Week Sixteen

December 6 - 10, 2010

Week Fifteen

November 29 - December 3, 2010

Week Fourteen

November 22 & 23, 2010

This was a very short, easy week! I didn't think we would have a lot of students here this week but we only had a few absent on Monday. But Tuesday was a different story, we had 9 absent! I did not want to move on a teach something new so we went over multiplication facts and long division. I really think the students benefited from the long division review. First I had them work on a Turkey Division worksheet and when they turned them into me I couldn't believe the grades! We spent a lot of time working on each long division step and I saw a large improvement in the kids work. One of my students was having a really hard time and they were very frustrated because school usually comes easy to them. When they finally understood what they were doing I was very proud. I only wish that all of the students would have been there for the review.

Week Thirteen

November 15 - 19, 2010

This week I was able to attend my first parent teacher conference. I am so glad that I was able to attend the conference with Mrs. Brown because she did such a great job and I learned a lot from her! We had one parent not show up for the third conference in a row. I do not understand why someone would take time to plan a meeting on three separate occasions and not even show up or cancel ahead of time. But, we did have four parents show up and they were all a success. I was a little nervous for a few of them but I had nothing to be nervous about! All of the students came with their parents and at first I didn't think that was a good thing but it turned out to be good. We could hold them accountable for their actions and we could talk as a group to work out problems and make goals. Overall, it was a great experience!

Week Twelve

November 8 - 12, 2010

It was so nice to have a day off this week. It made the week seem a lot faster so I am sure that next week is going to seem extremely long. My liaison, Dr. Bolyard, came and observed my lesson on using a protractor this week. She stayed for all three of my math rotations and I was glad because she was able to see my progress after teaching the same lesson three times. She was very helpful and gave me a lot of feedback. I thought that I would be nervous but I am so comfortable with my students that I was not nervous at all. I thought the lesson went well until we graded the homework I assigned that night to review using a protractor. Since there was a lot of confusion, I went over the lesson with all three classes a few times to make sure that all of the students understood.

Week Eleven

November 1 - 5, 2010

I feel like the school year is really starting to set in. The kids are awful a lot of the time. Really they aren't awful but there are a few bad apples that spoil the whole bunch. For a while I was blaming it on the whole class but then I realized that the class was feeding off of one student who was constantly off of task. The student who was acting up was having personal issues at home so at first, we were letting them get by with a lot just because they were having a hard time. But then they realized how lenient we were being and starting taking advantage. I found this really hard because I had never been in their shoes before. I got to the point to where I had to take action and start punishing them. Well, my mentor teacher stepped up to the plate and I followed with the same discipline. Although, I would rather not have to deal with these situations, I am glad that I had my mentor teacher to fall back on and help me with deciding what to do. It is hard to believe that eleven weeks have gone by. I am not looking forward to December!

Week Ten

October 25 - 29, 2010

What a crazy week! I have always heard teachers say that they hate party days at school and I did not realize why until our Halloween party. First off, it is really frustrating when you have 16 parents show up for the Halloween party but only 3 can show up for the parent/teacher conferences. Also, it was really hard for the kids to focus because they were preoccupied with the thoughts of Halloween. As chaotic as the day was, I really enjoyed seeing all of the children dressed up in their costumes. Now it seems to me that holidays are only fun with you have children to enjoy them with. A friend of mine passed away from a car accident on Halloween 4 years ago and I have not thought of Halloween as a happy time since then until this year. Also, this week we heard some bad news about some personal issues with one of our students. I know you're not supposed to take your work home with you but you get attached to these kids because you're with them all of them time and you take on the weight of their issues with them. Hearing these things make me realize how lucky I am and how most of us take our blessings for granted. Hopefully things will turn up next week.