Tid Bits

I feel like I have lots of random stuff to post about. Let's see, where to begin...

My second graders crack me up!! They just say and do the funniest things ever. Here a few examples:

While teaching another lesson on telling time, one student asked why a person would want to be early for anything. Another student answered, saying that it's a good idea to get to the movie theater early because you won't want to miss the start of the movie. Then Max answered, "But there are previews, so you wouldn't miss the beginning of the movie if you were a little bit late!" Zach raised his hand and advised everyone to get to the movie theater early - esp if you're seeing the premier of a movie - so that you will be sure to get tickets. I readily agreed, thinking that our conversation had convinced my students that being early - at least at the movies - is a good thing. Then Simon raised his hand. "Ms. V! You don't have to be early - you can just use Fandango to get tickets!"

Ms. Niemann and I use headset microphones while teaching because one of our students is hearing impaired and has (most of the time) hearing aids. The mics sometimes give feedback, which we're pretty used to. However, during science last week, the feedback was really loud and caused us all to jump a little, and caused Siobhan to yell, "Oh no! They're coming to invade us!" I couldn't contain my laughter and told Siobhan that she makes me laugh :)

Last week one of my students decided that it would be a fantastic idea to kick his shoe onto the roof of the school. Yeah, he got into some trouble and the custodian who had to go get his shoe was pretty mad, but I still chuckled a little. Kids just crack me up.

I received a HUGE compliment from my univesity coordinator last week. She observed me teach another math lesson on telling time. It was the wrap-up lesson of the unit, so I didn't actually introduce any new concepts surrounding telling time in the lesson. I did, however, do a mini lesson on Big Ben, the most famous clock in the world. I showed my students a Power Point with pictures of Big Ben, including a picture of the face of Big Ben with a 5'4" person superimposed onto it, so they could see just how huge this clock is. And it also happens that Ms. Niemann is 5'4", so I told them to pretend that the person was her - their reactions were classic. Next, I asked them to estimate how long the minute hand and the hour hand of Big Ben are. Once they all estimated, I called on two students to unroll a 14ft piece of adding machine tape, which is the length of Big Ben's minute hand. I didn't tell my students how long it was; rather, I allowed them to walk up and down alongside it, run their hands along it, try to measure with their hands, and whatever else they could think of to comprehend how long it was. I did the same with the 9-foot hour hand. They all re-estimated the length of the hands, and I revealed the lengths of the hands. During my meeting with my coordinator, Sue, she told me that I used some very constructivist approaches/methods to my students' learning when I had them unroll the adding machine tape and allowed them to initiate their own learning. I was thrillied! Constructivism rocks :)

Seattle has been cool but clear and sunny these past few days, which is a wonderful reprieve from the freezing rain/slush we had last week. I'm praying for outdoor recess this week!

Back to working on unit plans and stuff to hand in....