One Evaluation Down...3 to go! :)

WOO HOOO!!! I had my first unannounced evaluation today which means 1 down...3 to go!!! :) I have one more unannounced and 2 announced with the TAP rubric! Are your schools using the TAP rubric or RISE system? I am very confident in my teaching abilities and what I create for my students, but it can, at times, be a little nerve racking when someone is watching you do what you do every day. :) Since this is our 2nd year with this system, this evaluation was a lot less nerve racking!

My class did a pretty good job. I have to remember that this is the 7th week of school which means they are on their way; however, there may still be some hiccups in there. We were working on mental strategies to solve 1-digit subtraction problems which requires no pencil and paper which is one of the points on the rubric as far as how you assess. So I made sure to have an exit slip that they had to write. hah I did love how I opened the lesson with to explain the definition of "difference." I do a 3 rotation system like Beth Newingham's Math Workshop system which I love. My district uses Everyday Math which is the same as what Beth uses so it was a nice transition for us. So as a way to introduce the word "difference," I had 2 kids stand up in the small group, and I had the other kids tell what the difference was between them. We had great responses of different clothes, height, hair color, etc. Then we moved onto a pencil and a dry erase marker. They said one could erase and one couldn't, etc. Finally, I used Brenda's Number Posters at Primary Inspired to hold up 2 numbers that were only a few apart from each other to have them tell me the difference between them. Each group (they are ability grouped) had at least 1 person who said something along the lines of, one is 4 more than the other or one is 3 less than the other!!! SUCCESS!! :) It was a great way to make the lesson more relevant to their everyday lives. The rest of the lesson went well. I wish I would have added something a little more challenging for my high group which I did make the exit slip challenging. We also were very slow at moving to my rotation. hah I don't know if it just SEEMED slower because someone was watching me and typing or if it was, in fact, SLOW! I wanted them to bring their fact triangles with them, but then they couldn't find them. I should have seen that coming which I kind of did, but at the same time, the lesson was shorter and required fact triangles. NOTE TO SELF...make my own group set! hah So other then those 2 things, I felt good about the lesson! My favorites by far are writing and reading lessons, but I'm simply happy to have one down in the books for this year! :)

So going back to these being nerve racking, I think I was so stressed about getting all of my 18-20 choices for Daily 5 activities ready with "I CAN" statements that I literally started crying in the drive thru at Walgreens Sunday night when the pharmacist said they didn't have my prescription because it was passed 7 days! hahah Now, it wasn't sobbing, but one of those "oh my gosh, what next?" kind of cries! haha Have you ever had those due to stress?? Well, I seem to need one of those every so often just to let it all out! Then I seem to pick myself right back up!  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE teaching!!! However, with that comes much stress that sometimes can be overwhelming. Luckily that is where my blogging buddies and instagram friends (along with my in person friends and family :) come into play!! If it wasn't for all of you, I know it would be much harder. The teaching community is such a powerful motivator!! So THANK YOU!!!! :) AND YAY TO ONLY 3 MORE EVALUATIONS TO GO! :)