Day Sixty: The Quiz

I gave my kids a quiz today on problem solving.  I gave them instructions and they all gave me a blank stare.  The questions were exactly like we had practiced, but with different objects.  Here is an example:
Ms Wiebe has five different shapes.  She has a favourite one.
She is going to give you some clues to help you decide which is her favourite.
Here are your clues:
It has four sides.
All the sides are the same length.
It sits on its edge.
What is Ms Wiebe's favourite shape?
Be sure to use logical thinking to solve the problem!

So I gave them the problem AND the way to solve it!  I got one girl who said ' I don't get it.'  I said 'What don't you get?'  She said 'I just don't get it.'  Well I can't help someone who doesn't have a concrete problem.  So I gave them the test and they all rocked it.  So I am not sure what the disconnect was between insrtuction and doing.   Anyway, so later on we were doing some math and I told them I would review with them next week.  They said 'Can we have a test?!'  I was like what?  This morning they couldn't figure it out and now they want me to test them again?  Weird.  But anyway, no test.  They did not learn enough yet.  It was a good day.  Taught all afternoon and it was fun.

Day Fifty Nine: FIELD TRIP!!

Went on a Field Trip today with 40 grade twos to Cantos and Fort Calgary.  Cantos was AWESOME! Go if you can.  They have so many cool music type things.  We got to listen to a concert organ that was used for silent films.  It was loud!  The kids loved it.  They got to play instruments and be hands on with other things.  I took lots of pictures of old stuff...it's the history major in me.  They had a Polyphonic Virginal that was from the 1550's!  It's a cousin of the harpsichord.  It as in a atmosphere controlled room and was the oldest piece in the collection.  They also had a piano signed by Elton John.  Then we went to the Fort and it was not as cool.  Too much sitting for the kids and a crabby older lady who didn't wnat the kids to touch stuff was in charge.  Boo.  I could have done a better job.  But I did I did find out what a Shaganappi is.  It's like one of those ball/cup toys.  It was made with bone and hide.  The hide had holes in it and you flung it up and tried to get the bone in the hole.  I had always wondered what a Shaganappi was since there is a road named after it here.  I will be putting up some pics..

Day Fifty Five to Fifty Eight: F*** It

So I am doing one giant blog for all of last week.  I am behind...again.  And last week I did not want to write anything here.  It was a really rough week and I thought about quitting the program.  I had some personal stuff happening like my partner leaving to another province for work, my dog coming to live with me and destroying my parents house, and peeing on my bed and just generally being in idiot.  Then I had a prof. who has decided that she doesn't want to take questions, or adhere to her outline.  She has made some of us do our assigments over and over because she changes the requirements every class.  She has no due dates and doesn't adhere to her timeline.  It's impossible to work with her.  I was just frustrated with the quality of education I was receiving for the amount of money I am paying.  But this week I am better and will hopefully have some fun things to say.  I also took a break and went away for a few days to recharge.

Day Fifty Four: Chaos

Is it really hard for profs to think of concrete due dates?  It is really beyond their capacity?  I think that if you have lots of letter behind you name you should be able to look at a calendar.  Bah!  Who needs due dates? I will just magically spring assignments on you and then tell you they are due next class!! Yes! Because my class is obviously the only one you have and you have no other assignments AND you are not planning lessons for your field assignment so you have lots of time to schedule things.  Maybe I am too anal and uptight but I like to know more than a week in advance when my stuff is due especially when I have to work in a group.  More people=harder time to get together!
Also I am wondering what my tuition covers now?  I had to pay $2.00  to pay for 'art supplies' for one of my university classes AND now the professors are not allowed to photocopy articles for us to read, so I have to do it myself.  I paid $2945 this semester.....what do I get for it?  I have to pay for books, supplies, photocopying, fuel to get me to my practicum, and other crap.  So am I paying for the prof to have a house in the posh part of town?  And for the university to renovate the ICT building and the library and amalgamate fine arts and social sciences all into one faculty?  What do I get for my mony?  Does anyone know?  Can you tell me?

Day Fifty Three: I Don't Like You

This semester I have curriculum inquiry which is about delving into the curriculum.  It is also about recent trends in educational research.  I have a 2 hour and 50 minnnute lecture on this every Wednesday and I have decided that the prof and I do not see eye to eye.  Let me give you an example of how he is:
SEcond day at lecture....'why do Iwear a three piece suit (here he gives us a multiple choice question).  The correct answer turns out that he has been tested for autism and has placed 'well up on the spectrum.'  So wearing a three piece suit is like a pressure suit on his body and it calms him.  Well that is all fien and good but dont' wear your autism test like a badge of honour and then remind us of it repeadedly.  Another example:  a student asks a question and he says 'we really do not have time for questions right now.  I will get back to you..OR remember it for whatever chapter it would fit in in the book.  So how can you have an INQUIRY based program when questions are shot down?  He never gets back to you and sometime you can put your hand up and he IGNORES you completely!  The other day a student misunderstood what he said and he goes'isn't that what I just said?'  the student says 'that is not what I heard.' he says 'did you know that most problems in communication are the result of the LISTENER?'  Whoa.  So not true and so not appropriate.  He loves Oprah and tells us this all the time.  Argh.  He is annoying and pompous and treats us like we are stupid and he is so awesome because he is a PhD! Whoa.......he must be a god then.  Needless to say I find him annoying.

Day Fifty Two: I Play Hooky

Well I actually had a doctor's appointment, so it was legit.  It was nice to take a day off.

Day Fifty One: PD Day

I went to a PD day on Assessment.  How we can bring on the spot and individualized assessment into the classroom.  How to use formative as well as summative assessment.  Sumative would be like the PAT (provincial achievement test) and formative is what you do in the classroom like anecdotals, quizes etc.  Individual learning is very important for this district.  They tell us to teach to the student, and not to the test (mainly the PATs).  So we hear about this and get some ideas about it and then the superintendent comes on and says that Alberta is tops in the country and the world.  Where do they get those stats? From non-individualized testing like the PAT's Diplomas etc.  I wonder then how much individualized learning is important if the superintendent thinks these stats are important enough to begin her speech with?  It seemed hypocritical...but what do I know?  Everyone says that education is changing in the direction of individuals, but the mandate from the Education Minister is still these standardized tests.  And what are we testing anyway?  Reading comprehension or the subject that the test is about?  Because if a student can't comprehend the question, they aren't going to get the answer.  So how can you create a 'test' to show what you know?  How about a flexible project?  or test?  I don't care what format you put it in, it needs to be flexible.  In the real world people get to work to their strengths, but not in school.  We all have to work to the standard.  Anyway, I did not find the PD day very useful.

Day Fifity: The Teacher is Always Right

Today I was talking to two students during Math Centres.  They were doing addition using some strategies like base ten, counting on, doubles and near doubles.  One of the questions was 10+9.  I said you could use counting on.  And then one of the students said that counting on was only for 0,1,2,3 or 4.  So I said well couldn't you count on from ten to fourteen (+4) and then to eighteen (+4) and then to nineteen (+1)? But that was too many steps.  Then they suggested near doubles and I said what about base ten?  They said the answer would be different.  So I told them to fill in a ten frame with the base ten and then fill in a ten frame with doubles and take one away.  So they did and saw that the answer was the same.  So then one of them said we should use Ms. Wiebe's answer because she is the teacher and so she is always right!  I said no no!! I am just asking you to think of the question a few ways! Put what you think works for you.  Man, who knew I had such power?!  And these kids need to be unschooled!

Day Forty Nine: What is you Name?

I had a student ask me today what my name was.  I told her it was Ms. Wiebe.  She said NO!! Your FIRST name!  I said it started with an S.  She guessed a bunch of names like Sarah and stuff.  When I kept saying no, she said that she needed another letter. I told her the next one was a T.  So she put S and T together and she yelled out STEAM! I looked at her and said What? No What?  How many people do you know who are named Steam?  She said none.  I said me neither.  Steam is not my name!  It is Stacey.  She said Oh... so I called her Steam all day and she laughed.

Day Forty Eight: Curriculum Poster!

So today met with my group to do a project on curriculum.  We had to see how curriculum was related from grade one to six and then how it was related to other subjects in one grade.  We chose grade three science and the unit was Animal Life Cycles.  So then we had to relate that to Grade three math, social, language, PE, health, and technology.  IT wasn't actually too difficult and it makes it easy to see how you can do one big project in the school year and cover all the subjects and outcomes, instead of diving everything up into subjectgs that are separate from each other.  It makes learning much more interesting and much more related to the real world.

Day Forty Seven: Back in University

I have decided that days in university are not as interesting as my days at school, so I probably won't write as much about them, unless I learn something totally fascinating about curriculum or lesson planning.  Whoo.  So yeah, these days might be really short posts....plus I seem to having problems keeping up.

Day Forty Six: INSANITY!

I have been at the elementary school for two days now.  The kids have been inside since last Monday.  It is now Tuesday of the following week.  They have not been out for lunch recess.  They are INSANE!!  Here is a run down of the day.
Morning: One kid was standing on a table.  Asked him to get down: he sassed me.
               Two others had an argument about how one of them put something in their pocket that did not belong to them.
                In PE one tattled to me that a group had six and not five.  I told him to chill, the teacher had made the groups.
                A student laughed at another student for not getting the problem in math.
                 A kid had a tantrum for not being picked to go to the smartboard.
                 Constant noise.  Had to quiet them four or five times before they were actually quiet.

In the afternoon: One kid got mad at another for doing the same math station twice.  The one who did it twice was picked as a partner for someone else.
                          The tattler told me that people were talking.  I said so are you.
                           The tattler policed a game of 'guess the number' by complaining that some had gone up more than once.
                            The tattler tattled on someone when the teacher asked who is talking during instruction and he pointed to the back and said 'everyone back there.'
                           The tattler proceeded to talk to his neighbour after ratting everyone out.  He got asked to leave the class.

So today was mostly about management.  I don't actually remember what everyone learned.  But now that the weather is nice, they can go outside and be crazy...Hallelujah!!

Day Forty Five: A Recap and A New Semester

So I see I have not written here since the end of November.  What a slacker!  Actually I wasw done on the 10th of December so I did not miss too much.  There are a number of reasons why I did not write the last few weeks of school:  I was stressed out, I got a poor review from my Partner Teacher (PT), I was finalizing projects and getting marks back from the university (I passed!) and just ready to be done.  HOnestly the last thing I wanted to do was write here.  Especially after my poor review and the things that were said, which still hurt. So I am back this semester and ready to go again.  Today (Monday) was the first day of the first full week at school.  I was at the university on Wednesday and Thursday last week but not much happened since those were the first days.  This week should be more blog worthy.  So I am extending the invitation again to come and join me in the world of education!! WHOOT!