My goals for this week were to continue doing what I can to enhance my students' learning for the last few weeks I will have with them, and to start looking into school districts and teaching opportunities for after graduation. Success for both!!!
✅This week began our lessons on fractions in math...which is apparently a dreaded segment in 4th grade. I am pleasantly surprised by how well most seem to be grasping the concepts. Even my lower math students are getting it and I have been seeing genuine light bulbs going off in class! There are a couple of students who display signs of math anxiety, one of which always needs to see the nurse when math is about to begin. She didn't ask to go once, and she was one of the main ones raising her hand to offer answers or comments. 😍 I don't know that it is really my teaching, but rather my efforts to reduce anxiety and help students feel safe in risk taking that is making a difference. We left off on mixed numbers from improper fractions, and I found an informative yet tension easing video to introduce it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYdPef3Nuk
✅I began looking into local districts a bit online. Then on Tuesday, I was visited by our district's assistant superintendent to see if I am interested in a 3rd grade position available next month! 😀 This is super exciting, although not guaranteed since they hope to have it filled by 12/5 and I won't know my EdTPA score until 11/27. So waiting is now torture!!! In any case, I am happy to know that I have made a positive impression in this district!
My goals for the coming week are to keep on keeping on, tackle the showcase video early for extra credit, and to add more to my portfolio.
Classroom Confidential
Writing is a very important skill that many students dislike, and this chapter offers great strategies to change that. I love the ideas that help to ease anxious students who worry about writing requirements. The ones I liked were coding, having writer's hats, "Author's Hour" and "Do-it-Yourself" journals.
Coding turns the chore of writing into a fun game that students will need to beat so they can "crack the code" and reveal the message.
The idea of writer's hats can put a silly spin on writing. Allowing students to decorate their own hat to wear will add to the fun.
As an encouragement to students, "Author's Hour" allows an at will sharing of writing that nervous students can warm up to. There's no pressure, but they will want to have their turn eventually. Giving students control will definitely ease anxiety.
The "Do-it-Yourself" journal covers those students who fret about how many empty pages there are to fill. I love the idea that students can create a journal that can be as long, or short, as they want, while being free to add to it.
I'm pretty sure it was your teaching that helped ease the anxiety about learning fractions. :) Anyway when you have those success stories like the girl who didn't go the the nurse, you should take them as compliments.
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