11.22.2010 Reflection

Morning:

The jumpstart this morning focused around the Chilean miners rescue.  I liked this use of a current news event into their worksheet.  It reminds students of the world outside the classroom and how important it is to help people in their community when their lives are in crisis. 

At 9:40 am I took the class through a recap of the multiplication story that I read to them called the Multiplying Menace.  We discussed again how the main character multiplied to make larger or smaller numbers.  Then I had them play a multiplication game using counting stones.  I split the class into two teams and had three people from each group go at a time to use the counting stones to skip count and figure out the multiplication problems.  What I did not count on was that most of the third graders were on the right side and most of the 4^th graders were on the left side.  For some reason, I thought that it would just work out evenly.  I was wrong and this slowed down the pace of the game because I had to give the 3^rd graders more time, and help them out a little bit more.  Next time I would have two small groups come up at a time and make sure that the groups are mixed so that the 4^th graders can help out the 3^rd graders who have less experience with multiplication. 

I began giving out problems for the teams to work on using the counting stones and at first both sides seemed to be getting it, but as the game progressed one side was taking longer, or waiting for the other side to blurt out their answer before giving theirs so that they would get it right.  I tried to change the way they gave their answers mid game, which did not work at all.  I tried to get them to hold their answers until both sides had an answer and then they could say what they thought the answer was.  This was my first time playing this game and unfortunately something that I thought would be a really fun way to reinforce the lesson totally backfired. 

Around 10:20 the 3^rd graders left for art and the 4^th graders sang and marched to a multiplication video.  It had a military chant format and the girls sang one part, while the boys sang the other.  I thought that it was weird that the girls and the boys were separated for this activity.  I always think about keeping the game fair for both sides especially in math and science, two very male dominated subjects.  I have not observed any other gender separation excercises though and this was just a song, so I did not think that it was a big idea, just something to think about. 

During the following social studies lesson, the students created a tree map of AZ’s Early People.  It included main points about the Mogollon, puebloan and hohokam tribes.  This lesson focused on the students reading a chapter from their book and using their thinking to answer questions.  I love to see them instinctually pick out the correct map to use during their lessons.  At this point in the year, they are very familiar with the maps and how they relate to the way they think and are becoming better at communicating through visualizing their thoughts organized. 

When the third graders came back to class, they began a lesson on the weather.  This lesson led to a discussion between Mrs. K. and I about me doing a tornado lesson with the students. 

Afternoon

This afternoon, my child study student was very restless and Mrs. K. had to take a buck away from him for being disruptive.  This was very effective, because after that he straightened up.  Get em’ in the pocketbook, that’ll teach em’ a lesson. 

They reviewed the 6 + 1 Traits today and it was interesting to see these traits being presented to the class, because I had recently been introduced to them myself.  The only difference is that while the traits concept was new to me, I already knew how to use them and have been using them for quite some time, while the students were new to both the traits and how to use them.  They seemed to get it though and also they had already been engaging in most of the traits to one extent or the other. 

After this they created thinking maps about what they were thankful for, for Thanksgiving.  Mrs. K. played some classical music during this period of time, I thought this was a good way to get those brain waves increasing without letting them know that they were being influenced. 

Finally at the end of the day, the students had to take out their agendas and have Mrs. K. check them to make sure they had all of their homework written down in them.  The students all have the same agenda notebooks.  This is so different from when I was kid.  I remember that we all either had different kinds of homework notepads or none at all.  In this classroom a student is required to have a homework agenda and it is checked daily by Mrs. K.  This is probably useful for communicating with parents as well. 

After the students went home at the end of the day, I stayed after to talk with Mrs. K. about my child study subject and get some feedback about her assessments of him.  I learned that they use an online form of assessment called assisted reading program.  The students read books on their own and then take an online quiz and the computer calculates their score and reading level.  She does a lot of her assessment through the use of thinking maps and does benchmark testing once per quarter.