Impromptu Reading Time

We had a good morning at the daycare. We naturally formed a small circle on the floor and I held a book while a kindergartner read to 2 1 year olds, 2 first graders, and a three year old. It was so peaceful and I was so proud of him for being able to read most of the book. The best moments aren't planned.

It was a really nice afternoon in the baby house. We had 5 1-2 year olds, 1 baby, and 2 2-3 year olds. The children were very excited to paint with their hands. 

Awards Day

Today was so special! I got to attend awards day for the class that I student taught. I was lucky enough to find a spot in the front row. I waved to my students as they walked in. When I looked up a few minutes later, I had 31 smiling children waving at me from the other side of the gym. I can't believe that the semester is over and that they are moving on to the next grade! 

I was at the awards ceremony because my youngest niece goes to the same school as the one that I student taught in. She is also in the same grade. I am so proud of my niece for making it through this year, it has been a tough one for her. 

Aide Sub

It is still really weird to sub as an aide.

I began by subbing for a sub who was subbing for a teacher. The teacher had to attend a conference meeting and the substitute teacher had to go to her son's awards ceremony. I figured out that when I have to give instructions, I like to have them already typed. The sub plans said to have the students write a letter to a future 4th grader about at least 3 ways to survive the 4th grade. I came in during snack time just before the time for them to write the letter, so I did not have to do very much to help the students with the letter. I gave the instructions and walked around to get the students on task after they finished their snacks.

I spent a few minutes in a kindergarten classroom.

I ended up being an aide sub in the first grade class that I teacher subbed in last week. The teacher told me that she loved how detailed my sub report was. Today, I was mainly responsible for a student who has autism, but I was also partially responsible for a child with behavior issues. It can be tough to be a sub for an aide because you don't know how strict to be, what the child's abilities are, or exactly how the real aide works with the child. It is important to keep routines while working with people who have autism. I wasn't sure when to let the child take a computer break.

The picnic was fun.

A former student who had moved to Alaska with his aunt, who was his new teacher, came to visit the class for the picnic. After the picnic, the boy and his aunt used the document camera to show pictures of their adventures in Alaska while they discussed what happened and how they felt about it. The students were very excited to learn about Alaska. 

6th Grade

Today was great! I subbed for a 6th grade teacher while he helped with a talent show.

I like how the students copy the assignments at the beginning of the day. It takes the place of morning work and saves time at the end of the day.

The students did pretty well with typing their papers about how they felt about 6th grade. I was surprised by how honest they were in the paper. I was also surprised by how much they focused on the field trip. 

Kindergarten Field Day

• Today was my first time subbing as an aid. My former classmate was also subbing as an aid in the room. My cousin's adopted son was also in this class, which was pretty cool because that cousin doesn't come to many family events anymore. It was a pretty fun day. 
• I learned how ending the school year looks like. We hole punched the alphabet book that the children began in September. In my future classroom, I would work on portfolios during the last week of every month. 
• The teacher asked us if we had any suggestions for her classroom, her room looked fine. My only suggestion was to have less toys out at a time so that she did not have to work so hard to manage the toy area. 

Field Day

• Inflatable Obstacle Course
• Dancing
• Bouncy House
• Free Choice Outside: jump rope., chalk, corn hull, toss the ball in the bucket, and toss the bean bag through the hole. 

Free Lunch

• Our class got to eat outside.
• They didn't make the aids clock out. 

Fun in the Classroom

• Extra indoor recess
• Watched a movie with individual brown bags of popcorn

6th Grade

Today I went to a different school in the district that I had not been to before. I had 6th graders. It was cool that the student switched between rooms for the subjects.

Very Professional Desk

• I love how the teacher's desk was themed with gold items. 

How You Spend Your Day Pie Graph

• This activity was pretty cool. 
• At first, we did not notice that the circle counts to 12 twice because there are 24 hours in a day.
• I like that we had to estimate what percent of their day was spenting doing the activities. I learned that each hour counts for a little more than 4% of the day. The students were surprised by how much of their time is spent sleeping or at school. 

Writing Choices

• The students got to guide their own writing. They had options of assignments that they had to do. 
• Letter about their previous field trip. 
• Letter to another student that was coming to the grade. 
• Free write, which could include poetry.
• Scrapbooking
• It was tough keeping them focused, but I like that they always had another option to complete.

Fire Drill

• The class did fairly well with the fire drill. I like that they celebrated a good drill. 

Discipline

• A student did not take their medicine today. They kept talking to the people around them and distracting them. I could tell that one of the other students was already having trouble focusing, so I asked the student if she would like to move to a seat by herself or if she would like to go to the cubicle. She chose to go to the cubicle, but still talked once she got there. 
• I like that if a student misbehaved, then they had extra homework to do on top of their names being reported. 
• I am constantly surprised by how students from different schools do not all have the same quiet signals. I always take for granted that students know to repeat your claps or to go to level zero. I've subbed at two schools where the students did not know what to do when I led those signals. 

Good Review

Tonight, while I was at an event for my nieces, I saw the lady who calls to request me for subbing at one of the schools. She told my mom and my sister about how great of a sub I am. It felt great to hear what she said. She told them that she checks with teachers to see how I did and that the teachers gave me great reports. She was also proud of how well I handled my first lunch duty the other day. I really hope that if I ever apply in that district that that lady is on the hiring committee. As a new sub, I am a little unsure of myself. I think that I do fine, but I am still learning. This feedback was exactly what I needed to hear. 

1st Grade

I knew that subbing for first grade would require more energy, and it did. I respect those people who prefer the primary grades, I was wore out by the end of the day.  I had to constantly redirect a few of the students. It was interesting subbing today because the directions were a little vague, but all of the materials were laid out in order. The folder looked big, but we went through all of the papers. In my future classroom, I will keep my sub plans type up with specific routines. I will update the plans each time that I need them.

Library Summer Reading Program

• They were pretty good, I had a student sit next to me because I figured out that he was very talkative. 
• The library gave me fliers to send home, but I accidentally forgot to pass them out.

ELA Worksheet 27.8

• They did well with this worksheet, but they do not know what gloomy means.

Tests

• The teacher left me answer keys for the tests and asked me to grade them while he students were in art class. This was interesting because I know that each teacher has her own style of grading. It helped me know how I did with the test review. 
• They did alright with the comprehension test.
• Some of the students did not do well with the phonics test.
• A few of the students forgot to answer a few questions on their tests, so I drew an arrow to the questions and passed the tests back out at the end of the day.
• The class did well with not talking while most of them had the test, but it was harder to keep them quiet towards the end of the testing time.

Spelling Sentences

• We still had a lot of time left when we got to the spelling sentences, so I asked students to finish the sentences for their lists and then to start the other sheet. They complained about this.
• One student needed a lot of guiding, but she made it through this assignment.
• Another student accidentally hurt his hand with his pencil. Originally, I had him wash his hands and put on a Band-Aid. I sent him to the nurse to get a second opinion during lunch.

Lunch

• They ate lunch outside, Jennifer was with them.
• Someone from another class felt like she was going to vomit during lunch. This started a chain reaction and Patel of my students ended up vomiting too.
• The class was very talkative after lunch.

Recess

• They were on the track because the weather was nice, but the ground was wet.
• Two students got into trouble during recess, they owe 5 minutes during recess tomorrow.

SSR

• Two students were not reading during SSR, they were sitting at the table pretending that the whisper phones were cell phones. When I asked them why they weren’t reading, they said that they were waiting to take a reading counts test.

Math Meeting

• One student saw me setting up for the math meeting during SSR time and was very helpful in explaining how math works in this room. (he had finished his book that he was reading.)

Art

• The art teacher said that they were well behaved in art today.
• They were talkative in the hallway. I had to threaten to take away recess time (for individuals) to get them to be quiet.

Math Lesson

• At first, it was difficult to keep them quiet during the math lesson, but they eventually fixed their behavior.

Random Notes

• I love how the teacher decorated this room. 

General Behavior Notes

• Two students were not well behaved today. They kept getting out of their seats and talking. I even asked one of them why she was up and told her that she needed to sit down.
• One student usually fell in between being behaved and acting up today. 
• Three students were very helpful.
• I did not notice the behavior chart earlier, or I would have used it more today.

6th Grade

I really enjoyed subbing in the sixth grade.

I love how this teacher organized her classroom. I would love to set my classroom up like this one day.

Dojo

• The students were really good, I only had to move two of them down. I moved students up 16 times citing participation.
• Dojo was easy to use. I like that it calculates behavior as a percentage. I had worried about using it due to FERPA, but I wouldn't mind storing the records, it is worth it. I will probably use Dojo in future classroom. 

Math

• During math, students go to different classrooms for differentiated instruction my group was the lowest group. I let the other teacher teach the lesson while I walked around to help. I like that she brought laminated sentence strips to help the students with adding and subtracting integers. After the students had time to figure out the rule for themselves, we let them know that minus means to do the opposite. 

Reading Group

• I really liked The Tiger Rising book that they were reading, I would love to read it one days the students did pretty well with this book, I think that it was a great level for them. Because the chapters were so short, we got through three chapters. We stopped to summarize after each chapter. We also summarizing before and after we began reading today. 

The Giver

• The students looked forward to the movie all day. The DVD was still brand new. When I popped it in, there was an awkward vampire moment at the beginning of the first preview. The kids all teased me about that. I made sure to turn off the SMARTboard and the volume until I made it through all of the previews.

Sub Report

• There was not enough room on the sub plans for me to comment on, so I typed an outline with my comments on it. I like how this turned out and I intend to continue this in my future subbing adventures. 

Art Teacher

Today was my first official day as a sub.

Reading Intervention

• I began the day with a reading intervention group. I think that the students were reading a book which was at their frustration level. They spent so much time decoding the words that they probably did not comprehend what they were reading. I used a whiteboard to break the words up for the students to help them decode the words. I think I like it better when they read at their own pace and I just listen in on where they are at than when they take turns reading because taking turns may slow down a reader who knows the words. But it is also helpful to notice when a student cannot decode many of the words in the book, buddy reading may help students like that.

I was extremely nervous to sub for art because I am not very good at drawing. A lady from the office walked me to the room and set up Netflix and told me that usually subs have student free draw while they watch a movie on sub days.

Teaching

• When my first class came in, I finally saw the sub plans while said that I could either have the students free draw or I could use one of the lesson plans. I let each class vote on a movie to watch. I chose a few of the ideas from the lesson plans and told students that they could draw their imaginary locker or free draw if they wanted while the movie played. I let them whisper.
• The sixth graders were rolling newspaper tubes to create baskets with. I think that this project sounds pretty cool.
• I admit that kindergartners and first graders are not my forté. I enjoy older kids who stay on task and follow directions more easily. I knew that I had to change my voice and my style with these younger children.
• The first graders were supposed to create flower-shaped sun catchers, but the teacher did not leave out the proper supplies, so I had them color the pictures.
• I taught the kindergartners to draw themselves. I am not the best person to teach this lesson. We ran out of paper from the free drawing, so I had to adopt the lesson from drawing their family to drawing themselves. Because I'm not good at drawing, sometimes my pictures did not look right. When this happened, the students laughed because they thought that I was joking, so I just played it off. The pictures turned out alright.

Managing the Room

• I walked through to make sure that the room looked nice after each class left. I think that this helped set the expectation that the room needed to be clean when each class left because I was able to point out that the room was clean when they came into the room. At the end of the day, I swept the floor and made sure that each marker had a cap. I love how she stores the art supplies. 

The students made me a few gifts, they made me a bow and a paper swan.

Graduation!!!

I had so much fun graduating. I sat next to my best friend Alison E. We hung out for a while before we lined up. We took a cohort picture, but Kelly was late, so she didn't get to be in it. All of the teachers applauded us as we walked to and from graduation. It brought my IUS experience full circle because they also applaud you as you walk by during freshman and new student orientation. I accidentally decorated my hat upside down, but it still looks cool. I plan to hang it on my wall in my future classroom to encourage students to reach their dreams, graduating college has been a personal goal of mine since I was 5. My good friend Anthony was our class representative, he owned his speech! After the ceremony, Farrah kept stealing my cap so that she could wear it. Farrah and Autumn were really proud of me. We took so many family pictures! I am so glad that everything worked out for my graduation.

Gifts

• We went to Taco Bell after the ceremony. I saw my friend Sherry there. My family gave me gifts. My dad gave me $100. My sister's family gave me an Oh The Places I went Journal because she knows how much I love my Oh The Places I'll Go book from my student teaching class. My brother gave me a tassel frame and $50. It wasn't the party that I wanted, but it was a good party.

Exit Interview

The meeting went quickly and was very positive. I met all of the requirements to graduate. I scored proficient on my IMPACT project. I had already predicted their advice for my behavior project. They suggested that I sub in the local school districts, I was already signed up to sub in the district in which I student taught. They also suggested that I take the licensing exams for secondary education, they believe that I would be a great middle school science teacher. I am going to look into that as a back-up option. I am one of five people that they suggested secondary education to. I gave Dr. D a firm handshake. The meeting went so well!

Field Trip: Kentucky Science Center

Passing out Mother's Day Cards

• Yesterday, I was self conscious about the cards that I wrote with the children. When I saw the final pictures, they all looked really nice. The cards that the students made out of the signs also turned out well. I would definitely repeat this activity in my future classroom for the holidays. 

Behavior

• I was so glad that my boys behaved so well! I set my expectations with the boys before we walked in. I told them that we were going to have a great day and that they had to walk inside. I let them know that I expected them to listen to me, and if they didn't, I would make their decisions. The boys were fantastic until the end of the day, when we were into the play room at the science center. That room was very chaotic and almost every child in there was running, so I don't hold that against the boys. I did not like that room at all. I am glad that the boys kept checking in with me. Some chaperones could not find their students, I almost always knew where mine were. The only times that I did not know exactly where my boys were were if they were climbing or going through the pool noodles; it was difficult to keep an eye on the boys in those locations. On the way home, I asked one of my boys if he took his medicine and he said that he had. That medication made a major difference in his behavior.

Student Choice

• I told the boys that we had to do one floor at a time and suggested that we choose areas that do not have too many people so that we would not have to wait in lines. I let them choose where to start and where we should go next. If there was ever a question or a disagreement, I asked the boys where we should go next. 
• They wanted to create a rocket, but they did not want to devote too much time to creating the paper rocket to launch, so I suggested that we all work on one rocket. I differentiated by giving the easiest part to the student with the shortest attention span, giving the medium area to the other student, and I cut the hardest part. The boys took turns putting the tape on while I held the rocket together. Each of the boys got to take a turn launching the rocket. I thought about keeping the rocket so that I could take a picture of it, but one of the boys asked if he could have it, so I let him keep it. 

3D Movie

• The 3D movie was great. Many of the children reached for the items that appeared to come out of the screen. It was funny because the boys were convinced that one of my boys actually hit the orange, because it went flying in the appropriate direction after he swatted at it when it went to him. I am glad that the boys decided to sit in the back row because I did not have to worry about one of my students standing up during the movie. The boys commented that the movie was boring, but one of the boys kind of liked it. 

Lunch

• It was weird because one of the museum staff members thought that I was the main teacher. As I was walking in, she saw my teacher sticker from the museum. She told me that they would give us a 5 minute warning to finish eating and that we had to wash our own tables, but they would sweep the floor. I was sure to tell the other teachers about what she said. It made me feel really good that I passed as a teacher. 

Bus

• The boy who originally did not want to be in my group because he wanted to be with his friend, asked me to sit with him on the the bus. 

It was really nice getting to see my block 3 class one last time. I liked getting to go on this field trip. 

Coming Home

Coming Home

• It was an interesting morning. I came back to the school where I did block three. Apparently everything was not set up for my visit, but the principal allowed me to observe my old classroom. When I came in, all of the students got really happy and excited. They slowly said, "Miss Lynch" together. I'm glad that they did not forget me. I had to brush up on a few names. We lost one student and gained two more since December. 

Mother's Day Card

• I love this idea where students hold a card stating why they love their mother and they get to take a picture with the sign. I know that a lot of classrooms use this idea, but it is still cute. I was nervous because I had to write why each child loves his or her mother. My handwriting is decent and the marker was going out. One of my students has two mothers (step-mom situation), so I made two signs for him to use. I pulled a similar picture of this activity from Pinterest. 
• After they took the pictures, students got to folder the sign in half to make a mother's day card out of it. That was a very creative use for the sign. 

Derby Education

• The students looked at pictures and watched a video of the derby. It sounded like they were at the Derby. When they were finished, they completed their horses, completed a Derby booklet, and created their own silk design. 
• One of my boys was not on task. He kept asking to get a drink (just to get away from his desk). I thought about the Polk website that we used for our behavior management project. I tried to think of what they might say for something like this. I decided to set miniature goals for him and to bribe him. Every time that I passed him, he got a high five. When he finished each quarter of the silk design, he could get a drink. This worked for the most part, but he snuck onto a computer before he cut it. 

Field Trip Tomorrow

• I get to chaperone a field trip to the Louisville Science Center tomorrow. I am a little nervous. My teacher gave me two students to watch over during the trip. One of them does not listen very well, he is highly impulsive. The other student is very well mannered. I hope that we have fun tomorrow. 
• My teacher pointed out that I am very calm and that I did well with him today. I have had quite a few teachers refer to me as being calm this semester. 

Daycare: Election Day

I enjoyed getting to see my daycare kids today. The school that I was supposed to be at was closed for election day, so I worked at the daycare instead. I don't get to see those children very much, so it was nice getting to spend the day with them.

Voting

• We held an election for the Student Council. Each child in the aftercare program got three votes. The candidates gave speeches and only three of the six children could be on the council. This was a very real experience for these children. I am glad that they have a student council. I was going to start one last year, but then my class schedule changed and I got moved to the baby house. 

Parade

• We invited my Kansas cousins to go to the parade preview party with us. They pointed out that they do not have many parades near them. Their parades are mainly floats which have graduating classes from the past on them where they ride on hay bales in a wagon attached to a truck. When I discuss parades in the future, I might have to check my students' schema. 

The Final Class

The Rubric

• I love that our teachers had us rate our knowledge of what we were evaluated on. We rated our knowledge of each item on a scale of 1-4 and had the chance to comment about where we learned out that, where we should have learned about it, or any other comment that we had it. The issue with long rubrics is that some people do not take them seriously. I learned that same lesson when I was the president of Collegiate 4-H Volunteers at Indiana University and was trying to revive the club. I made surveys to see what everyone wanted or needed. Often, people would only include short answers if they even answered the questions. 

Meeting with My Supervisor

• It was nice to get to read her review of me. She gave me some nice advice about what to work on. We talked about my confidence. I love how she finished the meeting with a hug and a (Hershey's) kiss. That idea was so cute and I will definitely steal it. 

Traditions

• My cohort always has a pitch-in lunch and a family picture during the last week of class. As always, the food was amazing. I was glad that one classmate was able to come back for this experience. I wish that another classmate could have made it. It'll be weird graduating with them, but I know that they will graduate in the Fall. I have so much respect for them. Health issues and deaths in the family happen. It was fun getting the other cohort slightly involved with the pitch-in, I wish that someone would have thought to take an extended family picture which would have included both cohorts and our teachers. It has been a great semester and we have all bonded so much. 

Legal Issues 

• I always love when Dr. Fankhouser comes to talk to us. I always learn so much about the legal issues that surround education. I wish that there was an undergraduate course about legal issues. We manly used role play to learn. We got very heated about how we could get into trouble for not sticking to the curriculum, this could be extended to so many circumstances. 

Interviews & Resumes

• Dr. D gave us some awesome tips. It was difficult to keep up while I was taking my notes. I want to practice using his method to answer interview questions. 
• One thing that I've learned over the semester is that my teachers always have a method to their madness. They discussed showing videos of us teaching. I thought back to the topics that we had to record for our IMPACT projects. My teachers always have our backs. 

Discussing the IMPACT Project

• As Dr. D was talking, I could think of a few changes that I would make if I could complete the project again. He said that students earned basic and proficient scores, I am proud that I scored proficient. I can't wait to see my binder on Friday.

Exit Interview

• I have a few things to complete before my exit interview. I am a little concerned about printing the receipt for my course reviews because I don't have a printer at home and would love to complete the surveys at home. 
• I hope that the conversations go well.