This week was a little crazy due to the weather here in Wooster. On Monday we had a “cold” snow day because the temperature was way too cold and on Tuesday, there was a snow day due to ice and the impending storm that was going to hit that afternoon.
On Wednesday, Hilary and I talked to Ms. Dillion about when we should teach our lessons. We looked over the calendar and decided which weeks would work best for us and Ms. Dillion approved those and is really looking forward to our lessons. My lessons will be a part of a unit on the history of Wooster and within that lesson they will learn a little bit about Ohio’s history, time lines, and traditions that have come from this area. The rest of Wednesday, we circulated the classroom, just helping students here and there and then we split into reading groups. We switched reading groups this week and I went with the group that is reading about the Amish. The students were kind of rambunctious and were having a rough time sitting still, but the teacher, Mrs. McCoy kept their attention through the readings and props she had brought in.
On Thursday, we came into the classroom and saw the students finishing up a group reading on the floor. The book was about how everyone is different, yet we all are the same through our hearts. One student asked about those who don’t care about other people and Ms. Dillion asked the class why this may be and turned this into a great learning opportunity on why some people are not nice and how it’s important to be nice. Then they did an activity where they wrote something nice about everyone in the classroom on a heart with their name on it, passing it around the classroom. I did something similar to this project in 6th grade and I remember how great it felt to hear and see all of these kind words my peers said to me, so this was a great V-day activity. After this, they got started on decorating their V-day boxes and getting ready for the party.
Since this week was not a typical week, I didn’t get to do much besides helping students spell words and things like this. Hopefully next week is a little more exciting in the classroom when it comes to working more with the students!
jbartha09 Said:
on February 17, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Sounds like you had a great week, despite it being a short one! Your unit lessons on Ohio/Wooster history sounds really neat. I was excited to hear that the students were reading about the Amish since I am in that class right now. That would be a neat unit sometime too- you could even talk about the Amish population with your Wooster history lessons.
I also enjoyed hearing about Valentines Day in your classroom. The book sounded like a good one, I never really hear of teachers actually doing v-day activities like that. I feel like it’s always just about the party so that was definitely a great idea!
Hope next week is fun and exciting!