Celebrating Earth Day

Earth Day was Sunday, April 22 so in the days following my first graders celebrated by learning how to become "planet janitors". The lessons taught the uses and abuses of Earth's natural resources. One activity we did was go on a nature hike and discussed and experienced our local natural resources. The hike was lead by a fourth grade class that taught about erosion that the streams cause, the types of trees, and the safety of hiking.

Within the next few days our class headed out with the other first grade classes to collect trash from around the school property. The students then sorted through the trash and were shocked to learn that most of the "trash" was recyclable. The first graders did many activities that revolved around the reduce, reuse, and recycle movement. I found that during this unit it was extremely important for us teachers to set a good example. There are two links below that I just fell in love with. Enjoy! <3

Making a memory game from recycled bottle caps. This page provides the printable to make an alphabet memory game but I took it one step further and noticed that you could use the idea to create any memory game, for example money coins. Click the following link to check it out: www.artistshelpingchildren.org

Reusable sandwich and snack bags are a great way to set an example for students as well. "...every day, more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the US", we can help cut down that waste. There are a few companies out there but I found lunch skins because another school in the area is selling lunch skins as a fundraiser for their PTO. A family run company that provides fundraising opportunities for schools? - Can't go wrong! Hope you enjoy the following link: www.lunchskins.com

*Remember to be creative with the items that you throw in the recycle ... and remember to pass that creativity onto your students!

The Ongoing Classroom Management

My lead teacher has so many great ideas and tricks in her bag but one of the most valuable one is her ongoing classroom management. She uses a book titled Have You Filled A Bucket Today, by Carol McCloud. It's a book for children that helps them understand when you're nice to others (filling) then it makes you feel good but also shows children that when we are mean to someone (dipping) then it doesn't make you feel very good. I noticed that it helps the students because they now have something tangible to see, the bucket. When students are being mean, disrespectful, or not behaving my lead teacher simply says, "Are you filling a bucket or are you dipping?".

One day the children were struggling to keep it all together. We noticed that there were some mean comments and bad attitudes, it was just before our one week break so students were starting to "loose it". She sat the students on the carpet and re-read them the book. I like the idea of the book and how it is so simple to just have to students sit down and re-read the book to refresh their memories. This is something I plan on using in my classroom!

Valentine's Day Poetry

The first grade poetry section falls right around Valentine's Day so I thought it would be fun to combine the two. The first day we read poetry from the language arts book. The next day I introduced the idea of creating shape poems. The students favorite poem from the text book was about ducks, so as a class we created a duck shape poem. Later that day, in ELA centers the students were asked to create a heart shape poem. The picture below shows their work and also acted as a great decoration for our Valentine's Day party!

Chinese New Year

My wonderful lead teacher expressed to me that if I wanted to get the most out of the student teaching experience then I should jump in full force. This may be the reason why starting in my third week in the classroom she handed me a giant folder filled with lessons and ideas for teaching Chinese new year in the social studies block. I was nervous, of coarse, but more so than anything I was excited that she handed me such an engaging topic and let me have the freedom to plan the next five days of social studies.

Below are the five lesson plans I created. As we all know - the plan always takes a detour but my goal for student teaching is to create some sort of lesson plan for everything I do. This way I can look back and generate new ideas from what worked and even what didn't work. To view the entire lesson plan, click on the light green links beside each day. Enjoy!

Day One: "Bringing In The New Year"

Finished dragons were hung on our makeshift bulletin board just outside our classroom door. The yellow sentence strip displays the NV standard. (Please excuse the fire hydrant!)

Day Two: "Comparing New Year's Traditions"
(Stay tuned for student examples!)

Day Three: "Fortune Cookies"

Recipe that the class read and followed together. My lead teacher tries to do one recipe a month so by the end of the year each student will have a cookbook from first grade. The recipes on chart paper are hung around the room.

Finished fortune cookies, each complete with a student created fortune inside!

Day Four: "Wind Socks"

Day Five: "Brainstorming and Closure"

A New Year Brings New Adventures

It is a new year and a new adventure! I started my student teaching in a first grade classroom and am absolutely loving it. Everyday I am learning something new and I am constantly reminded of how much I love seeing children grow and learn.

I was completely welcomed to the school by my lead teacher, the school staff, and the students. It is such a great environment and I am so lucky to have been placed where I am. There are a handful of other student teachers in the building, which is comforting to know that we are all experiencing our journey together.

As we all know, with every experience there are positive and negative moments. With student teaching being such a major part of the teacher certification process there are also shocking realizations. I had heard it over and over again in classes but could have never been prepared for the vast and varied amount of levels in our one classroom. The first few days I felt overwhelmed with trying to get to know the students and their level and what group they were in and even what assistance they needed individually. Now that a full two weeks have passed I know each student and where they need extra help. It was shocking and overwhelming at first but as time continued I became more comfortable with the levels. I imagine this is what all teachers experience in the first few weeks of each new school year.

As I mentioned above, it has been a full two weeks. When I reflect on my experiences I am really proud of myself for jumping in head first. In the first week my lead teacher felt confident enough to let me lead a literacy center group - reading leveled readers or stories from the first grade text book with small groups. I also helped her complete DRAs and QSIs for her class as well as the enrichment block. I am looking forward to doing the same tests in a few months to actually be able to see the growth in each student. Even the small things such as lunch duty, school wide meetings, grade level meetings and meeting the student's parents have been invaluable experiences.

Next week I will begin taking over the 45 minute Social Studies block, beginning with teaching about the Chinese New Year. I am looking forward to seeing my planning and teaching in action. I am also excited to see how the students respond to each lesson.

Stay in touch and look for updates!

It's The Little Things...

I have a struggling student in one of the adult education classes that I have been teaching. The student seems to always be at their frustration level, but at the same time they really want to make it through the G.E.D. program. I was fearful that this particular student might be so frustrated that they would give up their hope and discontinue the classes. As a teacher I took extra time to make sure this student did not reach that critical breaking point. Recently, my student came to class with a card that read:

Front: "Sometimes, on an ordinary day; someone kind and thoughtful comes along and colors a moment with generosity and caring."

Inside: "You're one of those special someones. Thanks."
     On a cut out piece of lined paper, the student writes: "Sabrina, I Just thought I would take sum time to thang you for all the time and thought you put in to are class. I have met a lot of lazy, uncaring asshole teachers in my life. So whin a good teacher like you Sabrina comes along I'm thankfal, and it gives me hope."

The cut out and lined paper combined with the spelling mistakes will remind me of the student's character.

I did not correct the mistakes for the purpose of the post; instead I am reminded of the struggling student who needs, and appreciates, the extra time and caring of their teachers. This is one of those moments that teachers are reminded that we are making a difference in our students' lives ... it's the little things that show us.

The Magic of Teachers

My job has taught me that there truly is a magic about teachers. Teachers sit and plan their class time out only to get to the class and find out they need to rework their plans. Recreating lessons on the spot is something no class can teach you. It is about teachers using their creative minds to revamp, adapt and create on the spot lessons to help their students understand concepts and strategies.

This experience happened to me one of the first days of teaching in the adult education program. What I had planned ended up being way to difficult for my students and I could tell I was quickly losing their attention because they were so frustrated. I looked at the clock and still had an hour with them, so I had to quickly create an activity to help them understand. I felt like I fumbled and struggled to create something new but as I look back on that day I realize that my students saw this moment as ease, understanding and magic. The transition was not easy in my brain but my students easily glided through it.

The magic is the ability to help our students on the spot, keep them away from their frustration point, and doing it all with graceful transitions. Teacher education classes can not teach this magic. It takes practice. I am so grateful that I have this job to learn through these frustrations turn into the magic of teaching.

Jumping In: Upcoming Teaching Experience

I am just starting a job at a Reno community college where I will be teaching in the ABE/GED program. When I had first heard about this opportunity I was hesitant to jump in... I later realized that my hesitation was just nervousness about my first job as a teacher.

Teaching at the community college level is not the type of job I was looking for but upon review and I saw this as a once in a lifetime experience with the opportunity to get into a classroom and try out the strategies I have been studying.

After going through the interview process, a literacy training day, and meeting some of my new coworkers I was so excited to jump into my new position. I found out I will be teaching reading, writing, and possibly a math class to students that are at the 3rd-5th grade level. This will be temporary for me, one session, that will lead me right into my student teaching, what a great opening... start testing, using and working strategies with young adults and then move into a student teaching position at the elementary level.

I know that this will be a great opportunity and experience for me. Stay tuned for what I have learned in trainings. I am so excited that I decided to jump in!

Video: Family Literacy Nights

 

I created this video as a final project. We were asked to take a language arts strategy that could help English language learners and show the pros and cons. 

I believe the use of family literacy nights could create a more positive feeling between ELL's households and school events. They should be frequent events that happen not only as school wide activities but also classroom and grade specific. They are events that I would really like to utilize in my classroom and in my future school.

Enjoy!

Keeping Children Healthy

In an effort to keep myself healthy and get back on track with a personal diet, I find the information to cause my brain to go into overload mode. This got me thinking... how are we supposed to stay healthy as teachers to not only set an example for our students but to also provide them with the healthy eating tips they need. With nutritional health escaping from the curriculum, teachers need to be proficient in the information they are providing in their cross curriculum lessons.

My curiosity lead me to an article (link provided below) that explains a new and simple way of looking at the food pyramid. It is called the plate. The article gives examples of how this model can be used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This simple design is a reminder of how we, as children or adults, should be including a variety of foods at each meal. With the colored sections we can see the there portions for each group. Portioning is important and goes unnoticed in the families I have been around.

On a more personal note, when I eat better by portioning and varying my foods, I notice that I am in a much happier and energetic mood. I want this same feeling for my future students.  By using this simple form of the food pyramid I think that children will better understand and look at their own plates differently and hopefully ask "What is missing?". The goal for me is to provide my students with the necessary nutritional health information they need to have a better attitude.

Link to June 2011 article: kidshealth.org : Food Guide Pyramid Becomes a Plate