Journal 9/22/09 Lengthy One Today...

Domain 6 Management of Time (both scenarios)

Today, I let the little boys experiment with a puppet show. I didn't really give them much instruction because I just thought about the show this morning. I thought I would just let them explore and enjoy the pretend atmosphere. I had gave them some cues like, "Ask each other a question, his name, etc." or "Answer his question". They really enjoyed it, especially when the state fell on top of them at the end;)!

Each day, right before lunch, I have the day's book keeper pick out a book of choice. Today, we read an Arthur book and at the end it had chocolate and strawberry ice cream, so I thought when they returned from lunch that we would do an ice cream graph of who likes what kind of ice cream the best. Now that I think of it, I will probably have them go and ask someone else what their favorite is too, like a poll.

Two things that were not planned but that I believe are beneficial to the learning experience. I was just thinking today how much more hands-on this classroom probably is now (not to my own credit, but I feel that the boys are being introduced to real learning experiences or at least "near-real"). It makes me wonder what my teacher thinks of all of it...does she see its worth? Does she think it involves too much planning? The hardest part is the assessment because I have to keep track of everything I do without the use of worksheets most of the time, but once you get used to it, it's not so bad. It just takes a little time, a little creativity, and lots of observation and good notes. I am definitely learning so much about assessment, which I talked about on blackboard this week, and I know I will continue to, even more so, in my next placement.

Checklists can be both informal and formal, correct? Just depending on when/how you are using them? That sounds like a silly question, but I just want to make sure!

Thanks! and THANK YOU for returning all of my papers and such!


Something else...

For these last 3 weeks, our "special" time has moved to the end of the day because our three first graders go with the K for P.E. This is not a problem expect that now the boys are in the room when I have another student, and since I save more instruction/hands-on activities for the afternoon, I realized today that I am going to have to change my plans because I can't and don't want to put that on the aide...that is not her responsibility nor do I want her teaching lessons. I was trying to talk to Mrs. Kirk about this realization today, and I think she took it more as not being able to balance having different students doing different things down here at once, which is why I think she has not given me all the students. I understand where she is coming from but that is not what I was referencing. I wanted to be careful how I said it because I didn't want her to think I was talking the aide down, so I just let it go. Part of it, I know, was me feeling bad that she thought I didn't think I could handle it but that was selfish on my part; I just need to get over that and realize she was just offering wisdom and advice even though, to me, it was not what I needed at the time:)! Oh learning! (sometimes I think I use this as a counseling session:)!

I also realized how "lucky"/"blessed" I am that I don't have all the students. I have much more time than I would to plan for the next day or the next lesson because I'm not working with all the students. I know this placement would be a lot more work and a lot more planning/preparation if I did. In some ways, I want that experience, but I know that in this situation, having all those students and it not being "my class" would be harder than taking it on in a future classroom without the experience (in my eyes). I am learning enough through this and observing enough to at least have some ideas of how I would handle all those students...I would be up for the challenge!