Evaluation

Well it's been decided. I'm officially competent.

Today I was evaluated as a teacher, and although it was admitted that I should be "excellent," situations outside of my control rendered me competent. Drats. At least it's better than "satisfactory."

I was pretty nervous for my lesson today since I was being evaluated, and my nerves increased as the day went on. First, all recesses were canceled because it was too cold outside. Despite the fact that the thermometer read 19 degrees, the windchill brought it down below 0. No recess for my kiddos! No recess means that those kids are in the classroom ALL DAY. Not good. 4th graders are rowdy by nature, but when you take away their 40 minutes of freedom -watch out! I knew that their nerves would make classroom management that much more difficult, but I also knew it would still be manageable.

THEN the SMART board overheated. I had to say good bye to all of my visuals and resort to teaching the concepts with only imagery. Fat chance. The chance of having a successful lesson without some type of visual is next to impossible, but by some miracle it went rather smoothly.

The in-between of my lesson went well, though. It wasn't as perfect as I had planned it, but is it ever? The kids had a lot of fun at the different centers and it is so wonderful to see their brains at work as they work independently and with their groups to problem solve. I'll explain each of my stations, for those of you that care.

Just to fill you all in, the point of stations/center activities is to break the kids into four groups (or how ever many stations there are) and have them rotate throughout the different activities. I make sure to have worksheets with questions and directions to keep them on task. Sometimes they are more effective than others. I also am careful to put one girl in each group that I know will take charge and make sure everyone is staying focused.

Station 1: Since we are learning about mixtures and solutions, I used this station to teach about mixtures. The kids made their own trail mix and identified it as being a mixture or a solution. They had to test their hypothesis by taking the trail mix and trying to separate it. Their clue was that if it could be separated then it was a mixture. They loved this station. I had a baggie with each student's name on it, and it was the group leaders job to pass out the bags. The kids could make their trail mix however they wanted, mostly. There were Goldfish, pretzels, colored marshmallows, white and milk chocolate chips, and Cheerios to choose from. Sounds healthy, right? Once they chose their ingredients (they had to have a minimum of three) they were to measure everything, record it, and put it in their baggies. Once they had their trail mix ready they used it to answer a couple of questions and then they had to part with their most precious snack until the end of the day. Don't worry, I didn't torture them. They only had to wait 45 minutes till it was time to get on the bus, and it was one boy's birthday so they already had cupcakes.

Station 2: I called this station "Can it be Done?" They love a challenge! I filled a 2-liter bottle halfway with water and put about two inches of vegetable oil on top. They had to decide if the water could be taken out of the bottle, leaving the oil inside. This was quite the station! I required that they write down either 3 reasons why it could be done, or 3 reasons why it couldn't be done, then they had to discuss their ideas with their group members and use their new reasoning, logic, and communication skills. Some of the kids had the craziest ideas! But it was sweet little A. who got the answer right. I personally liked T.'s idea of pressing a sponge to the top of the bottle to absorb all the water and then squeeze it into a cup. J. said we should just cut off the bottom of the bottle. Oh the creativity! At the end of the center activities I brought them back as a class and we spent about 5 minutes discussing whether or not it could be done. I was mainly a facilitator at this point, and rarely interjected except to shake up the bottle, tip it, tilt it, or whatever they asked for as a demonstration/clarification. Then we finally turned the bottle upside down and drained out the water, leaving the oil inside. It could be done!

Station 3: This station was tricky, so I had Mrs. P. sit and monitor this station. The students had to fill bottles with water and then drop things in it, such as sugar, salt, cornstarch, baking soda, etc. to test the differences between solutions and suspensions. First they had to make a prediction as to whether or not the new substance would be a solution or a suspension, then they tested their hypothesis. This station was difficult for them, but it worked out well.

Station 4: Make Your Own Solution! I had jars with different labels, such as sand, food coloring, etc. and the students would fill each jar halfway with water and then they would drop in the different solutions to see if the new substance was indeed a solution. Some of the kids said that this station made them feel like scientists, which I loved hearing.

At the very end of the lesson, when I was closing, Mrs. P. asked some of the boys to clean up. I appreciated the favor, but those four boys missed out on valuable information. So I was marked down because I didn't have visuals during my input, which was recognized to be the fault of the SMART board, not me. I was marked down because they were a little crazy, which was recognized to be the fault of the lack of recess, not my classroom management skills; and finally because the boys were cleaning and not listening, which was recognized to not be my fault either. Naturally I was still marked down. Meh.

However, I was told that I have a great "teacher voice," and that I am a very personable teacher. I'll take it! I was also told that the center activities were "fabulous" and "flawless." I'll take that, too! I'm determined to have my next evaluation to label me as "excellent," but I guess I am satisfied with "competent" right now.

Oh, and by the way, today C. asked me what my first name was and he was not convinced that it was "Mrs." I'm technically not supposed to reveal my first name, but these kids are dying to know! I think I'll tell them on my last day, but right now I am having fun making up crazy names and watch their faces turn from excitement to find out my name, shock to hearing the name, and then a smile and a "MRS. EVERSHED!" when they realize they've been tricked!

One girl in another class asked me how old I was, too. When I told her that it was a secret she said, "Oh come on. I know you're like 30 or something like that!" I don't know how I feel about her anymore =]