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!!!
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