Magic E

April 18, 2016

Today I taught a very successful lesson about "Magic E". We began by looking at short vowel words. Students brainstormed as many words as they could think of and I wrote them on the board. I then pulled a couple from their big list and held up my Magic E wand. I told students the story of his special powers. When he adds himself to the end of a short vowel word the original vowel switches from short to long. The students thought I was an actual magician (so of course I went with it). I then passed out wands to each student and had them return to their seats. I had made cards of short vowel words. The students each started with a card and would eventually rotate through the entire set. Each student had a recording sheet to keep track of the words that Magic E worked on and the words that he did not work on.

I was a little nervous that this lesson would get too complicated with all of the rotating of cards; however, it truly went great and the students did very well with the entire concept!

STEM Fairy Tales....Continued

April 13-15, 2016

I spent the rest of the week doing this unit with my class. I am so happy with my decision to do this unit. The students loved it as much as I did.

After reading The Frog Prince, we took a class vote on who would kiss a frog. We then spent the remainder of the time creating a bar graph to look at our results.

Another fun lesson was for the book Rapunzel. As a time-saver I created in advance plates that had the students' faces in the middle and yellow yarn (aka hair) attached. The students loved getting to see what they would look like as Rapunzel. I put the students into groups and they rotated through measuring centers. They used different objects to measure the length of their hair.

STEM Fairy Tales

I am super excited about this post! Yesterday I began my unit, STEM Fairy Tales. For the entire week I am reading a fairy tale to the class and they will do a STEM activity to accompany the book. Yesterday I read The Three Little Pigs. Students then broke up into groups to "build a house for the fourth pig, Sister Pig" using toothpicks, straws or paper. Each group then gave their house the Wolf Test (aka: a hairdryer) to see if it would withstand the huffing and puffing and blowing down of the house. This was so much fun and the students were so engaged. Although some passed the test, I wouldn't say any of my students are prepared to by architects or carpenters.

Today I read Jack and The Beanstalk. After the story the students received their own "Magic" bean and we planted them in plastic cups using just water and a paper towel. We decorated the cups with a cloud and a castle at the top. We talked about germination and what beans need to grow (light and water). I'm hoping that in a couple days we will see some sprouts!

Tomorrow, it is on to Henny Penny!

Long O

I did a fun phonics lesson today that I felt very good about when reflecting on it. The concept was long o vs. short o.

Last week I observed that some students were really struggling with differentiating between between the two sounds.

I created frog (short o) and toad (long o) containers. I also made fly cards with different long and short o words. Students were split up into groups and took turns choosing cards to feed to either the frog or toad.

When the groups finished they returned and we did a whiteboard review as a class. I created a PowerPoint game with the same features of the physical activity they completed.

The students were so engaged and I was very happy with the outcomes.

This entire week I am getting the opportunity to teach phonics lesson that are separate from the book curriculum. This gives me the opportunity to really use my creativity and try out different ideas.

Telling Time

April 7, 2016

Salem Elementary uses the Everyday Math curriculum. This is a spiral curriculum. One topic that is covered is time. There isn't a designated unit for telling time. It may be hit one day, and not covered again for a week or longer.

Some of the students have really taken to trying to master telling time. Constantly throughout the day students are approaching me,or my co-op and asking is it "2:32 right now, is it 11:08 right now?"

A lot of the class is so close to mastering the concept. I truly believe that if they received one or two lessons (in a row) they would be able to really advance in their comprehension of the topic.

They are having such gaps of time in between the lessons that they forget the material learned previously.

I'm hoping to get the opportunity to do a bonus lesson on time.

Where's Miss Stine?

April 6, 2016

I ended up having an extended weekend! School was cancelled on Monday to honor the passing of the district's football coach. On Tuesday I attended the university's job fair.

So, today I am back!

Although I only missed one day (since no one was present on Monday), my co-op said it was chaos yesterday without me there. All day the students kept asking where I was and if I was ever coming back. Even though my co-op reassured them multiple times that I would be back tomorrow they still couldn't grasp that "tomorrow" was only 24 hours away.

Even though I just recently started taking subjects from my co-op, the students didn't understand why I wasn't the one teaching them.

It is so amazing to me how routines are so important to children this young. What a change it will be when I am not there everyday!!

Character Day

April 1, 2016

I have an exciting story to share today! Today was Character Day at school.Teachers and students, and other faculty members dressed up like their favorite book characters. I was Pete the Cat! In my classroom we had lots of superheros and princesses, a Junie B. Jones, 2 Fancy Nancy(s), a Waldo, a Cat in the Hat, an Elf on the Shelf, and more! We also had 2 students that didn't dress up. Both boys were obviously upset about their lack of costumes. I gave myself the challenge of quickly creating them some costumes. I put together some Chicka Chika Boom Boom costumes. My co-op was happy and so were the boys.

Later in the day another 1st grade teacher came to me and said that she had 2 girls that forgot costumes. I had another challenge. I got to work and created a Fly Guy and Fly Girl costume.

Myself and the 2 teachers ended up being especially excited about these last minute creations. The Fly Guy and Fly Girl pair ended up winning an award for their costume during the assembly!  Also, all of the students in costume were able to participate in a character parade around the school. No one in the two classes had to miss out! This was such a fun day at school!!

Pre-Tests and Post-Tests

March 31, 2016

When I was in elementary school we always had pre-tests and post-tests for spelling. However, in my first student teaching placement pre-tests were not used. This has allowed me to some some advantages and disadvantages of both methods.

Not doing pre-tests is definitely a time saver, however, it doesn't save that much time since they only take about 10 minutes to administer.

In my opinion, I am a fan of pre-tests. It allows students, and the teacher, to see growth and improvement. Also, as a teacher it helps show what spelling exercises, activities during the week may have paid off.

I can't speak for all teachers but from my experience if a student receives a perfect score on the pre-test they are able to keep that grade and not take the post-test. This is a nice incentive for most students. In just the few weeks that I have been here at Salem and have been grading the spelling tests it is very common for more than half the class to receive that perfect school on the pre-test. Now those students have the ability to focus their time on other subjects since they have already proved mastery of that word list.

Feeling Old

During my sophomore year I remember attending a club meeting where there was a panel of 4 student teachers that came in and shared their experiences for everyone in attendance. I can remember so vividly leaving the meeting and talking to my friends about how excited that made me to begin student teaching.

Well, I am obviously finally in this position and today I had the opportunity to be one of the student teachers on the panel. We spoke to two groups of students. The first group was mostly juniors and seniors. Student teaching was right around the corner for most of them so most of what we were talking about (lesson planning, lessons we are currently teaching, certifications, applying for jobs, etc.) was all very relevant to their current situation. It was great to see what they had questions about and to be able to help them. It was also obvious how engaged everyone was in our presentation.

The second group of students was mostly freshman and sophomores and was a lot more diverse when it came to their certifications (early childhood, mid-level and secondary). We began this discussion very similar to the first one however, we quickly realized that student teaching was a little too far out of sight for these students. We geared the rest of the discussion towards courses they were taking, and questions they had about the program, and just spoke a little about student teaching to avoid overwhelming them.

This was such a great experience and I hope I had the impact on the students that the panelists had on me two years ago.

Jobs Jobs Jobs

Yesterday was our last day of Easter break and I must say that I felt extremely  productive. I applied for three different jobs, and I found some additional jobs to apply for. This is making everything seem so real.

There are schools that I have dreamed of teaching in for so long and to see them list openings makes me so excited. I know that it will definitely be a battle to actually get into a classroom that I call my own but I am ready for that challenge.

There are only 5.5 weeks left of student teaching and then I am released out into the real world. It's all so bittersweet!

Happy Birthday to ME

March 23, 2016

Today was my first birthday as a teacher. I must say it was delightful. I was showered with "Happy Birthdays" from my students, along with homemade cards and cupcakes. It's always great to have one day to feel extra appreciated.

Lucky for me today was an (extra) fun day in first grade! We began the day by doing a phonics egg hunt. Inside 200 plastic eggs I put pieces of paper with words on them. Students searched the room for eggs and when they were all found everyone returned to their seats to begin sorting. The objective was to have the most long i words since this was our phonics focus today. Although students only had to find the long i words they still had to sort through the different short and long vowels.

The students had fun with the egg hunt and I got a great idea at how the class had grasped the long and short vowel sounds.

Spelling Schedule

March 22, 2016

One thing that was really effected by this short week is the spelling schedule. Spelling is done on a strict 5 day regimen. The pre-test is always on the first day of the 5 day cycle and the final test is always completed on day 5.  Usually day 1 falls on Monday and day 5 is on Friday. However, now the cycle will run Thursday-Wednesday.

In my opinion, I prefer spelling to go week by week and not in a specific numbered cycle. If it were up to me I would have used this week as a review week or fit everything into three days.

This can't really be done in this situation since 1. I am not the teacher so I don't make those decisions and 2. Spelling goes along with the reading series, so therefore you cannot change when you are doing a certain spelling list because it won't match to the rest of the material.

Easter

March 21, 2016

This week we only have a three day week due to the upcoming spring break. Both the students and teachers are excited. With St. Patrick's day and Easter falling so close this year it pretty much left only the three days this week to do Easter festivities. My co-op planned a few crafts, I picked a few books to read and I also am planning a phonics egg hunt on Wednesday.

Today we decorated the classroom while the students were at their special. This really put me in the Spring spirit. However, I must say it also made me realize how fast this semester is going and how soon graduation is coming.

Everyday Math

March 18, 2016

Well my first week has come to a close. I'd like to talk about Everyday Math since I have now seen it for a full week. It is definitely very different than what I was taught in elementary school, as well as what I taught in my last placement.

This week we covered geometry for thee days, and math machines for one day. The curriculum is set up for a 4 day week. At first I thought this a little weird, however, the more I thought about it the more I liked it. This gives you built in flexibility to extend one lesson into two days if you think your students could use the extra practice. You have the ability to catch up if you fall behind for unforeseen circumstances (class programs, fire drills, 2 hour delays, etc.). Or, you have the options to get to supplement with additional activities. This is what we did today. My teacher set up math stations for the students to rotate through.

Something else that I like is the constant review on old concepts. This keeps students' thinking refreshed. So far it seems as though there is time for review during each lesson and also on each homework page.

I am still learning this type of teaching and I'm sure I will have a pros and cons list by the end of this 8 week placement. However, right now I just wanted to discuss the positives.

St. Patrick's Day

March 17, 2016

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Salem is a holiday celebrating school. Many school districts are no longer able to celebrate "religious based" holidays anymore. Not that St. Patrick's is, but since today was a holiday I am going to discuss the whole concept.

In elementary schools students are aware of the holidays going on, however, they are not aware of why they cannot celebrate in school. In my personal opinion I love holidays. I enjoy the crafts, I enjoy the tasty and creative treats, the happiness, the dressing up, the list goes on.  I also think that holidays can present a great learning opportunity for students.

• Look into the history/background of the day
• Create learning activities based on the holiday
• Leveled readers
• Writing prompts
• Math problems with real world connections

Today we listened to Irish music, had a St. Patrick's themed writing prompt and the students were introduced to a vocabulary list with words that matched the holiday. The kids and teachers both enjoyed the day. 

Lesson Intermission

March 16, 2016

With such a large class I have noticed that most of the instruction throughout the day is whole group. This can be a challenge for 1st graders. I have noticed that my teacher has a great method of breaking up the lessons and getting the students out of their seats.

She has a few games that she will turn to. So far I have seen Sparkle (a spelling review game) and Around the World (a sight word or math facts game). What I really like about these are that they are reviewing skills in a fun way. Students are learning and they think they are just playing a game.

Another way she splits up the day is by transitioning the class back to the carpet and reading a book to them. In my opinion, students can not be read to enough (especially if they are not receiving this enrichment at home). A few times already she has let me do the read alouds!

This is definitely a great tool to keep in mind if I have a large class that gets antsy sitting at their desks too long.

Day 2

I'm starting to get acclimated to my new school and I am learning the ins and outs of Miss G's classroom. I find myself comparing everything to my first placement(not in a bad way). I have to keep reminding myself that every classroom is different. One day (hopefully soon) I will have my own classroom and that will be different as well.

One thing I am really really going to miss is the access to technology. I was so spoiled for the past 7 months and I am now limited to an Interactive White Board (similar to a Smartboard, just a different brand) and 4 older model desktop PCs. However, I will make it work, I'm sure of it!

Even though I am not teaching fully yet I am still kept very busy throughout the day. I definitely appreciate this! At this point in my teaching journey I am past the point of wanting to observe and I want to be involved. It won't be long though until I am teaching the full days again!

Hello Salem!

Today was my first day in my new school. Although I am in the same grade, these two placements could not be more different. First of all, I now have a class of 24, compared to my previous class of 9. I was anticipating to be overwhelmed with almost tripling my class size, however I must say I was not overwhelmed whatsoever. I was beyond impressed with how well behaved and independent the whole class was. I think I commented on this to my new co-op about 10 times throughout the day.

Another major difference is the demographics. The socioeconomic status of a huge majority of this class is very low. My co-op gave me the background stories of some of my students and I realized how naive I was to the reality of some student's lives. There are so many districts where this type of home life is the "norm" and that is so incredibly sad.

 The students all seemed so excited to be at school and I am really looking forward to my next 8 weeks with them!

Closed Chapter

I said my farewells to my wonderful first grade class and co-op at St. Joseph School. I could write a sappy post about how sad I was, however, I decided I want to write about the most important thing I learned from my teacher.

"Use thumbtacks when putting up bulletin boards."

Seriously. Do this.

Within my first few weeks at St. Joe's I was putting up my very first bulletin board. I would staple everything on, step back, analyze how crooked everything was, pull out the staples and repeat.

Finally after 3 or 4 times of doing this she came out with a container of thumbtacks. She taught me the greatest lesson of putting everything in place with the thumbtacks and then you have the freedom to rearrange anything that's crooked. I must say that this decreased my time exponentially.

This lesson applies to more than just bulletin boards.

I learned to never think of your plans as "permanent". There is always something that can alter what you had in mind to do. Whether it be a fire drill in the middle of a science experiment, a 2 hour delay or a technology meltdown, there are always going to be variables in your plans. Be flexible. There is nothing you can do about those challenges you will face. Be open to moving around your daily schedule or weekly schedule at that. This will save you a lot of aggravation if you go in with an open mind. I learned in my 7 months at this school that there was not one single week, not one, that everything that was written out in my teacher's plan book was accomplished as it was "supposed to be".

I'm looking forward to the new lessons I will learn from my new co-op.

Onto Salem Elementary!!

Back to Observing

This week my co-op began to start taking subjects back. This is to make the transition easier for the students when I am gone. It is now to the point where she is teaching the majority of the day. I spent most of the day, except for centers and math, observing. I think this a great experience to get again. I was able to compare and contrast my teaching styles to hers. It was interesting to see again how she utilized whole group instruction vs small group instruction within the same lesson. I also found it rewarding when she would ask the students about content that I had previously taught and the students were able to recall the information quickly and accurately.

Although this had its benefits I must say that I definitely prefer teaching over observing. I walked around during the lessons to help students that needed it but it's still not the same. I am ready to start up instruction again in my next placement.

Weather

Today we finally had weather that was not close to, or below freezing. It was actually well above that temperature! The students were ecstatic to get outside and play during recess. For weeks we have been having indoor recess. The students had fun playing with Legos, and blocks and board games for a while...but, it was getting old.

I noticed a huge difference in their afternoon behavior after getting to go outside. I am a strong believer that kids need to burn off energy throughout the day. Today, they finally got to do that!! After the students came back inside they were surprisingly on task and ready to focus on the afternoon instruction. I'm really curious to see if this pattern will repeat the rest of the week since it is suppose to be so nice outside all week. (Fingers crossed!)

4 More Days

March 4, 2016

It's really starting to hit me that I only have 4 more days in the classroom that I have been in since August. I only have 4 days left with the co-op that taught me more about teaching than I ever imagined I could learn. Only 4 more days with my wonderful students that I have watched grow in all subjects.

I understand that this 8 week placement was just part of my student teaching requirement;however, it became so much more than that. I find myself not wanting to leave. This is a just a step I have to take towards my goal of having my own classroom one day.

Graduation is in exactly 2 months. I have 8 weeks and 4 days left of student teaching. My PECT exams are passed. I am patiently awaiting jobs to be posted. Everything is getting very real and it is all happening faster than I thought. Ready or not....Chloe Stine is almost a real teacher.

Constellations

March 3, 2016

We continued our Space unit today! I turned the lights off and had all the children lay back on the carpet. I told them to envision it was a warm summer night and they were laying in the grass and looking up at the sky. I gave them about 2 minutes before turning on the lights. Each student shared something they saw in the sky. Many students shared similar answers, clouds, stars, the moon and someone even saw constellations. Her answer was my perfect lead into today's lesson. (Don't you just love when that happens!!)

After discussing what a constellation was each student had the opportunity to go to the chalkboard and take one of the constellation cards I taped there. We transitioned back to the Smartboard where we were about to virtually enter a planetarium. This was a great website I found and I was super excited that I could do this activity with my students.  My goal was to have everyone find the constellation they had chosen in our virtual planetarium. I'm not going to lie; I was a little nervous that this would be too challenging and my lesson would turn into a flop. However, after consideration I decided to go through with it. It went better than I ever expected!

Lesson learned...it doesn't hurt to try something once. You'll never know if you don't try.

After that activity each student got paper, mini marshmallows and toothpicks to make a replica of their constellation. I was so pleased with this lesson, and this whole unit in general!

Sarcasm

I am an extremely sarcastic individual. Since being in the classroom it has been a constant struggle for me to turn that sarcasm off. At least once a day I let it slip. Is this a big deal...no, it's not like I'm talking about profanity or anything of that sort. However, the issue is that my students have no idea that I am being sarcastic.

I am not exaggerating when I say that they take everything that comes out of my mouth completely seriously. This isn't a bad thing though. Student's should trust their teachers. What makes me nervous is that my use of sarcasm will weaken that trust bond I have worked so hard to form.

Many times I have caught myself when I am about to answer sarcastically to students and I switch my reply to an actual answer. Immediately after I give my sarcastic replies I feel so bad looking at the concerned and confused looks on my students faces. If I was with older students this would definitely not be as major of an issue, but first grade students just do not understand. I don't think I am the only one that struggles with this issue. I know that it is something I need to work on and I think in time I will be better at stopping the words before they come out of my mouth.

Frogs

I haven't posted awhile about a specific lesson I did so I decided to do that today.

We concluded our life cycle unit today with frogs. We began by watching an interactive life cycle video that was paired with a review activity. Students then transitioned back to their desks. Step by step the students created life cycle hats. They all did such a great job at drawing and labeling each step (and later ordering them). I pre-cut most of the items for the hat but I did allow the students to cut out the eyes and tongue for their frog. I think there is a fine line between pre-cutting materials. Most of the time it is a time saver for the lesson itself. A huge plus is also that the final products will look like they are "suppose" to. However, I think when students cut out their own materials it makes the projects look so much more personal to the students. This project walked that fine line. I felt as though I prepared enough of the materials to keep the lesson in the time frame, but allowed them enough creative freedom.

The students (and myself) had so much fun with this activity. It was relaxed and laid back yet organized and well managed.

Out Of This World

Last week I began my mini-unit on the Solar System. Today I began putting up my bulletin board in the hall. Since this was going to be my final bulletin board at the school I wanted to make it a great one! Last week I hand painted all of the planets and the sun. Today I got everything assembled and up on the wall.

All day long I heard/saw kids out in the hall admiring the planets and naming them. Many students pointed out the big swirl I had on Jupiter and asked their peers "Did you know that there's a storm on Jupiter that has lasted over 300 years?!" This made me realize how meaningful bulletin boards can be. They may be time consuming to plan out and put up, however they make the halls of the school so much more inviting (and educational). Some are meant to be decorative, but some, like my solar system board, spark academic conversation among students and get them thinking even when they aren't in their own classroom. Pictures to come soon!

Worn Out

February 26, 2015

Today I had my final formal observation at this placement. It was a math lesson right at the end of the day. Overall, the lesson itself went great! However, it was obvious that the students had checked out of school. Not only was it the end of the day, it was the end of the week. They all knew that as soon as my lesson was over it was time for the weekend. This was the first time I really had to deal with this. Our schedule was switched around a bit today because of my formal observation. This seriously had me thinking...what if math was already at the end of the day?! This started a conversation with my co-op.

She told me how huge time of day plays in a students attention span. She explained to me how she carefully thought out her schedule when planning what subjects are taught in the morning, and which take place after lunch. This all made so much more sense to me now. I will definitely be taking this into much more serious thought when planning my own classroom scheudle one day after this today's experience.

Reading Night

Myself, the first grade teacher and the second grade teacher spent the past few weeks planning and organizing the school's first ever Reading Night! Tonight we finally put all of our planning into action.

Our theme was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. We began by reading that book to the students. We then had 3 activity centers for the students to rotate through. We had a word work activity, a cause and effect activity and a craft. At the end of the stations all the students came back together for a few rounds of sight word bingo. During this time all the students met with one of the teachers for a small session on how to help your child while reading with them.

Overall the night was a huge success! We received wonderful feedback from all of the parents. The principal also attended and was elated with what we produced. There were multiple requests for more in the future. This was a great experience for me to have. There was a ton of work and planning involved but seeing everything come together was worth every minute of it.

Engaged

No...I am not engaged to wed. I am referring to students being engaged in their learning.


Today we had a presentation from Mr. Yuk. The topic was on dangerous/poisonous household items. We have a handful of students that have a very difficult time paying attention to anything going on throughout the day. Each student has a different way of getting themselves off track. Some talk to other students, some get out of their seats, some play with their pencil, some doodle on their paper, etc. My co-op and I are always speaking to the kids before programs about being on their best behavior, being attentive, etc. Today's program was no different.


One of students that tends to lose focus a lot throughout the day a lot say front and center for Mr. Yuk. He kept his eyes on the presenter the entire time and traced her movements. He raised his hand for every question and volunteered to be a participant in the program. I was in awe watching his actions and behavior the entire hour we were at the presentation. It amazes me how different a student's actions can be when they are interested in the topic at hand. This really connects to why it is so important to make your lessons interesting to the students.

Math "Problems"

The title of this post may be deceiving. I am not referring to math problems such as "2+2=". I am referring to problems, or struggles, in math. I have been very fortunate with my math abilities. It has always been my strongest and favorite subject. This led me to be very excited to begin teaching math. Today I ran into a huge disconnect. I've always been aware that many people struggle in math. It does not come easy to everyone. Today that hit me like a brick wall during my lesson.

We were doing problem solving lessons today. All of the problems were similar to the following:

Max has 56 apples. He can fit 10 apples in each basket. How many baskets does Max need.

We began by using red counters (apples) and cups (baskets) to show the problem. I had all the students write down predictions, and then we "acted out" the problem. We came to an an answer of 6 and everyone seemed fine. We did a few more examples using the counters and cups and we also used the students and chairs to represent seats in a car and going on a trip. Again, everything seemed fine, everyone understood what we were doing.

It was time to complete the workbook pages on this lesson. We did a guided problem, the students that answered answered correctly and everyone had the correct answer on their page. It was now time to move onto independent work. A few students came up with the correct answers and drawings to show their work. However, the majority of the students all of sudden were coming up with blank pages and blank stares. They didn't know what to do when they were working individually. At first I think I was coming across frustrated. That wasn't the case at all, I was just confused. I didn't understand how just 10 minutes before everyone was giving me correct answers and showed no signs of being lost in the lesson. After multiple attempts at helping the remaining students come to a solution I pulled those students back up to the carpet and did an intervention lesson with them. Again, they all knew exactly what to do! I must say I was even more confused now than ever. After doing that one problem together I sent them back to their seats to do one more. This time it went better and students had the right answers, however, I still do not feel confident that they fully understand this lesson. I am hoping to get some time tomorrow to help these students one-on-one with the concept.

Mystery Readers

February 22, 2016

Once a week there will be a special visitor in first grade called a mystery reader! The mystery reader chooses a book of their liking and a snack and spends some time with the students. The students are told the morning of that there is a mystery reader coming but they have no idea who it is. They may or may not even know the reader prior to their visit. Some of the readers include, but are not limited to, other teachers, older students, parents, friends and family members of their teacher, etc. On Friday we had our first reader! My co-op asked me a few weeks ago if I had anyone that may be interested in coming in to participate. I was excited to bring people from my own life in to the classroom to get a sense of what I do everyday and to meet my wonderful class.

Without hesitation my wonderful boyfriend volunteered. He read a great interactive book to the class called Count the Monkeys. I loved watching someone read to kids that has little to no experience in this. (There's a lot more that goes into it, contrary to popular belief). The night before the reading I practiced reading with prosody and how to hold the book so that the entire class would be able to see. I felt as though I was receiving a little more appreciation for my career choice after the "lesson".

The day of the reading went great! The students were engaged and on their best behavior. During the snack portion we allowed the students to ask him questions or tell him something they like about school. Each and every one of the students opened up and participated. Next week my best friend and also my adviser from Bloomsburg  will be visiting to participate in the mystery reader program. So far I love this activity and depending on the grade level I'll be teaching, I would definitely consider using this in my own classroom.

Kahoot!

February 19, 2016

If you are an avid follower of my blog then you already know how much I love technology. I want to discuss one of my favorite websites, Kahoot!. Kahoot! is an interactive quizzing website. I have found it great for reviews and assessing where students are on a topic. You can create your own quiz, survey or discussion.You can also access Kahoot!s that other users have created. Students answer questions individually on their own devices. In first grade I use the iPads and/or Chromebooks. The SmartBoard makes a great place to project the master Kahoot!. Students view the questions and answers on the master presentation and answer using their device (like I mentioned before). When the quiz is over I have the ability to go in and view the results. This allows me to get a sense for which students grasped the concept and which did not.

This week I used Kahoot! for an adjective review. This went wonderfully. The students were quiet and focused. I read a sentence aloud and the students were to chose the answer that had the adjective from the sentence. There were 10 questions and all students got at least 8 correct (many got perfect scores). This was a great indication that we were able to move on from direct instruction on adjectives. After seeing how much students enjoy this website I am trying to include into one lesson a week for the remainder of my time in the classroom. Next week I am testing out using Kahoot! with spelling.

Important People Presentations

We concluded our social studies unit today. Each student has been researching an "important" person for the past four weeks. Today everyone was presenting their findings. I was nervous to see what students would get up and forget everything they learned. I was nervous that I assigned people to students that had too complex of a "story" for them to comprehend. However, I did know some students that would go up to present and be very successful. I knew in advance that some students were really engaged in their research. I also knew that if a student wasn't successful it wasn't entirely my fault. Let me discuss a few of the presentations.

Helen Keller: I assigned Heller Keller to one of my lower level students. I wasn't sure at the beginning of the unit how well he would be able to comprehend everything. However, to my surprise he became very invested in his research and retained more information about her than anyone else in the class did about their person. Very proud teacher moment!!

Benjamin Franklin: I felt as though finding and understanding the importance of Benjamin Franklin was fairly "easy". I chose a student to research him that has difficulty staying on task and focusing. There was a lot of information that he could have presented on Benjamin Franklin and to my disappointment (although not my surprise after observing him throughout the unit) the only 2 lines he gave during the presentation were "Ben discovered electricity. He made the first fire company." He was unable to elaborate, provide any other life stories or answer of the student's questions.

I really enjoyed listening to the students present and even more so listen to the students answer the questions from their peers. They may or may not have known the actual answers but all of them gave it their best shot at answering. ** I did correct false information that was relayed. My favorite question/answer combination.

"How did Neil Armstrong die?"
"He floated off into space and never returned to earth so he's dead."

Poetry

February, 17 2016

Today I began my Poetry unit. It was delayed because of the early dismissal on Monday and snow day on Tuesday. This is a completely new concept for first grade. I have a fair amount of freedom with the unit and I'm excited to see everything we will accomplish as a class. Today was our introduction lesson. I began by not saying what our unit was called. Earlier in the day I had put a random item into a paper bag. I called a student up to the board and asked them to reach in the bag without looking and describe what they feel. I wrote the words on the white board as the student said them. When she was done we took the item out and wrote it above the words as a title:

Glue

hard

squishy

bumpy top

hole

label

I posed the question "What did I just write?" The students stared at it confused for a little and I gave them time to think. Someone finally said "Well, its not a sentence." This sparked a new conversation of what is it not. "It's not a story", "It's not a paragraph", etc. The students sat stumped a little longer.  Finally one of the students raised their hand and said "I think it might be a poem". Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!!

We then proceeded to discuss poetry and different types. I read a few poems and then each student picked one of the poetry books I had, spent 10 minutes reading through them and marked their favorite poem. Each student then read their poem aloud to the class. Friday is our next lesson in the unit and we will be beginning with Acrostics. 

Valentine's Day

February 12, 2016

Today was our Valentine's Day party! Being an elementary teacher adds a new level of excitement to Valentine's Day. I'm a very crafty individual and I had a blast making all of the valentines for my students. I forgot how exciting it was for the students too. The classroom parties weren't until the afternoon but all day the students kept asking when they could pass out their valentines that they brought.

My teacher planned a math activity that was Valentine's Day themed which I really liked. Each student got a bag of 10 SweetHearts. They had a packet to follow through. At the top of the packet was ten heart outlines. Their first step was to color each heart to match what was in their bag. (Example: 3 pink hearts, color 3 hearts pink). After that they made fractions for each color heart. My co-op showed that the denominator or "whole" would always be 10 because that's how many SweetHearts were in their bags. After making all of their fractions we showed them how to make a graph to represent their findings.

Not only was this a great fraction review but since it was Valentine's Day themed and had manipulatives it really held the students' interest on a day that could have easily be wasted academically because of their excitement. This was a great lesson for me when thinking about planning for future holidays in the classroom.

Centers

February 11, 2016

This week I added on centers to my work load. Teachers do centers differently in their classrooms so let me explain how they are done here in 1st grade. Everyday after morning meeting we have whole group. Whole group consists of Spelling, Phonics and English. After a brief introduction to each as a class we complete the workbook pages for each subject. After whole group is when we transition into centers. There are 4 centers; Math, Writing, Word Work and Small Group Reading. The groups rotate through all centers each day. Each center has additional practice on what was covered in whole group (with the exception of Math which covers what was learned the day prior).

It was up to me to come up with activities for each center (except for Small Group Reading, which I will add on in two weeks). This took a lot of planning; 3 centers, 5 days, 15 total centers to plan for!

A lot of the activities I found/came up with were new to me and the class. I knew that I couldn't expect them all to go smoothly but I was hoping there were no complete failures. There are no centers tomorrow because of Valentine's Day festivities so I am going to recap the week now. I won't discuss everything but I'll pick out my favorites and my least favorites.

One day there was a 2 hour delay and this meant centers were cancelled. This was disappointing because I was excited to see how my planned activities would work. However, I was able to move some things around and save some of the cancelled activities for next week.

Some centers that were a home run:

Race To A Dollar: Students use a spinner and play money to collect coins. The goal is to be the first one to get $1 in coins.

Kahoot! Adjective Review: Kahoot! is an online interactive quiz website. I am going to have a post next week about this so I won't go too in depth. The students had to read sentences and choose the adjective from the choices provided. The quizzes are done on iPads and the students loved it!

Place Value Bingo: Regular bingo rules, but students must figure out what number is being represented by tens and ones blocks to mark the number off their card.

There was actually only one center that I was really disappointed with:

Spin-a-Word: This was an activity that I found and adapted to meet what we were learning about in Phonics. The original activity used a spinner and each portion of the spinner had different word families (-at, -an, etc.) The students would spin the spinner and add the word family ending to the consonant provided for each number. Some words were real and some were nonsense that were made. At the end you circled and counted how many real words were created. I modified this for our long a and long I patterns instead of word families. This was too advanced for my first graders and most of them really struggled. This would have been a great activity for the beginning of the year when we did word families but my modification just did not work.

I have many new activities planned for next week and I'm looking forward to seeing which ones are a success!

2 Hour Delay

There are definitely pros and cons to 2 hour delays (as there is for just about anything in life). I must say I think I enjoyed sleeping in as much as my students did. Let's be honest, students would most likely have a difficult time developing a con list for 2 hour delay. However, as an (almost) teacher I easily developed a con list of the two main downfalls of delays in my opinion.

1. Plans and Time

Although I was not the one that personally had to create a new schedule that accounted for the 2 hour delay it still effected my plans. Some of the lessons were shortened and some just had to be completely skipped. Now I have to decide if I want to work some of the missed activities into my plans for the rest of the week or if I will just wait to do them another week. This is why flexibility is such an important quality for teachers to have. You can't control everything that goes on in the school day, week or year. It was out of my control that 2 hours of my planned out day were lost. You simply cannot achieve 7 hours of planned lessons and activities in 5 hours. However, if anyone reading this discovers a way to warp time, I'm sure all teachers would enjoy learning the secret.

2. Behavior

I could go on about this forever. This was the first delay of the year and I had never witnessed student behavior after a 2 hour delay before from a teacher's perspective. I honestly think a few times I stood with my jaw dropped in amazement of the lack of self-control the students had. Not one of the students went the entire day without having their behavior re-corrected more than once. There was a straight hour where all of the students could not stop laughing. I don't know, and I don't even think they know what they were laughing at. It was definitely a disruption to the lessons that were taking place. An additional issue was having to give instructions multiple times before anything was accomplished. I am still shocked at how some students that we rarely ever have behavior issues with acted today. My co-op was more frustrated with what was going on than shocked. She explained how this is extremely common across all grade levels and to expect a re-occurrence when the next one takes place.

This is a prime example of weighing your pros and cons list. Would I wish for a delay? I'm not sure. On most days probably not. However, it all will depend how strongly my pros side is effected by my need for sleep.

100th Day of School!!!

I'm not going to lie until I began student teaching I definitely forgot about the hype that comes along with the 100th day of school in elementary school. Since the first day of the school year we have been counting up to the 100th day and now, today, it was finally here! My co-op and I had a full day of 100 themed activities.

The students were allowed to dress as if they were 100 years old today rather than wearing their uniform. This is without a doubt an idea that I will be stealing for my own classroom one day. I'm not sure if there is anything cuter than seeing 6 and 7 year olds dressed up as old people.

I brought in a snack for everyone today to go along with the theme, 100 day cupcakes decorated in their school colors! They were definitely a hit! During snack I passed out comparison photos I made for the students of what they look like now and what they will look like when they are 100 years old. Everyone definitely got a laugh and I even had other teacher's ask for the template so they could use it in future years.

The entire afternoon was dedicated to 100 themed stations. At station 1 students had to create a patterned necklace using 100 fruit loops. At station 2 students had to construct anything they wanted to using 100 mini marshmallows and toothpicks. At station 3 students drew a line on a plastic cup where they predicted how much water 100 drops would accumulate to. Lastly, at station 4 students wrote using the writing prompt, "If I had 100 dollars I would buy...".

Surprisingly with all of the craziness the day entailed the students behavior was not an issue whatsoever.

Now onto day 101 tomorrow.

Let's Read

Catholic School's Week has come and gone and it is time to return to a more regular classroom routine starting Monday. It was a fun, but VERY exhausting week. Today the students and faculty participated in Comfy Day, enjoyed a pancake breakfast and spent the afternoon watching a movie in true movie theater style. With all of the exciting activities packed into one day, I must say that none of them were my favorite part. My teacher was out of the classroom most of the day helping and preparing for all of the different activities. Guess who was left in charge....ME! It is such a different feeling when you are the one and only adult in the classroom. I led morning meeting and we took care of the regular Friday tests (spelling and handwriting). We had some downtime so I decided to read to the class. I love reading to children. No matter what book you pick they are so intrigued and focused on the words coming out of your mouth. You can add voices to the characters and exaggerate your expressions and not feel "awkward" doing so.

I read my new favorite children's book: The Day the Crayons Quit. I had seen a lot of advertisements for the book and I knew there was a lot of hype about, but I never actually read it until last week. I must say that I fell in love instantly. Getting my own copy is a must, and I already am looking into purchasing the sequel.

Next we read Fancy Nancy. This is another book that I've seen on shelves and in Scholastic book orders but I never actually read. I must say, I really liked this one too.

Lastly, we read Pirates Love Underpants. My class recently fell in love with this whole series of books. They've been rereading the Dinosaur and Alien versions of the books and I was excited when I found this book in the library because I knew it would be a hit.

I highly recommend these three books if you haven't read them already!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Next week I will be adding more subjects to my teaching work load. I have a system of having all of my lesson plans finished and materials made by Friday of the week before. This week I had a lot of materials to find and/or create. After many recommendations I finally joined Teacher's Pay Teachers. I must say, I can't believe it took me this long. There are such excellent resources and it puts light on a quote of many of my professors "you don't have to recreate the wheel". Besides being able to download and use resources it was a great tool to get ideas. A lot of times I saw something I liked that didn't exactly fit what I was looking for. Luckily I have a background in graphic design and am able to recreate a lot of materials I saw.

One feature I am testing out is selling my materials on the website. I am part of planning and running an upcoming reading night (there will be a future post explaining this more in depth). At the conclusion of the event we are having all of the students play sight word bingo. Today I made a bingo bundle to be used for the event and I decided to list it on Teachers Pay Teachers. I'm hoping other teachers are able to use the document and enjoy it in their own classrooms. It can be viewed at the link below!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Bingo-If-You-Give-a-Mouse-a-Cookie-2370047

2 Grades 1 Classroom

For Day 3 of Catholic School's Week the kindergarten class (which is located in a separate building) came to our school to take part in the day's activities. The students were at our school from 9-1:30 and the first grade classroom was their new "home" for day. Going from a class of 9 to a class of now 26 with all of the additional students was slightly overwhelming. A class of 26 may be fairly average for some schools so it wasn't so much the number of students that I was overwhelmed by. There are actually 2 specific reasons I would like to discuss.

Reason one: Growth Gap

From the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade there is astounding growth in a student. When you are with your students daily, it's hard to notice that growth day to day. It is also challenging to think about where they were academically and developmentally a year ago. Well, today I had the opportunity to see (approximately) just how far my students have some in a year. The lack of self-control and independence was what stood out the most to me when it came to developmental growth. The kindergarten students could not resist from getting out of their seats and moving about the classroom; they could not complete their assignments unless an adult was working with them and a small group; they couldn't walk on the stairs one foot at a time, and the list could go on. Academically I was absolutely astonished when comparing the writing samples of the kindergarten class to my first grade less. I was able to see a great example of how much a student's handwriting, sentence structure ,and  letter and word formation develops in just a year. This experience of working with two grades of students at once was a brand new opportunity for me and not something I ever was exposed to before (in a classroom setting). I kept catching myself comparing two students from the two different grades which was unfair. I was holding the kindergarten students to the same level I was my first graders. My class was in kindergarten at one time too. They acted and performed academically just like these students did today. And that is okay! Growth is a part of education.

Reason two: Teaching Styles

I have been in this classroom since August. This is without a doubt the most exposure I have had to one teacher (not counting being a student). I am used to her teaching styles, her classroom and behavior management and her organization. I actually see a lot of myself in her. The kindergarten teacher that joined our classroom today was opposite from my co-op in almost every possible way. That also made the day more difficult. I was used to managing the classroom how my co-op does. When you add 17 children to our classroom, classroom management is that much more necessary. However, you now are managing a majority of students that aren't yours AND that are not used to following any similar type of classroom management. It was a challenging day but it was a great learning experience.

On the upside of thinks; Luckily, I don't think this is a situation I will ever regularly be in.

Routines

As I mentioned in yesterday's post we have a crazy 5 days planned at St. Joe's due to Catholic School's Week. For most students it's their favorite week of the year; games, Wii tournaments, desserts at lunch, programs, and more! However, to fit all of this you could probably gather that our daily routines get slightly mixed up. Some classes are skipped, some are moved from the morning to the afternoon, etc. In your mind you're probably thinking that for students this is no big deal (maybe a little difficult on the teachers for planning reasons) but overall, the students are just excited about the activities.

This is a huge deal for some students. Specifically, students with autism. The autism spectrum is huge so I want it to be known that I am not talking about all students with autism. I'm actually just going to be talking about one, Kendra*.  We only have one diagnosed student at our school. With working with her previously in the year, and talking to her teacher and TSS worker, I knew how crucial a daily routine was for Kendra. As I mentioned before this week does not allow for any type of daily routine. I have been observing her a lot the past two days with how she was adjusting to Catholic School's Week.

I really noticed Kendra struggling. She was very apprehensive to get involved in the interactive dinosaur program today. She also had to keep asking teachers what was going on, what was happening next and when it would be happening. Her peers are very good with helping her out and keeping her on track. She usually is always near them and today I noticed her keeping to herself a lot. During a regular day, something as small as using a different stairwell will get her distracted from anything else going on until she finds out why they didn't use the "usual" stairwell. I can't even imagine the difficulty she is having comprehending all of changes going on this week. I'm hoping next week when we return to regular schedules she will be back on track.



*Name changed

Catholic School's Week

Today was the start of a crazy week at St. Joe's. It's Catholic School's Week! This is a country wide week celebration of choosing a Catholic School as your choice of education. To a public school this is equivalent to a school pride or homecoming week. The week is packed full (no exaggeration) of exciting activities for the students. We have a magician, bingo, crazy hair day, pajama day, and much much more. Not only are the students beyond excited, the teachers are as well.

To begin the week we had an exciting visit from the Bishop. There was a lot of preparation leading up to this visit and today everything finally came together. After everyone returned to their classroom from mass we waited for the Bishop to come do the class visit. Last week as a class the students brainstormed a list of questions they had to ask the bishop. We then narrowed down the list to "what we really wanted to know". This really helped when the Bishop visited today because the students asked previously agreed upon questions. It was great seeing how excited they all were. They could barely stay in their seats.

As far as student teaching goes, this week I added Spelling and Phonics unto my teaching workload. I love the feeling of teaching more and being in front of a class of students.

Lastly, today I hit 500 views on my blog! Thank you to everyone that has been reading and joining in my journey!

Proud

January 29, 2016

Students were assessed in August when school began. January is approximately half way through the school year and it was time to assess everyone again today. My co-op was completing sight word assessments with students today. The goal was to see growth. After each student completed their assessment my co-op showed him/her where they were at the beginning of the school year. Almost every student had the same reaction on their face; "Wow...school really is teaching me something"! However, one little girl's assessment stopped me in what I was doing and I just stood and watched in awe.

Molly* was only on the pre-primer list of the Dolch Sight Words back in August. She is one of our lowest level readers and struggles in Language Arts in general. Her reading has improved, but I don't think I realized just how much it improved until today. This same little girl breezed through the pre-primer words, the primer words, the 1st grade words, the 2nd grade words and half way through the 3rd grade list of words. I can't even explain the overwhelming pride I felt. This is just one of the many reasons why I chose this profession. It is these moments that I am assured that this is absolutely where I want to be.

Library Scavenger Hunt

Today we continued my unit on Important People in America. The students became "official investigators". We were going to be using multiple sources of information to fill our fact sheets. The students had their videos from the week before to use, the Chromebooks to search online resources and we were also going to use books.  I originally planned on going to the school library the day before to get books but I decided to change my lesson just a bit. I thought it would be a good idea to take all the students to the library and have them find and check out their own books about their person. To make this part of the lesson sound a little more appealing to the students I called it a library scavenger hunt. (Spoiler Alert: It was a hit!!)

After all of the students checked their books out we returned to the classroom and everyone began working diligently on the task at hand. I had to do a little bit of differentiating for some of the students. I provided some one-on-one attention with the lower level readers. Reading non-fiction texts is a relatively new concept to some of them so we had to do a mini lesson on finding and pulling out important pieces of information. Not all of the students finished so next week I will have to build in extra time in my lesson to finish up the fact sheets. I am amazed at how engaged everyone is in this unit. Social Studies is only done once a week so since last Thursday I have been asked daily, "Miss Stine when are we going to keep working on our people projects?". I can honestly say there is no better feeling than seeing such love for learning in the eyes of your students.

Snow Day and Butterflies

Yesterday was our first snow day of the year! It was nice to sleep in and have extra time to get planning done, however, it absolutely messes up your plans for the week. As a student, snow days were great. As a teacher, snow days are not as great. Some subjects that are only once a week are missed completely. Other subjects that are taught in a five day routine are messed up for entire rest of the week. It's all about being flexible though. That is what I learned from our first snow day. There is no point in stressing out about the missed days because you are not going to get that time back (well you will, but at a later date in the school year and that just isn't the same). My co-op showed me how she altered the weeks plans, and specifically today's plans to make up for yesterday's missed work. Yesterday I was suppose to begin my new science unit. Science is only taught once a week in this classroom, on Tuesdays. I was relieved when I got the word from my co-op that she decided to move my lesson to the next day and not the next week. Which brings me to today, and the second part of my post, my science lesson.

Our new unit in first grade is animal life cycles. We began with butterflies. Looking back, if this was my own class, and I wasn't assigned specific topics to teach, I would have given a pre-assessment on the entire unit. The class was very knowledgeable on the butterfly life cycle from the get-go. I had an idea that this might be the case and that is why I decided to begin with butterflies. I figured that it is fairly simple and would be a good starting point before delving into more in depth life cycles. This lesson also happened to be my first informal student teaching observation from my student teaching supervisor. It was great to get some feedback after my lesson and I was pleased with the compliments and suggestions I got. I attached a picture of an example of student work from the lesson. Overall, I think everything went well and I'm looking forward to my Social Studies lesson tomorrow.

New Student

At the beginning of the month, when the students returned from winter break, we had an addition to our first grade class; a new student! This was such a great learning experience for me to get, especially since the student came half way into the school year. We assigned him a buddy for the first week to show him around the school, help him with classroom routines, etc. The first week went smoothly and by lots of observations we were able to get a grasp of his math and reading levels. He fit in very well with the rest of the class and was quickly accepted as if he had been a classmate for the entire school year.

It wasn't until week two that we began to see some true colors showing. I feel as though new students are on their best behavior at first, are quiet and appear to be exemplar students. Week two was when we (my co-op and I) needed to begin redirecting a lot of his behaviors. Week three was when his behavior began to effect not only his academic work but was a distraction to his peers. Luckily, his common behavior problems (talking while others are talking, calling out, getting out of his seat during instructional time, unable to stay on task while working independently) are fixable. My co-op and I have each talked to him one on one and he seems to really take in what we are discussing. I'm sure I will have more on this issue in future posts to come.

 Overall, it has been very interesting for me to observe this change in the classroom. When we had only 8 in the class, adding one student really switched things up. The students adjusted well and I was surprised at how easy my co-op made it look at getting our new student acclimated into our classroom.

Seating Arrangement

January 22, 2016

During one of our prep periods today we spent a good deal of time discussing a new seating arrangement. When you have a class of only 9 the different possibilities are a lot less. On top of those limited options, you also have to consider which students work well near each other and which students don't. This is our biggest issue. We have students that have behavior issues when they are at the same desk pod. We have students that don't get along with each other when they are next to each other. We have students that won't stop talking when they are next to each other. The list goes on.

Besides issues with pairs of students unable to sit by each other we also have classroom environment issues that add to the problem. Some students are distracted by what's going on outside by looking through the windows. Some students can't be facing the door because they are constantly paying more attention to what is going on in the hall than what is going on in the classroom. Some students can't sit by the teacher's desk because they become more engaged in what is happening at the desk (conferences with another student, grading, etc.) than what they should be working on at their seat.

Rearranging the seating chart may seem like an impossible task but I promise it's not. There is a way (multiple actually) that will work. You just have to sit down and figure it out. I remember learning about this in classes and being given hypothetical scenarios to try and challenge you in rearranging the seating chart. I honestly never thought it could be that hard. I was wrong. However, this is just another great learning experience for me in classroom management.

Define Important

"Imagine being in a room where everything is black and you're not allowed to hear!"

This was one of my students expressing his fascination with Heller Keller's life with one of his peers. Today I began my unit on Important People in American History. My students became so much more engaged with this lesson than I ever could have imagined. After a mystery themed motivational device the entire class was focused in on the task at hand. Everyone was assigned a person from our class's "Wall of Fame" (which was made up of 9 important people from American history). We spent a while talking about what "important" means for the sake of this lesson. To my surprise this concept was easily grasped which made me confident the rest of the lesson would go smoothly. Using their iPads, QR codes and YouTube they each separated into their own area in the classroom to begin their research. After my last technology heavy lesson having many technology issues I was extremely relieved to have everything work as planned.  My original idea was to have them watch their video and then spend time in the class library until everyone was finished. To my surprise after they finished I saw them eagerly finding other peers to share the story of their important person. Even after we concluded their lesson they were talking about their findings on their way to health. This made me so excited to continue this unit with everyone.

Today we had a lot of behavior issues with the students. How the day is structured and how each subject is designed the students spend very little time actually in their seats at their desk. Surprisingly though, even during this minimal seat work time, a majority of the children are constantly getting up and walking around the class to see what everyone else is working on. This obviously causes a disturbance to other students, and in the long run, their work is not getting done. The classroom I'm using a clip chart for behavior. You start in the middle each day, for positive behavior you move up and when you need re-corrected you move down. There were points in the day where almost half of the class had their clips on "moved down" spaces. Prior to Christmas everyone's behavior was similar to this, but I thought after getting back into "school mode" come January things would settle down. My co-op shared the same opinion and we are both thinking of ways to get these common behavior issues ironed out. Let's hope for a better behavior day tomorrow.

Today I am a STUDENT TEACHER

I have very fond memories from elementary school of having student teachers in my class. They were the best thing in my mind at the time. Since I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a teacher I always looked forward to my time to be the classroom student teacher. Today, that dream was finally achieved for me. Even though I have been in this classroom, with the same teacher and the same students for the past 6 months I was no longer the "intern" I had a new title and I am so excited to embrace that.

Gradually over the next 8 weeks I will be adding subjects to my workload until I will be teaching all day, every day. I spent a lot of time outline and preparing for my time in the classroom. I am beginning a new Social Studies unit tomorrow. We will be exploring Important People in American History. Next week I am adding on Science and we will be exploring Animal Life Cycles. Its surreal to me that I am already at this stage in my teaching journey. After this post is complete I'll be spending the remainder of my night lesson planning and brainstorming activities that would engage my students. As excited as I am I must admit that part of me is still nervous. I hope you enjoy following this adventure with me as I am eager to share it with all of you!!

Next Journey

I've been away from the blog for a short while, however, starting tomorrow I will be back daily. Tomorrow is the official start of my student teaching and my final semester as a Bloomsburg University student. My followers can expect the same type of posts from me but I will update you on some changes that will be occurring:

• The classroom: For the next 8 weeks I will be continuing to share my experiences from the same 1st grade classroom you have all been reading about since August. However, beginning in March you will get the opportunity to follow me on my next adventure in another 1st grade classroom at Salem Elementary. 
• The title: Don't get confused when the color scheme and title of the blog changes (it's still me!). I chose both of these things based on my previous internship.

I'm excited to continue sharing my experiences and passion for teaching with all of you!