Student Teaching Journal: Day 18

Wednesday, September 1, 1999
 I tried something new for Spelling this morning.  I’ve noticed that when we do Word Wall, most of them aren’t paying attention during the spelling part.  Then it’s the same 3-4 kids who raise their hands to make sentences. 
Word Wall was the best thing I got out of my student teaching.  She [...]

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Classroom Community and Currency

Never Work Harder Than Your Students by Robyn Jackson
Chapter 1:  Start Where Your Students Are
At my first school we called this “meet your kids where they’re at.”  Terrible grammar, I know, but it got the point across.  Though we were referring to academics, and Robyn Jackson is referring to behavior.  The whole chapter is about [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 17

Tuesday, August 31, 1999
In the middle of the Nerves worksheet, I thought of a way to demonstrate how nerves work – “Whisper Down the Lane”!
I am so brilliant. 
I told Mrs. J, who said they had played it once as “Telephone”, and she thought it was a good idea.  So after they were done coloring, I [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 16

Day 15 was an in-service day, so here’s the next Monday. 
 Monday, August 30, 1999
I got to deal with a student throwing a fit today.  When it was time to leave the library this morning, LB didn’t want to go.  Everyone else was lined up and she was still sitting at the table; I told her [...]

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Time Card 7/20 to 7/26

Zip.  Zero.  Zilch. Nada. No thing, not a thing. 
Love it.

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I know I shouldn’t laugh, but…

Sometimes it’s hard not to laugh, especially when I am the one playing the joke!
A Phillies fan flashed a green laser in the eyes of a few Cardinals’ players at today’s game, and I was reminded of an incident during my first year of teaching fifth grade.
The first time I had chorus duty, I was [...]

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Stupid is as stupid does

What’s wrong with calling a spade a spade? 
This is part of the problem in schools.  We are supposed to point out all the good things kids do (however minor), and talk them up and praise them out the wazoo, but you can’t say anything negative.  Even if they do something wrong, whether it’s academic or behavioral, [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 14

Thursday, August 26, 1999
We got a new student today, her name is LC.  She is from Mexico and knows practically no English. So I got to practice my Spanish, and she understood me!  That was great!  She sat with us when I read the Leo Lionni book (Fish is Fish), and then they used crayons and [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 12

Tuesday, August 24, 1999
Today went pretty well.  I did the spelling practice.  Then I pulled the kids who hadn’t done the writing for little blue and little yellow.  There were 8 kids!  I was a little upset about that, that there were so many.  Mrs. J was surprised, as was I when I figured it out [...]

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Student Teaching Journal: Day 11

August 23, 1999
The kids were dead today!  They were quiet and looked so tired this morning.  So it made for a Quiet Monday.  Except for AZ, every 2 seconds we had to tell him to sit down or be quiet or apologize.  Like he told TD she doesn’t speak good English (which is perfect – [...]

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