new backdated posts

There’s a bunch of posts I started but never published. I want to put them in the right order, so I’ll list them here. Enjoy!

Oh, no he didn’t… May 28, 2009

Will wonders Never Cease June 12, 2009

Final Project June 17, 2009

Thanks for proving our point June 17, 2009

Dear Diary May 28, 2009

Student Teaching Journal: Day 7

Tuesday, August 17, 1999

I was part of the Open House tonight.  That was neat.  I got to sit on stage with the teachers and be introduced. 

I totally do not remember that.  I must have blacked it out.  I hate being singled out in front of that many people, children or adults.  25, even 50, okay, but not a hundred. 

It was a new setup for me because I am used to “Back to School Night” where my parents would go directly to the classroom and the teacher talked and that was it. 

Now, really, how would I know that?  I never went to Back to School Night with my parents.  All my ten years of teaching, and at three different schools, have been run exactly this way:  everyone meets in the auditorium, the teachers go back to the room to get ready while the principal rambles some more, and then the parents come to the room.  The only thing I can say for certain about my own elementary BTS Night was that there was only one session with the teacher, because once my sister started school, both of my parents went so one could be in each room.  (And in fifth grade, my dad drew Kilroy in the middle of my writing book, and I was so afraid I was going to get in trouble when I finally found it!  What a funny surprise that was though, to open the book months later and there was a note from my dad! :-) )  At my current school we have two sessions in case parents have to go to more than one room.  Good for them, bad for me who talks too much. 

I guess since most families have so many kids that wouldn’t really work here, so instead the parents go from room to room and chat for a few minutes.  What was really great was the students came too.  That was fun.  :-)  It was neat to see them in regular clothes, and some of them got dressed up, too.  How cute. 

I didn’t know what to do when the parents came around.  I typed up a letter to introduce myself so I handed it out.  It was awkward because they all wanted to talk to Mrs. J, as they should, so I was kind of just standing around. 

And so we begin to see Mrs. J’s flaws.  She never did student teaching (because she taught English for two years in Japan, so the state let that count), and missed the first training session with my college, so she doesn’t know what to do with me.  She has no idea what the student teaching experience is supposed to be like. 

It was amazing, and maybe a little disturbing to see some of the parents come in and they didn’t speak any English – older siblings translated.  But I guess it is good that they care enough to show up! 

Always the optimist. 

Student Teaching Journal: Day 6

Monday, August 16, 1999

 Today went really well.  Most of the day I worked on running records – we needed to finish them up and get the set of books to [the other] Mrs. J.  Most of the kids did really well and tried really hard.  The few who did not do so well also gave up easily.  We will have to figure out something to help them.  Especially ER – she got 10% accuracy on a book that repeats simple 3-letter words. 

I remember this girl.  She was so low.  I think (hope!) she was referred for testing.  She could not remember things from one day to the next.  At one point I was going through the phonics flashcards with her on a daily basis, since she didn’t know half of the letter-sound correlations.  I remember she had a hard time with the digraphs, especially /ch/ and /sh/; she’d finally get it one day and be completely blank the next.  And forget about it after the three-week Fall Break – she forgot everything she had learned!  It was really frustrating. 

 We finished the health lesson from Friday – we still had 2 or 3 pages left in Chapter 2.  It went much better today.  I think part of it was because it’s Monday – they were better behaved overall all day today.  And I also used some of the techniques Mrs. J suggested after the fiasco ;-) on Friday.  When we got to the question parts I said each person could answer only once (because the same 3 or 4 people raise their hand 3 times for one question).  Also, and I think this one really helped, instead of saying, “Are you ready for page X?” I said, “Let’s go to page X now.”  And it was great, they would all stop talking, go to the page and get ready to read!  I was so pleased. 

And well you should be, Young Institutrice.  Don’t ask them what to do – tell them! 

I told Mrs. J all the advice she has given me is almost word-for-word what the student teaching books says!  We thought that was funny.  I told her how I thought we should copy it (classroom mgmt) for the other teachers because they are always asking her how she does it! 

I guess we were still getting along at this point.  ;-)  Well, it is only the sixth day.  The semester is still young.

Summer of Movies

Not doing so well with my summer reading pile. I’ve read quite a few fiction books, including some children’s novels. However, I have been catching up on my movies! So far I’ve seen Angels & Demons, The Proposal, Night at the Museum, Public Enemies, plus Twilight and Revolutionary Road on DVD. This may turn out to be The Summer of Movies!

Student Teaching Journal: Day 5

August 13, 1999

My favorite thing that happened today was DL made me a Pokémon bracelet.  He said it is Squirttle. (sp?)

This kid was freaking adorable.  And smart.  And creative.  I was actually jealous that he made these bracelets for the teacher, the aide, and some of the kids every day, but I never got one.  (Reality check?  This was the fifth day, I.)  I was overjoyed when he made one for me, but I had to play it cool. 

 I think it was right at the beginning of school, I saw him making a beeline for me and I wondered what he would say.  He came right up to me and said, “Miss Institutrice, I made this for you because you help us.”  How sweet!  I wore it all day, I was so proud!  When I went to the grocery store after work, the cashier asked me if I was a teacher – because of DL’s bracelet!  I was grinning from ear-to-ear. 

Today had its good and bad parts.  The spelling test went pretty well.  I remembered to use Mrs. J’s strategy of fingers in the air, etc., when they were ready for the next question.  Also today I didn’t have 5 kids asking me, “What is it?” on each one.  Maybe because it was test day. 

“Fingers in the air” means I would say the word, use it in a sentence, say the word again, and then wait a few seconds.  Then I said, “Show me two fingers when you are ready for number two.”  I used this for a long time on tests, but not in a few years, especially since fifth grade spelling tests have 20 words.   

 Also in this paragraph is one of my old lower case “k”s.  Boy does it looks weird.  I remember by this time I was having a hard time reading my own writing sometimes because of my “k”s – they ended up looking like an “l” and a “c”.  This school used Denelian handwriting, and the printed “k” looks like a (correct) cursive one.  We did a write-to every day, and I wanted to use the same handwriting as the school; you are paying so much attention to your writing when you write in front of kids that it was easy to remember to change it.  But, I wanted to change it in my everyday writing, too; it was really super hard, but by Christmas I had changed my writing to use the Denelian “k”, and I still do. Now the kids give me a hard time because in printing, they think it is an “R”.  I say, “Does that make sense?” (especially if it would be a capital R in the middle of a word.  I know how to use capitals, not like you, kids!)  Now I do most everything in cursive – which they can’t read, hah hah – so it doesn’t matter anyway.

 Reading went okay.  I thought we would be doing the Health shared reading then, but it was the regular book so I wasn’t even sure what they were reading.  It was a riddle that some of them know so they were reading fast, and too fast for the others.  That happened again later.  I’m not sure what to do about it.  I try to read loud and set the pace, but I don’t want to go too slow and not too fast either.  That is a tricky one.  I think that’s why I don’t like choral reading so much, it can hold back the good readers and frustrate the slower ones. 

I use choral reading in fifth grade, but I guess it goes better than described here because they can read better.  I explain that reading out loud is different than reading in your head, that they have to make sure other people can understand them, and that when we read all together we need to stay together and sound good.  I start my voice loud at first, and then soften up as we get into the paragraph, so I can hear them.  If they start reading to fast, I get loud again, or sometimes I just stop reading.  It’s amazing they can hear me over everyone else because they stop almost right away after I do.  I also only use it for short things, or to wake them up.    Now choral responding, that I do a LOT of! 

 Holy crap this is a long paragraph – two pages, handwritten! 

I had brought 2 books about friends to read after lunch because I thought we’d be doing Health before lunch and I could tie the two together.  (Ch. 2 in the health book was about family and friends.)  So that didn’t quote work out the way I planned, but they liked the books.  When we sat down to read after lunch, they asked who could pick a book, and I asked if I could pick the book today, and I had brought 2 from home.  They really liked that!  Ones who don’t usually pay so much attention were listening, maybe because they had never seen it before.  And then a few (AB, ES) were not paying attention at all.  At least it wasn’t as bad as what happened during Health.  They sat on the floor and we read.  That went okay.  There are questions at the end of some of the paragraphs.  I wanted them to discuss them and they raised their hands to answer, so that was good.  The “bad” part is, once they start talking, some stop paying attention and start chattering.  Then it is hard to get them to refocus and start reading again.  That was manageable though, and we were getting through it.  Toward the end, AL asked if she could get a tissue.  I said yes, and in the blink of an eye, half the class was over at the trash can!  I had no idea what was going on.  I was completely confused.  Then I realized Miss J (the 2^nd grade aide) was taking down the temporary name tags and putting up the permanent ones on the cubbys.  They were fishing their names out of the trash! 

This is why I don’t like other people in the room. 

I just thought to myself, How and when did they even get over there?  I just looked over at Mrs. J and pointed my thumb at them and mouthed, “What’s going on??”  I think I was so shocked I couldn’t even think of what to do or say.  We talked about it later.  I told her we were reading, A asked for a tissue, then half the group was at the trash can.  She couldn’t believe it either.  She keeps telling me to stop the problem as soon as it starts.  I thought I had been doing that, but either I’m not, or else I’m not noticing problems soon enough ?  I know part of it is I get really annoyed with repeating myself.  How many times can I tell them to stay in their seat? 

I would like to point out, THIS IS THE FIFTH DAY.  The fifth day of my teaching career, and I was already saying, “I can’t stand repeating myself.”   

But, if I do it the way Mrs. J does – by putting it back on them by asking them, “What are you supposed to be doing?” or “Where are you supposed to be?”  Because they do know and it is effective when she does it.  She also said if I ever have to, to say it’s a warning, and they can choose to behave or choose to not participate, and if I have to, send tem to their seat and the others will get the message.  What she suggested to do in a situation like Health when there were questions to answer is #1 set a number of responses for each question (otherwise it can go on forever and they start repeating) and #2 state up front that I will choose people exhibiting behaviors I want, like sitting properly or reading along, etc.  I did do that with the sitting today, praising the ones who were sitting nicely; it worked a little bit. 

This is the stuff they don’t teach you in college.  My “Classroom Management” course was all about personality types; we spent 8 of the 16 weeks on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  (I go back and forth between INTJ and ISTJ – it depends how I’m feeling that day if I come out iNtuitive or Sensing. ) It was hugely fascinating, but unless I administer the test to my class, how is it going to help me?  New teachers need these kinds of tips - how to get kids to be quiet, sit right, raise their hand, engage in a lesson, etc. 

On the good side for the Health lesson, they had some excellent ideas for what is a family, a friend, and rules families have and why.  They all knew about Stranger Danger and don’t play with matches.  They are such good kids. 

This is also the class where my stereotypes about Hispanic and Poor families were (thankfully) disproven.  Almost all of the kids came from two-parent, married homes. 

I also have to keep in mind this was just my first week.  I am still learning!  I know the strategies, I just have to give myself time to practice them and get comfortable with them.  The students seem to like me, but they are just testing me because I am new.  I know they aren’t doing it on purpose, it’s just human nature. 

When I was helping ER and IV with Math, somehow we got talking Spanish.  ER and AR were playing teacher and testing words I know, it was funny.  And they loved it!  They go their work done, too, so I thought it was okay.  It made a connection and also lets them show off what they know! 

I guess Mrs. J wasn’t close by – I wonder if this journal will go up to the time she reprimanded me for giving directions in Spanish to a girl who had just moved up from Mexico.  Gringa.

Time Card 6/29 to 7/5

This was more like a typical first week of summer vacation. (And I’m bored out of my mind already.) The only thing I did was read, and the only reason this book counts toward “Work” hours is because I wouldn’t have read it if I didn’t need to write questions about it for the Reading Olympics team.

Saturday: 1H 40

Sunday: 1H 10

Total: 2H 50

Student Teaching Journal: Day 4

8/12

Post-It note that says:

• strategies for getting attention (spelling went much better)
• reading went well
• running records

I vaguely remember doing running records at this school.  We used them at my first school where I taught second grade.  I love doing running records.  It was the only thing we did that was like a test that gave hard evidence if they were learning or not.  I loved using all the marks and abbreviations, and I still use them when I check a kid for fluency.  (It’s fun!)  The most useful part was analyzing the miscues and self-corrections to see what the kid needed, and then making small groups of kids who needed the same strategies.  See, I was doing this ten years ago, and they had been doing it for a good while before I got there, which is why I was just incredulous when people here were complaining last year about using leveled readers for small reading groups.  Hello, behind the times much??

reee-jected

My district has a program to cultivate future leaders. When I got the flyer, I emailed for more info since all it said was “future leaders”. See, I have no interest in becoming a principal. I had been considering it, but realized I was only thinking about it because it’s the next logical step. (If you know me at all, you know that doesn’t mean anything. ) But I don’t want to deal with the parents and the behavior problems. I would, however, like to be a teacher leader or maybe an instructional support teacher; both of those are leadership roles (without being in charge of everything) and still work with kids. I said as much in my email, and the person in charge told me to apply anyway.

I have no idea how many people applied, but I was not accepted. I have to say, I’m a little bummed. My resume rocks and is full of leadership positions including county-level curriculum writing. I had two awesome references, including one of the Admins in charge of this program. I’m going to ask Principal Friend if she knows who was chosen, ‘cuz I am not used to not being picked for committees and programs, since, like, forever.

They said to apply for next year’s cohort. Not likely! Your loss.

Student Teaching Journal: Day 3

August 11, 1999

Today went pretty well.  I need to work on keeping the kids on task though.  I realize it is only my third day, but it seems like sometimes they don’t listen to me.  I talked to Mrs. J about it, and she said not to worry, it just takes time.  She said she just repeats herself, and if they still don’t listen, she puts it back on them by saying, “What did I just say?”  That is a good idea, I will have to try it tomorrow. 

This phrase becomes part of my teaching personality, and gets me is SO MUCH TROUBLE with some parents!  And can I just say, Wow, I had some high expectations for myself if I am feeling this way on the third day! 

I did the spelling practice today.  It’s almost like they forget what to do because it’s me and not Mrs. J.  That is frustrating.  It was a little chaotic, kids calling out, “What is the word?”  It was very weird. 

My math lesson went pretty well, too.  I was pleased.  I had them sit at their desks to start, because yesterday part of the confusion came from them being on the floor and not really paying attention to what to do.  I thought anyway.  I think this “Letters in our Names” graph was easier.  I started by reminding them of the graph we did yesterday.  Then I told them how we would be making a graph about how many letters are in our names.  I asked how they thought we might do that.  Someone said by counting the letters.  So I showed them the strips of graph paper and told them to write 1 letter in each box, cut off the extra, and then they could color it.  I guess I should have had them make their name all one color (like a car graph), but I told them they could color it any way they wanted (because I had seen it done that way in Mrs. Z’s class).  When they were done, I had them bring the name slip to me and tell me where to put it on the chart.  It was fun because a little crowd gathered around the chart – they wanted to see how all the names were turning out.  When it was done, we talked about the graph – which # had the most, the least, ties, etc.  Mrs. J asked if I knew what a body graph was; I said no, but then when they were standing there it clicked.  I had them line up according to how many letters were in their name.  Then we did the least, most, and ties again – I had them raise their hands if they were in the line with that criteria.  That went really well. 

I think this was a class graph, whereas the Brothers and Sisters graph from the second day was on a worksheet, and each kid made their own.  Also, I should mention that we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes in conjunction with this graph.  I really miss using children’s literature with math! 

At the end of the day we decided to make bookmarks they can use to read along with in their books instead of using their fingers to point. 

Isn’t it interesting how when we were kids, teachers yelled at us for using our fingers while reading, and now we TELL kids to use them to track! 

I got to cut them with the paper cutter. 

I don’t remember the paper cutter, but I do remember the copy machines at this school.  They had two right next to each other – they were green, and they were HUGE.  Like the size of a metal desk.  That first day I thought, “Teaching wastes so much paper.”  Little did I know…

I thought we would do it tomorrow, and I would write their names on them for them, but we did it today so they wrote their own names.  They sure made some beautiful and creative bookmarks!  Some have trouble with, “You can do it any way you want.”  Maybe that is too open, but we want them to create whatever they want to!  Giving direction on that just limits the imagination. 

We read Where the Wild Things Are, and during the rumpus scene, L noticed that one of the beasts looked like Francine from Arthur.  It was amazing – they were comparing literature!  Because then they went on to compare the other characters.  What a great moment.  They are thinking! 

What I always think about Where the Wild Things Are is that my mom hated it, so of course I checked it out of the school library every other week. 

My incorrect use of commas is annoying, so I added them where they belonged.  I always hated extra commas (and incorrectly called them “comma splice”), but after learning all the rules for compound and complex sentences by teaching fifth grade grammar (back when we were allowed to!), I now know where they belong.  So I’m only editing for mechanics.  No revising. 

Student Teaching Journal: Day 2

August 10, 1999
Today went really well. I did a lot of teaching. In the morning I worked with P while the others did spelling. It was hard to keep him on task.

It took me a minute to remember who this kid is. And now I realize I am thinking of another kid with the same name from the school where I taught Spanish. (He pooped in his pants on the first day of Kindergarten, and the teacher and her aide had spent the whole day dealing with him so by the time I got there after lunch, and I said, “Okay, come to the carpet!”, they started running all over the room. They had done no procedures. This is how I know I will never teach kindergarten; even though most of them go to pre-school, they don’t know anything about how school works, and I’m not going to be the one to teach that to them.) Okay, I think I remember him now, maybe he was an inclusion experiment? Because I remember him going to another room, and that eventually he just stayed in that room all day. Anyway…

He was really tired and had been hit in the eye and I was worried about a concussion so I asked Mrs. J and we sent him to the nurse. I felt bad but she said he does that all the time, and then I felt really bad like I was sending him away because I didn’t know what to do with him. But I was genuinely concerned – it looked painful!

This was the first of many, many times I sent a kid to the nurse because I think something is not right. Apparently I have higher expectations than most school nurses (must be my doctor’s office Mother) because the kids always come back. The nurse at this school even told my mentor that I sent too many kids to see her. Then figure out what’s wrong with them and fix it!

I got to do the graphing lesson today. Last night for “homework” I wrote their names on a graph, and today we found out how many brothers and sisters each one had. I was a little flustered because I didn’t know I was doing it until 5 minutes before, but it went well. Somehow I wasn’t clear on how to fill in the graph because I had to explain it individually to a few different kids.

If I knew then what I know now… Institutrice, it’s not you – it’s them. Make a few kids repeat the directions before you let them start working, and then if a few don’t understand what to do, make them think about it or ask another kid. They’ll remember real quick.

I don’t remember what I said – or didn’t say – to fix it tho! Everyone did really well. They asked me how many brothers and sisters I have, and made me write it on the board. As soon as my name was up there, they were all calling, “Miss Institutrice, Miss Institutrice!” instead of, “Teacher, Teacher!”

Thank God, because I hate that. A lot of people say it’s a sign of respect when they kids call you “Teacher” or “Miss”, but I think it’s rude. I have a name, so use it. (Appropriately – not like on my playground grafitti.

We got a new student today named AZ. He is really bright.

Not really. He’s a punk.

He went through the 75 most common words and the spelling words like they were nothing. The counting he did good on but he needed some strategies for adding and subtracting.

My Data Analysis started early!

During math we did a division problem and he wasn’t getting it. I wasn’t able to explain it without showing him exactly how to use the cubes so I asked Mrs. J to help. She got him to do it, that was good for me to see how she did that. :-)

Which was? LOL

I can’t get over how my handwriting is exactly the same, just smaller and neater. (And therefore much more readable.) It cracks me up that I was already using some of the abbreviations that I use now, and thought I had picked up more recently than 1999!