Monday, February 28th, 2011

I had the worst headache today. It was an okay day though. Things went according to schedule. I had the children make cat in the hats and this went pretty well. It seemed a little hectic but as Mrs. Gibson says it is bound to feel hectic sometimes. I really like the way the project turned out, and Mrs. Gibson said we would be able to see how good my directions were when we saw the finished the project, which I think are SO CUTE.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Today I taught the whole day except for daily 5 and intervention time. It was pretty good, except Mrs. Gibson was gone for the afternoon for an all district Kindergarten meeting. Since there was a substitute I would like to think that the children were a little more rowdy because of this. I was not as comfortable with my lesson as I wish I was so I felt it didn’t go as well. I had no idea that the workbook page I wanted to use was not in the workbook! That was probably the worst feeling I have had teaching so far. Luckily, the sub copied the page from the one workbook we could find, and the children were able to work on the worksheet. I was able to read a book that was close by while she ran and made the copies!

Tuesday, February 22nd

Today was an interesting day having come off of a snow day. The children were much better behaved than I thought they would be. Today I only did morning meeting. It went well. Children were, as I said very well behaved. The morning meeting today rolled easily. I introduced the new greeting, and announcements easily. I was able to observe Mrs. Gibson work with small groups during daily five which was good to see and know what I will be doing on Thursday when I actually start my head week. Things got pushed back a bit this week since Monday was a snow day.

Thursday, February 10th

The kids who came to school today are not the same ones that left us yesterday. The children were so much better behaved today even though today was the 100^th day. It was a fun day, and I felt as though things went pretty well. One problem I have is when I teach math I normally have then have ‘work time’ and I come around and check their work and then give them another problem to work on. It is so hard to get to all the children before they lose focus and before they get loud and chatty. I have in the past asked Mrs. Gibson to help me check the work so it goes faster. I think she is faster at checking than I am. I cannot imagine being all alone in a situation like this when I am a teacher on my own. Also , there are only 17 children in the class and most schools have many more children in their class than this. I successfully did the whole afternoon today and I feel very good about it.

Wednesday, February 9th

Today was day 3 of the children having indoor recess. Mrs. Gibson said she even has gotten to the end of her rope. The children have gotten very chatty and rambunctious. I felt like I gave sooo many take a breaks today. Mrs. Gibson said don’t worry about being so hard on them until you make 7 kids cry. I just wish that I could have more fun with them and have them be able to handle it. It leaves me feeling drained at the end of the day. Today we tried the game that we worked on yesterday and the children really got the concept. We did a worksheet for evaluation and the children all got most of the problems correct. It was very exciting to see them grow from one day to another. Today’s lesson went ok, and the children seemed to grasp the understanding of what a cube is. Overall it was a good day, just a couple behavior problems.

Tuesday, February 8th

Today math went pretty well. Mrs. Gibson said I did better today than yesterday. This is good, but it was unfortunate that many of the children didn’t grasp the concept. We played a game with partners for numbers 2-6. I will repeat the game tomorrow at quiet time. Then, in tomorrow’s lesson there is a worksheet with the partners for 2-6, so that will show for sure if there needs to be more reteaching. Today during playtime, however, there was a controversy over a child sharing her toy with all children. She made two children cry and I didn’t know how to help the situation, so after school Mrs. Gibson and I brainstormed ways to help the child and ways to nip the problem in the bud next time she brings in a toy to share for show and tell. I think it’s a hard time to help the children learn during playtime, because we all wish children could just play nicely together, but this is a learning time as well. It’s important for teachers to help the children learn social skills during this time as well.

Monday February 7th

Today I taught most of the afternoon. That is what I will be doing for this whole week. I taught a math lesson that I thought went ok. I felt that I forgot things or I just wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked to be. The children were kind of rowdy today; Mrs. Gibson seemed to think a lot of them had stayed up for the packer game last night. Maybe. I was able to control most behaviors I felt. While we were doing calendar I put up the pieces for the weekend rather than having three kids put up the pieces. One child said, “the kids are supposed to do that!” I told her that this is the way I was doing things. I wonder if I should have elaborated and told her that different teachers do things differently or if I should have just sent her to take a break.

Friday, February 4th

Today was a hectic day. All the children from mine and another kindergarten class went snowshoeing in the morning. I was excited to go snowshoeing for the first time, but as teachers we all just monitored the kids and none of us even put on snow shoes. Most of our time was spent just getting the snowshoes on the kids and making sure they stayed on. The children were hard to control today and luckily I only had to teach morning meeting and dismissal so it went pretty good. We also had a guest speaker; Mr. Ding who talked about the Chinese new year. This was a great reminder for me about what the Chinese new year is all about.

Thursday, February 3rd

Today Mrs. Gibson went home halfway through the day. So for the afternoon I taught the children with a little help from the substitute checking their work at work time. Everything went pretty smoothly. I got through calendar and math and I feel the children have a good handle on their teens which was what I started teaching yesterday. We then made valentine bees. Mrs. Gibson recommended that I teach one step and then let the children work on that part of the bee, and then model the next step. I think this took a long time because many children were faster than others and would just sit for a while while the other children were finishing up. I tried to direct children who were all done with a step at a table to go on, but this was hard for them to hear and hard for me to tell everything that was important. I would have to get the children’s attention every few minutes so they could listen to the next set of instructions. There were two more pieces to glue on the bee and it was free time. I talked with the sub and the children had already had an extra play time so we decided to work through free time. The only other thing that was tough was that I thought Mrs. Gibson had already done the folders for the day (pack them with important sheets and fill out the communication chart for each child.) but she hadn’t. I gave all the children the papers but wasn’t able to get the communication charts done.

Wednesday February 2nd

Today I taught math and Morning Meeting. I was not very nervous about it for some reason! I was a little nervous but really didn’t get that unprepared feeling in my stomach. I was able to put a couple sticky notes to remind myself the order in which I do things such as calendar or what comes after morning meeting so that made me feel better and I referenced those a couple times to recall what I was supposed to do. The children were a little rowdy for morning meeting and I had to give a few warnings. At calendar time I gave out my first ‘take a break’ in which I simply tell the child who is misbehaving to ‘take a break’ and they go and sit on a chair and think about their actions. I was able to do this for a couple children and I think this prevented some of the children from acting out. During my math lesson things got a little chaotic when I tried to have three children pass out the materials and three different children collect the materials. Mrs. Gibson suggested I always make my line leader and caboose the helpers and then children aren’t coming up to me asking to help. And also to have the children be responsible for their own materials-getting and cleaning up. I feel pretty good about the lesson although I didn’t have enough time.

Tuesday February 1st, 2011

Today I had a day to observe mostly. All the kindergarten classes made valentines’ boxes in the gym this afternoon. This was sort of frustrating as all of the kindergarten classes together is A LOT of kids. I was able to help my kids work on their project and they all turned out well. I just need to remember that they aren’t going to be perfect and children sometimes need a little help. Today during daily five children asked me to sharpen their pencils which I did, until Mrs. Gibson told me that she doesn’t allow children to do that during daily 5! I had no idea! She told me it was partially the children’s fault because they knew better than to ask because this has always been the rule. It’s hard when those kids try and test you and you don’t know any better! I guess I just keep learning as I go.