesson or a huge field trip.  She goes over the expectations she has of the class and gives several examples, a non example, and has the students repeat information back to her.  This way, when the students got on the bus, they knew exactly what was expected of them throughout the bus ride.  For the teacher it takes some thinking through, what exactly could happen during this field trip...and then you try to prepare the students for the various situations and let them know your expectations beforehand.  Throughout the field trip it was awesome to watch our students in comparison to some of the other classes.  I was proud to be a part of this classroom with such well-behaved kids!

At the Y we had four different sessions.  First was yoga followed by a mini boot camp for the kids.  Next we had lunch and after lunch was when the real action began!  The students then had a choice of either soccer or ice skating.  Most students chose ice skating, even though many had never skated before!  Image lacing 70 pairs of 2nd graders ice skates...CHAOS!  I got my little group of five all set in no time and we headed out on the ice!  (I was wearing my shoes so I could help the ones that were unsure.)  It was crazy on the ice because there were some students who have been ice skating and playing hockey for a few years already zooming around and then there were the new students who had never skated before clinging for their lives on the railing!  The kids had fun, and I only had one of the girls in my group who bumped her head on the ice.  After that we headed to the pool.  The swimming pool definitely made me the most nervous of all of the activities.  There weren't a ton of people actually in the pool with the kids, so even though there were lifeguards I was still worried about the kids.

Check out that sweater!  Why am I wearing the whole goofy outfit and glasses?  Because it's 100th day of course!  All of the students and my CT dressed up as 100 year old people for the 100th day of school!  I should have really tried to get a picture of the whole outfit :p  I'm wearing a looong black skirt and gingerbread socks!  We had a fun-filled day with activities surrounding 100.  The kids were totally cute and we made everyone smile as we walked through the school today! Oh and there was a nacho bar in the teacher's lounge this morning!  Nothing says good morning like Nachos!  It was awesome!

Cheers :)

Amy

First Observation!!

Today was the day of my first observation in the classroom!  It went wonderfully!  She started off by talking to me about my lesson plan before I even started.  She is very well educated in Common Core as well as a variety of different reading strategies so it was wonderful to hear her ideas and input!  She said she wanted to be like a coach, and that is what she felt like.  She showed me some ideas and strategies and I really enjoyed having her observe!

The lesson itself went really well, I was doing a small intervention group with three of my four students.  They were just starting a new book and I had them examine the different aspect of the book.  We were working on our comparing and contrasting skills so as we read we really kept an eye out for interesting points that we could use to show similarities and differences.  The students did a great job reading and remembering what to look for while they were reading.  I then had them fill out the chart as a group and really search for the important details.  I felt like overall the lesson went well and thankfully my supervisor confirmed this!

After she talked with me for a bit, the students went to lunch and she met with my CT and myself to talk about how the placement was going so far.  My CT explained what I have been doing and just how hectic the classroom has been for the past two weeks!  We had a nice conversation and I felt really great when she left!  I am really looking forward to her next observation so she can see how much I will grow in the next two weeks.

On another note, I was finally able to put up my decorations from my Aunt Susie above my desk!  She borrowed a Cricket scrapbooking machine and made me some awesome things to hang up!  See picture below!  I also put up a Valentine from Alec's little sister Julie that she gave me last night ;)!  That's the glittery thing down at the bottom! Sorry that it is backwards :(! There is also a chicken that she cut out!

Tomorrow is our field trip to the Y and it is supposed to be an exhausting day!  Later on I have my meeting at school for all of the student teachers.  I am making funfetti dip, cookies, and homemade salsa for everyone!  Wednesday is the 100th day! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Happy Friday!

We made it!  This week has totally flown by and we have accomplished a lot here in 2nd grade!  I feel like I have slowly but surely been learning more names of staff members here and am starting to feel like I am a part of the school community!  

Earlier in the week I got to attend a meeting about DRA scores.  My CT was not as excited as I was to go to the meeting...but it was my first one!  For all of you non-educators out there, DRA stands for Developmental Reading Assessment and it is done throughout the year as a way for the teachers to monitor student progress as well as help students set goals for their reading.  The week before I arrived is when my CT completed all of the tests and she scored them last weekend.  I got a chance to take a look at the test as well as learn just a tiny bit about how they are scored and what the results are used for. It is amazing to me the range of reading ability in our classroom.  We have some students who are still reading at a beginning of first grade level while others are above the 5th grade level!  I enjoy watching how my CT approaches reading and the different strategies she has to reach such varied abilities among students.

On Thursday I finished the first section of my big huge teaching portfolio that is due on April 15th as well as a lesson plan for when I get observed on Monday.  It is funny to me how worked up I was during the past when I was getting observed during my clinical experiences.  Now that I am here full time I am not so worried about being observed.  I feel very comfortable and at home here and I know the students better already than I ever did in a past clinical.  

I am enjoying reading posts on facebook and hearing from friends about how their student teaching is going.  I can't wait until we meet next Tuesday for our first seminar!  I feel like we are going to need hours to catch up on everything.

I just took a break from filling out my 12 questions on WECAN, the online database for educators in Wisconsin.  This is where you upload resumes and then complete these 12 generic questions about education and your goals for being an educator.  The hardest part about the questions is that there is a limit as to how much you can write...and I am wayyyy too wordy for having a short limit!  It is so bizarre to think that in the next six weeks I will be sending in applications for jobs during the next school year.

Next week we are going to be VERY BUSY!  Monday is my observation, Tuesday we have a field trip to the YMCA where we will be able to swim, ice skate, play soccer, and more!  And then Wednesday is the 100th day of school where we will be dressing up as 100 year old's!  Right after school tonight I am heading off to a wedding for one the guys Alec works with which should be a lot of fun!  I'm looking forward to every bit of it and will be sure to keep you in the loop! ;)