Week 2
Last week was a
whirlwind. I had begun teaching writing as well as math. I need to
develop my own lessons to teach and on Monday I had no idea what I
wanted to do for the rest of the week. Good thing I work well under
pressure.
Monday:
We wrote thank
you letters as a class. I wrote half of the letter on the smartboard,
while being prompted by students, and allowed them to be creative. My
writing prompt, that the students decided on, was, “Thank you so
much for the beanies. I like them because...” After tossing around
creative ideas out loud the students were then given time to write
why they each liked them. They were also given time to draw, so that
way they could take a mental break from letter writing.
Tuesday:
I had read The
Sweetest Fig in class and I wanted to stick with that theme for
the following week. The story is about a man who has a magic fig that
makes all of his dreams come true. So my extension was, “If I had a
magic fig...” As a class we brainstormed different ideas. After
passing out small pieces of paper to each student I had each of them
clothes their eyes and think about what they would wish for. I made
it a game, “Make sure you don't let anyone see your answer.” Then
I had my student helper collect all of the small pieces of paper and
I read them out loud. I told all the students that when they heard
their answer not to make any sounds. When I read a certain answer
about quad racing it was obvious who wrote it. So I stopped pacing
and stared at that student. This brought out a fit of giggles. I love
my students. They are a bunch of silly kids.
"Quad Racer"
"Fire Powers"
"Guinea Pig with a Brown Eye"
"Ice Powers"
"Math Teacher"
"Popstar"
"I would buy a fish"
After that, we
worked through a graphic organizer together and I had asked the
students to help me fill in the bubbles. The center bubble was “If
I had a magic fig” and we made three extensions from there. So on
and so forth.
Wednesday:
I had taken home
their graphic organizers over night and had circles their best idea
and had written small comments encouraging each student. I handed out
the templates that I had made for the students to help guide them
through the writing process. And lead them through the process.
Template shown below:
If a student did
not know how to spell a word I reminded them that they all had a
spelling dictionary in their desks and that they needed to use it.
After the students had filled in the template, I passed out lined
paper and had them write their story. I took those home over night
and circled, in pencil, any word that was misspelled.
Thursday:
I handed back
the lined paper and had students make corrections. Once they were
finished I passed out a blank sheet of paper so that they could
finish off their creative writing with a visual image. I was really
impressed with some of the finished projects.
Friday:
We had rotations
between all of the second grade classrooms. Meaning each teacher had
a group of students for 30 minutes each and then they rotated to the
next classroom. My master teacher decided to teach about Jerry Rice,
some kind of football player that I know nothing about. Yikes. (Don't
you worry, I know a lot about him now). That was a lie. Moving on.
I walked around
to different classes to check out what each teacher was doing and to
also see a few different classroom management styles. The lessons
included: Darius Rucker, The Underground Railroad and making a
classroom quilt. Each teacher had their own form of classroom
management so it was good for me to see all the different styles.
Also, at the end
of the day I forgot to finish the Friday drawing. So no one got any
prizes. Yikes. I'm going to be in trouble on Tuesday. Yes, we have
Monday off. **Hallelujah!**
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