I am use to classrooms where the girls out number the boys by more than half. However, Mrs. Barnhart's classroom has sixteen boys and only seven girls. Having fewer girls in the classroom relieves me from lots of petty fights and drama. now I am dealing with pencil fights, pushing, backpack wrestling, and typical boy silliness. I am impressed that the class is so well behaved considering all of the boys in the classroom. I was honestly nervous and hesitant going into this school year considering the sixteen five year old boys.
This week was the second week of my math workstations for my action research. Each child was able to participate at each station twice during the two-week period. Overall, I believe that the students enjoy learning math concepts at these stations. The studetns are learning these math concepts through various hands on activities. I do not beleive that my action research would be a success without the help from Mrs. Barnhart, Mrs, Lemon, and Mrs. Furguson. I can not be at the three stations at one time. This week I made copies of the math results from the kindergarten inventory. I think that this data will be useful when looking at each child's improvement at the end of my research. My plan is to administer the kindergarten inventory to my focus group at teh end of teh eight weeks.
I am looking forward to the Fall Festival at the end of the school week on the 25th. The Fall Fiesta song will not get out of my head. Also, I am extremely excited to teach the fall unit this week. Oh and at the end of the week my kindergarten class and I are going to be celebrating Native Amercian Day.
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You will always remember the Fall Fiesta. It is a song that sticks with you forever. As for our girls, even though there are only seven of them they are very stong willed. Continue to notice the differences between boys and girls. This will help you plan activities and help with classroom management (because you never know who might pop in at any point in the day). Your math stations are going well. The students really like the hands-on activities, especially the boys.
ReplyDeleteBoys: is this behavior pretty normal for the boys? I was wondering if you see any GROUPS (cliques) developing, those that look to each other for behavior. I'm wondering if it's helpful to find out what interests each boy and keeping that in mind. This is really a long-term strategy so that you're responsive to each child rather than a group. You're just playing in the hands of a group if you continue to feed it, but it doesn't sound like you have that problem here. Just my first reaction.
ReplyDeleteAR: I'd ahve to check the proposal again, but the key will be concept u/standing as evidenced in practice and applications. In the AR try to be clear about specific math concepts/procedures, etc. What are the challenges at this grade level? Just to keep the big picture in mind as eventually math will be RtI-based, like reading.
I enjoyed observing your math stations this week - you are lucky to have so many people to help. I have no doubt that the students will benefit from the small group instruction. It is a lot easier to see what individual students know or don't know in this setting and it also gives you an opportunity to review with those students who need extra practice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping out with the Fall Festival. Have a good weekend.
How is the boy issue going?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the major learning challenges that you students are facing so far in the school year?
1/3 done, Katie, keep going!