Wrapping up Week 3 and Tackling Week 4!

There are a few things I need to add to Week 3, before I begin Week 4... :-)

Addendums:
-A certain teacher would like to be mentioned more in here... so I'll give her her own initials... how about PSH? Hint: the last letter stands for 'hair...' ;-)
-Last week PSH almost gouged out one of my eyes in the teacher's lounge, since she was animatedly talking with a steak knife in her hand... to my CT on the other side of me. Funnily enough, I didn't even notice until one of the other teachers said she looked like she was about to get me in the face with the knife!
-My CT got me my first teacher stamps! Of course, one of them said "Awesome!" I should have used it every time I said the word during the morning routine, I probably would have filled both sides of a sheet of paper ;-)
-I got to hear a beautiful "teacher 'love' story," about my CT and the teacher next door! They're so funny, and they work so well together! That taught me to always be nice to everyone, and they may come to be one of your best friends and a great asset to the teaching team :-)
-A "Need a Smile?" moment I forgot: At the end of one of the days last week, a student went to get my jacket for me to go to bus duty!! It was super sweet, too bad I didn't have to go outside that day... what a nice thought though!

Monday: My time in first grade is not even halfway over, but I'm already dreading the day I have to say goodbye to these kids! They are just too cute. In addition to the non-instructional duties and direct reading instruction, I'm now taking on Word Work (or what we knew as spelling in our school days ;-) ). Today I gave something called a "Cloze Story Word Test." The students have a paragraph-long story with blanks. I read the story, and they have to fill in the words that aren't written. I think it went pretty well! No one got more than 2 wrong out of the 12 problems... so I would be proud of that, except that I just gave the test, I didn't do any of the teaching for that unit ;-) Oh, heck, I'm proud of those kids anyway!! I had some extra time to read to them, so I picked up that Jack Prelutsky book, and they got REALLY excited -- apparently they liked it more than I thought! Yay!
After lunch: The students worked on a football player glyph... unfortunately, that was more complicated than my CT and I anticiapted. I was working on bulletin board things while she was leading the activity, and just listening to it was enough to make me go slightly crazy!
--Student: Can I use 2 colors?
CT: It says "choose your favorite color." What does that mean?
Student: One color. But, like, can I use 2?
--CT: Use a black crayon to write the number.
Student: Can I use brown?
CT: ...black.
--Student: Do we have to color the whole jersey?
Student 2: Do we have to color the hands?
Student 3: What color are the shoes?
CT: Oh my goodness, can't you all just color? Do we have to have a conversation about it every time???
[[That maybe sounds mean in writing, but her tone was so light and joking that I couldn't stop laughing!!!!]]
After dreaded bus duty: I was grading the word tests, and marked one wrong... then decided that it was a 12/12, and 100%. Oops... teachers make mistakes too!! ;-)

Helpful Hints
-Follow through with said consequences -- the students catch on and start to take advantage when you don't!
-Give higher reading groups comprehension questions for at home, so parents know what kind of questions to ask, and so students can work beyond the text.
-Integrate topics throughout day... so use the material from direct reading instruction in the guided reading groups, and maybe even use the theme texts throughout guided reading, centers, and direct reading instruction!
-Positive behavior management: "The things I like about the way [student] is sitting are..." -- The students knew EXACTLY what my CT wanted from them when she listed all the good things the other student was doing!

Need a Smile?
-CT: "What does 'greedy' mean?" Student: "My dad's greedy!" (oops... haha)
-Me: "Don't you want to create your own team??" Student: "I like the Bears, I better do them." (I don't think the Bears will be hurt if you create your own special team, but OK...)
-In the mentor text for reading today, my CT's now-husband wrote an ADORABLE note to her!!!! Wish I could remember it, it was WAY too cute not to share ;-)

First grade is AWESOME (yes, awesome, haha), and that's all I can say at the moment!!! :-D