Sorry for my lack of posting! Goodness have I been busy! I survived my first TWO weeks of teaching on my own! I still absolutely love my school, team of teachers, and of course my students. It has been a whirlwind of emotions. All good ones. Except for just extreme exhaustion. I spent at least 10 hours at school every day in the first two weeks. Most days I was there at least 12 hours, from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm. That is my new goal, to stay at school less hours each day to prevent burn out and just overall physical exhaustion.
It's currently a Saturday night. I was writing lesson plans for the past two hours. Good thing is since I have to write both Math and Science plans for the week, and my friend and I both teach both subjects to the same grade level at the same school, we can share the planning. She wrote the math plans and I wrote the science plans. I feel so accomplished now that I got it all done! Woohoo!
I feel like I could rename my blog, "TeachingWithoutATextbook." That's literally what we have been doing. The textbooks FINALLY arrived though. I have the teacher editions and student editions in my possession now at home. We do not have them in our classrooms yet because they are not done sorting and stamping all the books. We should get them by Wednesday of next week. For now, I have to scan and make copies of everything for my students to use.
Social studies has been fun- I taught my students my Continent song to teach them the 7 continent names. We also made compass roses and did a kinesthetic learning activity where the students had to practice facing North, then facing different directions as I called out the direction. This was fun for both me and the students! The way all teaching and learning should be! We also made the flip book foldable of where I am- using our school, our street, our city, our country, and our continent. At the end of the week, I had my students sing the Continent song in small groups and I gave each of them a sticker that said "Ask me what the 7 continents are!" Next week we are going to work on actually knowing the location of the 7 continents and being able to label them on a map. I love the map skills unit. I am looking forward to continuing it!
In math we have been focusing on place value. I have learned quickly that my students are very knowledgeable and curious. They all do not stop asking questions. I had to make a classroom policy of waiting to raise their hand until I stop talking. I literally would say two words and 5 students hands would go in the air with questions. I am glad they are so interested, but they kept asking questions of what I was about to say! It has been fun teaching without a textbook for math. I printed math sheets for them to complete and most of them were definitely above 3rd grade. I plan to challenge my students all year long, especially my second group because they are the advanced and gifted class.
For science, we have been doing basic explorations of science terms. We did a predictions lab using counters. It is basically like a flipping a coin activity, but with red and white counters. We also did a observations lab where students were given an object with a partner and had to observe and describe their object in great detail. Then we did a communication activity. This was super fun. I wish I took pictures. I put up the student offices (two file folders stapled together to give each student privacy). I gave each student their lab sheet and a brown paper bag that had an object in it. Each student had a different object. The students had to observe and describe their objects. Then I had the students come to the front of the class and describe their object. The other students had to guess which object was the students object they were describing. It was a fun activity because I had a ton of totally different objects like: gator pom poms, a band-aid, a highlighter, pink gator hat, a tiara, a costume tiger ears, etc. Anyway, I am exciting to start teaching more science content next week! We are starting our energy unit!
I am completing donors choose projects this year. I did one for a projector and got it funded! Now I am working on one for a classroom iPad. I hope I can get this one funded too!
I can tell this year is going to be great. I have such a great team of teachers to work with who are filled with tons of ideas. It's amazing because all four of us have similar teaching philosophies and want to make learning fun, enjoyable, and differentiated for the students. We have a great school that backs us up on these philosophies and a great administration who believes in us! I am really loving my first year and could not be happier.
Hopefully I will have time to post more often next week.
That's it for now!
-Michelle
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