I feel bad for not updating this as often anymore, but then I realize that it's not necessarily a bad thing -- it just means that I'm spending more time on the most important things, such as trying to keep up in the classroom! ;-)
There have been some interesting moments in 6th grade... one student is writing about dreams for his research report. Apparently in the past, people used to think that dreams were messages sent by the gods. This student thought it would be perfectly acceptable to write somewhat offensive sententances about the "fake" gods in his research paper... I'm not looking forward to the social studies section about Christianity in Ancient Rome with this student!
Behavior is a bigger problem, as well. I'm much more nervous to handle it here than I was in first grade... I feel like there's more ways for things to go wrong when I try to help work it out. One student refuses to participate occassionally, and I feel lost trying to get him on track... especially because he's refusing to do what he thinks is unnecessary, since he understands the concepts perfectly well. On his last math test, he even wrote "100%" on the top of his paper, showing his confidence (to put it nicely) in his knowledge. I can understand where he's coming from, and I wish I could make it more meaningful for him, I just don't have the time, energy, or knowledge to put that in place. Luckily, my CT2 has a couple of options to help me out!
I've also discovered that it's easier for me to act with the first graders than it is with the sixth graders!! A couple lessons have called for skits, and I just can't make it work. It's always fun trying, though :-)
My supervisor came on the Wed. of week (1)6. It was not quite as easy as my first observed lesson in first grade, and he actually had suggestions for improvement (which is, of course, expected - my first grade supervisor didn't really ever make any, though)! That lesson I had my first moment when I actually saw the light bulb go off for a few students, which was so exciting!!
I got to go to the 'final' scheduling committee meeting, which was kind of ridiculous... the decisions made almost overrode everything they did at the last meeting, so everyone's schedule drafts had to be redone... but oh well. I LOVE the whole committee thing, so I enjoyed it anyway.
Last Monday I got to do my own little creative lesson -- whatever I wanted to do. I was SO excited, because I remembered an activity that I'd done in 6th grade, so I was going to share it with them. Unfortunately, they'd already done something similar in 5th grade, so they weren't as excited about it as I was... too bad...
Tuesday we watched "Oceans," since Wednesday we were going to see "African Cats." Wednesday was my first school field trip! I LOVED the movie, and since I'm used to going on field trips with theatre and dance camp, I felt much more in my element. I've got the head count thing down! ;-)
In Social Studies we're doing an Ancient Rome unit. CT2 found a cool webquest to use in addition to the book, so she edited it to fit our needs, since we don't have access to computers all the time. I got to make a bulletin board for the map that CT2 made -- I titled it " 'Roman' Around." :-D I keep forgetting to take a picture, but I'll post one eventually :-)
I started with guided reading groups, and was able to make the final test for the Glory Field group. I'm nervous but excited! Their research presentations are going well, too, and they're due on Thursday. I can't wait to see them all! I'm concerned about grading them, because I had this nice rubric made, but I feel like so much has changed and I just can't keep track of it all...
Tomorrow my supervisor is coming for his second visit. Hopefully I don't say "OK" too much -- that's my new word for 6th grade... that and "fantastic!" Haha. Oh well... it's late, here's to hoping for the best!!!
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