A Week in the Life of a Teacher | Pocketful of Primary

I do want to show you the math lesson that I did yesterday with my students and I'm losing my voice great as promised I wanted to show you my math lesson life update I'm looking like a hot mess right now so I apologize in advance my teacher heart is so happy right now [Music] good morning YouTube you may remember at the end of last week I said my throat hurts it still hurts it's weird though because it hasn't gotten worse but it hasn't gotten better and now I've got a little have a cough too and some congestion I'm just so over this I'm so ready to be feeling normal again however we're just gonna make it through this morning my team teachers and I have to meet with a gentleman who is in charge of this field trip that all fourth graders in my County take to a place called Arlington Echo so that's gonna take up most of our like collaborative planning time this morning but I do have actual planning time when my students go to cultural arts I have some grading to do that I did not get time last week and some things that I printed out over the weekend that I need my ta ta keo of but otherwise I'm finally feeling somewhat less stressed I'm hoping that it stays that way this week fingers crossed [Music] I did want to show you all that I got a new lanyard and I know just last week I showed you that I got a new lanyard but that one broke totally my fault I got caught on my seat belt and as I was getting it out of my car like pulled it and it completely broke apart so I got this new one this weekend this is from Brighton and I actually got this because two of my team teachers have them and I know that they hold up really really well it has a nice like thick chain and I'm really liking having like metal chains as opposed to cloth like lanyards because those get really dirty and I feel like these hold up a lot better so so far really really liking it it just has like a clip here that I can use to clip my stuff onto and then I went to my mailbox this morning and this was in there because I joined a PTA so I'm gonna enjoy this probably like right now I will put the pencil in this little like eraser in my prize bin for my students and then this is a little stamp and because we give out Cup kudos they have like these cards hold on I'll show you what they look like so they look just like this and we stamp in the little boxes around the side and then once they get to ten or twenty they can redeem it for a prize and this is perfect because it has a little cat so I'm gonna use this one for the month of October in spirit of Halloween I feel like this happens all the time but it is already 6 p.m. so overall the day was pretty good I did have new seats in my block one in my block - and then my block to science class who comes from my team teacher they got new seats my black one science class that comes from my team teacher they were fine they didn't need new seats but the rest of them did so I made those seating charts over the weekend that definitely helped today after school I had girls on the run and then I came back to my room and I've just been talking about team teachers trying to clean up my desk I'm gonna go ahead and get out of here I do have papers to grade tonight and a little bit of planning to do for tomorrow I do have an IEP meeting tomorrow that I have to go to but otherwise it should be pretty good so I'm gonna go ahead get out of here and then I will catch up with you all in the morning I wanted to share a giveaway opportunity with you all those of you who have been following me for a long time may remember I partnered with Yoda who is the maker of these beautiful one watches about a year ago they recently reached back out to me and wanted to host another giveaway and I jumped on that opportunity because these watches honestly are beautiful they just have such gorgeous wood and I love the watch face options that they have and they're just super high quality I have my other one that I've been wearing for about a year and it still looks absolutely brand-new so they are hosting a giveaway to win a hundred and eighty dollar off coupon plus free sizing plus free shipping so make sure you use the link in the description box to enter my watch is the zebrawood and navy but I also have the zebra wood and turquoise and I love that one as well if you are not interested in the giveaway there also will be a coupon code in the description box for $25 off you can use code pocketful a primary but that code is only good during the course of the giveaway which is going to last two weeks from the day that I am posting it so if you want to enter please go ahead and do that it only takes a second and if not go ahead and use my coupon code to save yourself $25 good morning YouTube I apologize if yes because I do have a cough drop in my mouth--i but my throat and cough right now just need it so my apology is but I was productive last night I got today planned I also got grading done so as of right now I'm caught up on grading our interim grades which is like progress reports are due on Thursday or Friday I think it's Friday and then they go home on Monday maybe I don't know but I have two more science assignments that I'm giving today and then tomorrow that I'll have to get graded and then I am done so that is really good news I do have an IEP meeting today but I also have planning time which I need and I'm gonna try to get planned for tomorrow so that I don't have to worry about tonight since I don't have any grading to do yet I'll have some grading to do tonight I'm gonna go ahead and head to school and then I will catch up with you all there [Music] so this morning you saw me filling up these dry-erase leaves so this is that place I'll you chart that I showed you in last week's vlog that I put on the back and I'd love to use dry erase leaves like double sided so you can put one thing on one side and then something else on the other side so it can serve two purposes we are starting rounding today and I know from last year one thing that really helped my students was having a template we personally utilize the number line for rounding I do show my students other strategies but typically the number line is just easiest for them to comprehend and it really helps them understand why they round up or down rather than just teaching them a trick of like oh well if it's 4 or less you round down if it's 5 or more you round up they're not really understanding why but putting it visually on a number line makes it much easier so I just made this last night in a Google slides it just says what is your number so they can write it there so they don't forget it what place value are you rounding to and then it kind of has some tips so your end point should be multiples to the place value you're rounding to so if you're rounding to tens they should be a multiple of ten if you're rounding to hundreds they should be a multiple of hundred then it says mark your midpoint the number that is in the middle of your two end points then mark your number on the number line which end point is it closest to so then they will mark it and then circle whichever end point it is closer to and then at the end they tell me whatever their number was would round to and then the number that it would round to so I made up 32 of these last night I just printed them on cardstock I did go ahead and laminate them just so they're more durable but technically you don't have to do that if you're putting it in a dry erase leave I just want to make sure that it holds up for many years to come so these are all ready to go for math today through the end of the week I did want to talk to you all quickly about tracking data so when I say tracking data I'm not talking about grades and assessment scores I'm moreso talking about your daily informal like assessment so if my students are working on a word problem and I'm walking around I always take little notes of who is really excelling at the skill who is struggling with this skill so on and so on so that I can use that to drive for my future instruction and typically I've just been using like sticky notes and I really wanted a place to kind of compile it all into one so I just created this block one data tracker and I also have one per block - I'm gonna use a separate clipboard one per block one in one per block - that way I'm not trying to flip through papers it just makes it easier I kept this literally so simple I just have a spot to write the date and then I can write the skill and the activity so is for the skill is an addition as it subtraction are we working on rounding are we working on place value and then the activity that could be like are we working on a word problem are they doing an exit ticket whatever it is I can write that in there and I made it so that these smaller sticky notes not the large like 3x3 sticky notes these smaller ones will actually fit right in there so if for some reason I have a sticky note with information I can put it right in that box but this way I can fit six different days on here and even within one day I could have separate skills so I thought that this was hopefully going to work for me I will try it out and keep you all updated as of right now this is not really like for sale anywhere if you all are interested I guess I could work on playing it in my TPT store but for now this is really just for me and I wanted to show you all how I am doing this that way if you want to take the idea and apply it into your own teaching you can do that so here's my small victory for today I had a student at the end of the day who left this note on my desk and it seriously brought the biggest smile to my face life update I'm looking like a hot mess right now so I apologize in advance but it's been ok mail it's been a little bit of a hectic day only because I had that IEP meeting this morning and I didn't think it was going to take as long as it did which I totally don't mind cuz we had an awesome conversation but I ended up missing my lunch time however it worked out because then my students went out to recess so I just stayed in and the substitute that was covering my class went out with them at recess that way I could eat my lunch and then I went out for the last like 5 minutes of recess but that put me behind in that math class because I'm not gonna have a substitute each brand-new material and we were starting comparing no rounding on the number line is what we were starting so instead I had them practicing comparing numbers which we did yesterday which is fine that they got that extra practice but it just says put me back a little bit but I just have to be flexible and that's part of being a teacher so it will all work out however I have to say my kiddos did a really good job today they were very much on it it makes me super proud of I showed you that little note those on my desk which always makes me happy it is now after school it's about 426 I'm gonna have myself a little grading party because like I said grades are due later this week so I need to grade their research today on carnivorous plants in science then around 6 o'clock I'm gonna be going to at Leto's night so Leto's is a pizza place I don't think they have them in all parts of the country but I could be wrong but if you're not sure it's a pizza place we have PTA fundraisers they are every so often and we have one tonight and I'm trying to encourage all my students to go because the homeroom class that has the most students attend wins a trophy and I've never won so I'm trying to make that happen and the best way to set that example is by going myself so Billy and I will be meeting there once he gets off from work so I'm gonna go ahead and just cut up the vlog here for tonight and I will catch up with you all tomorrow good morning YouTube this is one of those weeks where I think every single day so far I slept in until 7:10 and then I leave at 7:25 so I am putting a minimal effort but I'm just very tired and I just need that extra time and I've never been a good morning person so it's okay today I have a faculty meeting first thing this morning and then during my team planning I am oh oh sorry I just remembered I was gonna say I'm planning with my team teacher however her and one of my other team teachers are out today because they are at PD so I guess I won't be planning with her I will use up time to kind of plan myself yeah okay I'm excited now I'm gonna go ahead and head to school and then I will catch up with you all there so proof once again that I have the most amazing students I came in to my desk like after my students had come in the room because I always am standing at my door to greet them and when I came over there was a sticky note that says for you throughout hope you feel better and these two Jolly Ranchers like my teacher heart is so happy right now so I'm a little sweaty er than the last time I talked to you and definitely more red in the face I just finished up here a boys practice which is almost like a boys version of girls on the run but it's a little bit different they do still train for a 5k but they just really talk about what it means to be a hero in terms of being a positive role model and we have different guest speakers every practice and today I was in charge of the sprint team and I was sprinting against all of the boys and of course even though they're kids I'm competitive and I can't let them win but I'm pushing them to be better so it's all good overall I did have a really good day I didn't really get a chance to vlog a whole lot because my planning time was hectic we had to substitute well okay one substitute and the other one our TA ended up getting pulled and she was there in the morning and they had a different TA in in the afternoon so I was just kind of helping with little things with them which I don't mind doing cuz like if I'm ever out I would hope that my team teachers you know would be willing to help and they always are so it's all just about teamwork and helping each other then during my lunch I had a lunch bunch with four of my students and we had a fire drill after recess so usually after recess we switched to block two however today we kept our block one classes a little bit longer because of the fire drill we didn't want it to be too hectic so it's been a little bit of crazy day but it's all good it's now over I do have some grading to do tonight science assignments that they completed today and a little bit of planning but I'm gonna go ahead and get out of here I need to get to the gym and then get home and I can do all that other stuff so I will catch up with you all in the morning good morning YouTube to say that I am tired is an understatement right now I don't know what it is this week but I just feel so exhausted and this morning I almost left the house without my glasses and it finally dawned on me I was like I can't see anything I was like what am i doing and I had to go grab my glasses but I think it's because I had my eyes closed most of the mauryan as I was getting ready because I'm just dragging and I know I know that I've said I'm only gonna get coffee on Fridays I think I'm gonna go get some coffee this morning and I might get some tomorrow too and you know what I'm not even mad about it like if I can cut down to two days a week that's so really good compared to last year when I was getting it like every single day so the fact I've made it this far throughout the week with zero coffee as a miracle I'm gonna go treat myself this morning I think I'm gonna get Starbucks instead of Dunkin Donuts I'm feeling it and then I will get to school I do want to show you the math lesson that I did yesterday with my students and I'm losing my voice great I have good news I mentioned the Lido Pizza fundraiser the other night and I totally talked this up with my students and I'm so happy because we were the winners we had the most students come and participate so we had this trophy and I put a little sign we are the champions for about the next two months until the next fundraiser and down here it just says restaurant fundraiser night winner Crofton Elementary School PTA I also have a lot of people saying like oh no you showed your school on YouTube yes because if you google my name my school comes up it's not information that I can just hide but I'm super proud of my students for coming and for supporting and then that helps our school because a portion of the sales from that night come back to us through our PTA as promised I wanted to show you my math lesson from yesterday so we are working on rounding and I showed you this template that I created and I wanted the lesson to mirror this so I actually took this same exact document and I just made it into an image and I inserted it as the background in my Google slides and then I was able to put the numbers right on top so I'm gonna go ahead and just kind of show you an actual presentation I was able to go through I would give them the number and then the place value we were rounding to and I started very simple just with two digit numbers rounding to the tens place so then we did a couple together where I would ask them about the end points we'd fill those in 30 and 40 we talked about the midpoint we'd fill that in as 35 we would talk about where 38 would be on the number line we put it on there and then I told them to think of a ninja so the Ninja is either going to kick the number down to the first endpoint or up to the second endpoint so here I can see that it is clearly easier for the ninja to kick 38 up to 40 so we would say that 38 would round to 40 and then we did some more practice ones like that and again I have the ninja and to go along with this I'll just kind of quickly show you to make it a little bit more engaging a little more interactive I had kung fu fighting playing in the background so this is just like an instrumental of it oh that is super loud hold on let me turn my volume down a little bit and yeah so I said kung-fu fighting like playing in the background and I used safe cher TV and that way there were no ads in the video and then there's also this loop function so when I click this I'm able to have it plain and it will just continue playing so once the video stops it will continue going in the background and we'll just restart itself so we went through we got into three-digit numbers and then four-digit numbers and then we start talking about rounding to the hundreds place and for this to help my students because they struggle to find those end points I would put this up there if they really needed help like okay here are your options for your endpoint which to multiples of 100 with 267 fault in between and that just gave them a little bit more structure a little bit more support so then once we got our endpoints and we talked about that they would solve the rest of it on their dry-erase sleeve and I would ask them okay if you think that 267 rounds down to 200 when I tell you you're gonna get up and you're gonna move to the left side of the room if you think it rounds up to 300 you're gonna get up and you're gonna move to the right side of the room and because I told them think of ninjas they had to walk to that side of the room like a ninja while the music was playing and then I told them my like secret word that they had to wait to hear before they could start moving was Jackie Chan and it just made it that much more like fun and engaging for them and that way they were getting up out of their seats and they weren't sitting the whole time but it was nice and easy to follow because this matched the dry-erase leave a template so hopefully that's useful for you I mean it really is pretty simple but it's just an easy way to make it a little bit more engaging for your students is now the end of the day and I'm just talking back to my room it's about 555 ish and we had girls on the run after school which I helped a coach until 5:15 and then a parent was late picking up their students so I just now and getting back to my room I need to quickly put a couple of grades into the gradebook just some little assignments that students have been finishing because I have to have my grades finalized by tomorrow morning so that interim reports can go home on Monday and I still have a couple of students who are missing work I have like a list in front of me but I you know there's nothing I can do about it so I'm just gonna have to put a comment that they're still working on this assignment so it's all good tomorrow is Friday I do not have planning time which kind of stinks but that's okay I did not drink like even half of my coffee it's so bad I'm gonna try to like chug it right now to give me some energy for the gym and then I need to go to the gym go home finish grades plan all that good stuff and I will catch up with you all in the morning good morning YouTube I don't know if I've ever been so happy for it to be Friday so in spirit I wore my Frye a shirt this is from Miss McNab MERS class I will link it for you in the description box I don't think I'm gonna get coffee I kind of want just like a sweet tea or something to drink like my throat is so hurting a little bit it is better my coffees better I just want something to drink I don't know and then I don't have planning time as I told you last night which is fine we have study hall instead most of my students are caught up on their missing work which is good I saw the couple students that need to get things finished so fingers crossed we can get that done today that's gonna be a good day regardless [Music] so every year in October our school does something called booing it's optional you don't have to participate but basically you get booed so you get some kind of a treat and then you will do someone else and then there's this little sign that you put on your door that says we've been booed now I have not been booed yet but I went to Target earlier this week and went ahead and got my stuff and then I told the teacher who's in charge of it that I would go ahead and boo someone to like kind of start it off because I was already ready so I'm gonna do another teacher in the school today this is a little jar that I got at the dollar spot it says trick-or-treat there is a candle at the bottom you just can't see it it's like a Halloween candle there are these fuzzy socks there is a Halloween pencil there's this tabouleh switch I thought was really cute and then this is like a black and white banner kind of like a garland and then these holographic Halloween stickers so I'm gonna go ahead and do one of the teachers today I wanted to quickly talk through today's science lesson we are focusing on structures for survival we've already talked about plant structures and now we're talking about animal structures and today's lesson was all about the brain and how brains have to respond to different needs in order to survive so he played the animal brain game and it's very simple but it's a lot of fun essentially one student was picked to be the brain and they had to stand by this basket or trash Kim they had to catch the tennis balls and put them inside I had students kind of in like a semicircle around them throwing the tennis balls at them so one student represented hunger one student represented thirst one represented shelter and one represented defending territory and I told them it's okay if you drop a ball it's no big deal like you know just pick it up put it in there no big deal and so what a time you know the kids would throw a ball they'd catch it no biggie they were nice and calm they did a great job then during round two I would introduce a predator the predator would also throw balls but the catch was the predator balls had to be caught because if they were dropped they would be dead so what would happen is the student who was the brain would focus just on catching the predator balls and they would end up dropping the other ones the hunger the thirst the shelter defending tear taury and we made the connection to how animal brains when they are in danger from a predator they focus on surviving and they forget about hunger and thirst and all these other things because they're not as important so it's always a lot of fun to see the students actually like act it out and play the game but it's also really fun to watch them I played the game two or three times with each of my groups they really really enjoyed it and we had a great discussion afterwards because a student who is the brain they would actually tell us like yeah I felt stressed out and my heart was beating fast and it's very similar to how animals actually react to predators so I just want to kind of throw this idea out there this actually came from our curriculum so it's not something that I actually came up with myself but I always loved doing this with my classes and I'm gonna be doing it with my other two science classes on Monday of next week it is now almost 6 o'clock and I feel like this week's vlog has just been super boring but I'm not gonna apologize because the reason that I film these weekly classroom vlogs is to show you all the realities of teaching and not every week is a fantastic week not every week are you doing like super creative lessons in classroom transformations that's just not reality and this week it was a very typical week for teaching I had no patience today by the end of the day I was very stressed and overwhelmed and frustrated and it just was not my best week ever and that's reality and that's what it is so I am putting it out there for you I'm gonna do my best to recharge this weekend spend some time on myself so that I can be ready to go on Monday and I'm gonna try again next week and I'm gonna try to be better and you know that's all you can do as a teacher like not every day it's gonna be fantastic there will be days where you want to pull your hair out and that's okay as long as you're looking at how you can improve all that being said I am gonna go ahead and end this vlog if you enjoyed it please go ahead and get the video a thumbs up also if you were not already subscribed to my channel go ahead and do that also hit the notification bells that you are notified every time I post a new video as always thank you for watching I love you all so so much don't forget to think positive they'll catch you guys in the next thank you so much for watching all the way to the end of this video and for supporting my YouTube channel if you want to check out any of my older videos you can use the two links right down here if you want to subscribe to my channel so you don't miss any future videos you can use like right up here the links to all of my social media sites my teachers pay teacher's store my merchandise store and my Amazon store are in the description box and I'll catch you guys in the next one

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 142,570

Rating: 4.910913 out of 5

Keywords: teacher, classroom, vlog, 4th grade, tips for new teachers, tips for teachers, new teacher tips, teacher tips, classroom vlog, vlogger, teacher vlog, teacher vlogger, classroom tour, a day in the life of a teacher, a week in the life of a teacher, a day in the life, sponsored, jord watches, jord

Id: E6oUFDaSnWg

Length: 25min 29sec (1529 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 12 2018