Appreciation!

11/23/10

I felt like Sally Field today, "You like me! You really like me!" Today I received my appreciation! Students wrote a sentence each of things that they appreciate about me. They did this for everyone in the class, and today mine was read out loud. I got to sit in the special chair and everything. It was such a wonderful experience! I started to tear up - the students wrote such heartfelt and detailed information. They noticed the smallest details and remembered things that I didn't even think were that special. Many commented on the Science Theatre and how much they loved that experience, and a few students said that they loved the voices that I created when different characters spoke in Read Aloud books. It's the little things that make the difference!

I reviewed my legal duties as an "employee" of Newton Public Schools. Amy printed off the "Summary of the Conflict of Interest Law for Municipal Employees" as prepared by the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, for me to read over. For the most part, it was written in laymen's terms and was easy to follow. However, I did find that many of the conflicts of interest did not relate to teachers, but instead more to municipal jobs.

I was SHOCKED to see that I qualified to follow the laws even though I am not an employee! I should have read this before school started! In the Section I, it clearly states that "whether paid or unpaid" all municipal employees must follow the codes. I'm thankful that I am ethical and have upheld all of the expectations outlined in the document.

I did have a few questions about the document and how the expectations relate to teachers. First, in Section II (b) Gifts and gratuities: the document states that you should not accept gifts worth more than $50. I'm surprised by this - what if a teacher is given a holiday gift from a family that is worth more than $50? Does the teacher have to return it? What about things like Rex Sox tickets that a family gives to a teacher if they cannot make a game? Would the teacher have to pay for the tickets? I just know that in wealthy communities like Newton, these issues may come up.

Second, in Section III (a) After-hours restrictions: would tutoring count as a conflict of interest? Would you be able to tutor a student who is not in your class? I know that a lot of teachers supplement their income by tutoring, are they in conflict with this expectation?

Finally, I wanted to note a subtle language use in Section IV (c) Partners. The term partner is much more inclusive and does a great job of reflecting the population of teachers. Many teachers are GLBT and have life partners. It is refreshing to live in a state that is inclusive to all members of the community!

Museum Inspiration

11/22/10

I can't even believe that today is the Monday before Thanksgiving! Insanity!

I had the best moment this morning. One of our METCO students came up to me and proudly told me that she went to the MFA over the weekend. She said, "Miss. Donahue, I found out that the MFA was free this weekend AND that there was a new wing - so I went!" I almost started to cry right then and there! Here's a glimpse of our conversation:

me: You did!? That's fantastic!

student: Yup! And I saw Monet's paintings IN PERSON!

me: Oh! Don't you just love Monet's work? Aren't they so much better in person?

student: Oh, Miss Donahue, they were so beautiful!

me: so, will you be going back to the museum again?

student: YES! And, have you ever seen the stair case at the front of the building?

me: I sure have! Isn't it beautiful?

student: So beautiful - did you see the paintings on the ceiling at the top of the stairs?

me: I sure did! So detailed, aren't they?

student: Yes! I don't even know how they got up there!

It turned out that this was the first time that the student had EVER been in a museum. She told me that she was inspired to go after seeing my weather presentation! YES! I made a difference!

Well, I finally read up on the Newton Public School's Internet policy. The document is really geared toward parents and students. The verbiage geared toward parents is more, "don't worry, we only allow your students to look at educational sites." The verbiage geared toward students is more, "don't even try to look at inappropriate websites because we've already blocked them."

What I did find interesting is that all communication is stored on a Newton server and all data is stored. The policy also reminds students/parents/staff that email is not a private form of communication, and that Newton will retrieve and share this information with city, state and national agencies if necessary. Specifically, users are not to share passwords, forward chain letters, use profane language, look at pornography/inappropriate websites, destroy data of other users, or hack into others' data.

It was good for me to read the policy, and something for me to make sure to do wherever I work.

Math Test on Multiplication and Division

11/19/10

The day started with a math review - Nick and Adam were there. Nick came because he wanted the extra practice. Adam came because his parents had a parent/teacher meeting that morning, and they told him to go to the review. Nick sat diligently and solved every problem that the teacher presented to the class. Adam on the other hand sat with his head on the table and spun a top - he didn't even pick up a pencil.

The day began with the math test. Because Maura would be out all day correcting the math tests, Amy decided to teach science today and sent me to help cover math. She wanted to work on quiz boards with students so that they would be on time to finish next week. So, I'll take over again on Monday with my continued weather unit.

For the most part, math was hands-off today. Students were able to either finish their math tests or work on math work books. Each student has a list of work book pages that they need to work on - these pages provide enrichment for each unit of study. On student reached a problem that required a skill not yet covered in class. He raised his hand and asked for help. I ended up sitting with him for about 10-15 minutes and had a great exchange. This student will be referred to as Tim.

The skill that Tim was faced with was multiplying numbers with decimal points. I gave him the following problem to work on: 25 * 3.2 =

I explained that this problem multiplies 25 by 3.2. The conversation went as follows:

Em: How would you approach this problem?

Tim: Well, I think I would start by finding three groups of 25, which is...75.

Em: Excellent thinking - I really like how you started by breaking down the problem into familiar parts. Write down 75 to keep track of your progress.

Tim: [Writes down 75.]

Em: How would you translate ".2" into a fraction?

Tim: [pauses, thinks] Oh! 1/5!

Em: Exactly! Now, what is 1/5 of 25?

Tim: [pauses, thinks] Five!

Em: Exactly - now you want to add the 5 to your original 75, so what do you get?

Tim: 80!

Em: Congratulations! You just completed the problem!

Tim: [smiles] I did?!

Em: You sure did! Now, let me show you how you can use Cowboy math (traditional algorithm) when multiplying with decimals.

[Em writes, Tim completes]

25

x3.2

------

40

750

-----

800

Tim: Why did I get 800 when the answer is 80?

Em: Fantastic question! I like how you're thinking critically. Your answers don't match because you aren't quite done yet. We need to make sure to include the decimal point into our product - this corrects the place value.

Tim: How do I know where to put it?

Em: You count the total numbers to the right of the decimal point, then you place the decimal point that many numbers from the left. This shifts the place value of the product back into the right place. Remember that we multiplied by 3 and 2/10, not 30 and 2 ones. We need to reduce the number by one place value.

Tim: Oh, ok - so there is one number after the decimal point, so I'll put it in between the zeroes in the answer.

Em: You got it! So what is the answer?

Tim: [does the math] 80! Oh...I get it! That's cool!

Tim and I repeated this process a number of times together. He was able to do the 4th problem on his own.

After math, I went back and read aloud for about 20 minutes. The story is getting good - Morning Girl and Star Boy are growing up and going through lots of awkward situations. It really tells the universal story of the awkward pre-teen.

I stayed at school until 6:45 working to pull my ppa+ together. This is a time consuming process!

Well, I survived my first take over week and I feel good! YAY!

Techsploration Tom

11/18/10

Techsploration Tom came to school today! He gave a fantastic presentation on electricity! He had the coolest gadgets and was a dynamic presenter. He pulled students up to demonstrate how static electricity is created - so neat!

We took the students out for a recess, then the classes rotated in for a science lesson. I didn't teach science today, but I did get a good experience on how to rotate students in to a Creative Arts lesson. It's strategically difficult and takes a lot of energy, but it is worth it! Techsploration Tom loved me! He loved my energy and excitement towards science. I was also the person that sat through all of his lessons, so we got to talk quite a bit. I was also pulled up on stage to "sing the science blues" - it was pretty funny! Me singing - yikes! The students said that I did a great job, but all I did was yell out the words in some assemblage of a rhythmic tone.

Disaster struck when I saw two students looking at the Hokusai books and giggling. My heart sunk - somehow I missed that this book had two drawings of naked bodies. I looked through all of the books before putting them out for students to view - but these images were at the end of the book, and I just missed them. I went into immediate damage control - talked to the boys before they moved to a different classroom, then ran to get Amy and tell her about the issue. We took them out of class (there were four in total) and had a discussion about what they saw. They all seemed okay with it, were more giggly about it than anything else. One boy said that he had seen similar images before at an art gallery that he went to with his family. The principal came in and joined the conversation (my heart sunk again - what would she think of me?). It turned out that she was an art major and she did a great job of normalizing it for the children. PHEW! Crisis solved.

After the craziness of the day - and a job offer by Techsploration Tom - it was finally time for reading buddies, where our students read to 1st grade students. That was until the principal came up to talk to the entire 5th grade about their behavior in the lunch room. For some reason, these students can't control themselves in the lunch room! It was supposed to be a five minute conversation, but ended up taking 20 minutes (the students were really passionate about the issues) - no more reading buddies today!

Instead I read more from our read aloud book, Morning Girl.

8 Minute Commute

11/17/10

Having slept on my friends couch at BC last night, I had the most amazing commute - 8 minutes. It was bliss! I arrived at school around 6:45, so it was nice that I got to take my time getting ready this morning.

I quickly put up my bulletin board about weather in art. It looks pretty awesome!

Yesterday, Apple announced that the Beatles would now be selling their songs on iTunes! This was an exciting announcement - too bad I already have all of their songs! I opened a web browser this morning and it went right to Apple's homepage. There was this huge b&w photograph of the Beatles. I decided to print off a copy for two of my students who love the Beatles. I wrote little notes on them and taped the sheets to their cubbies. When they walked in, they LOVED their special notes! I gave one of them to the student that I had to kick out of class yesterday. I think he was surprised that I didn't hold a grudge against him. Hey buddy - I'm not going to treat you differently just because you don't listen to me!

In Morning Meeting I talked about the importance of a handshake - and how handshakes can start friendships and great partnerships. For the greeting, we shook each others' hands and said good morning. For the discussion, I asked if students had good hand shaking stories - who did they meet? Some students shared how they met famous people or made new friends. One student shared that his grandmother is a State Senator and has shaken the hands of many influential people in government, including the Governor.

In LA, I read the book Empty Pot by Demi. It's an adorable story about a boy named Ping who enters a competition to become Emperor of China. Using the seeds that the Emperor gave to him, Ping tries very hard to grow the flower - only nothing grows. A year goes by and despite his best effort, no flower grows. He returns to the Emperor with all of the other children in the land and he is the only one with an empty pot. The Emperor is pleased with Ping for he was the only one who told the truth. All of the other children planted new seeds - the Emperor gave them all cooked seeds that would not grow - he was looking for the most honest person, and Ping was that person. Ping was chosen to be the next Emperor.

This book was used to explain how to make predictions while reading text. I read the book aloud and wrote my predictions up on the white board. I started by looking at the cover art and predicted that the story took place in Asia, the art work looked similar to the Hokusai prints that I was familiar with. As I made predictions, I either crossed them out if I was correct, or put a smiley face next to them if I was right. My predications:

I think this story takes place in Asia :)

I think that Ping will become Emperor because he is the main character :)

I think that Ping will grow the most beautiful flower X

At first Ping won't grow the flower, but then he will X

Maybe Ping won't grow the flower :)

The students really loved the story and understood the concept well. I took them outside for a quick body movement break - a sprint across the field to get some energy out. When we got back, I had them chill for a minute or two, then read more from Morning Girl.

Science began and I presented my lesson on haiku and Hokusai. I was observed my second time around, and it went really well! I spoke with a lot of genuine energy about the topic and shared how I worked at the Art Institute of Chicago, have a life long love for art, and how I took many art and art history courses in college. I also told how my dad lived in Japan for a while during his time in the Navy and brought back many Japanese works of art, furniture, and other cultural artifacts.

I then introduced the students to the poetry form of haiku - 17 syllables 5/7/5. I talked at length about the artwork of Hokusai - particularly the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. I showed the students the books that I had brought in for them to look through and explore the great detail that he included in his prints. The students were mesmerized and totally engaged.

After the presentation, students returned to their desks and I handed out the haiku draft sheets. I modeled on the overhead how to use the sheet to brainstorm ideas for words, and how to break them into syllables. I walked around and helped students who were having a hard time transitioning from the word brainstorm to the creation of the haikus. I wrapped up by giving the students their final draft copies, getting their copies into their binders, and collecting finished work. I then lined them up to go to lunch.

I met with Eileen to discuss how the lesson went. She loved it and told me that she had lived in Japan for a few months with her husband - who was also in the military. She did suggest that I add two small bits to the presentation to bring in "real world" connections.
1) when talking about Japan - bring in the time difference. 13/14 hours ahead of us, so it it tomorrow there. Figure out what time it is there.
2) do the math for Hokusai's age. He was old! It's a quick subtraction problem and will be good for students to see how long he lived:
1849
-1760
-------
89 years old!

I tried out her suggestions in the science class following my observation. They LOVED the suggestions! It took a few seconds for them to wrap their heads around why it was tomorrow in Japan, but I did a quick explanation of time zones and they understood it a bit better. It helped that one of the students was from Australia and she gave the example of how it's hard to call her grandparents because the time zone (similar to Japan's) is so far ahead. This real-life connection was a perfect addition to the lesson.

The students also liked the quick subtraction problem and couldn't believe how long Hokusai lived to be!

After the lesson and lunch, it was on to PLCs. It was all about PEMDAS and rounding. Maura realized that the students hadn't quite understood that [P & E], [M & D], and [A & S] go together. She stressed this as she provided direct instruction to the group. I walked around to the students and checked their answers. A number of students still don't grasp the exponential multiplication process. It must be frustrating for them - they know the process, but when they do the math, they choose the wrong operation.

Rounding was a bit easier to check - they had to circle the highest place value, then underline the place value to the right. If the number (or neighbor) to the right was higher than 5, the highest place value would increase, and everything to the right turns into zero. If the neighbor was less than 5, the highest place value would stay the same and the rest would turn to zeroes. Nick wrote this on his page:

5 (arrow up)

4 (arrow up)

Great visual reminder for him, and a good strategy to use on his test.

The bulletin board that I put up got a lot of attention today! The teachers loved it and said that the students were learning so much about art and culture just by looking at the paintings and listening to my presentations in science. One teacher said that I was giving them such great life skills - now they know the names of some famous artists, so going to a museum is a bit less intimidating.

One student, who will be called Ken, was looking at the Paris Street, Rainy Day and said "this scene looks really familiar!" I overheard him saying this and asked him to think about it and tell me when he realizes why it looks so familiar. Later that day, Ken came up to me and said, "I figured it out! It looks just like the Magic Tree House cover about the earth quake!" I congratulated him for making the connection, and I looked for the book. The book is Earthquake in the Early Morning by Mary Pope Osborne, and the cover has many of the same elements of the painting: dress, cobble stone streets, ornate buildings. Truly a great connection.

Ken asked me later in the day if he could borrow one of the Hokusai books that I brought to the classroom. I looked at the book and noticed that it was the one that was written in Japanese. I asked Ken if he spoke another language at home. Ken looked excited to answer the question and said, "Oh - yeah! I speak Chinese and a bit of German." Ken then went on to tell me about his life - he was born in Germany, then moved to China to live with his grandparents until he was 5. He then moved to the US to be with his parents and to start kindergarten. Each summer he travels back to China to live with his grandparents in a small province south of Shanghai. We talked for nearly all of recess, discussed more of the paintings that were on the bulletin board, and I also found out that Ken reads Chinese - which means that he'll probably be able to read much of the Hokusai text, as Japanese and Chinese characters are very similar.

It was a great day, but I was exhausted when I got home!

Busiest Half Day Ever

11/16/10

Though today was a half day, it was still very, very, very busy!

I awoke to a text message from Lynne at 4:30 am this morning - a reminder that we had a QC today.  YIKES!  I hopped into the shower and got ready within 45 minutes - I was out the door at 5:50am and was on my way.  It was raining, and by the time I got to 128, there was extreme traffic due to an accident.  Drat!  My article reading time was slipping away...

I finally got to school, but it was almost 7:00 am - just enough time to read the article and get to the Response Logs - all 6 of them - before school started.  YIKES!  I didn't get to write the paper, but at least I got the article read!

A quick morning meeting that was just a high five and greeting with each other - then it was on to schooling!  I met with students who had divided an conquered their Talking Calendars, and led them to their next steps - organizing their information and creating bulleted notes. 

We had a quick PLC meeting to discuss the topics that needed to be covered tomorrow for PEMDAS (order of operations) and rounding direct instruction.  I was assigned to the "both" group and was teamed up with Maura. 

In science, I gave a great slide presentation on weather vocabulary.  I made sure to stress the difference between weather and climate with students - weather is a short term condition for a region, climate is a long term condition for a region.  When I created the powerpoint, I decided that I was going to use art to depict some of the elements.  I had the definition at the top of the slide, then a famous painting underneath.  Rain was Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877), Snow was Wheatstacks, Sunset, Snow Effect (1891) by Claude Monet, and Wind was represented by Katsushika Hokusai's Ejiri in the Surugra Province (one of his 36 Views of Mt. Fuji prints).  For Fog, it was two of Monet's paintings of the Charing Cross Bridge in London - one on a foggy day, the other on a sunny day.  I explained how Monet loved to paint the same scene over and over again - why?  Because he was so interested in how the elements effected his subjects.  He painted over 25 paintings of stacks of wheat within a year's time.  Today, you can go to an art museum (like the Art Institute of Chicago) and see many of these stacks of wheat next to each other - it's like seeing the seasons change in front of you!

After the presentation - which the students LOVED - we worked on vocabulary flash cards.  We didn't have much time, but the students got a lot done.  They had to finish the rest for homework.

After the QC meeting, I went right over to BC and met with Audrey about my paper.  She made me feel so much better about it all!  She said that my research was superb (!!!) and that I was going to get it done.  I always feel so much better after I meet with her.  I do need to keep reminding myself that this is NOT a thesis - it's just a procedure that I need to complete!  Nothing fancy, just get it done!!!

I ended up staying on campus on Cameron's couch.  I was so tired, and I know that the weather tomorrow will not be good for traveling on 95.  So great to see him and to just catch up.  He had a long day as well, so it was good to just spend some down time together.  I also got to catch up with Matt!  It was so much fun to see him, hang out, and hear about his P1 supervisor experience.  He's in grad school for education as well - such a fun person.  He's going to be an amazing teacher!  

I went to bed around 9:30 pm, just as Cameron had a meeting - oh how I don't miss those late night meetings! 

Take Over Week Begins!

11/15/10

Take over week begins!

I arrived at school at 6:45 this morning - up at about 4:30 - ready to go!  I finished my lit review last night (finally)!  I feel really good about it - I found a great article that explained the history of mastery.  Turns out that Bloom (of Bloom's Taxonomy) created a mastery model as well.  When I was reading the mastery model, I could have sworn that I was reading about PLCs!  Turns out, they're just a modern day rip off of his mastery model of frequent assessment, direct instruction or enrichment, improvement of instruction based on assessment results, and a final assessment after direct instruction to make sure that all students are back on track.  Brilliant!  Bloom theorized that nearly all students would achieve mastery (usually set at 80% or above) of a given topic.  Much better than the typical bell curve!!  With my casual observations thus far on the PLC process, I think that Bloom was correct!  I have been amazed at how much students improve with just a 30-60 minutes of additional direct instruction.  Students who were struggling with a concept on the first assessment, pass the second assessment with flying colors!

In Language Arts, I finished up the "A Play" Inferring lesson with students.  After we completed the T chart, I explained to students their new response log topic...surprise!  It's inferring!  This new assignment will actually make it much easier for me to go through and grade their work - much less commenting necessary!!  This will be good because I have a busy week!!

In science, I let the students know that they were not going to work on quiz boards this week.  I knew that they would be bummed, so I had them do a 3-second-group-moan to get it out of their systems.  That was a big hit!  I explained that it was my take over week, so they were going to learn about weather and Ms Wink would continue with quiz boards next week.  

We played "Weather Scattegories" which ended up being a big hit!   Students were given the letters WEATHER on a large grid - they needed to think of as many words related to weather as possible.  They had 3 minutes to work on their own, 2 minutes to work with a partner, than 1 minute to work as a table team.  At the end of the time, I had students share their words and I wrote them up on an overhead of the sheet that they had.  The students loved it!  

I then gave them a pre-assessment and stressed that it was just to help me to know what to teach.  No grades, just information gathering.  After reviewing the assessments - I noticed that many students were not able to explain the difference between climate and weather - I'll make sure to emphasize this in my vocabulary presentation tomorrow.

Overall, the day went really well!  After school, I went over to BC and churned out three pages - not bad for having woken up at 4:30 am!

Day after Veteran's Day

11/12/10

Yesterday was a tough day - I had all of these plans to get working on my inquiry paper, but a long breakfast out with my family (which was fun) and a THREE HOUR debacle at Staples really set me back.  By the time I returned home, it was 4:00 pm, and I was overwhelmed.  Tears all around.  Just about all I had time to do was find a few articles and write a few blog entries.  I was so upset an mad at myself, that I just couldn't pull it together.  I thought about staying home today, but it was a good thing that I didn't...because when  I arrived at school and found out that Amy was out sick and I had to take over for her.  

So, take over week started a day early!  The day went fairly smoothly considering that I took over "quiz board" decorating.  I allotted 10 minutes of clean up time, and the students needed every minute of it!  

I got to sit in on planning with the 5th grade team today and "represent" Amy.  We talked about PLCs and how this week was going.  I mentioned that I felt that the students really just needed help with recognizing the connection between the vocabulary and the actual operation.  The team agreed and the math teacher said, "Yeah, I think that's something that I'm going to focus on more from now on - especially with MCAS - they need to know the vocabulary. 

In Language Arts, I read the short story "A Play" to the students.  We then broke the essay down paragraph by paragraph to infer meaning.  I reviewed inferred and explicit information with the students.  In a T chart, the students wrote an inference they gleaned from the paragraph in one column, then supported it with text in the other column.  We got through 2/5 paragraphs during the short period.  YAY!  I'll finish this up on Monday with them.

Kristen got pulled out because one of her students threw up in class - there's a nasty stomach bug going around the school.  I co-covered her PLC time with Michelle and quickly reviewed the exponential and scientific material (and vocabulary, of course) before we handed out the 2nd assessment.  When I invited students to the meeting area, Nick said, "Miss Donahue are we doing exponents again?  I've got this - I don't need anymore help with this."  I'm glad that he is feeling confident with exponents, but I don't want him to get arrogant and not listen to helpful information just because he thinks he's "got it".

After team time, I handed out homework - which took forever - then had a few moments of quiet time.  Three of the students couldn't stop laughing all afternoon.  It was so frustrating, because I knew that they were testing me.  I took them out into the hall on more than one occasion, but they still kept laughing.  During homework pass out, I made one of the students leave and sit out in the hallway because he was so disruptive.  We had a good talk after school, but it was totally frustrating.

I stayed after school to pull my bulletin board together, laminate it, put it up, and get the rest of my stuff ready for Monday.  I ended up staying until the building closed at 6 pm.  I didn't get the laminating done because I was scared to attempt it!  There were ridiculous instructions on how to use the machine - I figured that I would wait until Raquel - the laminator whisperer returned on Monday morning.  

Exponential and Scientific Notation PLCs

11/10/10

Today in PLC time I was paired up with Kristen to help the students who needed more instruction with both exponential notation and scientific notation. Nick was in this class, while Penny was receiving help with scientific notation, and Adam was in the "all set" group that worked on math extension problems.

I really liked how Kristen explained exponential notation - you have the base and the exponent. For the example 53, 5 is the base and 3 is the exponent.

The exponent tells us how many times we are going to multiply a number by itself - for this example, 3 times:

___ x ___ x ___

The base tells us the number that is going to be multiplied (placed in the lines drawn above):

5 x 5 x 5 = 53

I saw a lot of lights go on with this definition.

She had the students complete the following problems:

1-3 change into exponential notation, 4-6 change into expanded notation:

1.) 5 x 5 x 5 =

2.) 7 x 7 =

3.) 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 =

4.) 74 =

5.) 32 =

6.) 105 =

I looked at Nick's paper as he was working on it. For the first problem, he was trying to solve the answer - Ms. Conrad corrected her directions to the whole class - they were not to solve for the answer, but to write in exponential notation. Nick was grateful for the clarification and said, "Oh- ok! I can do that!" He quickly solved the answers - I checked his paper and he got all of them correct. I congratulated him and he replied by saying, "you know, Miss. Donahue, I knew how to do this - it's just that on that paper that we did on Monday I didn't know what the questions were asking me to do."

Nick's clarification was a significant one - the questions on Monday's assessment was term heavy. The directions asked students to complete tasks using expanded, exponential, and scientific notation, without examples for each of the tasks. Though it is important for students to know the terms - particularly because they need to recognize and recall mathematical terms on the MTEL - I think that we need to do a better job conveying this importance to the students. Or at the very least, repeating the terms over and over and over again so that they are drilled into the students' memories.

After PLC time, I caught up with Penny - she was in the scientific notation group. I asked her how she was feeling about scientific notation and she said, "I feel beautiful!" Well, that's confidence if I've ever heard it!

In math, we continued to work on Order of Operations. Maura asked me to continue working on the SmartBoard with students who felt like they needed more practice. The students self selected if they wanted to join me in the meeting area for more help. Penny and Nick joined me in the meeting area. I really like that they made that choice on their own! We continued to work on order of operation problems, and after one problem, Penny felt confident and moved back to her seat to work on the remaining problems by herself. It seems like she just needed a refresher from yesterday.

Nick on the other hand was having a harder time following the order of operations. He stayed at the front of the room for two full problems. Maura wanted to move on to the new topic for the day - word problems - so she sent me into the hall with the students who needed to continue with order of operations. Nick was in this small group. We worked on three more problems together, and after each problem I asked the students to give me a thumbs up, thumbs to the side, or thumbs down - to reflect their understanding/confidence with order of operations. Nick went from thumbs down after the first problem, to thumbs to the side after the second problem, to thumbs somewhere between to the side and up after the third problem. I think with another problem or two he would have felt more confident, but the period ended. I did offer the students the opportunity to come to the classroom at 8:00 am any day of the week for help with math. The students seemed thankful for the offer - we'll see if any of them show up. This is now the second time that I offered Nick the opportunity to come into school early for extended help - I do hope that he takes me up on the offer!

After school I fought with the color copier for a while, then resigned to just print off the art work at Staples.

I stopped over at BC to see CM and her new baby. He is just so cute! It was great to catch up with her and to see her family in action together. It's such hard work to raise children - but it still seems like it's worth it!

I met my friend Deb out for dinner at our favorite restaurant - Sel De La Terre. Of course, every bite was amazing! It was great to catch up with Deb - her class is going really well and she had some great advice for me for take over week.

Awful day

11/9/10

There was a teacher and an aid out today, so guess who got to cover?  I took over for the aid and shadowed a student with behavioral issues all day.  It was a frustrating day because I have very little patience for students who don't have control over themselves.  This is why I am not getting a degree in Special Education - I know my patience limits.  

My patience were tested today by this student!  Thank goodness it was only a half day!  It was just an awful day - I didn't learn new teaching strategies, and the plans for me to teach for that day were scrapped so that I could be the aid for the day.  Frustrating. 

The good thing was that I was able to lead the morning meeting in this student's class.  I led a discussion about the president's trip to Asia, and why we celebrate veteran's day.  The students had such good questions about veteran's day - like, what is a veteran?  do you have to be in a war to be a veteran?  what is the military?  is it just the army or are the marines included?  

I also asked how students could honor veterans on their holiday - or at the very least, reflect about why we commemorate veteran's day.  They had great ideas like go to a parade, light candles, and say thanks if you know a veteran.

I stayed in math for two class periods because the student I was assigned to went to phys. ed.  We started order of operations, and reminded students of the order by a little phrase we like to call: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.  (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction).  Maura went over the concept and reviewed a couple of questions.  She then had students decide if they wanted to continue the class work independently, or if they wanted more instruction in the front of the class.  

I heard Adam say, "this is so easy" to his table mates, so I didn't expect him to join me in the meeting area.  Nick and Penny (along with a number of other students) both joined me in the meeting area for some additional instruction.  Both Nick and Penny raised their hands to participate and answer questions or provide the next step in the equation.  It was great to see Nick give participating even though he didn't always have the correct answer - I just love that he keeps trying.  And Penny is normally so shy and hesitant to contribute in class, but in the smaller group she seemed quite at ease and she had her hand up regularly.  Penny seemed to catch on to the concept fairly quickly, but I feel that Nick will need more direct instruction. 

I was able to copy quite a few documents for next week, so at least I had that going for me!  Just a few more left to copy and I'll be all set!

We had a quick QC about classroom management.  The timing was bad because a few parents put on this great luncheon.  don't worry - I still got a plate of food and took it to my meeting.

I ran over to BC after school to pick up some books on Hokusai.  I found two kids books about how artists see the weather - and wouldn't you know that some of the paintings that I already had selected for my ppt were in that book!  I should write teacher guide books!

While on campus I ran into two of my Kostka boys.  Great to see them as always - even if it was only for a few minutes.  One of the guys had a hard year last year - he told me that he was having such a better year and was much happier.  Loved to hear that!!!

Scientific notation complex

11/8/10

The students had a math assessments for PLC time later this week.  The subjects: expanded, exponential, and scientific notation.  I corrected them and was disappointed to see that they did not remember scientific notation AT ALL!  Hey, wait a minute - I just taught you this on FRIDAY! How do you not even remember being here for it (I had 3 people swear that they missed that lesson, even though I remember them being there).  I was starting to get a complex about it all, until Kristen reminded me that it was the first time they had seen scientific notation - and they probably just forgot the name of the skill. 

Adam got everything correct (4/24 in the class to get them all right), Penny will be in the scientific notation group (with the majority of students in the grade), and Nick will be reviewing both exponential and scientific notation.  It's so interesting that last week they were all in the same group, and now they're in totally different groups.  

I reviewed my unit with Amy and she seemed very impressed with the lessons and materials.  YAY!  Now I have a million copies to make!

In math, Nick looked confident when working in pairs.  He was contributing to the work during group/table work time. 

Challenge Ticket Drawing

11/5/10

I got to school before Ms. Wink today at about 7:30 am.  Usually she's in around that time, so I was getting a bit nervous when it was 7:50 and she hadn't shown up yet.  She busted in at 7:55 and was running in a million directions.  I tried to help as much as I could to get things together for her.  I feel so bad - she works so hard, but it's just never enough - there's just too much for one person to do per day!

There was a parent/teacher meeting for the ballerina student.  She's such a great student, there really wasn't much to talk about - just how great she is!

I held the students outside of the classroom until the parents left.  I then ran around the classroom and tried to pull together the classroom as Ms. Wink checked in homework.  I even managed to hold a morning meeting!  One student suggested that we play "what's up?" where you greet the person next to you and then as, "what's up?"  the student answers with a quick fact about their life.  I was surprised by the variety of answers - from getting a new pet, to a fish dying, to an upcoming trip to NYC, the students were eager to share about their lives.  I allowed for a few follow up questions, then we were off to chorus - but wait!  Chorus was cancelled because the teacher was absent - so the students all watched a movie because 3/4 teachers were in parent/teacher conferences.  

I taught math today - Scientific Notation.  It was a great concept, and the students seemed to catch on pretty quickly.  I also reviewed standard notation (2, 346), and expanded notation (2000+300+40+6).  All great things to use in higher level math.  Especially scientific notation.  

I began the new read aloud book, Morning Girl, which is meant to be a companion piece to the Social Studies unit on Native Americans.  We're only a few pages in, but they seem to be liking it!  I asked a lot of questions about what the students think about the characters - where do they live, how old is the main character, what nationality is she?  They were able to make some great inferences about the story's characters, setting, and demographic information - based on 5 pages.  The main character is Native American, and the students nailed it right away.  Great job, scholars!

At the end of the day, the students had a challenge ticket drawing.  There were lots of tchotchkes donated by the parents, and you'd be surprised how crazy students can get over pencils, erasers, and finger puppets.  The Asperger's student (who we'll call Merp from now on) had been working since the beginning of the year to tabulate the challenge ticket winnings.  He had the number of individuals' tickets as well as the corresponding percentage chance of winning, all planned out.  When a student's name was drawn from the challenge bin, he would say "Emily Donahue had 35 tickets and a 9% chance of winning.  Congratulations."  He sounded just like the Emmy/Oscar announcers who say things like "this is the third nomination and first win for so-and-so."  It was cracking me up!  Merp really is a funny kid!

At the end of the day, Amy said to me, "you know, I was thinking last night - what am I going to do with out Emily next semester - I realized that I'm going to be all alone with them!  It's going to be tough without you!"  Well, that was sweet!

Science Test

11/4/10

The drive went smoothly today.  It was chilly out, and damp with rain - I didn't want to get out of the car.  I sat there for 10 minutes.  I eventually made it inside.

Today started out early with a science review session for students who were interested.  24 kids showed up out of 75!  Ms. Wink reviewed the topics of each subject on the test with the group.  She also praised them for coming - saying that because they are putting in the effort, they are more likely to succeed.  She also gave them challenge tickets for showing up!  They were thrilled and so proud of themselves!

The science test was given first thing today.  Electricity and magnets were the main items on the test.  Awesome!  Amy corrected the lion's share of the tests, but I took on about 1/4 of the tests.  Man, they were loooooong.  Not terribly difficult, but long.  I did notice that the long answer portions of the test were tricky to assess.  There are many different levels of understanding/performance within the grade, and the answers varied drastically.  I think I would have given very specific instructions for the long answer - like make sure to include x, y, and z in your answer.  Some of the student's answers were correct, but weren't as detailed as others.  As a whole, the students did really well.  I'm so proud!  

Today was "Special Thursday" and "Creative Arts" day - this meant that the students were barely in class today.  Right after the test they had a quick indoor recess, then it was off to Creative Arts!  This is an initative in Newton to enhance the lives of the students - basically, it's an assembly.  This Creative Arts was a brass quintet whose members explained how each brass instrument worked, played a little diddy, and cracked corny jokes along the way.  I think they may have been from the BSO.  It was great!  They played music from West Side Story (Maria), The Beatles (YES!  Obla-di, Obla-da), The Nutcracker (Arabian Dance), and The William Tell Overture (Theme song for The Lone Ranger).  It was a great show, and my ballerina student was so excited that they played a song from the Nutcracker!

More indoor recess, then it was time to finish up the Read Aloud book, and they were off to PE, Music, Art, and Library.  It was a quick day, but Ms. Wink was able to sneak in one quick talk about candy - no candy before 10:00 am, and only one piece per day.

There's no way you're 31!

11/3/10

Amy was in parent/teacher conferences all day, so I pinch hit for her.  It's so funny that I have to have someone in the class with me at all times for legal purposes.  The aids get a kick out of it - today one of them said, "the fact that I have to be here for you is just ridiculous."  It was a nice compliment, but really, I'm not bothered by it.  I understand that it's a legal issue, not a confidence in me issue.

The students were still on a sugar high.  Need to remind Amy to have the "candy talk" - no sugar before 10:00 am - and only one piece per day.  They're just going crazy.  Even one of the aids who knows the class well commented on their behavior, saying that they were "out of control" in every class that she went into today.  Someone should do a research project on the effect the candy intake has on student performance during the week after Halloween.

For Talking Calendar, we reviewed how to take bulleted information gathered from primary sources, and make connections/combinations.  This was to help them to make their sentences have more depth.  It was a quick lesson, so I added in some read aloud time.

I taught science to all three classes today, and it was a lot of fun!  We went over the information from the review packet for most of the class, then finished playing Jeopardy!  The students had a lot of fun in the process.  It was a good day (despite the MANY distractions caused by sugar highs).

When my class rotated in, I made a big deal about checking off multi-step process questions to make sure that ALL parts of the question were answered.  I had a student who loves math go to the board to record the years that I had been in school - 24 in total (!!) - I needed to establish my credibility for studying for tests.  And I told a quick version of my educational background - as well as my age - 31.  The students couldn't believe that I was 31 - they kept saying that they thought that I was in my 20s - "like no more than 22" - awesome!  I'm so much older than I look!  Even Ms. Salas couldn't believe that I was 31!  

At the end of the day, I caught up with Ms. Wink.  She asked me how it went and thanked me for my help.  She said something really sweet, she said - "It was so nice to not have to worry about the person covering for me."  YES!

Election Day!

11/2/10

It was a quick half day at school today.  This week is kind of low-key for me, so the days seem to take a bit longer to complete.  A friend of mine offered me some advice when I was not feeling so great about teaching earlier in the semester - she said, "wait until you start teaching more often, I think you'll like it a lot better then."  She was totally right.  When I'm up in front of the class, the time goes by a heck of a lot quicker than when I'm just hanging out! 

I made a survey for the three students that I'm studying for inquiry.  They took filled out the answers in the morning activity time.  It was amazing to see how much of their personality came through in their answers.

Ms. Conrad had the students go through a mock election.  The student with Asperger's was the election czar - he did such a great job!  He worked the election booth and polling stations all day long and tabulated the results.  Huge smiles on his face all day long!

I double-counted the ballots to make sure that the numbers were accurate.  While we were counting, he started telling me why I should vote for Deval Patrick.  He was surprisingly informed on the issues - I loved the conversation!  Somehow the discussion shifted to mis-counted ballots and I told him about the "hanging chad" incident of 2000.  He couldn't believe the story (keeping in mind that he was born in 2000).  His exact words were, "we'll that's frightening."  True, it was frightening.  

The results:

Deval Patrick (42)

Charlie Baker (20)

Jill Stein (3)

Tim Cahill (2)

Amy and I went over the lesson that I'll be covering for her tomorrow.  It's really easy - just reviewing the review homework and continue playing the Jeopardy! review game.  

I was stressing out all day about meeting with Audrey.  I feel good about the data that I've collected thus far, but I still haven't completed my lit review - I just have this anxiety about it.  I really feel like it's a much bigger deal than it actually is.  Well, Audrey confirmed that I was freaking out about nothing - that the lit review is only going to be about 4-5 pages, and that if I get it done before Tuesday, my life will be easier. 

We reviewed the material, and she was really impressed by the information that I gathered.  One of the most helpful things was the survey that I had just had my students complete.  When reviewing the information, Audrey was able to tell me so much about each student.  (Audrey regarding student A) - wow - look at that answer!  you can tell that he is a nice kid - look at how he's thinking about the other students in the class!

(Audrey regarding student P) You can tell that she takes the time to complete each assignment - she must have felt so proud when you asked her to fill out the survey!  Oh that's interesting that she doesn't like to be called on - she's shy isn't she?  

(Audrey regarding student N) So interesting that he feels both confident and nervous when heading into a test.  He clearly tries hard - but he struggles with comprehension, doesn't he?  Look at his vocabulary, though.  Look at those words!  He's got a marvelous vocabulary!  How is he in LA?  (Me: he struggles - his sentence structure is not there)  Well, his vocabulary is - I wonder if he records his thoughts and just transcribes what he speaks if that will improve his writing ability?

Honestly, Audrey could be a fortune teller - she has such a great read on people!  Our discussion about student N went on for quite some time.  She thought that it was great that while working on a math inquiry project, this vocabulary strength was found. I'm going to talk with Amy and suggest that we work with student N to have him record his thoughts then transcribe them.  Also, she gave me the suggestion of having students check their division answers by multiplying the quotient and the divisor - the product of which will be the dividend if correct. 

I left her office feeling so much better!  If only I could meet with her daily, then I'd really be set!

I went home and watched the election results with my dad.  I'm such a political junkie.  Massachusetts went totally blue, which I loved!  The nation however, not so blue - largest swing in congressional seats since 1946.  Yowza.  Thank goodness we kept the senate!

I'm just glad that Deval Patrick won re-election.  The 5th graders predicted it perfectly!

Monday after Halloween

11/1/10

Monday after Halloween.  100% of the students were hopped up on sugar.  If their candy stashes are anywhere near the levels they were boasting about, I'm in for a long week!

Trick or Treat!

10/29/10

Happy Halloween!

I dressed up as Wonder Woman today - somehow I beat my cold into submission just long enough to make it through the the day! The students were so adorable! They all dressed up and were psyched to see that I had dressed up as well. Parents were all around taking pictures! The 5th grade students are the only ones who are allowed to dress up, so they look forward to this day from kindergarten!

The entire 5th grade parades through each of the classrooms in the school! Every classroom is filled with little kids captivated by the costumes of the big-time 5th graders. Priceless!

The rest of the day was a piece of cake. Pizza party, Monster's Inc, read aloud (by yours truly), and then a Visions announce by the student who is tabulating the challenge tickets.

After school, I went into Boston (miraculously still feeling okay), to catch up with some friends who were in town. I ended up running into more friends (apparently there was a higher-ed conference in town) which was fun. I went to dinner at Lir with a good friend from grad school, and my RD (junior & senior year) from Syracuse joined us. I hadn't seen him in five years, and it was so much fun to catch up! Apparently, I made both of their trips to Boston - WINNER! My RD had some of his friends join us and they also brought friends - including another friend of mine from grad school! We bumped into each other at the conference location, and then because higher ed is such a small field, she ended up being invited to hang out with my friend. Love it. With two weekends in a row of seeing amazing friends, I'm starting to feel like I really can make it through this semester.

Second half-day of the week

10/28/10

Surprise! Another half-day today! Good thing because I was up at 2:00 am with a runny nose - and wasn't able to fall back asleep. Surprisingly, I pulled it together and got to school by 7:00 am! I quickly deteriorated and by the end of my math lesson, I was a sniffling mess.

PLC groups met again today. We reviewed the 2 digit divisor problem once again, and gave the students another quick assessment to see if they were understanding the process. My (a) student got the problems correct, while the (ni) and (p) student did not. We're going to continue to work with these students next week. I will have to think of creative ways of getting them to understand the concept, because the repeated practice is just not sticking.

The math lesson went well though! I taught how to multiply and divide with zeroes! So much fun! Crossing off, counting, and tacking on zeroes to find the product or quotient very easily!

I'm now off to work on response logs, then heading to bed!

Math Observation

10/27/10

Continued on with the science lesson from yesterday. After they got back from music class, I tempted them with challenge tickets - 5 review questions, 5 challenge tickets. The questions were:

1) How many poles do magnets have? (2)

2) What are the names of these poles? (north and south)

3) (active question) Using the down and doughnut-shaped magnets, demonstrate how the poles repel each other. (like poles = hovering magnets)

4) (active question) These two magnets are stuck together - why? (opposite poles attracting each other)

5) What is the name of the stone that ancient Greek and ancient Chinese farmers discovered was magnetic? (lodestone)

They then watched a BrainPop video that reviewed the information that was covered in yesterday's lesson. Love BrainPop!

In today's lesson, the students got to experiment! The tables teams were given random objects (paperclip, popsicle stick, steel nail, aluminum foil, paper, plastic disk, etc.) and had to find out if the items were attracted to magnets. The students used my new graphic organizers to log their predictions, write out their procedures, categorize their results, and answer a reflective question. I used the X-Men character, Magneto, to jazz up the document. We talked a little about Magneto, his powers, how magnet is in his name, and how he attracts metals. It was a nice connection to their pop culture lives - and students loved talking about comic books in an academic setting! (Next stop - ComicCon!)

I was observed by my BC Supervisor in math - teaching how to use "mental math" with division. I got to practice with the class before mine so that I was prepped and ready to go for my observation. Good thing that I did, because I made a couple of mistakes - I really wasn't as familiar with the subject as I would have liked to be, but I didn't know what I would be teaching until yesterday morning. Yikes!

I did use the SmartBoard well throughout the lesson - PowerPoint presentation, and graph paper to demonstrate the concept. I used the term "friendly numbers" when describing numbers that are products of our multiplication facts, and "landmark" numbers - numbers ending in 0 (10, 20, 30, etc.). The idea is to take a division problem and break it up into easier parts so that you can do the math in your head. Example:

72 / 4

Break the number into 40 + 32. Friendlier.

40 / 4 = 10; 32 / 4 = 8. Add 10+8, and you have your answer: 18.

In the PowerPoint slide show, there was a picture of cartoon smiley faces - one with braces. I told the class about my orthodontic journey (from 2nd grade to 10th grade) and how I loved it the whole way through! They got a kick out of the story - but I think that some were just happy to hear that an adult survived having braces!

I broke students up into working group pairs. To do this, I looked back at their math MCAS scores from 4th grade. I partnered "needs improvement" students up with "proficient" or "advanced" students. They worked together on workbook pages that had practice problems for mental math.

My supervisor loved the lesson and had lots of accolades! We also had the three-way mid-term conference with my CT and supervisor. They both agreed that I was ahead of the curve and producing high-quality work! I write this not to boast, but to add perspective to me being hard on myself. When it feels like I'm drowning, I'm actually flying high in the eyes of others. I and take a deep breath...

...for a few minutes.

It was then on to PLC groups where I was to work with the group of students who had a difficult time with 2 digit divisor problems - all three of the students I'm working with were put into this group this week! So, it is true what my CTs told me at the beginning of the year - students of all math levels will bounce around in to the various PLC groups throughout the semester! We didn't do anything fancy in the group - just put an example on the board, worked it out as a group, then gave them another problem to work on. I noticed that the advanced student flew through the problems - he understands the concepts, so his mistakes come from rushing through the material. My needs improvement and proficient student benefited from the help. They need to see the process and repeat it a few times for extra practice.

After school, it was back to work! Correcting spelling homework and reading response logs well into the night. But, I must say that my shoulders did have less weight on them.

Exploring Magnets

10/26/10

Sometime between when I went to bed last night, and when I woke up, I decided to give myself a break. I had an epiphany: over the last three weekends, I was sick for two of them - once with a head cold, and once with a 48 hour stomach flu (over the holiday weekend, of course!). I am being too hard on myself - I'm producing high quality work and an unsustainable pace. Time to cut myself some slack!

I checked in homework and lead Morning Meeting today. We greeted each other by singing the phrase, "One, two, three, four, come on (insert name) hit the floor!" The student enters the circle and shows off some dance moves. The chant continues as he/she dances, "We're so glad you're here today - hooray, hooray, hooray!" There's even a little "raising the roof" action in the latter part of the cheer. Amy gave me a compliment that I was "right on" keeping the students in check and focused during homework check-in/EMA. YES!

I taught grammar - possessive pronouns - this afternoon after watching Ms. Conrad teach it once. Her PowerPoints are very thorough and make it easy to jump into teaching the lesson without much prep. I think it went well - and I was able to get the students to transition on time!

Directly after, I taught the science lesson on magnets. It was a really fun lesson! I redesigned Amy's documents over the weekend to be more user-friendly and to be better organized/esthetically pleasing. Amy observed my lesson and had some great feedback. She said that I am coming into my own as a teach, and that it's exciting to see. Apparently, I have a natural presence in front of the class!

In the lesson, I discussed how magnets have two poles - north and south. When you put opposite poles together, they attract one another. If you put like poles together, they repel each other! The best part of the lesson was when I had a student stick strong doughnut-shaped magnets onto a dowel with like poles facing each other. The magnets HOVER! It's the coolest thing! You can literally see the force fields working against one another!

After school (half day), I sat in a few parent-teacher conferences. They were interesting to observe. I did find myself wanting to contribute and jump in - wanting to let the parents know how fantastic their children are! It was a good experience to go through - especially watching Amy prepare for the meetings. She looked through all of the assessment scores from fourth grade, wrote comments about their social behaviors, and collected information from the other teachers about how each student performs in their classes. Lots and lots of prep work!

I went home and frantically prepared my math lesson for tomorrow. Those lesson plans are torture, BUT they do prep you for every step of the lesson. After I finally finished the plan, I had to move on to correct response logs, create strategic pairings for the math lesson, add pieces of evidence to my PPA+ binder, and think of goals for my mid-term evaluation tomorrow. It was a long night...with a few tears, but I finished it all up and was in be by 10:30 pm.

Case of the Mondays

10/25/10

After one of the most fun/soul fulfilling weekends in a long time, I had a serious "Case of the Mondays" today. I woke up and decided that I had not gotten enough work done over the weekend, that I was behind in every front, and that I was doomed to not pass this semester. Amy told me I was being too hard on myself, but I just couldn't shake the guilt and the stress that's been piling up.

Onward and upward with the day.

I transitioned the students from the beginning of the day to Art class - only to be treated so poorly by the Art teacher, that I left her room fuming. Normally, I walk the students down to the room and she takes over from there. Today, she chased after me in the hallway yelling, "Ummm...EXCUSE ME!" I didn't realize that she was talking to me so I kept walking - she said it again and added, "You need to get in here - we're having a little trouble with seating arrangements, AND I need you to drop of a computer to a teacher for me."

Ah, okay. Never once did she use my name OR treat me with respect. She explained with a huge attitude that the students were sitting at the wrong tables. I explained that we had recently changed table partners and they probably just sat in their new seating arrangements. She looked at me like I was dumb, and then said, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" Though I was fuming inside, I was very polite and handled the situation. Took an survey of who wanted to revert to old seating arrangements or stick with the new seating arrangements. They all wanted the new arrangements. I thought I was done, but the teacher insisted that I "Go ahead and fix it." I fixed it in an orderly fashion, then began to walk out. She once again said, "UMMMM EXCUSE ME!" and insisted that I rewrite the names of the students on her seating chart. I left again - thinking that all of my duties were finished, but she chased me down in the hallway, "EXCUSE ME!", and threw a laptop computer into my hands, saying, "Bring this to so and so..." I smiled and said, "Absolutely, no problem!" and left.

I got back to the room and was fuming. I explained to Amy how I felt and she was very upset at the behavior of the Art teacher. She is going to talk to her about her inappropriate tone that she used with me. I really wanted to look at the Art teacher and just say, "Listen, I worked at the Art Institute of Chicago and know a thing or two about art. Treat me with some respect - I'm a future peer - not your servant." But, of course, I didn't say that and kept it professional.

When students came back, I taught "R Controlled" Spelling. When an R is directly after a vowel, it controlls the sound of the vowel (fur, car, sir, etc.). I told them that they were pirates for the day and we practiced saying "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" It was cute and they loved it!

I stayed after school super late today to work on the magnet science lesson with Jen, and to help Amy file all of the student assessments into binders for parent conferences this week. After working in reslife for the past 12 years, I know a thing or two about organizing binders efficiently! I had a system all set up and ready to go for us to power through the documents - we finished in less than 20 minutes! Must be a new record!

I feel good about the magnets lesson for tomorrow. I think it's going to be a lot of fun!

The BC 2007-2010 Crew - Back Row: Austin, Luis, Daymyen, Conor. Middle Row: Lenny, Alison, Denise, Judette, Kate, Cameron. Front Row: Me, Tanika, Colleen, Taryn.

Such amazing people!

Oktoberfest

10/22/10

The principal announced over the intercom this morning that there were a lot of absent teachers. Yikes! The colds are going around like mad! Ms. Conrad is totally sick with a head cold, but she was a trooper and came in today - thank goodness!

Both Amy and I forgot to look over our response logs last night, so we tried to work on them, but neither of us had time. She had to run off to a meeting, and I was organizing students into groups for Social Studies and setting the room up for EMA/Morning Meeting. We decided to just give

them back on Monday.

I checked in homework by myself officially today! It was a fun experience, but it was tough to keep on top of the students while checking over the homework. I had to do some serious multitasking! I'd look over the math homework while asking students to quiet down or ask if they were reading the morning message and following directions. Amy was watching me from afar, and complimented me later in the day for being on top of everyone.

She was pulled out for a meeting before the day had started - follow up from yesterday's student in crisis incident. It was up to me to make sure that the students took their spelling test and got to chorus on time. The students were a bit rowdy and I had a hard time getting them quiet - I utilized a number of classroom management techniques, but they still wouldn't listen. Finally, after lots of patience, they quieted down - but it took so long that we missed morning meeting. They were upset, but it was a good lesson for them to learn.

I taught math again today - 2 digit divisor long division! It's a tricky subject, but if they follow the steps, they are destine for success. The lesson went really well, and I even threw in a few tips about rounding the divisor to estimate how many times it will fit into the dividend. The one thing that Dr. Morse and I both emphasized was for students to show their work - because there are so many steps to long division, it's easy to make a mistake, but by showing work (and using scrap paper when necessary) students are less likely to make careless mistakes.

No sooner did I finish up in math and switch to science when Dr. Morse asked Ms. Wink if she could steal me back. She had just gotten a phone call - her daughter had a fever and needed to be picked up from school. Dr.Morse needed me to pinch hit for her! YAY! what a compliment! I was happy to help - and I totally hammed it up! I taught it so much better the second time.

In SS, the students were separated into 5 Native American tribes - groups that they will be learning in for the next several weeks. After getting their assignment, they read packets about their tribe. Ms. Conrad asked me what my plans were for after December. I said that I was hoping that somebody would get pregnant, which made me laugh in my head because it reminded me of a hilarious Tracy Morgan clip that my friends and I were obsessed with a couple of years ago. Anyway, she and I had a great conversation about how I can go about getting a job - she suggested that we talk about it on Monday over lunch. YES! That made me feel pretty awesome!

After school, I stayed after with Jenn and Amy to go over the magnet lesson. Amy was thrilled with the improvements we made to the PowerPoint and planned to make with the handouts. It should be a fun lesson.

I was so excited to go to "Oktoberfest" with the 5th grade teachers, but everyone dropped like flies. Ms. Conrad was sick and went home, Dr. Morse left school early, Mrs. Callahan and Jenn both had commitments, and Amy was exhausted from yesterday. I came close to backing out, but I decided to stop by - hey, I bought cookies, might as well stop by. I'm glad that I did! I only stayed for about an hour, but it was nice to see the teachers out of the work environment. It was also nice to see that they are friends - after coming from a job in which I was friends with almost everyone I worked with, it's nice to know that colleagues can be friends outside of work in elementary education too!

I left Oktoberfest and drove to BC to hang out with those former work friends. My friend Judette was in town from San Francisco and a bunch of us met and made dinner. We sat around the table, laughed, and caught up. It was a great way to end my week! Good food, great friends, fun memories.

I finished reading "Poppy" by Avi. It's a story about a field mouse who takes on the self-appointed "leader" of Dimwood Forest to avenge the death of her love, and to save the future of her family. It was a quick read and very entertaining. I also loved that the the main character is a girl - she is clever, brave, and ends up outwitting the evil dictator. A great read that is part of a series - it would be easy for students who like this book to keep on reading the other two books. There are many illustrations throughout the book, which can help young readers to transition to chapter books.

Looooooooooong Division

10/21/10

I checked in homework today under close supervision of Amy - I think that I did a pretty good job. Just as we were transitioning to morning meeting, a student came to me holding his glasses in two spots - completely broken. I tried to tape them back together but the location of the break made it very difficult to fix. I consider myself an expert with working with duct tape, but this break was nothing that my handiwork could fix. Thus started a very long journey to find superglue - which ended the student and up in the custodian's office. Even he couldn't fix the glasses with superglue. I tried to make the student feel better by joking that we would just draw a scar on his forehead and call him Harry Potter for the day - which made him laugh. I asked the custodian if he had electrical tape because I thought it would be a better management tool for holding the glasses together. The student asked, "What's electrical tape?" I immediately turned the question into a teachable moment: "Well, remember last week when we studied conductors and insulators of electricity? Electrical tape is an insulator. Electricians use the tape to wrap copper electrical wires so that the circuits stay in place and are insulated - which makes the circuits safe. Behind every light switch, there is a piece of copper wire wrapped in electrical tape!" The student loved this real-world example and I think that he got a kick out of having his glasses taped in an insulator. In the end, the glasses were not wearable and he called his parents to have them grab a spare from home. All that wo

rk and there was a spare pair at home?! Hilarious!

Today we started loooooooooong division in math! Dr. Morse introduced the topic to the students, and I walked them through a few problems on the SmartBoard. So, do you remember the five steps of long division?

Division

Multiplication

Subtraction

Check that your answer is less than the divisor

Bring down the next number

Lots of kids remember the phrase "Does McDonald's Sell Cheese Burgurs?"

Cute.

Later in the day, one of our students had a tough day. It was a student in crisis moment that required Amy to fill out a lot of paperwork, involve many administrators, and have some hard conversations with the student. I could tell that it was really hard emotionally on Amy.

She was gone from lunch on, so I took over the rest of the day - which was mostly independent work, so it wasn't too hard to cover on the fly.

I went home with little to do because my magnet lesson got postponed until next week. I was relaxing and enjoying the one free night, when BAM! I received a voicemail from my supervisor - asking where my lesson plan for tomorrow was. OH NO! I completely forgot/the days slipped away from me. I called her in a panic, but she was so understanding! Thank goodness! We rescheduled for next Friday - when I'll be dressed up as Wonder Woman. Crisis averted.

Land Bridge

10/20/10

Today I worked with Ms. Conrad to teach a lesson on the Bering Strait land bridge that once stretched from Asia to Alaska. I observed her for one period, then attempted the lesson for my class. I panicked right before the lesson began, so we decided to co-teach the lesson. She covered the major concepts - like why we measure time in BC/AD (dancing around the religious aspects of the dates), and what a theory is. I got to handle the fun part! A dramatic reenactment of the land bridge appearing during the ice age. Students played glaciers, the ocean, the Bering Strait, animals, and humans. I read a story in a dramatic voice about the Ice Age, and how the water of the Bering Strait and the Ocean receded, leaving a land bridge between Asia and North America. The students stood on a piece of butcher paper with the outlines of Asia and North America outlined. The animals and humans walked over the land bridge and ended up in North America. Tah-dah! A nice theory of how humans ended up on our continent.

Too hard on myself

10/19/10

I woke up today and realized that I'm being way too hard on myself. I'm totally bummed out that I haven't written my lit review for my inquiry project yet. I've been beating myself up about it, but I had a moment of clarity this morning that I need to cut myself a break. The two prior weekends, I was sick - first with a head cold, then with a stomach flu. Because of my long commute, the only time that I have to work on this paper is over the weekend - well, I can't work when I'm that sick. There's only so much that one person can do. I know that I need to keep up with the paper, but really, I still have time to get it all together.

We had QC today, and I have to be honest that I feel that the QC is a waste of time. We've got so much else to do - having to read the articles, then write a reflection paper is just the straw that breaks your back. Having said that, I really did enjoy the article. It helped me to think about Social Justice, and what that looks like in a classroom. Students standing up to bullies - that's social justice in elementary school. The article also helped me to think about where I would like to teach - I've been thinking about urban teaching, but wondering if I can even relate to those students. It was inspiring to think that, yes - I can. If I do end up working in an urban area, I hope that I can serve these students to the best of my ability.

Lynne and I met up for coffee (I got a milk shake) at the Chocolate Bar today. It hurt to pay $5 cash for a milkshake when just a few months ago, I got it for free! We talked about the challenges of the semester and reviewed how far we have come. It was a nice conversation!

Inquiry was a phenomenal release tonight! We talked about the challenges that we're all facing, and commiserated with each other. I stated that I felt like I was drowning - Audrey's response: "Good! No, that's good! I'm there with you - I'm drowning too! I think if you don't feel that way, that you're not caring - you're not doing what you should be doing." Audrey. How are you so amazing? Lynne and I shared with her after class that every class is just a moment of clarity - and that what we really need to do is follow her around all day so that we can stay on task. It will all be okay. One by one it will all get done!

Bully on the bus

10/18/10

A student arrived to class just before 9:00 am - the students were already at art class. I noticed that his eyes were red - it looked like he had been crying. I asked him to sit down, I then asked him if he was okay. He said that he wasn't - that there was an incident that had happened on the bus. He was hit by a bully on the bus.

Two weeks ago we talked in Morning Meeting about what to do if you receive unwanted attention from a bully. This student really listened during the discussion. As soon as he got off the bus, he marched himself to the principal's office and told what happened. The principal did a great job handling the situation, and the student felt supported.

Ms. Wink had a great conversation with the student and she invited him to stay in the classroom and read and just "chill" instead of going to art. He seemed relieved that he had the time to calm down, wash his face, and be fresh-faced when he saw his class.

I was in a funk today - mad at myself for not getting enough work done over the weekend, fearful for the amount of work that lays ahead of me. I also had a headache - there's something about this building that gives me headaches (I've been told that this is common in this building). I very rarely get headaches, but have had a large number of them since starting this semester. Ms. Wink and Mrs. Callahan both checked in on me - it's so nice to know that I'm surrounded by such caring people!

This evening, I started reading the response logs of 2 students per night. The topic of the RL was Text-to-Self. They needed to take a segment of their free-reading book and relate it to a story from their life.

Pajama Day

10/15/10

Today was pajama day! Ms. Wink called me in the morning to tell me that she had emailed parents last night to let them know that it was pajama day. So fun! Sadly, because of the dress code at BC, I'm not allowed to dress down - but I decided to bring my Snuggie just in case there was a moment that I could whip it out!

I got to school early to plan with Ms. Wink, but I ended up getting pulled in to help out Dr. Morse with a craft project. YES! Glue sticks are like an additional appendage for me! By the time I finished, it was the beginning of the school day. Planning postponed.

The students were so psyched to wear their pajamas, and Ms. Wink told them that there was a surprise for them later in the day....what will it be??

Math was fun today! Dr. Morse and Mrs. Callahan dressed up like the deputy and the sheriff to explain how to do 2x2 digit multiplication. The deputy (the ones digit in the multiplier) lassos the ones digit above - drops the ones into jail (under the equal sign) and carries over the tens. Then the deputy lassos the tens digit, adds the carried value, and drops it in jail. Then the sheriff comes back to town and puts the deputy in the hole for taking over her job while she was gone ("0" place value hold in ones column under the deputy's product). Then the sheriff does her work, carries numbers and places values in jail. At the end, all of the numbers are added up to create the total product. It was a cute show.

Ms. Conrad was absent today, so Social Studies was just a focus on math work. Students worked on "math boxes" which are problems to work on in their Everyday Mathematics workbooks. As I was helping students, I realized a few things: 1) students don't know how to divide. 2) students don't know their multiplication facts. 3) they were taught these wacky ways to multiply that are screwing up their thinking when it comes to traditional algorithms. I'm all for students getting the conceptual understanding of math, but not at the expense of them being able to complete a simple math problem. I was doing this stuff in 3rd grade, and knew how to complete long division problems by the end of 4th grade. I'm a little worried that they're not going to be ready for algebra, geometry, trig, and calculus.

Because Ms. Conrad was absent, I was sent to co-cover her classroom for one period. It was mostly a transitional period that consisted of me taking them to PE, recess, and my favorite part of the day - journal buddies with the kindergartners! I entered Mrs. Bella's classroom and fell in love with the Ks! They are just so little and cute!!! I also loved Mrs. Bella's classroom - it was perfect - every corner was meaningfully decorated with words, visual instructions of how to construct numbers and letters, a painting station, a pumpkin investigation station, student self portraits and crafts areas that were just perfect. Everything was perfectly organized and neatly put away in its own spot. I had a very nice conversation with Mrs. Bella - I complimented her on how inspiring her room was, and she was grateful for the compliment. She said that she had been teaching for 35 years and that it took a while to get things right. I also said that I fell in love with the students, she smiled and said, "It's hard not to - they are just so darn cut at this age!" She and I continued to to talk about the profession, and she asked me what grade I wanted to teach. I said that I liked the older students, but after visiting her room, it was hard to not want to stay. She laughed, smiled and said, "It takes a special kind of person to work with the Ks - not that I'm extra special - just a certain kind of patience. If you're looking for the give and take of conversation, you really do need to go 3rd or above." Such great advice. I do want that give and take, so it will be important for me to look for jobs with grades 3 and above. The Ks are so cute though...

When I returned back to Ms. Wink's class, she announced the surprise - Movie Day! The students were given a huge kudos by being allowed to watch a movie! Ice age 2 - The Meltdown! The students were so excited and loved every minute of it. Watching the movie with them reminded me of just how young they still are. They laughed at things that were more slapstick than funny, but it was cute to watch. Some of them are so tall, it's easy to forget just how young they are.

Ms. Wink and I ate our lunches in the background, planned for next week, and ate slices of my left over birthday cake. It was perfect!

There's a new Deputy in Town!

10/14/10

I arrived at school today and Ms. Wink had switched the seating arrangements - again! It was her last ditched effort to get the students to stop being so chatty. They are chatterboxes! She also bribed them with 4 vision awards if the students came in, read the morning message, and kept each other silent. They worked so hard to keep each other quiet - they were totally focused. They then transitioned into Morning Meeting where Ms. Wink lead a discussion on how to keep each other quiet during the day. For the remainder of the day, they were complete angels!

I gave a math lesson today on one digit by two digit multiplication problems.

I also administrated the spelling test today. Yeah - look at me getting up in front of the class more and more!

Sweet 16's turned 31!

10/13/10

"So now Sweet 16's turned 31"  ~Bob Seger

My mom called my name as I was getting out of the shower at 5:30 this morning - "Em, 95's closed...Happy Birthday!"  Yup - 95 North was completely closed due to an accident - all traffic was being rerouted to Route 1 - 4 lanes of highway traffic onto Route 1.  Yikes!

I decided to wait it out until they opened up 95, so I didn't leave until 6:45 - which is about a half hour later than I usually leave.  But, I got to hang out with my dad for a bit this morning, so that was fun!

I made it to school in pretty good time, and was pleasantly surprised by the ride.  I took Route 1 from Plainville to Dedham - the scenery was marvelous.  The leaves were brilliant in the morning sun, and I passed by lakes that glistened and were covered in a haze of fog.  I finished up the rest of my PPA+ and dropped it off at the office.  All of the teachers were sweet and wished me a happy birthday, and one of the female student from another class - who gives me a hug every day - gave me a super-cute homemade birthday card.  

My lesson was on conductors and insulators of electricity.  I started off the lesson with SCIENCE THEATRE! - a live action enactment of electricity going through a conductor, then being blocked by an insulator.  I had students play a battery, electricity, electrons, and a light bulb.  An additional student was used to announce the scenes as "Material A" and "Material B".  I picked the students based on their social behavior in previous classes - half of the students were well behaved, while the others were more "active" than others.  I figured that it would be good to give those students a positive way to focus their energy in class, as well as to receive positive attention as opposed to negative attention for being disruptive.  I also gave the most prominent part - electricity - to the student who is most challenged by the science material.  He LOVED being the center of attention, and star of the science lesson. 

Each of the students wore a xeroxed piece of paper that had an image that represented their material/science theatre part.  So, the battery had a giant battery on a piece of paper, the electrons had giant circles with subtraction marks, and the light bulb was a light bulb.  The students ate it up and hammed it up!  Once the scenes were completed, I had the rest of the class join us in the meeting area to discuss what just happened.  Why did electricity go through one material but not the other?  

I updated Amy's PowerPoint and added the Simpson's Professor Fink a the "host" of the presentation.  Professor Fink has a distinctive voice that is fun to imitate - so I had students take turns reading the PowerPoint presentation while doing an impersonation.  They LOVED it!

After the presentation, students handed out definitions for conductors and insulators.  I had them divide and conquer (a skill they are learning in language arts) the definition sheet by highlighting and underlining the important words.  After that, I handed out bags filled with materials that conduct or insulate electricity.  The students used a graphic organizer to predict if the materials were conductors or insulators, then they built simple circuits to test the materials.  After they recorded their results, we reviewed their findings as a whole class.  They then went out to recess and I stayed inside to review my lesson with my supervisor.

The students who acted in the science theatre kept their xerox tags on for the whole lesson.

To summarize her results - it was a slam dunk!  She actually said, "If I didn't know, I would have thought that you had been teaching for ten years!"  AWESOME!!!  Not bad feedback for my first day of 31...

For lunch, the teachers bought pizza for everyone.  It was so sweet!  During lunch, Ms. Conrad asked that I cover her last class - she needed to leave to take care of an urgent issue.  No problemo!

Her class is filled with adorable students.  They were excited to have me teach a lesson - they see me everyday, but rarely have me in their class because I rotate with my class.  The student who gave me a birthday card spread the word that it was my birthday - so the whole class sang happy birthday to me!  A great way to end the day!

Oh, and a few of the students who acted in the science theatre kept their xerox tags on for the whole day.  They just happened to be the students who typically act out in class.  

When I got home, my dad and I celebrated the beautiful weather by sitting out in the side yard and watched the golden hour sun reflect on the changing leaves.  

For dinner, my parents, brother and his fiance all went to dinner at a new restaurant in our downtown.  Very fun times.  We then went home and cut cake - after which I promptly went to bed!