First Week of Second Grade

I was concerned about leaving my kindergarten students, but the transition to second grade has been great.  Mrs. Morris has a wonderful second grade class.  I have enjoyed getting to know the students this week.  My biggest challenge was trying to get one student to allow me to help him.  I am determined to gain his trust and to assist him over the next seven weeks. I believe that being in a split placement will definitely benefit me.  Being in a split placement allows me to observe two teaching styles and two different grade levels.  The biggest change that I have noticed between kindergarten and second grade is that my second graders aren't as needy.  This has been the first week in nine weeks that I didn't have to tie a shoelace.  

My first week of second grade was interesting.  My second day of second grade I had to work with a substitute teacher.  The substitute teacher was a pleasure to work with.  On Thursday, we took the students on a field trip.  At the last moment Breanna and I were in charge of Mrs. Wilson's class.  I learned that you have to show students that don't know you that they can't walk all over you, but you can have fun as well.  I am thankful for the experience I had Friday with Mrs Morris at the Board of Education.  Mrs. Morris and I had training on a talking device for students who are nonverbal.  I thought that the training was interesting, and I'm excited to use the machine with the student in her class.  The week was exciting, and I am looking forward to the rest of the next eight weeks.  

So Long Kindergarten

I'm sad to leave my kindergarten students, but I'm ready to experience another grade level.  Once again, I will say that my kindergarten students were fantastic.  Mrs. Barnhart, Mrs. Furgason, and Mrs. Lemon were wonderful to teach with.  I love the teaching experience that I get to have through the five year education program.  I know that I would not be comfortable having my own classroom if it weren't for this experience. I'm the type of person that gets extremely nervous when being observed doing almost anything let alone teaching.  However, the feedback I receive from the observers is truly beneficial to me as a future educator.  

My Action Research is almost finished.  I completed my math workstations last Thursday, and still need to administer my posttest and a few kindergarten inventories.  Hopefully, I can find a time to give the tests to my students this week.  The only problem is that giving the tests to individual students is quite time consuming.  I believe that it's important that my students take the test this week.  My goal is to start organizing my data next week once every child has taken the posttest and the kindergarten inventory.  

Loving Kindergarten!!

I have been having a great time in kindergarten.  The students are truly wonderful, and I will be sad next week when I have to leave them.  I'm amazed about how much each child has grown since their first day of school.  The first couple of weeks were exhausting because we were trying to get twenty-three young children on a completely new routine away from their parents.  Mrs. Barnhart always tells me that I'm not getting the full kindergarten experience because our students are so good.  

I can't believe that next week is my last week of conducting research for my action research project.  I still need to administer my post test and the kindergarten inventory to my students.  I have actually enjoyed conducting my action research.  The research has allowed me to see my students gradually progress academically over the past seven weeks.  I'm thinking that I should probably interpret my data as soon as possible since the project is fresh in my mind.  I have questions as to how to organize my data to insure that it makes since to a group of people. 

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

This week I found that it is quite difficult to complete all the activities in my lesson plans.  At the beginning of the week I was worried because my math lessons were taking too long, and I didn’t have time to teach my apple unit.  I would go home and think what I could have done differently, but I don’t think I should shorten my math lessons.  I thought that my classroom management skills were poor and that was why all of my lessons weren’t being taught.  By the middle of the week I talked to Mrs. Barnhart and she made me feel better by saying that not all of my lessons are going to be taught when I have them scheduled. 

I have actually enjoyed my action research project. I believe that my kindergarten students have enjoyed it as well.  My students are divided into small groups which allows them more one-on-one time with an instructor.  The students seem to enjoy working with the various materials at the stations.  Last week I conducted my midterm evaluation to each student.  I can definitely see an improvement in my students’ knowledge of various mathematical concepts compared to the first week of kindergarten.  I hope my students continue to improve throughout the rest of my research.