What did people do before the Internet?!?

Obviously they didn't do much blogging, of course! 

I finished my lesson plan for my solo day this week.  I was feeling a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, but now that the lesson plan is done (off to my mentor teacher for review), I'm feeling much more confident.  I have no doubt I can get through the day, a year of subbing has shown me that, but I want to be sure the students have fun and learn something as well.

I was feeling a bit lost as to where to begin, so I turned to the the trusty Google machine and did some exploring.  Did you know there are TONS of great resources out there?!  Of course you knew.  The Internet is a wonderful place.  I discovered WritingFix and Responsive Classroom and ReadWriteThink and so many other invaluable resources.

I decided to do a writing lesson on chronological narration and a reading lesson on using paraphrasing to better understand what you've read.  I think both should be fun.  I also found a few other activities for throughout the day, including Human Bingo (get to know your classmates!) and an experiment on left/right side dominance.

I have the lesson plan written and the necessary supporting materials created, and now I feel more eager than anxious.  A little preparation goes a long way!

Tour the states

We watched a really cool video today to kick off a fun "tour the states" project.  The whole classroom was abuzz!

Before the video the kids were given blank US maps and asked to fill in as many state names as possible.  Then we discussed who knows people in various states.  Then the fun part!  Each week a student is going to write a letter to someone we know in another state.  Either someone they know (aunt, uncle, family friend, etc.) or someone one of the teachers knows.  We'll write the letter in a journal and send it.  The recipient will write a little letter back, telling us about their state.  We are also asking them to send a blank post card to help us decorate the bulletin board. 

I love the idea of pen pals and have often thought that when I have a classroom of my own I'd love to do a pen pal project.  These days maybe it would be less "pen" and more email and Skype.  When my mentor teacher mentioned this project I was thrilled.  I think it will be an exciting and different way to learn a little more about the United States.

The other thing I love about this is the spontaneity.  This was not part of the long-term plan, or part of the Common Core Curriculum, just something my teacher thought of and decided to do.  That kind of creative flexibility is so exciting to me and I can't wait to share a variety of fun ideas with my own classroom someday.     

Planning for a solo day

Next week will be my first solo day.  I'm not only in charge of the class for the day (something I've done many times as a sub), but now I'm also in charge of actually educating them!

I've been working hard on lesson plans.  Due to the nature of our class rotations I only have to plan a morning meeting time, one writing lesson (to be repeated with several different classes), a science experiment, and a reading group lesson.  When I write it all out somehow my "only" from above seems less appropriate!  That is four separate blocks of time to plan well to ensure a quality education for my students.

I found a cool site called Writing Fix with a wide variety of writing lesson ideas.  They have fully developed lessons based around picture books, called "mentor texts."  I love picture books.  They make me feel at home.  I think my writing lesson will involve Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  A cute story (that I happen to have in my own personal collection) and a good lesson on chronological story telling.  The lesson on the website is long and involved and could easily span several days, so I'll be tailoring it to just one lesson period.  We will read the book, discuss chronological storytelling and why an author might chose to write that way.  Then maybe I'll use a graphic organizer to have them write a brief chronological narrative.  I think the students will enjoy it.

I'm trying to find a balance of teaching fun, interesting, grade level (something I'm learning fast!) activities that will engage them and hopefully they might learn something along the way.  My mentor teacher is really fun and the kids all like him, so I want to make sure my plan for the day isn't too dull.    Fun, and interesting, and educational, of course.

On lesson planning

I've been thinking a lot about lesson planning lately.  I planned my first lesson last week.  I've taught several before, as a student teacher and as a substitute, but this is the first time I've planned a lesson.  The lesson went well enough, but I don't feel like I planned it properly.  I'm not sure if that's because I didn't (probably) or because I felt like it should have been something "more" or "more complex" than what it was.

My mentor sent me his lesson plan template, but it didn't work properly on my computer.  He has a template that has all of the Common Core elements listed in a drop-down box and many essential questions to choose from.  It looked easy-peasy on his computer, but didn't work on my Linux machine.   So instead I turned to the UVEI lesson template, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me either.

I ended up using my mentor's outline, without linking Common Core and just taking a guess at other elements.  My focus was on the step-by-step outline of the lesson because that is the part that made the most sense to me.  That was what I could wrap my head around and felt confident moving forward.

I drafted two versions, each going in slightly different directions, and sent them to my mentor.  He wrote back suggesting version A with a select few elements from version B as well.  We discussed and I moved forward to a "final draft."  I say that with quotes because I don't know if you ever have a truly final draft.  Does it count as final if the lesson changes a bit in progress?

My lesson was on a maps and was to be taught to one of the reading groups.  The lesson, as I had written it and as I had it in my head, was an introduction to maps and a discussion of the common elements found on a map.  When I discussed it with my mentor one final time, on the morning of the lesson, he made a comment about how the EQ should be along the lines of "How do maps help you to better understand what you're reading?"  That made sense, of course, since this is a reading group.  However, the EQ I had settled on, after working through my step-by-step lesson plan, was "What are the four key elements on a map?"  Not quite the same thing!

I taught the lesson, including the topics and activities I had planned, but modifying it on the fly to address how maps help you understand what you're reading, and then forgot the EQ at the end of the lesson anyway!  Oops!  My mentor jumped in at the end to wrap it up and bring it back to the essential question, "How to maps help you better understand what you're reading."

Overall I think the lesson was ok.  My mentor did a brief check-in at the next day's lesson, tying a map into his plan and asking the students how it helped them understand the text.  They seemed to get it.

However, a big lesson learned here is that it's important to start with that essential question!  It's important to keep in mind who you are teaching to and what you are teaching.  This was a reading lesson, after all, not a social studies lesson. 

Despite the hard work I put into this lesson plan, I still very much feel like I stumbled through it.  I'm looking forward to our upcoming UVEI session on lesson planning.  I have a few solo teaching days coming up and I'll need to do the lesson planning for them.  I hope to be a little more comfortable and confident in my planning abilities before then!

Adjectives

The word of the day is adjectives!  Or, I should say, the words of the day were adjectives.  Adjectives everywhere!   We did a great (not a 5th grade word!) activity today to help the students think of creative and clever adjectives to add more appeal to their writing.

Each table had a large sheet of paper in the middle and the students were asked to discuss with one another and write down as many adjectives as they could find.  The only rule being no duplicates on the paper, and school appropriate, of course.  They had energized discussions about what words were adjectives and every group filled their papers.  One of the very last groups discovered a list of adjectives hanging on the wall in the classroom and thought they had scored big!

Once the papers were full, students were told to quietly (no discussion) circle their favorite adjective on the paper and put a star next to a word they questioned being an adjective.  They then had the opportunity to quietly rotate around the room, reading the words on each sheet of paper, circling their favorite and staring questionable words.

An abundance of adjectives!

It was fascinating to see what they came up with and what they questioned.  It was a peek into their minds and an opportunity to gauge their current vocabulary level.  I also thought it was a bit telling of their personalities, as many kids put "awesome," "great," etc. but several others put "fat," "slow," "dumb," etc.  I know you can't read too much into it, but I think the words that come to mind first can be a reflection of words often in your head.  

Once everyone returned to their seats we had a discussion about what were the favorite adjectives, did everyone agree that they were adjectives, and what were some of the questioned words.  Many, many students put stars next to the color words.  We discussed that some words, like "orange" and "lavender" can be adjectives or nouns, depending on the context.  Some words, like "chocolately" caused great debate and the students defended their sides (adjective/not adjective) with gusto!  We also came across words that were slang and had to consider where they fit into the writing lesson.  Hint: they did not! 

My favorite?  "Swagalishious!"  Said with enthusiasm and defended with passion.   Not a real word, of course, adjective or otherwise, but maybe it should be! 

What makes a good teacher?

One of my first projects for UVEI was to have a discussion with my class on "What makes a good teacher?"  Fifth graders sure do have a lot to say on that!

I asked the students to think for a minute about what is their idea of a good teacher. What does a good teacher do? How does a good teacher behave? I suggested they think of their past four years in school and what they liked or didn’t like about their teachers, though reminded them we were not discussing specific teachers. Then I asked them to discuss with their table mates and jot down a few ideas. I had them think about what makes a good teacher and what makes a so-so teacher. They went right to work and filled the pages with ideas, even requesting a few extra minutes to brainstorm.

 When everyone was ready I called their attention to the Smartboard in the front of the room for a group discussion and the ideas flowed. Some were quite specific, such as “Punish single people not the whole group,” others were more general, such as “no grouchiness,” and others were just downright silly, such as “let students use a British accent.” One girl in my class does an excellent British accent! My two favorite ideas that came up in the discussion were, “an honest teacher,” and “encourages you to try your hardest.”

A good teacher probably has good Smartboard handwriting as well.  
Clearly I'll have to work on that!

I really liked the think/pair/share process. It gives students a few minutes to gather their thoughts, to discuss in small groups and build confidence, then bring their refined ideas to the larger group. I'll definitely be using that process often.