Today was a grading day for me. To start out my morning, I graded three tests. I love grading tests because I get to see who is improving on the stuff I help them with and who I need to help more. I graded a spelling, vocabulary and reading comprehension test. The spelling test focused on the “o” like in “ocean” and in “show.” Overall, the students scored well. The lowest grade was an 80. There were a few 100’s. Then, their vocabulary test worried me to start out with. A few did not score well and I hate putting bad grades on their tests. I have noticed that some students rush themselves and score lower than they would if they had a test called out to them such as a spelling test. Sometimes, they rush themselves so much that they forget to complete all the questions. When I got to the reading comprehension test on Helen Keller, I wanted to see how the students I specifically read with did. It made me feel great that they scored higher than the ones who I did not get to read with. When I got done grading tests, I was asked to read a new story with a student. After reading the story, it was time for me to leave.
Today in my placement it was very tiring. It’s Monday, so of course the block went by pretty slow. I walked in as the students were beginning their warm up. After they got their warm up complete, Mrs. Mathis started to teach them simple Scientific Notation rules. They pretty much understood it. Before they started working, Mrs. Mathis noticed that in the book they had a section where you add and subtract Scientific Notation. This bothered her, because she had just now finished teaching them multiplication and division of Scientific Notation. She thought for a little bit about if she should teach them how to add and subtract them, but she came to a decision to not teach them that. I thought that was cool because she was thinking of what was better for the students and what wasn’t. She was saying that she doesn’t remember learning that, and she didn’t think that the students needed to know that. Tomorrow the students have a test on the past few lessons. This will be a test on my lesson included. That is very nerve racking. I will grade the test and hopefully the students understand the content. Also, I am teaching again at some point this week. I am a little scared.
Everyone was so tired today. When I say everyone I mean everyone: Mrs. Gandy, the kids, me, everyone. It was pretty relaxed in the Kindergarten classroom. We started off with drawing their weekend which is very usual for Mondays. After that they worked on their calendar. I had to help walk around and check their number lines. The only problems I saw were writing numbers backwards. One girl has trouble with doing what she’s supposed to but I went over and explained it for her and she got done pretty quickly. After we finished checking, they were all called to sit around the rug and share their weekends. There was some hunting and some playing being done during their weekends. Not much else to do when you are five or six years old. They read “The Gingerbread Cowboy” after they finished sharing. It’s just like “The Gingerbread Man” but it was more set in Texas. Once they finished the book, they started making their very own gingerbread man. All the decorations were based on their preferences. It was a cute idea but I didn’t get to see it finished, I had to come back to school.
Today was such a great day at my placement. I taught the Dred Scott Decision to my students while Mrs. Sutusky observed me. I worked really hard to create the PowerPoint and activity for my lesson, so I was really excited to show it off. I began class by reviewing the Missouri Compromise with the students because it played a key role in the Dred Scott Decision. Then I had the students come up to the board and list what came to their minds when they thought of farm equipment. One boy wrote slave on the board and we were off and running from there. I discussed the significance of his answer and then had the students move into groups. The groups became the states and territories that Dred Scott would travel to with his master. I also had students play roles such as Dred Scott, his owners, and his family. I had the students who were role playing shift around the room to give the students a visual of Dred’s life. While the activity was taking place, students were also writing down notes as I explained the lesson. The students also had to create a flow chart of Dred’s life. After the students understood how Dred had traveled and whether the states were free or slave that he had lived in, we began discussing the court case. I acted as Chief Justice and told the students the ruling. The students were shocked by the decision that blacks were not citizens and had no rights. I then recapped the lesson and had the students do a writing activity. They had to summarize the lesson, tell me the impact the event had on the start of the Civil War, and give me their thoughts on the lesson. It could be no less than half a page. Once the students finished with their writing, I had them place the desks back and they switched classes. Mrs. Sutusky and Mr. Leininger both loved my lesson and PowerPoint which made me feel really awesome. They both asked for a copy of it and intend to use it in their own future lessons! I was so glad the activity went well and that the students seemed to enjoy it and grasp the concept. I loved it and am glad everyone else seemed to as well.
Today was a very mundane Monday. I got to the classroom and Mrs. Catoe had me put some Christmas stuff together. I had to put pieces of a Santa making kit in Ziploc bags for each student. It took a while. After that, we all went to the back for morning meeting. Mrs. Catoe went over the whole month and talked about upcoming events. After that, the students started on their daily mathematics and language activities. Then they started on their Grinch activity. This week is Grinch Week. The whole class is doing different Grinch activities throughout the week. Today, they are working with adjectives. They are identifying descriptive words through the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
In my placement, today, I graded the quizzes that my students took on their vocabulary words. This was a full circle moment for me, because I got to see which students did well with the information that I got to teach them. Every student made either an A or a B, except two. Seeing two students not succeed broke my heart. I put so much effort into my lesson and I hated to see them not do well. I now see how important it is to my teachers that I do well. For the rest of the class period, the students worked silently on a web quest. They had to find sources that critiqued “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. Many of them were in a very talkative mood, today. Mrs. Kahler did a great job of keeping them focused and on task. I hope to have classroom management skills that are as impressive as Mrs. Kahler’s when I teach my lesson on Wednesday.
Today the class began with the students getting to watch Channel One news. I took attendance. Then Mrs. Peake took over and let them work on their stories. Today was the final day for them to finish their rough draft and work on their final draft in class. I walked around the class and helped the students with their stories. They asked me questions about spelling and they asked me what I thought about papers. Mrs. Peake met with each student one on one and proof read their stories for them. I love how she really helps them and doesn’t make them work alone. She never leaves them stranded and she is always willing to give them ideas and help them improve. I also love how creative she gets with her lessons. She has helped me plan out so much of my lesson and she has given me so many tips and great ideas about what to do. She and I also met today after school and we worked to complete my lesson tomorrow. We tested out all of the stations for the kids. I’m so excited about tomorrow!
To kick off this week of teacher cadet, I and Coach Frye started our football unit for our sixth graders. But first we started off in the weight room with the seventh graders, and the students ether did upper body exercises or lower body exercises. Before every workout Coach Greenway explains what they are too do, and I walk around supervising to make sure they are doing the lifts correctly. Many of the kids do not lift especially the girls, but they toughen up and do it without a lot of complaining. I enjoy working out and it is very important for your health, and I look up to Coach Greenway for braving the storm and doing this unit. We do not do weight lifting with the sixth graders because weight lifting is more of an upper level course. So I helped Coach Frye teach the kids the proper form of throwing a football, which is grab the laces and fully extend your arm and point at your “target”. Many of the kids did it with ease, but there were some that struggled and I helped them out. Some of the kids like Thomas, have a “rocket” for an arm which is impressive since they are so young. Wednesday we more on too catching which is the next step, because a quarterback has to have receiver that can catch to throw too.
I was a little late today when I arrived at my placement. When I started walking down the hall to my classroom, my class was coming out of the door. Today they had map testing. I thought I would have to go to Ms. Pigg’s room like Megan had to do when her class had map testing but I was wrong. Mrs. McFarland wanted me to stay in her room, by myself! I was shocked. She wanted me to glue the hands that the class cut out and glue them on their wreaths. When she left, I started putting the wreaths together. It was actually fun. I looked at everybody’s hands and I noticed the difference in size and who could cut out things better than other people. I still couldn’t believe that she trusted me enough to leave me in the classroom by myself. I only got 10 wreaths finished and then it was time for me to go.
Dec. 9/2013 Today during Mrs. Mason’s class we had to do things a little differently. We didn’t get to go to the computer lab because she wasn’t there today so Mrs. Mason would send two students to the back of the classroom where the laptops were on so they could take their AR tests on there. I picked a couple of students to come to the back and read with me at the table. Once everyone was finished reading she had the students come and sit in front of the board. She then took out a book of her own and began reading to the kids. It was a book on homophones to show an example of what the words that sound alike but have different meanings. After she read the book the first time she read it one more time for the kids. Once she had read the book two times the kids returned back to their seats. She then gave them their new vocabulary words which were homophones. They had to pair up the words. After every kid had paired up their words and written them down for me and Mrs. Mason to check they then began silently reading. She had me help a couple of the kids take their AR tests in the back on her laptops before I left to return back to school.
Today was another laid back day. When I arrived I talked to Mrs. Joyner until the kids came up from breakfast. When the kids arrived we helped them pick what they wanted for lunch and we did the breakfast count for the next day. When that was done they began on their morning work. I walked around and helped them with their work and answered any questions. After Mrs. Joyner had gone over the morning work it was almost time for them to go to the library like they do every Monday. Before they went to the library I checked their reading logs and gave them ram bucks if they did it. They also got a prize out of the treasure box today if they did their reading log. After that it was off to the library. While they were at the library me and Mrs. Joyner talked about my lesson that is Friday. After that I sorted some books for her and did a head count of them. After that it was time for the kids to return when they returned in was time for me to go again.
Today was a grading day for me. To start out my morning, I graded three tests. I love grading tests because I get to see who is improving on the stuff I help them with and who I need to help more. I graded a spelling, vocabulary and reading comprehension test. The spelling test focused on the “o” like in “ocean” and in “show.” Overall, the students scored well. The lowest grade was an 80. There were a few 100’s. Then, their vocabulary test worried me to start out with. A few did not score well and I hate putting bad grades on their tests. I have noticed that some students rush themselves and score lower than they would if they had a test called out to them such as a spelling test. Sometimes, they rush themselves so much that they forget to complete all the questions. When I got to the reading comprehension test on Helen Keller, I wanted to see how the students I specifically read with did. It made me feel great that they scored higher than the ones who I did not get to read with. When I got done grading tests, I was asked to read a new story with a student. After reading the story, it was time for me to leave.
ReplyDeleteToday in my placement it was very tiring. It’s Monday, so of course the block went by pretty slow. I walked in as the students were beginning their warm up. After they got their warm up complete, Mrs. Mathis started to teach them simple Scientific Notation rules. They pretty much understood it. Before they started working, Mrs. Mathis noticed that in the book they had a section where you add and subtract Scientific Notation. This bothered her, because she had just now finished teaching them multiplication and division of Scientific Notation. She thought for a little bit about if she should teach them how to add and subtract them, but she came to a decision to not teach them that. I thought that was cool because she was thinking of what was better for the students and what wasn’t. She was saying that she doesn’t remember learning that, and she didn’t think that the students needed to know that. Tomorrow the students have a test on the past few lessons. This will be a test on my lesson included. That is very nerve racking. I will grade the test and hopefully the students understand the content. Also, I am teaching again at some point this week. I am a little scared.
ReplyDeleteEveryone was so tired today. When I say everyone I mean everyone: Mrs. Gandy, the kids, me, everyone. It was pretty relaxed in the Kindergarten classroom. We started off with drawing their weekend which is very usual for Mondays. After that they worked on their calendar. I had to help walk around and check their number lines. The only problems I saw were writing numbers backwards. One girl has trouble with doing what she’s supposed to but I went over and explained it for her and she got done pretty quickly. After we finished checking, they were all called to sit around the rug and share their weekends. There was some hunting and some playing being done during their weekends. Not much else to do when you are five or six years old. They read “The Gingerbread Cowboy” after they finished sharing. It’s just like “The Gingerbread Man” but it was more set in Texas. Once they finished the book, they started making their very own gingerbread man. All the decorations were based on their preferences. It was a cute idea but I didn’t get to see it finished, I had to come back to school.
ReplyDeleteToday was such a great day at my placement. I taught the Dred Scott Decision to my students while Mrs. Sutusky observed me. I worked really hard to create the PowerPoint and activity for my lesson, so I was really excited to show it off. I began class by reviewing the Missouri Compromise with the students because it played a key role in the Dred Scott Decision. Then I had the students come up to the board and list what came to their minds when they thought of farm equipment. One boy wrote slave on the board and we were off and running from there. I discussed the significance of his answer and then had the students move into groups. The groups became the states and territories that Dred Scott would travel to with his master. I also had students play roles such as Dred Scott, his owners, and his family. I had the students who were role playing shift around the room to give the students a visual of Dred’s life. While the activity was taking place, students were also writing down notes as I explained the lesson. The students also had to create a flow chart of Dred’s life. After the students understood how Dred had traveled and whether the states were free or slave that he had lived in, we began discussing the court case. I acted as Chief Justice and told the students the ruling. The students were shocked by the decision that blacks were not citizens and had no rights. I then recapped the lesson and had the students do a writing activity. They had to summarize the lesson, tell me the impact the event had on the start of the Civil War, and give me their thoughts on the lesson. It could be no less than half a page. Once the students finished with their writing, I had them place the desks back and they switched classes. Mrs. Sutusky and Mr. Leininger both loved my lesson and PowerPoint which made me feel really awesome. They both asked for a copy of it and intend to use it in their own future lessons! I was so glad the activity went well and that the students seemed to enjoy it and grasp the concept. I loved it and am glad everyone else seemed to as well.
ReplyDeleteToday was a very mundane Monday. I got to the classroom and Mrs. Catoe had me put some Christmas stuff together. I had to put pieces of a Santa making kit in Ziploc bags for each student. It took a while. After that, we all went to the back for morning meeting. Mrs. Catoe went over the whole month and talked about upcoming events. After that, the students started on their daily mathematics and language activities. Then they started on their Grinch activity. This week is Grinch Week. The whole class is doing different Grinch activities throughout the week. Today, they are working with adjectives. They are identifying descriptive words through the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
ReplyDeleteIn my placement, today, I graded the quizzes that my students took on their vocabulary words. This was a full circle moment for me, because I got to see which students did well with the information that I got to teach them. Every student made either an A or a B, except two. Seeing two students not succeed broke my heart. I put so much effort into my lesson and I hated to see them not do well. I now see how important it is to my teachers that I do well. For the rest of the class period, the students worked silently on a web quest. They had to find sources that critiqued “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. Many of them were in a very talkative mood, today. Mrs. Kahler did a great job of keeping them focused and on task. I hope to have classroom management skills that are as impressive as Mrs. Kahler’s when I teach my lesson on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteToday the class began with the students getting to watch Channel One news. I took attendance. Then Mrs. Peake took over and let them work on their stories. Today was the final day for them to finish their rough draft and work on their final draft in class. I walked around the class and helped the students with their stories. They asked me questions about spelling and they asked me what I thought about papers. Mrs. Peake met with each student one on one and proof read their stories for them. I love how she really helps them and doesn’t make them work alone. She never leaves them stranded and she is always willing to give them ideas and help them improve. I also love how creative she gets with her lessons. She has helped me plan out so much of my lesson and she has given me so many tips and great ideas about what to do. She and I also met today after school and we worked to complete my lesson tomorrow. We tested out all of the stations for the kids. I’m so excited about tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I didn’t attend my placement today, because I was out of school sick. :(
ReplyDeleteTo kick off this week of teacher cadet, I and Coach Frye started our football unit for our sixth graders. But first we started off in the weight room with the seventh graders, and the students ether did upper body exercises or lower body exercises. Before every workout Coach Greenway explains what they are too do, and I walk around supervising to make sure they are doing the lifts correctly. Many of the kids do not lift especially the girls, but they toughen up and do it without a lot of complaining. I enjoy working out and it is very important for your health, and I look up to Coach Greenway for braving the storm and doing this unit.
ReplyDeleteWe do not do weight lifting with the sixth graders because weight lifting is more of an upper level course. So I helped Coach Frye teach the kids the proper form of throwing a football, which is grab the laces and fully extend your arm and point at your “target”. Many of the kids did it with ease, but there were some that struggled and I helped them out. Some of the kids like Thomas, have a “rocket” for an arm which is impressive since they are so young. Wednesday we more on too catching which is the next step, because a quarterback has to have receiver that can catch to throw too.
I was a little late today when I arrived at my placement. When I started walking down the hall to my classroom, my class was coming out of the door. Today they had map testing. I thought I would have to go to Ms. Pigg’s room like Megan had to do when her class had map testing but I was wrong. Mrs. McFarland wanted me to stay in her room, by myself! I was shocked. She wanted me to glue the hands that the class cut out and glue them on their wreaths. When she left, I started putting the wreaths together. It was actually fun. I looked at everybody’s hands and I noticed the difference in size and who could cut out things better than other people. I still couldn’t believe that she trusted me enough to leave me in the classroom by myself. I only got 10 wreaths finished and then it was time for me to go.
ReplyDeleteDec. 9/2013 Today during Mrs. Mason’s class we had to do things a little differently. We didn’t get to go to the computer lab because she wasn’t there today so Mrs. Mason would send two students to the back of the classroom where the laptops were on so they could take their AR tests on there. I picked a couple of students to come to the back and read with me at the table. Once everyone was finished reading she had the students come and sit in front of the board. She then took out a book of her own and began reading to the kids. It was a book on homophones to show an example of what the words that sound alike but have different meanings. After she read the book the first time she read it one more time for the kids. Once she had read the book two times the kids returned back to their seats. She then gave them their new vocabulary words which were homophones. They had to pair up the words. After every kid had paired up their words and written them down for me and Mrs. Mason to check they then began silently reading. She had me help a couple of the kids take their AR tests in the back on her laptops before I left to return back to school.
ReplyDeleteToday was another laid back day. When I arrived I talked to Mrs. Joyner until the kids came up from breakfast. When the kids arrived we helped them pick what they wanted for lunch and we did the breakfast count for the next day. When that was done they began on their morning work. I walked around and helped them with their work and answered any questions. After Mrs. Joyner had gone over the morning work it was almost time for them to go to the library like they do every Monday. Before they went to the library I checked their reading logs and gave them ram bucks if they did it. They also got a prize out of the treasure box today if they did their reading log. After that it was off to the library. While they were at the library me and Mrs. Joyner talked about my lesson that is Friday. After that I sorted some books for her and did a head count of them. After that it was time for the kids to return when they returned in was time for me to go again.
ReplyDelete