Stuff

So my student teaching is going great. I've started taking over everything except Math and Science (which is fine by me). I have four spelling groups, they use Words Their Way. Which I am really liking now that I know a little more about it. (Peterson sucked!) I have 5 reading groups, which are reading some great, but sad books. The books we are reading now are The Captive, Old Yeller, Ralph S. Mouse, Mouse and the Motorcycle, and Shiloh.

I have taken over writing, which is my favorite subject, but these kids hate it! My teacher has hardly done anything with writing all year long because she knows they don't do it or like it. I'm having a hard time teaching writing since we didn't get that great of instruction on it. Next week we are working on persuasive writing. I'm thinking of making them persuade me into not making them hand write their assignments. I'm not sure though. I need some ideas on what to make them write about. It's hard for me becuse I love writing I don't know how to get someone to like doing it.

I'm not looking forward to taking over Math. They are working on fractions and I hate fractions. When I take over I'll be teaching adding, subtracting, and multiplying them. YUCK! It's going to be soooo hard teaching some of these students the concepts involved with fractions. Some of my students don't even know how to multiply and divide simple numbers. How do you teach tougher concepts if they don't comprehend the easier ones?

For Social Studies we just finished up our Wax Museum reports. They did so well on them! I LOVE the Wax Museum. Now we are working on Bio-Cubes on the Presidents. So far every student has picked a President, read about them, and filled out a blank Bio-Cube. This way on Tuesday when we go into the computer lab, the students can just go online and quickly type their info in. THey are excited about sharing their President, but don't want to write out the things about them. It's frustrating!

Other than student teaching I'm not up to much.