Sunday, November 18, 2012

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!

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