Regrouping with Addition

We have been working hard in second grade on regrouping with addition, and I am so proud of my kidlets for expanding their thinking and trying new things! We were always planning to teach regrouping, but partway through the unit, we attended a professional development session on Singapore Math and I was SO inspired, I rewrote my lessons for the next few days to include some of the ideas we saw in the session. There is so much to the program, and I know without extensive training I will never be able to do the principles justice, but there were a few things that I know I can incorporate into any math program I am teaching.

Start of Student Teaching

Well, I have certainly not kept up end of this blogging bargain up the past few weeks! I only really have one excuse, that student teaching has begun, and I have been inundated with lesson planning, note taking, journaling and reflecting, and go yes, a nasty stomach flu last week (welcome to teaching, right?). Posts will probably be few and irregular over the next few months, but I will try my best! So far it has been an amazing experience. I have learned incredible amounts since the first day of student teaching, and I know that is just a drop in the bucket compared with the remaining ten weeks. Here is my classroom for student teaching, in pictures. Names and faces have all been blurred out, to protect my kiddos.

Kinder Phonics

A few weeks ago Emi asked about my approach to Literacy and teaching Phonics and Reading.  This is a topic dear to me as I clearly remember learning to read in First Grade. It was magic!!   We all sat on the floor in front of my teacher as she would read to us from a big Dick and Jane book. There was one with a red cover and one with a blue cover.   She would read each page to us and discuss the pictures and have us repeat the words. The pictures were adorable and sweet. My brother and sister would have been Dick and Jane (I still love the name Jane) and I would have been the pesky little sister. 

Multicultural Week

This has been such a wonderful week at my school. It is multicultural week, where families come in to every classroom and share their cultural traditions (not just Christmas or Hanukkah). The week was kicked off with a wonderful Bollywood dance by a few of the moms, as well as the Fifth Graders sharing a song they wrote. Being in the area of Los Angeles we are, our school is so incredibly diverse. In my second grade alone, there are 20 different cultures represented- Israel, Palestine, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Egypt, Canada, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Latvia, Iran, Brazil, Philippines, Laos and Lebanon.

Before Break Craziness

It is crazy to me how quickly the weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break go. As soon as we got back from the week we got off for Thanksgiving, we have three weeks to make holiday crafts and gifts, give assessments, and jam as much actual teaching as is humanly possible before the three weeks of winter break wipe out a good chunk of the learning they've done so far. 

Polar Express Pajama Parade

We had a Polar Express Pajama Parade this week at school. Scholastic Reading Club /Classrooms Care has an amazing Pajama Program- more information on that can be found here and I encourage you all to look at it, it really was such a great experience both for us and for the kids.  We had our Kindergarten and First Graders bring new pajamas to donate (if they wanted to) and Scholastic will match each pair of pajamas with new book for a child in need- how wonderful, right? We had so many cute nightgowns and pajamas donated in our class, just look at this adorable Hello Kitty Christmas nightgown.

The Phonics Debate

Before I get too deep into this post, I wanted to share some good news!! Without going into all the drama and details, I have had some trouble with getting student teaching set up. First, I started student teaching in September but had to get pulled from that due to inappropriate behavior by my mentor teacher. Since then, I have been waiting for another placement to come through, but have not had any luck (that is one of the hard parts of doing an online program based on the East Coast while I live on the West Coast). Today, drum roll please, I got news from a teacher at the school I have been volunteering at that she would like to have me in her classroom!! More details once everything has been confirmed.