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!