Accountability

Teachers are to be observed at least once a year by their administrators. They are allowed to be in our room whenever they choose, but observations can only happen between the 3rd week of school and the beginning of April. I've been at two different schools and its been the same at both. They wait until a week before the observations are due and then cram all of them in. If you have only been teaching for 3 years or less, then the observation must be for a minimum of 45 minutes. If you've been teaching longer, then the minimum is vastly shortened to only 15 minutes. Mind you, they can stay as long as they want no matter how long you've taught, but those are the minimums. All of this is a part of keeping teachers accountable. (Of course, it would be helpful to hear it at the beginning of the year so changes can be made...but I digress.)
I like feedback. We all like to be told we're doing well, but I really like to hear both sides. What are some things I can work on? What am I doing well that she wants to share with others? What are some things I'm doing that I may not be aware of? I meet with my administrator and go over her observational notes of the lesson she observed. There are several domains we're "graded" on with Excellent being the top, then Proficient, Satisfactory, and Unacceptable. We have to score at least proficient on all the domains or we go on probation. In that case, we go over our lesson plans every week, meet a lot more often, the administrator is in the classroom more often, etc.
I say I like it, and I do. But there's no stopping the butterfly feelings in my stomach when she walks in. No matter what I'm doing, I always feel as if I'm a bug under a microscope and need to begin performing.

Whoa!

Wow, Spring Break passed fast! The week after was fast paced. We got a lot done, but there also seemed to be lots of interruptions. This coming week will be packed as well. We have a field trip to the Museum of Natural Science on Monday, a presentation on Tuesday, then preparation for the coming TAKS tests in all other free moments. This week is a full week, then next week is a 4 day week due to Good Friday. The week after is another 4 day week...at least with children because Monday is a professional development day. Then the next week is the TAKS test! Yikes! We're on a countdown!

Who-hoo! Spring Break

My students are so excited that Spring Break is here! Their teacher is probably more excited than they are though! :)

Question Box

We have a Question Box in our classroom. (It is a tissue box that I wrapped with black construction paper and labeled Question Box.) Students can write questions on slips of paper and put them in the box. When students are finished with independent work, they can pull a question out of the box and look up the answer. This is great with encouraging curiosity as well as developing research skills. They're learning how to use encyclopedias, the Internet, almanacs and atlases, etc. At the beginning they start off with Skinny Questions, i.e. "What is Davy Crockett's middle name?" or questions where the writer is trying to be silly, i.e. "How old is Ms. Ross?" but gradually they get the idea and really jump into learning. Today a question was researched, "Why are bubbles round?"

FAT Question or Skinny Question?

We have a rule in our classroom. When in Literature Circles, one must ask FAT questions. "What is a FAT question?" you ask? Well, it is a question that requires thoughtful, more drawn out responses. Where as a skinny question might be answered with only one or two words.
I have a poster in my room with a fat cat and a skinny cat on it. We look at the poster often and say "Is this question a FAT question or a Skinny question? How can we make it fatter?" The kids love it, because they take ownership of their questions!

TAKS scores returned

TAKS scores came in today. Congratulations to our 3rd and 5th grade students on a wonderful job on the Reading TAKS last week! Keep up the hard work! :)

Literature Circles

I began Literature Circles with my classes today. I have taught for 5 years, but hadn't done Literature Circles for the past 3. I had forgotten how much I loved them. The kids love them too! There are 5 jobs, but I only introduced 3 today. The children loved being a Discussion Director, Literary Luminary or Vocabulary Enricher. One class is reading Sarah, Plain and Tall while the other class is reading Kite Fighters. They talked with each other regarding the 5 chapters we have read so far. We didn't have time to present in class. We will get to that tomorrow, but they worked well together! I'm excited!

Yay! Stanford is Over!

So testing is over for this month. We have one week of full instruction (whatever, will I do!) before Spring Break. I'm very excited because we are starting Research Fair. I love Research Fair! The students choose an invention that applies to the state of Texas (Texans, Texas industry, etc.), research it, make a model of it, a backboard, write a paper and do a presentation. It is quite a large project, but they have more than two months to do it and most of it is done in class. They love it, because they get to choose their project and focus on something they find interesting. I'm excited!