Reflection #27

My second to last week at SLE. This week was bitter sweet. I enjoy the time that I have with the students however each day I realize it is slowly coming to a close. As of now I just have to think of the times I have left with the students and enjoy it.

Credit to @Roselyn Vazquez

As I walk in on the first day the students all tell me that I only have SIX day left with them!! They are counting my days too! Ms. C told me that they counted yesterday and everyone was very upset that I would be leaving. Other then that little incident the morning went as normal. After the students put their backpacks away and get a chair they begin on the morning warm up. The warm ups are still engaging the students imagination. I have noticed that the students who struggled with this previously are now getting the hang of it and can use their imagination to come up with stories. The students have also really improved with adding details to their stories. They used to only write about 1-2 sentences and now they are writing 4 or more. Another thing they have improved greatly at is spelling. I am impressed at all the improvements that I see all around the classroom in each individual student. After morning warm up is done and checked they moved on to reading their chapter book, "The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary" The fable of the day was "Mercury and the Woodsman" the moral was "honesty is the best policy". After reading both the fable and a chapter from the book Ms. C transitioned to working on poems. She passed out their poem books and began telling the class what poem they would be working on. Diamante. Some kids knew what it was others didn't. She wrote down the rules and examples of a diamante poem. Next the students would try it on their own.

The next day was similar to the first. The only difference was that we worked on our poems first then we read about the fable. After the morning work was finished and checked Ms. C explained what we would be doing today. The class was still sitting on the carpet so that made it a little easier to talk to them and pas things out. Ms. C told the class that everyone would be getting ONE piece of paper. On that paper they would be writing their diamante poem that they wrote yesterday. After they copied it down 2 classmates had to check it for spelling, after 2 classmates checked it Ms. C or myself had to check it one more time for spelling. Once it was 100% perfect they could draw on it and color it how ever they wanted. The students had freedom to do what ever they wanted to do with this paper. Everyone was working so hard on their poems I was very proud! We worked on the poems for about an hour then we had to move on. Next the class read the fable and a chapter from the chapter book.

On the last day I was in the class the students were working on an essay. I had never seen them work on something like this before so this was new to me. The class had began this yesterday and continued it today. The essay was about why it is important to learn about culture. Ms. C choose three stories that they had read before, next they had to decide on a topic for each of the stories. For example. The story Jalapeno Bagels, the topic would be food. The had to pick a topic for all three stories. The great thing that I saw was that all the students made a graphic organizer. The had the three stories at the top, and underneath they had their topic, and four bullet points with evidence from the stories. The class worked on their essays for about an hour an a half. Ms. C called everyone to the carpet and called a few names for people to share their essays. Some people were just starting others were almost ready for a final copy. I was proud of all the work and effort they had put into their essays.

Reflection #26

On the first day I was in the classroom this week, was a great day. The students behavior on this day was amazing. As I entered the classroom I noticed the students good behavior. They were getting their chairs, putting backpacks away, and starting on their morning work. In the past few mornings Ms. C has had to remind students what to do in the morning. Or she has had to interfere with students arguments. On this day there was no feuding or disputes between students. The morning activity was for the students to write a paragraph explaining, if they were an animal what animal would they be and what would they do? On students came up with that they would be a 'Blue Fla-Jay' (A mix between a flamingo and a blue jay). Another student said she would be a Foxtapus (a fox and octopus). The things they come up with is so interesting and seeing students use their imagination and having fun in school really warms my heart. After they finished with morning work they worked on poems. Today's poem was a haiku. The class struggled with this kind of poem at first but after Ms. C explained it well and showed many exampled the class got it. They wrote their poems in the Poem Book. I was very impressed with how well they wrote their poems.

On the second day Ms. C was out. There was a substitute filling in for her on this day. The sub was Ms. E. Ms. E was really nice and worked well with the students but she was very slow. At times I wanted to take over! But I realized I just had to deal with it and let it be. In the morning things continued as somewhat normal. A few things were different of course, it took the class forever to settle down and get ready for class. There was also a lot of arguments among the students. After things settled down the students began their morning warm up. Ms. E was going to move on to the next activity (when normally they review the warm ups) so of course, everyone yelled out at once. She settled the class down and K told he they normally review the morning work, so she id and THEN moved on. The next activity was a reading packet. They did the first one together and the next one on their own. By that time it was almost time for FAIR testing. Ms. E explained to the class what they would be doing and where they would be going. Then the class went to the computer lab. FAIR test are always a big hassle for us, test don't log in, head phones don't work etc. Today it was the head phones issue. At least 4 students couldn't take their test because of headphone issues.

Credit to Amazon

The last day I was in the classroom was pretty average. Ms. C was back so that was nice. Like always the class began the same. Bathroom, drinks, pencils, filers, FASST Math, and morning warm up. Once everyone was finished with the morning warm up Ms. C called them all to the carpet, she reviewed themorning work and then sent the people who didnt finish FAIR testing to finsih it. The just worked on the computers in the classroom. As they worked on it the class read poems from 'A Light In The Attiic' Once all the students finished with the test Ms. C began on with poems. The poem for that day was a limerick. When Ms. C read the definition of a limerick the students looked at her as if she was crazy. It took them a couple minutes to understand it. The had to reread the definition and read MANY examples before they really understood. The students really love learning and writing poems. I think that is another great thing that helps with their imagination.

Reflection #25

Credit to OffBeatBride

The first day I was in SLE was normal. I was a very average morning. The students got in to the classroom and unpacked their backpacks. Then they went to their desk and got a chair.There was no morning work for the students to do so they just sat at their desk and waited for Ms. C to begin class. Ms. C called the students to the carpet. Ms. C has a 'cup' that she fills with different things (paper clips, beans etc) and each month the students try to guess the amount that is in the cup. If the guess the closest then they win a gift card. This month there were beans in the cup. With the class on the carpet she began counting the beans. There were over 400 beans!! Next we looked at the guesses that people had put in. The highest bid was  only 240.  After she finished with that she told the students what centers they would be doing and let them do get started with it.

 The second day was a little more interesting.The students came in the students came in the classroom like normal and put their backpacks away. They then saw if their was a morning warm up to do and began working on it. The warm ups this week weren't very hard they just required the students to think and use their imagination. The students had to write a short story/paragraph. The prompt on the first day was "If you were an alien, what would you look like and what would you do?" Some students did really well with this assignment, they have a great imagination and can write up an entire story off the top of their heads. K wrote almost an entire page and wanted to write more!! Other students had a really hard time with this activity. They just didn't know what to write without being told exactly what to do. I seems like kids are losing their imagination, they cant think for themselves. Students have a easier time with expository or persuasive papers then narrative. Kids should be able to come up with a story and they cant, I think that is sad and needs to change. Doing activities like this could help expand students imagination.

The third day was a pretty abnormal day. First they started with the morning warm up. It was another prompt. For this one they had to choose two animals create a conversation between the two animals. Again most students did really well with this. However some students really struggled with it. K tried for a bit, but he just would not even write anything down, maybe he didn't understand it or maybe he just could think of anything. I tried to help him but even after my help he still had nothing written down. After morning work and since it is a new month the students do their 'monthly cleaning' they take everything out of their desk and organize it. They also clean the tops of it with a disinfectant napkin. The class also gets new seats on the carpet and in the desk. The class had spelt out COURAGE from last month so they would get a reward this month. The reward they got was 'free time' for 30 mins. Ms. C gave the class popcorn, pencils and let them play games, arts and crafts or just relax. She played music and just let the kids play and relax. It was a nice time and very nice to see the students out of their 'work' environment.