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!