To teach area, you first need to find the attribute. Then compare (and estimate) the areas determining which is smaller and which is larger. During that time introduce students to non-standard units. You can use strategies -such as tiling- to help students compare. After comparing, you can move students to iteration. Once you get your students there, introduce them to arrays for area! 

Teaching math to students is harder than it seems. Even though you, as a teacher, may know how to solve problems, it is much different to teach a child how to solve it. Length seems like a simple subject to teach students but there are several misconceptions that students have and mistakes that both students and teachers make. We may know the different measurements of length- centimeters, inches, millimeters- but children do not have that knowledge when they are introduced to measuring length. When starting out teaching about length, be sure to compare objects to estimate the length. Also start with non-standard units and move your way to standard units. To teach length teachers need to know and apply these four principles:
1. All units must have equal length.
2. All units must be placed on the path being measured.
3. Units must be without gaps.
4. Units must not overlap. 

Since my last writing post, I have continued taking the lead in writing. I have noticed that I have improved on thinking aloud while I write and being aware of what is happening around me. I used to read what I wrote and did not add any information to show the students what I was thinking. I realized that it was not benefitting my students and their writing. My mentor will take notes on me throughout the lesson which I will look back at and discuss with her. By talking about her notes, I am able to see the areas where I need to improve as well as areas that I am succeeding in. I have not been writing my own pieces but I have been editing the pieces that my mentor gives me. I also choose what craft or focus point the students will be working on and amplify that in the writing I model. I am still working on having a read aloud for each lesson but I have improved on having one.
The school recently had the Tropicana Speech competition. Every student in fourth and fifth grade composed a speech on a topic they were passionate about. The students were given a rubric to use as a guideline and they wrote their own speeches using background knowledge or research. After days of practice, there was a class competition to pick the top speeches in each grade and then a grade competition to choose the student who will move onto the district speeches. My class winner was also the school/fourth grade winner!!!!!! 
It has been rewarding seeing my students improvement over the past few months. I have students who are working on their handwriting, writing in the same subject verb agreement, and making sure they focus on an elaboration. I have noticed the improvement when the students share their writing with the class as well as their scores on the practice FCAT writes. 
This next semester I will continue working on modeling writing for my students. My goal is to create and use my own pieces as well as having a read aloud for every day!

This was the week where we had Book-o-ween! All week leading up to Thursday, we were pumping up the students trying to get them to dress up as book characters. On Thursday morning the students started filing in and to my surprise, more than half of the students were dressed up! We made sure every student had a book and a costume. Those students who did not dress up were given fake mustaches to portray the main character from Fake Mustache. There was very little instruction time before the parade and pep rally so we let the students read or talk. The parade began and the students were cheering as the other classes walked by. Once we finally made it out to the court, the pep rally began. The administration went through the awards and announced that there was a special award for the best costume for teachers. Our principal had a secret group that chose five teachers that they thought had the best costume. He started with fifth place and worked his way up to second place. Before he announced the winner for the best costume all the students were pointing at their own teachers. The students who chose the winners looked my direction as soon as our principal called Snow White ( I was the only Snow White in the school). I smiled and most likely blushed as I walked to the front of the crowd and got a picture taken with the rest of the winners. My mentor also won first place because she was the Magic Mirror so our costumes went together. It was adorable seeing my students cheering for their teachers. We received quite the number of high fives and hugs. The students were pumped for the rest of the day and kept talking about how awesome it was that both of their teachers won the contest.

      I took the lead in planning for math this past week and carried out the lessons on the days that I was in the classroom. My mentor provided me with resources since I took the content home to learn and plan. I found that it is easier for myself to write notes for the lesson on notebook cards. That way I can use them as a guide and know why I am asking certain questions and what questions to ask next. I realized that I should start filling out an actual lesson plan template so I can have a hard copy to keep and share with others. I feel like my lessons went well this week. I reflected with my mentor about the questions I was asking and how I caught or didn't catch the misconceptions.

      More Health, an Anti Bullying assembly, and the Battle Book Kick-off all happened this week. The instruction time on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday was interrupted by these programs. Monday is already an early release day so having More Health took too much time away from my teaching. We only had a couple hours of instruction time so we had to cut some of the lessons short. On Tuesday, we had the anti bullying assembly in the morning which was fun to watch. One of the players from the Harlem Globetrotters team came to the school to speak to the students. He tossed around a basketball and had some students volunteer to do little tricks. He then spoke about bullying and the ABC's to stop bullying. The kids were engaged in what he was doing and saying. When we talked about it later on in the classroom, they were able to give me details on what the assembly was about. On Friday the day was a regular school day until the end. We had to go to the media center to learn about the Battle of the Books. The librarian talked to the students about the different Battle Books that we have this year and how the competition works at the end of the year. My students have started reading some of the books in class and I can tell that they are excited about the competition. They kept looking back at my mentor and I when the librarian put the pictures of the books on the screen, they were pointing to the ones that they had read or were reading at the time. Battle of the Books is one of my favorite programs to participate in because the students love when you read books with them and talk about the books together. 

Last Friday the 11th, my school went to the zoo for a field trip! The students were beyond excited and ready for the zoo. Some of the students told me that they had never been to the zoo before. They couldn't wait to see the manatees, penguins, and monkeys. The morning of the field trip was chaotic! The students were jumping up and down waiting to hear our class called down to the buses. We finally got called and loaded up the buses. All the classes were loaded up and ready to go within 30 minutes and then it was off to the zoo! Once we got to the zoo, my mentor and I split the class into two groups so we could go different ways if we needed to. It took some time but we were able to make it to almost all of the zoo. Each time we stopped to look at animals my mentor or myself would ask the students what kind of animal we were looking at or what food does the animal eat. The students seemed to have a good time and I enjoyed watching them. The trip back to school on the bus was super quiet because most of the students had fallen asleep. The were exhausted after walking for most of the day. 

I love going on these school wide field trips and seeing the students enjoy themselves!

      The exciting part about this year is that I have pretty much taken the lead on writing! I teach writing for most of the time, our writing resources will teach it other times. I have been using pieces that my mentor came up with last year, district pieces, and I have come up with one or two of my own. My goal for myself is to start writing my own pieces and using those. With the help of my mentor, I have been working on thinking aloud and questioning my students on writing crafts and sensory details.
      Several days ago, a lady came in to model a writing lesson for the fourth grade teachers. We had to split up into groups to watch her in other classrooms. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to observe this lady. She was very nice and modeled a great lesson. She went from the beginning (with a read aloud) to the end (with walking around to each student). I learned a lot from watching her. Once I got back into my classroom and taught writing the next day, I tried to keep in mind what I saw her do. I had a short read aloud that showed the students what they needed to focus on for the day and my modeling piece was short and to the point as well. Once I finished and it was time for them to work on their own, I started to walk around to each student and check their plan. Once everyone was finished with their plan I had them begin writing. At that time I would stop by each student, have them read what they had already written and decide if it was on topic. I found that it was super helpful when I stopped at each student. I was able to see how quickly my students write and I was able to help students stay on the correct topic (narrative or informational). 
I plan to keep teaching writing and well as other subjects but I would like to focus on writing conferences, modeling, and continuing stopping at each student throughout our writing time.
      On another note, we have started a school wide writing rubric that goes by "CHIMPS". Every student in my class has a bookmark taped on their desk that outlines CHIMPS. When we are working on our writing pieces, the students refer to these bookmarks to check their writing. CHIMPS stands for C- capitalization, H- handwriting (making sure it is neat), I- indentions, M- mode, P- punctuation, and S- spelling. I have noticed that my students are referring back to the bookmark throughout their writing. We have taught them to write the numbers 1-6 at the top of their paper and after each section go through to make sure they have all six points.

       I have learned that it is very difficult to teach when there are events messing up your schedule throughout the week. This week we had More Health, the Reading formative, and a field trip. On days when we have formative tests, it takes away so much instructional time. The test took away half of our writing time, all of our math time, and the beginning of our science time. I did work on observing and taking notes on the students during this time which was helpful to look back at. My mentor and I were able to see who needed to work on pacing, coding the text, looking back in the text, and only giving one answer. The problem with a day like this, is that you miss instruction.
       On Thursday, my mentor had an observation. I was very happy to see what process my mentor had to go through for the observation. When the time came, she took the lead in the lesson and I walked around to each group and asked questions and took notes. I made sure to go to each student and record what they said or thought so I could look back at my notes and see who understood the concept and who didn't. I thought the observation went very well and my mentor did a great job with the lesson! Being able to observe the experience was great because I now know a little bit of what to expect.
       Lowry Park Zoo field trip was on Friday and the students had a blast! Whenever we came up to an animal I would always ask what kind it was and if they could tell me the scientific name. After the first animal, they realized the names were on the signs. It was really great to see the excitement in all of my students from being at the zoo. Some of the kids had never been to the Zoo before Friday. Throughout the day the students were asking questions about the animals, wondering about their food, where they sleep, and so on. By the end of the day, most of our students were tired and fell asleep on the bus. By the time we got back to school the kids ate their lunches and relaxed for the last 30-45 minutes of school.