"Math 911"

Same friend, different you-tube video... My friend sent me another you-tube video that is being forwarded around via e-mail-this one is more directly related to education than the last one I posted.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT4NOe4vtoM

Diversity

A friend sent passed this link along tome via e-mail and I instantly connected it with the topic of anti-bias and more specifically diversity. It may be somewhat of a stretch but in some ways there is a "lesson"to this cute video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TjfOKnF-c&feature=player_embedded

Last Day of Field 2

Just as I was feeling like I really started to connect with students and felt 100% comfortable with the cooperating teacher and teacher’s aide, my field 2 experience came to an end today. Today was actually the most interesting day I have had in my kindergarten placement because so much was going on. Sam and I took Mrs. Noble and Ms. Johnson each a bouquet of flowers and a card and got Mrs. Noble a Starbucks gift certificate. Immediately after that one of the student came up to me and started hugging me (and Sam too) and saying she didn't want us to leave, which was sweet. Then she asked us where her present was because she had seen us give the cards and flowers to the teachers. I think that Sam and I have spoiled them and the student teacher bribes them with candy on a daily basis, so the students (or some of them may expect it now). I told her I didn't have anything for her but I am planning on sending little simple thank you cards to each of the students in the mail (address as attn: Mrs. Noble and then the student's name and the address for Harbor View). Even if I just write, "it was fun getting to know you and you helped me learn a lot about teaching through working with you," I think the students will be excited to get something in the mail and it will be fun.

Sam and I had the opportunity today to do a chapter assessment with the tool we did our showcase assessment tool on, which was, the Trophies Harcourt Reading Unit Assessment. It was so neat to get to assess each student and work with them one-on-one for one final time. All but two of my students got 100% of the chapter I was assigned to correct. The other two, got 7/8 and 6/8. I was very pleased that my case study student was beginning to start to sound out word, which she has not done in the past and I know that a 6/8 for her is fantastic and a major improvement!

Today was also field day, which was really fun to watch and the students were so excited. I stood with Laura, Theresa, Dr. White, and Sam and discussed funny stories from the field and we all watched the students participate in field day together. It was very amusing and interesting because I have never had the opportunity to observe students in a PE class or using their gross-motor skills (except for on the playground and ECDC's PE).

After the field day activity, Sam and I finished the few students that both of us had to assess and then Abigail's mother came in to do an art project with the class. I was totally pumped because I got to do the art project too. There were 5 tables of students and so each adult had our own table of students (Mrs. Noble, Ms. Johnson, Abigail’s mom, Sam, and I). The project was to make origami butterflies out of beautiful large sheet of paper that was double sided-one side with a design/pattern and the other with a textured wash. We went step by step and they turned out fantastic. One of the students at my table, according to Ms. Johnson, is a perfectionist and he started to cry and say", I hate it", and "I hate my piece of paper I got", and then just cry about how his was not lining up perfectly. I kept telling him that art should be fun and that I thought his was good, but he kept crying and whining and started to say, "I want my mom". Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Johnson could not get him to calm down and change his attitude around either. I tried helping him line everything up but it seemed that once he started to whine and cry, he was not going to stop, regardless. Mrs. Noble sent him to go sit in the book center. I was very surprised because this boy in my lessons was the hardest to get to listen and to stop fidgeting and always had to touch all of the materials, often dumping them out. I never would have guessed that a student, who cannot sit still, would be a perfectionist. That is an interesting combination. When I was his age (actually even younger), I was a little similar, although not as hard to manage. My mom always tells me the story of how I used to stand in front of the easel in pre-school and refuse to paint because I could see in my mind what I wanted to paint but I knew I did not have the fine motor skills to do so I would refuse and when they put a brush in my hand, I would scribble all over the paper for 2 seconds and then take off my smock and move onto something else. I have always loved art since I could hold a crayon/marker/paintbrush/etc. but I have always been very perfectionist and hard on myself. Today I would not consider myself a perfectionist at all but I learned that when you hold yourself to impossible standards it really sucks the fun out of it. With all of that being said, I guess my point is that I never realized what I probably looked like complaining about how bad my work was when it was not and how silly and pointless it was. I am also now aware that it must have been somewhat annoying for people to have to put up with me and deal with it. It is really difficult. I am now very curious on how to deal with children who are perfectionists, and also because when conducting the assessment, I had many students take a really long time filling in the bubbles for their answers, making sure that they did not go outside of the lines and that they filled in the whole bubble perfectly. I had always kind of thought that this was more of a "girl thing" (I know that is a stereotype, which is bad-especially because my anti-bias unit is on gender identity and fairness, which covers gender stereotypes), however, many boys, in fact, I think more than girls, demonstrated this.

I am so happy with my field 2 placement and experience and I decided that kindergarten as of this point would be my ideal grade to teach, if given the option, which I filled out on my clinical evaluation form last week. Even so, I cannot wait for my next field, in which I will hopefully be placed in a first or 2nd grade classroom. I have found that these field classes have really helped to bridge the gap between the material I am learning in courses and how to apply that material.

I can't believe it's almost over...

Today I had another opportunity to watch Sam’s lesson closely in order to complete her ADEPT form for her final lesson. Sam is an amazing job again. I am so impressed with her communication skills. Communication is probably one of the, if not the, most important skills when teaching a lesson because no matter how good your lesson is and the idea is, if you cannot communicate to the student in a way that is easy to understand, then the lesson is pointless. Sam is very clear with her directions, simplifies things in a way that is very developmentally appropriate, and gives a lot of positive feedback. It is amazing how those things can grab a student’s attention and also support classroom management. I think be partnered in a classroom is so beneficial to me, as was the activity in class where we shared our lessons from field two in small groups. I think that the collaboration we have had is probably in some ways similar to the collaboration I hope to someday have with other faculty members wherever I end up teaching.

I cannot believe that field II is basically over. It’s hard to believe, we are moving out of spring and into summer. I really loved kindergarten and the field experiences have probably been one of my favorite parts of the program thus far. It will be strange not having a field this summer because I really feel like the fields help me understand the material I am learning in classes much better and I start to understand how to apply my knowledge. I know that I loved kindergarten, and as a student it was one of my favorite grades growing up, so I am not too surprised. Interestingly enough, grades k-3 were my favorite grades, as well as 5^th grade, due to the kind of learning methods the teachers used, and the amazing teachers I had

Families & Teachers

My earliest memories of how teachers related to my parents was probably in pre-school. I remember when the my dad and some other dads helped build the play structure outside. I can remember that the community where I lived in Connecticut until I was 5 had parents that were very involved in the school and everyone pitched in. I also remember that we did things with our parents like go on a hay-ride to an apple farm and pumpkin patch in the fall and I remember having to memorize a "poem" when I was three and all the parents were invited to come to school and we sang songs for them and each of us said our poem. I still remember that one line poem to this day. Mine was "The Crocus reaches up to catch a sunbeam in her cup."My mom was even more involved when we moved to CA because she starting working part time for a children's organization in Berkeley and my dad worked full time so my mom was a lot more aware of what was going on in school and whenever there was an opportunity to volunteer she signed up. This drove both my sister and I crazy a we reached the upper elementary grades. In regards to me personally and communication with my teachers I know that they had two teacher-student conferences a year that both of my parents attended and also a back to school night and an open house. In third grade when I was struggling with my reading comprehension both my parents met with my teacher and communicated with her over the phone following their conference to discuss my progress. 

Highlights from Yesterday's Lesson

I forgot to mention some of the highlights of my lesson and yesterday's class in my post, some of which were commented on by Sam. Yesterday, during my lesson, I had the students give me suggestions for classroom management! It was the better behaved students who did this who are perhaps more aware of those that struggle with behavior or staying on task. I am not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing but I think it is great that these students are thinking of strategies to manage the class and that they understand and appreciate the important of good behavior like listening, following directions, etc.. It was so cute because one of THE cutest and well behaved little girls made me a drawing of flowers and clouds and a rainbow and then told me on the other  side I should write down and keep a list of all the "bad students". It was so funny because then after my lesson she came up to me and asked if I had kept track of all the bad students on it, which of course, I said that I did. Another funny thing- after the fire drill Blake told Sam and I all about what they do if a "bad guy" is at school and how they shut all the windows and turn the lights off and lay down for "19 WHOLE MINUTES!" (which I am guessing seems like an eternity for a kindergartener or maybe it is more like 5 minutes but feels like 20). He wanted to be sure that we would know what to do if we had one of those drills. He asks a lot of questions and as we were going out for the fire drill he wanted to know exactly what would happen to you if there was a fire and you did not go outside. How exactly do you explain that to a five year-old without giving him nightmares? 

My Last Lesson for Field II: Planting Seeds

    

I taught my 4th and final lesson for my field II course today in kindergarten at Harbor View Elementary. My lesson was formated very differently than any lesson I have ever taught thus far, in that it did not require much writing or concrete handouts/worksheets or design projects. The theme this week is plants and so I read an Eric Carle book on a seed and how a seed grows, and then had each of the four groups plant seeds n a clear container so that that can hopefully see the roots once it begins to grow. Because I taught the lesson so that each group was given one container and several seeds, I focused some of the objectives of my lesson on teamwork, sharing, and cooperation. I think this is very important to learn and when students respect each other and work together in a classroom there is much more trust and students start to open up more. Being able to trust peers and respect each other allows students to take risks when learning and know that they have their peers' support and that they are all working toward a common goal, not competing with one another. This is the optimal learning environment for the classroom. I know that in kindergarten, students are still very focused on themselves but I think that social skills and working with others still need to be focused on. Many students are not used to having to share with so many other children, especially if they did not go to pre-school. I think the lesson went well and I really think that hands on lessons are great for this age. I hope that in my third field I will do more hands-on and tactile/kinesthetic-based lessons.

 Something I tried new to this semester's placement was using a soft ball to throw to students when they raised their hands so that only the student holding the ball can talk. I really like this and used it last semester and will probably use it in my classroom. It makes learning a little more fun rather than just sitting back, especially if I tell them that they have to be alert because even if they are not raising their hand they may have the ball tossed to them. I also used a magic wand that makes noise to get their attention and quiet them down because Mrs. Noble had suggested a bell but I was unable to track one down. The princess-noise wand I really like though for the time being until I find a bell or something very different (maybe a rain-stick would be something different to try. I am enjoying the experimenting I am getting to do and think I need to open myself up to trying new things and doing things different ways in my third field because part of learning what works for me is going to be trial-and-error and it will be my last opportunity to try some things out before my clinical in the spring. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience in kindergarten and coming into this program I thought kindergarten might be the grade I would ideally want to teach. Thus far, I think I liked kindergarten a little better than 3rd grade, however, it is hard to tell if I liked it better because I really liked my cooperating teacher and the space was better, etc., or if I really do like that age better. Regardless, I have loved both my fields and think teaching kindergarten or third grade would be so fun! I look forward to the week after net to see Sam's last lesson and to do some more observing.