Brigham Reflection #4

This past week we had our last lesson to teach at Brigham. We got to work with a very small group during our Engineering Fair, we only had three students to four teachers. Imagine what that would be like if those were our real student to teacher ratios. We were going to teach them about bridges. To my surprise the students knew an awful lot about bridges. 

Something that I personally struggled with was when to jump in and add a thought or comment I had during the lesson. Co teaching is a great experience for us to get before we go into the field. I guess maybe as a group we should have decided who was going to cover each section of the lesson. I did not want to say something and cut someone else off. I worry that to my group it looks like I was not focused and prepared to teach that day when in reality I just was trying to stay out of the way.

In relation to my goals I feel that I did work towards them in this lesson, but they were not fully achieved. I talked more about this in my Final Reflective Essay. These students were quick learners and really made teaching the lesson fun. I feel that they were strong English speakers for a majority of the lesson. At one point while we were handing out the cars one of the students repeated the car color to us in Spanish after we said what it was in English. When we had them work on drawing their own bridge the students were almost talking under their breath in Spanish. I could not figure out if they did not want us to hear them or that they did not want us to know what they were saying. Pretty sneaky for a five year old if you ask me. This showed me that maybe we did not create a welcoming environment for them were they felt like they were welcome to practice their English. Was it just the fact that we were new teachers to them and that we strongly outnumbered them? I cannot know for sure. What I do know is that if students are switching between two languages it is not in our best interest to require them to use only one language. I will end up working with students who are diverse and have these amazing abilities to code switch quickly in another language.

One goal that I do not feel like I made much progress with in my instruction making, many times I found myself having to repeat instructions. I know that this is a part of my job, but that also tells me something was not clear to my students. Something was missing. As I get more practice in the classroom and through PDS I hope that I can write up directions in a very straight forward manner.

Here are the work sheets we had the students complete during their time with us:

Exceeds: I included pictures from our lesson of the student’s work.

Brigham Reflection #3

This was a different week for me last week. I have spent my last few times at Brigham in the Preschool room and this week was a nice change of pace. What I really liked about the Kindergarten was that the students were extremely responsive to every the co teachers were teaching them. I have to applaud them for really tying in the Spanish language and not making it seem unnatural. I have very little to no experience working with bilingual students. It was eye opening to say the least. I was working with one group of students and asked them a question. To their peers they answered something in Spanish. I was floored at how fast the code switching was going on in their minds. I am very rusty in my Spanish and I can not translate it fast enough in my head to figure out what the students were saying. With this being said, if the students had only had their Spanish language I would have been at a loss for how to help them or even communicate the basic lesson. I feel that an experience like this brings awareness to the fact that I feel very limited put in certain situations. The only way to feel more prepared to handle situations like language barriers is to through yourself into a variety of learning environments. 

Since this was one of the last times in the classroom, now is a good time to reflect on the progress I have made towards my goals. To review my goals were to use clear instructions to target all students, to gain confidence working with people who are different than me and gain experience in working with and accommodating for diverse students. It seemed like I made these goals so long ago, I can not believe where the time as gone. It has been an interesting road so far at Brigham. One downside to only being in the classroom every other week is that we do not get to form any relationships with the students we were teaching. I feel like I struggled to write a lesson plan for students I hardly knew but this will be a reality for us someday when planning the first weeks of lesson plans for the school year. Another thing we could have done would have been to talk to the teachers that were in the room the weeks prior to our teacher. My concern with this is the issue of students confidentiality and respecting their privacy. There has to be a better way or forum for sharing observations of the students in a safe and approximate manner. I will spend more time on this matter in my final reflective paper. In the next time we are in the classroom it will be for the engineering lesson. I hope that I can reach the students and that our lesson plan was written in a way that supports them. It will be a much smaller group so we will really be able to gather some good assessment details from this lesson as well as what it is like to teach with three other teachers. 

I found a video that has a bilingual emphasize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W97zQ6ZmoJM. The teacher prompts the students and the students really respond to this.   

Exceeds:   I included a video to further our understanding of what a bilingual classroom looks like.

Clinical Lesson Reflection

I feel that my lesson on food webs and food chains had many strengths. First off I was able to allow call on students to read from their science book. This allowed them to be engaged in my lesson as well as start soaking up the information I wanted them to learn.  I did not force students to read because my CT told me how important it is to not make a student do something they might not be comfortable with. At first I did not understand this idea, but after I thought about it more it made complete sense. If we require a student to do something and they are afraid of we are decreasing the likelihood that a student will benefit from this activity. There seems to be a down side too. What if the student never volunteers to read or answer a question, how will we see what they are or are not learning? After reading with the students I passed out a vocabulary sheet with six words from the book we read. To keep them busy while I was passing the papers out I asked the students to think about what we could write for the first definition. I told them I would do the first definition with them and then they would be on their own. A student raised her hand and gave us the definition for the first word. In our classroom we use a voice level system with numbers so I told the students they were to be at a level 1, which is a slight whisper with those around you. I walked around to monitor students as they worked. 

One area that I struggled with was what to have the students do when they finished. I have some students that finished very quickly. I knew that this was going to be the case, but did not write anything in the plan for it specifically. I did my best to have them draw a food web of their own on the back of their sheet. Some students really took off with this but some students did not understand what I wanted them to do. In order to fix this issue for my future lessons I will have a plan for exact what I want students to do when they are finished. Before allowing them to do their individual work I will give them instructions on what they are to do after they complete the first activity. As with most activities in the classroom I will need to give reminders to the students throughout but it will save me from having to go from student to student and tell them what the next step is. The students seemed to like the chance to draw, but they then were asking a lot of questions about what certain animals eat. I was not prepared for all of the animals they were asking me. I would normally Google something quick on my iPad but I did not feel like that was a good use of my time since I was leading the lesson. They were very motivated to figure out what certain animals eat or what animals hunt which animals so they started looking in other books around the room to help answer their questions. I thought this was a really cool moment. They figured out how to problem solve before I was able to help them. I did not write anything in my lesson plan about having the students problem solve but it was neat to watch them take their learning into their own hands. 

My CT gave me some really good feedback that can help me in my future lesson planning. He mentioned that I was very prepared for the lesson and it showed. He mentioned that I might need to work on engaging all the students. He noticed that some students were not following along as the students were reading aloud. I saw the same thing from them, but I am not sure how to fix this. I think over time I will get a feel for how to handle certain situations. Right now I am in the phase that I am unsure of how to handle issues like this in his classroom. I do not want to overstep my role as a student teacher, but I want to gain more practice with behavior management. We have had many conversations that behavior management is always the hardest area for new teachers to master and I am starting to see why after teaching multiple lessons. Luckily I am more than willing to get all the experience I can teaching all subject areas, even if I do not feel that subject is a strong suit of mine. For example as I was preparing for this lesson I was worried there would be many questions the students had that I would not be able to answer. I did not run into this issue but it taught me that I should always prepare more than I need to for a lesson. 

One issue that I did have was the WiFi district wide was out. I had found a very interesting video to show the kids complete with silly voices and drawings to grab their attention and start the lesson off. Since this option was no longer available to me I had to think quick. I asked the students to raise their hands and tell me what things plants and animals need and we created a list on the SMART Board. Since I had not planned to start my lesson like this the students were able to look in the book and read me the answers. This is not what I had in mind but I had to make it work. Teaching is all about being flexible.  

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyefVtxY-oI

To close my lesson I called on different students to share their definitions with the class. It was a very informal way to see how well they were able to look in the book and copy down the correct definition. We are still working on with them what part of the definition to write down. Many times I was asked “Can I stop at the period?” to which my answer was yes. For second graders writing definitions can be a tricky skill, but with practice they all did a very nice job. I noticed that the students feed off of my energy so if I am excited, they are excited. If I am not feeling a topic they will start acting out and then the whole lesson is down the drain. Overall I was really happy with my lesson and how the students responded to what I was teaching them. 

Exceeds: I included the video I wanted to use in my lesson and went over the word count.

Brigham Lesson Reflection

Megan and I taught our preschool lesson this past week. We were continuing with the 5 senses theme and did a very, very brief review of what sense we talked about last time. The problem with this is that we were not the ones with them the previous week so we could not make a full recap. Our sense we covered with them was the sense of hearing. I feel like this is a tough topic for the students because they cannot see it happening.

To introduce our lesson we listened to a YouTube video of Dr. Seuss “The Ear Book” and talked about what our ears do for us.  Megan and I brainstormed some different activities to do with the students. We decided that we would do three centers since we would have the help of four of our classmates. After some research we decided that we would do a paper phone activity, instrument exploration and an activity with plastic eggs. Our paper phone activity had to do with testing how sound traveled. The instruments we used were from around the country and small enough for the kids to handle on their own. The eggs were filled with four different materials, that all made a different sound. The students would be prompted to shake a specific color of egg and guess what material on the sorting mat that it matched.  The students broke into three groups and went with the aides while we roamed the room. We gave the aids an info sheet on what each station was and a sheet to write down the student’s comments to help us with our formative assessment project. Our aids really stepped up and helped where we needed it. We could not have not done this lesson without their help. I think that having aids in the room with us is good practice for us. Depending on the setting in which we are hired we might be working in a co teaching setting or have aids in the room.

I feel that our lesson had a few strengths. I feel like we did a nice job planning activities that would allow the students to learn about sounds and hearing in a fun, engaging and hands on way. We took extra care in being sure we had enough planned. In case one station were to get done early we had coloring sheets prepared for each center. Thankful we used a timer to keep us on track which allowed time for each students to get to spend an equal amount of time with each station. Instead of having the students move each time we were ready to switch we had the teachers rotate. This helped save us time in explaining how to rotate and transition to the students and possibly go against something the classroom teachers had taught the kids. I knew that this was successful because we didn’t have to spend time working getting the students back on task after moving.

One area that I feel we can improve on is getting the background on what the co teachers taught the week before us. As teachers we know the importance of drawing on the student’s prior knowledge. With the nature of our clinical it was not possible for us to observe or even see the lesson that the co-teachers taught the week before us. Something I would change for next time would be touching base with the co teachers from the previous weeks to make sure we are using the same academic language. When we opened the language we could not really say for sure what the kids learned last week and they are not at an age where they can tell us. I should say they can tell us, but we might not understand how they are able to tell us. Communication is a big barrier in the Pre-K room. I would say there were only two students that I was able to understand. For part of our assessment we recorded their names. Our assistants did a great job getting names from students the best they could. Andrea is also a strong Spanish speaker. She worked with one little boy in English and Spanish and finally decided that he was talking too softly to be able to understand him. I also think they are very shy. I do not blame them, there are a lot of us that come into their room and it is not consistent.  

I feel we did a good job motivating our students during the lesson. This was part to the activities we planned. There was a way for students to apply what we had discussed briefly in a fun, exciting way. If we would have sat on the rug with them and let them watch us play instruments, that would not have been an effective lesson for that age group. Since we broke into small groups and allowed them hands on activities we allowed them to explore sounds at their own pace.

Part of keeping us as teachers organized was time management.  I used a timer on my iPad to keep the stations on time and ensure we were able to have a solid closing portion of our lesson. This also made sure that the students were not losing focus on activities that were too long for their small attention spam. Each of the co teachers that helped us had their materials in order and a clipboard when questions to ask the students as they went through the station.

Our objective was that the students would be able to identify sounds of objects in each station with teaching prompting and students will be able to discuss their understandings with a partner.  They did get a chance to discuss the activities has they were happening and our assistants did an awesome job of recording all the little comments that the students said. To close our lesson we brought the students back together on the rug to briefly mention what we learned at each station. The students had some good answers, but mostly wanted to just talk and be heard. That is completely normal for this age and was something we were prepared for. Overall I am extremely happy to have a co teaching lesson under my belt going into student teaching. This can only help me become a better teacher in the end.

We found our lesson ideas here: http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/10/an-exploration-of-sound/

http://www.learnplayimagine.com/2012/10/3-ways-to-explore-sense-of-hearing.html

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5243530_paper-cup-phone-work_.html

Exceeds: I went over the word count and included the links to where we got our ideas.

Brigham Reflection #2

Last week I was able to assist Laura and Allie on their preschool lesson. Their focus was on the sense of smell. I really enjoyed the activity that they come up with. They made two sets of bottles and had the students’ record if they liked the smell or didn’t like it. Since they are so young and very early developing readers they had a very simple sheet that had smiley faces on it. I felt this was also helpful for the students that are bilingual. They started with a book and then did the exploration activity that allowed the students to actually try out and use their sense of smell. I loved the idea of having them smell something in a bottle without seeing it, but I was concerned that the students would dump the bottles and a few did. With that age it’s hard to make an activity that they can smell without having the physical object. 

My goal is really made up of three smaller goals. I feel that it might be a good idea if I focus on one goal a week. For this week I decided I would focus on to gaining experience in working with and accommodating for diverse students. Whether we know it or not we will mostly likely always end up working with student who are diverse. That’s just the nature of teaching. It would be very boring if we had 25 of the same kid. Students from a young age should see us supportive of all of our students. Based on my background and where I grew up, I don’t feel that I had much exposure to other students who were different than me. Some might call it white privilege. But I don’t think I was using my race to get my things. Did I have access to more things because I am white? That’s up for debate. My parents have done a very good job of providing me with the tools I need to become a teacher. Do I realize that all parents aren’t like mine? Absolutely. I feel that in my clinical site I have had a few times were I find myself wondering why a student doesn’t understand something. I’ve come to realize that this is sometimes a result of their culture. I need to learn that all students might not celebrate Halloween and might need help brainstorming words if that’s an activity I’ve planned. This is just one of many examples that comes to mind, but overall I realize that I have a lot to learn. 

We were able to get some basic instructions form Laura and Allie on what they wanted us to do and how to help the students. I think it cool that we get to be aids in our peers lesson because in the future we might be in a situation where we have a co teacher with us. It can be hard to fall into that position and it definitely depends on the two teachers and their styles of teaching. One teacher might prefer to plan while the other prefers to lead the whole class. It would be helpful to sit down with the co teacher and plan out what are the expectations of each party involved. If you are not both on the same page, how are you going to lead a classroom together? I would say that I see this come into play a lot in my PDS site. My CT from day one gave me many opportunities to work with the students and earn his trust and respect. I would not say we are co teachers because it is mainly his classroom, especially when I am not there. He does include me in many classrooms decisions which shows me that he trusts me with the students. I feel that trust is earned and I work to show him that I can handle certain responsibilities. 

EXCEEDS: I plan to respond to two classmates, I have 655 instead of the required 500 and included experiences from PDS.