This past week was a good one. It was one of those weeks where I look back and realize how blessed I truly am.
First off... It was the second time for Fantasy Football. I can already see the kids getting really into it. Most of the students were asking me if they could switch players to better ones. They were looking at their stats and realizing that certain players were getting more points. Mental math was happening and they didn't even realize it. It was extremely cool to see the kids so engaged and excited for Fantasy Football. I do have to mend the broken hearts of those teams that don't have a win yet, but hey, it's a long season.
The week definitely ended with a bang. Field Day! As a student, I loved field day! I was just as excited as my kids were about it. Field gave me an opportunity to not only see the kids in a less strict environment, but also for the kids to see me in the same way. I was able to act crazy, and run around and have fun with them. I'm a big kid at heart, and I think my students really got to see that Friday.
Little recap of the events...
First event was the tug-of-war. Team Mouton escaped victorious! Of course I was screaming and hollering like a big fool, but it was awesome. We came in second in the next event, which involved spelling. It wasn't our strong suit, but we did pretty well. We then broke up into different teams to play multiple games. I was running around cheering on each of my teams trying to motivate them. It seemed to work because we won two more events. Unfortunately we lost to WA's class in the relay... Of all classes to lose too... The overall winner for field was my class. We had the most victories. I don't care what anyone says, haha!
There was also water events with slides and a dunk tank. You know I climbed up on the dunk tank, and got drenched from head to toe.
It was just an all around fun day, and I was so exhausted by the end of it. Looking back on it, I know this was the job God intended for me, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than this amazing school with my amazing team. It's great to have a team where we all get along and work so well with each other. We all tailgated before the Aggie game yesterday, and if you're seeing your coworkers on the weekend then you know you like each other. I am very blessed, and so grateful for this wonderful opportunity!
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Monday, September 21, 2015
Success!
Last time I posted, I was writing about introducing Fantasy Football. I have been waiting until after we had finally done it in class. The whole week I was so excited and ready for it to be Fantasy Football Friday. I compiled all the necessary stats, and had it all ready to go for when the students walked in. They all knew what day it was, and I could tell that they were excited.
Overall, I thought it was a great success. There was a brief period where they had to be reminded how to calculate their score, but that was expected since it was the first time. As the weeks go by, I think the process of calculating the score will become much easier and more of a routine. It was cool to see the kids get so excited when they found out they won, but that was quickly masked by the sorrow of the losing team. Many teams wanted to ditch the players they picked, but I told them give it another week because Fantasy Football is basically luck. That didn't cheer them up much...
With the help of Miss A, I had made four anchor charts with the teams logos printed out on them to show the number of wins each team has. I decided to place football stickers for each win that the teams earn. Once I found out who won each game, I placed a sticker above their logos. The kids were so amused looking at the charts and seeing all of the logos. I'm glad that I have something set up in class so that they can see the progression throughout the season.
I already can't wait for this Friday!
Second topic is we had our first test today. Our first unit was over Place Value, and I had heard in summer training that this was a difficult topic because it introduces them to decimals. I was a little nervous about what the scores would be on the test. My feeling going into it was that most of my students seemed to be understanding the material, but had that nervous feeling in the back of my mind. I graded all the tests before I went home. The results were awesome. I have around 85 students, and all but three of them passed. The scores I did have were all relatively in the 80's and 90's. I had multiple 100's. Tests scores aren't the only way to judge a student's success, but it is a good feeling as a teacher to see that your students pass the test. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I was very happy with how the results. Of course this is only just the beginning, and I have a long way to go. This was a good start, and I can't wait to build off the progression each student has made thus far.
On a side note...
We had a parent conference after school with the team. One funny little takeaway. The mother told us that her child rated his teachers from favorite to least, and I was the least favorite... My initial reaction was wow I can't believe she just told us that. It was then followed by her saying that there was a disclaimer... it was because of the subject that I teach, math. I knew people didn't like math but wow. However, two people in the meeting with us were quick to step up and have my back. I thought it was really fun. Hey, you win some you lose some. I'm not going to let it stop from impacting my students!
Overall, I thought it was a great success. There was a brief period where they had to be reminded how to calculate their score, but that was expected since it was the first time. As the weeks go by, I think the process of calculating the score will become much easier and more of a routine. It was cool to see the kids get so excited when they found out they won, but that was quickly masked by the sorrow of the losing team. Many teams wanted to ditch the players they picked, but I told them give it another week because Fantasy Football is basically luck. That didn't cheer them up much...
With the help of Miss A, I had made four anchor charts with the teams logos printed out on them to show the number of wins each team has. I decided to place football stickers for each win that the teams earn. Once I found out who won each game, I placed a sticker above their logos. The kids were so amused looking at the charts and seeing all of the logos. I'm glad that I have something set up in class so that they can see the progression throughout the season.
I already can't wait for this Friday!
Second topic is we had our first test today. Our first unit was over Place Value, and I had heard in summer training that this was a difficult topic because it introduces them to decimals. I was a little nervous about what the scores would be on the test. My feeling going into it was that most of my students seemed to be understanding the material, but had that nervous feeling in the back of my mind. I graded all the tests before I went home. The results were awesome. I have around 85 students, and all but three of them passed. The scores I did have were all relatively in the 80's and 90's. I had multiple 100's. Tests scores aren't the only way to judge a student's success, but it is a good feeling as a teacher to see that your students pass the test. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I was very happy with how the results. Of course this is only just the beginning, and I have a long way to go. This was a good start, and I can't wait to build off the progression each student has made thus far.
On a side note...
We had a parent conference after school with the team. One funny little takeaway. The mother told us that her child rated his teachers from favorite to least, and I was the least favorite... My initial reaction was wow I can't believe she just told us that. It was then followed by her saying that there was a disclaimer... it was because of the subject that I teach, math. I knew people didn't like math but wow. However, two people in the meeting with us were quick to step up and have my back. I thought it was really fun. Hey, you win some you lose some. I'm not going to let it stop from impacting my students!
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Fantasy Football Fridays
So I know it's not officially the end of the week, but I was strongly encouraged by one of my team members to post this on my blog.
I think most people know that I love sports, and if you spend 5 minutes looking at my classroom you can figure that out. I have loved sports my whole life, so I wanted to incorporate sports as something fun for my classes. With it being football season, it was an obvious starting point. I was sitting at home Sunday night, and I was trying to think of a way to incorporate football into my class. It dawned on me that I love doing fantasy football, and there is so much math involved with that. It's clearly more complex for 4th graders to be able to do, but I was determined to think of a way to simplify it. So this is what I came up with.
I started off by asking the kids what they knew about football and the different positions. They would answer, but I made sure to emphasize the different positions (QB, RB, WR, etc). Following that, I showed them my actual fantasy football page that I do with my buddies. The description I gave was that fantasy football is a way to live out my dream of being an NFL even though I am so retired and way to out of shape to play anymore. I talked about all the different players that I had drafted, and how the point projections work. There are three main ways the points work in fantasy football:
1. Yards - Whether its passing, rushing, or receiving yards.
2. Touchdowns
3. Turnovers - Interceptions/Fumbles
I told the kids that their tables groups are going to be their teams. They are in charge of their team, and the players they pick. First, we had to figure out what their team names would be and what logo they would choose. It was funny to hear the names they came up with. I love the Minions, and a lot of them wanted to name their team something with Minions. That makes a guy feel good, ha! After setting up our teams, they were going to pick three different positions: Quarterback, Running back, and Wide Receiver. I had compiled a list of the top ten players at each position. I have a spinner in my class, and had a member from each group spin for the order of the draft. They would look at the list, and they had a limited time to choose a player. It's funny to see some of the boys have an idea of who players are, and then the majority have no idea who any of them were. They picked each position, and kind of felt a little worried about the fact they had really no idea who they picked. I decided that I would go team by team and show them the players that they had chose! It was cool to hear their reactions to the pictures of the players. Like, "Oh he looks really good!" or I even got, "Oh, he's kinda cute!"
The next step was to show them how they were going to score each week. This is math class, and there should and will be math involved. The points are all based on the yardage gained, number of touchdowns, and number of turnovers. They picked real NFL players, and so we are going to use their real stats from their games each week. I set it up like this:
1. 1poinst/yard gained
2. 10 points/touchdown
3. -10 points/turnover (turnovers aren't good)
We went over a practice scoring. I made up numbers, and we worked out how many points each player would have earned. I made sure that they knew the steps involved in the scoring process.
Now why is this fun for them? Well in real fantasy football, you compete against another person or team to win that week. So in class, each group will go up against another group trying to win each week. I'm going keep track of the wins each team earns. I will have anchor charts on the walls with their team names and logos. I'll turn this into a dot plot with the numbers of wins they earn throughout the season. I told them this is going to last all football season, and that's until January. The team that wins the most games will earn a reward of some sort. I haven't decided, but I was thinking like an ice cream party or something. I've got until January to figure it out, ha! The kids like the mystery. They seemed really excited about, and even the girls seemed excited about football. I heard them talking at lunch about going to class,"have you been to math today?!" It's awesome to hear that they are excited to come to math class.
Fantasy Football Friday is going to be apart of my classroom for years (I hope), and I am so excited to get started with this next week! I think this is truly going to be a fun way to end each week, but still doing math at the same time. Hopefully they see it as something fun, and not something that is just more math.
I think most people know that I love sports, and if you spend 5 minutes looking at my classroom you can figure that out. I have loved sports my whole life, so I wanted to incorporate sports as something fun for my classes. With it being football season, it was an obvious starting point. I was sitting at home Sunday night, and I was trying to think of a way to incorporate football into my class. It dawned on me that I love doing fantasy football, and there is so much math involved with that. It's clearly more complex for 4th graders to be able to do, but I was determined to think of a way to simplify it. So this is what I came up with.
I started off by asking the kids what they knew about football and the different positions. They would answer, but I made sure to emphasize the different positions (QB, RB, WR, etc). Following that, I showed them my actual fantasy football page that I do with my buddies. The description I gave was that fantasy football is a way to live out my dream of being an NFL even though I am so retired and way to out of shape to play anymore. I talked about all the different players that I had drafted, and how the point projections work. There are three main ways the points work in fantasy football:
1. Yards - Whether its passing, rushing, or receiving yards.
2. Touchdowns
3. Turnovers - Interceptions/Fumbles
I told the kids that their tables groups are going to be their teams. They are in charge of their team, and the players they pick. First, we had to figure out what their team names would be and what logo they would choose. It was funny to hear the names they came up with. I love the Minions, and a lot of them wanted to name their team something with Minions. That makes a guy feel good, ha! After setting up our teams, they were going to pick three different positions: Quarterback, Running back, and Wide Receiver. I had compiled a list of the top ten players at each position. I have a spinner in my class, and had a member from each group spin for the order of the draft. They would look at the list, and they had a limited time to choose a player. It's funny to see some of the boys have an idea of who players are, and then the majority have no idea who any of them were. They picked each position, and kind of felt a little worried about the fact they had really no idea who they picked. I decided that I would go team by team and show them the players that they had chose! It was cool to hear their reactions to the pictures of the players. Like, "Oh he looks really good!" or I even got, "Oh, he's kinda cute!"
The next step was to show them how they were going to score each week. This is math class, and there should and will be math involved. The points are all based on the yardage gained, number of touchdowns, and number of turnovers. They picked real NFL players, and so we are going to use their real stats from their games each week. I set it up like this:
1. 1poinst/yard gained
2. 10 points/touchdown
3. -10 points/turnover (turnovers aren't good)
We went over a practice scoring. I made up numbers, and we worked out how many points each player would have earned. I made sure that they knew the steps involved in the scoring process.
Now why is this fun for them? Well in real fantasy football, you compete against another person or team to win that week. So in class, each group will go up against another group trying to win each week. I'm going keep track of the wins each team earns. I will have anchor charts on the walls with their team names and logos. I'll turn this into a dot plot with the numbers of wins they earn throughout the season. I told them this is going to last all football season, and that's until January. The team that wins the most games will earn a reward of some sort. I haven't decided, but I was thinking like an ice cream party or something. I've got until January to figure it out, ha! The kids like the mystery. They seemed really excited about, and even the girls seemed excited about football. I heard them talking at lunch about going to class,"have you been to math today?!" It's awesome to hear that they are excited to come to math class.
Fantasy Football Friday is going to be apart of my classroom for years (I hope), and I am so excited to get started with this next week! I think this is truly going to be a fun way to end each week, but still doing math at the same time. Hopefully they see it as something fun, and not something that is just more math.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Cherish Every Moment
Week 2 has come and gone, and the students and myself have survived our first week of rotations. This was first time that we really had a routine going. The first week of school we were all getting our feet wet and getting to know one another. This second week we hit the ground running and I began teaching.
My feeling was that it was a very successful first week. There was one little hiccup in the middle. I was teaching a lesson on place value relationships, and I had created a presentation to go with it. In my mind, the presentation was great and made total sense. That first group showed up, and I started going through it thinking it was great. Problem was all of the students had the deer in headlights looks on their faces. I knew what I was talking about, but they had no idea. I had to quickly adjust on the fly, and basically scratch everything that I had in the presentation. I just started talking and writing my own thoughts down in the simplest way for them to understand, and it surprisingly worked. It's just funny how you find all these ways to present information and you think it's going to work, but then it just bombs. It was great learning experience though, and I'm glad I caught the problem before I spent the whole day doing the same exact thing and have no one learn anything.
We had curriculum night this week too. I am not the most comfortable speaking in front of adults, but give me a room full of children and I can ramble all day. So I was extremely nervous going into the night. It ended up not being that bad, though they could probably tell I was nervous which may have given them sympathy towards me. I did have multiple parents come up afterwards and tell how much their kids enjoyed being in my class. It was a cool feeling to have these parents tell me their kids liked me because everybody wants to be liked. Now, I know not everyone is going to love me...
That day was a busy day, and after curriculum night I went out to eat with the Whitney's. It was just great way to take our mind off of school, and really kind of get to know each other better. I'm still the newbie learning the ropes, and it was fun to just get to hang out with them outside of school.
My biggest takeaway from the week, though, is to cherish every moment and take advantage of every opportunity. You never know when it's all going to be gone, and you would hate to look back on things and have regrets. It's so important to make sure that the people in your life know that you care about them and love them. Make sure you cherish everyone in your life because they are there for a reason. I'm blessed to have a wonderful family, good friends, and 100's of students that I have been able to work with. Love and cherish each and everyday you get on this Earth.
R.I.P Colonel
My feeling was that it was a very successful first week. There was one little hiccup in the middle. I was teaching a lesson on place value relationships, and I had created a presentation to go with it. In my mind, the presentation was great and made total sense. That first group showed up, and I started going through it thinking it was great. Problem was all of the students had the deer in headlights looks on their faces. I knew what I was talking about, but they had no idea. I had to quickly adjust on the fly, and basically scratch everything that I had in the presentation. I just started talking and writing my own thoughts down in the simplest way for them to understand, and it surprisingly worked. It's just funny how you find all these ways to present information and you think it's going to work, but then it just bombs. It was great learning experience though, and I'm glad I caught the problem before I spent the whole day doing the same exact thing and have no one learn anything.
We had curriculum night this week too. I am not the most comfortable speaking in front of adults, but give me a room full of children and I can ramble all day. So I was extremely nervous going into the night. It ended up not being that bad, though they could probably tell I was nervous which may have given them sympathy towards me. I did have multiple parents come up afterwards and tell how much their kids enjoyed being in my class. It was a cool feeling to have these parents tell me their kids liked me because everybody wants to be liked. Now, I know not everyone is going to love me...
That day was a busy day, and after curriculum night I went out to eat with the Whitney's. It was just great way to take our mind off of school, and really kind of get to know each other better. I'm still the newbie learning the ropes, and it was fun to just get to hang out with them outside of school.
My biggest takeaway from the week, though, is to cherish every moment and take advantage of every opportunity. You never know when it's all going to be gone, and you would hate to look back on things and have regrets. It's so important to make sure that the people in your life know that you care about them and love them. Make sure you cherish everyone in your life because they are there for a reason. I'm blessed to have a wonderful family, good friends, and 100's of students that I have been able to work with. Love and cherish each and everyday you get on this Earth.
R.I.P Colonel
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