Monday, November 4 Successes: Made a seating chart. Started learning student names. Began building rapport with students. Helped administer Subtraction Fact Quizzes and Word List Quizzes. Had lunch in the staff lunch room and was introduced to the first grade team of teachers. Need to work on: Memorizing student names and where they sit Learning classroom agenda Learning classroom management processes Questions: This week is parent teacher conference week and all days are minimum days, how does the teacher plan for this? What lessons are cut? What curriculum is taught? Key Learnings: 3 students, in particular, require special attention/additional attention. I have learned their names and would like to focus on giving these students lots of positive reinforcement and helping to improve their classroom behavior. This is a well behaved class and students are very independent. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I get the feeling in this classroom that everyone is a great learner and that this is a safe environment in which we can learn and express our opinions. The students in this class are very expressive and are able to share their opinions and answers to questions freely. I like the warm feeling I get in this classroom from the students and teacher.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 Successes: I am beginning to learn students names and am continuing to build rapport with them. I am learning what classroom management techniques the teacher uses. I am learning classroom processes and rules that students follow. I am continuing to walk around the classroom to assist students and continue building rapport with them. Need to work on: Teacher changes student seating chart every 6 weeks, and has moved students to new seats. Need to make a current seating chart and learn where students sit. I need to continue learning the daily schedule. When recess, lunch, and afternoon recess are. I need to continue building rapport with students. Questions: Why does teacher change student seating every 6 weeks? Do students have a problem with these changes? When do students have PE? Do they have PE? When is Library day? When is Computer Lab day? Key Learnings: An important thing I learned today was why Mrs. Styles rearranges her seating chart every 6-8 weeks. She says that she does this so that students are able to work collaboratively with different students all year and to improve their social skills in meeting and working with new friends. I learned that students are very flexible as to their seating and adapt well to their new groups and elbow partners. I learned that students are surprised that I know some of their names and like that I do. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to take the knowledge that children are flexible and adapt easily to change in the classroom with me. Students seem to still feel comfortable and secure in their environment even though they have moved and sit next to new classmates and have new elbow partners. I have learned that this teacher uses this as both a classroom management tool as well as a strategy to help teach students social skills.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013 Successes: I have been introduced to many parents this week as I sit in on parent teacher conferences. Parents seem to be receptive to having a student teacher in the classroom. I am learning more about students and their backgrounds. I have been correcting work and filing into student files. This is helping me to see students strengths and what skills students may need additional work with. This is also helping me to see how checking for understanding can lead to quick reteaching while a subject is still fresh in the students minds. I have learned all the students names and can place their face with the names! This is big for me as I generally am terrible with names.
Need to work on: Learning the daily routine and assisting my master teacher with housekeeping duties like checking daily folders and having students take AR quizzes and Word List quizzes. Building rapport with parents as well as colleagues. I have a tendency to be shy and need to get over that quickly! Questions: When do you reteach items that students need additional help with? Do mini- lessons get taught the same day or the next day? How are reading groups run and how are they formed? Does the class engage in guided reading? What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? Today Ive learned that apologizing for parents concerns and addressing them makes parents feel listened to and they are part of the education team. One student was recently transferred from another teachers class to this one and the parent had many concerns about how this classroom environment would be different and beneficial for her child. Being honest with parents while addressing their concerns is crucial. Also, answering parent questions about how to track their childs progress is very important so that there are no surprises when report cards come out.
Thursday, November 7, 2013 Successes: I am continuing to work with students and check for understanding during lessons. Students feel comfortable enough to ask for my help. I am getting better at knowing where things go (notes, quiz reports) and knowing when and what time things happen in the classroom. I am learning classroom schedules and procedures. I worked with small groups teaching math fact families. This was both a success and something that requires future reteaching. Have introduced myself to library staff and office staff. Need to work on: Math fact families! Eek! This concept is not sticking with students. I need to think of a way to help them understand the concept and be able to recall the information. Questions: Ive noticed that there is a big push to get students to write, but have not noticed much writing in the classroom. How often do students write in journals? How often do they work on writing assignments? Do they employ the writers workshop methods? Is their peer proofreading? Is their collaborative writing? Weve missed Social Studies, Science, and PE. Is that because of minimum days? Key Learnings: Students are eager to learn. Students are eager to explain things to me. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to take the knowledge of how powerful it is to check for understanding during or after each lesson. Walking around the room during independent practice of skills is a great way to assess what students are learning in real time.
Friday, November 8, 2013 Successes: Math fact families reteaching/mini-lesson. I used the term Stranger Danger and a student talked to me about how the numbers were the daddy, mommy, and baby numbers. Both of these concepts helped students understand better what math fact families are. My positive reinforcers and praise of the three problem students have helped with their behavior. The students seem to like the added attention and seem to appreciate the positive comments from me. I have met all of the parents in the classroom. Need to work on: Building rapport with the rest of the first grade team. Building rapport with office staff and janitorial staff. Questions: Does the district pacing guide take minimum days into account? How are missed parent conferences addressed? Key Learnings: Students enjoy playing gameseven academic ones! Parents do follow their childs progress online and it is important to keep electronic grading updated. Parents are interested in their childs learning and are eager to help their child achieve their goals. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to remember that parents are part of the educational team. Parent involvement and parent concern are greatly noticeable and greatly felt in the classroom. Having parent helpers in the classroom helps parents to see how their childs day works and what they are learning as well as greatly helping the teacher prepare assignments and projects. Parents are very important to the school dynamic. I hope that I will have this much positive parent involvement in my classroom.
WEEK 2 November 11 15, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013 Holiday, No school
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 Successes: I had students free-write during down time in between centers and reading groups. I had students use gel pens in fun colors or markers to write about their favorite toy or favorite place. Students enjoyed the colored pens and markers. Students did well with this non-graded, on the fly writing assignment. Had one last try at math fact families and students did retain the information from last week and understood what we were working on. Yay!! That was a rough one that gave me a headache last week. Helped with the PE lesson jumping rope. Helped instruct students on how to jump rope and supervised them while they attempted. Need to work on: Innovative ideas for getting students to write. This class does not like to write. Compiling materials to use for my Social Studies lesson to be taught Thursday. Planning my lesson to be taught on Thursday and making sure I build on background knowledge as well as introducing the new topic. Including read-alouds more during my lessons Including Kagan Strategies in my lessons Including the use of technology in my lessons Questions: How often do students receive PE instruction? How often do students write in a normal week? Key Learnings: Students enjoy working with new materials. (gel pens) Students enjoy writing/talking about themselves. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? Today, I learned that giving students something as simple as a colorful and sparkly pen helps them to enjoy a task they may not otherwise want to work on. I learned that allowing students to talk and write about themselves is another helpful tool when trying to get them to write.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 Successes: Brainstorming long a words following a pattern. Free-write #2; using the words we thought of during the brainstorming session. Giving my input during the team meeting during lunch. Continuing to build rapport with the first grade team. Was introduced to all teachers at the school staff meeting after school. Need to work on: Being less nervous when teaching. Students can see that I am not completely comfortable and perhaps this may affect the outcome of the lesson. Becoming further acquainted with first grade curriculum. Including Kagan Strategies on a daily basis. Building rapport with teachers from other grades. Questions: How often are team meetings held? Staff meetings? Key Learnings: Team meetings are important to keep everyone on the same page and making sure the team is all teaching the same concepts. Team meetings help to keep the team following the district pacing guide. Staff meetings help promote unity amongst different grade levels. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? Today, especially, I learned that while I didnt ever think I would want to teach first grade, that first grade is a fun group. There are many important concepts being taught and learned in first grade and students are easy to communicate with. I enjoy listening to them tell me about themselves and their families and enjoy hearing what goes on in the daily life of a first grader. First grade is not about coloring and singing songs, it is about building a strong foundation for the years of school that are coming. I am surprised daily on how much information they are learning as well as the concepts that are being taught in first grade. I am really enjoying this teacher and these students.
Thursday, November 14, 2013 Successes: My first observed lesson. o Powerpoint presentation of Rancho Cucamonga, Then and Now o Timeline examples Baby pictures, days of the week o Using the text with the lesson o Kagan Strategy Mix, pair, share After a bit of trouble, I was able to project my PPT presentation using the ELMO board and able to use the document camera with my worksheet. Using technology in the classroom to give examples of my lesson Need to work on: I need further training on how to use the classroom technology Classroom management. The students were a little loud and squirmy during my observed lesson. Questions: None Key Learnings: First, I learned that students can sense your nervous energy. When I was unable to get the technology I needed for my lesson to work, I was a bit frazzled and felt like the students could sense that. Perhaps that was why they were loud and speaking out of turn during my lesson. I also learned that even though I was nervous, I was able to teach a good lesson and that the students were able to meet the objectives of the lesson as evidenced through their completion of their timeline as well as when I asked questions to check for understanding. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to remind myself that this is the profession I chose because I really enjoy working with children. I had to stop and remind myself of that when I became nervous when my technology wasnt working and when I felt like the lesson might fail because of it. When I slowed my frazzled mind and was able to collect my thoughts and get it all together, I was able to deliver my lesson and even remember the order in which I wanted to do so. There is always a possibility of things going wrong, but, I have to remember that first graders are forgiving and they really didnt even notice that I was having technology problems.
Friday, November 15, 2013 Successes: Got all my permission slips for my 5 students for TPA signed and turned into me, as well as some from the rest of the class. I have most of my documents ready to submit for TPA 3. I performed a read-aloud with students and tied it in to another story we were working on. Alberts Beanstalk and Kate and the Beanstalk Modeled Brain Gym exercises for students and had them work on them with me. Need to work on: Continuing to model the Brain Gym exercises so that students know them and can perform them easily. Continuing to use Kagan Strategies daily in the classroom Questions: Does my master teacher believe that Kagan strategies work? How can I incorporate new Kagan strategies into my lessons? What strategies can I use with students that require additional help? Key Learnings: Students arent always receptive to new things. Students were a little squirmy during Brain Gym exercises. I would like to continue modeling them and trying them with students as I believe they work. Not all parents are receptive to a student teacher and my cause. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to remember that sometimes what I think is the latest and greatest thing may be something that teachers have been using in the classroom for years under a different name. It is interesting to watch my master teacher actually perform tasks and give assessments I have learned about recently (Running Record). I am loving the fact that I am able to help with assessments and am able to effectively give them and score them (even though the ones I gave were given by the teacher and scored by her before giving them to parents).
Monday, November 18, 2013
Successes: I was able to successfully introduce time to the nearest hour with students I was able to successfully use the online version of the textbook and use the technology from the ELMO board with it. Reading narrative text and then brainstorming adjectives that describe turkeys Learned how to bind the class books of free writes we have been working on in the last few weeks. Need to work on: Remembering that there is lots of technology that goes with lessons. Math, in particular, has the online text with the computer readings of each section. Questions: Is time still taught to the half-hour and minutes in first grade? What other activities can we do to teach time? Key Learnings: Students enjoy read-alouds. They hear at least two stories daily. Students enjoy both narrative and expository texts when they can find relevance in them. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to take my love of reading and the places reading takes you to and apply it in my classroom. I love how my master teacher performs several read-alouds daily and has both narrative and expository texts for the subjects she is teaching. Today I read a book about time and in the afternoon, I read a book about a plump and perky turkey. Students seemed to enjoy the books almost as much as I did!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Successes: Free writes. Students are still loving the free writes I allow with gel pens and their own topics during down time. Read-alouds I performed a read aloud of an expository text about the first Thanksgiving and tied in a worksheet in which students gave facts about the first Thanksgiving. My lesson on writing sentences with vocabulary words. My lesson on pronouns. My modeling of Brain Gym exercises.
Need to work on : A small group mini-lesson on pronouns with a few students that still require help Finding more resources for fun science lessons Remembering to incorporate Kagan structures in lessons Working in time for free writes only once or twice a week Questions: How does Mrs. Styles use Kagan strategies now? I know that administration would like Kagan strategies to be used in the classroom, but wondering what lessons they are used with now. Key Learnings: Students are very willing to take risks and answer questions at this stage in their education Even when students have not gotten the correct answer, they continue to raise their hands to answer other questions. Students are very forgiving if you make a mistake during lessons (or reading) Students continue to like the free writes, but Im afraid they will burn out on them soon. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? The fact that even my lowest student still takes risks and attempts to answer questions. The fact that students feel comfortable enough to continue raising their hands and trying to answer questions, even after incorrectly answering others, make me feel like they are being provided with a warm and safe learning environment. Knowing that I am part of that safe environment makes me smile.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Successes: Thanksgiving Read-Aloud How to Cook a Turkey Recipe Card. Students brainstormed what to write and we wrote it together as a class. Kagan strategy of mixed, pair, share before How to Cook a Turkey lesson used for students to share ideas about what ingredients are needed and what the steps involved would be Noun and pronouns lesson Need to work on: Continue working on helping students write Looking for fun topics for students to write about Questions: What resources can I use to find new writing subjects? What writing instruction is used for first grade? Key Learnings: Students are really enjoying the use of Kagan structures in our lessons. I need to remember to continue modeling them. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I am enjoying the use of Kagan strategies and cooperative learning with this group of students. They are not accustomed to doing a lot of cooperative learning and this is the first year theyve been introduced to Kagan strategies. I learned about Kagan strategies in a class I took last year and thought they were a fun way to introduce structured cooperative learning and communication in the classroom. This group of students is enjoying the use of these strategies and we are learning to use them together.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Today, I attended a Common Core conference for first grade teachers in the Etiwanda School District. I enjoyed the conference and the many stations we visited. I learned new teaching strategies for math and Language. Some things I learned were: How to project an ipad (wirelessly) onto the whiteboard!!! SO COOL!! I learned a few apps that I would love to introduce to this class I learned a new way to talk about number sense daily with first graders using dots and having students tell how many dots they see and how they figured it out. They are not to count, but to group in their heads. This helps with their fluency with adding small numbers. I learned a way to show children what the = means using a balance and counters. I learned a fun way to mix fact families, word problems, and number bubbles to show numbers.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Successes: My observed lesson on telling time Using individual clocks with students Relating time to daily occurrences with students Cooperative work on time Gave spelling assessments for the first time Mad Libs parts of speech worksheet about Thanksgiving Need to work on: Further modeling of the Rally Robin Kagan structure with the students. I need to work on being more clear with my instructions on how to use it (oral only) Parts of speech Further modeling and practice of cooperative work. Students are not accustomed to working with a partner and tend to hide their work from their peers instead of working together to get an answer.
Questions: Is there an instruction method used for teaching parts of speech What are the standards for first grade parts of speech Key Learnings: Students enjoyed cooperative group work, but need additional modeling to learn how to work as a team. Once I clarified my instructions on how to use the Rally Robin strategy, students were able to give a vocabulary word to the rest of their group. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? Teaching time is a subject that is not as easy to teach as I thought it would be. Time is a concept that is not easily learned if not tied in to concepts children can identify with. I have taught time other days this week using the textbook and its worksheets and this lesson was more relevant to students and I felt that they were able to recall the information very well today. Using manipulatives, like the Judy clocks, gives a kinesthetic aspect to the lesson and helps young learners as well. Incorporating multiple intelligences into lessons will be something I will continue to do in my future for young learners.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2013
Successes: Read-alouds of Olive the Other Reindeer and Seasons Made reindeer craft with class After reading Seasons, brainstormed characteristics of each season Students compiled a graphic organizer telling what their favorite season is and giving details of why Reviewed telling time with students Need to work on: Classroom management positive reinforcement for those that are staying on task as well as consequences for those that are not Timing of lessons. I am spending too much time on each lesson. Questions: Wondering what to do about two students that do not complete work with the rest of the class. One student is tired all of the time and the other student cannot read and follow instructions with the rest of the class. How do I speed up my delivery of lessons? Do I really need to speed up the delivery of lessons? Key Learnings: Reading and brainstorming characteristics of seasons worked well with the students. It was interesting to me how well the students worked together to come up with a word web about seasons. Students were eager to begin writing about their favorite season. I am excited to read their final writing assignments.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013
Successes: Read-aloud of Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? Comparing and contrasting Olive the Other Reindeer and Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? Working on ABC order of Christmas words. Teaching students about ABC order. Modeling of Brain Gym exercises. Students practiced Brain Gym exercises with me during PE. Need to work on: Science weather lesson needed additional work. Students enjoyed the read- aloud of The Magic School Bus but the lesson did not work as well. I have found additional resources to teach the weather lesson that I will try tomorrow. I need to continue working on classroom management when the master teacher is not in the classroom. We had a substitute with us and the students were unruly. Questions: We have a student that is not independently reading yet. I would like to work on helping her learn to read. I would like to offer books on cd for her to take home and read along with. I would also like to research additional ideas that I can use in the classroom to help her. Key Learnings: Students enjoyed an informational text that was written as a fictional story. I have found another text similar to this to continue the lesson on weather and am hoping the students will enjoy this new text and will stay engaged in this lesson. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to take the knowledge that students enjoy read-alouds even when informational text is involved. I want to remember to look for texts that students will find interesting to help keep them engaged in lessons while learning a new subject.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2013
Successes: I introduced the book, Oh Say Can You Say, Whats the Weather Today? by Tish Rabe. The students have liked it. We read it during a short read-aloud time and discussed some of the weather related elements in it. We brainstormed seasons, and weather related vocabulary. We brainstormed characteristics of seasons for a writing assignment my master teacher taught.
Need to work on: I am continuing to work on the science lesson about weather. I will resume that lesson tomorrow. I have preread the following lessons and know what I need to cover as well as what items I need to prepare. Questions: I am not a fan of using so many worksheets in the classroom. I would love to ask my master teacher if there are other ways we can have students work on assignments. I would love to try using a worksheet with an erasable sleeve over it that we can use with dry erase markers. I feel like we work on and correct so many worksheets, but not every grade is posted. It would seem beneficial to reduce the amount of paper we use and allow students to work on these dry-erase type sheets. I just need to figure out how to still check for understanding. I do not object to using worksheets because I am green, I just hate the monotony of worksheets prepared by somebody else that is not actually teaching the lesson the way I did using examples that I did. Key Learnings: Textbooks are sometimes boring, but necessary. Using the textbook to introduce the weather lesson and then bringing in other literature helps break up the textbook boredom and teach the same ideas in a more engaging manner. I also think that a read-aloud provides opportunities to engage other modalities than having students sit and read a textbook. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to take my hatred for boring worksheets into my future teaching career. I hate sending home papers that mean nothing other than your child listened to me talk and then completed a worksheet today at school. I want to have children do fun, engaging activities that show that they have learned something from the lesson I stood there and talked to them about. I love to include crayons and drawing and having the students tell stories or actually get what I am talking about. I feel like students can learn something and be engaged and a teacher can even check for understanding without using a worksheet for every lesson. This, along with my hatred of parent projects is something that I hope I can combat in my own classroom one day. I know hatred is a very strong word, but, I really do not enjoy boring worksheets!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
Successes: Continued working on the weather lesson and had more success today. Reviewed weather vocabulary Read more of the book, Oh Say Can You Say, Whats the Weather Today? Reviewed weather tools and vocabulary about them Covered the lesson from the text about weather tools
Need to work on: I need to work on knowing when a lesson is failing and move on to something else. I waited for my master teachers approval to ditch a lesson that was bombing because it was something she asked me to teach on the fly. If it had been my own lesson, I probably would have moved on to something else much quicker than I did. Pronouns are not fun, but, when students are not engaged, its always better to revisit that lesson another way at another time. Questions: Who writes these pacing guides? I would like to know what other teachers do for their morning routine. I would also like to visit other first grade classrooms just to see what else is out there. I absolutely love the room next door to us. Our neighboring teachers room seems very warm and inviting and I just cant figure out why that is. Is it the warm earth tones of her bulleting boards and walls, the lighting provided by her lamp on her desk, the yummy smell of sugar cookies emanating from her classroom, the cute little green plants on students desks, or possibly the beautiful name tags that look like they belong in a scrap book page? I love this room and would love for my classroom to be warm and homey like this! Key Learnings: Im still stuck on the warm and homey classroom of our neighboring teacher and since I know that environment affects students and the teacher alike, I would love to emulate the feeling of this teachers classroom in my own. I already want to give my master teacher a thank you gift of a lamp and candle but am worried shell know exactly what Im trying to do! Im also learning that the pacing guides are not necessarily in place and to be followed exactly, but, that I also have to remember that each class is different and will not always perform the way the pacing guide expects. The pacing guide stresses me out a bit. But, I also understand how it could help a person like me, who sometimes goes off on a tangent because the students are engaged in what we are talking about. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to remember that environment affects all students, general ed and special ed alike. Small environmental tweaks could affect how students learn if it is too distracting of a classroom, or, could help lower affective filters and help students feel they are part of something when it is warm and homey. My classroom environment is not one Ive given much thought but having a beautiful classroom next door to me has given me the opportunity to think about how I would like my classroom to affect my students and is giving me many ideas.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2013 I was not in the classroom today.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013
Successes: Continued working on the weather unit. Read aloud of Magic School Bus book about weather. Students asked lots of questions. Reviewed previous lessons information.
Need to work on: Not going too long during lessons. I need to pay attention to time and make sure the required information is covered in the amount of time I have.
Questions: None today
Key Learnings: This group of students really enjoys reading and discussing science topics. I am learning that they enjoy discussion of new topics when they are engaged by the reading or anticipatory set. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? I want to always remember to try to make learning interesting and engaging. I need to remember that using manipulatives may take more time, but can help keep students engaged in their learning.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013
Successes: Planning a PE lesson (implementation not so successful!) Read aloud of Gingerbread Pirates Brainstorming and writing of beginning, middle and end parts of story
Need to work on: Implementation on PE lessons Questions: None for this lesson Key Learnings: I am really learning which subjects each student enjoys and excels in I learned that I need to front load information and instructions for a PE lesson before going outside or in a group setting before I set up the activity. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? The knowledge that lessons dont always go as planned. I may think that a lesson is amazing but not realize that I may require more planning than I originally thought.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013 Successes: Using anchor charts in the classroom to review information Calling students to the anchor chart and allowing them to write their ideas on the chart
Need to work on: Keeping all students engaged during re-teaching of ideas Questions: None for this lesson Key Learnings: I am learning that some students completely tune out during a reteach of information that they already understand. I need to figure out what these students can work on that will not be disruptive during a reteach. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? The knowledge that reteaching is necessary for some students but also bores students that have already acquired that specific knowledge. I need to be more aware of those students that already understand and have a go to activity for them to work on that will further their learning.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013
Successes: Facilitating lots of discussion about social studies lesson and review of what happened long ago Need to work on: While still allowing and encouraging discussion, I need to work on keeping it shorter in order to complete most lessons planned for the day Questions: None for this lesson Key Learnings: I am really learning that this group of students loves to discuss the information they know and are currently learning. I am learning that this group of students enjoys science and social studies discussions. I am also learning that these students are excited about lessons when I am excited about them. I am learning that my attitude toward a lesson sets the tone for student learning and their attitude toward a lesson. What do you want to take with you tomorrow and into your future teaching career? The knowledge that my attitude sets the stage for students attitudes during lessons.