Griffin Creek Elementary 3/12/2012

Total Time: 8 hours
Thrid Grade

I took home all the work the students did last week and graded all of it except for the comprehension test. I couldn’t find the answer key so I was unable to get that done. Many students are not turning much in. I’m concerned and want to change that. I’m hoping to get much more work turned in this week and the following week. I will have a print out of all the assignments with the grades and percent’s for the teacher when she return.

Today:
A great morning. We started the day discussing turning in work and how excited I was to see them all again. We did number corner and have done a great job keeping up with that. Reading went very well today. Each group rotated and I was unable to finish the level readers with both groups. I found the decodable and will have an extra assignment for that group on Wednesday. Reading aloud was excellent and math has been up and down. I’m only on session 8 and trying to keep up has been a challenge. I will continue to work through each session and try to get the students to learn deeper rather than shallow. I don’t want the teacher to come back and have to reteach, I’m hoping that the teacher will be able to move forward when she gets back. Library was fine and Junior achievement went great. We did science this afternoon and that was enjoyable. Great day.

A couple tantrums were thrown by male student today during reading and a staff member wrote him a referral. I was planning on doing it as well and I think it was the best course of action. He has been crying and throwing tantrums much more than any student his age should. He seems to not like having consequences for his misbehavior, which is the result of any misbehavior. I will continue to work him and I’m planning on calling his parents tonight.

No major issues other than that.

I’m looking forward to another week and really like the story this week. Hope all is well with the teacher I'm covering for and that she is feeling better and improving each day.

Thanks,
Michael Belzberg

Griffin Creek Elementary 3/9/2012

Total Time: 8 hours
Thrid Grade

Looking forward to grading this weekend. I will try to get it all setup for the teacher who I'm subbing for when I get back. Hopefully in piles and have it super organized so that when she comes back the work will be easy to sift through. What effort grade they get, and what number grade they get and so on and so forth. I plan on taking all the work they did and giving them a typed out grading summary that they can give to their parents and for them to look also. My question is, should I give them that typed piece of paper with their scores and their grades or should I give them back their work graded and keep the typed paper with all their grades and summaries. Either way I want to keep something that shows you when you get back what to put into the grade book and something for each student to take that shows them and their parents how their doing.

I had a great day today. I was thinking about how to best teach the 2nd steps and nothing jumped out at me immediately so I bought 6 milk cartons from the cafeteria and told them that if they can do a good job with their skits that I will chug a milk. They seemed to like it and it was fun. Test went well and math was great. I won’t really know how they do until after I grade all their tests. So I hope they are all high scores.

Number corner, reading, math, P.E. health, and journaling all were great today. It was an awesome day and very enjoyable to teach.

The whole day was quick and was over before I had a chance to reflect.

What a great week has come and gone. I'm excited to continue to work with this group for another two weeks.

--Mr. Belzberg

Griffin Creek Elementary 3/8/2012

3/8/2012
Total time 8 hours

Today we started out very strong. The intro went well and number corner was great. I had the students pair up and they went around the room with a ruler and a piece of paper and measure objects in the room. Looking for the width and the length so they could find the perimeter and the area. Reading went well. We finished almost the entire packet and went over some phonics. I think the students are ready for the test. I’m crossing my fingers they all will do great. Read aloud has been awesome. Hank is keeping all of our interest. Math was ok, I think many students are still figuring out the symmetry. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow they will have mastered symmetry. Music was great! Lunch is always good. Social studies went well and journaling was great. I let the students go outside so they could journal. We shared and wrote in the sun. They all seemed to really enjoy it.

Many students are reluctant to do work and I really want to change that. I'm continually encouraging them and it can be very exhausting. I hope they can learn to be self-motivated soon.

Things that went well was the reading and socail studies. I hope there is science tomorrow because that was the best lesson we have had thus far. The group and partner work we did was a blast. The students like to talk and work together. The more partner work I give them the better they learn and develop their social skills. After all school is more than just cognitive growth. It is also social growth and also the learning needs to be focused on the students. Student centered is key to a successful classroom. I hope to see great learning and improvements while I'm here.

Until tomorrow,

Mr Belzberg

Until tomorrow,

Michael

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