(16 hours down, 24 to go)
When I got to the high school this morning there was a message from another teacher that wanted to collaborate with me. It is a bit awkward when I get the "so what were you thinking?" type of question right away, since I haven't had a chance to think yet. Fortunately I was able to come up with an idea right away that was good. The teacher is a Read 180 teacher (Read 180 is a 2 hour daily block that works on reading skills with students who are targeted as needing extra help). They're just about to enter into a digital citizenship unit so I thought right away of using BrainPOP!'s free digital citizenship tutorials. They're geared toward jr. high kids, but I think they'll work really well for this group. There's a funny little video, and then 10 questions that go with it that kids can complete online and e-mail to their teacher.
Unfortunately the only day that will work for them is Friday, and I'll be done with the internship then. I talked to Ms. S and she said she'd teach it on Friday. It's a simple lesson, pretty self-explanatory, so I think it will work fine. She showed me how to edit the Online Links section of her website, and we put the Digital Citizenship page of BrainPOP! on there, so that it will be easy for the students to get right into.
This morning I spent about three hours doing inventory. Many schools wait until the end of the year to do a library inventory, however since the LMC is open during the summer too, it doesn't really need to be at the end. Ms. S and Ms. Y start their inventory in January, and usually get their student aides to do the work, but since I've never done inventory I wanted a chance to see how it was done (this was especially helpful since they have the same cataloguing system as I use). They have a nifty hand-held device which they can take over to the bookshelves to scan every book. I got through the 600s and 700s this morning (about 1600 books), with only 2 books unaccounted for.
Most of the time I was scanning I was reading through the titles, enjoying what was out there, and part of the time was spent trying to figure out how I could do an inventory, too. I don't have any student aides, or a nifty hand-held device. Ms. S thought that maybe I could use a laptop connected with a scanner (although I'm thinking our scanners don't connect to Macs) and do just one section at a time, maybe even only one section a year, just so it gets done every once in a while, to weed out books that have been long-gone. I think I'll wait until June when we reorder the library, it might be a good time there.
I also had the chance to talk to Ms. S about her tech responsibilities. Her district is pretty tough about not giving out any administrative passwords to the media specialists, unless they have "tech" specifically built in to their job description. She's actually worked really hard to try to get the chance to go to district tech meetings, but since they take place during her working day, she wasn't allowed to. Right now her school does not have a tech committee; the past assistant principal headed it up previously, but it fell apart when he left. There is a tech committee in the works, though. Ms. S had the chance to work in Bloomington for a year, and that district seemed to have a great model. There was a weekly half-day meeting which all the district media specialists went to, and were frequently visited by the district leaders in other areas. As it is in her current district, there is a once-monthly meeting before or after school (which is the same in my district).
It's kind of silly, really, since Ms. S still is an in-a-pinch building tech. She gave me a tour today and showed me the school's auditorium (with an elaborate sound booth/system) and a room called The Forum which has room for about 120 students in a lecture-hall type setting with a state-of-the-art projection system. Ms. S is responsible to help out with these if there is a need.
It was a pretty slow day as far as kids are concerned. The LMC hosted only 3 classes today, the rest of the time there were individual kids in and out, but it wasn't nearly as busy as it was on Friday. I had an interesting discussion with a girl about the book Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben Winters and Jane Austen. She really liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , and was excited to see this Austen classic re-done, too. I found P&P&Z really hard to get into, the contrast between the Austen text and the Winters zombie inserts was just too weird for me (but really creative! I admire Ben Winters' for re-doing the classics).
I also had the chance to work with a girl who had done a slide show on her mac at home, e-mailed it to herself, and was trying to open it on the PCs at school. Unfortunately, she didn't use PowerPoint on her mac, but she is going to bring in her laptop tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to work something out. I'll bring some cords from home for her (she has to present it tomorrow), since the school has no macs nor the accessories to go with them.
I'm still working on my Prezi presentation on the Harlem Renaissance. I am getting really interested in the subject. It is great working on Prezi, because it is almost like I'm taking notes on what I'm reading on the Prezi workspace, and then just reorganizing my notes into a presentation.
Off to do more Prezi-ing!
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Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
High School Internship: Day 1
(8 hours down, 32 to go)
There's nothing like a day in a high school to make it crystal clear that High School Musical was way off base. Of course I'm blocking my own high school experience out of my memory, so I thoroughly enjoyed my first day at Mounds View High School with Ms. S and her full-time para Ms. Y.
I learned so much today. It was really tough being ready so early, for MVs early start (my High School work day: 7-3) but the nice thing about LMCs (library media centers) is that they're all pretty much like coming home.
First off, I'm very excited to say that I have a co-collaborator for next week. I was aggressive in my search for a good collaboration match for this internship so it was one of the first things I started talking about after I had had the tour. Ms. S had me e-mail out the entire staff this morning, pleading my case. I made sure to put in there that my intent was not to disrupt their normal schedule of events, but rather to enhance what they were already working on.
I had one taker.
Ms. V, a social studies teacher, e-mailed me back (she was the only one to e-mail me back, but that's okay, I'm pretty excited about the lesson). Her students are doing background research on the 1920s on a variety of topics, which they'll present to the class in short oral/visual presentations. She asked me if I'd like to do a presentation on either the KKK or the Harlem Renaissance. I'm going to do some research this weekend, but I think I'll be focusing on the Harlem Renaissance, using Prezi to create a multimedia presentation. I figure this way I can not only teach a bit about the time, but also teach them some cool tricks about giving good presentations (Prezi will work great with this, and its easy enough to use that high school students should be able to learn it if they want to use it with their presentation). I think it will be a good way to combine what she wants with what I can bring to the table as a LMS.
Okay back to a more chronological ordering of the day. I had the obligatory tour first off. Great collection of books, many on display that were shiny and well-cared for (or else very new). There were about 20 computers at stations, and 20 laptops available for check-out. The 2 computer labs in the building are located on the opposite side of the building, and are monitored by another teacher. There was a constellation of small back rooms. Several offices (Ms. S told me that there used to be 3 full-time media specialists, as well as a tech, and a desk clerk). One of the offices is now a viewing room with a TV available for students to watch movies that they might have missed due to an absence. There is also a small classroom which has occasionally been used as a regular classroom, but Ms. S said the disruption of kids coming through was hard to deal with, so they lobbied to have it no longer used. It is now only used once a day for a small group.
There's a really nifty back room (that I think I'll call The Stacks) that has about 20 shelves that roll together to conserve space. The Stacks hold all the teacher sets of books, AV materials, back issues of magazines (they keep magazines for 4 years, although there were some donated National Geographic issues from the 50s, from which I got to tear a dozen maps to use for a book display) and every issue of the yearbook published. Ms. S used these today to track down photographs of a teacher who used to work there, and is retiring at the end of the year.
I had the chance to re-do the book display. It was set up to highlight books about what it is like to live in America as a minority. I re-did it using the ALA's list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learner (from which Ms. S always buys new books for the collection). I decided to highlight books dealing with the social sciences: Tuesdays with Morrie, A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball, Sold, Three Cups of Tea, Nineteen Minutes, Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines, The Devil's Highway: A True Story, and The Glass Castle among others. I used small black-and-white maps torn out of old National Geographic issues to write blurbs about the books which I taped jauntily on the covers of several of the duller-looking books (I'll insert a picture here later of my display).
Which brings me to my #1 reinforced realization of the day: I would love to work in a high school LMC, if only because I would never run out of reading material.
I also had the chance to help a kid who was scanning some pages from Maus which he had to e-mail his teacher (there are about 5 scanners available for student use in the LMC) and spent about an hour with Ms. S and a visiting tech trying to figure out why a projector wasn't projecting any sound. Turns out it was a faulty cord.
Busy day, fun day.
Of all the books I saw today, the coolest one was Material World by Peter Menzel. It visits every continent and socio-economic status by literally emptying out all belongings of a household in front of that house, along with the family. It was amazing to see what families around the world are holding in their homes. The picture I've included will enlarge if you click on it, and you can visit the photographer's website by clicking on the book link. Such a new way to look at the world.
This could be the start
Of something new
It feels so right
Of something new
It feels so right
To be here with you, ohh
And now looking in your eyes
I feel in my heart
The start of something new!
I feel in my heart
The start of something new!
There's nothing like a day in a high school to make it crystal clear that High School Musical was way off base. Of course I'm blocking my own high school experience out of my memory, so I thoroughly enjoyed my first day at Mounds View High School with Ms. S and her full-time para Ms. Y.
I learned so much today. It was really tough being ready so early, for MVs early start (my High School work day: 7-3) but the nice thing about LMCs (library media centers) is that they're all pretty much like coming home.
First off, I'm very excited to say that I have a co-collaborator for next week. I was aggressive in my search for a good collaboration match for this internship so it was one of the first things I started talking about after I had had the tour. Ms. S had me e-mail out the entire staff this morning, pleading my case. I made sure to put in there that my intent was not to disrupt their normal schedule of events, but rather to enhance what they were already working on.
I had one taker.
Ms. V, a social studies teacher, e-mailed me back (she was the only one to e-mail me back, but that's okay, I'm pretty excited about the lesson). Her students are doing background research on the 1920s on a variety of topics, which they'll present to the class in short oral/visual presentations. She asked me if I'd like to do a presentation on either the KKK or the Harlem Renaissance. I'm going to do some research this weekend, but I think I'll be focusing on the Harlem Renaissance, using Prezi to create a multimedia presentation. I figure this way I can not only teach a bit about the time, but also teach them some cool tricks about giving good presentations (Prezi will work great with this, and its easy enough to use that high school students should be able to learn it if they want to use it with their presentation). I think it will be a good way to combine what she wants with what I can bring to the table as a LMS.
Okay back to a more chronological ordering of the day. I had the obligatory tour first off. Great collection of books, many on display that were shiny and well-cared for (or else very new). There were about 20 computers at stations, and 20 laptops available for check-out. The 2 computer labs in the building are located on the opposite side of the building, and are monitored by another teacher. There was a constellation of small back rooms. Several offices (Ms. S told me that there used to be 3 full-time media specialists, as well as a tech, and a desk clerk). One of the offices is now a viewing room with a TV available for students to watch movies that they might have missed due to an absence. There is also a small classroom which has occasionally been used as a regular classroom, but Ms. S said the disruption of kids coming through was hard to deal with, so they lobbied to have it no longer used. It is now only used once a day for a small group.
There's a really nifty back room (that I think I'll call The Stacks) that has about 20 shelves that roll together to conserve space. The Stacks hold all the teacher sets of books, AV materials, back issues of magazines (they keep magazines for 4 years, although there were some donated National Geographic issues from the 50s, from which I got to tear a dozen maps to use for a book display) and every issue of the yearbook published. Ms. S used these today to track down photographs of a teacher who used to work there, and is retiring at the end of the year.
I had the chance to re-do the book display. It was set up to highlight books about what it is like to live in America as a minority. I re-did it using the ALA's list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learner (from which Ms. S always buys new books for the collection). I decided to highlight books dealing with the social sciences: Tuesdays with Morrie, A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball, Sold, Three Cups of Tea, Nineteen Minutes, Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines, The Devil's Highway: A True Story, and The Glass Castle among others. I used small black-and-white maps torn out of old National Geographic issues to write blurbs about the books which I taped jauntily on the covers of several of the duller-looking books (I'll insert a picture here later of my display).
Which brings me to my #1 reinforced realization of the day: I would love to work in a high school LMC, if only because I would never run out of reading material.
I also had the chance to help a kid who was scanning some pages from Maus which he had to e-mail his teacher (there are about 5 scanners available for student use in the LMC) and spent about an hour with Ms. S and a visiting tech trying to figure out why a projector wasn't projecting any sound. Turns out it was a faulty cord.
Busy day, fun day.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Website Wednesday
100 Best Blogs for Librarians of the Future
(in other words, 100 Librarians who are blogging more effectively than I am. Sheesh, the competition!)
I actually found this linked onto the website of Ms. S, my High School Internship host. She does a great job keeping her website current, I am thinking I'll have to borrow some ideas! I try to keep mine updated, but I always have the sneaking suspicion that nobody ever pays attention to it.
I made my first graders type letters home today. About half of them had overdue library books, and although they're not allowed to take the books home, it is good practice for them (and their teacher and I think that a few may have slipped home accidentally). I modeled a "Dear Mom" letter, with a body of only a few sentences, and then I stapled their missing book slip to the letter and sent it home with them in an envelope. Most of them were very into the process; I think I'll have to have letter writing a bigger part of my future.
Currently Reading: Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan. Super popular middle school book, and super not my style. For one thing, there are spiders on each chapter page which I don't appreciate. I think if I had seen the website before I started reading the book, I wouldn't have started. But it is a current hit, so I'm considering it just a part of the job. It's in the current "I Love Vampires" genre, but give me the eye-rollingly dramatic Twilight anytime. There are something like 12 books in the series, which I don't think I'll be adding to the library (although mostly because this one copy of Cirque du Freak is in pristine condition, a sure sign its not popular among my kids).
(in other words, 100 Librarians who are blogging more effectively than I am. Sheesh, the competition!)
I actually found this linked onto the website of Ms. S, my High School Internship host. She does a great job keeping her website current, I am thinking I'll have to borrow some ideas! I try to keep mine updated, but I always have the sneaking suspicion that nobody ever pays attention to it.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Currently Reading: Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan. Super popular middle school book, and super not my style. For one thing, there are spiders on each chapter page which I don't appreciate. I think if I had seen the website before I started reading the book, I wouldn't have started. But it is a current hit, so I'm considering it just a part of the job. It's in the current "I Love Vampires" genre, but give me the eye-rollingly dramatic Twilight anytime. There are something like 12 books in the series, which I don't think I'll be adding to the library (although mostly because this one copy of Cirque du Freak is in pristine condition, a sure sign its not popular among my kids).
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
countdown
I'm all set to head into my High School Internship (40 hours) this Friday, and in conversation with the media specialist I'm a bit nervous about the collaboration portion of the assignment. Again, I'm discovering that my interpretation of collaboration is much more planning-heavy on my part. The high school classes are so tied in to their curriculum and set timeline that it is nearly impossible for me to come in and do any assignment that is supplemental. Rather, there are many opportunities I'll have to go into the small groups that meet in the media center and lab and help out in any way I can. There is a College Writing class that is coming in next week to use research databases so hopefully that's a chance for me to collaborate.
I'm hoping that by going in Friday I will have the chance to catch a few teachers that will be accommodating to what I need.
But right now I have a body-shaking headache which only an early bedtime will solve.
I'm hoping that by going in Friday I will have the chance to catch a few teachers that will be accommodating to what I need.
But right now I have a body-shaking headache which only an early bedtime will solve.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Elementary Internship: Day 15
(120 hours down, 0 to go)
I realized today that I've been stress eating about the prep schedule, mainly because every good adventure works up an appetite. Thank goodness I have muscle relaxants to keep me from dreaming about it.
Today was another very busy day. I got there early enough to work a bit on the schedule. Still just crunching numbers at this point, to make sure there is enough specialist hours to cover the amount of classes we need. The next step is fitting them in to where classes will go on the schedule.
My second grade class this morning was a repeat of yesterday's lesson, working on writing names down (after reading Rumpelstiltskin) which went a lot better. I had less students needing help, although I really am not sure why. I don't know what I did differently today. That's frustrating, because I really would like to replicate the results with my classes the rest of the week. Behavior was a bit of a struggle, but I talked to the teacher about it as they were leaving, and she said it was most likely because they had a sub yesterday, and they were going on a field trip later in the day. That explains it.
Kindergarten was rough, too. Even though 5 kids were absent, another 5 of them came in completely disengaged and obviously upset about something that had happened before class. It took nearly 20 minutes to read The Three Little Pigs because I had to keep stopping and waiting for them to get it together (I've been working on ignoring low-level disturbances, as long as they're not affecting the rest of the class, but this was beyond that). I had to have three students sit quietly on the story rug while the rest of the class started working on the computers, in order to have them "pay me back" the time they wasted during the story. One girl had to sit for nearly 10 minutes before she could compose herself to where she was sitting appropriately.
In first grade I started working on Word, mainly because it has been such a struggle for my second graders (and hopefully by starting earlier we'll eliminate some of the issues). We simply opened Word, and they learned how to use the shift and return key by writing their full name five times. It was really successful, although with a few kids I had to take their fingers and show them how to use shift. We barely had time to check out books, though, because I was interrupted half way through class with an urgent tech need, and again the last 5 minutes with something related to the first interruption (I'm not going to expand on this, as it is an issue of some confidentiality).
Third and Fourth grades worked again on Study Island, and fourth grade earned 5 minutes of choice time.
At the end of the day I had another conversation with Ms. W. the principal about some changes to the prep schedule for next year. Our part-time building tech will be reducing his hours at our school to only 10 hours/week which means I'll be picking up the slack, and as a result have to try to build in a bit more administration time into my schedule next year. I probably won't really be able to (the schedule is pretty tight) so I talked with Ms. W about how I'll be focusing primarily on being very clear in the beginning of next year what the procedures are for: staff requesting help (and making it clear that it will not always be immediate), media check-out (including books and equipment for staff), and also distributing some of the responsibility to others. We'll be transferring the library to a traditional Dewey Decimal system (it's AR right now) so that staff will be able to find their own books easily. I'm going to talk at the next tech committee meeting about having a tech representative from each grade-level team bearing more responsibility, and maybe be better trained in procedure, and hopefully distribute some of the responsibility. That is probably the most frustrating thing about my job, is how often I have to explain the same thing to staff. Clearly I need to be more proactive to prevent this, as simply saying "oh sorry you didn't understand the first time" is not an option.
All of this really encompasses so much, I'll be starting in on staff development manuals over the summer. I don't mind so much, it will make my job easier in the long run. It is a good thing that I am scheduled to be done with my LME certification by then, so that I'll have more time to dedicate to my job.
I realized today that I've been stress eating about the prep schedule, mainly because every good adventure works up an appetite. Thank goodness I have muscle relaxants to keep me from dreaming about it.
Today was another very busy day. I got there early enough to work a bit on the schedule. Still just crunching numbers at this point, to make sure there is enough specialist hours to cover the amount of classes we need. The next step is fitting them in to where classes will go on the schedule.
My second grade class this morning was a repeat of yesterday's lesson, working on writing names down (after reading Rumpelstiltskin) which went a lot better. I had less students needing help, although I really am not sure why. I don't know what I did differently today. That's frustrating, because I really would like to replicate the results with my classes the rest of the week. Behavior was a bit of a struggle, but I talked to the teacher about it as they were leaving, and she said it was most likely because they had a sub yesterday, and they were going on a field trip later in the day. That explains it.
Kindergarten was rough, too. Even though 5 kids were absent, another 5 of them came in completely disengaged and obviously upset about something that had happened before class. It took nearly 20 minutes to read The Three Little Pigs because I had to keep stopping and waiting for them to get it together (I've been working on ignoring low-level disturbances, as long as they're not affecting the rest of the class, but this was beyond that). I had to have three students sit quietly on the story rug while the rest of the class started working on the computers, in order to have them "pay me back" the time they wasted during the story. One girl had to sit for nearly 10 minutes before she could compose herself to where she was sitting appropriately.
In first grade I started working on Word, mainly because it has been such a struggle for my second graders (and hopefully by starting earlier we'll eliminate some of the issues). We simply opened Word, and they learned how to use the shift and return key by writing their full name five times. It was really successful, although with a few kids I had to take their fingers and show them how to use shift. We barely had time to check out books, though, because I was interrupted half way through class with an urgent tech need, and again the last 5 minutes with something related to the first interruption (I'm not going to expand on this, as it is an issue of some confidentiality).
Third and Fourth grades worked again on Study Island, and fourth grade earned 5 minutes of choice time.
At the end of the day I had another conversation with Ms. W. the principal about some changes to the prep schedule for next year. Our part-time building tech will be reducing his hours at our school to only 10 hours/week which means I'll be picking up the slack, and as a result have to try to build in a bit more administration time into my schedule next year. I probably won't really be able to (the schedule is pretty tight) so I talked with Ms. W about how I'll be focusing primarily on being very clear in the beginning of next year what the procedures are for: staff requesting help (and making it clear that it will not always be immediate), media check-out (including books and equipment for staff), and also distributing some of the responsibility to others. We'll be transferring the library to a traditional Dewey Decimal system (it's AR right now) so that staff will be able to find their own books easily. I'm going to talk at the next tech committee meeting about having a tech representative from each grade-level team bearing more responsibility, and maybe be better trained in procedure, and hopefully distribute some of the responsibility. That is probably the most frustrating thing about my job, is how often I have to explain the same thing to staff. Clearly I need to be more proactive to prevent this, as simply saying "oh sorry you didn't understand the first time" is not an option.
All of this really encompasses so much, I'll be starting in on staff development manuals over the summer. I don't mind so much, it will make my job easier in the long run. It is a good thing that I am scheduled to be done with my LME certification by then, so that I'll have more time to dedicate to my job.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Elementary Internship Day 14
(112 hours down, 8 to go)
SO NICE to be back in my own school! As much as I enjoyed and learned from my middle school internship, I missed having my own space, and windows.
Of course I was much to busy today to enjoy things like space and windows, except in passing.
My principal, Ms. W called me last night with some hard truths about next year's budget, and what that will look like for the specialist team and the prep schedule (which has been placed into my hands to arrange). The prep schedule is like a very complicated equation. It takes awhile to figure out, but logic plays its role, and little is left to guess work, although a fair amount of creative thinking is needed. Once that equation is solved, there is definitely a sense of satisfaction. I almost enjoy the task of doing the prep schedule, if only I had more time to work on it.
Because right now I just want some french silk pie left over from Pi Day yesterday, and a book to read.
This morning budget talks continued. I missed a budget meeting on Friday, but saw the notes and wishes of the staff, and of course my conversation with the principal last night. We had another meeting this morning, although it was optional so only about half the staff came. Ms. W let the staff know that they could e-mail me and herself with their grade-level's requests for next year's schedule. I rather like doing the Prep Equation alone because there's more satisfaction when it's done, but the feedback I got from staff was very useful, and I think it creates more unity when voices are listened to.
Today I only had three classes, and they all went very well. All of my administration time was taken up working on the prep schedule, and conferring with Ms. W. I had to force myself to stop and eat, and got a hand cramp from working so hard on it.
In conversation with two second grade teachers a few weeks ago I was asked to help with teaching the second graders to type up stories they had written in class. They left up to me the particulars of the typing, and will come to class prepared with their written work.
Today I focused only on them writing their full name, using the shift key to capitalize, and the return key to type their room number below their name. Only size 18 font was allowed, and no fancy writing (they love to play with the colors and font styles, to the detriment of the overall product, so I let them write it again fancy for extra credit if they had time). Even that simple assignment was a challenge for most of the class; only a handful of the class got it correct with no teacher input.
In the fall, one of the 2nd grade classes typed up a story they had written with their teacher, so I foresee that class doing much better with the lesson. Another 2nd grade class has been focusing on The Three Little Pigs, and rewriting it in their own words, so I decided to do that same assignment with the third 2nd grade class, who will not be coming with anything written up. Of course a few students will come with nothing to type, whether they were absent a few days or off-task, so they will still participate, only they will have to make it up as they go.
The hard part is getting the shift key and return key ingrained in their minds, so the actual writing of the story has been much simpler in past experiences. The real challenge will be in timing. I did this last year, and it took several weeks since I only see them once a week. They enjoy it, though, and tend to work very hard. As evidenced by the 4 they earned for behavior today.
The next lesson (next week) will focus on centering the title, and beginning the typing.
I just realized that we only have two weeks until Spring Break, so chances are very good the project will be split over spring break. Ugh. I don't like doing that. It really will test their memory.
The three little pigs in second grade set me in a fairy tale frame of mind. It truly is shocking how many students have never heard classic fairy tales. I read the second graders a great version of Rumpelstiltskin, and only a few of them had heard the story before. It was actually a great lead-in to the assignment of writing their name, since it was a main concept in the story. I would like to get some of the classic Grimm's Fairy Tales to share with the older students, they would probably love the gore.
I read The Three Little Pigs with the kindergarten class today. It was a rather grimm version with the wolf eating the first two pigs, and the third pig eating the wolf (in soup form) at the end and they of course loved it. Again, I was surprised at how few of them were familiar with the story. I am going to have to amp up my reading of classic tales.
After my administration time (95% working on prep schedule, 4% checking to see if Study Island was working for my 4th graders, 1% lunch), I had my 4th graders work on Study Island, which is how I think we'll do most of our MCA prep. This group has done quite a bit of MCA prep in the past few weeks with their teacher, but most of them haven't done much on Study Island, so that was a nice change for them, although they seemed really sleepy today and a bit more distracted than most days. Tomorrow we'll do Study Island's game format, which rewards students with a 10 second game every time they get a correct answer, I think that will help motivate them.
Off to crunch some more numbers in the Great Prep Equation (and eat some pie, too)
SO NICE to be back in my own school! As much as I enjoyed and learned from my middle school internship, I missed having my own space, and windows.
Of course I was much to busy today to enjoy things like space and windows, except in passing.
My principal, Ms. W called me last night with some hard truths about next year's budget, and what that will look like for the specialist team and the prep schedule (which has been placed into my hands to arrange). The prep schedule is like a very complicated equation. It takes awhile to figure out, but logic plays its role, and little is left to guess work, although a fair amount of creative thinking is needed. Once that equation is solved, there is definitely a sense of satisfaction. I almost enjoy the task of doing the prep schedule, if only I had more time to work on it.
Because right now I just want some french silk pie left over from Pi Day yesterday, and a book to read.
This morning budget talks continued. I missed a budget meeting on Friday, but saw the notes and wishes of the staff, and of course my conversation with the principal last night. We had another meeting this morning, although it was optional so only about half the staff came. Ms. W let the staff know that they could e-mail me and herself with their grade-level's requests for next year's schedule. I rather like doing the Prep Equation alone because there's more satisfaction when it's done, but the feedback I got from staff was very useful, and I think it creates more unity when voices are listened to.
Today I only had three classes, and they all went very well. All of my administration time was taken up working on the prep schedule, and conferring with Ms. W. I had to force myself to stop and eat, and got a hand cramp from working so hard on it.
– – – – – – – –
In conversation with two second grade teachers a few weeks ago I was asked to help with teaching the second graders to type up stories they had written in class. They left up to me the particulars of the typing, and will come to class prepared with their written work.
Today I focused only on them writing their full name, using the shift key to capitalize, and the return key to type their room number below their name. Only size 18 font was allowed, and no fancy writing (they love to play with the colors and font styles, to the detriment of the overall product, so I let them write it again fancy for extra credit if they had time). Even that simple assignment was a challenge for most of the class; only a handful of the class got it correct with no teacher input.
In the fall, one of the 2nd grade classes typed up a story they had written with their teacher, so I foresee that class doing much better with the lesson. Another 2nd grade class has been focusing on The Three Little Pigs, and rewriting it in their own words, so I decided to do that same assignment with the third 2nd grade class, who will not be coming with anything written up. Of course a few students will come with nothing to type, whether they were absent a few days or off-task, so they will still participate, only they will have to make it up as they go.
The hard part is getting the shift key and return key ingrained in their minds, so the actual writing of the story has been much simpler in past experiences. The real challenge will be in timing. I did this last year, and it took several weeks since I only see them once a week. They enjoy it, though, and tend to work very hard. As evidenced by the 4 they earned for behavior today.
The next lesson (next week) will focus on centering the title, and beginning the typing.
I just realized that we only have two weeks until Spring Break, so chances are very good the project will be split over spring break. Ugh. I don't like doing that. It really will test their memory.
- - - - - - - - - -
I read The Three Little Pigs with the kindergarten class today. It was a rather grimm version with the wolf eating the first two pigs, and the third pig eating the wolf (in soup form) at the end and they of course loved it. Again, I was surprised at how few of them were familiar with the story. I am going to have to amp up my reading of classic tales.
After my administration time (95% working on prep schedule, 4% checking to see if Study Island was working for my 4th graders, 1% lunch), I had my 4th graders work on Study Island, which is how I think we'll do most of our MCA prep. This group has done quite a bit of MCA prep in the past few weeks with their teacher, but most of them haven't done much on Study Island, so that was a nice change for them, although they seemed really sleepy today and a bit more distracted than most days. Tomorrow we'll do Study Island's game format, which rewards students with a 10 second game every time they get a correct answer, I think that will help motivate them.
Off to crunch some more numbers in the Great Prep Equation (and eat some pie, too)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Middle School Internship Day 5
(40 hours done, 0 to go)
It was a weird day today.
I realize how much of my days are categorized as weird. There is no norm, and normal, low-key days are starting to feel weird.
When I got to the media center this morning, all of the book fair things were by the front door waiting to be hauled away by Scholastic. They didn't come until close to 2:00, so we were staring at them all day long.
There was no aide again today, so I stationed myself at the circulation desk. I figure if I can be of a real help in that way I'll do it. I spent most of my time doing odd jobs, mainly covering three bulletin boards with black paper and posting all of the entries for the book fair bookmark contest (shoot! I had my camera but I didn't take a picture of the bulletin boards, they looked really nice!). The five winners were displayed on one board, and two other bulletin boards held the rest of the entries. It was so interesting to see the variety of styles that came in (and all the spelling errors). I think this is a contest I'd like to undertake in the future. I would have to think about what the reward would be, as I truly have no budget for anything exciting, but maybe if I get some extra books in sometime I can set them aside for a contest like this.
Very few kids were in during the morning. One class came in to use a computer lab, but that was about it. Ms. S remarked several times how odd it was, usually there are kids in all day long. Hardly any books were checked out, even. I didn't have to shelve any books today, because most of them were shelved by a few kids who come in during lunch time and can work on the computers in exchange for shelving books.
Right after lunch, there was a "light lockdown" which meant that we were restricted in movement from room to room, so nobody came into the media center in the afternoon. Ms. S was very busy getting ready for her research unit coming up. I really only helped by cutting up the notecards she uses. The way she teaches research is pretty interesting. She has a video that she shows the kids without sound. She provides all the information, on which the kids take notes. This way they are prevented from copying directly what is said, and have to put information in their own words. She can also scale the difficulty of the content up or down depending on the class. Once the students have all their cards, they can group them into like concepts and begin constructing their paragraphs around that.
It was a very slow day, although it went by incredibly fast. I really enjoyed the experience (except for the cell phone drama) and I know that Ms. S will be a connection I keep strong. I really learned a lot from her, and it is so nice to have other media specialists in the area that I know I can depend on. As I was leaving it didn't even feel like goodbye, we were both in the same mind that although the week was done, our relationship isn't.
Which is very cool.
It was a weird day today.
I realize how much of my days are categorized as weird. There is no norm, and normal, low-key days are starting to feel weird.
When I got to the media center this morning, all of the book fair things were by the front door waiting to be hauled away by Scholastic. They didn't come until close to 2:00, so we were staring at them all day long.
There was no aide again today, so I stationed myself at the circulation desk. I figure if I can be of a real help in that way I'll do it. I spent most of my time doing odd jobs, mainly covering three bulletin boards with black paper and posting all of the entries for the book fair bookmark contest (shoot! I had my camera but I didn't take a picture of the bulletin boards, they looked really nice!). The five winners were displayed on one board, and two other bulletin boards held the rest of the entries. It was so interesting to see the variety of styles that came in (and all the spelling errors). I think this is a contest I'd like to undertake in the future. I would have to think about what the reward would be, as I truly have no budget for anything exciting, but maybe if I get some extra books in sometime I can set them aside for a contest like this.
Very few kids were in during the morning. One class came in to use a computer lab, but that was about it. Ms. S remarked several times how odd it was, usually there are kids in all day long. Hardly any books were checked out, even. I didn't have to shelve any books today, because most of them were shelved by a few kids who come in during lunch time and can work on the computers in exchange for shelving books.
Right after lunch, there was a "light lockdown" which meant that we were restricted in movement from room to room, so nobody came into the media center in the afternoon. Ms. S was very busy getting ready for her research unit coming up. I really only helped by cutting up the notecards she uses. The way she teaches research is pretty interesting. She has a video that she shows the kids without sound. She provides all the information, on which the kids take notes. This way they are prevented from copying directly what is said, and have to put information in their own words. She can also scale the difficulty of the content up or down depending on the class. Once the students have all their cards, they can group them into like concepts and begin constructing their paragraphs around that.
It was a very slow day, although it went by incredibly fast. I really enjoyed the experience (except for the cell phone drama) and I know that Ms. S will be a connection I keep strong. I really learned a lot from her, and it is so nice to have other media specialists in the area that I know I can depend on. As I was leaving it didn't even feel like goodbye, we were both in the same mind that although the week was done, our relationship isn't.
Which is very cool.
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