Week 12

On Monday I could tell I had been absent.  I feel like the majority of the management progress I had made before taking some time off was lost.  My students were challenging me like they had before I implemented new classroom management strategies.  They had a difficult time listening and and following directions. They were easily distracted and seemed to repeat behaviors over and over even after I addressed them once.  It was frustrating to feel like I had lost so much progress.  I think it will take some time to readjust, but hopefully it will go more smoothly.  The management strategies I implemented before (ex: rug row points) are still in place and my cooperating teacher has continued to use them.  I talked with my cooperating teacher about it and we agree that consistency will be key in regaining their confidence, attention, and respect.  

On Tuesday we did two new activities during the mini lessons that students really enjoyed. The first was an adjective activity in which students had to say a complete sentence about a picture of three animals that included an adjective for "how many."  Students had to come up with their own ideas, share their full sentence, and identify the adjective in the sentence.  They thought it was a fun challenge and it was the first time I had heard them say and use the word "adjective" correctly.  In the second mini lesson we played sight word bingo.  Students had to fill a bingo sheet with sight words from the word wall.  They crossed words off as I said them and raised their hand and said bingo when they got four in a row.  I'm constantly trying to come up with new ways to practice sight words, and this game was fun for students, but also helped them practice writing and reading sight words.  They were engaged and were able to choose their own words.  

On Wednesday I began a new behavior system for one student during the afternoons.  He has developed a pattern of refusing to do his independent work or play the math game.  He always has a reason, usually a problem with another student or about a situation that happened during lunch or during RtI, but it had been getting out of hand.  My cooperating teacher and I have both tried talking to him about the problems preventing him from doing work, but it has gotten to the point where we agree that to some degree he simply doesn't want to participate.  On Wednesday I gave him a choice between two behavior charts.  When I see him participating and following directions during any part of math, I will let him color a star on his behavior chart.  If he isn't doing those things, he does not get to color one.  When he fills the chart he'll get a reward that he is really interested in, iPad time to play an educational game.  I'm hoping this new plan will help math run more smoothly and give him more motivation to participate. (4L) 

On Thursday we talked about asking questions during reading.  Students each got a bag full of question cards.  At different times in the story, students had to stop, find a question they could ask their partner, and take turns asking and answering relevant questions.  Students are used to turning and talking to a partner on the rug, but this activity was an extension of that.  We have been talking about fairy tales, and it has been an easy way to incorporate conversations about morals, and other real world issues.  Students are working toward making connections between fairy tale stories and real life.  While we don't explicitly discuss it everyday, it always comes up.  I have enjoyed incorporating these ideas so fluidly so far this week.

On Fridays we always do assessments and integrated activities to focus on a science or social studies topic. This Friday I had to create the math assessment for first grade based on what we had been learning because the topics aren't necessarily covered in Common Core.  It was a good experience to use the informal and formal assessments I had taken throughout the week to inform my decision making for our assessment on Friday (7K).  I found myself noticing how difficult it is to create one assessment for an entire class of students at different levels.  It made me start thinking about how to differentiate assessments or how to create assessments in a way that all students can still achieve something on them, and so that all students are still challenged and able to show what they learned.  When I make next week's assessment, I'm going to try to incorporate more open ended activities instead of straight forward problems that have one single answer.  

This week was definitely exhausting, but I felt much better than I had previously.  I can tell I'm not feeling completely like myself, but at the same time, it was great to be back in the classroom.  I'm working to still get enough rest and find times to take mental breaks, even if they are short, during the day.  I'm hoping I'll feel even better next week!