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.

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...).