While it's fresh in my mind!

I'm sure like most of you do, I wait a week till I write about what I did in my observation class the week before.  Yesterday I had good conversation with the other "student observers" in my classroom about being prepared for having our own class.

Am I prepared to take on a class of 25 students?  It's scary to think in just under two years we will hopefully be getting ready to have our own classroom and getting our official lesson plans ready to go.  How could I possibly come up with enough ideas to teach a whole years worth of topics? All these questions keep popping into my head and I think that within the few classes we do lesson plans in are the ones I get most use out of.  I feel as if I can apply those lesson plans to my students some day and use it in the future.  Ok, thats my tangent about classes and my feeling of if I am prepared or not for having my own class.

Writers Notebooks:  I was really excited to get to look at 6th graders writers notebooks.  I felt as if I was still a little bit confused on what to actually do with my writers notebook but it was nice to read some of what they wrote and it gave me a lot of ideas that I hope to incorporate into my notebook as well.  I thought that it was also a great idea to put their spelling word activities in the back of their notebook.  It's a great way to reference words if you don't know them; or if they just learned them and want to use them.

A daily cup of coffee goes along way!

This past week in my field experience observation class I was astounded by how fast 30 minutes can go by when you are talking to a bunch of 5th/6th graders.  While we are there observing our class switches and it just so happened that today they needed to switch a half hour early which meant that Ms. Coake had about 30 minutes to spare and come up with stuff to fill that time before they headed to the computer lab again to work on their invention projects.  The conversation started off by Ms. Coake mentioning that she hasn't had her normal dosage of coffee in the morning so she was on the verge of getting a head ache.   Through this the class went off on talking about how people get accustom to certain things and without them they cant function with out them.  I was interesting because the student lead the discussion by asking questions upon questions which lead to them learning a lot about coffee or anything for that matter and how it affects your blood level and how without certain things it leads to head aches.  I thought that it was amazing that Ms. Coake was able to carry on that conversation and have the students learn something out of just them asking questions about how are head aches brought on and why you feel so much pressure when you have one.  I hope to one day be able to go off on a tangent and have my students learn something from it.

"It's Like You Have 5 Sets of Eyes"

My first day of field experience was very interesting.  I have had field experiences in preschool, 1-3rd grade, and 4th grade which have all been great experiences.  When I finally got assigned a 5th Grade class I was really excited; I really wanted to experience a class with older students who I can connect to on a hopefully more mature level.  When I realized that I was in a 5th/6th grade class I was a bit confused on how that worked. As I went on getting to know all the students in my classroom I realized "WOW, these kids are brilliant."  These were some of the smartest students that I have ever met, coming up with inventions that I probably wouldn't even have thought of in 5th grade. I began to question if I were even smart enough to teach them, could they really stand me up academically?  That faded pretty fast after I realized how much of a blessing it would be to teach such gifted students.  One of the students in my classroom can do rubix cube without even looking at it.  Students were all over the place. One of them had a questions, the other needed to go the the nurse, and another wanted to tell a story.  I was so shocked to see how my cooperating teacher was able to handle it with such ease, it was like she had 5 sets of eyes.  My cooperating teacher then made a great point..."Some of these kids I had last year, by that time I know them, they become like my own kids."

Where I am From

     I know that I mentioned this in class on Wednesday and I thought that I would share this with all of you since I think that with a few tweaks we could incorporate this into our classrooms.  It's a great way for the students to get to know their past by talking to their parents and then sharing where they came from with the rest of the class.

Where I am From

I am from (specific ordinary item), from (product name) and (product name).

I am from the (home description, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the (plant, flower or natural item), the (plant, flower or natural item).

I am from (family tradition) and (family trait), from (name of a family member), and (another family name), and (family name).

I am from (description of family tendency) and (another one).

From (something you were told as a child) and (another).

I am from (representation of religion or lack thereof it).

I'm from (place of birth and family ancestry), (food item representing your family), (another one).

From the (specific family story about a specific person), the (another detail) and the (another detail about another family member).

I am from (location of family pictures, mementos, archives).

     Here is an example of mine just so you can all get an idea of what it turns out to be like.  I think this would be something great for students to do and then share with the class and then other students can ask them questions on what some things mean in their Where I am From Poem.

Where I am From

I am from my planner, from scrap paper, and sharpie markers. 

I am from the chaotic suburbs of Chicago.

I am from the white roses, the strawberries.

I am from hopi hopi lullaby's and creaky ankles, from Mary Ann and Leo Hayden

I am from neat as a pin, spaghetti dinners, and "can you pass the cheese please!"

From always follow your dreams and never letting the fear of striking out.

I am from the guardian angel above my bed.

I'm from Westchester, Ireland, and Czecholslovakia, corn beef and dumplings.

From the Friday night-lights, the wide receiver and the cheerleader.

I am from the scrapbooks underneath my bed.

Writer's Notebook

     While reading Ralph Fletchers "A Writer's Notebook" I found it interesting what writers could actually put in their writers notebook.  I know that throughout my day of classes I think about a lot of random things that just turn into questions or thoughts that I would like to write down but don't have a place to do so.  With most of the cluster classes being almost 3 hours long a lot goes through my head.  I think about my "To Do List," what I am going to do later that day, or reflect on past events that either happened earlier that day or in my life.  I think that a writers notebook will allow me to express my feelings about those things I am thinking of.  A lot of the readings that we do I feel will inspire me and lead me to a lesson plan idea and I want to make sure that I don't forget a lesson plan that could potentially be very effective in my class someday.
     BLOGGING! I think that as a teacher its a great way to blog and communicate with your fellow teachers.  Its a great way to share ideas and give positive feedback with lesson plan ideas.  I think that technology has definitely advanced over the past few years and taking advantage of blogging and sharing ideas through the different technology that we have will be great.  I want to make a difference for student and help them lean as much as I can teach them.  I want younger student to be educated in so many things and I think that collaboration can be very helpful.  I think that blogging is a great way to get that collaboration going and get the ball rolling in all of our classrooms.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" - Ghandi

Fall Semester

     I am very excited for this semester, now that my Cluster I has started.  Language Arts has always been something that I haven't been very strong it and I would like to change that.  I would like to feel more confident in teaching Language Arts within my classroom so I hope that this Cluster prepares me for my future.  I feel as if many of my pre-rec classes haven't prepared me as much for having my own classroom but I have heard that it changes once you get into your clusters.
     I hope that at the end of this blog I will be able to state that I feel very confident with teaching Language Arts within my classroom.  I would like to know of some great book and keep track of them in my Writers Notebook.  I feel like my Writers Notebook will be something that I always have in my backpack and pull out whenever I am thinking of something that I don't want to forget.  I expect to have a lot of lists written in there since I am all about lists and post-it-notes, but I feel like I want to write a few narrative pieces as well as poems.
     I am very excited to start this semester and my cluster seems like they will be very beneficial.  Im ready to start this semester.....Full Steam Ahead!