I am linking up with The Lower Elementary Cottage for my and my students' successes this week. I had to really think to come up with these. There have been success, but we have had a tough week. Everyone is ready for spring break and it really showing. We also have four more days to go!!!! Just breathe!
1. The freebie I talked (Number of the day) about a few days ago has gone really well for two of my blocks. For the most part the ziplocs have held up. One thing I learned is that the students cannot press on them too hard, because it will leave a mark on the bag. However I have more bags and one or two bags are easily replaced. The students understand what they are doing. Some even have erased their work to do it again! I am going to make up posters for the base 10 blocks. This is one thing my students are still struggling to understand.
2. Some of my struggling students are starting to really feel comfortable taking risks and they are getting correct answers!! It is amazing the turn around. I still have concerns about them. Most of these come from a reading realm. I can see why the reading teacher is really concerned about them. They are struggling to read simple words. So when they have to read directions in math, they get frustrated. Even before they start the math!! The math they are getting, the reading not so much. That is the amazing thing about math. Students that struggle in other areas can really shine with numbers!
3. The third one is my success. I have a student I am working with. He has been bullying, fighting, hitting, etc. He was involved in 3 incidents yesterday. We had no administration on campus, so we were treading water. I got an IRATE phone call from the mother. She was claiming his innocence and that the other child (3 different children) was at fault. My success was that I was able to stay calm. I did not get too defensive. I tried to talk to her. She is still not happy, but I was able to stay composed and professional. I am sure she will try to turn my words against me once we have a conference, but I feel pretty prepared for her. I broke down once I left the phone call, but I talked to our character ed teacher and we came up with a plan on Monday.
So there are my successes! What are yours?
Crystal
Sounds like you had a really tough week, but I'm glad you were able to find some successes to share and focus on. Good job staying calm with the irrational parent. I had one make me cry right in front of them once. It's terrible.
ReplyDeleteJust some ideas to help you:
-Teach the kiddos to circle "key words" to help them understand the directions. Then if they can't read ALL of the words in the directions they can read maybe just the most important words like "add" or "count" by memorizing. This really helps with my extra special ones.
-I learned that the freezer bags with the slider zippers tend to work the best for long term centers!
Don't forget you get to pick a freebie from my TPT store for being the first to link up for Successful Saturday! Email me what you'd like! teacherlisasclass@gmail.com
Lisa
The Lower Elementary Cottage
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Parnello
Part of my problem this year is that I think the reading program that was chosen is not on a K/1 reading level. In my opinion it is late 1st grade/ early 2nd grade level. I will definitely take your advice and really work on that next year.
ReplyDeleteCrystal