Halfway Point

I'm halfway through my current teaching placement! In about a month, I'll be in Ireland (if all things go correctly!).

This week was my first full week of student teaching, with no delays or school cancellations.  It was long for everyone, but it also ended on a sweet note because of Valentine's Day! I was blessed with tons of stuffed animals and candy from the kiddos.

My main lesson from this week was support! I could not have gotten through it without the support of my cooperating teacher and the rest of the fifth grade staff.  If necessary, it is always okay to call in reinforcements either into your classroom or to send out students if they are interfering with the learning of others.

I also am in love with this website: http://www.flocabulary.com/subjects/ I've used it to find rap videos for several lessons so far, and the kids seem to love it! I have to admit, they're not the strongest raps I've ever heard, but they definitely get the ideas and subject matter across :)

~Kaitlynn

Crash Session

The last few weeks have been a crash session on teaching in an urban school! Although I grew up in this township and in these schools, it's totally different on the teacher side of things.  Here are some big ideas I've gathered the past few weeks:

Week of January 20th: 

• FLEXIBILITY! This week we had MLKJ day off, a surprise field trip to the high school from the district heads, two 2 hour delays, and two fights. The students were struggling to find focus as much as the teachers! 
• Ask a hook question at the beginning of the lesson! I had totally forgotten about this until about the end of this week.  This is something we learned last semester, and although I had a "hook" for every lesson I taught, I noticed that I didn't immediately grab students' attention because I didn't have an engaging essential question at the start of each lesson.

Week of January 27th:

• This week gave me another two hour delay and snow day.  Luckily, this week was also when the students stopped testing me as much! Biggest lesson fully learned this week: follow through with every discipline problem. A couple students got mad at me, and I talked to a very supportive parent, but it's worth it for students to see that you mean what you say/say what you mean.  
• My teacher also gave me a list of things that are essential in my future classroom: your own printer, a visual presenter, relaxation music, lamps around the room for warm light, an electric teapot, a hideaway jar full of goodies, and homemade curtains for shelves to make the room look more inviting. 
• On Friday, I got to teach a really fun science lesson! I chose the standard 5.4.1: Investigate technologies that mimic human or animal musculoskeletal systems in order to meet a need.  Prior to the lesson focus, students did a journal response from Winter the dolphin's point of view (Winter received a prosthetic tail). I then did a prosthetics lesson in which students learned about what prosthetics do and what needs they meet, and then students paired off and got to make their own prosthetic arm! All groups got their arms to move using mechanics! It was really exciting seeing them so focused and determined to succeed.  My PowerPoint can be found at the bottom of the page here
• I also got frostbite this week on my toe! I am currently extremely jealous of Jake and Kailey living it up in the west! ;)

Week of February 3rd:

• This was a good week! Students are finally getting focused after our weeks of battling the weather, even though we had another snow day this week.  We finished reading our chapter book as a class (14 chapters long...), had a standardized test, changed where students sit, and finally got caught up on some lessons that went to the wayside after all of this snow!

Overall, I am so blessed to be at this school and with my supervising teacher.  She's amazing and is incredibly supportive.  We teach basically all of our lessons up front with students sitting on the floor with their clip boards.  This really helps students focused, rather than having all 27 students spread out at their desks and fidgeting with all of their supplies.  It also amazes me how these kids are still really little at heart even though they're 10-13 years old and dealing with some really adult issues! They thrive when books or passages are read as expressively (or cheesy) as possible, they like math rap videos, and they don't mind me reminding them to "turn their listening ears on." I'm in love with these kids and this school, and unfortunately I'll be out of the country faster and off to Ireland once I figure out everything!

~Kaitlynn

Another Good Week!

Once again, I've had a great week! My students are responding well to the changes I have made and they continue to strive! This week was the dance in the dorms and I had the pleasure to be the dj so of course the music was fantastic and the kids had tons of fun (naturally with me playing the music ;) )! Haha but here's a picture of fun dancing!

Love the awkward age of finding a dance partner haha but every Friday is test day so I allowed my students to play their favorite sport out here (basketball) 

Those are my handful of fifth graders! I like giving them some relaxing time since they don't get a recess! Helps them release some engery making them more focused to learn and take their tests! Other than that the week was uneventful making a relaxing week but filled with fun and enjoyment! To end the post I'll show you what rain looks like from far away. Still gorgeous out here even when it rains. 

Thanks for reading! :)

Ps. Glad to see my Hoosiers beat #10 Michigan at home! :) go Hoosiers!!