This week started out pretty rough. I came down with the lovely head cold that seems to be traveling through the schools. At the beginning of the week, it was so hard to be in school and be positive and excited when I was blowing my nose every two minutes and my head was pounding and I couldn’t stop coughing, awesome. So I learned rather quickly to get over my own pity party, because the students really can help you feel better. Even though you wake up and don’t want to go to school, once you are there, its better.
I also learned the difficulty of teaching consecutively, going from one subject to another. You really need to know what you’re doing and what materials you will be needed and be prepared to swiftly move from one concept to the next. For example, I was teaching a language arts lesson and used dry erase boards for the students at their desk to participate in the activity. I nicely assigned students jobs to help make clean-up swift and successful. Good job, right? Wrong. Immediately after I had everyone cleaned up and settled once again, I realized I had planned to use the dry erase boards for my spelling activity as well. So here I go, assign new students to help re-pass out the dry erase boards, markers, and erasers. In the end, everything worked out.
I had a really great day today with my students. I was finally getting over my cold and feeling better. I had fun activities planned for my students so I was excited and ready to go. My first lesson today was in spelling. My class of students is not very creative. They have a hard time doing creative projects, so I decided to challenge them and see what they can come up with. I found a template for a paper bag vest cutout. I kindly called over to Kroger and asked if they would donate some paper bags for a class project and they obliged. The students were going to use the bags to create a spelling vest. They would decorate the vest with their spelling words but they had to write them in design somehow. I brought in the bags (after creating my own design of course) and modeled off my awesome vest to my second grade class. This got the students really excited, so I began to have fun with it and it really helped in my weekly task I set which was to give better, precise directions. This confidence boost was what I needed. The students dug around in their desks for their “creativity caps” and we began. I didn’t want to provide an example of the activity with a spelling word, because I did not want the students to copy. Instead I used a few of the Amazing Words from the story we are reading in class. I wrote the word, galaxy, up on the board and asked what the students thought about when they heard this word. I got responses such as planets, stars, aliens…so I drew these different things around and incorporated into the word to show the students what I expected. They thought it looked cool, so I was excited thinking their creativity would soar. The good thing, the students had a blast and got to practice spelling their words and also thinking about them in a different manner. The bad thing, as I walked around to see what they were doing, they were copying designs off my vest. That’s okay though, because even though they were not using their own designs, they were at least learning how to think about words differently and learning how to see things in a creative way. This is something that will take time, but were off to a good start.
After spelling I was able to do a grammar lesson on predicates. Since we have already talked about subjects, I have been putting the two together in activities to show the students you need a subject and a predicate to have a complete sentence. For the activity today, I used sentences from the story they are currently reading, Henry and Mudge: Starry Night. I cut the subjects away from the predicates and placed them in separate envelopes (I also added a few extra subjects like my name, my host teacher’s name, and our classroom aid’s name. This was a hit with the students!). The students then pulled a strip of paper out of each envelope. They had to determine which was the subject and which was the predicate then place them in order to make a complete, correct sentence. Some of the sentences made sense and some were just plan silly. This activity was really great because each and every student was involved and excited about learning! I had students who struggle to read practicing very hard so they can share their silly sentence with their friend next to them. My autistic student was fully participating, completing the task on his own, and talking with other students about his sentences as well as listening to theirs. Every student worked independently, but also as a class as they shared sentences and kept the classroom topic on sentences the entire time. It was a really exciting experience for me and hopefully for my students as well.
It is amazing how kids can make us feel better when we least expect it. I always spend about 5 minutes each morning going over my lesson plans and make mental notes about supplies that will be needed. I lay everything out. That way, I hope to avoid the whiteboard sitation you had. I always get mad at myself for wasted time. And after reading our book study, it gets scary thinking about the time wasted that we don't even think about. I am glad you have had success this week. Not all students are creative, but confidence really stands in many students way. By shaping them, confidence will build and better work will result.
Lauren, I really appreciated you coming to school and making it through the day. Just remember, sometimes kids are here and feel the same way...you can make them feel better also. Your lessons...with experience, you will learn the "Tricks of the Trade". I feel you are already a natural! The kids look up to you and think you are almost "Queen of 2nd Grade"!!! You have such a good rapport with the students already.
This week started out pretty rough. I came down with the lovely head cold that seems to be traveling through the schools. At the beginning of the week, it was so hard to be in school and be positive and excited when I was blowing my nose every two minutes and my head was pounding and I couldn’t stop coughing, awesome. So I learned rather quickly to get over my own pity party, because the students really can help you feel better. Even though you wake up and don’t want to go to school, once you are there, its better.
ReplyDeleteI also learned the difficulty of teaching consecutively, going from one subject to another. You really need to know what you’re doing and what materials you will be needed and be prepared to swiftly move from one concept to the next. For example, I was teaching a language arts lesson and used dry erase boards for the students at their desk to participate in the activity. I nicely assigned students jobs to help make clean-up swift and successful. Good job, right? Wrong. Immediately after I had everyone cleaned up and settled once again, I realized I had planned to use the dry erase boards for my spelling activity as well. So here I go, assign new students to help re-pass out the dry erase boards, markers, and erasers. In the end, everything worked out.
I had a really great day today with my students. I was finally getting over my cold and feeling better. I had fun activities planned for my students so I was excited and ready to go. My first lesson today was in spelling. My class of students is not very creative. They have a hard time doing creative projects, so I decided to challenge them and see what they can come up with. I found a template for a paper bag vest cutout. I kindly called over to Kroger and asked if they would donate some paper bags for a class project and they obliged. The students were going to use the bags to create a spelling vest. They would decorate the vest with their spelling words but they had to write them in design somehow. I brought in the bags (after creating my own design of course) and modeled off my awesome vest to my second grade class. This got the students really excited, so I began to have fun with it and it really helped in my weekly task I set which was to give better, precise directions. This confidence boost was what I needed. The students dug around in their desks for their “creativity caps” and we began. I didn’t want to provide an example of the activity with a spelling word, because I did not want the students to copy. Instead I used a few of the Amazing Words from the story we are reading in class. I wrote the word, galaxy, up on the board and asked what the students thought about when they heard this word. I got responses such as planets, stars, aliens…so I drew these different things around and incorporated into the word to show the students what I expected. They thought it looked cool, so I was excited thinking their creativity would soar. The good thing, the students had a blast and got to practice spelling their words and also thinking about them in a different manner. The bad thing, as I walked around to see what they were doing, they were copying designs off my vest. That’s okay though, because even though they were not using their own designs, they were at least learning how to think about words differently and learning how to see things in a creative way. This is something that will take time, but were off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteAfter spelling I was able to do a grammar lesson on predicates. Since we have already talked about subjects, I have been putting the two together in activities to show the students you need a subject and a predicate to have a complete sentence. For the activity today, I used sentences from the story they are currently reading, Henry and Mudge: Starry Night. I cut the subjects away from the predicates and placed them in separate envelopes (I also added a few extra subjects like my name, my host teacher’s name, and our classroom aid’s name. This was a hit with the students!). The students then pulled a strip of paper out of each envelope. They had to determine which was the subject and which was the predicate then place them in order to make a complete, correct sentence. Some of the sentences made sense and some were just plan silly. This activity was really great because each and every student was involved and excited about learning! I had students who struggle to read practicing very hard so they can share their silly sentence with their friend next to them. My autistic student was fully participating, completing the task on his own, and talking with other students about his sentences as well as listening to theirs. Every student worked independently, but also as a class as they shared sentences and kept the classroom topic on sentences the entire time. It was a really exciting experience for me and hopefully for my students as well.
It is amazing how kids can make us feel better when we least expect it. I always spend about 5 minutes each morning going over my lesson plans and make mental notes about supplies that will be needed. I lay everything out. That way, I hope to avoid the whiteboard sitation you had. I always get mad at myself for wasted time. And after reading our book study, it gets scary thinking about the time wasted that we don't even think about. I am glad you have had success this week. Not all students are creative, but confidence really stands in many students way. By shaping them, confidence will build and better work will result.
ReplyDeleteLauren,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated you coming to school and making it through the day. Just remember, sometimes kids are here and feel the same way...you can make them feel better also.
Your lessons...with experience, you will learn the "Tricks of the Trade". I feel you are already a natural! The kids look up to you and think you are almost "Queen of 2nd Grade"!!! You have such a good rapport with the students already.