Day 5 and 6

By Elizabeth Gonzalez

Day 5

This week I attended Field Experience twice. On Tuesday, the students were all surprised to see me there but excited. They asked why I was there if it's not Thursday. My response was "I just enjoy being with you guys so much I decided to come in today." Throughout the day I had a bunch of hugs. I was nervous and excited when my CT asked if I can help two students who struggle with writing. The students were paired in twos and they both had to come up with a story using as many vocabulary words. The two students I had are below level and struggle with writing and reading. Before starting to write, I asked what ideas did they have to start the story. This is a team project so we must work together, I said. We had a few challenges since the two students did not like working with each other. They each took a turn writing one sentence but we made sure it made sense since and went with our story. The students used a total of six vocabulary words out of eleven. I used a mini whiteboard to help with the writing. If they did not know how to spell a word I would tell them what letter do you think it starts with and to sound out the word. I am glad that I had the opportunity to work with these two students because it gives me a view of those students who face academic challenges and may feel overwhelmed in the classroom. By working in small groups or one-on-one the teacher can break down the assignment and/or can modify it. 

Day 6 

Today is the day where I teach my first lesson. I taught my whole group math lesson. My lesson was on coins. My objectives for this lesson were 1) recognize the name of coins, value, and count up their total, 2) add and subtract using strategies learned, and 3) solve word problems involving different types of coins and use the cent symbol. Although I lost my voice and I was sick, my classroom did a great job of being respectful. I told them at the beginning that I was sick and I can't speak up, therefore, they must listen and not talk to their neighbors. The majority of the students did a great job of knowing their coins and their value. I was surprised at how well they did in their IP activity. The IP activity I made a worksheet that involved solving for mix coins and word problems. As I walked around observing the students, I saw a few students who were circling or underlining keywords on their word problems. Once done, I explained the importance of the use of money and how we need it to buy things. I thank the class for being well behaved. At the end of the day, the students told me that I did a great job teaching in front of my teacher and to drink lots of water so my voice can come back. These kids bring joy to my day and made me smile when I wasn't feeling my best. 

week 6

Kiley Rolder

February 29th, 2020

This week I was able to experience two days in the classroom instead of one. On Tuesday my CT allowed me to take a small reading group and work n their reading skills with them. We completed a worksheet which had them read, find certain words within the paragraph that had aw in them, write complete sentences and write down other words with the letters aw in them. It was awesome to be able t take a small reading group and work with them one on one I felt like it helped me to better understand the students. On Thursday we had a substitute teacher which meant that I would be taking more responsibility throughout the day. The students did a pretty good job of listening and adapting to me teaching and listening to both me and the substitute which can be hard sometimes. It was interesting to see the different the schedules the students had on the different days and how they reacted. On Thursdays they have more specials so on Tuesday I was able to see more teaching from my CT which helped me a lot. I am learning a lot especially having to step up when the teacher isn't there. I am finding what teaching ways work best for me and it's a great feeling. 

Days 5 and 6: Taking over and Teaching Literacy

• by Amnah Hzaiyen
• Friday, February 28, 2020

     As the semester is passing by in a blink of an eye, I feel like it's truly time for me to step in and begin to take over the classroom. I am still very shy and hesitant to do so, but I decided this week it was time to make those baby steps. On Tuesday, I began to teach small group lessons as a way to make myself feel more comfortable and confident in teaching the whole class. This truly gave me insight on the different types of learning and behavior in the classroom by working with different students individually. I now have a better understanding on how to work with certain students and in which ways they work best. My goal for this week was to begin taking over a whole school day, especially in other subject areas besides literacy which is the subject my CT teaches. I've been hesitant to take over math and science/social studies but by next week I am truly hoping to be the one to instruct with my CT's by my side. Another goal of mine is to begin to put more focus on the different needs of the students. I taught my lesson this week, and with that it gave me insight on what specific needs need to be addressed for all of the students to be engaged. I want to learn to not pass by students who aren't participating, and find ways to get them to participate and enjoy any lesson I teach to them.

     On Thursday, I taught my first lesson to the classroom. I taught my first whole group literacy lesson. My lesson was on IAR test practice, which I was very hesitant to teach. The students were a lot more engaged than I had assumed they were going to be which truly gave me the confidence of taking over the whole school day. As well, the students also seemed to really enjoy me teaching and seemed very excited to hear that I was going to be working on something with them. At the end of my lesson, a few of the students came up to me and asked me if I could be the teacher and it warmed my heart to hear that they enjoyed seeing me standing up in front of the class. With that insight from the third graders, I feel more comfortable in finally taking over the classroom because it make me feel like they will become excited and look forward to seeing me on Thursdays throughout the rest of the semester.

Day 5 and 6: Lesson Plan

• By: Nadine Hamideh
• Thursday February 27, 2020

Day 5

Today, I came in for field experience on a Wednesday to make up for Tuesday the students were on a field trip, and the students had a different class schedule, so I was able to see the students go into computer class and music which was great. Today, I also taught a whole group lesson that my CT told me I could do to get more practice before teaching my literacy whole group lesson on Thursday. I came up with a literacy based lesson, in which I read the book The Rainbow Fish to the students and asked them questions before, during and after. After the book reading I called on students to sequence the story with me, using the sequencing cards I brought. I allowed the students to pair up with a buddy in this activity. The students seemed to really enjoy the activity and were very engaged. However, due to allowing students to pick their partners, some students ended up being alone and some with three in a group. So, it wasn’t the best idea on my part and I was able to learn from it which was great. My CT informed me of things that she noticed to help me prepare, she told me that my tone and expression all throughout was great, she also told me that she noticed me give positive affirmations to those on task. She said positive affirmations are great because they show an example for other students to follow, so for example, if I said “I love how student B is reading the sequencing card to understand what comes next”, it would make other students want to follow, it’s sort of like leading by example. My CT then explained to me in regards to the partners, its best to always create pre-mediated groups, so that all students will be on task and no one will be left out.  I was extremely grateful for this experience and to me it was one that I can learn from.

Day 6

Today, I presented my literacy lesson plan to the students. My lesson plan was about comparing and contrasting the two books that they have been reviewing being Hunter’s Money Jar, and The Winners’ Choice. I started it off by reviewing what it means to compare and contrast, this was very helpful for the students because it activated their prior knowledge. I also used concrete material being two different colored and sized stacking cups, to allow students to distinguish the similarities and differences between the two. I then re-read specific pages from each book to the students and asked them questions before, during and after the book readings. All students seemed very engaged during the reading and many students were participating and answering questions all throughout. It then came time for the smartboard, and all the students were very excited about participating in the smartboard. One thing I tried to do was to be able to call on different students, so that all students were able to get called on. Lastly, for my independent practice the students were to write 3 sentences about comparing and contrasting the two stories, 1 similarity and 2 differences. I put key words up on the board as well, such as same, similar and different to help assist students as they write out their sentences. After that, I came around and gave them all art materials to decorate and then put on a big box, which we named the story box of thoughts, throughout this activity all students were engaged and had lots of fun when it came down to decorating and getting their paper on the box. Overall, I thought the lesson plan went well and accordingly. After my lesson the students, then practiced spelling their spelling words using play dough and then had their spelling test and went to choir and then lunch. My CT also informed me that due to school being off, tomorrow they were going to have a fun friday, so towards the end of the day the movie Descendants 3 was played for the students, and I just completed some paper work with my CT. 

Week 6- Classroom structure

My CT was out for 3 days so today was more of a laid back day. There were no lesson plans implemented for the day, my CT yet again did not follow our daily schedule. The majority of our day consisted of making floats for their Mardi Gras day next week and then the students had a silent party in the afternoon for all of the kids who did not receive a referral. I was paying attention to the classroom structure today and how the students were acting among one another since their was nothing being taught. The classroom is broken down into three different rows and the first row has the students who need the most attention or cause the most disruption. There were two students who had new seats today that were separated from the three rows because of their misbehavior. Honestly as I watched the two children today, their behavior seemed to be worse because they were yelling at other students across the room. I sat by one of the two students in particular and thats when he started to be less disruptive. I have always been taught that the environment is the third eye and that is very true but that is not the only route in order to fix students behavior. My CT was frustrated with the student and wasn't able to understand why he was acting the way he was, but it just took some direct interaction with the student in order for the behavior to subside. I found out from the student that some things were going on his home life simply by just talking to him and it made sense why he was misbehaving. As teachers we all need to dig deeper and try different teaching strategies or techniques for our students with misbehavior because its most likely something that can be altered once the problem is figured out.  Attached is a picture of the desk structure in the room.

Week 6: 2/27/2020

This week I really saw a lot with the students spelling unlike what I had seen in previous weeks, and that is because they don't have school Friday. I'm really seeing the levels of these students with reading and writing by looking at their spelling tests. There are so many kids who are extremely below level in this second-grade class. Compared to my kindergarten field experience, I really feel that these students are lower. They are using random letters to sound out the words when most of these words are sight words that they should know by the end of second grade. Even after working on these words for a week, they still struggled with them.

Today, however, one student who had done okay on the last few spelling tests (usually between 70-87%) got 100% on their test today. That student was so proud of themself. Compared to the last few tests, that student has been really upset about not doing as well, so I think that this student worked very hard with their reading interventionalist. I was very proud of that student.

On Thursday, three of the students who have more behaviors were also out. Them not being there made the day go so much smoother because those two students cause a lot of behaviors with the other students. One student stems off of all of the others in the class. The other student is the student most kids stem off of. Having them gone made a huge difference, so I really think that those two students are the ones I'm going to have to make a connection with to work on figuring out those behaviors.

Overall, field experience was great this week. It provided so much insight!

Day 4: Teaching WG Literacy

Rachel Sebastian
Thursday, February 27, 2020

Today I taught my whole group literacy lesson from 10am to 10:30 am. Overall, I thought it went ok but it could of definitely went better. I taught sequencing about a book we read together as a class. One of the most challenging aspects about this was I am still learning about classroom management and I am trying to figure out my CT's classroom management. I learned that it is very hard to have my own classroom management when I came in the middle of the school year and the students are used to what their teacher is doing. This connected directly to what I learned in my Psychology class. I learned it is important to be authoritative right away and show the students where you stand. Now I know when I am in my own classroom, I will make sure to have great classroom management and I will also make sure my students know what is expected of them starting off day one of school. I think this will still be difficult for me because as a new teacher having great classroom management is a hard thing to do. But, I know over time I will become an expert at it and I just have to keep researching about it.

Tuesday, 2/25, literacy lesson

In field experience this week, my cooperating teacher asked me to do a read aloud for 20 to 30 minutes with the book “if you bring a mouse to school”. She wanted to give me the opportunity to teach a lesson before I started teaching my own lessons. During the lesson, I asked students questions about the words and pictures. The real point of the read aloud was to be able to identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story and summarize it, since these are skills that the students have been working on. This activity went well. With support, the students were able to provide complete sentences for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. This led into a writing activity that the students have been working on for a while also involving beginning middle and end. For my activity, I used a sequence chart and asked the students to help me fill it in. This is the same format that the students have been using for other sequence activities. I have attached a picture of the chart that I made. I think this was a great opportunity for me to use students names as well as to see how long they stay engaged with an activity like this.

Whole group math/adapt to change

This week was still not a set routine of their daily schedule. The students were spending most of the morning preparing for their black history performance that was taking place on Friday. I think the students not being able to follow a consistent routine makes it hard and they lost out on a lot of instruction time. The students were all riled up and it took time for the students to settle down. During the plan period, I asked my CT if I could teach the whole group math lesson for the day to get some more experience and work with the students directly in preparation for my observed lessons to follow. My CT gave me the teachers work book and told me the lesson they were on and went from there. It was an interesting experience to plan a lesson on such short notice and work through putting something together in order for the students to understand. I worked on my lesson plan during my lunch time. I took into consideration the different learning personalities in the room and the different strategies that i've seen my CT use while teaching her whole group math lesson. I was a little nervous because of the lack of time for preparation but it put into perspective that I need to be ready for random schedule changes and to have back up plans in place for all subject areas. I called all the students to the smart board with their workbooks. I shared key vocabulary and asked them questions about greater than and less than which helped guided them into our concept of the day of sequencing numbers by greater than or less than. I demonstrated a problem for them and then had students work independently and then put their answers on the board while explaining to the entire class what they were doing as they worked through the problem. In between my lesson, the kids had an additional schedule change . The principle called all 1st grade students to one room for another talk about their performance. It was difficult to get the kids back on track after that transition because they were only exposed to half of the lesson and then taken out so the rest of the lesson had to be rescheduled for the next day.  I learned to adapt to the change and be ready for anything that is thrown my way. 

Paragraph writing

This week in class, the students were working on writing sentences in a final project form. They had already worked on a graphic organizer prior to this to organize their five sentences about why french fries are the best. The CT passed out their original graphic organizer which they worked on as a class as well as a copy of one she wrote in her own handwriting. The CT was working on the SMART board to write her small paragraph. The students were all supposed to write exactly what she wrote on the board into their final worksheet which was what they already had in their graphic organizer. Some students were working slower than others but the CT did not wait for those students that were falling behind. In one case she went up to a student and finished writing the sentence for him because he was not where the rest of his classmates were. I do not believe she handled this in the most effective way for the students. I believe they should have each gone over the sentences slower and she should have waited for students to be on the next sentence together. As she was moving on from sentence to sentence, their were several students that were completely behind and still on their first sentence. Those students seemed confused and lost and this activity was not done in the most effective way. Several of them were struggling to write their sentences but it was very beneficial that she included her own copy of her graphic organizer for each student so they can see exactly how the words in the sentences were spelled. I hope to see more writing assignments being done in her class and see the different strategies she uses to help her students with their writing.

Week 4

This week, the students were listening to the teacher read one of the books that the students are expected to write about. The writing activity for the students was honestly very rough. The vast majority of the class are not strong writers at all. They are pretty good at finding the concepts in which they have to write about, but when it comes to writing them into sentences and expanding on those concepts, they really struggle to explain their ideas. Their ideas are also very basic. There really isn't a lot of depth to them, unfortunately. They aren't really writing anything long, either. They use the R.A.C.E. concept. R is for restating the question. A is for answering the question. C is for citing the source of their information. E is for explaining their answer. In total, it really only comes out to four sentences, but the students are so below level with their writing that they struggle to form complete sentences and come up with their own ideas beyond the initial R portion. They bounce off of the higher-level students in the class a lot.

If I were to do a writing activity, which I will have to, I think I'm really going to try and work on this strategy with them. I would use a topic that is familiar with the students, possibly a book that they all have read before or even something simple like their Mohawk pledge. I really want to drive this concept in with them because it's something that they will use a lot just in more advanced conversations.

Overall, I thought this week was very beneficial because it will help me to build my writing lesson. I know where the students are at now.

Calm Classroom

Caitlin Kurtz
Sunday, February 23, 2020

On Thursday during my class, my teacher had noticed that some students were acting out and having attitude with everything that was going on in the classroom. During specials, the teacher had explained to me that the students that were performing these behaviors usually are his students who show positive behavior and good examples for everyone else in the classroom/ He was giving me tips with what to do when these situations arise in the classroom and the two strategies he uses his calming corner and a calming classroom. Right before lunch, I had noticed the entire class was getting angry with one another and everybody had a comment to something. My CT started to hand out lunch detentions to these behaviors but then realized that is only going to solve the problem for a short time. He then realized the class needed a time to just lay their head down and listen to soothing music with the lights off which he refers to the calming classroom. After lunch, the students came in laid their head down, lights off, and listened to the soothing music for 15-20 minutes. I found this very beneficial because it allowed for students to recollect themselves, and regulate their emotions. My CT communicated with class dojo to notify parents this was going on and to make sure their kids are going to bed at night at a reasonable time. I would find this challenging because as a teacher you don't know circumstances happening at home and only can control what happens at school. I thought this was a great activity to incorporate in the classroom when needed.

week 4

Kiley Rolder
February 23rd, 2020

This week I experienced STEAM with my class for the first time. Since the schedule has been all over the place the STEAM teacher was saying how she hasn't had many opportunities with my class because of the many things that have been going on this month. In the STEAM room the topic they are talking about is ocean animals. On the ceiling she had plastic wrap hung with different things that could end up in the ocean such as news papers, water bottles, wrappers, etc. Around the room she has different sea animals and materials for the children to work with. This week they were working on the word buoyancy. They did an activity where they had to draw out a type object that would float in water then they had to use materials to make that object and test it out in the water. It was awesome to see the children use trial and error to figure out why theirs weren't floating and what they could change to make it float. Once the students created something that could float we would ask them to try to add materials and test it again to see how durable their creation was and what they could add until it didn't float anymore. The students enjoyed the independence and freedom they had to use their creative side to make whatever they wanted. 

Classroom Managment

I noticed my CT rearranging the desks in the classroom and she explained how lately the students have been misbehaving in the hall, lining up, music class, and cafeteria. She also explained how embarrassed she is when a substitute teacher goes in her classroom because they always leave a note on the misbehaving. My CT has class Dojo and she always gives points to the students who are behaving and following the rules. That strategy doesn’t work anymore she said. She decided to put names up at the board if a student did not follow the rules and if their name is on the board the consequence is missing recess for 5 minutes. There is one student who always interrupts the classroom and she gives him a 5-minute break to reflect on his actions. My CT doesn’t know what else to do and asked if I had any suggestions on classroom management. I am new to this but I did mention to my CT how maybe she should punish some students and not the entire classroom. Only because some students were paying attention and doing their work independently. I also suggested giving the class a choice. For instance, if they are working as a group but are too loud, I would say “Do we want this activity to be in groups or independently work since we can whisper?.”

Week 4 - literacy things

This week was another crazy one. The whole school had practice for their music program which took about an hour in the morning. My class had a substitute for the first 1/3 of the day followed by the assembly where my CT came in halfway through. Then the students went to lunch. After lunch, the principle called all first graders into one room to give the teachers a 20 minute plan period. Overall the only learning part of the day was about two hours at the end where they did literacy and math. In literacy I was able to see the student learn how to compare and contrast two stories that they have been reading for at least a month. They use these two stories for most of their literacy lessons and have become very familiar with them. The teacher used a ven diagram for this activity. I was amazed at some of the ideas that the students came up with. They covered characters, setting, theme and outcome in their answers. The teacher wrote all of their answers in the ven diagram on the easel. I know that this lesson was incomplete although I am not sure what they will do with it in the next few days.
My CT asked me if I’d like to do a read aloud with the students next week and come up with a beginning, middle and end activity for them, since this is another literacy skill they are working on. So, next week I will be doing a read aloud of “If you Bring a Mouse to School” followed by a sequence activity. I’m looking forward to seeing how the students respond to me as their teacher.

Day 4: Text Features

Rachel Sebastian

Thursday, February 20,2020

Today was my first day being able to observe my CT for the whole day. Last week my CT asked if I wanted to teach a lesson on text features, and I was excited to get the opportunity to teach a lesson before my actual lesson. I came up with a game for the students called “Roll a Text Feature.” When I was teaching the lesson, I gathered the students on the carpet and explained the game and demonstrated how they were going to play. I split the class up into groups and I handed out their game boards, scholastic magazines, and dice. They students would take turns rolling the dice and whatever number they landed on they would look at their game board and see what text feature they needed to find in the magazine. One of the most challenging aspects of this was a lot of the students were still unfamiliar with text features because the topic was still new. Now I know when I am in my own classroom or for next time, I will show examples of the text features before the students play the game. This way they can refresh their memory and have a review before jumping right into the lesson. I think this will still be difficult for me because I am just getting in the swing of things of what the students are learning and where they are at in a lot of their topics. But, I received great feedback from my CT and I was able to reflect on myself after I taught the lesson. This will help me become a better teacher and learn from my mistakes. 

Day 4: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

• By: Nadine Hamideh
• Thursday February 20, 2020

Today was a very fun day for the students as there was an assembly. The students started the day by completing their morning work and then waited until they were called down to the assembly. My CT then told me that I can read them all a book, so I read them the book called "The boy who harnessed the wind" and they all loved it. All the students participated and were engaged, I asked many thought provoking questions and they all gave great responses. My CT told me that this would be great practice for when it comes to actually performing my whole group lessons. She informed me that its key to ask questions throughout a read- aloud to get students thinking and engaged, so she really liked how I was able to incorporate many questions on the spot. After the book was finished, many of the students began telling me that they are so happy that the crops got water, and that the main character was so brave, as well as their favorite parts throughout the story. It was a great read and the students loved it. After that it was time for the assembly, and students were very excited for that, after the assembly finish the students came back to the classroom and began working on their writing journals. My CT also explained to me a great learning strategy that she likes to incorporate within her class, being Think-Pair-Share and while they were writing out their writing journals, she had students think about what they want to write and write about it individually and then had them pair up and share their writing journal entry with a buddy. I thought this was a great strategy and I will surely incorporate it in some of my future lessons. The students went to lunch and when they got back they practiced number bonds and addition equations. My CT then put me with another small group and had me go over the math equations with the students. It all was just a great experience and can not wait to see what comes next!

More Responsibility

Throughout my day today, I was given more responsibility, because my CT was absent.  While I really enjoy learning from my CT, today I had the opportunity to understand what exactly my role, expectations, and responsibilities as a classroom teacher will be like, in the future.  I was able to facilitate whole-group plans, that were left by the sub, as well as lead transitional portions of the day and ensure that they were successful.  Throughout the day, I learned that students tended to have better listening ears when they knew exactly what was expected of them.  I also realized that they had better behavior when they were engaged in their learning experiences.  I feel like being direct with your instruction, clear with your learning objectives, and planning for instruction that includes student involvement are all important concepts to incorporate in one's teaching.  I'm glad I was able to practice these concepts this week.

Day 4: Donut Shop Challenge-Open For Business!

by: Amnah Hzaiyen
Thursday, February 20, 2020

Today, the students were working on a group literacy project challenge where they had different worksheets to complete with their groups related to literacy skills they are working on. The groups received prizes for first, second, and third place. All but about two of the students were engaged and excited to work on this assignment and worked pretty well in groups. My CT added doughnut decorations all around the classroom and brought in doughnut shop hats for the students to wear to get into character. It was a super cute and fun idea, and I will definitely love to do something like this for my own classroom one day! With this challenge, it made me realize the importance in creating team-building activities for the students to engage in. Of course, being young children, they came across issues that they felt needed to be handled by the teachers. My CT and I would step in only to guide them to realize they must work together and solve these issues together as a team to figure out how to solve the correct answers or any disagreements they had. Studies show the importance of creating team-building activities in the classroom, and the benefits it can carry along in the students' lives even after school, such as in the work place some day.

Week Ending 2/14

This week I went two days for my field experience. The first day was honestly rough. I taught a small group math lesson with the lowest students in the class.

It was super difficult to keep the students on task because they wanted to sit with their friends and draw all over the whiteboards that they were using to do their problems on. Honestly, I wish it had gone better, but my CT said that it wasn't uncommon to have this issue with that group of students. It collectively took us an hour and a half to get through about nine problems. I didn't even finish my problems with my group because I spent most of my time attempting to keep them on task. And while some of these students are really low, some of the others in the group have at least the foundational skills required to progress with what I was teaching. The lower students didn't even have that, so it was really, really frustrating. I had to be patient with them, and I found that difficult because in my head I was thinking 'how hard is it to get through nine simply two-digit addition and subtraction problems? It shouldn't be that hard'. But it really was. I need to figure out some other strategies for teaching math, which is something I'm sorely lacking, I think.

The second day, the students did a lot of their routine testing. The first did their math tests, which I graded. It was honestly a great experience to grade some of their stuff because it showed me the skills that each student was lacking. Some students wouldn't show their work despite getting the correct answer, which is a skill they really need to have down pat for high school. They also did a spelling test. Mind you, these students are in the second grade. Their spelling was honestly atrocious. For compound words that they had worked on all week, some of these students are performing at a kindergarten level. A lot of these students are not strong readers, so I'm not surprised that they are struggling with spelling.

My goal for the week was to practice positive relationships with the students. I definitely want to get more in line with telling the students the positives of what they're doing rather than the negative because a lot of the time, they are doing things right. Usually, however, people like to focus on the negative. I want to definitely start giving that positive feedback and that positive reinforcement for the students to keep them engaged and on task.

Music Program

On Thursday, students were preparing for their music program that is designed as a celebration for Black History month. Students spent most of their half-day, in the gym, being taught by the music teacher.  Through observing these music practices, I began to wonder what the best teaching method would be for that amount of elementary students.  In order to address behavior, the music teacher wrote down names of those behaving.  She stated that she would bring treats for those that were on her list.  While many students listened, because they wanted her treat, others decided they would act out, because they felt as if they never stood a chance to her list, in the first place.  This made me start to wonder, would there be a more efficient way to address behavior in a large group setting such as this?  In addition, I found that more students would participate if they saw the adults in the room partaking in the motions as well as singing the songs.  I feel like students feed off of your energy, so it is important to participate and make their learning experiences enjoyable.

Half-Day

Day 3: Half-Day and Professional Development

• by Amnah Hzaiyen
• Sunday, February 16, 2020

This week we had a half-day, however it was not a regular half-day schedule. The students had two specials to attend so there was a lot of plan time for the teachers. While the students were attending an assembly, my CT and I attending a professional development meeting on progress monitoring critical areas of need for each grade level. For third grade, that critical area is IAR Planning. I definitely felt it was important to hold that meeting to create more of an awareness on the importance of progress monitoring for the IAR, especially with it being right around the corner. However, I kind of felt it was useless in a way because they didn't really give any tips on how to monitor it. Progress monitoring in theory has been around for many many years at it assists the teacher in understanding the critical needs of the students and track their understanding and progress. My CT mentioned during the meeting how she wished there were other ways to track the students' progress in their IAR test practicing which I agree with. When we do practice, we read the articles aloud to students and read the questions to them. My CT mentioned how we see their progress when we do that, but what will happen when they're on their own taking the test? That is what we need to practice and monitor!

Half day- procedures

This week the students had a half day and they spent most of their time in rehearsal for their black history performance. The kids were out of the room for the most part so it was a different kind of day. I was able to speak with my CT about future lesson plans and get an idea of some topics that I can use for my upcoming math lesson but it was difficult for us to plan out the lesson plans that were further out as the school still needs to pick standards for their 4th quarter. The students didn't do much learning for the day because in total they were only in the room for about an hour. We did try to do some writing but it mostly consisted on the brain storming process of what the big idea was and what students were going to write on their concept webs. We talked a lot about behavior as there was a sub the day prior and the students apparently they misbehaved pretty bad so that was the focal point of their writing and our classroom discussion. My CT reviewed their procedures for the room and I was able to learn the system they have in place for when they need something as a peace sign means they need a pencil. As the students were working through their writing the classroom was turned into a red zone meaning the students were unable to speak. This is when I was able to learn more about their procedures and memorize what they mean. The students know this system pretty well so that way the student and the teacher do not even have to speak, they can just communicate through symbols. I liked this system they had set up and I think it eliminates distraction for everyone in the room. Attached below is a picture of these procedures posted in the front of the room in order to remind students of how to ask for certain things.

 

Half Day!

The school had half a day this week and it went by fast. Majority of the day the students were rehearsing for their upcoming event which is Tuesday the 18^th. My CT did Spelling and Math that day and I heard of Rocket math before but I got to experience it for the first time. Students were paired up and practiced their math. Students are at different levels but most are in the letter “G" or "L.” The goal is for the students to get most of the problems right in two minutes. I was impressed with how well the students did that in two minutes. After their Rocket math, my CT continued working with math by having a fun Valentine’s worksheet. While the students did their fun worksheet, I graded their Rocket math folders. I learned who is above and below the level in math. I learned more about my students by grading their work and who I can help next time.

Week 3- Half day

Kiley Rolder 

February 15th, 2020

This week the school had a half day and during that half day the students spent most of the beginning half practicing for their black history month performance they have coming up. Due to this the teacher didn't have much planned but they did still have reading and math later on in the day. For reading they were finishing a non-fiction book about making changes in the world. The students were working on the standard of author's purpose. The students were taking turns reading and answering the teachers questions. I like the techniques she used to guide the students to independently find the correct answers. I was able to see the time she gave for them to answer and when she added in a hint to help them along to find the correct answer. We learned about the importance of giving time after asking a question and allowing that student to think but also being able to help guide them to the right answer without giving it to them or just moving on to another student. Each student was following along and she made sure to be calling on students who may have gotten distracted to remind them to keep following along because they will be called on. Seeing what we have learned in the classroom being implemented into the rooms we are observing in helps me to gain insight into different approaches I can take when I teach my lessons.

Day 3; Interactive Math

Today was a half day so the day was very hectic. My CT did not have much planned due to being in meetings all day the day prior. The one thing he did have planned was interactive math. The students were learning adding three digit numbers. It was a much different way than when I learned how to add three digit numbers. For example one of the problems was 133+ 371=______. The students would have three columns: hundreds, tens, and ones. The student would then take a number such as 133. they would draw three circles in the ones to represent 3 ones, 3 circles in the tens to represent 30, and 1 circle in the hundreds to represent 100. Then they would do the same for the next number. Once they had both numbers split up correctly, they would count all of the ones and write the number it totaled, count the tens and write the number it totaled, and count the hundreds and write the number it totaled. This is how they got their answer. The challenging part of this was if the circles added to be more than 10 because the students had a hard time with remembering to group them and move them to the next box and add another circle to represent that number. I know in my classroom, I would teach them this way due to assessing the students on able to add this way. I know in my classroom I would allow the student to add the numbers anyway they felt comfortable as long as they can get the right answer. This may be difficult because I need to know what students can get the concept of the columns and what students are still struggling with it.

Week 3: Professional Development

This week in field experience, I was able to learn about reading interventions and the three tiers. I did not learn this in the classroom, though. The students had a morning assembly while the teachers were given the option to plan or attend a professional development even in the school. My CT decided to attend the event so I went as well. The focus of the presentation was the main goals in literacy for each grade. For 1st grade (as well as kindergarten) the main goal was sight words. In this district, 1st graders are expected to know 200-300 sight words by the end of the year, although the state standard is way lower. My CT discussed with me a few of the ways that she works on sight words with her students as well as how she differentiates for her 3 tier 3 students, who are the lowest preforming. I found out that the district introduces a lot of new and different programs very often, so things that had worked for her in the past to help her students with sight words were no longer available and she had to come up with new strategies - which are not working well thus far. I was surprised to hear that techniques or programs that were working for a lot of students were being replaced with programs that are not working as well. I was able to see my CT assess and work with the tier 3 students on sight words last week, and I noticed that the technique was not very interactive. She showed flashcards and the students said the words. Then, she laid out the cards and had them hand her the cards as they said the words. Each student has their own bag of 5 word cards that they work on at once. When they get one of them down, she introduces the next words and marks it off on the assessment sheet. I was wondering why this was so formal and bland, but now I know that the program she used in the past which sounded like a song/music program was no longer available to her because of the district. Students learn better from interactive activities, so this left me wondering why they no longer use the more interactive program.

My goal for this week was to make sure that I knew at least half of the students names and that I had a chance to help with classwork. I believe I know about 10/22 names, and I was able to assist students during their brainstorming session before doing a writing assignment.

Day 3: Small Group Lessons

By Nadine Hamideh
Thursday February 13, 2020

Today was a very busy day due to it being a half day. I was able to give out my reading interest survey to the students. And my CT also informed me about the students that parents have approved in terms of taking photos as she told me to put that in my parent letter because it would be beneficial to know which students I am allowed to take photos of for educational purposes. After that my CT then told me that she wanted me to get an in-depth  experience  in working with small groups so she told me to work with 6 different small groups, 2 from each of the levels low, average and high. I spend majority of the day working in those small groups. I taught a scholastic magazine story about Bears to the students in small groups. They were to read the magazine and pay attention to key details as they were to write and draw some stuff from the magazine that they remembered from the reading. The groups I worked with were divided in three sections. There was the low group, where I had to read the story to them and the students just had to listen and draw a picture after. Then there was the average group where they had to read with me as a group and then draw as well as write just three things they have learned from the reading. The last group I worked with was the high group, in which they had to read on their own, draw a picture and write about 4-5 full sentences about what they remember from the reading. However, by just working  in these different small group levels of students I noticed a huge difference in terms of their behavior as the students in the high group were extremely respectful and well behaved, but in the low and average levels the students were just a big rowdy. My CT also told me that the high group would be extremely easy to teach and go through the small group lesson with compared to the lower level of students. Overall it was a great experience to work with the different levels and it benefited me in terms of knowing what to expect when it comes time for me to teach my actual small group lesson.

Day 3: Math Centers

Rachel Sebastian
Thursday, February 13, 2020

Today was a half day for the students so it was not a typical day for them. In the morning my CT was getting her different groups ready for math centers. My CT put me with the triangle group and I had six students in my group. In my center the students were working on addition problems that equal 2 digit numbers from 10 to 19 and using cubes and base ten blocks to help them. For example: The students addition problem was 9+4=____. The student would have to use the cubes to make 9 and 4 and then add them together to see what the answer would be. Then out of those cubes the students would have to count out 10 and replace it with their base 10 block. The student would then make another number sentence 10+3=13. One of the most challenging aspects about this was that this was a review for the students and some of them were flying through it and did not want to do it anymore or lost interest. Now I know when I am in my own classroom, I will make sure to have a different activity working on the same concept that a student can move onto if they are mastering it right away. I think this will still be difficult for me because I am still trying to learn all of the students levels and where they are at. I will need to work more on working with the students as a group instead of helping each one individually. I noticed once I start helping a student one on one then the other students get off task.

Meeting the teacher

This was the week that I got to meet my CT, she’s super sweet. Because I wasn’t able to see a normal day last week, she asked me to only observe for week two so I knew how the day normally looked. It was very different from week one with the substitute.
I did notice a huge difference in how disciplined the students were with her. There were many moments of acting out with the substitute but hardly any with the classroom teacher. She is very stern with them but they clearly like her. I think that her classroom management is great. The students transitioned well between subjects and even centers which is always surprising to me. She didn’t do anything special other than give a few minute warning and then ring a bell and tell them to transition. I guess it probably took a lot of working on at first but now they respond very well to it.

STEAM

After the students do their morning work and go over it, they have their STEAM class with the STEAM teacher. The big topic in STEAM this semester is oceans.  I really enjoy going with the students and observing the teacher and how she manages another persons classroom. The STEAM teacher is great and the students know that they are not to play around once they are in there. The teacher uses efficient strategies to ensure that the students are paying attention and learning.  Last week, the students talked about the different layers of the ocean and the animals they can see in each layer. This week, once the students entered the classroom, they noticed that their was trash hanging from the ceiling all over the ocean! The students learned about how the trash and plastic we throw away ends up in our oceans. The teacher mentioned that even though we are in the mid-west and are not near an ocean, it is important that we keep them clean because they all lead to the ocean. The students looked at different pictures of plastic in the ocean and how it affects the ocean animals. I believe the teacher does a good job of incorporating important themes in the overall topic that are essential for the students to learn. The students in the class are always looking forward to STEAM and what new things they will learn.

Literacy Small Group

Throughout morning instruction, I had the opportunity to facilitate a small group center activity.  Throughout this activity, students were to pick sentence starter, chose a picture of what they wanted their sentence to be about, physically build their sentence with words on a pocket chart, write that sentence on their worksheet, and then draw a picture underneath their sentence.  Students completing this activity were all at different levels of learning.  For instance, some students were writing words quickly, with little issues.  A different student needed practice spacing his words, and one other student was working on forming their letters.  I really liked being in a small group setting, I believe this provided me with a good chuck of time to realize where students were in their learning process and help to scaffold their learning from there.  This also provided me with the opportunity to differentiate instruction..  For instance, my CT suggested I work on the concept of capitalizing the beginning word of their sentences and placing punctuation at the end of their sentences with some students, while working on spacing and letter formation with other students.

Day 2: Confusion and Chaos

Caitlin Kurtz
February 9. 2020

Thursday was an interesting day because the students are learning about new literacy centers around the classroom and Mr. Robinson is allowing for the students to get a first hand feel for these literacy centers on their own because these centers are going on he will be meeting with individual groups at the back table. One of the most challenging aspects of this was the students did not think Mr. Robinson was paying full attention to them and would roam around the room or into different groups that they did not belong in. the room was not labeled either so when the timer went off and the students were prompted to rotate stations they were very unclear on where to go next. It was hard for me to redirect the students into the correct group or station because I was not there "teacher." This directly related to all of my classes within the program when learning about the classroom and classroom management. It is important for the teacher to be able to control the classroom at all times if when they are not standing directly in front  of the students telling them what to do step by step. The soon to be 3rd graders need to start being self efficient and figuring different information on their own. On the other hand, I have also connected this to learning to label the classroom. For each of the stations, there needed to be a sign hanging above each set of desks that each station took place so every group knew exactly where to go. Now that when I have my own classroom, I will know that I may need to stop/pause my small group reading to redirect some students or to make sure the students understand all the rules before beginning. I will also have signs hanging up in the classroom above each stations to that each group is aware of where to go and is not disrupting the class. Mr. Robinson have printed these signs after lunch for the next day to stop the confusion. I think this will still be difficult for me because classroom management does not happen overnight. I will need to work on getting the students into a routine from day 1 and allowing them to get their own resources so they are aware of what is expected when the teacher is occupied by other students. 

Day 2: positive behavior

Kiley Rolder 

February 9th, 2020

This week the students didn't have their normal daily schedule. They are putting on a performance for black history month with the whole school. During certain parts of the day they had to practice. Some students have a hard time sitting through long periods of time or listening to someone else who isn't their teacher. My CT really emphasized positive behavior this week. Around the room there are constant reminders of how to act positively and she is always showing them ways to ask for things,  how to not shout out, etc. I think something I need to work in is learning ways to reinforce positive behaviors. I attached a picture of one of the many signs my CT has in her room. The CT lets the children know it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to fail but you should never give up and always try your best no matter what. Seeing how the students acted during the whole group rehearsal was nice to see compared to the other class because the students from my class were so well behaved showing how much they listen and respect my CT. They know the rules and what is expected of them which is something every teacher should have down. Classroom management is a huge thing to have and I think my CT does a great job of that. 

Day 2: Substitute Teachers

Rachel Sebastian 2-7-2020

During Day 2 of field experience was not an ordinary day for the students in my classroom. My CT was out sick again and the students had three different substitute teachers throughout the day. The three different teachers were a math specialist that worked at the school, a music teacher that worked at the school, and the STEAM teacher that worked at the school. They were all familiar faces for the students but as the day went on I could see the behaviors and attitudes change throughout the different teachers. One of the most challenging aspects of this was I never got to see how a normal routine schedule works in the classroom because I haven't officially met my CT. I jumped in and tried to help the substitute teachers out as much as possible. The substitutes are just going off plans that were left by my CT and they were confused on some things as well. This experience has connected to what I have learned in my EDUC Psychology class because when students feel the teacher frustrated then they feed off that energy and may become frustrated as well. Also, the students were out of their normal routine and when they are out of their normal routine they tend to act out more. Young children like routine and they don't like to be brought off schedule. I understand that no one really had control over this situation because the substitute teachers were all last minute decisions. Now I know when I'm in my own classroom, I will make sure to leave detailed lesson plans that will make sense to whoever is substituting for me. It was hard for me to find out what was happening at the very last minute but I know I need to work on going with the flow because in reality this is what happens and when I become a teacher this may happen to me. I need to make sure I am ready for any curveball they are going to throw at me.

This is the students morning warm ups.

Rehearsal Day!

The whole school is rehearsing for an upcoming event. Since it's Black History month, the students are learning a few songs from the past. The students will start off with "It's Showtime... at The Appollo." Believe it or not, I have this phrase stuck in my head and I sing it randomly aloud. I enjoy music and most of the students do too. Schools that have music education programs benefit in many ways. For instance, the students are using memorization skills when performing a song and once they memorize the song the students feel a sense of achievement when learning a piece of music. In the National Association for Music, music education builds imagination and intellectual curiosity. "Introducing music in Early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Artistic education develops the whole brain and develops a child's imagination (NAFME, 2014)." 

Week 2- Small group literacy

This week was my first full day with my CT in the classroom (after the morning mishap at least) . I started off with going over information from the morning announcements after circle time as I waited for my CT to arrive in the room. I had the students reflect on the announcements and I created a web map that included their ideas of how they could change the world. I was impressed with the different ideas every student came up with on how they would change things. I think I did well with having all kids voices be heard as I used different techniques such as turn and talk and brainstorming time. I loved seeing the passion in their voice as they shared their ideas.

For the literacy portion of the day I can say I learned a lot through the small group as I was the one actually working with the kids at that station. The kids were broken into 4 different groups and all assigned to a different center, I learned that my CT groups my kids based on their DRA levels as they rotate around in groups together. The students are grouped with people who are close to the same DRA levels. I always thought it would be beneficial to have a mix of levels working together but after working with the small group at the table I can see why that may actually be complicated. I worked with the students as we reviewed one of their books from the week prior and that consisted of the kids whispering silently to themselves and having them start reading at all different times to ensure kids were not coping off one another. I called on 1 of the 4 at a time to read out loud to me to check their understanding. I then introduced a new story to them that they have never read before. I learned a lot through the checklist that my CT gave me to follow as I work with the small group. I also learned their procedure for reading, such as the words that both teacher and student are familiar with when trying to take action and solve words within the story.  I thought this chart was very helpful for the students and guided them to figure out the word such as the rule, lips the fish which means get your mouth ready; say the beginning sound. I have included a picture of this chart below and would recommend using it during your small group.

Week 3: Sight Word Testing

Today in my CT's classroom, I tested several of the students on their sight words. In second grade, the students are supposed to know all 1,000 sight words by the end of the school year. Honestly, I don't know how the students know all of the words because some of them were actually very complex. One of the words that I can remember offhand was the word 'molecule'.

Honestly, I really enjoyed administering this test to the students. It wasn't for an actual grade, but it definitely gave a lot of feedback on how well the students read in my CT's classroom. This will be great for when I get to lesson planning because I will know who to group together.

But to the real point about writing about this sight word testing. I was so surprised by some of the students. One student who has a lot of behaviors (anger management, attitude, etc.) knew so many words. That student had 955/1,000 words memorized. This showed how much potential that student has if they were to get their behavior in order. His behaviors are super limiting to who that child can become, and it really goes to show how important it is to be a good, supportive educator because we have the ability to help change those students.

Honestly, week three (technically?) was a heck of a lot better than week two (technically?). I didn't care for having a sub, but having my CT with me all day helped so much. I was able to observe her math lesson and see how she goes about teaching math to her students. Her strategies will definitely help me in the future when I teach my math lessons later on.

The picture I have attached is one of the classroom. It shows my CT's library center. She has a lot of carpet space in her room which is great for the students to read on. The only problem with all of this carpet space is that the students are very rambunctious. They like to flip around and do unsafe activities. Having that much open space really promotes these sorts of actions. I feel that if she had a more closed-off space, the students wouldn't have nearly as much space for these unsafe actions. The only problem with a closed-off space is that she wouldn't be able to monitor the student's actions to ensure that they were staying on task. I think she has her room set up the best way she can, but it is definitely food for thought.

Day 2: 100 day of School

• By Nadine Hamideh
• Thursday February 6, 2020

Today was my first full day in 1st grade, and I sure loved it. Yes, there was a lot going on today being the ice cream social and the students had to go to their performing arts center but it was great. The students started off by completing their morning work, they then worked on reading both: whole group and small group. My CT then informed me that today even though it was the 102nd day of school, they were going to work on the 100th day of school activities and centers. So after reading the students worked on 100 day banners, where they were to write about what they learned so far in 1st grade and make it colorful. For this task, my CT asked if I can work one on one with one of the students because the student had a little trouble with writing. Working with the student was great, I was able to learn a bit from the student as she did me. Then after that I helped with decorating and hanging up the banners they made, which they were totally excited about. When it came time for the 100th day activities, I was able to work with small groups and basically conduct the activity and explain to them which was great. The students really seemed to enjoy the 100th day activity I was working on with them, and it was also a good learning experience for me as it gave me an idea of what a small group lesson might be like. However, after about 20 minutes of working on these activities some of the students began to have some behavioral issues due to the lack of communication and/or sharing. My CT informed me that when it comes to behavioral management in her class she always used the behavior clip chart, meaning if a student misbehaves they move their clip down and up depending on their behavior. If that doesn't work, like it didnt today with one of the students, who just threw a tantrum and yelled as well as pushed a student. The CT will pull the student outside, or tell them to cool down and read a book. However, if that doesn't even work she simply takes the student down to the principal's office. All in all, it was a great experience and I learned a lot in terms of behavior management from my CT. 

Week 2

For my second week of Field Experience, I decided to take a step towards taking over the classroom. My CT asked me to do whole group lessons with the students, but I felt hesitant to do so just yet. I decided I would feel more comfortable starting off with a small group lesson during reading/writing. I had a group of four students. We read a text on lizards and went through the questions together. Many of the questions were similar, so I would do one with them as a whole and then have them do one on their own. The very last question was asking for a summary of the text. The students were stuck and could not come up with a summary. I simply asked them, “If I would have never read this text, and I asked you what it was about, what would you tell me about it?” They then all instantly came up with a summary and wrote it down. During math, the students had a substitute teacher. They were given a packet on rounding and multiplication. The substitute and I simply handed out the packets, read through the pages, and did an example or two on each page. We then had the students work independently on them. I went around assisting the students and showing them examples and guiding them when they were rounding and doing their multiplication. I used today to truly get to know the students personally as well. The students luckily make it easy for me to get to know them and feel comfortable with them. This morning I was holding the door open for the students as they were walking in and about half of them said good morning and gave me a hug. It truly warmed my heart and made me realize how my attitude towards this experience truly makes this experience memorable for them as well.

Week 1 Reflection

I was very nervous for my first day in Field Experience, especially since I was in third grade. I am not used to being around that age group since I’ve had most of my experience with children in kindergarten and under. My CT made me feel very welcomed and provided me with more than I can ask for to prepare myself for the semester. I first met the students and introduced myself at the beginning of the day. I then followed the students to their math class and observed them working on finding the area of rectangles. We then went to their social studies and science class. I only seen their science portion of the day where they were working on classifying different animals in different habitats. We didn’t have a social studies lesson because the students had to go to an art class for about 20 minutes. The students then had lunch, and afterwards had reading and writing. During reading and writing the students were working on comprehension and understanding of an article they read to practice for their state test coming up. I ensured to let the students know that I was there to help them when they needed assistance. Although I wanted my first day in field experience to be strictly observational to learn about the students and how their day works, I did step in to assist them when they needed it. I assisted them when they had questions regarding the questions to the article they read. As well, afterwards they worked on their daily journals where I answered a lot of questions the students had. My first day turned out a lot better than I had expected. I was nervous as I had mentioned, but I was also very excited. Seeing how excited the students were to have me for the semester made my first day a lot better than I could had imagined. My CT has been giving me tips and guiding me on how to control classroom management and how to best approach my lessons to the class. I am excited to get to know the students more and conquer my first day being a teacher for the day!

Week 1

For my first week in my first grade classroom, my CT was out for meetings all day and the students had a substitute teacher. The schedule was also changed, I believe to accommodate other teachers who were only out for half of the day. The substitute did not know that I would be there. I introduced myself and told her that I was a student from governors state and that I was there to observe or help her with whatever she needed. She was very sweet although she never asked for assistance despite my offer.

I was able to learn a lot about the students. During technology time, some of them wanted to show me what they were doing. They weren’t supposed to be talking so I had to find the balance between listening to what they wanted to share but not having an entire conversation. This was the only time that the substitute asked for my assistance in getting the students onto the right website.

At the end of the day the teacher ran out of activities so she allowed the students to listen to music, dance, and talk. For the last 10 minutes most of the students were circled around me asking questions and very excitedly sharing  about themselves.

Even though I did not get much time to work with the students on day 1, I did get to start building a relationship with them. They were excited When I told them that I would be there every Thursday and even more excited when I told them that I would be able to teach them soon.

First day of field experience

My first day of field experience was very different from what I had expected. The students started the day doing writing journals where they wrote about a prompt on the board. The students were all at different paces because students were coming in late or just not wanting to do the work. I was able to see how my CT went about this situation and it helped me to think about myself in that situation and how to best handle it. After completing their writing journal the CT was telling me they are doing a newer reading curriculum so she is still trying to get the hang of it. One of their goals is that the students have to be able to form and answer questions so before the story the teacher had everyone come up with a question about the cover. This was a great way to get everyone involved and thinking. The students asked and answered questions throughout the story keeping them engaged the whole time which is something we were taught to do. After reading the students separated into centers where they independently completed the centers there were centers such as reading to a peer, using razz kids, reading fluency, etc. As I walked around it was very interesting to observe the students different reading and writing levels. I was able to take some pictures of the different centers. One student even asked me if he could read to me which was very welcoming to me that they felt comfortable enough to read to me. My CT had warned me about different behavioral issues throughout the classroom and as soon as the substitute came into the room you could see the change in the students work ethic. The students aren't used to the substitute and how they handle the classroom. I think that because the CT wasn't there they felt like they could take advantage of the substitute and get away with not doing their work. Throughout the classroom my CT had posters and sheets of paper of what the standards were, classroom rules, ways to ask questions, and the classroom schedule. The students used these posters when asking questions to learn how to ask a question and how to ask it in different ways. Overall, it was a great first day and I can already tell I am going to learn and grow so much as an educator.