WEEK 2

WHAT

This week I started teaching most the day. The only subjects I don't teach yet are science and social studies. My cooperating techer is finishing up her unit on those subjects this week so I will begin teaching them next week. I am loving teaching more and more everyday. The connections I have with the students grow more every day. It's so rewarding to see how they connect and catch on to the things that I teach. I also got to participate in DRA's this week, and it was so helpful to get to see how those are done.

One of my favorite things about this week was when I decided to start teaching about persuasive writing. I read the students the book the 3 little pigs, and the true story of the 3 little pigs. We then discussed how people try and persuade us and what types of techniques are used in persuasive writing. The students are going to be participating in a trial next week. Some of the class is on the jury, some are the 3 pigs, one is the wolf and the rest of the class is divided into prosecuters and those supporting the pigs story. They are going to have to use their persuasive skills next week during the "trial" in class to try and convince the jury that the wolf is either guilty, or not guilty. The students are so excited for the trial and have been preparing everyday, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

SO WHAT

Being able to do DRA's with the students really opened my eyes. At least when it comes to reading. It helps to see what exactly they are struggling with. Whether it be their comprehension, their decoding skills, or even just their level of reading. It's really difficult because 7 of the 9 lowest 4th grade students in the school, are in our classroom. It's very difficult to try and help the students independently, because instead of being able to pull a few aside and review the material, it's practically pulling the whole class aside.

The most frustrating thing for me is when the students simply don't read the questions they are answering carefully. I know that most of them know the information that is being asked of them. They are so caught up with being the first ones done that they don't double check their work. I don't know what to do about this to make them so slow down, and read carefully. I'm going to have to think real hard about this, so that we can both succeed.

NOW WHAT

This upcoming week on Tuesday we have a field trip where we get to go to the dinosaur museum up at Thanksgiving Point. I am so excited, I have been wanting to go to this museum for a while! I'm starting to realize that as teachers the class isn't entirely in your hands. You don't exactly have the opportunity to do what you want during the day, for the time periods that you want to. Because of specialties or recess of lunch, or because of teams where you switch classes with other teachers. It's just a little bit frustrating.

I also get to start teaching about mean, median, mode and range tomorrow. Which I am also very excited about, because it will be a nice change from division. There are so many more possibilities to make mean, median, mode and range more exciting for the students. Division is a little bit repetitive, which I got bored even myself teaching. I look forward to the things I get to teach this week. It's getting to become more my responsibility, and I get to do things my way.

FUN EXPERIENCE
Here's a funny little experience I thought you might get a laugh out of ha. On Friday I told the students that if they were silent during math, that I would come out during lunch recess and play a kickball game with them. Unfortunately the snow has yet to melt from their field, not to mention that it was hailing and snowing on Friday. So as I was running towards first base, I slipped and fell on my butt and ran into the little girl at first base. haha. Then the little boy that had attempted to catch the ball that I had kicked, called it fowl. So as I was walking back to home plate I slipped and fell again. The class loved it, and it was such a memorable experience haha.