Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
January 29, 2013- In my classroom today the students were generating idea for antonyms. The teacher was writing them on a paper as she called on the students who had raised their hands. One student called out an idea that the teacher thought was interesting. She praised the student for their creative efforts and wrote the idea on the board. That was all it took and the whole class was yelling out their answers. The teacher quickly realized her mistake and said I am sorry class I wrote down a response without calling on a student. She continued, "Let's all try and remember to raise your hand. Then I will call on you." It was amazing to me how quickly the students picked up on the mistake and it reminds of a quote from Setting Limits. "The rules we practice and are willing to support with consistent discipline are the rules kids respect and take seriously."
>
April 11, 2013- Today I recorded multiple students reading passages for running records. I was neat to get to work with a variety of students. Some students read very dutifully pointing to each word as they read. Others skipped words and they put a story together as they went. Others read the words on the page but did not know what they meant. The students I thought would know the meaning were unsure of themselves while students who had missed sections easily answered the question. This showed me how much I have to learn and the only way to gain this knowledge is by working with students. When we are in the field we begin to see things differently and realize what the books are telling us.
April 10, 2013- I went to meeting today where I was told exactly how to take notes on a lecture. I was told what to underline and star as if this person knew what was important to me. I agree with everything this person was saying but was so turned off by how she said it that I almost missed her message. I include this here because as teachers we must remember that everyone has there own way of doing things and it might not be your way but if it works for them leave them alone.
April 16, 2013- This is the first day that I felt that my teacher and students were stressed about the test. The lessons from here on out are all about reviewing for the test. The test consumes all other subjects until it is done and out of the way. The teacher has designed some games to help review concepts but everyone just seems over worked. At least there is only a week to go and this is the first time I have noticed the pressure.
April 4, 2013- Today a peer gave me a wonderful compliment as to my abilities to teach. I have been feeling unmotivated and unsure how to get myself back on track. The words of a valued person were enough to encourage me and for me to regain focus. Sometimes that is all it takes- words of encouragement from a trusted friend. Sometimes students don't need to be reminded that they are messing up, they need to be reminded of what they are doing right.
April 11, 2013- Today I got to experience both sides of the edit process known as revising. I worked with a student and helped her revise one of her stories. I also worked with a peer that helped me revise my book. As I was working with the student I would try to make suggestions and she would tell me, "but that is how I want it." I just kept offering her suggestions and told her that she had the last say- she could change it or leave it. I told her it was important for her to feel that this was her piece. Then I experienced the same thing later in the day and knew exactly how she was feeling. It might not be the right or best way but it was your way. Later on that night I made many of the changes suggested by my peer but not all. On Tuesday I noticed that the student had done the same.
March 2, 2013- We did reader's theater today with a 3rd grade class. It was so amazing to see the children learning, reading and having so much fun. This was the first time that I have done reader's theater and will be using it in my own classroom in the future. The student's reading fluency became better and better the more times they read their scripts. They did not have to struggle with the words after multiple readings and could concentrate on the fluency.
February 28, 2013- Today a did my read aloud, Verdi by Janell Cannon. The reading went just as I had rehearsed. The students were involved in the conversation and I even managed to pull in some of their previous knowledge from other subjects. My activity went just as I had rehearsed as well which
February 26, 2013- Today we gave a group of third graders a spelling inventory and then assessed their level based on the test. I had read this part thoroughly in the book, Words Their Way, and I felt pretty confident going into. The moment I started trying to grade the inventory I knew that it was not going to be easy as I believed. This is a familiar feeling for me this semester, you can only learn so much from reading a book. The true learning occurs by doing. This is why it is important for us to be in a classroom practicing what we are learning. It is also why it is essential for us, as teacher to find ways of letting our students do not just read.
was very little on this part. I had read the story over and over trying to decide which questions would be the best to interject with but did not do the same with the activity. Do not get me wrong I had practiced the activity some but just not as much as I had the reading. I realized afterward that this lead to me being unclear as to what I wanted the students to do with this activity and in return I got confused students. If you do not know what you want you are not going to get the best the
students have to offer.
March 30, 2013- I took my practice exam for my teacher certification today. On the test there was a question about incomplete metamorphosis. I had just read this in my research for my bug and knew exactly what the answer was. I have learned the life cycle many times including complete vs incomplete but I remembered this time. I believe it stuck with me this time because I had to create my own meaning of this process and not just memorize the steps.
February 21, 2013- Today in writing we took a close up look at our hand and created a poem in our small groups. Sometimes we get so busy that we only see the big picture. It is nice to remind ourselves to examine things closer and see what you find.
February 19, 2013- Today we presented our Choice Words Projects and the one that I thought had many uses was Lacey's bookmark. You could give this to your students, their parents, and use it yourself.
January 31, 2013- Today we read Setting Limits for class. The book discusses how most behavior issues can be handled by three easy steps. Having a classroom that has a routine, encourage your students, and engage them in your lessons. This made me feel more comfortable because these are all things that I know I can do.
March 28, 2013- We started researching a bug of our choice today in our writing class. The class was a buzz with facts that we were learning about the insect that we had chosen. We have read in my book how it is important to let the students choose what they write and read about. Here is a great example of what a difference that makes. We were given a topic but had the freedom to select with it the set parameters.
February 14, 2013- Today was Valentine's Day and we got to celebrate with the students in their classrooms. This experience was not only a lot of fun but I learned a few things. The first one being that changing a students schedule in anyway makes them hyper and the second is that the view the teacher has of the classroom may not be the way it is reality. The teacher talked about how she felt things were so crazy in her room during the party but it was not as bad as she thought.
March 28, 2013- Today we had a substitute in the classroom. The teacher has the kids in a well established routine that I am now familiar with. The day ran so easily because the teacher had practiced routines that both the students and I were used. I hope that when I have a classroom I have my routines so engrained in my class that they can function so easily without me.
Teacher's description:
How it really looked:
February 12, 2013- One of our reading for Dr. Gainer's class was about touchstone text. These our different types of text to introduce to your students to other authors who have published wonderful pieces of work. Within our small groups we read one of the suggested text, Sky Tree by Locker. It was a beautifully illustrated book that could be used with many different subject areas but some of the questions posed in the book were only one way of thinking.
March 19, 2013- Today we worked in our small groups with our word study. I was going to have the students play homophone rummy. The students had never played gin rummy before so I was trying to teach them the rules of the game along with learning the concept of homophones. Needless to say this was a disaster. We adapted the game so that the students got to practice their homophones but I am realizing how many things in teaching are trail and error.
January 24, 2013- Today We got to work in the classroom that we were assigned. I am in a third grade class and it is quite different than working with the kindergarteners. I am amazed with how much the students know and how they are so open to new people in their classroom. I got to listen to a read aloud from The Westing Game. Each student is given their own copy of the book so they can follow along.
February 7, 2013- Today the students took a trip to Gatti Town to work on fractions and have a little fun. One of the activities that the students participated in was a worksheet about fractions and the 6 students that finished the fastest received a chili-pepper stuffed toy. It was fascinating to see what competition did to the students. Some decided right away that this was too difficult for them and they would never win so why try. Some were frantically trying to finish the worksheet not helping any of the students around them. Others just wanted you to give them the answer so they could win the prize. No one was really learning fractions. It made me think of a quote from Ayers about hoarding knowledge. This was a bunch of individuals not a community.
March 7, 2013- This little yellow post-it note looks like nothing but today it brought me hope that maybe I could be writer. We published our personal pieces and read them aloud. Each of our classmates wrote us a love note on a post it to tell us what they liked about our piece. This was just a small piece of feed back that encouraged me and motivated me to keep on writing. This will definitely be something that I use in my own classroom.
March 5, 2013- Today's reading from Ayers is about assessing learning. One of the strategies that my teacher uses is to let the students help decide what the grading rubric will be on their big projects. The students decide how many and what should be included in the project. This helps on many levels; the students have designed it so they know they can accomplish it, they know what they have to do and finally they determine what is important to the project. They were doing this for their landforms project and here is an example of what they looked like.
February 5, 2013- The students got to choose who they would research and design their door after for black history month. They selected Harriet Tubman. The students were then separated into their reading groups to do research on her. Depending on the reading level the students were given different task from gathering pictures off the internet to creating a timeline of her life. The students were excited to work in their new groups and the teacher could adapt the lesson so that everybody was involved.
January 22, 2013- This for me was the word of the day. I read Choice Words and was thinking of the power words contain. I went into a 4th grade classroom that was a true community. I also heard a student talk about his peer's work as, "powerful". This sums up my learning for today.