Grffin Creek Elementary 3/7/2012

Total time: 8 hours
Thrid Grade

Another wonderful day teaching the third graders!

Today was a short day we let the students out an hour early for various reasons. I started the day off with the song and the warm up. The students seem to realy enjoy the music and schedule of today being broken down. Warm-ups have been going good. The behavioral issues that happen have been taking place in the morning time. I hope to change that sooner rather than later. The reading time was very beneficial, we read stories about Japanese culture and traditions and customs of East Asia. It was very facisinating. I thought the intrest level was high and the students seem to really concentrate when they are interested in the content. Read aloud was awesome, Hank the Cowdog Has been a great story so far and I througly enjoy reading those books. Math was like art today. The students built snowflakes and tried to figure out symmetry by couting the flakes up. I thought it made math very fun and not dry or boring. I handle the boring math very well, but most people really dislike it. Science was the last subject we learned about today. Ecosytems and Habitats, discussing living plants and animals. Non-living things in the ecosystems. A great way to end the day.

Things that went well, Science went awesome becuase I was enthuasastic and motivated. The students seemed to follow when I lead with pace and purpose. Reading was a bit slow and at times almost completely froze. The way to fix that would have been to gain some momentum. Pace is very critcal for intrest levels to remain high and students to be engaged. If its to slow then it will be boring. If its to fast than students will get too frustrated. A balance is needed for optimal learning. I think the math combined with art was fantastic. The students really seem to do an excellent job when they get to create. Learning symmetry through art was extremely smart and I enjoyed it.

I struggled with reading becuase of the lack of pace. I also had a student kick another kid, this was dealt with very sternly and quickly. This caused a major disruption that needed a consequence.

Until tomorrow:

--Mr. Belzberg

Griffin Creek Elementary 3/6/2012

Total Time: 8 hours
Grade 3 Elementary

Knowing almost every one of the student names from when I subbed last xmas for this class enabled me to skip meeting many of the students for the first time. Learning names can take a long time. However, I had already done that so it was just review today. The lessons were organized and fun today. I have a total of three weeks and this was the first day of the first week. I'm excited to expierence teaching this great group.

Many things went well. The number corner and introduction was great. I played guitar while I sang the agenda of what we did today. The students really liked me singing the schedule. The reading went very well as well. The students were very squirmy though. I will have to find a way to make it more entertaing in the future. Math was unlike normal math becuase we wrote poetry. Knowing more about poetry would have made that assignment a lot better. So much to learn, so little time. Social studies was great. My favorite part. I had each student do a timeline. The timeline needed 7 events, with pictures, and dates. Great assignment and it was a smash.

I would change my pacing for the reading of Suki's Kimona. The lesson today was embracing your uniquness and celebrating being different. I would have hammered that theme in a little more if I had the right focus. Next time I will concentrate on the message of the day more. I would also have a quote of the day up on the board next time.

A great day and I hope to have more like it. Contining to improve and get better at teaching will be a life long process.

p.s. the discipline model was very effective. The triangle classroom managment was excellent. I need to remember to demand perfection and keep improving how it will work. Remembering to use it and monitor at all times.

--Mr. Belzberg

McLoughlin Middle School 3/1/2012

Teaching social studies!

I was able to teach once again the subject that I studied in college and the one I chose to get my teaching license in. We talked about the Frontier and Manifest Destiny. It was awesome. to explain how great the students were would be to understate how wonderful they were.

I hope to teach more middle school and hopefully get a full time position in that subject at that age level.

--Mr. Belzberg

Central Medford High School 3/1/12

Senior English is a great course!

All about the senior project. The students knew exactly what to do today. They didn't ask for help and I didn't know the specifics of what they were working on anyway. Today was basically a monitoring day. Making sure they were working, letting them come and go to the bathroom.

I see myself in front of the class, giving lectures, teaching student about deep, life lessons. Not sitting behind a desk letting them know when they can go to the bathroom and when they must come back. I didn't go into this profession thinking I didn't want to make an impact. I went into this field to try and help the youth make the world a better place for themselves and the Earth.

My chance will come, and sooner than I think. Much sooner than I anticipate I will be doing just exactly that and leading a classroom full of hungry minds. I will need to deliver and if I fail, which won't happen, lives depend on it.

--Mr. Belzberg

south medford high school 2/29/2012

Esponal ensenar

A great day of teaching a subject I'm midly familiar with. I had a great time and it was amazing at how the students got focused when I started speaking spanish.

Today was a make up day and it was an incredible afternoon. I met so many different faces and some stood out more and others were there, but had other concerns on their minds. I met a baseball player, a skateboarder, a tennis player, a basketball player, a punk. So many different groups coming together to learn a language that was so enriching. I had a great time and I was glad to be back.

--Mr. Belzberg

Hedrick Middle School 2/28/2012

Math, algebra!

I've always liked math and tend to enjoy it. We had a test today and it was very manageable. Only problem was is that the test only took 15 minutes. The rest of the class period was ssr and I wasn't able to really teach much.

Now I made the mistake of not taking on the last 30 minutes of class to do another actitvity. The time could have been spent learning and enjoying the sharing of knowledge. I should have tried to give some sort of math lesson. Hard to generate content with little prep. I wasn't able to pull something out and in the end the reading silently wasn't the worst outcome. Reading is great for some students while others love it.

Next time I will give my memory lesson or teach algorithims of math...

--Mr. Belzberg

Central Medford High School 2/27/2012

Teaching English today and what an experience it was. I had a very interesting experience in first period. I was surprised at how much emotion and passion I have for these students. Its amazing how much I care even though I tend not to show it.

We learned about grammar, the bermuda triangle, and correct verb tenses. Ended the day with read 180 and small group work on preparing for an exam.

Great day, shaky at the start, but ended well.

--Mr. Belzberg