Whirlwind of.. What exactly?

I accomplished a full week without breaking down! But actually... This week was really tough and on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the worst and 5 being the best), I would probably give it a 4. I just surprised myself by putting a 4 there and not a 2 because I think the week was tough, but at the same time... I love it. I really do. And I thought I wouldn't like it this much, but wow, it's a whirlwind of fun and super crazy. 

I lead the students in all their subjects and we made it through two tests. We also made it through a CRAZY pj day and an even more insane book character day. We survived and I actually want to come back next week...

I have realized that I need more classroom management strategies. I can for the most part refocus them but I have had to single out 3 students more in the past week than I have in the past month! I don't know what it is about pj day, but when it comes to your school, WATCH OUT. The kids LOSE IT. I mean, I gave my first negative dojo and then I got some sob story about how now a puppy will die because of him because he now won't be able to get a puppy from the pound.. I mean... REALLLY?? It was already tough, dude. Much less you guilt tripping me to try and take it away (I didn't by the way).

Either way, all that is behind me. He wore a Harry Potter outfit for book character day and won my heart again, so this coming week, I am planning for better attitudes and better compliance. And I plan on trying a new tactic. We'll see how it goes. 


Standards.
I have related to standard one by acting as a role model for the students to follow. There have been many arguments and disagreements between a few students in the class this week and I was able to be the mediator and the one to direct them to better thinking process of getting long.

I have related to standard to because I have allowed and engage my students in learning activities that will challenge them. Even for my EC students, I think they are capable of completing work that is made appropriately for them and so I differentiate where I can. I challenge my AIG students to do more than what they can just get away with. I was working with one AIG boy and he was trying to get away with writing a paragraph that had only two sentences. I refocused him and I said "I know you're much better than this work you're turning in. I have higher standards than that for you because I know you're capable of reaching them and growing. You're in the fourth grade and have a reading level of 12.5. Use it or lose it, dude. Try again." And I gave his work back to him and he completed a piece that blew my mind away. I was SO proud.

I have been studying my content in order to be able to teach it at the best level (NCPTS 3). Going into this some of this work confused me, but I honestly didn't know the difference between unit fraction and any other fractions. It's been a lot of changing my vocabulary and working to think about every word that I share with the class before I teach. 

For standard 4, I have been working with students to keep them on track and pushing for student discussion. I don't want to lead all of my student teaching because I believe a lot of students and they are capable of learning at a fast pace and even then they would be able to teach the class. I'm working up my trust with some students to get to that point.

Upon reflection, I lead a math lesson on Tuesday that I was a little embarrassed about. I thought it was going well but when I came time for them to complete some of their group work, I realized that I hadn't prepared them in the best way that I should've. We continued with the test the next day because we believed that most students would score well on the test and we had to move on. We had a few 100s which encourage me that I didn't do as poorly as I was thinking. Actually, the students did quite well on the test and I am very proud of them!

I actually stayed up late Wednesday night sick, because I thought the students did poorly... I told my friend that and he just looked at me and said, "my God you need to be a teacher." Confused I looked at him and asked why and he simply responded by saying "because you care that much about them to be sick over this..." This kept me focused and really made me look differently at the situation. 

"Don't stop, don't give up, keep trying!
(Watch it. It's totally worth your time, she's adorable.)

You're welcome.
Brittany Kertesz