Goodbye For Now

Today's lesson Miss Kristen, Miss Susan, and myself had our students create poster's on different topics they learned this week. Group one created a t-chart comparing and contrasting the pilgrims life before and after they met the Native Americans. Group two created a book about Christopher Columbus and all that he has done in the past. Group three created a bubble chart with facts about Jamestown. Group four created a collage about the Native Americans on a posted board in the shape of a teepee, and group five created a collage on the first Thanksgiving. This lesson went well and the students truly enjoyed creating their posters. At the end of the lesson each group presented their posters to their classmates. It was great to see how excited the second graders were to share their projects but once they were standing in front of the class they immediately spoke in low voices and put their backs to the class. I constantly reminded the students to face their classmates and to speak up, and so they did. The second grade class did an amazing job and I was so proud of them!

         Today is my last day teaching my smart second grade class! This week was a long week and took a lot of hard work and dedication to create lessons to capture the students attention, activate their prior knowledge, and teach them new information on topics they are not familiar with, while using all three lesson plans Though it was hard work and challenging I truly enjoyed teaching! I loved it and it was great experience. I was happy I was able to experience such a thing before I went out into the real world. Though it was a short period of time it helped me mentally prepare and become somewhat knowledgeable of what I have in store for me.

Today We Are Explorers - Inquiry Lesson

Today we conducted our inquiry lesson. To begin our lesson we activated students prior knowledge on all of the information we taught them in the previous lesson. After we received a great amount of feed back from our students and realized they remembered previously learned material we moved right into our activity for todays lesson. Today's students became "explorers" and went on a treasure hunt. Using an app on our Iphones called i-nigma we created questions. These questions could only be revealed when students used the Iphones to scan a barcode. The second graders LOVED THIS! I was amazing how engaged and interested they all became. Using technology within the classroom truly does inspire students. It was amazing to see how all of them were interacting and working together to solve the hidden questions.

Every station was provided with  material such as a folder with a passage in it, artifacts, and a worksheet. Each group went to each station in order to find the hidden question and answer it. The students are to use the artifacts on the table to help them find the correct answer to the question. After analyzing the artifacts students were to write a hypothesis. Prior to telling students they had to write a hypothesis we simply explained what a hypothesis is and how to write one. 

                                                                           

We then explained the importance of reading the passage within the folders to help them find the answer to the question as well. Our hidden questions were:
1. What was the first founded colony of the United States?
2. Which group of people came to America for religious freedom?
3. What was the name of the explorer who discovered America?
4.What was the name of the colony that the pilgrims founded?
5.What group of people helped the pilgrims farm their new land?


This was a great learning opportunity for the students as well as myself. I never realized how much fun a lesson could be, especially using all sorts of technology!!! Creating a Prezi and using it as a powerpoint in the classroom helped capture the students attention. Using iphones within the lesson truly grabbed their attention. The students were all excited and ready to learn!! :)


I feel as though this lesson went well. I had a great time planning the lesson and putting the material together with my group members Miss Kristen and Miss Susan. After our lesson we reflected on all that we have done and what we could have improved on. I personally feel as though I could have guided the students a little more. I could have elaborated on the instructions to help them fully understand WHY they were doing what they were doing. I feel as though I could have worked on transitioning from topic to topic more efficiently. I enjoy hearing my classmates feedback as well as my professor. It helps me build off of my weaknesses and prepare for my following lesson.

Here is my Prezi Powerpoint for this lesson! :) Treasure Hunt

Exploring With Our Second Grade Classroom

                        

          Today was the first day I EVER taught a class. My colleagues and myself taught a lesson to our second graders by introducing Native Americans, Explorers, and Colonies. We began our lesson by activating and questioning students prior knowledge to see what they knew about the Native Americans and the way in which they lived. We introduced four new vocabulary words that we wanted the students to learn and familiarize themselves with: Colony, Colonist, Explorer, Exploring.

Defining explorers we introduced Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, and Henry Hudson. As for colonist we introduced John Smith. The colonies that we introduced were Jamestown and Plymouth. After introducing this great deal of information to the students we showed them two videos to help them understand all that we were teaching them. We provided two videos one was a cartoon about Plymouth Rock and the explorers who founded the land. The second video was a documentary video that was realistic. The first video truly engaged the students and caught their attention, not so much the second one. I realized we began to lose the students attention; therefore I stopped the video and began to ask them a few questions to regain their attention and check for understanding.

Asking the students different questions we used different techniques to hold their attention. We asked students true or false questions to check their understanding. We told students to put their hands on their head if they think the answer was true or their finger on their nose if the answer was false. I felt as though the students truly enjoyed these directions.

As guided practice we decided to do a virtual soccer game. We were hoping to have students interact and come up to the smart board to play the game. We were unable to connect to the smart board but we still played the game. Instead we had the students raise their hand and take turns to play. The game we created happened to be to easy for this bright second grade class. To sum up our lesson we asked students numerous questions about what they learned today.We also gave them a worksheet that they independently worked on. I felt as though this lesson went well.

Attached is our Prezi Powerpoint for this lesson! The First People Come To America 

 I understand there are a great deal of things I can work on and improve. One being TRANSITION! I never realized how difficult it could truly be to make specific transitions and help students comprehend what is going on and WHY. I also realized the importance of informing students WHY they are learning the information they are learning. I will be sure to work on this and to try and make it better in my following lessons!!!

Miss Sara and Miss Shannon's Tribes Hard At Work!

        Today Miss Sara and Miss Shannon conducted their final lesson, the Cooperative Learning lesson. Miss Shannon and Miss Sara began the lesson by activating students prior knowledge about the many tribes they learned this week. The activity that was planned for today's lesson was to have the students spilt up into groups, assigned jobs, and discovering new tribes using the materials given. The students truly loved this project! All of the second graders were truly excited to partake in the project and to have their own role. At the end of the day students presented their posters to their classmates. The second grade boys and girls loved sharing with their classmates all that they learned. They did a great job!

                             

       This project related to Bloom's Taxonomy in numerous ways. The students prior knowledge was activated to help them recall and remember what they learned. Miss Shannon and Miss Sara asked student friendly questions to help the students comprehend what was being asked and to truly understand the material they were being taught. As for the project students were creating and realizing the value of the material by creating their posters. 

        This was an excellent project and lesson went extremely well! Miss Susan and Miss Shannon did a great job!

                                                  

  

Time, Dedication, and Preparation

Today my group and I sat down to plan our Direct Lesson Plan for next week. Our topic is Colonies. I am extremely nervous to teach the second grade. Our lesson plan consists of numerous vocabulary words we hope the students will learn and be able to independently define such as: colony, colonist, explorer, thanksgiving, Plymouth, Jamestown, John Smith, and Christopher Columbus. We created a power point using Prezi to present to the students next week! Creating our lesson plan took a great deal of research, time, preparation, and dedication to touch on all that we want our students to learn. We are not yet finished but we are getting there! This week we are planning on meeting with Doctor Smirnova on Google Doc's Hangout. This will allow us to virtually meet and share our lesson plan with her! I am excited to use Hangout and show Doctor Smirnova all that we have done so far! 


Here is the link to our powerpoint presentation. I used Prezi to create our powerpoint to make it exciting and to truly capture the students attention! I hope it works. Direct Lesson Powerpoint 

Colleagues Inquiry Lesson Plan :)

      My colleagues Shannon and Sara's inquiry lesson plan! The teachers did an excellent job conducting their lesson plan! I give them a lot of credit for going first. I would be a nervous reck if I was the first group to go. Shannon and Sara's inquiry lesson was extremely engaging. They asked students questions to explore their prior knowledge. The questions allowed students to recall all that they learned from the previous lesson on different tribes and the way those tribes lived.The teachers engaged and introduced the lesson to the students using a powerpoint and Voki. This was a great way to engage the students and introduce their knew lesson!

 
It was now time for the students to explore artifacts and match those artifacts to their correct tribe. The teachers modeled how to use an artifact bag and how to examine the artifacts. The materials provided were the artifact bag, the artifacts, and a folder with the worksheets students were to read and complete. 

They did a great job during this part of the lesson. They modeled and gave direct instruction on what to do. After the students explored their artifacts they shared their findings.

 

During my observation I realized the little things that truly help keep students attention and engage them. I realized it is important to keep a fast past with younger students. The second graders have a short attention spans and can only sit still for so long. I realized if the teachers had taken too long to explain something or hand out work they would lose the students attention. ENTHUSIASM! To be enthusiastic is another extremely important aspect of holding students attention! If a teacher is monotone and does not show interest in the subject the students deffinitly will not! BODY LANGUAGE! It is effective for teachers to use body language in order to communicate with his or her students. PROJECTION of ones voice is another tool I leaned is extremely important. If the teacher does not speak loud and clear the students may become lost; therefore becoming uninterested!

Further Your Understanding In Lesson Planning

     Today is Presidents day; therefore Bishop Dunn is off due to the holiday. This allowed us, as a class, to meet in our everyday classroom to discuss all that we have done so far. We even watched a few short videos about the three major types of lesson plans: Direct, Inquiry, and Cooperative Learning! These videos allowed me to view new strategies from teaching a lesson to classroom management. Watching these videos excited me for when I have my own classroom. I can not wait to apply all that I learned to grow and develop into the teachers I watched within these videos. Here is a link to my notes I have taken based on the three major lesson Three Major Lesson Plans

Snow Day....No Way!

 Today we were unable to meet in class but luckily we were able to hold a virtual class on WizIQ. During this class we discussed effective ways of implementing direct instruction and specific techniques for checking students understanding. Today's class cleared any confusion I had based on the direct instruction lesson plan. After class I began to brain storm ideas for my direct instruction lesson. I learned that direct instruction strategy is highly teacher directed! Creating a direct instruction lesson plan it is important to question your students for a variety of reasons such as, assessing learning, developing understanding, and encouraging creative response, facilitating critical thinking, increasing awareness, and most importantly guiding the process of dialectical reasoning! During our virtual class we watched a video of a real classroom to show us examples and how to create such an environment. 

My Colleagues Direct Instruction

       Today my colleagues Sarah and Shannon taught a direct instruction lesson about Native American tribes and the way in which they lived. Today was their first time teaching in front of a second grade classroom in Bishop Dunn. Miss Sarah and Miss Shannon activated students prior knowledge by asking students to define shelter and tradition. Sarah and Shannon then introduced three tribes: Pueblo, Sioux, and Powhatan tribes and related these tribes to their traditions and the way in which they lived.

 The teachers invited students up to the smart board to find examples in given images of traditions and shelters. This showed Sarah and Shannon how well their students were comprehending their lesson. Miss Sarah and Miss Shannon engaged students in an activity, they did at their desk, that would help the students develop and deepen their understanding of the lesson and vocabulary words hey learned.

I enjoyed watching my colleagues and I learned a great deal from their lesson today. I am nervous about teaching my own lesson but I now feel some what comfortable and know what is expected. I learned a lot from observing my classmates today. I give them a lot of credit for going first! They did great.

Getting To Know One Another

      Today was the first day of field work. As a class we were separated into four groups, and each group rotated around the second grade class introducing ourselves and getting to know our students. It was an interactive and engaging way to get to know our students on the first day of field work. The students were excited and more than happy to have us joining their class to teach them social studies. Many of the students I spoke with informed me that they do not learn social studies as often. Based on numerous questions I asked them it seems as if they have not learned social studies in quite sometime. I also ask my students how the pretest that they have taken online was. Many of them said they did not know any of the questions and they felt as though it was extremely hard. I had a few students say that they feel as though they did well on the pretest. I am excited to teach these students and I am looking forward to working with them. 

Not All Superheros Have Capes

How Do You Test Your Students?

       Today, in our fieldwork groups, we created three questions pertaining to our material that we will be teaching the second grade students this semester.Each group created three questions and as a class we combined all of these generated questions to create an online pre-assessment. We create this pre-test online using Google Doc Forms. Our question format consisted of multiple choice, binary, or an essay! :)

Here is the link to our pre-assessment for our second graders! Pre-Test for Second Grade 

So Who Is Ready For Field Work?

      Today as a class we discussed what we will be doing during field work. We are to create a pre-test for our students using multiple choice, true or false, and essay questions. I also learned how to somewhat navigate the website and how to fill out the edTPA tasks. As a class we went through each part of the edTPA to try and further our understanding. Today's class made me feel a little overwhelmed and nervous. I feel as though hearing about all that I have to do for field work and then keeping up with the edTPA worried. I hope it is easier to fill out and complete then it had seemed when discussing it in class. 

Link to edTPA: edTPA

Smile It's the Weekend

There Is A First Time For Everything

      Today we reflected on what we have learned by posting on a Social Interactive Model online. I loved this idea! I have never done this before. It was an engaging and interesting activity that allowed me to post what I have learned and my views as opposed to my classmates. I was able to read my classmates responses. I loved this interactive wall and I would be sure to use this in the future. 

Check out some of our responses! Share Your Thoughts

Snowstorm Will Not Prevent Learning !

        Today is the second day we had a snow day this week, Monday and now today! That does not stop learning for Professor. Smirnova's class! I had taken an online class over the summer but It was nothing like this class. I never had the opportunity to experience a virtual online webcam class, WizIQ. I have never heard of this type of classroom until today. It was an experience in itself. I enjoyed taking a class online. I wish the rest of my professors would have done the same. I feel as though it was a great idea because now I will not fall behind in work and I am able to keep up with all that I have to do. I enjoyed being able to chat with my classmates and my professor from home! It was extremely convenient for us all! We are prepared for any weather that is ahead of us, a snowstorm will not stop us, teachers of the features! 

Jigsaw Project 

Professor Smirnova Provided my class with this website that gives an over view of the Jigsaw project! It was extremely helpful click here to preview - Jigsaw In 10 Easy Steps

The link to the right is my Google Doc powerpoint. Two of my classmates and myself created this powerpoint in order to show what group processing is and the importance of group processing. Group Processing PowerPoint

Uh Oh...

            Today was a snow day and I did not realize I had to attend a virtual class online using WizID. When I realized I missed the virtual class online with my class I was extremely upset. I would have love to experience such a thing. I contacted Professor Smirnova and she informed me that I could watch today's class online. I was amazed that i could watch the class and all that they have done with just a click of a button. I was relieved that i did not miss any of the work! This was great! Sorry I did not know about the class at the time!!! I would have never wanted to miss it! :)