Character Counts!

There are a lot of classroom management techniques that teachers use every day.  Some are protocols of responses - these series of consequences would be clearly laid out for the students at the beginning of the year or before beginning a new protocol.  Others are more like teacher attitudes towards infractions or hurtful behaviors.  The schools in my district use two overarching philosophies.  One comes from in Sean Covey's Leader In Me system (learn more here) and the other from Michael Josephson's Character Counts! initiative, which is based on six pillars of character (learn more here). 

My current school uses Character Counts!, and you can see it in action every day.  The students are reminded of behavioral choices they are making, which is tied into the pillar of character the student is not demonstrating when appropriate.  There is also the student planner or agenda, which is filled with Character Counts! tips, reminders, vignettes, and images.  Every morning, after the pledge of allegiance and announcements, my class stands in a large, room-sized circle, looks each other in the eye and recites their "Character Counts Pledge," see image above. It goes:

Character Counts Pledge

I pledge to be a kid of character.  

I will be worthy of trust.  

I will be respectful and responsible, 

doing what I must.  

I will always act with fairness. 

I will show that I care.  

I will be a good citizen, 

and always do my share.

The last school I student taught in used the Leader In Me system.  This was also a school-wide initiative and was incorporated into many levels of the school day.  This relatively new philosophy of student leadership-building was fun for me to learn (which happened two years before student teaching at a workshop at my university)!  I found myself incorporating the language of the system into my everyday life.  I still do.

Seven Habits of Happy Kids: 

1. Be Proactive 
2. Begin with The End in Mind 
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

So far, the first week in 3rd grade has been super.  I am excited to begin the second week, begin to take on more curricular responsibilities, such as spelling and writing.  I think one of the things that makes this placement so well-suited for me is that my cooperating teacher and I have very similar philosophies on classroom management.  Though I have years of experience teaching, I still love watching my CT work with her class and learning from her actions.  I believe in being a life-long learner, and I am thoroughly enjoying learning new teaching and management techniques!

Student Teaching Part 2: 3rd GRADE!

Happy New Placement!

I feel like it is a holiday because I have begun a new placement in my semester of Student Teaching.  This time I am in a 3rd grade classroom.  As you may know from reading my bio or previous posts, I am a veteran teacher.  However, I have not spent as much time teaching 3rd grade and lower during my years of teaching.  I have always taught older students.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous to begin a student teaching placement with this age!

But fear not!  I jumped in with both feet and think 3rd grade ROCKS!  I am very happy to be working with such a fine group of students.  I am also happy to be working with a cooperating teacher who knows her plans like the back of her hand, has a sixth sense when it comes to what her students are doing, and has a huge heart!  I am excited to have such a great example to learn from.

My new placement also has a new desk and I think it looks lovely.  I will be posting pictures and descriptions of the activities and projects the students are working on and completing as time goes by during the next seven weeks.  Stay tuned for the latest!

Final Pages: Writing

Now for my summary post on the big writing project I was able to teach with the 5th grade class!

The lesson plan was based on Corbett Harrison's lesson: Giving and Taking Hands.  Of course, Mr. Harrison's lessons are amazing and wonderfully described with plenty of room to tailor them to your needs.  He also provides PDFs of his plans and visual images of his and his students' work so you can get a feel for what to expect, on his website, Always Write.  This lesson was intended for middle school writing, so the classroom teacher and I modified it for our situation.

The students were to use synonyms for give and take, and then explore those synonyms through seven lenses - like mathematics, or music lyrics, always finishing up with the writing of two complex sentences in that theme.  The final project took the students to the next level by asking them to write 10 complex sentences (5 for give and 5 for take), using synonyms and then constructing a poster around a central theme from their sentences.  There were a lot of layers of creativity involved!

I think one of the most interesting parts for me, personally was thinking of giving and taking through a wider and wider lens.  I appreciated using synonyms for these words because it made you think of them in new ways.

I think the most unexpected part of the lesson was when we learned a bit of pig-Latin.  Ink-oay.

I enjoy writing, and this was a fun exercise for me too!

However, I have to say that the best part of all was when the students presented their work to the class and pointed out their illustrations / themes / and creative ideas for incorporating giving and taking in their final product!

 The Students created a wall of Giving Hands and Taking Hands!

Here are some close-ups!

 Shamrock Shake... Mmmmm.....

 Water Park!  What a slide!

The sentences are like the music!  

(Scientists will appreciate the Take hand is blue and the Give hand is red!)

Many stories on this page!

I get positive vibes off this!

Flying Basketball!

The hands are showing the mirrored acts of give/take!

The scene grew out of the sentence birds.

Don't fall on the ice!

Mrs. Haren enjoyed the project also!

There were so many good posters - I am sorry I did not get them all photographed up-close!

Final Pages: Social Studies

Read on for the Social Studies installation!

 This bulletin board was progressively filled with correlating information for the major themes per region: Geography, People, Civics, and Economics.

Color code: Blue = New England Colonies, Yellow = Middle Colonies, Red = Southern Colonies.

The bulletin board was designed to be interactive; students could flip the fact scrolls to review prior regions' info.

And The colonies were progressively labeled (students connected the label to the sketched location (cartographers and knit-pickers, please be kind to my approximation)!

 The final aspect to this bulletin board I really liked was the guiding question posed as a thought bubble: (especially useful for studying for the final test)!

Overall, the board was a visual organization of the design of the unit.  The progressive completion and reference to the board during lessons helped make connections from prior knowledge and from lesson to lesson.

The Final Pages of My First Student Teaching Placement

I can testify to the truth of the saying, "time flies when you're having fun."

Friday was my final day student teaching with an absolutely outstanding fifth grade class!  I have spent the week popping into classrooms in the 3rd - 6th grade range to view the varying methods teachers here use to teach everything from gist statements to comprehension.  I have been so fortunate to have been able to work in such a great school!  In particular, as the prezis on a previous post can attest, many students in my classroom have shown a high level of energy and creative thought.  Some have even been able to put those characteristics together to produce some excellent work!

So Friday I said good-bye to the class, teacher, and others I have grown to know.  I was touched by the numerous cards, pictures and letters students made for me!  I was sure to write them a note of thanks as well.  I feel extremely lucky to have been able to teach and work with them for these eight weeks.

 

I'll miss them too!

My final posts for this student teaching placement will include some images from my Social Studies bulletin board for the 13 Colonies.

Stay tuned!

Study Questions for the Social Studies Topic Test!

The 13 Colonies topic test is tomorrow!  Are you ready?  

If you know this, you've got it!

13 Colonies Topic Test Organization:

• Part 1: Geography Identify the colonies
• -- Can you identify what was one of the original 13 colonies and what was not?
• Part 2: Geography Describe the regions
• -- Can you identify the geographic (terrain, location) features of the 3 regions (New England / Middle / Southern)?
• Part 2: People
• -- Can you identify how people dealt with religious conflict?
• Part 2: Civics
• -- Can you identify how governments were organized?
• -- Do you know who could vote in each region?
• Part 2: Economy
• -- Can you identify what industries were in each region?
• -- Can you use your logic to know what industries were not in a region?
• Part 3: Short Answer Essay:  Write and Support your answer:
• -- Essay 1: "Explain the role RELIGION and RELIGIOUS CONFLICT had on the New England and Middle Colonists."  
• ---- Write your analysis of this conflict and the result below.  Use evidence about the region and its people to support your statements.  Write 3-5 sentences.
• -- Essay 2: "Compare and Contrast the government of the Middle Colony - Pennsylvania to the U.S. government." 
• ---- Write your analysis of these governments below.  Use evidence about the region and their civic (government) development to support your statements.  Write 2 sentences about the similarities, 1 sentence about the differences.
• -- Essay 3: "Explain why the major industries in the Southern Colonies were located there rather than in other regions."
• ---- Write your analysis of the location below.  Use evidence about the region and its geography to support your statements.  Write 3-5 sentences.
• Map Part
• -- Can you label a map of the 13 colonies?
• -- Can you shade the map by region?

The 13 Colonies - Presented by...

Here are the amazing student-created Prezi presentations on the 13 colonies!

Click the Name of the Colony/ies to link to the prezi.  

Or use the QR code

1) Virginia 

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2) New Jersey

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3) New York

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4) Rhode Island

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5) Pennsylvania

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6) Georgia

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7 & 8) North and South Carolina

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9) New Hampshire

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10) Connecticut

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11) Delaware

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12) Maryland

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13) Massachusetts