A Week of Chemistry, Class Community, and Comprehension

     Several exciting moments happened this week in class.  At the beginning of the week, a chemistry professor performed different experiments for the fifth graders.   For instance, he demonstrated the reaction between potassium and other elements with fire.  He turned on a blow torch, sprayed potassium on it, and the fire turned bright purple.  This was an excellent example of how to engage students in a lesson.  Rather than solely reading from a textbook, or watching a video, it was captivating for both the children and adults to see an expert perform these experiments in person.    
     In addition to the exciting experiments, our class participated in another unity day on Thursday.  Since our class is a combination of both fourth and fifth graders, our mentor teacher tries to do several things to try to build a class community.  A couple of weeks ago, she had all of the students wear red shirts.  This week, each of the students wore blue shirts.   Despite the fact that there are two different grade levels in the class, they are ONE class.  I thought it was a great idea for the students to feel proud of their class and a part of a community.  Our teacher also had someone at the school take a class picture of them to remember the event.  This class activity reminded me of a wondering that I read this week from the book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  The wondering was, "How do I contribute to my students' awareness of their core similarities and their individuality?"  This unity building activity helped the students see that they are all unique individuals that share the same space.
     Another wondering from the reading that was reflected in my class this week was, "How do students come to encourage, support, and celebrate one another's growth?"  Our mentor teacher had her fourth graders participate in an author's chair exercise.  The fourth graders are working on improving their expository and narrative writing.  She had each of the students sit in a tall computer chair and read one of their stories to their peers.  The peers clapped for each of the students after they finished reading.  I thought this exercise was an excellent way for students to showcase their writing and get a positive response and support from their peers.
     Lastly, I taught my first lesson on my own this week.  The fifth graders read aloud and answered comprehension questions from the short story, Goin' Somplace Special, in their reading textbooks.  Overall, I thought it went well and received positive feedback from my teacher.  I was able to improve my time management from our first reading lesson.  I will work on circulating the room more during future reading lessons to ensure that the students are paying attention to the story.