Daycare Adventures

Behavior Management

• I have been in charge of the group for the past 3 days. I am learning that I like to give warning disciplines. The first time that a student did something that I didn't like, they had to sit out for 2 minutes. The second offense and each one after that during that activity cost the student 5 minutes. I took the time from group games, outside time, free time, and electronics time. 
• I go with this type of discipline because I do not agree with the punishment of having students write sentences when they act up. I feel like it makes students associate writing with being punished; I want children to enjoy writing. I do have to admit; however, that one of my pre-kindergarten boys learned how to write the sentence that he had to write so much this summer. He acted up during circle time so I sent him to the table while I finished the activity and decided what I wanted to do with him. By the time that I got to him, he had already written his special sentence (with correct spelling) ten times. 
• When the class became too talkative, I explained that it made me feel unhappy when they didn't listen to me. I continued by explaining that I chose to spend my spring break at the daycare instead of on a beach because I really liked the children and wanted to spend time with them. The students' became more serious and they sat quietly on the bench until snack time. 

Nature Walk

• While there was a break in the rain, I led the group in a nature walk. My partner was the caboose. I taught the children about daffodils, red bud trees, and a few other things. Some students complained that there was not enough real nature around the daycare, but other students really enjoyed the walk. Overall the group's attitude calmed down and became better. 

Circuits Experiment

• It was raining when I woke up, so I knew that my students would be bouncing off the wall because they would not be able to go outside very much today. I decided to grab my circuit experiment box. I did a brief lesson of my IMPACT lesson content for my students (kindergarten through fourth grade) before showing them how to create a circuit. I passed out some of the circuits that my 4th graders created, some needed to be reconstructed or fixed. I showed each group (there were 4 groups) how to test items. One group became so engulfed with the experiment that they did not decide to put it up for technology time. Another group got really creative with their circuit. It was nice seeing the entire class (except for 2 kindergarten girls) so engaged with this lesson. I will bring more complex science experiments in the future. I took pictures to send my boss so that the families could see. 

Learning about Siberian Unicorns

• One of the students mentioned unicorns during our morning meeting, so I told the group that apparently unicorns really did exist a long time ago, but they looked more like rhinos. I asked the group if they wanted me to look up the article that I saw about the unicorns, during my lunch break and they got excited. After my lunch break, I showed the students the pictures from the article and read the article to them. We all learned something today and the students were genuinely interested in this. 

Camp Songs

• I love leading camp songs at the daycare. I'm the only one who does it, it is a role that I created and that my bosses were excited about. Throughout the past 2 years, I have had some excellent experiences with the children through song time, I let the children create their own verses of "Boom Chicka Boom." Because of the rain, I wanted to use some of the students' energy. I began with "Bananas of the World Unite," but my car accident injury flared up at the beginning so I led the actions a little while I sung. This made me wonder how much this accident is going to impact the rest of my life and what type of accommodations I am going to have to prepare. Will I have to have student scribes from time to time? 

Tornado Drill

• At the end of the day, some guy accidentally pushed the Charlestown tornado siren button during a thunderstorm, so I ushered my daycare kids into the big kitchen. I didn't tell them why we were in the big kitchen, most of the children were happily sitting around a big table expecting us to cook or do something fun. I had the students share what their favorite thing that we had done today was. A few of the kids got frustrated with me and said, "Miss Jennifer, we're surrounded by conductors during a thunderstorm." At least my electricity lesson got through to them. Towards the end a few of the kids were worrying so I tried to make it make sense by saying "Who here has ever had a tornado drill at school? This is like a real tornado drill." Haha that didn't work well, but thankfully the siren was off by then. I am glad that I got to experience what I thought was a real tornado with such a small group of children. I know that I won't be allowed to let my future students talk during a tornado drill, but now I know how not to provide closure to the experience. When parents picked up their children, I told the parent about some of the fun activities that we did and that we had a tornado drill. 

Chilling on the "couch" without shoes

• At the end of the day, the children really wanted to play with our mats today, so I got out the rest of our mats to keep the children from fighting over them. The students quickly designed a couch that was big enough for all of them to fit on. I was really proud of their teamwork. They asked if they could take their shoes off. I knew that we weren't doing anything else until they went home, so I gave them my consent. It was so nice getting to hang out with them in such a relaxed setting. One of the students said something about bubblegum, so I sung the "Bazooka Bubblegum" song, which I had taught them a few summers ago. A few of the students whispered and decided to echo only parts of the chorus. When my song was finished, they echoed with the song "Chewy Bubblegum" followed by a bubblegum song that has the same tune as another camp song that I like. I responded by singing "Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut." The students enjoyed doing the motions. As a former music education major, I loved having this song conversation with them. 

IMPACT Project Data

IMPACT Project Data

• I am very happy with the outcome of my impact project, each group showed progress and the class average climbed into the proficient category. 

Creating Math Anchor Charts

• I went into the school today. I cut some of the cards for the math game. I also created all of the math anchor charts for next week. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the anchor charts. Sometimes I forgot to use 2 lines (height) per word so some of the words are small, but it is still possible to read the charts. 

Pedagogy Test

Pedagogy Exam

• I passed my pedagogy test today! Surprisingly enough, the exam questions had some good things to think about for designing my future classroom. We do poster math every Friday, and a question talked about how a teacher wanted to do project based learning. 

Playing with Prodigy

• I checked out both the teacher and the student versions of Prodigy today. I like that they have a password sheet to help the teacher keep track of passwords. I love that the teacher can choose to have the current content used for the game questions and that the game actually keeps data on how well the students answered the questions. This game is very addicting, I actually played for 30 minutes. I understand why students play this game at home. Because there is no chat option, it is a safe way for the children to play a game with players around the world. I will definitely have a prodigy account for my future classroom, even if my students do not get the chance to play it during school. 

Dodgeball!

Student-led Volunteering

• I think that it is really cool when schools support community service activities that are led by students. It is interesting that they will recycle the old shoes to create new ones. 
• I remember when a girl at my high school was collecting bottle caps to help fund a cancer treatment for a lady at her church. I asked the 4-H clubs to donate bottle caps while they donated pull tabs during the county fair. Even though I announced that the bottle cap part was only until the fair, there was a huge turn out for the next year and a half. I had already taken over the pull tab collection, but the 4-H community and fair goers really supported my drive as I supported that girl. 
• In my future classroom, I will try to be supportive of students when they want to create a community service event. 

Tornado Drill

• This went fairly nicely. There weren't too many idea places in our assigned room, but at least we were in a small room on the ground level with cement walls. 

Students versus Staff Dodgeball

• The event was very fun. 
• I got some hands-on experience with getting to be fully in charge of a class during an assembly. I had to tell the students to sit down, be polite, and not to stomp on the bleachers. 
• I couldn't play because I had to be in charge of putting the students back into the game, but at least I still got to participate. The game used small balls, so it was difficult for me to see when a student caught a ball, so I had the students help me watch.
• The outcome of the game is up for debate. When the class was about to lose, my teacher put the students back in 3 and 6 at a time. With this help, there were more students than teachers on the floor when the alarm sounded. The students bragged about winning, even though they technically lost. It was a fun way to send them to spring break, even though the game was to celebrate the classes that won the canned food drive. It was very interesting to hear the fun trash talk from both sides. I decided not to get too involved in the trash talk, so I just said, "oh, that's a nice opinion," when one of the students said that the wanted to celebrate the fact that the 4th grade was going to win the dodgeball game later that day. These events are very important. 

2 Class Compliments

• Walking nicely in the hallway
• Behaving during library class

Preparing for after break

• We planned for that week.
• I stayed after to finish grading Friday's spelling test and to make sure that everything was ready for the next spelling unit. 
• I cleaned out my desk and brought almost everything home.
• I created my to do list for spring break. I feel better already knowing that I can fit in most of the items that I want to accomplish. I hope that I stick to my list. 

Preparing the Game Pieces

Down Syndrome Awareness Day

• I thought it was great that the staff got together to celebrate this day. One of the students in the school, the son of one of the top office employees, has down syndrome. The staff had the chance to buy a shirt, I am glad that my teacher surprised me with one. Students were encouraged to wear blue and yellow (the official colors of the cause). Around 2PM, every child who was wearing blue and yellow shirts went down to the gym for a picture. They filled the huge middle section and slightly around it. I helped ut by shifting the students on my end so that they would fit into the picture. The support staff (including myself) got to be in the student picture. After school, the participating employees had their own picture taken. 
• This cause is very near and dear to my heart because my former choir teacher's daughter has down syndrome. I remember watching him cry and blame himself when he found out that she had down syndrome, he explained what down syndrome is and how it could affect her life and set limitations for her. Of all of the parents that she could have, she is so lucky to have him as a father. He tries to keep her life as close to a typical girl's as possible. She is involved in down syndrome organizations and events. Most importantly, she is loved by both of her parents and her brother. 

Personal Narrative

• The students seemed to accept my suggestions to their writing. I look forward to seeing the rough drafts. I worry about the students forgetting their thoughts during the next week and a half. I am really glad that I wrote my comments on the graphic organizers while I was at home because it saved a lot of time. Many of the students were able to add in the details on their own. I was able to answer questions about my comments today without having to spend extra time reading the graphic organizers again. 
• In my future classroom, I would like to create powerpoints with typed instructions and pictures for our activities. I told the students to skip every other line in their rough drafts and many of the students forgot that step. 

Cutting, Labeling, Laminating, and Cutting Again: Equivalent Fraction Game

• My teacher printed the sets on card stock to make the pieces a little more sturdier. We cut the outside off of the cards to save some time when the students cut and so that we would not have to deal with their trash. I would totally do this again.
• She explained the rules of the game and demonstrated it with her pre-cut pieces. The students cut apart their pieces and put them into a plastic bag as they traveled to different parts of the room to play. 
• The teacher and I cut apart and labeled the remaining 3 kits so that they will be ready for when the 4 students who were absent today return. 
• As the students were playing, both teachers walked around and the aid stayed with a specific group. We wanted to use the pictures to have students find equivalent fractions, but some groups couldn't seem to understand that, so I practiced teaching some of the groups how to use math to find out if a set of fractions is equivilent. I used the common denominator and the butterfly method. The butterfly method was much easier to teach. I feel more confident about teaching this lesson after spring break. This activity helped me to decide that in the future, I want to teach equivalent fractions before comparing fractions, although both of the topics intertwine nicely. 
• During SSR time, I labeled the rest of the sets. We decided that children need every card labelled in case they lose one. This was confirmed while we were collecting the sets and a student brought me up a card and said that the card came from their set. This freaked me out because there are so many sets, but luckily the group had a very specific cutting error that they made on a few of their cards, so I was able to locate the correct set with ease. 
• While laminating the sets, I used the paper cutter to fix any cards that looked obviously different from the other cards in the set. It also made the cards look nicer. 
• I am glad that we split the cards into two groups. It is much easier knowing that I only have to trim half of the cards. 
• I would definitely do this activity set up in nearly the same way. I would use the paper cutter to trim the edges. I would write on top of the laminated pieces instead in case I decided change my mind or if I had to combine sets. 

Head Start Babysitting

• The children got along well.
• I got the children to trust me. One of the one-year-olds didn't want to trust me at first.
• The boss accidentally gave us a pineapple pizza instead of the cheese pizza. She had only bought 1 cheese pizza and 2 pieces were already missing. While I was putting 2 pieces of the pineapple pizza (for Mom and me) into the gap, I thought about how I actually had a real story relating adding fractions that actually dealt with pizza. 

Poster Math: Rock Collections

Food Drive

• I'm pretty sure that my class somehow won the 4th grade division of the canned food drive, which means that our class will probably end up in the students versus staff dodgeball game. I brought in 12 items towards this total. It was amazing when my students pointed my attention to part of the stage and explained that they had filled that area. I like how the contest was run. The children dropped their items off at the stage and recieved candy based on how much they donated. Then, the students told their teacher how many cans they brought in, and the teachers updated the display in the hallway across from the gym by posting a post-it note with their total on it. My students became really competitive during restroom breaks because every time that we got close to another teacher's total, that teacher's total would shoot up. There were times where her class was beating ours by 80 cans. I like that my teacher gave the student a homework pass (good for 1 assignment) for every 5 canned goods that they brought in. 

Spelling Test

• The students weren't too sure about having their spelling test first thing in the morning, but it worked out well, especially considering that there was a fire drill during their typical time. I might keep the spelling test at that time. 

Fire Drill

• My teacher had me take charge during the fire drill. It went pretty well. I learned not to have the students get into order when they get outside; it's easier to just count the children to see if I have everyone. I was going to have them get into order, but they were making too much noise. It is strange to me that children can't seem to move without talking. 

Sub

• My class had a sub after lunchtime. I got to be the lead teacher. Although the class was talkative, they were pretty good. They even managed to get two compliments: one from a teacher who had lunch duty and one from the title one coach because they were quiet during their restroom break. 

Poster Math

• The kids were very engaged in doing poster math today. They had to use critical thinking to find the pattern in the problem in order to solve it. Each student had 5 minutes to try to solve the problem before working as a group for 10 minutes. We didn't let the children move to their groups until the individual work time was over. Once in a group, the group had to agree on one method to put on their poster. Each of the 7 groups had 4-5 students in it. I created the groups last night and my teacher checked the list and moved around children as needed this afternoon. 2 of the students were very frustrated with this problem, but everyone else seemed to love it. The groups did well with the presentation. It was strange seeing which students did not want to be the speaker of their groups even though they usually do not have any trouble talking in front of others. A group was trying to convince a girl to be the speaker and she started backing up. I tried to encourage her by saying, "Go ahead, you're really confident." The girl gave me a puzzled look, but agreed to be the speaker. 

Friday Fun Day 

• This was the first week for this idea. Every week, we are going to reward that class by having Friday fun day. In order to qualify for this fun day, students have to turn in their homework every day and cannot clip below ready to learn. If a student does not qualify, then he or she has to complete a worksheet during that time. We had 3 students who did not qualify today. They worked under the gazebo while everyone else got extra time at recess. My class lost 5 minutes of fun day today because they talked too much during my instructions before the poster math presentations, so they lost 3 minutes. It took the class 2 minutes to get quiet so that I would take them down to Friday fun day. I let the students know that they were talking in line during their Friday fun day time, that fixed their behavior quickly. 

Assessing the Graphic Organizers

Personal Narrative Graphic Organizers

• I asked my students to add sensory details to their graphic organizers today. I also talked to them about writing small seed moments. I asked each student to put their draft in the middle of their table for me to collect. I had 2-3 students who did not write small seed moments. A lot of my students need to ask more sensory details. I wrote sensory detail hints at the top of each graphic organizer in hopes that my students will add more interesting sensory details to their stories. I also corrected any spelling/grammar issues while I was at it. I am looking forward to seeing the papers that my students write. Quite a few of my students decided to write about baseball and getting new pets. I am nervous about the 3 students who are writing about playing video games or watching a movie. I wrote all of my comments in pencil, but I underlined good examples of sensory details in ink pen. I plan to use this graphic organizer as a type of progress assessment again during this unit. These graphic organizers were really helpful because they were able to show me what my students were planning to write before they got too far into their papers. I thought that it was interesting that some of my students wrote their rough drafts in their graphic organizers while other students barely used enough details for me to understand what they are talking about. My next step is for students to conference with me in person before they begin writing their personal narratives. I am happy with how far the students have come with this project. 

Writing Progress Clip Chart

• A few weeks ago, my teacher mentioned that she would love to have a clip chart which shows which step each student is on for writing. Today, I found a really cute one that I liked. It turns out that my teacher does not like the children that people put on education items. She said that I could make mine anyway and that it would be mine to take to my future classroom. I asked her if she was sure, because I would be fine as long as we wrote the names on pencils. She said that it was fine. I'm really looking forward to this clip chart. 

Wrong Grade

• I was excited because our class group pictures came in today. The only issue is that our picture said that we were a second grade class. I can't wait for our new class picture to come in. 

Creating the Spelling Test

• I created my first spelling test today. I didn't mind selecting the words for students to spell on their own or to break apart (open/closed), but I was nervous about writing the sentences and asking the students to select the correctly spelled word. I tried to make the spellings as phonemically correct as possible. I thought about what I saw as I looked at student work. 

Blogging!

• My teacher mentioned that I need to communicate with parents more. She listed options such as writing the e-mails or creating a newsletter. I got really excited when she brought up the idea of creating a blog. I already have to reflect every day, so I will write the highlight moments on the class blog and then I will reflect on those same moments here. I like blogs because they are usually pre-formatted and you can add pictures. I already take pictures of fun activities or when I create something, so it will not be too much extra work for me to get pictures to add to the blog. My teacher suggested posting weekly. I think that I will post when something cool happens as well as on Fridays. I figure that a natural pattern will eventually show itself. 

Observation

Observed PN Lesson

• My university supervisor observed me today. My personal narrative lesson about adding sensory details went really well. Both my university supervisor and my teacher thought that I did very well on it. My teacher said that it was my best lesson yet and that i looked really comfortable. If I had known that this lesson would go this well, I would have had them observe this lesson together. After the lesson, I had a very long meeting with my university supervisor to catch up and get advice on student teaching. Later, my teacher informed me that I passed my midterm.

Surprise Math Time

• My teacher had to run an errand during SSR time. After a while, my students became a little antsy so I decided to move on. I didn't have anything in my lesson plan book for the time slot, I had finished my science unit on the previous day and we were not prepared for the Indiana History unit yet. I knew that my teacher wanted to head into comparing and equivalent fractions soon, so I did an impromptu unit introduction lesson. One of my students looked at me like I was lost and informed me that it was science time. I replied to her by saying that the science unit was over and we weren't ready to teach the social studies lesson yet, so I figured that I would just introduce them to fractions. My teacher had been trying to introduce the students to fractions, but the students are not comfortable with multiplication and division. At the beginning of the lesson, 3/4 of the students admitted to being frustrated. I described how to compare fractions in as many ways as I could think of. Eventually, only a little under half of the students admitted to being frustrated. I hope that my lesson helped some of the students. 

Tutoring

• It was fun creating the addition flashcards after school. Even though it seemed relaxed, I realized that my teacher was actually having the student practice her multiplication facts. I will keep that trick in the back of my mind.

IMPACT Post-test

Personal Narrative Lesson

• I was going to model writing my personal narrative in front of the class today, but at the last second, I decided that that lesson would be boring. Instead, I showed the class my heart map, complete with a list of up to 4 ideas that I would like to write my personal narrative about. (I had my class create their heart maps and list last week.) I continued by modeling how to choose which idea I wanted to write and how to fill out the graphic organizer. This is where I strayed from my lesson plan, instead of continuing on to my personal narrative, I had everyone choose a partner at their table to bounce ideas off of for a few minutes before they began to fill out their own graphic organizers. As they completed their work, I walked around to each student to check on what they wanted to write about. If they had a large topic, I encouraged them to choose a snapshot moment from the big idea to write about. For instance, instead of writing about basketball, I encourage a few students to write about a time that they made a shot or about a big game. I told them that it would make the paper more meaningful and interesting. I was proud of myself because I didn't forget to do the introduction or the closure. I realized that I was slightly behind, so I finished the last few students a little faster and I got to my closure. I tend to run out of time. My teacher told me that it was a good lesson and that she wasn't just saying that, I thought that it was a good lesson too. I would definitely repeat this lesson in the future. 

Spelling Homework

• The spelling homework was for students to write their words in their planner and to write their words three times each on the appropriate paper. It is difficult to give feedback for those assignments, but I did let students know that I enjoyed their color schemes. 

Math

• My teacher owned it during math time. We watched a math antics video during snack time, then she pulled up a worksheet and they solved some of the problems using their white boards. She continued onto squares. I saw that a student, who tends to struggle in my math group, answered 4^2 correctly, so I gave him a high five. My teacher saw that and called on him for 4^2 and 4^3. Unfortunately, he only had 4^2 correct, but at least he had one correct answer. I tried to help her see students who had the correct answer who were not the typical students who raised their hands by giving them high 5's. When it was time to finish the activity, the students asked if they could do one more problem and she obliged. I love that this class loves challenging math. They also branched onto variables somehow. I intend to use whiteboards during math time with my future classroom.

IMPACT Post-test

• I am pretty happy that my all students showed growth. I had 6 children score between 50-79%, which I don't like. I have 2 children who were absent today and still need to take the test. I did not give the test to our 2 students who read below our grade level, because they were taking the iRead. The rest of the class scored proficient! I am really surprised that the 6 students scored so low. I know that 2 of my questions were really tough, this was intentional because I wanted to see how much the children really understood about electricity, but we repeatedly went over the rest of the items throughout the entire unit. One student has somehow confused insulators and conductors. Overall, I am really happy with how this project turned out. Most of the students seemed to have fun and they learned something too. I even got to try using movement for whole brain learning. 

Detention

• I was surprised because when our classroom had detention duty during recess, we had enough children come in to equal nearly an entire class. Some had not completed their homework, but there were still plenty of children who were there because they had misbehaved or had to clip down. 

Planning

• I typed my story based off of my graphic organizer. I added more sensory details to my graphic organizer. I found a nice video of the ride that I am writing about. 

Go with the Flow

Word Work

• Today was very interesting when it came to word work. I did not feel especially comfortable with the word sort, but I did my best to make it work. My teacher thought that I had gotten confused with the categories, so she changed them. This made things a little tough because 2 out of the 3 columns on my cheat sheet were no longer correct. I am still grasping the concepts of open or closed sounds and long or short vowels. It felt like a train wreck. Eventually, my teacher realized that I orginally had the correct categories, so after the students returned from the computer lab, so quickly retaught the lesson. One of the students asked what had happened. She replied with, "I threw Ms. Lynch a curve ball." The student asked if I hit it. I said no, but my host teacher answered that I had hit the curve ball, but she fumbled it in the field. The student and I both laughed at that. Sometimes in teaching, things happen, but life goes on. In the future, I will cut out the word sort and have it clipped to the board so that it will be easier to see. I had the uncut word sort and a copy of the page of the book with the description and the answer to the words sort on the board, but the completed word sort was too small to comfortably see.

Monday Lunches

• I think that it is cool how the teachers decided to bond on Mondays. Every Monday, a different teacher brings either a soup and a dessert (in the winter) or sandwiches (in the warmer months). I like that they bring copies of their recipes. I would suggest that they put together a recipe book/folder. I might suggest this activity to my coworkers in the future. 

Circuits Review Day

• I asked my teacher to download Plickers today because her class iPad is connected to the school internet and mine isn't. As soon as her ap opened, I deleted mine. Soon after, her ap repeatedly crashed. I guess her IOS isn't updated. I decided to pass out an index card to each student for them to write their answers on. This took longer because I couldn't automatically see who had answered, I had to rely on students putting their thumbs up when they finished. I had planned to review the answer after everyone had answered with their Plickers. I still reviewed, but I worry that students may have changed their answers, which may sway my results. The students did pretty well at answering the questions. Another downside was how small the questions were on the screen and that students in the front row may have been able to see the light green circles around the correct answers. Students were also less engaged than if the Plickers ap had worked. 

Are boys supposed to be afraid of girls?

• Some of the boys were misbehaving on the way to the busses, so one of the teachers separated the boys by placing the between sets of girls. A boy in the back of the line asked me if boys are supposed to be afraid of girls. I replied that many of the kids his age don't like to be with children of the opposite gender. He said that most of his friends are girls. I laughed a little at that one. 

Planning

• I was supposed to take over math this week. We are learning about comparing fractions and about equivalent fractions. My teacher changed her mind, so I sent her my brainstorming doc full of ideas. I'm glad that I still get to contribute. Fractions are so abstract anyway. I'll just teach math later. 

Poster Math

Personal Narrative
My students are having a tough time catching on to this and I can't figure out why. I can't seem to keep them engaged and they still do not know what a personal narrative is. We redrafted next week's plan.

Math

• After the students finished their spelling tests today, my teacher wanted me to send a student to get her from the hallway. While the student was in the hallway, I decided to warm up the students for math by asking what a factor was. The students could not define the word factor and only one student was correct when I wrote a multiplication problem (with the answer) and asked which number(s) were the factors. I continued by creating a factor rainbow and reviewing everything that went with it. 
• Poster math is awesome! We did something like it when we learned about goal clarity windows (GCWs) this semester. I was surprised that every group came up with the same answer. I came up with a different answer because I decided to solve the problem with the least amount of thinking. The students really showed off the math skills with how they decided to answer the question.

Science

• The class basically finished presentations today. Two students were absent yesterday and asked to present on Monday. I was surprised that 2/3 of the class presented yesterday, but today's presentations lasted almost as long. I am glad that I decided to create new, longer leads for the circuit today, it made the presentations go more smoothly. 
• The lesson got over early today, so my teacher encouraged me to teach my science song to the students. I piggy backed the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." First, we warmed up by singing the song as a group. Next, I instructed students to join in on my song if they could. Many of the students put their thumb up when I asked if they liked it and would like to sing it again. After the second round of my song, it was close to recess and my students were too loud and rowdy, so I had them join me in deep breathing to lower their heart rates a little. We will sing the song on Monday. I didn't plan to teach the students my song today, so I did not have the words typed, but I will have them prepared for Monday. 
• I am really excited to use Plickers for next week's science review. I cut them out yesterday and I labeled them today. If this goes over well, then we can use Plickers in future lessons as well. I hope that students respect the papers and that they do not mess them up. 

Unhappy Times
Today, I unintentionally made 4 kids cry. I made it up to them, but it felt terrible.

Planning and Review
My teacher wants me to work on what she interprets as flexibility and adaptability. She hasn't seen my ability to stray from the lesson plan yet. I was fine with that comment because I need to improve on something by the end of the school year anyway. I know that I'm fine with doing that when I have to. I let her know that I stumble for a minute, then I change plans as needed. She is going to hold back on helping me to see what happens. I let her know that I didn't know if she'd like it if I strayed from the lesson plan and she said that it would be fine. I'm glad that that is the worst thing that she has to say about me, because I know that that skill will become more apparent very soon.

Fun Day Presentations, Part 1

SCE Title 1 Meeting: Viewing Acuity Results

• This session was very informative. I like how the acuity matrix lists the standards from the test. Teachers have the option to go into the test to view the question that students had to answer. This will help me as a teacher because it will show me the types of questions that my students need to get used to answer. I do not want to have my students get nervous and freeze up during the test. I want my students to feel like the question type is very familiar to them. I heard that acuity may be replaced by a new assessment. I hope that the new assessment, if there is one, is just as helpful when it comes to reviewing the results.

Drawing Arrays with Graph Paper

• I think that this activity was a great way to make this concept more concrete. I might do a similar activity next week when I teach students about comparing fractions. This activity helped some students understand fractions better. 

Fun Day Presentations

• These presentations were a success! I made it through 2/3 of the class in one day. After the students who I scheduled for today presented, I opened the floor to anyone who would like to go today. Seeing how easy it was to complete the presentation and how supportive everyone was, was especially motivating to the rest of the students. A few of my Friday students and even some student who asked for a private presentation volunteered to go today. I was so proud because an extremely shy student volunteered to go today, this was a very special moment for me. Most of the students earned 6/6 points. During recess, two students had private presentations. Three more students will complete private presentations tomorrow.  
• I set up one of the circuits that the students created. I chose the circuit that had the longest leads. I read the list of who would present today at the beginning of the session. I had each of the students get their fun day item and have it sitting quietly at their seats. I did a quick review of what I expected them to say and I left a rubric by the document camera. My teacher sat next to the document camera to squeeze the battery and lights if the circuit acted up. (Because the leads on the circuit were so small, I decided to fix it before the second presentation day.) It was very helpful to have my list next to me. It was very helpful to have my list next to me. I called off the next name while the students applauded the student would had just presented. 
• I was extremely proud of one of my boys today. A girl had brought in playdough and commented that she thought it was an insulator. The boy raised his hand and said that he thought that it would be conductor because playdough has salt in it and salty water is a conductor. I love how deep he took this. 

Planning

• I realize that I like to have Monday laid out by the Thursday of the previous week. I have the spelling words for the rest of the school year (even after I finish student teaching). I also have the word sort pages from the book copied so that I have an original for each week. This will make it will be easy to print the word sort for each week. Today, I had my teacher check the spelling list and I ran copies of the two pages for Monday. We didn't get to our reading workshop this week, so I get to use the same stations as I had prepared for last week. This early planning will help make spelling more imaginable for the rest of the school year. If I decide to use Words Their Way for my spelling words in the future, then I will repeat this style of pre-planning. 

The Beginning of a Change

PLC Meeting

• The meeting focused on the possibility of creating a new school-wide behavior plan. At the end of this post, you can see how the conversation made me think about a book that my choir teacher used to read to us during the first week of school every year. 

Writing: Personal Narratives: How Writes Choose What to Write About

• The students really seemed to enjoy creating their heart maps in their writer's notebooks. 

Science: Circuit Lab, day 2

• The students were very excited again today. I love seeing them be so excited. I was slightly disappointed when I saw that some groups did not finish the lab even though they had 2 days to complete the lab with around 14 items listed and 5 fun day items. The first student presented today. She was nervous, but she did well. 

Behavior

• I tried a few tweaks for behavior today. I wanted to use the clip chart for reinforcement, but I wanted to focus on using it positively. The students responded well.
• Deals: During the first restroom break of the day, I told a few students to clip up, like I usually do. I noticed that the more talkative students were being quiet, so I made a deal with them. The deal stated that they could clip up once they got to the room, on the condition that they do not talk in the hallway. 3 out of the 5 students got to clip up. 
• When the class was quiet, I chose one student from each table to clip up. More students wanted to be chosen, so I announced that if the class could stay quiet, I would do another round in 3 minutes. I let them be on a level 1 this time. I was proud of the class for meeting that goal.
• A perfect restroom break. After lunch, quite a few students get pulled out. The remaining part of the class stayed on level 0, like they were supposed to. Because they were so perfect, I announced that anyone whom I did not clip up earlier could clip up. Some students complained that it was not fair, but I told them that I couldn't clip up everyone earlier and that at least I had clipped them up.

Becoming Aware of my Behavioral Views

• You Are Special I don't want to give children a grey dot, but I want to help them change their behavior.

The Circuit Lab went Great!

Writing

• I found a personal narrative anchor chart online that I really liked, so I decided to use most of the text for this anchor chart. I wanted to add the words that show that it is your story. The students came up with some ideas that weren't on the original chart, so I added them. I am really glad that my teacher had me rewrite this anchor chart because it looks much better now. We decided that I will create anchor charts the night before because they will look better and it will allow me to connect better with my students. 

Math Groups

• We spent the entire time cutting out our fraction strips, but they will be ready to use for tomorrow. I am slightly concerned because one of the students who usually struggles educationally told me that he is stupid today. He added that he thinks that everyone else in class thinks he is stupid too. I told him about multiple intelligences theory, but he still did not think that he was good at anything. This is going to be a work in progress. 

Circuit Lab (Part 1)

• For the most part, this lab went phenomenally. The students were very excited. As I walked around, they were all calling my name because they wanted to show me that their light bulb lit up. I am really glad that I spent last night checking their circuits to make sure that they would work. The first thing that I did once the lab portion began was walk around to make sure that the students could get their circuits to work and that they understood how to test the items. I am a little concerned that table 2's circuit stopped working during the lab. When I asked one of the girls, she admitted that they had added tape. I loved how creative the students were with this lab. I had an extra battery in the kit and some groups were surprised when they discovered that a battery is a conductor. The boy who I mentioned during the math groups section was in a group that did something really cool with their circuit. He came up with the idea of taking the circuit wire (aluminum foil) off of the cardboard to test something. It looked really cool and the light lit up. This was probably my happiest moment of the day, I am really proud of him. 
• The students and I are very excited for fun day tomorrow. Some of the students brought in their items today. 
• Many of the students are nervous about the presentation. I hope that plenty of students decide to do the presentation in front of the class. 

• I am so excited to introduce my students to Plickers next Monday! We will use it for our circuit review game and it will give me instant feedback on how the students answered. I listed the group as each child's last name so that I can see if some groups did better than other groups. One group was filled with the students who needed more personalized attention, but the other groups should be evenly matched. 

First Day of Spelling

IU

• One of my boys is excited that I used to attend Indiana University. We celebrate every IU win and he shows me his IU gear. It makes me really happy!

Spelling

• I am glad that my teacher was able to step in and help me at the beginning of my lesson today. We did not have spelling last week because we took the ISTEP+. The students had forgotten what a doublett was. 
• It wasn't so bad creating the spelling materials this week, my teacher gave and lent me some nice resources. 
• I have typed up the spelling words for the rest of the school year. We use Words Their Way: Word Sorts for Syllables and Affixes Spellers for our spelling words. I hope to have them all formatted by the end of the week. Having the lists completed will make for one less thing for me to worry about. I am still looking for more ideas for what to do for spelling homework as well as for the word work station during the reading workshop. 

Science

• It was fun to see how excited the students were about the lab. They literally oohed and ahhed when they came in from their restroom break and saw the kits on my desk. 
• I made 2 great choices for this project. I put together a kit for each table and I prepared extra aluminum foil squares. If a group approached me because they messed up or ripped their aluminum foil, I only had to send them to my desk for a new piece. 
• The students seem to be excited for fun day. I sent home a letter about fun day and the presentation. 
• I noticed that the students had trouble getting their circuits to light up. I think that it is because of how skinny they made their aluminum foil wires, so I am making aluminum foil caps to help the batteries. I decided to check over each circuit so that I can spend more time teaching the children about conductors and insulators. 

Here are the circuits that my students made today (with the battery removed). We are hoping to have an awesome lab for the next 2 days!

The items in the student test packs. The hot wheel is for my fun day presentation. My kit had a spork set in it, but it fell out in my desk

I realized that the circuits weren't working because the foil between the light wires was connected, which confused the energy. We also labeled where the students had the battery and the testing area. With less confusion, the students can test more of their items.

Planning for Personal Narrative

• I like how this unit is coming along. I discovered that I like to see the big picture. When I create the lesson plans for a unit, I prefer to create a general unit plan so that I can see how the different parts relate to each other. 
• My teacher put together this text set to accompany my unit: 

Subbing

My class had a substitute teacher today. It was nice to be able to see how well I could handle the class on my own. It was rough accommodating for students who got pulled out, especially the 2 students who had to finish ISTEP+.

Camo Day

Too Much Talking
The class was talkative today, so I had to be strict with them. I told them why I have to have students clip down when they say any word in the hallway or in the classroom if they decide not to heed my warnings. During the final incident, I talked to the class about respect and about how it makes me feel when they choose to talk after I have asked them not to. The students had to stay silent for 5 minutes after that conversation. Other than the talking, it was a pretty good day. I think that if I had a week like this, the students would talk less (when they are not supposed to talk) or I would be more strict.

Morning Meeting
The sub was surprised when the students took interest in his interest. I like that the class always wants to know more about the people in the classroom. The morning meeting went fairly well.

Art Art Art
I went into the art room when it was time to pick up the students. I was surprised to see how well the students traced and completed pictures using the pointillism style.

Main Idea & MLK
My teacher had me read this book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/808017.My_Brother_Martin  about MLK's childhood today, while we were discussing the implied main idea. It was a great book, and my 4th graders handled it well. I'm in an ELL class, so I used that as an example of the change that he made, the students all get along, even though we have so many tones of skin color. The book was a little long, but it was well written. I would definitely recommend it in the future, apparently she also wrote a book about the March on Washington.

Electricity
I discussed my science unit with the sub while the students were in art class. He mentioned that he actually knows a lot about science and suggested that I teach the students more about safety. Because this was such a perfect opportunity, I asked him if he would like to review with the students before the quiz instead of me. He liked the idea, so I showed him the quiz and told him the answers that I had tried to get through to the students, along with any confusions that they may have. The students really benefited from the extra knowledge that he provided. I liked how well most of the students did, although I need to focus more on a few of the students.