The 50 states that rhyme

Yesterday I completed my second week of student teaching.  This was actually my first full week.  It definitely had its challenges, but I think it went fairly well.  The students did a Social Studies activity at the beginning of the week which involved maps and following basic directions of north, south, east and west.   For example they were asked, “What state is south of Tennessee, east of Mississippi and west of Georgia?"  Using the map they had to figure out that it is Alabama.  The assignment didn’t seem too hard, except for the fact that the map the students were given to use for the assignment only labeled the states with their abbreviations.  As I assisted the students after the teacher taught the lesson, I noticed that most of the students were having difficulty with the assignment.  I mentioned to my cooperating teaching that I thought the assignment might be a little confusing since the students were not familiar with the abbreviations for the states.  This prompted us to create a quick lesson for the next day to introduce the 50 states and their abbreviations.  I mentioned to my cooperating teacher that I knew a song that taught the 50 states and she was so excited.  She asked me to teach the kids the song.  She couldn’t believe that I knew all the state in alphabetical order.  I had to laugh because I learned this song in 7^th grade and never forgot it!  (Thank you, Groveport Christian Academy!!) I was actually able to find the song on YouTube too, so we played it for the kids to hear.  They loved it!  Throughout the week we would work on the states and our song whenever we had a few spare minutes.  The kids are having a blast with it and I do believe that a few of the kids will know all 50 states in the next week or so.  Here is the song, if you want to hear it:

               

              We continue to have behavior problems with several students in the classroom.  Yesterday I began looking through some of my material that I have from a Behavioral Management class I took.  I also started searching the web for templates and more information on behavioral contracts.  I’m going to find out on Monday if my cooperating teacher has ever considered using a behavioral contract for some of our worst offenders.  If not, this might be something we can try to see if we can get some of the behavioral issues under control. 

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             Next week...U.S. History---one of my favorite subjects!  This will be the first lesson that I  had full responsibility for creating and teaching.  We will be discussing some prominent leaders in American history (Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln) and familiarizing the students with some famous monuments dedicated to these men.