Call Backs

This week we have been busy doing call backs. Our students get out of school at 2:00pm and we started an afternoon intervention on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday where we focus two days on letter recognition, rhyming, and letter sounds and one day on math. It's been going very well and it's really exciting to see the light bulbs go off for these students. The students that are staying later to catch up have adjusted well and have enjoyed learning with our FUN center rotation.

I enjoyed watching myself do two video lessons. I got some ideas on how I can better communicate to students and clarify what I am asking of them. I subbed once this week and got the feel of taking over before my mini residency. On Tuesday the Kindergarten team had an hour meeting with our Literacy coach, where we talked about our students that have not made benchmark, who we need to keep and eye on and how we plan on transitioning to full day Kindergarten after winter break! We also went and observed one 1st grade teacher, one 3rd grade teacher, one 4th/5th split teacher, and one 5th grade teacher teach for 5 minutes. We observed other staff members and reflected on their teaching style, got ideas from them and got to see how other teachers at Shaw teach. While I was subbing I got observed by five staff members during my calendar corner/literacy lesson. When I saw them walk into the classroom and begin observing I got really nervous but the five minutes that they spend observing went fast and I got all of their observation notes back with GREAT reviews and words of encouragement on my teaching style!

I am excited for tomorrow because we are having a mini feast where we are baking a "trash can

turkey" and all of the fixings with the entire Kindergarten staff. I have never heard of it nor seen it so pictures will come next week...we are literally cooking a turkey in a trash can outside under some coal.

Here are some pictures of my students during choice time:

These boys were able to use all of our blocks to make a HUGE tower!!! Young engineers!!!

Colton was using the Promethean board to draw a picture. I love how the kids are learning and using our amazing technology!

Hardest Week...

Last Wednesday I went to school anticipating a great day with my class but was blindsided with the worst news. A early morning house fire took the life of a sweet young Kindergartner at our school, Hayden Martin. He was in the classroom next to ours and I have had the pleasure of getting to know him. The one thing that I love about Shaw is that all three Kindergarten classes collaborate together all week long with many activities, allowing us to get to know all 55 Kindergarten students at our school. Hayden was a bright young boy who loved every part of school. The story has been all over the news, ADN.com and the frontiersman but the house fire is still under investigation. I hope that the truth of it all will come to rest and people realize the true loss of this 6 year old boy.
I am starting to come to peace with it all, but have many emotions of anger, sadness, and happiness knowing that he is in a better place. Our school is dealing with it very well and only making us a stronger community. Hayden is now an angel watching over all of us with his big smile and a twinkle in his eye. I am so happy and at peace knowing that school is the one thing that brought him happiness everyday and that is because of his AMAZING teacher and school.
R.I.P Hayden



On a brighter note....we had a Math-a-thon Assembly where the entire school came together to celebrate our highest earning year ever. Instead of selling wrapping paper, candy, and gits our school does a Math-a-thon where children ask for pledges to improve their math learning and better themselves. The money earned from each student and class will go half to their class and half to their school to cover costs of field trips, assembly performers, game nights, pizza parties...the list gos on. Our school as a whole collected almost $11,000!!! Our class was the top Kindergarten classroom collecting $425 in pledges!!! The children that collected $30 or more were put in a raffle where over 150 prizes were bought to give to the highest earners and all other students. The BIG surprise for the assembly was that we rented SUMO costumes and our staff had some friendly competitions. The kids LOVED cheering on teachers and watching them fall, run each other over and having difficult getting up. It was a really nice way to end our hard week.

Field Trip and Conference

Last week was so busy but so much fun. We took the entire Kindergarten to a local Fire Station for our first field trip of the year. They gave us a tour of the station, allowed students to go inside the fire engines and ambulance. It was really cool to see how excited the students were to see their hometown hero's. I feel that seeing a firefighter and medic show techniques to fire safety and the how to keep yourself and others safe from fire. They also got to watch an Elmo safety video so they loved that.


Thursday we had conference from 8am-7pm, and Friday we were at school from 8:12:30 where we got ready for Quarter 2 and our Kindergarten team got together to plan for the quarter as well. It was a super long day but we had 17 wonderful conference. I was so happy to see every students family participate and understand how important their children's education is. I had my list of things that I came up for each student and I really felt a part of the conference and that my input was important. About three conferences in my mentor teacher said how about you run this conference as the parents walked it...I jumped right in and ended up doing the majority of the conference with Cheri's input at times as well. I really enjoyed the entire process and feel that I am ready for my own at one point. We had some difficult conferences with some parents not addressing their students struggles but it was all handled wonderfully. Today we began call backs where we have students stay later from 2-3:30 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays to get children to meet benchmarks and improve their math and literacy skills. I am going to do the math assessments on Wednesday afternoons so I am excited to see what that in tells.

I am excited to see what Quarter 2 will bring!!!