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.  

Bent Science Lesson #2

Today Chelsea and I implemented our second 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.

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.  Chelsea and I tried to keep him on task, but all he wanted to do was play with the glass and forks.  We kept re-directing him to help him pay attention, but at times that was not working either.  I felt like Chelsea and I were being distracted by him and I wanted to make sure the other 3 children were getting something out of the lesson.

There were definitely some things I would have changed for the lesson and I plan to when we implement the lesson for the second time in the next few weeks. First of all, although our lesson was hands-on, I felt like our lesson could have been longer. I think next time we should bring more objects to hit the glass with because after 15 minutes our lesson was all based on discussion and I could see that we were losing the kids' attention. 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. We introduced the objects by having them identify each picture on the recording sheet along with the words sound, loud, and soft. So, for next time maybe we could have the students predict was object will make the loudest sound or have them write a sentence or two about the experiment after.

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.

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:

-Included a picture of recording sheet.

-Exceeded word count

-During our lesson we had the students draw pictures of different sounds that they could think of and then they told us whether the sound was high or low pitch

-Chelsea and I learned how to say different words in Spanish to help make them feel comfortable that we were learning at the same time.

First Field Trip of the Year!

Last week I went on my first field trip with the 3rd graders and it was so much fun! I think I learned just as much as the students did! We went to the David Davis mansion which is right down the street from Washington Elementary so we all walked there. We went with the other third grade classroom. Walking there made me a little nervous because we walked on the sidewalk of a very busy road, but there were some parents and other teachers there so it all worked out! First we ate our lunches outside on the grass and then started with the tour of the mansion. I had my own group of students to look after during the field trip; I enjoyed that because it made me feel important and I had a responsibility while being there! There were six stations we went through over the course of two hours. There was a laundry station, barn station, garden station, churning butter station, butterfly station, and lastly a station that talked about pollination of flowers. The group of students I had absolutely loved the laundry station. They got the chance to wash sheets and rinse them like they did back in the day before washer and dryers existed.  Seeing all of the students collaborating together to make sure the sheets were cleaned and rinsed properly was so awesome. They were also asking questions left and right which reminded me that they were paying attention. My favorite part of the entire day was the churning butter part. Yes, I knew that is how butter was made back in the day, but I had never actually made it before! We passed a jar around of heavy whipping cream and shook it up. After the jar made it around the table two times, we had made butter! We even got to eat it with a cracker. I think by this point I was more amused than the students were and I was asking questions myself.  I also loved the barn and hearing about the history of it. It was super interesting to learn information about the horses and what they used the barn for. Overall it was a very fun day and the students enjoyed it so much, but you could tell that by the end of our walk home they were ready for school to be over with! I also enjoyed it, but was definitely exhausted as well by the end of the day.Below is a picture of what the mansion looks like from the outside! Back in the day people lived in a barn there before they built the house and now it is just used as a memorial.

First Lesson at Washington Elementary!

I had such an awesome day today at school. I taught for the first time in the 3rd grade classroom and it went so well! I taught my Social Studies lesson first so I could have more time to assess the students for my Literacy Lesson Plan. I was super nervous this morning while Chelsea and I were driving to clinical together and I had no idea what to expect because I have never taught a Social Studies Lesson before nor have I ever taught 3rd grade.

My lesson was on famous places located in the United States and then we discussed different symbols and facts that go along with the famous places. I started my lesson off by asking the students if they know of any famous places in the United States and or if they have ever visited any famous places. I did this so I could get them engaged and then we went over what a symbol and fact was. When we created a definition or webbing together as a class I had no idea they were going to know what a fact and symbol was. I totally underestimated what they actually knew about this from prior experiences.  Then I introduced the four places we would be talking about. My activity to go along with my lesson was a brochure of the four famous places we covered; Mount Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty, and The Everglades. I created the brochure because I didn't want my students to take too much time gluing and what not. However, the students worked with a partner and used their Social Studies textbook as a resource while filling out the rest of the brochure. They were to write the name of the picture shown, what state is was located in in the United States, and one fact they found that was in the book.  Since our lesson was short because I was getting observed I only required the students to fill out 2/4 pictures on the brochure, but if they had time to do more, they were to keep working.

The students worked so well in partners and had so much fun with my lesson! I was so pleased to see them working so well and actually engaged; made me feel proud! There were definitely things I did well and some I totally would have changed. First of all, I would have made my lesson longer than 30 minutes. I mean, 30 minutes worked out just fine, but the students would have been able to finish the brochure completely and I would have been able conclude the lesson better.  To build off of that my wrap up to my lesson was not so good. I was focused so much on my time management that I wanted to get the lesson completed before my time was up so that Lumi could observe the next student that I kind of just sprinted through my conclusion. Another aspect I would have changed was how I gave out the directions. I am so used to teaching younger students that I didn't think I had to go through the instructions step by step with 3rd grade, but you still kind of have to. I wish I would have had them tell me what they were doing first, next, and last so that the instructions were clear. The students didn't have trouble with the activity, but they were just a little confused in the beginning which could have been solved if I explained it better!

Overall, I enjoyed teaching so much! I wish we would get more practice than just one day a week in clinical because I have so much fun in the classroom and love working with my kids. Every Wednesday I am also in charge of one of the stations for their math centers and I love having a role in the classroom rather than just observing it makes me feel like I am needed. Lastly, I also go to grade papers, which doesn't seem all that fun, but it actually was not bad at all. All this experiencing I am getting is going to help in the long run!

Here is a picture of the brochure I did and one of the students' brochures!

Bent Elementary Physical Science Lesson Plan Week 2

Today I taught at Bent Elementary for my first time today and I was able to teach with Chelsea which was so awesome! Having another person to teach with made this entire experience so much less stressful. The two of us were able to create the lesson together, implement, and build off of each other while the lesson was going on. After completing the lesson I felt we did a great job getting our point across in an interactive way

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Before going into the classroom I think I can speak for both myself and Chelsea when I say that we had no idea what to expect when walking into a classroom full of ELL students. I have never worked with ELL students before so we used pictures in our worksheet to help as a guide just in case they didn’t speak much English. When we walked in we introduced ourselves and so did the group of students we worked with.

Chelsea and I finished our lesson early enough to get feedback from Dr. O and come prepared with materials so we wouldn’t be frazzled when we got to Bent. This was a perfect plan because I was not nervous at all and I felt completely prepared. We created a worksheet for the students to record their observations when they were doing hands-on activities with ice and water and we also came up with an extension activity just in case the lesson didn’t go the entire 30 minutes, but we had no trouble with the lesson lasting long enough because the children were super engaged and excited about the activity.

Now, as every lesson goes, there are always pros and cons. I talked about the pros in the above paragraph, but there were also a few cons. Before we started the lesson, we could have introduced and went over the Science concepts in more details so the students were able to comprehend better. I have never taught a Science lesson before and I had no idea what the students knew and didn’t know so that was difficult going into it. I also noticed that the students had trouble using different descriptive words when recording their observations, for next time maybe we could talk about different descriptive words to use or create a word bank on the worksheet so they are only allowed to use a word once. All of the students in the group used either words that didn’t describe what they were seeing the right way or they used the same descriptive words for multiple senses. Chelsea and I also talked about how we can differentiate better next time we teach.  Since we didn’t really know what the students knew, one of the girls was working ahead on the worksheet and almost seemed bored. So, for next time we can make the activity a little more challenging for her and not so challenging for the student that kept getting off task.

While teaching our lesson Chelsea and I came into the classroom a bit blind-sided, but left with some new Spanish words that the children taught us. We used our previous knowledge about Spanish and worked with their English and their Spanish to help the experience go smoothly. We tried to say words in Spanish as they said words in English. We came into the classroom with an open-mind which is what we have learned in the past diversity modules and from previous diversity class at ISU. Since we were learning Spanish words as they were learning Science information and practicing their English, I think it made them feel more comfortable with us being there and they felt more comfortable talking in English. We made some mistakes with pronunciation and they laughed, but it made the learning atmosphere more laid back which I enjoyed and I am sure the students enjoyed as well!

Yes, at times during the lesson it was super challenging because we had to find alternate words when the students didn’t understand or I had to remember back to when I took Spanish 1 and 2 in high school to remember how to say those words. Although it was challenging at the end of the lesson I felt super accomplished. It was rewarding that the students were able to complete a hands-on activity that was in English, record their observations in Spanish, and understand the idea/concept of the lesson in English when we discussed our findings. Hey! I even learned something out of the lesson too which was awesome!

I am looking forward to working with ELL students for the rest of the semester at Bent Elementary. I really don’t have much experience working with ELL students so it will be super beneficial and such a great learning experience. I hope to use the information I learn this semester at this school in my future teachings since I would love to work in a Chicago Public School when I graduate. As for reaching my goal, I would say I am definitely getting a better understanding of different ways to teach ELL students and I think by the end of the semester I will have different techniques to use as well. The link below actually will help me reach my goal as well because it is some pointers I can use so the students are comprehending what I am teaching better!

Lastly, here is a link to some do’s and don’ts when working with ELL students. I thought they were important tips to keep in the back of your mind when working with them. It helps the students succeed in learning and will help us as teachers make sure they understand! It might also give us a little ego boost if our lesson goes well! J

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski

Exceeds:

-Over 500 word count

-Posted link to website with tips for teaching ELL students

- During our lesson, Chelsea and I were saying words in Spanish when the students did not understand the English words and we were also being taught words and practiced saying them aloud so the students felt more comfortable. It made the lesson more fun!

-Created our own lesson plan worksheet and two extension activities just in case the lesson went too short or didn’t go as planned. Students completed one of the extension activities by drawing a picture of what they did in the lesson on the backside of the worksheet they filled out.

First Day at Washington Elementary

Well, I woke up today with lots of nerves! I was nervous to experience a new school, classroom, cooperating teacher, and students, but at the same time I was super excited for all of that too! I am placed in a 3rd grade classroom at Washington Elementary School in Bloomington, IL. I have never worked with 3rd graders before so I wasn't sure of what to expect, but needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

The morning started off a little hectic! My teacher had a meeting early before school so when I arrived she was also just getting settled in the classroom for the day. The students started piling in and looked at my like who is this girl in our classroom. Once everyone was settled in my CT introduced me and I sat and observed the daily routine. The day was also very hectic because it was picture day so after we did Language Arts, the entire class went down to the gymnasium to take class pictures. The students were all dressed so nice for picture day! 

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. One major aspect of the classroom that I noticed was the PBIS system my CT does. She uses clips like on a clip chart, but it is a little different. The students can either move down two spaces or up two spaces and at the end of the day on their daily take home sheet they have to write which color they are on so that their parents know when they get home. I like the idea of this because not only do the students feel they need to behave for their teacher and themselves, they also have to go home and tell their parents how their behavior was throughout the day. I'm not entirely sure if there is a reward system attached to the PBIS board, but I am excited to see if there is!

The most exciting part of the day was that I actually got to help with the Math centers that the class does. My CT said I will be in charge of a math center every week and I'm a little nervous, but totally up for the challenge. It was super beneficial that today I got to help out a little. The students are in groups and have rotations. One group is on the computers working on a math program, the other group is playing a math game in the hall with a teacher that helps out with special, the next group is in the classroom with my CT working on information the students need extra help on, and the last group was with me in the classroom working on a timed math sheet and then had a worksheet following. A lot of the students struggled with the worksheet which had to do with number lines. I was able to help them and use the instructional strategies we learned in our Math class last semester. I never thought I would actually want to teach Math like that, but I tried to base all of the problems on base 10 and it actually helped them!

Lastly, I was also able to talk a lot with my CT about my expectations and the different assignments we need to do. However, I didn't have to go into too much detail because my CT has worked with lots of students from ISU that have done the same assignments our class is doing this semester. This is super helpful and makes me feel less overwhelming because we are on the same page. I was also able to work with the Social Studies teacher to talk about my lesson I'll be doing in two weeks. She gave me a book as well as a couple other resources to help me out with my lesson. Overall, today I felt super welcomed not only into the school, but my classroom as well. The nerves I had about being in a 3rd grade classroom are gone and it is all excitement now! I am looking forward to working with these students more throughout the semester!

My teacher talked about a lot of different websites she uses as resources for materials, lesson plans, worksheets, and much more, but one stuck in my head! In the website you can create an account for free and download stuff for free right now, but then when you become a teacher you can buy stuff off of here! Thought you would all enjoy this :)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com

Science Autobiography

My name is Colleen Kelly. I was born and raised in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, more specifically Wheeling, IL. Below this paragraph is a picture of my immediate family that is super supportive of me in everything aspect of life. In the picture shows my mom, dad, older brother, and older sister. Both of my siblings attended Illinois State University, which is part of the reason I decided I also wanted to go to school there. My parents are my role models and have had a major impact on my life academically. They were always there to encourage me to strive and be the best I can be.
During elementary school I don’t remember doing much of any Science projects. In middle school I remember getting into more of experiments. We used a textbook in class and had to read from it almost daily, but there was just about an experiment with every chapter we read. I learned how to form the different steps of an experiment and how to record data. I enjoyed doing experiments the most because it was easier to remember information and made class more fun as well as interesting.  During middle school, I also remember writing reports on different scientists and making a Science project about planets as well as my own experiment, constructing a tri-fold project board to go along with both, and then setting it up for display at the Science fair we had every year. 

I went on to attend high school and Wheeling High School, which is now considered a STEM high school. In high school is when I remember Science in my life the most. I took Biology, Chemistry, and I believe some type or Physical Science. However, Biology and Chemistry are the two that I remember most. I took Biology as a freshman and it was your standard textbook format with a small amount of actual hands on experiments. We learned how to write experiments as well as watch our teacher do experiments, but didn’t do much on our own. We took a lot of notes. When we did experiments it was mostly learning about organisms. While learning about organism, we used microscopes to see the microscopic organisms. I learned how to use a microscope and the different parts of it, but I had already learned this in middle school so much of it was a review for me. I also remember learning about plants in Biology as well, but don’t remember much about the plants. I look Chemistry my senior year of high school and had a completely different experience than when I took Biology; I loved it! The first half of Chemistry we learned how to convert and do all of the different equations. We practiced actually doing hands-on experiments with different chemicals, alongside of that we filled out packets that went hand-in-hand with the experiments. In the packets we had different questions to answers and filled out all the parts to an experiment. The second half of Chemistry we did a long set of small experiments called qualitative analysis which is a lab designed to find the unknown ion in different solutions that make the liquids change colors. We had a different unknown each week and had to figure out what it was, but the catch was that we had a minimal amount of the unknown. So, you were to do everything slowly and double check your conversions the correct way before mixing the liquids because if you messed up while mixing the liquids you only had  one more opportunity to try. Although I am not the best at converting or the math in qualitative analysis I had the best experience doing this lab work. It was so fun and very stressful, but I felt like an actual chemist mixing chemicals and it was a great feeling! Below are pictures of the qualitative analysis lab I did!

 

After high school I went to Harper Community College for a year before I decided to transfer to Illinois State University where I currently study Early Childhood Education.  I took a Science class at the community college, but I cannot remember what is was called nor what I learned in it because we didn’t do any experiments it was strictly all note taking, tests, and quizzes. When coming to ISU I had to take two Science courses so I chose to take Biology and Geology. There was a lecture as well as a lab for each class. Both of these classes were not great experiences for me. I was trying to get used to the 300+ students in my lecture and I didn’t enjoy the labs very much. During the lectures we took notes and had specific readings and during labs we did some experiments, but not much. I liked the Geology lab better than the Biology because we got to study rocks and learn about the different minerals that were in rocks, which I thought was interesting because my lab teacher related it back to landforms all over the world. Other than that, I didn’t enjoy the classes that much; they were more of a requirement for my general education classes.

As for my teaching experiences with Science, I have seen a limited amount in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms that I have been in during practicum here at ISU. In one of my classrooms there was a guest speaker that came to the classroom and brought books about dinosaurs and brought a fossil display. It gave the students an opportunity to do a hands-on activity with Science. The guest speaker brought in a dinosaur bin covered in sand and the students were able to use brushes and brush away the sand to find fossils. This was a great activity and gave them an idea of what finding a fossil was all about. To go along with that, as a future educator I want to try and make my Science activities as interactive as possible. What I remember most about my Science experiences are the experiments and hands-on activities, which is when I learned the most as well. I want my students to love going to Science class and I don’t want them to be bored learning it. I will try my hardest to incorporate experiments whenever I can. I picture my classroom learning Science in small groups so that the students can work together during experiments so that we can do more experiments throughout the year. I will do some large group activities as well, but mostly small group.

Lastly, while growing up my parents were very supportive and helpful during the school year. If I needed help or encouragement through social as well as my academic life, they were always there. They also helped with school work and projects as much as they could by using their own knowledge of the information. My parents were excited to help, which helped me become more excited especially about Science and other subjects.  Growing up many of my friends had the same kind of experience I had at home, but when I got to high school that all changed. My town is a very diverse town and half of it is lower class/poverty, while the other half is middle/upper class. Most of my friends were of the same class as me, but students in my classes were not. I loved going to a diverse school and meeting and entirely new set of friends that were of a different culture than me. I found myself more accepting of others because of my experience and more open to meeting knew people as well. In my future teaching I will use this background knowledge to help teach my students Science as well as other subjects. This will help me accommodate to every student in the classroom as well as have better relationships with parents and family members. I will open and willing to work with anyone and can’t wait to learn more about other cultures in my future teaching experiences.