Week of November 23

This week I am starting to feel the crunch of the holidays. We are having to set aside class time to practice and prepare for the Christmas program that is put on every year along with Christmas writings and the beginning of decorations.

Again this week I am in charge of the whole class, teaching maths, leading group work, literacy, and the afternoon lessons consisting of art, religion, PE, PSHE, and topic (history or social studies). I am having a good time looking at subjects that I will most likely not be in charge of or have to even worry about in the United States because those would be 'specials'.

In maths we are beginning to work on fractions. This was never my strong point in math so I am very glad I am getting the chance to practice teaching it. I think it is fun to try doing maths in different ways to see how the individual students are learning. Usually I will ask the students after we have done a lesson or a part of a lesson to put their thumbs up if they get it, in the middle if they are a little unsure, or down if they don't get it. It is great to see their faces light up when they really get it. If I see they aren't catching on I will make a point of going over to them shortly after the lesson has ended, when they have work time, and give them some one on one time.

This week in literacy things are starting to get a little jumbled. I originally wanted this week to be about starting on their short stories. Last week I found the students were really struggling with verbs and adjectives. I know that they will both need to be used in their short stories. I decided to spend a little more time on the verbs and adjectives. To do this I found School House Rock online, I had watched these in school as a student and still remember the songs. The class really liked the song about verbs. After the video we talked about verbs again gave some examples and then they had a worksheet to fill out. Then with some time at the end we watched the song about adjectives. I am glad I took the extra time to go over this again rather than after we have started the story.