Baby Steps

Monday
No school! Easter Monday :)

Tuesday
Today was our first day back from 10 days of break. I knew it would be crazy. That being said, it wasn't too  bad. My cooperating teacher decided to take away another one of the kids' stars. So, now they only have three chances on the behavior plan before they lose the privilege of the prize box. The kids were a bit surprised and a little frustrated by this, but they adjusted quickly.

Other than that, we were back to the regular schedule. It was kind of nice, in a strange way, to return to a predictable schedule of events.

Straight off, after announcements, my coop. teacher passed out a subtraction worksheet -- even though we haven't covered that stuff yet. She was initially just going to try it with a few students who really have addition

down. Anyway, the kids kept saying they didn't get it and they didn't know what to do despite our constant reminders about taking a guess or just trying their best. After walking around, we both agreed that none of the kids were really getting it at all. It was a little disappointing, but I still think that some of the kids will pick it up quickly once we introduce it and give them the basics.

We had guided reading again and had the kids fill out a worksheet before reading with them today. I have the two lowest groups for this and they had a really tough time with it. After I explained it, a few of them were getting it consistently. Others were basically guessing. And they were all trying to look at each others' papers. That was frustrating. But, sitting at a small, round table encourages this a bit. Then we did some reading and the kids were all over the place. It was definitely obvious that it was the first day back from a ten day break. Wow.

Generally, they were pretty good on the walks to computers and gym. They went outside to play at the park
during recess and got all riled up.

After calendar, I took over the classroom for the rest of the day. This consisted of passing out folders, getting a drink of water (such a necessity after gym!), the journal, and packing up. Overall, they were Yeah, right. I'm going to need some extra patience for this age group, I think.

Picture taken in my classroom. Kids and their crayons!

pretty good. They were a bit noisy on the way back from the water break, but they did alright. And, the journal time was a mess. Of course, by then they were all wound up and anxious to go home. They kept asking if it was time to leave. Talk about needing patience. Some wanted to move closer because they 'couldn't see' the words. Others were just chatty. They kept asking where their actual teacher was. Over and over. And over again. And four of them dropped their pencil holders and their supplies went everywhere. I swear, once one of them does this, everyone wants to. Accident?

I am excited to get into more teaching, though. It'll be fun to start instructing and working with the kids more directly. It'll be a learning experience for sure.

Wednesday
Today was a pretty solid day, overall. The kids were a bit rowdy in the morning, but they behaved pretty well for me in the afternoon.

During guided reading, I decided that we're going to be switching the books up. Honestly, I'm sick of the books and I can read them just fine. I can't imagine how frustrated the kids must be. Anyway, the one group is cruising through them; the other group, though, is having a really rough time. I really just want to pull those three or four kids aside completely separately, to be honest. So, during music I replaced a few and grabbed some different ones. I also asked the kids what they like to read about so I could try to incorporate their interests into reading. It's just so discouraging to hear them complain (I mean, literally complain -- like out loud) every time they get pulled for guided reading. Some of them really hate reading. And that breaks my heart.

Our play-doh time today. It was fun :)

When aerobics time came around (not real aerobics, it's a computer program that helps the struggling readers, I think. I was confused at first too...) my coop decided that we would ONLY be doing play-doh today. Some kids didn't mind this. Others just wanted to play with the toys. Well, I had fun :) I literally sat there and played with them. I figured, I wasn't doing anything else. It's actually really relaxing to sit and just play. What a job! 

Lunch was a marvelous break, as always.

The afternoon went really well. I decided that it wasn't going to go like yesterday. So it didn't. I was firm with them from the moment we lined up for music until they left for the day. Sure, there were still times when I wanted to pull my hair out, but it was so much better. And I told them straight up that there would be NO dropping of pencil boxes today (or it might result in the pulling of a star). This seemed to work pretty well. I mean granted, I still had to remind them to quiet down and that there should be no talking, but it was so much better than yesterday.

I especially love it because my teacher gives me so much freedom. She basically just leaves and checks in every so often. She says she doesn't want to be 'breathing down my back'. I couldn't be happier. It's such a different environment from my last placement where I was never alone with the kids. There was always another adult in the room who knew more than me about the classroom and the routines.

I love it so far. Tomorrow I'll be helping the kids finish an art project because there aren't any specials on Thursday afternoons. So, it'll be interesting. But I'm glad to be taking on more responsibility.

Thursday
Today was solid overall. The kids came in a bit rowdy but everything went fine. During my guided reading groups today, I showed the kids the two new books that I had pulled from the computer lab (where we keep the books for guided reading -- honestly, it's a pretty good collection). My teacher all excited about it. It was about cars. You would've thought it was the coolest thing. So, needless to say, we read it. And they did okay. It wasn't miraculous, but they enjoyed it. Mostly. I mean there were a few complaints when we re-read it, but it was so much better.

A harder book for my reading kids, but they loved it!

showed me how to 'check out' the books and said I can do it whenever. So, I did. I found two books that sounded somewhat interesting. Anyway, the lower of my two groups saw the book I was going to use for the higher group and they got really excited about it!







So, I asked the kids again what they liked and I started looking for those kinds of books. After school today I found a book about dinosaurs. One of the girls in my group was practically begging for one about dinosaurs so I checked it out even though it's a 'D' book (my kids are on A, maybe B). Anyway, I figure, if they're into it, maybe it won't be as hard for them. I remember my professor telling me that when kids are interested in a topic, they can often read about that topic at a much higher level than usual. Makes sense to me. We'll see how it goes.

We had library afterward, but then no special in the afternoon. Well, according to my teacher. I consider computers a special. Anyway, so I was in charge during computers too. Thursday is a

'free day' though, so the kids are usually engrossed in their games. They're still educational and whatnot, they're just more fun. The kids were great, though! Other teachers came in sometimes to get books or use the computer, and I couldn't help but feel proud at how quiet the kids were. It was good.

After that, we did an art project. It was a cute little picture of three birdies in a nest. It went along with the book we read right before making the project. Everything went fine (although they were noisy throughout), but because it took a while to reign them in after the walk back from computers, we lost some time. So, we didn't quite finish the project. Not a huge deal, but still a little frustrating.  They really liked it though.

Overall, a good day.

Friday
My day began with a voice mail from my coop. teacher saying she would be out for most of the  morning. Turns out she went to Menard's. Let me explain. She's starting a garden for an after school program and has been slowly taking on more and more of that project as I've been stepping
into teaching. So, while there needed to be an aide in the classroom at points throughout the day (for legal reasons), I was essentially in charge until 10:30. Then, I took over after lunch at noon and taught the remainder of the day. So, I essentially taught the majority of this hectic Friday.

Subtraction worksheet the kids finished today -- some did better than others

We did some math in the morning and continued our work on subtraction. The kids understand the concept now and understand (for the most part) that it's something different than addition. Victory! My coop. had left a worksheet so we did that as a whole class. They first cut out little pictures of flamingos and essentially used them as manipulatives to complete the problems. The challenge was that about a third of the class flew through the math and seemed to understand the vast majority of it. Another third stuck right with me as I led the whole-group instruction. And the last six or seven kids needed a lot of extra help. So, with all good teaching, I embarked on the differentiation train. This whole activity helped remind me about the importance of reaching students where they are and bringing the material to their level. I'm really starting to notice the importance, and the difficulty, of "choosing alternative teaching strategies and materials to achieve different instructional purposes and to meet student needs" (Performance IPTS #6: Instructional Delivery).

It helped that there was an aide in the classroom, but it was still crazy. Some kids came up to me and asked what to do when they were done while others chatted with friends, their names having just been written at the top of the page. Frustrating, but, oh, so much fun :)

I started to find, throughout the day, that despite it being difficult without my teacher (the kids always ask where she is), it was really nice to have the class to myself. That's how I want to teach. Not really with six other adults in the room like at my last placement. Even though the classroom management stuff is hard sometimes, I'm learning so much more because I'm the one teaching, fixing what doesn't work, and forcing myself to learn to be efficient and organized.

Reading went really well, though. The kids sat on the rug, in a big circle and we read through a little phonics story. It was really quiet! So encouraging.

The 'story' we read during reading today. The kids were great!

When my teacher got back, she did an art project with them and things got loud. They were painting and talking. Not always the best combination. Then some kids started painting their hands. Oh man. My teacher wasn't very happy. She seemed kind of surprised about that. I wasn't really. They're six!

After lunch went well. Although stars continued to be pulled until the surprise box at 1:30. But, before gym, instead of doing their fantastique.

The book we read today :)

book boxes, I decided to just read to them. I pulled a book from the shelf and they sat and listened. It was really fun. I love that about teaching. They get so into the book and they want to see the pictures and they love the noises you make. And when you get excited, they get excited. It was great!

What a good day. This was probably the first time I've actually felt like a teacher. Crazy cool :)