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.