Week 4

The fourth week at Watson lived up to all of the expectations I had for it. I wanted it to be as great as the first three were, and I believe it may have been better. I feel as if a lot of my students are starting to respect me more and more as each day passes. One thing that I think is a strong point of mine is, in a way, getting on the students level. I like to think of things from their perspective when I am teaching. What would they like to be doing in math? What spelling activities could work for them? etc.. I think that students learn best when they are interested in what they are learning. I have said this since I started training to be a teacher, and I will live by this for the rest of my career. For my action research I want to implement spelling activities into our classroom to see if that helps with some of their spelling test scores. Every day I try to see what the students are interested in. Do they like hands on activities more, or technology, or maybe even paper and pencil? I want to see what works for them, so I can help them to the best of my ability. I am excited to get started on my study.

As for other things that I have been noticing in Mrs. Decker's room, I really like the way that we select students to answer questions. Mrs. Decker has a mug filled with popsicle sticks with each students name on one. While working through our lessons, we select volunteers to answer questions by pulling out sticks. I have always wanted to try this, but I never have, and I have never seen it used in a classroom. I absolutely love it, and these popsicle sticks are my best friend when I am teaching. It keeps every student on task, and paying attention while they work. You would think that it was magic the way this works. I am very happy that I got to see Mrs. Decker use this strategy so I could implement it into my lessons. Week 5 starts tomorrow, and my teaching load increases a little more, so needless to say, I'm very excited to get going again.

Week 3

I wanted to start this blog by talking about a conversation that I have had with a few of my education friends. We were talking about how different this year is from any other we have had, and how it seems like it is going to be forever before it ends, but it also feels like the year is flying by. I kind of laugh to myself when I think about it because those impressions of this year are totally different. I think we are all just used to going to school for a half of a day, and for only 3-4 days a week. It has been quite a shock to me being in school all day every day, but I have enjoyed every second of it. Hence the impression that the year is flying by. I am having an awesome time with my teacher and ALL of my students.

During the third week, I started into my transition toward being the full-time teacher. I took over a portion of math to get integrated into being the teacher for our students. All week I did calendar math with the students right after lunch. I feel that Mrs. Decker and I chose a great starting point for me, and for the students. While doing the calendar math, I go over the day of the week, the date, the weather, choose a number of the day (which is usually the date, or the number of days we have been in school), and then I have the students count the number of pockets they have on the clothes they are wearing. This pocket activity was introduced to me by Mrs. Decker, and it is great for the students. The count their pockets, then I record a tally on the board for each student, then we count the total by fives at the end. We also compare the number of pockets for that day to previous days to add another element of math.

All of the students seem to be doing great work while I am teaching. There are still a few students that struggle to either get on task, or stay on task with me, but i feel that is just because of the change in the system in our room. One student will not do any of his/her work for me. It is not a behavior problem with this student because he/she does not disrupt the class, but this student will just fiddle in his/her desk and not work with the group. Since Mrs. Decker and I have noticed this we have tried to help this student get started with us, so this student can stay on track.

Week 3 was a big week for me since I took over some of the teaching in the room, and the weeks to come I hope are just as great as week 3 was!

Week 2

Well, I'm a little bit late posting for week 2, but it's alright, I have been wanting to post this for a few days now. Week 2 was another good week for me. I felt as if the students were more accustomed to me being one of their teachers, rather than just an observer in the classroom. I must say that I am blessed to have a very good group of students for my internship. I can already tell that they are going to be great listeners all year, and are very good at following directions.

As for my lesson plan writing, I haven't written any of my own lesson plans as of the second week of school. I have still be doing a lot of observing, and getting used to being back in a second grade classroom. Mrs. Decker has been great in helping me get integrated into her lesson plans, and having a part in the teaching when possible. She is still doing something that surprises me, and that is focusing a lot on behavior management, and not worried about jumping right into the curriculum. Thought I am surprised by this, I think it is fantastic. One major way to make student's learn at their highest potential is to have them understand what you expect of them from the beginning of the year. Mrs. Decker expects our students to be quiet listeners, respectful of others, and to follow ALL directions, to say a few. At times it seems magical the way the students respect her as a teacher, and I am amazed at times at how she gets all of their attention at once.

One other thing that I have been doing so far that is probably different from all other interns is that I have not only been helping Mrs. Decker, but I have also been covering for the other two second grade teachers. The way that the lunch/recess schedule is set up for us in second grade makes it hectic for all of us teachers to eat lunch at a manageable time; so I have been covering all of the classes at different times to allow the other teachers to eat their lunch. I have mainly been administering worksheets, or leading small discussions, but the experience is great for me. It has allowed me to feel like a true team member of the second grade team, and I have learned a lot about not only my students, but about all of the second grade students.

Week 3 is obviously underway, but I will talk more about it after it is complete. I am loving this year so far!