AuburnChick's Adventures

Dear Blog,

I know you’re feeling neglected lately, but I have very good reasons.

See, there’s this little thing called “teaching,” which, for some crazy reason, I decided to immerse myself into.  My classes spent all week learning about textbook mapping…how to break down lengthy bulks of text into smaller, more manageable pieces.

First, we took a chapter from their science book and taped it on the wall…

Then, we took a tour of the pages and learned how chapter headings tell us what every page is about, section headings tell us what each respective section is about, headings break information down further, and subheadings form the smallest units of information.

Because we’re visual people, we circled the categories in different colors…right there on the wall…

You see, dear blog, people…namely young learners…tend to give up if a teacher tells them that they’re going to have a test on forty pages of material.  Students need to learn that writers organize information in certain ways to help them learn better.

We spent one day of the week doing the same exercise all over again, only this time, students worked in groups…

It was a little loud, but the noises were from students trying to work together to tape, circle, and fill out the worksheets that went along with the project…

The next day, students got to do this again…no group work…with a smaller portion of a chapter…just to check for understanding.

But that wasn’t all that we did in class…hence more reasons why I didn’t have much energy or time to write much this week.  See, a couple of weeks ago, I attended a Kagan training seminar, and what good is learning if you don’t put the new knowledge into practice?

So, my sweet friend, as in Barb, that is, stayed late after school with me, and we put my students into new groups, factoring in assessment scores, personalities, and discipline issues…

I put supplies into small boxes (thanks, Coupon Queen), so that students would have the markers they needed for the textbook mapping.  I also added pencils, because somehow kids eat them on their way to school and manage to show up to class without them.  The last thing that went into the boxes were highlighters and tape.  Each group had its own box…

As I closed my door late Wednesday afternoon, my room looked like this…

It was coming together, albeit slowly.

When I got home, I made color-coded notecards with each student’s name on it, listed according to class period.  I was nervous how my kids would react to their new seating arrangements.  To my surprise, they were extremely pleased.  Nine weeks of sitting beside the same people had gotten old…

Sprinkled into the week was an introduction to vocabulary.  I figured that it would be best not to assume that everyone knew the definitions for the parts of speech, so we had a review, and I wrote them down on sentence strips.  Look at me with my teacher handwriting…

I had purchased notebooks for my students…adding what I was lacking to what Coupon Queen had given me a few weeks ago.  She’s been very generous with the school supplies, and though I don’t always act like a good daughter-in-law, I am very appreciative of what she does for me.

I was assigned a TA (teaching assistant) this week, and I put him to use, organizing files, adding the labels to the notebooks, and going through my students’ hanging folders to organize their worksheets.

Thanks to Halloween, I had a surplus of candy, and I used it to thank my TA.

Oh gosh, but see dear Blog, you might think that despite the above going-ons (not a word, but I don’t care), I still could have squeezed out time to write, but see, I got a little emotional this week.

Barb was in my classroom a lot this week…modeling the textbook mapping lessons…observing my students in action.

Being a teacher with over twenty years of experience, she’s learned what is and isn’t acceptable behavior, and some of my kids…well…let’s just say that they needed some firm reminders that all would not continue as it had been.

It appears as if I’ve been too nice at times.  She helped me be nice to the students who want to learn by writing up kids whose actions went a little too far.

Still, it was a hard week, and my emotions got the better of me as I wrote up four students one day.  Three of them were easy.  The fourth one did me in.

My students are very special to me, and I’m trying desperately to reach every single one of them while giving them a quality education.

Some days just don’t work out that well, despite all good intentions.

Poor Barb.  She’s got the patience of a saint, and she’s been such an encouragement to me.  After I blubbered in her office Wednesday afternoon, she still returned to my classroom on Thursday, bearing these…

And yes, that’s a Starbucks cup you see.  After I’d drained if of the Peppermint Hot Chocolate (made with soy and no whip…still adhering to my vegan diet), I put the flowers inside.

Look how pretty they were, sitting in the front of my room…

Thursday was a better day.  It must have been the flowers.

Barb wasn’t at school on Friday.  Her son is a senior, and she had taken him to Southeastern for a tour and soccer tryout.  He’s an amazing player.  I’d like to think that while she’s been mentoring me with my teaching skills, I’ve been mentoring her on the letting go of children thing (I don’t think I’m doing a good job in this department…maybe she needs some flowers).

Anyhoo, we chatted on the phone after school, and she asked how I’d done without her.

Can I just say that Friday was AMAZING??!!  It must have been her leadership all week.  My kids, completely adapted to their new seating arrangements and my new techniques for getting their attention, were incredibly cooperative and thrilled with that day’s lesson.

We had a new kind of bellwork…making words out of the word “Thanksgiving.”  Making it into a contest, using a Kagan strategy to share the results, and offering candy to the victors got class started off on a positive note.

They watched the following School House Rock videos to refresh their memories about what nouns, adjectives, and verbs were…

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Then, we watched a video about prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  Their vocabulary for the while will be these all-important word parts.  Let me just say that my students LOVED the video!!

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After we finished watching this video, I showed them the video I had created to introduce their words.  First period was a little freaked out because it was my voice — only in a serious voice.  We stopped frequently to check for understanding and create sentences that contained the words…to help with contextual understanding…

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Discipline-wise, my students were excellent.  One of my students started to make a bad decision.  He’s been one that’s been challenging all year.  However, I nipped it in the bud by doing the following.  I took a Discipline Referral (DR) form, sat at the desk beside him, and proceeded to fill it in, leaving out the date and time.

I could see him watching me.  He even argued that he had not done such-and-such.

I simply pointed to the part I’d written about him arguing loudly with me.

Then, I looked over at him and whispered that he had the choice about whether or not I filled in the date and time.  If he chose to misbehave, those sections would be completed, and the DR would be turned in.  The alternative was to cooperate and complete his class assignments.

He made a good choice.  The DR is still sitting on my desk.

Small victories…which I shared with Barb on the phone.

So Blog, as you can see, my week was busy.  I mean, I haven’t even stopped to tell you about Podunk High School’s Senior Night.

I will.

Perhaps tomorrow.

If I have time.

I hope you’ll forgive me.  I still treasure our time together.  In fact, I feel a little like my students…about to burst with the desire to “talk.”

Don’t give up on me.  I’m doing the best I can in the hours that God allotted to each day.

Love,

Nathalie

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: Kagan, School House Rock, teaching | 4 Comments »