Week 10
My proudest moment for this week was the compliment my CE gave to Gardner-Webb. Whenever she was explaining to me, how teachers are evaluated using the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards, I told her how we are breaking down the standards and creating websites about them. She was furthermore impressed when I told her that we always connect a standard with an experience we have encountered throughout the week. My CE then told the principal yesterday how impressed she was with Gardner-Webb in how well they were training me. One of the best reasons for being in the classroom is to see first hand all of the information I have been taught during this semester as well as previous semesters.
The lesson I have been struggling the most with this week is how to help the EC student and the ELL student in my CE's class. I was actually able to pull them aside yesterday and work with them one on one. While the rest of the students were following the teachers instruction by writing down the beginning, middle, and ending of a story which had been read several times last week, two of the students were completely confused when my CE was explaining the information. The EC student had not even started his paper because he was so confused on what to write. My ELL student was writing out the work in Spanish. So what I did was write down the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Both students copied what I wrote. However, to make sure they understood what the book was about I asked them questions about the story so they could practice retelling me what they had remembered. I will have to be very careful when teaching these two students. Even when I helped them, they were still very behind especially the EC student. One important thing I must remember as a teacher is to never consider EC students behind other students. As teachers, we are to make goals for the students. If they are meeting the goals, then they are progressing in their education. The best standards for this learning experience is standard 2 and standard 4. Both students have different learning needs (Diversity). Those learning needs must be connected with differentiation (facilitate). One student is EC and one student is ELL, which brings standard 2 with 4. Each student must be differentiated in order to have success with their learning. Though I am working with both of them and will continue to I will need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses so I can differentiate between both of them in class. I know the ELL student is excellent in math. He could be good at his own language, though this point is uncertain since we do not have any of his previous school records ( he went to a Spanish speaking school before coming to my school.) His weakness is literacy in English. The EC student is low in both math and literacy, however, my CE found out several weeks ago that if he memorizes math problems, he can better retain the information. Unfortunately, word problem solving is an issue for him because he cannot read the sentences. His weakness is, therefore, reading and writing. His EC teacher is developing goals for him so that he will work on solving those goals to meet a higher level of education.
The successful moment this week was to be able to teach the morning reading group for the first time. Ordinarily the assistant teacher would have taught the reading group, however, he was pulled to test students in another grade level, therefore I did this group. Most students are practicing their fluency reading by reading a book over and over again. Students read a book called "Soccor." I would read a sentence and then they would read a sentence. Another great thing about group work was that I had the privilege to work with students from other classes. My CE has told me that when I become a student teacher, I will be assigned a reading group.
My action steps for next week is to complete my EDU 312 and my MAT 330 lessons for edTPA requirements. I want to be proactive and finish my heavy video work as early as possible.
The activity which I am still working on to contribute to this class next week is the science fair project. I will look over the slideshow and make sure it is a sound document before submission.
For next week I will really start to work hard on the Weather Forecasting Project with my team. My goals for this project are to go ahead and work on a slide show and gather up data.
For online research this week, I researched some great websites which are teacher friendly. Scholastic actually has a whole list of 25 different websites for teachers of all grade levels. Some websites list popular books while others discuss different subjects such as math, literacy, art, and science. I would highly encourage you to look at the websites. My favorite one on the list was called a Daily Starter. This would be something great for students to do in the morning while eating breakfast. They would get the day started off with a problem. Each day has a new problem. This is a great way for students to settle into the day's activities with a simple problem. For my future classroom, I will be able to integrate the Daily Started into my curriculum. Students will be able to use their Ipads to work on this simple problem. However, I would probably only use the Daily Starter during testing. I would prefer during class time to have a question on the board that students would have to answer before classtime began. The question would have to apply for what I would be teaching. Therefore, students would already be thinking about the content I would teach before I started the lesson. This connects with standard 4e, teachers know how to include problem-solving and critical thinking skills within their material. Teachers are able to ask thought-provoking questions about the material of a lesson so students can critically think about the question to reach a conclusion.
Welcome to tweets.
The big print at the top of the picture in the tweet says "Motivating Teachers to Include Every Child." Though this may be a challenging thing for teachers to do at times, all students need to be thought of when the teacher is planning instruction. Questions such as follows should be asked. What can I put in my lesson which will help my tactile, auditory, and visual learners? How will I be able to make this understandable to my 504s and EC students? How will my ESL or ELL learners understand the content? These are just a few questions teachers ask when they are making lessons to include all students.
Students are much smarter than some people give them credit for. This is an excellent picture to remind me how important it is to be energetic in the classroom. Another concern I must keep in mind is that if I find the information boring more than likely the students will be bored with the information as well. Therefore, I need to always be intentional as to the engagement and content of the lesson. We would never want our students to look like the man on the front page.
This chart is so insightful by comparing the usage of technology to technology integration. It is not enough to use technology as a last minute device or to use it with no thought or planning of how to best utilize its advantages. When technology is integrated into the classroom, it can dominate the whole process of learning from engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation.
For science learning this week, I researched our destructive weather happening on Monday. It never ceases to amaze me how the force of nature can be so destructive. Though our county only received heavy rainfall, other counties in the surrounding areas are speculating on the possibility of a tornado touchdown. Fortunately, because Rutherford County is closer to the mountains we are less likely to get tornados on account of the mountains blocking the weather. However, our side closer to Cleveland County was blasted hard with heavy rains and power outages. My CE told me yesterday after I had left that the staff had a school-wide tornado drill. Also, many of the house communities around the area of my school had power outages. Because of the crisis, Rutherford County Schools had a two-hour delay for school for Tuesday morning. Other areas in the Carolinas faired worse such as flash floods, trees uprooted and high winds. This would be a great topic to connect with a weather study in class. Students could learn the effects of a tornado in their area and how tornados are caused. The teacher could also explore other aspects of the storm such as why do trees fall down during severe rain or how so much rain can bring about flash flooding.
For hyper docs this week, I had worked on the team last week to construct a slide called Technologies. This was an awesome project as it gave me and my teammates an insightful look at how to use technologies effectively in the classroom. All but one of the apps I put on the computer screen for slide 8 are apps I have seen teachers use at the school were I am clinical teaching. My CE actually uses the app called ABCmouse.com every single morning. Students play interactive games in building up their phonics and math levels.
For the connections, I have made this week one of the most important things as a teacher is to be a leader, standard 1 for NCTCS. We must be a leader by listening carefully to information. We must be a leader when determining what work to give to students. We must be a leader in gathering new information, websites, apps, and other technologies to aid students further in their studies. As leaders, we need to make the connection of information we share with students to their background knowledge. For example, as a science teacher and elementary teacher I could connect what students were aware of, power outages, to how tornados are formed.
In reflecting on the information I have learned this week, my most valuable experiences were when I did group work for the teachers assistant and the group of two for my EC and ELL students. My biggest take away is to work on my groups learning abilities for my two students and furthermore to be patient. What is important is for students to meet the learning goals established for them.
I hope all of you have a good week.
The lesson I have been struggling the most with this week is how to help the EC student and the ELL student in my CE's class. I was actually able to pull them aside yesterday and work with them one on one. While the rest of the students were following the teachers instruction by writing down the beginning, middle, and ending of a story which had been read several times last week, two of the students were completely confused when my CE was explaining the information. The EC student had not even started his paper because he was so confused on what to write. My ELL student was writing out the work in Spanish. So what I did was write down the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Both students copied what I wrote. However, to make sure they understood what the book was about I asked them questions about the story so they could practice retelling me what they had remembered. I will have to be very careful when teaching these two students. Even when I helped them, they were still very behind especially the EC student. One important thing I must remember as a teacher is to never consider EC students behind other students. As teachers, we are to make goals for the students. If they are meeting the goals, then they are progressing in their education. The best standards for this learning experience is standard 2 and standard 4. Both students have different learning needs (Diversity). Those learning needs must be connected with differentiation (facilitate). One student is EC and one student is ELL, which brings standard 2 with 4. Each student must be differentiated in order to have success with their learning. Though I am working with both of them and will continue to I will need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses so I can differentiate between both of them in class. I know the ELL student is excellent in math. He could be good at his own language, though this point is uncertain since we do not have any of his previous school records ( he went to a Spanish speaking school before coming to my school.) His weakness is literacy in English. The EC student is low in both math and literacy, however, my CE found out several weeks ago that if he memorizes math problems, he can better retain the information. Unfortunately, word problem solving is an issue for him because he cannot read the sentences. His weakness is, therefore, reading and writing. His EC teacher is developing goals for him so that he will work on solving those goals to meet a higher level of education.
The successful moment this week was to be able to teach the morning reading group for the first time. Ordinarily the assistant teacher would have taught the reading group, however, he was pulled to test students in another grade level, therefore I did this group. Most students are practicing their fluency reading by reading a book over and over again. Students read a book called "Soccor." I would read a sentence and then they would read a sentence. Another great thing about group work was that I had the privilege to work with students from other classes. My CE has told me that when I become a student teacher, I will be assigned a reading group.
My action steps for next week is to complete my EDU 312 and my MAT 330 lessons for edTPA requirements. I want to be proactive and finish my heavy video work as early as possible.
The activity which I am still working on to contribute to this class next week is the science fair project. I will look over the slideshow and make sure it is a sound document before submission.
For next week I will really start to work hard on the Weather Forecasting Project with my team. My goals for this project are to go ahead and work on a slide show and gather up data.
For online research this week, I researched some great websites which are teacher friendly. Scholastic actually has a whole list of 25 different websites for teachers of all grade levels. Some websites list popular books while others discuss different subjects such as math, literacy, art, and science. I would highly encourage you to look at the websites. My favorite one on the list was called a Daily Starter. This would be something great for students to do in the morning while eating breakfast. They would get the day started off with a problem. Each day has a new problem. This is a great way for students to settle into the day's activities with a simple problem. For my future classroom, I will be able to integrate the Daily Started into my curriculum. Students will be able to use their Ipads to work on this simple problem. However, I would probably only use the Daily Starter during testing. I would prefer during class time to have a question on the board that students would have to answer before classtime began. The question would have to apply for what I would be teaching. Therefore, students would already be thinking about the content I would teach before I started the lesson. This connects with standard 4e, teachers know how to include problem-solving and critical thinking skills within their material. Teachers are able to ask thought-provoking questions about the material of a lesson so students can critically think about the question to reach a conclusion.
Welcome to tweets.
Students are much smarter than some people give them credit for. This is an excellent picture to remind me how important it is to be energetic in the classroom. Another concern I must keep in mind is that if I find the information boring more than likely the students will be bored with the information as well. Therefore, I need to always be intentional as to the engagement and content of the lesson. We would never want our students to look like the man on the front page.
For science learning this week, I researched our destructive weather happening on Monday. It never ceases to amaze me how the force of nature can be so destructive. Though our county only received heavy rainfall, other counties in the surrounding areas are speculating on the possibility of a tornado touchdown. Fortunately, because Rutherford County is closer to the mountains we are less likely to get tornados on account of the mountains blocking the weather. However, our side closer to Cleveland County was blasted hard with heavy rains and power outages. My CE told me yesterday after I had left that the staff had a school-wide tornado drill. Also, many of the house communities around the area of my school had power outages. Because of the crisis, Rutherford County Schools had a two-hour delay for school for Tuesday morning. Other areas in the Carolinas faired worse such as flash floods, trees uprooted and high winds. This would be a great topic to connect with a weather study in class. Students could learn the effects of a tornado in their area and how tornados are caused. The teacher could also explore other aspects of the storm such as why do trees fall down during severe rain or how so much rain can bring about flash flooding.
For hyper docs this week, I had worked on the team last week to construct a slide called Technologies. This was an awesome project as it gave me and my teammates an insightful look at how to use technologies effectively in the classroom. All but one of the apps I put on the computer screen for slide 8 are apps I have seen teachers use at the school were I am clinical teaching. My CE actually uses the app called ABCmouse.com every single morning. Students play interactive games in building up their phonics and math levels.
For the connections, I have made this week one of the most important things as a teacher is to be a leader, standard 1 for NCTCS. We must be a leader by listening carefully to information. We must be a leader when determining what work to give to students. We must be a leader in gathering new information, websites, apps, and other technologies to aid students further in their studies. As leaders, we need to make the connection of information we share with students to their background knowledge. For example, as a science teacher and elementary teacher I could connect what students were aware of, power outages, to how tornados are formed.
In reflecting on the information I have learned this week, my most valuable experiences were when I did group work for the teachers assistant and the group of two for my EC and ELL students. My biggest take away is to work on my groups learning abilities for my two students and furthermore to be patient. What is important is for students to meet the learning goals established for them.
I hope all of you have a good week.
Great post Kelly, It looks like you've made a good impression on your teacher and the staff at your school. Keep up the good work you may get a position there.
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