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.
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