Week 7 EDUC 410

EDUC 410

We have still been taking a look at formative assessments this week. Formative assessments are key in every lesson to gauge where students are. Even just a quick check of whether students feel they understand the material with the thumbs up method. Or walking around making observations on how students are doing on their work. Asking questions during teacher input and guided practice. These are all simple formative assessments that can be done and should be done in a lesson. This only scratches the surface. Then there are formative assessments like short quizzes or worksheets, these are all useful to you as a teacher. These checks should be used to figure out what students are getting or not getting and should be used to help the students. We put this into practice with our lesson for Task 4 this week. We finished our plans from the data received from a formative assessment conducted in a 4th grade classroom. Then we taught this lesson in our small online group. This was an interesting experience, but I found it difficult doing a lesson over zoom like this, mainly because the lesson was created for a physical face-to-face classroom. However, it was still an experience. We also discussed how to make grading rubrics for students. When giving an assignment students should always have a clear idea of what success looks like on that assignment. Rubrics help to show this by giving them a guideline of what their work should show. I am glad to be practicing this application of formative assessments and using the data collected to improve lessons because I know this will be a high priority in my future classroom.

Outside

On the Twitter Chat that I attended this week the discussion was on how the workforce is always changing and how we should prepare our students. What should we focus on to help our students in a workforce that we cannot predict? A big theme among the participants was to put emphasis on critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork. These are highly important to every student, actually every person. It does not matter what career field you are going into. These skills are important in every field and even everyday life. Everyone should know how to work with others through teamwork and to do this they need communication skills. These communication skills not only come in handy with professional relationships but personal ones as well. Critical thinking and problem solving skills have also continuing to become a huge focus in schools. There are always problems in any type of career or life, and critical thinking is a must when finding solutions to these problems. The teaching of these life skills goes with standard 3d from NCTCS stating that teachers make instruction relevant to students. It says that teachers must incorporate life skills into their lessons which is exactly what we were discussing in this chat.

Week 6 EDUC 410

EDUC 410

This week, in EDUC 410, we continued work on our lessons for edTPA task 4. Still using the data given to us on how a 4th grade class did with fractions we are forming a reteach lesson. I have decided to focus on equivalent fractions because that seems to be where the majority of issues were. I have been trying to come up with different methods to use to show equivalent fractions to accommodate different learning styles. I have decided to draw out the fractions so that visual learners can see how the fractions shown are equivalent and using manipulatives like glasses of water and crackers for those tactile learners. I believe that abiding to these styles in my teaching is very important because it gives every student a better chance of understanding the material that is presented rather than if I only teach it towards one learning style. This idea can be  aligned with the NCTCS standard 2d. Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. This standard does not only apply to students with IEPs or 504s or with ADHD but it applies to those individual learning styles as well. I will definitely continue to apply this in my future classroom as well.

Outside

We have also been talking about formative assessment in EDUC 410. To go along with this I found a good resource. This is an extensive list of formative assessment strategies that can be used in the classroom. It lists them out and then explains what they are. I found it very helpful and wanted to include it here. http://www.stma.k12.mn.us/documents/DW/Q_Comp/FormativeAssessStrategies.pdf 

Week 5 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

SCED 330

Tuesday my science fair group met to work on our project. We are testing to see if washing your hands has an effect on how germs spread, as well as if different soaps have an effect. To show this we are using slices of bread. We took slices of bread and put them into ziplock bags. One slice was the control where no one touched it. We all took another slice where we all touched it before washing our hands. Then we all washed out hands with a different soap and each touched a slice of bread, labeling the bag with the type of soap we used. Now we are just waiting to see what happens. I am really happy with how this experiment is started and cannot wait to see where it goes. I am also looking forward to get our water cycle project going with my other group.

Right now the biggest struggle I am having this week is with the hyperdoc. My group’s hyperdoc is due this week and we have been struggling to find time to get together. We tried to get a meeting set up early this week but it did not work out. So it looks like we will be connecting with each other mostly through email and phone. My plan is to work on this as much as I can throughout the week but I am not sure how much internet access I will have so the majority of my work on this project will have to be completed Monday. I hate this because I was doing well at getting things done in a timely manner, but sometimes there is just no control.

Speaking of hyperdocs: 

EDUC 410

This week in EDUC 410 we are looking at assessment. In our virtual meeting we discussed the reliability and validity of an assessment and how important these are. The reliability of an assessment refers to its consistency. The assessment should measure the same. It should not matter what time of day a student does the assessment, and if a student gets an answer right he/she should be able to get the answer to a similar question correct as well. The validity of an assessment reflects accuracy. You are wanting to measure whether the students are understanding the content you are teaching so your assessment should reflect this. If your assessment has nothing to do with what you taught then it is not valid. To have a good assessment you need both of these, not just one or the other. This goes with standard 5 of the NCTCS. Specifically 5a which says, “teachers analyze student learning.” Teachers are to create affective assessments and then continue with them. They cannot just create the assessment have the students do it, grade it and stop there. They need to look at these assessments and take what they learn of their students and use that to help them improve. This is what I plan to do in my future classroom. I want to create reliable and valid assessments and then use the data I glean from them to improve my teaching and the learning of my students.

Outside

I have another story from my job this week. I have a student who really wants to behave and is pretty good for the most part. However, he gets into these crying tantrum fits. Any time he does get into trouble he freaks out. He also does this when he is playing a game and is “out” or does not think he was treated fairly. Well the other day he got into trouble. At the time I was busy helping my other students with their homework, I called him down for something, but proceeded to work with another student. The other group leader happened to be in there as he had already dropped his students off with their tutor so he was giving me a hand. Well when this student was still not doing what he was told this group leader took it from there. It escalated into one of his crying fits, after a while I could see that the other group leader was not to get anywhere with the student so I traded off with him. I was able to get things under control which I was very proud of but the main piece of this story is that when the day ended the other group leader came to me asking questions about it. He has decided to go into teaching himself, though at the high school level, (by the way this was a second grader that we were dealing with). He is having problems with his discipline and management skills with the students. Especially those at a younger age. So far every week he has come to me with a new question, a new scenario and how I would handle the situation. I have just been so proud to be able to help a fellow teacher grow like this, at least the best I can. This also goes with the NCTCstandard 1: “Teachers demonstrate leadership.”

Twitter

This is so important. Through out all of our classes we learn this everyday. This is the whole point of looking at the data, so that we are able to gauge where our students are and go from there. We cannot skip ahead to another lesson if they have not mastered the last one.

As teachers we need to remember this. Focus on our students. Change the world for that one student, it has an impact, see it, use it.

This is a cool read. Having students peer edit can help them better see when errors happen. Doing this will help them better see them in their own writing and help them know how to correct these errors. Peer Feedback Article

Week 4 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

SCED 330

In science class this Tuesday we had an activity where we had a hypothetical situation (which is 100% probable in our future classrooms) where we get a question from a student that we do not know the answer to. In class our question was “how do hurricanes form?” So we spent a set amount of time researching this question to where we could understand it and then turn around and explain it to the student. I thought this was great practice for the classroom and really helped us to see what would be a good practice in this sort of situation. This activity also went into standard 3 of NCTCS, teachers need to know the content they are teaching. We did not know the answer to this question so we had to research it. This will happen to us because we do not know everything there is to know about everything, but it is important for us to understand this, and we still have to find the information so that we can teach our students. This also goes with standard 1. As leaders we need to understand that our learning never ends, this was a great opportunity for us to see this and learn something new that we would then share with our students. 

We are continuing our work on our Ecocolumns this week. These things are so much fun, I am really enjoying the project, and I am proud in someways as to how mine is turning out. In other ways it is not turning out quite as I had hoped but that is how science goes. It is an experiment, these things do not always turn out as you expected. Another assignment I am really enjoying is the Science Through My Lens project. I mentioned this in my last blog but it has become a lot of fun trying to notice things that are happening around me. These things have always been happening but now I am focusing on them and really seeing them. It is harder for me to come up with questions to go with my pictures but I am starting to get the hang of it. I am excited about getting started on our experiments next week for our science fair group project as well. We have our plan all ready and I am raring to go.

One of my biggest struggles this week is still procrastination, I have gotten a lot better but I am still not quite there. I have done really well in getting this week’s things done in all of my classes but I have been struggling in getting ahead in next week’s assignments. I have to get them done because I know I will not have time to do them next week. The hardest things are the group projects though. Doing my own assignments early can be accomplished easier than getting my groups to meet earlier in the week to get those things done. But my plan is to get into contact with all of my groups to get those things done, or it least figure out my part and get my parts done early in the week. 

I went through the hyperdoc that was shared on chapter 2 this week. It is really cool and kind of fun to go through. I think the group did a great job with their links, with the videos and sites they found. I liked how they put arrows pointing out all of the links so that they were not missed. Something that stood out to me personally was the question “[What was] your most memorable science experiment?” This got me to thinking on all the science experiments and activities that I got to do during my public school years and even while I was homeschooled. It brought up all of those memories that have stuck with me, and it made me think about the impact those classes had on me. Through out all of school those science experiments are what have stuck with me the best. All of those hands on experiences have stayed with me, much better than what I just read out of a textbook. It made me think of what those certain teachers did for me, and made me realize how much I wanted to be able to do this for my future students.

EDUC 410

In 410 this week we have been working on Task 4 of edTPA. This has been really hard for me. We are using data collected to go back and come up with a strategy for re-teaching a lesson. However, we are making up the information right in the middle. It is one thing when you start creating a beginning lesson plan. It is another when you are trying to imagine what that first lesson was, then imagining what the students need extra work on and creating a new lesson from that. This has just been struggle for me this week. In our seminar we have been talking about feedback. I have always thought feedback was hugely important. I know as a student myself I always hated when teachers would just put a check mark or something on my work. Even if I got a 100 I wanted to know what I did well on on the assignment. If I got a lower grade I wanted to know why. Especially if I was going to have a similar assignment later because I wanted to know what I needed to improve on. This is highly important for students. They need to know what their strengths and weaknesses were on an assignment. The whole reason is for them to grow and improve. If we do not give them the information they need to do this, how will they know? This will definitely be something that I will be proactive in in my future classroom. I do not want my students to feel like I did as a student. I want them to have feedback so that they can grow.

Tweets

So this week all of my top tweets are lists of tools and strategies that teachers can use. I am bookmarking all of these links and I hope they are useful to you guys.

This first one is list of 20 strategies to help keep your students engaged. Even those reluctant to do anything in your class. It is just a list of ideas that you can do that might help, and it is highly useful. I was going to pick on thing off the list as an example but honestly I cannot pick one and I think everyone should read the whole list. 

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/03/20-strategies-for-motivating-reluctant-learners/ 

This link is focused more on a teachers relationship with their students. What are some ways that you can become a memorable educator? Again I like all of these strategies but I will pick one this time. One of the strategies is to be approachable. A simple thing to do to help with this is situating yourself or your desk to where your students are not intimidated or feel cut out. You want them to be able to come up to you with questions or feel like they can talk to you.

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-become-memorable-educator

This last link could be used for teachers, parents, students, and ourselves. This is a list of strategies or tips to help get you organized. But these are categorized by learning styles. So there are tips for the best ways for a kinesthetic learner to get organized, an auditory learner, and a visual learner. I am a visual learner and looking through those tips I find that they are definitely things that help me. Some that I already like to do and others that I have never thought of. However, no learner is stuck in one category, each person fits into each style in different ways, so do not forget to look at the other categories because you may find something that would work for you there too. I know I did.

http://www.coolcatteacher.com/tips-organize-learning-styles/ 

Week 3 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

SCED 330

This week was exciting in Science Methods. We did a lot, but what stood out to me was working on our ecocolumns in class. This has been such a fun project for me so far and I think it will continue to be so. We are building self sustaining ecosystems out of two-liter bottles. Complete with a terrarium and aquarium section. During class we have been catching creatures to keep in our ecosystem along with things for their new habitat to keep them alive and healthy. This is the kind of thing I love to do and so far I feel like I have been able to be a lot of help to the other students in this process. I am proud of this. 

Something else that we have been working on in Science is our Science Through My Lens learning experience. We are to be looking out for scientific occurrences happening around us, document them with pictures and have questions designed to inspire and encourage inquiry in students. I have started on this assignment and it is completely eye opening. I know these occurrences are alway going on around me but I have never really taken the time to notice them. This assignment forces me to always be on the look out and to see my world in a completely new light. 

I know I am going to be very busy and away from computer access a lot the week after next. So my action step for this next week is to get ahead as much as I possibly can so as to not get in a bind that week.

EDUC 410

We have started to look at task 4 of edTPA in 410 this week. Task 4 is the math section of edTPA. In this task the teacher is to teach a math lesson, review and reflect on the data from the lesson and assessment, revamping and reteaching the lesson using information gleaned from this data. In this class we are going to be doing this to get a better idea of how it is done. We are going to be completing a math lesson and teaching it to a group of our peers. Then we are to reflect on the lesson and use what we learn to reteach the lesson. This will be great for us to learn and be able to practice. Because we will be doing this in our student teaching and we must know how to do it.

Outside

My interview for the Education program at Gardner-Webb is next Thursday. I have been working constantly on trying to prepare myself for this. This type of thing is not my strong suit and I have been struggling with it. I have been working hard on myself these past weeks. My biggest struggle here is my belief in myself, as well as my mind freezing up. I have also been reviewing the Conceptual framework and NCTCstandards. Viewing these standards, I see how they have become almost second nature to me. I have gone from having never seen them at the beginning of the spring semester last year, to knowing them so well now. All of the standards are equally important, but I have found that the 1st one stands out to me the most. It says that teachers are to be leaders. I feel like this encompasses all of the other standards. As leaders we teachers should create a respectful environment for our diverse learners, know our content, know how to facilitate learning for all of our students no mater who they are, and be able to reflect and use this reflection to improve. These are the other 4 standards.

Week 2 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

Overview: 

This week in EDU 410 we discussed assessments, what they are and why they are important, as well as Laws and policies that govern us as teachers. In Science Methods we looked at phenomena and we have been working on building ecocolumns. This was also our first week at work. So we have gotten to meet our students and get the new year started there.

EDU 410

Like I mentioned we discussed assessments in class this week. Assessments are tools we use to find out how much our students know and understand from what we are teaching. There are formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are done as you are teaching to find out if students are getting it, these provide you with information that helps you decide if you need to change the way you are teaching the material. Summative assessments are given after you are done teaching all of the material. Standard 4h from the NCTCS pays close attention to assessment and how teachers should use them. We also learned about laws and policies, including federal and state. These laws and policies tell us what we can and cannot do as well as what we are required to do in the education system.

Science Methods

On Tuesday in Science methods we talked about phenomena. Phenomena are events that we see happening around us. It could be things that we see everyday or something spectacular that is a very rare occurrence. For example the phases of the moon is a phenomena, or the solar eclipse that happened last week. We learned that it is very important to use phenomena to connect science lessons with because it helps students identify and connect with the lessons. My biggest struggle this week was probably that part in class. We had a short time to research a present information on phenomena to present to the rest of class. With the time limit I could not focus and soak in all of the information to then turn into something that I could share with the class. I am very bad with these short time limits, my brain freezes up and panics, and so this was a very hard assignment for me. I was just glad we were doing it in groups. I think the assignment that I am most proud of this week and most satisfied with is actually this blog. I struggle with these blogs and I am proud with how this one is turning out. However the assignment I have enjoyed most this week are the ecocolumns we are making. I am very excited about these. And it looks like I may be doing some cricket hunting this weekend for everyone in class.

Outside

I have been working at the PEAK program this week at my local elementary school. This will be my third year there, but this is the first year that we are doing PEAK. Before it has just been an after school program, running Mondays through Thursdays from 3-6pm. It was for students who needed extra tutoring after school and students had to be recommended for the program. This year instead of have K-5, we are including 4 year olds, and the days are Mondays-Fridays, as well as all teacher work days and holidays where we will be there from 7am-6pm. This is a huge change for us so we are just sort of figuring it out as we go. The program is also offered to everyone but it is not a free program anymore. This means we will possibly have more kids with a smaller staff, however these might not be the students who really need the after school tutoring because of money issues. I wanted to mention something that I learned this week with one of my students. It is not something that I really learned this week, but it is something that I knew, and got to actually put into practice and see the effects of. This student is a Kindergartener and he has some behavioral issues. He has huge attitude problems and wants to test to see how far he can go with every little thing. Questioning everything you tell him to do no matter what it is. In all of the educational psychology classes we take they always say that most kids respond better to rewards and praise then they do to being called down. This is definitely the case with this student. The first day everyone was having a time with getting him to  listen and behave, but it wasn’t until I took that time to watch every time he did something good to make sure I pointed it out to him, and I started giving him little responsibilities, that he started to make a turn for the better. It has still only been the first week but he has come a long way since just the first day. I want to take note of this, and remember it for future use with students I may get in the future.

Twitter:

This is a very interesting article, advocating for the encouragement of more people to look into vocational jobs. It just stood out to me because just last week we had an article that we read about how a lot of jobs were being replaced by “robots” and that we needed to encourage students to go for jobs that were not likely to be replaced. The articles were kind of contradicting. Here is a link to the other article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/high_school_and_beyond/2017/08/are_you_helping_students_prepare_for_jobs_that_will_be_lost_to_automation.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB 

This is the link to this article: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/decades-pushing-bachelors-degrees-u-s-needs-tradespeople/ 

I thought this was something to think about. It is true for most people. When their work is going to be on display or it seems more important to students they will work even harder on it. When it just seems like busy work to them they will only work to “good enough.” I know I do this myself.

After this being the first week of school for most schools around here I thought this was a cool link. It is a few different ice breaker type games. Perfect for most ages. Most of these games I have never heard of.

Week 1 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

Well this is my first blog for the semester. I did blogs last semester for my Social Studies methods class, but I did not do very well with them, in my opinion. These blogs are really hard for me, it is always hard for me to cover everything from the rubric that I am supposed to. I am hoping that I can get better at it this semester. This semester I am taking Math Methods, Science Methods, and EDUC 410 which is an integration and assessment class. These blogs are for Science methods, and EDUC 410. This was my first week of classes, so far I am optimistic about them. Math and science are both my favorite subjects and I am looking forward to these classes. Most of this week has been introducing class, orientations to the courses, and pre tests. So mostly I have just learned how the classes work and their expectations. I was surprised about my confidence on the 410 pre-test, I felt confident in my answers for most of the questions before the course has even really started. In Science class, we did an experiment with tin foil boats, trying to see what designs worked the best by seeing how many pennies they could hold before they sank. I enjoyed it a lot, and was pretty proud of our boat designs as they held up a large number of pennies. This experiment provided a great beginning to class. My biggest struggle this week has been getting myself to do the assignments, I am still in the summer mode and it has been hard to get myself back in the zone. Because of this my action steps for this next week is to work on focusing on these assignments and scheduling out times to do them where nothing else distracts me and I have to do them. My job at the after school program at the local elementary starts next week too. I am looking forward to it but I am also worried about it because of the changes that it is going through and how that will pair with my classes this semester, as well as next semester. This week and next week are the beginnings of the new semester and I will be learning a lot of how they will work and how that will set up the rest of my semester.

Side note: One of the most popular science phenomenons that happened this week was the Solar Eclipse. I viewed this from an area that had about a 98% coverage and I thought I would share a couple of my pictures.

Outside Learning/Twitter:

I thought that this was a profound idea. It is a very strong point, what if students and teachers viewed their work through this lens of not stopping until they were proud? Don’t just stop when you think that it satisfies the requirement, or is “good enough”. Stop when YOU are proud, because that will be your best work, and it will mean the most to you.

I just thought that this was a good thought. This is really how everyone should look at people, especially teachers of their students. I mean this is the whole point. All students have their particular strengths and weaknesses, and what makes them who they are. Every student is different and we need to see that they are the best them.

This is a link to an article where a teacher discusses how she learned how important and effective formative assessment tools were. She included a list of good tools that could be used in the midst of a lesson, and help show how the students are understanding and getting the lesson being taught as it goes. This way the teacher can see when he/she is on the right track or when he/she needs to change it up as the students either get it or are having trouble. I already use Plickers and Socrative which were both included in the list and I absolutely love them.

Week 10

Learning Experiences

This week we are having a much needed EdTPA bootcamp. We are learning what EdTPA is, how to do it, and the whole kit and caboodle. We need this so much. And it is definitely very helpful. I am still worried about working with EdTPA but at least it is not as impossible as it had seemed earlier. It still seems like a whole lot of extra work but I am starting to see how it can be helpful to make us as teachers to think through everything we are doing. To justify our decisions and reasons for doing certain things in our lessons.

Outside Learning

We are back in Washington, to be honest I missed it over the break. This week, instead of spending all of Tuesday in the classroom we actually took over lunch duty for all of the teachers. I spent the day in the cafeteria and it was a great learning experience. I have not been in an elementary cafeteria during lunch since I was in Kindergarten, due to me being homeschooled. The closest I have come to that experience, where I actually remember it, was in middle school. This was definitely a lot different than that. It took a little while to get into the swing of things because I did not really know how the cafeteria at Washington did things. But as the day went on I started to get more comfortable, and I actually enjoyed it. I think if I was in their more often, to where I could get used to the kids and how things went a little more, then my experience would be even better.

Future Classroom

I have to learn how to do EdTPA as a student teacher to be able to become a full teacher. Even if it was not something that had to be learned, I can see how it will help me in my future lesson planning. It will help me really be able to focus on every little detail of my plans and connect all the parts. It also makes me really think about how to support every learning ability in my classroom. Working in the cafeteria also helped me see how it will be when I get there as a teacher, and gave me a little experience with it.

Week 9

I am so happy spring break is finally here. But I know it will not be long enough. I am torn between just vegging out this break and coming in refreshed, or trying to use some of this week to get ahead on some things. 

Learning Experiences

I have been working on my lesson plans for clinical placement. Since the time I can get to my school is during their math block I decided to do my Fine Arts lesson and tie it into a math lesson. So that is the one that I have been working on. After I finish that one I am going to do a literacy and social studies lesson, and the teacher offered to flip her schedule that day but I am going to try to see if I can find a day where I can come in at their normal time for that. That way I do not mess with their schedule. For my math lesson with the Fine Arts integration I am doing a lesson on time. I am having the students build themselves a clock that will help them learn to tell time on an analog clock. I think this will be a fun lesson and I hope their clock will help them in future lessons on the topic as well.

Outside Learning

I am pretty sure I have mentioned this, but on Mondays through Thursdays I work at the after school program at Polk Central Elementary. Well this week I got a surprise. My boss was going to be out this week and she left me in charge. She just dropped it on me without me expecting it. It was a surprise but it was a very good experience. I got a taste of what it was like to be in that type of leadership role and I got the experience of stepping up to the plate when something like this was just dropped on me. Everything worked out, we did not have any problems which was nice. But I did get the experience of interacting more with the parents when they came to pick up their kids. Most of the time I do not get to see much of the parents because I am off somewhere with my students. So that was another good thing. Being a leader like this is exactly what NCTCS standard 1 says, when it says teachers must demonstrate leadership. And working with the parents goes along with standard 2e, "teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students."

Future Classroom

I am starting to make my own lesson plans that I have to teach to a class. I am not just making these lesson plans just to make them, but I am getting to actually implement them. I am also getting feedback from the teacher on how the lessons went. I also got the experience of working in a more leadership position among other teachers, not just among the students. As well as talking more to parents. These are all things that I need to continue to work on. I will definitely be doing these things in my own classroom so it is good to have the experiences now.

Week 8

Learning Experiences:

This week in class we learned about TPACK and SAMR. TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. This is the framework for how teachers use content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technology integration to enhance their students’ learning. Teachers of course need to know their content and teach this content to their students but they also need knowledge of how their students learn and their levels, as well as use technology to the advantage of their students’ learning. SAMR is the levels of which technology is used in a lesson. At the lower levels Substitution and Augmentation are where technology is used as a tool substitution and there is very little functional improvement. Modification and Redefinition are the upper/deeper levels of technological integration, where technology is used to redefine the task and used to do something with the learning that used to be inconceivable. TPACK and SAMR both go with the NCTCS standard 4. Standard 4 is all about facilitating learning for your students, by understanding how they learn and working with this. Finding ways to teach the material that fits them and using technology to do so. 

Outside Learning:

This week at Washington we actually got to teach a semi-lesson to the students. It was Read Across America week this week, and the teacher wanted us to do the Dr. Seuss activity for Tuesday. We chose the story and came up with an art activity and a learning activity for them to do with the story. We chose One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Our art activity involved them creating fish using their hands and creating a version of the title page of the story. Since the story is mostly all about rhyming we had them do a rhyming activity where they matched up rhyming words. It was a very good experience for us and I really enjoyed it. I just wish we had a little more time to do more with them. But the semester is not over yet.

Future classroom:

Working closer in these classrooms at Washington and actually coming up with activities for the students is, as always, great practice for our future classrooms. Learning about TPACK can help us see how we need to use all the knowledge we have, on the content and the students, and technology together to make learning more meaningful and powerful. Learning SAMR helps us to see what level of technology integration has the most impact on a student’s learning. 

Week 7

Learning Experiences:

This week I finally got to meet with my Clinical Educator. I have been assigned to a 2nd grade class at West Elementary. My first impressions of the teacher and class are good. The educator and I discussed the requirements of all of my classes and planned out the schedule for me to observe and then teach. We spent some time going over what she has been teaching in class and setting up ideas for the lessons I am going to do in her class. The time I am able to meet with her is early in the mornings which is the time she does her math lessons. So I decided to do a math lesson with art integration. She is starting on time and money when I am planning to teach, so I am looking at having them create a clock to tell time on for the arts integration part. For my other lesson I am planning to do literacy and social studies. I am going to try to do it over spring break so that I can go during her literacy block so she does not have to flip her schedule. She did not really have a specific lesson for me to do for that, so I am working on coming up with something.

Outside Learning:

  Today was Digital Learning Day and between classes today we had a Digital Learning meeting where we all shared technology resources that we had found. It was a great learning experience and I enjoyed it extremely, and not just because we got Mexican food. Some of my favorites included goformative.com and zearn.org which were both interactive math resources, good to use as formative assessments, and learning tool for the students. The resource that I shared was an app called Toontastic 3D which is a story maker app. Students can use the app to create and animate their own stories or to recreate a story that they read to show reading comprehension. This whole day and learning experience definitely fits in with the NCTCS standard 4d, which says teachers need to integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. Today was perfect in helping us out with this. Over all the day was definitely worth it.

Future classroom:

  Working with the clinical educator is helping me prepare for my future classroom by working directly with a teacher and then making a lesson plan to actually teach to a real elementary class. And once I do my lesson she is there to give me feedback on it so that I can improve. Also learning about all of the resources is helping me because now I can add them to my bank and learn how to use them now so that I can put them to good use in my future classroom.

Week 6

Learning Experiences:

For the past two weeks I have been working on the performance task part of my unit. We have been learning about what a performance task is and the difference between that and the learning experiences part of a lesson. The performance task being the end assessment of the lesson. It is a summative assessment, while the learning experiences are tasks that lead up to the performance task and help prepare the students for it. Learning what these assessments are and how they work goes along with the NCTCS standard 1a2 which says that I will “draw on appropriate data to develop classroom and instructional plans.” I am doing this by learning how to use these assessments appropriately. I have not started working on my learning experiences yet because I am still finishing up my performance task. But I think I have a good working plan for my performance task. My conceptual lens is this: “How are communities and citizens interdependent on one another?” For the PT I want my students to create an informational product about the community they live in. I want them to create it with the audience in mind being newcomers to the community. I want them to show case their community for their new neighbors, but I also want them to find ways that their new neighbors can get involved in the community. My original idea was for them to create a booklet, but I really want to provide them some more options in how they want to present their information. However I am having trouble coming up with some solid ideas. They could do a video or maybe an interactive website, or…. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share.

Outside Learning:

Another week at Washington Elementary has gone by. I am really having a wonderful time there and I feel like I am learning a lot from having more experience in an actual classroom. It has been decided this week that we will stick with the class we are in for the entire semester instead of rotating to different classes. I like this idea because I can really get to know the students and watch them grow, instead of being uprooted and put into a new class every few weeks. This Tuesday was Valentine’s Day and the teacher of the second grade class I am in did not let it go to waste. She had plenty of activities planned for it. First of all she had a listening game where the students each had a card with a riddle on it. They would read their card and everyone had to listen to see if their card fit the riddle. Then the student who's card fit the riddle would read their card, and it went on.  She also had Valentine activity booklets that she had made up that the students would work on when they finished other tasks. In two weeks they are going to be doing Dr. Seuss and Read Across America and the teacher has recruited the other 2 students who are working in the class and myself to plan everything for that Tuesday. I am really excited for this but I am also quite nervous. I hope it goes well.

Future classroom:

A couple of weeks ago I said I was researching activities and resources in Fine Arts to use in lesson plans. This will come in quite handy these next few weeks as I prepare for the Dr. Seuss day at Washington. And planning this day is going to be a great learning experience to help me with my future classroom. It also goes hand in hand with working on my performance task and learning experiences for my unit plan. As I get practice doing these things, it will hopefully come more naturally to me and I will become more efficient in making them.

Week 5

Learning Experiences:

For one of my learning experiences this week I have been learning about Today’s Learners. Who are they, what they need to learn the best, and how to teach them. Throughout the years the way people are learning has constantly been changing. With computers and other electronic devices today, pretty much every student has access to some kind of device and this puts the internet and the world at their finger tips. The way these kids are growing up has effected how they learn the best. These students are independent, technology driven, creative, and social. They need freedom and choices, have opportunities to work collaboratively, opportunities to create, and be able to use technology which is so much apart of them. As a teacher I need to embrace technology and not be afraid of it. I need to put it into use and provide those opportunities listed above for my students.

Outside Learning:

This week was our first week at Washington, and it was awesome. I had so much fun and learned a lot. For this month I am in a fourth grade classroom on Mondays, though only for a very short time. On Tuesdays I am in a second class for most of the day. Since Monday was not very long we did not get to do much more than observe the class. We did participate in some small reading groups but I mostly just listened in on what they were doing and read when my turn came around. However, on Tuesday we did a lot. First thing was we learned how to do ORF testing, which is Oral Reading Fluency. And we did that with the students while the teacher worked on the lesson. After that we worked on preparing things for the activities the students were going to do later. It was the 100th day of school so the students were doing a bunch of projects and activities for that. We did so much that it would be hard for me to talk about and explain it all, but it was a great experience and I cannot wait until next week.

Future classroom:

Learning about Today’s Learners will help me better understand and prepare myself to teach them. I need to know how they learn the best so that I can teach them more effectively. 

Week 4

          This week has been a highly stressful week. About the time I think I am getting the hang of it all of it goes out the window. I feel a little bit better now then I did at the beginning of the week, but I’m still having a hard time with it. 

Learning Experiences:

          For class we finished up our goals for our PDPs. Which was really hard for me. I knew in general what I wanted my goals to be, but getting them down in words and making them clear was quite difficult. My main goal is to come out of my shell and improve my communication skills. That is a must have as an educator. It is really a needed skill in any kind of job, but definitely as an educator. You must be able to communicate to your students. As well as fellow educators and faculty members, and parents of your students. If you have difficulty in this you are going to have a difficult time in this field. This is not one of my strengths right now, so it is something at the top of my list to work on. The teaching standards constantly stresses collaboration and communication. 1c2 says the teacher "begins to develop professional relationships and networks." 2e1 requires that the teacher "communicates and collaborates with the home and community for the benefit of students." 4b1 calls for a teacher that "collaborates with colleagues to monitor student performance and make instruction responsive to cultural differences and individual learning needs." And so on and so on. All of these standards require me to be able to communicate and get along with colleagues, parents, and others. So this is definitely a skill I need to work on.

Outside Learning:

          In another one of my classes, Fine Arts Integration, we have been working on finding more learning resources to go with a unit being used by a teacher at Washington Elementary. She has a unit on Kill Devil Hills that she is doing with her students. She sent a copy of it to us and we have been researching some other activities and resources that she can include in her lessons if she chooses. This is a great learning opportunity for us. We are learning how to integrate and connect different things to an established unit. We are learning to research activities and learning resources. It has been extremely enlightening and a lot of fun as well. It is also great help to the teacher. She is a full time teacher, who probably does not have time to go to this extent in researching these things. We are helping by providing a list that we have already researched and connected to the lesson and it is all in one easy place. Now all she needs to do is decide if they will work for her class and if she wants to use them.

Future classroom:

          Making these PDP goals will help me continue to make goals in the future that will help me grow as a teacher. Accomplishing the goals I have already made will help me gain the skills that will help me to be the teacher I need to be. The things I have learned this week in Fine Arts will help me with my future lesson plans. Because of this practice in researching activities and other sources, and connecting them with the standards and working them into an established lesson, I will be much more adept to doing it with my own lessons.

Week 3 SSED 307

Another week half way down.

This week my classes took our first trip to Washington Elementary which is where we will be spending Mondays and Tuesdays at during our class time. From what I saw just from the one visit it looks to be a great school. It seemed small and the teachers were great. I am really looking forward to spending time in the school with the students and learning from the teachers.

For Social Studies Methods this week we are going over generalizations. Generalizations are summary statements that talk about the relationship between two or more concepts, or summarize cause and effect. We have also started working on our PDPs or Personal Development Plans. I am working on coming up with two SMART goals for me to work on and achieve. The goals are to help me develop as a teacher, who meets and goes over and beyond the NC teacher standards. According to these standards, as a teacher, I should demonstrate leadership, be able to institute a comfortable and respectful environment for diverse students, know the content, be able to promote learning in my students knowing and understanding what they need so that they can learn to their fullest potential, and to be able to reflect back and revise.

Something I do outside of school is I volunteer coach a middle and high school NC Wildlife team. One of the things they have to do for competition is orienteering, which is where they work with a compass to find a certain point in the woods. Another piece of this orienteering part is they have to take a test on NC hunter safety and wildlife. These two things are what I coach. It is getting close to Regionals for them so I have been doing a lot of research on classroom games to do with them to help them review. I have found some pretty cool things to do with the team and I thought I would share a few of them. 

This is a link to how to make a life size board game for your students. I did this one a few weeks ago and it worked out great. I think it would work for almost any age students.

http://www.thereligionteacher.com/the-human-board-game-to-review-for-exams/ 

This is another game I found, which I think could be fun to try but I have not yet had a chance to implement it.

http://www.bainbridgeclass.com/scootgame.pdf