KH, a student from last year, came into my room and started telling me about school life in his non-TFA 5th grade classroom. They copy everything the teacher say all day. They do worksheets. His classmates are "losing their integrity" (one of our class values) because their teacher doesn't care what they do as long as their work is done. They don't get a chance to read "real" books. All they do for reading is recite passages over and over again. He misses book club and asked if he could borrow some of my books.
This is what they have to look forward to when they leave me at the end of the year?
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The first district reading test results
My first district reading test results show that all but 4 of my kids are on a 4th grade level at the BEGINNING of 4th grade. My challenge this year will be to push them even farther.
What a great responsibility.
What a great responsibility.
And people say kids don't like to read and don't care about history...
I started allowing my kids to start checking books out of our classroom library this week. The most popular books turned out to be kid friendly biographies.
The absolute favorites come from the "Who Was" series.
RW, my class librarian, is going to be busy, busy, busy with this class!
The absolute favorites come from the "Who Was" series.
RW, my class librarian, is going to be busy, busy, busy with this class!
Growing Our Brains
On Friday of the first week, we talked about our goals for the year and what we will need to do to accomplish them. One important thing we discussed is how we all have different brains that need different things to grow. After making a list of the things we would do over the course of this year to grow our brain, we grew sponge "brains" in cups.
My 4th graders took the small capsules that turn into sponge shapes and added knowledge and hard work to them (aka warm water). The knowledge and hard work magically morphed their 3rd grade brains (aka 99 cent expandable capsules) into end of year 4th grade brains.
After, the kids attached their grown "brains" to a note card they wrote all about their brains. Many of them included gems like, "I LOVE my brain!"
Probably the best part of this project is what Ms. Wright and I had to go through to pull it off. Buying the capsules was cheap and easy, getting the warm water at school...not so easy. Thankfully, I have befriended the cafeteria manager who was nice enough to boil some water for us. We then had to transport this pot of hot water to our classrooms across campus. Naturally we looked for a cart with wheels...what we weren't anticipating was that there would be a SHOPPING cart in our front office. We pushed the pot over every crack in the sidewalk to our classroom. Of course, our principal had to come out and look at us like we were nuts.
Oh, the things we do for our kids.
P.S. That is a certified awesome school polo I am rockin'
My 4th graders took the small capsules that turn into sponge shapes and added knowledge and hard work to them (aka warm water). The knowledge and hard work magically morphed their 3rd grade brains (aka 99 cent expandable capsules) into end of year 4th grade brains.
After, the kids attached their grown "brains" to a note card they wrote all about their brains. Many of them included gems like, "I LOVE my brain!"
Probably the best part of this project is what Ms. Wright and I had to go through to pull it off. Buying the capsules was cheap and easy, getting the warm water at school...not so easy. Thankfully, I have befriended the cafeteria manager who was nice enough to boil some water for us. We then had to transport this pot of hot water to our classrooms across campus. Naturally we looked for a cart with wheels...what we weren't anticipating was that there would be a SHOPPING cart in our front office. We pushed the pot over every crack in the sidewalk to our classroom. Of course, our principal had to come out and look at us like we were nuts.
Oh, the things we do for our kids.
P.S. That is a certified awesome school polo I am rockin'
Welcome to Room 13 now home of the Class of 2022
Hey all!
I am back in action in Room 13 for year two of my Teach For America commitment. I currently have 17 students and am super excited to attack year 2 with all of the experience I gained from last year.
Something much different from my class last year is that the majority of my students are on grade level. Having had 2 Teach For America teachers before me seems to have really helped my students be prepared for the 4th grade. I still have my outliers that I need to address, but I am very much looking forward to pushing this year's students ABOVE grade level rather than helping to catch them up to grade level.
I hope you will check in to follow our adventure!
I am back in action in Room 13 for year two of my Teach For America commitment. I currently have 17 students and am super excited to attack year 2 with all of the experience I gained from last year.
Something much different from my class last year is that the majority of my students are on grade level. Having had 2 Teach For America teachers before me seems to have really helped my students be prepared for the 4th grade. I still have my outliers that I need to address, but I am very much looking forward to pushing this year's students ABOVE grade level rather than helping to catch them up to grade level.
I hope you will check in to follow our adventure!
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