Its sad to say that this year't time with Alanton is comming to an end. As much as I valued my time here with Mrs. Anderson and her class, I am excited to begin a new chapter in my life, and have a classroom of my own in just 5 years! Thank you to everyone who helped me along my journey of becomming a teacher, and I know I will be an amazing teacher because of it!
This week, I gave my panel presentation about childhood obesity to 3 panel judges. I had to defend my paper and project for the Legal Studies Senior Project. The panel went really well, and I made the judges make a connection with me on the different laws for children regarding childhood obesity.
On Wednesday, I was honored at the School Board Meeting with my contract certificate. I also signed the contract, sealing my guarenteed job
Today we found out who won the VBCPS Contract, to have a guarenteed job in 2019 when we graduate college. Along with Karen Simonic, I also won the contract! I am so honored to have a guarenteed job when I graduate JMU doing something that I love to do!
This week was Cinco de Mayo! For the holiday, Mrs. Anderson brought in lemon squares, spice gum drops, and sprinkles. The students made little sombreros out of the cookies, gum drops, and sprinkles. The students loved this activity because they got to eat and play with their hats after making them. Some of the students even put them on their heads! For teacher appreciation week, I decided to get my cooperating teacher a little something to show how much she means to me. I got her a flower arrangement that had a lady bug man next to an assortment of flowers. On the bottom of the arrangement, I put a piece of construction paper that said, "Thank you for helping me grow!" The flowers in the arrangement were not real, because Mrs. Anderson, as well as she can cook, she can't take care of flowers very well. I also drew her a picture for Mother's Day which is below.
This week was Progress Report week... YAAAAAY (not really)! Mrs. Anderson was booked doing a bunch of testing this week, but she allowed time for me to do my students quote assignment. From all of the feedback, the most common comment was on how nice I am and how they like me being in their class. One little boy even told me (when we were video taping) that the best part of his day is when he sees me, and that he wishes I would come to school everyday.
Cameron, my student from Australia, came up to me after lunch when I first saw and gave me an orange. I told him that he should keep it and eat it during snack time because I didn't want him to go hungry, but he simply told me no and in the sweetest little boy voice you could think of said, "Ms. King. I brought this from home for you because oranges are better than apples. I want you to have it. I brought it for you." I just couldn't say no, so I took the orange. This student not only made me appreciate oranges (lol), but he also made me realize that kids do the cutest thing and they always look for ways to make others feel special. I have now decided that in my 1st grade class (or whatever grade I get a job teaching) that I am going to have random acts of kindness awards given to one student who was the kindest and most thoughtful that week. I want my future classroom to be as safe, and special as Mrs. Anderson's! This week is our first week back from Spring Break and the kids are just bouncing off of the walls! They didn't focus at all during their centers and Mrs. Anderson just decided to teach them some math instead. After lunch, we all were learning turn around facts of addition and subtraction (Commutative property). Most of the students actually grasped this very well, but some of the students did not. One student in particular that I was helping did not understand this at all. He couldn't grasp the idea that 2 + 4 is the same as 4 + 2 and that
6 - 4 = 2 is the same as 6 - 2 = 4. To help him understand this, I made him draw 6 little circles and write the number six under his drawing. Then, with his hand towel, I had him cover 2 of the circles up and had him write - 2. I then asked what it would be if he took away the two circles. He said he would have 4 left. Then, for him to understand the turn around fact, I had him take 4 away and I asked him how many circles he had left. He responded with the correct answer of 2 after a minute of thinking. I then asked if he understood that each problem was the same, but just with the numbers mixed up. He, of course, said yes. Working with this student made me realize that you sort of have to explain exactly what the students to do before making the students do it, such as the commutative property. I think I helped him understand a little bit better than he originally understood. I am so excited for spring break, but I am not excited about not seeing my kids for a week! :(
During Spring Break, I went up to JMU and watched the softball team that I will be playing on next year play the University of North Carolina. JMU ended up winning both games against them. The first game they won 5 to 1, and the second game they won 7 to 2. I cannot wait to get to JMU next year to play on such an amazing D1 softball team that is ranked 24th in the nation!! This is the last week before Spring Break, and I had my kids on Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, it was really cool seeing a specialist teacher teach the class about counting. Her lesson was on counting inches. She bought Peeps, the little marshmallow chicks, and explained to the students that each Peep in 2 inches long. The problem that she wanted the students to solve was "How long would a train of 5 Peeps be if each Peep is separated by 1 inch?" To help the students find the answer easier, she gave them 1 inch blocks. She didn't really explain that each Peep would need two blocks, so the students were a little bit confused. After about 10 minutes of the students working by themselves, she demonstrated what to do on the board so the students would understand a little bit better.
If I was teaching the lesson, I would have explained before the kids set off to do their work that each Peep is as big as 2 blocks. I liked how she set them off by themselves, but I wouldn't have let them go by themselves clueless for as long as she did. Also, at the beginning of the lesson, I would have given the students like 3 minutes to play with the blocks because that is all they seemed to want to do, instead of focusing on the lesson. Overall, I think the lesson was very valuable after the students figured out how to do the problem. For some of my students, it was really hard for them to grasp the whole inches concept, but for others it was easy. This is where their readiness levels became apparent. This week marked our Young Author's Night for all grades at Alanton Elementary. My students have been working so hard on their bare books, which are books with no writing and no pictures in them. For the front cover, they drew their faces and wrote "First Grade Memories!" Inside, they wrote what school they went to, what city they lived in, what their favorite thing about school is, what their favorite first grade memory is, and much more. One of the girls in my class wrote about Mrs. Anderson and she drew her almost exactly to scale. She even drew her with grey hair! She also drew Mrs. Anderson's dog rusty and made sure that he was extra fluffy!
Seeing the finished product of these bare books that all of the students have been working so diligently on, definitely made me appreciate all the hard work that goes into teaching. The stress of trying to finish all of the bare books on time by Thursday was tremendous! I definitely see what it takes to be a great teacher and I am up for the challenge!! |
Ms. KingIntern for First Grade at Alanton Elementary School. Archives
June 2014
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