My first day interning at Toledo Blade went very well. I was surprised to see that Mrs. Irish was still in the same room from when she was my teacher. I was like "Oh my gosh that's where I used to nap!" So Mrs. Irish remembers me, which is good. We discussed her classroom procedures and what she would like to have me do with the kids. Today I helped students one-on-one with some worksheets that focused on word pronunciation. As expected, some of the kids did very well while others seemed to struggle, which was a bit challenging.
Today I spent the first hour observing Mrs. Irish teach in the classroom. The letter of the day was "v". She read a story with many "v" words in it, and the kids had their own booklet and highlighted all the "v" words. The second hour I was with a group of 3 kids, and they took turns reading a story. I helped them sound out a few words. I also played a phonics game with some kids, where you show them a picture and there would be a letter missing in the word and they had to find the letter in a box. Most trouble was with the letters in the middle rather than at the beginning or end.
This was a very interesting day of internship. To start off, I taught some of the kids how to tie their shoes. One of the girls, Madelyn, is a very fast learner and she got in like 3 or 4 tries. However, Jeremiah couldn't get pass the knotting stage. I got frustrated and Mrs. Irish told me not to worry about it. So after that, we played number bingo, and then more kids had an opportunity to read to me. Bella (oh my gosh she is cutest little girl you've ever seen!) reads very well. Akim seems to get distracted a lot and he'll randomly say words without even looking at the page. I wish to learn how to deal with those kinds of kids with better patience and knowledge of how to walk them through it.
Friday was mostly spent getting lessons ready for Mrs. Irish. This included creating booklets of math pages for each student, cutting out pictures and organizing them, and going to the library to check out books about transportation. The other thing I did was testing the kids to see if they could count to 100 by 2's, 5's, and 10's. That was really easy for them.
On Monday Mrs. Irish demonstrated giving tests to the kids, and I gave the tests to them which were mostly about you saying a word and them picking it out and showing them pictures and they find the one with a certain letter sound. I really enjoyed doing that. Then for the remainder of the time I played a letter sounding game with three different groups of kids. But I recently learned that I will not be with Mrs. Irish anymore, but rather with a 1st grade teacher. I am disappointed, but I will try to make this a positive opportunity for me and my internship.
Sorry about having to change teachers. Still, you sound very interested in helping the kids, which is great. It seems like you will be a good teacher, very involved in your students' learning process. You'll probably get over any problems with frustration as you get used to dealing with kids every day.
I hope you do well with your new teacher; good luck!
Today was my first day with my new teacher, Mrs. Hunter. She is really nice and was interested in my teaching career, my plans for college, etc. She asked some of the same questions Mrs. Irish asked, and when I answered she was very understanding. When I arrive around 1:00 each day, her class is in the computer lab working on math and reading skills. Then they go back to the classroom at 1:30 for math and writing lessons. So I just observed, and a conclusion that I reached is that first graders have a greater attention span than kindergartners, so Mrs. Hunter could stay on a lesson for awhile as opposed to Mrs. Irish since she was constantly having the kids move from their desks to the floor.
So today I pretty much observed like I did yesterday. After the computer lab, Mrs. Hunter gave a lesson to her students about how to tell time. Of course, you have to start with the basics and it takes awhile for them to understand. She only got through explaining what the hour and minute hands are, and how to tell when it is like 1:00 or 1:30, no 1:15 or 1:45 yet. I've been noticing that children this young need a lot of reassuring, such as "I see that Samantha is waiting patiently, good job Samantha." That part makes me a little nervous because it requires walking around the room when giving a lesson to be sure everyone is on task and participating. Towards the end I got to hold up index cards that say a time, and they would have to put that time on their own little clock. That was pretty fun.
its cool how your dealing with different kids and realizing the difficulty of teaching them. like when Akim gets distracted and you dont how to deal. its interesting.
OMG THAT IS SO SCHOOL U FOUND THE SPOT WHERE U USE TO NAP AT LOL !!!!!!! BUT I THINK THAT ITS CUTE THAT YOUR WORKING WIT LITTLE KIDS I HOPE U CONTINUE TO ENJOY UR INTERN.
So I tried posting this on Monday, but my computer was being lame lol. Anyway...
On Friday I graded two sets of tests: one was about telling time, and the second was about adding coins and other things that have to do with money. Grading papers is always fun for me so I'll be glad to do it anytime :) Other than that I just watched how Mrs. Hunter reviewed before the test and how she gave the test so that everyone was on the same problem at the same time.
Monday was kind of boring because there was a sub, and since I haven't been doing this for that long I didn't really know what to do. I sat there and felt helpless :( Especially when we went to the library and the kids picked out books, I was like okay what am I supposed to do... so we went back to the classroom and the sub continued with the subject of time. I wasn't really doing anything so I left at 2:15.
Yesterday I did a lot besides just observing. While in the computer lab, Mrs. Hunter calls the students up to fill out a bar graph of previous scores that they have received in reading and math. So that was my job. It was pretty easy. I also administered a test to Jordan who had been absent when the rest of the class took it. Then I organized books that some of the kids ordered from the scholastic book fair thing- I so remember ordering books from it! :)
Today in my internship I gave two more tests about money to the same kid (he was absent for like a week idk why though) and graded them when he was done. I also put all of the hw sheets into every child's folder, and just organized some other sheets and such for Mrs. Hunter. While I was doing all of that, I would watch to see what Mrs. Hunter was doing, and the writing lesson really caught my attention. She gave them a topic to write about, which was: abby and hailey go to disney and mickey was missing. She explained how important it is to have characters, a setting, and a problem in your story. I thought that was pretty neat, I could see myself doing that someday :)
So last week on Friday I instructed the class in a game of time bingo. I would say a time and then they would find the clock with that time on their bingo card. I could tell that they really got excited when they found a time, so games like this are a great way to reinforce their learning skills. After that I actually got to intern with Mrs. Irish for an hour because her reading block that I was interfering with before ends at 2, so her and Mrs. Hunter agreed that I could go over there on Friday's. I'm so stoked about that! While I was there I tested some kids to see if they could write the numbers 1-20.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty much the same because there was a sub since Mrs. Hunter is sick. Hopefully she will be at school tomorrow because all I did was observe. You have no idea how much I wanted to help but it would have been really awkward.
you know i wanted to be an elementary school teacher, until i went to have lunch with my sisters when they were in kindergarten and then i was just like no. i agree it does feel awkward when your not with the instructor you're used to. but it seems like you are enjoying what you do and thats one of the points to this whole opperation.
Today was a fun day for me. I started out by doing what I usually do in the computer lab: having the kids graph their scores. Then some of the kids got the chance to present their math project, which was creating a game that incorporates math skills such as adding and subtracting, fractions, greater than or less than, etc. It was really cool to see all the different games and Mrs. Hunter had told me that all she heard the entire day was, "Are we going to present our projects?" Haha. Little kids are so cute I love them! My creative side is definitely going to kick in when I assign interesting projects like this :)
After that I graded some homework assignments and I even got to review an addition sheet with the students. It made me a little nervous though because you know how you go through what you want to say and do in your head, but when you actually do it, your brain just like freezes and then you have to say something else? Well I had it all planned out how I was going to review with them, like if I called on someone and they gave me a wrong answer, I was gonna be like "No, that's not right, and do you know what you did wrong?" But instead when someone got it wrong, I was just like "No, who knows the right answer?" See what I'm saying? I know I'm still learning but I hope by the end I will have mastered this skill. :)
So on Friday after the computer lab, more students presented their math projects. As Mrs. Hunter graded them, I also graded them to compare scores. Usually I was only a couple points away. Then at 2 I went over to Mrs. Irish and she said that the teacher next door, Mrs. Westmorland, needed help. So I tested her kids until 3.
I had a great time on Monday. Helped in computer lab and then I organized some papers and things while talking more to Mrs. Hunter about my future and just normal things for a conversation. She's a really nice woman so I liked that. Then she let me play some of the math game projects with the kids! Of course, there was some cheating going on, but you'd be surprised how much they know :) For the last half hour I observed their writing block.
Today the computer lab was closed, so I went right to the classroom. They were watching March of the Penguins! I was like yesss I love this movie. So I watched it while grading some homework papers and helping Brennan with a short writing prompt. Throughout the movie, Mrs. Hunter had to explain why some of the penguins were dying and things like that. When it was over, we played the games again. Nobody paired up with Samantha so when I was done with my work I played the game with her. Her face is so cute when she's thinking :)
Didn't get a chance to post this on Friday because I was doing a lot of scholarship stuff and I complete forgot about it haha.
But the score reports weren't in, so in the computer lab I talked with Mrs. Hunter. It's definitely gotten alot easier to have a conversation with her. Then I graded tests and helped Mrs. Hunter brainstorm ideas for the next project. At 2, I went over to Mrs. Westmorland and tested her students as usual. Testing is becoming a bit boring, so I hope every once in a while it will be different.
Okay, so unless I say that I didn't do the work in the computer lab, I did it. I'm tired of writing it every single time! Besides that, Mrs. Hunter didn't have anything else for me to do. So I just observed while I did some homework. I noticed that when she gave the students discipline, she asked them what they were supposed to be doing and why they weren't doing it. It was funny, Jordan came up to me and asked me what I was doing and I was like "american government homework" and she's like "do you have to answer all those questions?" and i'm like "yup" and she's like "wow, there's alot of questions on there!" :) these kids have no idea what high school is like. Oh, and I ran into my old 3rd grade teacher! She said "Hey I remember you" and told me that I was a really good writer :) Apparently her and Mrs. Hunter are friends and their kids go to the same daycare. What a small world.
Tuesday: Spent almost the whole entire time putting a bar code sticker on all of Mrs. Hunter's books. There were 3 full shelves of them! Then I only had time to grade some tests. So it was kind of a boring day.
Today: Was better. Didn't help in computer lab- no reports. So I asked Mrs. Hunter if I could go on the computer because I wanted to see how many words I had done for my creative writing story (had my flash drive), and she didn't care. We were supposed to have 15,000 words done today, and I had 14,600 something. I was like mann if I had stayed up just a half hour longer last night... (I didn't go to bed until 2). In the classroom I organized more scholastic book orders, and I had to cut out some pieces of paper using a ruler for a game that they played. The last few minutes, Mrs. Hunter read a book about penguins. I always like to hear teachers read, so that I can play back how they read and emphasize certain words in my mind, but with my voice. There are places where you comment and places where you pause to ask questions. I was very impressed with the answers the students gave.
Oh I forgot something! The students also shared the wishes they had wrote down the other day on a four leaf clover handout. I had done the worksheet too, and shared my wishes to the class: 1- i wish my parents would stop smoking (the kids were all like "aww") 2- i hope to visit paris someday. Mrs. Hunter said "Cool, and where is Paris?" "France, I answered." 3- i wish i could have a cat because i have 2 dogs and they wouldn't get along very well. 4- i want to become an elementary school teacher :)
This Monday was better than the last. After the lab, we went to the library and I showed Mrs. Hunter my agenda book and class picture from 3rd grade that I found while cleaning my closet over the weekend. I was hoping to see Mrs. Tarsek, my 3rd grade teacher because she has planning during that time, but I'll continue bringing them on Mondays until I see her :)
I put the homework papers into the kids' folders, and then Mrs. Hunter proposed something new that I love doing! She's going to give me a few books each day to read and then I will write about 5 questions that her students can answer about each book. It's very helpful because when you read a book, you have to pause every once in awhile to ask a question so that they are understanding the book, so by doing this I am learning what kinds of questions to ask. It's very fun :)
The math lesson for today was about measuring things in feet, inches, and centimeters. Mrs. Hunter would ask which one to use for measuring a certain object, such as a crayon or the active board. She let the kids get involved in measuring from one end of a groups of tables to the other, and she explained to them that the best way to do that is feet, but she also showed them how to measure it in inches and centimeters (12 inches equal one foot, and it was 10 feet from one end to the other). They seemed surprised by all the big numbers.
Today for most of the time I wrote questions for about 10 more books, and then I organized papers and such again. Mrs. Hunter continued with her math lesson of measuring things, and she explained how using rulers is standard measurement because it was made to measure things, and using other things to measure such as beads (which was on a worksheet they did) is nonstandard measurement since they weren't made to measure things. For the writing, the kids had to use some words from a list to create "super sentences"- sentences with a who, when, where, and an action verb. The example she gave was: The old lady scratched her ankle last night at the party. "Her ankle" isn't one of the 4 things, but Mrs. Hunter explained that you're going to have words that don't fit them for your sentences to make sense.
I had a great time today. While in the computer lab, I helped Jordan (a girl) with a math problem. It felt good to explain it to her in a way that she can understand. Something you should know is that when the students do well in math and reading, the program on the computer automatically bumps them up to the next level. So some kids are actually on levels that they would normally have in 3rd grade. One girl came across a problem that involved finding the perimeter of a rectangle. Of course she has never heard of that term before, so Mrs. Hunter explained it to everyone when we got back to the classroom. I wrote more questions for books, organized their homework, and separated the scholastic book order forms.
One thing that Mrs. Hunter was doing with the kids that seemed fun was coming up with ideas for a play that they are going to be doing in April. The ideas were narrowed down to a setting in a school or a setting in an ice cream shop. Which idea do you think got the most votes? Ice cream! Duh! Haha :) So then they worked on coming up with a problem. The result was that the power would go out and the ice cream would melt because the freezer could no longer keep it cold. I loved hearing all the ideas that the kids came up with. Like one kid, I don't remember who, said someone could lose their tooth when biting into the cone and accidentally end up swallowing it. Mrs. Hunter and I thought that was pretty funny.
I think that teaching is pretty coolio. I would not do well though teaching everything like reading and math. I would probbaly screw up on some subjects. I give Major Props to you on that. Which grade are these Kiddies in?
Katie: The kiddies are in 1st grade, and I'm nervous about screwing up with teaching, mostly with math. Because you have to explain it to them in a way that they can comprehend, so I feel I would be better teaching them reading. But hey, everyone makes mistakes and after my first few years of teaching I should have it down pat :)
Well today was a rather boring day because after the lab I graded tests, and then it was time to go over to Mrs. Westmorland to test her kindergartners. I did get a cupcake though because it was a girl's birthday. Yum :)
Aw, It sounds like you have fun going there. I bet 1st grade is one of the harder grades to teach at elementary school because its so hard for the children to comprhend the material. I think I would want to be a reading teacher too. It seems like you are very passionate for kids and about becoming a teacher.
On Monday I graded tests, organized papers, and filled out forms for the kids so they can go to a stone crabs game. You had to fill out their address and I noticed that Hailey lives really close to me, and I recognized her dad's name and I'm like wait...I think I baby sat for them before! I asked my dad and he's like yeah you did but it was only for Kerstyn, Hailey's sister. That's pretty sweet haha.
Today I was very busy. The computer lab was closed and it will be for the rest of the week. I finished grading the tests as well as the questions for all of the books Mrs. Hunter gave me. Then I typed up all of the questions on her laptop. While doing everything, Mrs. Hunter taught more about "super sentences", and for math the kids each got their own white boards, wrote down the problems, and followed Mrs. Hunter as she solved them. Then they tried some on their own. The bonus subtraction problem was in the thousands- holy cow! :)
I was in a crummy mood today until my internship :) The only work I was able to get through was grading tests about reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar. The test was 65 questions long. I think the lowest score was like 52 or something, most of the kids got between 55 and 60, and the highest was 63. That is pretty amazing! And you would think so too if you saw the types of questions. After that, I watched as Mrs. Hunter was explaining a narrative for them to write. The topic was having a super power. So they would create a problem, and after the characters in their story tried solving it, you would enter in as a super hero and use your power to solve the problem. I read some of them, and Mrs. Hunter could tell I was amazed and we got on the subject of how smart the kids are. Finally, I listened to her read a story and her expressions made me laugh :)
Well on Friday I spent the first hour grading more tests and homework and then putting more homework into the folders. Man I used to love grading but now I'm not so sure! lol. The class was talking more about the play and assigning roles, but there were more kids than there were roles in the play, so they wrote a poem which some kids will present. It didn't really go to well because all the kids wanted to be in the play, and Mrs. Hunter was getting frustrated. Some kids were like ok I'll do the poem but then they wanted to switch back and everything was getting out of hand, so Mrs. Hunter was like alright to be fair I'm just gonna pick names. Which that made Hunter upset because he was in the play at first but Mrs. Hunter pulled his name...he literally looked like he was going to cry. I felt so bad that I was gonna be like I'll skip school and help read the poem, but then Hailey was like I can switch to the poem so Hunter doesn't have to. Everyone clapped for her, it was great. The second hour I tested Mrs. Westmorland's kids.
No computer lab Monday. Went to the room and they were playing the game where one person goes around the room to each classmate to see who can answer a math problem the fastest, and whoever got it moved on. I loved playing that game haha. Anyway, the work I did involved putting all the names of the kids and the april dates they will be at school on their graphs for the reading and math scores, stapling together the sheets for their play with all of their lines on it, and then finally finishing typing up all the questions for the books.
Today there was computer lab. Then it took me the rest of the time to write down vocab words and the definitions on index cards. There was a lot my hand started hurting! I was surprised at some of the words they learned that I didn't even know until like middle school, such as "unrelenting," "indecisive," "chided," etc. The class came up with more memories for their poem, one of which was about me joining them. I was like aww yay I feel special :)
It seems like you are very busy helping the teacher out so she can get all of her work finished on time. This is probably really helping you see how hard a teachers job can be. Thats good those children are learning those big words now so they are smarter when they get into higher grades.
Thursday and Friday were both spent testing Mrs. Westmorland's kids. Mrs. Hunter's class went on a field trip Thursday, and when I arrived on Friday, Mrs. Hunter said she didn't really have anything for me to do. The tests I gave to the kindergartners involved counting, money, sight words, and answering questions to a short story after I read it to them. I had time to grade about half of the tests.
Aw sounds like you enjoy your internship. So do you really think this is going to be what you want to do. I like how you get to give the kids tests, sounds very hands on.
Yes, Jordain, i know this is what i want to do. I love working with kids so much :)
Today I graded tests, put homework into the folders, cut out some shapes that were laminated for something that i don't know, and finished making the vocab index cards. I watched some of the kids present another project where they got to choose from like 5 different things such as autobiographies and creating your own animal. I loved Jilian's animal- it was called the Boogly Woogly lol. It eats little kids...so I guess we're all safe :)
shouldnt you know why they were laminated? i mean that could have been a very important factor. how, i do not know but hey. so you want to work with little elementary kids for a living do you. personnally i couldnt handle it. i went to one of the lunches there and the amount of kids was just overwhelming. i can actually see you as a lower grade level teacher though.
Yesterday, I got to the computer lab and the scores were not printed because of the updates. Mrs. Hunter said I would be bored if I stayed because all they were doing after that is going to the Cafeteria to practice their play. So, I went to help Mrs. Westmorland with more testing. I also played a sight word bingo game with 3 of the kids. They had fun, so I had fun :) Also, there was a code yellow practice drill and there was some trouble getting the kids to cooperate and stay quiet. You definitely have to be patient with them in those situations.
Today was one of funnest days of my internship because we got to watch Wall-e! That movie is so adorable :) It kind of has to do with trash, picking it up, and it makes you appreciate things which goes along with Earth Day. Another 1st grade class joined us to watch the movie, and...it was very interesting to hear Mrs. Hunter and the other teacher talk to say the least haha. I kept laughing and commented to some things which made me get distracted. But the work I did was a lot of cutting of papers that were laminated, and also organizing the vocab cards I had made into groups of 10.
And I'm going to see their play tonight in the cafeteria at 6:30! Yay, it will be cute :)
How did you do it? I would be very distracted and the work they assigned me would not get done. I love kiddie movies and i wish we could watch it in high school. I read alot of your blogs and it seems like you like it there. First graders are your thing. lol. How was their play?
aww i love wall-e :) That is such a cute movie. It probably teaches all of the kids how to clean up after themselves too which is always appreciated in elementary school.
Another day with the sub. There was no work that I needed to do, and I wasn't just going to leave, so I stayed until 2:30 watching the lessons. The math worksheet involved the "how many different ways can these be arranged" type thing, and for writing they did a narrative. I still haven't gotten a chance to take pictures for my power point, or to get the time sheet signed. Hopefully Mrs. Hunter will be there Thurs.
idk how you put up with kids i hate kids i could not deal with their annoying little messy fingers and just ughhh i commend u for having the patience to deal with kids i hate kids
Last Thurs: If I remember correctly i graded homework and organized papers. Oh and I made matching cards for words and their contractions for a game. I got a chance to take some really cute pictures :)
Last Fri: Went to kindergarten where I also took some pictures and i popped popcorn for them while they watched arthur. Then i tested some kids.
Today: No computer lab because the class among others were outside by the bus loop watching firefighters give a presentation about what they do, etc. Went back to room where I just graded tests while watching Mrs. Hunter give a lesson about probability.
Friday was my last day with kindergarten. It was so cute, they had a "party" to celebrate it. There was popcorn and apple juice haha. Mrs. Westmorland and Mrs. Irish gave me a thank you card, and I said goodbye to them after I helped Mrs. Westmorland organize some paper.
Yesterday (Monday) was the day of the not so happy sub :/ Really, I don't know what her deal was. I couldn't wait to leave.
Today was a fun and productive day. I entered some grades in the computer, and taped up some boxes for when Mrs. Hunter has to take everything out of the classroom. I also took some more pictures. I can't believe Thursday is going to be my last day. I'm going to miss interning with the class :/
Oh my gosh the kids made me cards! :) My favorite one is by Abby: "Good luck in college. Don't be scared when you leave your parents!" Riiightt... but that's so sweet. I had an amazing last day with Mrs. Hunter's class, I wish it wasn't over. Like why is everything coming to end?! It's so depressing! lol.
Anyway, I got to play games with them involving time and money. I sorted out scholastic book orders and put hw in the folders. Then it was time to go and they pretty much tackled me lol. I am so glad I chose to do this :)
OMG!!!! AWWWW! Incrediably sweet, wow little kids are so cute. Don't be depressed just look foward to all the fun you will have in college and in your future career.
My first day interning at Toledo Blade went very well. I was surprised to see that Mrs. Irish was still in the same room from when she was my teacher. I was like "Oh my gosh that's where I used to nap!" So Mrs. Irish remembers me, which is good. We discussed her classroom procedures and what she would like to have me do with the kids. Today I helped students one-on-one with some worksheets that focused on word pronunciation. As expected, some of the kids did very well while others seemed to struggle, which was a bit challenging.
ReplyDeleteToday I spent the first hour observing Mrs. Irish teach in the classroom. The letter of the day was "v". She read a story with many "v" words in it, and the kids had their own booklet and highlighted all the "v" words. The second hour I was with a group of 3 kids, and they took turns reading a story. I helped them sound out a few words. I also played a phonics game with some kids, where you show them a picture and there would be a letter missing in the word and they had to find the letter in a box. Most trouble was with the letters in the middle rather than at the beginning or end.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting day of internship. To start off, I taught some of the kids how to tie their shoes. One of the girls, Madelyn, is a very fast learner and she got in like 3 or 4 tries. However, Jeremiah couldn't get pass the knotting stage. I got frustrated and Mrs. Irish told me not to worry about it. So after that, we played number bingo, and then more kids had an opportunity to read to me. Bella (oh my gosh she is cutest little girl you've ever seen!) reads very well. Akim seems to get distracted a lot and he'll randomly say words without even looking at the page. I wish to learn how to deal with those kinds of kids with better patience and knowledge of how to walk them through it.
ReplyDeleteFriday was mostly spent getting lessons ready for Mrs. Irish. This included creating booklets of math pages for each student, cutting out pictures and organizing them, and going to the library to check out books about transportation. The other thing I did was testing the kids to see if they could count to 100 by 2's, 5's, and 10's. That was really easy for them.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday Mrs. Irish demonstrated giving tests to the kids, and I gave the tests to them which were mostly about you saying a word and them picking it out and showing them pictures and they find the one with a certain letter sound. I really enjoyed doing that. Then for the remainder of the time I played a letter sounding game with three different groups of kids. But I recently learned that I will not be with Mrs. Irish anymore, but rather with a 1st grade teacher. I am disappointed, but I will try to make this a positive opportunity for me and my internship.
ReplyDeleteSorry about having to change teachers. Still, you sound very interested in helping the kids, which is great. It seems like you will be a good teacher, very involved in your students' learning process. You'll probably get over any problems with frustration as you get used to dealing with kids every day.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do well with your new teacher; good luck!
Today was my first day with my new teacher, Mrs. Hunter. She is really nice and was interested in my teaching career, my plans for college, etc. She asked some of the same questions Mrs. Irish asked, and when I answered she was very understanding. When I arrive around 1:00 each day, her class is in the computer lab working on math and reading skills. Then they go back to the classroom at 1:30 for math and writing lessons. So I just observed, and a conclusion that I reached is that first graders have a greater attention span than kindergartners, so Mrs. Hunter could stay on a lesson for awhile as opposed to Mrs. Irish since she was constantly having the kids move from their desks to the floor.
ReplyDeleteSo today I pretty much observed like I did yesterday. After the computer lab, Mrs. Hunter gave a lesson to her students about how to tell time. Of course, you have to start with the basics and it takes awhile for them to understand. She only got through explaining what the hour and minute hands are, and how to tell when it is like 1:00 or 1:30, no 1:15 or 1:45 yet. I've been noticing that children this young need a lot of reassuring, such as "I see that Samantha is waiting patiently, good job Samantha." That part makes me a little nervous because it requires walking around the room when giving a lesson to be sure everyone is on task and participating. Towards the end I got to hold up index cards that say a time, and they would have to put that time on their own little clock. That was pretty fun.
ReplyDeleteits cool how your dealing with different kids and realizing the difficulty of teaching them. like when Akim gets distracted and you dont how to deal. its interesting.
ReplyDeleteOMG THAT IS SO SCHOOL U FOUND THE SPOT WHERE U USE TO NAP AT LOL !!!!!!! BUT I THINK THAT ITS CUTE THAT YOUR WORKING WIT LITTLE KIDS I HOPE U CONTINUE TO ENJOY UR INTERN.
ReplyDeleteSo I tried posting this on Monday, but my computer was being lame lol. Anyway...
ReplyDeleteOn Friday I graded two sets of tests: one was about telling time, and the second was about adding coins and other things that have to do with money. Grading papers is always fun for me so I'll be glad to do it anytime :) Other than that I just watched how Mrs. Hunter reviewed before the test and how she gave the test so that everyone was on the same problem at the same time.
Monday was kind of boring because there was a sub, and since I haven't been doing this for that long I didn't really know what to do. I sat there and felt helpless :( Especially when we went to the library and the kids picked out books, I was like okay what am I supposed to do... so we went back to the classroom and the sub continued with the subject of time. I wasn't really doing anything so I left at 2:15.
Yesterday I did a lot besides just observing.
While in the computer lab, Mrs. Hunter calls the students up to fill out a bar graph of previous scores that they have received in reading and math. So that was my job. It was pretty easy. I also administered a test to Jordan who had been absent when the rest of the class took it. Then I organized books that some of the kids ordered from the scholastic book fair thing- I so remember ordering books from it! :)
Today in my internship I gave two more tests about money to the same kid (he was absent for like a week idk why though) and graded them when he was done. I also put all of the hw sheets into every child's folder, and just organized some other sheets and such for Mrs. Hunter. While I was doing all of that, I would watch to see what Mrs. Hunter was doing, and the writing lesson really caught my attention. She gave them a topic to write about, which was: abby and hailey go to disney and mickey was missing. She explained how important it is to have characters, a setting, and a problem in your story. I thought that was pretty neat, I could see myself doing that someday :)
ReplyDeleteSo last week on Friday I instructed the class in a game of time bingo. I would say a time and then they would find the clock with that time on their bingo card. I could tell that they really got excited when they found a time, so games like this are a great way to reinforce their learning skills. After that I actually got to intern with Mrs. Irish for an hour because her reading block that I was interfering with before ends at 2, so her and Mrs. Hunter agreed that I could go over there on Friday's. I'm so stoked about that! While I was there I tested some kids to see if they could write the numbers 1-20.
ReplyDeleteMonday and Tuesday were pretty much the same because there was a sub since Mrs. Hunter is sick. Hopefully she will be at school tomorrow because all I did was observe. You have no idea how much I wanted to help but it would have been really awkward.
you know i wanted to be an elementary school teacher, until i went to have lunch with my sisters when they were in kindergarten and then i was just like no. i agree it does feel awkward when your not with the instructor you're used to. but it seems like you are enjoying what you do and thats one of the points to this whole opperation.
ReplyDeleteTHANK GOODNESS, MRS. HUNTER IS BACK! :)
ReplyDeleteToday was a fun day for me. I started out by doing what I usually do in the computer lab:
having the kids graph their scores. Then some
of the kids got the chance to present their math project, which was creating a game that incorporates math skills such as adding and subtracting, fractions, greater than or less than, etc. It was really cool to see all the different games and Mrs. Hunter had told me that all she heard the entire day was, "Are we going to present our projects?" Haha. Little kids are so cute I love them! My creative side is definitely going to kick in when I assign interesting projects like this :)
After that I graded some homework assignments and I even got to review an addition sheet with the students. It made me a little nervous though because you know how you go through what you want to say and do in your head, but when you actually do it, your brain just like freezes and then you have to say something else?
Well I had it all planned out how I was going to review with them, like if I called on someone and they gave me a wrong answer, I was gonna be like "No, that's not right, and do you know what you did wrong?" But instead when someone got it wrong, I was just like "No, who knows the right answer?" See what I'm saying? I know I'm still learning but I hope by the end I will have mastered this skill. :)
So on Friday after the computer lab, more students presented their math projects. As Mrs. Hunter graded them, I also graded them to compare scores. Usually I was only a couple points away. Then at 2 I went over to Mrs. Irish and she said that the teacher next door, Mrs. Westmorland, needed help. So I tested her kids until 3.
ReplyDeleteI had a great time on Monday. Helped in computer lab and then I organized some papers and things while talking more to Mrs. Hunter about my future and just normal things for a conversation. She's a really nice woman so I liked that. Then she let me play some of the math game projects with the kids! Of course, there was some cheating going on, but you'd be surprised how much they know :) For the last half hour I observed their writing block.
Today the computer lab was closed, so I went right to the classroom. They were watching March of the Penguins! I was like yesss I love this movie. So I watched it while grading some homework papers and helping Brennan with a short writing prompt. Throughout the movie, Mrs. Hunter had to explain why some of the penguins were dying and things like that. When it was over, we played the games again. Nobody paired up with Samantha so when I was done with my work I played the game with her. Her face is so cute when she's thinking :)
ReplyDeleteDidn't get a chance to post this on Friday because I was doing a lot of scholarship stuff
ReplyDeleteand I complete forgot about it haha.
But the score reports weren't in, so in the computer lab I talked with Mrs. Hunter. It's definitely gotten alot easier to have a conversation with her. Then I graded tests and helped Mrs. Hunter brainstorm ideas for the next project. At 2, I went over to Mrs. Westmorland and tested her students as usual.
Testing is becoming a bit boring, so I hope every once in a while it will be different.
Okay, so unless I say that I didn't do the work in the computer lab, I did it. I'm tired of writing it every single time! Besides that, Mrs. Hunter didn't have anything else for me to do. So I just observed while I did some homework. I noticed that when she gave the students discipline, she asked them what they were supposed to be doing and why they weren't doing it. It was funny, Jordan came up to me and asked me what I was doing and I was like "american government homework" and she's like "do you have to answer all those questions?" and i'm like "yup" and she's like "wow, there's alot of questions on there!" :) these kids have no idea what high school is like. Oh, and I ran into my old 3rd grade teacher! She said "Hey I remember you" and told me that I was a really good writer :) Apparently her and Mrs. Hunter are friends and their kids go to the same daycare. What a small world.
ReplyDeleteTuesday: Spent almost the whole entire time putting a bar code sticker on all of Mrs. Hunter's books. There were 3 full shelves of them! Then I only had time to grade some tests.
ReplyDeleteSo it was kind of a boring day.
Today: Was better. Didn't help in computer lab- no reports. So I asked Mrs. Hunter if I could go on the computer because I wanted to see how many words I had done for my creative writing story (had my flash drive), and she didn't care. We were supposed to have 15,000 words done today, and I had 14,600 something. I was like mann if I had stayed up just a half hour longer last night... (I didn't go to bed until 2). In the classroom I organized more scholastic book orders, and I had to cut out some pieces of paper using a ruler for a game that they played. The last few minutes, Mrs. Hunter read a book about penguins. I always like to hear teachers read, so that I can play back how they read and emphasize certain words in my mind, but with my voice. There are places where you comment and places where you pause to ask questions. I was very impressed with the answers the students gave.
Oh I forgot something!
ReplyDeleteThe students also shared the wishes they had wrote down the other day on a four leaf clover handout. I had done the worksheet too, and shared my wishes to the class:
1- i wish my parents would stop smoking
(the kids were all like "aww")
2- i hope to visit paris someday. Mrs. Hunter said "Cool, and where is Paris?"
"France, I answered."
3- i wish i could have a cat because i have 2 dogs and they wouldn't get along very well.
4- i want to become an elementary school teacher :)
Awe kelly u sound very happy at this internship, i hope u continue to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThis Monday was better than the last. After the lab, we went to the library and I showed Mrs. Hunter my agenda book and class picture from 3rd grade that I found while cleaning my closet over the weekend. I was hoping to see Mrs. Tarsek, my 3rd grade teacher because she has planning during that time, but I'll continue bringing them on Mondays until I see her :)
ReplyDeleteI put the homework papers into the kids' folders, and then Mrs. Hunter proposed something new that I love doing! She's going to give me a few books each day to read and then I will write about 5 questions that her students can answer about each book. It's very helpful because when you read a book, you have to pause every once in awhile to ask a question so that they are understanding the book, so by doing this I am learning what kinds of questions to ask. It's very fun :)
The math lesson for today was about measuring things in feet, inches, and centimeters. Mrs. Hunter would ask which one to use for measuring a certain object, such as a crayon or the active board. She let the kids get involved in measuring from one end of a groups of tables to the other, and she explained to them that the best way to do that is feet, but she also showed them how to measure it in inches and centimeters (12 inches equal one foot, and it was 10 feet from one end to the other). They seemed surprised by all the big numbers.
Today for most of the time I wrote questions for about 10 more books, and then I organized papers and such again. Mrs. Hunter continued with her math lesson of measuring things, and she explained how using rulers is standard measurement because it was made to measure things, and using other things to measure such as beads (which was on a worksheet they did) is nonstandard measurement since they weren't made to measure things. For the writing, the kids had to use some words from a list to create "super sentences"- sentences with a who, when, where, and an action verb. The example she gave was: The old lady scratched her ankle last night at the party. "Her ankle" isn't one of the 4 things, but Mrs. Hunter explained that you're going to have words that don't fit them for your sentences to make sense.
ReplyDeleteI had a great time today. While in the computer lab, I helped Jordan (a girl) with a math problem. It felt good to explain it to her in a way that she can understand. Something you should know is that when the students do well in math and reading, the program on the computer automatically bumps them up to the next level. So some kids are actually on levels that they would normally have in 3rd grade. One girl came across a problem that involved finding the perimeter of a rectangle. Of course she has never heard of that term before, so Mrs. Hunter explained it to everyone when we got back to the classroom. I wrote more questions for books, organized their homework, and separated the scholastic book order forms.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Mrs. Hunter was doing with the kids that seemed fun was coming up with ideas for a play that they are going to be doing in April. The ideas were narrowed down to a setting in a school or a setting in an ice cream shop. Which idea do you think got the most votes? Ice cream! Duh! Haha :) So then they worked on coming up with a problem. The result was that the power would go out and the ice cream would melt because the freezer could no longer keep it cold. I loved hearing all the ideas that the kids came up with. Like one kid, I don't remember who, said someone could lose their tooth when biting into the cone and accidentally end up swallowing it. Mrs. Hunter and I thought that was pretty funny.
I think that teaching is pretty coolio. I would not do well though teaching everything like reading and math. I would probbaly screw up on some subjects. I give Major Props to you on that. Which grade are these Kiddies in?
ReplyDeleteKatie: The kiddies are in 1st grade, and I'm nervous about screwing up with teaching, mostly with math. Because you have to explain it to them in a way that they can comprehend, so I feel I would be better teaching them reading. But hey, everyone makes mistakes and after my first few years of teaching I should have it down pat :)
ReplyDeleteWell today was a rather boring day because after the lab I graded tests, and then it was time to go over to Mrs. Westmorland to test her kindergartners. I did get a cupcake though because it was a girl's birthday. Yum :)
Aw, It sounds like you have fun going there. I bet 1st grade is one of the harder grades to teach at elementary school because its so hard for the children to comprhend the material. I think I would want to be a reading teacher too. It seems like you are very passionate for kids and about becoming a teacher.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday I graded tests, organized papers, and filled out forms for the kids so they can go to a stone crabs game. You had to fill out their address and I noticed that Hailey lives really close to me, and I recognized her dad's name and I'm like wait...I think I baby sat for them before! I asked my dad and he's like yeah you did but it was only for Kerstyn, Hailey's sister. That's pretty sweet haha.
ReplyDeleteToday I was very busy. The computer lab was closed and it will be for the rest of the week.
I finished grading the tests as well as the questions for all of the books Mrs. Hunter gave me. Then I typed up all of the questions on her laptop. While doing everything, Mrs. Hunter taught more about "super sentences", and for math the kids each got their own white boards, wrote down the problems, and followed Mrs. Hunter as she solved them. Then they tried some on their own. The bonus subtraction problem was in the thousands- holy cow! :)
I was in a crummy mood today until my internship :) The only work I was able to get through was grading tests about reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar. The test was 65 questions long. I think the lowest score was like 52 or something, most of the kids got between 55 and 60, and the highest was 63. That is pretty amazing! And you would think so too if you saw the types of questions. After that, I watched as Mrs. Hunter was explaining a narrative for them to write. The topic was having a super power. So they would create a problem, and after the characters in their story tried solving it, you would enter in as a super hero and use your power to solve the problem. I read some of them, and Mrs. Hunter could tell I was amazed and we got on the subject of how smart the kids are. Finally, I listened to her read a story and her expressions made me laugh :)
ReplyDeleteWell on Friday I spent the first hour grading more tests and homework and then putting more homework into the folders. Man I used to love grading but now I'm not so sure! lol. The class was talking more about the play and assigning roles, but there were more kids than there were roles in the play, so they wrote a poem which some kids will present. It didn't really go to well because all the kids wanted to be in the play, and Mrs. Hunter was getting frustrated. Some kids were like ok I'll do the poem but then they wanted to switch back and everything was getting out of hand, so Mrs. Hunter was like alright to be fair I'm just gonna pick names. Which that made Hunter upset because he was in the play at first but Mrs. Hunter pulled his name...he literally looked like he was going to cry. I felt so bad that I was gonna be like I'll skip school and help read the poem, but then Hailey was like I can switch to the poem so Hunter doesn't have to. Everyone clapped for her, it was great. The second hour I tested Mrs. Westmorland's kids.
ReplyDeleteNo computer lab Monday. Went to the room and they were playing the game where one person goes around the room to each classmate to see who can answer a math problem the fastest, and whoever got it moved on. I loved playing that game haha. Anyway, the work I did involved putting all the names of the kids and the april dates they will be at school on their graphs for the reading and math scores, stapling together the sheets for their play with all of their lines on it, and then finally finishing typing up all the questions for the books.
ReplyDeleteToday there was computer lab. Then it took me the rest of the time to write down vocab words and the definitions on index cards. There was a lot my hand started hurting! I was surprised at some of the words they learned that I didn't even know until like middle school, such as "unrelenting," "indecisive," "chided," etc. The class came up with more memories for their poem, one of which was about me joining them. I was like aww yay I feel special :)
It seems like you are very busy helping the teacher out so she can get all of her work finished on time. This is probably really helping you see how hard a teachers job can be. Thats good those children are learning those big words now so they are smarter when they get into higher grades.
ReplyDeleteThursday and Friday were both spent testing Mrs. Westmorland's kids. Mrs. Hunter's class went on a field trip Thursday, and when I arrived on Friday, Mrs. Hunter said she didn't really have anything for me to do. The tests I gave to the kindergartners involved counting, money, sight words, and answering questions to a short story after I read it to them. I had time to grade about half of the tests.
ReplyDeleteAw sounds like you enjoy your internship. So do you really think this is going to be what you want to do. I like how you get to give the kids tests, sounds very hands on.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jordain, i know this is what i want to do. I love working with kids so much :)
ReplyDeleteToday I graded tests, put homework into the folders, cut out some shapes that were laminated for something that i don't know, and finished making the vocab index cards. I watched some of the kids present another project where they got to choose from like 5 different things such as autobiographies and creating your own animal. I loved Jilian's animal- it was called the Boogly Woogly lol. It eats little kids...so I guess we're all safe :)
shouldnt you know why they were laminated?
ReplyDeletei mean that could have been a very important factor. how, i do not know but hey. so you want to work with little elementary kids for a living do you. personnally i couldnt handle it. i went to one of the lunches there and the amount of kids was just overwhelming. i can actually see you as a lower grade level teacher though.
Yesterday, I got to the computer lab and the scores were not printed because of the updates. Mrs. Hunter said I would be bored if I stayed because all they were doing after that is going to the Cafeteria to practice their play. So, I went to help Mrs. Westmorland with more testing. I also played a sight word bingo game with 3 of the kids. They had fun, so I had fun :) Also, there was a code yellow practice drill and there was some trouble getting the kids to cooperate and stay quiet. You definitely have to be patient with them in those situations.
ReplyDeleteToday was one of funnest days of my internship because we got to watch Wall-e! That movie is so adorable :) It kind of has to do with trash, picking it up, and it makes you appreciate things which goes along with Earth Day. Another 1st grade class joined us to watch the movie, and...it was very interesting to hear Mrs. Hunter and the other teacher talk to say the least haha. I kept laughing and commented to some things which made me get distracted. But the work I did was a lot of cutting of papers that were laminated, and also organizing the vocab cards I had made into groups of 10.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm going to see their play tonight in the
cafeteria at 6:30! Yay, it will be cute :)
How did you do it? I would be very distracted and the work they assigned me would not get done. I love kiddie movies and i wish we could watch it in high school. I read alot of your blogs and it seems like you like it there. First graders are your thing. lol. How was their play?
ReplyDeleteaww i love wall-e :) That is such a cute movie. It probably teaches all of the kids how to clean up after themselves too which is always appreciated in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteToday there was a sub :(
ReplyDeleteSo I just graded tests, put hw in
the folders, and left. Woo.
Another day with the sub. There was no work
ReplyDeletethat I needed to do, and I wasn't just going
to leave, so I stayed until 2:30 watching the
lessons. The math worksheet involved the "how
many different ways can these be arranged" type
thing, and for writing they did a narrative. I still haven't gotten a chance to take pictures for my power point, or to get the time sheet signed. Hopefully Mrs. Hunter will be there Thurs.
idk how you put up with kids i hate kids i could not deal with their annoying little messy fingers and just ughhh i commend u for having the patience to deal with kids i hate kids
ReplyDeleteLast Thurs: If I remember correctly i graded homework and organized papers. Oh and I made matching cards for words and their contractions for a game. I got a chance to take some really cute pictures :)
ReplyDeleteLast Fri: Went to kindergarten where I also took some pictures and i popped popcorn for them while they watched arthur. Then i tested some kids.
Today: No computer lab because the class among others were outside by the bus loop watching firefighters give a presentation about what they do, etc. Went back to room where I just graded tests while watching Mrs. Hunter give a lesson about probability.
Friday was my last day with kindergarten. It was so cute, they had a "party" to celebrate it. There was popcorn and apple juice haha. Mrs. Westmorland and Mrs. Irish gave me a thank you card, and I said goodbye to them after I helped Mrs. Westmorland organize some paper.
ReplyDeleteYesterday (Monday) was the day of the not so happy sub :/ Really, I don't know what her deal was. I couldn't wait to leave.
Today was a fun and productive day. I entered some grades in the computer, and taped up some boxes for when Mrs. Hunter has to take everything out of the classroom. I also took some more pictures. I can't believe Thursday is going to be my last day. I'm going to miss interning with the class :/
Oh my gosh the kids made me cards! :) My favorite one is by Abby: "Good luck in college. Don't be scared when you leave your parents!" Riiightt... but that's so sweet. I had an amazing last day with Mrs. Hunter's class, I wish it wasn't over. Like why is everything coming to end?! It's so depressing! lol.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I got to play games with them involving time and money. I sorted out scholastic book orders and put hw in the folders. Then it was time to go and they pretty much tackled me lol. I am so glad I chose to do this :)
OMG!!!! AWWWW! Incrediably sweet, wow little kids are so cute. Don't be depressed just look foward to all the fun you will have in college and in your future career.
ReplyDelete