Mrs. Williams' Daily Reflections
All about my learning at Lee
January 5, 2016
January 6, 2016
January 7, 2016
My take away from today is that time management is everything. I've altered how we do our schedule and I really like it. I've seen it pay off this week. I hope my students like it just as much.
I'm also very proud of my students and how they performed on their January ISIP. ALL of my learners were on Tier 1, which is the highest level of reading. I am excited to share their results with the rest of our fourth grade team during our PLC meeting today.
January 10, 2016
I am so excited for the school week ahead and hope my students are as well. We are going to learn a little bit more about one of my own interests -- the Holocaust -- and what we can learn from it moving forward. The literacy and social studies implications are huge. I can't wait. It's going to be a great week!
January 12, 2016
Even though grammar isn't my favorite thing to teach, I think my students are getting better with using commas. Conventions is one of the hardest things to learn in writing, and learning the rules can be boring. Hopefully learning a little bit at a time will make learning all these rules more interesting!
I'm really interested to find out what happens next in Number the Stars. I haven't read it since I was in grade school, but it was one of my favorite books as a child. Even though I can't really relate to the situation that Annemarie and Ellen are going through, I admire their courage to stand up for what is right.
Tomorrow is going to be a great day because we have a writing lesson! I'm so excited to see how my learners incorporate this week's writing lessons into their own compositions. Their first full draft is due Friday; I hope I am impressed!
January 13, 2016
After we finished writing, we finished learning about the Texas Revolution! I'm really pumped for the kiddos to explore their menu starting tomorrow. It has some fun options for them, but I think it will be informative too.
After lunch, things were pretty normal. We had our number talk, our Green Light time, then moved into small groups. Our class was pretty crazy during science time, but we had fun learning about the different forms of energy anyway. =)
Tomorrow I will be absent at school because I will be attending a math workshop to learn how to teach geometry and measurement better. Hopefully I come back with some new methods of teaching these math subjects!
January 15, 2016
Because it was the last day of the second nine weeks, we had a spirit assembly. My favorite part of the assembly was when Aaratrika won LEEder of the Week. It makes me happy to make my students happy. I only wish I could recognize more than one a week! I really enjoyed the cup-stacking competition as well.
After the assembly, we came back and read a very calming chapter of Number of Stars. I'm predicting that "a storm" will be coming soon in the book. The book has been very suspenseful so far; I am anxious to get to the climax of the novel!
My students worked diligently during reading/writing workshop to finish their expository essays, take their spelling tests, and make sure they completed 2 sessions of iStation. I was very impressed by their work ethic and focus; it allowed me to meet with multiple students about their writing.
In the afternoon, we took our second 9 weeks math assessment. It went alright-- I need to review which concepts we're still struggling with and the ones that we have down pat. I think for the most part, my class is pretty solid. I am very proud of their progress in math.
We have a long weekend ahead and I CAN'T WAIT!
January 19, 2016
After specials, we took our 9-weeks reading assessment. I was REALLY impressed with how well they did on it; I know our 4th grade team will be blown away by their results. They make me so proud! We concluded our morning with a writing lesson that I think will help our class be more on track and focused during reading/writing workshop. They now have an outline to use during workshop so they can focus less on brainstorming and more on writing.
The afternoon didn't really go like I planned. I had planned an interactive Counting Cogs lesson, but didn't realize that it couldn't be done on the iPads. We had to improvise a little bit and do a numberless word problem to launch our division unit, but I still think the learners enjoyed it nonetheless.
It was a great day-- I'm looking forward to a full week of zones and workshop!