I have a couple favorite blogs that I follow regularly for current ideas on teaching practices in the second grade classroom.
Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons is at the top of the list. Amy Lemons is currently a second grade teacher who has been teaching for eight years. Her blog is current and she keeps up with her blog regularly. She often links to great resources for elementary school teachers and it is nice to hear about some classroom management ideas that other teachers are also going through!
2nd Grade Shenanigans is another great resource for second grade teachers. The ideas on this blog are not so typical and I find them to be very helpful in my curriculum. I highly recommend this one!
I typically do not follow blogs that are related to my personal life. I often find myself reading blogs linked from these two main ones above. I appreciate how colorful, up to date, relevant and helpful these blogs are! I hope someone else can find them useful as well.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
First Day of Fall
This time of year is always my favorite for so many reasons....
Crisp, autumn air.
Sweatshirt and jeans weather.
Scents of pumpkin pie and apple crisp.
Halloween. Thanksgiving.
Red, orange, and yellow leaves crinkling on the ground.
Pumpkin iced coffee.
Iced apple cider.
Family time.
Crisp, autumn air.
Sweatshirt and jeans weather.
Scents of pumpkin pie and apple crisp.
Halloween. Thanksgiving.
Red, orange, and yellow leaves crinkling on the ground.
Pumpkin iced coffee.
Iced apple cider.
Family time.
Monday, September 16, 2013
A new student...and inside recess?!
Before I begin, I should preface this entry by saying just how much I love my students and I truly cherish each and everyone of them to the fullest...but there are days, when to put it lightly....they push my buttons. That was today.
To begin, it was my week to be off for morning outside duty, however due to the rain this morning, we had inside recess so my ten extra minutes of prep time were gone. Then, my new student arrived 15 minutes early, so I ended up with about enough time to put my lunch in the fridge and turn on my computer. Things went great introducing my new student to the routines and getting him settled until all the other kids came in and the questions started flying...
There is something about the amount of questions these precious little ones ask that amazes me! Let's just put it this way, if I had forgotten to prepare anything for my new student or explain any routines to him, my class would have taken care of it for me. I don't know how many times I answered, "Thank you, but I'll take care of it," or "Don't worry about it now, I'll do that when it is time."
I was lucky enough to have Art as a special today, so I had an extra hour of planning time. This is precious time to an elementary school teacher who has to switch between math, writing, reading, etc. at the drop of a hat. I was thrilled to get ahead on planning until I realized I had forgotten to correct last week's spelling tests and homework. That sucked up about 30 minutes of my hour.
Right before lunch I was so happy to look out and see the sun, so I sent my kiddos to lunch with their outdoor gear. 35 minutes later... I was surprised to see them walking back into the classroom for inside recess...so much for that extra few minutes..again.
Despite this less than desirable morning, the afternoon seemed to go much smoother as I sat back and watched my little ones read for a whole 13 minutes without interruptions! :) Now that is an accomplishment for this busy group!
When the day came to an end and they were all packing up, I found myself looking around. Johnny (all names used are pseudonyms) was dropping all the pencils out of the "Needs Sharpening" bin, Katie had just dropped all her papers from her mailbox, Sam was wrestling on the floor with Tommy (supposedly he was trying to help him get up), and about 7 little hands were tapping me or calling out my name. I realized in that moment that I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have the job. These kiddos put my patience and mental strength to the test everyday, but I get to have 175 days with them to make a difference in their life.
It will never be easy, but to know that even when I do have a day like today, I always have tomorrow...another opportunity to teach them and have them teach me...This is what gets me through.
I found this quote today and I think it sums up my day nicely:
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow." ~Mary Anne Radmacher
To begin, it was my week to be off for morning outside duty, however due to the rain this morning, we had inside recess so my ten extra minutes of prep time were gone. Then, my new student arrived 15 minutes early, so I ended up with about enough time to put my lunch in the fridge and turn on my computer. Things went great introducing my new student to the routines and getting him settled until all the other kids came in and the questions started flying...
There is something about the amount of questions these precious little ones ask that amazes me! Let's just put it this way, if I had forgotten to prepare anything for my new student or explain any routines to him, my class would have taken care of it for me. I don't know how many times I answered, "Thank you, but I'll take care of it," or "Don't worry about it now, I'll do that when it is time."
I was lucky enough to have Art as a special today, so I had an extra hour of planning time. This is precious time to an elementary school teacher who has to switch between math, writing, reading, etc. at the drop of a hat. I was thrilled to get ahead on planning until I realized I had forgotten to correct last week's spelling tests and homework. That sucked up about 30 minutes of my hour.
Right before lunch I was so happy to look out and see the sun, so I sent my kiddos to lunch with their outdoor gear. 35 minutes later... I was surprised to see them walking back into the classroom for inside recess...so much for that extra few minutes..again.
Despite this less than desirable morning, the afternoon seemed to go much smoother as I sat back and watched my little ones read for a whole 13 minutes without interruptions! :) Now that is an accomplishment for this busy group!
When the day came to an end and they were all packing up, I found myself looking around. Johnny (all names used are pseudonyms) was dropping all the pencils out of the "Needs Sharpening" bin, Katie had just dropped all her papers from her mailbox, Sam was wrestling on the floor with Tommy (supposedly he was trying to help him get up), and about 7 little hands were tapping me or calling out my name. I realized in that moment that I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have the job. These kiddos put my patience and mental strength to the test everyday, but I get to have 175 days with them to make a difference in their life.
It will never be easy, but to know that even when I do have a day like today, I always have tomorrow...another opportunity to teach them and have them teach me...This is what gets me through.
I found this quote today and I think it sums up my day nicely:
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow." ~Mary Anne Radmacher
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Explicit directions....
I have never been a blogger before, so you can begin to imagine that having no idea what to write about was a bit of struggle for me. As I sat back to think about why I was having such a hard time with it, I learned something about myself: I work best with concrete directions. When I am given an open ended task I think about it entirely too long, wondering what the best route to go in would be, wondering how it will turn out and if others will like it...You get the idea. All of this thinking about what to write led me to think about my students. How often do I ask them to do something they are not comfortable with? How explicit should I be? Well...after Friday afternoon's lesson on making connections, I've decided that when you are 7 years old being given explicit directions is of the utmost importance.
The lesson started with a familiar reread of The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. My student's had heard the story the previous day so I decided to use it again to model how someone would make connections using their schema as they read to help them comprehend a story and relate to the characters. I asked the students just to listen as I reread the story and shared my connections (I thought I was being explicit when I said "Just listen,"...apparently not). As I began to read and then pause to share my connections hands shot right up left and right to share their stories that related to mine and the one in the book. I think I repeated, "just listen" a good twenty times as I went through the book sharing my connections. When I was finished reading and sharing connections, I restated my learning objective, "When readers read, they can make connections between the text and themselves to help understand and relate to the story." All 18 faces were just staring at me as blank as could be. I decided to have them give it a try in writing to see if it would help (in hindsight I've realized that teaching something new on a Friday afternoon at 2:30 was not a great idea and would have saved me from repeating myself a million times).
All of the students ended up at their seat with their Learning Logs in front of them, facing the Smartboard as I guided them through making a T-chart where they could compare the text of David's New Friends (a story from the second grade reading curriculum) to their own lives. Just making the T-chart and adding a title and date to our entry took almost ten minutes even with me modeling on the board right in front of them (I'm thinking gluing in a graphic organizer for connections would have saved me and them some headaches). I then proceeded to share some illustrations from the story to spark their memory (we had been working on the story all week so they were all very familiar with it). Then, I asked them to think about something from the text that they could connect with....18 blank faces still staring up at me...except for the handful who were flinging erasers, kicking their neighbor and trying to hold 5 pencils in their hand at once. Eventually, at about 2:40 (20 minutes into the lesson) I decided I would model another connection. I wrote on the board that the main character, David, read a book to his sister that he didn't like which reminded me of reading books to my younger siblings that were no my favorites. I asked them each to try a connection after this. 90% of them ended up writing that David went to school and so did they. The other 10%...blank papers.
Needless to say, I ended the lesson there. We picked up and many had meltdowns that they didn't finish. In that moment I realized I am just like my students, I don't feel comfortable trying new things or taking risks when directions are unclear or new to me.
Lesson learned? Be very explicit with second graders, always, and NEVER, ever teach anything new on a Friday afternoon. :)
The lesson started with a familiar reread of The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. My student's had heard the story the previous day so I decided to use it again to model how someone would make connections using their schema as they read to help them comprehend a story and relate to the characters. I asked the students just to listen as I reread the story and shared my connections (I thought I was being explicit when I said "Just listen,"...apparently not). As I began to read and then pause to share my connections hands shot right up left and right to share their stories that related to mine and the one in the book. I think I repeated, "just listen" a good twenty times as I went through the book sharing my connections. When I was finished reading and sharing connections, I restated my learning objective, "When readers read, they can make connections between the text and themselves to help understand and relate to the story." All 18 faces were just staring at me as blank as could be. I decided to have them give it a try in writing to see if it would help (in hindsight I've realized that teaching something new on a Friday afternoon at 2:30 was not a great idea and would have saved me from repeating myself a million times).
All of the students ended up at their seat with their Learning Logs in front of them, facing the Smartboard as I guided them through making a T-chart where they could compare the text of David's New Friends (a story from the second grade reading curriculum) to their own lives. Just making the T-chart and adding a title and date to our entry took almost ten minutes even with me modeling on the board right in front of them (I'm thinking gluing in a graphic organizer for connections would have saved me and them some headaches). I then proceeded to share some illustrations from the story to spark their memory (we had been working on the story all week so they were all very familiar with it). Then, I asked them to think about something from the text that they could connect with....18 blank faces still staring up at me...except for the handful who were flinging erasers, kicking their neighbor and trying to hold 5 pencils in their hand at once. Eventually, at about 2:40 (20 minutes into the lesson) I decided I would model another connection. I wrote on the board that the main character, David, read a book to his sister that he didn't like which reminded me of reading books to my younger siblings that were no my favorites. I asked them each to try a connection after this. 90% of them ended up writing that David went to school and so did they. The other 10%...blank papers.
Needless to say, I ended the lesson there. We picked up and many had meltdowns that they didn't finish. In that moment I realized I am just like my students, I don't feel comfortable trying new things or taking risks when directions are unclear or new to me.
Lesson learned? Be very explicit with second graders, always, and NEVER, ever teach anything new on a Friday afternoon. :)
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