10: Week of Oct. 23

I have been interning for 10 weeks now and have heard a lot of funny things that kids have said. Everyone says you should write the funny things down, so I have decided to write them all here!

I showed a picture of Abraham Lincoln and a boy told me, very seriously, that it was his uncle. Someone else knew George Washington.
I made "pumpkin pointers" for the students by gluing pumpkin erasers to popsicle sticks and writing their name on the stick.The word "China" was written on an eraser and someone asked why. I told them because it was made in China. His next comment was "Cool! An eraser from China! Did the Chinese boy know my name and write it on there for me, too?"
I said something about Asia and a boy asked me where that was. I told him it was the other side of the world. He said he used to live there. After he said that, four other students told me they lived there too.
During writing, I always do an example first. The first day, I wrote about a spider in my car. Many other students wrote that too. The next time, I wrote about jumping on the trampoline. Suddenly, everyone had trampolines. The third time, I wrote about working at a corn maze and I told them they better not write about that because I was sure they didn't work at a corn maze. One student still wrote about working at the corn maze and tried VERY hard to convince me of it! Someone else drew their own picture, but copied my sentence about working at a corn maze.
When doing an estimation worksheet, a student became very upset that her estimations were wrong because I wouldn't let her erase them. She thought she was being sneaky and changed her "85" to a "9." I said something about it and she just kept saying "I am right!" and getting closer and closer to my face while growling.
A student told me estimation is just like excavation.
A student came in late and I asked her what took so long (she had been known to play in the bathroom.) She replied, in front of the entire class, "I had to p.... I had to do number 2!"
When learning about symmetry, a student kept saying magical instead of symmetrical, so all I heard the whole time was "Mrs. Younkin, does this look magical?"
Some students' parents do their homework for them, and while its not funny, it is funny that they think I wouldn't notice!
A student told me the hardest part about writing workshop is reaching the pencil box. Another student said the hardest part was making triangles and the easiest part was making squares. I wasn't aware we did that during writing!
A little girl came to school and I could see some places on her body that had marker on them. I asked her why there was marker on her and she said because her brothers couldn't find any paper so they held her down and used her instead.
When learning the letters, I told a little girl that "D" was like d, d, dog. The next time we came to the card she said "Woof Woof!"
During home visits a student told us her mom had a tattoo of a bull on her butt. The mom was sitting right there... awkward!

The point of this is not to make fun of students, but just to remember the funny things that have happened! I know there are more, and I will add them as I think of them or experience them!

9: Week of Oct. 17

I started my inquiry project this week with the Lucy Calkins method. It went really well, and I am seeing good things already. Again, I noticed how much the students are on different levels. One student can write sentences with phonemic spellings with a picture that goes with it. Another student just scribbles for both the picture and words. Some students are very confident and will try very hard to spell words. Some students won't write anything because they are so scared they will spell it wrong. One girl who is very, very intelligent, waits until others have written things and then she copies them because she is a perfectionist. I am hoping that throughout the writing sessions, these students will gain confidence in themselves and not be afraid to try. I am interested in what this girl can actually do when she decides to do it! Another goal I have is to lower the number of students shouting "How do I spell..." I want them to be able to use their sounds to spell the words as well as they can. This is the idea of Lucy Calkins, so I will try it and see how it works! I am excited about this series and I am curious to see the progress by the end of the semester.

8: Week of Oct. 10

This week I taught the morning calendar activities as well as Math. I really had fun planning the activities, and I think I did pretty well teaching it. One thing I know I need to work on is not feeling bad about disciplining students. The students each have a bee in the green bee hive and if they get in trouble they have to move it to the yellow hive. If they get in trouble again, they have to move to the red hive. I know I should move more bees, but I always feel bad and don't. This is something I am going to work on next week because I know it would help the students listen to me better. Overall though, I did not have any major behavior issues. In planning for my full-time teaching next week, I realize what a HUGE task this is! It was not too hard because all three Kindergarten teachers brought me materials and gave me lots of ideas, so I just had to schedule everything in and pick what I wanted. If I had to come up with everything on my own, it would have been very difficult. I can see again how important it is to stay organized, get things done in a timely manner, and plan ahead as much as possible. I am also going to be starting the writing curriculum next week which I am excited about. This is a part of my Inquiry project, so I am hoping it will turn out well and the students will enjoy it. I am interested to see the variations in ability level among the students as well as the rate of progress they make.

7: Week of October 3

This week I have bee thinking a lot about organization and how much this helps teachers. My mentor teacher is super organized, and this makes the day run so much smoother. First of all, it eliminates wasted transition time. She knows exactly what she is going to do next as she is finishing up one activity and can direct students on what to do. All the materials are laid out prior to beginning the activity so no time is wasted searching for things. She keeps the aid very informed about what she needs which eliminates a lot of miscommunication and keeps things running smoothly. Her lesson plans list everything out in a very easy to read format so they can be followed by anyone. Another thing I like that I have seen in different classrooms is having a place to put the materials for the week. For example, in my class there are hanging file folders for Monday Math and Monday Reading where you can find all the materials. In another class they use drawers. I like this idea because you can easily see if you have what you need. I have also been in very unorganized classrooms that encountered lots of problems because of this. Time was wasted, materials were not easy to find, and things did not get done. Especially for me, being a beginning teacher, I need to make sure I am organized to help make up for other problems I will encounter.

6: Week of Sept. 26

This was my first week in Kindergarten. So far, I love it! My mentor teacher is very organized, and I really like that about the class. Everything is very well planned so there is not that much wasted time. There are 22 students in the class and they have a very wide range of abilities. I didn't realize how much difference there would be in skills since they are only 4 and 5 years old. Already at this point, there is a definite gap. Many of the students have parents who work with them at home, and this makes all the difference. The gap is already wide, and it will only get wider if intervention does not take place. I was impressed that at only 5 weeks into the year my mentor teacher had already begun intervention and working with certain students to try to get them on the right track. I am most looking forward to seeing the progress made by some of the students and where they will be by the end of my time there. Another thing I really like about Kindergarten are how the students respond to activities and projects. They get so excited and try to do a good job. One of the main differences between middle school and Kindergarten is the motivation level. The middle schoolers did everything they could to get out of work, and it didn't matter what it was, they didn't like it. In Kindergarten, they love almost everything and will do anything. My question is, at what age do students decide that they suddenly hate school and why does this take place? In my experience, I have seen the change begin to happen around 4th grade.

5: Week of Sept. 19

This week was my last week in middle school. I was looking forward to having fun with the students on Friday, but my uncle passed away and so I was not in school. I learned how difficult it is to be a good teacher when you are upset about something. It is really hard to have a positive attitude and be happy towards the students when you are not happy at all. It was a good lesson for me to learn, although I wish I would not have had to. Other than that, I am excited for next week to start so I can go to Kindergarten. I am looking forward to beginning my research project too.

4: Week of Sept. 12

Since the beginning of school, my students have been working on their multiplication tables, something all of them struggle with. They have been using a computer to practice daily, they made flashcards, and they do practice problems. This week, we did 4's. Up until now, they have been pretty confident, but this week was different. They needed a lot more help and encouragement to try. On Friday, they took their test and they all did great! I was so happy to see their progress and that their hard work paid off. This coming week should be easy because they are all already very good with their 5's. I now have only one week left in this placement. While I am excited to go to Kindergarten, I will definitely miss the students I have now. Middle school is much different that elementary because the students are in the stage where they feel like they should be treated as adults, but still act very immaturely. I have a lot of respect for middle school teachers. Their job is anything but easy! The good middle school teachers have learned to balance treating the students more like adults, but also supervising very carefully because sometimes the students can get very out of hand. If I have learned one thing about middle schoolers, it is that most of what they do is in order to look a certain way to their friends. They will do anything to impress others. This can be scary at times! I want to try to have a great last week and enjoy what time I have left with older kids.