Student Teaching Week #5

I'm halfway done with student teaching! It is going by so fast and I know will be done before I know it.  I really am enjoying my student teaching experience so much.  I love the kids and am learning so much from my cooperating teacher. 
The science unit I am teaching is on the states of matter and so we have been doing little experiments with evaporation, condensation, and freezing.  The kids learned this past week that salt lowers the freezing point of ice water and so today (Monday) we made ice cream.  They loved it and at classroom meeting almost all of them said that was their favorite part of the day.  Thomas and I made some last night and tested it out and it was so good.  Homemade icecream is the best and who knew it was so easy to make?!

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup whipping cream (heavy cream)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla flavoring 
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sodium chloride (NaCl) as table salt or rock salt
• 2 cups ice
• 1-quart Ziploc^TM bag
• 1-gallon Ziploc^TM bag
• themometer
• measuring cups and spoons
• cups and spoons for eating your treat!

Procedure

1. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla to the quart ziploc^TM bag. Seal the bag securely.
2. Put 2 cups of ice into the gallon ziploc^TM bag.
3. Use a thermometer to measure and record the temperature of the ice in the gallon bag.
4. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup salt (sodium chloride) to the bag of ice.
5. Place the sealed quart bag inside the gallon bag of ice and salt. Seal the gallon bag securely.
6. Gently rock the gallon bag from side to side. It's best to hold it by the top seal or to have gloves or a cloth between the bag and your hands because the bag will be cold enough to damage your skin.
7. Continue to rock the bag for 10-15 minutes or until the contents of the quart bag have solidified into ice cream.
8. Open the gallon bag and use the thermometer to measure and record the temperature of the ice/salt mixture.
9. Remove the quart bag, open it, serve the contents into cups with spoons and ENJOY!

Thomas and I are both learning that when you have a spouse who is a teacher, you get roped in to doing a lot of teacher stuff.  For example: grading papers, cutting things out, making copies, going to the store for supplies, volunteering at school events, and helping with projects in the classroom.  Today, Thomas came with me to help get everything ready for making ice cream. He's such a good teacher's spouse :)
As I was walking home from school today I had to take a picture of the little park I walk through.  It is just the perfect example of springtime.

Last Day of Middle School

My last day at the middle school was last Thursday.  I felt so loved by the students and left feeling satisfied with my teaching and very happy with the relationships I developed with the students.  One of the students who is considered by other teachers a "troublemaker" just stole my heart from the beginning.  He is a short little guy with a tough personality.  I remember one of my first days he wasn't doing his math homework and I asked him if he was planning on doing it at home and getting help from his parents.  He told me his parents can't help him cause they don't know how to do the math he is doing.  That broke my heart.  He had a para educator who would help him and a few other students during math class.  I found that most of the time he just needed instructions repeated one more time and then he would get right to his work.  One of my last days after math class he went up to my cooperating teacher and asked him "Did you plan that math lesson or did Mrs. Giles?" my cooperating teacher told him that I had planned it and this student responded with "Oh that's why it was so fun." My cooperating teacher was a little  insulted by that comment but we laughed about it and it was a huge compliment to me.  That lesson they were learning about area of rectangular prisms and how to find it.  They used blocks and dice to fill up a box and then would count how many cubes it took to fill it up.  They then figured that they knew how to find the area of the base (length x width) and then they just had to multiply that by the height of the rectangle.  I found it is so important to use manipulatives and to have kids working together and it really makes a lesson so much better.
My last day this student came in before school to get help with math.  As I was helping him I told him I was going to miss him and this tough little guy just said really sweet like "Same here!"  The students made me a big card and they all wrote on it.  So sweet.  Some of the girls stayed for a bit during my lunch period and before they left gave me hugs.  Here are some of my favorite notes on the card:

 The student who made the front of the card has better handwriting than I do! That's a 6th graders handwriting!

 Why? Why? Why? This totally is how this student talks she's hilarious :)

 U Rock! Totally reminds me something you would write in your friend's 6th grade year book.

 This one says: Thank you for making there be something to look forward to in math. I hope you have a great time in wherever you are. Thank you for making my year :)

 This cracks me up: "Thanx you For your vist"

My cooperating teacher had told the students since the beginning of the year if they got a class average of 90% on their math test they would get a smoothie party.  Two weeks before I left they earned one :)

Practicum Happiness

This week I had my last formal observation by my professor.  I was nervous because I was sick over the weekend and still not feeling well.  He observed another math lesson and it went really well.  I love being creative and finding fun ways to teach math.  There are some lessons were it's really hard to find manipulatives and real life examples to help teach the students but this lesson had some good hands on activities that I used.  My professor said he has been impressed with my lesson planning and teaching.  I still need to work on using less teacher talk and working on my questioning techniques so that students are answering their own questions instead of me just "telling". 
I was so happy this Thursday when I witnessed a small miracle with one of my students.  This particular student has selective mutism.  So he has such bad anxiety he can't talk in public.  There are 18 people that he will talk to including his family.  And when he is in public he will only whisper (to those selective people).  Thursday morning he was in the classroom with his mom before class.  His mom asked if they could talk with me, so my cooperating teacher had all the other students leave so this student wouldn't be so scared.  I guess he had a goal to be able to talk to me :) And he DID!!!! I was soooo happy! He told me about his two hamsters and a little about his family as well.  He did whisper but in a louder than normal whisper.  I asked him if there was anything I could do to help in not feel so anxious and he said not really but we made a deal that when I am teaching math if he doesn't understand something I will go and ask him one on one if he has understood everything (he won't raise his hand in class).  I had made a personal goal to make him for comfortable enough that by the end of the semester he spoke to me and he did :) That made my week.  That is what teaching is all about. 
This weekend we have plans to go snowboarding and I can't wait to get out of town and have some fun with my lover :)

Why men die before woman

I love some of the things the kids at school say, sometimes it's really hard not to laugh.  There is one boy who loves to ask questions, especially during social studies time.  The other day the class was discussing demographics and population.  The topic came up of death and how men usually die earlier than women.  One of the students suggested that was because men were naturally more stressed out than women because of their jobs. I don't think that's the case with Thomas and I.  Poor guy, I think every day I come home and tell him how stressed out I am. In fact the other night laying in bed I could not fall asleep because I was worrying about all the things I needed to accomplish that week.  When I get stressed to a certain point I have this half sob/ half cry.  It starts as a wimper because my mind and body hurt cause of the stress but then turns into a laugh because the wimper is so funny.  Thomas massaged my neck and gave me a back rub to prevent an all out breakdown.  Anyways, my cooperating teacher began to talk about how men hold in their emotions while women talk about it and cry and let it out.  Our question loving student then seriously asks "Well what about gay relationships?" Mr. Bates just let him know we wouldn't be going into that now or any time in the future. 
This past Thursday I taught four out of the five classes.  I find that the day goes by much more quickly when I'm teaching.  I also find my feet hurt big time at the end of the day :) I'm really grateful I have a teacher who allows me to teach a lot.  We are in the third week of our practicum and there are some students who only get to teach one subject a day and then spend the rest observing or making copies for the teacher and grading papers.  One student even told me that this week she has just sat there all day while their teacher has played three movies.  I'm really glad for the chance to teach so often.