Solo week, coming right up

My solo week is coming up right after Thanksgiving vacation. What this means is that I'll be the primary teacher in the room for the entire week. My mentor teacher won't be around at all. I also have to do all of the lesson planning for the entire week, from morning meeting to end of day grading and everything in between.

I'm feeling pretty mixed about this. I have a fun project for the writing class and I'm excited about that. However, my mentor teacher and adviser keep asking me things like "what are the students going to learn on this day," and "what is your objective for that day," and I just want to have fun. Sigh. I guess fun isn't the primary goal of teaching.

As excited as I am for the writing class, I'm a little less confident in the rest of my lessons. I have them, loosely, but they still need work. Work that will have to be done over Thanksgiving vacation, while travelling.

I'm also mixed because I get excited when I finally firm up lesson plans, but then things never go as planned. A fact of life, I know. Five days is a long time to be "on" full-time. One misstep or off day and I'll have lost that class for the rest of the week. No pressure.

Plus I'll be observed and recorded off an on throughout the week. Then I have a mid-year assessment due the following week, based on the lessons from my solo week. Lessons that aren't yet finalized and apparently don't have any "hooks" or student learning in them.

I have to just keep reminding myself that I knew this would be a tough year. This will be a tough year, but time goes by. Whether you're ready for it or not. Time goes by. I have less than four weeks left in 5th grade!

Sometimes it all comes together

I'm doing a solo day tomorrow. It's my third, so you'd think I would be comfortable by now, but nope. Actually, in the classroom I'm perfectly comfortable, but I have been struggling with the lesson planning at home. I was complaining to discussing with my husband a few days ago and he suggested a writing lesson idea I really liked, but my mentor thought it wouldn't be great. :/ Last week my mentor had suggested a lesson on slang because a lot of the students write "gonna" and "cuz" in their work. I liked the idea, but struggled to find support or inspiration for it. All of my Google searches were turning up street slang or SMS shortcuts. I don't think "slang" is really the term I needed, it's more like lazy writing. I watched YouTube videos, read articles, browsed Pinterest (with just a touch of procrastination mixed in!) and just felt stuck.

Last night, while my husband got my son ready for bed, I continued to push through my block. Research, frustration. Then I took a break to lay down with my son and snuggle. Our nightly routine. While we cuddled he was so soft and so still. With my head on his pillow I listened to his breathing and felt his warm head pressed against my face. Now here I would like to say I was zen, at peace, completely present in such a wonderful moment... but that would be a bit of a lie. I was at peace, and calm, and suddenly my lesson solidified in my head. All on it's own. It just came together, a simple, straightforward lesson that my students would learn from and enjoy.

It felt like a weight was lifted. When I was done cuddling my son I came back downstairs and typed it up. I was hesitant to show my mentor, in case he disagreed with me, but I did and he loved it. He also agreed to let me do a bulletin board with the students projects from this lesson. It will be awesome. I can see it in my head already.

I went from tense and stressed about this solo day to feeling completely at ease and ready to rock tomorrow. I am going to have to do some serious reflecting (or something!) on why lesson planning is so challenging and stressful for me, but when it comes together in a moment of peace, it's a wonderful thing.

I'll post details of the lesson and a picture of my awesome (I'm sure!) bulletin board in a few days.

How to blow a bubble

We started our information text unit in writing this week and my mentor teacher had a great lesson lined up! We discussed the many different ways that exist to get information, including how-to videos. Then he had the kids break into pairs and create a how-to video on "How to blow a bubble." The kids LOVED it! Everyone got a big piece of bubble gum (they were sold on that alone!) and an iPad. They had a graphic organizer to help them create their script, then they went to work creating the videos. It was amazing to see all the different ways they did this simple task. Some had one person video while the other did the explanation and demonstration; others had one video and explain while the person on camera just demonstrated; still others propped the iPad up and had both people in front of the camera, one explaining and one demonstrating; and one lucky group of three created a very silly video with one running the camera, one explaining, and the third one demonstrating all the things NOT to do. I was also impressed with the variations of script, from very basic (put gum in mouth, chew, blow), to very detailed (use your tongue to push the gum out a little, then pull your tongue back in, creating a little crevice in the gum to blow air into), to everything in between. Everyone loved the project, students and teachers alike.

It reminded me of a lesson my sixth grade teacher did so many years ago, long before iPads existed! He had us write instructions on how to open a door, then he took each one and followed it, step-by-step, to the letter. The result was many smacks on the head by the door since almost all of us forgot to include the "step backwards" step before pulling open the door. It was hysterical... for us. He probably had a killer headache by the end of the day!

I hope someday I can create lessons that are as clever, engaging, and memorable as these are.

So much information

There is an amazing amount of information out there. From Google to blogs to Pinterest and Facebook. In some ways it's just amazing. Anything and everything you've ever wanted to know about is out there, just a quick click away. In other ways... totally overwhelming! You can spend HOURS lost in the Internet. I was recently told I need to incorporate technology more into my lessons, not just using technology, but also having the students create with technology. Ok, can do. My mentor teacher does really cool projects. Unfortunately my mind has been a blank. Actually, not a total blank. I have one cool idea but I'm saving it for my solo week next month, as it will take a few days to complete. For single lessons though, involving cool uses of technology, there's nothing up there. So I spent the evening on the interwebs, trying to find inspiration. I found everything else, it seems, but no inspiration. Then I started to realize that the more I browsed, the less inspired I felt. Instead of being inspired, I'm just overwhelmed. There's so much out there!

Chris Jernstedt, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, spoke at UVEI a few weeks ago. When asked about note taking and how that helps or hinders learning, as part of his response he said that the novice takes copious notes because they don't know what to filter out, they don't know what is important and what is not. That has stuck with me and as I browsed the web tonight I realized that as a novice teacher I really don't know what to filter out either. Everything looks interesting, but not exactly what I need, and I can't easily scan things as I imagine a long-time teacher probably can.

Or maybe the fact that it's 11:30pm has something to do with it. Perhaps all this inspiration/overwhelmed-ness will percolate overnight and a great idea will come to me in the shower tomorrow! :)

Lesson planning

Much to my surprise, lesson planning has been the hardest part of this new endeavour.  My district does not have a clear ELA curriculum so I feel like we are largely guessing at what to do.  My mentor teacher, of course, has years of experience and therefore has a good grasp of what 5th graders are capable of, what they need to learn, and how to build the lessons and their knowledge (scaffolding?).  I, however, have none of that and am trying hard to create relevant, interesting, appropriate lessons for the students.

So far I've done two solo days, and several individual reading and science lessons.  While that doesn't seem like a lot, especially when you consider that real teachers have to plan for every lesson, every day, it still has taken me hours. Hours for each lesson!

I start with a general idea of what we are working on. Then try to choose a concept that will be relevant and related.  Sometimes I feel like it fits in smoothly, but other times I feel like it ends up being a one-off thing.

Both solo days have left me feeling defeated in the lesson planning department.  I've gone into the days with what I thought were strong lessons, but the students quickly prove me wrong.  The first writing lesson I did, on chronological storytelling, ended up being confusing to the class.  I used the mentor text Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and we discussed both chronological storytelling and catch-phrases.  There was my mistake.  I based my lesson on one I found online, but I should have dropped the catch-phrase part.  My class was just confused.  By the third class I was seriously downplaying the catch-phrase part and focusing my efforts on the chronological aspect only. 

Today's writing lesson, for my second solo day, was on proper comma usage.  Again I based the lesson on something I found online and again it left my class confused.  Actually, this time they were more bored than confused.  I used a presentation to show the six main rules of comma usage, but as much as I tried to make it engaging it really was just boring.  I was worried about that before I even got to class.  It felt boring on one hand, yet it also felt like we moved through the lesson too quickly.  Once we got the end and the students broke up into pairs and punctuated sample sentences I had given them, their interest picked up.

My reading lessons and science lessons have been equally eye-opening.  No devastating failures, fortunately, but each lesson has left me with so much more to think about.  

I think I have to re-evaluate how I go about my lesson planning.  I wish my district had an overall outline though, a road map per se, so I could better place my lessons within the overall context of 5th grade learning.  However, since that is not the case, I will continue to work hard and practice.  It's wonderful that UVEI, my awesome placement school, and my amazing mentor teacher provide so much opportunity for me to practice these skills and learn from the pros!

So much to learn!

Time

Wow, I really thought I'd have more time and energy to maintain a teaching blog.  I love blogging.  Writing is such a great way to process, document, and archive.  Yet, it also takes time.  I find I rarely have my computer on these days (relying instead on my phone and iPad) and when I do I have lesson plans to plan or UVEI homework to write.  I guess that about takes care of my writing time, none left for the blog. Sigh.

Here's a quick update on what's been going on:

• We did a cool project with iMotion in which the kids made little videos using paper characters to teach writing rules.  
• We started NECAP testing this week.  I remember it well (standardized testing anyway, not sure if it was the same one) when I was child.  Now I get to do it as a teacher.  Equally boring.  The kids handled it well though.  
• We are now a month into school and I'm starting to lose track of everything going on.  I need to get myself organized, physically and mentally.  It's amazing how much teachers have to know!  In terms of their subject matter, of course, but also in terms of keeping track of schedules and who has 504/IEPs, who is where, who is doing what at grade level and what needs to be done about it, etc.  There are meetings and observations and just so much to know.  Teachers work hard!
• I've done one solo day of teaching.  I've also taught a few lessons with my mentor teacher around and I've done some subbing for him.  All are excellent opportunities.  It has been interesting to see how the students respond to him teaching his lessons, versus me teaching his lessons, versus me teaching my lessons.  I clearly have some work to do on my lesson planning skills.  :)  

Overall it's going very well.  I would like to post more, and more often, if only for my own reference in the future.  For now I'll leave you with this interesting article: How Adults are Stealing Ambition from Kids. 

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.