Engagement

What are you going to do to be attentive to Engagement this semester?
     Engagement is something that I am very aware of in my classroom. If students aren't engaged, then the teaching isn't meaningful and the students won't remember what lesson was taught. I will find new ways and activities to do with my students to involve them in their education. I know collaborating with my colleagues is a great place to start. 

How do you see AGAPE becoming a habit of mind?
     AGAPE is something that I see myself already doing in my classroom, but I never was really aware of it. It just seemed like a "teacher" thing to do. 

How do you believe that AGAPE has impacted your students?
     All of the stages of AGAPE go together. You can't be an effective teacher and be missing one of the components. 

Positive Interactions

I have always believed it is important to have a positive attitude. Being positive is infectious; others will follow a positive leaders example. Every day, I stand at my door and greet my students. I try to make a positive interaction with every student. I ask about their nights, what they have going on for the week, or about their family. Students enjoy telling me stories, but I have learned to limit the number of things they tell me as they're walking in the door. I feel that because of this small positive interaction, I have a great classroom community.

I had conferences before Thanksgiving break and I had a very positive interaction with one parent. Her son has been diagnosed with a learning disability and always had a negative attitude toward school. She was telling me about her sons school pictures and how she was very happy with what they looked like. I was having a hard time remembering what they looked like, so she described the picture to me. She said every year that school pictures would come home and her son did not smile, had slumped over shoulders, and did not look happy to be at school. This year, he had a big smile on his face, he sat up straight, and you could definitely tell he enjoyed going to school. His tie was on crooked and his hair was messy, but she didn't care. She framed his picture and it is displayed for everyone in the house to see. She proceeded to tell me about how he comes home every day with something fun that happened at school and how he enjoys being in my classroom. This was one of the biggest compliments that I have every received. It made me feel that all of my hard work is paying off.

Community Connections Blogging

November
One Strength
     One thing that has been going really well in my classroom is my Book Clubs. I have the kids in groups based on their reading level and I have chosen books for them to read as a group. I have also given them a calendar with due dates written on it. The students are responsible for deciding how much they read each night and the assignment they want to complete with it. I am using the forms off of Brent Cooley's website for the Book Club jobs. The kids have to do each job once before they can repeat the job. They can do a discussion director, connector, illustrator, word finder, or correspondent (Write a letter to a character). During this time, my class is reading 3 different books. I have read all of the books so I use my time to walk around and add to their discussions. It is a lot of fun for me to hear what the students think about the books. We just finished our first one and I was very impressed at the quality of work they completed. 
     After the work had been turned in, I asked my students what they liked about Book Clubs and what they would change. They loved the freedom of choosing the amount of work to do as long as it was done by each due date check in. They wanted a little more help deciding the jobs they each had to complete each night. I was very surprised at their honesty and I am looking forward to starting the next book club. 

One Struggle
I am struggling with finding math and reading apps for my iPad that are FREE to use in my fourth grade class. Any suggestions are welcome!

December
One Strength

One Struggle

January
One Strength

One Struggle

February
One Strength

One Struggle

March
One Strength

One Struggle

Backwards Design

Our assignment this week was to rave about an aspect of backwards design that you love. Backwards design is the only way I have ever planned. Going through college, all of my professors had us use this backwards design approach to planning. One of the things I really feel is beneficial is the assessment piece. By having a clear idea of what will be assessed really strengthens the lessons that I teach. It also allows me to find quality intervention materials for trickier lessons. Since I have always used a backwards design to lesson planning, I have not noticed a change in my students. I feel that they do exceptionally well on teacher made and curriculum tests. Honestly, if teachers aren't using a backwards design approach, what are they doing?!?!?!

Abstract- Reading Comprehension

Does Using Graphic Organizers and

Picture Books

Increase Fourth Grade Students

Reading Comprehension?

Abstract

One of the main components of reading is the ability to understand what was read. Reading comprehension is a skill that must be mastered at a young age in order for students to effectively learn. In my fourth grade class, I am interested to see the impact of using picture books to introduce a variety of comprehension skills. Each week, a new skill is introduced on Monday. After the skill has been introduced, students will use a graphic organizer to practice the skill. Multiple opportunities to practice the skill will be given during the week. At the end of the week, students will be tested on that specific skill. The expected outcome I would like to see is by using hands-on, engaging activities to practice skills, students test scores will increase. 

Presence

The theme for semester 4 is presence. To me, presence is building and maintaining relationships and having your work serve a purpose. Whenever I plan a lesson, I make sure it will benefit my students in an academic or social way. One way my students will know the purpose of the lesson is by stating the learning objective in student friendly language. Students respond to lessons better when they know the overall outcome.

This theme is appropriate for semester 4 because as a student and teacher I am constantly reflecting on relationships and my lessons in my classroom. At my new teacher workshop meeting, the superintendent talked about making a positive presence in the community. Since Monticello is a small community, everyone talks. We were "warned" to always be seen in a positive light because you never know who is watching you.

Circles of Self Reflection

At my last master's weekend, I was asked to write down five words that defined me. I chose future wife, friend, sister, teacher, and student. Choosing the words was not that difficult of a task, but the steps yet to come were challenging. We were then asked to "get rid" of two words. I chose to get rid of student and friend. I had ranked these relationships less important than the other ones. Then we were asked to get rid of one more. I got rid of sister. The words I was left with was future wife and teacher. These two things are what I identify myself with. When I was asked to get rid of one more card and have one word to identify myself with, I chose to keep future wife and get rid of teacher. I felt that teaching is important, but there needs to be a work/life balance. I chose to keep Dominic, my future husband, since he helps me with every other aspect in my life.

I think if I had my students complete this activity, they would struggle, or choose superficial things to identify themselves with. Kids change who they are friends with all the time. I also feel that students, depending on their age, would value non-human relationships more than human relationships. I can see many students choosing to keep sports, video games, music, etc. over family members and friends. I think this activity would be useful when students are mature and can deeply understand the overall objective of the lesson.

Since I am starting at a new school this year, I know a lot of my "free time" will be spent staying late at school or bringing work home. I need to remember that there needs to be a balance in my work/home life balance.