4th Grade- First impressions

I'm reminded of the Annie song, where she sings, "I think I'm gonna like it here." Granted, I have only been a 4th grade teacher for 2 days at this point, but I am feeling like its a really good fit.

The most amazing experience in 4th grade to date happened on the first day of school. I had all of the kids start on a writing assignment. I explained what to do, then told them to get to work. Then an incredible thing happened... they just started working... quietly... there were no questions... no one I had to force to work... it was unlike anything I had every seen in my 2nd grade class before!! Now, I had classes that were pretty well behaved, but there was always SOMEONE who needed some nudging, or had a question immediately after beginning, or a few kids that thought it was time to talk instead of work. I previously considered it a victory if it only took a few minutes to get everyone on task... but immediately? It was beautiful!

Now... this assignment was not completed perfectly by all, nor was it question free the whole time... but it was quiet, and it got completed.

I had some more great experiences today where all the students were reading silently in the morning, or when the class was hard at work during grammar. Overall, the maturity and responsibility of the grade level is great, and I look forward to what we are able to accomplish this year.

It isn't all perfect, of course,for example I am a bit concerned of how much they have forgotten over the summer... in fact... worse than that, there were some review concepts on their work today that I taught in 2nd... so for kids to be struggling on them concerns me. Along the same lines, almost all kids have forgotten almost all of grammar since 1st grade! I had kids not know what a noun was... scary... hopefully it will come back soon. Also, I think I expected more of 4th grade reading skills than I heard today... just another thing to work on.

All of us, including me, are figuring out the timing and procedures for the day, and I have great hopes that lessons will go smoother as we get the hang of it.

I did use the smartboard today for lessons. Overall, it was good, and the kids thought it was really cool. My plan for how to take turns on it and be fast and effective didn't work. I had a random list of their class numbers, and they were supposed to be aware of who was ahead of them, and be waiting for their turn... kids were too interested in the game to notice their numbers... so tomorrow, I think I will have groups go up and wait for their turns... I think it will go smoother, we shall see. I had one girl that somehow wasn't applying the right pressure, or her hand was sweaty or something, and she couldn't drag an object on the screen... so I am planning on troubleshooting that if it happens again. Oh, and the default eraser size is too big... need to figure out how to resize that.

Not to mention that since our tech people are behind right now, my projector is sitting on a desk instead of mounted on the ceiling... which means that students' pencils show up on the screen, the girl who sits next to it joggles it every so often, the kids are super tempted to put their hands in front of it, and my favorite, you have to stand to the side of what you are writing so you can see what question you are answering without blocking the projector. Sigh... all those problems will be fixed (hopefully, prayerfully) within the month (what I was told by the tech guy).

The other tricky thing about the new grade at the moment is that it takes me SO LONG to set up for the next day (which is my new school year resolution, so I don't make them wait while I transition myself between subjects, and as a bonus, if I am sick, it is set up for my sub already). Today, I was working in my classroom from 3- 5 after school today mainly preparing for tomorrow... sigh. (Part of the problem is that just the lesson plans don't always make sense to me, so I have to keep going to other 4th grade teachers and asking them questions... which makes setting up take longer too). Oh, and the fact that I had a student drop today, and a student add today... so that was more work lol.

Reader's digest version- I like the more mature grade level, I am concerned about where they are academically, the smartboard is cool, but still has some kinks, and will be lots better once the projector is mounted, and I need to get used to what I am doing, but I think I'm gonna like it here. :-)

In case you have never heard of the song... and want to see it...here you go!