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.

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

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