Eighth Day in the Classroom

Today I went to Mrs. Almond's classroom at 1:30.  She had me grade some math tests and then we took the kids out to recess.  It was very cold and there was lots of snow on the ground.  Her four rules for playing outside on a snowy day are.  1) Never throw snowballs, it is a state law on school property and students can be expelled.  2) Do not play on the big piles of plowed snow, kids always fall off and get hurt.  3) No sliding on the ice, she has had kids knock their front teeth out doing that.  Last but not least 4) Students can not play in the snow unless they are wearing snow pants and snow boots.

At 2:30 I went to Mrs. Greenfield's class. The students were making paper poinsettias.  They have been learning about Christmas around the world, and learned that we got poinsettias as a Christmas tradition from Mexico.  The students then got all of their Christmas projects organized to take home and then sat in a big circle around the rug and went over rules and procedures for tomorrows Christmas party rules.  The students will be doing a gift exchange at the party where they can steal the gifts from each other or pick one from the center.  Her first rule is...No Crying!  After preparing them for the festivities, she read to them out of another Roald Dahl book.  The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me.   School was out at 3:30 and the students ran out the door on their way home probably to play in the snow!

7th Day in the Classroom

Today I went to Iron Springs Elementary at 1:30 and helped Mrs. Almond.  I cut some papers for her and then took half of the students to another room and played a game with them while she tested the rest of the class.  We played a game called Cherry Pie.  I would tell the students one of their spelling words and then they would each take turns saying the next letter that comes in the word.  Then after the word has been spelled, the last person says the word and then the next person is out and we all say, "Cherry Pie".  The kids loved the game.  We also had a challenge round with the vocabulary words.

I went to Mrs. Greenfield's room at 2:30 and stayed until 3:30.  The students have been working hard making lots and lots of Christmas chains, and the whole classroom was decked out in colorful chains.  They were still working on Christmas traditions around the world, and today they were learning about Germany.  In Germany they call Santa Claus, Father Christmas.  After that they worked on a Christmas tree art project.  Then Mrs. Greenfield's husband brought their new 11 week old puppy to the classroom and all the kids got to sit in a circle while the puppy walked around visiting with them.  They loved it.  To end the day, Mrs. Greenfield finished the book "The Witches" by Rhonald Dahl. 

Sixth Day in the Classroom

Today I went to Mrs. Greenfield's 2nd grade classroom from 1:30 to 3:30.  When I got there the students were just heading back to class from the library.  When they got there, Mrs. Asay's class came into Mrs. Greenfield's class for a math competition between the two classes.  It was cute seeing the two classes compete, Mrs. Greenfield's class won again. 

After the competition, the students went outside for recess.  I went out and played a game with them where I would throw the ball way up in the air, and whoever got the ball first got the next turn to throw the ball.

When they came back in from recess, they had their timed math and then took a test.  After their test, Mrs. Greenfield did a little activity where the students "traveled to Italy".  They learned about Italian Christmas traditions.  After their travels, they got ready to go and Mrs. Greenfield read to the students while they sat on the rug.

Fifth day in the Classroom

Today I got to Mrs. Almond's class at 1:30.  She was reading The Tale of Despereaux to her class and sent me on an errand to the faculty room with a bucket to fill with ice. When I got back she had me take the kids out to recess while she prepared a science lesson.  Her science lessons are always fun, she always puts on a white lab coat and wears her eye protection and becomes Professor Scatterbrain.  All the students get excited about science when they see her in her Pro. Scatterbrain getup.  When they came in from recess she had 7 trays set up and each tray had a cup of ice, a thermometer, and 4 of the students names on the tray.  She also had the question on the board..."What is the fastest way to melt ice without touching it with your hands?"  As the students came up with ideas on what they think the fastest way to melt ice would be she wrote down their ideas on the board.  Then she had the students get in their groups and start trying to figure out how to get their ice melted fastest.  They had to take the temp. of the ice every minute and log their findings.  It was interesting to see the different things the students came up with.  Some of them got a magnify glass and put it in the sun.  Others put a cup of hot water under it.  One group even found a lamp and put the light bulb right down by the ice.  I didn't get to see which team won, but it was fun to see how excited they got about the experiment and how creative they got.

I went over to Mrs. Greenfield's classroom at 2:30 and the students were learning about trees.  Mrs. Greenfield had the students tell me all kinds of information that they have learned about trees and why the leaves change colors in the fall and the names of many different kinds of trees.  They had a big poster of the huge trees in the Redwood Forest and the students told me that one of those trees can build 300 homes!  What?!  After that they did their 1 minute timed math fact.  All of the students who finished the sheet in 1 minute got to get up and dance with Mrs. Greenfield.  Then everyone got up and did a conga line around the room and then sat back down and got ready for their Scholastic reader, which they all seem to LOVE!  Mrs. Greenfield pays monthly for the Scholastic reader, so each child get a little workbook each week and she has a computer program that goes with it up on her projector board.  Today's Scholastic reader was about giving.  They learned about how good it feels to give especially this time of year.  Then they had a little Scholastic game that they got to play girls against boys and they played until it was time to go home.

fourth day in the classroom

Today I went to Mrs. Almond,s 4th grade class at 1:30.  She asked me to grade the students math test that they had just taken.  That was an interesting experience.  I guess I never realized how complicated it could be to grade a stack of 4th grade math tests.  I kept accidentally marking correct answers wrong, and it was hard to understand what some students had written.  I kept having to ask Mrs. Almond what they wrote, or how she wanted me to add up the grades.  Anyway, I finally got it all figured out and graded.  Then I went outside to recess with the students for the last 10 minutes.

At 2:30 I headed over to Mrs. Greenfields 2nd grade class.  Mrs. Greenfield was being observed by another teacher.  Mrs. G. gave each student a white board and a dry erase marker and an eraser for a phonics lesson.  I loved how she gave the students 2 minutes to draw and play on the boards before it became a "tool"  she taught the class the phonics rules for "ss" "ff" and "zz" at the end of words.  The students had fun practicing writing the words on their dry erase boards.  It's always fun watching Mrs. G. teach a lesson, she is so good at having all the kids follow procedures and enforcing them.  And the kids love her.  She does a little dance and all the students laugh, and then she pulls them back in.  After phonics, they got ready to go home.  Handed out take home folders and homework, got backpacks and sat at the rug.  She ended the day by reading The Witches by Ronald Dahl.  About 5 students in the class also have the book that they have brought from home and they read along and then show the other students the pictures out of their books.

After 2 hours of being in the classrooms, I come home excited for the day that I can have my own classroom and exhausted.  Who know how exhausting it could be to be in classroom of 25ish students.  Teachers are amazing!

Third day in Class

Today I went to Mrs. Almonds 4th grade class at 1:30 and I graded some papers for Mrs. Almond, then I got to go outside to recess with the students.  When we came inside, Mrs almond was dressed up like a scientist, in a white lab coat and eye protection.  All the students knew it was time for science and were very excited. The students have been working on the Utah land zones unit, so to prepare the students for the big test tomorrow, Mrs. Almond had the students split up in 3 teams and play Jeopardy.  It was very cute, and the students had a blast.

At 2:30 I went to Mrs. Greenfield's 2nd grade class and the students were filling out their individual November calendars and then they worked on some reading.  I walked around and helped the students who needed it.  After that, Mrs. Greenfield had me pass out the Scholastic weekly readers to each student and put her weekly reader on the smart board.  Mrs. Greenfield let me help with the smart board a little, I thought that was pretty neat.  The weekly reader was about the presidential election.  The students got to learn a little bit more about Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney and about ballots and the election day and some rules.  The students got to play a little game where they voted on some things in the classroom, to see how voting works.  At 3:30 the students got ready to go and sat on the rug to read before going home.

Day 2 in the classroom

Today I went to Mrs. Greenfield and Mrs. Almond's classrooms for the second time.

In Mrs. Greenfield's 2nd grade class the students were learning about odd and even in math.  It is interesting to see how some students have no problem staying on task while other students struggle to stay on task.  Some students are in their own world and have no idea what is going on and then there are some students who finish each problem early and then sit there bored waiting for all the other students to catch up.  As I watch teachers try to work with a classroom of 30 little 7 year olds I realize that this is one of the hardest jobs on earth, yet teachers never seem to be appreciated enough. 

Thank you to all the wonderful teacher out there for all you do!

In Mrs. Almond's 4th grade class, the students were giving their animal reports today.  I think standing up in front of the class is such a great experience for students.  First of all, they are so proud of their hard work and get to share it with the class.  The feeling of accomplishment and ownership is such a good thing for kids. 

It's interesting to see all the different obstacles that teachers have to deal with and how flexible they have to be on a daily basis. 

Teachers are amazing!   

First Day in the Classroom

Thursday October 25th was my first day to work in Mrs. Almond's and Mrs. Greenfield's classroom at Iron Springs Elementary.

I arrived at 1:30 in Mrs. Almond's fourth grade class, just in time for the whole school to go to the gym for the Red Ribbon Week assembly.  The gym was completely full of children sitting on the floor.  The teachers were very organized in how to best make the whole assembly work.  The studentss were so good sitting quietly while listening to the police officers and watching their police dogs.  
After the assembly we went back to the classroom and I graded math tests while the students had a short recess until 2:30.

At 2:30 I headed to Mrs. Greenfield's second grade classroom.  As Mrs. Greenfield taught the math lesson, I walked around the classroom and helped students who needed individual help with the math assignment.

At 3:00 Mrs. Asay's second grade class came into Mrs. Greenfield's classroom to have a math competition.  Both classrooms lined up on each side of the room.  One student from each class would come to the front and were asked a math question... "What is 9+6?"  the first one to answer got back in line and the child who lost sat down.  The classes keep going around until one class was all sitting down.  The class with students still standing was the winning class.  Mrs. Greenfields class won two rounds.  The students loved it and I could tell that they work hard to learn their addition facts.

At 3:30 Mrs. Greenfield had the students clean up their desks and called the tables that were ready to go get their backpacks and sit on the rug.  She talked to them for a minute and then excused them to go home.

My first day of volunteering in the classroom was a blast, and the students were so fun and the teachers were amazing.  I am excited for the things I will learn over the next few months working in their classrooms that I can take with me that will help me be the best teacher I can be.