Benchmark Tests

I'm sitting here scratching my head. Today was a good day all told. My twins didn't test my patience, my students (for the most part) did their best work and all went well.

Except I cannot figure out the test. We took our math benchmark. It was suppose to cover double digit addition and subtraction (with regrouping), area, non-standard units of measure, length (when given something to measure with like 1cm blocks), money and paired additive lists.

I spent some time on everything. (Less on Area because I figured (and rightly so) that at this age they're going to draw in the squares and the kids will just have to count it). But I spent the MOST of this six weeks on Addition and Subtraction. When I saw last years test it covered everything, but hit the adding and subtraction the hardest. I was feeling REALLY good about how my students would do, and... then this test came.

Bless their hearts, the students that really focused and read the directions and questions did JUST FINE. I'm the kind of teacher that when things don't go well for my students I tend to blame myself, but some of the mistakes I'm thinking to myself- what else could I have done? One little girl that struggled though Absolutely everything in math this six weeks aced the test. How? Because she PAID ATTENTION to the questions. This was the first time the test was not read aloud to the students and some of them were REALLY hurt by this. Others... I just don't know.

I could have spent more time on things, I really could have. But those kids who had it, they HAD it. And it was a majority that did have it. 1 student failed because he refused to check his answers and actually do the work. (I hate to blame it on him, but when I point at a question and ask him to show his work and he will NOT do it then what room do I have to say otherwise? He knows how to do the math, but if you won't actually do the calculations you're going to fail.) Another is an English Language Learner who probably would have aced the test if it had been read to him. Another is a new student as of two weeks ago. She'd never taken a test like this before. My last student that did not do well was able to explain her work in words when talking to me, but when it came to getting the right answer just didn't follow that same line of reasoning. (I'm not going to go into it for testing confidentiality but...) As for my last student... I have no idea.

I just... don't understand. If the students paid attention to the questions asked, they got it. If they didn't... they didn't. I feel like I should be frustrated because of that 1/4 (basically) of my class that got below a C. But... I don't know. One question I absolutely didn't teach them. Then again, none of my materials that I was teaching from went into that depth so I honestly didn't have any chance of being able to teach that to them. Apparently I'm suppose to have been able to know that anyway... but I didn't. I even asked my teacher what else I should teach on the topic and she gave suggestions that I followed.

How should I feel? Am I allowed to beat myself up about this, or should I just shrug my shoulders, reteach that one thing that I didn't teach before and move on? I mean, I feel like I ought to be able to beat myself up at least a little bit.

I guess I need to plan for tomorrow. I don't know what benchmark they have in the morning (It's either reading, writing, science or social studies). So I'm not sure how long it'll take.

I hate feeling confused. x.x I love my children. They deserve the best education that I can give them, and thank goodness that 3/4 of them did read the questions and pay attention. They exceeded what I expected of them (just because I prepared them for a test they didn't get. I'm glad they did get the content when I taught it and were able to take it another step farther.) I'm really, really, really proud of them altogether. Today could have been crazy (because my teacher was gone) but they really did their best and I cannot be more proud of them.

There, that's the emotion I'll feel. Pride in those kids who put their all into the test.

This week is going to be hard. We've got benchmark tests and I have no idea how long they're going to take. I'm just not sure what's going on this week.

I know we've got StoryBook Opera at some point, and I need to cover Robert Fulton, and multiplication by 10s, but beyond that there doesn't seem like much. Just do some reading I guess....

*lesigh....* Planning is so important, and I always feel really anxious when I don't feel like I've done enough planning to really make it worthwhile.

Two Days, one Suspension

The last two days have been pretty horrible. I've been trying to teach subtraction with regrouping. Some of my students have done very well, they've gotten it, been able to explain it, so on and so forth. However, a handful of them are struggling badly. One little girl is writing a one above the ten she is taking away, rather than one less then that number. Another is refusing to see which number is less. The first is probably getting confusing information from home, the other is playing me. She's acting frustrated, and so I try to help, bu won't listen. She's getting the attention she wants. I'm going to stop giving it to her. However, what if she does struggle? What do I do then?

Anyway. Mrs Howard has been out of the room the last two mornings. First she was doing some acceleration with the GT children,second she had to take her son to the doctors. The first day was... alright. Three students made life difficult, and finally I had to just stop. The next day was completly messed up. I'd planed the day this way:
7:45-8:00 Welcome
8:00-8:15 Annoucements
8:15-9:15 Ms. Longoria or Math
9:15-10:30 Walk for Heart
10:30-11:15 Math
11:15-11:30 Read Aloud
11:30-12:15 Lunch
12:15-1:15 Social Studies
1:15-2:45 Specials.

What actually happened was this:
7:45-8:00 Welcome
8:00-8:15 Announcements
8:15-8:25 Math then we got an announcement that Ms. Longoria WAS teaching so...
8:25-9:20 Ms. Longoria
9:20-9:35 Waiting for the Walk to Start
9:35-10:20 Walking. In this time there was a student who I was unable to get to walk, obey my requests, stand where I asked him to (I had to move him because he hit his brother and was not allowed to be near the boy he wanted to be par that boy's mother's request) so as we walked I handed him to the nearest administrator. He stayed with her though the whole walk.
10:20-10:30 Drinks
10:30-11:00 Library time
11:00-11:20 Bathroom/Drinks/Transition to the classroom
11:20-11:30 Read Aloud
11:30-12:15 Lunch- During this time the administrator I turned my student over came to inform me that he was getting suspended for three days and that I needed to get some work for him. Thankfully, I had a para I could hand the kids off to while I took care of that.
12:15-1:15 Ms. Howard was back for this, though she took three of my struggling students to work with them. The rest f them worked on their MLK books.
1:15-1:25 Transition to Specials, only to find out that specials were halved for the day so they didn't have to be there till 2:00.
1:25-1:55 Finish MLK books.
1:55-2:00 Go to specials, to find they don't start till 2:05
2:05-2:45 Specials - Ms. Howard and I went to retrieve test scores for them to go home with the students.
2:45-3:20 Dismissal

When we look back, was there really any instruction/ practice time? I don't think so. I really do not think so at all. I had to be very flexible.

I'm not sure if ANYTHING went well. We're going to give up on Subtraction because enough of them have the basics. I hope they're alright! I'm also not sure what I could have done to keep my boy from being suspended. I couldn't deal with him and everyone else in the classroom at the same time.

Right now I feel like I'm in the middle of a war zone. They're struggling to see me as a disciplinarian, because Ms. Howard has always been that. I think in their eyes I'm not allowed to make decisions like that and they don't like having to change their thinking. I need to be more structured about how I discipline.

All in all, this week has left me fairly flat. I'm not happy to be here. Only little things are keeping me going. Like when Ang. made me a bowtie out of tissues and I wore it during dismissal.

I've taught every day since I last posted, and all the reflecting is really wearing me down. I reflect in my head and out loud with anyone who'll talk to me (here is where I love my fiance and the woman I'm living with), but writing takes a lot of energy I don't have at the end of the day.

Anyway, I'm going to try to reflect as a whole.

Things that have gone well-
To-With-By has worked well.
Stickers work well so long as I remember to give them.
Time limits on doing things.
Having them work with their elbow partner
Moving over to Aa. so that when he speaks he can speak softly but still answer.
Let Aa sit behind and watch so he'll be still and polite.
Taking Mal. aside to talk to her and not calling on her when she doesn't know the answer.
Making a schedule on the board. I get through things faster!

Things that need help-
Discipline
Enforcing consequences to actions after I have told them the consequence.
PACING
Stating my objectives.
Finding reading material for the kids.

I just had a stroke of brilliance. Poetry. Poetry-Fluency. Fluency-Poetry. Kids time themselves, I can totally do that.

Lesson 7 & 8

Lesson 7-

I incorporated coins into my centers for this lesson. First I let them finish the centers from the day previous, and then let them work in centers where they were adding the value of coins. Two digit addition, I think so. Another TEKs incorporated? I think so. By the way? I rock.

Well-
Students were self directed
I was able to save my voice a bit
Able to work one-on-one with some students as they worked with coins.
Pre-assessment of coins given - good insite into what they need to know

Badly-
The coins were like toys
The worksheet was not very clear on the pictures - I printed it too small.

Overall, I think this was a pretty sound decision on my part. They know this stuff.

Lesson 8 - Traskhetball
I'm going to not reflect on this one because I spent a whole lot of time with Mr. Coleman talking about it today.

Things I need to work on-
1. My student's self-assessment/informal assessment. I'm starting to do more of it, but still don't do it as much as possible. As I cut down my lesson length hopefully I'll do more of it.
2. Length- My lesson was too long. I've kinda been following Ms. Howard's example a bit on this as her lessons are really long. With her though, their individual work takes the most time. So, me = learn more. me = shorter lessons, me = talk less.
3. When the voice gives out, take the time.

Otherwise, I got some very good feedback on my teacher presence, management, disipline, expectations, etc. All of those things that I have really worked hard on. I love when I get someone telling me that I've done something right! I really enjoy it.

Now, fingers crossed for the test tomorrow!!

Lessons 3-6

I taught on Friday using whole class inquiry methods to get my students to regroup.

What Went Well
My mid-range students got it. They understood.
The students are getting better at answering my 'why' questions and being respectful.

What Didn't Go Well
The students are at such DIFFERENT levels that the whole class left half of them bored, and the other half day dreaming.


This was an alright lesson. I don't think I want to do all class inquiry again though. The problem with that is that I know inquiry doesn't go well the first few times and I have to train the kids to think about their thinking. I'm understanding WHY so few people actually use this tecnique.

Lessons on the Virtical Frame
I used centers to teach the virtical frame and just get the kids thining about how addition and regrouping work.

What Went Well
The students (with the exception of two) were 100% engaged in every center.
I have some solid data to say who is struggling now. Namely, El, Mal, Pr.
I was able to have a little one-on-one time with every student.
Every student was able to explain regrouping to me.
They started explaining their work with words and making those verbal connections.

What didn't go well
Basically, nothing went so badly wrong that I would change anything. The students were engaged, they loved the virtual manipulatives, I only had to remind them twice about their voice level... Yes, some of them struggled with some of the centers, but all in all I believe they did REALLY well.

I loved using centers. Yes, it was a bit harder to think out the centers, but I think If I was a teacher of second/first grade I would have centers made to reinforce the concepts I wanted to teach already so much of that work would be done. I really, really, really like how self directed the kids were and I enjoyed being able to work with them one-on-one.

Lesson 3: Estimation

I did my third lesson in my addition unit today. My biggest problem with Estimation is the definition of 'estimate'. Everyone I've talked to have defined estimation as an educated 'guess'. To the kids, they learned that a 'guess' really is anything that's out there. A guess cannot be right or wrong. But now they have me in front of them telling them that what they learned isn't exactly right, that there are 'rules' to estimation. There are ways to make estimation more exact, but they're not really easy to explain. However, I did the best that I could. For once, I taught the lesson a lot like it was explained in EnVision math. I put the lesson plan into my own words though (for the TWS!).

Anyway-
Well
The students were able to identify their tens and ones.

Not Well-
I had to redirect them quite a bit.
I didn't have enough time.
The technology did /not/ work.
The students didn't have contact with the technology.

Anyway. I am not satisfied with this lesson, but I'm not sure HOW I could teach it better. Frankly, I'm thinking I'll have to leave this particular subject alone, having introduced it. On the benchmark tests they will simply add the two numbers together to see if they have enough money to buy the object. As they get more sophisticated in their estimation skills they will learn how to estimate better.

Link to Lesson Plans for Lesson 1 and 2 of addition unit.

My first two lessons of my teacher work sample have been completed.

I don't have much time, so I'll reflect quickly.

Lesson 1- Closest 10
Went Well-
Students were engaged.
Students were able to tell the closest ten using a number line.
Students worked quickly.
Students were able to get up and move.
I made the students go back to their seats and do it again to show that I was serious about them following directions.
New attention signal given and learned.
Able to switch gears when it was clear the learning goal was not being met.

Needs improvement:
I'm not sure if they are able to find the nearest ten without a number line.
They had to go back to their desks. Directions needed to be more concise.
Pick a management sceme and work with it.

Lesson 2- Place Value
Went Well-
Students realized I'm serious about directions (st.s had to pull their sticks)
Learning goal accomplished.
Students worked in groups without arguing.
Ma and Aa BOTH engaged in the lesson!

Needs Improvement-
Give more verbal praise - avoid empty phrase
Formulate questions before having groups present.
Need to find a new punishment than moving their conduct stick. What could it be?

Lesson 1 and Lesson 2

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