Tuesday:
We have a very important physics project coming up, and who knew that I would find ideas at Britton! The students are creating public service announcement projects on environmental safety. They can use iMovie, chatter box and pixie to create a project that shares the idea of environmental safety! Chatter pix is such a cool app that allows inanimate objects to speak, as the mouth moves, and the students voice over what they want the objects to say. It was a very unique and fun way to bring life to a video, and I learned so much about technology in only a few minutes.
Mrs. Sutliff and Mrs. Hart are struggling to help one of the students who I talk about quite frequently. He struggles with some ADHD, but he doesn't receive the adequate support from the school that he needs, as Mrs. Hart is legally not allowed to help him, which is really challenging for Mrs. Sutliff because she can't teach if he is constantly distracting the class, as he makes noises and ignores teacher instruction. I sat with him for a little bit and he hid his head in his arms while I talked to him. But, I think I helped him a little bit because I talked about how he could be Lebron James someday! It was Just an interesting idea that I could build off of as a teacher!
Wednesday:
It seemed to slip my mind that third graders have crushes! And, it's especially funny that as soon as one student leaves the room, the other student will go tell the "crush" that the other person likes him/her. I didn't even realize they were old enough to have crushes, but I guess I had a crush on someone in third grade too! But, I have noticed that a lot of the students are very unorganized so I suggested to Mrs. Sutliff that I would lead an organization workshop to help the students keep their papers for one subject all in one place. I have seen many teacher tips about staying organized as a teacher, but I think it's also just as important to encourage students to use organization skills so they can learn with the resources they need and they can be prepared for the future where organization will be key. As always, I still love Mrs. Sutliff's class, but we are doing some of the same things everyday, so I'm not learning as much as I could in another class. I'm thinking that next week at Avery if I find a kindergarten or first grade teacher who I really like I could start observing there!
Thursday:
It might be a little difficult to sum up everything I experienced today! First as soon as I walked up the stairs, I saw some of my students arguing over an iPad, and that just started it all. The student who was the root of the issue has tended to be an issue for a few weeks now, as he needs a lot more help to realize that he is not always correct and that he can't sass people left and right. He tends to act like other people are "stupid" for not doing exactly as he does. It makes me feel stupid sometimes when I didn't even do anything, so he needs a lot of help, so the next few weeks my challenge is to help him improve. During the project time the students are getting, two students, one who is officially one of Mrs. Hart's students and the other who I mentioned earlier this week, are working on a wonderful idea, but they can't seem to cooperate together, as they have been so focused on behaviors that they haven't had time to focus on improving collaboration skills.
Suddenly, project time was ending and a lock down drill was starting. We sat in "silence" for fifteen minutes, but some students really struggled with that, so the teachers in the room constantly had to silence the students. Some of the students started to get really scared. But, fortunately, the lock down ended and two students who were in the bathroom and went to the closest classroom were reunited with Mrs. Sutliff's class. Mrs. Sutliff announced that the students should go sit on the carpet, but one of the students was crying in the doorway, so Mrs. Sutliff immediately began to deal with her sadness, and I quickly jumped in to play the game "guess the number!" With the class, it was a quick game to keep the students quiet and calm. It was an idea that I can use as a teacher. Afterwards, the students took a pre-test, and it was challenging! There were objectives that I hadn't learned until I was in 6th grade. I was asked to read the test to some students, but Mrs. Hart's student that I mentioned above was really really struggling. So, I took him out in the hallway and read the questions to him and immediately it started to make sense for him. It was great that I could see him really do well with my help! It reminded me of why I love teaching :)
Finally, Mrs. Sutliff told me about why the student was crying, and it was because her father died of cancer when she was in kindergarten, and this time of year is really challenging for her. It's very sad to see an 8 year old without a dad, and it's heart breaking to know that she's struggling, but she is very fortunate to have a great support system, which is why it's important to have teachers to give students the love they need!
We have a very important physics project coming up, and who knew that I would find ideas at Britton! The students are creating public service announcement projects on environmental safety. They can use iMovie, chatter box and pixie to create a project that shares the idea of environmental safety! Chatter pix is such a cool app that allows inanimate objects to speak, as the mouth moves, and the students voice over what they want the objects to say. It was a very unique and fun way to bring life to a video, and I learned so much about technology in only a few minutes.
Mrs. Sutliff and Mrs. Hart are struggling to help one of the students who I talk about quite frequently. He struggles with some ADHD, but he doesn't receive the adequate support from the school that he needs, as Mrs. Hart is legally not allowed to help him, which is really challenging for Mrs. Sutliff because she can't teach if he is constantly distracting the class, as he makes noises and ignores teacher instruction. I sat with him for a little bit and he hid his head in his arms while I talked to him. But, I think I helped him a little bit because I talked about how he could be Lebron James someday! It was Just an interesting idea that I could build off of as a teacher!
Wednesday:
It seemed to slip my mind that third graders have crushes! And, it's especially funny that as soon as one student leaves the room, the other student will go tell the "crush" that the other person likes him/her. I didn't even realize they were old enough to have crushes, but I guess I had a crush on someone in third grade too! But, I have noticed that a lot of the students are very unorganized so I suggested to Mrs. Sutliff that I would lead an organization workshop to help the students keep their papers for one subject all in one place. I have seen many teacher tips about staying organized as a teacher, but I think it's also just as important to encourage students to use organization skills so they can learn with the resources they need and they can be prepared for the future where organization will be key. As always, I still love Mrs. Sutliff's class, but we are doing some of the same things everyday, so I'm not learning as much as I could in another class. I'm thinking that next week at Avery if I find a kindergarten or first grade teacher who I really like I could start observing there!
Thursday:
It might be a little difficult to sum up everything I experienced today! First as soon as I walked up the stairs, I saw some of my students arguing over an iPad, and that just started it all. The student who was the root of the issue has tended to be an issue for a few weeks now, as he needs a lot more help to realize that he is not always correct and that he can't sass people left and right. He tends to act like other people are "stupid" for not doing exactly as he does. It makes me feel stupid sometimes when I didn't even do anything, so he needs a lot of help, so the next few weeks my challenge is to help him improve. During the project time the students are getting, two students, one who is officially one of Mrs. Hart's students and the other who I mentioned earlier this week, are working on a wonderful idea, but they can't seem to cooperate together, as they have been so focused on behaviors that they haven't had time to focus on improving collaboration skills.
Suddenly, project time was ending and a lock down drill was starting. We sat in "silence" for fifteen minutes, but some students really struggled with that, so the teachers in the room constantly had to silence the students. Some of the students started to get really scared. But, fortunately, the lock down ended and two students who were in the bathroom and went to the closest classroom were reunited with Mrs. Sutliff's class. Mrs. Sutliff announced that the students should go sit on the carpet, but one of the students was crying in the doorway, so Mrs. Sutliff immediately began to deal with her sadness, and I quickly jumped in to play the game "guess the number!" With the class, it was a quick game to keep the students quiet and calm. It was an idea that I can use as a teacher. Afterwards, the students took a pre-test, and it was challenging! There were objectives that I hadn't learned until I was in 6th grade. I was asked to read the test to some students, but Mrs. Hart's student that I mentioned above was really really struggling. So, I took him out in the hallway and read the questions to him and immediately it started to make sense for him. It was great that I could see him really do well with my help! It reminded me of why I love teaching :)
Finally, Mrs. Sutliff told me about why the student was crying, and it was because her father died of cancer when she was in kindergarten, and this time of year is really challenging for her. It's very sad to see an 8 year old without a dad, and it's heart breaking to know that she's struggling, but she is very fortunate to have a great support system, which is why it's important to have teachers to give students the love they need!