Primary Teacher and MLK

The past few weeks in field have been so much fun! My mentor teacher has let me take over teaching for a majority of the day, One day, she was just like, “Do you want to teach math today?” and I was like, “Sure!” and from that day on, I teach math on the days that I am there, and teach random other subjects during the day as well. Last week, I was teaching 2 of the 3 blocks during the day, handling all the transitions (recess, lunch, end of the day), and helping my mentor grade/write feedback to students for their assignments. During some of the time, my mentor will just leave the classroom to do some of the other things she needs to get done. She said that she wouldn’t have left me if she hadn’t thought that I could handle it. And even when she leaves, the kids continue to behave!

The children in this classroom are so incredibly well behaved. You can tell that my mentor teacher put in the time at the beginning of the year to make sure that they know how to behave appropriately in class. They are respectful, they stay on task, they listen when you ask them to… it’s wonderful! I come home from field so happy now. Some of my other classes would exhaust me during the day, and I would come home tired and cranky. I still come home tired, but I always want to tell all my friends about my awesome day in field.

On Thursday, one of the other first grade teachers called in sick. The school couldn’t find a sub, so they split her class between my class and another 1^st grade class. Instead of having 18 students, I had 28! We had to make desks out of nothing, and have students sitting in very odd places in the room. It was definitely crowded, but those students were very well behaved as well!

Thursday was also my first formal observation with the entire class. Normally, I do small group lessons for my formal, but for this one, I did all 18 28 kids. I did a Martin Luther King Jr. lesson, where I read them a story about MLK, and then had them write about their own dream. In their writing, they had to answer: what was MLK’s dream, what is your dream, why is it your dream, and how can you make your dream come true. I got some really funny answers, and detailed drawings! Here are some of the students’ writings-and my example so that you know what it should look like and my translations so that you know what they say:

The binder cover I made:

My Example:

(Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was for a world without prejudice, hate, and violence. My dream is for all children to have a loving home. This is my dream because there are some kids that don't have a home. I can make my dream come true by volunteering to help some of the kids that don't have a home.)

Student A's Response:

(Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream is for brown people and white people to get along. My dream is to help kids that don't have toys so I will give toys to little kids that dont have toys. It is my dream because for can have fun (?). I can give toys to them, that is how I will make my dream come true.)

Student B's Response:

(Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was for a world without prejudice, hate, and violence. My dream is for kids to have clothes. This is my dream because I see people on the road with no clothes. I can make my dream come true by joining friends for change.) 

*Friends for change is a program on Disney Channel that is a pro social "green" initiative.

Student C's Response:

 (This one is BY FAR my favorite... shhhhhh! Don't tell the kids!)

(My dream is for everyone to stop playing videogames because then everybodys brain will be better. I can make it come true by praying to God. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was to make everything equal and fair. No matter what color peoples skin was, it had to be fair.)


Those were just a few of the responses... they were all pretty cute, and/or funny!

I discovered today that I will be in my 1st grade class on Valentines Day... so now I must come up with a cute valentine to give out to my students. Time to start checking pinterest! 


I love being in this class, and I can’t wait to go back this week! :)

My New Class!

This week was our first week back in school after winter break, which means I got a new student teaching placement! I am at the same school as I was last semester-Ahuimanu Elementary (which is about 45 minutes from where I live). I love the school, the location, the teachers, and the feeling of community, so I am thrilled to be back there.

Now, I am in a general education 1st grade class. I love this age group! They are a tad bit younger then my dream grade (2nd) but they are absolutely wonderful. My mentor teacher has incredible behavior management in her classroom. The kids are quite, they listen when she is talking, and they behave the same when she is not around! I can't wait to try out some lessons with these kids, that way I can take advantage of their good behavior. I will be in this placement until the end of the school year (approx. 16 weeks).

On Wednesday, I spent most of the day observing the students and taking notes. I tried to get a good feel for the way the classroom was run, and which students could potentially use a little extra help. On Thursday, my mentor teacher let me jump right on. I tested a bunch of kids on their sight words (words that they can read without having to sound them out) and grades some quizes from the day before (report cards were due today-Friday, so my mentor teacher needed some assistance with assessments). I also got to go through and read/grade all of their journal entires, and write little notes back to them. First graders choose the most random things to write about!

I think I am going to use this semester to try out some of the concepts of "Whole Brain Teaching" which is something that I would really like to incorporate in my own classroom some day. The teacher whose videos I watch about this method teaches first grade, so it will give me a chance to try out exactly what I have seen her done in her videos. My mentor teacher is all about me trying whatever I want. She said that now is the time to find out what works and what doesn't because no one will ever know that it failed!

Here is the link to the first whole brain teaching video that I watched:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaweXw03kQI
I can't wait to try out some of these concepts in my class!

Last Few Weeks

I didn't have enough time the last few weeks of field to really write about what had happened, so now I am going to try to do a catch up post and remember all of the exciting things that happened. :)

Planting Flowers

In my one of my SPED students' GenEd classrooms, they were planting seeds for science. The kids had a bunch of fun getting to do this hands on science lesson!

Ball Pen Room

I discovered the ball pen room on a day where it was pouring rain outside, and one of my students asked me if they could go to the ball pen room to play during recess! It is in a portable at the school, and it's just a blow up pool, filled with balls! The kids absolutely love it, and now we are using it as a reinforcer during store time.

Wreaths

In almost all of the classes at my school, the students are making wreaths out of puzzle pieces! I absolutely love this project.

Snowmen

On my last day of field, my students made snowmen out of rice crispy treats and skittles... Their favorite part was eating it at the end, but they also enjoyed getting to mold and smash the rice crispy treats. I think it allowed many of my students to release their frustrations.

Here is what is was supposed to look like:

Here is what they ended up looking like:

Those are the projects that have been occurring in my classroom lately. The kids had fun with all of them, and the parents enjoyed them as well!

One of the biggest problems I had during the past few weeks of field was that one of my students GenEd teacher's was trying to steal me during the day! Whenever her class was doing something that involved lots of supervision, she would call my mentor teacher, and tell her that they were doing "Art" so they needed me to come down with my student. When we would get down there, she would have me help her GenEd kids because they were acting out! Luckily, I love that class, and they are 2nd grade (which is the age I want to work with). Plus, the GenEd teacher is scary... her students will ask ME questions while I am there, because they are scared to ask her. Even I am little scared to ask her, but she seems to really like me. I just prefer to stay in the SPED classroom where I am assigned.

The school has this rule about not allowing the students to talk during lunch time. I don't understand it. These students are stuck in a classroom for 90% of the day, and then they get a little "fun time" to talk with their friends, and the lunch room ladies expect them to sit there without talking! Personally, I think that should be there time to talk about whatever they want and chat with their friends-as long as they are eating their lunch of course!

I finished up my last day in this placement, and the students gave me a lei and made me cupcakes. This SPED classroom absolutely wore me out, but I love those kids, and I will miss them a bunch. Thankfully, I'm back at the same school next semester-student teaching in a 1st grade GenEd classroom. I can't wait!

*Sorry for all the white boxes-we aren't supposed to post anything with a students face/name online, so I have to edit my pictures a bit!*

Happy Thanksgiving!

I taught more yesterday in my field placement then I have any day since I began my student teaching-and it was absolutely exhausting. To start the day off, I ran journal time with the kids. This consists of me writing a question on the board, asking them individual what the answer is, writing it down for them under the line, and then having them rewrite it about the line. The question for yesterday was, "What are you thankful for?" Let me tell you, in a SPED classroom, you get some interesting answers. One girl gave me the traditional, "I am thankful for my family-my mommy my sister and my puppy." However, other students gave me answers such as, "my crayons" or "my marbles" or "pants!" I guess as long as you are thankful for something.... Seriously, who isn't thankful for pants?!

Next, we did morning business, which is a lesson I do every day. Each student has a job (schedule, calendar, weather, lunch, and pattern). One at a time we go through and do the jobs, until morning business is done. It always takes for every, because no one pays attention to each other, then someone doesn't want to do their assigned job, etc. It never fails to be a difficult task.

Then, it was story time! I had a thanksgiving book to read to my students, and it was a sticker book! Yay for interactive reading! While I read the story, I had students place stickers that match the part of the story we were reading. They seemed to love it, and the stickers helped them pay better attention to my reading. Win win!

After we read the story, the students had to worksheet that they filled out based on the story so that they could earn their pennies. (They earn pennies through out the day for good behavior, and then get "store time" a few times where they can spend their pennies on whatever reward they want, ie. iPad, computer, marbles, etc.)

 (My favorite part of the story was all the different animals.)

(I am going to eat turkey.)

Next was snack time, which I normally just observe, but yesterday I was in charge. Snack time is designed to help my students learn social behavior with their peers, so we give every student the wrong snack. Then, when they want some of their own snack, they have to ask whoever has it. And we never give them their whole snack, that way they have to keep asking. It's building relationships and language skills. As the teacher, I had to ask them questions to lead a peer discussion, but everyone is always too focused on their snack to talk. But, I learned lots about what they are going to eat for Thanksgiving... my students sure do like to talk about food!

After snack, I took 2 students down to the lower playground for recess-by myself! Normally I just have one, but we were short an EA. Of course, these two didn't want to play anywhere near each other. Recess totally stresses me out, due to the fact that our students frequently try to run away. Luckily  I came back with the same two kids I went down with. Yay!

When we came back from recess, I got a tiny break. It was math time, and they do most of their math work independently. I worked one on one with a student during that period, then took that same student to lunch, and lunch recess.

Following lunch recess, one of the general education teachers in my classroom asked me if I could come help her with her class, because her students seem to really like me (they are the students that my students sit with at lunch). I helped her take pictures of her students for their class project for a little while. They are a second grade class, and someday I really want to teach 2nd grade, so I like getting to observe in that classroom too.

The rest of the day was quite relaxing-Independent computer work time. The kids wouldn't stop talking about having no school on Thursday. They will probably be extremely rowdy next Monday after such a long break..... oh joy!

The Curse of Monday....

Today was definitely a Monday for my kids. Everyone was a little bit off. I'm currently in a SPED classroom where all of the students have autism. It is a model site for the Hawaii Department of Education, and they are planning on opening up an entire for school kids with autism based on my classroom.

My student who is always on top of everything and known as the "easy" child to work with wouldn't pay attention or do any of her work. I spend most of my day working with her, so having her act out was very unusual. The other "well behaved" student in the class was absent today, so we were stuck with mostly the problem children. Our first grade student decided that his phrase for the day was "I'm going home." My mentor teacher would ignore him, hoping the behavior would stop, and at one point he took off running down the hallway to go home.

The youngest child in our SPED classroom is a kindergartener, and we discovered today how good he is at explaining autism. He will say things like, "Make my head stop," or "why is everything so loud," or "I can't stop moving!" Those are all symptoms of autism, and it absolutely breaks my heart when he asks a teacher to "make his head stop." We would if we could.

The student that I was working with today made a wreath in her general education class. It's a little early for christmas, but I thought it was adorable-and super easy for the 2nd graders to make.

In honor of Thanksgiving this Thursday, the students have been doing all sorts of adorable turkey-related assignments. I thought this one was particularly cute- they color the parts and mix all the pages up, and then have to match the words that go together! Other pages say things like pumpkin pie, roasted turkey, etc. 

I found these absolutely adorable worksheets for coloring on pinterest. My students like to work for color-by-number worksheets, and my mentor teacher was looking for something they could color to put on the bulletin boards. I thought this was perfect! Here is a close up example from the student I worked with:

And here is what the bulletin board ended up looking like:

It was a fun activity day, but it was rough day for behavior. But Monday's are always rough, so tomorrow should be better. :)

Welcome!

I am creating this blog so that I can keep track of all the lesson ideas that I see during my student teaching and tell stories about the wonderful students that I have the pleasure of working with. This will be a great resource for me to use in the future when I have my own classroom!