I’ve completely taken over writing now, and have started to take over math. I’m not able to completely take over math right now because we are kind of in data grouping limbo until next week because we are doing benchmark testing this week. So, yesterday, I was just able to run a center rotation for math. I believe it is the subject I am most afraid of teaching. I pretty much have zero experience teaching any math above third grade. And most of the math I have taught in the first place has been in kindergarten.
Taking over writing has been fun. I’m finding that I really enjoy writing and teaching writing myself. I’ve been collaborating with the two writing coaches as they plan and using those plans for the most part, but the delivery is all me. So, when it comes to writing time, I get to take those plans and make them mine, and I get to discuss what my class needs at the time.
We learned about invertebrates in science today. We began by watching a video that was going to take about ten minutes. Well, we ended up watching videos for about 25-30 minutes. The kids were so enthralled with what they were seeing; all these cool insects, aquatic creatures, animals that look like plants, giant squids, jelly-fish…they were hooked. So, after the activation, we found some more video for them to watch and I just made a small assignment out of it. They had to list three things they learned, as well as three more things they learned that they thought was really cool. I condensed the remainder of the lesson, and we got through it, but I just couldn’t go to something else when they were so excited about seeing the new things we were learning about in the video.
I'm glad you enjoyed teaching writing! It's good to have the ideas of coaches to enrich your work, too. Did you see any great work from your kids?
ReplyDelete