In the Classroom!

This past Monday, was really no different than it has been. I have noticed that everyday that I am in the classroom, that the students are looking at me more like their teacher. This of course is so great, because I am able to make connections with my students, and it has been eye-opening on how it has changed since I started in the classroom in August until now.

Monday I had literacy groups again, and I have noticed that my above grade level students have more behavior management problems, than my below-grade level students. It's sad to say but I love to teach my ruby reds, so much more than my emeralds or goldens. I think there are behavior issues because the work is not challenging enough for them. Monday I had to verbally express that the emeralds were being very rude, and not putting first things first during the literacy group.

I expressed to them that it is important that we listen so that we learn. I used a trick that I use in my Sunday school classroom, to get children's attention, I said "ears open, mouths shut!" This seemed to work very well with the students in my classroom, when they begin to get out of hand, I would say "ears open, and they would reply with mouths shut" and they would quite down.

I know without a doubt that I will have to plan my instruction to be more rigorous in my upper literacy groups. I wanted to learn more about how to manage behavior effectively, while also making sure understanding was being taught. I don't want my students to suffer because of behavior mismanagement.

I found an article, Education World: Behavior Management Tips

This article gives great examples that can be used in the classroom, that may help alleviate the problems arise from misbehavior.

Making Literacy Groups Fun, Fun, Fun!

It is official I have completely taken over doing literacy groups from 8:15 to 9:15 in the morning. I am not yet able to plan for instruction but I am teaching them. I am trying so hard to make these groups fun for them. I have noticed that the gleam of excitement is beginning to wan from their eyes. Literacy groups has now become something they have to do rather than something they want to do.
I too have a love/hate relationship with literacy groups. I love being with the students and helping them learn, but I have fallen into the rut of doing the same old thing with each week. I just want you to see the steps that are taken each week during literacy groups.

Monday:

1. Vocabulary
2. Teacher Read-Aloud of text
3. During and after reading ask comprehension questions
4. Do something that applies the skill being taught

Tuesday

1. Popcorn Reading
2. Fill out flow chart

Wednesday

1. Choral Reading
2. Finish up flow chart

Thursday

1. Partner Reading
2. Use completed flow chart to write a three paragraph story

Friday

1. Individual Read
2. Complete three paragraph story

The reading style may differ each week on placement, but the other is about the same. I want to make it new and exciting for them again. Thankfully, I am able to do that in my unit plan for my literacy groups. My students have now received their Ipads, so for next spring the students will be creating flags, listening to rap songs for children, and many other things I have planned for them. Hopefully, I planning for their needs but also for their enjoyment as well. I can look back many times from my educational career and see a lack of luster in instruction. I don't know about you but I want my students to want to come to school. 

Unit Plan on Demand!!!

Welcome everyone to the life of elementary education majors!

Is it safe to say that life is at its all time high level of stress for us that are facing, the task of creating a unit plan for 435/436.

I myself have gained the understanding that some schools/counties have pre-made or programmed material that must be taught in the classroom. This puts a damper on my free-range idea during my student teaching experience. To me that is somewhat scary because I will have to teach what is required and also not loose myself because I am having to teach the pre-made material. I am hoping that it is possible to teach what is required and also put my own spin on things.

I don't think that the pre-made instructional materials are the best for all students. As we know all students learn different and develop differently as it comes to education. We have the "goldens" who are above grade-level, "emeralds" who are grade-level. and our "rubies" who are below grade-level.

I am thinking forward to how to differentiate my instruction in the classroom based off of what I will be teaching them. I have to be honest and admit I do not see much differentiation in the lessons at my placement. What I think that is being brought forth as differentiation is separating the students into groups for literacy based on their level, and this is also the same way for RTI in which the students are separated for reading and math.

I want to be intentional in my differentiation and assume the position of following the NCPTS. Providing intentional and appropriate differentiation follows 1a, 2a, 2c, 2d, 4a, and 4c of the standards.

I found a really great video on youtube: I went and followed a great channel called Smartatmath:
This video focuses on differentiation in the classroom, so if you are struggling with how to implement this into your classroom you should watch this video.

Good Luck with your Unit ! You Can Do It!

Horses

This past Monday, I worked with my below-grade level group in our literacy group time. We reread a book called Horses, the students loved the book. Once we finished reading the book we were to make a flow chart of the story. I did not realize how hard it would be for the students because they have completed this flow chart many times with other stories that they have read during literacy groups. So, I thought to myself what in the world is going on. The flow chart was a disaster for them so I read the book again. I had not dealt with the group the week before when they first began the book because I was teaching science while they were doing literacy.

I read the book and stopped to check for understanding. Once, we finished we then attempted to do the flow chart again. Honestly, I thought to myself that this time would be worse. In actuality it was so much better, I guess the group was just having an off day.

Here is an example of the flow chart :

Once the flow chart was finished on Monday, on Thursday students were to take the information that they had put on the chart and create a detailed paragraph about the story. This group does so well following this flow chart into making their paragraphs.

Using technology to research!

So my students are doing research, on the footprints in the wild. The students were to find evidence on the footprints of animals and they were supposed to use their iPads that was to be assigned to them at the beginning of October. Of course teachers are known for their resourceful nature so my CE and I just had the students to do research from a book based upon their groups type of animal that was picked.

Some students did really well with doing the research and worked in groups just fine. While others had problems working together. I was working with one of the groups in the floor they were doing so well, and then I had another student come to me and tell me that one of the boys in her group was being mean.

The students were working on a chart in which they were to put what they learned, what they wonder, and something WOW! from the book. The girl that came up to me wondered if a porcupines claws were sharp so she wrote it in the "I wonder" column of the chart. The boy that was being mean told her "DUH of course a porcupine's claws are sharp!" So I when over to the group and asked what was going on. I was told, and I asked the boy if he meant to hurt the girl's feelings, and replied with a "no". I told him that even though he did not mean to hurt her feelings, he did. I asked the girl how it made her feel when he said that and she said " it made me feel dumb", when the boy heard this he apologized to her, and said that he was sorry for making her feel that way.

This all happened in less than two minutes. Not only did the group begin to work together better, their work was also better than all of the other groups. It amazed me how much it helped fix the problem when the other student was able to see exactly what the student that was hurt was feeling.

This made me think of my classroom management plan, and second grade standards for health education. We are supposed to teach students about bullying and teasing both of which happen so much to other students. Also, one of the goals for my school's improvement plan is to alleviate bullying and educate students about it. It is so awesome to be able to put things into practice that we have been doing in our classes at GWU.

Did I really just hear that?

Monday was a pretty normal day, if you call a day "normal" in a second grade class. It amazes me that even though teachers have free time while the students are at specials, its not really free time. I know that every time our students go to specials we are doing something. Monday I had the opportunity to stand at the copier, making copies of homework for the next two weeks. My CE and I stood there talking like we always do when we are alone. We began to talk about math curriculum in the classroom, and how I am to do it when I begin to student teach.

My CE explained to me that in one of her meets last year that they discussed with all of the second grade teachers to follow the pacing guide and not to worry about mastery. As I hope all of you would feel I was somewhat concerned. Many times we have been told to modify our teaching instruction so that it may reflect what our students need to grow. She told me that they were to follow the pacing guide, and they were told that the students would catch up. My CE then explained that this meeting took place because they were going back and focusing on mastery and not completing the pacing guide that had been planned for them.

As I said this concerns me because it has been drilled in us to make sure the students are picking up what we are throwing out. I explained to my CE that I would have to make sure that mastery is happening in the classroom, as well as following the pacing guide. Standard one of the NCPTS explains that we take responsibility for all students' learning.  My CE told me that the people that created the pacing guide that work in the main office have not been in a classroom for a long time, and do not understand that Common Core is so much more in depth than what they were probably teaching in the classroom.

I am reminded of a quote by Ernest Hemingway, "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." Hopefully some of you other student teachers are gaining the knowledge needed to get you through student teaching, so that you are able to apply it to your career. I know now that I am going to have to create lesson plans that not only follow the pacing guide, but remain with what I have been taught and making sure that the students are mastering the skill that is being taught.

Behavior Savior!

Oh, the joys of misbehavior in the classroom. Don't get me wrong I have a wonderful class with only sixteen students, but even these "angels" have their bad days. I just want to tell you about the experiences that I have had the pleasure of being apart of while being in the classroom. This past week has seemed to present many obstacles concerning behavior for my students.

Situation 1:
Students were working on their research for the bulletin board, and two of the girls are the "Alpha Female", both of them have their correct way of doing things, and everyone else is wrong. We had a struggle over the pencil and who would write down the information about their farm animal. I had the girls to take turns on writing sentences for the information that they had gained.

Situation 2:
The students were playing a compound word game that are paper fly swatters and bugs. The students started to smack each other in the face with the fly swatters. Starting a ripple affect of being loud, and rambunctious. I had to make a rule that the students must leave their paper fly swatters on the table. I stressed this rule three times, and after the third time and  one of the students wanted to see how firm I would stay with the rule, I made him clip down. The students seemed to learn from this action and they were able to complete the game with mastery.

Situation 3:
A group of above-grade level students were participating in  a Contraction Bingo game. The students were doing well, and I was reading with a student in need, and my CE was working with another group. When I looked over to check on the group on student was propped up against the wall with her hands on her head and seemed to be having a hard time. I walked over to the group and sat in the floor with them and everyone got quite.  I asked the group what was going on, and that opened up the flood gates. I finally gained intel that two of the girls in the group were mad at each other and one was wanting to fight the other. Of course the girl denied, and I had to reiterate to them that if we don't have anything nice to say we shouldn't say anything at all. Once the girls apologized to each other I told them that if this happened again that I would have to resort in having them stay at their desk during groups, and reading the whole time. This seemed to curb their desire to be uncooperative.


I have found while being in the classroom that there are many times that we have to think on our feet as teachers when it comes to behavior. We cannot send a child to the principal's office after every infraction. We must become the "Behavior Savior" of our classrooms. We are preparing students that will one day be apart of this big world, and we must be fair but consistent when dealing with behavior in the classroom. We want to make productive citizens that follow the rules and excel in everything they are involved in. We shouldn't let behavior hinder their learning because we fail to address it properly.

Wrapped in Charlotte's Web

This week I was able to participate in a nostalgic part of being a teacher. I was able to put together a bulletin board that is outside of the classroom. The students have been participating in finding research about animals and their life cycles. From this unit my CE is reading Charlotte's Web to them.
The students had an assignment working in groups they were assigned a certain farm animal. The students research books, and other resources to find out specific details and characteristics about their animal.

The groups were cows, chickens, horses, turkeys, pigs, and sheep. Once the groups completed the research they were than able to turn the information into a summary of the animal. The students worked in groups to write a paragraph about their animal.

What I did not realize is how much work goes into the process of bulletin board making. My CE told me that making bulletin boards is sometimes thrown to the back burner because of the necessity to teach the standards. My CE told me that making bulletin boards were important for the self-esteem of the students. In making a bulletin board in which their work is displayed shows students that you are proud of them, and helps boost quality in work, if they feel that this will be put on the bulletin board.

Anyway, back to being hard work. The students had the easy part of doing the research and writing a paragraph. Once the paragraphs were written I had to go over each letter with a permanent black marker, so that it would be legible once posted on the board. Once this was completed the students had colored a huge picture of their animal so I had to laminate both the paragraphs and the pictures. After that I had to take down the previous bulletin board that had been displayed. Once everything was laminated I then had to put all of their work up on the board. As a reminder I am 5'7", and the bulletin board is as high as over six feet. I had to stand on a chair and work with a stapler and glue gun to reach all over the board.

I am so thankful that I have able to participate in creating this because it gives me an idea of what teachers do other than just making lessons and teaching them. I would probably attach this learning experience to standard one of the NCTPS, teacher demonstrates leadership, in which I am empowering students to be proud of their work.

All You Need for a Snowman

Today, I had the pleasure of starting a new book with my ruby reds. I have four students in this group three boys and one girl. This new book is called, All you need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle To begin our group I had the students do some pre-reading vocabulary. We went over the definition of mound, thousand, stacked, triple, couple, and wool. The students did very well in mastering the vocabulary. Two of my students in the group can read much better than the other two in the group, so I made sure to reinforce the definitions of  the words, and had each child tell me the word and its definition. 

Once we completed vocabulary I had the students imagine a time when they had created a snowman. I asked them questions like, What did you use to build the snowman?, What did he wear?, etc. I had them think about the questions but not to answer them. After the students imagined I read the book aloud to the students. I made sure to check for comprehension by posing questions such as "How many snowball did they create to make a snowman?, What type of hat did the children choose for the snowman?" I also made sure that they had grasped vocabulary by asking the meaning of the words once I read them. Next, I had the students take turns on reading the pages. As I said two of my students are better readers so they very quickly read the pages without hesitation or problems, whereas the other two had problems with the words and with fluency, so while one of the slower readers were reading my better readers wanted to act up, so I had to make sure that they stayed on task and followed along while the other students were reading. 

Once completing the reading I asked the students more comprehension questions and had them find the answers in the book before we moved on. Finally I had the students do a who, what, where, when chart so that we could break up parts of the story.

Who	What	Where	When
The children	built a snowman	outside	in winter

  The main goal for the group is to be able to create a summary of the story that they had read. We were not able to complete the group work today, so tomorrow it will be completed for group time. 

This is a great book to read for second graders. 

Math with whiteboards

Today I was able to observe math instruction in the classroom. Now, I have seen my CE do math in class before but this was a little different today. Monday she had the student's take a math test. If the student's made a 4 or 3 they passed. Most of the students did well but all of them seemed to have problems with the backside of the test, so my CE modified her math instruction to reinforce what was on the back of the math test.

The students were having trouble with do vertical two digit math problems. My CE gave each student a whiteboard and a marker to do the learning experience. The CE wrote out math problems on the page enough for each student to participate in solving one. The students will work along with the student that was at the board solving the problem. This class has a few short songs to help with addition such as "always always do the ones and then the tens" and " when you make a ten the 0 goes down and the 1 goes up in the tens place" From this learning experience I was able to gauge which students seemed to be struggling and what they were struggling with.

One of the students' had a problem with the regrouping and totally forgot about the ten that she had added to the tens place, which of course made the answer ten short. By guidance from the other students and the CE, she was able to see what she did wrong. The students were really struggling to do the math problems vertically. The students wanted to solve the math problems horizontally which was greatly confusing them since they were regrouping with the tens. For solving math problems vertically my CE has a specific way that she wants the students to solve them.  First they are to to draw an Capital I, write the problem within the I, label the ones and tens place and then solve the problem. I noticed that some of the students did not need these steps to solve the problems whereas others were struggling just to label the place value for each side.

Seeing behind the scenes

Today I was in my classroom until lunch time. Many times teachers are viewed as getting up in front of the class and just teaching to the students. I, myself have been guilty of thinking that teachers are just getting up and teaching because I have not had the experience of seeing behind the scenes. Now I do know that the longer I am in this education field the more I am realizing how much work is put in it or should be put in it. Today I had the pleasure of laminating pages for a game to be played in the classroom, helping a little boy with reading, assisting in AR testing, and being present during the student's MAP testing. This all happened between 7 am and 11 am.

The most interesting part was to be able to see the MAP testing. MAP testing is a computerized adaptive testing system that tailors tests to a student's achievement level. Each student takes a test that is dynamically developed for him or her as the test is being administered. Just to remind you I am in a second grade class, and the questions on the test were asking " what is the simile in the paragraph?" and asking students to identify context clues within the story. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my student's did not know this information yet. My CE also knew that these second graders did not know some of the information. I noticed after the testing that some of the student's seemed to be a little on edge.  So today when I made it home I went on the search for more information about MAP testing, and how to better equip student's with taking the test. 

Here is what I found: 

Science and Investigation in the Classroom

For this week I have only been able to be in the classroom for one day because of family circumstances. I was in my classroom on August 31st. My CE has allowed me to work with a group of students, and Monday I was able to work with the ruby red's. This group is considered to be the students that are above grade level or academically gifted. I was able to obtain UV beads from Dr.McKinney, and with the approval of my CE I was able to conduct an experiment with this group.

I had the students to create a chart in which they would predict what would happen, tell what really happened, and tell why it happened.  I explained to the students that the sun puts off UV rays that allows for our skin to either tan or burn. I allowed the students tell to tell which happened to them. I proceeded in letting them know that we were going to be scientist, and predict what would happen to the beads if we were to go outside. Some students said melt, others said that they would change colors, etc. I taught them that by predicting we were hypothesizing, and I explained to them what an hypothesis is.

Once, we filled out the first part of our chart, I had the students to take a handful of beads and we walked out side. The group was amazed that the beads began to change colors because of the rays of the sun. I explained to the students that just because their hypothesis was not correct does not mean that we stop trying to predict things that would happen because that makes the best scientist. Once the students found out the beads changed colors they were able to explain to me that the UV rays from the sun caused the beads to change colors, and then the students started creating other hypothesis based on different scenarios that the beads could be used in.

It amazed me that after participating in the investigation that the students were able to connect better with the science experiment and also make their own inquiries about other possible scenarios.

Day One in the Classroom!

Day one while in the classroom was absolutely great! It finally hit me that this would be the classroom I will be student teaching, and in my mind I said, "this just got real!" I was able to meet all of the students. My CE and I were talking about how easy the first day seemed to be. We have such great students. All of the students seemed to be very quite and shy. We were supposed to have eighteen children in our classroom, but two of the students did not show up. I later learned that they had been pulled from school and were to be home-schooled. My CE spoke with me about the development of the students. My CE told me that a majority of the class are below-grade level.

We began the day out by explaining the procedures for the classroom. Students seemed very receptive, but my CE and I discussed with the students about how we would remind them for about a week. After the week, we told them we expected them to take these procedures and make them into a routine. The classroom was generally quite, which was a little surprising. I did like that my CE would allow the students to speak up and tell their answers but made sure to specify when she wanted them to raise their hands. Once procedures and rules were explained we had the students participate in a mini-science lesson, while my CE taught on prioritizing time and tasks. My CE used a large jar and asked the students which objects did she need to put into the jar. First were the large rocks, and then the small rocks, next sand, and lastly water. The students were learning about density and volume, while also learning how to prioritize their time and tasks.

We continued on with our day by starting phonics. If I can be honest, do not remember participating in phonics much while I was elementary school. The students were able to answer the questions relatively easy and if the questions were answered correctly the student received candy. I learned that "A short vowel followed by a consonant is coded with a breve. A long vowel followed by a consonant is coded with a macron." Guess what I need to work on before I began to student teach....PHONICS!

One thing that I was able to do extremely well, was to help the students as they played "Contraction Bingo", students were to pick a card i.e. "have not", and match it with the contraction on their bingo card. Some of my students seemed to have no problems with connecting the two words with its contraction while others were struggling. I like that my CE used this method to allow the students to learn, but to also enjoy this learning task while playing the game. Ultimately, they were learning without recognizing it because it was a game.

My goals for next week is to learn more about my students, and what level they are at developmentally. I also know as explained in 435, that I need to greatly observe my CE carefully, and learn to model her actions for the students.

Orientation

Oh My! I am so excited to have made it this far. I have to say the orientation video while easy to follow and had clear objectives was a little daunting. I am quite thrilled to be able to be blogging. Can I be honest? It seems to relieve stress for me. 

I loved how Dr.Parker explained to us that this class is to polish up on our skills before we began to student teach. 

Speaking of,I was able to participate in Open House at my placement school. My clinical educator seemed at ease at allowing me to connect with the students. For Open House we step us an obstacle course, in which the students had to follow arrows where they would complete a task. At arrow led to a chart/graph, and I had the students to fill out the graph based on their personal answers. Some of the questions that were involved with the graph(s) were, What is your birthday month?, What time do you wake up in the morning?, What is your favorite day of the week?, and What is your favorite type of apple? The student had so much fun in being about to talk about their lives to me while my clinical educator spoke with the parents. I was able to interact with the parent in explaining class materials what are needed and what text(s) the students would be using during the year.

I am so excited to begin this year on such a positive note, and I am so ready for Monday to be here so that I am able to go back to the classroom.