Methods blog for 4460

This past Thursday was the last day of my unit. On Thursday I gave my final assessment for my unit. I was happy with the results I found after I did my grading. On Wednesday in class we did review stations for math class. I had four different stations set up. Each station required the students to do something that was important for the equivalent fractions unit we had been working on. One station had the students drawing different fractions and looking at the numerator and denominator. Another station had students looking mathematically solving equivalent fractions with numbers missing in the problems. Another station had students doing a sort to create the definitions for the important words we used in class. There was a game of go fish with equivalent fractions and a station where students drew equivalent fractions. I was walking around the whole time trying to make sure I helped the students I knew were going to have problems with these activities.  My CMT was very happy with the lesson this day she thought it was a great review and she thought the students got a lot out of it. It was good because the students got to move around and do different things with fractions.

One of my biggest problems is behavior during station time with students. I think I needed to revisit the norms that I explained at the beginning of my unit so the students knew what I expected. After reflecting on the day I think it would have been beneficial to revisit my norms and expectations with group work. I had some behavior problems during this time. I had to “clip down” one of my students because he was not working on fractions and he was just goofing off. I know that this student has problems with group work and he proved that to me on Wednesday. I moved him back to his desk, which is separate from the rest of the students’ desks and brought him the station work for the rest of the class period. I think if I would have shared my expectations I could have been stricter with him.  I thought his behavior was hurting the other students learning which is why I moved him. I think I learned that norms and expectations are important for students to know so they understand when they do not follow them what the consequences will be.

I really enjoyed teaching my math unit. I think it was a great experience. I learned a lot about teaching fourth graders and what they need. I also gained a lot of information about norms in this classroom and how I want to treat norms in my future classroom. I think my unit was successful in the way of student learning. I hope they gained as much from this unit as I did.

I am really excited to say that I have gotten the chance to teach math this whole week. It has been a great experience even though it has just been a week. I think I have learned a lot of things by just being the “teacher” in the classroom during math time. I think every day I get a little better at teaching. It has also been nice because my teacher and I have gotten a chance to talk at the end of every day and discuss my lesson and what was good and what I can improve. I think it is interesting because I had plans for my unit and what I was going to do every day and those changed. At the end of the day I would reflect on what happened and look at my formative assessments and gain information about what I need to do differently the next day. Even though I had plans set for everyday I have been changing the plans after I teach the lesson before. My CMT is very big on reflecting and I love that we get a chance to reflect and brainstorm together after the day is done.

There are many things I am still learning about teaching fourth graders. It is difficult for me to teach at a fourth grade level. I think all week I have been working on how to explain something in math terms to a fourth grader. I did get a compliment from my CMT about my academic vocabulary I have been using during my lessons. There are things that I find difficult to explain to them because they may not have the background knowledge I expect. I am really happy with the way my students are able to find equivalent fractions using models and pictures. Now that they have mastered that I am working on showing them how to create equivalent fractions using just the numbers. This is a difficult transititon for my students and is something they are not quite grasping yet. It is what I am going to work with them at the beginning of next week.

I have been trying to keep with the norms of the classroom. Each day I have been starting math class the way my teacher begins. I also gave the weekly math test today at the beginning of my lesson. One of the norms my CMT has complimented me on was how I have insisted the students use sign language when they are responding to me. I also have done stations the past few days which is something my teacher does a lot. The students are also accustom to having speed games on the computer where they play against the teacher. I have created a speed game to challenge the students. It has been a good week and I am excited to continue teaching.

Today was the first day of my math unit! I am in a fourth grade classroom. Math is the last thing we do in my classroom every day. We have math scheduled from 2:00 to 3:15. The students are done with school and called to get on buses at 3:20. It is an interesting schedule and sometimes leaves students a little tired of school and more interested in other things than math. I am teaching the students first unit on fractions. Since it was my first day of teaching fractions we did some basic things on fractions to make sure we were all starting on the same page. I also worked really hard today to relate fractions to my students’ lives.

I tried to keep norms in mind while I was doing my lesson today. To start off I kept with the norm of doing Math 4 Today. Math 4 Today is a weekly set of homework and class problems. In this class everyday in math we go over 4 of the math questions on the sheet. Students do the first row of problems on Monday during class. Then students do the rest of the rows each night for homework. Then on Friday they take a quiz where they can use their notes from the week. This was part of my students daily schedule that my teacher wanted me to continue to do while I was teaching. I worked hard to stick to the students norms when I was doing it today. I told students to highlight certain things, which is a norm. It is a class strategy to highlight the important parts of math problems so when they work on the test they know what to look for. Then I pulled beans with students’ names on them to do the problems. However, I was there to make sure students did them correctly. I worked hard to make sure the students were successful and learning.

Another important part about norms was I set up some expectations for group work today. I have noticed the students do not do a lot of group work. I wanted to make sure students knew what I expected of them before we started. I told them some of my expectations and I talked to them about what they thought I would expect. These were some expectations and norms that I wanted to establish at the beginning of my time in the classroom. I tend to plan a lot of group work when I am planning my lessons. I talked about how I wanted students to respect each other, discuss, not say you’re wrong, and all people participating. These were things that I know students understand but I thought it was important to talk about. I think it went well today. I did see some students being disrespectful and I think the norms of group is something I am going to review again as I continue teaching. I want to make sure the students know what I expect of them. I think having these norms set will also help with my classroom management. I am excited to continue teaching my unit! I had a good day and I hope I just keep getting better.

This Friday at school we had a very busy day. I think it is normal for Fridays to have less instruction because there are many other things that come first in fourth grade. The students had a pretty normal Friday because they went to specials, had stations in the morning, and then had lunch and recess. After lunch was when things got a little crazy. The students had a chance to go to the library because they hadn’t gotten to earlier in the week. The problem on Friday was that the students were a little unfocused. That Thursday they had went on a field trip to the Erie Canal and then Thursday night was trick or treat in Findlay. Then at 2:00 on Friday the students had a Halloween party. The students get to dress up but they had fun games and snacks. Needless to say it was kind of a crazy day at school.

So most of the past posts I have written about the norms of the classroom and today’s post I want to focus instead on classroom management. My CMT has great classroom management skills. Friday was a day that classroom management was very important. I know my CMT usually does those types of parties without any help. I don’t know how she does it because the whole time I was cleaning, helping, keeping students in line. My teacher gave each student an apple that she spent a while cutting. We also covered pumpkins in shaving cream and the students had competitions over who could shave the pumpkin the best. It was a lot of fun but we had one student who did not do well all day.

This student has been one of the students I have been focusing on during my time in the classroom. I know that this students misbehaves a lot and is difficult to get interested in topics. The past few times I have been in the school I have been impressed with his behavior. Friday was not a good day for him at all. Both the teacher and I spent a lot of time with him while he was doing morning workshop trying to get him to work on his vocab quiz. All of the other students pick up the vocab quiz and do it automatically. I had to go over and ask this student if he did it or not. Then I had to hand it to him and ask him to put his book down. Then my CMT spent probably ten to twenty mins. trying to get him to do it. She had to take away his book so he would do it. After all that time an effort he only wrote two out of the six sentences and they were not good at all. The problem is I know this student is very smart but he does not put any effort into anything. This is a worry for me when I start teaching soon. I am not sure how to get him interested in what I am talking about. I know I will have to put extra effort in getting him involved. I know that the student is interested in cars, reading, and Harry Potter. I have tried to involve a lot of reading into my lessons. I just know that classroom management is going to be very important when I am teaching and is something I am thinking about.

This Friday I was watching the student’s social norms with each other. I have noticed that my blogs focus on the classroom norms and not always the social norms that students have. I noticed the students in this class are very social. I can see many different friend groups when I look at the class. There are groups of girls and groups of boys that hang out together. I did notice that although some students hang out with both boys and girls most friend groups are all either all boys or all girls. I think this is because of the students being fourth graders. I see some intermixing of students during activities but when the student’s line up they usually find their friend groups of the same gender.

I have not noticed too much hostility between students in the classroom. There have been times when I can tell students are not friendly to one another. However, students in this class seem to get along pretty well. One of the things I have noticed is how much students build each other up in this classroom. If a student does something well I have heard students give verbal compliments many different times. One of the first days in the classroom I heard a little boy give a compliment to a girl that does not have many friends. I thought it was really sweet and the student didn’t give her the compliment to get any recognition he just told her good job. Also when students do well at something it is common for students to clap for each other in sign language. This happens a lot throughout the day. I think it is great that my CMT has built a classroom that encourages students to be nice to each other.

There are a few other social norms that I noticed this week. I helped video tape students reading stories they wrote. When the students were reading their stories to a camera they were very quiet. I thought this was very interesting since I have heard all the students be louder than that. I had to keep reminding the students that the camera had a small microphone so they needed to speak up. I also noticed this week that there are a few students who do not have a lot of friends in the classroom. I think I will need to think about this when I am doing my lessons. I want to make sure the students all feel comfortable talking with their peers when I ask them to do so.

I am really glad we got the opportunity to go into the classroom for a full week. I think I learned a lot more about the way my teachers classroom functions and about the kids this week. I think it was nice to see the way the classroom functions on a day other than Friday. I know that Fridays are always a little crazy in the classroom. For example, today we had family picnic at lunch and an assembly in the afternoon. It was hard to get anything done today because there were so many other things going on in the classroom. I was impressed how my teacher kept up her classroom management today even with all the craziness.

My CMT has great classroom management. I noticed at the beginning of the year the students didn’t listen to her as well. Now that it is getting into the year the students are very well behaved. I think my teacher has established great rapport with the students. My CMT gives the students a lot of different privilages and I think it helps them appreciate her. She also just has a great way of talking and getting along with the students.

I believe a lot of my CMT’s classroom management skills have to do with the norms of her classroom. One of her norms is the use of sign language to communicate with her. This causes there to be less noise in the classroom because students do not need to yell things they just sign. It also allows my CMT to not have a crowd of students standing at her side constantly asking her to go to the bathroom. I think it is a great skill because it helps meet the needs of the students in the least disruptive way possible.

I also noticed that students know if they do things right in the classroom they will most likely be rewarded in some way. This is a norm for the classroom. The teacher has high expectations and there are certain things students get for following directions. One reward system she has set up in her classroom  uses poker chips. Each student has a number. When my CMT notices a student doing really well at something she will ask them their number. When they answer she takes a poker chip that has the corresponding number and puts it in a jar. Then when she has something that everyone wants to do in the classroom she pulls a poker chip from that jar. It is interesting to see how the students react to that jar. They all want to be noticed and appreciated for their behavior. It is a classroom management tool that works really well for my teacher.

There is also a norm of respecting everyone in my CMT’s classroom. I noticed it right away. The school motto  is said every morning and it deals with respect. I noticed that my CMT expects the children to say thank you from her students when she hands them things. My CMT also talks about how to be respectful to adults and how smiling or saying hello to an adult can make them feel good. My teacher is respectful to the students and she expects respect in return.

Today was my second day in the field. I really enjoy my placement. I was worried when I found out I was in fourth grade because my favorite age group is seventh and eighth grade. However, the more I am in the fourth grade classroom the more I enjoy it. The students are very fun and willing to learn.  I think it is hard just being at the schools on Fridays. I think Friday is usually a crazy day in school and it is not always a clear picture of how the classroom runs. Today the teachers had a two hour delay for in service. This means the amount of time I spent with students was shortened.

I again was looking for norms in the classroom. I have discussed with my CMT how important classroom procedures are in her room. My CMT thinks it is most important to get the students to know how her room is run and what she expects. My CMT starts every day by having the students come to her and check in. She mentioned today to the kids how important this time is to her. She explained to the students and to me that this is the time when she gets to say good morning to every student. She says she really enjoys this time because she gets to talk to each student about their lives. It is one of the ways she establishes rapport with her students. I like the system she has set up because her classroom is crazy in the morning. The way she has the check in set up students know what they have to do and she doesn’t miss anyone in the morning.

My CMT has a lot of things she expects the students to do. I think these are all reasonable expectations. My CMT expects the students to look at her when she is speaking. She rewarded a couple of students the Thursday before I came in for working hard all day and paying attention. My CMT is still trying to make sure the classroom procedures are set in stone. She keeps reminding the students what she expects them to do. I noticed that most students are trying to follow directions. I think they are doing better with classroom procedures this week than they were last week when I was observing.

The norms I saw this week were mostly classroom norms. It was a shortened day and I didn’t get a chance to see any math instruction. The students did take a math test. It was a short test and they were allowed to use some of their notes from the week if they had their math binder with them. I noticed that there were some norms when it came to test taking. Students in this class are very talkative. I did notice that when the students were given the test they became quite. They knew that my CMT expected them to be quiet and not talk when they had the test in hand. Another norm I saw when the students had the tests was they used highlighters to highlight important parts of the questions. Students got out their highlighters when the test was handed out. My CMT also reviewed what to do with the highlighters. It was interesting to see the students really get into test mode. They understood the importance of being quiet when the test was out. I enjoyed being in the classroom, watching, and being able to interact with the students today.

                Today was my first full day with my teacher at Bigelow Hill Elementary School. I am placed in a fourth grade classroom. The classroom has around twenty students. This is a self contained classroom. I primarily started today by just observing. I feel very lucky to be in the classroom with my CMT. She is very organized and very willing to give me her insight and all the help and feedback she can. One thing I looked for specifically was the norms.

            This classroom has  a lot of norms. One of the norms is when the students come in at the beginning of the day they look at the list in the front of the classroom and they know what to do. The list gives them the order they are to do things in for the day. The list stays the same almost every day giving the students some structure. Students know that they are in charge of their own learning and the teacher has them say that throughout the day. It is still one of the first weeks of class and the teacher is still trying to get the students into a solid routine.

            Another norm I saw in the classroom is that students get a chance to move from their desks to sit where they want. They can move from their seats at pretty much anytime during the day. The teacher does not care. Sometimes students will move because someone at their table is misbehaving. I also saw students move so that they could see what the teacher was doing. This is a norm that was established at the beginning of the year. The students know that they are allowed to move around the room if it helps them.

            There were many other norms that I saw throughout my day. One norm the teacher talked to the students about when I was there was the sign language they use in the classroom. Instead of always coming up to the teacher and asking if they can go use the restroom, get a drink, go to the library, or get into their backpack the students do the sign. The teacher acknowledges the sign from across the room. The teacher likes this norm because she can still be having a conversation and meeting the needs of many students without having a large line of students waiting to talk to her. The teacher also explained to the class and me that when she talked she expected all the students to look at her. She did this so that she knew if the students were paying attention. I think that is a good classroom management trick to use in the classroom.

            I think the classroom I am in is a very effective one. The class has a good structure that the students are still learning. I also think the students get along well. There are some students that cause more disruptions than others but as far as I saw the class was pretty well behaved. I am lucky to have my CMT because she and I get along. She is also full of resources and tips that she is excited to share.

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