I'm On My Way...

I believe it was Paul Simon who wrote the lyrics "I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going." As we finish up this week, I realize that starting next week I'll have taken over every subject except math. So, I am well on my way to full time teaching. However, I am unsure of what to expect in the weeks ahead. These are the same thoughts I had the very first week, and every week thereafter. I have made it this far, I've had my good days (like when Germaine finially started to understand that the vowel sound in CVC words is in the middle), and I have definitely had my bad days (like when Michael threw up all over the place while Mrs. Karr was taking a note to the office----By the way, I handled that suprisingly well!)
Action Research is well on its way too. When I interview Hayden tomorrow I will have completed my first round of student interviews and so far, I have not seen any sign of the students using quick images, or start with/get to to help them answer number sentences. But they are using the dot configirations to represent numbers!
Yesterday was a difficult day for me. Ms. Karr was working on the 5 year plan so I had a substitute. I have nothing against substitutes, however, the never act as good when a substitute is here as when Ms. Karr is here. The sub kept telling me not to worry about it because this is a tough group, but I frustrates me because I know this group of children can behave and act appropriatly when they want to be. That just never happens to be when there is a sub here.
One last thing before I sign out-- the incident of the skanky sock must be shared! Just before we were about to play tap and clap with our spelling words today, just after we came back in from the bathroom, there appeared a dirty smelly sock underneath Damarian's desk. I would have never noticed had Thomas not raised his hand to ask me, "Where did that sock come from under his desk?" Ask he points to Damarian. I asked Damarian if the sock was his and it didn't surprise me when he said no. I thought to myself, dumb question Ms. Burns, what kid in their right mind would claim this nasty thing. So I did what any 'good teacher' would do. I picked it up and threw it in the trash can. Problem solved! Not another word was spoken about it. Needless to say, there is a kid running around this school somewhere with a skanky, unmated sock!

First Graders Make Me Smile

This morning after we read this weeks story, we were using the sequence cards to retell the story before we took our story test. I said, "Boys and girls I want you to turn to the next page and look at the pictures at the bottom." There was about a 3 second pause before a little voice at the back of the room said, "Whelp, I looked at 'em Ms. Burns." She did what she was told, she looked at them and she was done. I laughed to myself and said, "Great Lilly! Then can you tell me what the picture says happened first? What did the fox and her kit do."


Another funny one! I have a little boy who has problems with pronouncing ch, instead he pronounces them sh. I borrowed his chair to have something to sit on during carpet time. Afterwards, all the students went back to their seats, except for Micheal. He stand there and says to me. "Ms. Burns (he also has trouble with his r's) I need my "shair"" Me, not having any idea what he is talking about replies, "you're share of what honey? I don't know what you are talking about." He points to his chair, which I am still sitting in, and says with more much more force..."No, my shair!" AHHHHHH-HAAAAA......You're chair! :-)

Action Research Begins...

With much help from Ms. Karr and Sarah Steel I finally did get my action research woes figured out. I begin implemting all three of my daily routines this week, as well as my first timed test. Another form of data I figured I could use for my action research is recording what the students say are way to make 30 (or whatever the date is) Today is the 30th so we talked about what we knew about 30, including but not limited to ways to make and write the number. Everyday this week, except Tuesday because it was a planning day, I wrote down what the students told me on a poster and copy it onto my data collection form. I was very surprised today during this part of our daily routine. It started when we were writing 30 tally marks since today is the 30th. We counted by fives up to thirty, I asked the students how many sets of 5 we have, and I wrote 5x6=30 and explained that 6 sets of 5 equals 30. I acted surprised that they just did 2nd grade math and moved on to even or odd. When we got to the "Ways to Make" part of the routine, Tre raised his hand first thing and kept it up until I called on him. When I finally called on him and asked "Tre, what do you know about 30?" He replied, it's five times six. I was very proud of him, because most of the students were saying number sentences like 28+2 and25+5. It goes back to the chapter of Sharon's book that I read about transfer of learning. I experienced it for the first time since my full time student teaching!
Another boy asked why we only have 28 days of school when today is the 30th. I just said, "I wonder" and let him figure it out himself. He finally raised his hand and said, "I know, it's because we only count the days of school when we are in school, but we still count the date even if we aren't." Despite the fact that I had a hard time keeping them from chatting to each other this morning, it was still a good morning message!

This weeks funny story brought to you by...

This weeks funny story brought to you by....

Ms. Karr's first grade students at Watson Elementary.

While introducing our oral vocabulary words for the week, which were tool, service, and career. Ms. Karr read and sang the song "Pet Service" Which is sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle and goes a little something like this: Pam's tool are a brush and comb and scissors and shampoo. Take your pets to Pam and she will clean them up for you.... You get the point. Afterward, Ms. Karr was asking the students if they knew what career Pam has. One little girl raised her hand and said, "Vegetarian?" to which Ms. Karr graciously replied smiling, "No, she's not a vegetarian." The next hand that went up, replied, "She means veterinarian." Ms. Karr says, "No, Pam is not a doctor she just helps people keep their pets clean. I like to take my dog there because she always smells good afterward." The last hand to go up says with confidence, "I know, she's a peterinarian!" It was all I could do, not to to crack up laughing! They sure do have some creative minds.

~Action Research Update~

I'm lost! I cannot find any literature, I cannot think of a way to word my question so that it makes sense, and I'm not 100% sure how I am going to collect data. Observational data is difficult to analyze! Our research briefs are due next week and I have to get it figured out before then. I did ask Ms. Karr if the math series Investigations has any research based information in any of their manuals since I am hopefully doing something about how daily routines in investigations affect students' computational skills!

A few lessons were learned after todays grammar lesson!

This week I taught spelling and grammar for the first time. In spelling we are working words with short i, like six, and in grammar we are learning about the naming parts of sentences. Yesterday we went "fishing" for sentences. The students actually got to go fishing, and each fish had picture of people doing different things. The students were supposed to say a sentence about that picture and share with the rest of the class what the naming part of their sentence is. They were having a blast with this and in no time they were spouting off the naming parts of sentences. So, I challenged them a little and had them say a sentence for me to write on the board and they had to underline the naming part of the sentence. This made them have to recognize what the word looked like instead of just saying it.--a little higher level thinking! I was happy with how this lesson went, but the grammar lesson I did today didn't go as smoothly. The lesson was an activity sheet where the students got to choose a naming part to complete the sentence. For example, ________ is my favorite color, ________ is my favorite day of the week, etc. They were to write their favorite color on the line because that is the naming part of the sentence. Most of the class got frustrated because they didn't know how to spell their favorite color or their favorite day of the week and they gave up. One little boy refused to sound out Sunday, when I wouldn't spell it for him and he almost started to cry. I don't think they got anything out of it, because they were too worried about writing the right word. They didn't finish the worksheet because it was lunchtime. I wish I would have planned something a little different because I feel like the fill in the blank grammar activity sheet was a waste of time.

Week Three Reflection Time

I would first like to say, that now that I've been here for two full weeks (almost three) observing the daily routines I am starting to get the hang of the classroom schedule. I am a lot less overwhelmed about eventually taking over every subject. I am much more confident now about becoming a teacher. I am getting to know the students, and they are getting to know me. However, I am still getting used to the open classroom concept--I hope eventually I will adjust!
I took over my first subject this week, Calendar Math. Calendar Math is a daily routine done first thing in the morning that reviews the calendar as well as important math subjects such as even or odd, patterns, money, and place value. After doing calendar math I realized that I am not bvery good at noticing the students that are not paying attention, they are often in the back. For example, one girl who was sitting in the back of the classroom didn't even know what month it was when I asked her. She raised her hand, I think only because everyone else did, and when I called on her she said, "Ummmm, December?" She couldn't even tell me the month and I was pointing right at the sign that says, September. Afterwards, Ms. Karr gave all the students who were paying attention a ticket, but much to my surprise very few of the students received a ticket. Makes me feel a little sad, because they seemed to pay attention when she was doing calendar. Now that I am aware of it, I will know to look for it. I also think I need to use more enthuasiam when speaking to the students, after all they are first graders!
I get to start teaching grammar and spelling next week and just like last week I am nervous! I wrote my lesson plans this week, all ten of them. It took forever. Sarah, I know you're reading this, but I have to say it...the benedum lesson plan template takes forever! :-) BUT, I do learn a lot when I'm writing them.
Action research? Well, I e-mailed Sharon about maybe finding out how calender math affects students computation skills, but I am not sure about how to get baseline data. Especially since we've done calender math since the very beginning. It also seems impossible to be able to distinguish between what they learn in calender math and what they learn in math instructional time. I am not sure whether it will work out or not, but I would like to do something with math.
I'll end with my funny story of the week! I noticed that Nathan seemed distressed, looking under his desk and in his desk for something. It was affecting his learning because he wasn't paying attention to Ms. Karr, who was reviewing dot configurations, and he is not the type to not listen to the teacher so I tapped him on the shoulder and whispered to him, "Nathan what are you looking for?", to which he replied, "Ms. Burns, I can't find my pencil and it was my favorite one." All I did was smile and point to my ear because his pencil was tucked neatly behind his. His face lit up with relief that he had discovered 'his favorite pencil.' I was happy to be of assistance!
I think they have been exceptionally good today! Even the talkative ones, Ms. Karr knows which ones, have been better today.