Student Teaching: Week 2

It's Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiday!!!! Let's just say I am SO PUMPED for two days of rest :) Those kiddos are tiring and you don't even realize it until you're home. This week I began leading morning meeting. I wrote up my overall projection plan for my adviser on Tuesday and began implementing my plan on Thursday. Basically, I hope to bring more movement and song into the children's daily routines. I have found in the past that movement really helps children refocus throughout the day. Plus, these kids sit a lot. A projection plan is basically a general write up of my goals for the topic I am taking on. I write up my plans (What the message will be, the greeting, the share topic, song, etc.) and then relate them to the standards---specifically Common Core State Standards. There is a category called "Speaking and Listening" in the Common Core and this gets at the expectations for each grade level regarding their listening and discussion skills. For Kindergarten, some that weave right in with morning meeting are as follows:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.A Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.B Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
Awesome possum, right?

What's nice about morning meeting is that you can really blend it with a variety of subjects. You write a message that the class can follow together and that brings in some literacy skills. You can bring in a mathematical question they have to solve (See above picture). Not to mention, the greetings and share times allow practice for different social skills and self-regulation skills. I also wanted to make this my first area of focus because morning meeting is a big part of the day where you learn about the children you are with. You find out who Billy's best friend is and who shouldn't sit together and who plays video games from sun up to sun down on the weekends. Lyla's favorite animal is a unicorn and Priscilla wants to share about everything under the sun, including what her boogers look like. You really get to know the individuals. That's what's nice. Anyway, the meetings went really well and I even tried a countdown system for the class to refocus and it WORKED! It's great to see them responding to me like their teacher.

Aside from meetings, I did two read alouds that I am going to share on here too. "What do you do with an Idea?" by Kobi Yamada and "This is Not My Hat," by Jon Klassen

Both are excellent. I am particularly in love with Jon Klassen. He wrote the book, "I Want my Hat Back." They are both full of moral questions for children such as, "Is it okay to steal?" and more importantly, "Is it okay to eat your friends?" The children were enthralled. The second book focuses on the hesitation that many have when deciding whether or not to share or act on an idea. This illustrator depicts and idea as a little gold nugget with a crown on top of its head. It gets bigger and bigger, making the boy (the character who has this idea) unsure what he should do with it. He is afraid of what other people would think of his idea, but when he lets it explode into the world it changes the world (depicted by the gradual transition between grayish dull colors in the pictures and bright and lively pictures.

Alison has pee accidents quite often so my mentor teacher and I are trying to be proactive about asking her to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, she sometimes goes in without...going. Ergo, I took it upon myself to create a stoplight/go light for the bathroom. Velcro on both sides. No, it's not necessarily my idea, but I do enjoy crafting.