Working at Andover Elementary-Senior Project

Weekly Reflection: Last one

2008-05-25T15:25:00.002-04:00

This week was the last week of my senior project and it was a really nice way to end the three weeks. While I was there they class was getting ready for their field trip to the ocean on Tuesday! What they did to prepare was make field guides of sea creatures. So what I would do is while they were reading about the animals is walk around to see if they understood what they were reading or help them sound out a word that they were not able to pronounce. This week I learned that while doing crafts that involves glue and scissors, you needed to be very patient, even more patient then when you are teaching something. I also learned about some things that I could do this summer that would involve working with younger kids or I could tutor kids in the library. I am in love with what I am doing; doing Senior Project convinced me even more that I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I really liked working with the kids, and just not only helping them out with their math problems, but also just being for them overall. I was asked by Ms. Wallace and Mr. Hubbard to help the kids with the cutting and gluing part of the field guide and I know they asked me to do this because they wanted to make the process of putting together the book go a little faster. Ms. Wallace also asked me to teach another Spanish lesson, she asked me that because it would give me another opportunity to teach the class and run a class. This week however was very busy for the third graders so I was not able to teach the class. Everything that has happened this week has happened for a reason, unlike last week there were no surprises and thankfully no one got hurt when I was on duty during recess. What I benefited from this week is, I got some ideas now of what to do this summer, and I think I am going to try and be both a tutor and a camp counselor so I can work with kids as much as I can.
Senior Project has been amazing, and I am going to miss working with the kids so much! They have actually inspired me to become a teacher even more.

Last Day: Bittersweet memories!

2008-05-23T20:31:00.004-04:00

Week Number Three
Day Number Five
Hours Worked: 10:15 - 3:00 (total: 4 hours 45 minutes)

Today was my last day of Senior Project and it was very depressing that I would not be coming back to work with these wonderful kids again. Walking into Ms. Wallace's classroom this morning the door between Ms. Wallace's and Mr. Hubbard's room was open, music was playing in each room, paper and scissors were all over the floor, I knew that they were putting the pages of their field guide of common tide pool creatures together, and they were! I walked around for a little bit to see the progression of each book from the kids, and then I helped some of them with a lot of gutting and gluing. I would also help them label pictures of the creatures so that they would know the body part of each one when they saw the creature in real life! During recess Ms. Wallace gave me some tips about what to do before becoming a full time teacher. She said to student teach a lot throughout college and she said to substitute any chance I could get. She also gave me some ideas about what to do during the summer that would involve little kids or involve me teaching. She said to be a camp counselor or and/or tutor elementary school kids or work at a summer school. Then we went into the faculty room and laminated all the students pages from their field guide and cut cut cut cut cut! The students only had half of their special because they had a performance to go to. The performance involved little parts from multiple pages of Shakespeare! I missed some of it because I helped put together the booklets, but when I saw the last part of the performance it was really fun, they even picked volunteers from the audience which was the highlight of the performance!

I am going to go back to the school on Wednesday because Ms. Wallace told me that some of the students did not remember that today was my last day, so I am going to go and visit to say my last goodbye to the kids!

Special Memories

2008-05-22T16:05:00.002-04:00

Week Number Three
Day Number Four
Hours worked: 7:20-9:45, 11:00-1:00, 2:40-3:30

As today was my second to last day of Senior Project, I thought that I should be at the school as much as possible. So I went in at my usual time this morning. Ms. Wallace informed me that today was going to be a little messed up because she had a literacy workshop so she could learn how to teach English and reading better. So today's schedule was a little messed up. Instead of math first thing, we worked more on our sea filed guides in preparation for their field trip. We did that until snack time and then kept working on it until lunch. Then during lunch, Ms. Wallace and Mr. Hubbard had to leave for their workshop and there were substitutes for both classes. I attended lunch with the kids again, and I went to recess. Today Brandon brought in his eight week old puppies to show off, and they were very cute.

After recess I read three mini stories to the class before their special. They tried to give me a hard time for a little bit. Instead of reading out loud they wanted to play games, but I told them that this is what Ms. Wallace told me to do, and i am going to do it. After telling them that a couple of times they calmed down, and i was able to read them the stories. It was nice being the "teacher" for that part because I was able to show myself that even when the kids are saying something different that the teacher lets them do, I knew in my gut that it was not true. Afterward I told Ms. Wallace that and she was very proud of me. :)

Then at 2:40, I went back for a faculty meeting. During that meeting the teachers were working on their workshop still, but there was a leader telling the teachers how to make lists of what they should do when they teach, and then each teacher from a specific grade got together in groups and made their lists.

Overall it was a good day! It was a little crazy going back and forth from Proctor to the elementary school but I had a lot new experiences that I will keep with me for a life time!

Day of Reflection

2008-05-21T18:53:00.002-04:00

Week Number Three
Day Number Three

Today is the day that I do not go over to the elementary school. So instead I went to my Themes class and worked on my final, which was writing a short story. Then I went over to the bookstore to talk to my mentor Alex. We talked about how my week was going so far, and I told her about the issue that Ms. Wallace and I have about giving me the opportunity to teach. Then I told her what my display board is going to look like for my presentation. After we talked about my self reflection paper and things that I should include in it, and she told me that she would be happy to look it over before I hand it in. At the end of our meeting I told Alex how upset I was that I only have two more days left at the Elementary School, the kids have grown on me so much that I know leaving on Friday is going to be very hard. I hope that someday I will have a classroom filled like kids in Ms. Wallace's class.

More like a teacher everyday

2008-05-20T19:06:00.002-04:00

Week Number Three
Day Number Two
Hours Worked- 7:30, 12:00 (Total Hours: 4 1/2)

Walking into Ms. Wallace's room at 7:20 in the morning was very early, but a nice early since I am loving every minute when I am at that school. We talked about and decided that I will have another opportunity to teach again! Our only problem is finding a time that works out for both of us for me to teach. (I would be teaching Spanish again)

Then, while the students were working I corrected their spelling tests that we took on Friday. Then it was time for their daily Mad Minute Math quiz, and this time only a few finished before the time was up. After the quiz they looked up when the sunrise and sunset yesterday, and our day was 14 hours and 15 minutes. Then the kids made many mistakes on their math tests so Ms. Wallace handed them back to give them a chance to look the test over again with a fresh mind. While they were working on that I wrote down for each student what words they have gotten wrong on their spelling test.

During math they started a new unit, which was measurement. They talked about the metric system and the US customary system. Ms. Wallace then made a chart so that it would be easier for the students to see the conversions. After math and snack time it was time for the kids to do their phonics, and while the kids were doing that, I took a girl out into the hall and gave her the spelling quiz that she missed on Friday, and I felt like an actual teacher, since not only was I doing the correcting and listening to the students read to me and have me evaluate their reading, but I WAS ACTUALLY GIVING A TEST!

Share Day!

2008-05-19T17:55:00.004-04:00

Week Number Three
Day Number One
Hours Worked: 10:00 - 2:45 (Total: 4 Hours 45 Minutes)

Here is a summary of what Share Day is, the students choose two workshops to be a part of, it could be either at the school or away from school. You could do workshops like painting flower pots and planting flowers, to digital recording!

Today was the much anticipated Share Day! I was really excited walking into the school because I was going to be working with the kindergartner's! It was nice to be working with a different age group because I was able to achieve one of my goals with out Ms. Wallace organizing it!

When I walked into the kindergarten room, they were sewing together felt puppets. I sat down on a table that came up to my shins, so it was a little painful, but I would cut out anything from the felt that the kids wanted. I cut out objects from simple eyes, nose, and mouth, and then I cut some crazy things like little ruffles for their puppets sleeves, and some of them even wanted CROWNS! I got to work with some of the faculty's children too! I worked with the youngest from the Walsh family, and I worked with Swaze's daughter HANNAH! She even drew me a very pretty picture!

After the morning group was finished, I stopped by Ms. Wallace's workshop and she was conducting camp songs. I knew none of them since I did not go to an overnight summer camp, but I did learn something about myself, that I actually have some what of a voice! :)

Then it was time for an afternoon of music! Keith Barrett's band the Longtail Monkey's played three songs, including Free Fallin' by Tom Petty. It was so amazing to watch kids at such a young age play the keyboard, drums, bass, and guitar so well! Then it was time for the main performance. THE RECYCLED PERCUSSION! They were really really good, they do not play on actual drums, they play on trash cans and recycled products! It was really cool to be able to watch this concert with the kids because I was able to be with them again in an atmosphere that is not a classroom.

Weekly Reflection Number Two

2008-05-18T16:30:00.002-04:00

This week has been amazing! I learned so much about teaching a classroom full of students that learn differently to how to act in a scary situation. At the beginning of the week I tough the class body parts in Spanish and I made them a slide show of the pictures that I took while in Spain. Then I got to sit in on the other third grade classroom and see the way another teacher would teach the class.
I learned that even the smallest classes, can have the most diverse students. Some of the students have ADD, some take a little while longer to learn, and some learn really fast and try to make sure that everything that they are doing is above and beyond. It was great to teach students of different learning styles, because it really does put you in the teacher’s shoes. You have to make sure that everyone in the class understands what you are talking about, and also make sure that you give everyone a chance to answer the questions that you ask. After sitting in on the other third grade class, I learned so much! I learned that not every teacher is the same. They all teach the same thing, but they do not all teach it the same way. Like I said in my earlier post about Ms. Wallace and Mr. Hubbard’s teaching styles of teaching math are different but both are very successful.
I still love what I chose to do for my Senior Project! I know that for sure I want to be in an Elementary school, I feel like the atmosphere of an elementary school is the best place for me. When I was asked to go sit in on Mr. Hubbard’s class I was not surprised since sitting in on another class was one of my goals, and Ms. Wallace made sure that I accomplished this goal. For most of the week everything that happened was expected. The only surprise for me was when I was on duty for recess on Friday a student who was not part of my class got seriously hurt! I had to go and find the nurse and I kept telling myself to stay calm, because if I am worked up about the situation, then the kids would start getting worried. It was really nice that I learned something about myself during that time, I could stay calm in a scary situation.
What I will benefit from this week is to stay calm in a scary situation that involves little kids that will always try and imitate their elders, so if I freaked, then they would freak as well. I also learned that teachers teach the same things but they all use their own style on how to teach a subject.
It is really depressing that Monday is my last week of Senior Project! I have so far loved it!

STAY TUNED! ☺

Day Ten

2008-05-16T18:16:00.002-04:00

Week Number Two
Day Number Ten
Hours worked: 10:00-2:30 (Total: 4 1/2 hours)

Today I decided I to go over to the school an hour and a half earlier then scheduled. The reason is because I wanted to be with the kids more, and I wanted to be in an environment that I am really starting to love. When I walked into the classroom, they were working on a new reading assignment. Their assignment was to read a informational book,(a book that has facts).

One student, Jared, is reading about the Titanic, and in his reading response he is going to point out facts that he learned about the Titanic. Katelyn is reading a story about history, but there is a made up story mixed in with the facts. Reading this story gives Katelyn a little bit of a challenge because she has to decide what parts are made up and what parts are facts. After reading time the class had their weekly spelling tests, and today's paragraph was about the American flag.

After the test, Mr. Hubbard and Ms. Wallace's class came together to read a book about popular sea creatures, in preparation for their field trip next Tuesday. As partners they have to read a few pages out loud and then find the main points within those pages. That was the lesson for this time period, finding the main point.

Lunch time! I had lunch with the kids again and it is always fun. What was pretty eventful though was recess. One boy, who is the grade above (4th grade) got what I think was the wind was knocked out of him, but it was still very scary. What made it so scary was that I took Ms. Wallace's spot as being on duty for recess while she stayed with the student who had to read and finish up homework. When I saw that Mr. Hubbard was rushing around looking for someone to help this student I asked him if he wanted me to get the nurse and of course he did. I ran into the school, quickly got the nurse and we went outside. Once she was with the boy I calmed down my class and told them to stop watching him and he is in good hands now and that he will be fine.

It was nice to see what recess was like and I also showed myself that I can handle myself in a crisis! Monday my post with be about working with the younger grades during SHARE DAY!!

A Different View

2008-05-15T18:03:00.003-04:00

Week Number Two
Day Number Nine
Hours Worked: 7:30-10 (Total hours worked: 3 1/2 hours)

Today was my second early morning. When I got to the school, Ms. Wallace informed me that today was another NEWA testing day. During that time while they were in testing I went over to Mr. Hubbard's classroom, the other third grade classroom next door. During Ms. Wallace's morning work time I was able to respond to a reading response! It felt really good to respond to a students reading response because I felt like I was getting better, and doing more when It came to correcting, it also gave me a chance to work on my cursive!

Time for Mr. Hubbard's classroom! When I walked into their classroom they were already excited that I was in their class for a little bit. Once I walked into the classroom they were already calling me Ms. Ray and were asking me for help with their math problems. They were doing the page that my class had already done a couple of days ago, so i was a pro at that page!

Once difference between the teaching of Ms. Wallace and Mr. Hubbard is that Mr. Hubbard waits until everyone is done with the page and then they go over the questions as a class. If someone gets a question wrong, they go over that question as a class. In Ms. Wallace's class when a student is done with the page, they find a partner who is also done with the questions and they go over them together.

Tomorrow both classes are having a chapter nine test. So Mr. Hubbard made the class a study guide so they could review for tomorrow. Mr. Hubbard gave me a copy of the study guide with the answers written on it. While I was walking around helping the class with their questions, I also looked over what work they have already done and made sure they had the correct answers to study from tonight. There was one question that they all had a problem with, so Mr. Hubbard stopped everyone and they went over that question as a class to make sure that everyone knew what they were doing. There were some questions that involved money, so Mr. Hubbard had some fake money that they could use so that they could visually see the problem.

I really liked going over to another class because it gave me a chance to see how different teachers teach. It was also nice to be around a different group of kids, and see how they acted in a classroom. Monday is Share Day and I will be staying at the school and working with the kindergarten, which will be interesting because it again gives me a chance to see not only how another classroom works, but how to work with a different age group.

Day Eight

2008-05-14T15:08:00.002-04:00

Week Number Two
Day Number Eight

Today is the day when I do not go over to the school due to my schedule. Even though I do not go and work with the kids, I am still thinking about things that I can do to make my experience even better! While I was not in classes this morning I looked over my goals to see what Ms. Wallace and I were missing, and what I would need to do. The list is:

Sit in on another classroom.
Attend a faculty meeting (I will be attending one tomorrow after classes)

I am actually not that surprised that I have accomplished most of my goals with in the first week and a half of Senior Project.

Tomorrow I go into another classroom, most likely the other third grade class next door. Then after my classes tomorrow afternoon I will be attending a faculty meeting!

Day Seven

2008-05-13T18:31:00.002-04:00

Week Number Two
Day Number Seven
Hours Worked: 7:30-12:00 (Total: 4 1/2 hours)

Today is the day when I get up early so that I am at the school before the kids. This gives me a chance to see what the school is like when it is not in session, and to be honest, I liked being there it was kind of fun. :) This also gives me another opportunity to talk with Ms. Wallace about my goals or to schedule a day when I will be going to another class. The other class that I will be attending would be the other third grade class, or a forth and fifth grade classroom. By going into another classroom I would be able to see what other classes are like and see how the teacher works with different types of students.

While Ms. Wallace was teaching math class, I corrected their Mad Math Minute quiz that they have daily. What the student is tested on is thirty multiplication or addition facts, that they have to complete in a minute. The students who are done before the minute is up hands their paper to Ms. Wallace to be graded to see if they can move to the next level. The students who do not finish in time put their papers in the hand in box to be corrected later on in the day. If the students who handed Ms. Wallace their paper, PASS that student gets to move up one level, the students who handed theirs in but DID NOT PASS have to do the same level the next day. Today's math lesson was the scary negative number! The kids were a little scared that they were working with "numbers that have a minus sign in front of them" ( said by the kids), but Ms. Wallace explained it very nicely and the kids calmed down. The class used daily life that may use negative numbers, examples, the weather and when someone borrows money.

During snack time I played a game called OTHELLO with my buddies of the class. It was a lot of fun playing with them because I got to bond with them outside of being a teacher aid. During phonics they did an exercise where they had to elaborate more on a simple sentence, what Ms. Wallace asked them to do was add in more descriptive words (adjectives) or put in some quotation marks. Afterward they had to make a list as a class of words that has a silent consonant in it. Some of the words that they came up with were HALF, TALK (Silent L), KNIGHT, KNOW ( Silent K), WHO (Silent W), and THUMB, LAMB (Silent B).

Then it was James and the Giant Peach time! Since today was Author's Day Ms. Wallace had the class read two chapters out loud. During Author's Day Ms. Wallace promises the class a drink and a small snack. So while the class did their reading she left the room to make the punch and LEFT ME IN CHARGE! :) I had to look through the chapter and find what characters were speaking and assign a student a character to read. The students who did not get a character would switch being the narrator, after they read the two chapters I had to make sure that they were either working on finishing their story, or working on their journal responses and I was surprised that they did not give me a hard time because Ms. Wallace informed me that they like to do that when she is not there.

Getting ready for Author's Day was good. I poured the punch in cups and gave them to the students. Then everyone moved their desks into a circle, and I passed them ten flashcards to write down notes about each story. While a student is reading, the class (with Ms. Wallace and I included) would write down the students name on the flashcard and write down multiple comments on what they did well while reading their story or how their story was written. Then on the back of the card we had to write down one negative comment that would help them the next time they write a story.

Thursday, Ms. Wallace and I are going to go over my goals and make sure that we are not missing anything. We are also going to schedule a date when I will be going to the other classes.

Teaching Day

2008-05-12T18:48:00.008-04:00

Week Number Two
Day Number Six
Hours Worked: 10:30-2:40 (total: 4 hours 10 minutes)

Today was the beginning of my second week and I was so happy to be back in the classroom. When I walked in they were doing their daily group reading of James and the Giant Peach. After their reading Ms. Wallace organized a class discussion about their Author's Day which was supposed to happen last Friday but due to testing it did not work, so the day keep getting pushed further and further back. Then they did a class vote, which was if they wanted Author's Day today while three students finished their testing, or push the day back to tomorrow so the whole class can be together reading their hand written stories. The vote ended up, Author's Day is tomorrow!

After they made a list of how many books they have read as a class during their last term. What they have to do is write down the title, the author, what genre the book is, what day they finished the book, and AS A CLASS they had to decide if the book was easy, just right, or challenge. Each books was different, they read some challenges, some easy, and some that were just right for them.

Then it was time for them to work on their stories that they would be sharing during Author's Day, or they could start a new story. Today I worked with two girls that I work with a lot, One of them was starting a new story, and I helped her brainstorm some new ideas, and when she came up with a few ideas she read them to me.

I worked with the other girl who was drawing pictures to go with her poem, I would read her poems to make sure that the spelling was correct and that she was using the right grammar. Then she showed me her drawings and explained to me why she drew what she did.

Lunch time! While walking down to lunch the girls were again asking me to sit with them at lunch, but since Ms. Wallace did not have lunch duty I told them that I would be eating with her in the faculty room, and they became very sad, and Ms. Wallace laughed and said, Your a rockstar Ms. Ray." I loved that she said that! It made me feel so good! After lunch three of my buddies came up to Ms. Wallace and I complaining about a fight that happened during recess. Ms. Wallace talked to each of the girls to sort out what happened, and it ended up being a fight about where a girl was in the line up to go in from recess. I was a little upset about the reason for why the girls were fighting but it was nice to see how Ms. Wallace handled the situation.

Then during their special (Library) I helped Ms. Wallace correct papers, and I got myself prepared to TEACH THE CLASS! Today I taught them Spanish, what I taught them were the verbs Decir and Tocar. Then I taught them the parts of the body and we played Simon Says, IN SPANISH! It went really well, the class had a lot of fun and I was actually really surprised at how the class went.

Weekly Reflection

2008-05-11T12:56:00.001-04:00

Total hours worked this week: 15 hours

This first week of Senior Project has been very successful and I am looking forward to the next two. I was a little nervous at first, some of my worries were, are the students going to like me, am I going to work well with the teacher, would I be able to teach? Once I walked into the classroom the students along with Ms. Wallace welcomed me with open arms. This week I learned more that each kid is different. With in the class there many different types of students, there is one boy who is very tense and always makes sure that he’s done all his work and that he has done it to the best of his ability. Then there is one girl who literally has the maturity of someone who is ten yeas older then her. She is also very smart, and always contributes to the class. Then there are a couple of students that have ADD which makes teaching a little harder, but Ms. Wallace always asks me if I have any questions about teaching a very learning style diverse class. I love my Senior Project, and I am very glad that I decided to do it; it will help me so much with my decision in the future if I want to go into teaching or not, or if being in an elementary school is the right atmosphere for me.

So far I have been making copies for Ms. Wallace, but on Monday I will be actually teaching the class. I will be teaching Spanish for forty-five minutes, and I think I was asked to teach on Monday because I will have accomplished one of my goals, and it gives me an opportunity to see what it is like to teach a classroom. So far everything that has happened was very expected, but it has only been a week, so the unexpected could be coming up in the next two weeks. What I have benefited so far from this first week is that being a teacher leaves you with a very busy lifestyle throughout the school year. Ms. Wallace told me on the first day that one of the benefits of being a teacher is that your workday does not slowly go by since you always have something to do. This is a great idea for a Senior Project and I know that these next two weeks with the class is going to be very good.

Day Five

2008-05-09T18:29:00.002-04:00

Week Number One
Day Number Five
Hours Worked (11:00-3:00) total: 4 hours

So it is the end of my first week working at the elementary school and I am so glad that I did it. When I walked into the classroom this morning it was empty and I remembered that today was the second day of NEWA testing. NEWA is New Hampshire's version of MCAS so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to finish their testing.

Today I got to eat lunch with the class which was a lot of fun! They were telling me about their brothers and sisters or what they had planned for this weekend. Ms. Wallace was on lunch duty today which was the reason why I got to eat lunch with them. After lunch Ms. Wallace was on homework duty, which is the time when kids can finish their homework that they did not do last night, finish a test, or if they got in trouble before recess this is the time when they would do their punishment and read during recess.

During this time, Ms. Wallace and I decided that on Monday we are going to look at my goals sheet and see how we have been coming along with my goals. Also I am going to start sitting on the forth and fifth grade classes and see how the teaching is different or if it is the same. Over the weekend I am going to make a lesson plan for Monday's class, and teach them Spanish for forty five minutes on Monday afternoon. I am thinking of teaching them body parts and two verbs. Those two verbs are TOCAR and LEVANTAR. then I am going to be playing Simon says with them, and lastly make a slide show of my trip to Spain.

Friday is spelling test day. during their tests Ms. Wallace read a paragraph to the class, on the student's sheet there are blanks in the paragraph, and they had to spell those blanks correctly.
Then there is a challenge part which tests them on phonics that they learned that week, on this test it was making compound words. During the test I made copies of the students progress reports and put them together for the kids to take home. While the class was at their special for the day (computer) Ms. Wallace worked with a forth grade class and their production of Macbeth. Then we went into the storage closet and got some colored construction paper for them to make Mother's day cards. The cards had to be written in their best cursive and with all the spelling correctly in their poems about their mother. While they were writing their poems they would come up to me and ask me if they spelt the words right in their poems. It felt very good to see that they could rely on me to help them with their corrections.

Day Four

2008-05-08T11:22:00.003-04:00

Week Number 1
Day Number Four
Hours Worked: 7:30-10:00 (total hours- 2 1/2)

Walking back into the classroom this morning I was very happy to be back, even if it was 7:20 in the morning. Tomorrow is progress report day so I helped Ms. Wallace by making copies in the teacher's room of the reports. Then my little friend Katlin was the first student to walk into the room but she had nothing with her! I asked her where her backpack was and she said "I forgot it in my dad's car! and my homework was in it!" Today was the sectary's birthday so the along with the other third grade class we went across the hall to the office and sang happy birthday to her. After our class sang happy birthday to her in Spanish! She was very surprised that the class could sing that well in another language.

After singing happy birthday we went back to the classroom for some more singing! Everyday the class sings a song about the sun and what it does and how great it is. After singing it is time for Math. During math time they worked in their workbooks and then after they checked there work with a partner they did an activity where they got to be bridge builders and build a bridge using two books that were nine centimeters apart and a piece of paper. What Ms. Wallace wanted them to achieve was to notice that, after making a fan like shape with the paper, triangles are one of the strongest shapes. They needed to see that if objects like paper clips, crayons, pencils, erasers, and calculator could stay safely on the bridge with out falling to the floor.

Following snack time they repotted plants and looked at the roots to see how the plant grows, and what things you can do to make the plant grow better. Some of the kids did not want to repot plants so they were with me at the classroom store where they can buy things like a new pencil, erasers, or get a pass to attend any special that they wanted. In order to "buy" things at the class store they need to have enough wings to buy things. What you have to do to get a wing is be respectful, help someone if they need it, or overall be a helpful person and a good citizen in the classroom.

When I had to leave today at 10 go to assembly and my themes class, the class was grabbing onto my arms and legs and begging me not to go. It felt so good that the kids did not want me to go because I knew that I was growing on the kids and that the liked me being there!

Day Three

2008-05-07T19:02:00.002-04:00

Week Number One
Day Number Three

Today is the day that I do not go over to the Elementary School. I do not go over because I am still taking two classes and I had a class at the beginning of the day and then my other class was at the end of the day, so it did not make much sense for me to keep coming and going through the day.

After my Themes class I went and talked to my mentor who is Alex Estin. I told her more about what I have done these last two days and that I am very happy that I decided to do a Senior Project. I also told her that Wednesday is the only day when I am not at the school and I missed the kids a lot! I missed helping them and just over all being there for them when they needed help, I fell very good about myself when I help the kids.

Following my meeting with Alex I thought about ways that I could bring more Spanish into the classroom. Ms. Wallace said that I should think of ways that will be easy and fun for the kids to remember words that can be used in an everyday conversation. Words like this are SER and ESTAR, which means to be. I wail also be teaching them CONOCER and SABER which are different forms of "to know". The ways that I am going to teach the kids these words are by playing some games that I learned while I was in Spain.

Day Two

2008-05-06T18:11:00.002-04:00

Week Number One: Day Two
Hours: 7:30-12:00 (total hours worked: 4 and a half hours)

Now for the second day! Ms. Wallace and I arrived to the classroom around the same time so both of us got down to business. She was organizing the room and putting up the date, and today's schedule (all in Spanish). Then she showed me where the students look to see what there job is for the day. One student is the class leader where they take the drink orders for snack time, stand in the front of the line and make sue it is perfect when the class needs to line up, and that person also passes out papers to the class, other jobs are watering the plants and cleaning up the classroom. I then went over to the office to make copies of the morning work that Ms. Wallace had for the students, some of there morning work could be more phonics, working on writing in cursive, or more math problems. Morning work could also be correcting something that they got wrong on yesterdays homework.
While Ms. Wallace was teaching the class lateral multiplication she had me correct a mountain load of the students work. I corrected things like spelling, what words match with each other, and loads and loads of math problems. I think it was good for me to correct so much math because it gave me a chance to review what type of math is being covered in third grade, and I was able to re-learn what they were doing. I felt really good correcting the work because I could see myself getting closer and closer to my goal of helping Ms. Wallace correct work. Then after Ms. Wallace explained how to later multiply the students had to do work book pages to do, it consists of what they have just learned, or it is a review of what they have learned in the past.
When they are done with those pages they play board games like checkers and chess, and I played checkers with a boy named jared and I am sorry to say but he kicked my butt. After snack time we worked on phonics and reviewed on making the /S/ sound in their writing. Then they had to write down words that looked like how they sound and words that do NOT look like how they sound. An example of a yes word is CUT and an example of a no word is DOOR. After phonics time, Ms. Wallace gave the students forty five minutes to work on their shot stories that they are writing. I helped some of the students with their stories, some of the students are writing about how Wilber (in Charlotte's Web) and Babe met, one boy is writing about monsters, and one girl is writing an autobiography. One is writing a classic tale about king whose daughter falls in love with a prince, but the king does not want his daughter to marry because he wants to stay the king forever. Another girl is writing letters to her two pen pals. One of them lives in Philly, and the other lives in Nashville. I was so amazed with the creativity that this class has. I helped the students brainstorm what they want to write about in their stories. I would give them examples like what do Babe and Wilber like to do, and what they do when they end up meeting each other. While helping the girls who were writing to her pen pals and the autobiography, I gave them the same sort of outline, I gave them some ideas to write about like what they like to do for fun and what there favorite food, music, book, etc. is.
Ms. Wallace described again to the class what she is expecting in a daily journal response, she told the kids to have sticky notes with them and when they read something that they want to write about in their journal. This makes the process of writing a response easier for the kids because they do not have to try and memorize the story to make a response. Ms. Wallace explained how to write a journal response again because she wants her students to write perfect responses by the end of the year. A half an hour before lunch we read another chapter in James and the giant peach, we read as a class again so that more kids had a chance to read out loud. While the students were at lunch I talked with Ms. Wallace abut how I liked the sticky note idea because it teaches them early on how to active read, which i know from experience, will defiantly help them in the future.
As the days go on I know that I am going to grow to these kids, and become attached to them, they make working with them so easy because they all listen to me and follow along with what I am doing!

Day One

2008-05-05T17:59:00.004-04:00

Day Number One: 10:00-2:40 (total: 4 hours and 40 minutes)

When I walked into the third grade classroom I was a little nervous about the first day and these next three weeks. Once I walked into Nicole Wallace's classroom, and saw all the students smiling up at me. I felt completely comfortable being in the classroom, I felt like I've been here all year. As I walked in they were all sitting in a circle and were reading James and the Giant Peach. Ms. Wallace described to me that they sometimes do individual reading, small groups, or as a class reading. Right now they are doing today's reading as a class, when they read as a class Ms. Wallace assigns each student a character and whoever does not have a character, switches off being the narrator. I like this because it gives each student a chance to get more comfortable with reading out loud, and that will help them in years to come. After they read one or two chapters of the book the students write a journal response, in cursive, about what they have read that day. Ms. Wallace does not want them to summarize what they have read, but she wants them to write an opinion in letter format with and introduction (Dear Ms. Wallace, sincerely Katey), and she wants a couple of paragraphs. Today I read two students journal responses, and hopefully by the beginning of next week I will be responding to them. We then worked on phonics and they learned different ways to make the /S/ sound by using combinations like CI, S, CY,SS, CE, SC. Ms. Wallace then said words with these combinations for them to spell. After phonics they have some writing time where they are all writing their own short stories. Then each Friday Ms. Wallace brings them some snacks and each student reads one of the stories that they wrote. While the students were in lunch/recess I talked with Ms. Wallace about how I am going to teach Spanish and how I would like to incorporate that into their day. I also watched her plan out their lesson planner, I then looked at their math and phonics books so that I would have a sort of background with what Ms. Wallace is teaching them. Hopefully soon I will be able to correct the tests in math and phonics. A half an hour before their special for the day (library) Ms. Wallace read a book out loud to the class while some knitted and others just sat on the floor and listened to the story. For history, since today is Cinco de Mayo, the students learned about this holiday for the Mexican-Americans, and why it is a holiday, after we learned the Mexican hat dance. This first day was a lot of fun, and I am very excited for these next three weeks!

Written at 6:30