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Published: October 4th 2009
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Click on the link above to see a news bit about some of my students getting free clothes from a charity. Click "play video" after the video box loads on the right side of the page. I'm glad they are taking care of the necessities... but they missed half a day of school to do it...hmmm. Getting clothes vs. learning how to read... both necessities I guess
Well, I've reached week 7. It's been quite a ride.
-Our staff went on an amazing retreat into the mountains before school started to do "team building" activities and a bit of planning - I LOVE my staff! Everyone is so young-spirited, helpful and friendly - I actually hang out with them outside of school 😊
-I got pneumonia on Week 3 and had to take 2.5 days off! Luckily my health insurance kicked in on Day 7 of having a 102 F fever and I could go in and get a chest xray and every lab test possible. don't worry - I got a flu shot last week! The hardest part of getting sick was giving in to the idea of getting a sub - it was frustrating to know I was falling behind on my lesson plans and hear that the sub was teaching Math to my Spanish class..
- "my" class I had on my roster on Day 1 has completely changed. It's all for the good of the students, but it has definitely made me want to pull my hair out at times!
Change #1: We sat down and looked at the data and realized that it would be best to group kids based on their Math level. So the fourth grade split up in the afternoon, I have the "higher" kids and my team mate has the kids with "opportunities".
Change #2: We sat down again and decided that we should group kids by reading level so that we didn't each (two 4th grade teachers and 1 5th grade) have to teach to kids at a kindergarten reading level to a 6th grade reading level. So I got a mix of 4th and 5th graders at first to third grade reading levels - ie, the "middle" group. This change also meant that we had to sit down and merge the 4th and 5th grade reading curriculum to make sure students were getting "grade level"
material.
Change #3: We sat down again and realized that only 3 kids REALLY qualified for a Spanish as a Heritage Language class (mastered English, preserving their Spanish). And only about 20 kids really qualified to be in Spanish as a Second language (ie, they are on grade level for Reading in English). So we created an extra English Language development class and two reading intervention classes. Before this change I was teaching Spanish as a Second Language.. I had just finished a fashion show competition for my unit on Clothing vocabulary 😊 So no more Spanish class.... I am a Reading teacher during that period - which is fun, because these kids need it, and I only have 12 kids in that class.
So we are at week 7 and we just made Change #3! I have learned how to be Ms. Flexible. With each of those changes, you kind of have to start from scratch with the kids -- "This is how we go to bathroom break... this is how we trade out sharpened pencils...etc" which is a pain and takes precious time.
But ask me in two weeks how I am doing, and I
will be happy to say that I am not pulling my hair out because I am not planning for kindergarten through 6th grade level reading, writing, and math skills... just first through third 😉
I have 24 students for Reading/Writing, 12 for Reading Intervention, and 22 for Math/science. Our "Big Goals" for the year are to grow 1.5 years in reading (individually) and get an 80% class average on tests in Math. Teach For America is big on setting goals and tracking the progress towards those goals. Maybe next time I'll take a photo of our special Eagle charts that track our progress. My classes are "Ms. Pettit's Eager Eagles" so everything revolves around the eagle - they are actually into it!
So far, my kids got a 72% average on Unit 1 Math test - but with some tutoring of the 70% and below students, we bumped that up to 80.7%! For Unit 2 we got a 80.3% on the first try, but I kept the 70% below students for tutoring so that is sure to go up! This next unit in Math is multiplication and number sense - so if anyone has any awesome ideas on
memorizing multiplication facts - let me know!!! Or, if you have any Eagle paraphernalia hanging around, send it my way!
This week I hear we have to add in a new reading program called "6 minute solutions" (they read for 1 min each to see how many words per min they read each day) and start teaching a "Friday Enrichment class" (an elective open to all students)! I am actually excited about the enrichment class - I am hoping to teach digital photography if this camera donation from a local electronic store comes through! We shall see...
In other news - A BIG THANK YOU TO MY SISTER EMILY FOR WHIPPING MY CLASSROOM INTO SHAPE! And I got her home in time to be proposed to too!!!! I had to keep the proposal a secret for a whole MONTH! It was squirming inside me when she started talking about weddings and wondering when Jeff would propose 😉
I also had an amazingly helpful visitor - my mom! She came and visited my classroom and got me all organized! Dad has been in town twice too - it's been nice to have them around and show them my
new life here.
Hope all are healthy and happy!
Cuidense,
Maggie
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Emily
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Yay for marge!
Congrats on surviving 7 weeks!! Looks like your working hard!! Keep it up. Hope to see you at Thanksgiving!!