Personal Problems Arise

Week 14 was short for me, but not for a good reason. Due to a family emergency, I was out for 2 days. Molly was more that understanding, and stepped in for my lessons. Again, another time that she has showed so much confidence and understanding.

Monday was a good day. We were finally working with the crayfish! I was nervous, but I know the kids were really excited. When they came in from lunch, I made them sit quietly. I began to whisper. They looked confused, but I continued to tell them that crayfish are scared, tiny creatures. When we use loud voices, we are really scaring them. We need to make sure to whisper, and made no sudden screams. We also needed to stay in our groups, because all the movement can also scare them. The students really felt for the poor crayfish, and I have never seen them so quiet or still. They really enjoyed observing the crayfish, answering questions like how many eyes, legs, etc. They knew terminology like exoskeleton and antennae from Friday, which made me proud. Finally, it became time to show the students how to pick up the crayfish. Inside I was freaking out, but I knew I had to fake being okay with touching them, for the kids sakes. I didn't enjoy it, and immediately put it down, but I know modeling needed to be done in order for the students to pick them up the right way.

Like I said, the week was short for me. When I came back on Friday, Molly gave me complete control again. She told me it was funny because her throat was hurting due to talking so much, something she hasn't done for the past 10 weeks.  She told me it was an eye opener, reminding herself I would be gone in 2 short weeks, and had to get back into gear. This is when the discussion of my final two weeks arose. We decided that next week would be my final week of full day teaching, and my last week(only 4 days) I would let her take things over while I co-taught.

I cannot believe it is almost here. May 10th is going to be here before I know it, and I wish this could last forever.

Week 13

I know week 13 was 2 weeks ago, but the stress of student teaching has finally hit me. I lucked out because it hasn't been that bad, but now with the weeks dwindling down, it seems to be becoming more stressful.

Week 13 was a good week. We finally got our smart board! We came in on Wednesday morning to be greeted by the electricians in the classroom. Unfortunately, they were not finished, so we had to make a sudden move to the LGI (large group room). Yes, it was very surprising, but it gave me a chance to see a time when flexibility is key when teaching. We had G-MADES that morning, so it wasn't a big deal. They told us they would be ready by 11:00, so the students didn't even need to bring anything with them. They have the test and go right to prep, so no instruction was affected.

During prep, me and Molly went to the class to "play" with our new toy. It amazed me how much she let me try things out, and watched me work with it. I know if I was the teacher, I would be so excited and want to work on it right away, but she let me take control, which was pretty cool. I decided to switch things around for Reading that day since we got the smart board. We were supposed to do Vocabulary, but I decided to read our weekly story from the anthology. We use StoryTown, and ThinkCentral.com allows us to pull up the story for the smart board. I thought it would be a cool way to introduce the smart board by reading the story through the smart board. This was a pleasant surprise for the students as well.

Wednesday afternoon, I decided to take a chance and ask Molly is she minded  me changing seats around. She told me that she thought it was a great idea, and they could use a change of scenery. I asked her how she would like me to do it, and she told me it was my idea, so I was in charge. Again, to have the trust from her is a great feeling, and shows what kind of cooperating teacher she is. She left for the day, and I saw for a while thinking how I wanted them to sit. They were sitting in rows, so I decided to make a U. I wanted a layout that would make my mobility easier and more natural. Having a U allows me to walk in the middle, having attention to all students at all times.

The students were getting very anxious about working with the crayfish and beetles. They were constantly asking when we could finally work with them. I told them to be patient, and once we finish seeds we will go into crayfish. Well, we finally finished up seeds on Thursday (skipping a few lessons). Background information is definitely needed before jumping right into touching the crayfish, so on Friday we read Science Stories on the crayfish. Students learned a lot of background knowledge that would help them investigate later. They were sad they didn't get to actually observe them yet, but Monday will be the big day. I won't lie, I am nervous myself, as I do not like critters.

3 more weeks :( I am starting to mentally prepare myself for the last day, I know it will be here before I know it.

It's Over Already?

I cannot believe how fast Spring Break went! When Monday came around, I was in complete shock, and I won't lie, I was totally wishing for an extra day.

My Spring Break wasn't very eventful. I went back to work at the daycare I am employed at. It was weird going from third grade teacher mode back to baby talk and changing diapers.

The best part about my Spring Break, however, was that I passed my CIA! This is the final test to get certified in PA. I had failed by a couple of points the first time I took it, so I was really nervous, but I passed with an amazing score! I was so happy when I saw it, and just seeing that number gave me a whole new confidence that I was lacking before. I can honestly say being in the classroom totally helped me through the test, because I found myself thinking for like a teacher, when the first time I took it I was thinking like a student.

In my preparation and planning for the week after Spring Break, I gave a lot of extra attention to the Math blocks. The students didn't do so well on the unit on fractions, so I wanted to make sure I spent as much time as I could on each mini lesson, paced carefully, and had many manipulatives and visuals. The first day back was Partial Products. On Pinterest, I found this great idea for place value, and decided to use it for this lesson since they have to find the place value in order to solve partial products. I bought Styrofoam cups and stacked them by threes. I wrote the numbers 0-9 on the edges of them. Then, in the first layer I put two zeros next to each number. The second layer I put one zero next to each number, and the last layer was left alone. The point of this is so children could make any three digit number they want, and then pull out the layers to see what place value the number is. For example, if the number is 365, students will make it so their cups read 365. When they pull the 3 out, it really says 300. SO they know the number they are multiplying is 300. Then the 6 is 60, and the 5 is just 5. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and it was helping them see the place values of numbers when multiplying 3 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers.

P. Stef came for another observation this week. It was spur of the moment, and I didn't know he was coming until the night before. Luckily, my plans for the day he came for a Reading lesson was "Angry Verbs". The students grammar portion of the week was "helping verbs". (was, will, is, etc.) I decided to incorporate something fun, I would have students write about "Angry Birds" using helping verbs. The students had to write a sentence that included a main verb and a helping verb. The sentences were so cute, and they really enjoyed it. It was such an easy lesson, and I'm glad P. Stef got to see something a little less formal than the lessons he has seen already. The majority of the lesson was the kids coloring their pictures and talking to neighbors about their sentences, but I didn;t mind it and I don't think P. Stef did either. I am currently making a bulletin board with the pictures, so here is an example I created.

Science was a fun week. We are starting "Life Structures" which is a very hands on activity. The first part of Life Structures is life of a seed. For the introduction lesson, students cut open fruits and examined the seeds inside. Then, we talked about how anything with a seed is considered a fruit, even tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. Even though most of us call them vegetables, in science they are fruits. Students examined size of seeds, shapes, colors and how many. It was a really fun activity, and the room smelled so good from the lemons, tomatoes, peppers, limes, oranges and apples.

The next part of "Life Structures" which will happen in a week or so, are the Crayfish and Beetles. (ewww). We received our critters on Wednesday, and had to set up their homes. I am so not looking forward to doing experiments with these hideous creatures, but the kids are really excited, so we'll see how it goes.

The week was very busy, and I am surprised at how fast it went. Only four more weeks until I am done!