Week 12

The week after Spring Break sure was a doozy!

After a wonderful, relaxing, and productive spring break, it was good to get back into the swing of things. Monday was a pretty good day, with the kids getting back into doing school also. During RTI which is from 8:45 till 9:15, the kids were sleepy and not engaged in what we were doing. We started doing the worksheets again, which are phonics and grammar then using the rest of the time to read our book. The pages probably should have taken 10 maybe 15 minutes, and they ended up taking the whole time because the kids just didn't want to do them. This is the first week we are trying them and it is what the school wants us to use, so I am going to try to think of a little extra motivation for them so we can get to the part they like better, the reading the story part. The rest of the week in RTI went a little better and by Friday they seemed to be awake and at least listening to the story and somewhat following along. I got observed in RTI on Thursday, and I thought it was pretty good for this group of kids. They all did the whole worksheet, but when we were reading  some were not following along. I got some good ideas from Prof. Mattson about how to keep them engaged, like doing spot checks or helping them figure out a word without just telling them right off the bat. Overall RTI was ok this week, and I have some good ideas about how to make it better.

Social Studies and Science time are right after RTI. I coteach this section for now, but will be taking over next week completely. We learned about the phases of the moon and the Revolutionary War. I think that the kids like this part of the day because it is more about discussion and they can ask questions easily. We read through the book and then talk a little bit about what we have learned and go over the homework questions.

After this time is special time. We had an assembly with the fourth and fifth graders this week about how to act in specials. Apparently the students in fifth grade have been acting especially disrespectful and rude in art, pe, library and computers. It is hard to look at this from the point of view of a teacher because the students need to go to these specials and the teachers need that planning period. The kids don't like the special teachers and don't really like the specials. Our hour lecture was about how to be respectful even if we don't like something or someone. We have had quite the problems with being mean to fellow students lately, and just not treating people how they deserve. It is really hard and it affects everything. When I am teaching, Mrs. Wiora is constantly outside dealing with some issue of who said what to who during P.E. It is a constant problem, and I don't know how she gets through all of it on her own. The rest of Thursday after the talk the kids behavior did not improve at all! We took away 10 minutes of Fun Friday, and they didn't even blink. (We have 30 minutes of netbook time on Fridays). I might have to find some other kind of reward system. I read in a book that instant gratification might be more effective in some schools. This means like a starburst to those who are doing the right thing. I don't want to bribe them to be good, but the intrinsic motivation is not quite there for them. Mrs. Wiora and I have talked about a couple different things. She says that they are all just crazy at this time of year, and not to worry if one day goes particularly badly.

After specials and lunch, we have language and reading time followed by math. The afternoons are really long because we go from 11:45 till 2:30 with no break. Math went ok this week, I am teaching 2 digit divisors. I think the hardest thing for me is trying to figure out how to pace it. There are about 4 students who get it, and if they don't they ask questions. There are also about 4 who just sit there and do nothing. The rest of them seem like they catch on but then when we go to individual practice they don't know how to do it. Next week I have it planned out better so that during individual practice time the four who get it will do the more challenging problems. The ones who struggle will do the easier ones and the rest will be doing the "on level" problems. This should give me more time to help those who really need it and then we can go over all the problems together and everyone can contribute - at least that is the plan!

Friday was spring picture day. It was just horrible. It took about an hour to have the 15 kindergarteners pictures taken and we spent the time making sure our kids were in somewhat of a line and not hitting each other. That was a long afternoon.

Overall the week was alright. Definitely could have been better, but also could have been worse so thats an ok place to be for my first official week of teaching. I can already tell I am getting better at this stuff and I learn so much every day from all the people at the school. I am so thankful for this placement even though it is really tough sometimes.