Take Your Time!

4th Grade- Miraculously 2 of the groups are back on the same story this week.  This makes it easier when there are multiple groups in the same room (as kids tend to get distracted easily).  This means both groups are working on the same spelling, vocabulary, and story.  I hope that it stays this way for some time, this way we will be able to get more done. 

The 4th grade student that has been coming for extra time during recess four times a week is showing improvement.  Although his handwriting is horendous still,  he has been doing the bulk of his homework at home ::gasp::  I believe he struggles with completing assignments not for lack of total skills, but for lack of the ability to work at the required pace.  He simply works at his own speed which is unfortunately something that the school day often doesn't allow for, and the consequence is that he has to finish up classwork at home in addition to homework assignments.  Despite this, he is still a joy to have in class.  

T-Day

Kdg- we are working more on sight words, make mini books to help practice (one word a day, most days).  We are also concentrating on both beginning and ending sounds, supplementing this skills with targeted worksheets.

1st- we are on sight word list 11 (out of 12).  The students are focusing on using the words in a sentence to get a better sense of their context.  Today we used interactive writing to combine efforts in making sentences for specific words.

2nd- it's back to spelling, vocab, and story as normal this week. To fill extra time the students complete daily language reviews (1/2 sheet worksheets) and reading comprehension packets.  I can see a definite improvement in their ability to take the information they have read and express understanding.

4th- the focus in spelling this week are plural forms of words.  All the classes are still on separate stories, this week one of the groups started reading "Shiloh" (a chapter book).  The use of vocabulary flashcards seem to be helping.   

Review Week

This is review week for the Second grade groups.  They do not have a new story in class, but are going over selected spelling and vocabulary words that might have been slightly more challenging the first time around.  This is a great time for us to spend our sessions focusing on reading comprehension.  The Read & Understand packets are leveled for each grade.  They also have corresponding grade level skills such as vocabulary, compound words, contractions, punctuation, etc.  This helps to strengthen ideas that are introduced in the classroom. 

Most of the time we complete these packets together, however, it is nice to let them do small portions individually in order to gage their progress. 

Hump Day

Kindergarten-  The students are making progress; slowly, but surely.  We have almost grasped all of the letters and sounds, and are starting to be able to identify beginning and ending sounds.  The use of technological aides like the StarFall computer game and the Leap Frog "Letter Factory" dvd, the concepts have really began to plant themselves in the students memory.  They are able to recall letter information rather regularly, and seem to really enjoy the extra stimulation.

First Grade - The students are on the ninth set of sight words.  Their sentences are looking much better; spacing, capital letters, punctutation, etc.  They are still having some difficuly writing on a topic and making up the sentences, but we will keep working on it.  The students that are using the Reading Academy software are really doing great on it.  Out of the 31 skills it covers, most of them are at least a third through them; some obviously being easier than others.

Second Grade - We are starting the Read Naturally program with 1/2 of the students.  Hopefully this will improve their fluency.  The other half is going to keep working on some extra reading comprehension and sequencing skills.

Fourth Grade - Spelling is still a concern for some of the students.  Their work improves considerably over the week, but the end grade is still lower than I would like to see.  We will have to concentrate a little more on this.  Otherwise, I am happy with their comprehension - but would like to see a little more ability to think outside the box.

Out Sick

I made it almost until lunch yesterday before taking the rest of the day off.  Until I began working in an elementary school I took for granted my quality of health.  Your immune system is not inately set up to battle the germs of hundreds of sick children.  I used to feel like everytime a child sneezed on me I was going to come down with the flu, and most of the time I did.  This year I have been pretty successful at avoiding it; washing my hands every hour, germ gel, drinking lots of water, maximizing my vitamin c, etc.  Yesterday that all came crashing down - I spent the afternoon under the covers, not exactly how I pictured the week starting off.  Despite this set back, I am back at work today (half-speed ahead) and making the most of it.

 

Week #11

This week has gone by pretty quickly.  3rd and 4th graders have finished the semi-annual Acquity testing that is meant to track progress through the year.  This is a huge relief because all ESL students taking the text must have an ESL staff member in the computer lab, in case they have trouble reading a word.  This essentially means that we have to cancel normal sessions to sit in the room while students are testing to meet the state mandated modifications.  We are not allowed to help them or tell them what the words mean, simply read the word out loud to them.  When the test first started we used to read the entire thing to students, but the test doesn't go in order and it becomes a problem when trying to keep up with every student in a group larger than 2. 

The classes that really have missed out because of this have been my 2nd grade groups that meet back-to-back at the end of the day.  Due to the fact that I am the only one available after 1 p.m., if I am otherwise occupied the groups are automatically cancelled and not rearranged or covered by the supervising teacher.  These 2nd grade groups only meet 4 times a week and not 5 because of the early dismissal that happens every Thursday.  This combined with testing has caused for an additional 5 missed sessions.  Also, the 2nd grade has started their round of planetarium trips..one group of mine goes in the afternoon and thus will miss there time 3 weeks in a row.  Luckily, this is the stronger of the 2 groups. 

I'm looking forward to the schedule going back to normal relatively soon.  To my knowledge we won't have any schedule interruptions ::crosses fingers:: until January.