S17: Blog 1: According to plan...

Something I joke about often is how when you teach at an elementary school you’d think that your daily schedule would feel routine, if not monotonous because it shouldn’t ever change. However, if you’ve spent any more than a couple of hours at an elementary school, you know that isn’t the case. It feels as if there is always something special going on, whether it’s a two hour pep rally on a Monday morning or an outside activity that eats up the last 45 minutes of the day and leaves you and your students frantically cleaning up before it’s time to go home. My own daily schedule is always a bit of a mess, because depending on the day I could be in science with the 4th graders for the morning and in reading with a group of my 5th graders in the afternoon, or in just one of those places. On very rare occasions, I might spend the whole day in my math classroom.

Wednesday the 4th started like any other morning. I was feeling happy to be back for the 2nd day of school post winter break. I was fairly relaxed; secure in the knowledge that my guided reading plans were done and ready to go for the afternoon. My CT had planned this particular day’s math lesson, so I knew I wouldn’t be teaching first thing in the morning, but working with my students during the lesson and pulling a small group who needed some extra help if need be. The first hour of the day passed without incident and my CT taught our first group of kids how to plot decimals on a number line, a necessary first step in learning how to round decimals to different place values.

During the switch from our first class back to our homeroom class, my CT received a phone call informing her about a family emergency. This left me to teach the math lesson to this next group of students while my CT figured out how she would be able to be gone for the rest of the day. Now, I get nervous when I get up to teach lessons I’ve spent hours planning for, so getting up and teaching a lesson I hadn’t planned for, about material I didn’t feel I had a firm conceptual understanding of, was a little terrifying. I was immensely glad that this particular group of students receives support during our math block from both an ESE teacher and an ESOL paraprofessional. Their kind smiles and encouraging nods gave me courage and they were instrumental in helping to facilitate the independent and group work that was part of the lesson, as students worked to create their own number lines with decimals after I had modeled how to do it.

To make the story of a long day short, I ended up teaching the same math lesson to our other two math classes during the afternoon, working with a large group of people who made it possible for my CT to be able to leave and be with her family. As I taught the lesson more, I felt my confidence with the material begin to grow. I may not have planned the lesson or ever wished for the day to go like it did, but at the end of the day I felt that my students had grasped the material and met the days learning objective. As I circulated throughout the room during the three different class periods, I was able to see which students were able to independently plot decimals of different place values on number lines, which students could do it with a little questioning and support, and which students appeared to be a little lost. I made a special note of these students, wanting to make sure I talked with my CT about working with them in a small group to re-teach the day’s concept before we threw rounding into the mix.

All’s well that ends well and my CT was back at school the next day, profusely thanking all of us who had her back. The rest of the week even managed to go according to the plans we had made, allowing me to finally teach my guided reading lesson and allowing my CT and I to work together to teach our kids about rounding decimals.

FEAPS: 3c: Identifies gaps in students’ subject matter knowledge

5d: Collaborates with stakeholders to support student learning

6d: Maintains positive and productive relationships with colleagues

Evidence:

Picture of day’s EQ and objectives

Picture of communication between CT and myself

Picture of list of re-teach students

#EDE4940 #FEAPS3C #FEAPS5D #FEAPS6D