Friday was field trip day and the kids had a blast at the Humboldt Aquatic Centre! The water slide was a huge hit and lunch at Dairy Queen was a sweet bonus! We had a fantastic day!
There is officially ONE more week of internship until Christmas Holidays! I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for a break, but I really don't want to leave these kids. I have built strong relationships with the kids and they keep reminding me that there will be an available position to teach grade 7 next year and I could be their teacher again! This week I finished up what I had been teaching the kids and my coop will be administering unit exams to the kids in the E.L.A and Math units that I did with the kids before Christmas holidays. My faculty adviser made his final visit and picked up my IPP. I was very excited to see that I had officially passed and am one step closer to getting the degree that I've worked so hard for! In Science... We continued talking about the major components of the solar system and the similarities and differences between the inner and outer planets. My coop will continue the solar system unit after holidays as I did not finish it before Christmas like my initial plan stated. In E.L.A... We finished reading all chapters in their novel study except for the last chapter! Next week the students will read the final chapter of their book. They will complete a series of final comprehension questions and then will write their unit exam before the holidays. In Physical Education... I only taught the kids physical education once this week as I dropped teaching the subject on Wednesday. The class was a Christmas Concert practice. We have our dress rehearsal on Monday and two shows on Tuesday (once in the afternoon and once in the evening). I think the kids are both nervous and excited. It worries me that two of the students have not been present for our last 4 practices, but attendance near Christmas is always a little off. Next week is going to go by so fast and I'm not ready for it all to be over! I am excited to go home this weekend since I haven't been home in awhile, especially because I haven't wrapped any Christmas gifts yet and I have yet to see the tree set up back home. The students are very excited to watch "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" next week on Friday. They thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel in our class novel study! We have a spirit week next week and a door decorating contest! We have decided we are decorating our door like "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and the students will be making decorations for the door in Art class. All I can think about in the back of my mind is all the packing that I have to do on Thursday and Friday next week to move all of my stuff back home for the holidays. I do not plan to unpack much as I will simply be moving everything to Regina on January 4th. On the bright side, I promised a group of my students that I would stay to watch their home hockey game on Saturday the 22nd before I move home. Building relationships is so important and I already plan on making some visits in the New Year as I have no classes on Mondays!
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This week was a little hectic because my cooperating teacher was sick 3/5 days. The students love to think that when their teacher isn't at school, they don't have to focus and do their work.
On Thursday our class had a hot dog sale fundraiser to raise money for a February field trip. The students were taken out in groups of six to help prepare hot dogs and organize chips and pop. I had eight students absent that day, so the classroom was very empty all morning and the students were not interested in working efficiently. This week must have been some sort of record for absent students. The flu going around has been nasty and attendance was not amazing all week due to illness. I chose not to venture home this weekend either due to my mother and two brothers being very sick and contagious. I am trying to survive the last two weeks of internship without getting sick. Any sickness can happen over the break when I have less responsibilities. In Science... We started our solar system unit and discussed the order of the planets, the phases of the moon, as well as which planets are considered to be Rocky Planets. When we discussed the phases of the moon, the students did an activity with Oreo cookies. They had to manipulate the icing non each cookie to show each phase. The cookies were definitely a hit! Next week we will be talking about the Gas Giant planets and how the tilt of the Earth's axis affects which season it is. In E.L.A... I have been slowly editing the students' short stories as they are submitted. Many of the students do not take homework seriously and these stories are officially one week overdue. We continued our Jeremy Thatcher Novel Study this week and are officially on the comprehension questions for chapter 11. There are only 13 chapters in the book and my goal is for the students to be finished reading the novel before I leave and they go on Christmas holidays. In Art... The students finished their Guess Who identity winter craft on Tuesday and on Friday they made personalized Christmas cards for their loved ones. I will no longer be teaching Art after this week. In Health... I taught my last health lesson this week. The students finished reading about Hepatitis C and then made a Venn-diagram so that they could compare Hepatitis C and HIV. In Physical Education... In gym, we played Swamp Ball (Dodgeball) on Monday. I gave in to what the students wanted because we had only played dodgeball one other time throughout the entire school year so far. They teach us in university not to play dodgeball, but most educators have accepted that sometimes it's simply a hit! On Wednesday, we played soccer and it was a gong show. It made me so happy that I did my big unit on basketball. The students were very competitive and the ball was all over the gym including the ceiling. On Friday, I took the students to the Curling Rink and we practiced very basic skills like sliding out of the hack and throwing a curling rock to the other side of the ice (regardless of which way it turned). My students who have joined curling were so excited to be peer mentors for their classmates. In Math.... In math, the students started learning how to solve word problems in regards to factors and multiples. The students thought the notes and examples we did as a class made it seem so simple and then they were struggling when I gave them a textbook assignment to practice. I no longer teach the students math as of next week so my cooperating teacher will continue word problems with them. I had the students make a sheet with the steps to solve word problems in a specific order so that they could always reference it if they needed help before they asked an adult. Next week is my last week teaching the students! The last week of internship I am simply an observer and finishing up my marking and submitting what I have before I leave. My Faculty Advisor visits for the final time on Tuesday and will be collecting my final IPP! I can't believe how fast time has flown! The students have a field trip to the Humboldt Aquatic Centre on Friday and I'm very excited seeing as I planned the whole thing! I keep seeing Christmas posts online and because internship has been so busy, I haven't been in the Christmas mood this year as much as I usually am. I haven't wrapped any gifts and have only actually gone shopping for Christmas gifts once. I am ready to be on holidays so that I have some time for Christmas baking and seeing my family. This was my last week of full-time teaching. Next week I drop Health and the following week I drop Physical Education, Art, and Math. I am excited to have more free time in the day to go and sit in on other classes such as grades 9 or 10 as I have never sat in on high school classes. I would also like to sit in on younger elementary classes such as grades 1 and 2 because I have never taught or sat in on classes below grade 5.
This week was difficult for me as I had to send a student to the office for the first time and it was very stressful! It definitely put a damper on my entire day. Tonight is the Staff Christmas Party and I'm excited to spend time with the staff outside of school! In Science... We finished our unit on Diversity of Living Things! The students had Wednesday and Thursday's classes to study with the study guide that I made them and the exam was on Friday! Making a unit exam was so much harder than I thought and my coop had lots of constructive criticism to help me make the exam the best it could be. I'm very excited to be starting our unit on the solar system next week on Monday! In E.L.A... This was the last week that I allowed the students to work on their fictional short stories. Many students are at the teacher-editing stage which means that I will have a lot to edit over the weekend as I made the short stories due on Monday! We had a guest presenter named Sigmund Brouwer on Thursday and he came to talk to our class about the writing process. He is a published author from Alberta and the students absolutely enjoyed his visit! In Physical Education... We finished our basketball unit on Tuesday and went skating on Thursday! We will be playing low-organizational and territorial games next week as I only have 3 more classes as their gym teacher. In Art... We finished our mini-unit on line dancing on Tuesday and the students did self-reflections on their line dancing skills on Thursday. We ended the reflection period with a Guess Who craft that will go up on our winter bulletin board. The students drew self portraits and wrote about their favourite winter memories and activities! In Math... We spent the week learning about multiples. We discussed the differences between multiples and factors as well as how to determine common multiples. Many of the students are confident in this unit because they see the connection between multiples and skip counting. We begin every class with a multiplication practice drill and the number of questions they practice per minute increased this week. The students really need to practice their multiplication facts at home because they are really good at focusing on one times table at a time but when I mix up 4, 6, 7, and 12 times tables on a sheet they get confused. In Health... In Health this week we continued learning about HIV and AIDS. On Friday, we began talking about Hepatitis C and how it is both similar and different to HIV. In other news... I did the report card comments for both Science and Physical Education and the report cards were sent home Friday! Cheers to another successful week! This week went by faster than I thought it would! Three-week block is so busy that the days seem to pass quick since I'm so busy!
We assigned roles for our Christmas Concert live storytelling and we practiced reading our script as a class. Next week we will begin to make props and really see this story come to life! I'm enjoying helping with junior curling twice a week and playing games with the students is quite enjoyable. I am a little rustier at curing than I thought I was, but the kids are accepting and laugh along with me. I planned my very first field trip this week and the students are very excited. If we are able to get enough parent/guardian volunteer drivers, we will be going to the Humboldt Aquatic Centre for a swimming afternoon! In Science... We spent the week learning about microorganisms and the Germ Theory. If all goes as planned, the students will be writing their Diversity of Living Things Unit Exam on Friday November 30th. We will spend Monday finishing up an assignment, and then we will spend the next three classes reviewing and using a study guide to study for the exam. In Phys.ed... In phys.ed we went skating and we wrapped up our basketball unit with a skills assessment. We never made it to playing an actual game of basketball, but we did learn the skills we need to play the game. The next unit will focus on target and territorial games. In E.L.A... Most of the students have finished writing the rough draft of their fictional short story, but some students have homework over the weekend as I told them that we should all be at the typing stage by Monday. I am very impressed with how much the students have written. I told them their story had to be a minimum of one page and many of them have written 2 pages and are worried they will go over the 3 page maximum. I only have one student that is at the peer-editing stage, but my goal is for the majority of students to be finished their good copies by Thursday. In Math... The students loved learning about factor trees, prime factorization, and exponential notation. The students told me that they find it easy and "finally enjoy and understand what they are doing." In the upcoming week, I have planned that the students will begin working on multiples and lowest common multiples. My goal is for them to see the connection between multiples and skip counting. In Art... In art class this week, the students showed lots of progress with their line dancing abilities. I think this is because they worked in mentor groups and its always fun learning alongside peers. I plan to wrap up line dancing on Monday so that we can start creating individual dance compositions in small groups. In Health... Health was awkward for the students this week because we talked about HIV and AIDS. The topic of unprotected sex made the students uncomfortable and there were silent giggles in the classroom as we read an article about the topic. We also watched an informative video on HIV and AIDS designed for kids their age. Many of the students told me that HIV scares them now and they never want to put themselves at risk. Next week the students will be designing t-shirts to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS (similar to anti-bullying t-shirts) and they will be marked on their creativity. Next week is my last week of three-week block and I'm starting to dread the idea of leaving Raymore as December 21st draws nearer an nearer. The idea of going back behind the desk and being a student for one more semester is not exciting to me! On the bright side, I have whipped out the Christmas music and my grade 6's are loving it! My first week of 3-week block is already over and it flew by!
I attended my first two curling practices as the Assistant Coach with Junior Curling in Raymore! I registered for the final 5 classes of my degree on Tuesday! I have been the most sleep-deprived that I can ever recall and I'm already counting down the days until Christmas so that I can put my feet up! In Science... The students spent the week learning about fossils, endangered species, and extinct species. We will be starting outcome DL6.5 on microorganisms next week with the hopes that sometime during the week of November 26th, they will be writing their science unit 1 exam. In Physical Education... On Tuesday, the students practiced defending their basketballs from opponents while trying to make shots on net. On Thursday, we went skating at the skating rink and had a blast! The students loved having time to show off their skills to me in both hockey and figure skating. In E.L.A... We wrote a fictional short story together as a class on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our story was written based solely off of a single picture of a winter snowball fight. During our second E.L.A period on Wednesday, we marked the piece that we wrote together using the rubric that I provided to the students regarding a "Well-Written Fictional Short Story." The piece that the students co-wrote received a 16/20 and an 80%. I explained to them that this was actually very good but most of them are determined to do better! The students spent Thursday and Friday choosing what they were going to write their personal short story about and filling in story map graphic organizers. Many of the students have already written 1/3 of their rough draft already. The story has to be a minimum of one page typed and a maximum of 3 pages typed. We will be spending all of next week finishing rough drafts, making revisions, and typing up final drafts. In Math... The students learned how to draw factor rainbows on Tuesday. On Wednesday we corrected the assignment as a class. On Thursday the students were introduced to common factors and finding the greatest common factor. The students spent Thursday learning how to compare factors using a Venn diagram and taking notes. The students completed an assignment on Friday where they had to compare different sets of numbers using Venn diagrams to find the common factors. I find that the hardest part about planning for math is modifying assignments because I have 7/21 students that struggle with math and factors are extremely hard for them. In Art.... In art, I teach the grade 6's as well as half of the grade 5 class. Having 32 bodies all in one space gets very cramped. We had 2 art classes this week and we learned about the five elements of dance. Then we went down to the elementary assembly area (relatively large space) and started to practice our line dancing skills. Tuesday's class went better than Friday's class. Not only was there lots of poor behaviour amongst students on Friday in regards to listening, but the students also really struggle with turns in line dancing. They were understanding the dance quite well until rotations were introduced. We will continue line dancing next week and hopefully the students will be more confident after the next class. I have 5 girls in the class that take dance outside of school and they love being mentors for their peers. In Health... I teach grade 5/6 health and this week we only had one health class. We spent the class learning about how our skin protects our body and what germs are. The students loved the comical video we watched on germs. On Monday, the students will be watching another video but we will be transitioning to learning about the immune system and what it does. Here's to hoping that next week runs smoothly and the second week of my 3-week block is even better than the first! This week was filled with last minute finishing touches on our poetry and art pieces that were submitted to the Legion contest. Due to many singing practices, my class was unable to get much completed in science this week.
This week also allowed me to see into the girl drama that occurs in middle years and the things said behind a teachers back. I am entering next week fully aware that many of the students lack conflict resolution skills and I need to have "eyes on the back of my head." In Science... I introduced the students to fossils this week and in the upcoming week we will be talking about the fossil record as well as endangered and extinct animals. In Physical Education... In gym class, we worked on our ability to take a shot on net throughout the week. I noticed the kids were getting quite good at talking a shot when standing directly in front of the net, so this week we worked on shooting from the left and right sides of the net. The students will spend the upcoming week practicing taking a shot while defending the ball at the same time. I am also hoping to have them begin to practice lay-ups. In E.L.A... In E.L.A, the students typed the poems that they wrote so that they could submit them to the contest. We also continued reading "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" and the students completed a mid-point quiz that I created using Kahoot. The students did very well on the quiz and seem to be enjoying the novel. However, I corrected the comprehension questions that the students did after reading Chapter 7 and many of the students did poorly. I have noticed that many of the students rush to avoid homework and then they overlook what the questions are actually asking. I've also been having frequent conversations with students who continually neglect homework and are not taking responsibility for their learning. I find the most difficult thing in middle years is that since they cannot receive zeros, they sometimes ignore assignment due dates because they know they have all the time in the world and then they just end up not understanding the topic and doing poorly on exams/questions. It is like I am trying to set them up for success and they ignore me. In Math... In math we began to talk about the relationship between multiples and skip counting, as well as what factors are. The students had a really hard time remembering factors of numbers between 12 and 80 because they have memorized their multiplication charts, but not the questions themselves. They "just know" where the numbers go on the chart, but when it gets taken away they rely on calculators. Many of the students struggle to recognize their divisibility rules (even though we went over them and they have a handout to reference) and so they did not understand that in order to determine if a number multiplied by 2 equals 22, they have to divide 22 by 2. They could, however, recognize that if their calculator gave them a decimal, the number they divided by was not a factor. I find the class that requires the most assignment modifications based on student understanding is definitely math. In conclusion... Next week is the start of my 3-week block and I am very nervous to teach art as we are doing line dancing and there is 31 students in the class (because we have 11 of the grade 5's join us)! My faculty advisor comes for a visit on Tuesday (my first official day) and that is also the day that I am supposed to register for classes. It's also the first day of the junior curling season and I signed up as an assistant coach. If I can successfully get through Tuesday, I will be able to accomplish anything internship throws my way. Wish me luck! It's amazing how Halloween festivities take over and the day is filled with more fun time than learning time!
This week the students decorated a pumpkin to represent our class in a decorating contest. We painted our pumpkin green and made it look like Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc. We won 3rd place out of seven classes. On Halloween, I dressed up as a teacher from Hogwarts and I wore my Gryffindor robe! I love when book characters make great costumes! On Halloween, we also had a big lunch potluck in our classroom, watched the movie "Coraline," and we played lazer tag in the gym for an hour! In Science... We started talking about animal adaptations and the difference between a physical adaptation and a behavioural adaptation. The students seem to find this topic more difficult to comprehend compared to other topics we've talked about so we need to spend some more time focusing on it. I am feeling rushed because I wanted to be done my unit by October 26th and we are already behind schedule. In Physical Education... We have spent the week practicing all the skills we have learned by combining all of them into different drills. For example, on Monday we did a drill where students had to do a chest pass, free throw, and a bounce pass all in one rotation. The students have made it clear that they love free time, so I have been giving them 10 minutes of free time at the end of classes, but this week I told them that their free time could only be basketball related and they had to work on those skills. They had a decent game of basketball going in the gym with about 15 players choosing to participate and I was impressed. In E.L.A... We have been continuing to read Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher for our novel study. We are heading into next week ready to read chapter 7. The students seem to really enjoy this novel and they are comprehending the questions that we have been doing after chapters quite well. In E.L.A we have also been writing poems all week to be entered into the Legion's Remembrance Contest. The students really seem to struggle with rhyming and they do not understand that the words that are hard to rhyme with should go at the beginning of a line rather than at the end. Most of the students seem to excel at writing either narrative poems or multiple quatrains. In Math... I started teaching math on Monday and it has been making me feel more stressed. I have a tendency to plan way more than what the kids can actually do in a class period. I also have the tendency to assume that they know more than they actually do. For example, we have been working on skip counting and the students did not make the connection to multiples until I explained the connection between multiples and skip counting. The students finished their Diagnostic Assessments for N6.2 on Wednesday, and it is very clear that the students need to be refreshed on terminology such as quotient and sum. I have also been making my lessons quite hard so I have been constantly making them less complicated. It truly is hard to explain something that you "just know" to little people. This week my goal was to be clear and specific when speaking in math and remembering all the terminology to use when speaking so that students make the connections. This is a goal that I will carry with me into next week. This week was a short week, but it felt like the longest week of Internship yet!
We had a PD day on Monday and I thought it would be less tiring than a normal day with students and I was wrong. My cooperating teacher was not joking when she said that Parent-Teacher Interviews tire a person out! Parent Teacher Interviews were on Wednesday and Thursday and I was so happy when one of the parents said to me, "My son really enjoys having you as a teacher. He really likes when you teach." That comment made me feel like I must be doing something right! In Science... We did a cut and paste activity with vertebrates this week. My goal by the end of the lesson was that students would be able to determine whether an animal was a bird, fish, mammal, reptile, or amphibian by viewing an image. The students still seem to struggle being able to determine the difference between an amphibian and a reptile. We watched 2 episodes of BBC: Earth ("Reptiles & Amphibians" as well as "Creatures of the Deep") on Thursday and Friday and the students had a graphic organizer to complete during both periods. After we finished the second episode, the students had to rate the documentary out of 5 stars and provide at least 2 reasons for their rating. In Phys.Ed... We continued to work on our basketball skills. We worked on our free throws and the proper arm placement when shooting a basketball into the net. We've started doing moving stretches instead of stationary stretches because the students were not participating enough. We do stretches such as bear crawl, frog hop, and crab crawl. In E.L.A... We read Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 in Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. We have also started talking about poetry. Each student in the room will be writing poems next week and one will be typed up and submitted to the Legion Remembrance Day contest. This week my interim evaluation was submitted and I was happy with the mid-point results. My faculty adviser was pleased by how my E.L.A lesson plan was on Tuesday when he evaluated me and that was also a positive thing this week. Next Week... Next week I am taking on Math... and I am afraid. I will be starting a new unit with the students. We will be doing a unit on factors, multiples, skip counting, and number lines. We will also cover prime numbers and composite numbers. This week was Education Week and it seemed like everyday I was losing time for teaching lessons due to school wide activities. The timeline for my science unit that I set for myself at the beginning of September is already slightly off and that adds some stress onto my shoulders.
On Wednesday, Raymore School had their annual "Reaping Day" and all new staff and students were placed on one of the three intramural teams. I was "reaped" onto Team Hercules and I look forward to earning some points for my house team even if I'm only in Raymore until December. On Friday, parents came in to read with their kids from 1:30-2:30 and that used up most of the time for my E.L.A and Science periods. This week I learned that teacher's need to be extra flexible each day because you never know what is going to be thrown your way. In Science... I introduced "vertebrates" and "invertebrates" and I plan to continue working on this topic with the students all of next week. In Physical Education... We have been continuing to work on our basketball skills. This week we focused on bounce passes and chest passes. Next week we will start practicing our "shooting" skills and how to aim at the basketball net. In E.L.A... I am continuing the novel study that the students had previously started in the earlier weeks of school. We read Chapter 4 in Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and did the questions for the chapter as well. I have been making sure to give the students as much D.E.A.R time as I possibly can in the classroom as well. Next week my faculty advisor visits for the second time and my mid-point evaluation will be submitted. Monday is a PD day and Wednesday and Thursday are Parent Teacher Interview days. Here's to hoping that I have a fabulous week next week! Wow do I ever love 4 day weeks! The students sang me "Happy Birthday" when I got back from photocopying on Tuesday and it definitely took me by surprise! They were so excited to wish me a happy birthday in the morning and throughout the day. In Science... In science, we spent the week focusing on classification. The students learned how to create classification trees and we categorized different fruits and vegetables into groups and sub- groups. We spent Thursday learning about the Five Kingdoms and Friday we are focusing on the First Nations Worldview in regards to the classification of living things and the students are doing an activity that incorporates how the Lakota people classify animals. My professional goal for this week in science was time management. I'm trying to focus on giving students more time to work rather than lecture time since I am not fond of assigning homework. I'm really trying to manage how long I lecture for and be as clear with instruction as possible. In Physical Education... In physical education we have spent the week focusing on dribbling and being in control of the basketball. I have had the students participate in multiple relay activities and they love being competitive with each other. On Friday we are beginning to practice our bounce passes and move away from dribbling. My professional goal this week is to grab students attention effectively in the gym. This week their listening skills have been less than adequate and we've spent time talking about how it is unacceptable. My cooperating teacher is guiding me on what to do in situations when they simply won't listen. I am trying to be more confident giving them "punishments" for not listening. I do not want them to think I'm mean and strict, but I also do not want to be ignored when I'm teaching. Next week I increase my course load and I start teaching E.L.A, Science, and Physical Education. I will be continuing the novel study that my cooperating teacher started with the students. The students have been reading the novel "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" and I will be starting at the reading of chapter 4. We will also be focusing on Writer's Workshop since we have 8 E.L.A periods in a 6 day cycle and they need to start writing 3-4 paragraph essays. I have been sick all week with a head cold so hopefully next week I am up and back on me feet with more energy than I had this week! |
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