Onze Setmana (Week eleven)

            Overall the beginning of the week was pretty cut and dry. Monday I gave out spelling words, we did math, gym, lunch, computer time I let them research their social studies projects, then James and the Giant Peach to finish the day. Tuesday was much the same, Math, gym, lunch, music, computers for social studies, James and the Giant Peach to end the day again. Nothing very eventful happened either day.

            Wednesday was where things started to go a little off the tracks. We had our 3^rd quarter reward celebration at the end of the day. I was observed in the morning and the students were great. I passed out the handout for the reading we did the day before and had them work on that before the reward because after the math lesson between gym, lunch, and art that was all we had time for.

            Thursday was going along fine, nothing uneventful until after art. Then the train started going more off the tracks. We were on our way back and about to go on the bathroom break. I had a student who wasn’t doing anything all day and so I was asking the teacher how he was in art while Mrs. Z. was taking them. I could hear the guys all the way on the other end of the building. I walked back and took all the guys into the classroom and had it out with them. I had to put the fear of the Lord in them again. I told them that just because spring break was around the corner we were still in school and if they were that loud that they were disrupting the whole school from being able to learn. I asked them that if I had to send a note home or call their mom or dad and tell them that their child is disrupting the whole school if they would be happy? I have never heard a group of guys so quiet in my life. So for the rest of the week they do not get a group bathroom break, they are sent out one at a time. We finished the day by reading James and the Giant Peach.

            Friday was the epitome of a train wreck. If we continue to use the train metaphor, It’s off the tracks, on its side, on fire, blowing up, with another train about to crash into it and blow it up further.  We started the day and took our spelling test. That was normal. Then they went to gym and that started out normal. During gym we had a meeting with the principal about a parent who is giving us some trouble. Then the classroom just turned upside down. They came back from gym and I saw 2 kids sort of going at it in what looked like a pretty heated argument and these 2 have had problems inn the past. I pulled them outside to talk to them and it turns out another student was calling them names and hitting them in the head with dodge balls. I pulled him out and it turned out to be this big hoopla involving 7 guys all ticked off at each other for the most part.   So I pulled them all to the front of the class while the rest were working (not to make an example out of them just to have a talk by my desk) and as I was going to inform Mrs. Z. of what was going on and while I was doing that one of the female students told me she was moving to Texas during spring break, and she is one of the best kids in class both academically, socially, and overall a really nice girl. Then I told Mrs. Z. what was happening just to keep her in the loop and she said she wanted to handle it because this sort of thing has been happening all year. Then after she had finished we were having what we call “talk time” which is just something once or twice a week where the students can just talk to us about random things related to school. They were complaining about a certain lunch lady who is either eating off their plates, pinching kids, pushing kids, yelling at them to be quiet for no reason, it was bad. So we said we would talk to the principal about it. Mrs. Z. has also been in the principal’s office laying on his couch twice so far because she’s extremely light headed, felt like she was going to pass out, and had no color in her face. Turns out he had talked to the lunch monitor about these things that very morning. This is ALL BEFORE LUNCH! During lunch we find out that a teacher from another school in the district was walked out of the building. Then after lunch I was running up money to the office for some poster boards and I see Mrs. Z. walking in to the principal’s office with one of the sweetest girls in the class. Apparently the lunch lady had heard her yelling from all the way across the loud lunch room with over 150 kids in it (this is the girl who sits 7 feet away from me and I can’t hear). She made her stand in the corner of the lunch room with her nose against the wall in front of everyone. So she was walked out. Then Mrs. Z. stayed up there because she was feeling sick again. I had them clean out their desks while I graded the first part of their social studies project and one of my guys started having a meltdown right as we were about to go to the movie (the whole school was watching it before spring break). Turn out he was extremely upset about the girl moving to Texas because out of all the girls in the class she’s the nicest to him and his best friend in the class who’s a girl. Then once we got him good to go we had a meeting with the social worker about the child and his parent we’ve been having problems with, then met with the principal about the parent again, then one of our students who is a diabetic had his sugar CRASH, then finally we got a class that one girl’s mother was going into labor so she had to go about an hour early. Then after school we were talking to a teacher who didn’t have his class there because he never got the permission slips (which out students were in charge of passing out) because they didn’t want to go in there when there was no teacher there. The problem was they didn’t tell us and they didn’t have more than 5 left over so we had no idea. And then finally, it was spring break…

Seachtain deich (Week ten in Irish for St. Patty's day!)

            Today (Monday) we were supposed to have a day to review because we originally didn’t want to test them on Mondays, however… the snow day last week keeps coming back to bite us in the butt.  We were worried that we might have run out of time to test the students because Mrs. Z. might have to administer a test to another class because a teacher is out so we wouldn’t be able to test that day because I can’t administer them. We could get the tests in within the week but if someone misses we wouldn’t have any time to do make up tests.  So this was my day today, morning work was handed out then after 5 minutes we went to library for an hour and a half for them to research their social studies projects. Then we actually had a few minutes where I taught comparing and ordering decimals and fractions which went well. Then we went to gym, then 10 minutes to work on their assignment because we don’t give out homework during ISAT week, then they went to lunch and that was our morning. After that we had to get in 2 tests before an assembly addressing the social studies fair that ran to the end of the day. Then they left and I felt like I got next to nothing done.

            One thing I forgot to mention next week is that one of my students with an IEP is having an extremely difficult time with the math project that is due today. So I gave him a completely different assignment (which wasn’t a big deal because he hadn’t done anything on the first one anyways) and I’m hoping he will understand this better but he desperately needed the differentiation.

            Tuesday was another day that seemed like I didn’t have more than a minute with them, and what few minutes I did have I had to either take care of some housekeeping business or put out fires. If it wasn’t making up and copying a parent note it was “this person pushed me” or “this person said this”. It was constantly one thing after another all day. Then I had 15 full minutes and I had to go through everyone and pick the students so they could choose Native American tribes for their Social Studies Fair projects. I am really excited about this project because I am actually on the committee for it so it’s nice to see both sides of something big like this and I’m taking a little extra pride in it. We also had to make a permission slip for them to watch a movie Friday, then I had to get both permission slips translated into Spanish, it just seemed like one thing after another after another. I’m really starting to hate ISATs for more reasons than just the basic premise of them. 

            Wednesday we finally finished our last ISAT test! I was so happy when we finished. We have been learning and talking about these tests for the last few years and sometimes we were aiding in a school when the students were taking them but this was the first time I really saw the full effect of them. It was so hard on our students and emotionally taxing that by the time they were all over even I was drained. The rest of the week we are honestly just doing mindless activities that aren’t hard on the students. Plus there are still students who have to do make up tests right above us in the conference room so we can’t be too loud anyways. We did a lot of silent sustained reading or coloring the rest of the day in between specials. Then at the end of the day I started the James and the Giant Peach unit. I like reading to the kids but I really have to work on the voices I use for the characters, and even the ones I have I feel sort of dumb using them. But at the same time I really don’t care because the kids love it and if that means making a fool of myself using funny voices then so be it I don’t have a problem with it.

            Thursday I checked out a bunch of books on Native American tribes for them to read. First I went through their textbook with them and showed them how to look through books to find information so they don’t spend hours reading a book with nothing to get out of it. Then I had them go through on their own and find just 5 useful pieces of information and write them down with the page number as a reference. Then in the 15 minutes before lunch I had half the students silent read their own books while the other half read the books on the Native American tribes, the after 5 minutes they switched, and then they lined up for lunch. I went through the grade book and found all of the missing work and had students try and find them while the others read. I taught them adding and subtracting decimals because it’s absolutely no different from adding and subtracting regular numbers except the decimal point itself. As soon as I told them they started moaning and groaning, but once I showed them an example their attitude completely changed and they handed it well. Then they worked on their assignments while they were trying to find their missing ones. Then we finished the day with James and the Giant Peach.

            Friday we started with reading and working on the writing follow up. That took us to gym, and then I had a math minute for them to do during the bathroom break. They had some more math follow up on what we covered yesterday. We went to lunch, we switched library times with another class so we went to library immediately after lunch, and then finished the day watching Despicable Me.

            Next week I have to figure out what to teach the week before spring break, after they are wiped out from ISATs, I’m going to try and teach like normal, using multiple different techniques that are engaging and fun for them to try and keep them interested while having them retain the information. I just remember when I was their age the week before spring break was the worst so I’m going to do everything I can to change that.

Naoi seachtaine (Week nine)

            Monday we had off for Casmir Pulaski day and Tuesday was a snow day so it made for a nice 4 day weekend.

            Wednesday instead of starting our ISAT tests we decided to have our review day and try and cram everything we couldn’t get to with decimals and fractions in one day which was very difficult considering our specials for that day and the time we actually had to work with. Obviously I am not a fan of worksheets, I tried to teach them out of their books, I tried giving instruction on the board, I tried giving them examples from the real world and tried using money (fake of course), I tried having them get up in front of the class to represent turning a fraction into a decimal, I felt like I tried everything and none of it worked. Finally they were in gym and I was looking at the supplemental math book and they had some worksheets with instructions at the top that were laid out very simply for them and so I printed them out and gave them a whirl and after that they really seemed to start to grasp it. I don’t necessarily think it was the worksheets that were the trick, what I really think that happened was that I was making it much too complicated. I think I was over explaining things and on the first day back after a 4 day weekend I just think it was too much. So when I got the worksheets it laid out what they were supposed to do at a level that was perfect for them and practice problems that were the same level. Once I figured that out we really flew through everything. We got through the equivalent of 3 whole lessons in the time it would normally take to do about half of that. All we did was math on Monday and by the end of it the kids were really burnt out so I had them wind down the day with some silent sustained reading and discussion time so that way they would have somewhat of a break.

            Now that ISATs are here my days are really dull. We do an hour of testing in the morning, then straight to gym, then to lunch after 15 minutes when you factor in bathroom break, then we have a half hour until art then another test and then they go home. While they were in the room they were just silent sustained reading so they would be quiet and give their minds a break. They said the math test was basically all a review which was a good thing because of the review day on Wednesday I was worried how much would stick. So all in all it was a really uneventful day. The best thing about today was when Matthew walked in he had a scowl on his face and looked extremely mad. This is typically what happens before he has a colossal meltdown and we couldn’t have that when he was starting an ISAT test within 20 minutes. So instead of sending him up to the social worker and making this whole ordeal out of it and wasting time I just had him come over to my desk and tried something I’m not sure some teachers have…talking to him. I just asked what was going on and why he looked so mad and he just said “everyone in my house is dumb”. Whatever that meant I don’t know but I just told him that’s not true and just started talking to him and within 5 minutes he was smiling and happy. All it took was talking and some coaxing and he was fine. So that was my biggest accomplishment for the day, taking that kid who has started the day sometimes on the ground literally kicking and screaming and making turning his morning around and starting him off on the right track.

            Friday started the same day with Matthew, he came in all scowled and looked ticked off at the world and again all I did was call him over to my desk and tell him to stop. I said yesterday we had the same problem and we took care of it so that’s what we were going to do again. Again it seemed to work and he was fine in the span of about 3 minutes. Again it was a good feeling and if we can do this whenever he is off to a bad start then the rest of the school year gets a whole lot easier. They took their third ISAT test and that was the last one for the week. Then gym, lunch, and library took up the rest of the day. One thing I noticed was that the 3 days I was in school felt like 2 full weeks and what the other teachers said became so true for me, the shortest weeks are the longest weeks.  I know there isn’t much but that’s because there wasn’t much done. Other than Wednesday when they weren’t testing they were silent reading and that was it.

Vika átta (Week eight)

            Monday was a rough day knowing that Tuesday we weren’t going to have the kids. It was trying to figure out what to introduce knowing they won’t have any follow up the next day. So I used the day to keep going on fractions and do a lot of review on previously learned language arts subjects. One thing I was pretty excited about was a lesson about roots and affixes. I was having them make flashcards with the roots or affixes on one side and then the definition, examples, and a sentence using it on the other side. I was going to have them do each section in groups at stations and then afterwards they would have note cards to study from. Then I found these stencils online of a small tree and leaves and I was going to put the root or affix and its definition on the tree and then on the leaves write the words. Unfortunately they didn’t understand how to make the note cards. I walked them through it step by step, I drew them a diagram and even made an example for them. They still couldn’t understand it so instead of centers we just did it as a class. Then we ran out of time so for their homework I had them write the examples and sentences and didn’t get to the trees.

            Tuesday was a SIP day which consisted of three different conferences. One of which was a review of something we learned in novice, we talked about close reading which the woman said is something you would only do maybe twice a year, and then a conference about reading centers that the school doesn’t have the money to pay for but was a really good idea.

            Wednesday just felt like another Monday which made the whole school seem a bit off. Everyone was out of whack but we got through it. Although the staff seems like they’re dragging a bit the kids seem fine. We had a collaboration meeting to go over some evaluations of the school and principal and we passed out our ISAT booklet. In reading some of the things for the ISAT we discovered that I’m not allowed to have prefixes and suffixes up on the wall. So the cool follow up activity that I was going to hang on the wall I now can’t do until after ISATs and by that time I don’t know how effective it will be. I’ll probably still end up doing it because I think it could be helpful but I was hoping they would have them up for reference during ISATs.

            Thursday kept working on fractions and I don’t know if it was the Tuesday off or not but it just seemed to throw everything out of whack. We started with math first thing in the morning because that’s when we had the biggest time slot and the kids just seemed glazed over. Everything we reviewed from the day before went right past them and what I tried to teach just wasn’t getting through. I tried a couple different methods a few activities and it was just like the kids weren’t mentally there. So we moved on to some language arts hoping that the reading would just be less strenuous then math and it seemed to be doing the trick. So we were able to get something done before gym even if it wasn’t what I wanted or as much as I wanted. In the afternoon I was going to teach/review voice, tone, and some other reading parts of a story. Mrs. Z. found a really cool book about a hippo and a turtle becoming friends called Owen and Mzee, I asked if she wanted to read it to them because the students love it when she reads to them and since she hasn’t been teaching for the last 4 weeks she said she has been feeling a little left out in a way. So she read the story to them and went through all of the literary elements we had planned and that gave me a chance to do some much needed grading.

            Friday was pretty much a bust. We had our spelling test first thing in the morning then Read Across America after that which was pretty cool. It was an hour where the whole school was reading and they could have either a parent or grandparent come in and read a book to the class. It was a really good experience for them. We immediately went to gym and then after gym we had a bathroom break then 15 minutes before lunch, which we worked on the math hat we started Thursday and then lunch. After lunch we had an hour and a half to work on our math projects. Then library at 1:00 and from there we went straight to the student vs. staff volleyball game until the end of the day. I appreciate days like this to give the students a break, give them a chance to have some different kinds of fun that doesn’t involve learning. Unfortunately it’s the Friday before ISAT’s and I really could have used that time to either review or teach the last couple things before ISAT’s. We don’t have school Monday so obviously that’s not going to work and then we have Tuesday to teach and we haven’t gotten through nearly enough. But what really is going to stick the day before ISAT’s when we have so much to get through?

            Here is one of the biggest things I saw come into fruition that I have learned, you can have the best plans in the world but the biggest variable in the classroom is the kids. If they don’t understand the material then your plans don’t exactly matter. Whether it’s plans for the week, plans for a lesson, or plans for an assignment, if the kids don’t get it then your plans go out the window.

Classroom Confidential

            In Schmidt’s chapter 6 one thing she talks about is reading a novel aloud to the students. This is something I have wanted to do with the kids and haven’t gotten a chance to yet. I hadn’t seen Mrs. Z. read out loud to the class with anything other than the stories in their reading books or other short stories. So I asked her if I could and she said I was more than able to and she loved it. So I grabbed James and the Giant Peach and she said her and another teacher actually had a listening unit that went along with the book so she found that for me and I am going to start it next week. The timing works really well so that way they can just sit there and listen to give themselves a break between ISAT tests and it’s quiet so we don’t disturb any other classes while they are testing.

            I also like the “Skinny to Steroids” activity she talked about. It’s where you take an absurdly  simple sentence like “The cat ate” and you write the 3 words on the board with massive spaces in between. Then you have students either tell you or come up and write in details. Things like what color the cat is, what the cat ate, where the cat ate, why the cat ate, all sorts of details to beef up the sentence. The great thing about this activity is you can do it in less than 2 minutes. So this is something I can do before we go to gym after our bathroom break where I’m torn between deciding if I should start something new in 5 minutes or not.

            Journaling is the other thing I would like to do with them. It seems like we have the most time on Mondays and Fridays in the afternoons so that’s when I would do them. She gives us 13 jumpstart topics to give the kids to write about because sometimes getting started is the hardest part about journaling. This gives the gives to just write about themselves, their likes, and their interests, which is something that they normally don’t get to do. The other thing I could do with this is on Mondays have them write about either their weekend or free write, then on Fridays I could have them write about something during the week in school, like their favorite activity or what they wish maybe I could do better. That way they are still writing which is the important part but I’m also getting their feedback in order to make the classroom a better place for them.