Wow looking back on the past 2 months it is REALLY hard to believe that I am already halfway done this PS3 internship! I have had such a fantastic experience so far, and I have definitely learned a lot about the realities of teaching! Right now I am starting to "feel the heat" in regards to stressing about giving grades, making report cards, and upcoming parent-teacher interviews. With that being said, my next 2 weeks will largely be focused on assessment and some projects to help wrap up my units that I am currently teaching. Should be a busy 2 weeks ahead! Here are a few of this week's highlights!
Science
In science we have been busy building miniature cars and testing out how to make our vehicles more effective. Kids have already picked up on needing the wheels to be tight on the axle, the axles needing to be parallel, the cars needing "spacers" to keep the wheels away from the vehicle, and much more! It is pretty amazing how quickly they can assess what is wrong with their vehicle and work to find a solution. This week we simple built the body, then started testing them out by using "balloon power" and by putting the cars down ramps of different heights. The kids are quick to observe what IS and ISN'T working and then they successfully fix their errors before the next trial.
Health
Since it was Pink Shirt Day this week, I decided to take the week to discuss anti-bullying and how our actions effect other people. I decided to get my points across by using one of my favorite picture books "How Full is your Bucket?". The kids loved the story, and we had some great discussions about what it feels like to have an empty bucket, and how we can make other people have a full bucket instead. I love that this book points out how your own bucket gets filled when you do good deeds for other people because it makes you feel better about yourself as well. After our discussion the kids had to draw an example of how they could be a "bucket-filler" instead of being a bully. Their buckets turned out great, the hallway was brightened, and it really helped to set the right atmosphere for pink-shirt day.
Gym
Our gymnastics unit has continued on, and I have been experimenting with how to manage the class so that I can have more of a "stand-back" approach that allows me to assess the kids. Some strategies that I have tried to help with this so far has been a circuit approach, as well as a setup where the mats were all gathered in the middle and there were less students trying a skill at once. Both of these approaches have been successful so far, and I plan to continue using them next week. For the circuit approach, I had pictures of 11 different balance supports up around the gym, and kids had 1-2 minutes at each station to try and master a balance before moving on to the next stage. It was a lot of fun and the kids shared lots of laughs while trying out these tricky positions!
Math
Since my class has really been struggling with math, I decided to take things VERY slow in the division unit. We started off by reviewing division terminology and practicing all the different ways to write division equations. We then reviewed the steps for long division, making sure to focus on following the correct order until the division is completely done. We spent the majority of the week using blocks to physically divide large numbers into even groups by "trading" the required blocks. I have been making my kids be very thorough with their division by writing out the equation, drawing the "starting" set of blocks, doing all of the trading and dividing, drawing the "final outcome" drawings, and then checking their answer through long division. Although it is painfully slow at times, all of the work seems to be paying off so far as the majority of the class has really been on board thus far with our division! Next week I will kick it up a notch by adding the division into word equations, and then by starting to explore the importance of remainders. I have also finally finished my pretty game boards that I have slowly been working on for the last few weeks... so I have been brainstorming ways to use them as a way to "practice" our equations instead of just doing worksheets!