Week 17: Done!

Monday, May 6
Today starts the end of my student teaching career! I can't believe that my last week is here. It's been a fun adventure but I am ready to move on to the next step. Both of my placements were great with awesome students, teachers and colleagues. As I look back on my time at the schools, I can see a lot of growth. I think back to my first day and how nervous I was, and now I feel such confidence in front of the classroom. I remember not knowing how to prepare those agonizingly long lesson plans, and now I can whip them out in no time. I remember not feeling so confident in talking to the other teachers at the school, and now I'm collaborating with other teachers on what we should do in what units. I remember having a hard time remembering my students' names, and now I could tell you their names, family life and how they are doing in school, or what they need to work on. I absolutely feel like I have grown in my teaching ability too; I have a better idea of what lessons need in order to be effective and engaging. Student teaching has been an incredible experience!

Tuesday, May 7
Because I am only teaching journal this week, I have a lot of free time. This enables me to spend time in other classrooms so that I can see even more variety of teaching styles. Today I spent time in the other kindergarten teacher's class. Her class is actually a little behind ours, so what I observed were lessons that I or Christy have already taught. It was really neat to see another teacher do the same lessons and pick up on the differences between us all. Christy is very laid-back while Dawn is a little more strict. Her classroom seems to have more rules in it and the students are much more responsive to her. I think my teaching style is in the middle between the two but probably closer to Christy. I am more of a relaxed person so I would guess that I am more laid-back. I still maintain my classroom management, and so does Christy and Dawn, but overall I am more relaxed. It was good to experience another classroom though and see another teacher in action!

Wednesday, May 8
Tomorrow we are having our Mother's Day Fashion Show so I did a lot of prep work for that. Here's what the day consists of tomorrow: students change into an outfit of their parents, parents arrive at school, students do a fashion show, sing some songs, students eat ice cream with parents, students sing another song, and then students go home with parents! The whole thing only lasts an hour but we have been practicing for a loonnnngggg time for this! The students are doing a great job with their songs and their runway walks are hilarious; they are putting so much hip into each step-- it's great! I spent today cutting the flower nametags for the adults and putting together their presents for their mothers. Our aide Mindy made silhouettes of their side profiles, and we made CDs with mother-y songs on them that the students decorated CD case covers for. Today was mostly spent getting all those things ready for tomorrow; it flew by!

Thursday, May 9
Today was an absolute success! The students did such a fabulous job with everything! The only thing was that the morning class had a little bit of camera-shyness and were quite a bit quieter when singing their songs, but otherwise they did amazing. The students were hilarious walking down the "runway" in their parents outfits; obviously the clothing was large but they did the best they could for walking. When we were helping the kids getting dressed for the fashion show, they were sort of having a hard time getting everything on. One boy who's quite small, Jace, was putting on his dad's pants, and Nick says, "Wow Jace, those are some big pants." Jace looks up quite exasperated and says, "Yeah, I wish my dad was skinnier!!" =)
It was a great day though; everything went according to plan and the kids did a superb job!

Friday, May 10
Last day =(  it is definitely a bittersweet feeling. I am SO sad to leave Beecher; it's been an awesome placement where I have learned a lot and have made some awesome friends. Christy and Mindy took me out for lunch to celebrate. I feel so blessed to have met them this semester; it has been awesome getting to know them and I will absolutely be staying in touch with them, both professionally and as friends. Because this week was Teacher's Appreciation Week, I've given a little something to Christy each day to show her how thankful I am to have been in her class. Overall when I look back over the semester, I have seen God's hand throughout each day at my placements. I feel so blessed for such a great semester!!

Week 16: Sad that next week is #17!

Tuesday, April 30

My classes welcomed me back to school today with the sweetest gift—a book made by the students entitled “Marital Advice”. Each student made a page giving advice as to what my husband and I need to do to keep a happy marriage. Their responses were hilarious! Some suggested jewels and rings, opening up car doors, painting the house and my favorite, buying me a monster pointer finger. (The children have little plastic pointers that go on their fingers that they can use whenever we do letterbook; the idea is to help them follow along better and stick with the class). It was the sweetest gift; I was so touched by Christy’s thoughtfulness!

I am only in charge of journal and science this week, so I don’t feel like I’m doing too much. We are changing units now in science, and are starting the butterfly unit. It’s really neat because the kindergarten teachers order butterfly kits where actual caterpillar eggs come in the mail and the students are able to watch them become caterpillars, make their cocoons, and then become butterflies. For science today, we did a worksheet that explained the phases of a butterfly’s life. The students needed to cut out the squares and put them in order so that a book was made. It’s a great activity because many students still need to practice their cutting skills.

Wednesday, May 1

I am still in shock that May is here. I cannot believe how quickly this semester has flown by! Each month Christy does an assessment journal with the class and puts them into a binder to better assess their progress throughout the year. The journal pages have a question on the top of the page and lines on the bottom for the students to write their response, and then color a picture above their answer. Each assessment is done at the end of the month, so today I did April’s which asked, “What do you like to do on a rainy day?”

Going over this page with the class made it even more obvious to me how each student is different from one another. Some of their responses were complete sentences with great descriptions and perfect spelling while others were struggling with words like “to”. It is crazy how much of a gap there is in the students’ ability levels. What’s great about assessments like these journals though is that the teacher is able to see the student’s progress based on his or her work since the beginning of the year, rather than just comparing the student to where everybody else currently is.

Thursday, May 2

Whenever a student has a birthday, the parents are always welcomed to bring a birthday treat for the class; Christy sent a note home in the beginning of the year letting the parents know. It usually is a cupcake or brownies, but sometimes the over-the-top parents make it much more of a bigger ordeal. Tomorrow is Caroline’s birthday and her mom went completely overboard with the treats. She brought ice-cream cups, brownies, strawberries, lemonade and made goodie bags to go home with each child.

Christy is thankful that we’re towards the end of the birthdays because if there were many more, she would probably send a note home letting parents know that just a simple treat is fine. After exquisite birthday treats like these in the past, students have gone home telling their parents that they had to bring xyz and had to make goody bags for all the students. It’s fun to celebrate birthdays, but when snack time takes a half-hour because of all the birthday treats, it’s a little extreme. The children obviously love it though; one student said today, “Now this is a birthday party!”

Friday, May 3

Today was a half-day of school. Though most grade teachers look forward to these days and get excited for them, they are days that Christy has come to dread. Because of having half-day kindergarten, that means there are two classes, so on the half-days, the afternoon does not have school whereas the morning class still comes in. When looking at the academic calendar for Beecher, I found that there are seven half-days so the morning class essentially has an extra week of school than the afternoon class! This makes it extremely hard to keep the two classes on track.

Yesterday we squeezed in extra projects in the afternoon, and they did a fabulous job getting everything done. In the morning, we went at a much slower pace and spent extra time on things like coloring, cutting, snack time (thank goodness for all those extra birthday snacks!), etc. so that today, the morning class could do the rest of the things that the afternoon class did. The morning class got everything in and the classes are on the same spot now in each subject, but because we still had extra time, the students got to watch a short video on phonics. It makes it hard having the keep the classes together, but it’s worth the extra effort.

On another note, I cannot believe that next week is my last week at Beecher. My time here has flown by! I will greatly miss my class and my teachers; they have all become so special to me. Both of my student teaching placements have been such a blessing in my life!

Week 15: I am blessed.

Monday, April 22Today was Earth Day, so I started the classes off by doing a coloring page of a bear hugging the earth and then we did a Weekly Reader on Earth Day. In the reader, it explained how all our trash goes to landfills and we are simply running out of room to put our trash; this is why it’s important to create less trash because we are then taking better care of our earth. This led into a huge discussion from the students about how smelly and gross landfills are. The expressions they were using to describe dumbs was hilarious!
Later on when the class came inside from recess, they told me that I should be very proud of them because they spent their recess cleaning up garbage off the playground. I absolutely was proud of them, but told them that they needed to definitely wash their hands before we started letterbook J
Tuesday, April 23This is our last week studying dinosaurs in science, and we are finishing it strong! We made dinosaur eggs today using paper maché and balloons and it was so much fun. It was my first time ever working with paper maché and it was definitely an experience. We started with mixing the glue and the water and I explained to the students that we were going to make dinosaur eggs out of balloons and newspaper. I described the steps that we would use today (mixing the glue and water, dipping the newspaper strips into the mixture, wiping off excess dripping, wrapping the paper around the balloon, patting the paper maché flat) and what we would do when the eggs were done drying (pop the balloon, cut a hole in them, paint the eggs and put baby dinosaurs inside). After giving a quick description, I asked if there were any questions—about 20 hands shot up, of whom 16 all were wanting to know what would happen if the balloon popped while putting the newspaper around it J
It was an extremely messy project, but one that I know the kids really enjoyed, and so did I. I am very thankful that Christy, Mindy (classroom aide) and Rachel (one-on-one aide) were all there to help in the morning; all the extra hands definitely helped things go so well. In the afternoon, it was just Christy, Mindy and I, but it still went well. For it being my first time working with paper maché and having to explain it to kindergartners, I’d say it went great!
Wednesday, April 24We finished our letterbook Ww today so we celebrated by having Wacky Wednesday! Basically the students were encouraged to wear something wacky and Christy and I changed some things around the room (i.e. turned posters upside down, switched the calendar numbers, put our class stuffed animals on top of the log cabin), just a lot of random things that the students thought were hilarious.
During our letterbook, I told the students that because everything is so wacky today, we should do the pages sitting under our desks instead of in our normal seats, which they LOVED. They thought it was so funny and awesome doing their work on the floor rather than in their seats. These silly little things reminded me that it’s the little stuff in life that mean the most sometimes. I sported a fabulous outfit today complete with cheetah tights, a red boa, and a polka dot shirt; one of my students asked me if it was my wedding dress. When I said that it wasn’t, he looked kind of sad and said, “Well, I think it’d be a great one!”

Thursday, April 25Today was a pretty normal today. It’s been strange this week because I gave calendar and math back to Christy, so I’m no longer standing in front of the class all day, every day. I definitely don’t mind giving things back though; it’s nice to see others teach. Next week I am going to spend more time in the other kindergarten classroom and in a second grade classroom because Christy said it would be great for me to just see as many different teaching styles as I can, which I totally agree with. I’m very thankful I was placed with Christy; our teaching personas are very similar so it was easy to take over because the students were used to a similar style of teaching. I definitely experienced some “Mrs. Cox doesn’t do that” times, but overall, I would say it’s been a fabulous placement.
When I went to get the milk from the office this morning for snack time, I walked into the classroom with the students saying “Happy Wedding!” and saw a gift in the front of the class from all the students. Christy had mentioned to parents that I was getting married, and many gave money wanting to give me something (which Christy never even asked for) so I am feeling SO unbelievably blessed. Both the morning and afternoon classes gave me something, and Christy brought cupcakes for everyone to celebrate; it was so sweet. I had many kind words from my students: “Mrs. DeVries, you’re going to be the most beautifulest wife” and “I hope you have a very happy marriage” and “You’re the kindest, most wonderfulest teacher, so you’re husband must be nice”. Let me tell you, these kids have been a blast to teach. They have been such a blessing in my life!
Because the wedding is this Saturday (!!) today was my last day for this week. Christy graciously told me from the beginning of my placement that she did not want me at school tomorrow or on Monday, which I so appreciate. I am ecstatic for the wedding, but I honestly am pretty bummed to miss school tomorrow—the kids are painting their dinosaur eggs!

Week 14: I'm a mean, green sticking-with-the-schedule machine!

Monday, April 15

Christy's son was sick today so she ended up staying home from school. Beecher almost always has at least two subs in each day, and they are pretty picky with who they get to sub in their classrooms. Because they are picky, that means their list of options is small, and because they already had two subs lined up for today, they were unable to find a sub to fill in Christy's shoes. I am in my last week of full-time teaching this week however so even if they had found a sub, the sub would not have needed to do anything. They could have brought a book to read and sit in the corner, and we'd be fine!

Because it is a public school though, I needed to keep the door open between our classroom and the other kindergarten classroom. This way, the other kindergarten teacher could act as my cooperating teacher for the day. It was totally not a big deal to have the door open, but it did make me think about the differences between private and public schools. When Elaine couldn't be at CPCS for the morning one day, they did not even try to get a sub come in. Partly because Elaine came back at 1, but also partly because they trusted me in the classroom and didn't feel a need to find a substitute teacher. I know they trust me at Beecher, but because everything is so involved with the state, I recognize that they needed to have someone act as my cooperating teacher for the day. The whole thing was not a big deal, but it did make me see some distinctions between the private vs. public school systems.

Tuesday, April 16

Today was a pretty normal day. We are starting to learn about the dime this week in math, so we started the day off by reading a book about dimes during calendar time and then discussed for a couple minutes how much a dime is worth and how many nickels/pennies equal a dime. The students then went back to their seat and did a worksheet where they needed to color in all the dimes green, nickels orange and pennies blue. The majority of the class did really well with this, so it was encouraging to see such great results already. Next week Christy takes math back, so she will introduce the quarter, but it's good to know that they are grasping the information before moving on. We have other penny activities lined up for this week, but with many of them having prior knowledge for all the coins, it's much easier for them in school to do the sheets.

Wednesday, April 17

As I mentioned before, we are learning about dinosaurs in science. The majority of this learning comes from reading dinosaur books during calendar time and doing simple worksheets twice a week. One of the worksheets was a cut and paste page where the students needed to order the dinosaurs according to size; with this paper, I led a class discussion on how there were hundreds of different type of dinosaurs and we looked through a variety of pictures of dinosaurs. Another page contained pictures of different things: a person, a plant, a dinosaur and a teepee tent. We first discussed which of those things existed when dinosaurs were alive, and then the students colored the ones that were around before dinosaurs became extinct.

 

Today however the students got to do a really fun project where they colored huge dinosaurs with chalk that are going up in the hallway for our dinosaur mural. The dinosaurs my classes colored were a tyrannosaurus rex and a pterodactyl while the other kindergarten class did a brachiosaurus. The dinosaurs look awesome and Mindy, our kindergarten aide, made the murals even better by adding grasses and other scenery items to the hallway. The hall looks so awesome!

Thursday, April 18

We started today off with a weekly reader about rain. Because we've gotten so much rain lately, Christy and I thought it'd be extremely appropriate. As we started reading, it got almost black outside, the wind started to howl and pretty soon rain was pouring down! One of the girls in my class however started to cry because she is terribly afraid of thunderstorms. I was thankful for Christy in the room because it enabled me to continue teaching the lesson while she helped Sabrina calm down.

About halfway through the weekly reader, Liam raised his hand and asked about where the rain came from; I gave a quick shortcut summary of the water cycle and explained that there is a process where basically the clouds absorb the water from the ocean, and then the water comes back down to earth in the form of either rain or snow. Liam's next question was whether there was pee in rain. Kind of puzzled, I said no because the water comes from the clouds so it's clean. Liam looked at me funny, and said, "But all the rain water comes from the ocean, and the fish and stuff pee in the ocean!" I had to keep myself from laughing as I said that the clouds have a purifying system where they make the water clean. It was definitely a moment that I won't forget because it reminded me why I chose this profession: to constantly spend time with children who make me smile each day.

Friday, April 19

Christy was gone again today because her mom is getting married this weekend up in MI so the whole family went up today to just spend quality relaxation time together. Because it was known in advance, I did have a substitute teacher come in. Michelle actually taught at Beecher last year in fifth grade, but got rifted when the school made budget cuts because she was only there for one year. She's extremely nice and it worked fine having her in the classroom today. Because I am teaching full-time yet, she spent about half of each class getting students caught up on projects or papers they missed, and then the rest of the time graded letterbooks. Mindy normally grades all the letterbooks, so she was extremely appreciative of Michelle getting so much done! I was worried it'd be awkward having a substitute in the classroom because she wouldn't have anything to do, but Michelle busied herself which I really appreciated.

Other than having a substitute in, everything went normal today. This week was a successful week to have as my last full-time teaching week. I made a goal for myself at the beginning of Beecher placement to stick with the schedule Christy and I made, and now that I'm done with full-time teaching, I can proudly say that I did it! I got everything done that we planned for me to do, and I feel quite accomplished about it!

Classroom Confidential
Getting involved with the community and incorporating it as a learning tool is the focus of chapter seven. No matter where a classroom is located, there is a community surrounding it where the students can explore, learn and question things they thought they already knew. Schmidt gave some great ideas for ways to get students involved in the community; here are some I would like to incorporate into my own classroom someday.

On page 145, Schmidt describes Before and After maps. With this method, students first draw a map of a certain area, then explore the area, and then go back to either re-create a new map or add additional details to their first map. I really like this idea because it will help the students see what neat things they are missing out on by not exploring their own community. Humans tend to think we know it all (especially when it comes to things that we are familiar with) but doing this exploration activity will challenge the students to look beyond the normal and notice all the special things about their community.

Another idea I liked a lot was the Community Lifespan. Integrating this means to create a timeline of the surrounding town starting at the very year it was founded. As students learn more about their town throughout the year, the students add something to the timeline. Marking off the decades and centuries really helps students put the big ideas all together. As Schmidt notes, “the time line helps visual and spatial learners grasp the sequence and patterns of events over time.” I love this project idea because it’s one that takes place all year long.

Week 13: Blessed to see on my desk some green and tangerine :)

Monday, April 8

I learned something incredibly valuable today from Christy—use fabric on bulletin boards. Such a simple idea but it is brilliant! She always puts fabric as her backing on the bulletin boards because it holds up better and the holes in the fabric don’t show nearly as much as they do in paper. I absolutely love it. Switching up the bulletin boards is something she’s been doing a lot lately now that she has extra time at school.

This is one thing I really enjoy about Christy. She is extremely laid-back and pretty much just lets me do my thing. She’s constantly moving around the room and going in and out (changing bulletin boards, organizing cabinets, clearing out space, doing laminating) and I really appreciate how much she’s just let me take over. I rarely feel like she’s ever just sitting watching me, and I am thankful for that. My cooperating teacher from CPCS, Elaine, never made me feel awkward either, but she definitely stayed in the room a lot more than Christy does. Elaine did a lot of things sitting at her desk, so though she was never truly just watching me, I felt a little more pressure whereas Christy just does her own thing, allowing me to feel confident in my own teaching. It’s been so great working with Christy!

Tuesday, April 9

Today I had my first official interview and was extremely nervous to say the least. Walking into my classroom this morning, I found a vase of orange tiger lilies from Christy just to wish me good luck; I was so touched. Later on after lunch, I found a card on my desk from the other kindergarten teacher, Dawn, reassuring me that God had this all under control, and that He will make things clear to me and the interviewing committee. I am so floored by how great of a community this school has. It is so encouraging to work with people who really care about you and support you.

Overall, the interview went ok. I would definitely not say it was the best interview, but hopefully it wasn’t the worst either; I wasn’t told a date for when I would hear anything other than ASAP, so now it’s just a waiting game.

Wednesday, April 10

This morning was extremely long and tiring, especially compared to my afternoon class. I had to move 10 stars this morning. The majority was due to talking when I was talking but there were plenty for touching other students, completely not listening to my directions and causing distractions in class. One boy, Nick, frequently moves his star. How the system works is that everybody’s star starts on black; first is a warning, and they move to green. Green is simply a warning so they still get full recess and a sticker at the end of the day. After green is yellow; yellow means half of recess is taken away, and no sticker. Next is red; red means no recess, no sticker. Finally, there’s a black space called “Call Home”.

My dear Nick is a frequent visitor on the call-home slot. He is a sweet boy; he really is; it’s just his mouth gets him in trouble a lot. He is constantly talking and not paying attention. Today he only got onto the red, and when I talked to him at the end of the day about why he was on red, he completely knew why: “Because I talk too much. I’ll try to be quieter, I really will” was his response. He’s a chatterbox for sure, but if that’s the worst problem in my classes, I will absolutely take it.

Thursday, April 11

Today I had a problem with both my morning and afternoon classes with coming back from specials late. It kinda drove me nuts! Both classes came back from gym 5-8 minutes late, and though that may not seem very long, each of those minutes is precious time we could be working on or completing an activity. Feeling frustrated about this, it also caused me to look at things from the PE teacher’s point of view; I know I have sent them to gym late before, and I’m sure she gets just as frustrated with it as I did today. I’m at fault for sometimes thinking, “Well, it’s just computers; if they’re a little late, that’s okay.” That’s completely not true; each special is just as important to the students’ development as the core classes I teach. It was not fun today feeling frustrated and needing to make up that lost time, but it definitely made me think about things from the special teachers’ perspectives.

Friday, April 12

Field trip day today! All three kindergarten classes (my morning and afternoon, and the other kindergarten class) left at 8:30 to head to the Exploration Station in Bourbonnais. Christy and Dawn had enough parents able/willing to come on the field trip so each parent was assigned 2-3 kids. This meant for a lot of people to go on the field trip, but it worked out so well. When we arrived to the Exploration Station, the students were pretty much free to do whatever. They needed to stick with their group, but otherwise, they were able to go around to all the different stations throughout the building. It was my first time here so I had fun exploring what there was too. The building was divided up into multiple little rooms/stations including: Lickety Split Soda Shot, Shop-a-lot Market, Exploralot Castle, Invention Center and places where students could play with Legos, draw, “fix” cars, and climb on airplanes. It was a huge place; I was extremely thankful for all the parents that came! Overall it was a great field trip though where I learned a lot about organization and communication between all parties involved.

Week 12: Proud of myself :)

Monday, April 1

We had Easter Monday off for spring break still, so no school on Monday!

 

Tuesday, April 2

When I walked into the classroom today, on my desk there was a bag of Fritos, lots of Hershey kisses and a Lunchable! Christy gave me the little gift to celebrate that my wedding month has arrived, and that I am starting to teach full-time this week! It was so sweet and thoughtful of her; I feel so blessed to have been placed with two awesome teachers for both of my student teaching placements. I know I’ve said this before, but I couldn’t have picked better teachers to work with! 

 

With today being my official first-day of full-time, I would have thought I’d be more nervous but I really was not. I felt prepared and confident going into the day, and am happy to say we got everything in! I mentioned last week that a problem I wanted to avoid was planning too much for each day, and I think today went great. I actually taught the same lesson that I did for my first graders at my first placement for math today; we did an M&Ms graph where the students needed to graph the amount of each color. When I taught the lesson at CPCS, I was concerned with how well they would do it, and they did fabulous, and with my kindergartners, they did just as great! It’s neat to see how lessons can work for various ages when they are just tweaked a little. 

 

Wednesday, April 3

In science, we are starting a dinosaur unit. What I love about teaching science in kindergarten is that it’s not too crazy in-depth; we aren’t going to learn the names of twenty dinosaurs that I cannot pronounce! We started the unit by just talking about what they already know about dinosaurs, reading a book and doing a worksheet that helped clarify what did and did not exist during the time of dinosaurs. We only have official science lessons two times a week, but I am working with the other kindergarten teacher on coming up with some cute projects we can create on one of the non-science days. 

 

Being the official full-time teacher, it’s neat how the other teachers in the school value me just as one of their own. Like I said, the other kindergarten teacher and I are working on finding a cute dinosaur project, and she also came to me to ask what I used to introduce dinosaurs this week as she is starting that next week. I felt like a real teacher handing her my paper so she could make copies of it to use in her class! I’ve mentioned Mrs. Bunte before (the awesome lady who helps with copying and whatever else we need). Even she has been coming to me to ask if I need anything done rather than just asking Christy. I really appreciate how much the staff recognizes me as an official teacher; helps me feel more confident! 

 

Thursday, April 4

Every month a Family Project gets sent home. These projects are normally some type of art-ish thing that the students are encouraged to work on with a family member and bring to school some time that month. Because Earth Day is later this month, the family project is to make “recycleable critters” and they are turning out so cute! Some of the critters turned in so far are a mosquito (made of egg cartons, milk carton, cardboard and paper towel roll), turtle (made of bubble wrap and plastic Easter eggs), and an entire farm with chicks (popping out of an egg container), a silo (Pringles can) and a rooster (made of a milk carton and cardboard feathers). 

 

I love the entire idea of having Family Projects, but I especially love this recycleable critter idea. I think it is definitely something that could be incorporated into any grade, and I will absolutely be keeping it in mind when I have my own classroom. 

 

Friday, April 5

One week down with being full-time, and it flew by. Being in front of the classroom all day definitely can be tiring but it is something I really enjoy. I am so excited and proud to announce that we got everything in just like we planned! It’s a good feeling knowing that when I come in on Monday, we won’t need to switch our plans around; I will still be able to teach what we originally planned for. Christy keeps giving me a hard time that I need to give her some pointers on how to fit everything in; I told her it’s just beginners luck and I probably won’t be in the same position at the end of being full-time in two weeks! 

 

Something I noticed about having the morning and afternoon classes is that my afternoon class generally goes a lot smoother. A huge reason for this is the class dynamics; the morning class is much chattier and harder to keep focused while the afternoon class is quicker to listen and work quietly. Another reason why I think the afternoon class goes smoother is because I better understand how to go about the day; because I just did the same thing in the morning, I know exactly what type of transitions work best and can incorporate those in the afternoon. Not that the morning class has gone badly at all, but I do feel like the afternoon class goes better. I’ve made a goal for myself to make them match up and have both go just as smooth!

Week 11: Still Learnin'

Monday, March 18

Every year in kindergarten around St. Patrick’s Day, the “leprechaun” visits the classes and messes everything up! When the kids came in today, they were quite surprised to find so many things disarrayed. Christy and I changed the calendar to October with a picture of Santa Clause; we hung ghosts and pumpkins on the chalkboard; and Christy even made tiny green footprints going out of the log cabin in our class, up the bookcase, and on the window because the leprechaun escaped our trap. He was able to leave, but he forgot his shoes which were caught in a net in the log cabin!

It was not much, but it was definitely something the kids absolutely loved. The majority of our calendar time was discussing what things were wrong in the classroom and how the leprechaun escaped. In all my younger years I don’t think I ever had a teacher make such a big deal out of St. Patrick’s Day but here at Beecher, the teachers absolutely take advantage of it. The fourth graders needed to construct a leprechaun trap using one of the simple machines (inclined plane, pulley, lever, wheel and axel, wedge or screw). There were many artsy projects hanging around the school too. It is definitely a largely celebrated holiday!

Tuesday, March 19

As I am taking over more and more of the class, I have come face to face with the two biggest problems of half-day kindergarten. Christy has talked about both of these since Day 1, but I have definitely experienced them myself now. The first problem is simply keeping the morning and afternoon classes on the same page for all the lessons. Sometimes one class gets something quicker so we can go through it faster, allowing us more time for something else, but then the other class might be the exact opposite. It’s hard keeping both classes together, but definitely something I aim to do when I take over full-time after spring break.

The second trouble I’ve become more aware of is just getting everything in each day. Because it is a half-day program, we have the kids for 3 hours. They still have snack time, recess and all the specials—art, music, gym, computers and library—so by the time all those things are said and done, we only have about two hours each day for actual teaching. It makes it really hard to teach the academics, but still incorporate the fun kindergarten projects. Christy has said how much she hates the time crunch, and how she knows giving up the cute projects would give more time for academics, but she’s not willing to give those up. I agree with that; I think kindergarten is a time for learning academically, but it’s also just a year where the kids get used to being in school and all the cute projects are something they love doing, and parents love seeing. In her nine years of teaching kindergarten, Christy has seen a huge change in what the students are required to know. Before they just needed to know their basic shapes; now they need to know 3-dimensional shapes. Their required sight words are increasing, as are the required math skills. As kindergarteners keep being required to know more and more before entering first grade, I feel like the half-day program will have to become obsolete. It is so incredibly hard getting everything in each day!

Wednesday, March 20

To celebrate Easter, the teachers did a potluck brunch-eon. Sign-up sheets were put last week for who would bring what, and today we got to relish each others’ dishes. It was really fun to bring in food and also to eat lunch with those who normally do not eat in the teacher’s lounge. It was fun too because I got to share my recipe, and got recipes from others for their delicious food. It was really fun having the brunch-eon because it just gave another fun topic for us to all talk about while eating.

Thursday, March 21

My lunches have been extremely awesome this week—today Christy, our afternoon aide (Mindy) and I went out to eat at Subway! Christy said sometimes it’s really nice to just leave school for lunch and it definitely was. We really enjoyed just sitting together and talking about whatever. We talked a lot about our plans for the upcoming spring break, when I take over the classroom full-throttle, and just life outside of school. I really feel blessed to be working with such awesome people that I not only look up to as teachers, but also as individual people.

Another person who helps A LOT in our classes is Mrs. Bunte. She is around 75 but is at school every day to help with whatever needs to be done. She puts the homework and graded papers into the students’ mailboxes each morning; she does all the copying that we need; and she helps get ready whatever we need for projects. For example, we did a project where the kindergarteners needed to glue two duck feet onto their picture. The duck feet were kind of odd-shaped and they would have been a little hard for the students to cut out so Mrs. Bunte cut out the 90 duck feet for us. She is such a huge help with whatever needs to get done in all the grades!

Friday, March 22

Today we had a popcorn party because the students earned it by having enough chain-links on their wall. The reward system that Christy uses is that the students earn links when the class does really well with something or is quiet the whole time when getting ready to go home. When they have a certain number of links, they are able to have a popcorn party. They actually earned their party last week, but because I was teaching on the five senses this week, I suggested we have the party today so I could use it as a science lesson also.

It worked out awesome. We started by reviewing our five senses, and then I asked the students how we would use those five senses during our popcorn party. While the popcorn was popping, we talked about what it sounded like, and then when we started to smell it, we talked about what we smelled. They got so excited when they started to see the popcorn coming up the popcorn popper, and of course loved using their hands to grab the popcorn and tongues to taste it. It was a fun lesson that the students didn’t even realize was a lesson, which I loved!

Week 10: Getting into the Swing of Things Again!

Monday, March 11

At my last placement, I talked a lot about how much I loved the entire school community. All of the teachers I met were kind and welcoming, and just made me so excited to be at CPCS. I am so blessed to say that here at Beecher, I am experiencing the same thing. All the staff has been so friendly and are willing to help me with whatever. (One teacher heard I was getting married and started offering some of her own wedding things for me to use!) I have just felt so overwhelmed by all the smiles they offer. At one aiding placement I had, I would dread lunchtime because I could not stand the lunchroom talk with the teachers; they were always just degrading their students and talking about how much they don’t like their job/school. It is nothing like that in Beecher’s lunchroom! The staff is composed of caring individuals who not only love their job but also their colleagues and their district. I look forward to lunch and hearing from other grades’ teachers how their day is going, how their weekend was, and what exciting things are happening in their lives. It’s been a really neat experience.

The only negative comments I have heard lately in the lunchroom concern the new superintendant. This school year the district hired a new superintendant, and no one is excited about her, including our principal. The superintendant is extremely strict and unwilling to work with the teachers it seems like; they all miss their old one very much. Apparently the new superintendent was told at her last district that she could either quit, or she’d get fired. Because she chose to quit, her old district won’t give out any information as to why they did not want her, so she got hired for Beecher’s district, and so far, it has not been a great experience. Hearing their stories about her has opened my eyes to how different public and private schools are. It seems as though public schools have a lot more hoops to go through for certain things and it is disappointing to hear about.

Tuesday, March 12

Today I got to use some knowledge I gained at CPCS at my new placement! Something I learned at Crown Point (I think I wrote about it before) was a game called Silent Ball. Essentially it’s a game where students throw a ball to each other but they cannot talk the whole time. If they drop the ball, they’re out; if they throw poorly, they’re out; if they talk, they’re out. I explained the game to Christy before and she thought it sounded really neat (I think she was mostly interested in the quiet factor!) so today I got to teach it to the kindergartners for an indoor recess.

It went really well and the students loved the game. We played it a little different than we did at CPCS because of desk structures being different but they really enjoyed it. It was fun to compare how the first graders play to how the kindergartners play. The first graders would try to throw to someone across the room, making it harder on themselves whereas the kindergartners kept passing it to the person right next to them so that they would for sure not get out. Either way, it’s fun to learn about games that can be used at multiple ages!

Wednesday, March 13

My cooperating teacher Christy’s younger sister Emily taught at Beecher Elementary last year. Because of budget cuts, she was not given her job back this year, but she did manage to snag a maternity-leave position. It’s kind of a strange situation because she’s teaching in her own room from last year; the teacher’s had switched rooms around, so the one who she’s subbing for now has her old room. It’s been frustrating for Emily, but she is glad to at least have something for awhile.

Today I went to Emily’s class to observe her use iPads in the classroom. Apparently they “belong” to the fourth grade classes, but the third grade classes get to use them today/tomorrow so Emily was excited. Emily is extremely awesome at integrating technology into her lessons (she has a SMARTBoard in her classroom) and she was so excited to have an iPad for each student. The lesson I got to watch was one about time. Each iPad had a certain app already downloaded, so the students just needed to open it up and move the clock’s hands to whatever time Emily said. The app did have the digital time in the corner so the students needed to cover it with a piece of paper when moving the hands, and when they were done they could check their answer simply by moving the piece of paper. It sounds like a simple lesson but it worked great because the students were able to check their own work and get immediate feedback. It was really fun to see how iPads can be used in the classroom; their uses are unlimited I’m sure.

Thursday, March 14

Today our class had some special visitors. Each week we have a Star Student where they get to fill out facts about themselves and the other children get to interview them. At some point during the week, the Star Student gets to have a special adult come in and tell stories, and then we do the actual interview. This week’s Star Student, Treycen, was so excited for his dad to come in, and so was Christy because Treycen’s dad used to play on the Bears! Fabien Bownes played on the Bears and the Seattle Seahawks, each for 4 years, so the children absolutely LOVED him coming in with his jerseys and helmets. Treycen was so proud and it was really endearing to see him look up to his dad so much.

During the interview, one of the children apparently felt sick and threw up all over the carpet rug. The flu must be going around again because he was the fourth student today to get sick at school. It was good to see how Christy acted in the situation; she first took care of the sick boy and then moved the other students to another part of the room to finish the interview. Thankfully the boys and girls quickly forgot about the incident and were captivated by the football gear. Our second special visitor was my supervisor, so thank you Mrs. Hysell for being understanding about the craziness of the day! J

 

Friday, March 15

One student had her last day in our classroom today. Jordane’s mom decided that Jordane needs to be in a full-day kindergarten program so she is pulling her out and switching schools… right before the fourth quarter starts. It doesn’t really make much sense to Christy; at this point in the year, it’s going to be a struggle for Jordane to switch. Jordane does have younger siblings and the mom has made talk of how inconvenient it is to drop off and pick up Jordane throughout the day, so Christy is guessing that has a lot to do with the switch also.

It’s crazy to think how much classes can change throughout the school year. It seems to be more of an issue in public schools, but for Christy’s classes this year, she has had 3 students join the classes at random points in the year, and has had 2 leave. I can’t imagine being Jordane’s new teacher, and having another student all of a sudden at the very end of the school year. It’s going to be hard for her to figure out what skills Jordane has/needs to improve on, and it’ll be hard for Jordane to accustom herself to a new class’ rules and routines. All together it just seems like a crazy situation.

Week 9: Things are goin' fine!

Monday, March 4

Today was Casimir Pulaski Day so no school!

 

Tuesday, March 5

Because of the large snowstorm that didn’t come until 11 in the morning, school got cancelled. I thought it was interesting with how they call off school—the district has an emergency alert system where all the staff gets emails and text messages. They then get a phone call, and need to pass it on based on the phone tree so each staff member gets a text, an email and a phone call. As Christy said, after all that communication, there’s no point trying to fall back asleep! Christy kindly texted me letting me know, but I did check the school’s website and saw it on there as well.

Wednesday, March 6

Because last week Friday was Family Ocean Day, the kindergartners did not celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday yet so that was scheduled for yesterday but due to the snow day, we celebrated today! We wore pajamas and made white and red striped hats in honor of the Cat in the Hat that the kids got to wear the rest of the day. We read some of Dr. Seuss’ stories, but other than that, we did not spend much time focused on him because the week was cut short, and the time that we do have with the kids is so valuable that we need to focus on other things. Doing simple activities like this though is a great way to make days exciting for the kids without taking up an entire day’s time.

Thursday, March 7

I began taking on responsibility this week by opening up each class with the calendar time. Calendar time here is very different than how I did it at CPCS. At CPCS, we had the same routine each day where we had a devotional, changed the calendar, talked about the weather and read the message I wrote telling what specials we had today. At Beecher, Christy has literally about 20-30 things that she uses randomly, so each calendar time is different. I like this because it keeps the kids interested because it’s not the same-ole, same-ole every day, but I did like the consistent structure of the morning meetings at CPCS. Christy is great, but admits that she “flies by the seat of her pants” most days, especially when it comes to morning meetings. This is fun, but will definitely challenge me to be more creative with what activities I choose to do!

For this week, Christy asked me to do focus on addition during our morning meetings. Because the days go by so quickly, sometimes she squeezes in math during the morning meeting. Even if it’s just a few minutes, it’s more than they would have gotten otherwise. So today after discussing the calendar, I did some math facts using manipulatives on the whiteboard and had the kids figure out them out on the board. We only spent a few minutes on this but the kids had no problem with it. It was pretty fun to do a little bit of teaching again!

Friday, March 8

Both yesterday and today, Christy was gone because of a huge kindergarten conference in Schaumburg that she attends each year. It’s a huge event that she always looks forward to and comes back excited about trying new things. She says the hard thing is coming back, excited to integrate all these new activities, but then there’s nowhere else to go with it. Christy thinks it’d be great to have the conference, then go back in a month or two to discuss with others how things are going and what they’re finding to work, or not work.

Because Christy’s been gone, we had a substitute teacher named Michelle. Michelle actually was a student teacher at Beecher last year and now subs 2-4 times a week between Beecher and a school in Manhattan. It was great talking to her and learning more about how it works when you sub and what the job market is like out there. Having Michelle in the class the last two days though definitely helped me see how much kids rely on their normal teacher. Each teacher has their own teaching style and personality, so naturally everyone’s a little different. Christy allows the students to whisper pretty much whenever she is not talking or giving directions; obviously when she’s teaching they need to listen, but if they’re doing a project involving scissors or glue, they are allowed to talk to one another as long as they still work. If their talking interferes with their working, then their privilege to talk gets taken away. Michelle however does not tolerate talking at all; both days she got upset multiple times telling the kids they needed to be quiet. This morning, a student’s mom told Mindy (the afternoon aid) that the girl didn’t want to come to school today because she was so scared of the substitute teacher.

The whole experience just showed me how different teachers are from one another, and also how much students come to rely on their teacher. When something is different, they generally will not like it right away. I can see how it would be difficult to be a substitute, jumping in and out of different classrooms where few things are truly under your control.

Week 8: New placement's going great!

Monday, February 25

Today started the official beginning-of-the-end for my journey of student teaching! Going to Beecher Elementary today, I had mixed emotions. I was extremely excited to start because I was able to visit the classroom three times last semester, and have had tons of email correspondence with my cooperating teacher, Christy. At the same time, it definitely felt odd to leave my house and head in the opposite direction of CPCS. I’ll always remember my time at Crown Point Christian with smiles on my face, but I did head to Beecher with a smile too, so that was a good feeling.

Upon arriving, I talked to the principal for a bit and then headed to my classroom. I have two kindergarten classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon; each lasts for three hours. I quickly realized how three hours is not nearly enough to get everything done! The curriculum may not be extremely strenuous in kindergarten, but there are definitely are lot of things that need to be finished at the end of the day, and I am greatly aware of the time crunch that the teachers face. With recess, snack time and all the specials such as gym, music and library, those three hours quickly diminish into under two hours—barely enough time for a reading, science, math curriculums as well as time for the fun, exciting kindergarten-y projects.

Tuesday, February 26

Just like yesterday, today flew by. Kindergarten is always busy, but Christy told me this week is even more so than normal. Friday is Ocean Day where the students have special adults who can come in for an hour and do ocean-related activities. Before Friday comes though, there’s a lot of preparation that needs to take place. There are so many art projects that need to get done with the kids and to still squeeze in all the actual lessons is tough. I’ve noticed that both Christy and Elaine share a similar mindset in that, you do what you’ve got to do, and anything else is a bonus! Sometimes it’s just too hard to get everything done that you need to prioritize and just do what you can. Another similarity I’ve seen between my two cooperating teachers is their ability to over-plan! Both have admitted that they are way ambitious and always think more can get done. As we’ve talked about at Trinity, it’s always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, so I am thankful for their example of me of how to be prepared yet still flexible.

Wednesday, February 27

Because I’m starting at a new school, it’s been interesting figuring out more information about the kids. It’s sort of strange because I do find myself comparing these students to my students at CPCS. Here are a quick facts about my students:

Morning class (8:30-11:30)—23 kids; one student has a one-on-one aide primarily because she has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Jenny primarily has this in her knees and ankles, but they are pretty sure she also has it in her jaw and hands/wrists. Part of why they think it’s in her jaw is because Jenny is unable to pronounce certain sounds, so it is hard for her to vocalize and communicate with students and teachers. The aide also helps a lot with another child (Thomas) because he is unofficially diagnosed with Autism. The teaching team is working through the process right now to figure out what to do with both of these two students for next year. Intellectually, they are great and right on track for 1^st grade, but socially, it will be extremely hard for them.

Afternoon class (12:30-3:30)—20 kids; one student is extremely bright. Ethan reads at a 4^th/5^th grade reading level, and is quite frankly brilliant. Today he matched all the states with their capitals and after I graded them (using a map of course!) he had gotten them all correct. He is one smart kindergartener!  Socially though, Ethan is extremely immature. He’s already on the young side for being in kindergarten, and though his older sister skipped first grade, it is unlikely that he will because he would be so off socially. Ethan also is much smaller and shorter than the other kids in class so skipping a grade would make him stand out even more. We also have an aide in the afternoon class but she is not a one-on-one; she helps with the whole class.

Thursday, February 28

Today was mostly spent doing a lot of final minute preparations for tomorrow’s Ocean Day. This past week we’ve had quite a few absences in both the morning and afternoon classes on various days, but luckily today we had everyone present so we were able to get the kids caught up. In order to do this though, I worked with them in the back of the room while the other students continued on their normal work. It’s a vicious cycle because then the student that I’m working with misses on their calendar time or their letterbook (the reading curriculum) or another project that they then need to rush through in order to finish on time and get back on track. I’ve seen this crazy cycle in other classrooms, but I feel like it’s even harder in kindergarten—especially when it’s a half-day schedule.

Christy (my cooperating teacher) has said how much she cannot stand doing half-day. If it were up to her, she would completely change to full-day. There’s just too much that needs to get done, and because you do not want to get rid of the special fun, kindergarten activities, you lose a lot of learning time. If it were full-day, the morning could consist of the majority of the actual learning lessons while the afternoons were the specials and the fun projects. But the world is not a perfect place, so half-day kindergarten still exists!

Friday, March 1

Wow, oh, wow. Having family members come into the kindergarten classrooms is a lot of fun, but an incredibly stressful, chaotic time! In our morning class with 23 kids, we had 29 adults come in. Every student had a special adult come, which is awesome, but it definitely made for a cramped classroom. In our afternoon class, we had 14 special adults come in, so the principal, librarian, some office secretaries, and other random people from the school came in so that each student had a special person to go through the stations with. It was really neat that the school put forth the extra effort so each kid felt special.

This was the schedule of the morning: come to school at 8:30 and did calendar and some of their letterbook, at 9:30 they went to music class, and then parents came from 10-11, and were then free to take their students home with them, so they got to leave school a half hour early. The schedule was the same for the afternoon class, so the great part was that Christy and I got to set up final details while the kids were gone at music class.

When the parents arrived, Christy gave a welcome to the parents in which she introduced me, and then gave the directions for how the next hour would go. There were four tables that they would rotate between so that they were at each spot for approximately 15 minutes. Christy had ocean books lying on the carpet and had an ocean video playing (without the sound on) so that if anyone finished any activity early, they did have something else to do. Though it all went smoothly, it was definitely a crazy, exhausting day. I’ll be honest—when the morning class was over, I was not really looking forward to going through the same thing in an hour! It takes a lot of energy to have special days like Ocean Day. They are an absolute blast and definitely something that the kids will remember, but it can drain the energy right out. Overall though, it was a very fun day, and it was neat to meet so many of the parents so early in my placement!

Classroom Confidential

A great strategy that I could use in my kindergarten placement is Schmidt’s Skinny to Steroids. In this activity, you write a simple sentence on the board, and then have the students come up with adjectives and adverbs that would help make the sentence more detailed. I actually did an activity similar to this with my first graders at CPCS and they absolutely loved it. Some of the sentences they created were silly but the amount of detail they had was so strong that their sentences turned out great.

Another technique that Schmidt mentions he calls There’s a Jewel. Using different type of praise words for my students helps improve their vocabulary, which will ultimately improve their writing. Rather than simply saying “Good sentence,” I can say “Outstanding sentence”. Simple changes such as incorporating words like outstanding, superb, exceptional, marvelous, brilliant, extraordinary and dazzling show students that there are a million synonyms out there; using such words makes our writing much more thrilling. Schmidt definitely points out a lot of great writing strategies, but what I really like about these two is their versatility. They can be used in my kindergarten room, as well as a 5^th grade room, and even an 8^th grade room.

Week 7: A little bit of Heaven

Monday, February 18

Today was President’s Day so we had no school. Instead I spent the day getting ready for starting at Beecher Elementary next week by getting my state and FBI background checks, and got the TB shot. I’ve got everything ready now to get started! 

 

Tuesday, February 19

Starting my last week at CPCS was sad—I’m not quite ready to leave. It’s been strange giving the responsibility back to Elaine, and I feel as though I should be doing so much more while there. This week I am only teaching the reading lessons, and it feels weird! Because this week is a shortened week, our schedules are a little more packed trying to get all the material in.

Each reading lesson starts with reading phonics words but I did today a little different in that after going through the words, I said riddles for them and they had to guess which words I was referring to. After I did a couple examples, I had the class write some too and then share their riddles with the rest of the class. They loved this! It was a simple activity but definitely one that they thought was a blast. One girl, Amanda, was very excited to share her riddle. She warned the class that it was a long one and proceeded to read her sentence: “This is what my brother and I do: Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not!”

Can you guess the phonics word she was referring to? Argue J

 

Wednesday, February 20

I mentioned last week that the school is purchasing a new reading curriculum for next year. After school today we had a meeting with all the primary grades teachers to discuss which was the favorite in the lower grades. After talking for about 30 seconds, it was clear which curriculum the majority liked the best. The curriculum does a great job integrating phonics everyday and also teaches the alphabet at a faster pace than the other curriculum. The second option however is what is liked better by the 3^rd-5^th grade teachers because it contains much more high-interest level books. It primarily uses non-fiction rather than fiction, so it would draw in the children who typically are not interested in reading. The option that would give everybody the best of both worlds would be to split, and have one reading curriculum for prek- 2^nd grade, and another for 3^rd-5^th. It was unknown though whether the budget could allow for the split. The votes are supposed to be handed in on Friday, so by next week, they’ll at least see what decisions the teachers made, and then the ideas will be presented to the school board. I was able to cast a vote as to which curriculum I liked better; I told Elaine she better tell me what ends up happening!

Thursday, February 21

Today in reading we had a test on our story for this week, The Way of an Ant. The students did well on the test and were excited to read the next story, The Fox and the Grapes. In this short story, a fox tries to reach some grapes but cannot, so he therefore decides the grapes are sour. The students did a great job interpreting why the fox called the grapes sour. They had no problem saying that it was just because he couldn’t reach them that he said they were sour. I applied this lesson to their own lives and asked if anyone had ever not received something they hoped for and got sort of mad; their responses were hysterical! Something I have come to do while at Crown Point is to find joy in the little things, and this was definitely one of those times where I could not help but smile.

We also had another teacher luncheon today. Because of this, lunch went a little long so we did not have time for the students to clean their desks like they normally do on Thursdays. This was a huge deal to the kids; they were very concerned with when they would be able to clean them next. Their reactions made it even clearer to me how valuable structure is in a classroom. Having set things for certain days helps students know what to expect, and helps them stay focused. Hopefully things will be okay and we’ll have time to clean desks tomorrow! 

 

Friday, February 22

Last day at CPCS today L I knew I would be sad at the end of the day, but I was not expecting the amount of emotion I would feel leaving!

Over the last couple of weeks, my class has earned 25 compliments. It may be from a teacher passing in the hall who tells Elaine that our class is walking so quietly, or it could have been from a specials teacher who says that our class listened extremely well and had a great art class. Regardless of who the compliment comes from, once the class has reached 25 compliments they were able to vote on a reward. Their three options were extended free time after lunch, extra recess time or a movie with popcorn. On Tuesday they voted and unanimously voted for the movie so this afternoon we got to watch Bugs Life because of our reading story being about ants.

In the middle of watching it, Elaine paused the movie and announced that it was time to give me my present—cue the starting of tears now! J She brought in a cupcake-cake that said “Miss DeVries gets an A+ in teaching!” as well as a huge Tupperware container full of great teacher gifts. I guess two weeks ago she had sent a note home to the parents inviting them to contribute anything for my future classroom someday; their kindness and generosity blew me away! There were tons of cute teacher-y things in the box, but what I loved the most was the book Elaine had made with the class entitled “Miss DeVries is a SUPER teacher!” The book was a collection of pages from each student saying why I was a “super teacher”. (Apparently she was not doing sight-words with the kids in the hallway last week like I thought she was!) She read through the book with the class and then we took an all-class picture together. Afterwards one girl said she had a great idea: she wanted me to sit in a chair so that they could all put their hands on me and pray a blessing over me—cue the tears again!

This little girls great idea is just one reason why I have fallen in love with this school. It is definitely a place where God is being praised everyday in each grade; I do feel like it's been a small taste of what heaven will be like. Who would have thought a first grader would come up with such an idea?! It has been so great to witness such a God-centered community, and I feel blessed to have been a part of it for the last 7 weeks. As I move on and start at Beecher Elementary on Monday, I am excited to see what God’s got in store for me there. I was nervous to start at CPCS, and looking back, I could not have asked for a better experience. The nerves are coming back as I start a new placement, but I am confident that God’s got great things planned for the next 10 weeks!

Classroom Confidential

In first grade, there is not much social studies taught, and I did not teach a specific art, gym or music class. I have however seen how beneficial it can be to integrate activities from these specials into the general education classroom. I learned this fact in our Fine Arts in Education class with Professor BC and have seen how true this is throughout this semester.

Every so often we made sure to do some type of art project with the students; whether it be making a groundhog for Groundhog Day or drawing a creative self-portrait for Bible class, we did our best to incorporate art into general education classes. Doing this not only made the lessons more interesting for the students, but also gave them a way to just let go and do the best they could artistically. I have also mentioned in the past how drastically different it was on the days when the students didn’t have outdoor recess. On those days, we tried to use more kinesthetic learning, such as moving from station to station in math, acting out a Bible story or actually planting plants in science. Incorporating these type of activities can definitely help the teacher reach all her students and it is something I hope to continue in my upcoming placement, as well as in my own future classroom.

Throughout my own years of schooling I have experienced little authentic assessment. I sat through lectures, filled in blanks, and answer multiple choice questions on a test—not too much critical thinking was involved! Classrooms should not be like that thought. During our methods classes at Trinity, we have been shown how to use authentic assessment, such as using debates, skits and games in our history classes. It was a great way to learn as a student, and as a teacher, will help show what the students really understand. As I move into my next placement, I am excited to see what type of authentic understanding I’ll be able to incorporate.

Week 6: The clock still ticks!

Monday, February 11

I’ve talked before about how my teacher was going to implement Words Their Way for their spelling curriculum. They took the pre-test a couple weeks ago, but because of how the program works, it takes quite a lot of time to get the tests graded. Each letter in the word gives the child a “point” and so the teacher grades them on whether or not each letter is right. Then groups are made based on what type of sound the students need to work on. In my class for example, there are four groups and each group is working on a particular sound/spelling: short e, /oi/ spelling patterns, /oy/ spelling patterns and /bl/ blends.

Today the students received their spelling words and need to sort them in a certain way. For example, they could sort alphabetically, by noun/verb/adjective, by the letter the words start/end with, or whatever other ways they could come up with. It was neat to watch them sort the words; they really got into it and had fun coming up with different ways to do this. With the Words Their Way program, the students will sort their words everyday and are also expected to do them at home each night. The idea is that the students will see and work with the words enough that by Friday, the tests will be relatively easy for them. The problem with starting the program this week is that teachers have an inservice day on Friday, so the students will have one less day to practice with their words. Hopefully they’ll still do all right on the tests though!

Tuesday, February 12

Last week we started Young Author’s stories with the kids for Trinity’s program. The students were SO excited to get going! In my very first blog post, I wrote that the first graders had read the story Knuffle Bunny earlier this year, and we had a field trip to Governor State’s University where we got to watch a play re-enactment. The students absolutely LOVED the play so for the Young Author’s festival, the first grade teachers decided to have the kids make books based on the Knuffle Bunny and use a similar format for the stories.

The students absolutely loved the idea and were so excited to get started on their books! They followed the template the first grade teachers collaborated on together and came up with some really creative things. We’ve continued working on the books this week, and some kids are already starting their final draft. It’s been really cool to go through the writing process with them. Throughout the process, I’ve seen how important it is to not just tell the kids what needs to be fixed but literally walk them through my own thoughts so they realize what the need to change. For example, when working with them individually, I read their story out loud so they can hear it too and sometimes I’ll stop and say, “Wait a second, that didn’t make sense.” I then re-read the sentence and the students 9 out of 10 times are able to say what needs to be fixed. I’m really enjoying going through the process with them, but also absolutely love their creative stories! First graders’ imaginations are absolutely awesome J

Wednesday, February 13

Last week in Classroom Confidential, we talked about parent communication and I explained how great Elaine is at this. I mentioned that the first grade teachers have a newsletter that gets e-mailed home to all the parents each week, and I have seen how valuable this is. Today after school I got to observe first-hand how important it is to have strong parent-teacher relationships.

One boy in my class, Carson, is an absolute sweetie. He is more on the quiet side, but can definitely get rowdy with the other boys during recess! During Daily 5 time, I read with him occasionally and I have noticed that he always read Dr. Seuss books. I mentioned this to Elaine, and she said that Carson has been on her “watch list” simply because she wants to make sure that he’s on-level in reading. He’s not a bad reader but whenever he reads with me/Elaine, he tends to read the same books that don’t challenge him. Elaine hypothesized that it’s a confidence thing; because he might not be as strong of a reader as other first graders, perhaps he just keeps reading the same things because he knows he can. Seeing this, Elaine had him tested to see if he was on-level for reading. It turns out he’s right on the edge; he could go to the Discovery center for a little extra help, or he could just stay in the classroom.

Today after school, Elaine had Carson’s mom and the Discovery center teacher in for a meeting to discuss what the best plan would be for Carson. Elaine started by saying that Carson is a great kid, and a very hard worker. She also said she knew that they were working on home at reading and how great that was; she definitely started the meeting right by saying true compliments to Carson. Next she explained how she has had Carson on her watch-list for a little while, and decided to just get him tested to see where he was at because it was hard for her to judge his level when he always picks books that he knows.

The Discovery center teacher, Julianne, started with giving compliments to Carson also. She continued by explaining his test results and how he is not below level, but just a little slower to pick up on the reading skills than other first graders. (That is one huge thing I have noticed in first grade—the learning gap is huge sometimes!) She explained some activities she would like to practice with him, and elaborated on how the extra help would do nothing but help Carson. Throughout this time, Carson’s mom just kept nodding and saying “Mhmm” but did not say too much. After Julianne finished explaining what the Discovery center is all about, Carson’s mom admitted she has been worried about him for a little bit too. She was all for him getting extra help and was really excited about the Discovery program. It was really neat to be in this conference; it could have gone very differently had Elaine phrased things in another way, or had Carson’s mom reacted differently, but thankfully all went well, and now Carson can get that extra boost he needs to increase his confidence in reading.

Thursday, February 14

Valentine’s Day! Essentially this day is all about getting sugar-high in the realm of first grade! It was a really fun day; the morning was pretty normal where I taught a reading lesson and gave a test, and then Elaine gave the Words Their Way spelling test. The students did awesome on their reading test; the spelling test was another story though. 6 students got 6/6 words correct, 4 got 5/6 and the rest scored lower. Elaine said she figured they would not do so well this week. Some of the groups were in between word sets, so she chose to give them the harder sets (better to challenge than to not!) and so some words were very tough. Foreseeing this, Elaine had decided before that this week and next week would be practice weeks because they are both short 4-day weeks, and because she is still figuring out how to best choose words for each group. We spent an hour after school choosing the words for next week so hopefully next week’s scores will be more on-target!

Contrary to the typical morning, the afternoon was nuts! Before lunch the room moms came in and the students made “houses” for their Valentines so that they could pass them out. It was fun to meet some more of the students’ parents, and again, I just love the parent involvement at school. Very exciting and encouraging! After that the students got to pass out their valentines to one another which they absolutely loved. It was a valentine-filled afternoon so going with the flow, I made today’s math lesson be similar to one we did last week. Last week Friday we graphed the colors of M&Ms in individual packages, so today we graphed the colors of the Valentine candy hearts in individual packages. The kids again loved the activity, and very much enjoyed eating the hearts afterwards.

 

Friday, February 15

It was an in-service teacher’s day so school started a half-hour later than normal. The whole day was really nice because it gave me an opportunity to visit with teachers that I normally do not see. It’s been fun meeting all the different teachers and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. The primary purpose for today though was to pick out a new reading curriculum to be implemented next year. The literacy committee had narrowed down to three options, so all the teachers listened to three presentations from different companies to better be informed about their decisions. It was really interesting to hear from the three companies; something that stuck out to me was that they all praised themselves for creating the curriculum based on the Common Core. It seems as though this directions is definitely one all companies will be taking soon, which makes sense. Listening to the three presentations also made me realize something. The first and third presenters were very enthusiastic about their product, and it was contagious to everyone. The second presenter was much less exciting, which made the curriculum seem less appealing.

Noticing this, I thought about how students feel the same way with their teachers. If a teacher does not seem excited or pumped about something, why would the students? I know this is something we have talked about in classes at Trinity but listening to the three presentations really drove the lesson home. Unless I show enthusiasm towards the material, it is unlikely the students will get excited too. Overall though, it was a really interesting day where I enjoyed hearing about the three curriculums. I’m excited to hear what curriculum they choose!

 

As this upcoming week begins, I’m feeling bittersweet. I wish I could just freeze time and stay at Crown Point Christian for a while longer, but the clock continues to tick. I’m excited to start at Beecher Elementary however—it’ll be another new journey that I’m sure I’ll love just as much as my CPCS adventure.