Week 1: The fun has begun!

Monday, January 7

Student teaching. How am I possibly already a senior in college, student teaching? I do not feel old enough to be doing this. Nor am I completely sure what it's all about. All of a sudden, I have this dual role: being both a teacher and a student. I feel a little bit like Spiderman with two identities that only come out at the appropriate times. Nevertheless, I am cannot wait to see how this semester goes.

Before going into my placement today, I was extremely nervous; excited, but very nervous. My stomach felt all tied up and I wasn’t sure I could do it. The moment I walked into the first grade classroom at Crown Point Christian School however, my nerves disappeared. My cooperating teaching, Elaine, had set up a desk for me with a name tag, and even some welcome gifts. She had put together a binder for me containing so much valuable information: the class schedule, class roster, office staff names, school calendar, which students were extremely helpful, which students need extra help, and great attention-grabber suggestions as well as helpful songs to get students lined up quickly and quietly. The entire binder showed evident thought and preparation, and I felt so extremely welcomed.

My class of 22 first graders was also extremely welcoming. They were all so excited to see me and had colored a huge banner that said “Welcome Miss DeVries!” and hung it in the hall. Their enthusiasm for school and life in general is absolutely contagious, and I cannot wait to start teaching. I have no doubt that each day will be thrilling and entertaining with this class!

Just looking around the classroom, I got more and more excited to be joining this class. Each bulletin board is covered with great strategies and techniques that I love. An awesome strategy that Elaine does with the class is bucket notes. In the very beginning of the school year, she read Carol McCloud’s book Have you filled a Bucket Today? The story explains how every person has an invisible bucket, and it is up to us to fill each other’s bucket through compliments and kindness. It also tells how we take out of people’s buckets when we use harsh words and mean actions. The book encourages readers to fill up each other’s buckets because when you fill up someone else’s bucket, you also fill up your own bucket. Going along with this story, Elaine put buckets on a bulletin board in the classroom. Each student has their own bucket, and almost every morning, Elaine gives them a “bucket note” piece of paper that they write a note on, and put in a classmate’s bucket. Every Friday the students get to take their notes out of their buckets and bring them home to read. I absolutely love this idea. I think the message of the story is awesome, and I love how Elaine incorporated it into her classroom. Elaine even put up a new bucket for me, and I already saw some notes in my bucket—I can’t wait to read them on Friday! 

Tuesday, January 8

Today I got to see my classroom’s morning routine in action. Elaine had me put bucket notes on each desk, along with today’s math paper before the students arrived. When the students are coming in, they are expected to put their coats and backpacks in their lockers in the hall, put their B.E.E. (Bring Everything Everyday) binders in their assigned cubby, and hand in their homework. They are then allowed to talk with each other and write their bucket notes until the morning announcements begin on the intercom. During the announcements, the whole school does the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag and the Christian flag. I really like how they all do it together; it unifies the school and shows their loyalty as one.

After announcements, Elaine usually gives them a couple more minutes to finish their assignment and then math class starts. While going over the problems, the students all seemed to work pretty hard. There is one boy in my class, Steve, who is extremely tactile; he always has to be playing with something in his hands to help him stay calm and paying attention. The technique my teacher chose was to let him hold a small amount of Silly Putty that he can keep throughout the day, as long as things don’t get too messy. Elaine said this has drastically helped him be able to focus during the day; he forgot it at home today, so he did not pay as good of attention as normal. Throughout math, Steven kept moving his body and just squirming around. I stayed near him and helped him keep focused, which worked but it was still a struggle for him. We ended up going to the Discovery teacher (she is the resource teacher who works with those who need additional help) and she was able to find something similar to silly putty, so it worked okay in the long run. I like how Elaine has Steven hold something without it being too much of a disturbance to the other kids; she explained to him that he can have it only if he does not distract others from learning.

Another technique that Elaine has in the classroom is a tattle monster box. It’s a simple Kleenex box covered in construction paper that she added paper teeth onto and eyes from an egg container. It looks extremely easy to make but I just love how it’s a monster that the kids put their tattles into. First graders are always very concerned with others’ behavior, so this simple method is an awesome way to let them express their problems without taking up a lot of class time. 

 

Wednesday, January 9

Today was my first full day at CPCS and it was great. I noticed many more techniques and strategies that Elaine used that I really admire. One thing that stuck out to me was the writing she has them do. Her first couple years of teaching, she said she did not emphasize writing as much, so her goal this year was to incorporate a set time for writing every day. During this writing time, the students can write more bucket notes to their class members, write notes to other first graders, write in their journal, etc. The main point is to just get them writing more, so as long as they’re writing, it’s all good. The kids love it because they love writing and receiving notes from each other, so they go crazy with it. At lunch time, they can deliver notes to the first graders in other classrooms if they would like. All three first grade classrooms allow this, so many notes move back and forth between the rooms.

Today a girl came from another class to deliver four notes to one boy in my class. His face lit up when she walked in the room, and handed him the notes. Later, I was standing by his desk when he was reading them. All four notes had something written similar to this: “I love you so so so so so so so so so so so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” It was cute, but at the same time, kind of disappointing to see that this is the type of thing they spend their time writing. Later when I told Elaine that I had seen his note, she was a little disappointed also. She said the teachers normally do not read the notes and just let them give them to the kids, but lately she’s been wondering if they should start reading them. As of now, there have not been any problems with kids receiving mean notes, but Elaine said it’d be best to completely prevent anything like that from happening by reading the notes.  

Thursday, January 10
What stuck out to me today? Desks. First graders desks can be extremely messy. And sticky. And even smelly apparently. (Who knew?) To help combat this problem, Elaine does Clean-Up Thursdays after lunch time. During this time, the students are supposed to go through their desks and throw away whatever trash they had and basically just tidy it up. After lunch they go to gym class, and while they’re gone, the sneaky Desk Inspector (Elaine) goes through them and puts a little note in the clean desks. When the students come back, it’s always a big ordeal to see who has a clean desk. Because they class does not know who the Desk Inspector is, they love trying to guess who the notes are from.

As I am getting to know all the students better, it has been a blast discovering their personalities. Even looking into each desk today helped me understand a little bit more about them. For example, it made sense that Reese’s desk was absolutely spotless; this perfectionist will erase and erase her writing until each letter is just right. It also made sense that Micah’s desk was a little disorganized; he is very easy going and just goes with the flow—a clean desk probably is not the biggest of his concerns. I absolutely love getting to know all their personalities; they are all special in their own way. 

Throughout this week, it has been extremely evident to me how great of a teacher I am working with. She works hard to provide the students with a good learning environment; the classroom is extremely organized (meeting Illinois Professional Teaching Standard performance indicator 5M). Every space in the room has a specific purpose: the computer are together in the corner, the rug where morning meetings take place is open to the room, the reading buckets are next to the rug, the buckets for bucket notes are accessible but off to a corner, and all the students’ desks are put together in groups. The classroom is clearly thought out and organized in a way that makes the most sense for usage.

Friday, January 11

First week in student teaching, and I got to go on my first field trip! Today we went to Governor’s State University to see the play Knuffle Bunny. It is based on a children’s book that the first grade classes read last week; in the story, a little girl, Tracy, goes to the laundromat with her dad and forgets her precious stuffed animal, Knuffle Bunny. Simple solution would be to go get it, right? One problem—Tracy can’t talk yet. Her dad goes through endless options trying to get Tracy to stop crying until finally they find Knuffle Bunny, and miraculously, Tracy learns to talk, with her first words being Knuffle Bunny. It was a good play that all the students loved. They were laughing hysterically at some parts, and were yelling at the actors that Tracy needed Knuffle Bunny during other scenes.

Being on the teacher side of field trips was a first for me. It was crazy how hectic things can get when you’re not on normal school property. Because it was a play, the only true movement that the classes needed to make was getting on the school bus, walking into the college’s theatre, watching the play, walking back out to the buses and then going inside the classroom again once we arrived back to school. Seems pretty easy, but I can see how field trips can be difficult for teachers! Overall, everything went well and all the students listened and stayed together, but I was glad it was not a field trip to the zoo or anything. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes things that need to take place before leaving for field trips. Something that I thought was really neat was that CPCS gave each teacher a backpack containing every student’s medical information. I never thought about that before, but it makes sense to have that information with.

My first week is already over and that is crazy to me. I am already sad that I only have six weeks to spend at CPCS. When looking back to Monday and thinking about how nervous I was, all I can do is simply laugh. I could not have picked a better classroom to be in, or a better cooperating teacher to work with. I am so thankful for my placement, so thank you Trinity education workers—my hat goes off to you! Oh, and you were probably wondering about my bucket notes? Well, let's just say that I absolutely love my students. Apparently I'm the best teacher ever yet, and I've only gone over one lesson with them-- I love first graders!

 

Classroom Confidential Reflection

In her book Classroom Confidential, Laurel Schmidt refers to multiple intelligences. “Simply put, people are word smart, picture smart, music smart, body smart, logic smart, nature smart, life smart, people smart and self smart” (page 5). Everybody has all of these intelligences; some are just more prominent than others. A big reason why some are more enhanced than others is simply because the individual uses that one more. It is my hope to incorporate activities that reach to all of the intelligences in the classroom. Using multiple kinds of strategies and approaches not only will help me reach each learner in their “best used” intelligence, but also helps the others students increase the intelligences that may not be their primary one.

Going along with using multiples intelligences, I also hope to incorporate Schmidt’s full brain learning. Hands-on activities are extremely important in first grade and I think they will definitely be well-received by my class. All the first grade classes do social studies the first semester and science during the second, so next week will be the first time the first graders have a science class. I will be teaching it, and we will start with the plant unit, so we will be planting brassica seeds. It would be easy to just pull up a video and show how plants grow, but letting the kids actually get to plant their own seeds and watch them grow throughout the next couple weeks will be much more fun for them. In my Bible lesson for Monday, we will be talking about David and Goliath and I am having them act out the story while I read it; the students will love this! I think these strategies will make the learning process much more fun and meaningful to the first graders. I am excited to see how these things go, and to incorporate other full brain learning activities into the classroom in the future.