The Second and Third Weeks...

The second and third weeks have been just as great as the first week. I must admit, by the second week I was extremely frustrated with the math program. Virginia Beach city public schools use a mathematics program called Everyday Math from Chicago Institute. I think the developers of this particular math program were really on to something when they first created this program because it takes a spiral approach to mathematics. In other words, just like every child does not learn how to walk or talk at the same time, not every child may be able to grasp or understand a math concept at the same time. Therefore, you might teach addition or subraaction strategies many times throughout the year because of the spiral approach--INGENIOUS! However, as you might have noticed, I mentioned addition or subtraction strategies. I am sure you are wondering what I mean when I say strategies because after all there is only one way to add and subtract numbers, right? WRONG! Now there are numerous strategies like the counting up strategy, the partial sums strategy, etc. So instead of being able to simply add or subract a math problem, you now have to memorize a wide variety of strategies to help you come up with an answer. So it was slightly frustrating trying to retrain my brain to use all of these strategies as I am teaching the children. All is good now though!

Oh and I must tell you all what I have been working so hard on the past few weeks. The children will be learning about Egypt during the month of February. Therefore, the media coordinator and I collaborated on a project that the children will complete. First, we set up pen pals (using E-PALS). The pen pals are a second grade group of students in Pennsylvania who are learning about Egypt the same time as we are. The children will write to their pen pals using friendly letter format (which they just learned about). They will start out with a simple intro letter telling about themselves. Then the students will converse about what they are learning about Egypt. At the end of the month, the children will have an opportunity to video conference and see their pen pals face to face. My class will perform a few songs from their Egyptian musical that they will be performing for their parents. It is called "Temples and Tombs." We might also have a trivia contest between the two classes, but we will have to see. The plans are not etched in stone quite yet.

The next project we are working on is poetry. I just introduced the poetry unit last week to the class. Throughout the next month, the kids will learn how to write a free verse poem, a haiku, and acrostc poem and a couplet. They will go through the writing process using the writers workshop format. Next, the students will draw a simple illustration of their poem in art class. After that they will take their very best poem and "publish" it in a class poetry book. Then at the end of February, we will have a book signing and meet the poet party and nvite the parents to come in.

Other than that, everything has gone particulary well! I have been so busy writing lesson plans, which is the story of my life these days! So far, so good...no complaints on my end!