Progress!

Last week, I suddenly got that horrible, overwhelmed feeling about school.  All at once, it seemed like I had a ton of work to do and it had been a day where it felt like the kids weren't picking up on anything.  I think all teachers have those moments from time to time, but I had to figure out a way to get out of that funk.

This weekend, I was entering scores for my students' language arts testing.  We had done this at the very beginning of the year, and this was the Quarter 1 benchmark.  It helped so much to see proof of their progress.  Even though there are bound to be those days where it seems like I'm just not getting through to them, there is almost always evidence that shows otherwise.  I could see progress. 

I would encourage everyone to take just a moment or two to think about your kids at the beginning of the year, and then think about them now.  Just thinking about the difference in their behavior has helped me to put a more positive swing on my week.  Even the toughest kids have shown growth.

Blocks

I have had a very chatty class so far this year. I finally decided something needs to be done. I am implementing the 3 block system. Every morning when the students walk in the load themselves with 3 blocks (which are kept in their desks). I take the blocks away as I see fit. For any behavior that is not safe, respectful, or responsible. So for example, planner is not signed, I take a block. A student is talking while he or she should be listening, I take a block. If a student cannot show me at least one block by recess, they have to stay inside. After recess, the kids reload again. If they lose their afternoon blocks as well, they get a note home in their planner. It has been working like a charm. The best part is...I have parents calling ME!!! They are totally on board and the kids respond quickly.

Responsive Classroom

As many of you know I was part of the Responsive Classroom blog last year. I am continuing to use RC in my classroom this year. I love the RC framework and how it gives ownership to the students and builds community!

For staff development on Wednesday we had a lady from Origins come in and talk to our staff about RC and what a RC classroom/school looks like. We are thinking about becoming a RC school so we wanted to know what we needed to do. It was very inspiring to hear our speaker talk about making our schools a better environment for not only the students but the staff. We have a lot of things to think about after our meeting...my questions are: How many of you are using RC in your classroom? Does your school use the RC framework as a whole school practice? If you aren't using RC what are you using that helps with classroom management/behavior issues? Also, older grades (3-5) do you use it in your classroom? A big complaint was that there is so much curriculum to teach at the older grades that there is no time for a morning meeting, etc. What do you think about this?

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and respond!! :)

A Clicker test!

Tomorrow we'll be administering our first official student response system clicker test for quarter 1. Units they'll be tested on: Footbal, Soccer and Fitness Tests. I'm excited to see how it all works and how the students respond to it. (no pun intended) :) I informed them that the test would not be paper/pencil but that we wanted to use technology. Many kids were so excited about that little piece. I'll let you all know how it goes.

New Technique

I have a student with whom I work who struggles with writing. Not only is the process of writing difficult for him, but he also does not like touching the paper. I saw a classroom teacher practicing spelling with her class one day with shaving cream, so I thought that I would give it a try with this student. It has changed his attitude towards working on his writing with me. He will try his best on his spelling words and high frequency words when he is writing with the shaving cream. Yesterday, I also had him write math problems with it and he did so much better. It has taught me so much about this student - that he is a kinesthetic learner. I have been brainstorming other ideas for doing writing tasks that we can intertwine with paper-pencil writing.

Small Things

A co-worker and I have signed up to be Bingo callers for our schools Bingo night next week. A few students found out we are going to be callers and the smiles on their faces was priceless.
I know it is often hard to sign up for "extra" things because our plates are already pretty full, but after I participate I am always so glad I did. The students truly do enjoy seeing their teacher at these type of events and it is the smallest things sometimes that can make the biggest difference.

Goal 2011

Well, I came up with a goal that I really think is going to be great for me and my students this year. I have a hard time each day with teaching math and seemed to get stressed about it. I have a very diverse group of students this year and find it difficult to get through a math lesson in one piece. So, I have come up with a solution to this problem. I am using a para that I have during my math time to work with differentiation cards for the math curriculum. I am able to have the low group and high group work with her several days a week on the differentiation cards for the lesson I am teaching in the class. I am then able to teach the lesson to the middle/average students in my class. I have found that the low students who I have tried this with over the past couple of weeks are really benefiting from workin in a small group of 4-5 students on the basic skill for the lesson. They are able to work at a slower pace and have individual guidance with the lesson and practice sheets. I am going to try when we get back from break to have the high students rotate half the time a couple days a week out of the classroom also to work with the para on skills but at a higher level thinking. Another part of my goal is to use the whole math curriculum including the routines, quick practice, and cards with my students each day to increase fact fluency and increase their ability to use the math strategies. I am not doing Fastt Math this year to piolit this for my class and see if using just the curriculum and all its components the students are able to increase their fluency with facts. I am glad that this week is over, here at Eagle Creek we have had conferences this week. We are going on a field trip to the Landing. It is sure to be a great time!

Craziness

It seems lately my school has been having major issues with kids and their ability to pay attention and listen. Another major problem is students are constantly struggling with keeping their hands to themselves. My teaching partner and I feel like we're always babysitting. This seems to be a common trend with other teachers within the regular classroom setting.

Today we had a lock down drill and my class had to practice the drill three times because they could not sit in our designated lock down area (the PE equipment room closet) quietly. We ended up missing the majority of our PE class. By the time we finished practicing our lock down drill we had time to go outside and run two warm-up laps and then we came back inside the school because PE was over with.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions in situations such as this? I explained the importance of taking an emergency situation seriously and why it is so important. I sent a fix-it plan home with one of my students who appeared to be an instigator of the chatty disrespectful behavior. Hopefully today was a lesson in listening for all.

Writer's Workshop- Personal Narrative

In October we are teaching personal narratives for Writer's Workshop. I will be the first to admit that writing is not one of my strong points (it is actually another goal of mine this year--become a better writing teacher). Do any of you have any great ideas on how to teach personal narrative to First graders who are just learning how to construct a sentence much less write me a personal narrative? What has worked for you? How do you start? What books have you used? I feel like my lessons are lacking and I am looking for some fresh ideas!! THANK YOU!!! :)

Clicker Training

In PE our goal is to incorporate technology into our lessons. We're going to use the student response systems for the first time at the end of quarter one. My teaching partner and I are gradually learning and meeting with professionals that can help use utilize the system. I'm excited to take this step forward.

Recently I attended more of an informational meeting about the clickers. Come to find out, Wayzata school district has a 1:1 ration of students to clickers. Some times I think we struggle to take the technology leap, or we have one foot in the water, while the other foot is securely on land. I feel that if we don't start investing more in this area, and take some risks as a whole and learn about other technology out there, we're making our students fall behind. The clicker system can be used to check for understanding, keep track of data of all students or separate sub-groups. I also think using this system is a more efficient use of teacher time when it comes to correcting assessments, because the system does it for you! :) What an awesome thing.

More to come...