Day of news

It is that time of year. The time of year when the schedules get mangled a bit. It's rough, but doable again. I did it last year, I can do it this year.

Kaydie moved to the other side of town and is now attending another school. I'm down to 19. She moved during break so she has been gone for a while. I hope things are going well for her family.

Since the Thursday before my spring break I have had one student only show up for two days. Two days attendance in ten possible days. I got my certified mail back saying that the address was vacant, so I'm not sure where exactly he is. The school's speech pathologist said that her assistant has seen the boy every day at the ballpark here in Helena. The boy is here in town, just not coming to school. She said that it was because his dad cut all his hair off. It's something completely new to me. I've heard about kids getting upset about haircuts, but enough so that their parents let them miss nearly two weeks of school? Crazy. That combined with the fact that he told me a couple of months ago that his dad is in "Mississippi Jail" because the police found something in his car that wasn't his. Not quite sure what exactly to believe.

Speaking of jail, it turns out that Sunday night/Monday morning 4 or 5 inmates escaped from the county jail, which is at the courthouse on Cherry Street, right downtown. So my school was on lockdown. Interesting way to start the week. Hearing conflicting stories from people, like possible shootings (which were dismissed by the police chief and my housemate that works at a bank), but nothing actually on the news. By today all had been recaptured, but not without incident.
One of my boys had been really out of it this week. I really got on him today and I called his mom during lunch to try to figure out what was going on, but I left a message. She called me up after school and gave me an idea as to why he might be a little distracted.
It turns out his mom's brother (boy's uncle) was shot. By one of the inmates. In the back. After a robbery. You know what...that would kind of knock me off for about a week. He is currently at the Med in Memphis and I hope he pulls through.

Everytime I think I've seen/heard it all, something new comes along.

The art teacher also sent me a student from another class because the boy's pants had ripped. Three safety pins to fix his pants. They had torn right down the back side, about as far as they could. Fascinating the thigns that happen during a normal day.

Even with all of that stuff I'm not down at all. You just kind of shrug it off and keep on rolling.

1. Nearly every student I've listented to in the past week and half has met my reading goal of 1.5 years of growth. I just need to get through the whole class to find all my numbers.
2. Most of my kids are doing better with coins. They are getting better at counting mixed coins, as well as coming up with ways to show different amounts.
3. Walking around during writing showed me that my kids are really trying out the things that I talk about during the mini-lessons.
4. Dil has been phenomenal since spring break. Only a couple of issues, but he's been energetic, laughing, smiling (you know, like a first grader should be). We just need to eliminate the chair vault from his repertoire and we'll be alright. Better attitudes make me feel better. And really seem to improve my standing in the eyes of my principal.

I'm starting to see things that we've talked about since the beginning of the year start to gel. It's a good feeling to notice that I've made an impact.

Day

This week has been alright. My kids have come back with a better focus, for the most part, and I have seen across the board improvement.

One student did move. Kaydie told me that she would move to West Helena, a big move in town. Now she goes to Beechcrest. She was one of my better students, but could have a slight attitude. Now her cousin, who used to be her next door neighbor is saying that he is moving. This takes my total to 19.

1. Xander may have internalized the strategy of stretching out words to figure out the letters to write for them. In a little conference I asked him how he could spell a word and he said, "stretch it out," in his cute little way.
2. Most of my kids seemed more concerned about the flow of activities in the classroom. I'm hearing more kids use kind messages and requests. They have even said things like, "May y'all please be quiet in here." Really interesting turn of events in my class.
3. I've gotten my kids to say that they really like words like delicious and diabolical and horrible. We've been talking about describing words and adjectives during writing. Hopefully next week we can start to incorporate them into our writing.
4. I did a reading level check on one student. Tak completely blew me away. in an above level book, she read it at about 100 wcpm. Standards say at the end of the first grade they need to be at 40 wcpm. She was also reading a book that was at about a mid-second grade level. She has surpassed her reading goal for the year and now it needs to be bumped up. I hope I can find more encouraging news as I go through the other students.

All in all it's been a good week back.

Day of back to work and a late night

Yes, this entry is very late at night, been busy all day and all night.

First day was back, though it took me till about 2:00 to have the same problem that I had earlier. One child decided that he would be the straw that broke this camel's back. I overreacted, but apologized afterwards.
One of my kids may have moved, I'll see what tomorrow brings.
I tried to introduce a couple of new things today, did not necessarily take off well, but I'm not going to give up on them just yet. Slowly introducing more of the Brain Book. The next part will be a reading rate (wcpm) chart so they can see how they are reading better, as opposed to having reading level only in there. I just need to have more accurate, precise, and concise explanations for these things. I tend to be long winded, and that is not good for first graders. Also need to make more of an effort to model correct work.

This evening I felt a push in a good direction. While reading over some summaries of education articles I have come across two potential growth points for myself. By growth point I mean potential career turns. Both of them invovle starting something new at my school.
The first one involves changing the work atmosphere and collegial nature of my school, especially in terms of professional/staff development. I think it the staff worked together in more efficient and effective ways they students achievement could improve. There is definitely work I need to do in terms of research and background reading, but it is worth it. If implemented correctly it could definitely help the students at my school, and potentially the whole district. We just need to work on being more reflective. The district is close, but they seem to need just that extra nudge to get them going in the right direction.
The second involves a comment that my Grade Level Chair made to my principal, and some talks that I've had with her. I do enjoy working with the lowest students. It is something that a couple of teachers at my school have noticed. I just love the moement where they get it. It makes my job worth it. Now, with that comes a problem though. The students that need that one-on-one time can hardly get it effectively in the classroom with potentially 20 other students. Some of them get that help during interventions, but sometimes if TAs or parapros run them they do not get the best effect/benefit. There is a program called Reading Recovery that I think would benefit some of the lowest first graders at my school. It is a big system to initiate and operate, but I think I could be an effective Reading Recovery Teacher. I think setting up the system in the school would be difficult at first, but I would be willing to see it through its start-up period. There would be some difficulties, sure, but I think they benefits would offset it.
This being only my second year and not exactly on the most solid footing, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about floating my idea around. It would be difficult work, but I completely believe it would be worth it.

Day of ups and downs

hrmmm.

First off for the bad news, or not exactly the best/wanted news, I was denied for both positions in Houston. Again a form letter of rejection. Not nearly as upset this time around. I had been holding off on checking the email since Friday. Finally checked it today after school, and the stin wa not as much as expected. I checked my email with kind of a "meh to whatever" attitude. Yeah it stings with jealous tinges. I sent an email back to the people with a couple of questions, so we'll see what happens.

On to better news.

1. My principal finally got around to observing me yesterday. Kind of a botched lesson on static electricity in my eyes. Evidently she liked it, even though it didn't really take on the kids. I guess my honest and forthright reflection afterwards was a good thing.
2. Dill had a mostly good day. First in a while. Not perfect, but progressing. That's something I like to see in all my kids.
3. Cher's father is seemingly more helpful. He is showing real concern about his daughter, which is a good step.
4. My principal also let slip some complementary words from my grade level chair. At least I'll take them as a complement. They both recognize the children that I like to work with.
5. As a result I had a really good conversation with my principal. I felt like an educator having a discussion with a colleague, not just an employee talking to a boss. She seemed to respect and appreciate the things that I was saying.

Another bit of good news. I'll be teaching first grade next year. Fresh batch. I get to tell the kindergarten teachers tomorrow.

Day of weekend bundle of nerves

So my plans for implementing a new idea in my classroom have hit a snag. I've not gotten feedback I've expected. I'm also being observed a couple of times this week, so I'm not to sure about implementing new ideas. They will probably be implemented and the observers will just have to deal with seeing something new starting. Yes, I know it's the week before spring break, and I should probably wait until after break, but I've waiting too long already to get my kids more accountable. Now that testing is done, I'm glad to have my normal schedule back. I'll just have to get into the swing of planning for it soon.

Biggest thing. Right now, I'm scared. More than I should be. I've never been so nervous in my life. This is a completely irrational fear, but I've not been able to overcome it. I applied for a job to work at the Summer Institute in Houston, and I received an email on Friday stating if I was accepted for a position or not. I did not handle the first rejection well, not at all. And now I'm too nervous to check this one. People have been asking me if I got it, and I keep telling them that I've not checked my email. Monday I have to do it, I just need to find the courage and strength to deal with whatever the result is. Right now I do not have it.

Day of Testing is DONE!

Well, actually that happened yesterday for my kids, and I think that there is still more testing to be done in the upper grades tomorrow, and one of my kids has make-ups to do (but he is about 60% attendance so far this marking period).

Yes, ITBS testing is done for my kids. The exact same test form as last year. Same questions that just kind of tweaked me last year tweaked me again this year. The cultural relevance of tests is a factor that needs to be addressed. Plus, one question to asses one concept is also a little wrong. Snapshots do not exactly tell what is outside the frame. Overall I think my kids did well. I did not feel as frustrated with seeing my kids mark wrong answers. It might be that they were actually performing better, or I reminded myself not to look so much, or I just calmed down in the room, or it was the fact that my principal decided to help proctor in my room. I'm not sure why, but I think it's something the TA that was helping me the other couple of days said. There are times when I feel like there is a lot of stuff going on behind my back, and I really don't know who I can turn to. But I try not to let things like that get to me, especially if it is just a TA.

Now we can resume real, regularly scheduled teaching. We have been sitting in groups and we are trying to work on Cooperative learning. A bumpy road, but we will get there. They have energy, they are sharp and they can help each other learn.

(Historical note for myself - The past two days with Dilland - turning point beyond what I can help with)

On to the list of things that went well.

1. Nearly all of my kids were able to work in centers and actually accomplish the work, and write it down correctly in their travel log. All had accomplished different levels, but the structure was there.
2. One girl was able to read nearly all of "Fox in Socks" with me on the carpet today. We've read it every day this week to help us listen to rhyming words in preparation of writing couplets. I even had one of my most speech problemed students joining in and trying to read the book of tongue twisters.
3. My students were better at telling time. They worked in groups to read clocks and tell times and I think that helped some of them. With just a little more practice we should be able to effectively tell time to the half hour.
4. I went to the 5-6 grade basketball game at the Community Center and I saw the team from my school beat the team from the KIPP school. The final score was 59-14. Kind of a blowout honestly.

One more slightly jumbled/test affected day. On Monday, though it is the week before spring break, we will be jumping back in hard core. We've still got a lot of ground to cover, and I really want to get this new tracking/accountability system down.

day making up

Yes. It's been a while since I've posted. Been kind of scrambling this last week trying to get ready for testing. Practicing for it all last week. Righ now it is all in my kids hands. I've got to test them an hour a day for the next three days. Tried to take pictures of them. Will try to post a few.

These are photos from what caused the snow day a month ago. The first two were taken at 6 am, when I found out school was cancelled. The last one was taken at 11, when I rolled out of bed that day.











This last one is of two of my students that had lunch in my room with me (best behavior for the previous week). Talk quickly went to that of doing the splits, so they decided that they would both do it and insisted that I take a picture of them.




Had a professional development day this Saturday. Went fairly well. I ended up generating an idea of something I want to try in my classroom. It will take me just about all week to implement it and I would not really be able to use it until next week (when real teaching resumes), but there is a chance I could start it on Thursday (we finish testing on Wednesday). My idea is to give all of my kids "Brain Books." Basically just folders with tracking sheets in them. Right now I'm trying to instill in them the notion that if they work hard, they can achieve success and get smarter. I spent most of the night trying to figure out what sort of information would be in it and what it would look like. I'm trying to get my students to be more independent. The hope is that they will be capable of looking at this folder, using it, and realizing what they need to do to accomplish the goals that are laid forth within. It will be more work for me to get it up and running and maintaining it, but I think my kids and I are capable of using them. I just do to want to introduce anything more to them for the first part of this week, especially if I am not completely sure what I want.

I've got an idea, but before I present it to them I need to know what I want out of it. I need to know what it will look like, when they will use it, how they will use it, where it will be located (wll they be able to take it home?) and other questions of the sort. I've not been this energized about a classroom idea in a long time.