Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Teaching the kids about Early Humans is something I have been anticipating. As I read through their history books and re-called projects my sixth grade teacher made us create, my wheels started to turn. A few years ago while I was in student teaching, I taught the kids about our body's bones. We created skeletons make out of different shaped pasta pieces. Who knew this idea would make it's way back in my mind.

Using pasta pieces, we re-created the famous Australopithecus, Lucy. This kids had a blast learning about this 3.4 million year Hominid and enjoyed building her skeleton. A successful lesson always makes for a happy Monday!

Learn Something New Everyday

Over the past three years, I have customarily taught in Vietnamese neighborhoods. Through this experience I have learned about Chinese New Year, traditional foods, soups, outfits and other celebrations that the Vietnamese celebrate. All of these celebrations have been fascinating and has made me realize how little culture I have in my family. Don't get me wrong, we have traditions and special foods we love, but no one dresses up in a beautiful Ao Dia and gets their hair done before school.

Currently, I am teaching in a pre-dominantly Hispanic neighborhood. With this change in culture, comes new traditions. The latest lesson I have learned is about the holiday, Dia De Reyes, or "Kings Day". A student brought in a "King Cake" or better known as Roscon De Reyes. This holiday celebrates the Three Wise Men and the birth of Jesus. Luckily for me, a student brought in a King Cake to share with our class. All of the kids were excited to eat the cake and hoped to get a baby Jesus doll in their piece. I learned, if your piece of cake has a baby Jesus inside, you are responsible for throwing your family a party on February 2nd. It is believed, the Light of Christ is presented to the world on this day. To our surprise, there was two plastic baby Jesus figures inside, looks like a lot of parties are going to be thrown on February 2nd!

I think the saying goes, "better late, than never!"

Clearly, it has been awhile since I have made a post, but that doesn't mean great things and ideas are not on my mind for the New Year! Before moving forward though, I must close the chapters I opened during November and December with my second graders. I also must announce that I have been hired to be a long-term substitute teacher for 6th grade!! Yes, that is correct, 6th grade and low and behold, they too have won my heart.

Without further ado, here is a cute Turkey we made during Thanksgiving. It's simple, sweet, and to the point. Most importantly, it is not an all day project. To enhance the academics of this project, the kids had to write what they are thankful for on each feather.

Another great idea, I got from friend is to make Indian Headdresses. The kids earn feathers for their headdress depending on different skills they can perform and information they know. For example, students earned feathers for being able to tie their shoes, say their telephone number, address, spell their name correctly, give answers to math problems, write a simple sentence...etc. It's all about re-teaching those life skills while meeting the standards :)

Now, moving onto December. On the second week of the month, I entered a room full of 30 6th graders. With changing hormones and plenty to talk about, the world of "little kids" was gone. Quickly adjusting my talk, discipline plan, and teaching style, my own thinking had to take a big leap into "how to teach upper grade". Within a few weeks, my lesson plans developed more challenging content and the grading increased x10. The time I have to now devote to planning has also increased. I have learned to embrace this challenge before me. From teaching them how to write a research report to finding the sales tax of an item, I have met my match! I am grateful and appreciative of this opportunity and loving their independence! I am anticipating the future and enjoying every minute of what 2011 has bring! So bring it on! Cheers to 2011 and a productive trimester ahead! Stay tuned :)

EKK, we're subtracting 2-digit numbers!

Some subjects and lessons are definitely more fun to teach than others. Due to the complexity of adding two-digit numbers and borrowing from the tens place, confusion quickly arises and frustration levels sky rocket for most kids. Within the first few days of introducing and teaching the concept of subtracting two-digit numbers 50% of the kids get it and well, the other 50% tend flail for a couple of weeks, while I try and "save them". Eventually 95% of the kids understand how to find solution by the end of the month, and gradually the synapses of the other 5% come full circle by year. Borrowing a "ten" is a very abstract concept for most kids and it's not until some get a little older that this idea comes to fruition. In the meantime, small groups are the key to success!! Practice, practice, practice! It's my goal to help them all reach proficiently by the end of second grade. Fingers are crossed!

It's NOVEMBER?

I really can't believe how fast time is passing this year. I found myself longing for August to be over and now, it's already November! Seeing how the weather is still in the 90's it hard to believe fall has arrived, but truth be known, California is not exactly known for its cold weather, haha.

I am however, happy to say, I survived the ups and downs of CELDT testing and was welcomed on board these past few weeks to teach second grade temporarily. Although, I am supposed to only be teaching these kids for a short time, I can't help but pour my heart into teaching them. I am happy to arrive once again at the same school everyday and get to know their names and quirks that make them second graders.

Within this short time, I feel very accomplished. Since their contracted teacher had been out for almost three weeks prior to me stepping in, things were a bit disorganized. Once being asked to step in and take control, I was happy to take the rains alongside the other amazing second grade teacher.

To my shock, I was asked to give each of the student's goal setting conference. After almost three years of long-term subbing I am accustomed to undoing and redoing mishaps in "orphan" classrooms due to teacher absences. Graciously accepting this challenge, I put my skills to the test. This was not my first rodeo, and I was confident in my knowledge and know-how of goal setting conferences. I knew the conferences would be a success, as long as their parents would accept a conference from their child's substitute teacher that met them 8 hours prior that is... and so the chaotic fun began.

I had exactly five hours to prep and prepare all the materials and information I would need to give 25 data supported conferences. To my surprise, I met happy parent after happy parent. I could've never predicted a better outcome. I was accepted with openness and gracious attitudes. 22 out of 25 parents attended their child's conference, not too shabby in opinion. Given the short notice they had themselves and time parameters I had to follow, I am rating this experience as one of my most successful yet. I am looking to the future with optimism and hope one day I can truly pour my heart and passion for teaching into students that I did not meet 8 hours prior to setting their yearly goal.

Halloween Handprint Project

My favorite projects for little kids to make for the holidays usually involves something with handprints. I think parents appreciate and tend to keep their child's project if their handprints are on them. Nothing can replace the memory made by a little hand. Here is a cute idea I found for Halloween. It's a handprint spider to hang on a doorknob.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/mspooky-spider.htm

CELDT Testing

Last week I was fortunate enough to become a CELDT proctor for the next six weeks. I am happy to be working at an elementary school again. Being able to spend one-on-one time testing them has been very entertaining and educational for me. Usually, I am accustom to administering one-on-one tests to kids while trying to monitor 20 others, not exactly an easy task. Not having a class to watch, I have been able to enjoy testing (yes, I just said I am enjoying it...I know it's crazy).

Each day I plan on reflecting on my testing and the silly things the kids say. There innocence and imagination never seizes to amaze me. More than this though, I want to reflect on the kids answers to improve my own teaching so that these "silly" answers become corrected and they can be reclassified into an English Only status. Fingers are crossed! I have high hopes for these little ones.

Day One : According to many of the children, winter, spring, summer, and fall are commonly referred to as "sections, holidays, weather, and leaves falling off of trees", A paperclip is also called a "pin", and the benefits of flying in a space shuttle far outweigh the joys of being President of the United States for one day.

I foresee many more hurtles in our future and I look forward to jumping over them together...

Day Two : Today we started testing the third graders. Overall, they did well, but many struggled to answer all of the questions. Retelling a story based on a series of pictures and asking a question seemed to pose the biggest challenges. Knowing this information, I can plan for the future and make my students more prepared. A few things I could do to help my students is to practice their re-telling skills more often. I think I would be fun to cut out pictures form a magazine and have the kids write stories based on the pictures. This would be a great way for them to practice writing with details, express creative thoughts, and share their stories with a classmate. As a result, hopefully practicing these skills more often will help them reach more success when they are called upon to perform for the state.

Day Three: The day began a HOT one. With no air conditioning at the school, we starting testing the first graders. The test took about 20 minutes to administer to each student. Not only was this a long process, it was unfair. Over half the test was far too challenging for the little ones. Hearing wrong answer, after wrong answer, I became frustrated with test makers that they would create such difficult questions followed by an abstract story... How is an English Language Learner suppose to know random vocabulary, questioning skills, listening comprehension, and spell the word "apple"? I would like to see how a fluent English speaking child would score in order to compare how truly challenging this test appears to be. I think it might be challenging for any first grader, no matter their language abilities, at this point in the year. To be continued...

Day Four: We continued to testing the first graders with roughly the same results as the day before. Most guessed the way through the test or shook their head in confusion. Every child tried hard, but still, they do not understand the importance of passing the test or why they need to develop these basic reading, writing, and speaking skills. Hopefully as they grow older, things will start to click.

Day Five: We powered through the remaining first graders and made our way to the MIDDLE SCHOOL. I am not one for the "older" kids, but as I soon learned they are still very young, just a little "cooler".

Filled with hope the seventh graders being tested would certainly pass the test seeing as they took this same test the year before, I was wrong... The same head shakes of confusion and "I don't know responses" continued throughout the week. I learned knowing the name of a "bulletin board" and an "envelope" were challenging. However, the most challenging question for them was to tell as story about four pictures. After hearing about 400 wrong answers, by the end of the week, I was more motivated than ever to someday teach my ELD class to my fullest potential. They truly need to learn the basic vocabulary for asking and answering questions and need to be taught the importance of WHY they are learning these skills.