Thursday had me feeling better. We started off the day with a class discussion about what resources are available to students who need help, and the amount of time I spent on "help me" requests was very much cut down.
Kati ended up going home after lunch. Ok, so I SENT her home b/c girl was not right. Even so, the afternoon went nicely. The students did their thing - I didn't get involved much, actually - and I changed some classroom decor.
Friday we had academies - Yoga still, in my room now, and Kati and I are doing one called, "Play to Learn." We play games. It's fun.
I'm in the middle of reading Children Who are Not Yet Peaceful and Children of the Universe. I have also recently finished Unconditional Parenting. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the things I'm effing up and could easily slip into "that'll never be me" mentality.
Next week I'm doing key experiences Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Busy, busy! We're also needing to get our progress reports all completed in anticipation of parent teacher conferences on the 10th and 11th of February. Fun stuff.
_____
Case Study
I kept JS in from recess on Friday b/c she didn't have a coat, and it was snowy and cold. She did that thing were she grunts at me, kind of a high-pitched, "Ennnh!" I grunted back at her, and this went back and forth for a few minutes with me getting sillier and sillier with my grunting. Finally her giggles broke through her angry resolve, and she asked if she could play on the computer during recess.
I need to dig out some of my observation forms and keep better tabs on this kid.
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Hump!
I lost the will to go on today.
(I can't type b/c my husband won't stop talking)
I don't know what it was, but by mid-morning I was just DONE with this day. My motivation levels bottomed out, and I wondered if I could sit in the corner and do nothing. Would anyone notice?
I am tired of bashing my students over the heads with pleas that they do their work, move around the classroom and freaking stay on task. I spend my day running from one "help me!" to the next, and I feel like I don't get a damn thing done. It's frustrating.
So I pulled back and let the day slide by. The afternoon went quite nicely, given my relative inattention (or maybe because of it?), and then it was over.
After the students went home, Kati and I sat and talked for a while. We talked about ways to encourage our students to go to *each other* for help so that we can do our jobs. If they can't help each other out, what is the POINT of being in a multi-age classroom? So we've got a plan - tomorrow we have the discussion about why we are grouped together, and we try to help them see that they can and ought to help each other find the answers. We've got this long, narrow piece of whiteboard that we're going to use to create a master list of "go-to" people - students who self-select to be helpers in specific areas. Then we are going to tell the students that when they need HELP, they must first exhaust all of their available resources - classmates, dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedia, the internet, etc. Only after they have thoroughly exhausted all other avenues may they come to a teacher. We hope to train them not to think of us as the fount or repository of all knowledge, after all, there may be someone sitting right next to them who knows the answer!
On Wednesday afternoons we have time set aside for nomenclature work. I think this will be a very good time to have very short meetings with each student - Kati and I both - to check on their progress for the week in our respective areas. I will check to see what language works the students have completed, and Kati will check math. We will both check the cultural subjects. It has been far too long since I had personal meetings with the students. I am looking forward to it.
_____
Case Study: JS came to me this morning with her morning task (punctuation private eye) asking for help. She had written and edited the first two - of three - sentences, but she was sure she needed my help to write the last one. I pointed out that she was nearly done and that her edits in the first two sentences were (mostly) correct, and then I sent her back to finish.
I came upon her a while later and found her to be exactly where I had left her! What the heck? I sat down to check on her and see what was holding her up. That's when I noticed she had something in her mouth! Remembering that this is the button kid, I asked what was in her mouth, and she promptly produced the clippy part of a mechanical pencil. She had snapped it off and had it in her mouth! I took it from her and reminded her of the button incident, joking that she's "not the kind of kid who can focus with something in her mouth." She giggled and agreed, and she was done with the final sentence in a matter of minutes.
In the afternoon she was upset to realize that her nomenclature for the days of the week was missing. I wonder if it's at home? I never did see it return. Anyway, she was hung up for a few minutes on the fact that she couldn't work on it, but I suggested she work on another one. Her eyes lit up like she had never considered that a possibility. I asked her which one she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to do one with lines. I helped her find a geometry nomenclature with lines, and she got happily to work. She completed two pages in the book before time was up - which comparatively isn't much but was a marked improvement for this child.
(I can't type b/c my husband won't stop talking)
I don't know what it was, but by mid-morning I was just DONE with this day. My motivation levels bottomed out, and I wondered if I could sit in the corner and do nothing. Would anyone notice?
I am tired of bashing my students over the heads with pleas that they do their work, move around the classroom and freaking stay on task. I spend my day running from one "help me!" to the next, and I feel like I don't get a damn thing done. It's frustrating.
So I pulled back and let the day slide by. The afternoon went quite nicely, given my relative inattention (or maybe because of it?), and then it was over.
After the students went home, Kati and I sat and talked for a while. We talked about ways to encourage our students to go to *each other* for help so that we can do our jobs. If they can't help each other out, what is the POINT of being in a multi-age classroom? So we've got a plan - tomorrow we have the discussion about why we are grouped together, and we try to help them see that they can and ought to help each other find the answers. We've got this long, narrow piece of whiteboard that we're going to use to create a master list of "go-to" people - students who self-select to be helpers in specific areas. Then we are going to tell the students that when they need HELP, they must first exhaust all of their available resources - classmates, dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedia, the internet, etc. Only after they have thoroughly exhausted all other avenues may they come to a teacher. We hope to train them not to think of us as the fount or repository of all knowledge, after all, there may be someone sitting right next to them who knows the answer!
On Wednesday afternoons we have time set aside for nomenclature work. I think this will be a very good time to have very short meetings with each student - Kati and I both - to check on their progress for the week in our respective areas. I will check to see what language works the students have completed, and Kati will check math. We will both check the cultural subjects. It has been far too long since I had personal meetings with the students. I am looking forward to it.
_____
Case Study: JS came to me this morning with her morning task (punctuation private eye) asking for help. She had written and edited the first two - of three - sentences, but she was sure she needed my help to write the last one. I pointed out that she was nearly done and that her edits in the first two sentences were (mostly) correct, and then I sent her back to finish.
I came upon her a while later and found her to be exactly where I had left her! What the heck? I sat down to check on her and see what was holding her up. That's when I noticed she had something in her mouth! Remembering that this is the button kid, I asked what was in her mouth, and she promptly produced the clippy part of a mechanical pencil. She had snapped it off and had it in her mouth! I took it from her and reminded her of the button incident, joking that she's "not the kind of kid who can focus with something in her mouth." She giggled and agreed, and she was done with the final sentence in a matter of minutes.
In the afternoon she was upset to realize that her nomenclature for the days of the week was missing. I wonder if it's at home? I never did see it return. Anyway, she was hung up for a few minutes on the fact that she couldn't work on it, but I suggested she work on another one. Her eyes lit up like she had never considered that a possibility. I asked her which one she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to do one with lines. I helped her find a geometry nomenclature with lines, and she got happily to work. She completed two pages in the book before time was up - which comparatively isn't much but was a marked improvement for this child.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Four day weekend - not quite long enough
Tomorrow we're back at it. Does that put us at 18wks to go? I think so. If the school year were a pregnancy we'd know if it were a boy or girl and would be *almost* at the viable stage.
I don't think I can take that metaphor anywhere. It's kind of weird.
Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the Adverb KE with madlibs playing cards instead of handwritten strips as outlined in the manual. It'll be superfast b/c I'm ALSO doing the Homonym KE. Lots to get through yet, and I'm going to cover it all dangit. I have typed up some homonym riddles (to be mounted and laminated, natch) to be used in a matching work/game. I think it'll be fun, and the kids will like it. I've also got this cool grammar game I found online called "Grammar Ninja" that I'm sure some of the kids will LOVE. I've been playing it, and it gets *me* sometimes!
So I'm down to one blue reader - everyone else is green or beyond. I'm thinking I'm going to drop phonics from the list of morning tasks. Most of my students are beyond the green reading level and are not taking very much away from the green reading task. However, seeing as the green reading boxes are so quick and simple, I'm going to hang onto them as a go-to work. As in, when a student is having a hard time settling, they might be directed to this work.
Kati and I have talked it over, and we're going to drop math and language groups to once a week. It's too disruptive to have formal group lessons going on virtually all day, and if we miss a day (or if a student is absent) it's very difficult to make up the lessons. So we'll do math groups on Mondays and Tuesdays and give students a week to complete their journal tasks. Language groups will also be Mondays and Tuesdays but in the afternoon. If school is out on Monday, like this week, we'll switch the Monday lessons to Wednesdays. Problems solved.
_____
Case Study - I'm keeping an open mind about what the week may bring. Long weekends sometimes result in cranky kids. Will keep my eye on JS to encourage productive working. Considering backing off on singing - she likes to sing while she works, and if it keeps her focused, it could be beneficial. Will discuss it.
I don't think I can take that metaphor anywhere. It's kind of weird.
Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the Adverb KE with madlibs playing cards instead of handwritten strips as outlined in the manual. It'll be superfast b/c I'm ALSO doing the Homonym KE. Lots to get through yet, and I'm going to cover it all dangit. I have typed up some homonym riddles (to be mounted and laminated, natch) to be used in a matching work/game. I think it'll be fun, and the kids will like it. I've also got this cool grammar game I found online called "Grammar Ninja" that I'm sure some of the kids will LOVE. I've been playing it, and it gets *me* sometimes!
So I'm down to one blue reader - everyone else is green or beyond. I'm thinking I'm going to drop phonics from the list of morning tasks. Most of my students are beyond the green reading level and are not taking very much away from the green reading task. However, seeing as the green reading boxes are so quick and simple, I'm going to hang onto them as a go-to work. As in, when a student is having a hard time settling, they might be directed to this work.
Kati and I have talked it over, and we're going to drop math and language groups to once a week. It's too disruptive to have formal group lessons going on virtually all day, and if we miss a day (or if a student is absent) it's very difficult to make up the lessons. So we'll do math groups on Mondays and Tuesdays and give students a week to complete their journal tasks. Language groups will also be Mondays and Tuesdays but in the afternoon. If school is out on Monday, like this week, we'll switch the Monday lessons to Wednesdays. Problems solved.
_____
Case Study - I'm keeping an open mind about what the week may bring. Long weekends sometimes result in cranky kids. Will keep my eye on JS to encourage productive working. Considering backing off on singing - she likes to sing while she works, and if it keeps her focused, it could be beneficial. Will discuss it.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
20 Weeks to Go
THAT is a number that blows my mind. Not that I'm keeping track; we just happened to count how many weeks are left in the school year because we redid the classroom job chart, and then we counted to see if every student would have a chance to cycle through each job. They will - just barely.
The first week after break is done and gone. It was a good week. There was a lot of good work that got done, and the mood in the classroom was upbeat. I got key experiences done for the conjunction, the exclamation mark and synonyms. I also got a cool little language manual created for my students. I have a set of seven manuals that cover grammar topics (only for now - other topics to be added soon) spanning grades 2-4. What I love about it is that I'm going to split the kids into three groups and we're starting language circles. Each group will use the SAME MANUAL, and we'll all cover the same topic each day, but I can customize the lesson by having the students turn to different sections of the manual. It takes away the feeling of being more or less advanced than other groups. I'm tickled by the stealthiness of my plan.
We are also starting back up with our math teams on Monday. Each team gets math twice a week, and we will be giving workbook assignments, but they are to be completed in school - the workbooks won't be going home most of the time.
In the cultural curriculum, I introduced US history and geography and also did a key experience for the amphibian. Kati introduced desert habitats. After Kati's lesson Thursday, the class was very chaotic. I came back into the room and found overwhelming craziness, so she finished up and I called loudly, "OK, I want everyone to lie down on the floor! Just lie on your back and close your eyes. Make sure you're not touching anyone else." Some of them held onto the silly, but I eventually got everyone on their backs. Then I talked them through a yoga savasana (corpse pose). In a soft voice I talked them through giving their breath a color and feeling that color fill their bellies and flowing through their whole bodies. I talked them through letting their minds go blank and shooing away intruding thoughts like dry leaves being blown away by the wind.
Peace came back into the classroom.
I held them in savasana for about five minutes, and it was a beautiful feeling. After a few minutes I told them I would come around and touch them gently on the forehead. When I touched them, they were invited to *very quietly* get up and get their journals or DEAR books. It was a lovely end to the day.
SPEAKING OF DEAR. I had a revelation in training yesterday: MORE THAN ONE BOOK! Yes! I will have the students choose at least three books at the beginning of DEAR time, and then they *stay put* the whole time. No more up and down and up and down. No, they will sit and read. What a concept.
______
Case Study: JS, seven years old, 2nd grade. Non-traditional family.
This is the button child from last post. I have chosen to do a case study of this child so that I may better address her needs in the classroom. I will likely have her in my classroom for one more year at least, so I need some better options when it comes to encouraging her to make progress.
The first week after break is done and gone. It was a good week. There was a lot of good work that got done, and the mood in the classroom was upbeat. I got key experiences done for the conjunction, the exclamation mark and synonyms. I also got a cool little language manual created for my students. I have a set of seven manuals that cover grammar topics (only for now - other topics to be added soon) spanning grades 2-4. What I love about it is that I'm going to split the kids into three groups and we're starting language circles. Each group will use the SAME MANUAL, and we'll all cover the same topic each day, but I can customize the lesson by having the students turn to different sections of the manual. It takes away the feeling of being more or less advanced than other groups. I'm tickled by the stealthiness of my plan.
We are also starting back up with our math teams on Monday. Each team gets math twice a week, and we will be giving workbook assignments, but they are to be completed in school - the workbooks won't be going home most of the time.
In the cultural curriculum, I introduced US history and geography and also did a key experience for the amphibian. Kati introduced desert habitats. After Kati's lesson Thursday, the class was very chaotic. I came back into the room and found overwhelming craziness, so she finished up and I called loudly, "OK, I want everyone to lie down on the floor! Just lie on your back and close your eyes. Make sure you're not touching anyone else." Some of them held onto the silly, but I eventually got everyone on their backs. Then I talked them through a yoga savasana (corpse pose). In a soft voice I talked them through giving their breath a color and feeling that color fill their bellies and flowing through their whole bodies. I talked them through letting their minds go blank and shooing away intruding thoughts like dry leaves being blown away by the wind.
Peace came back into the classroom.
I held them in savasana for about five minutes, and it was a beautiful feeling. After a few minutes I told them I would come around and touch them gently on the forehead. When I touched them, they were invited to *very quietly* get up and get their journals or DEAR books. It was a lovely end to the day.
SPEAKING OF DEAR. I had a revelation in training yesterday: MORE THAN ONE BOOK! Yes! I will have the students choose at least three books at the beginning of DEAR time, and then they *stay put* the whole time. No more up and down and up and down. No, they will sit and read. What a concept.
______
Case Study: JS, seven years old, 2nd grade. Non-traditional family.
This is the button child from last post. I have chosen to do a case study of this child so that I may better address her needs in the classroom. I will likely have her in my classroom for one more year at least, so I need some better options when it comes to encouraging her to make progress.
Friday, January 1, 2010
2010!
Traditionally today is goal-setting day. Resolutions. Intentions. Plans for the coming year. So here it is:
- I will finish my AMS 6-9 Certification and complete my ARL, becoming a fully state licensed and Montessori certified teacher.
- I will plan lessons at least a week in advance. So what if I'm already behind for next week's lessons. I will play catch-up until I'm there, and then I'll stay there.
- I will make an effort to smile and sparkle for each student each day. Even the ones I don't like much. I will learn to like the kids I don't like.
- I will be healthier. This means I will continue to go to yoga twice a week and will begin personal practice at home. I will also be more thoughtful about what I put in my mouth. Note I did not say "I will lose weight" or "I will get in shape." No, being healthy is not about weight or muscle definition. It's a way of thinking and being. That's what I want to do.
- I will cook at home at least four times a week. Cooking does not include boiling pasta or making sandwiches. I will use the crockpot once a week.
- I will not each lunch out more than once a week.
- I will date my husband at least once a month.
- I will limit time spent on the computer.
- I will tell my children every day that I love them.
- I will write in my journal regularly.
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