Day 31: Time Will Tell

Well my students took the heredity test today. Only three people got 100%, and my the percentage of students over 80% was only 70% of my students. For tier one instruction that number is supposed to be 80% . Good news, I get to teach it again. I get to teach Mrs. Stewart's class and hopefully I can help them understand it better. This will make it much easier for me to gauge myself on how well I can improve. I will have to ask Mrs. Burton to send me the scores because I will not be here when the students take the test. By here, I mean America.

I expect I will be getting my hiking boots for Norway anyday now. And I will be getting some questions answered so that I can plan. I am excited for my first year (and the consecutive years after that) to know what it is I need to prepare so that I can start planning before hand. I read a well written article about one teacher who started planning in the summer and did a broad year long plan, then a month to month plan, and finally a week by week plan. I hope I can get to that eventually.

My cooperating teacher gave me a wonderful compliment yesterday and another one today. She told her husband that she didn't mind taking a day off while I was here because she knew everything would be taken care of. And today, she told me she was talking with the principal and told her that they needed me in their school. She also offered to give me a good word to the principal's and assistant principal's of some schools back where my family lives. I am sure my mom would love that. We'll see what happens.

I still don't know where I will be teaching come January. But I feel that that is to be expected. I need to start looking for jobs soon, but The ones that I really want, the full time teaching jobs, may not be available until closer to January.

Things to do in my first year

In my desk: tweezers, band-aids, scissors, rulers, hair ties, bobby pins, thumb tacks, basically a McGyver kit.  

Day 30: Surprise!

Surprise substitute today! My teacher's baby was sick so she was only there for half a day. While I do teach on my own every day anywhere, I am not sure what it is about Mrs. Burton not being that, but everything seems to be just a bit harder when she is gone. After lunch was when she left today. And after lunch went pretty well, overall I can't complain too much. I didn't even do anything different than I do on other days. I wonder if it is all just in my head. Will I feel that way when I start teaching in my own classroom?

In other news, I finished my first unit today. I hope the kids do well on their test. I thought I had put everything on there, but maybe I missed something. I guess that is what happens when I create my own unit.

My cooperating teacher from Norway also sent me a whole bunch of pictures and gave me some advice on what to wear! That makes me happy!

Day 29: 2 Weeks and Counting

Sometimes, I just wing it.
My cooperating teacher has been stepping out of the room, sometimes for the whole day. She is always close by, but almost never in the room. So I do everything. I very much enjoy this. But some days, I wish she was there so I could ask her questions.

I got an e-mail from my cooperating teacher in Norway with a small letter from her class. She just told me about a field trip they did to the dump and how they learned about recycling and such. She sent me a picture of her class and they are so cute! I am so excited to get to meet them! I am done with this part of my student teaching in two weeks, then it is onto Norway. It is getting so close!
I started looking through the English book and website they use in Norway. It seems to be pretty good, but it was all in Norwegian so... that didn't help me much. Maybe I should have one that would be the opposite of it.
The public library has a subscription to a program called Mango Languages and it is really pretty fantastic. My goal is to do one lesson a day. Maybe eventually I will be able to remember what I learn! I also want the students to know that they are not the only ones trying to learn a new language. I can make a fool out of myself trying to learn. And if I can do it, they surely can!
Leaving to another country is becoming more and more real. Yeah I spent all of the money, but I haven't see the fruits of that money yet! The time just keeps getting nearer and nearer!

Day 28: observations

I had my last observation by my supervisor today. She observed my Heredity lesson, which I have create from almost scratch. Once again, she had only positive things to say.
I love all of the encouragement, which I feel like I do need. But I wouldn't mind getting some constructive criticism. There is always something I could improve on and would love to see what that is from an outside perspective.
I think  I could improve on the noise level. I want the students to feel comfortable sharing and helping one another, but I don't want off-topic chatter. That seems like it will be a difficult thing to obtain, but maybe possible.
I also need to find a way to help these 5th graders figure out how to multiply a whole number by a decimal such as
 123
x2.5
The kids don't understand where to put the decimal. I need to find a way to help them understand!

Day 27: Thursday

Mrs. Burton often is gone for the entire day now, always in the building, mostly in the "middle room" but she leaves me in the classroom so that I can have free reign. I have really enjoyed this because it means that I get to experiment to see what works, and decide how I want to run my classroom in the future.
My lessons have been going well. I am just taking it one day at a time. Maybe one day I will be able to take it two days at a time. But for now, I am just relishing in the fact that I can get 6 lessons completed the night before. I have started to get a system down for how I do the different lessons. Math, I make a smartboard presentation. That serves as my lesson plan. I already have planned out what pages the students will be doing, so that works well. Then comprehension, guided reading and writing all come from the same ReadyGen book, so I go through those and write down what it is that I am supposed to do. Then plan my Heredity lesson, which I only have to do for 2 more days, then I will have them all for the next time. I enjoy my system.
I am so thankful for this experience! Student teaching in Mrs. Burton's room has been a wonderful experience and has opened my eyes. I think I would rather teach 5th grade than a younger grade. I would love it! I would love any grade, but 5th grade seems like such a challenge!

Day 25: This is Science

Alright. I have now had a day where I know why I love teaching. Everything didn't go the way I wanted it to, but the kids loved the learning we did today.
During science, we played a game where they had to put the traits into Learned Behaviors or Inherited Traits. When I told them to put the science stuff away, they gaped at me.
"This is science?"
"Yep," I said. "This is science."
"But that was fun!"
They really enjoyed what we did! Now I just need to find a way to make the rest of the time, just as fun! But different. I don't want to do the same things every day.

Day 24: Genes or Jeans?

Heredity... is not an easy thing to teach. And I need to discover a way to make it more interesting. I planned for a bunch of stuff today, took some out, and now I realize that I need to take out even more! We didn't get to half of the vocab words that I wanted to get to today. Maybe I should just have them up and they kids write them down at the beginning. Then mark everytime we use the words in our discussions. That may be a much better idea than what I was doing. I think I will try that tomorrow.

Mrs. Burton left the classroom during math today without telling me, on purpose. She wanted to see how I would handle the classroom. Overall I thought it went well, the noise level was good, the kids all got their work done. I didn't do a very good job of looking over the class as I was helping individual kids, but I can get better at that.

A pretty good day today, I learned that having too much to teach is better than too little, so long as you can prioritize.

Things to do my first year:

Decide how much noise I want in my room

If I am going to do transitions to music, what songs am I going to choose? Will it depend on the grade I am in? 

 

 

Day 23: One Step At A Time

Making things cute, fun, interesting, and educational is a full time job all by itself, let alone trying to teach it as well.
As I am going through this block of student teaching I am realizing that I learned a lot of good things from my level III classes, but so many of those things I won't be able to d until I am a 5th year or better teacher. And then there is just not enough time in the day for everything. I wish I knew how to fix all of the problems with our education system, but I have the beginnings of ideas, and on my own, those will never come to light. But this is why I have friends, co-workers, and mentor teachers. They can all listen and give ideas as well.

This weekend I am going to be making some booklets for our Heredity unity, and I am pretty excited about them, I basically need to go through all of it on my own tomorrow before I can teach it on Monday. I have so many things I need to do tomorrow. No time for anything else! I need an extra day in my weekend and no distractions, but when is that going to happen?

First Year of Teaching

- Know all procedures for the first day of school

- reward system all set up

- Have a skeleton of entire year with catch-up and bubble days worked in 

 

 

Day 22: By the Seat of Your Pants

Today I made an important discovery.

Planning is very important.

Especially for a teacher. Because even with a plan, we wing so much stuff. We have to just go with the flow, follow the train of thought of our students and teach them as much as we can. Sometimes the plan doesn't even happen. But because we had a plan, we know what should have happened and what needs to happen tomorrow so we can stick that part of the plan into a different part of the day.
That only happened 6 times today.
Maybe only 7 tomorrow.

I have made a lot of plans, only to discover that I don't like the way I planned it, or I need to cover more material, or I didn't get to cover previous material that now needs to be covered... So I have to make it up as I go, all the while still teaching these children that learning is interesting and important.

I think this is a very important thing to remember.

Things for the first year: 

Inquiry Based Lessons are well and good- but it is okay to do things a little more simple the first year.

Have extensions for early finishers

Make compliments specific and not attached to anything not applicable. "You are so smart!" "Wow! Your brain was working really well on this test, you must have studied so you could understand!"

Day 21: Pensive

Today was so much easier. Mrs. Burton was back, which helped the students want to behave better. I was still doing most of everything, but I didn't have to worry about it as much because she was there.
I am beginning to realize that I still don't really know what I am doing. Yes, I have been in school for a long time, I have been learning all of this stuff. But my chances to practice it have been rather limited. I have been in level II, level III, and now in level IV, but these experiences, while wonderful, have been limited. I have been in someone else's classroom with someone else's rules, classroom management, and set up. I don't know how I want to do a lot of things, but I do know that my first year of teaching will teach me more than I can imagine.

I have been thinking about Norway, and I sill don't know what I am going to be doing over there. I don't think it is going to be like student teaching here at all. Will I be able to take over? Possibly, but probably not as I can't speak Norwegian. I need to teach a unit about America over there, and I have a few ideas (national parks, books 4th graders are reading, favorite pastimes, a bit of US history, native Americans) But I am not quite sure how to put those into a unit, especially since I don't know when I will be doing any of this. I think it will be easier to create when I have finished my Heredity unit for Mrs. Burton.

Day 20: Double Hockey Sticks

Today .... was hard.
My teacher took the day off, so it was me and the substitute. But I was already planning on doing everything anyway.
I didn't think it would be as hard as it was.
It was HARD!
I felt like crying half way through the day, and then... we had inside recess.
Cherry. On. Top.
But my lessons went well, overall. My students were fairly well behaved and I did not break down and cry.
So I count today as a success.
During my math lesson I realized that the problem I had created for my students. I did a three term addition problem using decimals. Now, yes, it is possible. But there is no reason to confuse my students. So I pulled a pro teacher move and used it as a way to teach those kids how to separate the problem and solve it in a way that they knew how.
I also was teaching our science today wish is on measurement. We have been working with the metric system and I don't know how to teach that in a way that they will understand it. Maybe I should find a website that could help.

I think that today could have gone better if it was my own classroom. Part of the reason it didn't go well was because I didn't know everything that I was supposed to do until half way through the day. My teacher had to teach part of it to me and she didn't get to call me until just before lunch. If it was my classroom I would know what I was doing.
Today was not fun, however there are plenty of days that are wonderful and my lessons go well. I just need to look for those days.

Day 18: Planbook

Friday, half day.
Today we only had a half day for the students, which was probably for the best. It could have turned into a rough day.
A few things to talk about today.

Spiral Teaching. The 5th grade at my school does spiral teaching with their mathematics. This means that they his everything in their core very quickly, but they do it three times throughout the year. This means that the students all get every topic three times which cements it into their memory more than just teaching it once.

I had decided to not get a plan book from Erin Condren because it was so expensive and that I didn't need one right now. However, I am beginning to reconsider...

So I have decided that I need to get a planbook, but I don't want to spend that much money (though I could because I could use it for when I get a job in January.) But to Wal-Mart it is.

I have also been thinking about learning a language. I want to know how to speak a different language, not only will that help me but it will also help my students and their parents.

Another week done, another week on it's way. Next week I am teaching everything except for science, so I have a lot of reading material for this weekend.

Day 17: Loving 5th Grade

Today I could tell that I hadn't had enough sleep last night. My patience was thin and by lunch time, I was so frustrated with the students, with the little things that I can normally look past. But I did not get mad. I stayed calm and complete in control by thinking about the chocolate and peanut butter bar I had waiting for me at home.
Mrs. Stewart, the other 5th grade teacher, met me out at recess. She asked how I was dealing with the stress. I said pretty well.
"Is it more stressful than you thought it would be?"
"Yeah, but I also like it more than I thought I would."

For a while now I have been worried about older grades. I have worried that I wouldn't be able to understand or teach the content. I had decided I wanted to work with only with younger grades. But being in 5th grade... I love it! I love the older kids, the challenge of working them through problems. I do wish that I could help them fill the holes that have been there since 2nd grade, but I don't know how to do that yet.

I wonder how it would be to teach the same set of kids for  their entire school career. Then I could know that if there is a hole, it is my fault and maybe I would be able to know how to fix it. I would also know those kids and how they thought. That is how they do it in Norway. They teach 1-3 then go back to 1st, unless they want to go all the way up to 7th. Then they can. that would be both amazing and so difficult.

Okay, now onto my lessons.

I taught my Guided Reading today, and I thought it went better than the last two times I have done it. I was able to manage my time better, I payed attention to all of the students and what they were doing, and I also was able to better figure out what level my group was on so I could best help them.

During Writing, Mrs. Burton was observing me. I taught a lesson on sensory writing. I also made Magic Writing Pens. I told the students about my special pens that I had made.
"These pens make you write your best writing. When you write with them, everything you do is your best." You should have seen their eyes light up! They were so excited to use these pens (which are pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.) After I showed them the pens I taught them how to cross out while they were writing.
"These pens don't have an eraser. So you have to cross out." I gave and example of a good cross out and a bad cross out. I had them tell me why each was either good or bad.
I went through procedures of how to get our binders after recess, how to get their pens and where to put them until writing time. Then we had a Roller-Coaster Write.
A Roller-Coaster write is when you write for an amount of time, but you can't stop. Just like a Roller-Coaster, once you start you can't stop. I had to remind a few kids to keep going, but overall I think they enjoyed the analogy.
After the roller-coaster write I gave a mini lesson. I taught them to expand their sentences with sensory information. What does it look like, sound like, smell like, feel like, taste like? The example I used went with the write we had done. The kids had created their own fairy godmother. These are the sentences that I started out with and eventually ended up with.

She had a pink dress.
She had a sparkly pink dress.
She had a pink dress that sparkled and shimmered.
She had a beautiful pink dress the sparkled and shimmered marvelously.

They had to tell me what they saw, then use some big words. After we did this together I told them to pick one sentence from their Roller Coaster write and expand it using sensory images. They had to make me see it.  When I told them we were going to share tomorrow, they were so disappointed. But I was out of time.

Overall, I thought the lesson went really well, much better than my first one. I thought I did a good job laying out what to do (at least better than before) and getting them excited to write. All of them were writing! I remember my writing teacher telling us that kids will learn to love writing if they get to do it every day. If they can only do it twice a week, they will hate it.
I want to make sure that when I give them a task to do I give them one minute to think, they can't write, just think. Then give them the time to write. I also wish I had more time!

Mrs. Burton gave me these observations:
Strengths:

• Very explicit instructions and expectations
• Lesson was organized and well thought out making it easy for students to succeed
• Transitions were smooth, quick, and precise.

These were all things she had asked me to improve on, and I was very glad that I did!
Improvement:

• Watch for off task behaviors and redirect students to get more engagement.
• Don't be afraid to reward and punish

She suggested that next time I teach I give 5 rewards and 5 punishments.
As I continue to teach I am realizing that it is a whole ton of multi-tasking! That is what teaching is, and has to be, if the students are going to learn.

Day 16: Writing Magic

I am going to need to work on my classroom management. The kids will listen to me but it is not the same way that they listen to Mrs. Burton. I think I am going to need to be a little bit more strict with them.

I didn't get to do my writing lesson today, but I did get to see Mrs. Burton do a pre write, or a roller coaster write. It is where you do nothing but write for a few minutes. Then she had the kids share what they had written with their table. I made some "Magic Writing Pens" today. They are just regular pens that are a little bit fancy. When I give them to the kids I will tell them "These pens make your writing good whenever you use them." It will also solve the problem of them erasing. I am going to need to teach them that when they make a mistake, they have to put a single line through it and move on. This will also help them with their math timings I think. A lot of them are still erasing or scribbling out their answer. Just a line does it.

Tomorrow I am going to do my writing lesson, and it is going to be a mini lesson on using sensory words. For example: Their sentence could be "She saw the blue sky." We know exactly what happened, but we can't feel it, we can't see it in our mind, there is nothing to describe it. So I will teach it in two steps. Let's add some describing words. "She glanced up and looked at the sky, blue as the ocean." This is more interesting to read and begins to paint a picture with words. "She glanced up into the sapphire expanse that unfolded above her. " Much more descriptive and give a better image for the mind to imagine. I hope they will get it. I am only going to have them do it to one sentence.  Maybe I should call it expanding their sentence...

Day 15: Real Teaching Stuff

I taught two lessons today. I tried to prepare them well, but I have never seen how this program worked and was pretty nervous. Overall I did a good job, but I always have things I can improve on.

Writing:
the lesson was supposed to teach transitional phrases and the order of a story. I was supposed to use a flow map and use it to teach these things.
One problem. When I got up there... I didn't bring my notes with me. If I had a smart board program all set up with phrases that the students could put onto a flow map, that would probably work really well. I also think I should do more of a mini lesson for writing (Though I only had 15 minutes today so I guess that is a mini lesson).

Guided Reading:
I had two main groups of people, those who needed support and those who needed an extension. During Guided Reading time the students have 4 stations that they go to and mine is one of them. So I  got ready to talk about the book we are reading, Night of the Spadefoot Toads, and to compare the different settings. In the book it had two totally different activities for the support and extension groups. I didn't like that, so I decided to do them all the same. Overall the students were engaged and understood that Mrs. Tibbits acted differently at school than she did in the forest.
At the end of the day I looked at my notes... I wish I had brought them over with me. I had unconsciously created two very good lessons, one for the support and one for the extension, that were about the same thing just varied levels. And both of the lessons taught the lesson the book wanted to teach.  Tomorrow I will actually look at my notes.
Good news! Mrs. Burton said that I did a very good job pacing the groups spending only about 10 minutes with each one. I thought I did well with that too so I was happy to hear it from someone else.

Management:
Mrs. Burton's main concern was my management of the class. During writing she noticed quite a few people were off task and she suggested that I wander the room (Teacher Proximity). I am so thankful that she is willing to give me constructive criticism! She also suggested that I set my expectations at the beginning of the lesson. I.e. Have your notebooks at the top of your desk and your pencils put away until the lesson is done.
For guided reading she explained her expectations a little more. She wanted me to make sure that every group is on task, since there are four groups and I am only dealing with one at a time, that makes it difficult. But if I was in my own classroom that is what I would be doing anyway, may as well get used to it now!

I am nervous about Norway. I don't know what I am going to teach there or how the system works or what I am going to bring for my students. I don't even know what I will be able to buy at the store or if I even want to buy anything! I keep trying to plan ahead but I am not sure where to start.

Day 14: Unprepared?

I went to Back to School night last night. The parents all came and we told them the activities that their students get to do in the 5th grade, the discipline plan, and the rewards system. That was all well and good, the part that I was really struck by was the concerns the parents had.
Earlier that day a student had told me her stomach hurt. I assumed it was just a 5th grader trying to get out something. When her mother and she came to Back to School night she had just come from the ER to get her stomach checked out. Wow. That was much more serious than I had thought it was. This morning when the student came into school she said she had spent the night in the ER and couldn't have any gluten. I really got that wrong.
Another parent came up to my teacher and was concerned about the melt down her son had had earlier in the day (see yesterday's post). I discovered he had Asperger Syndrome and that answered a whole slew of questions I didn't even know I had. It explained why he was so upset about a punishment he had never seen issued, why he was upset when he had to run and couldn't use his inhaler before he ran(I had told him I use my inhaler before I run). I never would have known!
I realized that I have been worrying about the curriculum and such, but there is another entire side to teaching that I haven't even thought about!
When I asked my teacher about this she said it comes with experience. Unfortunately, I don't have any. Fortunately, I have so many people around me (and will have people around me) who do have experience. Having a team is so important! Especially with teaching!

Today was much smoother than yesterday and we introduced a new thing to the kids. Tiki Time. If they have finished all of their work for the whole week then they get to go play games for the last half hour of school, in the Tiki Room. If they have not finished then they have to stay in the classroom until they are done. This room has been fondly dubbed the Torture Chamber. The kids who were in the Torture Chamber only had to stay there until their work was done, then they could enter the Tiki Room. Those kids got their work done so fast!

Day 13: Unlucky

Perhaps it is because today was the 13th day of school, or maybe because it is Thursday. Whatever the reason, it was crazy today.
Temper Tantrums.
Noncompliance.
Not understanding.
I had at least two of each of these today. All different children.
One little girl came up with her paper and had the wrong answer.
"Where is your mistake?" Mrs. Burton asks.
"I don't know."
"Well, where is your work?"
"In my head."
At this moment you can practically see the eye roll.
"Go write your work down and do the problem again, come back when you are done and we will check it then."
The student goes back to their desk to complete the assignment.
She comes back with an empty paper and the same answer.
"Where is your work?"
"In my head."
She is told once again to go back to her desk and write her work out.
So she does. Once done, she come back with an empty paper and the same answer.
She is told to go and write down her work.
She comes back a fourth time with nothing written on her paper. Now this girl knows how to do the problem, but there is a simple math function that is messing her up and she won't be able to find it until she writes it down. But that would be much to much effort.

The students are all outside running two laps around the green at the end of recess. One student is not running.
"Run please!" I call to him, making certain that he can hear me from across the field. He looks up, then has a complete transformation. He screwed his face up, stomped his feet ferociously against the ground and screamed viciously before continuing to walk as if nothing had happened. I don't know that I have ever seen that kind of a reaction before. This same child became so emotionally volatile during instruction time we were forced to have him go to the principal's office for the rest of the day.

We have been working on measurement for a week and a half. Metric and Customary systems and how to change between the different units. (Unfortunately we do have to teach both, but such is life) Today we gave a short assessment to see who we needed to help before the test tomorrow. 5 students completely understood the information. That left 21 students who didn't get it. 21. Mrs. Burton and I split a few of the students and set to work trying to fill some of the holes. When we came back together, half an hour later, we exchanged a disheartened look. Neither of us had been able to help the students understand how to convert between units. She raised her hand to mine in a high five. "At least we can fail together." she said.

Today I have learned that not every day is a good one. Some days are craptastic. Some days are boring. And some days, you just have to know that you will never have to live it again.

Day 12: Feelin the Length of the Year

Warning: This post will be choppy because of all of the things I want to say and the need to get them out!

The rest of the student teachers came today and had a meeting with the principal. I didn't go because I already knew everything she was going to tell them. But I went up to ask her if I needed to attend, just in case. She told me no, but then she said something interesting. We were talking about 5th graders and getting them to pay attention.
"Be glad you aren't here in the spring semester when the hormones are going crazy." How would I deal with that? I mean, these kids will be starting to go through an emotionally tumultuous time that will last until their late twenties! How do I even get them started down that road! Sometimes I worry about teaching because I don't know the curriculum, but teaching is so much more than that. I have to teach them math, science, how to mature well, and sometimes basic social skills. It is much more like being a mother than a 3rd interested party.

Cheating... how do I want to deal with it in my class? I have been in classes where it was only addressed in a one on one basis and in classes where the teacher talks to the whole class about it. It would probably depend on the grade level as well as how many career cheaters I have. Besides. "Cheetah's never prosper!"

Mental math is SO important! I am realizing just how important it is as I am struggling to put problems together in my mind when students are already bringing their completed papers up to me! But Mental Math is MOST effective when the student still knows why and how it works. Not just that it works. (Here is a few online sites to practice math facts. Play Kids Games  Flex Math)

I went to a faculty meeting today, and it was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought it would be teachers discussing their students, patting themselves on the back for getting through another month, or maybe even a mini UEA type convention. Nope. It was more of the same. How can we help these students? How can we reach those?
They split up the teachers into different committees and each was in charge of something different. They each had to make goals and determine how those goals would be reached by the end of the year, and how those goals would help the students in the school. Not just the students in one teachers class. The students in the entire school.
Our group was the data group, in charge of collecting and reporting the data we get from each grade to the rest of the school. One thing we focused on was ESL students. My teacher noticed that ESL students in 5th grade were stuck on a 2nd-3rd grade reading level. So we discussed why that might be, how we could solver it and how we can use the data to earlier discover the children who might need help.
We also discussed the date from math groups throughout the school. Most grades (except 5th who has a pre-test in addition) has a checkpoint then an end of unit test. At the checkpoint to do a re-teach for those students who need it. I like the idea of the pre-test, this way the students who already know the material, or just need a slight refresher, don't have to go through the entire first section with everyone else.

Also, I love being called "Teacher." It is a wonderful term that I feel is honorary.

Day 11: Things to Consider

What does being On Task mean? My teacher has a video she found that explicitly explains how to be On Task. But when should I introduce this to my students? The first day and then reteach it as needed.

What are the differences between 5th and 2nd grade? The last classroom I was in was 2nd grade. I do have to remember that the teacher I was with was intimidating and had a completely different teaching style than I would ever want. She was not very organized and did things that she had been doing for the last 20 years. Sometimes those things work, but with other things... it is time for a change. As I have been in this 5th grade classroom I have realized... there is not a whole lot of difference. When I ask for deeper thinking I still get blank looks. When I expect something it normally gets done. When I ask for attention, no one looks at me. The attention getters like "One, two three, eyes on me!" "One two! Eyes on you!" I think that would work so well with this class, as long as I taught them explicitly how it worked. "When I say 'one, two, three, eyes on me.' You freeze and find me in the room while you are saying 'one, two! Eyes on you!' "Then make them practice it over and over and over. Maybe that is what this class needs. They need to know we are serious about doing things right the first time. Mrs. Burton is very strict, sometimes I am amazed at how strict she is, but maybe she is not strict enough? At least right now. Maybe sticking them to the little procedural things today would make it easier tomorrow. But then again, she has been doing this a long time. I'll think on that some more.

At every school I have ever taught at or attended, if the work is not done, the student stays in for recess until it is done. I strongly disagree with that. These are children. They aren't made to sit still for 5 hours with one 30 minute break and one 5-10 minute break. No wonder these poor fifth graders can't focus in the afternoon! Today we gave them a 20 minute recess and made them run two laps around the grass. Those kids can run, and they needed to get their heart rates up. I know that unstructured play time in necessary, however I also think that these 5th graders might not actually get moving without me telling them to do some sort of activity.
So, it is now established that children need to move. But if they can't stay in from recess, then when else do they get their work done? There is not enough time in the day, there is not always someone at home who is going to help them do their homework, and many times those students who don't get their work done are having trouble at home and can't get their homework done there anyway. So when?

When do I reteach? If there is not enough time in the day for regular things, how do I put MORE things into it!