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.

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.