Joey and me on the bouncing castle. Pictures were taken by Andrea. 
Vacation Bible School is in full swing at our church. I only have time to write this because Elisa is fully involved, and I get to watch my two boys. That is MY responsibility! Both boys are still asleep. They are tired out after the events of the first day. Once they get up, I will feed them and head that way.
The day certainly was full of humorous moments. The best two came with Andy. As you know from posts below, we have been fully involved in potty training him, and it has been an adventure. Yesterday included. We decided to let him wear his underwear up to the church, instead of a diaper because he has been doing so well. In fact, he is doing TOO well at it. During one of the more hectic moments, I had to run out and find him, because he had run off with some of the other children. I came out of the building asking where he was, and one of the boys said, "peeing in the bushes." There he was, pants and underwear down around his ankles trying to pee in the bushes. in front of the entire church... no modesty there!
I quickly grabbed him, pulled his pants up and began the long, and hopefully, fruitful explanation about how we don't pee in the bushes unless we are way, way, out in the woods. Or stuck in the back yard, late at night, when no one is looking!
The other event took place on the bouncing castle. His pants kept falling down. He would jump, jump and jump, and before you know it, his pants would be down around his ankles. He didn't mind. But Lauren sure giggled about it. I pulled him off the castle and went to find his spare set of shorts. Yet, somehow, I think Andy is proud of his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear.
Vacation Bible School is in full swing at our church. I only have time to write this because Elisa is fully involved, and I get to watch my two boys. That is MY responsibility! Both boys are still asleep. They are tired out after the events of the first day. Once they get up, I will feed them and head that way.
The day certainly was full of humorous moments. The best two came with Andy. As you know from posts below, we have been fully involved in potty training him, and it has been an adventure. Yesterday included. We decided to let him wear his underwear up to the church, instead of a diaper because he has been doing so well. In fact, he is doing TOO well at it. During one of the more hectic moments, I had to run out and find him, because he had run off with some of the other children. I came out of the building asking where he was, and one of the boys said, "peeing in the bushes." There he was, pants and underwear down around his ankles trying to pee in the bushes. in front of the entire church... no modesty there!
I quickly grabbed him, pulled his pants up and began the long, and hopefully, fruitful explanation about how we don't pee in the bushes unless we are way, way, out in the woods. Or stuck in the back yard, late at night, when no one is looking!
The other event took place on the bouncing castle. His pants kept falling down. He would jump, jump and jump, and before you know it, his pants would be down around his ankles. He didn't mind. But Lauren sure giggled about it. I pulled him off the castle and went to find his spare set of shorts. Yet, somehow, I think Andy is proud of his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear.
4 comments:
Hey Elisa!
I was able to find a section of that book online. I will have to buy it soon. What I found was very helpful! It was a run down of all the stuff you should and shouldn't do on your first day.
Yeah, classroom management is going to be a pretty tough. I've worked with a bunch of teachers at an inner city school, some who have taught 30 some years, and they still struggle day in and day out... I just can't let the students get to me.. that's the key, I guess!
Yeah, if we could chat about some school stuff that would be great. I"m trying to put my first weeks worth of lessons together. At the school I'm going to work at it's A/B, and I will do collaborative planning with 5 other teachers. Knowing some good lesson plans that will keep 30 kids busy for 90 minutes would be a great way to start out the year. :)
Thanks for the advise!:)
-Holly
Hi Holly,
Plan for more than you can get to.
Always work on long division. Some kids don't have their multiplication tables down. If they don't have that, they can't divide.
IDEAS:
Tie every lesson in with real-life applications. They need to know why they're doing all the problems. If you can also find out what the other Core teachers are doing, ie a theme, write lessons to correspond. Charts and graphing (spreadsheets) on the computer helps too.
Hands-on activities help with the real-world math. Paint a room (figuratively.) Come up with a budget and have them make a presentation. Do a room make-over TLC/HGTV style. Have real interior designers come in. Recipes, changing English units into metric, writing the directions, is an awesome lesson. Use Map Quest and have them plan a dream vacation, mileage, budget, food, clothes, currency rate. Have them put it on a power-point.
Play Mozart in class when they are doing guided practice.
Have them write music. Mac has a great program, garage band, that would be cool.
Have a set routine in your class everyday. Whenever possible, have the kids pitch in. Have a discipline system in place. (We used infraction cards with consequences.) But also have a rewards system in place. FOOD is the best! (Make cookie coupons and arrange with the cafeteria lady to put the cost on your "tab.") Limit the amount of homework you give out. You won't get most of it back anyway. BUT do give homework. Research states that we need to practice new skills within 12 hours of learning them to retain them.
Always review and practice basic skills and techniques.
Reading problems rear their ugly heads in math when working on story problems. Teach highlighting skills like their reading teachers do for the tests. Teach the vocabulary like they do in English and in Reading. Spelling counts.
Have a folder or spiral system for their homework and papers.
Keep your grading system simple. You're going to have a lot of work to do.
Don't be afraid to call a parent in class (well... out in the hallway for privacy.) Coaches will help out with misbehaving athletes. Bad grades=bad team record.
Make friends with the secretary, special ed teachers, aides, and janitor.
Document everything- especially parent contacts concerning behavior and grades.
To some parents a "b" is failing. To some parents, passing is grounds for celebration.
All students can learn. Just some learn differently, more/less than others, at different rates, and in different ways.
"Being equal doesn't mean every gets the same."
THAT IS SO FUNNY!!!!!!!! OH THE JOYS OF HAVING LITTLE BOYS....
Those are all great ideas! :)
I will have mostly students who are struggling with math, so it will be important to make it interesting. I'm teaching pre-algebra and transitional math. They should be in algebra by 8th grade.
I'm planning on having at least one big project for each grading period, so I need about 6 big ones to keep them busy. They will usually present their projects to the class after they have completed it. Some will be group projects, class projects, and some individual.
1. Value of an Education (They calcuate their salary as a high school drop out, salary as high school grad, salary as college grad..maybe find the salary of their dream job)Problem: This should only take one class?
2. Degree (I'll pick a few local universities for them to research different degrees. After they pick a degree, they have to find the course requirements including general education from the universities I selected. That way they can see how many math classes they have to take in college to get the degree they'd like.)
3. I have a ton of graphing ideas. One is where I measure their height on the first day of class and then near the end of the school year... we put that on a graph together as a class at the beginning of the year and then re create the graph at the end of the year. Another idea is just get them to collect data on fellow classmates.
4. Planning A dream vacation (from your idea)
5. Decorating a room with furniture. This will help them undestand area. I could get them to calcuate the cost involved in decorating their house as well.
6. Maybe a probability activity... I just need to think of a project to do on this? I could get them to come up with a probablity game in groups and then show the class their game?
I agree with you about homework, but the principal doesn't like homework at all. I figured I could give them homework from the book, but use class time to get it done? Put them in groups, get a dry erase board for each group, assign a team leader, and have them go through each problem step by step? I would walk around and make sure they are solving them correctly.. This is the way they work through problems in the AVID program. I was an AVID tutor for about 2 years. The team leader (I would pick a different one each week) doesn't have to write out the problems because they are writing them on the board, but the rest of the group has to write them all out step by step to get full credit.
I really like bouncing ideas off people who have taught before. :) I'm sure you were a very good teacher! :)
Is it true that 8th graders still enjoying drawing? I have some ideas where they make key concept sheets which they can decorate. For example, I was thinking about getting them to decorate the first key concepts for solving math problems (explore, plan, solve, and examine). Does that sound ok?
Also, I heard you should never ever play a game on the first day. Would it be okay to have a competition between rows of students on multiplication tables?
I'm done bombarding you with questions! :) I just have a lot of thoughts going through my head...
Thanks for all your suggestions! I really appreciate them.
Post a Comment