Post after your Field day this week... Share how it is going and also how has it evolved over the first four weeks. What are you seeing that you will steal? What are you seeing that you will avoid?
As always, be sure to respond to four classmates' blog posts!
Today in Ms. Brown's classroom there was a substitute teacher. The substitute teacher is not only a student at Westminster College but also my friend. It was a little rough for the teacher to maintain the classroom atmosphere. There was a student in the class (Patrick) that was very upset for the whole hour I was present. I had previously worked with him on his reading skills and while I was observing did not really listen to the substitute teacher. Ms. Brown left the substitute extensive notes, but did not include her usual attention grabbers for the substitute. He was struggling to get the students to stay focused and understand the directions he was giving. I walked around the room for the majority of the class and worked with a student on their reading skills again towards the end of the hour. I think that the classroom atmosphere improved over the rest of the day because I asked him later how the day had gone. He seemed pretty positive overall. I hope that Patrick has a better day tomorrow with Ms. Brown back. It is hard to leave notes for substitute teachers and impossible to outline everything. How would you try and make sure a substitute teacher keeps the same classroom environment or stucture or would you, as the teacher, want an entirely different environment for the day?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be so hard to tell the sub absolutely everything. I think I would try to make sure to include the most important things. If there was a student that was usually a problem, I would probably leave the sub a note about how to handle that student. I would also make sure to teach my students beforehand about how to treat a sub, that they should respect the sub as much as me. I think it might be helpful to have some kind of reward system too. Like, if the sub writes your name down for good behavior, you get a reward when the teacher gets back. If the sub writes your name down for bad behavior, you get some kind of punishment, or get left out of something the students with good behavior get to do.
DeleteIn regards to your question I heard a really cool idea but cant remember where i heard it. So to keep a substitute on top of things you can have your seating chart on your classroom computer. If you add each students picture to that seating chart then you can keep notes on each student without forgetting who they are. That way this will go right back to the teacher and they will know what happened to and from whoever while they were not in their room that day. For example, little jimmy needed help in a specific section of his math handbook. I, as the sub, look at the seating chart, max jimmy's face to name and seat and comment on what he was struggling with. Now the teacher will know what to work closer with jimmy on.
DeleteI think it would be impossible to leave instructions on every student for the sub. I know I've had teachers before (in upper grades) who warn subs that a certain classroom tends to be problematic, and that certain students are good "helpers". I went to my classroom for my Practicum II today, and the students were behaving pretty well, and some of the students that normally struggle with assignments were getting help from other students in the classroom that know they normally struggle. I think Justin's idea is really neat too. I know my teachers in high school really utilized the seating charts with the student's pictures because they were able to put a name with a face.
DeleteIn the future, as the teacher, I want an entirely different environment for the day just for sometimes. This because I want student to feel comfortable and be able to get engaged in class. In this case, the best way of students behavior. It is the way that they have to behave well and know what to do in the class. Helping each other in class is also one of the great things that student should do.
DeleteI agree with Lori it would be had to give instruction on each individual student to the sub. I would ultimately let the sub do what he/she wants to do as long as its in context with my lesson plans I leave with them. I will then ask my students how they felt while the sub was teaching, what they liked/disliked about her, etc. I would use their comments to help improve my own teaching towards them. Great question! :)
DeleteOnce the assembly today ended Mrs. Speer had her students do individual reading in which students could pick out their own book. Once the students had read the book they had to take an AR book test to see how well they comprehended the book.
ReplyDelete-My buddy chose a level 1 reading (1st grade) book. He still stumbled over words but seemed to understand this level of book than others. With this said I would steal Mrs. Speer's book selection in which she has all level of books on her shelves not just what should be at the 3rd grade level.
After the students read and took books it was time for spelling period. During this time I was able to give the excelled spelling students a test of ten words that are challenging while Ms. Nichols gave the other students their test.
-While I like how they were separated by levels I did not like how their were two people speaking at once because that was distracting my group of test takers.
Part of the spelling period is also used to learn cursive.
-I was asked to help students write an under case m. While students comprehended is just like a cursive n except with another hump. As the students were writing I would come around and circle their best m. I noticed on their paper they had a hill line (bottom solid) an airplane line (middle dotted line) and a sky line (top solid line). I would also steal this in order to help my students picture how far up their m humps should go, etc.
I noticed that a lot of students (mainly boys) would give up on writing cursive and said they didn't know how to. Why do you think this is?
Do you think the students pick the correct level of difficulty of reading for themselves, or would you give them a choice of only a certain difficulty based on their ability? Also, I think maybe boys might be more likely to give up on cursive because they think it's girly? Or it might just be the fact that it's harder than print. Since they have already learned to print and are fluently writing, they probably aren't used to struggling in writing and would rather write the way they know how.
DeleteI never like to write in cursive and my excuse was it was too hard as well. I guess i found it to be slower since i wasn't very good at it so that is where my discontent came from. i normally could fly down the page while printing, and maintain clarity. Maybe make it sound cool, show certain situations where knowing cursive writing is beneficial?
DeleteI think part of the reason boys don't like to write in cursive is because it is considered something that girls do. While this is a stupid stereotype, I think it can explain the attitudes towards cursive. I also like the ideas of the different types of lines. My teacher for practicum I used to emphasize the height of letters by having them do little exercises and reach "high" for the top part of "h" and "low" for the drop in "J". When I worked with the little girl I nanny this summer on writing, I used to call the bottom lines things like "j" line. I know I had a better name for them but I can't remember what I called them at the moment.
DeleteI liked the way you engaged in class, working with buddy is one of strategies that I would love to do in my future class. It is the best way to help student individual and understand them more.
DeleteFor me, I think boys are more impatient than girls and it's hard sometime to convince them. But it's the great challenge to try because to be a good teacher we need to know how much we can control and be able to solve any types of problem in the class.
It's cool to see that the students get to pick out their own books to read. I like how they get time for fun reading during reading period some days and that its not all reading social students with maps and answering questions. I don't know if it's just me, but I never remember getting to do this. I will have to ask my parents if they remember this.
DeleteThis week, there was an assembly at McIntire when we got there. After the assembly, our teacher was giving the kids Scholastic newspapers. They read about world geography and learned about latitude, longitude, hemispheres, continents, etc. They also learned about different places in the world, like Mexico, Siberia, the Netherlands, etc. Since we did not do much during this time, I will talk about the assembly. The point of the assembly was to reinforce saying no to drugs, reward good students (students of the month), and to remind the kids about collecting box tops. I think it's a cool idea to have students of the month and to have kids feel like they are rewarded for good behavior. The teachers even gave really nice speeches about them! I was worried that maybe some kids would get left out of student of the month, but almost all of them had been rewarded at some time. The teachers encouraged the kids to bring box tops by bringing a robot in that "ate" box tops. I thought that was a cool way to get them excited about it.
ReplyDeleteI really thought the box top robot was a nice touch, a lot of the students were in awe when it was rolled out and thought he was a working robot. They seemed really pumped to collect a lot of tops.
DeleteI thought the assembly was pretty cool too. I was a little concerned about certain students always getting singled out for student of the month as well, but it sounds like they have a system in place that helps each student get elected at least once.
DeleteThat sounds like a super fun lesson. How did that teacher use the Scholastic newspapers? What did they then read from in order to learn about latitude, longitude, etc.? Did you think it was engaging? The robot sounds like a great way to encourage students to "feed" box tops to the school. I remember my elementary school encouraging the students to bring box tops by just asking, but if there was a robot to feed I probably would have brought in more box tops.
DeleteHaving a cool activity in the class is one of interesting ideas for students. In this case, sometimes the students are tired of learning lesson all the time. By having activity is not only just for fun but it can involve the students in the lesson plan so they can enjoy playing and learning as the same time.
DeleteI really liked how each teacher stood up in front of the whole school and gave a little speech on why they choose that particular student for student of the month. The assembly really showed community with in their school and all of the great these the students are accomplishing. I agree if was a creative way to get the students to give back.
DeleteThis week at McIntire I walked in to find myself watching the last 30 mins of an entire school assembly before i got to see my kiddos. First off i would like to comment on the assembly. Being a student who didnt sit still for long period of time when i was younger i could feel the pain of a lot of these students. The assembly seemed like it was engaging to the front half of the room. Also all the teachers were in the front of the multi-purpose room not really controlling certain students. it was well put on and the students that were engaged were loving that they were getting student on the month awards and such and that they have a new school pet, the box-top robot. My biggest problem with the conduction of the assembly was that it was entirely too long. i was there for only 30 mins and the kids were squirming all over the place, I don't even know how long they were their before hand. When that was all said and done we got to go back to our room, after a bathroom and water break to shake out all the jitters and energy. Ms. Downey was teaching about knowing the difference between the words their, there, and thery're. The students broke up into groups where they formulated sentences using a specific "there, their, or they're". Most of the kiddos were nailing it but occasionally i needed to interject and try and steer them in the right direction. Another solid friday for me in the books!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the assembly was pretty lengthy. I think maybe they should have done some kind of physical activity to break up the time, instead of making the students sit there in the same position forever. As for the classroom part, it's pretty impressive that the kids were doing so well with the different theres, considering that a lot of adults still use them incorrectly.
DeleteRegardless of the length of the assembly, do you believe that the information was reaching the students? Were students understanding the lecture or were they confused about the presentation? Taking a break before returning to the classroom sounds like a wonderful idea in my opinion. If the students had been there for over 30 minutes, then I couldn't imagine they would have much focus right away. Did the break refocus the students before going back to the classroom?
DeleteI felt like that assembly did not need to be school wide maybe classroom wide because it might have been to long for the students who were squirming around. I felt like they could have announced the students of the month over the intercom or have the teachers recognize them in their own classroom at their own time (like they did in my elementary schools). Also I feel like they introduced the pet Robot as a filler to keep students longer so they don't have to start mid period.
DeleteI didn't get to stay on Friday due to class at 10:00 and they had just gotten out of their assembly. So I went on Monday to my Practicum class at South Callaway Elementary. Mrs. Beers had to figure out some way to teach both Math and Reading in the same lesson because they had also had their Leadership assembly. At first I was thinking I have no idea how she is going to do this, so I was very interested. In Math the students are working on word problems with addition and subtraction. She has each student come up and read a problem to her and she asks them a series of questions, like what is this question asking you to do? So it has to deal with the students reading comprehension and as I mentioned before the she does a "dibbling" lesson with her students and she does the same thing. She said she found that students who normally get the question wrong are ones who can read the words fluently but don't nessecarily understand them. I would definitely steal this idea because if I have little time left and I needed to go through reading I would use this idea. I would like to avoid it so I can do each lesson separately but other things need to be done as well.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool that she integrated the two subjects together. Although it wouldn't be ideal all the time, it is a valuable skill to have. I think this would be important to do in upper grades as well, like high school. If a science teacher could also integrate reading, it would help the students excel in each one and maybe be more confident if they weren't as good at science.
DeleteToday at McIntire the students were working on Star Testing. The student I was working with read to himself but as he was reading he was tracking the words with the mouse pointer. Whenever he would struggle with a word you could see the hesitation based on this and many times he would go forward and then reread the entire sentence, although he didn't say as much it appeared as though he would try to come up with a word and then check to make sure it fit.
DeleteWhile he was taking the test I was reading it as well; the questions were very effective at practicing comprehension, although the time limits on the questions seemed to make it more difficult for him as he was a very slow reader.
After we completed the star test I was working with another student that was reading one of the Diary of a Wimpy kid books, I asked him to read the story to me and although he struggled with a couple of words like Porsche you could tell he was activating background knowledge especially when we had a brief conversation about how seating is done at family dinners/holidays.
When the student and I completed the star test I thought that the way Mrs. Brown reacted was excellent- the students had done much better (1.2 - 2.1) and she congratulated him giving him a "all star" award to be displayed in the hallway. Reinforcing the improvement is an excellent thing!
I always hated the star tests. They were time consuming and stupid in my opinion. I'm glad you found some positive from the testing! I also think its interesting that he struggled with words like Porsche, I would've struggled with that too! The all star display is cute too. I think its important, especially with younger students, to reward them with little things like that.
DeleteThat is a really neat idea! I think that combining both reading comprehension and math problems should be an issue that is focused on math and reading skills at the same time rather than just one or the other. Did the assembly break any student's attention in the classroom after returning? Were the students interested in the lesson of both reading and understanding math?
DeleteI think this is the best strategy that I would love to use in my future teacher. It sounds like it would be confused and hard but I think sometimes student need more advantage and adapting their knowledge in the difference way of learning.
DeleteI really like the ideas of solving math problem and reading comprehension together. There is something that student could learn a lot and be able to understand concept of both.
I would definitely steal her idea too! From your observation were you seeing more students being engaged in math or reading more? I remember I was more engaged in the math part of math and hated reading word problems because they were to lengthy, thats why I ask that question
DeleteIt nice how the teacher reinforced the good work and improvement of the students. The students will not forget the feeling they got for doing so good and I think they will do it again. With you there the student is getting the attention and individual help he needs.
DeleteI arrived at McIntire at 8 AM to work with my Practicum II teacher, Ms. Clark, only to find out that the students would be going to an assembly that day. I helped take the students to the assembly and made sure they behaved while Ms. Clark went to the bathroom and did some things around her classroom before she came back to the assembly. I went to a very small, private school from Pre-School to 4th grade, and we never had assemblies. We didn't even have an auditorium or stage. So the idea of an elementary school assembly was completely foreign to me. At my school we never had the "drug talk". While I think it is important to educate students about not doing drugs, I also don't think it is effective to repeadtly tell them not to do drugs, because you will always have that one student who will want to test the boundaries just because he/she has specifically been told not to do something. I also thought the "Drug bear" was creepy. One of the special needs students was actually afraid of the drug bear and started crying and I felt bad for her. I think it might be more effective for kids to read about the detriments of using drugs and how it effects both their social lives and their physical health in order for them to have a better understanding and not just being brainwashed to "say no".
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very educational. How did you handle overseeing the kids? Did you have a problem with any of the students trying to break a rule while y'all were sitting in the auditorium? I agree that the "Drug bear" sounds very creepy. It would be hard to explain to children why a familiar object that is safe is talking about drugs that are not safe. Do you think it can soften the presence drugs have by associating them with a teddy bear?
DeleteOh so the bear wasn't their mascot that makes complete sense. I missed the bears introduction and had no clue who he was! Either way he too creeped me out. This scenario reminds me of the D.A.R.E program. I liked this program because it was not just lecture based. As a fifth grader I was instructed to go online with my parents and find three or so facts on why drugs were bad and we had to report those facts to our police officer (lecturer) before our graduation (program end) date. I felt like if I had a bear come in and be told that drugs are bad, etc I would have not liked D.A.R.E as much as I did.
DeleteI remember learning about drugs in school, but I think the students in McIntyre are a lot more informed about them than I ever was as a child. I do not believe the assembly was bad. Also the student crying from the drug bear I think is a sort of rare thing since she is a special needs children. I do not believe the students should only read about drugs. That can get very boring and if they can be informed in different ways that would be great.
DeleteThis week I worked with a different student other than Brooke. I was nice to get experience with another student and see how different student learns. The first thing the students did during reading time was go over a quiz they took over if something is to Inform, Persuade, and Entertain the reader. My student got many wrong. He got probably about half wrong and I'm guessing other people did not do too well either that's why they were going over it as a class. Next, I worked with a girl on reading a book and then taking a comprehension quiz that was 5 questions long. We read a book for fun first and then we read the an actual book that she would be taking a quiz over. She knew all of the words in the book, but she was a very slow reader. I think she may have been distracted by things around her though and that could be the reason she was slow. She would look away from the book every page we were on. Then after reading it was time to take the quiz. I didn't help her at all. She got everyone question right without hesitation and she got a 100. I am learning that not everyone student may show their intelligences so easily. Students are a lot more capable of things than you would think.
ReplyDeleteI went to her class yesterday after I finished my classes. It was nice to see everyone again. When I got there at preschool, the students were surprised to see me again because I couldn't make it last week. They all were asking about my trip and I shared my experience with them.
ReplyDeleteDuring that time, they work in session where they focus on art. There were five sessions, which I was in one of them. They were five of us, which are 3 students helper and two teachers. So I was there checking if they did the right way as Mrs. McDaniel explained how to do or not. They did a great job listening to me and enjoy designing their artwork.
Therefore, the great thing that I would steal from this class is the technique that Mrs. McDaniel uses to control the whole class and they all respect and listen to her nicely.