Kristiemr85's Weblog

Oh how things change!

kristiemr85 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:47:55 +0000

This week things changed in our class dramatically. In the past 10 days we have received 4 new students. 3 of which are not the best with behavior. These students have turned the whole dynamic of the classroom upside down. So the question I ask myself every morning when I leave for school is how can I integrate these students into the class without them disrupting the class. What am I to do? How do I help them fit in, when they are not willing to even try. The worst part of it all is their behavior is starting to effect the other students behavior. I am very sorry that Mrs. Armestead and Miss. Canty will not have me their as a second set of hands very soon.

ELA this week

kristiemr85 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:29:06 +0000

This week I spent time in Mrs. Armasteads class. She teaches ELA. It was very interesting to see how the students act in a different class. Some of the students who are great in Miss Canty’s class are not as great in Mrs. Armesteads class. I think this is due to the fact that a lot of our students are so far behind in ELA that their frustration level is hit much quicker. I did find that I do not know very much about teaching ELA, since I have very little training in it. I do think that I could find a lot of really fun activities and materials that students would really enjoy. I hope to learn more about ELA as I continue with Mrs. Armastead

What a Week!

kristiemr85 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:27:59 +0000

This week was one of many ups and downs. I not sure what it is with short weeks, but kids go crazy. I also did not get the job in Anderson District One, which was a major let down. The upside was I may have another job offer in Greenville.

Some stratages that have worked for me this far are partnerships, small groups, and technology.

Partnerships work great in the class because I am able to take a student who is more advanced with a student that is behind help each other. This also gives students who get board very easily a change to help me keep the class together on the same page.

Small groups are a great way to do activities where students can have fun and work with their hands. Once again it also a great way to differentiate teaching. I am able to place students of similar levels in groups and build on what they know.

A great strategy I have learned to us more effectively is technology. I have learned that if you give students technology to work with their attention span lengthens. They test better, listen longer, and work harder when given the opportunity to work with technology. I can’t imagine a Special Education class without technology.

These strategies have worked very effectively in my class.

A Week of Craziness

kristiemr85 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:38:33 +0000

This week has been one of great stress. Monday my students were very disruptive and disinterested in my lessons. I used my best possible teacher management strategies, this did not work. This day was completed with my mom calling to tell me my grandfather was in the hospital. As you may know, Monday was not a good day!

The rest of the week was spent trying to get my 100 % lesson plans together while trying to help my family through this crisis. I did however still get to my assessments. I love checkout cards! They help me keep track of all of the students, and what I should be reviewing.

Sorry this is short this week was very overwhelming!

This Weeks Reflection!!

kristiemr85 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:10:28 +0000

This week has been very good in many ways. I gave two of my classes Show Me What You Know Quiz with great results. I am finally starting to feel like they are really learning something. I have found the best way to assess my students daily is with checkout cards. The only problem I have run into is my lesson plan notebook is starting to over flow, but that was fixed by placing the carders into small boxes under my desk. I keep each card, and review which students need remediation. I also use these cards to help differentiate my lesson. This was a perfect assessment Idea… thanks Mrs. Batten. I have not had many problems in the classroom. Our students have really come to accept me as another teacher. There are very few times I have any problems. I feel very confident in my classroom management skills after watching Ms. Canty and Ms. Jenkins. All is going well other than feeling overwelmed with lesson planning.

Hero’s: Who are they?

kristiemr85 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:51:55 +0000

This past week one of my students said his hero was some big football player I had never heard of. This made me start thinking of who heroes really are. To this student a hero is someone who makes lots of money and has a glamorous lifestyle. WOW! How untrue this is. I took this simple comment and thought about it all night and even into the next few days. This student will never know how much this little comment made me ponder. From this one comment I came up with what I will call hero’s of the past, present, and future.

The Past:

When I think of my heroes from the past the first person who comes to my mind is my mother. She is a women who has sacrificed so much for her 4 children. I have literally seen her give us her helping of dinner so that we could have seconds, she is just that type of women.

My other hero of the past would have to be my 8th grade resource teacher Mrs. Brown. She took a scared, shy, unconfident girl and made me love myself and learning. When I came in her class I thought I was just a stupid kid who would never amount to much. I was going to end up like so many others in my family, maybe get a high school diploma and not much else. She gave me the confidence to believe in myself. She is the reason I am going into special education today. She showed me my disability does not define who I am. I hope I am half the teacher his is.

Present Heroes:

First, I have to say that my husband Hank is a huge hero to me! He is sacrificing so much for me to be able to finish my degree. He is work so hard so I can don’t have to. I he is my rock and I love him for it!

Next, I have to say the more time I spend in Ms. Canty and Ms. Jenkins classroom the more and more they become heroes to me. They go above and beyond their call of duty. Each day I see them not just teaching the students, but truly loving and supporting them. If a student doesn’t have lunch they provide it. If they don;t have clean clothes they help them wash them. The list could go on and on. They are taking these student in and loving them like they where their own. I see our classroom so much like what the church should be, and that’s really cool!

Future:

My hope of the future is that I can be a hero to someone, like the people in this blog were to me. I hope I can touch a life by teaching with great love and passion.

What is a hero: someone who does what they love while loving others unbelievably.

The good, the bad, and the stress!

kristiemr85 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:41:16 +0000

This week a TanglewoodMiddle School has had its ups and downs. I will start with the good. I love teaching, every day coming in to teach is exciting and fun. I’m not crazy about the planning, but getting up in front of a class is such a great feeling. The 8Thgrade is my favorite group of kids. They just have such potential and they don’t see it. Now the bad! The students here have such bad family lives. It breaks my heart to hear some of the stories they tell us. Miss. Canty and Mrs. Jenkins are more like moms to some of these students then teachers. This week alone they have washed clothes, boughtlunch, taken people to shower. It amazes me what these ladies do above and beyond their job descriptions. They are constantly teaching me about what it really means to teach. Now for thee stress. I have never worked so hard in all of my life. Every night I come home witha ton of planning to do. Even the weekend is filled with lesson plan writing and planning for the next week. I feel like I have singed my life over to student teaching. Will the weekend planning ever stop? Overall, it has been a great week!!

Reflection on Long Range Plan

kristiemr85 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:32:21 +0000

I felt the long range plan was a great practice for me. When it was first presented to me I was not very happy. Though, now that it is all finished I realize it really made me look at what my students need from me. I really liked looking at students MAP and PACT scores to see were they are and were they need to be. I also liked working with Miss. Canty getting things I needed for my long range plan. That time spent together I feel helped us to get our relationship started. Overall, I feel the long rang plan was a lot of work, but worth the effort.

Hello world!

kristiemr85 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:12:52 +0000

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