It's a Miss E takeover!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Take over week/leadership week is in full swing! Although I was supposed to start on Tuesday, REM was out sick on Monday, so I had to step in...good thing I had already planned on teaching Math that day! So Monday was Greatest Common Factor (GCF). The lesson went well. I could tell the first class was getting bored because they got GCF right away! There was a lot of class work to be done, so I encouraged them to push through. We had quite a bit of issues with talking, and it wasn't just the first class. The entire grade was off, and it even carried over into lunch. I received a few apologies from students, which while I didn't expect them at all, I appreciated because I really thought there was something I was missing to be able to maintain order. I did have to take recess away from the students because I had to remind them 4 times (3 times too many) that they were to be working quietly. SPEM recommended they get a chance to earn back recess, because she felt they need recess. I'm trying to think of ways to get them to stop talking so much and stay on task...and this is becoming a behavior issue for the entire grade...

Tuesday went much better. I talked to SPEM about some strategies and she said to focus on the positive. I'm struggling with saying "I notice so and so is working well" when that child is the ONLY one doing so...and everyone else is talking and laughing and shouting out and not on task. So I'm working on some strategies for myself. Like the last class of the day, they could not stop talking, so I got their attention, and asked if we could try something different. I then had them complete their worksheet with a partner, and they were able to get it done. Sometimes it's proving to be the little things...

Wednesday went well...the kids loved the rubric I introduced and came up with some great words and phrases to describe a "good math problem solver." We then went over how to use the rubric to do an open response. The first two classes I was on my own, being SPEM was out today at a class, so REM rotated. During the third math class of the day, our homeroom (the integrated classroom), REM stepped in after I walked them through how to do the problem, and had kids do it on their own. She explained to me that there is such a wide range of learners in the class that half were done with the problem while I was still going through it. So she wanted to give students time to do the rest on their own while teachers walked around helping those who needed it. We had a second open response ready as a challenge, and many student completed them.

It is definitely a learning process for me!