Elena's Adventures in Hubbell Elementary

     Mon day, January 23rd ➽Activity of the Day: Reading      I read with one of my typical girls today. I haven't worked with her in a couple weeks. She's starting to backslide (stumbling over words, slowed pace, etc) so I'm hoping to work with her more in the coming weeks. That said, she is continuing to make inferences and summarize what she read!       Wednesday, January 25th ➽Activity of the Day: Reading with new kids     Mrs. Carlson was gone today so I read with students I don't often spend much time with. These are the days where I read with students who are either at or above grade level for math and reading. I got to spend time with two of these students today. More than just getting to know them as readers, this is my time to learn about their personalities. I ask what they're doing tonight/ this weekend, what their favorite tv shows are, etc.            Thursday, January 26th ➽Acti...

            Thursday, January 12th ➽"It's like pulling teeth"     I was working with a student in subtraction today. She uses counter chips for tough equations (which, for her, is the majority of the problems). While I understand these problems can be tedious, it took everything in me to keep my cool with her shenanigans. She would purposefully drop chips onto the ground as an excuse to get away from the problem, or lay down in her chair. It makes me have to be the bad guy, sternly telling her that she has to work. The worst part is that she says after almost every problem that she's bored.      When I work with students, we go out into the hall. As I came back in, Mrs. Carlson said, "It's just like pulling teeth, isn't it?" Quite the accurate statement.     Friday, January 13th ➽Room organization     There wasn't anything for the students to do today, so they changed the seating chart. Typically when teache...

       Monday, January 4th ➽Activity of the Day: Reading     I was reading with one of my usual girls today, and  she's definitely coming along. She said that she hadn't read over break (much to my chagrin). We started with a book she likes but which has enough words she can't memorize it. She breezed right along! She had a few bumbles, but that was to be expected.       I'm realizing that there's a trick with her. It doesn't seem to matter how many words are on a page (or the length of the words) but how many pages there are in the book. When we were reading a book that was longer but relatively easier, she clammed up. She stumbled, lost her spot, and would try to get me sidetracked (after a semester of teaching, I'm becoming immune to that, though!). I think this is a confidence thing.     Tuesday, January 5th ➽Activity of the Day: Counter chips     Today I was working with another one of my usual kids- this ti...