Teaching bLog

2/28/08

Well, when it rains it poors… Okay maybe this isn’t really rain, but more like the Australian sun. Hopefully I can find some shelter or some SPF 50 to prevent burn out, I mean sun burn.

I was so excited and happily accepted the invitation to join this summer’s SI as a returning fellow. I am so excited to be a part of such a fantastic organization. I hope that I have enough to offer to such a brilliant group of teachers.

The day that I emailed Lindsay to accept her offer, my assistant principal offered me the only Teacher Advisory position in my building. I would be in charge of teacher development of writing for the entire building. Yikes… I’m not sure how well the staff will take to a fellow staff member “offering” observations, demonstration lesson, and professional development days.

So, I spoke with Chad about these options. And after applying for a New Teacher Trainer Position three weeks ago and hearing nothing, I thought that fell through. I was not even upset given the previous two opportunities. Chad and I agreed that I didn’t need to overload myself with all three. So, I should only choose two opportunities to explore. And since I had two, I was all set to accept the Advisory position tomorrow.

Today, I received an email from the Corporate Services Director of New Teacher Development. She was writing to schedule an observation and interview time with me for the position. Can you say OMG. So, I emailed her back confirming the date and time, March 14 at 7:30am.

Now, which way should I travel? Should I attempt all three? Should I regretfully decline opportunities. I hate closing doors. I’d rather burn myself than go indoors and not have fun in the sun. I’m sure tonight’s sleep will make this all clear. Well, probably not. I think I’ll end up making a panicked decision tomorrow before 4:00, the big deadline. I wonder what I will choose?…I guess I’ll keep me and you posted tomorrow, and then again on the 14th after the interview.

TTFN

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2/26/08

Well, today was much better! I was not as tired, but I should have been. I dreamt about teaching then woke up and of course it influenced my instruction today…

Phonics: Today, my college student assistant taught the phonics lesson on possessive pronouns. It was a difficult lesson, I knew it would be, but I really wanted her to take over some teaching responsibilities. She did a great job for her first attempt! I was quite impressed with her ability to just go with the flow. She said that she was very nervous, but I tried to really build her up. She is better than she knows. Hopefully she’ll gain some confidence this semester.

Writing: I dreamt that I was teaching writing and using flashbacks to teach character development instead of my lesson on foreshadowing that was scheduled for today. I got up, got into the shower and began to really think over the idea I dreamt about. And ya know, my subconscious was on to something. After yesterday, I was a hesitant that my students were developing the characters in their writing. They embraced the lessons prior to this character lesson, but didn’t respond to it as well. So, I scrapped the intended lesson for the day and taught character development using flashbacks. Intrestingly…Marchae knew what I was talking about. I read a portion of a Tony Johnston story and then added to my written model. I asked if anyone knew what this could be called. A few gave it a try, but didn’t have anything that was remotedly close. Marchae timidly (how unlike him) raised his hand. I praised him and urged him to give it a try. He shouted out it is a flashback. Then went on to explain that he has flashbacks when he is trying to go to sleep and things keep popping into his head.

Reading: I recorded our share today for the first time. The students were so professional about it. As soon as they saw me setting up the recorder, their posture and voices changed. They were so excited to share their knowledge with the group! I can’t wait to listen to how it ended up. I plan to record the shares, then ask students for copies of their written work that they have to go along with their shares. I would like to compare the development of the oral presentations versus their written ideas. I have a hunch that their writing will be significantly less developed. I am very interested to see how this pans out.

Until later!

2/25/08

Today was a very exhausting day. It was not a normal Monday. Usually Mondays are quiet and orderly. A lot of work and learning is evident. However, all 25 first-graders were ready to do more than just listen sleepily today. I love the enthusiasm my students are carrying for reading and writing.

Phonics: The review of our /ow/ sound went well, however, there are a few students I have to keep my eyes on (the normal group).

Writing: Our writing lesson today focused more on developing the characters in a piece. Today, we focused specifically on using dialogue between characters to show-not-tell the characters, well, character. My young writers have really taken off following the lead of Tony Johnston. Alyvia in particular has taken to following a master author. She is so proud of her writing. She came up to me today and said proudly, “Mrs. V., I am using Tony Johnston just like you said. Look. Let me read this to you!” I truly love hearing my students make conscious choices about their writing and reading.

Reading: This continued today into our reading time. I did a quick mini lesson introducing a new genre, fantasy. We have done a lot of work with fiction and nonfiction. They have learned the elements of poetry, and we have worked briefly with fairy tales, but today, they were intrigued with the idea of a new kind of story. After I introduced the important elements, hands shot up everywhere. They all had ideas about stories we have already read that fit into the genre of fantasy. I was most excited that the first hand I called on identified our current story The Kite by Arnold Lobel as a fantasy!!! Yea! The morning was jam-packed with so much learning!

Math: The afternoons have been so much fun now that my students have been taking on more leadership with leading math meeting and read-aloud. We ditched our normal math curriculum for a week of review. We have been working a lot on various addends that equal specific sums. My students are continuing to struggle to list and identify how they determine all of the ways to obtain a sum. So, we did our first exploration lesson today. The students loved it! They truly enjoyed playing with the objects to find different number sentences that equaled 10. Some students wrote sentences down, while others purely explored with the objects. As we sat down and I asked them to explain what they did, many just gave me different number sentences they came up with. I pushed them to try to articulate what they were thinking. After one student explained how he did it…others seemed to catch on. We ended up filling two pages of our chart paper with different students methods for finding their number sentences for the sum of 10. I am eager to see what they do tomorrow with the button bags.

Our first day without Junior was interesting. I was very concerned about his transition to the lower classroom. I checked in on him three times today. Mrs. Hutt was probably totally annoyed by my intrusions. She said he was extremely excited and enjoyed his new space. I am so relieved and happy that he is adjusting well. Now after months of trying to convince Mom and myself that moving him was the right thing to do, I know that I made a good decision. Only time will tell if his progress will allow him to be ready for the second grade.

Let us see what tomorrow will bring.