Last Blog

While teaching my engineering lesson at Brigham I was able to further make strides in reaching my goals for this semester.  I was so impressed to see what they students knew versus what they could show that they learned at the end of the lesson.  The students that we worked with were extremely bright!  There were a few times that they answered questions with incorrect answers but this may have been a result of our instruction not being the clearest it could be.  I was able to make connections with all of the students in the group.  We taught about why wheels should be round for cars and how this helps them go.  We also discussed some other shapes that would not work as wheels such as a triangle or a square. We watched a video that showed a car with square wheels and when we asked if the car worked very well most students said no because it was too bumpy. There was one student who seemed to be testing us because he said he would like square wheels on a car because it would be fun to be in this kind of car. 

I think that this is an example of our instruction maybe being confusing for the students. In the video the car was able to drive a good distance to this may have confused them.  We worked together during the lesson, teachers and students, and by the end I could see that the students really did understand what was being taught.  As co-teachers I could feel that we were all trying our best to communicate with these students to help them understand the concepts being addressed.   Through out the lesson there were several different times when a student seems confused or was paying attention to something other than our lesson plan.  We were all able to work together as a team to keep the students engaged and bring them back on track if they seemed lost at any point.

I would say that this visit at Brigham was my most successful. When comparing my first visit to the rooms to this last time I can see big changes in myself.  I feel much more confident when trying to communicate with students whose first language is not English as well as my ability to co-teach with others who might have different ideas than myself.  I feel as thought through out my experiences at Brigham I was able to pick up many different classroom set up ideas to help engage ELL students as well as different ways to incorporate diversity into each and every one of my lesson plans. I am very excited to take what I have learned this semester and apply it to my PDS site next semester. Although my classroom is not diverse I feel that most, if not all, of the communication strategies that I have learned this semester will help me build relationships with all of my students. I also believe that the accommodations and differentiations that I have used this semester will be helpful as well.

Exceeds: Related to my clinical setting and exceeded word count.

Blog 5

This week I worked in the Kindergarten classroom with Saralyn and Andrea. They taught about the four seasons. I saw a great deal of bi-lingual education in this lesson plan. Because of the Spanish use in this lesson plan I have seen progress in my goals for this semester.

In the beginning of the lesson Saralyn and Andrea showed a video to the students that showed all seasons and labeled them in both Spanish and English.  This is something I will have to keep in mind as I approach the time where I have my own classroom. I am very concerned about have ELL students in my own classroom not being fluent in any language other than English.  I hope to find creative was such as this to integrate my students’ native languages not only in my lesson plans but also in my classroom community.

In this teachers room I see so many different ways to incorporate both Spanish and English and help ELL students excel in her room. She has English words accompanied with their Spanish words, visuals, and many other ideas to help her students achieve to their highest potential, not matter what language they learn best in. I hope to find classrooms like this around or even in the school that I am placed at. This way even if my classroom is not full of ELL students like this school I can still expose my students to another language. I would say it is very possible I will have students in my class each year that speaks another language and representing their culture in my room will be so important!

I think the biggest part of this lesson that helped me strive towards my goal was the fact that Saralyn and Andrea had the teacher helpers teach the students about a specific season. I was in charge of teaching Fall to the students. When I sat down with a new group of students and said, “Fall” many of the students replied by saying “otoño”. I loved the responses that the students gave as they spoke in their native language.

I have also reflected on having the privilege of being in both the Prekindergarten room and the Kindergarten room. I have noticed big differences in the rooms themselves. I feel that the Kindergarten classroom was a more powerful environment for ELL students as there was many more visuals and translations around the room. This was an observation that was noted with only being in the room two times.  I feel that the Kindergarteners showed more evidence of learning English than the Pre-kindergartners showed. I would like to be able to go back into the Kindergarten room one last time before the semester is over to take notes on the different things she has done to make such a strong learning community.

I do not have any ELL students in my clinical site right now but that is not to say that those students would not benefit from language diversity in the classroom. I would love to set up some language diversity in my clinical classroom! They currently are on a sign language kick where they are teaching themselves each letter of the alphabet and signing their name. I think that my third graders would be very interested in learning a new language. We do have multiple Indian students who speak other native languages at home. It would be great to see them teach their culture and even some of their language to our other students.

Over all I feel that this week was the most powerful in reaching for my goals at becoming a more proficient teacher working with ELL students.  After reflecting one this week’s experience I can say that I feel more comfortable when thinking about working with ELL students.  I feel as though I have a much better understanding, after being in these classrooms all semester, as to how I can find better ways to communicate with ELL students as well as build relationships with them.

Exceeds: I went over the word count and related to my clinical setting.

Science Plan Reflection

This lesson was geared to teach my third grade class about two different kinds of roots; fibrous and taproots. The students were showed multiple different plants that had both taproots and fibrous roots. We talked about their differences, the parts of a plant, and the job of roots. As a class, small groups, and individuals we made observations about each type of root.

I believe that this lesson had a good amount of strengths.  One of my biggest strengths that my CT pointed out as well was that I was feeling more comfortable in front of the class. Throughout the semester I have been progressing in my clinical goal of teaching with ease in the front of the entire room.  I could feel the difference between the start of the year when I taught my literacy and my social studies lesson plans.  I could feel that the students were respecting me and listening to my directions as the lesson went on. A sub strength in this area was my ability to ensure that I was checking for understanding throughout the whole lesson. I was sure to ask during each section of the lesson “Is there any questions about that?” or “Is that clear?” Questions of that nature allowed for students to ask questions as we progressed through the lesson.

Another strength that was presented in my lesson was my classroom management skills.  As hands-on science tends to get the students very excited my students had certain times throughout the lesson that they were very excited and hitting a noise level that I was uncomfortable with. I was worried at this time that they students would become engrossed in the plants at their table and it would become to difficult to regain their attention.  I was able to get the class’ attention by using the “class clap” multiple times during the lesson.  

The last strength was that I made sure to walk around the room while the students drew their pictures and record their observations.  Instead of sitting at my desk while the students worked quietly I made sure that I made my way around the room several times. I also ensured the students that if they had problems or questions during this time they could and should raise their hands and I would be more than happy to come and help them to clarify any issues that they may have.

Although I may feel that I have several strengths there are several different weaknesses or areas of growth.  As my cooperating teacher noted in this section she thinks that an area of growth I needed to work on for this lesson was to include a visual to help the students see the growth of a taproot, such as a carrot or beet.  My cooperating teacher and I talked this over and we agreed that the next time that I would implement this lesson plan I should use one of the several videos that we found together that shows these growths.  As for a plan of action I will make sure that this is taken into consideration in every single lesson plan that I write from now on. A visual would never hurt in a lesson plan so it would always be beneficial to put in.

  Being so nervous, as usual, I completely forgot to set expectations for my students before we started this lesson. This was the first lesson that my cooperating teacher was observing my teaching formally, as the other two lessons she was not at school coincidentally.  Examples that we talked about would be explaining to the students at the beginning of the lesson their expected voice levels and behaviors. I wish that I would have remembered to do this because this would have made behavioral management that much easier.  A plan of action I will take to resolve this would be to go over my lesson plan several times before I implement it. I might also make a section in the lesson plan addressing the behavioral management plans of this lesson. This section would include what I might say or do before the lesson to set expectations as well as what I might say or do if problems came about.

One last area of growth that I feel that I could work on would be ability to not become flustered by the amount of questions the students have. The students had many question during the teaching and several had questions during the independent practice time.  I became overwhelmed because I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to answer all the students’ questions in ample time. When I started to receive multiple of the same questions I made sure to address these questions and their answers to the whole class. As I am a new teacher I know that this will fade with time I would like to see what sorts of practices I can find in order to help me out. A plan of action to assist me in working on this area of growth would be to do breathing exercises before the lesson to help myself relax. Another strategy would be to take my time answering the questions and as I did today, and address the whole class if it is a common question. This will potentially weed out many of the raised hands.

I was able to discuss with the students the jobs of roots. I was very impressed, as the students already knew that roots help take in nutrients and water. I furthered that topic by explaining to them that the roots help spread the appropriate amount of nutrients to the stem and all other parts of the plant.  The students needed to be introduced to a diagram.  I explained to them that this is a picture that will help show us what a plant looks like from then ground up. I also explained how they would need to label the parts of the plant that we talked about.

We unfortunately had to omit several parts of this lesson due to time restrictions. The omitted parts include the digging up plants as well as the plotting the root sprouts.  My cooperating teacher and I discussed omitting these parts and decided that it would be for the best.  If time was not an issue then I would have been more than willing to do these activities with the students. Though and through I could see that my students understood the content as I checked for understanding with questions about the roots and with asking if the students had any questions. I can also see which students understood the concept by looking at their drawings and observations in their science notebooks. Also, as I walked around the room while the students made observations about the roots I was able to hear all the great observations and questions the students had for each other. 

Overall, I feel that this lesson went very well. There was some areas that I could work on for sure.  But there are also some very strong points that I have. I will take this lesson and the constructive criticism of my cooperating teacher when planning and implementing the next of my lesson plans. The most important thing to take away is the constructive criticism and to use it to my advantage during the rest of this semester and during my last semester as well.

Exceeds: I exceeded the word count for the reflection and added books that I could use in case the lesson gets done to early or that the students were having trouble grasping the concept.

Blog 4

This week I was able to observe and help teach in the Kindergarten class at Brigham. The lesson that was taught was about the survival needs about plants, animals and humans.  There was a read aloud as well as three stations for the students, each station taught about either plants, animals, or human and what they need to survive.

I believe that teaching and observing in this classroom has helped me reaching a stepping-stone in heading towards my goal of connecting with students whose first language is not English. Not only was I exposed to different students but also I was more involved with this as I was expected to keep a running record of each of the students in the group that I was assigned to follow.  I really enjoyed the experience in this new room.  It was interesting to see the way that the three teachers interacted with the students that did not speak English very well, or at all. I noticed how heavily that all three of these centers relied on visuals for the students. This is something that I have always considered as a support for ELL students but now that I have seen it happen in person being used by someone of my skill level I feel more comfortable in my ability to use this method as well.

 I heard Alaina speaking Spanish to a few of the students in my group that clearly did not speak English very well. This has inspired me to learn a new language, like Spanish, that I very common in the classroom. By doing to I will be able to continue working on my goal for using better communication with ELL students. Using pictures and other visuals throughout my lessons during the day will also open the line of communication with these students as they will feel more comfortable trying to speak with me if A) I understand a good portion of their language and can speak it back to them and B) show by using visuals that their learning is important to me and I want to do everything I can to help them.

The students seemed to be continuously engaged during all three stations. They were especially engaged during read aloud. It was interesting to see so many students engaged in the book as Jessie read even though you could see that some did not understand what was being said. This shows how easily students can get lost in the cracks. They pick up on the words they know and go with that.  In seeing this lesson I have heavily reflected on this.  As a fulltime teacher I will ensure that students are not slipping through cracks just to make things “easier on me”.  The whole point of becoming a teacher is to make a difference for others. If I could help a student better understand English or use their native language to help them understand I would feel as though I am doing my job right.

Overall, observing and helping out in this lesson helped me in several ways in regards to reaching my goals. The strategies used in this lesson plan where very helpful to both the students in the class as well as myself, as an aspiring teacher. Most, if not all, of the students were able to take something away from this lesson. I think it was a great learning experience, the other assisting teachers, and the studetns.

I have copy/pasted a link of a YouTube video that helps explain why using visuals is so important with ELL students.. This video also gives examples of visuals to help ELL students.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzlBMLLDA1I

Exceeds: I have included a video about visuals and ELL students and exceeded the word count.

Teaching 5 Senses Reflection Blog (Smelling)

This week at Brigham has given me so much to reflect on! This week was not only my week to be in the classroom but also my week to teach my 5 Senses lesson plan to the preschoolers.  We had the two groups of students smell five different bottles. The first time the smelled the bottles they circled a happy/frowny face on a sheet of paper if they did/did not like the way it smelled. The second time around we had the students try to guess what was in the bottles.  To go along with this activity we also read a book and played a song for the students. Just these few activities showed me so many things to think about when it comes to my goals in this classroom this semester.

The most prominent case that got me thinking for this blog post was a specific student who caught my attention.  While I worked with my groups of students in the first smelling round I would ask them if they thought that the item in the bottle smelled good or bad, did they like it or did they not like it? Once the bottle with the onion came around and he responded “Good.” I knew something was not right.  Most of the students said that this bottle did not smell good, I was not sure how to approach this situation other than to let him smell it again. I took the bottle and sniffed it myself to be sure that it was the onion.  “Are you sure this smells good? Let’s smell it one more time.” Even after I let him smell it a second time he gave me a very sad look and said “Good”. 

To give a reminder my goal is to learn how to communicate better with students whose first language is not English.  In the coming weeks I feel that I would definitely like to work with this student to reach my goal. When we gathered at the carpet my Co-Teacher, Ali asked a question “What do you guys think was in this bottle, raise your hand if you can tell me”. This boy raised his hand and responded by saying “Good”. She then allowed him to sniff the bottle again and ask “What do you think is in there that is making it smell like that”, the boy responded by saying “Good”.

I can infer from this experience that this student heard me say one word that he knew in English and ran with it.  I can see that there are only a few students that can fluently speak English in this classroom, which can promote a challenge if the teacher does not speak any other languages fluently.  It made me feel so sad to see this child’s lack of communication abilities.   I hope to be able to work with this child during my classmate’s lessons and find ways for him to learn how to communicate with us.

I wonder how this student in particular communicates with his teacher. Does she speak his language fluently? How does she know when he is understanding what is going on in the room? There are so many questions that have risen from this one instance and I don’t know how to answer them.  I can see in this classroom there is a lack of comprehension when it comes to verbal questioning. 

In a perfect world I would love to say “I will make connections with each and every one of the students and I will change their life. They will be speaking English by the end of the semester.” In reality I am in their classroom once every two weeks for only a half hour.   This is my second week in this room and I sadly can recall one or two names but still cannot place those names with faces. 

I can include some areas of improvement for this lesson plan. There are some things that I would do differently the next time that I implemented this lesson plan.  This includes; more direct instruction, switch groups with Ali, and using a different video, or using more interaction with the video.  This first thing that I would change would be using more direct instruction so that the students and co-teachers have a good idea of where we would have liked to go with this lesson plan.

In order to give more direct instruction to this set of students in particular I would maybe want to model what we were doing at the carpet before we split off into groups.   By doing this I can show the students, visually, what they need to do. This would be extremely helpful for any ELL students in the classroom. The second change I would make is to, mid-lesson, switch tables with Ali to see what the other half of the class is doing and work with those students. This would ensure that I could see and hear what the students are doing and saying, in turn allowing me to assess the students learning. The third and final change I would make is to use a different video song or to use the same one but add more interaction with it. We had the students touch their nose to the beat of the song as the video sang about how we use our nose to smell.  I think that there are several different videos out there that are more interactive and certainly more things that we could have the students do with their bodies to encourage physical activity.

Although there are plenty of changes that I would make I would say that we did have strengths in our lesson plan. I believe that the book we read to the students was a great fit! It was very descriptive about the smells and the places we smell them. The evidence was present when our students started to shout out things that they have smelled as well as where they smelled it.  The students became very excited about telling use what they have smelled and learning about smelling.

This lesson included student interest in the simple fact that they were engaged and excited to smell what was in the bottles. Young children love to solve mysteries and having them guess what was in the bottles really appealed to the students in this way. My knowledge was shown in the beginning of the lesson when we explained to the students that our nose helps us smell rather than saying “Our nose is what makes us smell”. I know that this is not the case, the nose brings the scents up to the brain and our brain references the smells, in the most basic explanation. The students understanding was shown when they answered all the questions about what they thought was in the bottle and could tell us what helps us smell. This occurred throughout the smelling as well as when we regrouped and talked about what we did at the carpet.

Over all, I believe that this lesson was very successful. The students showed an understanding at the end of the lesson that our nose helps us smell.  A select few were also able to identify what was in the bottle.  The students were also able to show their understanding of if they liked the way something smelled of if they did not like it. I have included a link to a unit on smelling that would be very helpful for my peers to look at to start generating ideas about teaching in their own classroom!

Link: http://www.saps.org.uk/attachments/article/194/SAPS%20-%20Using%20Your%20Nose%20-%20smell%20activities.pdf

Exceeds:  exceeded the word count by writing 1,260 rather than the required 1,000 words. I also included a link for my peers