Boston Red Sox
So I am currently on Fall Break and back at home until Tuesday. I got home last night and had a relaxing night home filled with Balderdash and my sister’s bf’s Wii. Today I took my grandmother to the bank then out to lunch with my bf at the Daily Grill. Then we all went back to my house and watched tv and just relaxed. I played Slugfest 2004 with my bf, but I got a little competitive and we had to turn it off.
Yes, I know. I was being a baby and a sore loser but I am just really competitive and when my bf is killing me with tons of runs in the first, second, third…inning and he’s laughing at me because my face looks really upset/mad/concentrating then I just get upset.
But…you must be wondering why my title says Boston Red Sox. My bf is a big Red Sox fan and I am currently watching the 2nd playoff game of the Red Sox vs. Indians. The Red Sox won their first playoff game last night and this night has had it’s ups and downs. In the first inning Indians went up 1-0. In the bottom of the 3rd (I believe) the Red Sox went up 3-1. Then in the top of the 4th the Indians went up 5-3. And in the bottom of the 5th inning the Red Soxs finally went back up 6-5. It is now currently in the top of the 6th inning, with runners in scoring position and I REALLY want the Red Sox’s to win! I am a big baseball fan and I am hoping the Red Sox’s win the World Series. So we’ll see what happens when it happens.
My Saturday at Fright Fest
My softball team volunteers at Kings Dominion, so we work there as a fundraiser. Trust me…it is NOT fun. Everytime I tell someone I have to go work at KD, they assume that it’ll be a blast. Now don’t get me wrong, I think KD is a lot of fun, but working there is not. But anyways, we just have one more KD this year, October 27th, and it will be the last time I ever have to work at KD.
This past Saturday we had to work at KD from 4 pm to 1 am!!!! The reason for that is because it is Fright Fest so the park is open until midnight. We got there and I worked at nighttime novelties with one of my friends. Before we took our carts out, some of us were allowed to try a maze, which was supposed to be like a mental hospital. I was towards the back of the group…so it wasn’t as scary as if I had been in the front. It was also still light outside so it wasn’t bad. Some of the girls went during their break at night and said it was a lot scarier.
Working at nighttime novelties wasn’t that bad. We got to wear light up bunny ears and devil horns and crazy glowing necklaces and light up grillz. Me and my friend did a lot of sword fights when we got bored. It was a little creepy at times because the fake fog got pretty thick at times and there were creepers around trying to scare everyone. No one scared us because we were working, but it was funny to watch other people get scared by the creepers or just by their friends. So overall it wasn’t that bad. Afterwards, we were all cracked out because we were really tired. It was a fun ride home. 
Acrostic Poems
In my practicum class today, my teacher integrated Language Arts with History. In History, the students had been learning about 5 different Native American groups (Inuit, Sioux, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, and Pueblo). For the Language Arts assignment the students had to make acrostic poems for each of the Native American groups.
For example: They would pick the Pueblo and write it vertically in capital letters. Then they would use descriptive words for the Pueblo and write them horizontally and they had to fit a letter of the vertical word into the descriptive words. Like P – Pottery and U - sqUash and E – dEsert and B – adoBe and L – welL and O – hOt.
The students got in groups and had to all work together and come up with these descriptive words together. They had 6 minutes to work on each Native American group. I liked how the teacher was integrated Language Arts and History. The students had a big History quiz on Tuesday so they needed to make sure they understood the differences between all the Native American groups.
Computer Problems
So, everyone knows that electronics and water do not mix. I already knew this of course, but then I reminded myself of this situation when I knocked over a glass of water onto my laptop. I quickly grabbed paper towels and cleaned the water off the screen and keyboard, and it looked like all of the water was gone. I had to leave for a softball meeting, so I was gone for about two hours. When I got back, my computer wasn’t working and was turned off and wouldn’t turn back on. I picked it up and groaned when I realized that there had been water underneath the computer the entire time. So it had been sitting in water for about two hours. I felt like an idiot that I hadn’t checked underneath my computer. So I grabbed some more paper towels and cleaned off the water on my desk and computer. I placed my computer on a paper towel after having taken out the battery and then grabbed my fan and had the fan blowing on my computer the entire night. I was very nervous it wasn’t going to turn on and I knew my friends didn’t believe it would turn on either. The next day, I left the fan on my laptop until 3 o’clock when I tried to turn it on and it worked!!! Everything is fine, nothing is lost or damaged, except for my touchpad. That could be really bad, except I have a wireless mouse so I can use that instead. So luckily for me, this problem did not turn out so bad!
Book Talk
On Tuesday, we had a librarian from the county library come into the classroom to do a book talk. It was interesting to watch because I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a librarian come in the classroom to do a book talk. I enjoyed watching the librarian talk about the different books she brought. She brought a variety of books that she thought the students would like to read. She would sometimes read a page of the book or just talk about the book, but she would not give any hints to what happened at the end of the book. She even made me want to read the books so I could figure out what happened at the ending. I thought she did a very good job and I was happy to see that the students seemed very interested in the books.
Another thing the librarian talked about was programs at the library they had. One program that she talked about seemed like it was a very popular program amongst the students. Basically, the students would come to the library and read to a theraputic dog, and after they read to the dog they would get a bookmark that had the dogs picture on it and say something like “I read to ________ (insert dog’s name)” and I thought that program sounded really neat. I enjoyed listening to the book talk and learning about the different programs they had at the library.
Mom’s Teacher Story
My mom is a fifth grade teacher and one night she was telling me about a boy in her class who gave her two notes. He has already been suspended from school and has a hard time following orders and is sometimes defiant (he has in the past) but besides being suspended my mom has said he is good. Apparently, he gave her two notes and she told me about them, and ended up showing them to me on Sunday after my softball scrimmages. One of the notes was turned into a really little book that told my mom that she was a really nice and cool teacher and that everyone in the world loved her. He also wrote that she was a really good mom and wife and that he wish he could clone to as a mom. The other note was on a sheet of paper and said she was so cool (it was spelt more like soooooooooooo coooooooooooooooooooooooooool) and that he thought she would be the greatest and prettiest model. I thought it was cute and funny that he wrote my mom these notes.
Practicum Groups
On Tuesday in my Practicum class, we still had the four learning centers. A writing center, where the students had to complete a worksheet about subjects and predicates (which was taught in a minilesson beforehand), a word study station where they had to sort, alphabetize, and write down their vocab words, a reading station where they had to read “Eye of the Storm,” and a discussion section with the teacher. Before the centers started, my teacher did a minilesson on sujects and predicates. She wrote sentences on the board, going from easier to harder. She had student come up and circle the complete subject and highlight the complete predicate. The sentences got harder as they got longer, and students had to realize that the complete subject goes all the way and stops before the verb. Then they broke up into their groups and I walked around, observing the students and answering questions and helping out where I could.
On Thursday, the students read in a group with the teacher, part of “Eye of the Storm.” The teacher would read a paragraph to demonstrate how to appropriately read and then called on a volunteer to read the next paragraph. After reading part of the story, they split up into different groups, three groups going to the teacher, the special ed teacher, and me for reading the rest of the book up to the journal entries. I did the same kind of reading with the students and made sure they were following along. After I finished with that group I got the last group and we read. If they were done with the reading group, they had to work on assignments, like vocabulary. This was my first time in the class leading a group. I hope to do it more often.
First Day of Practicum
Yesterday was my first day of Practicum in my 5th grade classroom. This is my first time in 5th grade for Practicum. My mom is a 5th grade teacher so I have had a little bit of experience in the classroom when I have visited her room. My teacher is very nice and introduced me right away to her 5th graders. For Language Arts, my Practicum teacher told me that the school is focusing on literature centers, so for half an hour she explained to the class what they were going to do in each center and who would go where. She also had a timer that she used because they only had 20 minutes at the most for their centers.
They had a discussion center, where they all had the same book and had a discussion with the teacher. They were talking about sequencing and she had the students picture preview the story and the silently read the book. Another center was a word sort group, where they had to sort the words in alphabetical order and in the right category, and then right them down in their notebooks. If they finished early, they could speed sort or buddy sort. The third group was writing. They had a prompt they had to finish, then they had to finish their posters they were making for back to school night, and finally they had to write 10 topics of their favorite things. The last group was reading. This group could take an A.R. Test, read silently, or work on their book report. But they had to do another assignment first, which was to be turned in. They had to go to their writing books and do page 9 numbers 1-10 and work on imperative and exlaimatory sentences. This technically should go with writing, which she explained to them, but since it was full she put it in the reading group.
My teacher’s schedule is very interesting. She and another teacher switch their classes for certain subjects. My teacher teaches Language Arts and Social Studies, while the other teacher teaches Math and Science. It was decided that the teachers should pick their favorite subject or the one they are the best at to teach the students. I thought that was very interesting. Tomorrow she said she would try and get me to work with some of the learning centers. I am excited to go tomorrow.
Internet
My internet has been down almost all weekend. So that is why I haven’t posted anything in a little while. The apartments have been having a lot of troubles with keeping internet and quite a few times I have lost internet for a few days. Hopefully I won’t have this problem much longer. But, with good news, I have finally received my practicum placement for this semester. I am going to be in a fifth grade classroom and I am very excited. I go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I am hoping that I will be able to start tomorrow. I will keep everyone updated on how my practicum goes throughout the semester.
