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.