Saturday, April 23, 2011
Well, now it is April vacation, and the weather has started to become more welcoming, with temperatures on some days reaching sixty degrees. However, I must say that where I live in Millinocket, there is still snow on the ground, and it in fact snowed yesterday. Yet, it is becoming more spring-like and the days are getting longer, which I am very grateful for. The chldren are loving this weather in school, and recesses have now become much more fun than they had been previously, although I must say that the week before vacation was tough! Hopefully, this vacation will lead to more energized students, full of enthusiasm! I must say that this last month that I will be in the classroom will be very busy. Right after vacation, students finish making their inventions and will share them at the interview fair. Along with this, students will start many new units, such as a biome unit and a new math unit that will focus on long division (YAY). Sounds scary, but I think the kids are ready for it. I am very sad, for May is the last month that I will be in the classroom, but I am going to make the most of it and teach as much as possible. I love these students, and this class will always hold a special place in my heart because they were my first, and they helped me gain so much experience and helped me through the process of becoming a teacher. It was my students' words of encouragement and their praise that helped me gain confidence in my ability to teach, and I had a blast this year. I cannot wait for this last month because I will really get to test my teaching skills and spend more time in front of the class. Coming up soon is my portfolio presentation, where some of your childrens' work will be presented and shown off, which I know many students are excited about. I want to thank you as well for your support, and I just wanted you to know I greatly appreciate it!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
March 14th
Well, it has been a long time since I have talked to you all, and for that, I must apologize. It has been very busy at school, especially since we have just finished testing. The students were awesome, and they worked really hard on botht he reading and the writing portion of the test. The students are finishing up their biographies, which we have been working on for the last two weeks. Students have just finished writing a bio-poem, and they sound great. Tomorrow, they will be able to share this information with the clas, dressing up for the occasion as well. They will be going through a job interview, in which I will decide to hire them. I will hire all students who have successfully completed their project. I am hoping that this is a fun way for students to present, and I can't wait to see the costumes tomorrow.
This month, students are also working on their animal research paper. They are researching their animal right now, and next week, we will start talking about how to write a paper with this information. They have been given three to four days already,but they will have the rest of the week to finish reseaching their animals. Besides that, it is pretty quiet. The students are finishing up their geometry unit, and they will have a test tomorrow, but they should be fine since we had a review today, and most of the students understood it. We will start on division after this unit. Meanwhile, students should still be practicing their math facts because we will need this for the next unit.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I am very sorry about the lack of data entries in the last couple weeks, but I will try very hard to write at least once a week!
This month, students are also working on their animal research paper. They are researching their animal right now, and next week, we will start talking about how to write a paper with this information. They have been given three to four days already,but they will have the rest of the week to finish reseaching their animals. Besides that, it is pretty quiet. The students are finishing up their geometry unit, and they will have a test tomorrow, but they should be fine since we had a review today, and most of the students understood it. We will start on division after this unit. Meanwhile, students should still be practicing their math facts because we will need this for the next unit.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I am very sorry about the lack of data entries in the last couple weeks, but I will try very hard to write at least once a week!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Vacation time
Hi everyone,
It's been a long time since I responded on this. I hope everyone is having a great week. This week is vacation for all the students and teachers, so I used this time to go home and visit my parents, which has been wonderful. I have also been planning for next week. Next week, the students in Mr. Weafer's fourth grade classroom will be starting biographies. I have the amazing opportunity of teaching this unit, which I am very excited/nervous about. The first day will just be an introduction, and we, as a class will brainstorm what a biography is and the components of a biography. This unit will be a 2-3 week unit, and each student will be responsible for reading a biography. I will give them options and will supply a variety of books for the students to pick, and then the students will read these, sometimes at home. The students will be doing a big project for this unit, which will be a multi-genre paper. In this multi-genre paper, students will have the opportunity to use the research they have done on their specific person to compile different writing examples. By doing this, students will make artifacts (writing samples) that show their knowledge of biographies and the components of biographies in a fun and engaging way. They will do a timeline, biopoems, letters, and other writing formats to share their information with the class, and they will be able to dress up as their person. The last day of the unit, the students will present their information and go through an interview, pretending to be the famous person. What I will tell the students is that someone wants to write a biography on them (acting as the famous people) and they have to compile a bunch of writing samples and artifacts that I can use to write this biography. They will share a couple of the examples they have, and they will answer questions that the teacher asks them. I can't wait for this experience, and I truly hope the students enjoy it!
It's been a long time since I responded on this. I hope everyone is having a great week. This week is vacation for all the students and teachers, so I used this time to go home and visit my parents, which has been wonderful. I have also been planning for next week. Next week, the students in Mr. Weafer's fourth grade classroom will be starting biographies. I have the amazing opportunity of teaching this unit, which I am very excited/nervous about. The first day will just be an introduction, and we, as a class will brainstorm what a biography is and the components of a biography. This unit will be a 2-3 week unit, and each student will be responsible for reading a biography. I will give them options and will supply a variety of books for the students to pick, and then the students will read these, sometimes at home. The students will be doing a big project for this unit, which will be a multi-genre paper. In this multi-genre paper, students will have the opportunity to use the research they have done on their specific person to compile different writing examples. By doing this, students will make artifacts (writing samples) that show their knowledge of biographies and the components of biographies in a fun and engaging way. They will do a timeline, biopoems, letters, and other writing formats to share their information with the class, and they will be able to dress up as their person. The last day of the unit, the students will present their information and go through an interview, pretending to be the famous person. What I will tell the students is that someone wants to write a biography on them (acting as the famous people) and they have to compile a bunch of writing samples and artifacts that I can use to write this biography. They will share a couple of the examples they have, and they will answer questions that the teacher asks them. I can't wait for this experience, and I truly hope the students enjoy it!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Week of Febuary 1st
Hi everyone. I am sorry for being so late to keep you updated this week. This last week was a bit crazy since we had a snowday on Wednesday and then my mentor teacher and I were not in class on Friday because we had a meeting to go to. The beginning of this week started off like the past weeks, and students did the usual classes. I taught on Tuesday, teaching a lesson on Ou/Ow spelling with words that have the sound owwww in them. It went really well, and the students did a word sort to help them organize the words. Everyone seemed to have fun with this activity, and when I assessed them (I had them fill out an exit card), they all seemed to understand this. Then, on Thursday, I taught another lesson, this one on geography of Maine. I focused on the counties of Maine, and students had to cut out counties from a map, and put them on a play dough map that we made in class. It was a fun activity, although very sticky, but the maps looked really cool, and I think the students had a good time. On Monday, we will finish the geography lesson on the counties. Students also had the NAEP tests on Thursday, which took most of the morning on Thursday. The students were great though, alhtough I think they were relieved that it was over and no wonder, it was almost two hours long. Students had a shortened period of math because of this this, and they learned about subtracting fractions, which they will continue on Monday.
That is pretty much all that is different in the class now. Our Maine unit has just started, so we have just scratched the surface at this point. I think students will also be starting a new unit in math soon, so that will be exciting. Next week, I am going to finish teaching my lesson on counties, and I wll also lead a discussion on the book the students are reading, The Owl in My Shower,, discussing summarizing and how we summarize. Through this lesson, students will learn how piece together the main facts of a story. Then, on Friday, I will try my hand at teaching math, although I do not know what the topic will be yet.
Anyway, I hope you are having a fantastic weekend, and I will see you again next week.
That is pretty much all that is different in the class now. Our Maine unit has just started, so we have just scratched the surface at this point. I think students will also be starting a new unit in math soon, so that will be exciting. Next week, I am going to finish teaching my lesson on counties, and I wll also lead a discussion on the book the students are reading, The Owl in My Shower,, discussing summarizing and how we summarize. Through this lesson, students will learn how piece together the main facts of a story. Then, on Friday, I will try my hand at teaching math, although I do not know what the topic will be yet.
Anyway, I hope you are having a fantastic weekend, and I will see you again next week.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Reflections on the past week
This was an awesome week, and from what I hear, the first full week that we have had in a while. I was glad that the snow day on Thursday was not as bad as planned because it gave me more time to get used to the procedures in the classroom. This week turned out even better than last week because now that the students are used to me, they are getting familiar with thinking that I am one of their teachers, and I must say, there is no better feeling than having students ask you questions. I really got a chance to connect with some of them this week, which was amazing, and I am happy to report that they are not nervous to ask me questions at all.
This week was in some ways similar to last week. I continued with my observations, and I did attendance, lunch count, and the read aloud. I also gave another spelling test, but this time it was given to the whole class, which was a fun experience. I also pass out quite a few lottery tickets, which seem to be quite popular with the students, and at the end of the day, I draw out names and they win prizes like classroom lunch and computer time. I have been doing a lot of circulating around the classroom this week, answering individual questions and helping students when they are confused, but next week I will actually get to teach in front of the classroom, which is exciting but also a little scary. Next week, the students will be starting a Maine unit. In this unit, they will create a Maine book that will be full of information that they learned about their state. We started preparing last week for this, and it is ready to get underway. I will be teaching one of the lessons for the Maine unit this week, a geography lesson where the students will learn about the counties of Maine. They will also be required to do a project on a Maine animal, which most of the students seem excited about. On Friday, several of them were trying to brainstorm which animal they would like to do. I thought I would also bring in a Maine calender that the students might want to use for visuals. In my hometown, we have a photographer who takes pictures of moose he finds in the woods, and they are phenominal, and I thought the students might like to see them.
Friday was officially the end of the government unit. They had a test on the government, which I think most students did well on. We reviewed a couple times this past week, and many of them studied so they should do fine. They also had their weekly spelling test, and they will be getting new words again on Monday to work on. This past week, the math students in my class had a weekly challenge of doing flashcards on the multiplication table and studying them, and to motivate the students, they had a test on Friday (a 2 minute challenge). The students that studied did really well, which was exciting, but we are going to still need to work on this skill. I think we are nearly done fractions. On Thursday and Friday, we discussed how to simplify fractions, but I think this unit is almost done as well. We also have been working with the students in writing, and they are doing a creative story. The skill we are working on right now is elaboration, meaning using descriptive words in a story to give the reader an image in their head. We will continue working on this into next week.
I am very excited for next week because I will be teaching more. On Monday, I will be teaching a spelling lesson on the ow/ou sounds. I will also be taking a group to work on writing. We are going to split the class in half and I am getting one group and my mentor teacher will have the other group. We will continue working in these groups on elaboration and on having a conflict (problem) in the story. The students have graphic organizers to help them create a polished piece, and we are hoping that these graphic organizers help the students stay focused on their story. I will also be teaching a geography lesson on Maine, which will focus on the counties of Maine. I think I will have to practice my singing voice this weekend so I can sing the county song. At the end of the week, we will also start a new book called There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George. I will be taking a group of students and reading this book with them, working on literacy strategies such as comprehension and predictions. I cannot wait, and I think the students will really enjoy this book. I also think that with this book, students will get the chance to learn a lot about owls and what they eat, and I think that at the end of the book, my mentor teacher is going to have the students dissect owl pellets, which is a fun and informative science experiment that lets the viewer see what owls eat and how they digest their food.
I have not yet sent out the permission slips to take pictures or videos of the students, but I think they will go out on Monday. If I do indeed take pictures or videos, please be assured that they will be used only in an educational setting ( my portfolio). Besides that, everything is pretty normal in the classroom and is going well, and I thank all of you for being so cooperative and patient with me. Please feel free to talk to me on email, and I look forward to meeting all of you!
Sincerely,
Ms. Campbell
PS. Students didn't have any math homework for the weekend, but it would be wonderful if they continued working on their flashcards and on their reading.
This week was in some ways similar to last week. I continued with my observations, and I did attendance, lunch count, and the read aloud. I also gave another spelling test, but this time it was given to the whole class, which was a fun experience. I also pass out quite a few lottery tickets, which seem to be quite popular with the students, and at the end of the day, I draw out names and they win prizes like classroom lunch and computer time. I have been doing a lot of circulating around the classroom this week, answering individual questions and helping students when they are confused, but next week I will actually get to teach in front of the classroom, which is exciting but also a little scary. Next week, the students will be starting a Maine unit. In this unit, they will create a Maine book that will be full of information that they learned about their state. We started preparing last week for this, and it is ready to get underway. I will be teaching one of the lessons for the Maine unit this week, a geography lesson where the students will learn about the counties of Maine. They will also be required to do a project on a Maine animal, which most of the students seem excited about. On Friday, several of them were trying to brainstorm which animal they would like to do. I thought I would also bring in a Maine calender that the students might want to use for visuals. In my hometown, we have a photographer who takes pictures of moose he finds in the woods, and they are phenominal, and I thought the students might like to see them.
Friday was officially the end of the government unit. They had a test on the government, which I think most students did well on. We reviewed a couple times this past week, and many of them studied so they should do fine. They also had their weekly spelling test, and they will be getting new words again on Monday to work on. This past week, the math students in my class had a weekly challenge of doing flashcards on the multiplication table and studying them, and to motivate the students, they had a test on Friday (a 2 minute challenge). The students that studied did really well, which was exciting, but we are going to still need to work on this skill. I think we are nearly done fractions. On Thursday and Friday, we discussed how to simplify fractions, but I think this unit is almost done as well. We also have been working with the students in writing, and they are doing a creative story. The skill we are working on right now is elaboration, meaning using descriptive words in a story to give the reader an image in their head. We will continue working on this into next week.
I am very excited for next week because I will be teaching more. On Monday, I will be teaching a spelling lesson on the ow/ou sounds. I will also be taking a group to work on writing. We are going to split the class in half and I am getting one group and my mentor teacher will have the other group. We will continue working in these groups on elaboration and on having a conflict (problem) in the story. The students have graphic organizers to help them create a polished piece, and we are hoping that these graphic organizers help the students stay focused on their story. I will also be teaching a geography lesson on Maine, which will focus on the counties of Maine. I think I will have to practice my singing voice this weekend so I can sing the county song. At the end of the week, we will also start a new book called There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George. I will be taking a group of students and reading this book with them, working on literacy strategies such as comprehension and predictions. I cannot wait, and I think the students will really enjoy this book. I also think that with this book, students will get the chance to learn a lot about owls and what they eat, and I think that at the end of the book, my mentor teacher is going to have the students dissect owl pellets, which is a fun and informative science experiment that lets the viewer see what owls eat and how they digest their food.
I have not yet sent out the permission slips to take pictures or videos of the students, but I think they will go out on Monday. If I do indeed take pictures or videos, please be assured that they will be used only in an educational setting ( my portfolio). Besides that, everything is pretty normal in the classroom and is going well, and I thank all of you for being so cooperative and patient with me. Please feel free to talk to me on email, and I look forward to meeting all of you!
Sincerely,
Ms. Campbell
PS. Students didn't have any math homework for the weekend, but it would be wonderful if they continued working on their flashcards and on their reading.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday, January 24th
Welcome back, everyone. I hope everybody had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I know I did, and it was a three day weekend because of the storm. Most of the time I love snow, but lately, I have become a little tired of it because my roommate and I have no plow and that means shoveling our driveway out, which takes a few hours. I hear that there is supposed to be another storm on Wednesday into Thursday, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for the weather to stay nice. I will definitely be bundled up this week though, especially since today got into the negative numbers.
This week has been very exciting, even though it is just Monday. I got more involved in the classroom today, and I have started taking over attendance and lunch count, and I also took over the read aloud. For read aloud, we are reading The City of Ember, and I really enjoyed reading it to the class. I also gave a small group a spelling test today during silent reading, and I was able to help my mentor teacher when he taught math and social studies. So far, I am not doing anything big, but that is okay. Every day I am in the classroom, I feel more comfortable and I enjoy it a little bit more each time I get more responsibility because this means that I get to know my students more. I also did bus count today and walker count at the end of the day, and I took home some math papers to be graded. Tomorrow, everyone should be receiving a letter from me introducing myself, and it will also contain a permission slip for me to take pictures and/or videos. Please sign these. They will be used only for student teaching seminar and will make a valuable asset to my portfolio that is due at the end of May. I also have a survey that I will hand out to the students tomorrow that they will fill out in class. This survey will help me discover the learning styles of my students, which will better prepare me for my lessons as I will use the information given to create lessons that are the most meaningful to my students.
Thank you for your patience and support, and if you have any questions or concerns, you can write to me at margaret.j.campbell@maine.edu. I can't wait to hear from you and hopefully, I will see you sometime this semester!
Sincerely,
Miss. Campbell
This week has been very exciting, even though it is just Monday. I got more involved in the classroom today, and I have started taking over attendance and lunch count, and I also took over the read aloud. For read aloud, we are reading The City of Ember, and I really enjoyed reading it to the class. I also gave a small group a spelling test today during silent reading, and I was able to help my mentor teacher when he taught math and social studies. So far, I am not doing anything big, but that is okay. Every day I am in the classroom, I feel more comfortable and I enjoy it a little bit more each time I get more responsibility because this means that I get to know my students more. I also did bus count today and walker count at the end of the day, and I took home some math papers to be graded. Tomorrow, everyone should be receiving a letter from me introducing myself, and it will also contain a permission slip for me to take pictures and/or videos. Please sign these. They will be used only for student teaching seminar and will make a valuable asset to my portfolio that is due at the end of May. I also have a survey that I will hand out to the students tomorrow that they will fill out in class. This survey will help me discover the learning styles of my students, which will better prepare me for my lessons as I will use the information given to create lessons that are the most meaningful to my students.
Thank you for your patience and support, and if you have any questions or concerns, you can write to me at margaret.j.campbell@maine.edu. I can't wait to hear from you and hopefully, I will see you sometime this semester!
Sincerely,
Miss. Campbell
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The First Couple Days in the Classroom- January 21, 2011
Welcome to my blog! Today was my first day in the classroom, and I loved every minute of it. Right now, I am simply observing and watching my mentor teacher to see how the procedures work in the classroom, but soon enough I will be teaching. In fact, in a couple weeks, I will be doing a unit on biographies. It should be a blast! The unit will include at least 5 lessons, a pre-assessment, mid-assessment, and final assessment. I am going to try and make it as hands-on as possible, and I would really like to try and do some different things with it so that the learning styles of all children are met. I will keep everyone informed on what is happening, and I will let everyone know when big projects and homework are due.
Thank you for looking at my blog and see you next week!
Miss. Campbell
Thank you for looking at my blog and see you next week!
Miss. Campbell
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