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.