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.

Helpful websites

http://www.semanda.com
http://chinese4kids.net
mandarin-immersion.blogspot.com
http://www.asianparent.com/index.aspx

These are some of the websites and blog I found months and months ago. This might be a great way to start searching for resources when I need it.

• Semana.com has a lot of flashcards. Because our program is an Immersion program, no English is encouraged to be used during class. That, I might need to edit.
• chinesefkids.net is a bunch of activities, stories, videos, etc. on it. It's just a good resource to go to it whenever I need something for a lesson I just cannot find anywhere else.
• mandarin-immersion.blogspot is a website that helped me find the other three websites. The teacher, 畢老师, is from Utah. The last updated blog was back in 2012. Even though that is a little outdated, it's a good place to find any activities or lessons s/he's done in the past.
• asianparent.com might be a great website for my district to take a look at. We are still looking for books the kids can read during the school day so this might be a good website for us.

Questioning Parent Volunteer

First post of the year!! Happy New Year Yayayayay :)
Alright, 'nuff celebrating. Back to work heh heh

As a child growing up in the US public school system, it was common for parents to come into the school during the school day (especially during holiday parties) to volunteer and help around the classrooms. I have seen parents set up classrooms, lead activities, bring in prizes, bring in food... etc. All in all, I have seen parents just take over the classroom for the time being.

What I am not so sure about is how this comes about. Do parents email each other and just plan who does what prior to the party and who does what during the party? What do teachers do during planning? What about during the party?

The following links provide some tips:

1. Communication (clear and in every way possible)
2. Many opportunities... many
3. Appreciate them. If necessary, LIKE CRAZY!!
4. Have schedules ready
1. For busy parents, be flexible
5. BE ENTHUSIASTIC!! YEAH!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/strategies-for-engaging-parent-volunteers-karen-bantuveris

http://www.dominicanu.com/masters-in-education-resources/get-parents-involved/

P.S. It says parents can also help with websites... Need to ask if that's possible in my district.

Couple Sites to Keep in Mind

Found these sites to refer to if ever needed.

http://www.semanda.com
I'm not 100% sure if I want to use this (so not going to put it under the sidebar with "Resources") because of English, but there might be some ideas I personally can take and use for my class.

http://chinese4kids.net
Books in Chinese! I still need to check more into this, but this site is in English. Maybe can use this for one of the guided reading stations!

http://mandarin-immersion.blogspot.com
This is the site where I found the previous 2 links. Will refer to this again!