On Saturday I went to CVS and made Christmas cards to mail to all the families. I used these as a way to say "Merry Christmas" and as thank you cards for the Christmas gifts the parents gave me. Here's how they turned out:
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Christmas Party and Cards
On our last day of school (Friday - I'm a little behind in posts but after this one I'll be caught up!) we had our class Christmas party. It was just something small and simple but it was very nice! We decorated sugar cookies and ate them. Then we did a Secret Santa gift exchange. At the end we had a few minutes left before parent pick up began and so we played Four Corners - a third grade favorite. :-) It was a fun last day together before the break!
On Saturday I went to CVS and made Christmas cards to mail to all the families. I used these as a way to say "Merry Christmas" and as thank you cards for the Christmas gifts the parents gave me. Here's how they turned out:
On Saturday I went to CVS and made Christmas cards to mail to all the families. I used these as a way to say "Merry Christmas" and as thank you cards for the Christmas gifts the parents gave me. Here's how they turned out:
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Liebster Blog Award
A big thank you to Rebecca at The Teacher's Chatterbox and Bonnie at Living a Wonderful Life for giving me the Liebster Award! They both have great blogs - so please check them out. :-)
Bonnie explained the award on her blog like this:
"The goal of the award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to them
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers"
Here are my top 5 picks!
1. Megan from Blackboard and Beyond - I love her blog! I found out about Xtra Math through her.
2. Emily from Fun-tastic First Grade had some great beginning of the year posts about organization and classroom jobs.
3. Jennifer from Lifelong Learning just had a wonderful post about a Christmas book countdown that she does with her family.
4. The Life of a First Year Teacher is a blog of another teacher who is just beginning her teaching career.
5. And last, but not least, IAmNan from Third Grade's a Charm has a very cute blog. I loved reading about their Oreo project!
Those are my top 5 up-and-coming blog picks! Make sure you check them out and follow them for wonderful ideas. :-)
Monday, December 19, 2011
Xtra Math
Thanks to Megan at Blackboard and Beyond for sharing about Xtra Math! What a fabulous website to help students practice their math facts! I'm loving it. Hopefully the link connected to the image below works. If not, you can find the website by simply typing in xtramath.org
After seeing Megan's post I looked into Xtra Math and quickly signed my class up for it. We have began multiplication fact drills and this is a great way for my students to have a bit of extra practice. Plus, what kid doesn't like doing something on the computer? :-)
At fist I thought my students would just do it at home as we do not have any student computers available in the classroom. But, then I decided that we do still have a computer in the classroom, so why not let the kids use it? So this past week I had my students take turns coming up to sit at my desk to do Xtra Math on my computer. They loved it and I was happy for the extra math practice they were getting in!
There are several features I really like about Xtra Math. One, the way it gives you a report on each student's usage and progress. Two, the fact that it is easy to adjust the individual level of the program for each student. Three, that it celebrates success through providing a certificate for when a student finishes a level. Four, it is fun, easy, and a great learning tool for quick math fact recall. Great program!
After seeing Megan's post I looked into Xtra Math and quickly signed my class up for it. We have began multiplication fact drills and this is a great way for my students to have a bit of extra practice. Plus, what kid doesn't like doing something on the computer? :-)
At fist I thought my students would just do it at home as we do not have any student computers available in the classroom. But, then I decided that we do still have a computer in the classroom, so why not let the kids use it? So this past week I had my students take turns coming up to sit at my desk to do Xtra Math on my computer. They loved it and I was happy for the extra math practice they were getting in!
There are several features I really like about Xtra Math. One, the way it gives you a report on each student's usage and progress. Two, the fact that it is easy to adjust the individual level of the program for each student. Three, that it celebrates success through providing a certificate for when a student finishes a level. Four, it is fun, easy, and a great learning tool for quick math fact recall. Great program!
Cards for Vietnam Memorial
I found out about an opportunity to have my students make Christmas cards/ornaments for the Vietnam Memorial Christmas Tree in D.C. through another teaching blog. This was such a wonderful opportunity to thank our veterans that I couldn't resist having my students do it.
Here is the link to the official website for the Tree in D.C.: http://www.vvmf.org/811
A couple of my students have family members who are veterans so they made their ornaments specifically in honor of their family member. It was very sweet to see them. Here is a picture of our finished ornaments:
Here is the link to the official website for the Tree in D.C.: http://www.vvmf.org/811
A couple of my students have family members who are veterans so they made their ornaments specifically in honor of their family member. It was very sweet to see them. Here is a picture of our finished ornaments:
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Writing Books
Despite how this late night blog entry might sound, I love writing and I love teaching how to write as well. I feel as if this is truly something I know 100% what I am doing. I don't say this to sound arrogant, I say it because it is a nice feeling to feel like that when all the other subjects I am learning the curriculum and how to best teach my group of students. But I feel like with writing, we have got it down!
We began writing Christmas stories last week. Their guidelines: it has to do with Christmas. Some chose to write non-fiction personal stories, others chose to create a fiction story. Here are the steps we have in my class for writing our three paragraph stories:
Step One: On a large index card write a topic on the front and as many details as you can about it on the back.
Step Two: Divide your details into three parts on three small index cards. These become your beginning, middle, and end.
Step Three: Write a rough draft. Put your details into sentences and viola you have a paragraph!
Step Four: Edit your draft with the teacher.
Step Five: Make your corrections.
Step Six: Peer Edit
Step Seven: Write it neatly with no mistakes in your writing notebook.
Step Eight: Time to publish in book form!
This system works really well for us. We had a good 30-45 minutes of quiet diligent work time where my students were writing up a storm today! It was so nice. At the beginning of the work time I took a poll to see where everyone was at. I then wrote each student's number on the board with a key word to tell us where they were in the writing process. As the process progressed and they each got on different stages based on how fast they worked they would change what it said next to their number so they knew and I knew where we were at. For the board's sake we simply called the steps "index cards", "rough draft", "edit", "peer edit", "publish 1", and "publish 2".
Most everyone is on "Publishing 2" now where we are writing our paragraphs on white computer paper - one paragraph per page. They will then draw illustrations, make a cover, and a back cover. We will assemble them using page protectors and proudly display them in our classroom library.
Here is a picture of two students working on peer editing:
We began writing Christmas stories last week. Their guidelines: it has to do with Christmas. Some chose to write non-fiction personal stories, others chose to create a fiction story. Here are the steps we have in my class for writing our three paragraph stories:
Step One: On a large index card write a topic on the front and as many details as you can about it on the back.
Step Two: Divide your details into three parts on three small index cards. These become your beginning, middle, and end.
Step Three: Write a rough draft. Put your details into sentences and viola you have a paragraph!
Step Four: Edit your draft with the teacher.
Step Five: Make your corrections.
Step Six: Peer Edit
Step Seven: Write it neatly with no mistakes in your writing notebook.
Step Eight: Time to publish in book form!
This system works really well for us. We had a good 30-45 minutes of quiet diligent work time where my students were writing up a storm today! It was so nice. At the beginning of the work time I took a poll to see where everyone was at. I then wrote each student's number on the board with a key word to tell us where they were in the writing process. As the process progressed and they each got on different stages based on how fast they worked they would change what it said next to their number so they knew and I knew where we were at. For the board's sake we simply called the steps "index cards", "rough draft", "edit", "peer edit", "publish 1", and "publish 2".
Most everyone is on "Publishing 2" now where we are writing our paragraphs on white computer paper - one paragraph per page. They will then draw illustrations, make a cover, and a back cover. We will assemble them using page protectors and proudly display them in our classroom library.
Here is a picture of two students working on peer editing:
Gingerbread Man Hunt
Thanks to the teacher of our Alabama pen pals we went on a Gingerbread Man scavenger hunt around the school! I put up clues around the school during their lunch time. Then after lunch we came back and had our normal read aloud time, but since we were done with Narnia I read "The Gingerbread Man". My kids loved this cute little picture book - I was slightly surprised. At the end of the book there was a clue that just happened to be stuck there. I read it all surprised like and asked "Should we follow it??" Of course we did...The kids had a lot of fun with it!
At the end of the hunt, we came back to our classroom for the last clue and found the Gingerbread man stuck in our closet with some gingerbread man cookies and coloring sheets. So we ate the cookies and colored while listening to Christmas music and the kids continued to wonder how on earth I had the time to put the clues around campus... ;-)
At the end of the hunt, we came back to our classroom for the last clue and found the Gingerbread man stuck in our closet with some gingerbread man cookies and coloring sheets. So we ate the cookies and colored while listening to Christmas music and the kids continued to wonder how on earth I had the time to put the clues around campus... ;-)
Christmas Decorations
Here are our classroom decorations for Christmas!
A manger scene made by my students. Each student had a piece to make for it. My favorite (besides Joseph being a lot bigger than Mary) is the shepherd ninja on the right. :-)
Our backpack area:
A paper chain and snowflakes hanging from the ceiling:
Snowflakes hanging form the ceiling made by my students. It is fun to be in the reading corner with 'snow' above us.
Ornaments hanging from the ceiling:
A manger scene made by my students. Each student had a piece to make for it. My favorite (besides Joseph being a lot bigger than Mary) is the shepherd ninja on the right. :-)
Our backpack area:
A paper chain and snowflakes hanging from the ceiling:
Snowflakes hanging form the ceiling made by my students. It is fun to be in the reading corner with 'snow' above us.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Reading in 3rd Grade
One day after school, I noticed that one of my students had left our bear in the reading corner like this and I couldn't resist taking its picture:
Speaking of our reading corner, we have read several great read-aloud books this year!
We started with "Trumpet of the Swan." My students LOVED it so much.
We then moved into the Chronicles of Narnia with "The Magician's Nephew" first and we just finished "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." They loved these as well, especially since they could each find a copy of the books to follow along with. We had some really great discussions about C.S. Lewis' parallels between the characters in the books and Christ and us. I got really excited about one of them one day (I think it was the Stone Table splitting in two part) and one of my students just smiled and said, "You're funny." I smiled back and said, "But it is so neat!" He agreed with me as did the rest of my class.
Today we started "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever" - my kids and I were laughing so hard during it! Such a fun book.
What books do you read to your third grade classes?
Nice Words
I have been meaning to update my blog the past two weeks, but things spun crazily fast after Thanksgiving break and so I have not gotten around to it. So begins my first post to "catch up" on what has been happening with my class over the past two weeks.
I was looking at blogs one day (not too surprising :-) ) and stumbled upon this great activity to do with kids to help them understand the power of words. My class was being mean to each other and so I stopped class and did it. It worked so well! For an entire week my students were only being nice to one another and I did not have one conflict to solve. It was amazing.
I had my students take a piece of white paper and crumple it up into a ball. They had so much fun doing this! We were laughing and having a good time with it. I told them not to rip it though. Then I had them unfold the paper without ripping it. Of course our papers were all wrinkled now. I then told them to apologize to the paper. They looked at me with that "you are crazy" look. But I told them, it was fun for us to crumple the paper but the poor paper was really hurt by it! They apologized to their paper trying to hold back giggles. I asked them, did your apology take away the wrinkles? "No..." Of course it didn't. The same is true with people. We are all nice and pretty looking "pieces of paper" but when people come and tease us, call us names, tattle, hit us, take our things, etc. we become wrinkled by it all. The mean people might apologize but it still doesn't take away their hurts just like the paper didn't loose it's wrinkles.
I of course was rather dramatic when saying all this by picking up a new piece of paper and crumpling it a little bit each time I mentioned something mean that had happened in our class. It hit home with my kids. What was a happy laughing fun paper crumpling class suddenly became very solemn and you could see the Lord working in their hearts. One students said, "You're making me feel bad." Well...that is a good thing, dear. It means you understand and God is speaking to you.
We kept our crumpled papers on our desk throughout the week and one was up on the white board too. It was a great week of no-conflicts and only students being nice to one another. :-)
I was looking at blogs one day (not too surprising :-) ) and stumbled upon this great activity to do with kids to help them understand the power of words. My class was being mean to each other and so I stopped class and did it. It worked so well! For an entire week my students were only being nice to one another and I did not have one conflict to solve. It was amazing.
I had my students take a piece of white paper and crumple it up into a ball. They had so much fun doing this! We were laughing and having a good time with it. I told them not to rip it though. Then I had them unfold the paper without ripping it. Of course our papers were all wrinkled now. I then told them to apologize to the paper. They looked at me with that "you are crazy" look. But I told them, it was fun for us to crumple the paper but the poor paper was really hurt by it! They apologized to their paper trying to hold back giggles. I asked them, did your apology take away the wrinkles? "No..." Of course it didn't. The same is true with people. We are all nice and pretty looking "pieces of paper" but when people come and tease us, call us names, tattle, hit us, take our things, etc. we become wrinkled by it all. The mean people might apologize but it still doesn't take away their hurts just like the paper didn't loose it's wrinkles.
I of course was rather dramatic when saying all this by picking up a new piece of paper and crumpling it a little bit each time I mentioned something mean that had happened in our class. It hit home with my kids. What was a happy laughing fun paper crumpling class suddenly became very solemn and you could see the Lord working in their hearts. One students said, "You're making me feel bad." Well...that is a good thing, dear. It means you understand and God is speaking to you.
We kept our crumpled papers on our desk throughout the week and one was up on the white board too. It was a great week of no-conflicts and only students being nice to one another. :-)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
YES!!!
I am SO very happy right now. I just finished grading reading tests from Friday - usually my emotion is more depression after this, but today I am about ready to jump up and down and do a happy dance!
The lowest grade was a.....91 A-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! They all made A's! I am so excited. I can't wait to tell them tomorrow!
I will definitely continue to teach Reading how I taught it this past week. :-)
The lowest grade was a.....91 A-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! They all made A's! I am so excited. I can't wait to tell them tomorrow!
I will definitely continue to teach Reading how I taught it this past week. :-)
Monday, November 28, 2011
Before I Decorate for Christmas....
I thought I should at least document that I did in fact pull together some fall and Thanksgiving decorations. :-)
This is our classroom display for the interactive Pilgrim simulation we worked on with the other 3rd grade class at my school. We combined classes and split up into 5 colonies. Each group had to work their way across the Atlantic Ocean, write a Compact, elect leaders, build houses, plant crops, make peace with the Indians, trade with the Indians, and pay back the merchants in England with furs. The kids loved it and learned so much!
Our "I am thankful for...." display:
Our reading corner became fall-like with fall decorations and my students colored turkeys.
And our door...not the prettiest ever, but the kids loved making their own paper leaves to display.
And on a different note I thought I would share a few other favorite wall displays I have up right now.
A couple weeks ago each student read a biography and then gave an oral presentation on their person. They even dressed up like the person they read about. I took a picture of each of them and displayed them up on the wall:
Below is perhaps my favorite wall display so far, only for the fact that it turned out exactly as I saw it in my head. And that, friends, is no small thing when you are not very artistic and envision things turning out so nicely and artistically done only to be constantly shown that you are not as artistic in reality as you are in your brain...haha....with all that said, this is a picture of how I displayed our pen pal letters in our classroom:
By the end of the week I should have some pictures of Christmas/Winter decorations in my classroom!
Oh and by the way....Our seeds did grow! They grew really well actually! Here is a picture:
This is our classroom display for the interactive Pilgrim simulation we worked on with the other 3rd grade class at my school. We combined classes and split up into 5 colonies. Each group had to work their way across the Atlantic Ocean, write a Compact, elect leaders, build houses, plant crops, make peace with the Indians, trade with the Indians, and pay back the merchants in England with furs. The kids loved it and learned so much!
Our "I am thankful for...." display:
Our reading corner became fall-like with fall decorations and my students colored turkeys.
And our door...not the prettiest ever, but the kids loved making their own paper leaves to display.
And on a different note I thought I would share a few other favorite wall displays I have up right now.
A couple weeks ago each student read a biography and then gave an oral presentation on their person. They even dressed up like the person they read about. I took a picture of each of them and displayed them up on the wall:
Below is perhaps my favorite wall display so far, only for the fact that it turned out exactly as I saw it in my head. And that, friends, is no small thing when you are not very artistic and envision things turning out so nicely and artistically done only to be constantly shown that you are not as artistic in reality as you are in your brain...haha....with all that said, this is a picture of how I displayed our pen pal letters in our classroom:
By the end of the week I should have some pictures of Christmas/Winter decorations in my classroom!
Oh and by the way....Our seeds did grow! They grew really well actually! Here is a picture:
Sunday, November 27, 2011
First Christmas...Help Please!
This is (obviously) not my first Christmas ever, but it is my first one as a teacher. I definitely need to be better planned with Christmas activities than I was with Thanksgiving ones. There are so many Christmas activities out there that it is overwhelming trying to choose some. I also need to figure out how to decorate a classroom for Christmas quickly and cheaply. That is where I would love your help.
- What Christmas activities do you do with your class?
- Also, which ones work really well and which ones should I completely avoid?
- What Christmas decorations do you put up? Is your class involved in making them or do you purchase them?
- What Christmas activities do you do with your class?
- Also, which ones work really well and which ones should I completely avoid?
- What Christmas decorations do you put up? Is your class involved in making them or do you purchase them?
Heading Back and the Sunshine Award
Thanksgiving has come and gone way too quickly! The last Friday of school before break we had a big potluck lunch at school. This was such a wonderful time of fellowship with the parents of my students. Saturday, I was able to fly home for the week! It was such a blessing to be with my family for Thanksgiving.
And now it is back to school and I am so ready to be back at it. I am looking forward to seeing my students tomorrow. I can't believe we only have 15 school days until Christmas Break! Time is flying fast. As soon as I finally got my classroom decorated for Thanksgiving I now need to decorate for Christmas. :-)
This morning I woke up to a new comment posted on my Thanksgiving Turkey post. It was from Keri at Teach Play Smile saying she had given me the Sunshine Award. Thank you so much, Keri!
And now it is back to school and I am so ready to be back at it. I am looking forward to seeing my students tomorrow. I can't believe we only have 15 school days until Christmas Break! Time is flying fast. As soon as I finally got my classroom decorated for Thanksgiving I now need to decorate for Christmas. :-)
This morning I woke up to a new comment posted on my Thanksgiving Turkey post. It was from Keri at Teach Play Smile saying she had given me the Sunshine Award. Thank you so much, Keri!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thanksgiving Turkey
Today our morning writing prompt in our "Wake Up Your Brain" notebooks was, "Imagine the turkey decoration on our door could speak. What would he say?" This was one of the responses I got that made me laugh aloud. :)
Sunday, November 6, 2011
A Nature-Filled Week
This past week was full of discovering new and exciting things about God's creatures and plants.
Tuesday when I was eating lunch in the teacher's room I saw one of the recess aides run into the teachers' room and grab a plastic jar and run back out to the playground. Something told me that my students had just caught something and were about to put it in the jar. There were at least 3 different classes at recess but somehow I knew it had to be my students the jar was for....and sure enough, it was. I walk out to pick up my class from recess and my 5 girls run up to me with the jar hidden under their jacket saying "Can we keep it??"....Umm...keep what?! It turned out to be a moth that they had put in the jar along with some dandelions for it to eat. Of course I said we could keep it! I didn't expect it to live for long but it could stay with us for the day. Well the moth, Rainbow, lived for three days.....Actually, it was 4 days come to think of it! Tuesday-Friday. My girls kept feeding it dandelions and watering it. Friday after recess I said it was time to let it go. We took a "field trip" to the tree and let it go there. The girls were upset but they understood. We got back to the room and of course the discussion turned to Rainbow. One of my boys said, "She looked pregnant!" And another boy shouted out, "She would need a mate for that and she has been in the jar." (Thank you, hon, for sharing with us about mates and babies.....) I said, "Well...if she was pregnant (not likely, but if she was) then perhaps she found a mate before we found her. (although I know nothing about moths...)" Then my girls got all upset at the possibility that they had taken this poor moth away from her family....It was really a lose/lose situation with my girls being upset over the moth...but at least we had fun watching Rainbow for a few days. Here is a picture of Rainbow the miracle moth:
On Wednesday we had a special guest speaker come to our classroom to share with us her knowledge about birds. Mrs. G is a teacher at our school and loves birds. So, when our reading story for the week was about birds living in the city, I couldn't resist asking Mrs. G to come share with us about birds. The students loved learning more about birds! Mrs. G had some home footage of cranes in a field dancing that the students loved. She also showed us how long a Californian condor's wings are. We were all amazed at this! She also left us with many bird books, stuffed animals, and coloring sheets. One of my students even made a paper nest for one of the birds Mrs. G let us borrow.
Also on Wednesday I had planned for us to plant seeds. Mrs. G's bird talk lasted a little longer than I thought (but it was such a good time that I didn't mind at all!) so we didn't have the scheduled time to plant seeds. However, the pre-sprouted seeds needed to be planted that day. So we multitasked. Our room is only a few steps away from the play area for recess so we went out there and as soon as their seed was planted they ran to play at recess. We amazingly got it done (the motivation to play at recess was a good "move along" for the students who wanted to just play in the soil). After recess we had to get packed up as we had choir that afternoon. So half of the students watered their seeds and the other half packed up. When we got back from choir they switched. I hope the seeds grow! I do not have a green thumb at all and have in fact killed some herbs I had planted at home.....but perhaps these will work so they can go nicely with our science plant unit.
Tuesday when I was eating lunch in the teacher's room I saw one of the recess aides run into the teachers' room and grab a plastic jar and run back out to the playground. Something told me that my students had just caught something and were about to put it in the jar. There were at least 3 different classes at recess but somehow I knew it had to be my students the jar was for....and sure enough, it was. I walk out to pick up my class from recess and my 5 girls run up to me with the jar hidden under their jacket saying "Can we keep it??"....Umm...keep what?! It turned out to be a moth that they had put in the jar along with some dandelions for it to eat. Of course I said we could keep it! I didn't expect it to live for long but it could stay with us for the day. Well the moth, Rainbow, lived for three days.....Actually, it was 4 days come to think of it! Tuesday-Friday. My girls kept feeding it dandelions and watering it. Friday after recess I said it was time to let it go. We took a "field trip" to the tree and let it go there. The girls were upset but they understood. We got back to the room and of course the discussion turned to Rainbow. One of my boys said, "She looked pregnant!" And another boy shouted out, "She would need a mate for that and she has been in the jar." (Thank you, hon, for sharing with us about mates and babies.....) I said, "Well...if she was pregnant (not likely, but if she was) then perhaps she found a mate before we found her. (although I know nothing about moths...)" Then my girls got all upset at the possibility that they had taken this poor moth away from her family....It was really a lose/lose situation with my girls being upset over the moth...but at least we had fun watching Rainbow for a few days. Here is a picture of Rainbow the miracle moth:
On Wednesday we had a special guest speaker come to our classroom to share with us her knowledge about birds. Mrs. G is a teacher at our school and loves birds. So, when our reading story for the week was about birds living in the city, I couldn't resist asking Mrs. G to come share with us about birds. The students loved learning more about birds! Mrs. G had some home footage of cranes in a field dancing that the students loved. She also showed us how long a Californian condor's wings are. We were all amazed at this! She also left us with many bird books, stuffed animals, and coloring sheets. One of my students even made a paper nest for one of the birds Mrs. G let us borrow.
Also on Wednesday I had planned for us to plant seeds. Mrs. G's bird talk lasted a little longer than I thought (but it was such a good time that I didn't mind at all!) so we didn't have the scheduled time to plant seeds. However, the pre-sprouted seeds needed to be planted that day. So we multitasked. Our room is only a few steps away from the play area for recess so we went out there and as soon as their seed was planted they ran to play at recess. We amazingly got it done (the motivation to play at recess was a good "move along" for the students who wanted to just play in the soil). After recess we had to get packed up as we had choir that afternoon. So half of the students watered their seeds and the other half packed up. When we got back from choir they switched. I hope the seeds grow! I do not have a green thumb at all and have in fact killed some herbs I had planted at home.....but perhaps these will work so they can go nicely with our science plant unit.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Chapel = Done
Every teacher at my school is responsible for taking care of two chapels during the school year. We can find a speaker for one and must have our entire class involved in the other one. Well.....my speaker couldn't do my first chapel and so three weeks ago I began the endeavor to 1) put together my first chapel, 2) attempt at organizing my students in a performance which I also have never done, while 3) surviving the end of the first quarter.
Today was our chapel day. We presented on Barnabas and practical ways to encourage one another. I wrote a script, divided up the parts amongst the students, we made signs, we rehearsed and practiced, and a parent volunteer taught us a song. And it went wonderfully! My students did great and the rest of the school enjoyed it and said they learned a lot. The song was especially a big hit! :)
We also did a lot of other things this week like have a Bird Talk with a birder (I had no idea that was an actual term for a bird watcher but apparently it is according to our expert) and we planted seeds and we had a pet moth/butterfly for a few days (yes it was a miracle butterfly and lived for about 3 days!). But, it is late, I'm tired and my pictures aren't loaded onto my computer so....those will have to be in another post later this weekend!
Today was our chapel day. We presented on Barnabas and practical ways to encourage one another. I wrote a script, divided up the parts amongst the students, we made signs, we rehearsed and practiced, and a parent volunteer taught us a song. And it went wonderfully! My students did great and the rest of the school enjoyed it and said they learned a lot. The song was especially a big hit! :)
We also did a lot of other things this week like have a Bird Talk with a birder (I had no idea that was an actual term for a bird watcher but apparently it is according to our expert) and we planted seeds and we had a pet moth/butterfly for a few days (yes it was a miracle butterfly and lived for about 3 days!). But, it is late, I'm tired and my pictures aren't loaded onto my computer so....those will have to be in another post later this weekend!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Beloved Quotes
My kids are just wonderful. I love them and all their energy. And I love some of the things they tell me! Here are a few favorites from this year so far:
- Said in all seriousness: "Miss Benscoter, two questions. If light sabers were real could they really cut something in half? And, how could you make one? Are there wires involved?"
- During spelling workbook time a student raises his hand. I go over to him, "Yes, Conner, how can I answer your question?" "Well it's more a comment." "Okay." "When I wake up in the morning I don't really want to come to school...." (my thoughts at this point, well that is sad.....thanks for telling me but he continues) "...but then I get to school and I like it and have fun!" (my thoughts afterward, that was very cute and brightened my day!)
- I'm grading spelling pre-tests and there is a note at the bottom of the page from one of my girls it says:
"There's a note for you" with a big arrow drawn up to the top of the page. The note says (spelling and punctuation not changed because it is cuter that way), "Thank you for being my teacher your fantastice and awsome and I love you. love, Allison."
I must say, I love my students. :)
- Said in all seriousness: "Miss Benscoter, two questions. If light sabers were real could they really cut something in half? And, how could you make one? Are there wires involved?"
- During spelling workbook time a student raises his hand. I go over to him, "Yes, Conner, how can I answer your question?" "Well it's more a comment." "Okay." "When I wake up in the morning I don't really want to come to school...." (my thoughts at this point, well that is sad.....thanks for telling me but he continues) "...but then I get to school and I like it and have fun!" (my thoughts afterward, that was very cute and brightened my day!)
- I'm grading spelling pre-tests and there is a note at the bottom of the page from one of my girls it says:
"There's a note for you" with a big arrow drawn up to the top of the page. The note says (spelling and punctuation not changed because it is cuter that way), "Thank you for being my teacher your fantastice and awsome and I love you. love, Allison."
I must say, I love my students. :)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Secret to Keeping Students' Attention is....
Don't say a word.
At least it worked with my class today. I told them that I wasn't going to do a lot of talking today. So instead of talking during our transition times I wrote on the board what to do. An example of this is:
"When I say go, take out your crayons and send one team member up to get your poster."
They are all glued to the white board wondering and guessing at what I am writing. Then I ever so slowly write the word "Go" and they move and go. It also worked for lining up. I wrote "Please line up quietly." And one by one they noticed and stopped their work and lined up quietly! There was some talking and some stragglers so I started my usual countdown but not out loud, by writing it on the board. It worked 5 times faster than when I say it out loud.
I also tried writing "Give Me 5" on the board (our quieting procedure from Wong's marvelous book) and then went with my hand raised over by our table team points board. They soon noticed I was waiting to see which table would follow the directions the fastest and stopped faster than I've ever seen them stop and I didn't say one word.
We also had several laughs during it when one girl raised her hand to ask a question and wrote, "Yes, Rachel?" on the board and then my response to the question she asked as well. Then another girl had a question and asked "Why are you writing on the board and not talking?!" I wrote, "Because you pay MUCH more attention this way." They all laughed and said it was true.
So they day ended with everyone happy and laughing after a day of continual engagement and marvelous "listening"/watching skills (and positive peer pressure) all around. :)
I think I'll try not saying a lot tomorrow too. haha...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Trials of Third Grade
Well....This has been quite a week and it is only day 2! I have been discovering some of the trials and tribulations of being a third grader. One of them is walking in line.
During fire drills and earthquake drills I have seen the beautiful perfect line with no talking, straight as a board, and no gaps in it as we walk. However, this perfection quickly disappears during regular times. We then get into arguments about people supposedly "cutting" in line. This is a big deal. I have dealt with this issue several times (to say the least) during these few weeks of school. I did not give my class a line order because as third graders they can be trusted to walk in a line the correct way. (Today they lost that privilege though as I had to put them in a line order...they behaved beautifully because they knew the line order would last for the rest of the week if they didn't....;) )
Anyway, as I was saying "cutting" is a big deal. However, I had a conversation with a boy yesterday who was very upset that someone "cut" in line. He was upset because the other boy got behind him....Yes, behind him. Not in front of him. I looked at him very confused like when he first "tattled" about this...
Now I need to say that this boy was the 2nd to last in line before the other boy "cut" him in line by getting behind him. He was so upset by this! I tried to make him see that it wasn't "as bad" as "cutting" in front of him and that in then end we all made it to the same spot, but he just couldn't see that. He was so upset that the other boy got behind him in line. The other boy was just getting in line, there was no cutting going on at all. I'm still a bit confused by the situation but found it slightly amusing that we would discuss someone getting behind him in line.....Oh the trials in life as a third grader!
During fire drills and earthquake drills I have seen the beautiful perfect line with no talking, straight as a board, and no gaps in it as we walk. However, this perfection quickly disappears during regular times. We then get into arguments about people supposedly "cutting" in line. This is a big deal. I have dealt with this issue several times (to say the least) during these few weeks of school. I did not give my class a line order because as third graders they can be trusted to walk in a line the correct way. (Today they lost that privilege though as I had to put them in a line order...they behaved beautifully because they knew the line order would last for the rest of the week if they didn't....;) )
Anyway, as I was saying "cutting" is a big deal. However, I had a conversation with a boy yesterday who was very upset that someone "cut" in line. He was upset because the other boy got behind him....Yes, behind him. Not in front of him. I looked at him very confused like when he first "tattled" about this...
Now I need to say that this boy was the 2nd to last in line before the other boy "cut" him in line by getting behind him. He was so upset by this! I tried to make him see that it wasn't "as bad" as "cutting" in front of him and that in then end we all made it to the same spot, but he just couldn't see that. He was so upset that the other boy got behind him in line. The other boy was just getting in line, there was no cutting going on at all. I'm still a bit confused by the situation but found it slightly amusing that we would discuss someone getting behind him in line.....Oh the trials in life as a third grader!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Apples and Columbus and Grandparents, Oh My!
Wow...What a crazy past three weeks it has been! So much has happened in school life that I'm not sure where to begin this update. I guess I will have to go all the way back to Johnny Appleseed Day!
Johnny Appleseed Day:
- Both third grade classes combined to do an apply observation activity. The students tasted 8 different kinds of apples and wrote down observations about the taste, color, size, smell, etc. of each type. They then ordered the 8 apples in the order they liked them best. Once this was done we took a poll to see what the favorite types of apples were. Then, we created a graph showing the third grades' favorite apples. The next day we wrote a paragraph about the activity and introduced the idea of topic sentences. My students did a great job! Their apple writings are proudly displayed in our room. This was a great activity for many reasons. One of them being that it combined English, Science, and Math all into one activity!
The next week was a short week as we teachers journeyed up to the ACSI convention. It was a good time of learning and fellowship. I went to a great seminar on Singapore Math which will help a lot as I prepare to teach my first every Mental Math lesson tomorrow and Bar Model lesson on Tuesday (scary!). I also attended a session by Carolyn Coil on differentiated learning. So many great ideas! But it was also very overwhelming as I really want to be doing all those things but just don't know how it is possible right now in this stage of my teaching life. I am determined to try to do some of them though!
Book report number 2 was due on our short week. The students did a great job with it! Those are also displaying nicely in our classroom for all to see!
And then it was Columbus Day. We had just finished our unit on Columbus so it was perfect timing! We, of course, had to celebrate! So I gave students the choice of a couple of activities they could do. They could draw a picture of Columbus sailing and his three ships. Or they could make a map of the world as Columbus thought it was. I set out a lot of construction paper and told them to go for it. WOW! They did an AMAZING job. I had no idea they were so artistic!! Several made 3D pictures, one made an actual ship, and all the others just did fantastic by cutting out construction paper and gluing it on the paper to make the scenes! These of course had to be displayed as well:
Then this past Friday was Grandparents' Day. As part of this school wide event there was a big program for the grandparents and parents and special guests who attended. For this program each class had to perform. Oh my! Thankfully I was able to join with the other 3rd grade and the 2/3 class for the performance. We sang a cute Grandparents' Day song. There were so many rehearsals to get this ready - but it turned out wonderfully! My students did a marvelous job and I made it through my first performance experience. After the performance all the grandparents, etc were invited back to the classrooms. So our classroom doors were open for all the visitors to come visit! Thanks to my wonderful parents a refreshments table was put together and we had a nice visiting time Friday afternoon. I loved seeing everyone and getting to meet the other special people in my students' lives. Good time of fellowship in the school family!
And now, I can breathe for a bit. But not for long. My class' chapel is coming up on November 4th. So planning and preparations for that are already happening. In fact, at this very moment I am procrastinating on working on that.....I've never planned a chapel before so this should be interesting! We will be presenting on Barnabas and what it means to encourage one another (something my class is really working on this year...).
Okay....okay.....yes....Here I go. Off to work on planning the chapel. Good night all!
PS Do you know how difficult it is to put together a decent seating chart? I've been trying to change mine every couple of weeks as we do table points and prizes at the end of every week and it just mixes it up for the kids...but goodness! This person can't sit anywhere near that person, that person needs a chance in the front, that one can't be too far away form me, etc etc. But I'm sure you all know about that!
Johnny Appleseed Day:
- Both third grade classes combined to do an apply observation activity. The students tasted 8 different kinds of apples and wrote down observations about the taste, color, size, smell, etc. of each type. They then ordered the 8 apples in the order they liked them best. Once this was done we took a poll to see what the favorite types of apples were. Then, we created a graph showing the third grades' favorite apples. The next day we wrote a paragraph about the activity and introduced the idea of topic sentences. My students did a great job! Their apple writings are proudly displayed in our room. This was a great activity for many reasons. One of them being that it combined English, Science, and Math all into one activity!
The next week was a short week as we teachers journeyed up to the ACSI convention. It was a good time of learning and fellowship. I went to a great seminar on Singapore Math which will help a lot as I prepare to teach my first every Mental Math lesson tomorrow and Bar Model lesson on Tuesday (scary!). I also attended a session by Carolyn Coil on differentiated learning. So many great ideas! But it was also very overwhelming as I really want to be doing all those things but just don't know how it is possible right now in this stage of my teaching life. I am determined to try to do some of them though!
Book report number 2 was due on our short week. The students did a great job with it! Those are also displaying nicely in our classroom for all to see!
And then it was Columbus Day. We had just finished our unit on Columbus so it was perfect timing! We, of course, had to celebrate! So I gave students the choice of a couple of activities they could do. They could draw a picture of Columbus sailing and his three ships. Or they could make a map of the world as Columbus thought it was. I set out a lot of construction paper and told them to go for it. WOW! They did an AMAZING job. I had no idea they were so artistic!! Several made 3D pictures, one made an actual ship, and all the others just did fantastic by cutting out construction paper and gluing it on the paper to make the scenes! These of course had to be displayed as well:
Then this past Friday was Grandparents' Day. As part of this school wide event there was a big program for the grandparents and parents and special guests who attended. For this program each class had to perform. Oh my! Thankfully I was able to join with the other 3rd grade and the 2/3 class for the performance. We sang a cute Grandparents' Day song. There were so many rehearsals to get this ready - but it turned out wonderfully! My students did a marvelous job and I made it through my first performance experience. After the performance all the grandparents, etc were invited back to the classrooms. So our classroom doors were open for all the visitors to come visit! Thanks to my wonderful parents a refreshments table was put together and we had a nice visiting time Friday afternoon. I loved seeing everyone and getting to meet the other special people in my students' lives. Good time of fellowship in the school family!
And now, I can breathe for a bit. But not for long. My class' chapel is coming up on November 4th. So planning and preparations for that are already happening. In fact, at this very moment I am procrastinating on working on that.....I've never planned a chapel before so this should be interesting! We will be presenting on Barnabas and what it means to encourage one another (something my class is really working on this year...).
Okay....okay.....yes....Here I go. Off to work on planning the chapel. Good night all!
PS Do you know how difficult it is to put together a decent seating chart? I've been trying to change mine every couple of weeks as we do table points and prizes at the end of every week and it just mixes it up for the kids...but goodness! This person can't sit anywhere near that person, that person needs a chance in the front, that one can't be too far away form me, etc etc. But I'm sure you all know about that!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Busy busy
Busy week!
Today after school I ran to get a smog check on my car. Then went back to school for a Parent Teacher Fellowship night. Got home by 9:15pm after being gone since 6:45 am.
Tomorrow is a half day of school. I then run to the DMV to change my AL plates and license over (Lord willing everything goes well there...). Then home to grab my packed bags and head off to an ACSI conference with the other teachers!
Thursday and Friday we will be at the ACSI conference. :)
I still have lesson plans for next week, a huge pile of grading, a Slice form due, and a bunch of other non-school life stuff to take care of. But it will all get done. And besides, I remind myself that I would rather be busy than not. :)
I think I'm going to miss my students tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday....Some of them were actually sad that tomorrow was a half day. (I take that as a good sign! ;) )
Good night, yall!
Today after school I ran to get a smog check on my car. Then went back to school for a Parent Teacher Fellowship night. Got home by 9:15pm after being gone since 6:45 am.
Tomorrow is a half day of school. I then run to the DMV to change my AL plates and license over (Lord willing everything goes well there...). Then home to grab my packed bags and head off to an ACSI conference with the other teachers!
Thursday and Friday we will be at the ACSI conference. :)
I still have lesson plans for next week, a huge pile of grading, a Slice form due, and a bunch of other non-school life stuff to take care of. But it will all get done. And besides, I remind myself that I would rather be busy than not. :)
I think I'm going to miss my students tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday....Some of them were actually sad that tomorrow was a half day. (I take that as a good sign! ;) )
Good night, yall!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Stripes: The Crying Zebra
I find it funny how some things just come to my mind during school and then work amazingly well. I call that the grace of God! :) Well today my students were extra talkative. I told them that they should not ignore our zebra friend who tells us what talking is allowed on our stoplight. The zebra (Stripes, as my students originally named him) usually stays on "No Talking" except for fruit break and group work time.
Well I was in a silly mood today and said, "Please stop ignoring Stripes. He will soon start to cry and leave a puddle on our white board which will be messy." The kids and I laughed at this and then I thought...."Hey! What if he really does start to cry every time they ignore him??" So when my students ignored him again, I walked over to the board, picked up the blue marker and began drawing tears coming down from Stripes. The kids laughed until I drew three lines on the board: "1 minute", "2 minutes", and at the very bottom "5 minutes". I explained that if Stripes' tears reached one of those lines that would be how much recess time we would lose that afternoon.
Seems a little young for third grade, but it was silly enough and novel enough that it seemed to work. Well...okay we got down to 3 minutes on the tears scale and so sat quietly for three minutes during our recess time. Longest three minutes of my life. My students looked miserable too - which was kind of a good thing I think as they seemed to understand.
So, that is my tale of crazy ideas and Stripes the Crying Zebra. :)
Well I was in a silly mood today and said, "Please stop ignoring Stripes. He will soon start to cry and leave a puddle on our white board which will be messy." The kids and I laughed at this and then I thought...."Hey! What if he really does start to cry every time they ignore him??" So when my students ignored him again, I walked over to the board, picked up the blue marker and began drawing tears coming down from Stripes. The kids laughed until I drew three lines on the board: "1 minute", "2 minutes", and at the very bottom "5 minutes". I explained that if Stripes' tears reached one of those lines that would be how much recess time we would lose that afternoon.
Seems a little young for third grade, but it was silly enough and novel enough that it seemed to work. Well...okay we got down to 3 minutes on the tears scale and so sat quietly for three minutes during our recess time. Longest three minutes of my life. My students looked miserable too - which was kind of a good thing I think as they seemed to understand.
So, that is my tale of crazy ideas and Stripes the Crying Zebra. :)
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Teacher Wish List Online
A couple weeks ago a teacher at my school shared this opportunity with the rest of us. It is to create an online class wish list that you can then send to parents via email or print out a copy and give it to them. The teacher who introduced me to this also won a $462 grant to use in her classroom through simply creating a class wish list online. Bounty is sponsoring it and they even have some coupons available through this site. Hopefully (if I did it correctly...) you can click on the picture below to take you to the website.
I created one for my class and plan to send home information about it to my parents through email and through a hard copy this week.
Also, every school that has 5 or more teachers enter a class wish list will be entered into a drawing to win a $25,000 art room makeover for their school. How exciting!
If the link through the picture didn't work, check it out through this link: http://teacherwishlist.com/
I created one for my class and plan to send home information about it to my parents through email and through a hard copy this week.
Also, every school that has 5 or more teachers enter a class wish list will be entered into a drawing to win a $25,000 art room makeover for their school. How exciting!
If the link through the picture didn't work, check it out through this link: http://teacherwishlist.com/
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Pen Pals!
This past week in English we learned where to put commas in letters, addresses, and dates. To practice this practically I have set up my third grade class to be pen pals with a third grade class in Alabama for the year! The neat thing is, the 3rd grade class in Alabama is also at a small Christian school and my dad is the principal of that school. Gotta love connections to make things easier. :)
So, we wrote letters to our Alabama pen pals on Thursday. I had the students put their letters in an envelope so they could practice addressing envelopes. I then put all the letters into a large envelope and mailed them today!
My students asked so many questions about Alabama. One of which made me laugh (it was either laugh or cry about it...hehe). He asked, "Do they write in the dirt in Alabama?" No, dear....Alabama is not a third world country....I wonder what misconceptions the Alabama students will have about California? This should be a great learning experience for everyone involved!
Here are some class pictures I printed off and stuck in the envelope for our pen pals.
So, we wrote letters to our Alabama pen pals on Thursday. I had the students put their letters in an envelope so they could practice addressing envelopes. I then put all the letters into a large envelope and mailed them today!
My students asked so many questions about Alabama. One of which made me laugh (it was either laugh or cry about it...hehe). He asked, "Do they write in the dirt in Alabama?" No, dear....Alabama is not a third world country....I wonder what misconceptions the Alabama students will have about California? This should be a great learning experience for everyone involved!
Here are some class pictures I printed off and stuck in the envelope for our pen pals.
Versatile Blogger
Abby at Third Grade Bookworm and IamNan from Third Grade's a Hoot have given me the "Versatile Blogger" award. Thank you, ladies! :)
Now for the rules. When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and pass this award onto 15 blogs that you feel deserve this award.
And so....
Seven Things About Me:
1. I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
2. I will randomly burst into song throughout the day when a phrase or a word sparks a song.
3. I love to travel and desire to see the entire world someday. So far I can mark off Kenya, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, and Romania.
4. My idea of a nice Friday evening is a night in with a good mystery or a good movie/tv show.
5. My favorite sport to watch is hockey.
6. I enjoy playing the piano. I'm not very good, but I still like to play. :)
7. I absolutely love the Tennessee mountains and miss them very much right now.
15 Blogs I think are Versatile:
1. Busy Bees
2. Blackboard and Beyond
3. Target Treasures
4. Doodle Bug Teaching
5. Lifelong Learning
6. Literacy and Laughter
7. Little Literacy Learners
8. Mrs. Randall's Learning Library
9. Primary Connections
10. Runde's Room
11. The Sweet Life of Third Grade
12. The Schroeder Page
13. UCreate with Kids
14. We've Been Doing This Since September
15. Wiggins World
(PS I am still not sure how to grab buttons....so please excuse the lack of cute buttons for each of these blogs. They all have cute ones I just don't know how to grab them yet....)
Have a wonderful weekend, yall!
Now for the rules. When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and pass this award onto 15 blogs that you feel deserve this award.
And so....
Seven Things About Me:
1. I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
2. I will randomly burst into song throughout the day when a phrase or a word sparks a song.
3. I love to travel and desire to see the entire world someday. So far I can mark off Kenya, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, and Romania.
4. My idea of a nice Friday evening is a night in with a good mystery or a good movie/tv show.
5. My favorite sport to watch is hockey.
6. I enjoy playing the piano. I'm not very good, but I still like to play. :)
7. I absolutely love the Tennessee mountains and miss them very much right now.
15 Blogs I think are Versatile:
1. Busy Bees
2. Blackboard and Beyond
3. Target Treasures
4. Doodle Bug Teaching
5. Lifelong Learning
6. Literacy and Laughter
7. Little Literacy Learners
8. Mrs. Randall's Learning Library
9. Primary Connections
10. Runde's Room
11. The Sweet Life of Third Grade
12. The Schroeder Page
13. UCreate with Kids
14. We've Been Doing This Since September
15. Wiggins World
(PS I am still not sure how to grab buttons....so please excuse the lack of cute buttons for each of these blogs. They all have cute ones I just don't know how to grab them yet....)
Have a wonderful weekend, yall!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
20s Day
Today was the 20th day of school and it just happened to fall on September 20th! And....we were on chapter 20 of our read aloud book (Trumpet of the Swan). These things naturally lead to a "20's Day" Celebration - what else could we do??
So this morning I strung up some streamers, put a sign on the door, and got ready for the day. On top of my craziness of doing the 20th Day celebration it was also school picture day and their first book reports were due. Oh, and my twins were bringing in cupcakes to share with the class. (Can you believe we actually got Bible, History, Math, Spelling, and Reading done too?! I'm amazed, to be honest.)
Our "Wake Up Your Brain" activity was about the number 20:
I hid 20 number 20s around the classroom. Students could search for them after seat work was done.
And since we are learning to round numbers in math we wrote down the 9 numbers that can be rounded to 20:
What a fun day!
So this morning I strung up some streamers, put a sign on the door, and got ready for the day. On top of my craziness of doing the 20th Day celebration it was also school picture day and their first book reports were due. Oh, and my twins were bringing in cupcakes to share with the class. (Can you believe we actually got Bible, History, Math, Spelling, and Reading done too?! I'm amazed, to be honest.)
Our "Wake Up Your Brain" activity was about the number 20:
I hid 20 number 20s around the classroom. Students could search for them after seat work was done.
We also wrote down 20 facts we have learned about Christopher Columbus in History:
And since we are learning to round numbers in math we wrote down the 9 numbers that can be rounded to 20:
What a fun day!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Reflections
The fourth week of school is about to begin. I can't believe that - the fourth week of school. I have survived the first three weeks. I must say, this upcoming week will be the most "normal" week of school as of yet. The first week was...well the first week of school. The second week I changed classrooms and had parent teacher night. The third week was a short week due to Labor Day. This fourth week will be a five day week with nothing too major going on besides vision screening for a bit on Tuesday. A "normal" week of school.
I think this might be a good time for me to practice one of the key things I learned that teachers should do: reflect. It sounded so practical in college, but when have I had time to formally reflect on what I have been doing these past three weeks? Now it is 8:30 on a Sunday night, I am as ready as I can be from home for school tomorrow and I have some free time before sleeping. A good time to reflect I think.
Overall, these past three weeks have gone well. We have learned something in every subject. The students have been engaged for almost everything and their assessments have shown they are learning the material. So at least I am presenting material in such a way that they can follow it. However, I feel like something needs to change in my teaching. I feel like I am prepared to teach the material but at the same time "wing it" in class time. I want to make my lessons as engaging and interactive as possible but I often find myself just working through the text book with the kids. I could argue, when have I had time to make that extra effort? I am trying to hang on as best as I can as a first year teacher. But then again, why should I make excuses for that?
Then I look at classroom management. It is going pretty well. The students are getting the procedures. I am making a conscious effort to be consistent in everything. I need to continue to make that effort and I need to make sure I am being firm enough.
One thing that worries me is that my class seems to get on each other's nerves at times. I've had a couple days where they all just seem to be at each other's throats. How can I help them come together and work together? How can I help them each develop their strong leadership personalities but also teach them to learn to follow at times too? More group activities will probably help this.
What about the spiritual aspect? Am I being concerned enough about this throughout the day? Where are all my students at spiritually? How can I help them grow in their God-given gifts and help them come closer to Him? Am I showing consistent love and grace to them?
I often feel too young to be doing this and that is a terrible feeling. I am the youngest teacher at the school at 22 years old. I look young. I am young. But I am also qualified for this job. And yet, I have had days these past few weeks of thinking, what the heck am I doing? I am too young for this. I'm not qualified for this. How did I end up as the teacher for 15 little students? It is an overwhelming feeling. But, I know that I was brought to the school by God. He can use me. I love the passage in Jeremiah 1: 6-8:
I think this might be a good time for me to practice one of the key things I learned that teachers should do: reflect. It sounded so practical in college, but when have I had time to formally reflect on what I have been doing these past three weeks? Now it is 8:30 on a Sunday night, I am as ready as I can be from home for school tomorrow and I have some free time before sleeping. A good time to reflect I think.
Overall, these past three weeks have gone well. We have learned something in every subject. The students have been engaged for almost everything and their assessments have shown they are learning the material. So at least I am presenting material in such a way that they can follow it. However, I feel like something needs to change in my teaching. I feel like I am prepared to teach the material but at the same time "wing it" in class time. I want to make my lessons as engaging and interactive as possible but I often find myself just working through the text book with the kids. I could argue, when have I had time to make that extra effort? I am trying to hang on as best as I can as a first year teacher. But then again, why should I make excuses for that?
Then I look at classroom management. It is going pretty well. The students are getting the procedures. I am making a conscious effort to be consistent in everything. I need to continue to make that effort and I need to make sure I am being firm enough.
One thing that worries me is that my class seems to get on each other's nerves at times. I've had a couple days where they all just seem to be at each other's throats. How can I help them come together and work together? How can I help them each develop their strong leadership personalities but also teach them to learn to follow at times too? More group activities will probably help this.
What about the spiritual aspect? Am I being concerned enough about this throughout the day? Where are all my students at spiritually? How can I help them grow in their God-given gifts and help them come closer to Him? Am I showing consistent love and grace to them?
I often feel too young to be doing this and that is a terrible feeling. I am the youngest teacher at the school at 22 years old. I look young. I am young. But I am also qualified for this job. And yet, I have had days these past few weeks of thinking, what the heck am I doing? I am too young for this. I'm not qualified for this. How did I end up as the teacher for 15 little students? It is an overwhelming feeling. But, I know that I was brought to the school by God. He can use me. I love the passage in Jeremiah 1: 6-8:
The I said, "Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak."
So, what could I do differently: a lot. Do I have a lot to learn: of course. But, are my students still learning: yes. Do they feel loved: yes. Am I hanging in there: by God's grace, yes.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Crazy Day and Puppies to Top it Off
Well, needless to say this was a crazy week. Monday: Pack up room number 1. Tuesday: Move to room number 2. Wednesday: Unpack room 2. Thursday: Get ready for parent night. Friday: We survived the week and puppies came to visit our class. On top of all this I of course had to teach something too! hehe...The kids were pretty great about the move. They seemed to adjust pretty well in the midst of the craziness. But today, I think the Friday crazies struck my room! We got our tests done and a few little lessons but other than that it was just craziness.
And to end our simply crazy week/day a parent brought up two adorable puppies she is fostering for my class to visit. They were adorable! The kids loved it too - needless to say. :)
First Parent Teacher Night
Thursday night was my first every Parent Teacher Night. I must say I love all my classroom parents and was a little excited to see them all. I was also, of course, nervous as this was my first time to ever do a Parent Night! But it went well! There was a great turn out with ever student represented by at least one parent! But goodness - what a lot of prep work! On top of assembling information folders I also wanted to make our room a little more like a classroom. Here are some pictures:
We started science on Thursday! The students were so excited. We learned the parts of a plant and the students drew their own diagrams.
In our reading story this week we read about two friends who tied their wishes to a kite to let them fly away so they would come true. So, we made our own Third Grade Wish kites! Their wishes were really cute and it was a fun quick/easy to do activity. Plus, it provided something really interesting for the parents to look at in their visit!
Welcome Parents!
The Paper People were made by my students as self portraits. I love them! During the classroom switch the parents who came to help me move thought that the "Cleaver's Cafe" sign hung up by the church was made by me. It turns out the parents really liked it! I guess I did too good of a job incorporating it into my room...hehe...but one of my mom's wanted to make me my own Cafe sign! So of course I said yes! I hung up her sign in the reading corner before parent night.
We started science on Thursday! The students were so excited. We learned the parts of a plant and the students drew their own diagrams.
In our reading story this week we read about two friends who tied their wishes to a kite to let them fly away so they would come true. So, we made our own Third Grade Wish kites! Their wishes were really cute and it was a fun quick/easy to do activity. Plus, it provided something really interesting for the parents to look at in their visit!
Welcome Parents!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)