Some Blogs I found

There were two blogs that I thought were interesting. The first was run by first year teachers telling their experiences. http://www.ibabuzz.com/myfirstyear/
I thought this one was great because as a soon to be first year teacher I want an accurate look at what other teachers are dealing with.
The other blog shared ideas for activities to do with students. As new teachers we can't have enough ideas for projects to do with our future or current students.
http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/

Surprise, Surprise

One of the most surprising things about seeing the entire process of teaching come together into one entire school year is the constant juggling of time that takes place. Even on a regularly scheduled day there are variances in what it takes to accomplish a lesson or activity. I used to think as long as I had my lessons ready to go and knew what I would be doing I would be fine. I am constantly amazed at the attention and ability to adapt as the day is going so that the students are out to recess on time, at lunch on time, ready to go home on time, finish math activities and have time to clean up, go through our concerns for Make Your Day. Even the most detailed plans will need adjusting as the day progresses. Adding to this are the additional challenges of assemblies and half days or other schedule changes such as individual student leaving early or taking a different bus. I can see that it is easy to get caught up in the moment when things are happening in the classroom and lose track of the finely woven schedule that must come together. I admire the ability to make changes on the fly and make them appear seamless to the students. It seems that the better prepared you are for the day and the more comfortable with your curriculum the easier it will be to adapt if adjustments are needed.

Teachable Moments

Homes for the Environment SS Lesson
First graders learn about natural resources being used for building homes.

1. Short Term Learning Targets/Objective(s) for This Lesson: Students will be able to create a poster of an appropriate home for the environment they were given while working with a small group and share these findings with the class.
For this lesson students are put into groups of five and are given pictures of an environment such as a snowy field or tropical island. They must as a group design a home on a poster and then share it with the class.

2. I could tell that they really made the connection between what an environment has to offer and the type of home that could come from that area because of the posters they created. I was really impressed with the thinking they were doing. As I was walking around during the group work they were looking at their reading book and talking about what kinds of homes could work in their environment and why.

3. I immediately could see the need for a reteach because when we got to the sharing portion of the lesson it did not go very well. This was our first attempt at sharing as a group in front of the class and they were really wound up and did not want to settle down after the excitement of working together. During the share time many students were running around and waving their papers or discussing what they were going to do when they got up to share. I think many of them thought that each group was just presenting to me and they were not expected to listen. I could see right away that one they needed more time to wrap it up and plan their presentation and two they needed modeling and guiding on how to present both as a presenter and as an audience.

The next morning I talked to them after morning meeting about the hard work they did on their posters and how impressed I was with their homes that they built. I said I was concerned that they might have been busy doing other things and hadn't had a chance to hear about what their other classmates did to create their homes. We then went over audience expectations and I had all of the papers up front with me. I called them up one group at a time and assigned who would hold what and then asked them specific questions about what happened in their group and the home they made. This "redo" went a lot better and I could tell that they were really interested in what their classmates had done. I think everyone was very proud of what they had made after they had the chance to be recognized and applauded for.

4. Possible extension activities that I could do for this lesson are to add a writing element that could go up with their poster in the room. Each student could do their own writing or they could compose a paragraph as a group. I could also ask each group to design two possible homes or have them as an independent activity design another home that their group did not choose to do. One extension that I did do was to ask further questions about the home they designed such as specific building materials on different parts of the house and asking why they thought a certain shape of roof or type of door was better for their environment.

Overall it was a fun lesson and I would definitely do it again with another class.

Teaching Past and Present

While I was on vacation this summer in North Bonneville Wash. down along the Columbia River. We went to the Interpretive Center and one of the exhibits was on the history of some of the local schools. I took a picture of the nine rules a teacher must follow in 1872. It was amazing to me how this profession has not changed much in the many years that it has been around. Some rules when taken in a present day perspective are still applicable. I still see many teachers giving personal time to gather supplies for students and I believe we are all looked to by children and adults with the expectation that we will set a moral standard for those around us. Thankfully we have come a long way in other ways and though we may joke about it we do get more than a twenty-five cent raise!

The poster is a bit hard to see so I will type the rules below:

Rules for Teachers 1872

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys. (make copies, correct papers)

2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day's sessions. (extra supplies at the store bought with personal money, snacks for children so everyone has one)

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils. (differentiated instruction to accommodate all learners)

4. Men teachers may take one evening a week for courting purposes or two evenings a week, if they go to church regularly.

5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books. (Woodring students may do their homework)

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7. Each teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on Society. (don't rely on Social Security, set up your own 401K)

8. Any teacher that smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty. (you must now leave school property to use tobacco products, but I suggest you quit today because that stuff will kill you!)

9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

Growing as a Teacher

At the beginning of the year as I looked out on those eager young faces I was ready to teach them all about reading and writing and the wonders of science and social studies. I thought that was my most important job. I had gone over the EALR's and curriculum and knew what was expected of me, or so I thought. My biggest learning curve when working with first graders is that I also need to be a monitor of their basic behaviors in life. They need guidance on how to talk to each other in a respectful way, how to tie shoes, put on coats and zip up, use scissors and clean up after snack. We have created a little world that has its own government, economy and industry. I can now see that it is my job to teach these students how to live within a community so that they are more prepared for the world that they are going to be participating in. I previously thought that these ideas were going to come from the home. Many will come from parents and other mentors in their lives but I can see this is also largely my responsibility. This has changed my outlook because rather than only focusing on not pushing my personal ideals onto this class I must also be aware of the school wide ideals that I must be sure to promote.

Welcome!!

Hello everyone!

I am so happy that you have decided to look at my blog.  I hope you check out all of the interesting things we have been doing in 

Mrs. Higgy and Mrs. Lowe's Fantastic First Grade class.