Teacher Vlog Episode 3.2 | It's Gettin Real

err because you know what time it is it is time for me to share with you my question that I posted on teachers connect and some posts that I responded to so this week my question on teachers connect was whether or not you guys correct homework with your kids now when I say correct I mean good morning here's my outfit today today I am wearing this polka dot a top that was part of one of my hauls over the summer this is from TJ Maxx I'm wearing these black pants from Ann Taylor Loft I think I showed you guys some great ones a while ago and then I like them so much I got some in black and then I found another pair of these sandals just yesterday at Target these are the new day brand they are a little higher than the red ones but I like the style of them so I bought another pair then I am wearing a silver watch that is just a Fossil watch and these are my accessories from Coriana so I will see you guys a little bit ok it is about 10:30 I'm on recess the kids actually got to go outside today but it's walk and talk the air quality is not the best so they can go outside but they can't play so today is my first full morning where it's like full-blown like this is school these are the routines and procedures so we my introduce the morning work to them this morning which typically for me is grammar from wonders that I use and then we started talking about math rotations so my big goal or my big journey this year that you guys are going to get to hold me accountable to and I will document for you is implementing more small groups for math so I found a product on teachers pay teachers that I've referenced a couple times from core inspiration or Lauren Santos and she acknowledges because I've read several of her blog posts and some of the questions people have asked her in comments that this was not developed by her she's just kind of tweaked it to her own style and look and all of that so I'm not sure where it originated because I've on her site and I've seen a couple of other teachers reference it as well but we started that today so I introduced them to a product that she's created which I don't think that I think she actually created like this is her thing call it number of the day and I'm doing it one at a time so I'm realizing that I'm going to need to buy some binders because these pages are the same the number just changes so you take a number a random number today our number was 397 and they are just modeling in and representing it in different ways and I believe there's six pages total so this is the first one I will put it down already so it was 397 so for today they modeled by coloring in three one hundred blocks I haven't you know what that is not the recess bell we actually have five more minutes I'm gonna go double-check with Jenny because that was last year's recess bell and then we'll get back to math hold on a second that's not our bell right that's last year so don't go out there because remember Michelle said the bells are off so we still have like five minutes and I feel like I'm not even getting a break you know I know because I thought walking tough I was just gonna welcome out to the playground but okay so yeah five minutes all right okay so our number was 397 I just confirmed what Jenny that that that's the wrong Bell we need to adjust the Bell some so they modeled it today with base 10 blocks so they just colored in 300 blocks 310 our 910 blocks and then seven one blocks so then they represent it by saying it's three hundred nine ten seven ones and it's three hundred and ninety-seven and all this question was tricky because it said if you were to swap all the 100 blocks for tens how many tens would you need so they needed to know I no longer have hundreds but now I need thirty tens and then by the time we talked about this one through and they understood they were better with this one if you were to swap out all the tens roster ones how many ones would you need so now I would need zero tens and I would need 90 ones so we did that I thought it went pretty well and I told them eventually they'll be doing it on their own then we just introduced the lesson today which is less than 1.2 rounding to the nearest ten and hundred my warm-up because in this math rotation there's like a warm-up and a mini lesson so the number of the day would be the warm-up the mini lesson for me is going to be me playing the math on the swap video that is hosted by dr. Berger through think central so I showed them that and then I'm using the two intro pages as like my teaching point from go mad so today we're going to practice one of the rotations which is at your seat so they are going to just be working at their seat the lighting has changed I don't know why so that's what we're in the middle of doing so they're at recess right now we're gonna come back I'm going to read Mean Gene the recess Queen which is a classic because they did not go outside for recess at all last week because of the heat this week they'll be out for walk and talk so this is the perfect time for me to read this to talk about proper behavior on the playground so I'm gonna read them that and then we will finish math and move on to flinders so that is Monday so far the first full day of teaching so far it's going well I think the kids are a little like shocked like oh my gosh we're actually having to learn but all in all it's good so I'll check in with you guys later on today [Music] good afternoon it's 1:30 I just finished missing the kids at 1:15 walked him out to the pickup location and then I came back in posted the homework on the website for the day sent a message through classdojo cuz I still can't use remind right now and that's pretty much it I have a great level meeting at 1:45 so every Monday as the great liberal chair I've asked that my team be willing to meet at 1:45 for no more than an hour and I may have mentioned this in a previous vlog sometimes it will take the whole hour sometimes it won't but I promise not to go over an hour and we're just kind of looking at things seeing how we're feeling especially with wonder since this is like it's time to get in full swing so that will be happening in about 15 minutes all in all the day and it well we got through pretty much everything the only thing I did not get to is I was supposed to introduce the vocabulary skill for this week of wonders which is context clues but I did it because math took a little bit longer place value for kids it just placed value and really rounding is what it is it's just challenging for them and I was talking to Peggy and Ginny at lunch who haven't taught this lesson because they both came from different grade levels Ginny was teaching second last year Peggy was teaching fourth and it's always just so like startling when you think this concept of rounding numbers up or down is relatively easy but for kids it's just not so what I was suggesting to them which I will have to do with my class is kiss that struggle with rounding and knowing when to round up or down I have found that those because that are having the hardest time end up doing a lot better when they use the number line strategy because it gives them a visual to see what a number is closest to whether you're rounding to the nearest 10 or to the nearest hundred if they use the place value rules and the whole 5 or higher round up or less than 5 round down for a lot of kids that's just too much for them to remember first and foremost you have to rely on the fact that they're gonna identify the right digit to be rounded that they're gonna know their right from their left because they have to look to the right and that once they figure that out they're gonna remember if it's 5 or higher round up if it's less than five round down so I had a few kids that struggled and so what's gonna happen tomorrow is I'll probably rely on the number line for that for those kids because last year I felt like once they got in the hang of making number lines and understood how to make their number lines they were a lot more successful with rounding so math took longer so that only thing that I didn't get to is the vocabulary skill I wanted to do like a little bit of writing but I knew that that was a long shot so the fact that I didn't get to that is not a big deal so first day of like true nitty-gritty teaching and you know some of the kids were a little shell-shocked last week was a lot of you know get to know you some assessment but this was the first day like where they got to see my expectations as a teacher as I'm up there teaching what I expect for them to be doing while that is occurring so it's a work in progress [Music] my family just now and then I just realized I'm supposed to show you guys Genesis because she was missed last week so I'm taking her on a walk it's the first walk I've taken her on in a long time because of the heat and then the weather condition but she really wanted to walk today she ran out the door when I was just taking to use the bathroom as if we were going on a walk I had to take her um quick update she is now gonna be taking medication on a permanent basis to try and keep her sneezing under control there was like a day or two last week where she was just incessantly and I mean excessively sneezing I forget what it's called but it's like a little pill two times a day every 12 hours to hopefully help her out and she was seizing so much to the point we went out with wipe her nose there was like little faint traces of blood and that made me nervous so we're gonna walk I'm gonna show her to you and then that will be the end of my check-in with you guys for this Monday it's not Tuesday for Monday Jenny wait come here wait say hi to your friends hold on let's see if she stays wait wait wait hi everybody Jenny Genesis okay good morning here's today's outfit I am wearing this dress from Old Navy this was one of the dresses I showed you guys in my haul over summer I'm wearing these shoes that I was unsure about the quote-unquote granny shoe hoops but I think I like it with this dress and then I am wearing a black Marc Jacobs watch that I've had for a long time and just this black ring so pretty simple that's it I'll talk to you guys like guys it's 250 the kids have been dismissed literally moments ago and today huh you know what it wasn't the kids let me preface it with that like the kids are great they're sweet they're everything I teach about want my struggle right now let me sit down is just the timing of things like the things that I'm trying to change specifically with Matt I haven't quite found the timing of how I want things to happen so I have two students that get RSP services and it's cushion meaning that the aid comes into class as opposed to them going up and she's only here for 30 minutes so switch for me number one is typically or normally up until this year because of the RSP schedule I teach math in the mornings I've just done that for years and you know it's just what I'm used to so that changed now I'm teaching it after recess starting at around 11 ish which is when the RSP teacher comes in but what the changes that I'm trying to implement with small groups in math and following the format of like a warm-up a little mini lesson and then like starting to run groups there's just the pressure of trying to get what I want to get in while the RSP 8 is here is a lot so then there was that today I really felt like I was teaching like at a rapid rate luckily when I asked RSP teacher how she felt with the kids back here while I was teaching whether or not it was enough or it was a good mix for those kiss she said she thought it went really great the kids were getting it but I felt rushed I'm saying there's that plus we are just in the throes of rounding and just I don't know rounding there's a lot going on for kids and even like your higher functioning kids just find it to be a difficult concept so I ditch them and use these anchor charts today if I had to do it all again I would probably only make the anchor chart for the number line because I just really think the number line just makes it a little bit more clear for them and it's a little less overwhelming for them to tackle so my math walk went way way way way longer than I intended it to which is fine because I kind of had a feeling that was going to happen since I'm trying to find my way with these math rotations and the change in my schedule and just being held to a certain timeframe that I want to get things done with the aid but I am exhausted and in addition to all that training these kids to know that when I'm at this back table right here that I'm just not available to them I can't ask question or answer questions I can't do those kinds of things because my attention is to them back there this was the first time I went to the back table and pulled kiss for the year and it's that whole early part of the year where some kids they just want to go back there just to be that much closer to you they don't really need help but they just want to be back there and I had a huge amount of kids that just wanted to go to the back table but from what I had seen in terms of what we did whole group and what they did with their homework they did not need to be at that back table so just the heartbreaking part of telling them I'm not gonna call you to the back table because I know that you don't need it and then there was one boy that was just insistent that he goes back there so I had his table mates help them but then he was being argumentative with his table mates so I pulled him back told him to do one problem he got it right told to do another problem where he had to round to the nearest hundred he got it right so I told him you know how to do it so I'm exhausted my room is a mess here's my desk there's that down there and this is all over the place I didn't even get them to collect their papers today because we would just ran short on time so it was really weird cuz I came in this morning just feeling calm prepared and ready and to a certain extent I was but the day still didn't quite go the way that I would have liked it to go so I'm gonna clean up I think Jenny and pay you're gonna come over and I'm gonna show them how to add east assessments assessments on connected and then I'm gonna get myself ready for tomorrow and go from there I might work out after work I didn't make it this morning cuz I went to bed late and the trainer one of my favorite trainers at Orangetheory you know called me and Liza out because we weren't there this morning so she just asked us where we were so I might go this afternoon if I leave in time but then again I might not you I just don't know so anyway that was my day so far I'll try and check in with you guys a little bit later and yeah I don't know what else to say hey I'm home it's about to get dark cuz I'm going upstairs after I've checked in with you I just spent a lot of time cleaning my room getting things straightened getting the room ready for tomorrow which it is I left maybe around 5:15 so not too bad seeing as how my unofficial goal is to leave by 5 and now I'm getting ready to get dressed cuz I'm actually going to go to Orangetheory which I'm sad about because I do not like exercising during the 7 day because I don't like exercising what makeup on my face and the last time I went during sorry this time of day I just fell exceptionally fat while exercising but I need to go because my goal is to go 5 days a week and if I don't go today I think I'll be down to going 3 days a week just based on what I know my schedule is going to be sorry I'm in the closet so I need to change clothes get dressed and then I just found out blaze pizza's having another teacher special so I'm going to have that for dinner which is good because I came home to cook my blue apron meal and I just don't feel good about the meat just didn't look right so I'm gonna go Orangetheory I may or may not check in with you guys later I'm gonna definitely show you that little do you guys see her kitty Genesis show you that little lady down there because she needs to make an appearance apparently but yeah I honestly you guys I just still don't feel like I know it's only the second week of school but I still don't feel like I'm like in the rhythm that I want to be in and I think I need to be patient with myself because I am trying to implement a couple of new things simultaneously with the math groups and then you know restructuring the order that we're teaching these math lessons in and I'm trying like I'm there's a part of me that's like maybe I don't want to you know rearrange the chapters based on achieve what is what was that website called achieve the core because it's too much for me to try and do that and math groups and if I had to pick I'd choose like doing math groups instead especially because my kids did pretty well last year but I mean I've only given it a couple of days so I'm gonna try a little bit more but I think that's the source of my frustration and just not being in like that clear rhythm but I need to be patient with myself so I gotta stop talking I just want to check in from home just with for a different change of scenery but I do need to get dressed head over at Orange theorem you guys wish me luck so yeah I'll check in with you guys later good morning here's today's outfit today I'm wearing this top that was in a summer haul this one is from TJ Maxx I'm wearing the blue version of the pants that I ordered from Anne Taylor I can't think of the style right now I think they're called the Julie cut I'm not sure but these are the ones from Ann Taylor I am wearing my denim sandals from DSW and I am wearing a gold watch from Michael Kors this ring that I'm wearing is from Nordstrom and if you notice if you look very closely I'm wearing my new glasses these are brown the frames are brown and that was really the only reason I got them my prescription hasn't changed or anything but I just wanted a pair of brown frames so I'm wearing them today they are by coach and I got them from Target so I will talk to you guys later on hey it is later than what I would like to say it is it is 6:20 or so the only reason why I'm still here is because I had a teacher leader meeting after school that took us to about 4 o'clock and then I came to my classroom I have to get myself ready for tomorrow so I said just suck it up get what you need to get done because I go to Orangetheory tomorrow and I am at that point so I'm going to be taking some things home here is my bag I know I have not done a what say my teacher bag uh-huh yet but I will eventually there's not a whole lot going in there right now I came back to my room I had to listen to this I ready video because they've made some changes to the website so we have a literacy coach here that wanted us to make changes or we have a literacy coach that wanted us to listen to this video that kind of explains the changes in how kids are being scored on already now because one of the big things that we're going to do school-wide is sit down and have goal-setting conferences with students so she just wanted us to be familiar with the tools there how we can use it to set goals I'm going to be starting that tomorrow during our Fox time which is our universal access time which is when we have an aide that comes in who will be assisting with guided reading in any way shape or form I decided to use her more than likely I will probably have her pool my hire groups that are above grade level and I'll work with the kids that are below grade level or just hanging on that grade level so I did that I responded to a question I had to respond to in regards to that video in Google classroom check my emails updated my websites and on some messages to parents and hand out some paperwork from first day and then I got my agenda on the board here that's one of the things I have to get done for me to feel prepared and then I wrote my homework sorry wrote my homework on the board there that's the other thing I need to get prepared for me to feel like I'm on top of things when I get to school the next morning and I set up my slides for morning work then I sucked it up and not because I don't like them but because it was you know late and I knew this too this would take a little time I made another anchor chart that I traced from Amy Groesbeck this one is for addition and subtraction with regrouping I haven't colored it in yet like that was my compromise is that I would at least map it out which I did and then I'll color it tomorrow the only reason I colored these little bits here is because I had to cross out on top of them because this is the subtraction section but I almost panic because I thought I was not going to be able to make this this was not in the pack that I bought this I found on Pinterest and pinned it to my board and the problem was is I wasn't able to just open the image in a PDF because that image is actually on Instagram and I had and I can't go to Instagram from my school because the site is blocked and so I featured or I showed one of the my first tracing poster that I did with Amy's product on I think that was Monday and I did an insta story on it and she responded to it and I asked her she was gonna be making some more and she said that she was so I'm excited about that so tomorrow I'm just going to come in and oh I didn't the circle for the gene I'm gonna draw it out really quick see this right here I didn't put the circle in or the that right there I think I can freehand that so I'm gonna come in tomorrow I'll color that tomorrow we're going to be doing lesson one point seven which is addition with place value as the focus as far as the strategy is concerned today we use the break of heart strategy so I was hesitant to make this because this has addition and subtraction but I think I'm just going to either fold it or cover it so that they don't see the subtraction part and just focus on the addition or just tell them we're not even going to look at that part yet but we will a little bit later so it's about 6:30 unfortunately I'm about to pack up my belongings I'm getting ready to go home my goal tonight is to kind of look through this stuff I might want to use to sit down and set goals with my class tomorrow and walk Genesis and go to Yogurtland because the Yogurtland by my house has a special on Wednesdays for the month of August where you can get a five ounce cup and fill it with as much as you want and not pay for the weight just pay a flat fee so I'm gonna go partake in that so that's I'm gonna do I don't know if I'll check on when I get home the other thing I wanted to show you is that I did get a tablet for my spanish-speaking student a translating tablet that I think will help him just be a little bit more independent so I'm gonna set him up with that tomorrow which is good because one of the students that helps him sometimes with explaining things him and that other student kind of had a moment today I'm gonna set you guys down while I clean up they kinda had a moment today where it was a grammar page and the student that speaks both Spanish and English was helping my spanish-speaking student and my spanish-speaking student came over to ask me for help and so I was asking what what's going on how come you know so-and-so isn't helping you and the student sits that does the helping sits right near my desk so he turned and told me like basically he won't let me help him or he doesn't want me to help him and they just both had this look on this face where I knew something wasn't quite right so I kept asking them is everything okay is everything okay and they're both like yeah everything's fine it's all blah so later in the day I asked the student that speaks both English and Spanish like are you sure nothing happened because he seemed really bothered like he just looked like he was mad so that student said well I was just telling him I said he said something I'm like bro why are you always asking me for help I know you know how to do this now what his frustration was cuz he was in class with the student last year his point was I guess what he was the spanish-speaking Souter was asking for help with he knew he knew how to do it and just felt like he just wanted help just to get the help but not because he needed the help so I told the sooner I said I understand what you're saying but I think it's the way that you said it that hurt his feelings I said to say it like bro what you always do myself was probably not the right way to say it I said perhaps if you had said like hey I know you can do this I've seen you do it like more of a motivating type tone he would have reacted better so I said I'd like you to apologize to him for like talking to him like that and he can he did and they were fine so I think him having now this tablet will help because now he won't have to necessarily ask for help and worry about a student you know responding to him like that I do help him as much as I can but at that time I was like in the middle of something with another student so I couldn't stop and and go over things with him and like that the student said he does speak a fair amount of English and the only issue with this is that he was it would have required him to read English if that makes sense so that it was hard so anyway that is that I just realized though that I did not make my copies for the number of the day tomorrow so I need to do that in the mornings when I get here so far I really like these pages I think they're a really good reinforcement for things that third graders really need to know tomorrow's page looks like this and it looks like it's the focus of evens and odds and skip counting and number lines so that is what we're going to be working on tomorrow in addition to the ones we already did so I'm going to set this in front of my face so that I know I need to make copies of this and get that in packet form and I think that's that's all I really need to do I need to get out of here so let me get myself together I'm gonna go home we shall see what happens when I get home as far as me checking in and yeah I'll talk to you either later or tomorrow so I just know I need to get the heck up out of here because it's almost 6:30 so I'll talk to you guys later I'm in the parking lot right now just walk into my classroom it's just so depressing cuz I am officially the last person here aside from the cleaning people and well I know that's because I had to do some stuff you just I'm like I always wonder if I'm just doing something wrong like why am I not able to get out as quick as everybody else so here's the parking lot [Music] little lonely car all by its lonesome it's alright though this won't happen everyday good morning here's my outfit today today I am wearing a dress from Target that I got some time last school year I'm wearing this belt with it from Old Navy I'm wearing these wedges that you guys have seen numerous times I'm also wearing this Kendra Scott rose gold necklace a rose gold watch and a ring and bracelet from Coriana so that is it I'll talk to you guys later it's 501 I'm probably once again one of the last people here my teammates Peggy and Jenny just left but it's fine we met briefly after school because last night what I feel like I said something about this I think I said something yesterday that today we wanted to window what's that yesterday I think I told you guys we met with their literacy coach and she basically went over some new things with I ready and some changes that were being made and one of the things that she as well as our principal would like to do is share the IAT results with our students and set goals for them so I went home last night and after I dinner I sat down and like looked at the I ready reports the ones that are individualized to each student because I was like okay what am I going to share with my students when I sit down and set these goals and at first I panicked because each student report is about 15 pages because it has a ton of information so my thought was well how are my kids and I gonna like sift through all this information to have them set a meaningful goal for themselves and then I took a few moments took a deep breath and calm down and so what I decided to do to kind of streamline the process in case anyone else out there is using AI ready and would like to do the same is first I looked at the instructional groups so I ready once they take their diagnostic test it will group them with other students that had performance similar to their so I think there's a total of maybe six groups and the groups have the groups are made by the way the kids perform they have a certain amount of things in common if that makes any sense so like the lowest group or group one is kids that are struggling like significantly with things like phonics and they are just well below grade level standard and then a group six let me make make sure I want to make sure there's six groups and not five so that I'm not giving you incorrect information let's see Gnostic results okay yeah there's five so so what I decided to do was to just call each group back together to try and be a little bit more efficient and initially you all we did is they have something we call it a Fox planner but it's like their binder reminder where they're writing down their homework and this year the principal added some goal setting pages because she knew that this was something she was going to want to do so on the goal setting pages they have places to track like their progress with things like I ready and grades and things like that so what I have my students do is I called them back as a group starting with group one the group that struggled the most and I told them bring your Fox planners and a red crayon a yellow crayon and a green crayon and a pencil so the first thing I did is I showed them their report them I can't obviously show you what one looks like but they each have their individual report that gives them a bar graph of their overall performance where we would have liked them to be and where they are and then it breaks down their categories and how they perform there the first thing I had them do this is just a copy of the page in their Fox planner is they circled where it says diagnostic one they circled that and the color that they were placed in based on their overall performance and I explained if your overall color is red that means you have quite a few struggles if it's yellow that means there were some things that you did well but then there were some things that you also struggled with and green means you performed well you perform the way that we would have liked for you to perform right now so they circled their diagnostic and the color their overall score was then I shared their score and they put it here I'm going to try and point right there and then this says this makes me feel so I talked to them and said you know how does that make you feel are you happy with it are you satin by it are you disappointed are you frustrated so they put their word and we didn't really do well too much on that because most of their words were words like disappointed and I said you know what it's fine like now we know what we need to work on so that when we take the second test you know we're not quite in the same situation but we didn't dwell too much on it and then in their report it breaks it down by subcat or subcategories of the test so it breaks it down by phonological awareness phonics what is this one high-frequency words vocabulary comprehension of literature and then comprehension of informational text and so we went down their report and each kid looked at the color they were in that particular category and they would trace or color this box in that now what was nice with this group is because even though overall they performed under grade level all of them at least had one or two if not more green boxes so they were able to say okay I had some struggles but there were definitely some things I did know so we did that and then they we talked about point growth so again I showed them where they were where we would like them to be and I let them set a point goal and just say you know you want to keep it realistic you don't want to say like I want to prove by 200 points in the next couple of months because that's not realistic for anybody so that made it better just kind of honing it down by their groupings and then the other thing that I did because this was the other part that was overwhelming is I was like well how are they gonna pick what their goal is so then again I said Latonya calm down and I looked at the report that just shows each student in that particular group and it'll show you where they struggled so it'll show you where they were read where they were yellow where they were green so for each student and I went in and I picked their lowest-performing category and told them this will be the area that we try and set a goal for since this is where you struggle the most now with this group with them being the lowest performing group all of them have phonics issues but I did tell them everyone's phonics issues are a little bit different some of you are struggling more than others and I feel pretty good about it I felt like the kids were back there they knew that they were getting some concrete information about their performance but they weren't like totally sad or just totally defeated sound that really bad because I think they saw okay there were still some things I did know how to do and the conversation was really like okay let's set some goals now we have something to work towards now the person that asked us to do this literacy coach said it might take us about six minutes per child it's gonna for me it's gonna take me much longer than that because I just tend to take longer to do things in terms of conversation so I wanted them to understand what the different colors meant I wanted them to have a minute to think about why we're setting goals and really think about what's a realistic goal so we didn't even get to the point where they each honed in on the one goal that they're really going to be focusing on so we'll have to do that next week but what I did like when we met with our literacy coach is she got gave us some information from I ready and just talked about different kinds of goals to set so that they're not these vague goals that kids just say but they don't really have any meaning behind it like saying I want to get better at reading what does that really mean so we talked about two different types of goals I think some are called process goals which are applicable to a lot of different things like different processes and so this form that we got from I ready if any of you use our rating and are interested in an example of a process goal would be saying something like I will use flashcards to practice my site words once a day but you can make flashcards for a lot of different things not just sight words or I will use scratch paper to show my work while completing math online lessons again you can use scratch paper online but also not online so those were processed goals then the other type of goal I think was called habit goals so a habit goal would be something like I will check my math work using a different strategy to ensure accurate comp computations or I will find text evidence so those are just getting in the habit of doing those particular things and I think for my kids we are probably gonna we are probably going to focus on more of the habit goals so or did I say that backwards I did say that backwards the first type I showed you was habits the second one was processes so I hope that made sense I'm sorry this was all new to me so mine are gonna be more focused on like just more specific because they're eight so we met after school just to kind of go over what I did I don't know how it's going to go when we get into like the thick of setting goals because I didn't get to that point and that I think I'll have to do individually but I think it's a good thing to do but we'll see how that goes so we met as far as the day I again didn't get to check in because it's just been really busy in recess I was trying to finish up this anchor chart that I needed to color but for math today I did make this chart you guys saw it yesterday I finished coloring it I did only show the addition side because I didn't want anyone to get distracted so that went well for homework tonight I did require them to draw out the models because I just really like to make sure kids understand what is happening with regrouping and I find that forcing them to do that for at least a night or two helps them to really understand what's happening when they're carrying the one I know I've said that in previous years so I just keep doing it because I think it's very effective and then we were going to take the one-ders assessment part one together but all we really got to do was read one of the passages and practice what the comprehension skill which was character and looking for text evidence to show how the characters feeling what clues do we have and I was really proud of my kids because this passage is about a little girl let me see if I can find it who is nervous because she's a trying out for a talent show and so in the very beginning of the story she's nervous because she's trying out for the talent show and she sings but she's never sang in front of anyone before and then by the end of the story let me back by the end of the story she's feeling much better about things so I asked them to read the story to themselves or what their group first well I was at the back table trying to give kids their air goals and then we came back together there's a whole class I read the story again and then specifically said how was this girl feeling in the beginning the correct answer was she was feeling either insecure or nervous and then I said okay let's prove it how do we know so they pulled out quotes things that she says so one came when they would realize well she asked herself why am I doing this this that showed that she was nervous but one of the moments I was like oh they're learning cuz this was something that we said with one of our anchor charts earlier this week where we talked about paying attention to what characters do say how they act this student saw this picture that they put in the passage and so of course one of the students said well if I look at the picture she looks nervous or scared which is true and that was great but the one in the student said I also know that she's nervous because there are these little squiggly lines by her elbows and that means that she's shaking and I was like right like you can fly and find clues anywhere those little squiggles means that she's like up on the stage shaking and so we know that she's nervous that way so we did that and then they were able to identify that by the end of the passage she was feeling much more confident because she actually sang and then she says at the very end well that wasn't as bad as I thought it was so that was the bulk of the day we did a little bit of writing we but it was just for fun like just like something I was supposed to do the first week of school but I didn't get to it and that's really it's the book that I read today since I'm trying to share those is I read this one I am special I am me I did it because the writing activity that we did today was this I'm pretty sure this is from Pinterest Jenny gave it to me I am all about my selfie so I thought this was a nice tie-in with just recognizing the values of yourself so this one is I'm special I'm me and so we talked or we read this and we talked about character like what kind of person was he at the beginning how was he at the end kind of the same as the talent show he was insecure in the beginning but his mom kind of talks him through each day and eventually he realizes that he should just be his self and then we were able to talk about the theme of this book which there were a few that kids picked that were legitimate and then I always tell them if I were to pick a theme I tell them this at the end so they're not like skewed one way or the other I always tell them at the end what I would have picked so for this one I said I would have put this one next to be yourself because at the end of the story the boy realizes that I should just be myself and people will want to be around me when I do that because I'm just being myself the other one kids picked was believing yourself and this one don't any don't let anyone ever dull your sparkle and I believe these are by Amy Groesbeck if you're interested and so for these kids I said those are all true and that's one of the points I wanted to make to my class because there was one group arguing and trying to change another students mind I said no there's not one correct answer as long as someone can say this is what I believe the theme is and they have something to back it up you just have to respect that that's their opinion so they agree to put it there so we did that and what else math we used base ten blocks I always think that's good I think I mentioned that but that was really it I'm starting to feel a little bit better about things math is still a struggle I only have RSP support coming in for 30 minutes and both the RSP a to myself feel like that's not enough time for the kids that she's servicing it really is just enough time for her to see my intro lesson and for her to do some guided practice with them but she doesn't get a lot of opportunity to see if they can just do it on their own and so she's talking to the RSP teacher to see if they can somehow alter her schedule so she can be here a little bit longer and I think that would be great if she could so that was my day it's 5:15 right now I'm going to get the room ready for tomorrow tomorrow's Friday and just like last year Fridays are really just me taking my kids from one place to the next I'm gonna get the the classroom ready for tomorrow and then I'm gonna go home I don't know if I'm gonna cook but I need to figure something out because I got a believer in shipment last week but I forgot to unpack it and went to bed and it sat out all night and now I'm nervous about the meat so I'm either gonna go get the meat to go with this meal I need to make or I'm not I'm not really sure so I will keep you guys posted see you later all right good morning here's my outfit today I'm trying something new I'm trying for a casual chic look I don't know if I'm pulling it off but I am wearing another t-shirt from teacher tees I will link the website in the description box please excuse Genesis and there's also a promo code this one says teach and be fabulous so I thought well let me try and spruce this one up so I put on this necklace that I got I think from New York and company a long time ago and I am wearing just a silver fossil watch some silver hoop earrings so sorry you guys and these little slippers that I got from Nordstrom Rack over the summer so it is Friday I deserve a Starbucks so that's from going and I'll talk to you guys Jenny you ruin my outfit of the day so last night at about 8 o'clock I suddenly had a panic attack now that's dramatic I didn't have a panic attack but I had like a moment run away and I realized I didn't write the word save on the board after I wrote my agenda and when you don't write save on your board all the little work that you do to put yourself ahead of the game in the morning is gone that was all filled out yesterday but I forgot to write save so the cleaning people erased it so I need to rewrite it and the other thing I want to say you guys seem to have picked up on the fact that Ginny and Peggy are great teammates so Peggy's so nice she comes in before me every morning and she always turns my air on for me so that when I come in it's not hot in the room it's a small gesture but it's just indicative of how nice of a person that she is so I just wanted to check in and tell you that teacher tip number 101 make sure you write save on the board so that the cleaning people don't erase your agenda so I'm gonna get that situated and then get myself ready for the day hey guys it's a quarter to eight I'm obviously at home took my accessories off pulled my hair back I got I left school at about 6:15 actually tried to vlog just before I left but my camera died because I forgot to turn it off I was there so 6:15 I was officially again the last person there including almost leaving after the cleaning people because the cleaning lady had to pop her little head into my room and asked me if I was leaving soon because she was gonna be leaving in ten minutes and she wanted to make sure I know how to arm to school but I let her know that I was leaving and I didn't have to do that I was there late but I feel not too bad about it because I did get a solid chunk of the next theme of Wonders planned for the for next week in the week following of course it's probably not gonna go exactly as planned things are probably gonna take longer than I thought but at least I have it in there and as I was planning it I think the best thing for me to do for those of you that are and asking about wonders is to share and the next upcoming weeks what I'm doing with wonders each day because I last year follow the same pattern in terms of what I did to start off the theme what I did the second day and so on it'll be a little bit different and I'll probably have to do this a couple of times throughout the year because next week is when I would start just introducing the concept of pulling kids back for small groups and so if I share with you guys what I did there probably won't be a whole lot of me talking about when I send those small groups back what are they doing because they're gonna probably just be practicing responding to their readers instead of going through full-blown rotations while I'm pulling additional groups if that makes sense but I think it'll make make it more manageable for me to share and maybe even for you guys to watch I know some people don't plan with me videos and I just can't envision myself doing that I don't even know how I would want the camera set up I don't think I have the talent to physically be planning and be talking about my thought process while I do it so I thought this was the best compromise so I don't feel too bad that I left after that point because I have the rest of chapter one plan Wonders is pretty much mapped out and all that's left really is is social studies and that's pretty straightforward and pretty cut-and-dry so I came home walk to Genesis who is laying on the couch um I don't know I'm gonna try and zoom in because she's being nice and quiet see I can get even closer I think now that's as close as I can get but there she is that is her overall disposition after a walk which is my favorite because she's relaxed I know she's happy so it's good so let me zoom back I came home I took her for a walk and then I was just now on the phone with my mom she's having a reverse sneeze and now I'm here because you know what time it is it is time for me to share with you my question that I posted on teachers connect and some post that I responded to so this week my question on teachers connect was whether or not you guys correct homework with your kids now when I say correct I mean actually correct their answers so for me for homework I assigned multiplication practice cursive practice and math page that reviews the lesson of the day I'm not really correcting the cursive or the multiplication practice cuz that really is just practice but I will correct the page that goes with the math lesson and so this year one of my big goals as I've said is to implement math rotations and I need to kind of buy some time throughout the day wherever I can and I've seen a couple people say to do that they've completely removed correcting math homework all together with the class now I don't know if that means they take it home and do it or they just don't correct it at all neither one of those options are attractive to me I obviously don't want to take more work home to correct and I obviously don't want to not correct it so the reason why I like correcting the math homework with my class is because while we're correcting it I'm calling on kids to share their answers and if it's wrong we talked about like what they did they look back at their work and I can quickly identify the mistakes that they made and a lot of times mistake that they made it's something that someone else may have made or even I can have other kids explain the mistake I just feel like it's it's good stuff to do it with the class and the back of wonder not wonders and the back of go math always has a section that spiral review so that allows me and forces me to just constantly provide spiral review with math just in the conversations we have about those problems so I was asking other people what do you do most I haven't like most like I had a whole lot of responses most of them are some of them said that they have students to it which I think that's more reference to just managing knowing who did homework one person did say that it's a good way to see what kids know and what they don't know which I agree with and so overall I think the people that respondent were kind of in agreement with me so if you'd like to let me know what you do or if you have any suggestions where I can buy time but still feel like I'm getting the chance to see how kids did on the homework the night before please respond to my question I would appreciate it so that's what I posted as far as the question I will be sharing my blog on teachers connect tomorrow and a little summation or Sunday and a kind of little synopsis of my week but there were a couple of questions I obviously responded to as well because I enjoy doing that and one of them I just had it and then I lost it comes from an experienced teacher her name is Renae and I like this one because I think it just touches on the aspect of teaching where you're not really discussing teaching a lesson but just coping with some of the changes and the the unpredictable nosov teaching so she says I am going into my 20th year of teaching the end of last year was very stressful with administration making great level changes and not knowing whether or not I was going to be moved to another great level I finally asked her whether or not I was one to be moved I was told she had already spoken to those who would be moved but someone would definitely be moved for my current grade level next year I'm struggling going into this year without thinking this is my last year in this grade level I've invested so much time and money in this grade level and don't know if I will be able to do the same for another great level I can understand a change if I requested it for a specific reason but no reason is given for a change except the desire to mix things up how do I put this in the back of my mind and enjoy the new this new school year and then in parentheses put I hate uncertainty so my response the gist of my response is a I mean I get it that is frustrating if you don't want to move to just have an anxiety of am I gonna be moved and if so when and if it's not happening now I know it may be coming in the future but I think my experience has been that sometimes the things that are the biggest changes somehow can be a blessing to you in disguise now obviously at the time it doesn't really feel like that because you're so focused on the changes that you're dealing with but I will say in retrospect anytime I've had a major change I think either chose to make or didn't choose to make it ended up being for the better now I don't know if it ended up being for the better because I found a way to cope with it even though I was frustrated and didn't allow myself to dwell on the change too much in a negative way or if it was just organically something that made me a better teacher so I said to her that she should try and just enjoy this year for what it is and be optimistic that if she does get forced to change it may be an opportunity to grow in ways that she didn't expect to grow or didn't know that she really needed to grow I would definitely you know very professionally let the principal know that you would like to stay in that grade level if possible but be open to the idea that you may need to be moved and I do get the I the the feeling that sometimes movement and changes need to be made for the better of the kids or the bed the dynamics of a team or the betterment of the school and so I think sometimes as teachers we get so focused on what we've mastered and what we're good and what's comfortable for us that we're not thinking about maybe the big picture and how maybe you would be a huge service to another great level or to another group of students or to the school in general and that I think we just have to be flexible I obviously have favorite grades to teach like I love teaching fifth grade I really wanted to teach fifth grade when I came to this new school and when it wasn't offered to me I was like kind of shook about it and shook about it for a while and but I did tell myself like let's just let's just get it done you've taught fifth grade for a long time it's time to take on a new challenge and then see what you can do and if I had to pick I mean and I could have picked I could have gone back to fifth grade this year because we end up needing another spot but I just like the idea that maybe now I'm expanding myself in a way that I wouldn't had wouldn't have had I stayed in fifth grade and the same can be said with me moving schools I know that I've expressed how deeply I missed the school that I worked at and my friends there and the relationships I had there and the families there and I still miss it every day and I still miss working with Liza every day and my team even though I have a great team now I just miss that we had a different dynamic than the one that I have now I missed that every day and I think about it every day but so many positives came out of me making the changes that I did like I've met new people I've interacted with new families I've had different opportunities come that I don't know would have come had I not made that move so just you know if you fight if you're facing a change out there that you really didn't plan for you're really you really didn't expect or you really don't want just try and tell yourself this just because it's not something that you planned for or that you think you want does it mean that nothing positive is going to come of it so I responded to that one and then my friend Jennifer from glitter and jams asked also a question about self-care and the things that we were doing during the school year and I know I mentioned this last week but I'm just gonna mention it again so that we don't get lost in the shuffle of the beginning of the year she specifically asked what are the things that you were gonna do this year to you know try and make sure you take care of herself so she said hello fellow teachers as many of you as many of us are preparing to go back to school or are back at school what are some things you do or are planning to do this year to take care of yourself to avoid burnout an illness I have been very bad at taking care of myself the last few years and want to be healthier and happier this year so I just briefly gave some things that I'm gonna try I want to continue to exercise five times a week because I you know what guys I don't love working out but that's something that I think that I'd well it's something that I do to preserve my health and to try and just stay healthy and for stress management I want to try and fit in reading before I go to bed because that fell by the wayside I've signed up for Massage Envy so I'll be getting monthly massages I have one this Sunday that I'm super excited about and I really want to try and minimize the amount of work that I bring home over the weekend which is why I stayed late at work today my goal is to get back to the year where I just stayed late on Fridays got stuff done and then did not bring my work back home that was the best thing I ever did and I'm gonna try and re-implement that this year and recently I've been turning off my phone anytime I feel overwhelmed so I've just put it on silent so that I don't hear text messages social media alerts like just so that I can have like a quiet mind so those are my goals why don't you guys should go on there and share with Jennifer your goals and then I feel like there was another one here's the other one I just thought this one was interesting because I was in the minority with this answer so this my impression is this person is like a recent college graduate and has landed a teaching position but once to get our master's degree and is not sure if she should just go straight away and do it or if she should take a break off so oh this is a good one I'm gonna answer this question after I mean maybe I'll just read it and then I'll answer it right now then just answer it on the spot let's see if I can do that and then I'll get back to the other one I just got distracted this one says this is from Martha and it says communicating with parents setting the boundaries hello everyone I'm a first year teacher and I'm wondering how you set boundaries when communicating with parents specifically do you set a time for yourself when you do not respond to school emails and phone calls say after 5:00 p.m. during a week or on the weekends is it reasonable how do you how do you word it and explain it to parents thank you for your tips and much advice so I know both ways like last the last few years especially with remind it just really dependent on how busy I was in the evening and my mood on the one hand I felt like responding right away made the following day less stressful for me because that was less messages that I had piled up that I needed to respond to in less time I was spending the next day responding to messages if it was something quick and easy like just a quick question that they wanted a quick answer to typically I would respond to it and I would even tell him that at back-to-school night like if you send me a message through remind and I am awake and I'm well enough to answer it I'll probably answer you but if it's more lengthy more involved requires like a very precise answer I need to choose my words wisely then I would just respond to it the next day as far as how you communicate that with parents you can very professionally just say you know I do have email or this or that I always let them know where my preferred method of communication is for me it's remind which I don't have right now or something like that I'm not a huge fan of emails because it's hard for me to get to Mike it's just for some reason it's hard for me to get to my email and is for me to get to messages through something like remind I let them know my preferred method of communication and if there's boundaries I don't think I've ever said I do not message me after this time if they message me after a time that I find to be unreasonable I just don't respond until a time that it's reasonable and I think that in and of itself lets them know like okay her cutoff time must be around this but if you want to let them know you can just honestly say you know as you know I'm a teacher but I do also have you know a family friends a life outside of school and just out of respect for my family friends or just for my own physical and mental well-being i if you message me after this certain time I will respond to you the next day or you can even say I without giving them a specific time you can even say I will respond to all messages within 24 hours that way you're not tying yourself to a specific time but you've given a reasonable amount of time for you to have responding you definitely don't want to wait more than 24 hours to respond to a parent anyway so Martha I hope that helps you and then I've been talking already for 16 minutes the one that I wanted to find I just want to give this person credit so I'm trying to find the post all right here it is it's this one's from someone named Samara or Samara I apologize if I'm saying your name wrong it says hi all I need a little input I am currently working on my master's I have one class scheduled in the fall but I'm debating whether I should put it on hold I am required to take one take a one year program through the district for new teachers I am facing a whole new building with new co-workers and my first classroom etc if I keep taking my masters classes as I mentioned I can do my practicum next fall in 2019 and have my masters by Christmas however not taking it will put me a little behind but I can really focus on all the new stuff and requirements I my district gives me five years to obtain my master's of which one is almost used up I'm going from TA to teacher within district and I think that's teacher on assignment I don't know ta - teacher within district and the clock begin as soon as I pass on my state test in November I think I know the answer but want to know what your veteran what you veteran teachers think should I suck it up and continue my master's or focus I have to I have to ask but I think the district I have to ask but I think the district course transfers to my masters most people told her just kind of focus on your first year which I totally get I said just from what I know of friends that I've had I said if you think you can just suck it up and just tough it out for the next year or whatever the case may be just do that might just get it knocked out of the way because once you get into teaching and life happens it's so much harder to just discipline yourself to go back to school like it's so much harder and then I said my first year teaching I taught with one other person who was also in school because we were in school together there was no one else in our team we went to evening classes on like Tuesdays and Thursdays or something went to class all day on Saturday and still had all the floor responsibilities of running our own classrooms I don't know how I did it but I did it and I don't think I had like nervous breakdowns I may have cried maybe once or twice but I think mentally I just told myself I just got to just get this done so I said if you can if you think you can just suck it up and do it I would just say do it get it done but at the end of the day I told her no one knows you better than you and the other reason is I'm just a firm believer with the way teachers are paid and long term planning that you want to make as much money as you can as quick as you can and a lot of times posting your masters gives you a pay increase so I don't know I was the only one that said that the last time I checked so maybe I have a problem which some of you may have already picked up on I don't I like to overwhelm myself so take what I have to say with the green of saw but anyway it has been 20 minutes I have been rambling I need to figure out what's happening for dinner all in all this week was a little bit more routine than last week we are still not where we need to be I've been telling people it is exhausting teaching my students the laws of the land of Robinson but we are getting there hopefully next week we'll feel even more structured I need to remind myself that it's the beginning of the year and not just be so hard on myself what routines and procedures being in place in my classroom as well as at home because things feel a little unstructured here but all in all it's been great so some of you have been asking my plan is to keep up these vlogs for the entire school year I think I can do it if I have one missing here there don't don't fret I don't think that's gonna happen but just in case I get super busy but as always thank you guys so much for watching you guys are the best subscribers always so supportive always so complimentary if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're just watching but you've not subscribed please subscribe I upload on Sundays at 8 a.m. has been what I've been typically doing and yeah I just want to say I appreciate I appreciate you guys and I can't wait to see you guys in the next book so I will see you guys then bye guys [Music]

Channel: SmartieStyle

Views: 7,758

Rating: 4.8800001 out of 5

Keywords: blog, vlog, daily vlog, teacher vlog, teaching vlog, teacher blog, a day in the life of a teacher, third grade, outfit of the day, ootd, classroom setup

Id: amWUUIQ4N2c

Length: 69min 14sec (4154 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 19 2018