Tuesday, December 8, 2009

A Lesson in letting Go






As usual, my outfit of the day first. With coat and without...














This morning I went in and, as anticipated, my 4th grade MT asked me to lead the morning. I had the students start their Accelerated math, then transitioned them to the work on their novel study - a book called Follow My Leader (which is super good, by the way... this weekend, I may do a post about the book and the idea for activities that I have to go along with it) - and then teach them a couple of reading skills based on their text book.

Everything went fairly smoothly, except I misunderstood what I was supposed to be doing and, again had to have my MT step in for a minute. I just feel very hard on myself though. The little slip ups that I do - like forgetting to give them the "what's next" after they finished reading their chapter in groups - I think about for a long time after. I hadn't read very much about the skills I was supposed to be teaching, figuring that I have a pretty good grip on rereading, but then I feel like I fudged the lesson. I sat back after I was done thinking of all the things I could have done differently and the prep work that I should have done. However, when the students left the classroom and I had a chance to talk to my MT, she said I did a great job. She said that I am very natural and do great at transitioning the kids. Great at transitions! That is probably the most fantastic thing I have heard all day. I find myself needing to learn to reflect but not beat myself up for the little things. I always find a way to remedy my flubs and they are never as bad as I think.

The afternoon was really enjoyable, however. The students made colored bottles out of old glass bottles, magazine pictures and watered down glue.
My MT asked if I would like to do one to have for my own lesson someday. So I decided to sit at the desk with the students and create my bottle. It was so nice to just visit with the students and the art was a nice break from the stress of this month. I saw how thoughtful my students can be. Since they each did different colors, they kept an eye out for colors that other people at their table groups might want to use. They were especially helpful to me, as I chose pink, which is not an easy color to find in large chunks.

One of my students used the time to get to know me better, which was really fun. "Mrs. M," he said, "I've been meaning to ask you since you started here - what inspired you to become a teacher?" I returned the questions and found out that he wants to be just like his dad. It was great to have time to actually have a conversation with the students.

Below are pictures of the bottles we created...

My bottle is on top and the bottom two pictures are the students bottles, in the middle of creation.

Now, I'm off to work the book fair for an hour and a half.
Oh student teaching... How I love you!

3 comments:

  1. Those bottles look great! I'd like to try and make one....can you give me a list of instructions?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course.. I'll post instructions this weekend. They are super simple!

    ReplyDelete