Managing Mahem

Monday
Today was a tired day -- you know, those days after long nights and short weekends. I'm also getting sick which doesn't help matters. Despite all of this, today was a pretty great day. And I'm learning to choose to make every single day great. Because your attitude impacts how you act.

Anyway, today I was evaluated during my guided reading lessons. They went pretty well and it was

Strategies to improve guided reading:
like using mini white boards for
phonemic awareness

really helpful to think more critically about what I'm doing each lesson and how I can improve to benefit my kids. It was also really interesting and helpful to hear about lots of different strategies to try with my students. I can't wait to put some of these to use.

My reading lesson today went well enough. My kids were pretty well behaved overall. I've been trying to incorporate some of the little games and activities that they love in order to keep their attention and get them motivated to learn. The lesson today was about rhyming. I know they already have a basic understanding of rhyming, but I really wanted to spend some solid time on it.

We began by playing a game in which a student comes to the front and chooses an object from a paper bag. That child then must think of a rhyming word that accompanies that object. It was a

little difficult to find objects with which I could implement this game, so I knew that unless I framed the lesson right, the kids would have a really difficult time with the game. They seemed to get it and they did alright with it. After about five or six, I cut it short, though, and we opened up a book of poetry. Shel Silverstein, anyone? I loved his poems as a kid and I though the students would find his words and pictures funny. However, after reading a few, I realized that some of the ideas were over their heads and that they weren't catching on as well as I would've liked. They had a bit of a hard time picking out the rhyming words too. So, I only read a few of those poems too. Then, I had students write a one line poem in their journal and draw a picture about it. I wanted to incorporate writing (because they haven't been getting a ton of this lately). This went well overall. They didn't particularly enjoy it, but they did a nice job with it.

Calendar went fine, as always. And, the walk to music was great. I implemented my 'mystery' too much about that. I also offered that if the class worked hard and everyone finished the journal, we could play a quick game before leaving for home. They did finish so I made up a silly little game on the spot (the ones I actually had in mind would've required more time) and we played for a bit before they left.

person game again (it works so well!) And then we did another journal after that. They didn't complain

Overall, today was a learning experience. I didn't exactly love all of my lessons today, but then again, I guess I won't always. I need to reflect on this and move forward. C'est la vie!



Tuesday
Today was alright.
My teacher was giving the students an assessment in math -- apparently it's from the principal. Important stuff. Anyway, my coop didn't really want me in the room because she didn't want students thinking they could get help. It was very individual. So, I got a bit caught up. I made copies of worksheets for center time.

Guided reading went okay today too. I had the students bring white boards with and we wrote out words to become familiar with them. Of course, they loved writing on the little boards and it got silly at times, but they were having fun and we were working hard too.

My reading lesson was pretty good today. We finished up our car projects which turned out pretty cute. Most of the kids picked the green bus. I was totally okay with that. I'm trying to give them choice where possible. We then read a book about wheels and focused a bit on comprehension. Since limos were mentioned in the book, the kids kept bringing that up. So that was interesting. And annoying after a while. Finally, we started another little car project. I made the example last night and they turned out super cute. I can't wait to see the kids'.

After lunch was calendar and then gym. They were a bit noisy but not terrible. They earned two stickers at gym so they must have been good there too. They were all excited about that. Apparently we're tied for second place right now.

After gym I decided we'd get a drink of water since they were asking about it -- they don't always. It wasn't too bad, actually. But they were really noisy after, though, so we ended up sitting quietly until we left even though they kept asking about the game again.

I still definitely need some work on my classroom management. I think it'll come with experience but I should keep worked consistently and deliberately at it.

Wednesday
In guided reading, I tried something a little new again. Included in one of the little baggies of books were a few flash cards. So, we went over the words and then played I Spy inside the book. I also had each student pass a word around and say a sentence with it. They seemed to like these little activities and they're doing really well with them.

Today I tried something a little different in reading. I read a sentence aloud and the kids had to write what they heard. It was a pretty basic sentence consisting of mostly sight words, but I wanted to see where they were at with this. Then, we read a book and finished our car projects which turned out really cute.

The book we read in reading today. They loved it!

We did play-doh at 11 during Aerobics. Some of the kids really wanted to play with other toys, but I thought we'd stick just to play-doh for the day. They got over it.

After lunch we did calendar and then they read from their book boxes. This has been going better. It's been pretty quiet for this activity and some of the kids really do work. I also try to find a (different) student to read with at this time. That student really likes it and I just enjoy having that  one-on-one time. Of course then, four other kids come up and ask if I can read with them next.

Music. Folders. Journal. Home.

Thursday
Today we did similar activities in guided reading. I've been trying to get the words from the flashcards ingrained in their heads so they have those words in their 'toolboxes'. For some it's working, others not so much. They always get stuck on the word 'our' because they're reminded of the 60 minutes is an hour kind of word. It's a bit confusing but we get there eventually. I really need to find another book or two at their level and make more flashcards for those.

Since we had library at 10:30, we only had about 20 minutes for reading so we went through a scholastic magazine about trash and preserving the earth. The kids were pretty into it. It actually went really well.

After lunch, we had computers from 12:30 to 1 which is our only afternoon special on Thursdays due to having library in the morning. Can be good or bad. Just depends on the day. Computers went pretty well. Today was free choice which always helps the situation. They were well behaved and just asked some questions. They like to show me what games they're playing and have me watch silly songs or whatever. However, at the end of computers, a few of them were just chatting and not following directions. So, it took us a bit of extra time to leave the lab before coming back to the room for our activity.

The kids liked the activity today overall. We've been talking a lot about wheels in our reading lessons through the books we've been reading so today we colored and made wheelbarrows in front of a garden scene. It turned out pretty cute and the kids seemed to like it overall. They did a pretty good job with it overall and most of them finished it. A couple of kids had a hard time with the cutting.

Friday
Made it to Friday! Today wasn't all that great. The kids were crazy and things got worse as the day went on. The reading lesson actually started out well. It's a long lesson on Fridays because we don't have Aerobics or computers. So, I needed to fill an hour and a half. And keep their attention.

We first reviewed sight words and talked about letters and sounds. I picked a few letters, put them on the board and then had kids come up to rearrange them to make different words. For the very most part, they were into it.

Some of our words

Then, we talked about cause and effect. We were reading a book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake so I incorporated that topic into the lesson. I had a little T-chart made on which was written 'cause' on one side and 'effect' on the other. Then, I had picked a few words and written them down as prompts for the kids.

However, right when I was beginning this little part of the lesson, I realized that they had been sitting at the rug for at least 25 minutes by now and they would probably start to get antsy soon. And we still had a lot to do there. So, spur of the moment I said "Everyone stand up". And then we proceeded to do ten jumping jacks. I figured this would be a good way of getting them active and moving before they were expected to sit for another 15 minutes. And I related it by asking how they felt as a result of the jumping jacks (to which they responded tired). Mission accomplished. I think this helped illustrate my developing knowledge of the learning environment Illinois Professional Teaching Standard #4 which states that "competent teachers must be able to analyze the classroom environment and make decisions to enhance student motivation."

Then we finished the chart; the kids really seemed to get the stuff. It was fun too. And then we read our story. It was cute and the kids were into it. Afterward, I asked some questions -- mostly comprehension -- and some about cause and effect. They did a nice job.

Finally, we started our art activity. We made the little cat from the story who was looking over a piece of paper on which they had written about why they would or would not give a cat a cupcake. They did really well with the whole art project. It got noisy at times but they had fun and the projects turned out nice. I was also glad I had incorporated writing. Now because we haven't done much with free writing (usually for the journal exercises, they just copy something from the board instead of writing their own sentences), I decided not to go that route today. They would be all over the place, all 20 would be asking for help and it would be a mess. So, I went around to each child and asked what he/she wanted to say. Then, I wrote their responses on post-it notes and they copied them onto their papers. Someday (soon) I'd like to move toward them writing their own sentences and ideas. I think they're just intimidated by the idea right now.

The afternoon got worse as it went on. When we came back from lunch, we were informed by the aide that they were not good (like at all), so my coop teacher took away the surprise box today. This did a couple of things. It illustrated to the kids how disappointed we were with their behavior. But, it also basically eliminated the classroom management plan from the remainder of the day. The kids had nothing to work for. So, needless to say, they were rowdy and noisy for the rest of the day. It also took away the reward for the kids who had worked hard all week and earned their stars (and let's be real, probably weren't the ones talking at lunch). Apparently my teacher does this sometimes, but I'm just not sure if I see that the benefits outweigh the negatives of this.

After gym, since there was no surprise box, we caught up on work. Anything that needed to be done but wasn't was handed back and finished. That felt good.

Home. Finally.
Monday will be my first day of full teaching!