How do you say goodbye?

This week is going to be hard. VERY hard. I told the kids last Tuesday that this was my last week and I have had several of them come up to me and ask if I will please stay. I have gotten a couple of cards and one little angel even promised me that he will behave himself better if I don't have to leave. Of course I love all their attention, but the reality is that RM is ready to have her classroom back and these kids will simply ADORE her once they adjust back to her! She is an awesome teacher who will help them bloom like never before. I look forward to visiting them and seeing her in action- they are going to do so well!
But before that all happens, they have to say goodbye to Mrs. Leece. Oy- just thinking about it makes my heart hurt. I'm so used to seeing them every day and giving them my "all".
I have been thinking about different ways I can honor our time together and show them that they mean the world to me- without spending a lot of money (since I'm not getting paid to do this-- and had to quit my paying job to student teach- I have to be frugal) I picked up some bookmarks and am writing a note on the back of each one to personalize it. Then I wrote each of them their own letter from me. I will put these in their backpacks on Tuesday when they are in specials so they won't have to read them in class. I went to an art fair this weekend and met an author of a children's book that is set in the Traverse City area- so I purchased that book and will give it to the class on Tuesday- so a book and bookmarks. Plus their little notes. I hope this will show each of them in some small way what they have come to mean to me!

Parent Teacher Conferences

So I survived my first parent/teacher conferences. Most of them went really well and I enjoyed spending a couple minutes talking to each parent about their awesome children. There were two that weren't very comfortable though. And I think those were the two that I learned the most from. I don't like confrontations. I never have. And I never will. I have learned over the last 40 years how to handle them and how to effectively prevent them most of the time. RM had told me that she loves conferences because she likes getting to know some of the parents that she normally doesn't see. I agree- that was a great part of it.
I had been talking to one of my peers from UoP about conferences and how he liked them. He is going through student teaching with me and we have been on several learning teams together through many of our classes through this master's degree. He had conferences several weeks ago (Washington state starts school in August) He told me that he learned things about his students that he didn't expect and that there were some very sad things he learned too that were disturbing. I remember saying to him "Oh, that won't happen to me-- we don't have those kinds of problems in our community" (I was saying this in response to his statement about a couple of specific things that he learned about students that saddened or frustrated him) Unfortunately, I too learned some things that I didn't see coming and that made me sad or frustrated. It simply amazes me how children can have some issues at home that they are dealing with (not necessarily the fault of the parent- just life circumstances) and yet they are still there at school and still doing their work. I found a new admiration for a couple of my students for sure!
But mostly I enjoyed the conversations. Mostly. I did walk away from one conference frustrated at the parent but I'm sure that will happen with most conferences.
We had our conferences on Thursday evening and all day Friday. Even though we didn't have kids at school on Friday- I was whipped by the end of the day!

Abandon ship!

Last week was a short week due to conferences. So that meant that we had to get everything we normally get done in five days- done in four. This also meant that we had a lot of assessments on Thursday- which made the students rather unhappy with me! I would have been unhappy too if I had three assessments in the  morning and one in the afternoon- but it was what it was.
On Wednesday I had tried to assess them in their math. We had been working on coins for over a week and I was confident that they would do well. HOWEVER when I passed out the assessment and was walking around looking at their papers, I realized that I had not been clear to them about something in the assessment. The longer I walked around and thought about it, the more I realized we needed to abandon ship and reteach what was missed. I had looked over the assessment of course before we handed it out, but to be honest, I had made the same mistake my students were making- which was an obvious sign that I needed to pull those assessments and reteach. So that's exactly what I did. I had them put their pencils down and took the assessments. Then I retaught what the confusion was about and told the students we would assess the next day. Unfortunately, that meant an additional assessment on Thursday, but it was better to do that than to have them not do well on the money assessment when they did indeed know the material!

I had a student make me a necklace last week. It was a very sweet gesture and it made me smile like nothing in a long time! He said that he was playing in his mom's craft stuff and wanted to make RM and I something. He took some pearl string and some apples... yes, you can imagine what it was like :) He taped the pearl string together to make a necklace (scotch tape of course) and then taped two apples onto the necklace. The picture I have of it is crude- but you get the jist of it. Of course the apples fell off within a couple hours (they were taped onto the necklace) I had said how much I loved the necklace and was wearing it- so when the apples started jumping ship, I had to fix the problem. I got a paper clip and attached the apple to the paper clip and then that to the necklace. My neck was itching like MAD from where the scotch tape was holding the necklace together, but I was not about to take it off.

I wore that necklace all day- and when it came home it was hung in my office proudly so that every time I look at it I will think of that kind gesture and my sweet class from student teaching. 

I'm still alive!

Wow- I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged! I have been very busy with my students and finishing up my student teaching experience. Not to mention the university is still demanding all kinds of crazy assignments for me to finish up my master's degree!
I have done so much since my last post! Most importantly, I have experienced parent-teacher conferences and we are finished with our science unit on plants and will assess this week.  I finish on Tuesday with the kids and then have professional development on Wednesday before I finish up.
I can't even THINK about being done without tears welling up in my eyes! I know this may seem silly, but I have grown seriously attached to these students and don't want to say goodbye! I know I will be equally attached to my own classroom of students, but these are different I guess. They learned right along with me. Luckily I will get to still see all of them because my two kids go to school at the same school- so I'm not going "cold turkey" from them. I have to find a job though- so I won't see them regularly like I would like. Hopefully I will get a long-term subbing position soon. I learned one of the teachers at my school is expecting and due in April- so maybe an opportunity will open up there. That is a long time away though. Next week after I'm done I will pursue all the paperwork to sub at the school and get myself situated. First though, I'm going to sleep a LOT ;) (well, except for Black Friday- where I will not sleep at all!)
Ok, so to catch up....
I'll post a few posts so that it isn't one huge post.

Our plant unit is nearly complete. The students have observed their plants several times and the plants are nearing the end of their life cycle. We planted brassica seeds which have a fast life cycle so that we can see everything during the time we are doing the unit. The kids have been so excited about it all- and I have loved seeing them excited to learn and doing all the activities! 

We included in our unit a rather large writing assignment as well. I taught them about the life cycle of sunflowers and read several stories to them about sunflowers. Then I had them write an expository paper about it. Oy- THAT was a challenge! Some of the students got it right away- some... well, it was a learning experience for us all! We spent several days learning about what a topic sentence is and how to compose one; what a conclusion should include and how to write one. Then I gave them three different graphic organizers and had them start writing down what they wanted to say as well as what they needed to include to meet the requirements for the assignment. Of course I want them to be able to do great things and write like pros... so I had to realize that they have never done something this big before and I had to slow down. This was a learning experience for me! After they had all their information in several different places, I wanted them to put it all together in a rough draft. We did the rough draft, proofed it with peers, used a checklist to make sure we had all our requirements met, and then after a final time with proofreading, we wrote our final draft. Most of the students submitted it on Wednesday of last week. I am still waiting for two of them, but I'm sure they will come tomorrow. The final papers are very intimidating to score! I mean, I created the requirements and I lead the students to their writing, but I'm still intimidated in how many different aspects this assignment covered!

Election Day!

Today our nation voted for President of the United States. And so did our class! I had prepared a lesson over the weekend for the students about voting and participating in the process. Scholastic News had a magazine (of course) about it and I wanted to make sure the students understood about everything. 

We had a student shout out some rather inappropriate comments about the opposite candidate that they supported (because second graders should have such a strong opinion!) so I timed the entire class out at that point and talked to them right then and there about respect and not giving our opinion about things like that if people aren't asking for it. I showed them a video published by Scholastic and had them read their magazine. Then I had a flipchart that I had found and altered that gave some additional information about everything and then had them vote. I read online over the weekend that Scholastic News has had kids voting since something like 1986 and only two times have the "kids vote" been different than the actual president results. Our class was very close, but 56% voted Barack Obama and 43% voted Mitt Romney. The Scholastic News results were also Barack Obama so we'll see what happens. The polls are closed at this point but they are still counting.

We  observed the oat seeds today for the first time. They were doing NOTHING up to last Friday even though we planted them over a week before. Honestly, on Friday I was going to just throw them away. I got distracted though and ended up forgetting. Yesterday when we came into school I was shocked at how much they had grown! The kids were really excited about it too- seeing a new thing growing. We are moving along in our science unit. Things are slowly progressing. I am having them write a descriptive paper on the life cycle of a sunflower. I had found a great book online about sunflowers and the Belleville Library was supposed to have it. Unfortunately I went there tonight and couldn't find it. I'm disappointed but I did find the Magic Schoolbus "seeds" episode that one of my students keeps talking about and wanting me to show the class so I'm going to squeeze that in somewhere and show it to them. 

Tomorrow we have a big assembly in the morning for Veterans Day. The whole school is in the gym and they are honoring vets. I read that the assembly will take over an hour- hopefully this is NOT the case but I have backed down my plans if it is. I fill my days with things I want to teach them and can't lose sight of the goal of keeping them on target and within the curriculum! 

My 10th day solo

Our plants have GROWN! 

Last Friday we still had one friend who had nothing in his cup. I had planted my pinto bean seed from our field trip that finally germinated and had told him that he would use that plant for his observations instead of the seeds the rest of the class was using. It was this little bitty shriveled up bean and I wasn't exactly sure it would SURVIVE, but I wanted him to have something! When we came in today we had two wonderful surprises! Not only did my bean survive, but I really am growing a bean stalk! That thing is HUGE considering I just planted it on Thursday! It was well beyond the top of the cup and  by far the biggest plant under the light! Plus our grass was really long and the other plants are all doing great. How fun for the students! And.. the lonely little cup with no plant is no more! There was a teeny tiny little seedling standing proudly there showing it's face to the world! Yay! Everyone was able to observe their plants and make notes about any changes. Tomorrow we are going to do more with the plants but not observe the little ones. 

In math we are working on counting money and understanding how to make change. There really isn't a lesson in the book about it so I spent the weekend going through websites and trying to find different manipulatives to address the needs. I printed a lot of different things and came in early today to laminate and get them ready. When it came time for math today, things went reasonably well, but I don't think the students are grasping the idea that they should make their change to be the least or fewest coins possible. We are working on it though- they will get it!

In writing I had them write a friendly letter. We had talked about friendly letters last week. I showed them a video about it, gave them samples, and had them do a couple of drafts. I had originally planned on having them write a friendly letter to a penpal that the teachers from another had organized but this idea was tabled for a while. Since I had already set them up and taught them this concept, I decided to keep going with it and have them write to someone today. They took this idea and RAN with it! I am going to offer them the idea of giving the letters they wrote to the person they wrote them to- but first I get to read them all! These letters were SO sweet! They were to show gratitude (that is our moral focus word for the month) and thank the person for something. They had to have all the parts of a friendly letter (which none of them needed additional help with- they really understood this idea!). I was walking around reading their responses and smiled many times reading what they were writing! 

We were late today getting to specials. Oh- I was so disappointed! I really am working to get them to specials on time- time just goes so fast during the day!

It's Friday!

What a long week this has been! School has been insane with being the last week of this first seminar and trying to get everything done within it. Then throw in Halloween and crazy assembly schedules at Keystone, and it makes for a stressful week.
We had a long assembly this morning to honor the girls volleyball and boys soccer teams. Then we had an hour assembly this afternoon about the Detroit Red Wings. I just felt like the day flew by and I didn't get anything done in class. We really didn't lose a lot of instruction time this afternoon since half of the time we lost was to specials.
I don't understand why we have to do so much for the university when obviously we are crazy busy and have plenty to do. It is frustrating when you feel like the work you are doing is "busy work" and not something that is actually teaching me anything. I have talked to several of my peers all along this experience who are going through the same student teaching experiences and I'm not alone here. We are all living, eating, and breathing school in some sort of way- which is fine; we expect to be busy. But we had hoped to be doing things that benefit us in our student teaching experience.
This week I have felt like it started out great and ended in turmoil. Turmoil is probably harsh- but that's how I'm feeling. With so many things going on and behaviors to address, it was very difficult to finish what I had planned. I'm a wee bit of a control freak and don't like when I'm feeling like I'm not in complete control.
Honestly, I know this is supposed to be a challenging time- I'm learning hands-on experience I could never get in a classroom. And I know I'm not expected to be great during this time. I don't like feeling inadequate though- and that is how I'm feeling. I just seem to have lost my groove and need to figure out where I left it!

8th day solo

Can I just say that there is something really sad that a teacher has not only written a lesson plan survival guide to the day after Halloween, but the fact that it is sought after by MANY teachers really says something! I had a day where I needed this lesson plan for sure!

I was not warned that today would be such a challenge. Not that anyone should have "warned" me, but I had no idea how crazy some of the kids would be! I did walk around at lunch and survey some of the lunchboxes and see what was deemed "good" for their lunches and I saw a LOT of candy. 

There were several color changes today. It makes me sad when a student has to change their color- that isn't why I am there- I am there to TEACH them not change their color. But if they are refusing to listen or be respectful, then change their color I must. This is something I know I have to work on- I am told this often by RM.

Today was what I'm am reading as a "typical" day for after-Halloween. The kids were bouncing off the walls and of course, when it came to lunch time and they opened their lunches, most of them had huge amounts of candy and sugar waiting for them.

I changed several colors today- and a parent working lunch even had to change two colors! You can certainly tell when they have too much sugar, that's for sure!
Our plants are coming along- we had a surprise for a couple kids today- they have sprouts! (or, as we are calling them for our unit- seedlings) The smiles on those faces was priceless! I have one left- and I planted extra in his so hopefully we see something soon! 

I'm still confused about math and what I'm doing there. I have solid lessons from the teachers math book this week so that is a good thing! I tell ya- those teacher's edition books are incredible. You could stand up front of a group of kids and just read what they tell you to say and the kids would learn the lesson! Well, maybe that is a little exaggerated, but seriously- they tell you everything in there! 

In math we have been working on base-ten blocks and place value for quite some time. We are adding money next week, but this week we are finishing up expanded notation and then will assess on it. 

I'm still struggling with getting students to put their names on their papers. I don't want to say they are being defiant but I DO think they are being somewhat lazy. I tell them non-stop for 4 or 5 minutes when I first pass out the papers and today I got back 4 math papers with no names on it! GRRRR

All this month I have been telling the students that their October journals are due at the end of the month and that this one is for a grade. I have repeated this at least a dozen times and make sure that all students understand this. So when I said yesterday that they were due, I was surprised (not really) that so many students admitted that they were not finished. One student pulled his out and put his name on it for the first time! I told many that they had to finish them last night and then today when one of the students came in and didn't have it finished, he was told that he would be doing it at lunch. He spent his recess time working on his journal and getting it started. Of course he will NOT finish it in time for the school day but he will be taking it home and working on it. I know there are a lot of other students that need to get these done- I haven't gone through them yet to see how they were done and who is missing one, but I'm sure I will be adding to my list of students who  need to complete them. 

Happy Halloween!

Oh boy- this week started out so good! I was in control of my class, they were doing what they needed to do, things were great. But then throw Halloween into the situation and all of a sudden I have lost them! 

I started a new "behavior management" system on Monday having the students earning beans each. How many beans they earn will depend on their behavior. I start out at 50 each morning and then each time they are chatty I will start counting backwards from 50. When they stop talking, I stop counting and write the number down. Then when there are issues again, I start counting again from the number I left off at. At the end of the day, what ever number they are at is what amount of pinto beans I put into a vase. Now, I was going to do this with marbles, but quickly realized that that would be QUITE expensive to purchase all those marbles. So I switched to pinto beans. I don't love the beans, but until I find bulk marbles at a very cheap price, we are using beans! 

I have a few ideas to do if they fill the jar- but I'm worried that they won't fill out jar until after I leave- so I'm going to find a smaller jar to use- so that I can "guarantee" that we can celebrate before I leave!

Well, tonight is Halloween. I know we have a few friends out there in the yucky weather Trick-or-Treating so I hope they are safe and keeping warm!

Day 6

Today was a very busy day- of course they all are. I just don't know where the time is going during these days!

Today I made it on TIME to specials! Now, many people might think this is no big deal and "yay for you weirdo" but seriously- this IS an accomplishment. We have specials the very last thing of the day. At 2:35 we go and students finish at 3:15. Which is when school gets out. So we are scooting back to the classroom, putting coats and backpacks on and running out the door to the parents. So that means we have to do planners and stack the chairs- pack backpacks and get everything ready- so that when they come back from specials they are ready to leave with minimal delays. This is a huge challenge for me. Truthfully, it is a huge challenge for all the 2nd grade teachers and NOT just me- so that makes me feel better. But today- we were on TIME. It was for Art and our art teacher looked shocked that we were there on time. I was like a proud new father too- this was my goal yesterday and we hadn't met it so today I was determined.

I have started getting gifts from my loved ones related to teaching. I'm sure in time I will get "tired" of such gifts and beg them for Target gift cards instead, but right now I'm loving it! My sister and brother-in-law gave this little dude to me when I saw them in early October. He sits on the top shelf of my desk right now staring down at me as I type- and I have to say he makes me smile! There are some things that will definitely go into my classroom and he is one of them! Thanks for the smile Mari and Cory! 

I have established a routine with the students for their weekly lessons to review vocabulary and other activities we do every week. One of those routines is that we play Tic-Tac-Toe with our vocabulary words. I have laminated sheets of tic-tac-toe boards and have the students write their vocab words in each space. Then if there are additional spaces (which there always is because we never have 9 vocabulary words) then I have them fill in reading comprehension skills or other words I want them to focus on and we play tic-tac-toe.

I will tell them to start off with an "X" and then give the definition of one of their words. They are to figure out what word I am defining and then cover it with an "X". Then I have them draw a circle around the next word and read it's definition. This was a rough start at the beginning of the year but at this point the students are not only used to this routine, but they love it! This week I was able to use it as leverage. Yesterday I had students writing the definitions of their vocabulary words in a notebook and then writing them on note cards to study at a later time. Normally, students take a LOT of time to get this done. Last week I gave them a limited amount of time (which really upset some of them) and then after a second time with the vocabulary, I told them whatever wasn't done they had to take home for homework. THIS did not sit well with them! When Tuesday morning came and we were ready to play the game, I had a large handful of disappointed friends who could not participate because they did not take the vocabulary home and wanted to still play the game. I stuck to my guns though and enforced the rule that they had to be completed with both flashcards and definitions in their notebook and only then could they play tic-tac-toe. 

So this week, yesterday I gave the assignment and was surprised when I saw this assignment on desks several times during the day- students were working hard trying to finish up so they didn't have to take it home- or worse-- not be able to play tic-tac-toe! This morning when I passed out the familiar blue sheets, I had a lot of smiling faces who were working diligently yesterday to complete their task. I love that I have something they want to do so much and it motivates them to complete a not-so-fun task!

Day 5 100%

I have come to the conclusion that the main objective for coordinating teachers is to break their student teachers down and having them beg for mercy to determine if they are "good enough" to graduate and become certified. Not that RM is doing anything terrible or horrible to me, but I will honestly be relieved when this is all said and done and I can have my own classroom and own rules and policies.

Thankfully after a painful math lesson today she has agreed to my not doing the math workshop the way she is envisioning it. In all fairness, it wasn't set up until a week and a half before I took over and even then the groups were not established. RM went to a big professional development training over the summer to do workshops so I know she is eager and excited to see that come to fruition, but the truth is that I have no idea what she sees in this for her "big picture" and with not having the groups established, it is just not working at all. So we abandoned ship and she will return to this concept after I'm gone. Whew- now I can teach some math lessons and stop fretting about what I'm doing!

We have continued with our plant unit. Our plants are growing nicely- though admittedly we have a few student's whose plants have not sprouted yet. There were some tears this morning when we came in and some of the cups were still bare of anything green. I encouraged those students and told them that maybe their seedlings were just taking a long rest before growing. And then, promptly after school, I made sure I added seeds to those cups and extra fertilizer! I know- that's cheating- but I don't care! I don't want any tears in my class over some dag gone seed that chose not to germinate!

Other than the actual planting, my science unit is going painfully slow. There is just no time for science at the end of the day. I know I have to get this down- and I will- but I need school to be about 2 additional hours a day in order to fit everything in!

OK, so for those that know me personally, they know that I'm a bit of a prude and a wee bit protective of my children. My 11 year old son, however, is allowed to carry a pocket knife (where appropriate- never school) and has a flint and steel in his pocket all the time as well- he is responsible and has been taught proper behavior with them- that they are NOT toys and shouldn't be treated as such. My girls have never carried anything like that and I doubt any of them would ever want to. So I understand- boys are different. I get it. I have a good friend who would refuse to let her sons play with guns- she would come to my house for a play date and insist that Alex's Buzz Lightyear radar gun be put up because she didn't want her children exposed to shooting things. That's fine- I did as she asked and respected how she wanted to raise her children. I wasn't surprised though, when her oldest son was six and was sitting at the breakfast table eating his toast when he proudly proclaimed, "Look Mommy! I made a gun!" and "shot" her with his toast that he bit into the shape of a handgun. Boys are special breed. We get it.

But even with my "boy mommy training" I still encounter things that take me off guard and really unnerve me. 

For Good News today I had a student proudly exclaim that he was able to play with his Christmas present early this past weekend. When I looked at him surprised about this and asked why he would get a Christmas present so early, his response was "because it is huntin' season!" His response when I asked what his gift is going to be was simply "a 12-gauge" 

OK. Um, did he just say what I think he just said?

So here is where my "you must have and maintain a poker face when students tell you something that shocks you because you don't want them to catch you off guard" lecture came into play. My facial expressions are easy to read I have been told (but I'm working on it). I clarified with him that it was a 12-gauge shotgun he was talking about and he sheepishly said it was. He was getting an idea that Mrs. Leece was not as thrilled about his Christmas gift perhaps as he was.

Now, I can say all kinds of things here but I will hold my tongue. Do I know for sure that he was actually telling me the TRUTH? No. Do I know he wasn't? No. Do some students grossly exaggerate the truth or even make things up hoping that their friends will think they are "cool" oh yes. I have learned quickly that what one parents thinks is "ok" for their child might horrify another parent. We all choose to raise our kids our own ways. But given how often this student talks about going hunting with his grandfather, I honestly think he probably is getting a shotgun for Christmas. Do I think this child has violent tendencies? Oh no- not at all. He is a gentle soft spoken good mannered little boy and I think he is just having some fun with his grandfather. A grandfather who I think is a wee bit loony for his choice in Christmas presents, but I digress. 

My point of all of this-- how do I respond to this "good news"? "Oh yay Timmy! Have fun shooting your 12-gauge shotgun" or how about "Oh yay Michael- shoot a couple times for me!" I don't remember exactly WHAT I said, but I know I didn't have a good poker face on at that moment and I will bet my life that I said something about him being careful and safe and making sure he never touched that gun without an adult right there with him. Yikes!

Oh, and of course as is almost always the case- when one student starts talking about a topic, they all want to share their knowledge about it- so then I had a couple more students wanting to share their hunting and gun stories. Oy- why can't we always talk about bunnies and flowers!?

SUCCESS!

Today we successfully used our eggs for more than voting on a name or telling the lunch choice! The kids LOVE the eggs and using them. I have heard from several parents that their student has told them all about the eggs at home and how cool they are. And the best part is it was a math assessment so I can take the data and measure who understands and who does not understand and utilize that information.
I set the expectation for Monday that the eggs will be out when they get into class in the morning and that they are to go and make their lunch choice and return their eggs immediately. We'll see how that goes. I need to get them independent though so I'll keep working on it.
This was the last Friday of the month so today was a spirit day. We had assembly and the band played and we honored our students of the month. It was a tough choice again this month but we narrowed it down to a student that is always patient and respectful and never speaks out of turn. This student stays in their seat and raises their hand instead of getting up and finding me- which a serious problem in my class at this point. I was happy to give this award to this student and the smile on their face was golden when their name was called!

This coming month's moral focus virtue is Gratitude. I have a couple of lessons already planned to work on gratitude so I'm excited to get those going.

I had a long chat with RM today about how students are starting to be disrespectful and some ideas we can do to address this and end the problem. I was 100% all week and RM has been out of the room most of the time. This is how it is supposed to be with student teaching. She checks in on me at least every hour or half hour- but she wants me to be comfortable and independent and not able to just refer to her when something happens that I'm not sure about (because in reality she wouldn't be there when I have my own classroom). I certainly need to work on this skill though. 

We worked on our plant unit today. We observed some growth in many of the plants. There were a couple plants that had no obvious growth though. We only planted three days ago though so I'm not too alarmed. I did have one child very upset and cry that there was no growth though. I think overall there were five that had nothing to observe yet. Once the child realized her's wasn't the only one that had no growth she was ok. We talked about how plants (seeds) can be unpredictable and that we have to be patient. Of course, after school I pulled those five cups with zero growth and added more seeds- just to be safe! 

I am still working on getting them to specials on time. This is a huge struggle because we have to stack and pack and get everything done before we go to specials. Monday this will be my goal and we will start five minutes earlier- hopefully I'll be successful!

Still working on those eggs...

I met with another teacher at the school that uses the Activote eggs regularly and figured out how to use them with the classroom computer. Whew- I was really getting frustrated! It seems they only work a certain way so I am happy to have gotten that information. It is sad though that not more teachers use these regularly. There are so many files that are free that are online (and they are so wonderful!) I don't know how many classrooms have these in the school- but both my 3rd and 6th graders are using them so they are throughout the school.
I am working on editing a math file that I will have the students do tomorrow to see where they are in understanding place value. We are halfway through this unit but I think a lot of the students already understand- this will show me for sure and then I can adjust my lesson plans.
Behaviors were better today than yesterday- but yesterday was quite difficult so I would hope today would be better! I still have a couple friends that are shouting out and not listening. I realize I have to get harder on them and flip colors but at the same time I'm not comfortable with that. So many things to adjust to and learn at the same time!

I didn't get a chance to revisit our plants today, but that is probably not a terrible thing because they were only planted two days ago and most of them have not germinated yet. I will get them out tomorrow and we'll look and start the science journals then. I also wasn't able to get the light on them until yesterday after school so I'm sure that didn't help in the germination process. We still have to plant grass and alfalfa as well as the wheat tubes- but the wheat tubes only take a couple days so I'm not too worried about those. I don't know how I can fit all of this stuff into my day- there are so many things we want to do but so little time! That is my biggest struggle right now- time to do everything. 

Our fall book fair is this week. The gym is transformed into a book store and the students love to shop and find a treasure in all the offerings. We took the kids down to the book fair yesterday and they shopped and then more kids brought in money today as well. We encouraged them to purchase books-especially books at their level. Many did- but some still bought books that are much too difficult for them. Oh, and the erasers and posters and other "junk" that comes along with the book fair. (sorry- but it is true- and parents everywhere will agree!) 

I learned that teachers get a small stipend to spend at the book fair to help stock their library. I think this is a great idea- our books in the classroom are always needing repair and retirement so this keeps the library not only stocked, but also fresh. I'm quickly learning that there are a LOT of outside expenses to keeping the classroom stocked and in order so knowing that I can get a couple of books during the book fair without spending money is a good thing! RM shared her stipend with me so I was able to get a couple books as well. Thank you! 

This book came recommended by a third grade teacher for learning about friendly letters:

It is a cute book about a child that got booted from his own room because his parents had a new baby. He now has to share a bedroom with his younger brother and he is not at all happy about this. It is funny and has a great message- not to mention it is all written in friendly letter format so when the students are learning about how to write friendly letters they will enjoy this book and then have it to refer to.

I'm not sure when friendly letters comes up in the curriculum, but I know the students have letters from penpals that we need to write so I think I will try to squeeze this in next week so we can respond to our letters.

Go Tigers!

The World Series starts today and our Detroit Tigers are in it! So to celebrate the end of the MEAP and to give a nod to our Tigers, we had a free spirit day today. The whole school was in Tigers gear (or orange and blue) to cheer our team on.

I am still trying to get the Promethean software to work. I downloaded a version onto my laptop and I can do anything with it to create polls and whatnot with the eggs, but I can't see the same options on the computer in the classroom. Of course this means that I can't show the students what the software is showing me on the whiteboard (because my laptop isn't connected to the projector). I really don't want to get behind the computer and start pulling cords during class. So we called the "help desk" for NHA today and asked how we can make this work. With some sweet talking we got them to update the software but I still was not seeing what I thought should be there. I ended up doing the lunch count poll on my laptop and showing the students how it works. They were so excited! (so was I to be honest) I'm going to get to the bottom of this though- those eggs are very valuable in a learning environment and I want to get them used! 

(Please note: these are NOT my students. This is just a random picture I found online of children using the Activote eggs)

This was my second day of "100%" and I think it went better than yesterday. Yesterday the students were very chatty and disrespectful. I know they are just feeling out their boundaries but that doesn't mean I have to like it. RM was mostly out of the room. At first I was glad that she wasn't in there because I could be more independent and comfortable because I wasn't feeling like I was being "watched" the whole time. But then the behavior issues started and I wanted her back! They certainly don't teach you in school how to manage behavior issues while still teaching the students! I could come up with a whole LIST of classes that I would have liked to take given my experiences in student teaching and my often feeling unprepared! 

Just another day...

Today seemed to start out great. I even affirmed the students about what a great job they were doing keeping focused and on task. We were able to get morning work done and transition through our ELA without much incident.
Today was my first "official" day where I'm supposed to be in charge 100%. I did most of the lessons, having some help from RM along the way. It was weird though- having her there (and not a sub) yet still doing all the instructing. I do love it though- and getting more comfortable every day doing it. Who would have thought it would have been such a struggle to get up and talk in front of little kids?!

As the day progressed, (right after lunch to be precise!) things started to get really chatty. Students were losing their focus and I had to redirect several times. 

We got through writing and math and then it was time for science. I have been telling them for several days that we were going to start our science unit on parts of plants and their life cycle. Today we started our unit with an introduction and then they planted their seeds so we can watch them grow. We didn't get all the seeds planted so we will have to squeeze some time in maybe tomorrow to get the rest planted. I'm excited to be teaching them something that I am creating instead of something that is in a book and someone else is telling me how to teach it. I definitely feel more liberated! 

I'm still working on getting the Activote eggs working. There is a conflict in software and the "help desk" didn't seem to know how to fix it. I did learn from RM today that another teacher in the building uses these eggs all the time so I'm going to ask him tomorrow and see if he will show me what he does. I'm determined to get this to work!

My classwork (for my degree) is coming along. I'm very very very overwhelmed and have no time for myself or anything other than school or school. I have a monster paper that was due yesterday (Monday) but we got an extension because there are so many requirements for it. THANK GOODNESS too because I simply have so much more to do to get it done by tomorrow's new deadline.

What a field trip!

I learned something incredibly valuable today: I don't like field trips! Don't get me wrong- it was fun and the kids loved it. But all the prep and stresses of the event are just not a great time! 

This week we have morning arrival as well as recess at lunchtime. This means that we (RM and I) have to be outside at 7:40 to 7:50 greeting students, helping them out of their cars, and basically making sure that the students behave while they are waiting to come into the building. Then at 7:50 we walk into the building with all the students. This is a good time to chat with some of the students and get to know them a bit personally outside of the classroom. I enjoy this morning time because most of the students are still waking up and it is just a nice time. Then we have recess duty at lunch which means we have to hurry and eat our lunch so that we can take the kids outside and supervise during recess. I'm not such of fan of the latter. Hurrying out of the classroom (if you even HAVE a parent) is difficult because there is so much to do- not to mention I want to help students with packages or whatnot. By the time we get out of the room we are running down and throwing our lunch down our throat to get back and outside. 

Well, obviously since we didn't have lunch at school today, we didn't have to do afternoon recess. But I did have to do morning arrival. And RM was not there yet. Normally this would have been fine, but given there was a freeway shooting on a major freeway and several parents were concerned about our travel route, that increased the stress level a wee bit. 

The morning just seemed to have many hurdles along the way. There was certainly nothing major- just little things that can add up.

The weather couldn't have been better. It was perfect! Not too hot not too cold. No rain. The sun was behind the clouds but still perfect. The kids in my class were well behaved and did a fine job. I did like the part where I wasn't responsible for all of them all of the time- and I liked how I was thought of as "the teacher". But it is much easier to make sure all the students are safe and doing what they should be in the containment of the classroom! 

Tomorrow is our field trip!
We are going here:
http://4hgarden.cowplex.com/
I'm pretty excited. The kids were talking about it a lot on Friday and I was telling them some of the things that we will be doing as well as giving them clues about my unit that I will be teaching them. They figured out that they will be planting their own seeds and watching them grow. I haven't told them everything that we will be doing but I did give them some hints and have them excited. It will be a great experience on Monday- I'm excited to see how it unfolds.
I will be taking my camera tomorrow to take photos of our experience. As a teacher with my own class, I will be making sure to take lots of photos of the students to help them commemorate their year with me. I have seen a lot of videos and slide shows other teachers have created for my kids and I want to do that as well.
I was talking to another 2nd grade teacher and she shared with me a website she uses with her students to create videos- it is called Animoto. I LOVE this! I have already created a handful of videos on there (for free!) and will certainly do this for my classes.
I understand some students are "do not photograph" students so I will be careful to not include them in my productions- but I'm excited to be able to use this type of technology!

Oh What a Day!

SO HAPPY that it is Friday! Today left me daydreaming about my Florida trip in December-- cold yucky weather and not-so-great experiences in the classroom.
RM was out today. We had a sub that is a regular in our school- and she was awesome. My son is great friends with her son so we know each other. The boys have been buddies since first grade and they are in sixth now.
I had a day of assessments and fun things planned and everything was in order when I realized that RM was not going to be there. I knew I had a great sub coming in to help me so I wasn't worried at all. I put out a new box of 20 pencils (for some reason we go through erasers like mad but the pencils are still long...) and had everything ready to go when the students started arriving.

We had assembly and they announced who the winners were for Student Council. It was a fun assembly and didn't last too long. When we got back to class, one of my friends hollered out that something had hit him in the head. I didn't know what it was and thought maybe he was imagining something. 

The day progressed without much incidence. We got through our assessments and I read them a cute story about Marley the dog- not written by John Grogan, but based on his dog he wrote about. The kids loved it and we assessed for plot using that story. 

At lunchtime I thought to look at the plans that RM had left with the sub because I wasn't sure what order to do the afternoon (I always do morning so I knew that part- just not the afternoon) When I looked at them I realized they were for November 20, 2011. Oops. I looked through things that were copied and ready to go and was able to get a basic idea of what was supposed to be done. 

Right after lunch I noticed that there were not many pencils with full erasers on them like there had been in the morning. And I had been picking up pieces of eraser several times in the morning off the floor. I started paying attention and noticed one student using his scissors to cut his crayon. I asked him what he was doing and of course he had no great response. I had him put his scissors and crayon away and went about my afternoon. I was walking around the room and out of the corner of my eye saw a student making a motion that I would know as throwing something. I turned quickly and saw another student move abruptly like he had just been hit. I walked over to the area of the student and was not so surprised to find a piece of the same color crayon as the one the student had just been playing with with his scissors!!! If you know me,  you know I have a wicked "angry face". And that face showed herself then and there. I started looking around the room and found a huge amount of erasers broken up on the ground. I talked to the entire class about respect and how this was completely disrespectful (destroying property, throwing things at other students, and all the other infractions that happened in between!) When I released them to do their writing assignment, I had at least half of the students come tell me who were my culprits. 

Funny- the whole class knew what was going on and who was doing it yet nobody thought to come and tell me to end it! When I have my own class I will try my best to establish a level of trust with them so that they understand they will not get in trouble for telling me when things like this happen.

Needless to say, I pulled the two offenders out into the hallway. One of them admitted to their behavior, the other one vehemently denied it. So we went to the dean and let her address the problem.  

This was not supposed to happen. I am supposed to have control of the situation here. I have not come to the brink of insanity dozens of times over the last two years between working, school, and life just so I can have kids destroying things and being disrespectful. Of course I know that I can't watch everything. I do my best. But to even think that this was happening is very frustrating. 

I'm not going to take this personally- I know the students involved are always doing things like this, but it is still frustrating. I wanted a clean report for RM about how the day went. This certainly tarnished that option.

Promethean Love

Unfortunately our school does not have Smart boards in every class. I don't know the specifics of it all, but I know some teachers in the school have interactive whiteboards (perhaps just middle school?) and they are incredible! Given the fact that we have Promethean products, they likely could be the same company's interactive whiteboards. I observed in several schools that had interactive whiteboards so I was pretty excited to be able to use that technology in my classroom. When I first came into the classroom in August, RM showed me the Promethean interactive "eggs" (proper name is Activote tools) but said that she had not used them yet.

I believe most or all of the teachers have these in their classrooms. While they aren't a complete interactive board technology that is so wonderful, these are certainly nothing to sneeze at! Basically what you do is you type in your assessments or questions that you want to ask the students in the software that comes with the Activote systems. Each student gets their own "egg" and when you show the question on the whiteboard (projected from the computer via the ceiling mounted projector) the students read the question and then push the appropriate button to tell you their response. Each individual egg transmits a report to the computer via the Activhub (seen above) and a report is generated to the teacher with who got which answers correct or incorrect. What an incredible tool! When I first learned about them I was intimidated to say the least. But as my time has passed I have wanted to use them more and more- so I finally went on a hunt to find a teacher who uses them often and figure out how to set these up and utilize this great tool! It didn't take long to find someone willing to help (Thanks MM if you are reading!) She set up my eggs for me, showed me how to use them, and encouraged me to take the bull by the horns. She found a bunch of step-by-step instructions for me to refer to and I have been playing around ever since. I plan to start using them in the classroom on Tuesday doing simple things at first (lunch count) just so the kids get used to them and are comfortable. By the end of my student teaching experience we will be using them to assess for sure! The kids in my class get very excited about technology and I'm sure this will be no different.

As a side note- when I was looking for a picture to post what they look like, I typed in "Promethean" in Google images and this was one of the images that came up... rather disturbing...

In the classroom today I was able to finish my morning routine on time again. I have done this several times this week- which is a huge achievement. There is a lot of material to cover in the morning and I'm always concerned that I will not finish. I'm getting the hang of it more and more though. I'm so glad I chose to take the plunge and have my "mid-life career (crisis) change"!!!

Next week I'm supposed to go 100%. This means that I should have everything planned out and teaching without any assistance. To say that this makes me somewhat anxious would be an understatement. Not that I don't think I can do it- I know I can. But I don't know what is going on in math as far as the workshop setup that has just happened. The groups aren't established yet and I am pretty freaked out about trying to teach something that I don't know how it is supposed to work! I have taught a few math lessons this year, but they were simply math lessons with the whole class following along- not math workshop. I know RM has been working on it the last couple of weeks, but I don't feel like it is established enough for me to even consider doing. I have the kid's respect and I want to keep it- I know they will see my lack of confidence in the procedure (which I don't know) for math workshop.

I have seen math workshop live in a classroom and it was incredible. But the groups were established already. And the students were familiar with it. We are struggling with getting groups set up because we still don't have NWEA's full report. RM said she is going to make some groups this weekend so that it can be established on Tuesday, but again, I am supposed to be 100% by then and it isn't going to happen. We have a basic understanding of what each student's ability is though, so I'm ok with just putting them in groups and perhaps adjusting those groups at a later date so that we can get this routine in concrete. I know math workshop is the best way for teaching student's math- and I want to get this going so we can move along!

We had a staff meeting after school today. Three of the teachers at our school have been going to a professional development about writing and how it has changed over the last several years. Their excitement about this new approach is certainly contagious! They went through many things they are learning and shared some student work samples. One of the teachers doing this training is a second grade teacher so she had already shared with us what she is learning and we were applying it. What we started the year out doing for writing was having the kids simply create their own books. We staple 4 sheets of paper together and they use that to write a story, illustrate it, and give it any other details they want. We have been adding requirements (putting the author, adding a cover with front and back aspects, writing a title page, etc.) I have to say- "work on writing" time is one of my favorite times in the morning because when I announce that that is what we are going to do I always get a "yes!" from most of the kids (and no groans!) They love doing this and that is certainly an achievement- we want them to love reading and writing- it is so important to their learning success. I have gone through some of the books and looked at them in my evenings and it is really something- we have only been in school for 7 weeks and I can already see some improvements in their books they are creating! (we have them put the date on the book when they first start it so that we know when it was created since they keep them all together in a writing folder).
Anyway, the staff meeting was dedicated to learning more about this program. We will see some improvements in both writing and attitudes with this new approach which will only benefit our students.

Fire Drill (again)

Tuesday was a good day- other than the unexpected fire drill that happened in the afternoon. Then again a fire will be unexpected if there ever were one so I am not complaining.
Katelyn came up and had lunch with me. She wants to try to do this every Tuesday. We don't get to see each other much during the week- she is either working or at school when I get home and I'm at school when she is home. The weekends are hit and miss because she works 2-10 and I'm always busy doing school work. Needless to say we don't get to talk. I miss her and was happy to hear that she feels the same way. So she started coming up on Tuesdays to have lunch with me and we chat and spend some time together. Today she came in early so I put her to work! :) A classroom ALWAYS has something that needs to be done in it. So today, Katelyn learned how to use the copy machine. And the laminator. She ought to be careful or I will have her doing all KINDS of things for me! 

We had lunch in the parent room at the school. I'm still walking that weird line between being a parent at the school and being a teacher at the school. Of course I'm not an employee at the school just yet (fingers crossed!) so I can easily fall into the parent roll. Being in the parent room can be challenging though because if there are parents in there and they are talking about teachers or school situations I have to just turn my ears off and pretend I'm not hearing them.
After lunch (yes, Katelyn survived the laminator!) I was trying to get some things ready for the next day when the fire alarm went off. I think because first grade was not in the building when they did it last week they had to do it again. Yikes. I felt terrible for our kiddos who have stress from these drills. Luckily the weather wasn't as cold as last week when we had it. The kids got out in perfect time and all went well so hopefully that is the last fire drill for a while. 

Mushroom in the Rain

For our ELA curriculum we use Open Court Reading. I might have mentioned before how difficult this monster book is to understand. When I got the book the first week of school I started looking through it and it may as well have been in another language because there were so many facets to it and it was jumping all over the place. It took me about a month to figure it out (and I'm still not confident that I understand how to use it to it's full potential!). This week marks the beginning of our second unit- and that means the second book in the teacher's edition. Each unit takes up a whole copy of the teacher's manual! Our new unit is on "Kindness" and all the stories are related to being kind. The story this week is called Mushroom in the Rain and is about a little ant that gets stuck out in the rain and hides under a mushroom.

The theme of the story is that more and more insects/animals see the ant under the mushroom and want to join to get out from the rain. Miraculously there is always room for each addition. Then the rain stops and when they come out from under the mushroom, the ant notices that the once tiny mushroom is now huge- and that mushrooms grow very fast in the rain. Of course the ant and other animals were being kind to each other by letting more under to get out of the rain. I had students read the story to a partner today (this was their first time reading it). I was working with two students that needed some extra help with vowel sounds. I got up to check everyone's progress to make sure I was able to bring them back to their seats (they should have been finished reading the story) so that we could move on in our very tight morning schedule when I was asked by one of my friends if he could keep reading because he loved this story. Now this is a child that I don't typically expect something like this from- so of course I allowed him to continue reading the story a second time. He said that he didn't think that a mushroom could grow that fast and that he was going to read the story again to make sure he wasn't missing something. I just thought this was sweet. 

Monday evening had another paper due about my Teachers Work Sample (the huge project I have to complete during student teaching) I am doing a unit in science about the life cycle of a plant. I'm going to have the kids plant seedlings on Tuesday of next week and then we will watch them grow over the next three weeks. The students have no idea that we are doing this- I will be giving them clues all week about it to get them excited.

A camping we will go!

Friday! Today was full of assessments and fun activities. I do a lot of different and fun activities with the students during the week with their vocabulary words so that they understand them and do well on their assessments on Friday. This week was no different. We did a quick partner review and then took the assessment. The students did great. Since I had the "offices"

out already, we went right into the next assessment which was Point of View. The students were pretty confident with this and did a nice job. The "offices" in our classroom are actually manila folders laminated together (two of them) so they are smaller than this picture but they work great. We use these folders so that students aren't tempted to look at their peer's papers when they are taking an assessment. After they are finished with their assessment, the students fold their office and lay it flat so that we know they are finished. 
At 10:00 for bathroom break I was absolutely on time. I was SO excited! I had never been exactly on time that late in the day- and was really hopeful that I would get everything done in the morning that was needed so I wouldn't run over. We went to our bathroom break and when we got back we started talking about an assessment the students took last week that had one question that a lot of them got incorrect. I wanted to make sure there was full understanding of the concept (how to show possession of a plural possessive noun). The sentence that the students struggled with was "The students backpacks were left in the gym." (or something very similar). To show proper ownership of this possessive noun, they should have put an apostrophe after the second S in students. However, most of the class put an apostrophe between the second T and S- indicating one student instead of many. We were going over this and why it would be incorrect when that lovely fire drill alarm went off. 

Oh my gosh- I about jumped out of my skin! The students did a fabulous job getting out of the classroom and safely into the parking lot. The principal told us that we knocked a full minute off of our last time- but I think this might not be completely correct because the first grade was on a field trip so they didn't have to exit the building- thus fewer students to wait on when going through the doors. We'll see next time though how well we do. This was our third fire drill and they are just nerve wracking to say the least! We have a couple students who get pretty upset about them and I try to make sure I am near them and reassuring them when we are outside and lined up. When we got back to class it was 10 minutes before lunch and there was no way we were going to return to apostrophe's after that. So... I did something I have NEVER done....(of course I have done quite a few things with these little darlings that I had never previously done- so I'm getting good at this "firsts" thing!)

I danced and sang with them. 

Yep. 

They love that song that I posted about in the first week of school- http://www.crayonspaperscissors.blogspot.com/2012/09/today-was-little-melancholy-for-me.html

They had been asking me to sing it with them. They have gotten to know me pretty well and they know that Mrs. Leece is definitely quite reserved and doesn't really do crazy things like that. Don't get me wrong- I love for them to do it and encourage them... but singing and dancing in front of them is just too far out of my comfort zone.

Until today.

We sang it. A Toody Ta Ta. I sang it. I danced it. I made a total fool of myself. And I LOVED it! Laughing along with them was great. And since the kids know that Mrs. Leece is NOT the dancer/singer in the group, I had 27 little friends coaching me along and helping me. Singing and laughing right along with me. By the time we were done all of the fire drill nerves were forgotten and we were ready for lunch. 

We had our first birthday celebration in the class today- that was fun! 

Our friend turned 8- and was so excited for the weekend and the party at home. It was very sweet to be a part of this- I have sent in plenty of treats for my kids even though their birthdays are during the summer. I have even been in the classroom when my kids have passed out their treats. But this time it was different- I was on the other side. Happy Birthday to my little friend! 

This weekend we are going to the campground for the annual Halloweekend trick-or-treating event. The kids have been looking forward to this for months. We have friends and additional family coming so we are hoping it will be a great time. The weather isn't promising to be very good, but we will still have fun. We only have two more weekends left in our campground season. This is crazy to think- it went so fast. I'm sad to see the season end, but at the same time relieved because it is very difficult to go between the campground and writing lesson plans.

Today marked the halfway point for student teaching. How is that even POSSIBLE?

The results are in...

I got the results from my mid-term today. It happened quite some time ago, but RM and SM (field supervisor) had told me that there was a lot of information to cover and it would take a while. I was patient-- hey, I figured if I was going to get a failing mark they wouldn't have let me continue to lead the students! I got an A- on the mid-term, but I understand why it wasn't a full A. This is still tough to swallow for my perfectionist self- hopefully I can still pull an A out of the class with my papers and whatnot- otherwise I'm blowing a GPA here. Really though, I'm not going to stress about it. I will just  make sure I get a regular A for the final. They wanted to show my areas of improvement actually improving- which makes sense. I know I have certainly grown a ton since I started so I'm excited to see where I end up. 

Something peculiar happened today. When the school year first started, I had a couple of students display the attitude that I wasn't their "real" teacher. RM set that record straight right away and made sure they knew that they were to respect and pay attention to me just as much as they were to her- and that I was there to teach them and not just fill their time. I really appreciated that! This week RM introduced Math Workshop. I had taught a few math lessons a couple weeks ago and we have been working on understanding digits and words related to numbers. There hasn't been a lot of "new" teaching regarding this because we are strengthening their understanding of this. Today RM introduced some new things to the students and was exposing them to the workshop format we will be using. She was moving at a slower pace because she wanted to make sure everyone understood the process and what the expectations were. The quick finishers (the students who get done quickly and want to know what to do next) were coming to ME asking what they should do next! Robyn was leading the lesson yet they were coming to me. Of course I hadn't planned her lesson so I didn't know what she wanted them to do-- therefore I was referring them back to her (or asked her myself and then guided them). But my point is, they totally trust me and understand that I'm capable of leading them and helping them with their questions. At the moment, I was stunned and shocked- but after talking to RM and getting some feedback I realized that this is a good thing- and that I'm not really taking over her classroom but instead helping to make it an even greater place to be.