I had the opportunity to sub in a fourth grade classroom for 7 weeks and it was like night and day compared to my last classroom. It helped that the kids already knew routines, were respectful and felt comfortable in their room, but it truly was an amazing experience for me. I learned so much about myself as a teacher and what I am capable of doing in a classroom. This experience has given me so much confidence that I was lacking because I proved to myself that I CAN teach a room full of students on my own while also planning, teaching based off of student's weaknesses, testing, differentiation and all the other aspects and duties of a teacher. I loved the consistency and knowing what I was going to do the next day. I also had the chance to get to know some awesome students and network with teachers. There are so many things that I took away from this opportunity and ideas that I have for my future classroom.
- Post Homework outside of classroom: It wasn't as big of a thing for the fourth graders, but I saw middle school kids looking at their board all the time and writing down what homework they had for the night or double checking that they got everything. It's more convenient for the teacher too because the student can just check the board to see what the homework is for the night instead of asking the teacher.
- Write Schedule on Board: I did this on the first full day I was in the classroom and I told the students it was to help me get to know their schedule. I ended up writing the schedule on the board everyday because it helped keep students on task, since they knew when we would switch gears to another subject, and it helped the students know what specials they had and when throughout the day. I will definitely do this in my classroom.
- Must Do vs. May Do/Good Choices: This is something the teacher put in place in her room before I started, but on the board there are activities students 'Must Do' or need to finish and 'May Do' activities if they are to finish an assignment early. Students learn and know that the 'Must Do' activities, which is typically just their spelling, needs to be done before they can do a 'May Do'. In the third grade classroom they do something very similar by have a 'Good Choices' poster. It's a list of activities students can do if they finish with an assignment before the rest of the class.All activities are fun, but also educational.
Individualized spelling: We had individualized spelling in the 2nd grade room last year, but it was different in the fourth grade classroom. Students are given a spelling pre-test every Monday of 20 words. They check their words on their own and any they spelled incorrectly they have for a spelling word for the week. If they got it right then they chose a word from the 'challenge' list to have in place of the one they knew. In the end, all students have 20 spelling words, and it's tailored to their needs. They have to complete 2 spelling activities before their spelling test and one has to be writing the words in sentences. On Friday, they partner up and their partner gives them their spelling test, very similar to what we did in the second grade! I had 3 students that were such good spellers that they would be tested on the challenge list and then would use an even more challenge list to get the rest of their spelling words.
'While you were Gone' folders: These are folders that are placed on the desks of students that were absent with all of their work they need to complete inside of it. It helps keeps things organized for the teacher and students know that they can work on this work throughout the day when they have time and anything else is taken for homework.
Finger Scale: This was something I've heard of other teachers doing and I believe it's based off of Manzano's classroom strategies. I used this system typically during math, which it was as simple as putting the number of fingers up for how confident you are feeling on a skill we just learned and your understanding. Students would put a 1 up for if they had no idea what they were doing all the way to 4 fingers which means they complete understand and could teach it to someone. What I did was took all the people that had 1 or 2 fingers up and pulled them to the side to give them more instruction and those students that had 3-4 fingers worked on an assignment independently (the 1 and 2 fingered kids would work on the assignment with me. Once they felt they knew what they were doing they worked on it independently as well). After I was done with my small group I would check on the students that felt they knew what they were doing just to make sure they were doing to problems correctly. Sometimes I would have them walk me through a problem or explain their thinking to make sure they truly understood. This system ended up working great because I could give those students that were struggling more one on one attention and those students that didn't need any more help could keep moving forward.
Something I didn't do but what I would do in my room is sometimes have numbers pair up with each other and work together where the 1's paired with a 4 and the 4 would have to explain the skill and teach their partner and so on. I might use a different system in my classroom, but I want to use this in the future because it will allow students to take control of their learning and understanding as allow me to work with those students that need the most help and let those that understand keep moving ahead. It will be important for me to explain what each number means and the importance of being honest with their understanding because it will only help them learn concepts in the long run.
- I also did some really nifty projects with the fourth grade class over the course of my time there including a 'Book Mobile' which was a book project they did for their book club books, where they had to write and draw a picture for different elements of their books, such as main characters, setting, problem, solution, favorite part and opinion. They turned out awesome!
Students also create a 'State in a Bag'. They had been learning about the East Region of the United States and had to research a different state and present their information in the form of a bag. They were required to find a map of their state, land features, industries/natural resources, fun facts, recreation and people. Inside of their bag they had to put in 3 objects that related to their state. Students had a great time learning more about their state and designing their bag!
Last thing I want to make sure I don't forget about is student-led conferences. We talked so much about this in my TE 401 class with Jan Alleman and how these conferences allow for the student to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses as well as set goals for themselves for the rest of the school year. Students had to do a lot to prepare for conferences, but once they were completed I could see the benefits from all that hard work. Students had to complete reflections on each subject and how they thought they were doing as well as complete a goal sheet. Students practiced throughout the week with a partner so that they felt prepared to talk with their parents and had a general idea of what they were going to say. The way the fourth grade room does conferences is they have stations. The first station was meeting with the teacher and going over those reflections with their parents. Next students would grab their checklist and go to the other stations, which were set up inside and out side of the room. There was a project table where students showed off the projects I mentioned above, a portfolio station where students showed their parents some of the important pieces of work from throughout the year, including tests, writing pieces and other work they were proud of. Students also shared their PYP portfolios which relates to the curriculum this school uses and lastly they showed off their Hershey's similes and acrostic poems that were posted on the walls around the classroom. Some other options used in the past are going to the computer lab to show off different things they have done with technology, going to the Spanish classroom to see work they have done there and visiting the book fair, which always takes place during conferences. This school I was at does student-led conferences in March, but they have 'normal' parent teacher conferences in the fall, which I liked because it gives you a chance to meet the parents and let them know where their students are at in the beginning, but allows the student to show how they have grown come spring time. This is something I would love to do at the school that I teach at.
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| Teacher Station |
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| Checklist on clipboards |
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| Portfolio Station |
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| Project Table |
As I said, I learned so much from this experience and finally feel ready to be in my own classroom. Now, it's just the right school for me and having someone give me that chance to show off what I can do!
