Wimbledon Court Diaries: October 2010

Monday will be the 5th week of school. I think that we are finally falling into a routine, but as always there are good days and bad days. I have 28 students and have been told that it is the most difficult of the 4th grade classes. I am really working on classroom management so that we can have less interruptions while teaching/working. I have been attending ENVoY classes about management by using non-verbal signals. http://www.michaelgrinder.com/education-professionals/envoy/program-research/ This has given me many skills to practice and a good group of teachers to share ideas with. I am also introducing a clip chart to help track behavior problems. http://www.newmanagement.com/ebooks/pdf/clip_chart_ebook.pdf. My mentor has been meeting with me weekly checking in to see how things are going and observing me teach. I am so thankful that Salem-Keizer has the resources to have the mentor program! Hopefully they will receive another grant so that they can continue it next year. You'd think that with all the observations I have had while student teaching and with my mentor that I would be used to people watching me teach, wrong! My principal observed me teaching a math lesson on Tuesday and I was so nervous. I had a really rough day on Monday and was concerned about all the behavioral distractions in my classroom. I also realized that this was the first observation that really mattered. This was the woman who interviewed me, hired me, and would now be checking to see if she made the right choice. Since I am temporary, this first observation would help determine if I could get a permanent position in the future (maybe I over thought it all, but I was still really nervous). I should have realized that by the time kids get to 4th grade they are used to having the principal observe classes and know how to behave because they were perfect! It was the best lesson that I have taught so far. I was so relieved! To top it off, there good behavior continued through the week. The 5th grade teachers told me that they had heard that my lesson went great and that it might get used at math night! Now I just have to keep it up.

This was one of my garden harvests. I was too impatient and unsure of weather conditions to leave my peppers on the bush until they turned orange. They kind of got a late start this year but now the slugs are out. The powdery mildew destroyed my pumpkin patch and 5 of my pumpkins did not survive leaving me disappointed with only 2, oh well.

I was skimming through a book of my moms about growing food on a 1/4 of an acre. It recommended using raised beds for gardening. I am considering building them for next year because it will look nicer, keep down weeds, and could possibly be a selling feature of our house. We have all winter think about it.