week 23 weekly reflection feb 18-22

It was a good week in Sixth Grade!  I saw my students get excited about something and it made me realize the main point of teaching.  We want students to learn something and be able to apply that knowledge.  This week we began reviewing the elements of figurateive language in preparation for the upcoming state test.  After we reviewed them students had to read through poetry and go on a figurative language hunt.  Students were able to do this and actually enjoyed it.  It made me realize that poetry is so useful for many things and if I'm here next year I want to do more poetry reading.  I also gave students a lot of independent time this week to have choice and time for their reading.

 Teachers are professional complainers.  About everything.  We even complain about the opportunity to have large amounts of laptops in our classrooms.  So frustrating.  I'm guilty of it too and I don't like it.  How can you stop the complaining when deep in your heart you're complaining that you're so unsure of everything about what you're doing?  I've never second guessed myself more than I have this year.  It's worse than my first year.  Anxiety that is.  Maybe next year it'll be better?  Maybe I should just have babies and stay home. 

week 22 weekly reflection feb 11-15

It's a difficult time in sixth grade.  Not really anything major.  It's just we're two weeks  before the state test so not much can be started in terms of a new unit or writing pieces.  I always feel this way but I feel it even more this year just because I'm getting my feet wet in the sixth grade department and I wasn't as regemented as I was back in third grade.  Basically, my units are running behind and not because I don't know what I'm doing it's just I've had a hard time adjusting to how quickly sixth graders understand things.  In third grade I had to explain things so much and a writing unit would take weeks and weeks.  In sixth grade they are so good at picking up on things especially a writing unit.  Like I mentioned last week, I started an argument writing unit with crime scene investatgetions and this week I had them continue to draft their work.  They were so into it.  It was fantastic!  Just thinking ahead next week I need to review extended response, the next two weeks is testing and then there's just one week before spring break.  It's tough planning.  I think next year I'm going to be more on top of it so I guess this year is just a learning experience.  I just don't know where to start...So this week we didn't go into another crime scene investigation like we did last week but we continued to read about the Civil Rights, and did a lot of discussion with each other.  i've been pleasantly surprised by how well the students do with discussing things.  I figured when I observed in seventh grade that this group wouldn't be able to handle discussing things with each other but they've done great.  They stay on topic for the most part.  My job has been to make sure that they don't have too much time so like the seventh grade teacher, I time everything.  I don't know if they enjoy this but it keeps their conversations on topic and doesn't leave room for behavior issues.  I also have been using posicle sticks like the seventh grade teacher to pick who participates.  This has been really great because it gets over only one kid participating and it also makes sure that every kid is ready to participate.  If they don't then they don't get participation points for the day.  Speaking of, I need to get better with marking those down! 

Also this week I worked on writing a grant for the Rochelle Lee Teacher Award.  I'm realyl excited about this because it's a grant that teachers get with professional development during the summer and then they get to browse the books and buy them at the Rochelle Lee site here!  I don't find out until the middle of April but I'm hoping I get it!  Cross your fingers. 

week 21 weekly reflection feb. 4-8

Oh what a great week it was!  Monday started with having the students write a poem while thining of one word for the Civil Rights movement.  You should have seen the words!  It gave me tingles!!  I was so proud of them.  They were so powerful.  What surprised me was the students that were so powerful with their words weren't the ones that I would have expected to be the strong word ones!  It was a nice teaching surprise.  Another thing that went so well was that I played music while they wrote.  I do this quite often and you'd be surprised how well they work with a little background noise.  The songs I played today had a purpose though!  This little lite of mine, born this way, where is the love and Dream big.  They all had something to do with accepting people for who they are and allowing differences.  I had the kids infer how the song belongs to the Civil Rights movement and they did so well in inferring.  The picture of the day activity really helped with that.

Something else that was awesome this week was the beginning of argument writing.  I want to make sure they know how to argue before they go to seventh grade because that's a heavy key.  It's also a major part of the Common Core standards so I'm trying to get them ready!  Anyways, I had read one of the best professional reads called Argument writing and it suggested that to start a unit and introduce students to claims, evidence and warrants that you start with a crime scene!  Well interestingly enough I had ordered the book that they suggested for the crime scene to use with my enrichment group so it was meant to be!  I've got to tell you.  I was so excited about starting this becuase they love to argue!  I made a handout like the seventh grade teacher does (note to self do this more next year) and I was just so excited.  The kids picked up on my excitement.  They were so into it!  The students that aren't normally into writing were so excited!  It made me realize that I've got to stay excited.  I think in third grade I was excited about everything because my students were easily excited.  In sixth grade it does take a lot to get them excited but I realized something this week...If I'm excited and that excitement is contagious then they'll be excited.  I'm really looking forward to continue to working on the crime scene investigations and then really moving into argument writing.  Yay for excitement in sixth grade! 

week 20 weekly reflection jan. 28-feb 1

What a fun week!  I started the week with a strainer on my head.  You may ask why.  Well, I've been teaching the kids determining importance while they are reading nonfiction text and I just wanted something that would stick with them.  I read about this strategy while I was teaching third grade but thought at the time it would be above their head so I never used it.  Then I thought about it for sixth grade and it would be perfect.  I used to do things like this all the time in third grade and I think that's part of what I miss.  I made a fool of myself and I didn't care.  i don't know why in sixth grade I've been wanting so much to be the strict teacher that keeps the behaviors in line that I've forgotten that I want the learning to be memorable and for them to remember and actually be able to apply their learning.  So I figured I want to incorporate more of the silly fun things that I used to do in third grade.  My inspiration came from one of my students that I had in third grade...I asked her mom to tell me how she thought I was doing in sixth grade.  She's extremely honest and so is her mom and I knew I could count on it.  She told her mom I wasn't as animated as I used to be.  Which made me sad because I didn't want to be that.  I've just wanted to make sure I'm challenging them and making sure behaviors don't play a problem so I just forgot about being fun and excited. 

So back the strainer...we finished up reading the civil rights in america text and I wanted them to understand and relate determining importance to something that they knew about.  A pasta strainer was exactly that.  They got the correlation so well!  They continued to take notes and were really able to apply the determining importance strategy!  I was so proud and didn't care at all how many crazy looks I got from the other middle school teachers.  Kids always remember their elementary teachers and I think it's because those teachers allow the fun and silly things into their lessons.  I want to be that kind of middle school teacher.  I still rememeber the high school teacher who did cart wheels in religion class.  I want to be the same and I want one of my students to remember me for the fun teacher that I was back in the day!   

We had a PD day today and I rearranged my room which is something I've wanted to do for a while.  I'm hoping this new arrangement will allow the kids to use the classroom computers more.  They may be slow but they still work...well most of the time.  :) 

I need to remember-make teaching fun.  Learning will happen if it's fun!