Week 14 and 15

The week of Thanksgiving was a quick week! Monday my cooperating teacher was out for meeting so I was on my own. I have done this many time but I was not not feeling good today and it was hitting me. I was losing my voice and was very weak. I made it through the day, but it was hard! I ended up not making it to school on Tuesday. So the week was a short one so I combined my blog posts. 

The week after Thanksgiving was a busy week and surprisingly went quickly. We started a unit on Christmas Around the World. We talked about and made projects on Advent, Poinsettia, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Ramadan. I then hung up the projects in the hallway to show the many ways people celebrate the holidays. We also talked about new letters and sight words this week. Ll was a focus with making a lion art project and a lion fold up book. We had busy morning during centers because of the holiday show. We had practice during our normal snack time so we had to adjust and have one of the centers be snack and some of the students missed one of the centers.

The holiday show was adorable! I felt very proud of my students getting up and singing. We talked together about being nervous but the people there are happy to see you. It was great program! 

The day ended with my cooperating teacher missing Friday because her son was sick. We had a make up conference scheduled so she asked me to do it. The principal came in and told me I couldn't do it alone so she sat in with me. The conference went great and I was impressed how much I was able to do on my own. It was a good confidence for myself. My cooperating teacher and I plan almost 2 weeks in advance so next week is set. I still can't believe it is almost all over!  

Week 13

November is a very short month for my district between parent/teacher conferences and then Thanksgiving we are only in school for half the month exactly. This week I focused on the holiday of Thanksgiving through activities. After being sick on Friday, Monday came as a rush and trying to put everything together for the week. I did centers 4 days this week and we get tons of support from room moms. We have at least 1 come each day to help out and then 1 for computers on Friday. The week went pretty good, very busy. By the end of the week, the students were getting a class talk from me. Their behavior has become ridiculous. They rush through activities, talk through directions, and misbehave during transitions. It all crashed down on Friday when one of the students brought in a disco ball for show and tell. He had brought it last Friday but I was sick. My cooperating teacher said they had turned off the lights and danced to 2 songs. So I did this warning them if they could not run around or get too silly, if they did, the whole class would be in time out. During the second song, a little girl gets pushed over, on accident, but because 2 boys were skipping through. The lights came up and the time out started. After the time out, we talked about how fun things like this won't be able to happen if they don't start listening and taking their time. This was a topic my cooperating teacher and I had discussed before this point. We moved on to a story and the girl was fine. It was a rough day for me. I don't want to get to that point with my classroom and I had a good classroom management in place. I know to keep my confidence and remember things happen. I just did not want to have to have that talk with them. I was hoping it wouldn't have to happen. I am looking forward to seeing them tomorrow and Tuesday to talk more about Thanksgiving.

Week 12

This week was hard to get back into the swing of things. As my last post said, we had no school on Thursday for parent/teacher conferences, then Friday we had institute day. Monday we had parent/teacher conferences again. They went GREAT! I was so impressed with how the parents are so involved with their students learning. They came with questions and wanted to understand our curriculum. I was extremely impressed with the fathers that came to the conferences. They were so involved in how their students are learning and what they could do to help them even more. Not that I did not believe fathers helped with school work, it seemed like it was not the norm. I feel thankful that I had the opportunity to have both my parents involved in my education and I can see the impact it has made. I believe it will have the same impact on my students who are receiving the same support at home. On Tuesday, we all had the day off; however, I spent the day working the Presidential Election. It was a very long day from 4am to about 9pm. I was really looking forward to seeing my students again on Wednesday! It had been a whole week! The week went by so fast since it was only 3 days long. On Wednesday we had planned to do 4 centers instead of our usually 8, but that morning we decided to just do the activities whole class. The day seemed very long after not being school so long. On Thursday, we had a Veteran's Day assembly in the morning and their behavior popcorn party in the afternoon after lunch. We also had to say goodbye to 2 of our students. They are triples but 1 is in another kindergarten class. They came in on Thursday to say goodbye because they moved. It was sad to see them go. The students made cards for them and we put together what we had for their kindergarten scrapbook. On Friday, I think the last 2 weeks of my grandma's wake/funeral, parent/teacher conferences, election day, and school work caught up to me! I stayed home from school sick. Only a few more weeks of teacher left and I getting upset and sad that I will being leaving my students and the awesome school I have been able to work with. 

Week 11

This week was a quick one. We only had 3 days of school this week with parent/teacher conferences at the end of the week. This week was a hard one for me with my own personal family issues going on. However, being with the students made me move past my own personal issue. Monday we carved a pumpkin! I had never remember carving a pumpkin as a kid so I practiced the week before. The students got to vote either happy, mad, or scary. Scary won! I was actually a little nervous to carve this pumpkin in front of the whole class!!! It was also a HUGE pumpkin! It went well. The kids even started cheering for me says "Miss Ricker! Miss Ricker!" That was very encouraging and helped put a smile on my face. On Tuesday and Wednesday early morning, we did centers. It was good to do it on Halloween to keep them busy until the party in the afternoon. Halloween was a lot of fun with a parade and party. The room moms did amazing job organizing the party. They put the activities in Centers with buckets, bingo, pin the nose of the pumpkin, and snack. It all went very smoothly. Thursday we had parent/teacher conferences. My cooperating teacher lead them as that was something she wanted to keep as her responsibility. I was impressed with how the parents really cared and we had everyone show up on the first day, even adjusting their time to make sure they came. I was unable to attend the institute day on Friday because of my personal family event. The school was very supportive and caring. After this week, I remind myself that students can brighten up a day for me and that is another reason why I love the career path I have chosen.

Week 10

This week lead for lots of adventures! This week we were going on our first field trip, which was an adventure in itself. But the week started with one of my students having an accident. He was a kid, who never had an accident, so we cleaned him up and an hour later, it happened again. We were concerned about the student, as this was very unlike him. Then the next day it happen again, so his mother came and picked him up to take him to the doctor. He was then absent on the next day, Thursday, and when he returned on Friday, we received no note from his mother or doctor. The little boy showed me that he had blood drawn so I am still not sure what happen to him. We will be following up with his mother next week. This was adventure number one. 

The next adventure was the field trip to Lake Katherine. Luckily majority of the students take the bus to and from school, so they understood the bus safety rules and how to behave. The field trip was great!!! The kids did amazing! They were given 3 stations. The first was a room with 6 centers to work with such as pulling corn off the cob, measuring your body, sorting beans, and guessing what objects float or sink. The kids were able to spend about 10 minutes at each one. As a teacher, I was with a group of 4 students and they were in my group. I was responsible for them, and that was a bit stressful; however, I held their hands if need be. The second station was a hay ride through out the area. It was a blast and the kids LOVED it!!! It was absolutely beautiful out on Thursday, so we were very lucky. And the last station was a nature walk around. I have been to Lake Katherine many times. However, we learned about the different plants and how they have scents. It was a great learning experience for the students and even the adults. The kids were beat when we got back so it was smart planning to have a low key afternoon. 

The last adventure was Friday. My cooperating teacher was out in the morning along with the other Kindergarten teachers to work on the lesson plans and core standards. I had a substitute in the room but I am on my own teaching. The morning went fine, but after computers we came back to the classroom to work on a Pumpkin Bright Book. It was planned for a half hour and then we were going to work on math. We started on the project. I explained step by step. I demonstrated the directions. The first job was to take a square sheet of yellow and make a circle moon. Then take 2 sheets of orange and trace pumpkins, draw faces and glue them on. (Obviously with more detailed directions). I had one student cut up the book, others cutting up the paper into nothing. After explaining and explaining, I called a time out to the class. They put their heads down for a few minutes, my hope was they would collect themselves and be ready to work. But it did not get any better. The activity took over an hour and finally it was done. Not my favorite activity and I was quite frustrated. However, I learned to take what comes at me and be flexible with my planning. I put the other activities in the afternoon. It was a LONG, busy week; but I survived.

Week 9

This week was a huge struggle with behavior. The class was having trouble following the rules in gym class. We were not sure how the PBIS approach was being used in gym class, but we discussed with the principal. Then this week they had problems in music class and that was enough. They were put into time out as a class and our principal was called down to have a discussion with them. We are having trouble with them listening to directions and respecting adults. It was something we would work on. This week we started teaching 2 letters instead of just 1 per a week. This week was B and I. The students did a great job learning how to write the letters and the sounds of the letters. My favorite activity of the week was on Monday. I read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The students then worked on a cut and paste, where they sorted what items belonged to each bear. After finishing the worksheet, each student made their own puppets of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Goldilocks. We were afraid we didn’t have time to actually put on a puppet show, but we did! It was awesome! I loved it and I was able to include my drama passion into the classroom. The students got really involved with voices and movement. For a kindergarten puppet show, I was very impressed. I am improving on my transitions since I have taken over completely and my cooperating teacher is not in the room at times. I have learned to adjust my plans based on time and scheduling. This was a goal of mine and I believe I have improved. I am loving the environment of my school and feel fortune to have it. 

Classroom Confidential  

This chapter focused on writing. This was a concept I struggled with coming into the Kindergarten classroom. They use inventive spelling for their writing. I struggled with this while teaching my lessons. This is to help the students learn to spell or write using the sounds of letters than memorizing all the rules to writing. We are in October and I am impressed to see my students writing words for their pictures such as cat, pig, etc. Some are even getting the sounds to letters we have not learned it. This helps modify the lessons for the individual students based on their learning skills. This quarter the students were assigned to do a writing assignment on an animal. For Kindergarteners, this was mostly a drawing with one or two words on the page. They were given 3 times to work on the writing sample. They had to pick an animal and draw where they lived, what they look like, and what they eat. Some of the students got this on the first draft, others we had conferences with to discuss. The final draft was touched up using books as research to finalize their writing sample. Majority of the students were graded at the beginning level in the rubric as they could only write one or two words, the rest was taken from the drawing as a writing sample. This will improve as the year goes on. 

Week 8

This week was quite a busy one! This week was shorten because of the holiday of Columbus, plus we had fire prevention assembly on Thursday. It made planning a challenge this week. However, this was the first week I made all the plans for the week. I sorted through the stuff my cooperating teacher had in her files and picked what I wanted to teacher and some of my own ideas and plugged them into the plan book. My cooperating teacher said I did a great job and we talked about a few adjustments. This week was packed with the letter Pp, the number 6, and fire prevention. We were also bring in some Halloween activities. We had centers this week where I sat with one group working on the Pp formation along with circling the correct pictures with the Pp sound. Centers went very smooth with transitions. We also learned our #6 song and made our #6 class book. I had the students start to sound out the thing they were going to draw, they struggled, but it was a good challenge to try. We also re-visited our animal writer's workshop. The school is having the students to writing throughout the year that will be kept in their file. This is our first writing for the year and they have to pick an animal and draw it. This was there second time looking at it. We had them thinking about how they look, where they live, and what they eat. This was also reinforcing those 'who, what, when, where, why questions. In the afternoons, I taught my TPA lesson plans on the story Put Me In the Zoo. The first day I read the story and had the students sit in groups with 2 sight words per a group. When they heard the word, they had to raise the poster up for that word. The second day, I read the story and we talked about rhyming words such as hat/cat, box/socks, tree/three, and ball/wall. Each table was assigned to a set of rhyming words and had to draw a picture of it. They did a pretty good job with this concept. The third day, I had the students stand in a circle and toss a bean bag by a hula hoop and say whether it was in or out. This was to teach the concept of in/out, above/below, behind/ in front of. This unit went well and the students understood the information. As I said the week went fast and overall things went well. A few bumps in the road as Kindergarten will have, but I am still enjoying it!

Classroom Confidential
Chapter 9 hit me close to home! One quote I always think of is "Teaching is 3/4 performing and 1/4 teaching." It is not completely accurate, but close! I am a theater minor and I love using my talents in my classroom. I completely agree that those you study arts, do better in school. I teach with the multiple intelligences always in mind because I was one of those students that got lost in elementary school. I loved hands on, movement learning and I didn't always get that. When I novice taught, I was in a 7th grade classroom. I didn't want to be that teacher that had the students read and take notes or lecture. So I used my talent, my gift of drama. I had the students act out Lewis and Clark instead of just reading it. I also had the students re-enact the Underground Railroad through the school and then discuss it. I had the students evaluated me at the end of the semester on their favorite activities and such. I had so many of them write the drama lessons and that I made the material fun! That is what learning should be. Same with my student teaching. We read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I had the students make puppets and put on puppet shows for their class. We performed it a few times, but repetition is awesome for kindergarten. I also teach the number and color by song which helps them remember the word and the spelling because they are also sight words. I am a firm believer in the arts for the classroom and that is part of my foundation for my classroom.