A much needed break...

One more day of school until break starts! This Holiday Vacation is going to be a much needed one. This break gives me a chance to re-charge my batteries and prepare myself mentally to take over the classroom when I get back in the new year. I'm going to take some time at home to enjoy putting my feet up relaxing and finally getting to sleep in. Two weeks is a long time to be away from the classroom so I am going to take advantage of that free time and try to get some planning in. I hope to have my portfolio and lesson plan outlines squared away before the first of the year. I want to be ahead of the game before I actually take over the entire class so I am not stressing over everything when it does come time to take on the class. It's Christmas BREAK, best time of the year!

Around the World

Everyone has played Around the World in elementary school. Some love it, others loathe it. I am one of those fortunate souls that loved around the world, probably because I was good at it. One student in my class is great at the game, so great that he has given up playing because he beats everyone with ease. Instead of participating in the game, he gives up and lets the challenger waltz by him. I was brainstorming today and thinking of a way I could involve him in this activity even though he has mastered rote memorization of his math facts. I thought about giving him harder problems or have him answer more than one, but I already know he knows his facts and I already know he will answer them faster than everyone else, he wouldn't be improving. While writing a paper for my teaching class I came up with the idea of having him lead the game. Why not have him up in front of the class setting an example for the other students because he is so good at his math facts? This not only includes him in the activity, but it also gives students incentive to do better and try harder during around the world. I have not had the opportunity to try this out yet, but I am thinking it will happen very soon. Stay tuned...

A Different Beat

There are some students that you just cannot figure out. Some students sharpen their pencils at any available moment just so they don't have to listen to you talk. Some students raise their hands at every waking moment, craving your attention. Some students sit in the back and shy away at the chance of speaking in front of the class. Other students are in their own little world, thinking their own thoughts and beating to their own drum. These students, I have come to find, may be the brightest and most intelligent of the bunch.

I have two such students in my class this year. Both intelligent, but they both lacking social and organizational skills. These two students struggle to turn in work and stay on track with everyone else in the class. When work is turned in, it usually is graded well. But that's the problem. WORK IS RARELY TURNED IN. I want to be able to harness their intelligence so that they can succeed in class.

Today, one of the students that "beats to their own drum", came up to me after everyone had left for the buses and asked me "why is the magnetic south pole not at the bottom of the map in the center of Antarctica?" It took me a second to contemplate why that was. I couldn't think of the answer of the top of my head and I told the student that I would have to look that information up for him because I really didn't know the answer. A few seconds after my response, he said "well...maybe it's because the earth is tilted on an axis and that's why the magnetic south is there." It is things like this that make me wonder what is going on in his head. Once every week or so my CT and I will sit staring at each other scratching our heads at the information this student knows. This was one of those moments.

Every mind is unique as is every person. It is my job to harness each students strengths so that they will be successful in life. How do I support these students so that they can be successful in life? Does having a messy desk contribute to a messy future? Or does not turning in your work on time (or ever)) equate to a life full of tardiness?

These are all answers I need to investigate during my internship. Who knows I could have the next Einstein in my class and I don't even know it because I am too worried about neatness and organization.

Interactive Lit Circles

Last week, my class tried approaching their literature circle meeting a little differently. Our class "met" online to conduct their first ever literature circle on the web. Groups met for 10 minutes before they went to the lab to discuss questions and thoughts on the chapters they had read. Each member of the group was to post a comment about their job for the literature circle meeting. Here is a look at our class's first digital meeting.

The next time our class meets in the computer lab for something like this I would like to encourage students to respond to others comments. The aspect that was missing in this activity was there was not much interaction between the groups. Although students had the chance to look at each others responses no students responded back. The whole point of meeting in literature circles is to have students interact with each other to deepen their understanding of the book they are reading. Communicating through different mediums is important, especially in the digital age. This activity, if guided appropriately with increased interaction between students, could be very beneficial to students communication and computer skills.