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...).
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