We are getting close to the finish line! Yay!
Today was a good day. I love how the students feel so comfortable around me. Every morning the students all run up to me and talk about everything and anything. I love it. I like that they feel comfortable and safe around me. This morning, I got hugs from all the girls and a few boys – I was so surprised. In the morning, my MT had an IEP meeting, so I taught the meth lesson. It was pretty easy, and the students seemed to understand right away. They have been working on this lesson for a few days, so it was good to see that they are grasping the material. As always, I had them work as partners for the problem set.
Next was my literacy lesson. This went really well. The lesson was on comparing and contrasting two texts. The students had read a story about fossils; today, we read another short story. I thought it would be fun to do something with fossils in the AS – and I was right! The story we read today was about accidentally finding fossils, so I hid them around the class and had the students walk around and accidentally stumble upon them. They loved it! I’ll post a picture below of the fossils that I made.
They were all different, so I had them compare and contrast them with a friend. Then we went into the reading, and I asked a few questions. As we were reading, I constantly restated that I wanted to keep the other story in the back of their minds as we read this one. Think of how these texts are similar and how they are different. After we finished the story, we went over comparing and contrasting. I asked a few questions to prepare them for the activity that followed. We did a hands-on Venn Diagram. I had two hula hoops and had them look like a Venn Diagram. I had the students write an interesting fact or something that they learned on a piece of paper. Once they did this, I had them place it correctly, and then we discussed all of them. The students seemed to enjoy this! After the students completed a worksheet on their own!
Later in the afternoon, we made corn husk dolls. The students are learning about the Iroqiou – we went to the Field Museum last week and saw some exhibits related to this. We learned how corn was very important to them, so we made these dolls. I later related this back to them. These children played with these dolls just like you play with your toys. This is what they had access to. They had a good time making these; some had a difficult time with this, so I had to work around the room to assist as many as possible. I’ll attach a photo of the finished product of these dolls!
Today I really learned to go with the flow. The math was sprung on me as well as a few other things. I learned to be flexible, as this is VERY crucial when it comes to being a teacher.