It's been about a month since I've blogged. August and September is always busy, plus I'm learning three new sets of standards and I'm the only 5th grade math/science/social studies teacher so I've been planning a lot alone. Things have started to become less hectic as I've gotten in the groove of planning, prepping and grading again, so I thought I'd give you an update.
But first, a little story. All weekend, I did not want to go to school for the first time since I was in Boerne. Not only was I at school until 7:30 pm Friday night (a decision that I highly regret and will not make again), but I also had two parent conferences after school (one planned, one unplanned). One parent highly intimidated me and the other one was about a child in my class who struggles. Not only does this student struggle, but he or she wants to achieve as highly as my GT students, but hesitates to ask questions because of embarrassment. My teacher heart broke when my students were taking their science tests, and this student was almost in tears. I called the mother and she later came to my classroom after school to talk to me more. Needless to say, these two conferences as well as another report I received from four of my sweet girls, made me feel like I'd hit a low point. Today, however, was a high point and I can't believe I even thought that I didn't want to go to school. My kids were doing awesome at meeting my expectations and it was the first time I felt like I'd gotten through a lesson as planned. I left school feeling happy again. Teaching is definitely such a roller coaster.
About a month ago, I met my students. My students are VERY social and chatty (I've moved desks so many times and made quite a few islands but they are all friends) but I could not love them more. They get along, they do their work (let's forget about some of the missing assignments in my gradebook), and they say the most hilarious things. Last week, we were doing a lesson on tools scientists use and one of my students thought a graduated cylinder was a "cylinder that had graduated." A sweet, funny boy in my next class added to that comment saying that "it must have studied music because it measures volume." Sometimes, I have to turn around so that they can't see me almost laughing. I love my students' sense of humor. Seriously, they are the best.
Last week, we played our first Kahoot review game in partners. Like my sixth graders, my students LOVE Kahoot. It was so much fun seeing their engagement in reviewing for science. That same day, we did a math scoot game. SCOOT activities are new to me but I can't wait to do more of them. That day, one of my girls told me that "this is the first time math's been fun." That made my day. I'm the arts and ELA girl, and I have grown to love teaching math after being hesitant at first, so it warmed my teacher heart to hear this. In social studies, we are doing a unit I wrote at Trinity this past summer on understanding and respecting others. Today, they worked on their action comics in groups but tomorrow they will get the final performance task: creating an election poster and either a video or a writing piece responding to different situations. We will be using the iPads as they took their pictures on the iPads the first day of the unit and will be using them to help create their poster, but we will also be using video apps to create the videos. I'm excited to see their final products.
I have not integrated technology as much as I would have liked this year as I'm still learning new standards, but I have many ideas floating around in my head for projects they can do using iPads.
I can't wait to share how my students are using technology as the year goes on.
Thursday will mark a month since the first day of school, and I can honestly say that I LOVE fifth grade. I love going to school, I love the people I work with. I love getting to be creative in my lesson plans and I love my students so much. Upper elementary is definitely the right fit for me.
-Elle
But first, a little story. All weekend, I did not want to go to school for the first time since I was in Boerne. Not only was I at school until 7:30 pm Friday night (a decision that I highly regret and will not make again), but I also had two parent conferences after school (one planned, one unplanned). One parent highly intimidated me and the other one was about a child in my class who struggles. Not only does this student struggle, but he or she wants to achieve as highly as my GT students, but hesitates to ask questions because of embarrassment. My teacher heart broke when my students were taking their science tests, and this student was almost in tears. I called the mother and she later came to my classroom after school to talk to me more. Needless to say, these two conferences as well as another report I received from four of my sweet girls, made me feel like I'd hit a low point. Today, however, was a high point and I can't believe I even thought that I didn't want to go to school. My kids were doing awesome at meeting my expectations and it was the first time I felt like I'd gotten through a lesson as planned. I left school feeling happy again. Teaching is definitely such a roller coaster.
About a month ago, I met my students. My students are VERY social and chatty (I've moved desks so many times and made quite a few islands but they are all friends) but I could not love them more. They get along, they do their work (let's forget about some of the missing assignments in my gradebook), and they say the most hilarious things. Last week, we were doing a lesson on tools scientists use and one of my students thought a graduated cylinder was a "cylinder that had graduated." A sweet, funny boy in my next class added to that comment saying that "it must have studied music because it measures volume." Sometimes, I have to turn around so that they can't see me almost laughing. I love my students' sense of humor. Seriously, they are the best.
Last week, we played our first Kahoot review game in partners. Like my sixth graders, my students LOVE Kahoot. It was so much fun seeing their engagement in reviewing for science. That same day, we did a math scoot game. SCOOT activities are new to me but I can't wait to do more of them. That day, one of my girls told me that "this is the first time math's been fun." That made my day. I'm the arts and ELA girl, and I have grown to love teaching math after being hesitant at first, so it warmed my teacher heart to hear this. In social studies, we are doing a unit I wrote at Trinity this past summer on understanding and respecting others. Today, they worked on their action comics in groups but tomorrow they will get the final performance task: creating an election poster and either a video or a writing piece responding to different situations. We will be using the iPads as they took their pictures on the iPads the first day of the unit and will be using them to help create their poster, but we will also be using video apps to create the videos. I'm excited to see their final products.
I have not integrated technology as much as I would have liked this year as I'm still learning new standards, but I have many ideas floating around in my head for projects they can do using iPads.
I can't wait to share how my students are using technology as the year goes on.
Thursday will mark a month since the first day of school, and I can honestly say that I LOVE fifth grade. I love going to school, I love the people I work with. I love getting to be creative in my lesson plans and I love my students so much. Upper elementary is definitely the right fit for me.
-Elle
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