Finals: Observation, Papers turned in, class taught

This week was a week of finals, Finally. I began this journey in 2006 and I will end it in 2010. In a week I will be a Washington State Resident Teacher. It has been a journey and I have tried to enjoy the moments as much as possible. Two different co-horts, many professors, two master teachers, two principals, one field instructor, 24 fifth graders, and 24 second and third graders. Along the way, we explored pendulums(swingers), zoomers, mealworms, crayfish, bess beetles, triangle and arch, crayfish, and twirly birds. We have read and written about 50 states, presidents, novel studies, guided reading groups, "just right books", Houghton Mifflin readers, Flat Stanley, Peggy Parish novels, Cinderellas from every Culture. We have created haikus, cinquains, spring color poems. Sea Turtle pastel drawings, Triarama pop ups, Clay wind chimes, Scientific Illustrations of Insects and Painting. We have sent out Flat Stanleys to community members and museums all over the country. We have received them back from all over, including President Obama. We created as a group a Map of Our Community. We planted seeds and watched them grow. We learned about LCM, GCF, and multiplication and division, shapes and symmetry, coins and counting, two digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. I learned that classroom management is about having high expectations, looking for ways to notice positive behaviors, having classroom procedures that we created together and review frequently. I learned that differentiation is so much more than have the highs help the lows, and that the professional community and collaboration that you find in a school means everything to how enjoyable your experience is as a new teacher. I am hopeful for the future. I am looking for a teaching job!

The Rubber Meets the Road

This week I felt as if the rubber met the road. Spring is in full swing. Windy-blustery-every changing weather made all my students a bit loopy and me with them. The challenging students in my class have really stepped up their behaviors. Somedays every trick or management idea I try doesn't work. I am left sad and exhausted, then the next day I have the most awesome day that I am blown away. Something works, something is successful. This week was Staff Appreciation Week at school. The students brought cards, SB gift cards, presents and flowers. It was sweet. We had a field trip, it was mother's day. It was a full and crazy week. We made wind chimes out of clay for a mother's day gift. I fired them in the kiln and the students painted them, wrapped them. We made cards with Cinquain Mother's Day poetry. We finished up our Spring Poems and art work inspired by the Hailstones and Halibut Bones video. We are learning two-digit subtraction with regrouping in math, and how communities change in Social Studies. We are continuing with our Balance and Motion unit in science. I will be observed by my FI and Principal next Wednesday and then I will submit my letters of recommendation and hope and prayer for an interview. I will start transitioning back to my MT after MSP is completed. I will stay and follow my students to the end of the year. I have grown to love them and know them individually. I have come to learn that their problems have become my opportunities to grow and learn and challenge myself to try harder, be stronger, work faster and longer. I am thankful for my experiences.

End of Winter Quarter and on to Spring!

As I limp my way out of Winter Quarter, I have to say a fond farewell. I will miss seeing my cohort each week and I will miss having classes and professors each week too(though right now this sounds pretty good). Here I go, it is time to get in the class and teach....While I have been teaching for some time, it hasn't been all day. The focus, the stamina, how I admire all of those who make it look easy. I am ready to start and eager to be their teacher and terrified all at the same time. Will I do them justice, will they be ready for 3rd and 4th grade? Will they succeed? Will I have what it takes?
I have a plan for seating, classroom management, lessons and units. I am slowing moving into teaching reading, writing, science, math and social studies. The FOSS unit on Insects is almost over and I survived all the mealworms, milkweed bugs, and Bess Beetles. So, for today, I am looking forward anxious to start, ready to begin, and hopeful.

Math Conversations

In reading Ballenger Chapters 4 and 5 and thinking about my students, what comes to mind is our calendar mini-sessions using Calendar Math. My MT brought all the kiddos to the carpet and had them discover the calendar for January on the first day back from break. What patterns could they see? What number groupings? Could they count by 7's? Which way did the pattern emerge. They must of talk with each other and come up with 40-50 different patterns or observations. Some of them didn't always make much sense at the time. My MT is very experienced at asking for clarifications and asking leading questions. I wish I had taped that session. After reading Ballenger, I am sure there was so much more going on. " This conversation and many of the others explored in the book, demonstrate, I believe, that when one shifts the kind of talk encouraged in classroom discussion, a different pattern of talent and achievement emerge."(Ballenger,p.79) By approaching this as a class together and letting the students come up with their own understandings, such a nice moment happens in the classroom. Students are making sense of the math meanings through their own lens. The students get very excited. In reading this and thinking about applying it, I think of our science methods class. Our professor is video taping us and reflecting on it later. I can see that now, that this would be a great way to understand us all better.

Mealworms

This week I taught the FOSE kit Insect to my second/third graders. We started out by reading a story What is Science? They drew a scientist and answered the questions: What is Science? Who are Scientists? What would you like to learn about in Science? They did an awesome job and I modeled for them with the doc cam on some ideas. I passed out three different types of gummy worms. They learned about observation and used their powers of observation to draw their gummy worm. We talked about drawing a cartoon and that good scientists make scientific drawings. They make the drawing as realistic as possible and they label their drawing. We then talked about characteristics of their gummy worm using descriptive words. After they wrote three characteristics of the worm. I asked for them to raise their hands and share. They then compared their gummy worm with their neighbors to find ways they were similar and different. We spoke of habitats for meal worms and what they need to survive. I checked for prior knowledge and they came up with a list of water, food, and habitat. We then gave them their meal worm(larvae) and pupa. Each of them got a habitat for their worms which they will keep on their desks. We will observe what happens over the next few weeks together!

Transitions and Jumping into the Deep End of the Pool

When I was just 5 years old, I was at the pool with one of the neighborhood moms. She must have thought it was high time that I learn to swim in the deep end on my own. I was scared and hugging onto the edges of the pool, I'm sure. She decided to push me into the pool and low and behold I did swim to the edge, but considering that I can remember it so clearly today not the most comforting way to teach me. Disequilibrium can lead to great strides forward and is probably when we learn, as a teacher I need to be careful that there is no harm done when I am setting my students on the edge. I am transitioning back into the classroom and will start to teach the 2nd graders the Science unit on Insects next week. I have also been asked to take on the Social Studies unit for the 2nd graders too. I think it will be hard to fit it all in and I am currently trying to figure out how to group students for science and social studies. Group work with second graders is a bit different from 5th in my dyad placement. Second graders work best in pairs or individually in groups. Each one needs to observe their own mealworm and compare their findings with their group. The groupings have to take into consideration, differentiation of instruction. I am having to ask for lots of guidance from my master teacher to make sure that I can do justice to this kiddos. In the end, I just will have to jump in the deep end and feel the disequilibrium while I try to make strides toward becoming their teacher.

Chaperoning a Field Trip to the Bug Safari/Pike Place Market

Today, I was asked to be a chaperoned for a 6th grade field trip that couldn't get any parents to sign up. Why is it that we begin to think our kids don't need us at 12 or 13 years of age? They really need us all the more. Anyway, we went to the Bug Safari and Pike Place Market. We had a scavenger hunt at Pike Place and toured Beecher Cheese. Then we went to the Bug Safari. The 6th grade class has been studying all kids of bug life this year for Science. We saw hissing cockroaches, tarantulas, scorpions, venomous centipedes. It suddenly dawned on me why parents weren't volunteering for this field trip! The kiddos thought this was very cool. They have hissing cockroaches in their classroom! I am becoming more and more in awe of the 6th grade teachers! I was again amazed at these kiddos. Well behaved and so interested in everything. Some have never been to Seattle or seen the Space Needle. They want to know what everything is and are inquisitive and engaged. Love that! When the 6th grade teacher got back at 2:00pm; the students went to recess and then back to the classroom and wrote thank you notes to chaperons. These notes will be in my portfolio to keep. I started this dyad being terrified of 5th and 6th graders, and I end with the understanding that they are just kiddos who want to learn and are interested in succeeding.

Observing Parent Teacher Conferences

I spent the conference days moving from my main placement to my dyad placement observing over twenty conferences.  Both my schools are Title 1 and sometimes conferences included a crowded table of safety net, special education, guidance counselor, interpreters, teacher, student teachers, parents and sometimes students. I was amazed at the thoroughness of assessments, portfolios and preparation that goes into conferences and grading. It was so good to see two different teachers and approaches to conferences. Parents of all the students in both my placements were amazing and there was one constant; all parents want the best for the children. Both master teachers connected to parents by asking what their concerns were and then listened. After all, parents know their children better than any of us sitting at that table. We all shared the same goal, for the student to succeed. I am thankful this weekend for my family, great food, my friends and my health, but I am also thankful for my students and what they have taught me over these short months. I am excited to go back to my 2/3 grade kiddos in January.

2/3 grade Halloween

I went back to my main school yesterday to spend Halloween with my class of 2/3 graders. What fun, what joy, what chaos! I came as the Swine Flu Doctor in my scrubs with plenty of hand sanitizer and gloves! They loved it. We had a fun day. My master teacher, Obi Wan Kenobe, in her wisdom knew this is not the day to try to teach. They are so excited, they are so distracted, they are so thrilled to be having a party at the end of the day and a school wide parade at the end of the day. We had parent volunteers come in and each of us took 5-6 students. Students went about making their own treats for the party. I helped the students make and bake their own cupcakes. We also made little ghosties out of lollipops and tissue! They had to make one for each class member. We turned all of this into a math lesson. Counting, grouping and multiples. It was such fun to be with them that day. I can't wait until January to be back there with them. I really miss them.