This week I have taken on everything except reading. Next Monday I will be beginning my nonfiction unit which is the unit I am using for my building block. Over the course of the week I was gathering materials and looking at books to use. I think I have everything I need to finish up this unit this weekend or at least finish up the first week of the unit. My building block is due Oct. 18 already and my review time with two professors is Oct. 25! Very soon so it's time to crack down!
I have been teaching unit 1 for math and Tuesday was the test. It went pretty well for most of them. For students with problems it is usually on one specific topic. Place-value has been a tough area for the students moving from hundreds to thousands with addition or the opposite way with subtraction. Problems will ask students to add/subtract 10, 100, 1,000 and they are changing more than just that one place value- tens, hundreds, or thousands. Today we did some work with the unit cubes- ones, tens, and hundreds in groups after our addition timed test. All week the students are doing their own things so since Friday is a catch up day, I wanted the students to be social. Hopefully they were helping each other out and learned something/became more familiar with the place values!
We have started a writing project about the students three favorite things. The first step was working with a chart to plan out the title and 4 squares to write intro paragraph ideas and the things they would like to say about their 3 favorite things. Planning is done and the intro paragraph is done for most of the students. Next week we will continue with our paragraphs, editing, and publishing with an illustration. Yesterday I had one girl that wrote her title and in the space for her first sentence wrote; "Don't like this" in bigger letters than normal, maybe taking up two spaces. Earlier that day we had to call this girls mother because she forgot an assignment that was already late. We are continuing to monitor her because she will have bad moments where she will just start crying if something small is wrong. I'm hoping next week we can go back to the writing and I will get her started fresh.
Social studies is going well; the students are still learning about geography and now we are moving into different types of maps and landforms. I continue to call on students randomly if I feel like they aren't following along or listening so I'm hoping the kids are going to keep catching onto this tactic.
Yesterday was picture day so the kids were dressed nicely, most of them. Talking with a few of the teachers some would say that they let their own children pick out the outfit to wear on picture day. I found this interesting because it gives the kid ownership, especially in the future. When they look back on the picture they can't blame mom or dad for what they wore and they can see a true representation of what the child looked like. One of the boys in my class was wearing and Elvis shirt which I thought was pretty funny but he really liked it! A girl that was wearing a dress flat out told one of our male gym teachers that she didn't have anything else on underneath (except underwear obviously!) so she didn't do crunches that day. Before getting the pictures taken there is a volunteer combing hair. Lets just say a few of the kids or parents buying the pictures should feel very lucky to have that lady!
Other stories... a boy told me he probably wouldn't have time to do his homework that night but I assured him that he should try to get it done! I thought it was funny that he at least tried to get out of doing it.
- Had to pick up and move a desk yesterday during writing time. My teacher has been leaving me alone in the room to really get the feel that this is my class. The kids have been good for me but I do wonder if they really should be even better. The desk I had to move was because there was a conflict between two girls. I feel like this may have happened regardless of the person teaching. The first things I tried didn't work so I stopped and said ok, this needs to change. I asked for a volunteer to move seats and chose a person from those students. Between one girl switching spots with another they went in a circle around the room. I grabbed the girls desk with the longer way to go and picked it up. I think this impressed the kids a little bit :)
Today I mentioned that I was leaving for my meet and the kids weren't happy. I got a few hugs and sad faces. They are just too funny! The third grade teachers were talking yesterday at our meeting and we wonder how they like us because it's like a lot of times we are telling them to be quiet and follow directions. Somehow we are doing something right and I think it is because the children feel safe with us and know that we respect them.
Can't believe today is the last day of September! The temps definitely remind me that it is this time of year but it feels like I was just running in the summer heat and here I am going to run in fall weather at UWEC! Including this race I have 3 cross country races left as a Green Knight! I love doing this so much that I just don't want it to end. I can't fight it though, just need to go run as hard as I can & that is the plan today! EC is a tough course from what I have heard so time won't be the biggest thing to look at, effort will be! Happy September 30!
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