Week 6

     This was my second week of full-time teaching and it went well. I was very sick and hardly functioning this week. I lost my voice a few times and Sally had to take over on occasion, because I could not talk. On a happy note, I am now feeling much better after being on antibiotics, which will make this week a lot easier. :).
     Over the past couple of weeks I have been giving the students a funny/interesting picture. They are to use the picture throughout the week to write a creative writing story. The students are loving it!!! It is so much fun reading their stories and to see their creativity. Some of the students have really taken this project and run with it. A lot of them have worked really hard and done a lot of research for some of their stories. Sally has loved this idea so much, she said she was going to steal it from me and continue on after I leave.
     Reading is a lot of the same routine. Worksheets, mini-lecturing, partner work, silent reading, listening to the story on cd, and taking tests. This week we read Encantado, which is about the pink dolphins. I thought it would be a good idea to show a video from National Geographic Kids about pink dolphins. It was short and sweet, but it helped to bring everything together.
     Math has been a little bit challenging to teach the past couple of lessons. We are working on diving, leading into long division. On Friday, we started off the lesson by using the smartboard. We used pennies and dimes on the board to demonstrate place value and did some grouping and dividing. That went very well, but then when we started doing some division without the visual, they were confused. I had them take out their worksheets, and instead of them doing it on their own, we went through it together. Towards the end, they were starting to pick up on it, but I'm going to continue with teaching it on Tuesday, because it leads into the next lesson perfectly.
     Social Studies has been really interesting to teach. We are working with the Midwest Region right now and the students really seem to be enjoying it, because that's where they live. We had discussion and question time, silent reading, group reading,  and partner work with worksheets.
     In Science, we do a lot of group reading and discussing as we go through it. The students always have a lot of stories to tell and a few students usually have something interesting to add to the discussion. Again their are some worksheets that the students have done on their own or with a partner.
    For Bible this week, I tried something a little different. We would read the bible story and then take some notes after. I would write them on the board and they would copy them down. It's not a lot of notes, but enough so that they would have the basics of the story to jog their memory. I plan on letting them use their notes for an open note Bible quiz for next week.
    I have also been showing brainpop videos every once in awhile in science and social studies. The students love them and it's a good way of reviewing what they just talked about. The brainpop videos also have information that is a little bit of a higher level for the students who pick up on more. This is an easy way to differentiate between students.
    I have been learning so much over the past couple weeks. 1) DON'T GET SICK!!! (haha) It really makes everything a lot more difficult and hectic. There was one night where I didn't grade and I felt kind of behind. 2) Don't get behind on grading.  Of course there are many other things, but this is what I mainly learned this past week with being sick.
    On Friday, we had off school, but we were given the opportunity to attend an in-service at my old high school, Illiana Christian. I thought it was kind of weird to be going back to my high school as a teacher with my old teachers. It was very interesting. Prof. BC came to talk about backwards design and truth be told, I understood it more in that 2 and a half hours than I did the whole last semester of novice. That was exciting! As always, Prof. BC was very interesting. The rest of the day was spent looking at a study done about Christian schools. How they impact students and the world negatively and positively. There was a lot of time to discuss with our groups and it was a great time to get to know and build relationships with the faculty at Calvin.

Schmidt
     Schmidt, as usual, has a lot of good information to share. She really puts a lot of emphasis on how important communication is between teacher and parents. You think your job as a teacher is just about teaching the students, but you need to be in constant communication with the parents in order to establish a good relationship. The better the relationship with the parents, the further you will get with your students.
     This really helped me to realize how important it is to be in constant communication. Weekly bulletins are extremely helpful to keep the parents informed. I have also picked up something from Sally that I really like. She signs her students planners at the end of the day to make sure they have everything written down. At night, the students have to get a parent signature in their planner. This allows for Sally to write a note to the parents and for Sally to look for comments or questions in the morning. I really love the part about staying positive. Parents should look forward to getting a note home at the beginning of the week and hearing about all of the exciting things their children will be learning about in the coming week.
    Parent-teacher conferences can be intimidating and stressful. I really liked the idea of sending home a parent packet and giving them something to do to prepare for the conference. Having a student portfolio available for parents to look at is a great positive way to start off the conference. Choosing a table that puts everyone on the same level keeps parents at ease and less like they are about to be lectured. Also, Schmidt says to be prepared! Being prepared is probably one the most important things to do when having a parent teacher conference.