Sub Day... Take 2!

So I woke up this morning and started getting ready when I got a text message from my mentor teacher "Hey, I'm not feeling too well so I'm taking a sick day. Would you like me to write sub plans for you or the sub?" (As I am not an official substitute I am not allowed to be there with the kids without a paid sub in the room) I decided that I would give it a try and so the sub plans were sent to me. The day started off well enough but due to unforeseen difficulties (Our class in charge of lunch workers) there was quite a bit of confusion during the late morning time... I finally gave up and we moved on to bigger and better (or just more educational) things. I started teaching my capacity math lesson. It went well. The students were able to figure out the conversions and when they struggled they were able to talk to their neighbor to figure it out. One of my biggest struggles with Math in the school is how much the students need to understand. I would love it if they could figure out why the formulas work or even ask specific questions to help them understand. But that is not the way the students learn math so trying to change their ideas in less than a month is extremely difficult!
Later on in the day I met with my guided reading group. We are getting to a great part of the book so it was interesting to see what they think about the book so far and to see how they are connecting the ideas in the book.  After guided reading we did Art. We talked about Georgia O'Keefe and then imitated one of her paintings using watercolors. It was a lot of fun and the students put a lot of work into it. After Art we talked about Haiku's and created a few traditional Haiku's. After Writing the students split up and went to reteach sections for math. The group I got seemed to understand the straight conversions but struggled with story problems that had multiple steps. It was hard for them to break things down in order to solve the equations.

... And that was my second sub day. It was crazy at times. Let's just hope that I have more control over the class when they are my own class (I'm sure that will be the case but who knows!).

**A little bit of humor but there is some bad language... Just a warning**

Week 2

Sorry I have been slacking this week on posting about my days at school. The BYU Lu'au was this week so I went from Class to the show home to plan lessons and then I slept so I didn't have much time for blogging, but don't worry this post will catch me up and then I will be on track for next week.

Monday: Today for math the students took a pretest on the measurement unit we are starting tomorrow. After the pretest the students were able to go to PE unless they had missing work. If they had missing work they had to stay in to finish their missing work. After PE the students went to lunch, when they came back we did guided reading. During guided reading I was able to meet with my group and we talked about what had happened in the book so far. We also discussed different strategies for making sure we understand what we are reading. After Guided reading the class watched a Bill Nye episode about magnets. After Bill Nye I taught a lesson about limericks. We reviewed the rules for limericks and watched a music video about limericks. I then had the students practice writing limericks individually. After I finished my lesson on Limericks I taught the students about the Industrial revolution and the trail of tears. After discussing some things about the industrial revolution and the trail of tears I assigned a side to each half of the classroom and we did a role play activity. Half of the class were the settlers and the other half were the Indians, whenever I tapped someone they were supposed to give me their point of view concerning the trail of tears. It was a great activity and the students made some great points to support their opinion.

Tuesday: Today the students were introduced to their new math unit by practicing converting standard length.  They were struggling with it so my mentor teacher asked me to teach that tomorrow instead of standard weight. After Math we had Writing. For writing today we went into the Computer lab to type up our limericks on the blog. The blog is a new thing for the class so it took a while to explain how it worked to the students but they got it figured out and had a really good time. After Writing we went to lunch then the students came back for guided reading. After guided reading the students went to Specialties for an hour. When they came back I was able to teach my social studies lesson about the War with Texas. It was great, the students always enjoy hearing about wars and this war got the students ready for the civil war so they were really excited.

Wednesday: Today I taught a lesson about standard length to review what we did yesterday and then I had the students work on their independent practice. After Math I was able to teach a science lesson about everyday magnets. We talked about industrial uses for magnets as well as home uses for magnets. we discussed the difference between regular magnets and electromagnets because the class is taking their science test tomorrow and they are worried about it. After science we went to lunch. After lunch I met with my guided reading group quickly before I had to leave for my practicum support meeting. At practicum support we talked about different books that we can make and use in the classroom.

Thursday: Today was crazy!!! There is no school tomorrow so Friday things had to be done today. We started off the morning with the students giving each other their spelling tests. After the tests had been given we went to the library for the Battle of the Books. For the Battle of the Books the students were grouped into threes and there were four books that had to be read. the Battle consisted of questions about each book. After the Battle of the Books the students took a very quick recess before coming in so that I could teach my lesson and get observed. The lesson was not the greatest but the lesson happened. I was talking about standard weight conversion so I got scales from friends and the students measured things with the scales before converting them. After some practice the students were supposed to finish their independent worksheets but the worksheets were too long so they didn't get it finished before lunch. After lunch the students came in for guided reading. During guided reading I went outside to read with one of the girls in the class. I was talking with her about her book and realized that she has not been comprehending the book at all. It was scary to me that she was 50 pages into the book and could not tell me what had happened so far. After Guided reading the class took their science test. If they finished early they got out their math worksheet and finished that. After the test we did passport writing, each student chose a country and every Friday someone presents about their country in front of the class. At 2:30 the class got ready for their class meeting. I love the idea of class meetings and the way that my mentor teacher implements them. During this class meeting the advice for life was about being positive and working toward goals. We watched a video that showed how important a positive attitude is.

Friday: Parent Teacher conference comp day... NO SCHOOL!!!!

Catch-up

Thursday...
Today I got evaluated. It was a writing lesson on limericks and it went well but it could have gone better. I need to learn better how to state my expectations before every lesson. Sometimes I fail to do that. But otherwise my lesson went well and the students were engaged during the lesson. In addition to my observation we learned about electromagnets and we had the chance to make one. The kids thought that it was a lot of fun and were quite interested in the electromagnet.

Friday...
Today my mentor teacher was gone. There was a substitute but I was in charge of the class. It was fun we started off by reading The Phantom Tollbooth and then we did a math review. After the math review the students had time to work on make-up work. They then went to lunch and when they got back to lunch they went to specialties. After specialties we did guided reading (my group is reading Magyk) and then took the math test for the last hour of the day. It was a laid back day and the students were pretty good throughout. Here are some funnies from today:

Student: Miss. Fiso, I need a Band-Aid
Me: Oh no, what happened?
Student: Maggie's foot hit my burn and now it is bleeding.
Me: (Seeing that his burn was on his hand) How in the world did her foot touch your hand?
Student: Well, I was trying to trip her.
Me (Sounds like a 5th grader)

Student: (Giving another student a spelling test) Developed. Like, I developed him.

Student: (During the math test) Miss. Fiso, this problem says to answer which is bigger without solving the problem.
Me: Okay
Student: But it is so easy that I solved it first and now I know the answer so I can't do what it says...
Me: Umm... Can you write an explanation and pretend you don't already know the answer?
Student: Yes, but is that okay?
Me: Just do your best.

The results are in...

The class made just over 900 dollars at the talent show last night!!!! They were so excited as they came in this morning. It was great. Also, concerning lessons: I feel like i'm getting the hang of things and I feel much more confident when teaching. Today I was in charge of teaching social studies to the class. I had 25 min. to teach my students about the war of 1812. It was a little bit hectic but the lesson went well all things considered. I was able to keep the topic informative and interesting. The students were very good today during my lesson. It is impressive to me how dedicated to the lessons my students are.
I also had the chance to work with a student during Math. This girl transferred into the class recently and is just learning English so she is behind in some aspects. I was working with her on multiplication. I would give her a problem to solve and she would think about it for a minute before giving me the answer. When I asked her how she found the answer she said she used her points of contact. I told her I didn't know what those were and she looked at me incredulously and said "you are at BYU and don't know your points!?" Apparently the points are important to know... This is the same student who, the other day, had this conversation with me while I was working with her on reading.
Her: Reading "He is just an Arrogant..." What is arrogant?
Me: When someone is arrogant they are kind of stuck up.
Her: What is that?
Me: Stuck up is when you think you are better than everyone else.
Her: Ohhhh okay
Me: Let's keep reading.
Her: "J-E-R-K" ohhh they used a bad word! I can't believe it. Can you believe that?
**Later**
Me: That just is work that they have to do, like you have homework.
Her: Do you have homework?
Me: Yes I do.
Her: Even at BYU!?
Me: Yeah I have lots of it.
Her: Then what are you doing here?
Me: This is part of my classwork. I am studying to be a teacher.
Her: You! You are going to be a teacher?
Me: Yeah I am... Should we keep reading?

We've got talent!

Today was the talent show so we were practicing for that most of the day. In fact, the main lesson of the day was my math lesson. I am glad to say it was much better than yesterday! I am much more comfortable with planning a direct instruction lesson so my lesson was much better today. I was teaching the students about scaling and how they could tell if a number would be bigger or smaller based on the size that you are multiplying by. The students understood the concept of scaling but they struggled to draw each example. After my math lesson we went back to practice for the talent show. I was backstage helping the stage crew with their parts. I have never been in charge of the stage before so it was quite the experience.

I came back to the school in the evening to help with the talent show and it was so much fun! It was amazing to me to see the support that the students had for their classmates and the talents that everyone decided to share. I learned so much about my students by participating in this talent show with them. I am glad that my schedule allowed me to attend...

Train Wreck!

Have you ever seen a train wreck? I haven't  but I'm sure that my lesson today qualifies as a train wreck... The whole day wasn't so bad. We started off with practicing for the talent show and then some reading and writing. But after all of that I was in charge and things went downhill. I don't feel like I am completely incompetent but sometimes there is nothing you can do. If you are interested in my flop of a lesson here are the details...

For my math class I am required to teach two inquiry math lessons during practicum. My teacher decided that my first lesson would be a good one for inquiry. No problem, right? WRONG!!! Turns out inquiry is hard. Especially when the students aren't accustomed to it. The truth is students don't want to understand why something works. They just want to know how to do it. My problem was figuring out how to teach the students in a way that they understood. We struggled and math went way longer than any of us wanted but we learn from our mistakes, right? I was so disappointed in this lesson and I hope I can do much better in the future. I felt so bad but the amazing thing was the class didn't judge me (well, to my face). I can just imagine myself in their position. It was a struggle. So yeah, that was math today.

After math we did science. I was teaching the students about the Earth's magnetic field and compasses. The idea was a good one but I was so frazzled after math that my science lesson wasn't that great either and this was the first science lesson I have taught... Alas, it was only my first day teaching fifth grade, maybe I should give myself a break.

Tomorrow I'm teaching about multiplication and scaling (Multiplying by a number that is greater than one will give you an answer bigger than that number while multiplying a number by a number that is less than one will give you an answer smaller than one) wish me luck, I think I'll need it!!!

**Disclaimer** Just in case you were wondering, the students were great during the lesson. They were paying attention and struggling to understand what I wanted them to know as I struggled to understand how to explain it to them. Shocking that management wasn't my biggest problem. That is what I have been freaking out about... Some of my students were so sweet that they came up to me afterward and told me I did a great job. The little liars-- But it was sweet of them. 

This is what I thought of while trying to teach my math lesson today... The students and I were on different pages.

Day One

Today was my first day in the classroom... it was amazing! I have 34 kids in my classroom this semester which is crazy considering last semester there were only 18 kids. But that is okay, they all seem great and I am excited to get to know them better.

Today the students started out the morning by giving each other a spelling test. I love the way they do their spelling tests I've never seen it done this way before. Every student has their own set of words... Let me explain: every Friday the students take a spelling test and a spelling pretest. This morning the students were working on their individualized spelling test. With this test the students give it to each other working in pairs so they were busy testing each other this morning. After they finished their tests they handed it in to be graded and we moved on to the pretest. My mentor teacher asked me to give the spelling (pre)test today. The students each have a sheet with three columns for writing down their spelling words. The first column is for the pretest, the second is for their individualized school list and the third is for their individualized take home list. My mentor teacher gave me a list of words told me to read a word, use it in a sentence, and then repeat the word. After we got through all of the words the students corrected their own work. The words that they got wrong were moved over to the second column. They then go through past spelling lists and fill in the blank spaces with words that they missed on previous tests, that is how they create their spelling words for the week. I think that the idea is brilliant!

After the spelling test we moved on to Math. For Math today the students worked on dividing a whole number into a fraction (i.e. James needs 1/3cup of butter for a batch of brownies, if he has 2cups of sugar how many batches can he make?). It was interesting to see the connections that the students made and to see the way the teacher prompted them to learn the information. My mentor teacher was great at keeping the attention of the students and she often let them share their ideas on the board. The students LOVE writing on the board. Monday I am teaching a Math lesson so it was helpful for me to see how the students respond to Math and how my mentor teacher handles it.

The rest of the day was spent on reading, P.E., Music, and Practicing for the talent show... Let me tell you about the talent show. My teacher and her class are amazing! They are working this year to Save money for 'Africa'. The past few weeks they have been making and selling survival bracelets (If you want one let me know, they are $5). The talent show is another way that they are trying to earn money. There is no cost for the show but there will be concessions and a place for people to donate money. The students are putting this on themselves. The class has a few class numbers that they are planning on performing and they are so excited! I love this idea and hope that I can be so amazing with my own class.

Democracy is a big deal for my teacher and the way she runs her class lets me know of how important it is. Every day after reciting the Pledge the students recite their Class rules, my mentor teacher wants them to be a focus in the classroom, not a poster on the wall. The students also have a voice in the classroom and they are very responsible with it. If the students have an idea, they don't hesitate to share it. If there is a decision that needs to be made that influences the class, they vote on it. These students are so used to these ideas of democracy and it is impressive to see the way it changes the feel of the classroom. Students can tell when they are being taken seriously and they respond when you give them a chance to share their own opinions.

Sorry, that was a lot of writing but here's a youtube for you making it through (It's okay if you skipped straight to the youtube...).