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.

Another week goes by

I am beginning to see how fast this student teaching experience will fly. It is now beginning to be about finishing and interviewing(hopefully!) and maybe...landing a job. I am working on my classroom management. Some hours are great and then just as quickly, it all goes to hell in a hand basket! I am learning. I am learning to look while I am teaching, to make lots of circles as I talk, to tell them what I need them to do. To write it, say it, spell it and help three special needs students while listening to another student tell me a long story about how she hurt her ankle when she was five. :) I am learning that this is the hardest profession that I will ever have and the most rewarding. That each day, some will walk out not liking me, some will love me and some will be just happy to walk out. One will come up and hug me and tell me that he or she will miss me this weekend! I am learning to have snack, band-aids, Advil(for me), a sweater, rain parka and spare pair of socks. Two or three standby lunches, extra tea and water. I am learning that sometimes the best lesson is one that is less planned, except when they bomb! I am learning that this is not as about teaching as it is about learning. I am laughing with my students,alot, at myself and with each other. I was thrilled for Earth Day and so happy it is over. I am happy that it is Friday and I can sleep and write lessons and learn some more, before I start on Monday all over again. For today, I can't wait for Monday!

In the midst of teaching on my own

All last week, my mt was in the building, but with the exception of the math pilot that we are co-teaching, I am teaching full time. Planning and executing the lessons for my 2/3 graders. I am learning so much each day. I am exhausted, but left happy at the end of last week. I have classroom rules posted that we agreed upon. I have changed the seating and have instituted a new classroom management system. The students are divided into teams( they chose the team names: Mariners, Seahawks, Wildcats, and Red Sox). They get points awarded and taken away for a variety of classroom behaviors that we all brainstormed and agreed upon. The team at the end of the week with the most points gets a treat. They all get coins in their banks for a Buy Day in June(my MT system). This was a good compromise. I kept my MT's system but added on a team component. I am also thinking of an individual award for some students who blurt, get off task, and generally disrupt their classmates.

I have developed lessons around Reading Groups and they are working to read a novel in their groups. It gives me some time to conference with each groups and micro teach a comprehension lesson. They have reading comprehension packets that they are working on during and after they read their novel. We are reading the Peggy Parish series Key to the Treasure. It is a bit dated for them. I will have to remember to pick something a bit more current for the next set of books.

I am starting the Balance and Motion Fose Kit this week on Balance and Motion. I am doing a lesson on Our community map. They have divided into groups and are working on creating a map of where they live.

I am learning more and more about my students and the importance of good responses and variety of questioning techniques. It is not enough to say Good Job when they have done things well. I am commenting on their technique, their effort, their perseverance. These are attributes that they can work on and they know that I notice them for their effort. I am learning to call them by their names as many times as I can a day. I am learning to have them talk to their neighbors and then answer. I am learning that I make mistakes each day and not to be so hard on myself. I am generally loving being their teacher.

It will be over before I know it and I will transition them back to my MT and she will graciously take them back and end their year on a high note. I can now see more than the surface of this job. I can appreciate what an act of selflessness it is to be a MT, how hard it must be to have a student teacher think they know better and change your room and your students and your management style. How full of grace my MT is to guide me on and let me make decisions and not lead me too much, but encourage me all along the way. She really is Obi Wan Kenobi.

1st week down-5 more to go!

Last week I taught four and 1/2 days on my own. It was fun and hard. We got alot done, but I learned by baptism of fire and that is not always a good thing. Differentiation takes on a new meaning, when you are teaching your lesson and you fast finishers have already completed the enrichment you had at the ready and your lower students are still trying to finish the first part. I have a student unidentified on the spectrum who is reacting to the transition of a new teacher. He had the flu at the first of the week, and was unsettled by my style. I have a whole lot to learn about how to meet needs of my students.

All the said, we met as a classroom and created some rules, now posted. We read Flat Stanley and created our FS, wrote letters to community leaders and museums and sent them out. Created a FS to go home with students with a journal for break. We learned about Haikus and created Dragonfly and Butterfly Haikus and drew and painted beautiful insect creations and posted our Haikus. They will read them on Monday when we get back.

I am on my own again on Monday and Tuesday, my mt comes back W-F. I am observed on Thursday. I think I will teach my social studies community lesson. I am loving the kids and the staff community. So glad to have a collaborative environment to work in. It makes all the difference. Can't wait to one day have my own classroom. The more time that I get to teach, the more fleshed out my ideas become. It is truly a reflective practice.

More to come!

Spring Quarter is here!

All last week, I spent in my 2/3 classroom. I didn't have to be there five days until Monday, March 22, but I had a feeling that I should be there with my mt for five days. I was right. I am teaching alone on M, T, 1/2 W and F next week. No sub, just me! While I am flattered that my mt thinks that I am ready for this. I am a bit nervous. I have lessons planned and it is the week before spring break, so Friday we will make art, have cupcakes and make easter/spring cards for their families. I am teaching dragonfly haikus and art as a final lesson to our insect unit. We released the painted lady butterflies on Friday. The FOSS kits get picked up this week. It is high time to start on our community Social Studies lesson and Flat Stanley. I will also begin addition and subtraction with my 2nd grade students. We are going to play some games. I know the pass codes to get attendance to the office, I have bandaids and lots of extras at the ready for them to work on. I am excited, I am nervous, I am terrified. I think that I am ready. So here I go.....into teaching!

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.