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!!

A fun day in 1st grade

Today was quite the eventful day. I arrived at school and was immediately asked by 4 people in the office if I knew my mentor teacher wasn't coming to school today. I answered, quite confused, that she told me the night before that she would at least try to come for half a day and I hadn't heard anything this morning. So I went down to the classroom and my teacher was in there. She said she really wasn't feeling good still (she left early Monday) but didn't want to leave me hanging this morning. I told her we would be fine since I'm basically teaching full time anyways already. An important thing to note- she came in this morning because I had an observation scheduled.  So she left about 7:45 and I was on my own for the day! I quickly called my supervisor to let her know in case she wanted to reschedule the observation and the day began....

I began putting things together for the day. We made a toolbox yesterday that I will post pictures of tomorrow hopefully. It's the "tools" we need to write a letter. That's our writing focus this week. I was going to finish it this morning but couldn't find the Velcro. So that's a project to be finished tomorrow! The kids started coming in and the first they said was that one of the students had thrown up in the hallway. I was beyond caught off guard by that one. My first question was if there was a teacher with her. They said there was someone with her and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't do body malfunctions... On that note, a child asked me to pull his tooth and the toilet backed up today. I laughed when asked to pull a tooth and said that I don't do teeth. Uggh! All of that stuff grosses me out! Thankfully we have wonderful people at school who can fix the clogged up bathroom so that I don't have too.

Academic -wise, we got everything done that I was planning on doing, for the most part. Two of my kiddos finished their sight words today! They are supposed to know 200 by the end of 1st grade and 2 finished today! I was so proud of them! I rang the bell and made a big announcement to the rest of the class. There was quite a little moment of excitement :)  We attempted to begin writing a letter but there was a lot of confusion so we will be revisiting this tomorrow. I found a wonderful chart that I'm very excited to make for them tomorrow morning! Pictures will be posted tomorrow of that too! By the end of the week, they will have all written letters to 3rd graders who are taking TCAP in a few weeks. They're the most excited about being "mailmen" and delivering the letters haha. Go figure.

Behavior wise, I had one student on red by 9:00 and 3 by lunch. When 2 of them were still causing problems, I decided to get creative. The reward system we use is incentive based. If the kids stay on green for the day, they get a penny (plastic math manipulative pennies, not real ones). Since moving a card and getting sent to another class were not working, I decided that I would start taking pennies away. One boy had already lost his for today because he was on red. So I decided to make him give me a penny he had earned a previous day. Now, this is something that my teacher and I have joked about before but have not actually done. You should have seen the look on all of their faces when they realized I was serious. I made him go get his money bag out of his locker and give me a penny. If you're going to behave, I'll pay you. If you're not going to behave, then you pay me! I believe I will adopt this policy for my own classroom because it sure sent the message! They do not like having to give money back!! I was a little bit proud of myself for coming up with this :)

Needless to say, it was quite an eventful day. But it was a wonderful day! Time flies when you're on your own, that's for sure. I'll be attempting it again tomorrow since my teacher has strep and cannot return until Thursday. Please pray I don't get it too!!

Also, keep the job hunt in your prayers too please. I had an interview yesterday at the school I'm at now. I have one with Metro on Tuesday and another one in May with the ELL office (not sure what that one is about yet...). Summer plans (work and moving) also need some prayer. Things are about to begin rolling fast and April will be a big, big month!

My therapy for the week...

I am taking a quick break (hopefully) from lesson plans to post. This week was the start of half-time teaching which means I teach half of the day basically. I'm doing intervention in the morning with low readers, phonics, and math. Math, however, takes all afternoon. Next week I'm picking up Writing as well. I'm excited about that though because I actually know how to teach that. This math stuff is not something I feel like I know how to teach. I know how to do it, but knowing how to teach it is completely different. 


I am enjoying this time teaching though even if it is somewhat of a challenge. The kids are so sweet and wonderful. Most of them are superb and I have very few big issues. A few are challenges for me though. It's always tough to come into someone else's classroom and be seen as an authority figure but we're working on it. My mentor teacher is wonderful and I'm so glad I have someone so talented to learn from. 


This has been a rough week. I'm ready for this week and this month to be over. At the same time, I realize that the start of April is also the start of the biggest month of my life so far. April will see the end of student teaching, my exit presentation from student teaching (which means I have to finish my portfolio in 2 weeks...), and the end of college for me. This is something I have been working towards for 4 years, including summers, and in about 4 weeks, it will be over. This excites me and terrifies me at the same time. I'm glad to see the days of being a student go, at least until grad school. But, for the past 16 or so years of my life, I've been a student. It's what I know how to do and I'm pretty good at it. 

This is where the rough part comes in. The end of being a student means the start of the unknowns. There are so many unknowns... I am not a person who deals well with unknowns. I need a plan, a schedule, a to-do list... Empty time makes me crazy unless I have planned for that time to be empty. Crazy, yes I know. I'm that person. Not knowing if, when, or where I'll have a job, where I'll be living, what I'll do until I start getting paid for a teaching job I hope I'll start in August, if /when there will be wedding planning taking place, and all of stress of the unknown has almost sent me into shut-down mode this week. As I'm sure Kevin would tell you, I've not been the most pleasant person this week. But I couldn't put it into words until now. I know I shouldn't stress about unknowns. God has a plan and everything will work out according to it. This is a lesson I don't learn easily because He keeps re-testing me over it.  It's just hard to be staring down an empty road...


On top of all that mess, I got overwhelmed by stuff with teaching this week too. Not so much doing the lessons and the planning-which is enough to overwhelm any sane person because it's a ridiculous amount and very time consuming- but more along the lines of the constant evaluation. That got better today though. True story of how I overcame this- I was doing a very involved time lesson today for math. I was on the floor with the kids and we were doing times and when events take place. No joke, half of the kids were crazy. I had one girl about on the edge of a breakdown, 4 boys who couldn't be still and were climbing, laying, or sprawled on anything and anybody, 1 boy who has anger problems that got mad (enough said) multiple times, and so on and so on... Needless to say, it was a zoo. I did the best I could with them and honestly, I felt like I did pretty well. We did what we were trying to do and a few cards got moved and a few bodies got sent back to their seats. Did I mention this was an evaluation day by my supervisor?? Yeah. It's like the kids always know you're getting graded haha. When I had a chance to talk with my supervisor and my mentor teacher, they were almost laughing. It was an attitude of "Ya know, it happens. It's reality and there's nothing you can do about it." They asked if I felt like I was banging my head against a wall. I said yes :)   


The point of this is that I realized  that it doesn't matter who's watching me or what they're looking for. I'm just going to do what I can and realize that there probably is a better way to do it. That's why there's always next time. Do what I can today. If I can do it better tomorrow, I will. Now if only I could apply that to the other stuff. 


Ironically enough, putting this into words has helped me think it through. I'm not better with everything yet but one thing at a time. Right now my time and energy goes into finishing the last 4 weeks of school strong. The other stuff is still ever present in my mind, don't misunderstand. But I have 4 more weeks with these precious kiddos and I want to make the most of it. Today's lesson- writing therapy is good for me.

St. Patty's Day Fun

Monday was supposed to be a Spring Break day but we went to school because it was turned into a make-up day for snow. So we decided to have a little fun :) I made this sample leprechaun last week and all of the kids got to make them yesterday. I just want to go on record and say that I did not have a template to trace for this :) We got the idea from another teacher-blogger who was kind enough to share her ideas but I made this one on my own :) My favorite part is the curly beard made of orange construction paper.  The kids did really well making these! It took a while and we all had glue and glitter all over us by the end, but it was worth it!
We also made sentence strip hats that said "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" in green marker, glued a paper shamrock to it, and wore green and white leis. I have some pictures of this that I'll post farther down :)

Some of the ones the kids made. The shamrocks are the wishes they wrote about.

 The best part of our "celebration" was the scavenger hunt! We took 2 of the 9 1st grade classes (yes, there are 9 1st grade classes!) on a scavenger hunt through the building. We pre-made clues that would lead the classes to 7 different places throughout the building. The kids had to read the clue left by the leprechaun and figure out where he went next. We visited the computer lab, office, and several other teachers throughout the building. The kids walked in line by their partner and it was not as chaotic as you might think it would've been. The kids were great! And they got to wear sparkly green glasses when it was their turn to read the clue. (This was done in groups of 4 or 5 so everybody got a chance to do it.)

Reading the last clue!

The grand finale of the event was the final clue. It led them outside where one of the faculty members had dressed up like a leprechaun and was carrying a "pot of gold." We read a book earlier where the kids learned that if you catch a leprechaun, then you get his pot of gold. So of course, that's what they went after. They knew pretty quickly who it was but some of them still played along with us. Others started yelling about who it was. But that's ok :) It was still a fun adventure! The pot of gold was a Halloween plastic "cauldron" that had Hershey's Gold Nuggets in it and it was super cute! The outside stuff all happened in the rain by the way. It was drizzling a good bit but started to get heavier. We headed inside and realized we were locked out. Oops! It made the story even better though- standing outside in the rain with 40 kids who just "caught a leprechaun" but can't have any of his "gold" until we get inside and the door is locked. It was pretty funny :)  Someone eventually let us in and we didn't get too soaked! Then it was picture time for the teachers. We couldn't let the opportunity escape. After all, how many times will you get someone to dress up like a leprechaun, crawl out of a window in the office to avoid being mobbed in the hallway, and go hide behind a portable in the rain with a pot of "gold" and a walking stick???
It was an awesome experience and such a fun day! Being a part of this just shows me how much the people here love their jobs and the kids. It reminds you that we really do do this for the kids and you shouldn't forget it! Stuff like this requires a lot of pre-planning and prep, but that's what being a teacher is, right? I can't wait to do stuff like this with my class next year :) Who knows, maybe we can even go on a hunt for the Easter bunny....

Waiting anxiously for more clues....

Here comes the Leprechaun!

Going for the gold

Both classes with the leprechaun

Welcome to the New Site!!

Welcome to the new blog! I was tired of the old one being so boring so I decided to create a new inspiring one! I couldn't figure out how to change the old way to be how I wanted it, so I just made a new one :) Hopefully you will enjoy the changes as much as I am.  I am going to try to repost all of the old posts on here so that it's a smooth transition!

Spring Break is near!

3/12/11

Week 2 in 1st grade has come to a close. I fully intended to do much better about updating, but I have not succeeded this week. I have been exhausted! Quite a few times this week, I fell asleep very early. Let me explain how early On Wednesday, I got home about 4:30 or 4:45 which is hours earlier than I normally get home. I thought I would take a quick nap and then do lesson plans the rest of the night. Well, I woke up at about 8:00. Oops. I even set my alarm for 6 so that I would have some time to work before I was useless. Needless to say, I didn’t get any lesson plans done that night. Friday night I got home around 5:30, also way earlier than I normally get home, and decided to watch tv. I don’t know if I even made it 10 minutes before I fell asleep. I woke up around 7 and would have been quite content to stay in bed til this morning.  Kevin had a show to go to so he came by for about 15 minutes and then I went back to sleep around 9:45. It’s terrible! I don’t know why I’ve been so tired this week. I haven’t really even started teaching yet. I guess 6 year olds just take a lot out of you.
So I woke up this morning and went to school to do Saturday Scholars, which is the TCAP tutoring program for 3rd and 4th graders. I had a group of 4th graders today who were very interested in where I lived and if I had a dog. I don’t know why but that’s what they asked me several times. I didn’t think I would like going to school on Saturday to tutor but it’s actually pretty fun. And hopefully it’s a good way to get in the door for a job b/c this is definitely where I want to work!
Funny stories from this week: There are many to choose from since 6 year olds make sure that there is never a dull moment at school. The top 2 stories from this week still make me laugh when I think about it.
1)( Background info- Our school has a very high Latino population and most of the kids speak Spanish.) The wonderful ladies who work in the cafeteria were telling some Latino boys to “Eschucha, eschucha!”. (This means “Listen, listen” in Spanish.) One of the African American boys in my class was scooting them and pushing these Latino boys over saying, “eschucha, eschucha!” He thought it meant scooch over! The little Hispanic boys and I were dying laughing at what he was doing. At least he’s trying!
2)  There is a little boy in my class who has lots of trouble focusing and sitting still. So the other day while they were sitting on the rug for a read-aloud, he was playing with his shoe strings. I wasn’t paying much attention. Soon, I heard my teacher say, “Are your shoes tied together? Oh my, that’s quite a predicament.” I died laughing as this was unfolding. The look on his was face priceless. He was scared and confused at the same time and just sitting there staring at his hands at shoes, almost to say, “How did this happen?”  I could not help but laugh. It was just too funny!
Those are the 2 best stories from this week by far. Yesterday was supposed to be the 1st day of Spring Break for the kids but it was a snow day make-up instead. We will also be using Monday as a make-up day. This means that Thursday and Friday the kids were wild! On Monday, a lot of teachers and kids will be gone since it was supposed to be Spring Break. I’m sure that means it will be an even crazier day but then we get a 4 day break. My break will be spent with Oma and Opa in Atlanta doing lesson plans and hopefully recording audio stories Oma doesn’t know I want to do the stories yet but I’m sure she’ll be up for it   They’re also going to make me some yummy food which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve been trying to use up what I have so that nothing will go bad while I’m gone. This means that right now I have bread but nothing to put on it, 1 banana, cereal but no milk, etc… I’m going to have to pick up a few things so I can make it til Wednesday, but I’m house sitting for a family tonight until I leave so I’ll get some stuff there . All that to say, I’m really looking forward to some homemade Oma and Opa dinners
One final thing- I’m trying to change this blog to be much cuter and add some pictures and stuff of what we’re doing at school. I may end up deleting this one and making a brand new one, but I’ll send the address if I do. I appreciate you following me through this journey and keeping me and my kiddos in your prayers. We all need it!

Just to say…

3/5/11
I have just finished up the first week of 1st grade and I must say, I love it! I knew I would because I was here last semester but I forgot just how much I love it Everyday I have gotten a “letter” or a picture from at least 2 kids. The content varies but the spelling is adorable! I’ll have to scan a few and figure out how to put them up here. I’m sure Kellie can help me get it working if I can ever get a hold of her on the phone :p    Anyways, I forgot how much good it does your heart when you realize that these little people are so happy to see you and are excited that you’re there. They still ask me every day if I’m going to be there when it’s time to go home. I just smile and say yes I will be. Then they smile and turn away giggling like I’ve just told some kind of national secret. It’s adorable.
** The best quote from today: “She has glue in her eye! She has glue in her eye!”    I can honestly say, I’ve never heard these words in this order before. And, it’s important to note that this was glue from a glue stick, not the liquidy glue. It was also while we were on the playground. No idea how it happened, but I don’t think it was actually on her eyeball; looked like it was just on the skin around her eye. Unfortunately, the teachers who were sitting there when this event was brought to our attention all started laughing because we couldn’t figure out how it happened. Once the little girl realized she was didn’t have a life threatening injury, she seemed to relax a little. It was a comical scene though. Picture this: about 6 classes of 1st and 2nd graders (about 20 or so in each class) on the playground, wind blowing a million miles an hour, a little girl playing her violin for the teachers and a crowd gathered around her, and then the PE class runs onto the playground. All on Friday afternoon at about 2:45. CHAOS! We decided after the glue incident and several severe meltdowns that the risk of recess had not been worth the reward this time. It was not the break it was intended to be by any means.   Lesson learned: If it has been a Friday full of melt downs and the wind is blowing a million miles an hour, don’t go outside with a bunch of kids!
Needless to say, when you spend your day with kids, there will never be a dull moment. And you never know what occupation you’ll get to embark upon. This week we have been inventors, bankers, historians, scientists, jewelry repair people, handymen, computer tech fixers (that’s the official term   ) , counselors, argument solvers, friendship restorers, and a host of other things. I think teachers and moms have a lot in common when it comes to being masters of wearing many different hats. I’m sure they would agree.
Saturday I will be going back to school to help with a tutoring program aimed at improving TCAP scores. This is for 3rd and 4th graders I think. Who said you can’t have school on Saturday??
The deeper I get into student teaching, the more excited I get about graduation and getting my own room. I have so many ideas that I can’t wait to flesh out and start putting everything together. They’re all bouncing around in my head and that’s probably contributing to the daily headache I get haha.
We’ll I’m going to sleep so I can wake up and go to school and then see what the rest of the weekend has in store!!  Goodnight!