Half Way There

I can't believe this is true, but I am officially half way done with my Student Teaching already! Time is truly flying by.  I have had a lot of fun with my students since I last posted.  Last Friday, my Granddaddy came into my class to help with math, and then he participated in Fun Friday.  We're still working on 2-digit addition in math, and we have a few that are really struggling.  It's nice to have someone there to help those who are struggling, so I can check on everyone else to make sure they're not making simple mistakes!  During Fun Friday, the students were able to decorate their bags for the Valentine's Day party, and then we went down to the music room.  Granddaddy taught my 2nd graders how to line dance, and they had an absolute blast!  They didn't want it to end.  I'm still hearing about it!  They keep asking me when he's coming back, and were upset with me for not inviting him to the party on Monday.

Monday was Valentine's Day.  I was told to prepare for a crazy day, but Valentine's is my favorite holiday so I didn't really think anything could ruin it.  Fortunately, I was right! I had a blast all day, and received wonderful valentines.  The parents did a great job with the party.  The students played games, made ice cream sundaes, and created little paper love bugs.  They had a great time! 

Week 6

This week has been going pretty well.  During math, we have been using base ten blocks like we did the Friday my supervisor came to observe and of course they've been behaving wonderfully ever since.  It was just a fluke, as I had suspected.  I sent a note home last week asking students to bring in a picture of themselves for a surprise bulletin board I was going to make them.  Surprisingly, all but maybe 2 students brought in a picture.  So, on Tuesday, I stayed after school and created a really cool bulletin board:



When the students came in this morning and saw the bulletin board, it was like Christmas morning.  They were all over there looking at everyone's pictures and talking about how cool it was.  I even had a student shout, "Miss Trundle, you're the best!".  It definitely put a smile on my face!

I have a student in my class who seems to always be in trouble for something - he's not doing anything, he's out of his seat wandering around the room, he's doing everything he can to avoid doing what he is supposed to be.  I've had quite a roller coaster of a week with him.  On Monday, I noticed that he was sitting at his desk doing nothing.  I told him that he needed to have a book out to read or be working on his mystery picture.  He said, "Can't I just play my mind game?" so I asked him what his mind game was, and he explained "it's like a video game that I made up to play in my head when I get bored".  I told him no, he couldn't just play his mind game.  Later that day, when the rest of the class was a little bit rowdy, I noticed that he was sitting quietly in his seat, waiting for directions.  Or so I thought.  I said "Nathan is setting a good example right now".  His response - "What? I'm just sitting here playing my mind game...".  That compliment backfired on me.  On Tuesday, I met with him for a writer's workshop conference.  His story was goofy; it was about how he wanted to play games on the computer but his brother was on it and wouldn't let him have a turn.  However, he included all of the things I've taught them about and asked them to use in their writing. He had an exciting beginning (more than just Today I...), he used dialogue, he had feeling in his story, he had detail, punctuation, capital letters where necessary... I was floored! I couldn't believe he had actually been listening to me that entire time.  I praised him a lot for his efforts, and he seemed pretty proud of himself.  That day was a good day.  Today, however, was a not-so-good day.  The first thing that happened - I walked by the bathroom we have in our classroom, and he was standing in there with the door wide open going to the bathroom.  He turned and looked at me with this huge smile on his face, and I said "Nathan! Why don't you have the door closed!?"  I couldn't believe it, but other students noticed and he was pretty embarrassed by the incident.  Later on, we were working on dictionary skills.  Mrs. Miller told them if they didn't get at least 4 words done, they had to stay in class to finish instead of going to gym.  Suddenly, Nathan came up to the desk and said he didn't feel good.  He didn't look very good either, but when I went over to his desk I saw that he hadn't completed any of his words.  Mrs. Miller sent him down to the clinic, but as I thought about it and how smart he can be, I realized that the clinic is located right across the hall from the gym.  I said something to Mrs. Miller about how I thought he might've faked it so he could go to gym, and at first she said "Oh, no, he wouldn't do that..." so I thought I would go check on him in the clinic.  He, of course, was not in there.  I found him in gym class, running around having a great time.  Needless to say, he was pulled out of gym and forced to sit with his head down for the rest of the day.  He is in serious trouble.  He is quite a trip; I actually enjoy having him because I know it'll never be a boring day!

I will miss my first day of student teaching tomorrow - this head cold has finally defeated me.  I have had chills all day and my poor nose is so red and raw I can barely touch it.  I'm headed to the doctor tomorrow morning and will take a day to let my medicine kick in and get rid of this stuff!

Frustrations

Well, the frustration everyone said would accompany student teaching has made its first appearance.  I had my second observation on Friday, and it was horrible.  It was a crazy day to begin with; the students had snow days on Wednesday and Thursday, then came back only to prepare for the weekend.  So, needless to say, they were a little hyped up all day long.  I anticipated this behavior, so I planned activities that would be productive yet allow them to chat with the person next to them.  My supervisor decided he was going to come in for an observation during math.  As I said, I planned light activities for the day, especially in math.  I didn't want to start a new topic on a Friday, only for them to forget what they learned over the weekend and have to start over on Monday.  So, we worked with place value.  They were given base ten blocks (wood blocks made for studying place value; there are single blocks to represent "ones" and sticks of what looks like 10 blocks to represent the "tens").  Knowing this was the first time they had ever used these blocks, they had a few minutes to play with them.  This is something I learned you should do, because if you start teaching right away when they're given objects, they won't listen to you.  I also gave them a piece of paper to fold in half, and they wrote tens on the left side and ones on the right side.  To start with, I just gave them simple numbers to model with the blocks, such as "23".  So, they would put 2 sticks on the tens side and 3 single blocks on the ones side.  We practiced with a few numbers, and then I gave them just a couple addition problems to model on the paper.  During all of this, the students became very noisy.  I tried to quiet them down, using my usual tactics, but nothing was working.  Then chaos broke loose; students were out of their seats sharpening pencils that they didn't even need for the lesson, they were building towers with the blocks, and not listening to anything that I was saying.  It was a disaster. 

So, I met with my supervisor after this was over.  He doesn't really try to sugarcoat things, so I wasn't surprised when he basically told me I don't have any control over my class.  He told me things I needed to change, and how I need to establish my "presence" in the classroom, etc.  He wasn't being mean, just doing his job, but I was extremely frustrated because I knew it was one of those days and it was an unusual situation.  So, I listened to everything he had to say, and tried not to show on my face that I was upset.  He did tell me that he thinks I have great potential and that I have excellent organization skills, but I just need to work on my control in the class. I met all of the goals that he set for me from my first observation, which he applauded.  I suppose it wasn't all bad, but when the first thing out of someone's mouth is a negative, you don't realize the positive things that were said until you've had a chance to calm down and think about it.  He met with my mentor teacher afterwards, and she told him that I have much more control than it seemed that day.  I was glad she felt that way and it wasn't just me.  I'm just going to try to put this in the past, move forward, and have a fantastic week!