Day Eight

Again it was another interesting day in Room 610. The day kinda ran the gamut of possibilities.

1. Mrs. Jackson came back today. She is the foster grandparent in my room (a part of some program) and she had eye surgery during Thanksgiving break. She came back and was a big help.
2. My class was able to average about 85% or so on some math work today-plowing through two lessons. Everyone rose up meet the challenge and do those subtraction problems.
3. My counselor gave me some steps to take with one of the students in my room. It felt good to get support and new ideas from other staff members.

There are good things that happen every day, and everyone does them. It just helps to point out the positives in life. Like someone told me tonight...you can't let the negatives define the experience.

Day seven

I finished up my teaching reading course...finally. And today was a Tuesday. It began with a disruption, and that just made for foul moods, but I'll have none of that here.

1. During writing Derian was able to write four sentences on his own (much improvement) and put periods at the end of three of them all by himself (massive improvement).
2. Today Lakresha was able to write a story describing something. She moved past the repetitive "I play with #. I play with *." stage.
3. Day'Quan was able find the word elephant on his own and use it in his story.

I feel so much better about my kids writing this year. Now I just need to get math instruction up. Wednesday is bound to be better.

Day six

Well...My class is moving in the direction of more differentiation. I am getting math center/activities set up and things are progressing.

1. I started accuracy/fluency checks and two students, Calvin and Theqautiay, both had over 97% accurate reading with more than 85 words correct per minute (State frameworks say they need to read grade level text at 40 wcpm).
2. Alexander was able to name be 30 letters in one minute.
3. Alexander was also able to to finish nearly 12 addition problems by himself.
4. The look on Day'Quans face when he remembered to stretch out words to spell them, and then telling me that his dad calls him smart too.

Small victories and baby steps. Progress is basically the goal for most of mine, and we are all working towards it. Not all united, but getting there. Their feet and legs are not all that big yet, for them all steps are baby.

Sunday

Weekend lists are a little challenging, mostly because I do not seem to do a great deal.

1. I was able to play a good game of frisbee, even though it was near freezing.
2. I made a white chocolate rasberry cheesecake that I'll try tomorrow.
3. I got most of my planning done for the week.

Saturday

1. I was able to stay in a dream for a good while this morning. Haven't been able to do that in a few weeks. Don't really care that the dream was not all that pleasant, but it was a nice diversion.
2. I was able to get my presentation for my reading class mostly worked out.
4. The heat got fixed in the house, so I was able to venture out of my room by around 4 PM

Lazy Saturday in preparation for a busy Sunday.

Day five

An end to a week. It ended a little bit down from where it started, but part of it was the disorganized feeling in my mind. This were not quite as they should have been, people in and out of my room. Couple that with colder weather and it seemed to be enough to set any 6 year old off, as well as their teacher. Next week will have at least four really good days. Now just because some things were a little off does not mean that nothing good happened.

1. I saw Derian go from writing single sentences in writing, with no spaces between words, to writing four sentences, two without any real prompting from me, comple with proper spacing. (How's that for a rambling good thing)
2. Day'Quan figured out that a way to help him spell words in writing and on his spelling test was to strech them out and listen to the sounds. He went from 0 on spelling tests (with no correct sounds) to 5 right, and another 5-6 only one letter missing (final -st blend)
3. I was able to redirect Kei-Nosha, Calvin, Sammie, Tyreke, and Kevonta from being upset and pouting, to work in under4 minutes each.

Saturday will be a day for working on my class project, as well as beginning the prep work. I've a lot to prepare for the week ahead. I am trying to initiate a few systems. Should be great to be all caught up and running smoothly.

Day four

Well...today was interesting. A pop in observation, no comment from it, a meeting that I thought would happen, so I kept putting things off. So yeah, it was raining, we weren't on our best routine, so my kids were a little crazy, but we still got a lot done.

1. Joshsawa did not have a single big-wrestle-man pouting fit...all day!
2. We did physical activities and manipulations with even and odd numbers and the students that took a test on identifying even and odd numbers after the activities aced it.
3. Cherica was able to stretch out some sounds in words when writing and correct some spelling mistakes.

One more day on what has been a very good week at school. Positive thoughts and good planning are helping. Now I just need to refine a couple parts of the day and we will be off flying.