My New Classroom Assignment and Scheduling

I am getting my new classroom!

It's very exciting until they assign me one classroom, I choose which bulletin boards to stay, what to add, figure out what should my classroom look like, and then I get reassigned to a different room. This happened twice. I was put in 3 rooms! The third room is now final (I hope). I will be in the 3rd/4th grade hallway with the other 3rd/4th grade teachers! I am very excited.

Recently, I've been figuring out my schedule. It's rather confusing.

I'll try to explain.

The green means the courses will be in English. I am planning to color any classes held in TL be in Yellow. The reason why I haven't color yellow is because I still have to see what the 3rd/4th team decides on; our schedule should match because we have Math, MAC and LAC together. MAC = Math ACceleration; LAC = Literacy ACceleration. As I wrote down Math in pen and colored it green, that class is already set. Now it is MAC and LAC where we have to decide where we want them.

As for literacy, I have two one-hour blocks. One for English, one for Chinese. I've talked to the CI team support (she's wonderful!!!) and she suggested I do:

• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
• 20 min. Shared Reading
• 40 min. Guided Reading
• Tuesday and Thursday
• 20 min. Shared Reading
• 10 min. I do/We do Model
• 30 min. Writing

I also might do that for English too.

On the schedule, I still need to put social studies (taught in Mandarin Chinese) and science (taught in English) on it. I would like to pair s.s. with Chinese literacy and sci. with English literacy. Ugh, we'll see how successful I am with that and if I'm not, I might have to talk to our support again or the principal.

????? What I am a little iffy about is if I will have any common planning time with the 3rd/4th team. Plan time is during specials (art, music, PE, and LRC). I wonder if I have any of the same time with any teachers. Need to ask that this Tuesday.

?????? I really would like half of my day to be in English and another half to be in TL. It doesn't seem to be possible at all. I could have chunks during the day but that is least ideal. I need to bring this up to the principal.

看图识字 // 识字图卡

Found a pretty cool website for the kiddos I think. Not sure how much of it pertains to the curriculum I'll be using, but it's worth a shot to find something fun.

One thing I am a little iffy about... the ads on here might not be age appropriate. How are the founders of this trying to sell their products if kids can't even go on to view kids things?

I need to find a way to find something on this website and maybe find it on YouTube or something.

http://www.tom61.com/FLASHzhiyuang/kantushizi/

The Struggles of a Bilingual Program (Dual and One-Way)

http://www.theyoungmommylife.com/2013/12/27/support-daughters-bilingual-education/

The article above did not catch me by surprise. In fact, I would like to use this article to talk about how common this may feel for many parents. Being in a bilingual classroom has many challenges everyone will face, including the students, parents, as well as teachers. It's as easy as 1-2-3 to be bilingual. Hard work and time commitment are necessary by all parties.

In the article, the mom was told to have her daughter have playdates and to request a tutor for her to be more successful in Spanish. Luckily, she is in a dual immersion program. In order for a program to be a "dual immersion program" the population of the students should be 50% native English speakers and 50% target language speakers. If the mom feels frustrated because she is not giving enough support in Spanish, chances are, there might be parents who feel the same but for English. Who knows? Parents can work together to find a time where the kids can interact with each parent at different times (but equal amount of times) to practice each language.

As for an one-way immersion program (population is not 50/50, but anyone can attend), the only time the target language is used, is mainly in school. It uses a slightly different approach where parents might still feel the same way, unfortunately. Because all students start learning the target language from the same point and all the support is coming from the school, there isn't much support outside of the classroom. This is something I am struggling with as the students might not use target language when having playdates.

Cute is Not the Point

http://mattbgomez.com/i-dont-like-tpt/

So I've thought about it way before I even found the post. Why do teachers think making their classroom look "cute" will bring them the best practices in pedagogy? Why do teachers think making their worksheets look "cute" with characters drawn on them will make the worksheets more fun and authentic? I'm not sure why, but in the end, it doesn't help with anything. Sure, you can decorate, but if that's the only thing you do, are you really keeping "best practices" in mind?

Teachers are not hired to make things "cute". Teachers are hired to have the best practices and teach kids to love learning (and more... oh gosh way more).

Did Not Know -- Purchase of Images

I had no idea that people were selling clip art to teachers (or anyone).
http://www.scrappindoodles.com/ you have to pay to get pictures????

Read Matt's article today and it made me think about "cuteness" that teachers try to put into their classroom thinking it would make their classroom more effective.

I've thought about it for a pretty long time. What good is your classroom if you can't use it to its full potential? You can make it as cute as you it to be, but would having polka dots really help you organize where the students work should be stored? Or if having a pink and black pattern would help you organize your students' data.

But I'm also try to see the other side of the spectrum. Maybe having a cute classroom encourages the teachers to keep it cute, therefore keeping it more organized. I won't know until I start next year. We'll see!