Watching from the back of the room

    It was definitely a good experience to be able to watch Group 2 teach they're three lessons. I think Group 2 did a great job. All of the lessons were organized, engaging and fun for the students. Three things I really enjoyed were
+1 All of you worked really hard at trying to make sure you had proper classroom language and classroom voice.
+2 I really enjoyed the videos in your lesson and I think the students did as well. It was a good way to grab the classes attention.
+3 The PowerPoint's were organized and easy for the students to follow

     Although I think the group did a fantastic job, I wish however they would have went over the vocabulary words more. I do not think some students really understood what the words meant. Overall it was great week and there was great lessons for the 2nd grade classroom. Good job group 2 and Good luck Group 3! Fieldwork is just flying by!

My Teaching Experience

Although I blogged about each lesson individually, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the experience as a whole. The three lessons that my group taught in the classroom probably served more as a learning experience for me, rather than the students. I learned my strengths and weaknesses in front of a classroom. I loved getting feedback from my peers after every lesson. Although I will not name the student, one of my classmates told me privately after my lessons this week,  I was made to be a teacher because of my presence in front of the room. This was definitely a great thing to hear after how stressful it was preparing and being in front of the classroom. Its nice to know that all of our hard work is worth it.

I have not watched the videos yet but I think it will be interesting to see myself in front of the room. One thing I know I have to work on, is my posture and eye contact with the class. I feel myself moving a lot when I am trying to talk in front of the class. I also notice that I do not know what to do with the hands a lot of the time when I stand in front of a room.  It was hard but I think I got better at remembering to say "Boys and Girls" instead of saying "you guys". I know from talking with my group members that we all struggle with remembering to speak correctly. 

I also do not think many people realize it is difficult to teach with a group of students. My personality is different from other members of my group. I found myself jumping into the lesson even if it was not my turn to talk. I wanted to give each of my group members a chance to teach in front of the room so it was hard for me to sit back and watch. Something that was helpful about working in a group was that we were able to each work with a group of students during the activities. It was also nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of during the planning stages of our lessons. Overall this was a great learning experience, I am eager to see what my other classmates come up with for their unit plans.  






This quote definitely sums up my philosophy for teaching and why I want to be a teacher. One day I want to make a difference to someone and I hope I can do it. 

Our last day!

         Our teaching week was definitely stressful but I am glad we ended on a good lesson. For our last lesson we did a cooperative learning lesson. To introduce this lesson, we explained to the students what a community is and why a community is important. The next thing we asked the students was if they knew what it meant to work collaboratively. I was not expecting any of the students to know what this meant but there was one student who rose his hand. He said that it meant to work together. This was just the answer we were looking for. We went on to explain how to work in groups and the different jobs to make the group function better. the students were very excited that they were going to be able to work in groups and they did not even know what the activity was yet. To start off our lesson, we had a Voki presentation. This Voki was an alien asking the students what was a community and if they could help him teach the people on his planet what a community was. The students loved the Voki and they were ready to accept their mission.

Click me to hear me talk!

           After the Voki the students were a little excited and did not listen to the full directions of the projects. I think it would have been a good idea to at least introduce the project a little bit before playing the Voki so then students would pay attention more to the directions. The students were given 14 buildings in a bag and they had to decide what important services they had to put in their community. The students could color the buildings and then glue them onto a street to show what their community would look like. After all of the groups were done making their communities, they would have to show their community to the "zoning committee" to see if their community was ready for construction. Although the students really seemed to enjoy this lesson, we did have a few minor problems. The students were rushed because our introduction took up too much time. It would have been better if their was less buildings and if they were already colored in. Once the students were able to start coloring the buildings they lost the concept of what they were doing. 

Another problem we came into was that we did not explain to the students about the group processing sheets they were supposed to fill out at the end of the lesson. We should have told the students before they started working on their lessons that they would be evaluating themselves and their group on how well they worked together. There was some confusion on these sheets and most the the students gave their groups 5's on everything. 

If we had more time on our lesson, it would have turned out much better and not have been so rushed in time. I do think the cooperating teacher as well as the students enjoyed our lessons. It was a challenge but it helped me learn a lot about the different types of lesson plans 

Day Two : Inquiry Lesson

                 The second day was definitely the hardest day so far of teaching. This was the first time I have ever taught an inquiry lesson. My group really struggled making this lesson and we struggled to teach it as well. During our lesson today we had a Voki all ready to show the class and we forgot about it! We thought we were running out of time so we rushed through our lesson so the students could get to work on the assignment. there was six slides that we did not show to the class. A lot of our corrections that we got after class, we would not have gotten if we showed those slides.  Since the class did not get to see the Voki, feel free to take a look at it.

We also did a review with the students from the last lesson. We used an online sort. The students had to sort whether something was a good or a service. I think the students did enjoy this but it was too long for them.

The activity went into all four of the seasons. A way we could have made this shorter would have been to have the students pick two seasons instead of doing all four of them. By the third season the students were not interested in the activity anymore. We also should have checked to see if it was compatible with the SMART board. We thought we would have been able to just drag the item into the correct box but we were not able to. One of the teachers had to sit at the computer and do it.


The project we had the students do was a little easy for them or least for the group I was working with. The students understood the concepts but they all wanted to do every job. It would have been easier to assign the jobs in the groups and make sure we had enough jobs for everyone. For example, the group I worked with had seven students working in it and there was not enough jobs for all of the students. The students were arguing about who was going to be what job. One thing that I found positive was that if the students were arguing about the jobs, they must have been interested in our lesson!
              At the end of the project the students were supposed to come up and explain to the class something they found. The students were joking around and not really paying attention to what they were supposed to be doing in front of the classroom. A way I would have done this was to have one student stand up at his or her seat and present to the class. When the students got in front of the room, that is when they started to joke around.

     There are definitely  many things we can improve on but this is a learning experience for us. It was different than any other lessons I have taught.

Ah! Its our first day of teaching!

               For our first day at Bishop Dunn, my group did our direct lesson plan. The students were very excited to have us in the classroom. As a teacher I was very nervous. For our lesson, we began by labeling different things around the classroom as goods and services. We did this to pre-assess what they students already know. The students had a good idea of what goods and services are. The students liked this but we could have gone into more detail. All of the teachers dressed up as different services  It would have been better if we explained the services or acted like the people we were dressed up has. We went through a couple of slides about goods and services   and some examples. The students were engaged in the lesson. We also did an interactive SMART board presentation where the students came up to the board and sorted goods and services. This activity could have gone faster because all students wanted to come up and touch the board and answer the questions. Students who were not up at the board were disengaged and seemed not interested. Another way to do this activity would have been to have one of us teachers do the sort but have the whole class answering the questions.  
 For another activity in this lesson, we had the students do a goods and services sort. This activity was a little time consuming because the students had to cut out all of the pieces. It would have been easier if we cut the pieces out prior to class so then the students could do the activity faster and as a class. Because all of the students were cutting at different paces it was hard to have the whole class do the sort together. Even though it was time consuming it was a great way to know how the students understood what we taught them. 
Another problem I saw with our lesson was that the closure could  have been better. We definitely need to learn how to manage the time better during our other lessons because the end of our lesson felt rushed. Although we were nervous, I definitely think my group worked well together and taught an effective lesson. 
                 

Different Types of instruction

   

Direct instruction is more teacher based. In the video we watched in class the teachers all had different ways to engage the students. One teacher that really stuck out to me was the male teacher. He had an interesting way to check for understanding. After the students answered a question he would tell the students "Stand up if you agree, put your head down if you disagree, OK, 1,2,3 go! " The students all go out of their seats right away. This was a great way to get the students involved in the lesson. This teacher never answered his own questions. He would ask different students the same questions to get different answers. After the class stood up if they agreed, the teacher would give a lot of praise which really encouraged the students to stay engaged in the lesson.

 I think some other good cues to check for understanding are 

              " Hand on your head if you understand"

               " Thumbs up if you agree"

                " Head down when you think you know the answer" 

I think all of these are great ways to keep the students engaged in the lesson. I have seen many of these used in the classroom and it really helps the teacher know if the students are listening. Direct instruction opens many possibilities for teachers to teach their students.

 

Cooperative learning is based on group work. This is student centered and the teacher oversees the group work. During this type of instruction, the teacher walks around the classroom to explain directions to each group and encourages them to ask questions.

When dividing students into group it is important to take into consideration the different intellectual, cultural differences. Students can work together and help each through the assignment. Each group has a team leader who is incharge of getting the materials needed for their group work. This makes it more organized for the teacher. It is important to spend a lot of time to organize the students in order for the groups to work successfully.

It is important for the teacher to meet with the group. the teacher from the video calls this the progress report. It gives the teacher to see where the students are at with their project and see how the group is working together.  Some of the questions the teacher asked was

How do they think the group is working?

Do you think you need more resources?

Do you think anyone is doing more work than someone else?

Lastly after the groups present the project they had been working on, it is important to get feedback from the other students in the class as well as the teacher. This will help the group know how their group worked and what they could have done better. The teacher can also meet as an entire class. It is important for the whole class to hear how other groups are working. The groups can get ideas from other groups on how to work together and get advice from each other.

This cartoon goes into detail about important aspects of group work.  I think this would be good to show students because it can teach them different ways to make group work effective.