Star Student of the Week

I created a Star Student of the Week bulletin board and demonstrated to the students the first week how we were going to do it.
A letter is sent home on Friday to the parents, and then the students bring their stars back on Monday. They are awarded a certificate (certificates I purchased from a store), then we have all the students gather around during the morning while I am teaching, and the student talks about their Stars, and their pictures or any other things they would like to share. I make a point to have this student be the line leader 2-3 times during the week. On Friday we read a special letter that the student's parent/guardian wrote about them.
Take a look at the Parent Letter I send out and the pictures of the Bulletin Board:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1V37R8_H94fyoP1xlvn64M0ByLSS3H3kApz7d7xirQ9E

Fire Safety Week

This past week it was Fire Safety week. The Aitkin Fire Department stopped by and discussed Fire Safety with the students on Tuesday and Tuesday night was the Annual Aitkin Fire Department Open House
I tied the Fire Safety unit into our writer's journals by writing the following on the board for the student's to write about:
Why are firefighters important? Create 3 sentences explaining why?
I then created a poster for all the students to sign, and once students got done they were able to help create an acrostic poem (which I knew I would be teaching later that week). It worked really well as an anticipatory set. I had two of the best behaved students go up to the class and hand the two volunteer fire fighters the poster (great intrinsic motivation)
Here are some pictures of the Poster before the students finished it:

Lesson Two

Click below to see my lesson plan through googledocs:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1MqJV4MN78HrdDl-eVugSZh9rXDikwxyF5mmmVhRcjMY

Samples of student work

High Quality because of the following reasons:
1. Use of Spelling words and they are properly underlined.
2. 8 words in each sentence.
3. Had an adult check for grammar and Spelling.
4. Good, clear handwriting.



Low Quality because of the following reasons:
1. Doesn't have all Spelling words underlined.
2. Did not have a parent check for grammar or spelling errors.
3.Missed proper punctuation in Number 5.



Students were assessed on the following for their Spelling Sentences
1. Have 8 Sentences.
2. Have proper Spelling and Punctuation.
3. Use 8 words in each sentence.
4. Underline Spelling Word.
5. Check with an adult before handing in.
6. Due Thursday
The assignment is graded out of 20

For the worksheet I created, that they were supposed to color the Ai words Blue, the Ay words Red, and the Ea words purple...they were graded on participation points. For the select students who had some of the words wrong, I just reiterated the ea, ay, ai forms of the long a vowel patterns

Lesson One of Unit of Instruction

Click on the link below to view my Lesson Plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Ny_ce8B9Kxxx4Px0nC1pUytJ8ea7fgEu4O4aMDkeMp8

Assignment One- Reflections.....

The school that I am student teaching at is located in Aitkin, MN. Which is located 30 miles East of Brainerd, MN. The 3rd grade is made up of 68 students, but grades 5th, 6th, and 2nd, 1st, and Kindergarten range from 90-119 students per grade. The atmosphere is small town, Aitkin's population is 1,900. Aitkin is in up-north Minnesota so there is a lot of outdoor activities offered year round. There are 365 area lakes, making fishing and outdoor activities a big part of the everyday life for a lot of my students. My classroom consists of 23 students, 11 girls and 12 boys. They are all Caucasian, and most live out of the city limits (we have no students who walk to and from school). Our classroom has a moby-board and clickers that are implemented for students to take quizzes on. There is a projector that is also used. The school just purchased two document camera's last week.


List of Goals:
To be able to effectively teach by including an anticipatory set and closure without over thinking it or preparing many hours for it.
To experience Parent-Teacher conferences
To get involved in one ore more activities outside of the classroom
To attend a school board or some other meeting
To get great reviews and feedback from both my university supervisor but also my cooperating teacher

At this point, my primary concerns are....holding my students engaged when I explain objectives in the beginning of my lessons.


At this point, I am looking forward to most...is getting back their Star Math scores, and their reading levels and see how much they increase by the time I leave.


Take a look at my classroom!!!!!!
Here are some parts of the Reading area:






Here is part of the Math area:

Author Studies

Each month in our 3rd grade classroom we will be focusing on two authors. One- Picture book author study and One- Chapter book Author study.
Here is a pic. of the pictures I printed and laminated in our Author Study area by our reading nook:

During the first day we did an ice-breaker activity for the students to build self-esteem and learn more about their classmates.
At first we hung the apples and took them down as each student attended open house:

This is a pile of the finished product:


We also built a list of class rules:

Got my desk set-up

Today is Labor Day, I went in and got my desk set up :) So excited to meet the students tomorrow!!!!

I started two days early! Mr. Williams had me come in on Monday, August 30th at 12:00 to set up my desk and give some input on the classroom. I ended up staying for 5 hours! It has been such a fun experience!! Day 1 of Workshops was the 31st, so I started the following day. I have learned so many awesome things and met so many cool people!

This weekend I tackled making homemade bookmarks for my student's as incentives once they complete a goal that we will set on the first day of class. I put a lot of time and creativity into them and made them all differently, It was fun! See pictures below :) (As of now, we have 23 students in our classroom).

I just talked to my Cooperating teacher again on wednesday and set up a time on Monday (August 30th) to arrange my desk and get a feel of the classroom before I begin on Wednesday (Sept. 1st). I have just completed my first assignment which was to create a page autobiography that will go into the take home folders of the students and parents that I will be working with. It was challenging and I had no idea what to include or where to begin..but I got through it!!!

This is the school that I will be student teaching at. I begin September 1st, 2010 and am very excited! I have talked to my cooperating teacher and am ready to go!! Can't wait to meet the students that I will be working with.