ASP Kuddos

I recently was voted favorite After School Program teacher. Yippee!
Thanks guys for being amazing students. You motivate me to become better
every day. : )

Kudos

It's been nice to get a lil' recognition for being among the fourth grade teachers in my district who have 85% mastery or better in most of the district-wide assessments.

I'm in my last course prior to doing my student teaching and I am stoked.

This new year will bring new resolutions, and my students won't be left behind.

Amazing Worksheets

I've had the opportunity to use some great, free printables for my class using this website:
http://amazingworksheets.blogspot.com/

Please check it out! Maybe when I get my new system upgrade, I'll make a few worksheets of my own!

Math Manipulatives

So we've been learning about CGI Math over the past few weeks, and how it can be integrated with classroom instruction. CGI basically means cognitively guided instruction. It is pretty cool. Students are guided through problem solving strategies by the teacher leading them through different experiences which foster active thinking, listening and comprehension skills. So today, I provided opportunities for the kids to come up with more than just one way to figure out a math problem. I gave them play dough, white boards, and dry erase markers. Paired with another team member, they had to come up with 2 ways to figure out how many bags of chicken Mrs. so and so would need in order to have 54 pounds of chicken for her barbeque provided each bag is sold in 6 lb increments. Doing the activity this way has really heightened engagement also. I usually would leave manipulatives until the Independent Practice section. This time, bringing it in earlier helped the children tremendously. They were able to peer collaborate, get ideas down, problem solve cooperatively and find strategies that worked and which didn't. These are essential college - ready and real world level skills that will take the to the workplace and beyond. Strategically thinking about how to problem solve, makes the student/s more aware of their thinking processes and they are more in tune with how they can adjust to meet the challenge presented.

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is an integral part of the academic success of the student. To ensure parent engagement is not a guarantee. However, an attempt needs to be made. This can be done in a variety of ways.
Firstly, it's important to know is acceptable or what is the norm in the school in which you plan to work. Then, the next relevant point is to communicate to parents that you have a sincere interest in the well-being of your students /their children. This can be communicated via a telephone conference, or in an in person format. Also, it's important not to call only when things are going wrong. Parents/guardians can become wearied and build up a wall between themselves and you if you are seen as always trying to find fault with the student. Before such an encounter can occur, it is important to invest time in researching the community in which the students are from.
When the teacher takes ownership of the responsibility to learn more about the community and culture from which the students have come, it shows that the teacher is willing to invest upfront in the student's academic progress. The parents/guardians interpret this gesture as an act of sincere dedication to the success of the learner. The student, also of course gets excited about having a teacher take the time to get to know them. This contributes to the teacher having a better understanding of how to make culturally appropriate accommodations to assist the student, which would include having respect and dignity for the student as an individual, capable of differentiated and scaffolded autonomy academically, socially and emotionally.
Many students do not have a stable upbringing/home life or are coming from extremely difficult circumstances. Gaining an understanding as to the students' varied backgrounds better equips teachers to be useful instruments to their educational success. In addition to considering these factors, teachers can make phone calls home, and send letters of progress via school communication, directly by the student, or postal service. According to the course reading, "Most federally funded grants mandate a parent involvement component. Title I, Head Start and the Bilingual Education Act all have provisions for parent involvement in the planning, implementation, and evaluation" The impetus is that parents cannot take a back seat to their child's learning, especially when the student is receiving government services. Systems of accountability make it harder for parents to check out or be unaware of how their child is developing academically. In all, it is important to remember that we can bring a horse to the water, but we cannot make it drink. As Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov posits, we as teachers must focus only on what we can control. That means doing all we can to keep the lines of communication open between parent and teacher, and facilitating shared ownership with the parent and oneself.

Awesome Day!

Okay so the kids were super enthusiastc about our math drill today.
I had whiteboards and markers distributed to all of them and they were wired.
Timing the students gives them the practice they need to practice quick rote drills.
So today's competition was input, output and rule.
Ensuring the rules were set out before-hand helped to maximize instructional
time while minimizing negative behaviors.

Incentives and Positive Reinforcements

I've got a scholar dollar wall in my class and it's pretty neat. Students need to earn dollars by showing how scholarly they can be behavior wise and academically. The point system can be up to you. I have the students compete against each other to see who can get the most scholar dollars. The first person to reach 20 gets to bank their check. The points are erased from the board. That student gets to earn more dollars. On time to class? scholar dollar. Fastest five to class? scholar dollar Silently working and being productive? scholar dollar. so at the end of the marking period, the kid with the most scholar dollars gets 20 bucks. Initially I had each scholar dollar represent one real dollar. But I learned really quickly how broke that would make me :-) Just be sure to roll out the expectation. Any changes should be announced and not sprung upon the students. Which incentives do you use in your class?