Week 10 was very stressful, and the fact that I was losing my voice did not help at all. The weather has been crazy here, hot, cold, then hot, then cold again, and it is really playing with my sinus'. Monday I woke up feeling like a golf ball was in my throat. It was really hard to explain myself during lessons when I could barely speak, and sneezing every three seconds. Ms. M let me take a break and sent me home early on Tuesday to rest up. I really needed to get myself together since P. Stef was coming for an observation on Thursday.
Monday afternoon me and Ms. M put together the students' totem poles. They turned out really cute, and when the kids came in on Tuesday they were so excited to see them displayed in front of the class. They kept calling themselves a "clan" all day, since they had totem poles to prove it :)
The students had a math test on Wednesday.The test was on Unit 8 which was fractions. I was really worried because I already felt like I didn't teach all of the materials needed for them to do well on the test. The fact that some of the lessons were being taught during PSSA did not help ease my worry either. I am truly afraid the students were not prepared. The test was originally supposed to be on Tuesday, but I asked Ms. M if we could move it back a day to better prepare them. I still didn't think the students were prepared, and I was right. The majority of the tests were C's, which is not the normalcy of the class. There were a few B's and a couple D's. Absolutely no A's. I am really upset because I knew they were not prepared because we didn't have enough time to cover everything. I really felt like I was rushed through, and it really difficult to rush through fractions without making sure the students understand,. Ms. M said that she wanted to stay on pace with the other third grade classes, but they all struggled in their scores too. I think it was just a mix of PSSA craziness, and a lack of time. Planning for the next unit, I am making sure to fight to be able to have enough time to cover everything, all while making sure the students understand.
P. Stef came on Thursday for a formal observation. It was a math lesson, which P. Stef hadn't seen be teach yet. I was introducing the new unit. My goal was to stay slow and steady, and make sure the students were soaking up all the information that would be vital for the rest of the unit. I used individual white boards, which they always enjoy, and the students actually handle them well without many problems. During my lesson, which I thought was going smoothly, Ms. M was interrupting me a lot. For example, I had called on a student to explain how he had solved a problem I asked. He explained it to me, but I knew half of the class either didn't hear him, didn't understand him, or just weren't listening. So, as I always do when a student explains something, I repeated it. I was saying things like "OK, so J's first step was to think about what number multiplied by 7 gives me 42. Everyone see that?" and then i would wait for them to tell me they saw that. Then I repeated the next step. "Okay, now just thought about it and he knew he had to think 7 times blank gives me 42. Well what does 7 times blank give him?". This is where Ms. M interrupted and said "Well I think J was about to give you that answer." I am not sure if she was even paying attention or not, but J had already given me the answer, and I was repeating the process for the rest of the class. I find Ms. M doing this a lot, interrupting me on things to tell me to explain something important in the lesson, when I already have the intention on explaining it, I just have not got to that step yet. It can be very distracting, and I feel that just because something pops up in her head doesn't mean that I am not thinking about it either, and that I know I need to talk about it, I just haven't gotten to it yet. During my conference with P. Stef, I was talking about this a lot. He reassured me and said that sometimes teachers who have working a while in the classroom have trouble letting go of all the control, and its hard for them to not chime in when they think of something. He told me I should try to discuss it with her, but I said I'm too much of a chicken, and I will just have to live with it. It just annoys me because it is in my plans what I am covering for the lesson, so why not just have faith that I will do what my lessons say, like always?
Wednesday night was "Barnes and Nobles Night". B&N was hosting a night for Myers, and 10 percent of all purchases went to the school (I think). It was really fun. I got to meet a lot of parents. Mr. K (The Principal) came, and he read aloud to the kids which was really cute. The school choir also came to sing for the parents and shoppers. It was a good fun night, but I was exhausted my the time I got home.
I am looking forward to the week break, but I know April 9th will be here before I know it! After that, it will be the final weeks of my experience, something I am not looking forward to.
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