Week of February 10th-16th

I observed Ms. Hinton’s class for the week.  She read Clifford’s First Valentine’s Day by Normal Bridwell and Franklin’s Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois.  After reading the books, she had made a color sheet of her African Dwarf frogs; Flipper and Flopper (class pets) that she allowed the kids to color.  She informed the students that she has had them for four years and she hadn’t expected them to live even one year.  She told them her regiment for feeding them was only a pinch, on Monday and Friday.

I subbed for Ms. Hinton this week and the focus was on President’s Day.  So, I kind of followed her example about ad libbing while reading.  I let student’s know about President Lincoln and George Washington.  I was able to use a visual aid to show the students the timeline.  So, they learned that George Washington was the first President and Lincoln was the 16^th.  They checked out books and colored a sheet with President George Washington on one side and a word find on the other.  Discipline problems were very few in the lower grades this time.  The Principal had come in to observe me and said he liked what I was doing with the Kindergarteners and that I did well managing them.

She informed me of setting ZPD’s for students.  She said that the Star Reading test is given by teachers once at the first of the year, the middle of the year, and at the end of the year.  She believes it’s best taken in the computer lab with a proctor, rather than in the individual classrooms where teachers might be influenced to help students.  The way students are added to Destiny is by lunch numbers and homerooms. 

 

She checks Renaissance everyday to make sure no kids are locked out of the AR tests.  She indicated the importance of saving everything that you change on Renaissance in order for changes to take effect.  One of her guidelines was do not delete a class without unenrolling students first.  To unenroll past students:

1. Go to students

2. Edit multiple school enrollments

3. Select student’s name

4. Check unenroll and Apply

I learned these steps by doing on the computer. I unenrolled about 40 students whose names were never removed from my school, even though those students had gone on to 6^th grade.

 

One thing I really enjoyed this week was watching Ms. Hinton teacher reasoning, inference, sportsmanship, probability, and deeper thinking skills using an online game version of Tic Tac Toe.  She really got the kids to think.  It was evident when a student didn’t think through their moves, however.  But I believe the class as a whole benefitted from the experience and learned to think things through.