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.