Reading Log EDEC 408

All following books read to my Kindergarten Class at Denali Elementary School and Spring Hill Elementary School. Read aloud during Circle time unless otherwise noted. There are 22 students in the class at Denali and 17 in the class at Spring Hill

1. Swimmy by Leo Lionni
2. Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister  
3. Rainbow fish to the Rescue by Marcus Pfister
4. Ms. Piggle Wiggle (The Show off Curse) by Betty Macdonald
5. South America by Libby Koponen.
6. Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon by Gerald McDermott
7. There was an Old Lady who swallowed a Trout by Teri Sloat
8. Rabbitt and Turtle -Eric Carle
9. Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th day- Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff
10. Rosa Raposa -Isabel Campoy
11. The Great Kapok Tree- Lynne Cherry
12. Count your way through China -Jim Haskins
13. Three Little pigs- Fran Hunia
14. Enormous Turnip-  Kathy Parkinson
15. 100th day worries- Margery Cuyler and Arthur Howard 
16. Journey into the rainforest- Tim Knight
17. Tropical rainforests -Hamilton, Jean
18. What time is it Mr. Crocodile? - Judy Sierra and Doug Cushman
19. Little Red Riding Hood- Trina Schart Hyman
20. Lon Po Po by Ed Young
21. Ruthie and the (not so) teeny tiny lie by Laura Rankin
22. 9 Magic Wishes by Shirley Jackson and Miles Hyman
23. Dinofours: It's class trip day -Sreve Metzger
24. Caps for Sale- Slobodkina Esphyr
25. Hey Little Ant- Phillip Hoose
26. The Dragons are singing tonight- Jack Prelutsky
27. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin- Beatrix Potter
28. Peter Rabbit- Beatrix Potter
29. The Tale of Benjamin Bunny- Beatrix Potter
30. The Tale of Pigling Bland- Beatrix Potter
31. The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit- Beatrix Potter
32. The Tale of Tom Kitten- Beatrix Potter
33. One fish two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish- Dr. Seuss
34.  Green Eggs and Ham-Dr. Seuss
35. The Foot Book-Dr. Seuss
36. The Cat and the Hat-Dr. Seuss
37. Career Day- Anne Rockwell
38. Fire Fighters: People in my Community- Jacqueline Laks Gorman
39. Police Officers -Jacqueline Laks Gorman
40. Teachers -Jacqueline Laks Gorman
41. It's St. Patricks Day- Rebecca Go'mez
42. Guess Who- Margaret Miller
43. The Big book of Dinosaurs- Angela Wilkes
44. The Night Before the Tooth Fairy- Natasha Wing 
45. Wood and Paper- Delta Education
46. There was an Old Lady who swallowed a Chick- Lucille Colandro
47. Cliffords Happy Easter-  Norman Bridwell
48. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse- Jan Brett  
49. The Big Yellow Bus- Lorinda Cauley
50. Five Little Ducks- Pamela Paparone
51. Way out West with a Baby- Michael Brownlow
52. Marshmallo-  Clare Turlay Newberry
53. Max's Chocolate Chicken- Rosemary Wells
54. The night before Mother's Day - Natasha Wing

Mini Residency

I realize I haven't posted in a while. I need to start keeping up with this.

So things have been going good in my classroom. There are challenges, but I am thankful for them. If I was given a easy and perfect class, then I wouldn't be as prepared for the many obstacles and differences I will undoubtedly find in classrooms all over. My mentor teacher states a lot that we have to accept that this is the class we have this year, and we have to do the best we can with it (referring to the 16 boys we have and only 5 girls). It is just a very high energy classroom. And of course there are the several key players that keep that energy high always. I do not think its a "bad" class by far and I don't put any negative term towards them. I personally like my class. They are great kids, and I feel like all of them really are moving ahead and learning a lot. It just takes extra energy from both Becky and I to keep up with them.

Mini residency is next week and Becky had me plan everything! I came in on Saturday so she could show me how to give the Montessori language lessons that kids will be needing soon enough. What is great about being in this classroom is that Becky pretty much lets me do what ever I want, or at least she wants me to. Even though this is a Montessori school, Becky has made it clear that if I know other ways to teach language and math that I should definitely bring in those ideas and use those as lessons in my residency. She doesn't want me bound to the Montessori lessons that they do every year. So my challenge right now is thinking for January what language and math lessons can I incorporate into the classroom.

Back to mini residency. I have M-F planned out. The theme I will be starting the kids on is "Under the Sea." I decided this might be good because our big Christmas party is not about Christmas at all. We are having a Hawaiian party. This is lead up to by our lessons and activities which are all going to be about the migration of whales from Alaska to Hawaii. In science we ended our plant unit about a week ago and we are now on mammals. That is where the whale comes in. I thought if we are going to talk about whales we could also talk about life in the ocean. So everyday next week I have a fun water/ocean/life lesson to give the kids and activities to go along with it. We will also be learning Hawaiian songs next week and our school nurse who is from Hawaii will come in and teach us how to do a Hula dance. I want to find a book that teaches the kids about what life is like in Hawaii, who Hawaiians are, etc..Our school Library doesn't have a book like that. But we are still looking.


Here is my outline for the week:

Monday

9:00 Calendar

9:10 Introduce Hawaii Songs

9:20-11:15 Lessons and Open Work

o   Me: 1) long vowel lesson 2) Long vowel object match

o   Becky:

12:30 Silent Read

12:50 Library

1:35 P. E

2:05 Introduction to the Ocean

Water Table and globe

o   Sand/rocks

o   Shells

o   Fish objects

2:20 Science journals

2:40 Snack and share

3:00 Dancing Water:  First discuss water. Choose a few students at a time to show us all how water moves when it falls from the sky, the beach, the lake, thunder, ocean and a waterfall.

3:15 Prepare for home

Tuesday

9:10 P.E

9:40 Calendar and Hawaii songs

10:00 Handwriting W/O Tears.

10:10-10:20 Begin work session and Lessons

o   Me: 1) object game 2) Sand paper letters and object match

o   Becky:

12:30 Silent Reading

12:50 Ocean Life Lesson

1:10 Finger Paint Ocean Life Mural

• Finger Paint
• Individual paper
• Bulletin Board Paper

1:30 Clean up

2:00 Snack/Share

2:30 Prepare for home

2:45 Music

3:15 Get ready to leave

Time left over or in between? Teach them the “5 little fish song” (counting and numbers CD)

Wednesday

9:00 Calendar/ Hawaii Songs

9:20 Wash Shell Lesson, Counting Shells, Matching Shells

o   Shells: Small, large

9:30 Hand Writing W/O Tears

9:40-9:50 Begin Work session and Lessons

o   Me: teen board lesson

12:30 Silent Read

12:50 Teacher Read (Character Setting &Action; “What did the Characters do?”)

1:10 Journaling

1:30 Circle and Share journals

1:50 Snack/Share

2:15 Art

3:15 Prepare for home

 Thursday

9:00 Calendar/ Hawaii Songs

9:30 Handwriting W/O Tears.

9:40-9:50 Open Work Session

10:20 Counseling

]10:50 P.E

12:30 Silent Read

12:50 Hawaii Discussion- “What do you wear in winter? What if you lived in Hawaii where it is summer year round, what would you wear?”

1:00 Nurse Pattie teaches Hula?

1:30 Work Session

2:30 Hula Movie

3:15 Prepare for home

Friday

9:10 Music

9:40 Calendar/ Hawaii Songs

10:00 Chalk Board lesson whole group (Straight, Curve, and Cross lines)

10:15 Begin Work session and Lessons

o   Me: ABC Retrieval

o   Becky:

12:30 Teacher Read

12:50 Possible Little Mermaid “Under the Sea” Scene

1:00 Computer Lab

2:00-3:00 Reading Buddies

3:00 Snack/Share

3:15 Prepare for home

Homework

Being in Kindergarten, we don't usually give out homework. I am glad my mentor feels this way because Kindergarten is already a busy transition these kids are getting used to. Going from either a part time preschool or nothing at all to 6 hours, 5 days a week is a lot for 5 and 6 year olds. The last thing I would want to do, would be send more work to do at home. The only time we send anything home is if the kids are asking for work to do (which happens in some cases). But my mentor always makes sure the parents know to stop it if the child is feeling stressed out or frustrated. She also tells parents it shouldn't be something that would take them more then 5-10 minutes.
It becomes a more challenging idea I would think, the older the students get. I know as an older elementary school student, there were times I was up really late getting work done. I think whatever grade you teach, you want to be smart with what you send home, and how much time should be spent doing it. The first thing that I would want to keep in mind would be, "Are the students having adequate family and relaxation time?" I wouldn't want to take away from that time which is very important. Students also do spend most of there day doing school work, how much more should they really be doing at home? If homework does get assigned, it should be useful and not meaningless. Adding fun assignments in that they could do with their parents, and if anything, at least have them read every night.

Planning

My mentor was telling me that she doesn't write up lesson plans up a lot. She knows what she is doing and has done it for a while now. But every now and again she will write up lessons so she can stay in the habit of doing so and have records of her lessons.
When she writes up lessons, first she begins in her planning book. She will plan her weeks out and decide what lessons she needs/wants to do. She uses the Montessori lesson plan outline which she follows for her lessons in general. It is a lot like any other lesson plan outline I have used. She includes what skills should be needed before the lesson, what skills the lesson will take, and what skills the students will learn. She lists materials and procedures. She includes standards, aims, what outcome should come forth. Extensions may also be included.
I haven't seen what she uses for formal observations. If I have, I can't remember. But she does document everything to keep herself safe as well as students, and then just simply for records. She has confidential notebooks where she might document her observations on a child. She will document dates and times of incidents as well as emails or conversations that could be important for a future use. She will document a child's progress regularly.

She plans weekly by what lessons she wants to give and goes through her planning book and puts those times in. She will also think each week what she wants to teach to individuals, small groups, and large groups and plans accordingly.
Monthly she plans by theme and will add in what she knows is going on such as field trips, holidays, and approximate lessons.
I would say the longest range plan is yearly. She has an idea at the beginning of the school year what each month will be and plugs that into the calendar.

My afternoon

So yesterday I got the challenge of taking over the class for the full afternoon while my mentor teacher needed to leave early. She did hire a sub, but made it clear to the class that I was the one in charge for the afternoon. The sub really did stay in the background. It was a chaotic day to say the least. I think the kids were testing me. But I ended up being more firm then I usually am in the classroom. When my mentor teacher and I talked this morning, she realized that if the class will become so chaotic when she leaves, that means they are relying on her to keep them on task. So today we decided things needed to change up. We went with "killing them with kindness." We noticed how the students need to learn to regulate themselves more so we don't come off too firm. We had a class meeting and my mentor teacher stressed that she did not want to use her grumpy voice today. The atmosphere was a lot better then yesterday. It is a challenge to have a good balance sometimes of being gentle and firm. But I am learning. Classroom management and working with behaviors is definitely an area I'd like to work on this year.

Classroom Reflections

 When thinking about class transitions, I think that is something that our class is still working on. When it's time to clean up and get ready for anything else, it seems to be a task for several students. My mentor and myself are finding that we need to remind children several times of the instructions that were given. I have hope for the class. They are in Kindergarten and still learning,  so it's my style to be a little more lenient with them, but I do find myself adopting my mentor's attitude of cracking down on them more.

When it comes to how the students relate with myself and my mentor, I do see some difference. It is kind of hard to explain, but they seem to be more "buddy buddy" with me right now. Not that they don't see me as a teacher, because they do. They don't walk all over me, but I think that I am more open in chatting with them so I have a little bit of a different relationship with them. I still have a good balance with them and am able to teach lessons and speak with them in more of a "teacher manner," while receiving back cooperation and participation (for the most part) from the students. 

Times during the day that are more challenging for the students would be the afternoons. Right now my mentor is trying to figure out a new way to restructure the afternoons. After lunch, most kids are tired and its hard to get good lessons and work in. This is also when it can become more chaotic in the classroom. For myself the end of the day is the most challenging, because the students are so tired. It can become a lot of watching behaviors and quieting kids down so my mentor can give lessons or read a book in circle time.
Strategies that we have tried have included: Free choice open work sessions, Teacher reads, and projects. These are things that students can relax and enjoy more then doing a lot of academics (but academics are not taken out of afternoons all together).
 

Professionalism

When I think of professionalism I think of someone who upholds to a high standard in their career or job. This includes their speech to how they dress. Their conduct with others to how they conduct themselves in their work. Showing respect to others and always keeping themselves away from situations that could cause them to lose their status or positive reputation.
I think that professionalism also is seen in the quality of the individual's work performance. Are they someone who others look to for advice or knowledge? A professional is an expert in their field and portrays those qualities. They adhere to ethics in the workplace and has a positive attitude while doing so.