Subbing Day #2

Day 2 of subbing= complete and success. But oh what a day. Nothing like yesterday though; much better than yesterday. It did not start off that way though :)  I came in with a list of things to get done before the kiddos came in. Of course the computer would not log on and I could not find the comprehension tests. I tried to log onto the computer for several minutes and finally gave up. I looked everywhere I knew to look for the tests and couldn't find them either. I finally went to ask another teacher if she had a copy so I could run some more and she came to help me look for them. She couldn't find them either. She then attempted to log onto the computer as well and it would not work. By this time, the kids are starting to come in and I haven't gotten a single thing on my list done. I thought this day was off to a wonderful start....

I sent my teacher a quick text and she told somewhere else the tests might be. So I got the kids started on their morning work and set about looking for them. I still had no luck so I sent one of the kids to get the other student teacher who is just across the hall. Thanks to Ms. Shoulders, the tests were found! (The kids were very confused when I got so excited haha.)   Oh, also, after the computer had been shut down, it logged right on the first time. Go figure.

During intervention, which is 30 minutes of extra help for struggling readers, a child got mad and threw his clothespin at me. That made me kind of mad so I sent him back to his seat and he had to move to red. I win. The rest of the morning went fairly smoothly except that I thought my bladder was going to burst and the sub next door was really loud. I made a really fun chart that I'll put a picture of. We wrote a sample letter and then the kids did much better with writing their own letters. We also began editing them. And we re-read a story and took a comprehension test on it. It looked like they did really well but I haven't officially checked them yet. 

During Math, we reviewed adding 3 single digit numbers. I have to stop here and say that I do not know how to teach math. I know how to do it, but I do not know how to teach it. Thankfully my mentor teacher is helping me tremendously but that is something I do not feel prepared to do. Anyways, I still have to do it so I do my best. Monday when I introduced it, we used all kinds of manipulatives. It was a bust. They did not get it. Tuesday I tried again with a simpler version. I still wasn't sure they got it. So after specials on Tuesday, I pulled up ixl.com. I love this site! You can pick your grade and topic and it gives you problems! The kids loved it too. We used it in my 5th grade placement and it was a hit. I didn't know what else to do with this so I turned here. Apparently I should have started here. I put a problem on the board, showed them how it makes sense to me to work it out, and all of a sudden something clicked. I don't know what or why but they all got it! I was so relieved!! So today I did a quick review to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Then I had them work in pairs to create a number sentence with 3 addends that had to equal a certain number. Then they drew a picture to illustrate it. My higher ones then wrote a word problem to go with it. We one together first, of course, but I was shocked at how well they did with this! I'm going to put them into a book to use later but I'll scan some in so you can see how well they did! These are first graders developing and writing their own word problems! Wonderful!!

As far as everything else goes, portfolio is due Monday so I'm going to work on that now. Full time teaching technically starts Tuesday but I'm already doing it. Guess I just get extra practice :)  Still need a summer job and living situation to work out. Oh, and before I forget, a child asked me today if God is real. Please pray that I'll be able to show him through my actions that the love of God is just as real as God is!!

The Writer's Tool Box for writing a letter: Heading, Greeting, Body, Closing, Signature

The parts of a letter as related to the parts of the body. I am super excited about this one!!