Catch Up

Friday, September 17, 2010

Today I taught in all three math classes. REM gave me her files for the math lessons, and the first is on Data and Statistics. REM and I went over the Day 3 power point, about Cartesian Coordinates, the Wednesday before I taught, with me taking down notes. At home, I went over the slides and prepared more notes. The first part of the lesson was a review of line plots and bar graphs. I then read the class A Fly on the Ceiling, by Julie Glass, in the meeting area. Using the microphone, which I find to be extremely helpful, allows for all the children to hear my voice without straining.

After dismissing the class back to their seats, I went on with the power point. Looking to REM for direction, she explained to the class that we would be co-teaching the lesson, and then proceeded to explain what she hoped they would get out of the book. We then had the class gather around the SMART Board and pulled out a large graph I made on paper with masking tape. This was used for the class to "dress" the graph so it didn't "come to school naked," and then gave them a chance to practice plotting Cartesian Coordinates. Shoes off! Walk OVER the X axis 2, then walk UP the Y axis 4! They were really into it. :) The glass then went back to their seats with a worksheet and I directed them to measure their height and arm span, with the promise that if they worked quickly enough, they would be able to each write their data on the SMART Board.

The second math class I taught went even better than the first. I was more comfortable with the lesson and really got into it. When going over how to plot their Cartesian Coordinates, I borrowed from Sunshines method of repetition when something is important and told them they MUST, MUST, MUST go over first and then up.

After this class, REM gave me some quick feedback. She really liked the repetition of must, but told me that every time I give a direction, I have to make sure I have the entire class' attention. She also liked how right after I finished reading the book, I turned to the white board behind me and went over the concept the book illustrated.

The third class were my integrated kids. The lesson went well, and they loved the book. It was here that I noticed the attention span difference between the classes and also made some on-the-spot modifications as I went, based off the kids answers, and really, the look on their faces. ;)

On housekeeping: 303 had to practice lining up to go to PE during recess. We’ve spent a lot of extra time on lining up and being quite in the hallway. It seems to be a whole grade issue and I was informed that in 4th grade, they were not required to travel to specials in a specific line. It’s important for them to get in the habit now of being quite and organized in the hallway now because it will be expected in Middle School. Right now we're doing a lot of the modeling and practicing for middle school.

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Monday, September 20, 2010

I set up “graph paper” on the SMART board for Maura to use as ‘set up’ example rather than using over head sheets and the every archaic overhead projector. :)

Morning math group: did a multiplication problem (16x3) and played Battle Ship to simulate Cartesian Coordinates

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Early release Tuesday! Good behavior day! Brooke was participating, raising her hand; Evan joined us in morning meeting.

Today the lesson was about stem graphs. REM had a giant laminated image of a tulip where she demonstrated how the tens digit went on the left of the "stem" and the ones digits went on the "leaves." REM had leaves she could write on and attached to the tulip image. (Image to come soon!)

The morning meeting was quick (Knock, knock! Who's there? Jane. Jane who? Jane Smith. Good morning Jane Smith. Knock, knock...). Math group played Battle Ship again. :)

The first line up of the day was disaster – not listening, took too long to be quiet, I didn’t like how I was saying things, I felt too harsh. SPEM said “Be quiet now, not when you feel like it!” and I thought she wanted me to say that, so I did…they reacted quickly! But when I got in the room, oops...SPEM said I wasn’t supposed to say it…! I wasn't reprimanded...but she then gave suggestions, I tried next time (counting down, noticing front of line is good, ect) worked great!! And quick!!

Curriculum night (introduction, manned the pp slides), which I lated discovered was Back to School Night, as it was called when I was in elementary school.