Parent Teacher Conferences 11/2

I now have been able to see how two different teachers do parent teacher conferences. I can't believe how different they were. They both had many good points that I want to take with me when I have my own classroom. I can see myself mixing what both of my CT’s did and creating a good interactive parent teacher conference.

            My main placement was in Kindergarten, and we had the parent teacher conferences way back on October 9^th. She put all her meetings into two days. She started at ~1ish and finished about ~5ish, she said that really the meetings did not need to be longer than 20mins. I found that this was true. She was able to talk about what she has learned about their child, give them tools to use at home to help out, and then time if they had questions. So the meeting consisted of going over the Kindergarten Assessment for Emergent Stage (AFES). It had 10 different task. It assess the students on uppercase letters, lowercase letters, letters sounds, rhyming, alliteration, beginning letter-sounds identification, kindergarten spelling inventory, kindergarten sight words, CVC words list, and writes their own name (there is not points, but a good way to show how their writing will improve over the year.) During this she gave tips on the different ways the parents could support their children at home. Then she talked about the writing assessment she gave and how she broke them up into different groups, and what she does with them in those groups. Lastly she brought up the math assessment, but told the parents it was not a assessment of what the know, because it is a test of what they have to know by the end of kindergarten. She ends it with please feel free to email or call me if you have any questions or concerns, but also they could set up another at any time.

            My dyad placement is in third grade One thing that this school does which I really liked was they made sure to schedule siblings first. So what they did was one day before school, was had all the teachers meet in the library so they could make sure to have the siblings meetings back to back on the same day.  I thought that this was a really interesting thing to do. They were really thinking about the parents (the days they came to volunteer), so they would not have to come twice to the school. At the meeting was also the specialist teachers, and they were there in case a teacher wanted them to come in and talk, this way they made sure they were not over lapping and time or any parents.

My dyad teachers started out with asking the parents a few questions about their child, how they are doing, if they like school, and how they are doing socially. I thought that this was a good way to start the meeting, because this allowed the parents to bring up anything they wanted the teacher to know about. Then she did the same thing, she went over, reading fluency & comprehension, what they are doing in reading, their math fact (timed quizzes) where they starts and where they are now vs what the standard is, and their writing. She also gave them different ideas about how the parents could support their students at home. Then she ends it with the last question for parents: any questions or concerns that they might have.

            They were both really interesting, and many good points that I am going to take with me and I have my own classroom. 

Putting my Camp Skills to good use 10/26

So last Thursday at my Dyad placement, I had just finished my read-aloud and we were moving to the next activity. So the teacher was taking back over and explaining what the students were going to do next. There were was one student E who started yelling at two other students. So I decided to just go sit behind them, and whisper, “make sure you are listening to your teacher..”  Next thing I know E is crying in the corner, so I went over and sat down next to him. I started asking him questions about what was going on. What happened, how are you feeling, what was going on.. It was first hard to piece together what had  happened. (I would like to state E is very focused on everyone using manners and can get upset when people do not use them. E also has a hard time understanding why some people can do things and others cannot.) So what had happened was he was picking at the wall, and making a hole, a few of E’s classmates had asked him to stop. They did not use manners so he got really upset.

Before I new what was happening my counselor mode had kicked in. I had him deep breath, so it might help him clam down. All though he really did not do it, ( I was starting my process of calming him down.) I started asking the normal question I would ask a camper to help get their mind off of what ever was going on. (ie, do you have any pets at home?, what is your favorite TV show?, do you play video games?, What is your favorite book?....). While these questions for most kids would get them talking, he found a way to answer them all with a no….

But then we started to talk about what we should do if people are mean to us. E said that they were not saying that he was trying to them to say please, but they were not so he need to say it louder, (yelling at them). I explained to him that if someone yells at you, it makes them feel bad and not want to listen to you.

So I came up with a three things that we can do when people are being mean

1)    Ask them NICELY to stop

2)    Walk away

3)    Then go tell a teacher

I went over these many times with him, had him repeat them to me. But I also wrote it down on a paper with him, I told him that it was just between the teacher, him and I. I ask him where he wanted to keep (in or on is desk), so if needed a reminder of what the rules where he would remember where to look. He got really excited and we picked a place out in his desk.

I am excited to go back this week and see how it worked….

Leading a math lesson...!? 10/19

            On Wednesday this week I was given the opportunity to lead a math lesson for third graders. Overall I was not really happy on how I taught the lesson. I was able to observer the CT teaching the first group of students the math lesson. I took down as many notes as I could on what the teacher said, the question she asked the students, what she had the students say, and what she wrote on the board. Then I was thrown into the second group.

            Overall I was not really sure how it went. I do think the student understood what I was teaching. But they did have some previous knowledge on the topics. So I was just building on what they already knew. I not sure what I taught them or what they already knew.

            Looking back on the lessons I taught at my main placement, it was not my best one. The one thing that I learned was when I starting out teaching I am going to have to write everything down. I learned that I have to write down, what I am going to say, the questions I am going to ask the students, what I am hoping they will say. I did this at my main placement, and I felt more confident going into leading the lesson. I notices that I did not have to really look down at my lesson plan, but knowing that it was there was good comfort to me. So I think for my first year, I am going to write very detailed lesson plans.

Kindergarten Buddies! 10/12

         This past week, we meet up with our kindergarten buddies again. This was the second interaction that we had with them. During the 30 minutes session we were asked to bring a picture book and read to our kindergarten buddies. At the first meeting I found out that she was able to read a basic book, (she sat down and read the book right away). She could write her name and knew the alphabet.

              This second time went a bit different. My partner and I went in and told her (K) that we had books that we wanted to share with her. She was very quiet, and seemed to be looking at me more during the first book. The first book was Beautiful oops, she really did not seem that to into the book. She looked that the pictures but then she would look away if she heard something or when she would see when someone walked by. When I read her my book (Love Bugs) she really did not seem that into it also. She did look at the pictures and listen to me as I read, But then when we asked her what her favorite parts where she did not say anything. 

              Then we asked if she wanted to read more and she said no… but she wanted to color. So she made three different drawings… And she was able to verbal explain what was going on in each photo and was able to “write” on the line about what they photo was. She listens to me as I sounded out the words for her and she wrote the letters of the sounds that she knew. Then she got her book bag, and read us her story that she wrote, and then she had me read a story about ANTS… and pointed to the different ants that where walking over or in objects. She had me read a song about colors while she did read part of it too and did that very well. 

               So she knows her colors and how to read pretty well. I am not sure if she likes being read too, or it could have been that she did not like books we brought. It will be great/ interesting to see how she grows over the quarter, and how the literacy assessment goes next week. Looking forward to see how much she grows!

Overwhelemed 11/5

Well, I am not sure where to start... I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. Which is how I normally feel during week one of classes. Seeing everything that we have to do for the whole quarter, and when am I am going to get it done. But for me it feels like I have a TON more to do. Going to school two days a week (from 9-5), then being at my dyad (9-5), and then working on Friday, Saturday, Sunday (8-4). I am just not sure when i am going to get everything done. And I have to work because there is no way I would be able to eat or pay for gas and everything else if i did not. I am just not sure how I am going to get everything done. I really don't like to complain (though I feel I have been all the time now), but it is just a lot of pressure to put on one person. Also I don't want this to be a negative experience because I am learning what to do for what I love. I want to be a teacher!! Teaching is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I want to work with kids!! When I am working with them, and seeing the difference I can make, it makes all the hard times fade away, and 100% worth it. So that it what I am going to keep thinking about... all the kids that I am going to help!!