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. :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Fall Festival was a success! I think everyone enjoyed the evening. Thank you for working at the registration table - that's a good place to see most of the parents.
ReplyDeleteI hope we have a good turn out next week for Parent Teacher's Conference.
Time management is still a challenge for me- Some days I still struggle to get everything in!
I don't think 7th graders would be on-task just because the principal walked in. That used to happen when I was a kid, but no more, really. So trust yourself and just keep your head in the classroom during observations. And trust me, when I see you in a few weeks. I've observed in this classroom for several years.
ReplyDeleteRelating the book to the world of the 7th grader will keep them involved. I'm sure your activities will involve discussion in one or more ways. I find that the followup questions to their responses is where the understanding gets assessed. These are worth thinking through ahead of time if you can. Make a note of your followup questions for your AR or more importantly for your future teaching. Listening on your part is equally a challenge for you and sometimes the follow-ups will occur to you as you listen. Sometimes the follow-ups can be as simple as: "how so?" "provide an example," or "elaborate." "how did you come to this conclusion?" etc
I'll be interested in hearing how the teacher conferences go. These are valuable.
And as everyone has said, time management is learned. One's sense of time in the classroom is a unique phenomena. Every profession has this question as to how to use one's time well.
1/3 done! October will FLY