Week/s in review
Hi Girls,
My how time flies!!! Here it is the middle of November already and you are getting ready to start wrapping things up soon....transitioning back and tieing up loose ends!
Before you wrap up for Thanksgiving, please reflect on the last couple of weeks and tell us how things have been going in your classrooms.
As always, if you need anything, please let us know!
Heidi and Chris
posted by Heidi @ 1:06 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I cannot believe how the time is flying by! The last few weeks have been great and I am realizing how much I am going to miss this class and school. It is strange to think about giving the class back and transitioning out. The time is going by very quickly and I've been getting quite a bit done. I've started my positive impact on world geography (focusing on the continents). It's very cute and the class as whole has a lot of growth potential. To find out where they all were I gave each student a blank map and asked them to fill in the continenents as they could. I helped with spelling but that was it. In this mini unit the students are making postcards to send to friends and families that are far away asking them to send them a postcard back. As the postcards come in we will connect the places to the continents on a world map. We are also learning a very fun continent song with motions to go along with the locations of the continents. The principal even came to observe the kick off of this unit. It went well, we talked about the lesson before hand, she observed me, and then yesterday we talked about how the lesson went. She really likes the cross curicular ties and thought the lesson went great and gave me some more ideas on how to actively engage all students.
In math we've started math centers and the kids seem to be more on task and more engaged there which has been exciting. It's amazing how broken up the month of Novemeber is though with Veteran's Day, conferences, and Thanksgiving. I've almost been using it more as a catch up month for ongoing projects and not to interupt new learning.
One of the units just deployed, six of our students had Dads in that unit. I'm amazed at their resilience and how they're adapting to their new situations. Most of them are doing very well, others are having more of a challenge with it. In fact, I think it may have been the catalyst for some behavior issues yesterday. I was alone in the classroom and had to think on my feet to have one student removed so as not to harm himself and still maintain a positive learning environment for the rest of the class. It was a challenge and I am very happy that even though I was the only adult in the room at the time I was able to quickly get assistance from other adults at the school. I'm very greatful the level of support that is provided from Sandy and other staff.
Overall the time is going entirely too fast and I learn something new everyday!
The last few weeks have been pretty good especially the start of this week. Last week we had conferences which were interesting most of them went really well. However, I got to experience a conference that was difficult because of what the dad believed. We have a stuffed animal name “Tiger” in our classroom, the kids treat him like he is a real pet and talk to him and everything it is cute and great to see how affectionate the kids are. This dad told us that his daughter is already weird and that he does not like “Tiger” because when his daughter took him home she wanted to take him to dinner at her grandma’s house and have a seat. It was hard to relate to this dad because these students are so young and are just caring.
The rest of the conferences went very well and it was great to have interactions with the parents. We reminded all of the parents that we have an open door policy and they are invited in to the classroom whenever they would like, even if it is just for a few minutes. One of the great dads took us up on the offer and stopped by yesterday for just 10 minutes just before lunch and the son was so happy it was great to see.
Last week, I was getting frustrated because I wanted more communication and planning time with my mentor teacher. I was happy that she was actually in the classroom but to fully pilot this new program there MUST be planning and communication. I was not seeing this planning going on, but she kept saying or we are doing so well. I was frustrated and then all of a sudden yesterday she starts talking more about lessons and it was not just me sharing my ideas. I was really excited and suggested again that we write up the lesson plans together and this was the first time we really sat down and planned in the lesson book together! It was a great day yesterday!
As for my students, they have been doing well. It seems to me that I am getting my classroom management skills down. Last week they were only in school for two days and then many of my students were gone yesterday saying good bye to their dads, who are deploying. It will be interesting to see how the students react to their parents deploying.
I am really enjoying this learning experience.
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