Well, lots of time time as passed and with that lots of stories and memories have too! I've been meaning to update, but grad school was kicking my butt for a good bit of time. Good news....GRAD SCHOOL WORK IS DONE!!!!!....until next semester anyways ;) And have I mentioned how much I hate action research...because I do...and I'm SO glad it's over with! There is a God after all ;)
This post is going to be a bit (or 'a lot a bit') longer than usual due to the lack of updates in the past month and a half, but I promise to make it interesting :)
The thing that stands out in my mind the most in the past month is I finally had my formal evaluation on 'instruction' (which is the hardest one in my opinion!). I was super excited and nervous about it, and I've also come to learn one characteristic about my teaching - I like to take risks! Just keep reading and you'll see why ;)
Normally we start off our day by doing math, but instead I decided to flip the schedule around and do social studies first (may not seem like a huge deal, but trust me, a schedule change can and WILL make kids wild). And before I go into anymore detail, I want to thank and give credit to Jen for helping me with this lesson! She helped spark ideas and while I recreated the lesson, she definitely helped to give me ideas - so thanks, Jen :)
Before I go into more detail about the lesson, you should probably know the topic first :) Our goal (or in teacher terms, our objective ;) ) was to learn about our rights as citizens. Before picking up the kids to start our day, I covered the outside of our door with butcher paper (aka bulletin board paper) that said "You do NOT have the right to: 1) Talk 2) Sit 3) Sharpen Pencils. Sounds harsh I know, but I thought to fully understand the privilege of having rights, the kids had to know what it felt like not to have any! Jen and I had taken all of their chairs away and stacked them, took the pencil sharpener off the wall, and the hardest part...didn't talk to them.
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| Our sign posted on our classroom door :) This was also posted on the whiteboard inside the classroom. |
When the students walked in the room they were shocked. One of them came up to me first thing and said, "Ms. Schletzer, what's going on?!" I didn't respond and just kept doing what I normally do in the mornings. It was then I heard some whispering to each other "I think we're in trouble..." I had one student walk in and walk right back out because she had thought she did something wrong. Mrs. Arnold explained the lesson to the parent and the parent calmed her down and reassured her everything was okay. I know it sounds like we were being mean, but I promise we weren't! :)
Students shhh'd each other as more and more children walked in and they all went along with it. They began doing morning work in pen (since they couldn't sharpen pencils) and stood or lay at their desks since they had no chairs (a great connection to our 'adaptation' lesson earlier in the year ;) ).
When it came time for the morning announcements, students didn't know what to do during the pledge of allegiance. None of them said it at all but instead just stood there with their hands over their hearts. I was actually surprised by this!
After announcements, Jen explained the schedule for the day and I started calling students over to sit on the carpet. As I called them, many of them remained standing. I was confused at first, but then realized they still thought they didn't have the 'right to sit' so I gave them permission ;) Once everyone was seated, I asked them how they felt when they walked into the classroom that morning. Responses ranged from scared to weird to sad to awkward. They said they didn't know how to react and the most common response was they thought they were in trouble. I then explained the objective of the lesson and that I was simply taking their rights away. This allowed us to have a great discussion about what rights are and how we're privileged to have them.
After this, I read Dr. Seuss's 'Yurtle the Turtle' which is basically about a turtle who decides he wants to be king of the land and takes over (taking away the other turtles' rights in the process). Again, great discussion was had because of this book! After this, students headed back to their desks (chairs included this time, thanks to Jen ;) ) and we watched a 3 min clip about the Bill of Rights. It was very kid-friendly, not to mention really cute! Then I passed out a list of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights in kid-friendly terms. They were SO fascinated by them and had many questions and examples to ask/tell. After going over these, I called on a few students to act out some rights and the rest of the class referenced their list of amendments to guess which one they were acting out.
THEN we made our own classroom bill of rights (a long lesson, I know...and to think! It's not even over yet ;) ) I had them write down at least 2 rights they think our classroom should have, then we shared in groups, then shared them to the class and finally narrowed it down to 5 rights. I was so proud of them! :) I later wrote them on a posterboard and it is currently hanging in our classroom :)
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| Our "Classroom Bill of Rights". And I have to give myself credit, my 'teacher handwriting' has gotten much better! :) |
After making our Classroom Bill of Rights, students were given a writing assessment with 2 questions. They were asked "Which right is the most meaningful to you as a 3rd grader?" and "The Bill of Rights was written over 200 years ago. Do you think they should remain the same or should change? Why?" I was SO proud of their responses!! They really got into it and I feel like they put in 100% effort, which is NOT easy to get 8 yr olds to do when responding to questions in writing.
FINALLY, we did a 'ticket out the door' which asked the following: 1) What are 2 things you learned today? 2) What is one thing you have a question about?
Students talked about this lesson for days! I feel like it was VERY effective and it was my best teaching by far. My evaluation scores proved it too! I did very well and both Jen and my professor were very proud :)
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| I found this on my desk after the lesson from Jen :) |
Not only did I feel great about this lesson, but Jen (who is a lead teacher) was very complimentary and proud! This means a lot because 1) she's my mentor and has seen my 'bad teaching' from the beginning ;) and 2) She's only 1 of 2 teachers in the whole school who evaluates other teachers...so her opinion especially counts to me :) And of course, she's an awesome teacher! So who wouldn't want to make her proud?
Okay now that that ONE story is done, I can move on...sorry for the 'longness' of this blog...if you've made it this far reading - I congratulate you because I probably would've given up a long time ago ;)
Last week I had to have a 'stern talk' with my students as they were getting a bit too comfortable in the classroom. I found myself wanting to pull my hair out because they weren't listening. The talk was more of a 'heart to heart', but was very effective. At that time, I told them I wouldn't be here for Jan. and Feb. Some of their jaws dropped. I told them I'd explain more later (which I'll be doing tomorrow), but they were definitely curious as to where I'd be. Just FYI, I'll be teaching kindergarten at another school for 9 weeks, but will return to this 3rd grade class first thing in March and will be there for the rest of the year :)
Anyways, the next day or two later I found a card on my desk...
This is just one page of it and it was so sweet! Although this student never told me they were the one to write it, I do know their handwriting very well and figured it out ;) It just confirmed that I have made an impact thus far and they've made an impact on me too! I'm really really sad to leave, but am SO happy to be coming back in March. I can't wait to be reunited with my little 8 year olds AND Jen!!! I'm going to miss her so much :( Lucky for her she'll have one of my friends filling in while I'm gone! It's a HUGE compliment to her as a teacher that she gets 2 interns. It's rare they do this, so props to her for being an awesome mentor :)
With that, I'll be meeting my new kindergarten mentor teacher on Wednesday! She's a brand new mentor, but from her emails so far she seems SUPER sweet :) I'll have to update ya'll about my experience visiting her and the class later this week!
As far as today goes, they were WILD. But who can blame them? They're ready for Christmas break and so are the teachers! We let them sit next to whoever they want for the rest of the week (with the warning that they can be moved if it gets tooooooo crazy ;) ), and of course all the girls are in a group and all the boys are in a group. Ahh 3rd grade, I miss the days when boys were 'gross' and we wanted nothing to do with them.
Tomorrow we will be making 'elf yourself' christmas ornaments! I'm SO excited! Of course this was a Pinterest find! I made mine today to show as an example...too funny! I'll have to post pictures later :)
I can't remember if I posted about this (I don't think I did...my memory is shot though, so don't hold me to it), but we made Christmas cards for the homeless. Later this week I'll personally be baking cookies for the shelter and hand-delivering the children's cards to the shelter. I'm actually very excited about this and I hope I'm able to make at least one person's day by doing this.
Lastly, I just wanted to say a few words about the tragic even that happened in Connecticut. I've not posted anything on the internet prior to this, simply because my heart is broken for these children, teachers, and families. I know I'm 'just an intern', but I still consider myself a teacher. And as a teacher, I can't imagine being put in the position these people faced Friday. I truly just want to say that every single person in that building, living or not, is someone's hero. There's 27 angels looking down on us from Heaven now, but there's millions looking up to them from Earth. I hope that everyone, especially the families of these loved ones, are able to find peace at some point and realize the impact their loved ones had one millions of people. "God doesn't give us anything we can't handle"
As I pray every night before bed, I've prayed for certain people since I've been in about kindergarten. And of course, as I've gotten older the list has gotten longer of loved ones that have passed. These 27 people are a new addition to this list and will be continued to be prayed for by me each and every night. My goal is to remember them as people who have made an impact on my life and many others - not as 'victims in the Connecticut shooting'. They lived precious lives and should be remembered by those memories :) This is a beautiful poem I found that while it is emotional, it still brings comfort to me personally.
twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled wit
h such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."
Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA
