I worked so hard on my poster board this week to present at the 3rd Annual USF College of Education Inquiry Conference. I never realized how hard it is to trace every letter and then retrace with glue. But I am thankful to have had this opportunity and I’m glad to have answered any questions to the best of my knowledge that guests came around and asked me. During my internship I feel that I have grown and I’m able to reflect on myself and make changes right away. I have had a busy but amazing week being in the classroom full time. I pretty much taught all week or co-taught with my CT whenever I needed help or had questions she is very helpful. Being in a classroom with students that aren’t so little can be a tough crowd at times but I don’t let it scare me away or discourage me. I can say it’s a challenge for me to want to understand some of the students on why they choose to do what they do. During the week we went out for recess and threw the football with some students for a few minutes and it’s moments like those that count for them. I also take the time to listen to them and interact with all the students outside the classroom. On Thursday we started a chapter book to read aloud in class today the students voted and the winner is “Wayside School” part one. The students laughed and enjoyed gathering on the carpet and our CT reading while following along with their own copy of the same book. Attended the SAC meeting and important topics were discussed and parents had the opportunity to vote and agree on what needs to be done to improve the school. Today Friday my CT was out and I was responsible for the whole class with a substitute there but I took charge of the classroom. I had some behavioral issues but it was nothing that I’m not used too on daily basis so I knew how to handle it. The feeling of students who apologize after they have reflected on their behavior means a lot and the ones that made the right choice after realizing that they didn’t deserve to buy ice cream today and got back in line. I had them do math tests today and then lead them into science. I took the students to watch their classmates compete for Battle of the Books. Unfortunately we didn't win but another class won and I'm excited they are going to represent the school. I had to attend to some students who were crying and upset about losing and had to cheer them up and was able to talk to the parents that came to support their children. It was exciting to see and be a part of this.
3rd Annual USF College of Education Inquiry Conference I worked so hard on my poster board this week to present at the 3rd Annual USF College of Education Inquiry Conference. I never realized how hard it is to trace every letter and then retrace with glue. But I am thankful to have had this opportunity and I’m glad to have answered any questions to the best of my knowledge that guests came around and asked me. During my internship I feel that I have grown and I’m able to reflect on myself and make changes right away. I have had a busy but amazing week being in the classroom full time. I pretty much taught all week or co-taught with my CT whenever I needed help or had questions she is very helpful. Being in a classroom with students that aren’t so little can be a tough crowd at times but I don’t let it scare me away or discourage me. I can say it’s a challenge for me to want to understand some of the students on why they choose to do what they do. During the week we went out for recess and threw the football with some students for a few minutes and it’s moments like those that count for them. I also take the time to listen to them and interact with all the students outside the classroom. On Thursday we started a chapter book to read aloud in class today the students voted and the winner is “Wayside School” part one. The students laughed and enjoyed gathering on the carpet and our CT reading while following along with their own copy of the same book. Attended the SAC meeting and important topics were discussed and parents had the opportunity to vote and agree on what needs to be done to improve the school. Today Friday my CT was out and I was responsible for the whole class with a substitute there but I took charge of the classroom. I had some behavioral issues but it was nothing that I’m not used too on daily basis so I knew how to handle it. The feeling of students who apologize after they have reflected on their behavior means a lot and the ones that made the right choice after realizing that they didn’t deserve to buy ice cream today and got back in line. I had them do math tests today and then lead them into science. I took the students to watch their classmates compete for Battle of the Books. Unfortunately we didn't win but another class won and I'm excited they are going to represent the school. I had to attend to some students who were crying and upset about losing and had to cheer them up and was able to talk to the parents that came to support their children. It was exciting to see and be a part of this.
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Talent Show Auditions
This week has been an eventful week with so many things at hand that needed to be completed and I can honestly say I have been one busy bee. This week at my internship was busy but we managed to squeeze in time to allow the students that signed up for the talent show to practice during lunch to prepare them for their auditions on Friday. I printed the lyrics out for the students who didn’t know the words and gave advice on how they can improve and my CT legally downloaded the music onto a CD for them to keep and use during the audition. We then had to explain to the students what burning CD’s was because they asked what burning a cd is. The students are not familiar with that type of technology. We did morning meeting and had a community discussion on some of the behaviors that have been occurring in class. Several students talked it out, apologized and other students gave advice on what they can do to improve. On one occasion one student was being defiant and refused to do what he was told I approached him and gave the student two options and so he finally went to the classroom library to get a book and he was taking forever to pick a book. So I went over and noticed he had a book on sea creatures so I asked if I could see it and found a page that caught my attention because I was familiar with vampire squid. So I started to talk and tell him how neat these creatures are and he read the whole book and then I allowed him to do research online and watch an educational video online, he even went and got out his science journal and wrote down all the facts on the vampire squid. I taught with my CT today on an activity during math “Problem in the Bag” but first I taught a quick lesson on patterns and how to find the rule for the pattern. They quickly got it after the first problem and then we jumped into the activity. The students were really engaged with this kind of activity and my CT is all about using Kagan activates in her classroom. The “Problem in the Bag” is not a Kagan activity but allows the students to think critically and problem solve. I collected data from I-Ready on all the students so we can pull them for groups in the morning and I managed to group some students based on the similarity in the problem area for example I noticed three students that need help with “final e”. Overall it was a week of learning and experiences that will allow me to grow as a teacher in the future. SAC meeting/Math and Science Teaching
My math lesson on teaching the thousandths place value started off good and then midpoint the student’s misconceptions caught me off guard and I had to refocus and find a different way of teaching it. When planning I planned for misconceptions but never for the one that I was caught off guard with. I was able to reflect and get some feedback from the CT and then when we came back from lunch they switched classes and I started the math lesson with the next class and it went well it’s nice to have that feeling of being able to quickly reflect and make changes and then be able to apply them that same day on a different class. The following day afterschool I was asked to attend the SAC meeting to help translate if needed and I was able to listen to interesting things that will be happening at the school. It was about a 2 hour meeting with parents from the community but worth it because if parents take the time to come to the meetings it’s up to us to listen and help solve issues. I learned that students are interested in checking out graphic novels at the library to learn about biographies of historical people so it was voted to use funds to purchase these types of books for students. They also voted to purchase DRA kits for the intermediate levels since they don’t have enough and need to add more to their sets. We discussed with parents several topics that I’m not sure I can discuss on here. Then on Thursday I did the morning meeting and an activity, I had prepared name tags with all the students last name so for example they would greet each other professionally (Ms. Vela), they loved it. For the activity we did “Toss the Ball” and the ball had several written questions on it that each student would answer if it lands on their right thumb. This was fun but my CT suggested to save time and to allow all the students to answer the questions that next time we put them in groups instead of one by one passing the ball because all the students wanted to share. Later that day during lunch we quickly went over the lesson and ideas for tomorrow because she will not be there and a substitute will be present for half the day. On Friday I took over and started off with MTSS, morning meeting, then math on how to round decimals using the number line and science on complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis. My CT did come back but she let me finish the day and assist if I needed, she provided me feedback on how she noticed that she liked that I saw things and if it didn’t work I was able to change it on the spot and how I handled behavior issues in class. At the end of the day I passed out Exit Slips to all the students for them to fill out and for me to keep so I can see what they enjoyed about my teaching. I can only get better with time and I hope to learn more from my CT and from the students. Parent Conference and Lesson Teaching
My week started off with taking over the morning meetings and we did the greetings in different languages and the activity I introduced was passing a funny face to the next student which they loved. On Tuesday I stayed for an interesting parent conference that lasted until 4:30pm with just one parent. It was the second parent conference for the same student with behavior issues. I saw how a parent can be in denial about their child and how the student blamed other students for their bad behavior. But the more the parent talked and the teachers talked after a while the parent started to feel comfortable talking and then the students’ bad behavior issues started to come to light. The parent talked about certain things their child has done in previous schools and at home incidents. I was able to see how the three teachers present listened to the parent and the student and the way they talked to the parent back so that the parent didn’t feel overwhelmed. On Wednesday I started to teach my Civics lesson plan and had to make adjustments the day prior because of the book that I had originally choosen for the read aloud wasn’t available. The book I chose was below grade level for the students but when reading it some of the words I had to really explain because they didn’t understand. Then I finished my second half on Friday and I had to skip one of my activities because of time constringent. I realized after I finished that I should have focused on one thing only and go in depth on that one topic because I had so many different things going on that I think they only got a small outlook of what I was trying to accomplish. I did create a PowerPoint slideshow and a voting box with ballots and I voted stickers to pass out. I don’t think a lesson should be rushed but that’s how it feels at times having to constantly look at the clock. On Friday morning during MTSS I observed my CT do fluency assessments and then I helped her complete the rest of the classroom. I did fluency assessments a while back when she was out and I had a substitute and had to do them on my own. I realized I did well the first time and doing them again was a nice refresher for me. During Science my CT took the class to read outside for a different scenery and the reading was about trees so we all sat under the trees so the students can have visuals. Then during specials it was PE time and we walked the class down to the courts and left but then we came back to join them to play tennis with the students. The students liked that we went to play with them for a while and then we took the students that had money to go purchase ice cream from the 5th graders who were selling ice cream for a fundraiser. Afterschool we planned for next week and I will be teaching math on two separate days. Since the lessons are already outlined it’s up to me to come up with how I want to start and what kind of ideas I would use in order to accomplish this. So my homework is to go over the word problem and the misconceptions and create an outline of how I want it to go. I think my challenge is going to be explaining the thousandths decimal place value because they have not learned this only the hundredths place value; the decimal rounding I think will go smooth. Quick Teaching
Now that FSA is over the stress has dwindled down on the students. The classroom can now enjoy fun learning activities that allows them to be creative, one activity is “Geometry Town”. A student centered activity already prepared by my CT but I was in charge of introducing it to the second class. I came up with guidelines for the assignment and decided how many groups or partners there would be for this project. The winner between both classes would be rewarded with a prize and of course an A grade. I did have to make some changes along the way because during my explanation I realized all the students had no idea what a map legend was, I did have an example that I had already created and when they saw it they said “a keybox”. So a keybox it is and changed that name so it was easier for them to understand. The project took two days and they even had to include written directions on how to get to one place to another using key terms (parallel, perpendicular, intersecting) and the use of compass (south, north, west, and east), this part was by far the hardest for them to accomplish. But with teacher one on one instruction to each group and modeling for them on their map using finger tracing then they understood. It was a short week and there was no time for planning for next week but we did discuss brining morning meetings into the classroom to help students get along. There has been student conflicts of students not respecting each other and we hope that with morning meetings this can help promote respect among them. I will be doing mooring meetings on the mornings that I am there. On Thursday I was fortunate to make several phone calls to the students’ parents to help translate for my CT. This gave me a chance to communicate with the parents and not just during parent conference night. Observation
On Wednesday March 25, 2015 due to testing I was able to observe/assist in another classroom still same grade level but a literacy class. I came in the middle of an activity and they were working on creating a booklet to write their own story based on a video about Greek mythology they had just finished watching. They were able to get creative with the use of crayons and picking their own character on who they were going to write about. Once they were finished then they went into the Journey books and started to discuss the vocabulary words they were going to see in the text so they can familiarize with those words. Then the teacher asked engaging questions based on the picture and the title of the story before they actually started reading the story. Then the teacher began his read aloud and during the reading he would stop and ask questions to the students about what was being read. Once ESE students got done testing all students went back to their homeroom teachers and so I left as well to my CTs class. During specials I went next door to another teacher’s class with my CT and they started to work on Student Progress Alert and I was able to provide my feedback based on my observation on student’s Academic or Behavior progress. My CT explained and showed me the data on how they determine what the student gets on the progress alert and who are the students that get a progress alert. I learned that a teacher can give OL (On Level) but with N (Needs Improvement) or OL A (Above Average) and BL (Below Level). On the progress alerts a teacher can request a parent conference with the student’s parent. There is also a section for Expected Behaviors and on here the teacher will make remarks on a student. For example we have a student who is Above Average but he never participates in class and a remark was made (Needs to participate in class) in the Expected Behavior section. Friday March 27, 2015 was a day of reviewing math perimeter and area by having them do an activity using a blank sheet with square units and they had to make complex shapes based on one given number to work with either they are given the perimeter or the area. The students that had trouble I went around and did a one on one with them and then we moved on to science by having them sit in a circle in the rug area. We went over parts of the flower and two types of seeds flowering fruit and conifers. This lesson went well with the first class but with the second class my CT had to regroup them back to their seats and have them do a Venn diagram working in pairs to fill in the diagram (flowers, conifers and similarities). During specials we planned for next week in which I will be doing a match activity that is a 2 day lesson and the students will be in centers by allowing them to draw a map based on a set of instructions and with guidelines using Geometry. I will be searching the internet and going through my math book for ideas to add to day 2 of the math lesson. School Advisory Council (SAC) Meeting
On Tuesday March 17 I took notes for Math to complete an observation task on my CT. The notes were very useful to complete the required observation document. On Wednesday March 18 I had the pleasure to attend a SAC meeting due to their Spanish translator not available. SAC is composed of the principal or assistant principal and a balance of teachers, parents, businesses and community citizens. These members are committed to improve the schools performance. I learned so much on what actually happens in these meetings and what the collected funds in school events are used for. In this particular meeting the funds had been used to purchase learning board games for each grade level to improve reading fluency and math skills. These board games would be stored in the Team Leaders room based on grade level so the teachers can share because unfortunately there wasn’t enough funds to purchase enough board games for each classroom in the entire school. The following day we had to go over perimeter and area to prepare them for an assessment they would be taking on Friday. The work the students did that day to learn about perimeter and area were fun and engaging activities that allowed them to turn and talk to a partner so they can share on why they picked those answers. During lunch time we had some minutes to go over some planning but it was more verbal planning. This week we had limited time to plan but I managed to take some bullet points on a post it note so I wouldn’t forget. Today my CT was not teaching so the class had a substitute teacher and I was to teach the whole day all two classes. It went well expect for the typical normal stuff that happens on a daily basis which is the behavior issues. It was nothing since I know exactly what happens and who are the ones that I need to make sure I keep track of their behavior. I have seen a big improvement on how I handle behavior issues especially since I use the feedback from the CT and the teacher next door. When the teacher isn’t there they try to see what they can get away with and how far or how much will I allow them to misbehave. I have to visually show them that I mean business and not just verbally say it. With me walking around with a clipboard and writing names down for point deduction on their planner based on a 100 grade that they start with at the beginning of class. I learned that verbally saying I’m taking points of for misbehavior doesn’t work they will continue to do it. The substitute teacher was very helpful as well since she used to be a 4th grade math teacher. She showed me some useful manipulatives that can be used for subsidizing, gave me a math chart with questions to ask students and showed me reading material that has been useful to her. I was glad to get her feedback on how I taught today and how she noticed that I did better with the second class since I reflected on myself from the morning class. Immigration Lesson
This week was a very productive week and I had the opportunity to teach next door in the Literacy class. I planned and even is not my CT but has been very helpful when I have needed her help. She provided amazing feedback that I will take into consideration for my next lesson. The two teachers that were present in class to include the students really enjoyed the lesson. The teacher said that several of the students related to this topic and that I had made a good choice in picking that particular topic because several of the students related. The teachers were amazed at how many students that normally never like to share or speak up actually wanted to share and they stayed focus during the lesson. I had no behavior issues during my lesson it was more of students wanting to share every single time. I watched the video of the lesson the next day and noticed several mistakes that were exactly the ones the teacher pointed out. I had missed an important piece of my lesson when I had planned it. I was supposed to have the students talk and share with their groups or the person next to them. I fell into the norm of raise your hand and call on someone. I normally don’t chose that option always but since I’m used to the homeroom students and usually only teach math or science I forgot and it was even written in my plans. Overall I believe I was successful in one way or another but I really wish I could have the option to reteach an hour later and implement the feedback received. I don’t like waiting to then implement my feedback I believe it should be done within the same day if possible. I have seen success when this is done within the same day. Seating Arrangements
The other day I was asked to prepare a seating chart for the homeroom classroom because we have noticed several behavior issues among the students. The seating arrangements were to be done based on their behavior, accommodations needed and their academic level. For example if we have a student who does really well in class I would try to place that student with another student that I think would benefit from this students’ knowledge. I have one student who needed to be moved based on role models and students that would help him stay focus and out of trouble. For the student that can’t stay sitting down and who needs to be moving around had to be moved away from the front of the class because he was such a distraction to other student’s trying to learn that the whole class would lose focus. So far it’s been two days and the new sitting arrangements seem to be very effective and less drama coming from the students. It’s not perfect but it’s an improvement based on their behavioral issues; I have less complaints from student’s about other student’s and the teams actually work together to get their work done when it comes to group work or projects. I did try to resolve a few issues with the students such as missing items in the classroom from their desks and that solved itself out the next day on its own, the items magically appeared to their rightful owners. I had the opportunity to speak to one of my students during lunch today and get to know that student a little better about his family life. Flexibility and Adjusting
The above title is a must when you’re a teacher because when unfortunate events happen you have to be able to be flexible and prepare to make adjustments to your plans. This was the case this past week. An unexpected event happened and I teaching had to be postpone for the next day and also because of testing. I was able plan out two math lessons for the next two days on Attributes of Quadrilaterals. I started with Day 1 EQ: How can you identify or draw parallel and perpendicular lines? I wanted to try out the USF Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template so I completed it and used it. I like that it is very detail and I believe this is perfect for beginners but I can see that once you have years of experience teaching I don’t see this lesson plan template as something an experienced teacher would use. It has it’s pros and cons, pro is that it’s detailed and useful and cons is that it’s so time consuming filling out all the sections, this took me about almost 2 hours to complete. The beginning of the lesson went well I only did 30 minutes because I had to leave for class so my CT finished the rest of the lesson. For day 2 EQ: How can you sort and classify quadrilaterals?, on this lesson I went back to my own style which consists of paper and just in order step by step of what I will be doing to include any drawings or models that I have already worked out and can use for reference. The class was half gone because of chorus field trips during this day and it was Valentine’s Day so my students were not focused and several behavior issues in class. I still managed to get through it and by doing so I had to eliminate the Venn diagram from the lesson because of the distractions and lack of motivation in class. I needed something more interactive so I jumped into classify and sorting matching game. I had them all in groups and notified them that this was a competition to see who completes many matches. This was very effective and they loved it. I enjoyed the communication and how well they got along with their classmates while working to find the matches of the shapes to its definition. |
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." Author
Rosa M. Vela Archives
May 2015
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