Marissa's Blog

2005-10-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Overall, I was very pleased with my lesson. Going into the lesson I felt the least prepared of all my lessons. I did not have time to talk to my teacher Tuesday and I also did my lesson right away in the morning. But since this was my second time reading a book to the class, I was more comfortable and was able to interact with them more. The students were really excited about me teaching, which helped them pay attention. They were also excited about the assignment for the most part. I think I did a better job managing the class. When they started getting out of hand I gave them a general warning. If one student was out of hand I would single them out. This worked really well. I am not sure if that was because they are not use to me so they were scared to misbehave. The kids really love writing. When they got done all of them wanted me to read their stories. They were so proud of the work! I do not think there is really anything I would change with this project. The students enjoyed themselves, I did a better job reading to the class, managing the class, and the overall product came out really well. I was also happy because one of the students that struggles a lot in class was so thrilled about this assignment and he did a great job. He volunteered to read his paper first in front of the class. This is not like him at all! I feel like this assignment worked well for all students because they were able to be creative, write and draw. The wide variety helped me to reach more students.

I also kind of had a break through today with one of the students lol. One boy is very shy, doesn't hang out with other student's very often, he always stays in from recess to finish homework, and he needs special help on most assignments. Today after I assigned the writing assignment I went over to make sure he understood and help him with it. But he already had 3/4 of a page written! He was so excited and proud of his writing! He made me read it three times! Then he asked me to read it infront of the class. This was huge because he is so shy and never wants to talk infront of his classmates. So we had him read it and all the students were laughing at his jokes and he was laughing and giggling! I feel like the rest of the day he was happier and more outgoing. This was so neat!

Overall, I was sad to see this practicum come to an end! I will miss the school, students and teacher!

2005-10-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Not much happened today at practicum. One thing I did notice that we have talked about in class in that there is a lot of gossip in the teacher's circle. The four teachers in 4th grade all sit together and talk at lunch. When they are having a bad day with the students they talk about it and use their name. They talk very openly about which students they like and dont like. I just dont want to get caught up in stuff like that! But it sounds like it is a very normal thing in the schools.

One thing I really like that Mrs. Tidman does is during math. She does something called mental math. She reads aloud 10 problems and the students need to answer the questions in their math notebooks. I think this is a great idea! I am so dependent on the claculator and I think so many students are these days. But when you require students to use their mind and answer them without a calculator it will definately help their math skills in the future. Mrs. Tidman also has a thing called the problem of the day. This is a word problem that is very challenging to the students. It is a problem that pertains to their life and is kind of a riddle. First of all the students love these, and anytime you can get the students excited about math that is a good thing. These also make students think outside of the box more than they are normally required to do!

I was discussing with my teacher's student teacher, that the schools do not really have writing class. The students love to write but there is not really a place in the curriculum for writing. I definately want students to enjoy writing and make it a part of their everyday schedule. There are so many things you can teacher through writing. I am looking forward to teaching my lesson on Thursday!

2005-10-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

I am not really sure what to blog about today. I did not have a lesson and the class really did not start anything new. The students had a math test today and one of the students was struggling so I got to go out into the hall and work with her. If she had any questions I helped her with them. So basically she is going to get 100% on the test. I kind of questioned this but the teacher told me to do it. I mean how is this fair to other students that are struggling too but did not get any help so they will get a bad grade. Plus, next time she takes a math test I wont be there to help her. I guess this is one of the questions I will need to be thinking about when I am a teacher. What is to much help? How do you decide who and when to help students?

Today the students were working out of their textbook for literature. They were actually really excited about it though. Their textbook has Time Magazine articles in it and the students love reading them. The teacher had all the students read the article twice. Then they read the article together as a class and she was constantly stopping them and having them discuss the article. I feel like this helped the students really grasp and understand the article to a great extent.

On a side note, my class won "the feather award," and got to have a second pe class. They got to play dodgeball with three of the Bondurant varsity basketball players. These kids were in Heaven! haha The girls were giggling and the boys were looking up to them like they were heros! It was so much fun. Afterwards all the kids were asking me if I loved them and wanting to be their girlfriend! Haha my answer was that I was too old for them!

2005-10-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Another day, another lesson. My lesson today did not go as well, it was a little discouraging actually. I read a book to the class, The Keeping Quilt. Then we worked on main ideas and supporting details. Well, I thought the students had a better understanding of this concept than they did going into it. I guess that is one of the things that makes practicum difficult because I was not there yesterday to evaluate for myself how well they did. Out goal was to come up with mainideas from the book together and then the students made a quilt patch by themselves. The quilt had a main idea that we came up with in class and then it was their job to come up with the supporting details. The students struggled with generating the main ideas in class. Overall though, the main product turned out fine. The students accomplished the task and our quilt looked good.

I was struck by a situation that happened in class today. My teacher has two science classes. Today she was lecturing her class about how they are not spending enough time on their homework, then she said. "Keep in mind, your class has a A- average and the other class has a C- average." I just don't think it is right to bring up grades in that matter. It might be okay to use this as motivation for the other class but now her class will run to the other class and make fun of them for it.

I also observed a third grade science class today. It is funny that you can see an age group between just one year, 3-4. The third grade students were so excited about science class.

2005-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

I never know how to start these things. Today was kind of boring. I was not teaching a lesson so I did a lot of observing. There was an issue that my teacher talked to me about. There is one student in our class that smells, like smoke and sometime just body oder. She does not know what to do about it so she asked my opinion. I have no clue what she should do! I mean the girl is only in 4th grade and it is not her fault that her parents don't wash her clothes and that they smoke. But in the same sense, her classmates are going to start to make fun of her, if they have not already.

My class is doing Sarah Plain and Tall for their class novel. My teacher set up class center today that I thought went very well. She was able to incorporate vocab, writing, spelling and art into the book. I am starting to like this age group because they are so independent! She was reading aloud with one group and the other three groups worked independently and quietly.

I feel like part of the reason that this went so well was because of the discipline that my teacher enforces. There is a whole class policy of giving the students three strikes, and if they get all three they strike out. The first stirke is a warning, second is five mintues off of recess and the third strike means they loose recess altogether. This seems to work because they students really dont want to strike out and loose their recess. Plus this works because all of the teachers are on the same system so they can still receive strikes in art/pe and in the hallways. There is also a student of the week that is in charge of the strike board and they can give the students strikes as well. This helps keep the kids under control when the teacher can be there.

2005-10-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

2005-10-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well, my first lesson went well. I was really nervous before this one, just because I really have not gotton the chance to be infront of this class very much yet. But as soon as I started talking, all my nerves were cooled and I felt totally comfortable teaching again. It just reminded me about how excited I am to become a teacher, I can't wait! I taught my science lesson. They are learning the parts of the flower so I did an activity where I had the student's create a model of a flower out of food parts. They were so excited for this lesson. Part of that was because of the food though! Overall, I really think that the students were learning the material, so the lesson was a success. Since we have been talking about questioning so much in science, I found myself thinking about each and every question I was asking. Also, I feel like the more experienced I get teaching, the more I self-evaluate myself as I teach. I think about how everything is going, if they are learning, if I am using good strategies, if I am including everyone, and how I am responding to them. Today, made me excited for teaching after all those weeks of projects! haha

2005-09-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today was another good day! I love getting to know the student's and get to know their personalities. I already feel like I know the students really well. One thing that stoof out about today was that students at this age really like to tell about themselves. Now this is human nature for any of us at any age, but this group of kids will share anything even if it does not relate. So, I watched the teachers to see how they handled it. A lot of the time they would let the student share their story. Even if it did not relate at all. I think this is important so that the students feel important. But, this can also get out of hand. One way my teacher would stop this was if one student made a comment, she would awknowledge it but then quickly start talking about the lesson again. That way all the new hands that shot up because they thought of something to say, would realize that she was ready to move on. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the student's stories and comments. They are a funny bunch! I spent a lot of the day planning out my lesson that I am teaching on Tuesday, the parts of a flower. I am really not nervous about it. I will get to teach the lesson twice since my we rotate classes. I'll let ya know how it goes!

2005-09-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

What a day! There were so many crazy emotions going into today. I was nervous about the first day, for no reason! I had another great first day experience. I am in a forth grade classroom that has 22 students. I am at Bonderant, which is a nice newer school that has four classes of each grade. I was very nervous that I was going to have trouble working with older kids. I just have so much more experience with younger kids. After today, i feel like it will work out just fine. Today reminded me how excited I am to start teaching, set up my own classroom and get going!
My teacher asked me to help out in math already today. At first I was nervous because I am not very good at math. But it actually turned out to be a good experience. I got to sit there and work on how I worded my questions. Because how I worded my statements and questions affected if she understood the math or not. I love the feeling that you are actually getting through to a student.
Not much else exciting happened today, just a bunch of observations and getting use to the schedule!

2005-08-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year again. Time to get back into a new schedule of classes, work and a new apartment for me this year. Change is good, but that first week can always be stressful. I am looking forward another set of practicum. I have such a wonderfu experience last year, I just can't wait to get back into the classroom. Sometimes I wish I could just start teaching right now, other times the idea of me in charge of an entire classroom scares me!