My Final Day

Getting Surprised

• The teacher in the next room caught me on the way to my classroom and asked me if I had been to the lounge yet. She informed me that they had purchased doughnuts for my last morning. When I went in there, I saw that they had put a yellow table cloth on the table and that there was a gift and a balloon for me. I was so happy to have this send off. For the gift, the teachers gave me spare school supplies and they placed them in a Thirty-one bag. I am so happy to have this start for my future classroom. 

Running the Classroom

• My teacher was at a PD called "Finding the Leader in You," so I got to be in charge of the classroom for my last day. We ran behind, but it was a good day. 

Collecting Money 

• I can't believe that the students ordered 48 bags of popcorn and 6 pickles. My teacher was right, it took forever to collect everything. 

Spelling Test

• The students did pretty well on the spelling test, but for some reason, they forgot to split their words into syllables. This really brought their grades down. Eventually I stopped scoring the tests so that my teacher could decide to have the students break their words apart. I usually check the tests to make sure that the students split their words, but I was running behind today. If this were my classroom, I would pass the tests back out for the students to split the words apart. 

Morning Meeting

• We were behind schedule and it was snack time. I knew that a child had brought in Fun Dip for everyone. I told the students that they could have the Fun Dip for snack while we had morning meeting if they promised not to make a mess. They did a great job, the janitor only found half of one of the dipping sticks. The only downside was that they did not clap as much. 
• In honor of my last day, I allowed the students to pass around my class ring during celebrations. There are a few IU fans in the classroom, they were very excited that it said Indiana University. 

Poster Math

• I gave the students a problem about combinations. The students used their grit as they worked through the problems. Only one group came up with a different answer. The posters can be found on the classroom blog. I will use poster math in my future classroom. 

My Going Away Party

• My teacher was so nice for providing cookies for my going away party. My students had asked me to open the gifts all day, but I told them to wait until my party. One of my students brought a giant chocolate bunny for me. My teacher/class gave me three books and a card. The card and First Day Jitters were signed by everyone. The students even wrote messages inside the cover of the book. I thought that this was appropriate because the book is about a new teacher and I know that I will also have jitters on the first day. I really wanted Oh The Places You'll Go for me graduation, my class gave me that book, the card and the gift card also followed that theme. I love that I have this gift card to help me buy some of the excellent books that I read during this semester along with others that will help my future classroom. The final book was Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late. I just read that book to the students during the introductory lesson for persuasive writing. The students gave me a group hug. I hugged three to four students at a time. 

Detention

• I only had three students for detention. Surprisingly, they still tried to talk to each other. Because no one owed the full recess time, I had part of the recess to myself. I used that time to sort some make up work for math. Even though I was not able to gather all of the make-up work, I knew that it would still make a difference. 

The Final Hug 

• The students usually hug the teacher or give or a high five. I requested that each student hug me goodbye. 

Leaving

• It took a long time to leave. I commented on the sub plans, graded the spelling tests, took pictures of the poster math, cleaned out my desk, and made sure that I did not have any loose ends that I wasn't thinking of. 

Observing Others Classrooms

Goodbye Party (Part 1)

• My teacher was really nice and brought in doughnuts and milk as a going away party for me today. She also bought blue sugar cookies for tomorrow even though she will not be there. It was so surreal as everyone hit the table in preparation for my ceremonial first bite, which was followed by cheering. I am really going to miss this class. I am glad that I will get to check on them from time to time as they grow up.

Turning Mixed Numbers into Improper Fractions

• When the students came in, I was copying an anchor chart onto a fresh piece of chart paper. One of my girls came up to me and said, "you messed up, didn't you." I replied with, "yeah." She comforted me by saying, "it's okay, everyone messes up." This conversation meant so much to me. Even though I was not too upset about messing up on the original anchor chart, it was nice to know that she supported me. 
• This lesson went pretty well. I like the anchor chart that I found. It is easier to remember the steps when using the acronym MAD. After I went through the steps, one of my boys asked what that improper fraction would look like as a model. After I drew that on the board, a lot of students seemed to suddenly get how this lesson connected to what we learned yesterday and they seemed to feel more confident. Because it was so helpful, the students suggested that I draw that model on the anchor chart. I love how involved these students are in their own learning. I am really happy with how this lesson went. 

Observing a reading lesson in another classroom

• Another teacher was kind enough to ask me if I would like to observe her teach a lesson. I brought it up to my teacher and she supported that idea and agreed to take over teaching while I went. The teacher gave me some resources to help me in the future. I like her powerpoint and how it had text features to discuss each text feature. As I observed the students completing their work, I also checked their understanding and helped a few students. 

Observing Read 180

• It was like a giant guided reading time. I like that they have software that is specific to Read 180. I had always wondered what went on during Read 180. I am glad that my teacher sent me down there while the students were taking the ISTEP+ math portion. 

Recess Drama

• I had to take five students to the principal during recess. A girl from another class caused a few fights. I did not see the first incident, but as one student was telling me about it, I noticed what looked like a rough game of tag followed by some swinging. I could not tell if the swinging was real or not so I asked the students. One girl in my class said that they were playing. I told the girls that we don't play like that because it could turn into a real fight. I tried to talk the situation through with the two original girls, but quickly found out that the situation was more complicated than what I should handle on my own as a student teacher. As I got to the other teachers, the office used the radio to request that the girl come to the office to go home. I told the teachers a little about the situation and they suggested that I take the girls to the office. The girl told her dad and the principal that she had been in a fight. While she was in the office, she dropped more names so I had to fetch more children. In the commotion, I also found out that one of my students had threatened another one of my students. I felt sorry for the principal for having to deal with all of this. I hate this part of spring fever. 

Mock Interviews

• I did pretty well overall tonight. My main suggestion for improvement was to be more specific with details about what I am talking about. I tend to get lost in the question or I get anxious to get to the end of the question. I was more relaxed than I figured I would be. I am really glad that IUS offered this event.

I'M GRADUATING!!! 

• Thank you to everyone who helped me learn and grow this semester. 
• I have been wearing my class ring for the past few days. It is nice to know that it has the right year on it. 
• When I talked to Dr. D. and Terri tonight, they told me that I am definitely graduating this semester. Dr. D. also told me that I will be very happy with my Impact binder because he loved my presentation as well as my binder. I scored a proficient. Then, he shook my hand and I was so excited that I gave him a very firm handshake and smiled. 

Visualizing Music

PLC

• We discussed what we want our representative to say during the meeting with other schools to decide how similar the curriculum maps. The school does not want to have to use the same resources as the other schools. Even though they feel this way, the 4th grade teachers would love to have a shared assessment for the units. This reminded me of my time at a GCCS school. The district takes the same quarterly assessment. The assessment is sent to the teachers at the beginning of the unit so that they will know what to teach and the data is compared across the district after the tests are completed. 

Fractions Chart

• I am really glad that I found that fraction chart and notes section. They really helped the students to learn about fractions and mixed numbers. They wrote the mixed number, drew the model, and wrote the improper fraction. Two of my students informed me that they do not think that they understand this subject. Most of the class seemed to understand the lesson. I can handle this for today, I will work harder tomorrow to close the gaps and I will keep an eye on those two students. 

Visualizing Reading

• The students seemed nervous about drawing what they visualized while they listened to "Pictures at an Exhibition," but they did pretty well. We discussed the mood of the music to help the students think about what they should be visualizing. At the beginning of the lesson, I physically modeled what I was visualizing. I am pretty happy with how this lesson went. 

Pattern Blocks/Mixed Numbers

Using Pattern Blocks to work with Mixed Numbers

• After we decided how much each piece was worth, this lesson went pretty well. I was surprised at how this was not obvious to the students. 

Visualizing Reading

• The students liked drawing their visualizations while I read a short children's book to them. They did a good job with this activity.  

4th Grade Team Meeting

• Mother's Day: The teachers discussed Mother's Day projects. I got excited to see their ideas. I would love to share my pinterest boards with the teachers because I think that they would enjoy my ideas. 
• I love how much we laughed. 

The end of ISTEP+

Hopes

• In the future, I hope that my class's schedule falls so that the class is with a special area that is led by a specialized teacher. Not only do they probably know more about the subject than I do, but I really appreciate having that time in the middle of the day to check in homework and enter grades. I don't like having computers on Mondays because the classroom teacher has to lead computer time.

Fractions Test

• The students did not do so well on the math test today. The average score was 75%. The unit went a little faster than I had hoped and I needed to focus more on vocabulary. In the future, I would like to design the test before I teach the unit. The students did well with comparing fractions using butterfly math, but they forgot how to create equivalent fractions. 

Visualizing

• I was surprised by how literal the students were when I asked them what they might see or feel when they read. This allowed me to really hit on how much visualizing really connects to making inferences because the reader has to use their schema to fill in any gaps left by the author. The students thought that it was funny when I used my ogre voice to model how I use the hearing part of visualizing when I read. 

ISTEP+

• The class finished the ISTEP+ test today. I am glad that they do not have to worry about the test anymore. 

Entering Grades

ISTEP+/ Entering Grades

• We took all three of the Language Arts section of the ISTEP+ today. It took a while, but we are happy that we only have the science portion left for next week. 
• While the students took the ISTEP+, my teacher taught me how to enter grades into Infinite Campus. I was able to get most of the grades in. I have two more assignments to finish grading before I can enter the rest of the grades. I did pretty well with entering grades, but I forgot to change the dates and I accidentally listed a grammar assignment under spelling. I am glad that I was able to have this experience.

Social Studies Poster

• We gave the students a choice for how they wanted to spend their time before recess. When offered the choices of poster math or finishing their social studies posters, the class chose to finish their social studies posters. I was surprised, but I am glad that I can finally move onto the next social studies lesson on Monday. 

Planning

• I was nervous about planning this week because it includes some topics that are a little more complex to plan. I was able to plan most of the week. I am most excited to teach the lesson about making fractions into improper fractions. 

Planning for next week

Spelling

• Sort 19: Long -a patterns in accented syllables
• Monday: Word Sort
• Homework: Write words in Planner, Write words three times each
• Tuesday:
• Homework: Sentences 1-12
• Wednesday:
• Homework: Sentences 13-24
• Thursday:
• Homework: Word Pyramids
• Friday: Spelling Test

Writing: Persuasive Writing

• Tuesday:
• Anchor Chart: Writing Stems
• Wednesday:
• Graphic Organizer
• Model how to fill out a graphic organizer
• Prompt: Should the school day be extended? 
• Homework: Submit graphic organizer for topic check
• Thursday:
• Work on graphic organizer
• Homework: Submit graphic organizer for editing

Math:

• Monday: 
• Fractions Test
• Slight introduction to mixed numbers
• What is a mixed number?
• Math antics video?
• Repeat the demonstration
• Tuesday:
• Mixed Numbers
• Concrete: Pattern Blocks 
• Need to use the document camera
• Write the definitions in math notebook
• A mixed number has a part that is a whole and a part that is a fraction of a whole.  
• Groups:
• Pattern block practice
• Wednesday:
• Improper Fractions
• Representation: Chart in notebook: Mixed #, Picture, Improper Fraction
• Thursday:
• Converting from mixed numbers to improper fractions
• Algorithm: MAD Anchor Chart

• Stations: Complete more examples on your chart. 
• Friday: 
• Poster Math: Sandwich Problem

Next Week:

• Homework for converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions

Reading: Visualizing

• Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading
• Pages 89-102
• Monday: 
• Mini Lesson: What is visualization
• Anchor Chart Thinking Stems
• Toilet Paper Roll Tubes with interesting items around the room.
• Tuesday: Mini Lesson: Visualization
• Model while reading The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR
• Wednesday: Music 4.8.2 Interpret aural musical examples using dance, drama, art, or writing. 
• Listen to a piece of music and draw your visualizations. 
• (I used Music 4.8.4 Sing songs to support learning in another discipline outside the arts such as creating new verses for “Weevily Wheat” using additional multiplication tables, or reading The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo and learning the song, “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd.” during my IMPACT project)
• Stations
• Comparing Visualizations Sheet
• Miss Lynch Guided Reading
• Monday: Blackout
• Tuesday+: Creating Pictures in your Mind and A Rainy Day Rescue
• Various passages of poetry for students to draw their visualizations using Mental Images Sheet. I might switch to Adapting Mental Images Sheet later in the unit.
• Rainbow Crow?      
• Inferring text
• Word Sort (options 1 and 2) (copy front and back)
• Story Board Summary
• (Rhyming Poetry) Fluency: You'll Read to Me, I'll read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together
• Cinderella, Little Red Hen, Billy Goats Gruff
• Read it once in your mind, once together, and once while taking turns
• Boggle
• Summarize and respond to reading
• Handwriting?
• Computers

Reading: Poetry

• Awesome Classroom Website about Teaching Poetry
• Thursday: Poetry: 
• Read aloud: Opening Days: Sports Poems
• song?
• Friday: Poetry: 
• Read Aloud: Walt Witman?
• Langston Hughes?

Extra Books:

• Emily Dickinson
• Figurative Language and how it works with poetry?
• Somewhere in the World Right Now
• Edgar Allan Poe

 Social Studies

• Monday: 
• Unit 1: Lesson 4: Pages: 34-38, 39 
• Homework: Page 7
• Due: Famous Hoosier Selection Choices and Visit Indiana Poster
• Tuesday:
• Unit 1: Lesson 5: Pages: 44-49, 50-51 
• Homework: Page 11-12, maybe 10 as well, but I do not like page 10 as much. I'm only considering it because it talks about diverse people, which may hit home with some of my students. 
• Wednesday:
• Unit 1: Lesson 6
• Music 4.9.3 Identify and experience music of renowned musicians throughout Indiana history.
• I have a YouTube playlist that goes with this. I already played Joshua Bell for the students. I also have a famous guitarist and the Jackson 5 on the playlist.  
• Thursday: 
• Review Day 
• Homework: Pg. 14-15
• Friday:
• Unit Test

Flying Nearly Solo

Today went pretty well.

I got to teach on my own for most of the day. I was very excited about this.

Persuasive Writing Introduction

• The lesson went pretty well. I was surprised that only a few students had used the OREO model, but a few of them had used the hamburger method. I forgot to point out that it was called the OREO method because the letters spell out OREO. I am glad that my teacher pointed that out, because that went over their heads. I modeled how to go through the outline two times and my teacher modeled it another time. We read The Pigeon Needs a Bath, we analyzed how the pigeon and the flies used persuasion. 

Prime and Composite Numbers

• This lesson went alright today. I used the chart, which is the same way that I learned about prime and composite numbers. I feel like the students get this concept about 75% of the way. The sheet that would have been their homework if we did not have ISTEP+ tomorrow is going to be their morning work. I was surprised that a few of the students did not have the definitions in their math notebooks. I would like to follow up this lesson with a short lesson where we review the definitions and classify certain numbers as being prime or composite. 
• My teacher helped me format my math test today. She said that it looked pretty good, but my instructions were not worded in the way that she usually words them, so we fixed the directions. 

Making Inferences

• I used a poetry book called Would I Ever Lie to You? for today's lesson. The students had apparently already read this book, but we still made inferences together in a way in which helped them grow. They had a few misunderstandings about the book. We used siblings/family experiences as schema to base our inferences on as we read the book. When it got to an exciting part, I had the students pause and discuss their inferences with a partner. This would have gone better if the students had not already read this book as a read aloud at the beginning of the school year. 
• I liked reading the book. The poetry flowed well, which helped my expression. I even saw some of the children jump or get nervous, even though the book wasn't that scary. I liked seeing how engaged the children seemed with this book. I might just have to buy a copy of this book for my future classroom. 
• My teacher pointed out that the students are still struggling with using their inferences for mysteries this morning. I asked the students if any of them watch mystery shows such as Criminal Minds, Castle, or Scooby Doo. Quite a few of the students raised their hands. I got a little excited and let them know that they naturally used inferring skills when they watched those shows because they probably wanted to know who did it. Making inferences is just like being a detective (which is why I drew magnifying glasses on all of my anchor charts for this unit). 

Discussing Discipline

• I talked to the children about how they need to be respectful and not talk while I'm talking because I am trying to help them learn.
• I started a new discipline method today. If they talk in the hallway, they have to walk by me. When we reach the destination, they have to go to the end of their group's part of the line. After I did this once, I decided to also have them clip down from now on. At first, the children did not think that it would be so bad, but they figured out the truth fairly quickly. 

Late Morning Meeting

• We moved the morning meeting this morning. We had to have it in the afternoon and we couldn't have every student present. The students were unhappy to exclude some of their classmates. I told them that I knew how much they loved the morning meeting and that I wanted to make sure that they could get it, even if we could not include everyone. 
• I learned that one of my girls may have scoliosis and will have to wear a back brace until she is finished growing. She is an athlete, so I am sure that this is going to be hard on her. 

Colleagues

• I don't think that my colleagues know why I wasn't at school yesterday, but they showed a lot of support today. I don't think that I will tell them any details, but it was nice to know that they care. One of them told me all of the 4th grade teachers are my net and they care about me. I told them thank you. I am glad that I was able to get so close to so many great people this semester. 

Array City

Time to Select Books

• The students were testing in the computer lab for a few hours, so my teacher allowed me to leave the room for a while. First, I tutored a girl who was not taking the test. We used the Brantton metod to create spelling flash cards. I had her read the cards to me a few times and place the cards in alphabetical order. Then, she read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus to me. We read the cards one more time. When a pull out group entered the room, I returned her to the testing room to play educational games on the class iPad. My teacher allowed me to take some time for myself, so I decided to check her classroom library for any resources for my next units. I wish that my iPad had wifi and that the class had a Good Reads account, because I would have scanned in the books to help me plan future lessons. While I looked through the books, I also reorganized the classroom library. The children do not always put the books back into the bin that they got them from and I know that that kind of bothers my teacher. I am excited because I found some good read aloud books for my persuasive writing unit. I also checked in any late work. 

Lunch

• My class had lunch during the fifth grade time. It was interesting to see how they felt about fifth graders. Most of the students were intimidated by fifth graders, but a few of the students had friends from that grade. Because the fifth grade does not usually use the back of the lunchroom, I had to eat lunch with my students. I knew that two girls had already eaten lunch with the fourth graders due to testing accommodations and that they were with another teacher, so I sat at their table. I was pleasantly surprised when some of the boys sat at the girls table because they wanted to sit with me. It was a nice lunch time. They boys even asked me how college is going. I told them that it is going well, but I am nervous about my mock interviews on Thursday. 

Array City

• It took hours to prepare this project and the students finished it very quickly. They were very excited about this project and were actively engaged. I had to keep telling them to be quieter. When I noticed that four students were still working and everyone else was finished, I called everyone who was finished to the carpet to talk about their buildings. I tried to relate the project to our anchor chart from yesterday to make it more meaningful for the students. Every student showed their building and told what their factor pair and product were. 

Joshua Bell

• While my teacher was introducing the famous Hoosier project to the students, one of the boys looked at me excitedly and said, "Look Miss Lynch! Joshua Bell is on here!" I was so proud of him for remembering who Joshua Bell is. A few weeks ago, I played a Joshua Bell video while the students worked on their homework. I explained that Joshua Bell is from Indiana and that he is my favorite violinist. He grew up in Bloomington and took private violin lessons at IU as a child. I saw him perform twice during the Dr. Gingold tribute concert while I studied at IU. This boy should also enjoy the sixth lesson of this unit in the textbook because it also lists Joshua Bell. 

Regardless of Culture, Girls still Play with their Hair

• I was surprised when some of the girls said that our girl from the Middle East was playing with her hair in the restroom. She wears a hijab, so I figured that she wouldn't be so concerned with her hair. The girl told me that her mother had braided her hair this morning, but she wanted it to be in a bun so she fixed her hair. I like how open this student is about discussing how her hair relates to her culture. This semester has been a nice learning experience for me. 

Making a Tough Decision

• It took a few hours, but we worked out a plan to help for the rest of the school year. 

Sharing Personal Narratives

Sharing Personal Narratives

• I was glad that my teacher allowed the students to share their personal narratives today. I was surprised that so few students volunteered to have their personal narratives read out loud. The students stayed mostly on task as they walked around to read each other's personal narratives. 

Inferring

• While checking through my Good Reads account, I came across Officer Buckle and Gloria. I loved how my trade books teacher read the book. I remembered inferring my the students were so excited for the safety speech and knew that the students would enjoy the book. I knew which areas I wanted the students to infer at. They did pretty well, but they did not have any inferences at one of the places that I had hoped for a response. I was hoping to give them a test over this unit this week, but now, I don't think that they are ready. I never would have thought that it would be so difficult to teach students how to make inferences, I think that we naturally make inferences all of the time. 

Speaking Spanish

• At the end of the day, some of my Latino students started speaking Spanish. They were a little surprised when I knew part of what they were saying and laughed when I didn't understand all day. I heard todos and knew that that meant "all," but I somehow didn't hear the dias part. I told them that they had to speak very slowly and understand that when I was in high school, I was barely at a preschool level and that it has been a long time since I've spoken Spanish. They decided to try to speak Spanish to one of their peers, but he thought that they were talking about him. I told them to never lose their Spanish, because it will get their feet in the door for a job when they are my age. 

Planning

• My teacher and I found a few cool anchor charts over the weekend. After school ended, I created a few of the anchor charts that I want to use this week. 
• I am glad that my teacher gave me a math workbook to assign homework from. These worksheets have more space for students to work. Although I have found some pretty good homework assignments online, I am very happy with the workbook homework assignments. 
• It is weird how I've stayed up until 11:30PM or midnight for the past week while planning. I never would have thought that my every waking moment during the week would be spent on work. I wonder if this will improve once I have my own classroom for a while. 

Array City

• I was really excited when my teacher gave me permission to have the students do array city because we are learning about factors and multiples. I spent 4 hours cutting out the pieces. If I ever lead this activity with my own classroom, I will have my students use rectangular stamps to create the windows. I hope that the students enjoy this lesson. 

Sub Permit

• My substitute teaching permit for this district came through today. 

504 Friday

• We ended up running behind all day today. 

504 Meeting

• I attended my first 504 meeting. It was a really helpful experience. We discussed the possible diagnosis, observations, and accommodations. I was happy that we are already providing so many of the accommodations from the list. I learned about a few resources during the meeting, such as Understood. 

Fun Friday Make-up Work

• I handed out the math and social studies make-up work during Fun Friday today. I figured that it would be easy to pass out the spelling make-up homework, but I still forgot to pass it out. I will pass it out next Friday. 

Crossing the Bridge

• My teacher and I had a heart-to-heart before we planned. It filled in some gaps and helped us. 

Planning for Next Week (for Me)

ISTEP+ Week

Writing: 

• Monday:
• Read personal narratives out loud or move from table to table- everyone shares
• Tuesday:
• Inferring Prompts (Page 2) 
• Thursday:
• Persuasive Writing
• Mini Lesson:
• Anchor Chart: What is persuasive writing?





• I learned that I cannot draw an Oreo. It was tough finding enough space to fit all of the parts of both of the graphic organizers into one anchor chart, but I'm still happy with how it turned out. 
• Use this graphic organizer
• Read Aloud: The Pigeon Needs a Bath Book
• Friday
• Persuasive Writing
• Mini Lesson: How to Persuade
• Read Aloud: The first few pages of Can I Have a stegosaurus
• Examples of persuasive writing
• Continue Graphic Organizer

Special Area: 

• Monday: Computer Lab
• Tuesday: Library, ISTEP+
• Wednesday: Music
• Thursday: Art, ISTEP+
• Friday: Gym

Math: 

• Monday: 
• Review Factors and Multiples (in notebook): Review what they talked about
• Anchor Chart:

• Concrete: Hands-on Array with counters/blocks/graph paper
• Students created the arrays that we assigned. They used dry erase markers to label the table around the model. They took pictures of their models. 
• Homework: Find the factors for 12, 16, 18, 20, and 30. 
• Groups:
• Teachers: Representative: Draw the arrays. Explain that the numbers on the outside are the factors of the total number of blocks. 
• Stations: Work on the prime and composite number sheet
• Tuesday:
• Array City We are using black buildings and yellow windows. Each group of 3 will get a number and each student has to show another way to show the number. 
• 12,  16, 18, 20, 30










• Tuesday Homework: 
• Math Workbook
• Page 2, color composite numbers on this worksheet 
• Wednesday Homework: Finish your array if it is not finished by Wednesday. 
• Wednesday: 
• GCF & LCM
• Anchor Chart

• Finish Array City
• Teacher Groups: Choosing GCF & LCM on whiteboards
• Thursday: Reteaching equivalent fractions: Multiples and Factors
• Groups:
• Station: Use dice to create fractions to create equivalent fractions of with a partner. 
• Teacher: Create equivalent fractions. 
• Homework: Workbook
• Friday: 
• Poster Math
• Sandwich Problem

Reading:

• Monday: 
• Mini Lesson: Making Inferences
• Anchor Chart

• Read Aloud: Officer Buckle and Gloria
• Stations:
• Investigation station:
• Set up a crime scene
• Inference Items
• Mystery Decks
• Inference Cards
• Working with Words: Black Out with this passage: The Monster in the Barn
• Inference Game
• 2 Minute Mysteries
• Graphic Organizers?
• My teacher: Guided Reading
• Me: Guided Reading
• Lowest Groups: Babe Ruth and The Nest
• Highest Groups: Guiding Reading and Comprehension while they read Because of Winn Dixie and Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing
• Tuesday:
• No Reading today!
• Wednesday: 
• Mini Lesson: Mysteries
• Thursday:
• Mini Lesson: Visualization
• Anchor Chart: What is visualization?
• Comparing Visualizations Sheet
• Mental Images Sheet
• Adapting Mental Images Sheet
• Friday: 
• Mini Lesson:
• Visualize a piece of music, draw what you hear/feel?
• Visualize a few pages from a story. 

Social Studies: 

• Tuesday: 
• Unit 1: Lesson 4: Pages: 34-38, 39 
• Homework: Page 7
• Wednesday:
• Unit 1: Lesson 5: Pages: 44-49, 50-51 
• Homework: Page 11-12, maybe 10 as well, but I do not like page 10 as much. I'm only considering it because it talks about diverse people, which may hit home with some of my students. 
• Thursday:
• Unit 1: Lesson 6
• Friday: 
• Review Day 
• Homework: Pg. 14-15
• Monday:
• Unit Test

Events/Reminders:

• Monday: 
• Tuesday: Madison's Birthday, ISTEP+
• Wednesday:
• Thursday: ISTEP+
• Friday: Miss Reed will not be with us. 

Duty: 

• Monday:  Detention
• Tuesday:
• Wednesday:
• Thursday:
• Friday: 

Inferring Picture Prompts

Writing

• I am a little surprised that so many of my students actually enjoy writing. 
• The students were a little confused about the picture prompts today, but they eventually understood them. I was surprised by how serious the students were with their inferences of what was happening in the pictures. I was fairly creative with my goat story and I was inspired by the girl falling through the ceiling. I am going to have another inference picture prompt on Tuesday. The students accidentally saw the top of that prompt and were excited to see a dinosaur. I wonder what they will think when they see the gummy bears coming out of the sink. Creating these prompts sheets was fairly easy. 

Math

• Students actually said that butterfly math is fun. It didn't take long for an absent student to catch on to butterfly math. One of my students who did not understand butterfly math yesterday got excited and said, "Oh! Now I get it!" today. All 6 of the students in my group said that they feel good about comparing fractions.
• My teacher wants me to use more academic language. I am good about using common denominator, but I forget to say quotient and product. 
• Tomorrow we are going to show the students how to use multiples to create common denominators. 

Reading

• Inferring Stems anchor chart. The students pointed out a word that could be added to the chart. I hope that the chart helps them create inferences. Some of the phrases were a little over their heads. I arranged the colors on the chart well. 
• I should have used David Gets in Trouble yesterday and Miss Nelson is Missing today. 

Fun Friday Prep

• We decided to bend the rules because so many students did not qualify for fun Friday. Students will miss 5 minutes for each late item and 10 minutes for each missing item. 
• On Monday, we discussed assigning practice work to students who did not qualify for fun Friday. While we created the list of students who did not qualify for Fun Friday today, I decided to create missing/incomplete work packets to help students raise their grades. When we grade, each assignment is worth 2 points. The student loses one point for late or incomplete work and two points for missing work. If the students have to work on worksheets (etc) during fun Friday anyway, they might as well raise their grades. My teacher supports this idea. I stayed after school making sure that there were enough copies for students who did not turn in their work. When I got home, I double checked that all of the work which had been turned in was checked in. Then, I separated the work according to which student owes the work. 

Plans for Next Week (for my teacher)

ISTEP+ Week

Monday:

• Word Work: Sort 19
• Spelling Homework: Write words in planner and 3x each
• Special Area: Computer Lab
• Math: Equivalent and Comparing Fractions
• Groups:
• Teachers: Review Everything
• Station 1: Compare fraction cards
• Station 2: Choose a card and create an equivalent fraction. 
• Homework:
• Reading:
• Mini Lesson: Making Inferences
• Anchor Chart
• Stations:
• Social Studies: Unit 1: Lesson 5
• Events/Reminders:
• Duty: Detention

Tuesday:

• Spelling Homework: Sentences 1-12
• Writing: Inferring Prompts (Page 2) 
• Special Area: Library
• Math:
• Groups:
• Homework:
• Reading:
• Mini Lesson: Making Inferences
• Stations:
• Social Studies:
• Events/Reminders: Madison's Birthday
• Duty: 

Wednesday:

• Spelling Homework: Sentences 13-24
• Writing: Persuasive Writing
• Mini Lesson:
• Anchor Chart: What is persuasive writing?
• Special Area: Music
• Math:
• Groups:
• Homework:
• Reading: Visualization
• Mini Lesson: 
• Anchor Chart: What is visualization?
• Stations:
• Social Studies:
• Events/Reminders:
• Duty: 

Thursday:

• Spelling Homework: 
• Writing: 
• Special Area: Art
• Math:
• Groups:
• Homework:
• Reading:
• Mini Lesson:
• Visualize a piece of music, draw what you hear/feel?
• Visualize a few pages from a story. 
• Stations:
• Social Studies:
• Events/Reminders:
• Duty: 

Friday: 

• Spelling Test: 
• Special Area: Gym
• Math: Poster Math
• Reading:
• Mini Lesson:
• Stations:
• Social Studies:
• Events/Reminders:
• Duty: 

Butterfly Math

PLC Meeting

• It was interesting having a staff meeting where we mainly listen instead of a grade-level discussion time. Usually each grade discusses the same topic and then shares ideas. 
• One of the teachers could not make it, so some other teachers filled her in later. I decided to bring my notes from the meeting to help the other teacher talk about what was discussed. This ended up being helpful. 

Butterfly Math

• Here is my lesson reflection. I am really proud of the class's progress on this concept so far. I let the students know that this is one of my favorite math tricks. The anchor chart is on the class blog. 

Compliment Party

• We listed ideas today, we will vote tomorrow. I would love to have another pajama day. 

Baby Shower

• It was a nice staff get together. 
• I wish that I had known that this baby shower was going to happen, I would have gotten her a gift. I just bought the Danny and the Dinosaur Treasury (my favorite book from my childhood) for my friend's cousin's baby shower. I might give that copy to the teacher because her last week is this week and I can't make it to Spring's baby shower anyway. Then I'll just order another copy off of EBay to give to Spring. 
• Latina Culture: All kinds of food including empanadas, horchata, and spicier food such as buffalo chicken dip. 

Brain-Based Learning

• While looking for math homework ideas, I ran across this article. I was very happy to see that I am on my way towards this. I have been told a few times this semester that I have a calming effect. I am still looking at a few themes for my future classroom, but I am really drawn to blue and green items. I am interested in movement in the classroom, but I am so used to the old way of learning. It may take me a while to get used to incorporating music. For now, I use hand signals to incorporate students' bodies when I teach them something new. 
• My teacher hugs/high fives each student every morning and afternoon. I will continue this in my future classroom. 

New Lesson Reflection Template

Math

• Today I introduced the numerical part of equivalent fractions to my students. It went pretty well over all. A few of the students had trouble understanding that you could multiply the numerator and denominator set by any number but you could only divide the set by a number that is a factor of both of the digits. 
• I had each student find a partner or a small group to practice creating equivalent fractions with. I walked around to have each students rate their ability to create equivalent fractions on a scale of 1 (not very confident) to 5 (I fully understand this). I was surprised by how many students rated themselves as a 5. One student rated himself as a 5, but yesterday I wrote his name down as a student that I wanted to focus on. I felt good that I was right about who most of the ones were. While I walked around, I checked answers. I was glad that most of the students stayed on task without any prompting. 
• If I get to go back to groups, I would love to be able to focus on helping the 1's catch up. We lost our aide, so this may mean that I may be at the reading table with the 1's while my teacher supervises activities with everyone else. I bet that the 3's could catch up during an activity like that. I would pair each 3 with a 5. 

Reading

• Here is my reflection from this lesson.

Reading Stations

• The students did well at the inference riddles station. There were a few riddles that I did not understand, but most of those riddles included references to video games, TV shows, and movies. 
• The students did fairly well with the making inferences station, but I helped them to go deeper with the inferences. It was a good idea to have them highlight the clues. 
• I was so surprised by the fact that most of my students have never played Battleship. Because of that, I had to take longer than expected to explain how to play spelling battleship.

New Lesson Reflection Template

• My teacher gave me a new lesson reflection template today. She tells me which lesson to reflect upon. It takes me a while to fill it out, but it goes fairly deep into reflection. We both interpreted the sections slightly differently. I will link my reflections in this blog. 

Quick Staff Meeting

• Some of the teachers met to discuss the Famous Hoosier Project and the field trip. I was happy because they agreed to let me copy the resources from the project even though I will not be here for that project. 

Louie the Search and Rescue Dog

Word Work

• I am glad that a few of the students caught onto the patterns of the words. If a student seemed to be struggling. I showed them my word sort sheet so that they could think about the letter patterns to decide which category to place the word in as well as where to split the word. 

ISTEP+ Practice Test

• I like that Indiana had all of the students who will complete ISTEP+ via computer take a pretest so that they could get used to using the tools. I pressed the buttons while my teacher talked.  

Louie the Search and Rescue Dog

• The students really enjoyed seeing Louie. The hardest part was keeping them from talking. 

Math

• Today was a pretty good introduction to the number part of comparing fractions. I still have 8 students that need some more focus, but I feel good about how well this lesson planted the seed. 

Planning for This Week

Morning Work:

• I generally check next to the printer for ideas, but I am in the process of looking up more pieces of morning work. I pass this out every evening before I go home. 
• Monday: Cut apart word work words, Mixed math facts sheet
• Tuesday: Multiplication sheet
• Wednesday: Write to a short prompt. Tell me about one thing that you are looking forward to this week. Why are you looking forward to it?
• Thursday: Cursive Spelling Words: Spelling City
• Friday: Study for the spelling test. 

Word Work/Spelling

• Sort 18
• Homework:
• Monday: Write words in planner and three times each. 
• Tuesday: Sentences 1-12
• Wednesday: Sentences 13-24
• Thursday: Word Sort
• Friday: Test

Writing

• Tuesday-Wednesday:
• Finish Personal Narrative
• Free Choice Prompt
• Look up a few back-up prompts
• Do you want to take the ISTEP+ test? Why of why not?
• Write about a song
• SS Writing Prompt from the homework book
• Thursday:
• Write about the picture: I used images from my Pinterest board about images for writing to create a Microsoft Word document which has 2 images per page. I made a second page that can be used for an inference station or for next Tuesday's writing.
• I would love to designate an area for students to place their completed work for others to read. I could create a sign out sheet so that I can keep track of the work. This work cannot be graded when it is passed around, I could make copies of the papers that we need to grade and that the students want to be available to others. 

Math: Comparing and Equivalent Fractions

• Monday: Using multiplication and division to find equivalent fractions. 
• Equivalent Fractions Anchor chart. 
• Do examples on the art easel.  (Gradual Release) 
• Use white boards for practice. 
• Homework: Spiral Review (Side 1)
• Tuesday: 
• Do a few examples on the board. 
• Copy the anchor chart
• Homework: Spiral Review (Side 2), Double-sided equivalent fractions sheet: Equivalent Fractions (Page 12) and another equivalent fractions sheet. 
• Groups: I had each student find a partner or a small group to practice creating equivalent fractions with. I walked around to have each students rate their ability to create equivalent fractions on a scale of 1 (not very confident) to 5 (I fully understand this). I was surprised by how many students rated themselves as a 5. One student rated himself as a 5, but yesterday I wrote his name down as a student that I wanted to focus on. I felt good that I was right about who most of the ones were. While I walked around, I checked answers. I was glad that most of the students stayed on task without any prompting. 
• If I get to go back to groups, I would love to be able to focus on helping the 1's catch up. We lost our aide, so this may mean that I may be at the reading table with the 1's while my teacher supervises activities with everyone else. I bet that the 3's could catch up during an activity like that. I would pair each 3 with a 5. 
• Wednesday: 
• Butterfly Math Anchor Chart
• Do some problems on the board
• Use white boards for practice. 
• Groups: After most of the students seemed to really get it, I let students choose a partner to compare fractions with. They used a die to create the fractions. I helped the students who seemed to be struggling the most. If I let a student move on from my table, I put them with a group that appeared to be very competent.
• Homework: Dare to Compare (Page 14)
• Thursday: 
• Talk about how the bottom of the butterfly relates to the problem. (Common denominator). 
• Do a few examples as a class. 
• Copy anchor chart
• Repeat the group activity or break up into groups. 
• I need to see if they will be ready for a test. I wanted to get this test out of the way before ISTEP+, but I do not think that that is possible. 
• Homework: Math Aids Comparing Fractions Worksheet using digits 4-7
• Friday: Poster Math
• Fruit Salad Problem
• I am considering using Summative Assessment (Page 27) for homework on review night. 
• I really liked this packet for this unit and I know that this assessment would cover what I taught. 

Reading: Inferring

• Mini Lessons:
• Tuesday: I was going to review a past activity and then have the students interact with the content by answering questions from scenarios, but my teacher had me change my lesson. I created an anchor chart and then read Smoky Night. 
• Wednesday: Review the anchor chart. Miss Nelson is Missing and have students infer throughout the book. 
• Thursday: Sharing responses from the writing activity. (Look at this picture, what do you think is happening?) I will explain how they had to infer what was happening in the picture in order to write their story.  Anchor Chart: Inference stems  No David. The difference between predictions and inferences. 
• Friday: Review the anchor chart. 
• Stations
• Inference Riddles
• Making Inferences
• Spelling Battleship
• Computers: Reading A-Z
• Teacher Station
• My Station: I am finishing up the last resource from Main Idea and then creating a book club. 
• Backup: Inference Cards
• Backup: Hedbanz, I need to ask Mrs. Mabe if I can use her game. 
• Other Ideas:
• Investigation station:
• Set up a crime scene
• Inference Bags
• Next Step: Visualizations, could begin on Thursday or Friday. 

Social Studies: Indiana Culture

• Tuesday: Unit Pretest
• Wednesday: Unit 1: Lesson 3. 
• Lesson Activity: The activity from the homework book. (We read this section on Friday. I feel like the students will scan this lesson a little more quickly than the other section.)  
• Thursday: Visit Indiana Poster. 
• Friday: Finish Visit Indiana Poster. 
• Unit 1: Lesson 4: Pages: 34-38, 39 
• Homework: Page 7

Make a table for sharing?

Special Events:

• Monday: 
• 9:15 ISTEP+ Practice Test during Computer Time
• 1-2PM Search and Rescue Dog
• My teacher's birthday
• Tuesday: 4th Grade Team Meeting
• Wednesday: 
• 7:50AM PLC Meeting
• Thursday: 
• Dragon Store
• Friday:
• 9:15AM: During Gym Time 504 Meeting for a student

• 4/29 I will have Mrs. Cologne as a sub. The Leader in Me based off of the Steven Cubby book. 

Silly Safaris

• Before the REMC Annual Meeting, the Silly Safaris guy from Indianapolis was presenting. He also presented last year. I noticed that even though he was sarcastic, he kept the children engaged. He had an excited and silly pitch and used child volunteers. I don't think that using a silly and excited pitch 24/7 in my future classroom would work, but I could use it during a lessons here and there. He also played dumb for the sake of a joke. My youngest niece is in 4th grade and she still loved his show. 
• I saw one of my students at the event. 

Here is a picture of my youngest niece and the speaker. 

Reviewing Reading Skills

Spelling Test

• I had to throw out one of my questions on the test. I turned it into extra credit. I discovered that I did not agree with the proper way to break up the word and most of students did not break up the word according to the dictionary. 

Poster Math

• This problem was a little more straight-forward than I prefer. They had to find the missing side of a pentagon using the perimeter formula. I was surprised when two groups were unable to solve the problem. I had the two girls who were the first to solve the problem help the group. These girls got to clip up for helping the groups. I was surprised that the two groups had trouble. When I designed the groups, I used an excel sheet to put at least one student from every math group (which is broken up by skill level) into each group. The students did fairly well with the project, but I not sure that those two groups understood how to solve the problem, even after other students helped them. The posters can be found on my classroom blog. 

Using the Social Studies book to review Reading Skills

• My teacher helped in the main office today. I unexpectedly was alone in the room when reading time began. I did not think that I would be alone for very long so I tried to begin reading time by getting out the tubs, but the materials had not been switched out and I did not know which students were supposed to go to which stations. Because I believed that the teacher would be back in five minutes, I had the students read the social studies book a few pages at a time. I figured that if needed, reading time and social studies time could be switched later. I also know that reading skills can be used with any text, although some texts work better than others. I decided that I wanted to review and model skills. As a class, we paused to share thoughts, connections, and visualizations. I learned that most of the students do not admit to visualizing what they read. I will have to reteach that skill next week or soon after that. I would love to incorporate music into that lesson. (Visualize what you see while listening to a piece or music and then while listening to a few pages from a book.) After we finished the lesson from the book, I began to review other skills from the anchor charts on the wall to recognize any gaps, but then my teacher returned. Unfortunately, it was during a transition, so the students were a little loud. In the future, I will call my teacher to see if she would like to return for the reading block because I later learned that all I had to do was call her and she would have come up or told me what she wanted me to do with the students. My teacher began a really cool lesson about making inferences. 

Fun Friday

• Some of the students got to go to the computer lab for Fun Friday today. In order to qualify for fun Friday, students must submit all of their work on time and not end a day below ready to learn. There was an aide with five students in the lab that we had reserved. All of their screens looked the same and kind of boring, so I did not want to disturb the students in case they were doing a practice test. In the future, I will tell any teacher that is in a lab that I have reserved that I have the lab reserved. 

Planning

• I get to fully take over planning and teaching for next week. There are a few things that I can't decide how to space out, but I feel pretty good about it. 

Subbing

Subbing

• My teacher joined a group of other teachers to attend a professional development about universal design. She said that she would teach me some of the things that she learned. I'm glad that she's going to teach me more. Aside from a little talking, the class was mostly pretty good today. This was the best day that I have led so far. We even stayed on schedule, except for where we had to drop the second math rotation because the musical took so long and then we had to wait behind another class while we waited for our restroom break. 

Personal Narratives

• I expect almost every student to be finished with their personal narratives by Wednesday. Most of the students are revising or rewriting their papers. I will post journal prompts for students to answer when they finish their stories. I hope that my teacher allows me to let students tape the stories to their cubbies for other students to read during silent reading time throughout next week. The whole point of reading to publish is for other people to read the stories. 

Alice in Wonderland

• Everyone forgot to tell the substitute teacher and me that the class was going to attend the fifth grade's performance of Alice in Wonderland today. When we went to pick up the students from art, the room was empty and the lights were off. By the time that we found out where they were, the children were singing the last line from the musical. I wish that I could have seen the musical, but I am glad that the students enjoyed it. 

Magazines

• I used educational magazines for reading and social studies today. I like that I had the children read in small groups for most of the time before regrouping to discuss the articles. While discussing the articles, I asked students to summarize the article and to give me any connections/thoughts that they may have. I also shared my connections. This activity worked well. 
• I did not expect the children to make it all of the way through the magazine that we read for reading, so I assigned some groups to read the magazine from the back page to the front page. This activity showed me that not only would some of my students be willing to eat bugs, a few of my students have actually eaten bugs because they are Cub Scouts. 

Quiet Cues

• While the students were waiting in line for lunch, I asked them how they think I should have them get quiet. They mentioned clipping down, which I do have them do when it takes too much effort to get their attention. I continued by asking them for any tips for teaching math. One of the boys said that I should ask them about how they got their answer more often. I told him that I am working on that. He replied with "Don't worry, you're still a new teacher. You'll get it." He melted my heart with that comment.

Compliment Party

• The students earned the last compliment that they need for their compliment party today because they were very quiet as they walked back from lunch.

Clip Chart

• I used the clip chart a lot today, especially while they were reading. 2 students were off the chart (hanging on my lanyard), 6 students were at the top of the chart, and 3 students were on slow down. One of the students who was off the chart let me know that she intended to clip up again (so that she could be in my hair, this is my teacher's idea). The three boys who were on slow down lost their privileges for Fun Friday. 

Meeting with the Principal

• Two of my girls got into it today and apparently one girl accidentally hit the other girl's stomach as she was pulling away. I helped them talk it out while I got the full story. I told them that they had both  made rough decisions that led up to the hitting and I had them apologize and hug each other. The girl who accidentally got hit was still mad about it, so before she left, she told the principal that she had been hit during recess. When he asked her if she told an adult, she dropped my name. The principal asked the other teachers from my grade what the girl's name was. I am so glad that the teachers asked me if I knew anything about the incident. I had planned to write about the incident in my sub report anyway, but take a copy with me when I went to the principal's office. I knew that it is better to approach someone when you may be in trouble than to wait for them to approach you. I also knew that he could receive a phone call from the girl's mother and that he wouldn't be able to help me if he did not know the story, so I decided to go to the principal's office to discuss the issue. I am so  glad that I went to talk with him. He said that it sounded like I did the right thing and that we could send the girls to him in the morning if we would like. I'm sure that taking the responsible role of going to his office to set the record straight also made me look good. 

Fun Learning Experiences

Observed lesson: Modelling Equivalent Equations

• Last night, I notice that my bottom models had the same amount of boxes. I thought this was strange considering the fact that my teacher had recommended the anchor chart to me. 

Guitar Guy

• While I was conferencing with my university supervisors, my students went to see a guest speaker who talked to them about tone and beat. He showed the students the difference that tone and beat can make by making the students' stories into impromtu songs. He chose 2 of my students. I heard that both of the personal narratives made great songs, but everyone in my class that I talked to about the activity agreed that the baseball personal narrative was the best. The students said that the story was great and that they felt emotions/ getting emotional. 
• The teachers were unhappy because some of them have seen him 3 times and he apparently does the same routine every time. During the afternoon bathroom break, I had the students to use thumbs up/thumbs down to show me if they enjoyed the speaker. Most of the students loved him, some students even gave him two thumbs up. I asked the students if he inspired them to write more (thumbs up/down) and they put their thumbs down. This speaker did not seem to serve his purpose, but the students loved him and he built their self-esteem/confidence. I am not sure if the experience is worth the time and money, but the time and money were not truly wasted on him. 

Viewing the School's Indiana Display

• Because we are studying unit one in social studies, which focuses on Indiana's culture, I decided to use the end of the restroom break to activate prior knowledge and to get the students excited about the unit. I also know that the students will have a trifold about a famous hoosier due in May. I had the students quietly gather around the display case as I quickly talked about almost all of the items in the case. The students were most excited to hear that Michael Jackson was from Indiana; I didn't even think that they would know who he was. The also liked hearing about Orville Reddinbocker. 

Social Studies Activity

• Today, we tried to ease the students into the jigsaw method. We assigned each group one of the four people that were featured in the social studies book. They had to discuss who their person was, who they represented, and what they believed should happen to Lake Michigan. At the beginning, some of the groups were confused, but they were able to get through it. The question about where they were from threw them off, so we explained that they could be from an organization, such as the EPA. I helped talk one of the group through the process of finding out how their person felt. I asked them what they wanted and the group began by answering with almost exactly what the book said. I asked them why she may have believed that. After around four questions, the group finally got to the point that she did not want any factories built near the lake because so many billions of dollars had just been put into cleaning up and protecting the water and wildlife. 
• When my teacher asked the students who one of people that wanted to build the factories on the lake to promote jobs reminded them of, quite a few of my students answered with Donald Trump. That was not the correct answer, but it was funny. 

Writing Progress

• 1 student is still working on the graphic organizer, 8 students are working on the draft, 6 students are ready to have an editing conference, 6 students are revising, 9 students are publishing or have already submitted their papers. 
• I will provide bonus journal prompts and morning work for the students who have already published. 

Clipping Up

• I clipped up a lot of students before lunch. I was really proud of their behavior. After lunch; however, they were very talkative. 

Writing Sub Plans

• I wrote sub plans for tomorrow. I decided to write them as an outline because they were mainly for me. My teacher taught me that subs like to have a chart to make the information less overwhelming. She ended up copying and pasting my plans into her template. Creating the sub plans was not as bad of an experience and I had expected. But, it may have been worse if I had not been the one to teach. It still takes me a long time to write a proper lesson plan.