Adverbs

Third Week!  

Today’s lesson was our first one for adverbs.  It went well!  The students already had exposure to adverbs so it was an easy jumping off point.  I also introduced the Brain Dance today and began class with those connectivity patterns – something I will do for the rest of my time there.  It helped us focus on movement and get ready to dance.      

The class was very well-behaved today.  They were very excited about picking the verbs and adverbs out of my bags and pairing them together to try interesting combinations like adventurously slicing, or quietly crawling or skipping upside-down (definitely a challenge for creative problem-solving!)  We all enjoyed the lesson, and they really grasped the concepts.

Things got a little hairy again during the time to create their own pieces.  I’ve come to the realization that I need to spend some real time on basic dance elements because they just don’t understand what I mean when I ask them to create a dance with their own movement.  Today their chosen movement was a lot clearer than last week, but they still weren’t sure about what they were doing and I called a lot of groups through the formula.  The students really just don’t have real exposure to “creative dance.”  I should have realized that before and been prepared for it, but this is my first experience starting at square one.  It would help the class understand where I am coming from and trying to guide them towards if they understood more vocabulary and more dance concepts.  Maybe one of these times I’ll bring in a video of some creative dance I’ve seen in other elementary schools to show them as well as tell them.  For the next few weeks, I will definitely concentrate on dance basics, maybe moving one at a time through the B.E.S.T. chart.  This will give them the tools they need to fully invest and explore.

Management went well this week, and I’m already thinking of things to do next week to help the class concentrate from the very beginning.  I’m excited about trying a class start in silence.  Stay tuned. :)

Favorite Moment of the Day:

·      Seeing students fully invest in adverbs like adventurously and scarily.  They loved them!  I saw a lot of creative choices – something I will continue to encourage!

Inference

Today, our lesson was on inference.  Since it still falls under the Language Arts category, I again used a children’s book.  “Animals Should Definitely Not Wearing Clothing” by Judi Barrett.  The students learned the new word well and were able to recall it at the end of class, although I think the actual process behind that concept is still a little fuzzy (but to be honest, it’s still fuzzy for me, too – even after all these years; it’s just a tricky concept.)  We made inferences about the book and inferences about each other’s movement.  I’d give the success of the experience a five out of ten.  The concepts were there and pretty well-received, but the class was a little off the wall.

Mrs. Findlay was at a meeting today, so the class had a substitute that didn't come along.  The class was so noisy today – talking, screaming, running around.  There are a few that try so hard and I just love them for it, but it's hard to acknowledge that when so much else is going on.  I worked hard to get them focused and bring them back in, but then as soon as I let them go back out or return to movement, they’re right back off again.  I couldn't get basic directions across, let alone the concepts of the day.  I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, or how to fix what I’m doing so that I can help them in classroom behavior.  My expectations are very clear, but I’m having a hard time enforcing them, since it’s not just one or two students.  It’s a high percentage of the class – maybe I just need to get up the guts to cancel the class and walk them all back to the room if they aren’t handling it well. 

I talked to Mrs. Findlay and we discussed the management skills she uses in the classroom and the signals the students are used to responding to, like hand claps, attention signals, and consequences for disobedience.  I will work to incorporate those into my own management so that it’s familiar for them.  I think this will be important for the students.  I also think it will be important to authenticate these weekly experiences for them so that they’re not just free reign play time.  It really helps to have Mrs. Findlay in the room, involved in what’s happening.  Having the teacher even sit in the room makes a world of difference. 

I think I’ve just been used to having dream classes that are thrilled to be having a lesson after having seen the company Kinnect perform in the morning.  They’re always excited and well-behaved.  I’m starting to see what it’s like to have a class get used to me as a regular teacher and have them really push me to see what they’ll get away with. 

I was much more familiar with my lesson plan today, so I was able to alter it as we went along when I could tell something just wasn’t going to work.  Unfortunately, I’ve gotten a little rusty and am using too much of my regular speech (mostly “guys” instead of “boys and girls” or “dancers”), so I’ll need to really be conscious about using better terms next week. 

We also started creating and performing today, which was an interesting experience.  We managed to get each group up and performing their own movement within the formula of ABA, but next week, we will certainly concentrate on dance concepts and work on creative movement and being comfortable with “dancing,” since there was a lot of unsure standing around, or disengaged running around in the process.  

Good thing there's next week to try again! :)

Favorite moment of the Day:

1.     “This is better than P.E!” whispered behind me on the way in.  Well, I sure hope so!  Dance is way better than P.E!  I’ve been saying that for years . . .

Creative Problem Solving

I just got back from my first real day of teaching Mrs. Findlay's second grade class!  You'll have to excuse me, I'm on a bit of a teaching high.  After a good class, I come back excited and loving life.  And . . . today was a great class! :) 

Today, I used the book "The Fool and the Phoenix" by Deborah Nourse Lattimore as a foundation for a lesson on creative problem solving.   Behavioral Objective: "The students will understand how literature is often built around problems characters face and the subsequent solutions/resolutions.  Students will also demonstrate creative problem-solving and apply these themes to reality." (See CDLP Problem Solving)

I thought this was a great lesson to begin with in order to introduce the idea of creativity - we will use it constantly throughout the rest of my visits and it will be important to have a common understanding on what that actually means to me as the teacher and to each student as an individual responsible for investing in self-expression.  The lesson went well and the students were really concentrating on what was happening.  We had a great discussion to end the lesson about the problems we each face in our own lives.   They shared ideas on how to creatively solve those problems and decided that sometimes, that simply means "keep trying" or "try it in a different way."  They really seemed to grasp the concepts we were discussing and of course, we had lots of fun.

This class tends to be a little chatty - Mrs. Findlay tells me that they've all grown up together and are a really close-knit group.  They are all great friends; it's actually really sweet to see them interact.  (One student accidentally ran into another while hopping enthusiastically; he walked her up to me, told me it was his fault and stayed while I made sure she was okay.)  I love to see them get excited though - most of it was squeals of excitement or grunts of concentration (climbing over huge invisible logs is really hard.)  However, dance is first and foremost a language of the body.  I will work on helping them learn that it is okay to communicate in ways other than vocalizing and increase the range of kinesthetic communication.  There is already a good foundation there - when I asked if it's possible to communicate in ways other than using our voices, the entire class immediately nodded and showed me some sign language.  It was wonderful! 

Something I want to personally work on is familiarizing myself even more fully with the lesson plan in advance so I don't feel like I need to keep checking it to keep myself on track.  It's a personal trait of mine as a teacher that I like to really stick with my lesson plans since I tend to find flow better while writing than speaking.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if I haven't taught the lesson a few times before, this means that I want to keep it close and check it often.  I don't want that to hinder the momentum of the classroom or my perception as a teacher, so I'll practice the lessons beforehand.  Yay, Me!

Favorite moment(s) of the day:

1. Several of the comments students gave during discussions we had were very insightful and exactly what I was hoping they would understand.  It was so fulfilling to really see them grasp the ideas and apply them in different fields.
2. After we had finished up the lesson and headed back to the classroom, the students were moving on to the next activity, busily getting games they had brought from home to be able to play for a reading goal reward.  One girl came up to Mrs. Findlay and asked if she should do something one way or another and Mrs. Findlay looked back at her and said, "I don't know.  That's a problem you can solve on your own."  The girl smiled and nodded and I would daresay that she just went ahead and solved it. :)

 All in all, it was a great start to a great experience and I can't wait to go back next week!