Last Day at Bent Teaching!

Today Chelsea and I implemented our fourth lesson at Bent Elementary and it went pretty well. We taught the children about sound and pitch by bringing in glass cups and different objects to hit the glass cup so that we could demonstrate that certain sounds have higher pitch and lower pitch. We used a metal fork, a plastic fork, and a pencil to hit the cup. This was the second time we taught this lesson so we were a little more prepared with the questions we needed to ask to keep the discussion going along.

The students seemed to really enjoy this lesson and loved that it was hands-on. For the most part all of them seemed to be engaged except for one of the students seemed out of it and we had to keep redirecting him; it was almost like he was just sitting there, but his mind was elswhere. Chelsea and I tried to keep him on task, but all he wanted to do was play with the glass and forks. This time teaching this lesson went much smoother because these students were more into it and the student that was off task wasn't distracting us like before. The set of new students also seemed to be engaged more and had better prior knowledge.

There were definitely changes we made from the first time we implemented this lesson. When we first did this lesson it was super short, this time it was shorter than it should be, but we came prepared to ask more engaging questions and to get their minds thinking about how it related back to school as well as their home experience. We had the students come up with other objects that would make high and low pitch sounds which gave us a gauge of where the students were at understanding the concept; somewhat like a check for understanding. We used a recording sheet for the students to use during the activity. We used this as an assessment tool and it gave us the opportunity to see if they were truly comprehending the information that was being learned.  introduced the objects by having them identify each picture on the recording sheet along with the words sound, loud, and soft. One aspect we changed which was for the better is that we had the students predict what object was going to make the loudest sound and which object was going to make the softest sound. I wrote this in my last blog and transferred it to the implementation today. This helped the students get more engaged because they were excited to see if their prediction was correct or not.

The students did an awesome job understanding the difference between high pitch and low pitch sounds and were able to give us other examples from home or school of high and low pitch sounds. It made me feel like I taught them something and they really comprehended it when they gave examples! This was completely

shocking to me. I had no idea that these 2^nd graders would understand the idea of pitch or sound and I was super nervous to go about explaining it to them in a way that they would understand. However, Chelsea did an awesome job explaining what pitch was and gave a very good example of it. I’m not sure I would have been able to teach this lesson if I was by myself, so it’s always nice to have someone by my side to co-teach with just in case I get stuck in mid-thought about something.

Thinking back on my childhood with Science, I do not ever remember learning about pitch and sound until I got into middle school. Even when I was in middle school we never did hands-on activities to learn about pitch and sound, we mostly watched videos and read from a textbook. When I reflect back on Science growing up, I wish I could go back to all my old teachers that taught from a textbook and ask why they chose to teach like this. It makes me sad that the only parts of Science I remember while growing up are the experiments that were hands-on and those are the ideas I can explain thoroughly. When I teach Science I want my students to remember what they learned and be able to go home to their parents and explain the experiment and what they learned from it. Another aspect I want to be able to bring into the classroom is doing experiments from home like the Earth and Space Science Module talked about.  However, having parents help outside of the classroom may be hard, it is an awesome way to get the students excited about Science and give them some academic time with their parents. Before doing this, I would ask all of the parents if they were willing to participate in an activity like this so that we are all on the same page. It would be super beneficial for the students to go home with some experiment type activity and come back with their recordings to discuss in class.

As for my goals this semester when it comes to teaching bilingual students; to get a better understanding on the different ways these students learn and different strategies I can use to help them learn. I think I did a great job during this lesson at achieving this goal. We differentiated by using the pictures as a strategy first. With our last group of students they had no trouble writing in Spanish, but this group did. So, in order to achieve my goal, like I said above I let them write in Spanish, however all four of these students wanted to write in English and we helped them spell. They were determined to write their sentence in English.Helping them spell and saying those letters in Spanish really gave me a better understanding of teaching bilingual students and gave me another strategy to use in the future when working with a student who's native language is Spanish since I know a lot of Spanish.

Overall, I really enjoyed teaching this lesson to these students and it is easy to teach when you have students that are so excited to learn. When we go into Bent and walk into that classroom the students are so excited to see us and when we tell them we are doing an experiment they all cheer. That is exactly how I want my future classroom to respond to Science when it is that time of day!

Exceeds:

-Word Count

-Goals

-childhood experiences

Water or Ice??

Chelsea and I taught our lesson about the properties of water again this week at Bent Elementary. We decided to use the same lesson plan as last time because we really liked how the lesson implementation went and the group of students we worked with also seemed to enjoy it a lot as well! All we changed in our lesson plan was adding a literacy standard because they would be listening and speaking as well as writing some of their observations down.

I think since Chelsea and I had taught this lesson to students before and were getting a new group of students we were not nervous at all and had a good idea of how the lesson would go. We knew it would be slightly different, but were fully prepared to accommodate the new students! We introduced ourselves to the students and explained what we would be doing for the lesson, they all seemed very excited! The lesson went awesome and I think because we were more knowledgeable from teaching it once it helped when these students were confused. Another aspect that I thought was super beneficial for us as well as the students was that we made them feel comfortable by speaking Spanish with them. We tried to say every work in Spanish as well as in English. Three of the four students asked if they could write in Spanish and I said  that that was fine, but that they had to explain what they wrote as a group in English.

Reflecting back on our lesson we did a great job differentiating the lesson. We included pictures for all of the senses just in case the students had trouble reading the English word we wrote for the 5 senses on their recording sheet. This was helpful because as the lesson went on I noticed the students had a lot of trouble writing in English and when they did, they had no idea how to spell the words. My favorite part of the lesson that it felt the mot rewarding to teach these four knew students was when they all decided they wanted to write in English AND Spanish and we had to help them. Chelsea and I know a lot of Spanish and know the letters of the alphabet. There was some confusion when I was explaining how to spell a word in English so instead, I decided to tell the young girl how to spell it in English by saying the letters in Spanish. This helped me practice my Spanish as well as them see that I too have trouble writing and speaking in the language that isn't my first language. We have learned in our modules and in class that we need to try and differentiate in ways to make the learning for the students as beneficial as possible and I believe that is exactly what Chelsea and I did! The modules and readings for class have been super helpful when implementing our lessons for these students. They are all good guides for teaching.

As Chelsea said in her blog, we connected our lesson to Amy's lesson and didn't even know. We asked the students what other materials or foods could be a liquid as well as a solid. One of the boys responded with "chocolate." I was so surprised that he thought of that and I never would have thought of that as being a solid and a liquid until he said that. We talked to Amy after our lesson and she said she had read a book to them about solids and liquids and that chocolate was one of the examples in the book. I thought it was awesome that he was able to make the connection from her lesson to our lesson! That tells me that he is really comprehending this information we are teaching as well as what Amy is teaching!

One aspect I would change about this lesson is definitely our time. The first time we taught the lesson we got done a lot earlier than we expected, but this time we went a little longer and got done only 5 minutes or so earlier. The hardest part about timing a lesson is that you have no idea what the students know when you first walk in. So, this lesson could take more than 30 minutes time or less than 30 minutes. When we got done early we had the students draw a picture of their experiment they did as an extension activity.

As for my goals this semester when it comes to teaching bilingual students; to get a better understanding on the different ways these students learn and different strategies I can use to help them learn. I think I did a great job during this lesson at achieving this goal. We differentiated by using the pictures as a strategy first. With our last group of students they had no trouble writing in Spanish, but this group did. So, in order to achieve my goal, like I said above I let them write in Spanish and also encourage them to write in English with my help. Helping them spell and saying those letters in Spanish really gave me a better understanding of teaching bilingual students and gave me another strategy to use in the future when working with a student who's native language is Spanish since I know a lot of Spanish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33WdI64FiY
Above is a link to a  youtube video that shares a song about the states of matter for students to learn and remember them!

Exceeds:
-Word count
-Included link to song

Classroom Management and Behavior Strategies!

My CT does uses a lot of techniques when it comes to behavior management strategies. There are two students in my classroom that are having trouble maintaining their good behavior so she has them on a check in-check out behavior system. What this means is that both of these students have a goal that they are to strive to meet everyday and once this goal has been met every day in a row for a certain number of weeks, they move onto a new goal. Along with this goal the students carry a clipboard around with them with a sheet for teachers to fill out. If the students go to art that teacher has to fill out that time frame of the day. There a different rewards for each of these students as well if they are having a good day. So far, it has been working pretty well! Another behavior management strategy that my CT uses is PBIS which is what the whole school uses I believe. My teacher has a chart and everyone starts on green. They have to spaces to clip up, and then earn a reward or if they are bad, they have two chances to move down. When you move down, you have to take home a behavior worksheet and fill it out for homework to explain why you were behaving that way and return it school the next day. The lowest spot you can put your clip, is when there is an office referral and the teacher decides what happens. I like how my teacher does this because she explains to the student why they are clipping up or down instead of just having the student move their clip. I think this aspect is the most important because if the students don't know why they are clipping up or down then the system has no point.

As for classroom management strategies that my CT uses, one I like is setting timers. During small groups, she is always with a group and then I am always with a group, but there are still two groups that do not have adults with them. She sets the timer to let us all know when to rotate which is super beneficial because then I don't have to keep looking at my watch during this time. Lastly, one other aspect I like is that my teacher has students do jobs and the jobs remain the same for two weeks. The idea behind this is for students to get the hang of the job and really understand the responsibilities of having a job. If you give a student a job and switch it a day later, there may have been a point where that student actually never used his job within the day resulting in him/her not learning any of the responsibilities of that specific job.

I have learned so much this semester from my CT and am watching how all of the students respect her so much and listen to her so well. I only hope that I am that strong willed and strict, but also as close as my students as she is with her. She sets down the rules, but is also a fun teacher. I cannot wait to keep learning more aspects of teaching from here within the next three weeks!

Science Lesson @ Washington Elementary

I am in a 3^rd grade classroom at Washington Elementary. I taught my Science lesson on October 22^nd and for this lesson, I let my CT decide what she wanted me to teach and how she wanted me to teach it. My CT and the other 3^rd grade teacher switch every other week teaching Science and Social Studies. My CT teaches Science and the other 3^rd grade teacher teaches Social Studies. During the week I taught, the students that I had to teach were the other 3^rd grade class. Not having the students I normally have in my clinical class was somewhat of an obstacle while teaching, but I managed to pull it off!

I taught my lesson on vertebrates and invertebrates. First I started with asking the students if they could raise their hand and tell me what a vertebrate was and what an invertebrate ones. Then, I had the students come to the board and place the pictures I printed on the correct side of the T-Chart I created. I used pictures of a fish, turtle, bird, dog, human, frog, butterfly, star fish, and crab. I chose these specific pictures because I wanted to make it somewhat tricky for the students to figure out what category they went in. Next, they built a model backbone made of a pipe cleaner, gummy life savers, and raw noodles. They filled out a worksheet and self-assessed after they created the backbone model.

As with any lesson plan implementation there are always strengths and weaknesses to it, there are so aspects of the lesson that you would keep the same or change to make the lesson better. When it comes to my strengths, I was very well prepared and organized. I got all the materials bought and put into individual Ziploc bags for each student before the day of the lesson. Another aspect of my lesson that I thought was a strength was the fact that I had the students answer questions about a real backbone so we could compare and contrast the difference between their model backbone and a humans real backbone. The students were able to look back on what we discussed in the beginning as a reference to see the similarities and differences between their model and their own backbone. 

While looking back at my lesson and looking over what my CT and I discussed, we both agreed another strength I had while teaching this lesson was helping the students throughout the lesson and giving students proper instructions. I gave the students clear instructions to simplify them to help them understand. I gave directions for the model backbone first and modeling how to create it, then after all the students were finished I went on to introduce the worksheet and explained the steps first and hand them repeat it back. I thought it was beneficial for me to repeat the instructions because even though these students are 3^rd graders, sometimes they don’t listen and some of the students didn’t. Even though I had all the students repeat the steps for the backbone and worksheet back to me they didn’t follow the steps properly, which could also be considered an aspect of weakness on my part when introducing the lesson.

When it comes to areas that need improvement, there are definitely a few I can think of. Since I didn’t fully write a lesson plan, I was somewhat unsure of what my actual objective was for the lesson. As a direct result of that, I didn’t state what the purpose/objective was in the beginning of the lesson as well as at the end of the lesson. If I would have done so, the lesson would have gone more smoothly—the students may not have been as confused at some parts and I would have been able to know what I should be observing while the students were working on their models as well as their worksheets.  Another aspect I had trouble with and should be working on throughout implementing lessons is specific praise to individual students. I think the reason I had trouble with this when my CT observed me was because I didn’t know any of the students’ names since they were not in my actual clinical classroom they were part of the other 3^rd grade classroom. So, as a result, I had never really met the students nor did I know any of their names. In the future, if this ever happens I could ask them to either put up name cards or go around the room and tell me their name. Another way I could fix this problem is have them say their name before I help them or they answer a question. That way when I give specific praises I can say their name.

As for my knowledge and understanding of the content, I didn’t know much about this topic the week before it was presented to me by my CT. I used the teacher manual that my CT had gotten the lesson plan out of, but I didn’t use everything inside of the manual. I looked at the information presented and then implemented my lesson in a more hands-on way. I also did research on different animals that were vertebrates and invertebrates so I could use a T-Chart, but also so I could ask the students what other animals/insects they knew of that were either invertebrates or vertebrates. If I didn’t understand what a vertebrate and an invertebrate was, I wouldn’t have been able to see if their animals/insect ideas they shared with the class were correct or incorrect. This would also not benefit the students’ understanding throughout my lesson.

Throughout my lesson, I asked guided questions about backbones and their model backbone so I could make sure the students understood the content being taught. Instead of just making the model and filling out the worksheet, I created the T-Chart as an extra hands-on activity to check for the students’ understanding. As a class we bent and twisted to show that our backbones were just like the models they made and then I had the students bend their model backbones they made. I did this because I thought it would be go to relate our models back to a bone that is in our body and talk about the different parts of the backbone that allow us to move the way we do.

Overall, I really enjoyed teaching this Science lesson. I am glad that my CT had me do a hands-on activity because that is what we have been focusing about a lot in TCH 276 with Dr. O. This was a great first Science lesson to teach the students because I was able to create parts of the lesson on my own, but also use the teacher manual for parts too. It was a great opportunity and I cannot wait to be implementing more Science lessons. Lastly, I was able to teach this lesson twice and the second time was with my actual clinical class; my CT had given me my feedback sheet and I took her suggestions into consideration. Needless to say, my lesson went much more smoothly the second time around with the students I am more comfortable with.

Exceeds: Included pictures

-Went Over Word Count

Small Group Literacy Lesson!

On Wednesday I did my Literacy lesson at Washington Elementary. I had some trouble at first when I was trying to decide what I wanted to teach because based on my pre-assessments of the four students that I did my lesson with, they had the most trouble with spelling. However, when I discussed this with my CT she told me that they really don't teach spelling in third grade so as it would be beneficial, she would rather have me teach comprehension to help them with their reading scores that they get tested on. So, I decided to go ahead and read a passage and have the students answer some questions about the passage.

First I hooked the students by asking what book they were reading as a class and then asked what they did as a class to help them understand the chapters better. Then I showed them the passage and the worksheet that they would be filling out. We went around the table reading the questions out loud before we started reading the passage. I did this so that the students would know what to look for while they were reading the passage and thought that they would get a better understanding of the passage if we did this. I read the passage out loud for them so that they could use that time to underline important parts of the passage that may help them with the worksheet. I thought that if we took turns reading that the students either wouldn't pay attention or it would be too difficult to be underlining information at the same time as reading. I'm glad I did it this way because it worked out super well and helped them! After we read the passage, we took a look at the worksheet I created to go along with the passage. To make the lesson more hands-on and interesting I made a question dice (picture below) for the students to go around rolling. Whichever question the dice rolled on, was the question the students answered. I had the students answer all of the questions at the same time, but individually because after they answered them I had them share with a partner and then we shared as one group.

The four students I did my lesson for, were so well behaved. They worked so well when taking turns, working with their partner, and as a big group in discussion. They understood everything they were supposed to do with the passage and the worksheet with no problem. I also had them write about how they would feel if they were the character in the passage we read and they did an awesome job using descriptive words to tell how they would feel! There were definitely some things I would have changed and some thing about how I implemented my lesson that I would keep the same. First of all, I love teaching a small group of students better than a large group. There is more pressure when teaching the entire class compared to when you are teaching a small group. I was not nervous at all for this lesson, but for my Social Studies lesson I was very nervous. One aspect I may change if I ever did this lesson again is to make a big board so that we can also fill that out as well. If they were able to tape or velcro their answers to a board, that would make this lesson more hands-on as well. Other than that, I thought my lesson went very smoothly and I explained the steps of what we were doing in a way to understand. I had them work individually, with a partner, and as a whole group for repetition and modeling which is what Dr. Husband talks about a lot in our literacy class with him. This was super helpful. Lastly, I think in the future I will be making a lot of "big dice" for my students. These four students thought the dice I created was awesome and thought it was so fun that they got to roll it throughout the lesson. I was scared it would be a distraction, but it wasn't at all!

Overall, teaching these four students was awesome. I picked lower achieving students because I thought it would be more beneficial for them instead of teaching students that don't struggle. They were such a great group of students to teach and I loved the feeling that I taught them something they understood and enjoyed. They all asked if they could keep their worksheets they filled out and I said I had to look at them first and then I would give it back to them. I also let my CT keep the dice I made because the four students liked it so much!

Science Engineering Lesson

On Tuesday, we implemented our Engineering lesson we created a couple of weeks ago. When I thought engineering I thought OH MY! However, teaching engineering to young students is much similar concept than when adults think engineering! My group and I worked very hard to make and effective engaging lesson for the students to do. We used outside resources and brain stormed our ideas to come up with a good lesson. After thinking and eliminating different ideas we thought wouldn't be good, we decided to teach a lesson on floating and sinking.

We had the students work in teams and made it somewhat of a competition to get the students excited and boy were they excited! We ended up having an even number of boys and girls so we did boys against girls and the students were eve more excited about that. Us teacher split up and worked with one group. Brittany and I worked with the 3 boys in our group.The boys were so excited about creating a boat they had some trouble following directions and they all wanted to make their own boat. However, we wanted them to work together to create one boat so Brittany and I provided some guidance when they were confused.

We started by asking the boys what we should use as the base for out boat to help it sink. They didn't seem to understand this concept because all they kept saying was a boat. We guided them and went around to each object asking what object we should use as the base. One boy suggested straws and we agreed so together I helped tape the straws together and then the boys started to get the hang of it. They started adding objects to help it float, but didn't add to many because we told them that if the boat was too heavy it would probably sink. The first boat that the boys made worked and they didn't have to build another one. At this point we told them they were going to add pennies and see how many they could add until the boat sinks. The boys thought this was such a cool idea. They did a great job taking turns to add pennies and counted all together as they added the pennies. We got to 10 pennies and then the girls were ready to compete with us.

We put both boats into the same container of water and added the same amount of pennies to each at the same time. The girls boat started to tip and sink a little so we took it out and stopped adding pennies. I think their boat was able to hold 10 pennies. However, we decided to work as one large group this time and the boys and girls all took turns adding pennies to the boys boat. Everyone worked awesome together and did a great job taking turns! The boat ended up holding 45 pennies and the kids were shocked! They thought it was crazy that the boat they created held that many pennies. All of the children wanted to keep the boats so we made sure it was okay with the teachers first and let her put the boats where she wanted them to be.

I think the children struggled a bit with the concept of this lesson. The had a hard time understanding that we wanted them to work as a group to create one boat instead of work individually. They also seemed to be unsure of the objects that we brought to create the boat. Like we stated in class, in modules, and as we did in the Bag-It activity we could have made this concept more simple. Instead of putting all of the objects we had the students use on the table at once we could lay them out on the ground and introduce each object and how it could or could not help a boat sink. This is breaking down the concept for students to understand better. More simple steps is better than less complex steps when teaching bilingual students. Lastly, if I retaught this lesson, I would put each object in the water to show if that object sank or floated to show the students a visual of what objects may or may not be good to use to create a boat.

As for my goals, I think I am doing a great job getting more comfortable teaching bilingual students and during each lesson I can see myself accommodating the lesson plan as it needs to be to help the students learn better. I like that we are able to re-teach lesson that we already taught to the bilingual students because then I get the opportunity to make the changes needed to make sure my students are learning from the activity.

Overall, I really enjoyed teaching the students this lesson and I think the students enjoyed it as much as we did teaching it. It was a great hands-on activity and kept the students engaged the entire time! I would make the necessary changes before teaching this lesson again, but I will probably teach this in the future. This would work better in a small group lesson to keep it more organized and for assessment purposes as well. If I tried doing this with more than one small group at a time I think it would become an overwhelming experiment and I would want the students to get something out of the lesson instead of being distracted. I remember doing experiments with large groups in middle school and my teacher did the experiment while we watched. When this happened I never payed attention, but when we did small group/partner work while doing an experiment it was much more interesting and I learned much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0SnFCs9z1g

The link is a good YouTube video that we could have showed the students on sinking and floating to help them better understand the concept.


Exceeds:

-Over 500 word count

-Included video

First Parent-Teacher Conferences Ever and Transitioning!

Last week my CT and I were talking and she had mentioned that she has conferences with the parents all week today. On Sunday, I decided to shoot her an email to see if I could attend one day of her conferences to see how it was to be on the opposite side of the conference for once and she thought it was a great idea! So, after a long day of class on Tuesday, I went to Washington Elementary at about 3:30 p.m. just in time to catch the end of her first parent teacher conference. I was a bit nervous sitting in on the first couple because I wasn't sure how the parents were going to feel having me listen in, but not one parents complained about having me there or asked if I could step outside, which really made me feel welcomed! As every parents entered the room I introduced myself because the only reason they know of me is from my letter I sent home when we started our clinical. After the first couple of conferences I started to slowly give some of my input after my CT had asked for my opinion about one of the students while that child's parents were sitting right there and she did not seem to have a problem with me stepping in here and there. One of the students is having trouble spacing out his writing and I suggested using a Popsicle stick to space out the words because that is what we used in the Kindergarten classroom last year. My teacher LOVED the idea and said, "Hey maybe we need to have you teach a lesson on that one!" Overall, I really appreciated the fact that my CT let me sit in on her conferences and made me feel a part of them and not just an outsider. It was a great experience and I am still hearing stories about the parents who don't agree with her and how she works through those problems. I can't wait to experience my first parent-teacher conference week when I am a teacher myself. It seems very overwhelming, but good to get to know the parents and make sure they are aware of their child academically and behaviorally.

I really don't notice my teacher doing very many transition, but of the ones I see she calls the students by table to either put materials away or line up at the door. This works very well and is done in an organized manner. If she told all the students to go put their books on the shelf everyone would go at once and there would probably be arguments or unnecessary talking between the students that could cause disruption.  Another transition that my teacher uses is a timer. We do Math centers every Wednesday and she works with a small group while I work with a small group. One of the children sets the timer and once it goes off, that's how the students know to rotate to the next Math Center. Once they have been to all the Math centers and the timer goes off, the students know to put their materials away and be seated in their desk. There no misunderstanding when it comes to this transition because the students know exactly what is expected of them. I would use this transition because it is all student directed and the teacher does not need to be interrupted for the students to rotate to the next center. Other than those two transitions, my teacher does not really use direct transitions. She has the schedule of what the day looks like posted on the board. So, the students know that when they walk in they get their Math packets out and after Lunch and Recess, they get their Language Arts journal out to start working. Those are not really transitions, but they set the stage for a new setting/subject to be taught.