Week 5

Wow! Is it really week 5? Time is flying by at Rivesville. I just got back from Fall Festival, and I would say that it was a success (other than me not winning a basket!). I love that Rivesville has something as community oriented as Fall Festival. It seems like everyone in the community comes together for this event. It's nice to see the students enjoying themselves outside of class.

I feel that I'm starting to feel a little more at ease with the seventh graders. We started the novel this week. I think that the students will really enjoy it. I have a lot of neat activities and projects in mind for this book. We also started on the trait of organization today for writing. Mr. Stutler came in to observe part of this lesson (which, needless to say, was a little unnerving). Thankfully, the students were engaged in the lesson which I hope was a result of them enjoying the lesson and not because the principal was in the room. I enjoy teaching writing to these students and hope that my efforts will improve their writing.

One thing that I know that I need to improve on is time management. However, as Mrs. McCutchan commented in my last post, it is better to overplan than not have enough. I have realized that there is so much to cover during the 90 minute block and not nearly enough time. I know that I will eventually get better at decided what is the most important to cover and how much to plan in a day.

Next week will be another busy week with parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday and the WVU game on Thursday. I am just beginning to see how much is involved in the teacher profession. However, it has to be one of the most rewarding jobs. :-)

Week 4

We started off the week with Tutor Orientation on Sunday. I can't believe we were actually the interns at orientation. It seems like we were just in the tutors' shoes--nervous as can be with no idea what to expect of the program and Rivesville. Now, we're supposed to be the wise and experienced ones. I hope that they cohorts below us will come to us whenever they need to because I think that asking people who have been in the same situation has helped me out the most in this program.

I also started teaching the seventh graders this week. They seemed to have been enjoying the writing. The telephone writing activity was a success, and the students are getting really creative with their narratives. I've used the Whiteboard just about everyday and am so thankful that we have so much technology in the classroom! I think that using the Whiteboard makes the lessons more interesting and keeps the students involved. I have used it a lot this week with the workbook pages for language. Doing the workbook pages in this manner is a good way to keep the students interested. However, I am excited to start the second part of my action research where I start to deviate from using the language book and workbook pages. I took an interest survey today with the students, which I will be administering every Friday, and most of the students rated grammar as their least favorite lesson. I think that my action research will be successful and that the students will learn better and be more interested when they are studying language in a different manner. I also taught spelling this week and was really excited that the students did really well on their spelling tests today! I hope that spelling always goes so well.

Next week, I will begin teaching the novel Nothing But the Truth. I am really excited to teach a novel. I read the book myself this week, and I really think the students are going to enjoy it. I have already found a lot of great lessons to accompany the book and think that this will be a great experience!

Neal, as for those sixth graders, it's not really poor behavior that is a problem so much as the variety of learning styles and abilities in the class. The off-task behavior stems from the frustration that comes with not understanding the material. One of the lower students is transferring schools next week. Mrs. McCutchan and I have learned that another one is best helped by using praise and staying in contact with his mother. You are right; understanding why these students act out and knowing the best way to deal with the behavior can really help the students. I believe that the more we get to know the students, the better we are going to be as teachers!

Week 3

Another week has gone by already! This was my last week of observing. Next week, I will start teaching the 7th grade. I feel like I am prepared for next week. I tried to use my planning time wisely this week and got all of my lesson plans finished before the weekend! I think that the students will enjoy the writing activities that I have planned. I am going to be introducing the six traits of writing each week starting with the trait of ideas. They will be developing a narrative next week while focusing on this trait. I found a really neat prewriting activity in a Mrs. McCutchan's 6 Traits of Writing book. The students will brainstorm as a class ten characters, ten settings, ten problems, and ten solutions which will be numbered in four columns. The students will then use the last four digits of their phone numbers so that they have one character, setting, problem, and solution from each column. This will give them an original story to write. I hope that they get really creative with this assignment! I will also be teaching language and spelling next week. Language is a big part of my action research, so I will start teaching it using mostly just the book and workbooks. In week 8, I will start teaching language using other means such as magazines, newspapers, and novels. Mrs. McCutchan is teaching literature next week, but the following week, I will start the novel Nothing But the Truth with the seventh graders.

The sixth graders are constantly keeping Mrs. McCutchan and me on our toes! We have had a lot of laughs this week with this group! Mrs. Morris asked what I found the most challenging about the sixth graders. I think that one of the most challenging things about this class is the size compared to the other two classes. Also, we have a few students that need a lot of individualized attention. It is difficult to keep these students working and to give them extra help while at the same time teaching the rest of the class. Does anyone have suggestions for how to keep these students on task and to help them learn without slowing down the rest of the class?

This week has also exciting because we got to hear President Obama's speech to the students. I think that he did an excellent job addressing the children, and I hope that many of them will take what he said to heart. We had the seventh grade class when the address aired. They were attentive during the speech and journaled afterward about their own goals. I think that President Obama helped them to realize how important it is to do well in school and to set goals in life.

Week 2

Week 2 went by so quickly! We are always keeping busy in the middle school, so time flies by. I am starting to feel more at ease with the students. I have tried to get to know the students better this week, and I definitely think that being able to relate to them will help me when I start to teach.

I feel that the sixth grade class is the most challenging. There are 20 students in the class which is double the amount of students in the seventh and eighth grade classes. Along with the large class size, the sixth graders need the most individualized attention. They are still trying to transition from elementary school to middle school which is a big change for them. The students are learning how to be responsible and accountable for their work. Mrs. McCutchan does well with these students at making sure that they have their logs completed each class period. I will take her lead when I start teaching because this helps the students to stay on task.

Mrs. McCutchan and I talked this week about when I will start teaching. I will start teaching the seventh grade in Week 4, add the sixth grade in Week 6, and be full-time teaching in Week 9. I am really excited to start teaching the seventh graders. They are a wonderful group of students and seem like they like reading. I am planning on teaching a lot of writing with them. I hope that they will enjoy what I have planned for them. Along with writing, I will also start teaching language. Mrs. McCutchan is going to finish the literature unit that they are on, and then I am going to start a novel with them. Next week, we will be doing a Writing Roadmap with the students. I will use this data for my action research since my project will be focused on the seventh grade class.

Next week is a four day week, and I'm sure that it will go by quickly! I am going to start developing my lesson plans next week, so I hope that I can come up with a lot of great ideas!