PHEW. I am...exhausted.
So, last week I was essentially head teaching but under the supervision of my cooperating teacher. Things were easy as pie. Every lesson went smoothly. No major issues.
Today and Monday (we had a snow day on Tuesday) were not the case. Among the things I had to deal with were: 3 crying students before 1 pm, stopping lessons 4 separate times in 2 days to have major talks about behavior/listening/following directions, trying to resolve arguments between students while transitioning the whole group...All things I know I will have to deal with when I'm teaching in my own classroom. I fell asleep for about an hour and a half after school today because it was that draining.
HOWEVER. It has been a blast, and I really mean that. That's the weird thing about teaching - it's an odd juxtaposition of both extreme happiness/fulfillment and extreme agony/frustration/wanting to rip your hair out at the same time. It's those little moments that count, I've found.
Like today, when I sent an email home to parents explaining it would be my last day head teaching on Monday and that the class had earned another reward. I received a really touching email back from the parent of one of the quietest students in the class about how thankful she is for all of my help and how much her daughter enjoys class when I'm teaching. As a teacher, I always think there is more I could be doing. How can I help this student more? How can I help the group succeed together? And I always think I'm failing. But those short emails, or the kids running up and giving me a hug during the middle of a transition between activities, or getting a note that simply says "I like you Miss Rock" - that's what motivates me through each day. :) (All of those things happened today, by the way.)
I also tried bringing my ukulele in today to help teach a few lessons. I started off by singing a "piggyback" song to welcome the class to the carpet, which went over really well. For the most part, the students were very respectful of the instrument and wanted to learn more about it. There was an instance when a child was crawling around the room during rest time and knocked it over, but that was an issue that was quickly "squashed," as my cooperating teacher would put it. If I brought my ukulele in again, I'd probably be more explicit about the types of things I expect from the students about how to be respectful of the instrument/how to take care of things.
Honestly, my brain is so scattered right now it's hard to think of specific things today to reflect on. But the main thing I think I've learned is to be as proactive as possible. This is something I try to do every day, but I think with students at this young age I also need to be as explicit as possible. I've tried to provide positive feedback, telling the students I know the amazing things they are capable of...and it has worked, to an extent. I think tomorrow, to make things run more smoothly, we'll have a quick "group meeting" in the morning about our behavior for the day so I don't have a repeat of the last two days.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Week 6.
A shortened week...but EVENTFUL!
Wednesday - 2/27
This was my first day of truly, truly doing it all (with the help of my cooperating teacher as my "assistant," of course). The biggest event of today was me teaching - and RECORDING - my first ever math lesson. Surprisingly, it went okay. Not great, but not bad either. I think since I've started taking over most things that I have realized how painfully bored the class gets when they have to sit still for more than 15 minutes or so at a time, so I tried to incorporate some alternation between group work and whole group instruction into that lesson. It actually flowed pretty smoothly aside from some altercations between disagreeing group members, but I noticed that the students were engaged and excited to be able to handle manipulatives (it was a lesson introducing the penny; the kids got to handle and count their own pennies).
I think something I need to work on -and I learned this today - is making sure I check over my plans more thoroughly before beginning a lesson. I made a big point in planning over the weekend and discussing my plans with my CT that I wanted to have an organized writer's workshop where the students could conference with me one-on-one about the stories they are writing. Instead (and I can't believe I did this) I forgot about my plan to conference while giving my writing lesson and ended up floating around the tables, helping everyone who was raising their hand. This worked out fine - for the people that were raising their hands! I know that I have a couple of "quiet strugglers" in my room, students who aren't disruptive when they are off-task or need help, but simply sit quietly and stare off into space or work on coloring a picture. These are the kids that need help the most and I likely wasn't giving that help to them. I felt like that was a glaring problem with my execution of my plan, so I'm definitely going to have to work to fix it!
Friday - 3/1
There was a lot going on today in kindergarten! It's Dr. Seuss's birthday tomorrow (March 2nd) so I gave a semi-impromptu lesson on both Dr. Seuss and also looking up information using the Internet. I used the SMART Board to demonstrate using search engines to find out information, then I pulled up the biography of Dr. Seuss and had the students ask me questions about the author. (And such mature questions, too: Did Dr. Seuss ever write adult books? How did he die? And my favorite: Is he going to come visit us?) I thought this went really well. Then, we got to sit in a circle on the carpet as I read The Lorax and, on the spot, connected it to our social studies unit about being a helper. This part of the day went well, even though it was a lot of thinking on my feet. But that's what teaching is all about!
We also had our "publishing party" for our original stories during literacy time this morning. I was happy that I was able to take the basic concept outlined in the basal text and run with it, letting the students create stories, edit them, practice reading them in their small table groups, and then having a day where they could all sit in the Author's Chair and share their pieces. While the kids had a lot of fun doing this activity, I (as always) wish I had allotted more time for it. I knew it was important to the students, but we went about 15 minutes over what we were supposed to and there were still some people who hadn't shared....so I had to cut into a little bit of math time to fit in the rest of the authors.
This was also huge for me in understanding how important it is to differentiate. I let everyone know that if they were not comfortable with reading their stories, they could still sit in the Author's Chair and I could sit beside them and read what they had written. So when our sole ELL student sat down at the chair, I asked him if he needed help. He of course said no, he would read the story himself. And he did an amazing job - but he still couldn't get through a few of the words (I partially blame this on me not reinforcing good handwriting). So I simply asked him again if he needed help, and he nodded. I read the story to the class, and afterwards when the class was asked to share things they liked about the story, everyone's hands shot up. It was so overwhelming to see such a supportive class of students who understand that all of them have different needs, but appreciate the work that was being put forth by each person. While he started looking nervous and a little terrified, he ended up going back to his seat with a huge grin on his face. I don't think that would have happened if I hadn't noticed the aid he needed and given it to him.
Also, it was "game day" in math (we do this every Friday). After teaching math the past two days in mostly whole-group settings, it was AMAZING to see how much more engaged and interested the kids are in a subject when it's presented in the form of a game. I just wanted to quickly write about this as a kind of "note to self" about teaching math next week...when I'll be doing it all by myself! Incorporate games! Learning needs to be fun!
Wednesday - 2/27
This was my first day of truly, truly doing it all (with the help of my cooperating teacher as my "assistant," of course). The biggest event of today was me teaching - and RECORDING - my first ever math lesson. Surprisingly, it went okay. Not great, but not bad either. I think since I've started taking over most things that I have realized how painfully bored the class gets when they have to sit still for more than 15 minutes or so at a time, so I tried to incorporate some alternation between group work and whole group instruction into that lesson. It actually flowed pretty smoothly aside from some altercations between disagreeing group members, but I noticed that the students were engaged and excited to be able to handle manipulatives (it was a lesson introducing the penny; the kids got to handle and count their own pennies).
I think something I need to work on -and I learned this today - is making sure I check over my plans more thoroughly before beginning a lesson. I made a big point in planning over the weekend and discussing my plans with my CT that I wanted to have an organized writer's workshop where the students could conference with me one-on-one about the stories they are writing. Instead (and I can't believe I did this) I forgot about my plan to conference while giving my writing lesson and ended up floating around the tables, helping everyone who was raising their hand. This worked out fine - for the people that were raising their hands! I know that I have a couple of "quiet strugglers" in my room, students who aren't disruptive when they are off-task or need help, but simply sit quietly and stare off into space or work on coloring a picture. These are the kids that need help the most and I likely wasn't giving that help to them. I felt like that was a glaring problem with my execution of my plan, so I'm definitely going to have to work to fix it!
Friday - 3/1
There was a lot going on today in kindergarten! It's Dr. Seuss's birthday tomorrow (March 2nd) so I gave a semi-impromptu lesson on both Dr. Seuss and also looking up information using the Internet. I used the SMART Board to demonstrate using search engines to find out information, then I pulled up the biography of Dr. Seuss and had the students ask me questions about the author. (And such mature questions, too: Did Dr. Seuss ever write adult books? How did he die? And my favorite: Is he going to come visit us?) I thought this went really well. Then, we got to sit in a circle on the carpet as I read The Lorax and, on the spot, connected it to our social studies unit about being a helper. This part of the day went well, even though it was a lot of thinking on my feet. But that's what teaching is all about!
We also had our "publishing party" for our original stories during literacy time this morning. I was happy that I was able to take the basic concept outlined in the basal text and run with it, letting the students create stories, edit them, practice reading them in their small table groups, and then having a day where they could all sit in the Author's Chair and share their pieces. While the kids had a lot of fun doing this activity, I (as always) wish I had allotted more time for it. I knew it was important to the students, but we went about 15 minutes over what we were supposed to and there were still some people who hadn't shared....so I had to cut into a little bit of math time to fit in the rest of the authors.
This was also huge for me in understanding how important it is to differentiate. I let everyone know that if they were not comfortable with reading their stories, they could still sit in the Author's Chair and I could sit beside them and read what they had written. So when our sole ELL student sat down at the chair, I asked him if he needed help. He of course said no, he would read the story himself. And he did an amazing job - but he still couldn't get through a few of the words (I partially blame this on me not reinforcing good handwriting). So I simply asked him again if he needed help, and he nodded. I read the story to the class, and afterwards when the class was asked to share things they liked about the story, everyone's hands shot up. It was so overwhelming to see such a supportive class of students who understand that all of them have different needs, but appreciate the work that was being put forth by each person. While he started looking nervous and a little terrified, he ended up going back to his seat with a huge grin on his face. I don't think that would have happened if I hadn't noticed the aid he needed and given it to him.
Also, it was "game day" in math (we do this every Friday). After teaching math the past two days in mostly whole-group settings, it was AMAZING to see how much more engaged and interested the kids are in a subject when it's presented in the form of a game. I just wanted to quickly write about this as a kind of "note to self" about teaching math next week...when I'll be doing it all by myself! Incorporate games! Learning needs to be fun!
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