Connecting Presentations to Real Life

The students completed their projects and another teacher came into the classroom to see how they looked. Her class was completing the same unit, however, they were not doing dioramas. We combined ideas, and to help the students see how what they were doing matters, we created a "museum tour" of their work. Our class stood behind their dioramas and were presenting to our neighboring class. The other group of students were taking a "tour" of Native Americans and were taking notes of what they learned. Our class was responsible for making sure that the other class learned from their presentations. The neighboring class wanted to see how their Native American group lived, and how our class showed how they lived.

I believe the students benefited from this tour of Native Americans. They were familiar with presenting because they had completed their presentations the day before, so they were calm. It helped the students with their speaking skills, and their taking turn skills of letting other people present as well.

While the students were presenting, I walked around listening to their presentations as well as taking pictures of what they were doing!

Social Studies Presentations

I have been feeling those "ah ha" moments when teaching this semester when the students do a great job on something, but the feelings I had when they were presenting their social studies projects was indescribable.  We had been working so hard on these presentations for around 5 weeks, from beginning to end and the end result was amazing.

The students first started off with research in the computer lab a few times throughout the first two weeks. The entire project was completed at school so they did not have to worry about finishing things at home. After research, the students started organizing their research that they had onto a power point presentation to help in their presentations.

One other requirement was that the group had to complete a diorama of their Native American group they were researching. There were requirements throughout this diorama, which the students LOVED doing. They were given three days to complete the diorama, and they were allowed to bring things in from home. However, I made sure that I had a sign up place on the board for them to write what they needed if they did not think that they could bring items from home.

A second visual was required as well throughout their presentations, which could be as simple as a headband that was worn, or as involved as dressing up as your Native American.

Overall, these presentations almost made me cry. They were so involved in their learning and really put forth the best effort that they could. While we had some group work issues, I believe the students learned an immense amount about themselves as independent learners and as group members. The following pictures show their dioramas and their hard work.

2nd Grade Observation

Yesterday I had the opportunity to observe a second grade classroom in the afternoon. The moment I walked in, I felt calm and relaxed. The teacher had music playing while the students were transitioning to the carpet which allowed the students to know how long they had (because they knew how long the song was) and gave them something to hum to while they were moving. Once the students got to the carpet, they were so well behaved and engaged in what they were doing.

The students were participating in reading workshop where they had just finished reading a book of their choice. Next, they were coming to the carpet to share what they had learned. Not only was it a "share time" but the students were sharing things that related to what they were learning. The students were making connections to texts and were explaining these connections and how they related to the story. They were also talking about what an author said and what the author meant by what they said. The students started the sentence off by "The author said..." and followed by "The author meant...". It was really incredible to see their minds at work through this lesson.

The students then transitioned to social studies (which was a fast and efficient transition!!) where they were in a rectangle on the class rug. They worked together to read through a pamphlet on the state of Georgia, sharing materials and taking turns reading. There wasn't an issue where the students were impatient or mad that someone else read. I am interested to talk to this teacher outside of the classroom to figure out how she did these things!!

All in all, I was very impressed by this classroom I visited. I have witnessed that different things work for different teachers, and I am learning from each teacher that I observe. I have formed really great ideas based upon what I have witnessed and I have also learned some amazing behavior management ideas!! One thing I really loved about this second grade teacher was the fact that she allowed the students to finish their thoughts, regardless if the thoughts related to what they were talking about. For example, one student made a text-to-self connection that really did not make sense or pertain to what they were talking about, however, she allowed him to finish his thoughts without cutting him off. This shows the other children that everyone's thoughts are important, which I think is a great thing to teach these students!!

Start of ITBS testing

This week I am helping proctor the ITBS to a third grade class. The first thing I noticed when I walked into this classroom was the fact that there were only 20 students!! Wow! A huge difference from coming from a class of 31 :) I talked to the teacher of the class, and she said she loved the size of the group because she could do so much with them and behavior management was not an issue because of the small group.

While beginning the ITBS I learned that this was their first time completing the ITBS on their own without teacher assistance of reading and calling out the choices. It was also their first time transferring answers from the answer booklet to an answer sheet. While walking around, I saw that many students were doing great at this, or from observation that's what I thought! I did not know the answers, but I saw confidence on every student's face. The teacher said they had been practicing how to complete multiple choice questions and transferring answers on their homework which I think helped the students succeed on this aspect of testing. I think this was a great way to incorporate test taking skills because they were still completing homework based upon what they were learning, but they were still practicing how to complete a bubble sheet.

I am still helping with the ITBS for two more days, so I am anxious to see how this goes every day! The students seemed really rested and eager to go this morning!!

Projects coming to a close!

For our social studies unit, we are working on Native Americans and how they used their environment to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. The student have spent a few weeks researching (due to interruptions such as clusters and field trips), and they are now working on how they are going to present their information found. The students are working in groups, which has been an interesting and learning experience for me, and therefore, they are presenting as a group.

I have allowed the students in their groups to break apart and work on various components of their project together. I believe that in the future, I won't do this again, but once I said it, there was no taking it back! Some students strive on power point, some love to do arts and crafts, and some love to write. While all three of these components are in their project, I thought they could break apart to complete these tasks. However, once I have seen some issues arise based on this decision, I have decided it wasn't my best one :) But hey, at least I'm learning from my mistakes!

The students are working on dioramas to aide in their presentation. They are really getting into these things!! The whole project is completed at school, however, I told them that if they wanted to do some at home to bring in, that was more than okay. So, some students have gone above and beyond to complete their dioramas.

There will be pictures to come once they present their projects! I'm excited to see what they do!!

*Last Day of Kindergarten Clusters*

Friday marked the last day in my Enrichment Cluster with kindergarden group. I had been helping out with this cluster for 5 weeks, once a week, and have fallen in love with those little kids!! Their sweet, innocent comments will definitely be remembered!

This cluster group was called "Oceans Adventure" and the students were learning about a different ocean animal every day. When I walked into the classroom on Friday, the teacher was busy dealing with another issue, so she asked me to begin the lesson talking about whales. She had an ocean book where I read the book to the students. Boy, was this a task :) After I got everyone settled and began the book, they were amazed at how big whales were! It was precious to see them comparing their size to a whale's size. While we were reading, I was making sure to stop and ask questions, which a year ago was a difficult task for me, but I have seen myself progress in my questioning development. We learned how big a Humpback Whale is, what color they are, and various other facts. The students LOVED talking about whales.

After this, the students watched a Magic School Bus video of the ocean adventure while eating goldfish and drinking "ocean juice", which was blue Koolaid. They were thrilled to hear the juice called ocean juice. While they were watching the video, they were creating their own ocean scene. We told them to use ocean creatures that we had learned about. It was very interesting to see them recall the various elements of the ocean that we had talked about. They were even coloring them the ways that we had talked about they looked and were giving the octopus the right amount of legs! Some students even gave their sea stars suckers to hold on to the floor!

From this cluster, I have learned to make sure that the students are challenged, regardless of age. I believe that every student needs to be challenged in order to develop to their full potential.

I have also learned a great deal on how to keep kindergarteners interested and on task! One way is to give them a job, which I will definitely do in my classroom. One student was really outgoing and could not stay on task for long, so in order to help him, I asked him to be my glue patrol and to tell me whenever someone else needed glue. It was SO precious to see him take on this role and really strive at it! The students loved the help from another student!

-Power Points-

This week, the students are creating a Power Point pertaining to a book of their choice that they are reading. They are to inform the class of the characters, the setting, and the plot along with a "cliffhanger". The students have enjoyed being in the computer lab working on something that they are going to present, however, they are more focused on making the "coolest" slideshow than getting the information down to present.

While at recess, I was discussing with another fourth grade teacher of the issues of getting the students to complete their work in a timely manner. She gave me really good advice, which seems basic but I did not think of before! She said that when her class is creating a Power Point, she gets them to write out everything that they are going to put in their slideshow on a piece of paper. Once they show this to the teacher, she allows them to move on to creating the slideshow. However, they are not allowed to add details until they get all of their information down on the Power Point.

When I took the students into the computer lab, they had a very detailed sheet explaining the purpose of the activity and what was needed on the Power Point. The first things the students did was to go through and change all the colors of the background, the font of the title page, and looked through clip art for pictures. This took the students almost an entire class period!

In the future, when I want to do this activity again, or one that is similar, I will make sure to have steps that the students take before they begin their Power Point. Having steps before allows the students to really brainstorm what they are going to write before they get distracted by various aspects of Power Point.

Special Education Classes*

Over the past few weeks, I have been blessed with the opportunity to sit in during Response To Intervention meetings of a few students in my classroom. This experience has shown me an immense amount of what to expect when I get my own classroom, and how to handle certain types of meetings. It has also shown me that it is very important to keep documents on every student and to keep up to date records and examples of work because these work samples become very important when discussing student achievements. 

Today wrapped up a student being placed into Special Education classes. It was really amazing to see this process come to a decision like this because I have watched this student struggle in the general education classroom for some time now. The process takes a long time because the student needs to be placed correctly, so seeing her placed in a setting where it will benefit her the most was a great experience. With meeting with the parents, I could tell that they were relieved that she was placed in a setting where she can strive in a smaller setting. 

During the meeting, the leader of the meeting asked the parents if they minded that I sat in during the meeting. The parent's response was that she was okay with it because her daughter really enjoyed me being in her classroom. This is another reason why I know I'm doing the right thing with becoming a teacher. When I almost break down in tears because I have made an impact on this student where she goes home talking about her school day with me, it shows me that I am ready to continue my path into my own education classroom. 

Moments like those are the reasons that I am who I am. Many people ask me why I want to become a teacher, and my response is that I just know it's right for me. It's right because there is no other place I want to be than with these students. While I know that sometimes it gets a little frustrating and it may not be "rainbows and sunshine" every day, this is what makes me happiest and what makes me complete. 

Power Struggles...

An interesting situation occurred while I was in full control of the classroom with my mentor teacher not around at the moment. I was getting the students ready to go outside for recess, and our neighbor teacher was taking them outside. She popped her head in to say she was ready and I was still waiting on the students to gain full control of themselves before they go into the hallway! 

Our fourth grade team has a consequence of not completing homework as spending recess time completing the homework. Every student understands this consequence and I have never had a problem with students not doing as told. They know that if they do not have their homework, that they have to stay inside. 

Well, as I was trying to get the students ready to go, one student who was supposed to stay inside tried to sneak in line to go outside. I saw him and politely asked him to get his things together to go in the other classroom. At this time, the rest of the class went out the door with the other teacher. Well, he was not happy with me. We talked about what happens if he doesn't have his homework (which we had already discussed this morning when he didn't turn it in and he accepted the responsibility!) and he tried to have a power struggle with me, slouching around, slowly gathering his things, and "dropping" his books as he walked to the other classroom. While I didn't pay any attention to his actions, he still tried to not do his work in the other teacher's classroom, as I was told.

The thing that I learned from all of this, is the proper way to have a productive conversation discussing what went on. I discussed what happened with my mentor teacher, and she asked if I wanted to see how to handle the situation. I was ready to pull him aside and talk to him myself, but I have never had this issue with this class, so I thought it would be beneficial to see her talk to him. Boy, it was very beneficial!! 

My mentor teacher does a great job of talking with students on their level. While she had a stern tone because what he did not not acceptable, she did not just scream at him. They talked about what happened, how it made him feel and how it would make me feel, and how we could have handled it differently. She did a great job of relating it back to his family and how if that was acceptable behavior at home (which he said no), so we talked about how we wanted things to go from now on. 

The best things about students is that most of them accept the responsibility of their actions, whether when the action happens or after a talk, and then they move on. After specials, he came back smiling and ready to learn. I was afraid that he was going to be more reserved because of our conversation, but I believe that he was oaky with everything because of the way my mentor teacher handled the situation. 

I learn new things every day with my student teaching!! 

Writing Conferences~

This afternoon, I participated in writing conferences with students. I observed some conferences with my mentor teacher, she watched me do a few conferences with students, and then she turned me loose to conference with the remaining students. I was nervous at first, but after a few conferences, I figured out my questioning method and what I wanted to help the students with.

One question I had for my mentor teacher was I did not know what to focus on when doing the first conference with a student. If the student has many grammatical and spelling errors, then this takes away from the ideas portion of their narrative writing. But if you focus on the ideas portion, then the student would not get an idea of their grammatical and spelling errors. She informed me that when I participate in writing conferences, that the answer would come to me. She said that she couldn't really answer my question fully because it was a situational question. For the main part, she wanted me to focus on the ideas portion of their narrative because we can always have the students proof their own paper or proof a peer's paper. So with the conferences that I had, we went through and talked about their ideas and the style of their narrative. THEN if there were major spelling and grammatical errors, we would talk about those too.

With the conferences I was putting on, I made sure to ask the students what they liked about their writing. I thought this question would help me see what they believe their strengths were and would give me an insight as to how they think of themselves as writers. It was really interesting to hear the students' responses! Many of the students said that they thought they were good with writing entertaining, funny stories while others said they thought they did good on the style and sentence structuring of their writing.

It is really encouraging to see how far these students have come with their writing. The first week of school, we took a writing sample, and just comparing the two, it is really neat :) The students have learned so much throughout this semester so far, and I can only imagine what they will be able to accomplish by the end of this year.

Today one student told me that it was almost November, which meant it was almost my last day. That just broke my heart. These students have made such an impression on my life and have shown me that I have definitely made the right decision in my becoming a teacher. I will never forget these students and wish time wasn't passing so quickly!!

Not Enough Hours in a Day

One thing that I will definitely take away from my student teaching experience is the fact that there just are not enough hours in a day!!

I'm trying to plan lessons that incorporate all the aspects that I want, and there just is not enough time! It is really frustrating to me because I now see how stressful it is to plan. I have all of these ideas that I want to do, but when social studies is only 45 minutes a day, and the rest of the day is packed with other lessons, it is hard to do!

I now have a deeper appreciation for the teachers that stay after school for long hours trying to do what's best for the students. While trying to integrate lessons is a hard task, it is necessary in order to keep students on track for what they need to learn and to still be entertained and engaged!

Once I gave directions today for a research day in the computer lab and we traveled to the computer lab, we had 25 minutes to research. 25!! I'm starting to wonder if my life is just flying by jet speed fast.

I am trying to assess various different aspects of what we are learning in each subject, but it is hard to do as well because we have deadlines for projects to be done, we have parents that do not support studying at home, and the students may be a day behind because they were absent! Plus, if we schedule all the assessments in the same week, it just seems like taking the SAT every day, which is boring for not only the students but the teacher as well!

So where is the answer for the best thing to do?!

*Classroom*Environment*

One major aspect of teaching that I have learned throughout my student teaching experience is how a classroom environment affects the students. I understand that a learning environment is necessary in order for the students to succeed, but just the actual look and feel of the classroom is a huge part of learning.

The first aspect that I LOVE about my classroom is the fact that my mentor teacher uses lamps and natural lighting for the students. We are blessed to have windows and a door in our classroom, letting in natural lighting. The students enjoy this because it just feels natural in our classroom, until the sun starts beaming in their eyes, then they have an issue with it and the natural lighting gets covered up until the sun passes:)--They also have the privilege of having many lamps of various sizes and strengths. I believe this helps the students because having the overhead, bright, tiring lights are uncomfortable for me, so I know they are uncomfortable for the students.

Another aspect I love is the music that is constantly playing in the classroom. The music gets turned off during directions and such, but the students know when the music should be on or off. It helps calm the classroom and take away the silence that is sometimes created when testing, etc. It is really entertaining to me when I see a student who knows the words to a particular sound and they start mouthing the words when they think no one is looking :)

I have read many articles about how having student work on the walls makes a difference in the classroom feeling. So with that being said, we create anchor charts together that we hang up. For the sake of time and ability to be read, I write the information on the chart. However, as an extension to the lesson, the students are always welcome and encouraged to add their thoughts to the anchor chart with a post it note. Once I see an anchor chart that has a post it note on it, I make sure to read that note to the class and express my thanks for the student participating in the extension. After that, I have many students scrambling for a post it note to gain that encouragement too! I always keep the anchor chart at their level so they can continue to add ideas and post its when they feel necessary.

I find that a classroom environment is an idea that I think I have confidence in creating. I am really excited to get my own classroom to try out all of my ideas that I have!!

Birthdays at School=Great!!

I have had a complete change of thought about where I want to celebrate my birthday.
If you would have asked me Tuesday, I would have said the beach, the mountains, anywhere but getting up early and not relaxing.
However, once I have celebrated my birthday (Wednesday) at my school, I would never trade celebrating my birthday anywhere else!!

Having a birthday on a Wednesday during the school year was a blessing for me. The students made me feel so loved and special, I did not want to leave school. Some students brought me gifts and flowers, but it wasn't about the gifts that I loved. I constantly got hugs and told to have a great day. My mentor teacher brought cupcakes for the class to celebrate my birthday, and they had planned a birthday card signing and singing Happy Birthday to me when I wasn't expecting it. They were so so thrilled to see me smile and be surprised when all this was going on. I commented when they gave me my card saying, "If you were secretly signing this card while I was teaching, were you even listening to my lesson!?" in a joking manner, and they thought that was hilarious!! They answered, "No, No, Miss Denly!! I promise!!" :)  This experience has showed me that no small word goes unnoticed, to a teacher or a student.

I always love getting up in the morning and coming to school, however, this morning (Thursday) was much easier for me because I was still overwhelmed with love and kindness from my students. I'm still getting "Happy Birthday Yesterday Miss Denly" :)

This whole student teaching experience has showed me that I am where I need to be. I have never doubted my feelings about my decision to become a teacher, but this experience has proven to me everyday that I have made the best decision for myself. It is always a good feeling to know that you have made the right choice or decision and to have a moment that makes your feelings complete. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about these students and how hard it is going to be to leave them in a few weeks. I have already told my mentor teacher she is going to have to leave for a while so I can substitute for her class because I'll miss them too much!!

Project-Based Learning Training*

This past Friday was a Professional Development Day. Project-Based Learning is an idea that is starting to gain power throughout the education system. With that being said, our professional development day was spent touring schools who have experience in project-based learning and who have proved that it works.

The fourth and fifth grade teachers traveled up to Dalton, Georgia to tour two schools that are focused on project-based learning. We first stopped at a middle school where the students were participating in a team building exercise where they were given supplies and they were to build the tallest tower. These were the only directions given and the students had a time given in order to complete this task. The teachers then traveled to each group asking questions and facilitating discussions within the groups. After the time was up, the students all gathered together and discussed what they learned and how they arrived at the most efficient result. While the tallest tower was the end result that was needed, the team building exercise helped the students come together as a community. While talking with the students, I realized that they have team building exercises every Friday and they have a "town hall meeting" where they join as a grade level team and talk about issues that have come up. This is where the students talk about projects going on and various other activities.

After the middle school, we traveled up the road to an elementary school where we had a question and answer session with various members of their faculty. One thing I loved about this school was that the projects were carried on throughout the school. What I mean by this is that one class was doing learning about how chickens are born and raised, and while they were focusing on temperature, humidity, and how these affect the birthing, the rest of the school watched the development of the chicks through a web cam that was played throughout the day. The school had writing activities and various other activities based around this one project done by a class. The project completed were not just busy projects, they were ones that were carried over into real life, which I loved about this school.

While we learned and were trained on project based learning, I also learned many things about the layout of an effective school and the atmosphere that needs to be created for these to continue. For example, the classrooms all had natural lighting with lamps and lights, the walls were painted brain-researched colors. I found many things that I want to bring into my classroom including a behavior management idea where the students can move up when they do something good, but can also move down. The students are rewarded when they land on "outstanding" and there is a continuous chart where the teacher writes down every student who lands on outstanding. When they land here more than two times, they get a jewel on their clothespin, and if they land more than 2 times, they get a special treat from the teacher.

Having these meetings are a great way to help keep the teachers involved in new learning that can help the children learn in a different format. While I am not saying that I am an expert in project-based learning, I now have learned an immense amount that will help me in my future classroom. I look forward to these days :)

Giving Directions*Social Studies Unit*

Today was the day that we actually started our social studies unit. We did some prior lessons to activate background knowledge of directions and various other activities, however, today was the day. I honestly was expecting students to not be that excited about learning about social studies. I just remember social studies as being a topic that the students my age did not enjoy back in the day (makes me feel old!), but boy was I wrong!

The moment I said we were starting a social studies unit on Native Americans and that they were going to do the teaching, they were smiling and were so so excited! Those moments are the ones that reassure that I am where I need to be. I felt such a strong feeling of encouragement from these students that I was just so excited myself.

The one thing that I learned today is that giving directions takes a lot longer than I had planned! Given that today was the first day of giving the project, I understood that it was going to take longer, but we spent so much time going over directions!!

While I was a little shocked at how long it took to get through the directions, I was happy to do this because it was necessary. The students had great questions and I wanted to get all questions out of the way for right now so when they started researching, they could focus on the task at hand.

Once the questions started to repeat themselves or when the students were taking us further down into deeper steps that we were not focusing on, I made sure to cut off the questions to begin researching. When I was planning this unit, I wanted the students to take a few steps towards project based learning, therefore, they are finding out the information themselves by resources I give them.

One thing that I made sure we had in place were checkpoints. I emphasized the importance of these checkpoints so we can make sure that we are progressing at an expected rate to be able to accomplish our goals. I could tell that the students relaxed a little bit when I told them this, because I felt like they thought I may have been turning them loose into the wild. However, I want to make sure I am a facilitator in this project, being available during every step of the way :)

*Cause and Effect*

Another mini-unit we are working on in class is the relationship between cause and effect and how this strategy helps us with comprehension. We have completed many lessons on what a cause is and what an effect is and how we can tell the difference. This is something that the students have grasped quickly as well and they have said that they have been using this strategy in their reading, but they just didn't know! They were excited to know that they have been using something without actually knowing it!

To further our cause and effect development, we read the "If you Give a Mouse A Cookie" books and the students picked out cause and effect relationships from their stories.

The students then created their own cause and effect books as a group following the same format as the books they read! They were so excited to complete this activity. The students received a graphic organizer to help with the organization of their books.

When everyone completed their stories as a group, I put the book together for them to read whenever they had free time. I read a few of them out loud to the class, but I did not want to spoil all of the surprises!!

Some of the books that they created were:
-If you give an elephant an egg...
-If you give a monkey a marshmellow...
-If you give an ant an apple...
-If you give a whale a watermelon...
-If you give a sheep spaghetti..

I took a picture of a student I saw reading the class book, and it was so exciting for me to see him smiling as he read their own creations. I think it is very important for the students to see their work published because it helps them see that what they do actually has a purpose.

The students had the opportunity today to create cause and effect sentences and play an activity where they matched the cause and effect relationships of others. Here are some examples of what they created:

*Questioning Strategy*

Last week, I began a mini-unit on using the questioning strategy to help with comprehension of our reading. The students have really grasped this concept, especially with support from the teachers. They understand the importance of why we ask questions throughout our reading, and can distinguish between thick and thin questions. While we are reading in our literacy circles, the students are prompted to ask questions and to have discussions throughout the time for circles.
However, I have found when they are to find questions themselves, they are in need of support. I see that the students need extra practice to help figure out HOW to actually form questions while they are reading independently. So to help with this task, I decided to compile a list of "question starters" for the students. I created little note cards that have these question starters on them and placed these in a bag. Each literacy circle has a copy of these question starters. When the students have read around 3 pages in their circles, they are to stop, draw a question card, and use that question starter to form a question to ask a literacy circle classmate.

The question starters are:
-What are the characteristics of...?
-Who...?
-Would you agree that...?
-What caused...?
-Why...?

These question starters are ones that can be thick and thin, depending on how they asked their question. A thin question is one that they can find the answer to right away by looking at the page. A thick question is one where the students have to really think and analyze the text in order to answer the question.

I took a few pictures of the students using these question starters, and they have really seemed to help! In a few weeks, I will take away the cards and see how they do forming questions without the support.

Field Trip!!

Also on Friday, I was able to experience a field trip. Boy were the students excited!!

I was aware that it took preparation for the field trip to work, however, it takes A LOT of preparation to get everything arranged!! From getting lunches ready, to getting stickers for each student to wear with their names on it, the teachers work really hard in preparation!!

We traveled by bus to a local college to watch James and the Giant Peach performed by local members of the community. The students absolutely loved going to a college, first off. They were all asking if this is where I went and were excited to step foot on a college campus.

We watched the play, which the children enjoyed, and then traveled to a local park to eat lunch. The students enjoyed the free time they had to eat and play with friends from other classes, and we were back to school by 1:00.

By talking with the students, it was clear that this was a perfect way to end the week. We had a great time at the play and hanging out at the park. However, it was stressful making sure that every student was accounted for at the park! We had parents from the class volunteer to help with us. But it was still stressful making sure that every kid saw their group parent!

Dancing on the roof, literally!!

Over the summer, the students and the teachers were "battling" each other to see who could read the most over the summer. The students won!

So with that being said, the punishment for the teachers was that we were to dance on the roof on Friday while the students were coming into the school. We got to school real early to make sure that every student saw us, and we were doing just that; dancing on the roof!!

All the kids stopped and we had a giant group of students standing below at the bus line watching some of the teachers dance and dance. It was so much fun to see their faces when they saw that a teacher they knew and had was up on the roof.

All day long, I heard "Miss Denly!! I saw you on the roof!! You had some good moves!"

The students were so excited and I believe that this is a great way to motivate the students over the summer to read as much as they can. Students were outside taking pictures, their parents were videoing what we were doing, and they were laughing and dancing along with us. I was so blessed to be able to participate in this activity!!

Social Studies Unit~~

Today I started my unit in social studies on Native Americans. While planning the unit, I first realized that I cannot jump into teaching the standard without basic review of skills dealing with maps. So today, we made sure we understood cardinal and intermediate directions and completed an activity that aided in their development of this task.

I wanted to do a project with the students that was more geared towards project based learning because my school is focusing on that and I believe the students really enjoy this type of learning and learn an immense amount from this. However, I believe that my students still need assistance in their research abilities and their time management skills. With that being said, I am having "checkpoints" throughout this unit where the students check in with me as a group to show me what they have completed in their research.

The main idea of this unit is that the students are going to be grouped together, based on their interest, in groups of 4 or 5 and will be given a group of Native Americans. For example, the Arctic group or the Southwest group. The students will be answering the essential question, "How did the Native Americans use their environment to obtain food, clothing, and shelter?" The standard also gives the students a certain tribe in that group to focus on, so the students can look into that group.

The students will be working together on research and once the research is complete, they will be working on how to present their ideas. I have told them that they are responsible for teaching the class their material, and the class is responsible for learning the material. Therefore, their presentation needs to be thorough and the students need to be paying attention.

The actual presentation has to include 2 visuals (one being a diorama) pertaining to their Native American group, has to be creative, and the students need to use some type of multimedia. For example, they can create a powerpoint or they can find a quick movie to help in their presentation.

During their presentations, I will be asking questions to check for understanding and development and extension of ideas. This will be my form of assessment of knowledge in group settings. Every student has to speak and present.

As an individual assessment, the students will be pretending that they are in a given tribe (given by me) and they need to explain how this group used their environment to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. The students will talk about the daily life in this group.

In order to make sure that the students participated in the research and group preparing activities, I will have the students write down what they did in order to add to the research. I will be giving a self-evaluation of what they think they deserve as a grade.

I am excited for this learning experience to get going!! Our social studies time is in the afternoon, and many meetings and activities interfere sometimes with our afternoons, so I am hoping that we stay on track and the students enjoy this project!!

Enrichment Clusters~

My school is participating in doing Enrichment Clusters to help the students develop interests in various ideas, or to continue their development of their interests. Each teacher "hosts" there own cluster, whatever they decide would be best. For example, my mentor teacher does a "Legal Eagles" cluster where the students learn about the legal system and put a fairy tale on "trial". She picked this cluster because she is very interested in the legal system and wants the students to be interested too! Other enrichment cluster ideas were game shows, cake building, sewing, and many others. The fourth and fifth grade are grouped together, where they are mixed and can choose any of the 4th or 5th grade clusters, second and third are grouped together, and first and kindergarden stay in their grade levels. Students have the opportunity to pick their top 5 choices of clusters and the teachers try their bests to give the students one of their top choices.

I had the privilege to assist in a kindergarden cluster because the teacher really needed an extra pair of hands. We are teaching the students "Oceans Adventures". I am helping out each time, which we go once a week for 5 weeks. Boy, is it a HUGE difference going from fourth grade to kindergarden and back to fourth grade!! I love both ages, and would be happy teaching both ages, but those grades are on totally different ends of the spectrum!! I had to mentally change my mindset quickly as I walked into the kindergarden pod, and change back when I returned to the 4th grade pod!

Overall, I believe Enrichment Clusters are a really good idea because the students have time during the week to participate in something they truly enjoy, or want to get to know better. When the students returned to the classroom, they were excited and telling everyone about what they did in their cluster. It gives the students an opportunity to interact with other students in the school, which is a positive aspect because we want them to get to know others!

I am excited to continue my journey in participating in the kindergarden "Oceans Adventures"! I hope I have the opportunity to take some pictures of these students because seeing how they react to anything dealing with the ocean is such a treat!!

Homecoming Parade--

One aspect of teaching that the university classes do not prepare you for are homecoming parade days :)
Boy, do these kids get excited when it comes to these type of activities!! We painted faces, students made signs, and tons of screaming occurred! It's a good thing that we scheduled science presentations on the day of this parade because there is absolutely no way that we could keep these students' focus when they are thinking about the parade and after they get all worked up!

It was really exciting to see how the students reacted to seeing the football players, the band, the various floats and the cheerleaders. Many of these groups interact together because the high school teaches some of the elementary camps during the summer. I believe that these parades do more than just get the students excited for the homecoming game. I think these parades allow the students to see the people that they look up to most.

The students were smiling so big when their role models walked by. I took a few pictures of the students on this crazy day :)

Science Presentations!

The students were wrapping up projects pertaining to ecology. They were pretending that they were interns with the Natural Resource Department and the residents of a town took out the red wolf from their environment because of a suspected rabies outbreak. Now, the residents gardens were being overwhelmed with deer and rabbits. The students were researching to figure out why; the red wolf extinction took out the predator of these animals. The students had many opportunities to work during the school day, with multiple computer lab rentals. Watching them develop into deep researchers and seeing the amount of questions decrease as they became better researchers was amazing.

The students were required to present their material in a creative format, either including technology or not. It was very interesting to see the different formats that the students used to present their material. I took multiple pictures of the students presenting their ideas:

Seeing their ideas was the most precious thing!! I had a smile on my face the entire time each student was presenting. I sat on the floor in front of the presenters and I believe that the students felt more comfortable to see someone smiling back at them! I believe the students have matured through this presentation because before, they did not want to get up in front of the class, but after, I could see how relieved they were.

Writing Light Bulbs :)

In fourth grade, the expectations of a student writer become greater. With that being said, it is so amazing to see how far these students have come in their writing. The first day of school, it was very difficult to get the students to produce writing that had a flow. Now with a few lessons under their belt and with the students becoming more mature every day, their writing has drastically improved! We did a mini-lesson on how to write a friendly letter, and their assessment for a book we were reading was to write a friendly letter to a character. They did so well in remembering what was part of a friendly letter!!

Also, with writing letters to characters, the students write some pretty funny and deep comments. It is interesting to see how the students talk to these characters. Seeing these students develop into deeper writers shows these light bulbs going off in their heads :)

Zero Tolerance Area!

I have created a new rule for my students. My mentor teacher has her rules that are the main priority, and I have mine as well---which works out really well! We both respect each other's rules and the students do this as well. My new rule creates a zero tolerance area..Negative talking in not tolerated.

By negative talking, I mean the negative talking that occurs between students sometimes. I am aware that some students get caught up in the moment and lose control, however, when it becomes an issue, something has to be done.

I remind the students of my rule every day to make sure that they remember and can be practicing the opposite of my rule---Positive talking!!

I think it is very important to make sure that the students are communicating effectively, as well as, constructively between each other. Some of the students haven't learned how to accept constructive criticism, (which is hard to do!), and I am hoping that this zero tolerance area is helping the students develop into positive students.

When I hear a negative speaker, I make sure to point it out to the student, as well as, have the student repeat what they were trying to say, but in a more constructive manner. By having the students correct how they were talking, I have seen that they are beginning to think before they speak!

New Report Cards=Hard Work=Success!

On Tuesday, I have the privilege of interacting in a meeting with a the fourth grade teachers from my school and the fourth grade teachers from another school in our county in creating a new "standards based" report card for the upcoming year; the fourth grade is piloting this new report card. Who would have thought that so much goes into creating a new report card??

It was very interesting to listen to the teachers talk about what was needed, necessary, and unnecessary when deciding what to include on the report card. I honestly just thought that when you print a report card, it just has grades and requires little effort. HOWEVER being on the other side of this, I completely change my mind :) These teachers have put so much effort and time into creating a report card that not only reflects what the students are learning, but helps the parents understand what the report card is saying. There were many times during the meeting that the teachers had to change what was wrote or how the report card was put together because they wanted to make sure the parents would be clear on what was written.

By the end of the meeting, everyone was very pleased with what was accomplished. Many, MANY hours later, the report card is nearly finished. Not only is this a new report card, but the way the teachers keep track of the grades is changing too in order to keep things consistent. With that being said, it is very obvious that the teachers in this district love what they do. They spend so much extra time making changes that are better for the students as well as the parents. Seeing all this makes me realize that I have chosen a career that is right for me, and this district is full of teachers I would love to work with!

Full Control Friday!

Friday we had a substitute for the day, and basically it was my first day of having complete control of the classroom! Having my mentor teacher in my classroom on a normal day gives me the freedom to have the classroom to myself because she allows me to have my time with the students' attention, but she is sometimes still in the room or popping in and out. So this was the first time that the students realized that she wasn't there to help me with discipline if I needed it!

I was a little nervous when the students came in during the morning and realized that she was not there. I could see that they were worried about her, and I received many questions on where she was. I made sure to give a talk at the beginning of the day that the day was going to carry on as normal and I expected to receive the same respect they would normally give.

The day went marvelously!! The students were wonderful, full of respect and kindness. We had fun activities planned and I was truly impressed with how they acted during the day. Not that I expected any less, but I remember when there was a substitute when I  was in elementary school, it was basically like a free day and the students did not pay any attention. However, I was blessed with a really dedicated substitute and we worked together really well. I was so proud of myself, too, because I was able to handle 31 students in a productive school day :) I now have faced most of my worries about becoming a teacher and am ready to dive full force into my own classroom hopefully in the near future when I graduate!!

Respect for School?

One thing that has really changed from when I was in elementary school is the respect that school holds in students' lives. I have noticed that some parents hold extracurricular activities as being a higher priority than their school work and it just blows me away. How are students supposed to become better readers if they do not read outside of school? The amount of time we spend reading in class is a good amount, however, it is not nearly enough time for a student to grow as a reader, or in mathematics, science or any other subject!

Football players get better by practicing. Runners get better by running. Swimmers swim better with swim practice. Why do some families not recognize the value of practicing for school?

In the past, if I said I did not want to do my homework, my parents would tell me I had no choice and my extracurricular activities were of a much lower importance. I would practice for school, and if I didn't, I didn't do anything else in the day. School was my main priority.

I have noticed that some students really value football and other organized sports. Some value them so much that they forget to do their math homework. I value sports as well; I love to play and watch sports. However, I do not see how teachers are held so accountable for making sure students are performing at the best of their ability when school is not a top priority in the rest of their lives.

I realize that some students just do not enjoy school for whatever reason. We can do everything in our power to try to change their attitude about school, but reality is, some students just do not enjoy it. However, teachers are trying their best. It is hard to hold students accountable for their work when they just do not have time for it in the afternoon because of a jam packed extracurricular schedule.

Class Concern Box...

Having a class of 31 students is something that I never thought that I would be faced with. Wow, so many students!! HOWEVER, it has turned out to be amazing. The students are great, the class works so well together, and we are having a wonderful, educational start to the year. 

My only question is, how do you deal with 31 students' issues and concerns?

If every student raised their hand during the day to tell a concern that they had with the class or anything that they needed to talk about, we would need many more hours in the day. Don't get me wrong, we deal with concerns during the day, but there are concerns that go unspoken until a parent emails or talks to us outside of the school day. Maybe students are too shy to ask questions that do not deal with concepts being discussed in class. Maybe they do not feel comfortable talking in front of the class. Or maybe our day is so jam packed that they do not have time to think about their concerns until they get a free moment and then it is not appropriate to ask when they think about their concern!! I remember being in elementary school and having concerns that I would not think of until I got home and would not feel comfortable asking in the morning. 

To solve these issues, I am thinking about starting a "comment/concern box". With this, I would have a box that has a hole in the top to insert paper, and the students could write their concerns or questions that need to be addressed on the paper and insert it into the box. The student does not have to put their name on it, but it would be hard for me to help without having a source of the problem. For example, one student could not focus because he did not feel comfortable where his desk was. For a few weeks, he did not tell us because he did not think it was necessary, but with a quick email from the parent, we were able to quickly fix this concern and it was perfect. 

I want to combat these concerns whenever they occur because that student may have been able to enjoy the first few weeks better if they were in a place that was more compatible with their learning environment. I also want to make sure that this box does not turn into the "tattle" box where students tell on each other. I want it to be a safe place where students feel comfortable telling me what is going on outside of what I can see. For example: during connections, at lunch, at recess, wherever there are concerns! 

Reading around the room? Good or bad?

Today, my mentor teacher was administering DRA's and needed to have the morning in order to do this. (She would pull a few students at a time into the hallway outside of our classroom). I am already teaching the entire morning, however, the difference was that today we were not on a time constraint because we did not switch classes so the teachers could perform the DRA's on their homeroom students. With that being said, this morning was one that I had the entire classroom to myself without my mentor teacher being in there for an extended period of time. While I was nervous that the students would behave differently without her being there, I was excited to have full control, as well as having full control of their behavior. While we still had those chatty cats, everything went so smooth! We did some partner work that of course made the classroom a little loud (with 31 students talking, it is hard to be quiet!), but I believe that they are learning how to work collaboratively! We were creating sentence ladders that helped them see the difference in a simple sentence and one that has many, many details. While these got a little silly, I think it started the day off on a good foot because everyone was smiling together.

Also, with this relaxed time, I was able to let them have an extended SSR (self-selected reading) block where they were able to read wherever in the room that felt comfortable. While we do not get to do this often because during reading we have centers that take up the extra space in the classroom, I believe that the students really enjoyed their time to be on the floor to read. I was very apprehensive to allow them to do this because of our need to control the talking, so I made sure to emphasize that I was watching them and we were on a trial for my trust of reading wherever they wanted. Boy, did this get their attention. All I had to say was "you are testing my trust" and they would correct the behavior that was inappropriate. The SSR block went REALLY well. The students were reading, students were taking AR tests and visiting the library, and for the most part, we stayed on task the whole time! I believe that just having their friend beside them on the floor reading gives them the "freedom" that they long for, but still allows the teacher to be in control.

We are starting on how to write a friendly letter tomorrow, which I am excited about! I think that in this age where the students probably have never written/received a letter in the mail, they need to learn what a friendly letter is! My plan is that we collaboratively decide what a friendly letter is and they will practice this skill. When ready, the students will be able to write a friendly letter to a member of the school "filling their buckets" :)

First Assessment Created and Administered by ME!

Wednesday, the students were given the opportunity to show me everything they have learned throughout my unit on setting. Some observations I noticed:

• Some students do not like taking written tests.
• Some students STRIVE off of discussion questions.
• Some students need more support than others when answering questions.
• Some questions that I asked were not worded in the most kid-friendly ways. I found this out the hard way...

Overall, I was pleased with the assessment. I am not going to say I'm jumping up and down screaming happy, but I am pleased. I understand that students show their learning in various methods, so I cannot base the students complete learning off of a written assessment. I also have to take into consideration the conversations that I have with each student during our reading groups about settings and various components. 

By taking in this assessment and thinking about if the students are ready to move on to the next literary element, I believe that we need a bit more practice. While I cannot realistically spend 3 weeks on setting, I can still incorporate setting into our discussions and our learning through other subject matter. That is one thing that I really respect my mentor teacher for: She makes sure that we don't just abandon our previous learning. For example, if we move on to another topic, we are still talking about the previous topics in order to make sure the students continue to develop their understanding of the concept. 

Anchor Charts of Settings

The most interesting conversations that students have between each other are ones that occur when they do not think the teacher is listening. While working in groups seems to be new to these scholars, I did not want to monitor everything that they did in groups. I wanted them to work out their issues, such as who would write. Whoever got to write was a BIG deal to this group of students. Collaborative work is a task that needs to be mastered in order to successfully move to project based learning, which is a goal of this semester. 

While I was interested in the connections the students made on their picking out the setting and character traits of a character in each setting, I really wanted to see how their presentation skills were. After the students were finished creating their anchor chart, I had them present their ideas to the rest of the class. Making sure everyone in the audience was paying attention, we carefully went over what it means to present and how it looks to be in front of a group and how we are supposed to act during a presentation, being the presenter or in the audience. I made sure while the students were presenting that each student contributed something to the conversation. (This point was made earlier in the lesson so the students were mentally prepared to present). I was pleased with the presentations, I tried to allow the students to present without my questioning leads, however, some groups were more comfortable answering the questions I asked rather than leading their own presentation. Which this is completely fine with me. I think that getting up and presenting is a huge accomplishment, and we can only get better with our presentation skills. 

I took some pictures of the students' works that they did in their groups. I wanted to get a variety of skill level pictures and different settings :) 

I'm not sure why these are upside down, I haven't figured out how to fix this, yet. Just stand on your head for a second :) 

We completed this one together as a group to help the students understand what I wanted them to do. We choose the setting of Mt. Vernon, our school, and used our teacher, Mrs. Frobos as our character. We found the different important settings in the larger setting and told how the "character" was affected in each setting. Our "evidence" that these traits were true came from asking Mrs. Frobos :) 

Wrapping up my first unit!

I just completed my first unit, teaching setting to my sweet fourth grade groups. I couldn't have been blessed more with a better group of students for my student teaching. They truly are the most precious, respectful group that I could ever imagine.

For my lesson, we first just introduced setting (which is in a previous blog) and followed this with some exercises for the students to pick out the setting in a story using a "Setting the Scene" sheet. While the first attempt did not go as well as I had expected with independently picking out the setting from a story of their choice, I allowed the students to take my constructive criticism and make any changes that they saw necessary to their sheets. Many of the comments I made were that the students were not specific. For example, some said "school" and "day" as their setting, when it was possible to be more specific: such as "Huntington High School in the library" and "morning". By the end of our time together focusing on setting, the students were being very specific and giving me everything that I expected them to give to meet the standard.

While working on one lesson, the students were given a piece of an anchor chart, and the students were to take a "larger" setting (such as Huntington High School from our book "The Janitor's Boy") and find the smaller settings that were important to the story (such as Mr. Pike's music room, the hallway outside of Mr. Pike's classroom, the janitor's closet, the bell tower, etc). The students were then given a character, and they were to show the class how their character's traits changed based upon the setting that they were in. For example, Jack Rankin was relaxed in the bell tower and embarrassed in the hallway outside of Mr. Pike's classroom. While they had to find different character traits, we were discussing how the setting affects the character and each setting has a different effect on the character, or gives the character different character traits.

Below are a few pictures of my scholars hard at work:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

This year, my school is using the saying, "Have you filled a bucket today?" This saying basically means that in order to fill someones "bucket" you do something nice for someone: help them, say something nice, just being friendly. By implementing this strategy as a behavioral management aspect into the classroom, I have seen the students really respond. If I brag on someone for filling someone else's bucket, the other students go out of their way to be kind to someone else. This community building activity has helped our classroom form bonds with others in the classroom, and even with the teachers. Today, my mentor teacher bragged on a student for filling her bucket by helping clean the classroom while we were transitioning, and you could see how proud he was of himself just by looking at his face. Not only is this helping the students build relationships with others, but it is helping students boost their self-confidence. The school has also carried this over into the faculty meetings and various other staff-related activities where faculty members can report when someone has "filled their bucket" and the teacher gets the recognition that what they do does not go unnoticed! 

I thoroughly agree with the idea of creating a program that boosts students' self-esteems and their relationships with each other. By seeing how this one has helped, it makes me want to be looking into other ideas. I am aware that programs sometimes wear off and the students become unmotivated by this, so any suggestions would be great :) 

Daily Read Alouds--

I have found one thing that I will do when I have my own classroom in the future:

Do a read aloud EVERY day.

There are many reasons behind this idea. For starters, a read aloud gives my students the time to chill out and take a breather. This time gives them the opportunity to sit on the carpet and just listen for a while. I have seen the students really enjoy this time because they are smiling and interacting with a story that is not during an "academic" time, or so they think :)

Another reason, is by making my plans for next week, I have seen that I can bring the read aloud book into my reading class to develop a discussion. For example, we are working on setting and how setting affects the character. I wanted to diversify the lesson with various stories and examples, so I am able to bring the read aloud story into the group conversation during literature time. They are able to see that books that we read for fun still encompass the ideas that they are being taught during their English Language Arts period.

My mentor teacher does a wonderful job in modeling what a successful read aloud period looks like. She reads for about 10 minutes a day, when they have a break between lunch and specials. She makes sure to leave off at a good part in order to keep the students on their toes and making predictions about the next part. My mentor teacher also gives the characters voices and reads with inflection, which entertains me, so I know it is entertaining the students!!

I am fully enjoying my student teaching time--there is not a day that I wake up and do not look forward to the day to come. Walking in and seeing the students' smiling faces is such a great feeling. The past few days, a couple of students have even come in with marvelous treats for the teachers, which I am not going to complain about :)

Technology..Helpful?

I love the technology that is present in many classrooms. However, when you have a catastrophe like my classroom did when the Promethean Board just decided to take a break for a while, what do you do? Relying on technology is one thing that I am hesitant to begin to do because I personally think that students still need to have the visual reminders around the classroom about what they are learning. If everything is done on technology and on a smartboard, the students do not have that constant reminder of what they are learning about. For example, I am beginning to teach mini lessons on "setting". Today, I asked the students to tell me what they learned on the previous day about setting. When they are able to have a chart paper reminder of what we learned the day before, the students were able to take a quick glance at the wall with their work on it to jog their memory.
The picture above is the KWL chart of what the students know about setting, what they want to learn, and what they have learned throughout our discussions. I believe these are great visual diagrams to use in the classroom because students are constantly discovering new ideas and need a place to display their thoughts. During the day, if the students have learned something new about setting, they are able to grab a sticky note and write their idea on the sticky note. Then they are to place this sticky note on the chart, and at the end of the day, I will add their ideas to the chart.
With all that being said, I am VERY anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new and improve Promethean projector so we can begin to integrate technology on a deeper level. We are still exposing the students to technology with the help of netbooks and Ipod Touches, however, the students have grown up with these Promethean Boards, so I'm sure they are ready to have it back!

Where does the time go??

Today was my first full day of teaching reading! To say I was fully confident would be a lie, however, my teacher has created an environment where I feel comfortable taking chances and being okay with messing up. Because of this environment, I was excited to see how my plans would turn out and how the students would react to my ideas of how to teach to their needs. We started off with a group discussion on what the word setting means by using a KWL chart. The students received post-it notes and wrote their ideas on the notes and placed them on the KWL chart. I did this because we have two different sections of reading groups and I wanted to keep one chart for both classes. Therefore, I could take down the notes and write them up at the end of the day. After the chart discussion, we read the book "Train to Somewhere" by Eve Bunting to demonstrate how the setting changes throughout the book. By the end of this book and with the discussion, my time was up! Because of the schedule we are on, I could not carry over into another subject area. It is crazy to see how quick the time goes by. It went by so quick I even forgot to allow the kids to eat their snacks!! Boy, they definitely reminded me though :)

Overall, I was very pleased with my first time teaching reading to these students! They really respected me, which I was worried about because usually student teachers are looked at as not being real teachers. However, these students were amazing. My mentor teacher actually had thought about having a conversation with the class about how I was taking over reading, but we decided that we should give them the benefit of the doubt and see how they did with me teaching. I was so so pleased with my class today!!

Finishing up my FOURTH week of student teaching!!

I have decided to change the way that I am reflecting on my student teaching. I am trying to create a variety of ways to respond, but honestly, I feel like when I am writing about my day, the words just spill out on my blog without me being able to control them! Therefore, these next few posts are mainly my thoughts and feelings :)   (Which I have many of)... 

I have made it my special time during the day to check in with a student that has had a rough past few days. This one child acted up in the classroom, resulting in some time away from school to reflect on what was going on and to have some “time out”. I agree that the consequence was correct because we needed time to create a safety plan for this child. However, I felt the need to make sure the student understood that all of the staff is on the child’s side and that we only wanted what was best. With the new safety plan intact, I have started interacting with this child more throughout this week, talking and positively influencing his day to see if this would help the child’s adjustment in the classroom. I have seen this child open up to me talking about his day and what he enjoys and dislikes.  I have started noticing what he reads when he has free time, and when I have one-on-one interactions, I make sure I ask him questions based upon the book choice, which is usually bugs or animals, and try to get him to express himself by showing off his skills of knowing SO MUCH about bugs and animals. I have truly enjoyed my time with this child, and look forward to many more interactions as my involvement grows in the classroom.

            Today I realized the importance of practicing a lockdown drill. Don’t panic, we did not have a real-life incident, however, if we had not practiced, I honestly think that our students would not have known what to do! We made sure that the students understood the severity of a lockdown, and why one shall occur. I have mixed feelings about this situation. I completely agree that there are bad people in this world that could compromise a school, therefore the students should be prepared. However, I remember back in my elementary school days that when we practiced a lockdown, I freaked out because I really did not understand what was going on. Because of this, I tried to make sure that the students were relaxed, but listening, to what was going on. I also realized that when you have a classroom full of 31 children, there are not very many places to hide!! We did our best, and I was the pretend intruder trying to see in the classroom, and I was not able to see, nor hear, any of the students! So success was our result, and I believe that the students really understand the severity of the situation if one occurs and the importance of listening.

            Lastly, this week I have realized the importance of starting a new day with a fresh new outlook. I’m not going to lie, this week has been a little rough with the class being chatter boxes in their own worlds! However, I see that the next day, they have forgotten about the day before, and come in with a smile on their faces ready to learn and make better decisions. It is always such a joy to me to hear them come in during the morning with a big “good morning Miss Denly”. Those sweet voices make me realize that I am doing what I was meant to do. Some students come up to me on a regular basis telling me something random from horseback riding the day before to what they had for breakfast. While I understand that they cannot come up to me every morning, and surely not everyone can walk up to my desk because there are 31 of them and we would have a line out the door, but I really enjoy their little comments on what they want me to know about what they did or how they are feeling. I have learned that the more you let a student talk to you without interruption, the more you learn about that student, not only academically, but emotionally. In my classroom in the future, I want to establish time during my day where I have students just come talk to me. I have heard about teachers who have done this in the past, and the classroom community really grew because the students felt comfortable. By arranging time during the day for a student to have one-on-one attention from a teacher, I believe that the student will benefit greatly. I know the time during the day is precious minutes, and there is not extra time, however, by making this a priority, I believe that I will be able to fit this in a schedule!! I look forward to my future classroom and any suggestions that anyone has!!