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!