{photos by Lisa Ann Dillon}
Each year around this time we like to share an on-campus “day in the life” from one of our teachers – it’s just as interesting to hear what goes on in one of our classrooms as it is to hear about a home day of a fellow SLOCA parent! And it’s great to get a teacher’s perspective on all the wonders that happen at school. (Check out past teacher Day in the Life posts from our LMS and Primary levels.)
So, to honor our teachers during this Teacher Appreciation week, today we bring you a day from Lisa Ann Dillon’s Track A Intermediate class. We know you will relate to her honesty and warmth, and you will appreciate the dedication, creativity, and passion of our teaching staff even more after reading about her time spent with our kids!
Mrs. Dillon is our Intermediate Lead and Track A teacher, as well as a SLOCA parent. Her son Grant is in UMS, and daughter Lyla is in Intermediate:
7:50 am
Almost to SLOCA. Hamilton is blaring on the car stereo and we replay that line we love about “dissidents and discipline” two or three times. Grant and I give each other the “That’s so cool!” look and I am glad my 7th grader and I have this moment. Lyla joyfully engages too and she is almost always like that.
7:55
We pull into the SLOCA parking lot. We are behind by several minutes because none of us woke up on time!
8:00
I am in the Team SLOCA room typing up a fill-in-the-blank form for the puppet shows my students will write today. I know I should have done something like this already, but the idea wouldn’t come to me until I was in the shower this morning. It is often like that.
8:25
Microwave some hot water for my second cup of tea today. I spill a little as I head out the door.
8:30
Flag salute and off we go!
8:35
We enter the classroom in which I teach Level 4 Math first thing in the morning. I write this on the board:
In your journal record: I think we round numbers because… and – Give yourself one 4 digit long division problem (I give an example) and one multi-digit multiplication problem.
I walk around and read their journals. Some kids need to review a lesson from AAS L 3 because several of my kids wrote this: easyer! I take time to give a little spelling lesson and we move on to the lesson of the day.
8:45
We are in the middle of a unit that most students are solid in so you will notice that the manipulatives are conspicuously missing! I sometimes have students dive right into lessons – trying on their own what the Teacher’s Manual recommends I model. This morning, I assigned them 4 divided by 6. Several kids got stuck but many of them, with a little bit of prompting, added a decimal point and the 0s. When they can realize something on their own, it sticks better. Often times in teaching, we must use direct instruction so this doesn’t always work. But when it does it is really dynamic. Then we talked about rounding decimals to the nearest place value and did several more problems that illustrated that better. Students worked in the Textbook and Workbooks while I moved through the room. When I found a problem several students stumbled on, we took questions and worked it through together on the board. But wait, I think I am getting too detailed here. At 9:40, we clean up and kids either stay or go depending on whether they are my core kids.
9:40 – 10:00
Students arrive, have snack and visit for a few minutes. Then I tell them to get out their Latin books. Usually, we gather on the rug and students come up to the board and match Latin and English words, but today is a review so we work quietly. Again, I meander through the room reminding them that “purgo” gives us purge, “muras” gives us mural, “laboro” labor or work and so on.
10:00 – 10:15
We brainstorm ways to work together in groups. Students insightfully state qualities that good team members display. They recognize that one should be flexible when working in a group and that everyone counts and should pitch in. I love that!
10:15 – 10:30
At break, I type that up for them and give them a self-scoring sheet and one for me. I also make myself another cup of hot tea. I forgot to mention above that this week I am recovering from a virus and I had a coughing fit in math. Now I have some hot tea and I should be good to go!
10:30 – 11:15
I hand out the check-off sheet that will help students keep in mind the qualities that describe a good team member. At the end of the activity they will decide how well they did. Students in each group choose a story from Brer Rabbit for which to create a puppet show script. I hand out the template I created this morning. It helps students identify the Characters, Exposition, Conflict, Climax and so on. From there, they begin to write their lines. I have been doing this for a long time and when I just set kids free and have them do a puppet show without prep, it often turns into a silly fest and we don’t get the most out of it. Students spent 2 days making their puppets and I want them to really create something that has been worth the time we put into it. I think they can capture the humor in the stories and this activity will help them “own” one of those stories. SLOCA Community, you know how I feel about children storing up stories in their minds. These are treasures they will have throughout life and they can draw from them when necessary.
(While all this is going on, I pull students over to me – not to my desk, I need to be in the middle of the action so I can hear how all is going, so I sit on a stool in the middle of the room – one at a time to work on Cinquain poems they began last week. These poems are about the Mississippi. I pull out our Word Write Now books and help students select even more specific “lys”, “ing” participles and clean up any spelling errors. These poems show how playing with words, just throwing them out there and tossing them around, can ignite the poet in everyone. They are really quite good and I am excited to share.
(click to enlarge:)
11:15- 11:45
Students groan and mutter but it is time to clean up. They aren’t all finished but they worked together magnificently and I am so proud of them! That brainstorming session helped them hold onto what they already know but don’t always employ, when it comes to working together. We move onto our Civil War Lapbooks. Students color cut and fold a map and also illustrate a picture of soldiers from the Confederate and Union armies. A long discussion ensues about which soldier is which and I tell ya, I am stumped! But the students make a decision and the coloring commences. While we work, we talk about different battles and what the Civil War was about. We discuss the line between north and south and notice how far California was from it all.
11:45 – 11:55
At home, cartoon strips were created so we get those out and share first in small groups. Then we walk around the room and admire one another’s work. They all did something a little bit different but so interesting. I collect them.
11:55
We can never believe that our time together is over so soon. Students clean up their Bins, BOBS and BWJs and get their lunch boxes. As they line up, I have them recite the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. So many of them have a lot of it down. How do they do that? We’ll memorize The Gettysburg Address beginning tomorrow. Can you imagine having all that in your mind to pull from when needed? Ya – neither can I – but they can and do!
12:00
Kids go to lunch and I go back to the Team SLOCA room to write up comments on their comic strips that will go directly on the Tri 3 Progress Report. Later will come my lunch, a meeting with another teacher regarding a question she has about a math student, one final meeting that ends near 4:00 and I pack up my classroom and head out for home. Just for fun, I keep Hamilton playing. The kids will like to hear it when I pick them up from a nearby friend’s house. So grateful for this community and the way people jump in to help each other out!
Thank you, Lisa Ann, for taking time to record this day as well as teach our students! We enjoyed spending this time with you and learning about all that goes into a teacher’s day…
