Week 1

 Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Today was my first day! I was very excited to start as a former Hubbell student. I was also very excited because I had been matched with Mrs. Carlson, who was my second-grade teacher 10 years ago, which is crazy to think about. I was here for a shorter amount of time today, but I did get a good introduction to the classroom, the routines, and the things the students are currently working on. Before that, I was able to catch up with Mrs. Carlson and introduce myself to her class. Then, we quickly moved into math. The students are currently working on money, which mainly consists of adding and subtracting in increments of 1, 5, 10, and 25. Ms. Carlson showed me one of the math exercises the class has been doing to practice working with these numbers. On the board, Mrs. Carlson has 5 differently colored squares, each assigned a different monetary value. Then, each day, she arranges a group of multiple squares of different colors. Then, the students are asked to find the value of the arrangement of the squares as a whole. Once they have their answer, they write it on a sticky note with their name and place it on the board. The class then moves to the carpet to discuss the shape and how they got their answers. This was the first activity I observed as a part of my mentorship. From an educational perspective, I really enjoyed this exercise. I think that this is a good warm-up activity because it requires a bit more thinking than a straightforward equation but is still fun and enjoyable for students. Before I left, Mrs. Carlson and her class taught me a game called Dynamite-Boom-Boom. In this game, the students get in a circle and are given one of their vocabulary words. The students spell the word around the circle, each saying one letter. If the student gets the letter wrong, they sit down. Once the word has been spelled successfully, the following 3 students each say "Dynamite", "Boom", and "Boom". The student after that sits down. The students loved this game, and I can see why. It gets them excited to learn and practice their spelling words together, and involves both skill and chance, as you have to know how to spell each word, but you could also be eliminated by being on the wrong side of "Dynamite", "Boom", and "Boom". 

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

When I start in Mrs. Carlson’s room, the class is usually in the middle of their Morning Meeting. Morning Meetings were put in place towards the end of my time at Hubbell and serve the purpose of community building and preparing students to learn for the rest of the school day. I like this practice because I think it is a good and effective implementation of Social Emotional Learning. Today during Morning Meeting, the students were playing a game called “Po-ke-no”. This game is played exactly like Bingo, with the squares on the boards being different playing cards. Mrs. Carlson has a stack of very large playing cards, which she holds up and calls out for students to check their boards for. The students played together in pairs. Several groups got “Po-ke-no”, which they were ecstatic about. After that, we moved into a math activity called “Esti-Mysteries”. The students were extremely excited to play this, and as soon as I got up, I was met with 3 students handing me a whiteboard, a dry-erase marker, and a tissue to clean my board off at the end. In this game, Mrs. Carlson displays a photo on the board with a certain, unknown number of objects for the students to estimate. This is very similar to games where participants are tasked with guessing the number of objects in a jar. Today’s photo was of a clear glass vase filled with small winter hats. Upon seeing the photo, the students are asked to write down their estimate of how many objects are in the photo. As the game progresses, students are given math-related clues to help them find the right answer, such as “this number is an odd number”, and “this number is a part of the pattern 12, 15, 18….”. As the students get new clues, they work together to find what the number could be and make changes to their previous guesses. Similar to why I enjoy the square activity, I enjoy this activity because it gives students a more challenging but fun way to use their math and logic skills. After Esti-Mysteries, we moved into Scholastic News. Each student was given a small newspaper with an article inside. Today’s article was about Major Taylor, a Black champion cyclist. He was considered one of the greatest cyclists of his time, winning several world championships throughout his career. Mrs. Carlson called on students to read each small section within the article. After we finished the article, the students moved to the carpet to do additional activities related to the article on the Scholastic website. We watched a video about Major Taylor, went over vocabulary words within the article, and then played a review game including the vocabulary. I enjoyed the Scholastic News because it served many purposes at the same time. Students got reading practice, social studies information, vocabulary, and a chance to switch activities from reading to watching a video to playing a game. 

Thursday, February 9, 2023

The students were playing Po-ke-no again when I walked in this morning, and this time one pair of them invited me to join their team, which I was happy to do. Next, we went out to the hallway to play a highly competitive game of Dynamite-Boom-Boom so the students could practice for their upcoming spelling test. Once we got back to the classroom, I found out that I was going to give the spelling test! The spelling test has 5 words and then 5 sentences including each spelling word. The students were particularly chatty today (out of excitement for their spelling test I'm sure!), but I managed to reign them in.

Friday, February 10, 2023

Today the students were in an assembly for the first few minutes in the classroom. After they came back, it was time to go to the library! I was very excited for this, as I loved the library in elementary school. There were several new additions I noticed, my favorite being the inclusion library. I am extremely passionate about inclusion and diversity in education, so I love that the students have access to these books. Books and library displays like these are so important because it not only allows students to see themselves represented, but also provides an opportunity for them to
learn about the lives of others in a way that is fun and easier for them to understand. The students were also very excited about their Friendship Party that afternoon!