Day #7

We attended an assembly today in celebration of Red Ribbon week. The students loved watching the Vernal City drug dog spot the drugs in a box.

I attended a district meeting at Maeser Elementary along with all the other 4th grade teachers in the district. I was happy to see Melanie there and enjoyed sitting with her. The teachers discussed the growth they've seen since their last meeting together and set goals for the next meeting. The teachers from Lapoint and Eagle View shared their unit they created for the next science and writing subject which is weather. Rosa Eaton shared a video of her modeling the writing process to her students. She emphasized modeling and thinking aloud to students. District specialists say they do not see enough modeling done. This is one of the things I learned well in my education last year...and now I am so glad to have it. I can never model too much for my students!

Day #6

Today is pull-out day which is when the students get to spend 2 1/2 hours at library, PE, Art, and Computers. The 4th grade teachers meet during this time for their PLC meetings. Mr. Curtis is the team leader so he conducted the meeting. They first looked at graphs showing their weekly YPP scores. This graph is helpful because it shows where we stand with the district. Our math scores are a little low and so we need to concentrate on how to improve. We also talked about scheduling and Halloween parties. The teachers discussed a new reading program they would like to purchase and took a vote on it. By observing this meeting, I was able to see how well the teachers work together to see success from their students.

Day #5

Mr. Curtis has created an incentive in his class that his highly motivating to his students. If they get 100% on their math practice test the they get to be a helper for the week. They also do not have to take the real math test nor do they have to do the math assignments for the next math topic which means no math homework. But they get to help students who have questions with their assignments during the math topic. As you can imagine, the students work really hard in order to obtain 100%.

Mr. Curtis required book reports from the students. He also participates by reading 4th grade chapter books and reporting to the students. He often shares favorite authors and encourages them to try the new books. Avi is on of his favorite authors. I noticed that many of the students came back from library time with an Avi book.

Day #4

The school is celebrating 'Drug Free Week.' Each class is responsible for decorating their own door to show their school spirit. The students that got a 100% on their math test are the 'helpers' for the week. He allowed these three students to design the door. They came up with the main idea and then the other students were allowed some class time to create the door. I was surprised and tickled at how much Mr. Curtis got into the project. I believe that a teacher needs to show his or her fun side once in a while. The students loved taking a break from learning to create the door...they had a lot of fun. And these students deserved it....they work very hard. At the end of the week, the school announced our class to be the winners of the pizza party because our door was the best!

Mr. Curtis let the student be the creators of the door. Yes, he did help them. But the ideas came from their minds. I loved seeing them be in charge of the project.

Day #3

I suffered from a strong cold and lost my voice. Took a sick day to stay home and recover.

UEA

On Friday of the fall break, I attended the second day of UEA. They keynote speaker was a woman from Ohio. She gave a motivation speech that inspired us teachers to really care about our students and to believe in their success. The speech moved me to tears several times...it was good.

The other two classes I attended were Tips and Shortcuts for Elementary Teachers and Acing the Praxis. The first one was from an elementary teacher who had great advise on creating personal files for each student, literacy rotations, math centers and letters to parents. She shared her PowerPoint notes with us and I am so excited to have ALL that information. I know I will use some of it. The second class was awesome and I am very grateful for the information I learned in it. I need to to take the Praxis PLT soon and he gave us priceless info regarding the test. He has created a study guide for the test and is emailing me the link. This will save me a load of money from having to purchase books geared toward the test. He was also positive and motivating.

I really enjoyed attending the UEA conference. The booths were interesting and helpful and the speeches were inspiring. I definitely plan to attend in future years.

Day #2

Mr. Curtis let me do two things in his class today. I read aloud to the students from the chapter book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I also did the Rewards activity that is a focus on words and their suffix, prefix, meaning, etc. I also got more involved in helping the students. Today wasn't nearly so overwhelming. I may just get the hang of 4th grade!

Block 2 Day #1

It is the first day of my second block in Mr. Curtis' 4th grade classroom. Today, I am overwhelmed. Every second of the day was filled with curriculum and it felt as though we couldn't move fast enough. He is a very honest and candid man, which I appreciate. I am surprised how easy it is to visit with him. He really cares about his students and tries his very hardest to make each of them understand the subject material. He has created interesting games and powerpoints for the curriculum that keeps it interesting. The students are VERY engaged. I took some good notes and hope to review them so that today wont seem like such a blur. I know I am going to learn so much from Mr. Curtis!

Day #35

I am in Logan on the USU campus for the Student Teaching seminar. A variety of speakers have taught me how to create a first-class resume and cover letter and how to prepare for an interview. The information is priceless as I have not applied for a job in years! I am so grateful for their help. My favorite speaker was Chad E. Downs who used to be something big in the Cache County School District. He has conducted many teacher interviews and told exactly what impressed him and what did not. He told us what kind of questions we could expect which really eased my mind. I felt the seminar was well worth my time.

Day #34

My last day of first grade was today. Mrs. Kester surprised me with a bag that had Mrs. Coon embroidered on the front and each of the children created a card for me expressing their grattitude. I couldn't believe how much this touched me. This class will never know the impact they had on my career. They helped me understand the scope of all things related to a classroom. I loved their eagerness and enthusiasm in pleasing the teacher and trying their hardest to learn what was being taught. I truly hope to teach a younger grade someday.

Day #33

For our read aloud time, we have been reading the first three books of the Magic Tree House books. The students have been amazing with their attention to the story. They have really connected with the characters, Jack and Annie and the many adventures that come their way. It is fun to connect the story to their background knowledge since this is something I studied in great detail last year.

The book allows great visualizing and it cracks me up when the students laugh aloud or gasp at the story line. It pleases me so much to see them comprehending and enjoying text.

Day #32

Today was the first day of SEP (Student Education Plan) conferences. I wasn't able to attend all of them because of our meeting at the university. But I was able to attend the last five of them. Mrs. Kester asked the parent to tell her about the student; what they do after school, do they struggle with homework and such. Then she told the parent how the student acted in school. She told of the student's good characteristics and how fortunate she felt to have him or her in her class. Then she proceeded with test results and what the parent could do to help at home. She made the parents feel very comfortable. I was impressed at how many dads attended. Most of the parents were very supportive and took a big interest in their child. I was very impressed with each of the conferences. I was also amazed at how time consuming it was. We didn't leave the school until 7:30. And she has another full night of them. But I know they are well worth the time! Meeting the parents adds such a personal insight to the students.

Day #31

Today I observed another first grade teacher's writing lesson. The whole team of first grade teachers has been following the plan of a book titled No More "I'm Done!" This teacher is currently doing her masters programs and this book was given to her by a professor. The book is a wonderful resource for primary grades starting writing. I enjoyed my observation of this teacher because of her enthusiasm and eagerness. Her attitude spreads to her students and I could tell they love writing time. She modeled in detail her expectations. The students understood exactly what they were to do. She also reviewed what they were to do during the writing time. I could tell though that they knew exactly what to do.

She knew the program and lesson well. Her happy attitude was contagious, it made me want to write!

Day #30

Mrs. Kester was gone today and a substitute was present. The substitute mostly did clerical work because I was teaching. This was the first time I had the whole day to teach because Mrs. Kester and I team teach. I felt the day went really well. I even did some guided reading during learning centers. The time buzzed by although the day seemed long because of the weather. It was so wet that I chose to keep the students inside for recess. Today was also picture day. The children were all clean and beautiful and picture time went smoothly. The parents in our classroom have done such good job at making sure their children attend school well, eat breakfast and look clean. I have never seen such a remarkable group of children. It makes such a difference. Mrs. Kester has remarked several time at how we are able to do more because of this very fact.

Day #29

We have one mother of one of the students who has been wonderful to help in our classroom. She volunteers twice a week! She does much of the clerical work that the class needs...which saves Mrs. Kester and me oodles of time. Mrs. Kester has been keen on developing a close relationship with this mother to make her feel welcome and comfortable. I think Mrs. Kester is wise in developing this relationship. She knows that our classroom is better because of her help.

I have been a parent volunteer in the past and I know what it's like to be mistreated by some of the teachers. They didn't feel the need to make me feel welcome and comfortable and my time in the classroom became awkward. I want to be the teacher that makes parents feel welcome and needed!

Day #28

It was a very chaotic day today. All was normal until lunch. For some reason, the whole town of Vernal was without power for about 45 minutes. Most 1st graders hate the dark. Luckily, our classroom has a window but many do not. The generators provided some light but not enough. The power finally came back but the students were unsettled for the rest of the day. Between the rain and the power outage the day seemed very long and I feel exhausted.

The students were making family trees today and had to use permanent markers for a bit. Mrs. Kester explained the danger of the markers and told them she expected them to be responsible. Later, Josie came to me with marker all over her face. She had deliberately misbehaved. Mrs. Kester marched her right down to the principals office. Tomorrow she has recess detention and she has to spend the recess time in Mrs. Chattam's office. She is often misbehaving in similar ways. Mrs. Kester thinks Josie ought to have a behavioral IEP...and I agree.

Day #27

The children took a math test for YPP this morning. Then they took a math test for the unit we just completed on addition this afternoon. That test was followed by another topic test that had 20 questions. The poor students had fried little brains by the end of the day. I really think we test too much!

Day #26

Today was another whirlwind Friday. I'm amazed at how quickly 12:30 comes. Then we have the afternoon to prep and it seems to move so slowly. I'm sure this time will go more quickly when I'm an actual teacher because I will have meetings and lessons to prep. But the afternoon sure went slow today.

Day #26

Dr. Foley came to observe my language arts lesson today. I felt that the lesson went really well. I taught the students about nonsense words and how real words have to make sense. Then we created some words using the ump and ug word families. Dr. Foley had many positive things to say...which made me feel very good. The one item she advised me on was to come up with more examples of sentences and definitions for some of the lesser-known words. We had a really good conversation about my student teaching experience. I really enjoyed our time together.

Day #25

We have added more elements to our math wall. We are starting a unit on bar graphs and so we have a bar graph, odd and even numbers, tally marks and months displaying each students' birthday. The students were delighted with the addition....I could tell they were ready for more. It's fascinating to see their little minds grow. We cram teaching into every second of the day. We don't WASTE time. I'd imagine the students go home pretty tired though.

Day #24

All first grade teachers are required to eat lunch with their classes inside the cafeteria. I know this isn't common practice for all the elementary schools but it is for Naples. I have taken this opportunity to build relationships with the students. I sit by a different student each day and make conversation to get to know each of them better. It is a way for me to make them feel at ease with me. It's also provides a way for me to learn their background knowledge. The more I know about their background knowledge and experiences, the easier it is for me to build lessons they might relate to.