Today I taught my Social Studies lesson in the field.
I don't have too much to say about it because it only lasted for 12 mintues! I had planned on 30 minutes and I was done in less than 1/2!!! I guess it was a good experience, but I'm not the one that had to cover up the extra time.
Basically, I planned less in my lesson because my Science lesson went about 20 minutes longer than anticipated. When planning out this lesson, I allowed for 12 minutes to read a story instead of 5 because I found out last time that it really took 15 minutes to read a story that I only planned on taking 10. I also had several discipline/attention problems during my Science lesson, so I accounted for those things in my Social Studies activity sequence. However, the students were nearly perfect during my Social Studies lesson and we breezed through everything!
I also found out that my pre-assessment that I had completed with select individuals, from varying academic levels proved to be misleading as the students were much more aware of the purpose of a timeline when I was teaching the lesson; far more than during my interviews. So what was I supposed to do? Waste their time by explaining over and over why we use timelines, what we do with timelines, how we make a timeline, etc...? I didn't feel like that was fair to them-after all, they were answering my questions on the first try. And I was choosing students to answer, I wasn't just taking whatever hand flew up first. I deliberately tried to pick students that I didn't think would have an answer-not to shine the light on them-but to look for a reason to explain myself further, but I couldn't!
When I was done my CT looked at me and said "12 minutes". I immediately felt like a failure, moreso failing her. Now she has 20 extra minutes to fill in a classroom full of Kindergartners! YIKES!!!
She's an experienced teacher though, and she handled it great. Everything went smoothly from my unexpected quick ending and the students went straight into Math.
At the end of the day we sat down and talked about my lesson. I know that she was frustrated with the fact that she had to come up with something on the spot for the kids to do, but I know that she understands what happened. The week before I taught, the two of us had gone over my lesson and she thought it was great. My interpretation of that was, "it's great, don't change anything", so I didn't. Had I of looked at my activity sequence more I probably would have began to question whether or not I had the students doing enough, especially a formal assessment at the end.
But I also know that it's great to be able to have these kinds of experiences under the supervision of an experienced teacher. Had I been on my own I wouldn't have known what to do right away and I may have even lost control of the classroom. After all, a failure to plan is a plan for failure.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Incorporating Art...
I've always been under the impression that art is a very difficult subject to incorporate into the general classroom setting. Most students go to art class once a week and are encouraged to explore their creative side. The typical artroom that I think about has a rack of painting shirts-large flannel shirts that the teacher has brought in for the students to wear so they don't get paint on their clothes-clay, paints, crayons/markers, paper, literature on famous art/artists, and an art teacher who sense of style is completely her own. At least this has been my experience with art class. However, the students in my CT's classroom have an advantage because she incorporates the arts into her classroom on a regular basis.
Today, the students used watercolors to paint pictures that they had drawn with black markers the day before. Of course, these pictures were all about severe weather because we are still in this unit. I handed back the students' pictures from the other day and I was really impressed with one of the student's drawings. When I asked her what she drew she said "I drew a picture of a doghouse with a dog running into it because there's a tornado!" She proceeded to tell me that even animals have to seek shelter. Although we had talked about seeking shelter during my lesson I realized that we never talked about everything that needs to seek shelter. Obviously our animals need to be safe too. The shear fact that she was able to make this connection without me directly saying it demostrates her deep level of understanding of the significance of seeking shelter during times of severe weather. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed by her comments-and picture. All of the students continued painting for the next 25 minutes. During this time my CT put on some relaxing music (i.e., crashing waves, instrumental music, etc...). I was completely amazed at the level of concentration that these students had on their paintings. It was fun for them. It was also a nice wrap up for the end of their weather unit. And they didn't even make a mess! That's the most incredible part to me. Watercolors are really a great way to bring art into your classroom without the mess that's usually associated with artwork. None of the students got paint all over and the little bit that was on the tables wiped right up when the students went to music. My CT also let me lead the students to music today, which was a new experience. I know, from following at the end of the line each week, where she stops and where the greatest amount of noise usually comes from. Everything went great and I really felt like the students were listening to me until we walked up to the cafetorium and there was a presentation going on. Parents and other classes were sitting on the floor watching one of the 4th grade classes performing and we needed to walk right through them to get to the music room-YIKES! All went well after I waved my CT up to the front of the line, but for that one split second I was thinking, "Out of all days to lead the line..."
Today, the students used watercolors to paint pictures that they had drawn with black markers the day before. Of course, these pictures were all about severe weather because we are still in this unit. I handed back the students' pictures from the other day and I was really impressed with one of the student's drawings. When I asked her what she drew she said "I drew a picture of a doghouse with a dog running into it because there's a tornado!" She proceeded to tell me that even animals have to seek shelter. Although we had talked about seeking shelter during my lesson I realized that we never talked about everything that needs to seek shelter. Obviously our animals need to be safe too. The shear fact that she was able to make this connection without me directly saying it demostrates her deep level of understanding of the significance of seeking shelter during times of severe weather. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed by her comments-and picture. All of the students continued painting for the next 25 minutes. During this time my CT put on some relaxing music (i.e., crashing waves, instrumental music, etc...). I was completely amazed at the level of concentration that these students had on their paintings. It was fun for them. It was also a nice wrap up for the end of their weather unit. And they didn't even make a mess! That's the most incredible part to me. Watercolors are really a great way to bring art into your classroom without the mess that's usually associated with artwork. None of the students got paint all over and the little bit that was on the tables wiped right up when the students went to music. My CT also let me lead the students to music today, which was a new experience. I know, from following at the end of the line each week, where she stops and where the greatest amount of noise usually comes from. Everything went great and I really felt like the students were listening to me until we walked up to the cafetorium and there was a presentation going on. Parents and other classes were sitting on the floor watching one of the 4th grade classes performing and we needed to walk right through them to get to the music room-YIKES! All went well after I waved my CT up to the front of the line, but for that one split second I was thinking, "Out of all days to lead the line..."
Monday, November 12, 2007
Billy, Maria, and the Thunderstorm
After useless attemps with Channel 10 News I decided to see what my other options were. In the course of one day I made arrangements with Rob Dale from Channel 6 News to come and do a school visit on Monday, November 12 for my CT's classroom and one other Kindergarten classroom.
After we got all the students seated on the cafetorium stage, Mr. Dale started his weather talk. He began by asking the students what they already knew about weather. For a teachers perspective, I could identify this Science-Talk like strategy that he was using to direct his discussion with the students. He covered a lot of material, and it was interesting for me to see the different answers between the two classes. Obviously I only taught one of these groups of students, but the other teacher had just finished covering severe weather too. My lesson did not go into certain things, such as seeking shelter in a ditch if you are driving and there is a tornado in sight. I focused more on seeking shelter within the house. So, when Mr. Dale asked the students, as one large group, what to do during a tornado, 1/2 of the students said go to the basement and the other half said find a ditch. I realized that at this age, the students don't feel like they are wrong because someone else gave a different answer. And, if they have an answer and someone else gets called on before them and gives a correct answer, they still want their turn to say their answer. For me, this was noteworthy because I've worked in upper elementary classrooms where this is not the case.
Mr. Dale went on to explain the job of a meteorologist while still keeping the students engaged in his talk. I can tell that he has been giving talks to students for quite some time because he really knows how to speak to the children, not at them. And relating to a Kindergartner is not always the easiest task!
Towards the end of his school visit he had us take the students out in small groups and he let every child have the chance to sit in his weather van. Watching the students as they thought of all the different things Mr. Dale does in this van was a great learning experience for me. Something as simple as sitting in a van was concrete enough to reinforce the information they had learned, really lock it in place.
Mr. Dale also gave all of the students a coloring book called Billy, Maria, and the Thunderstorm to color and take home to explain what they learned to their families.
Friday, November 9, 2007
The BIG Day!!!
After several hours of planning a science lesson on severe weather safety my day to teach has finally arrived :)
When I woke up this morning I was without a voice. At first, I contemplated whether or not I should immediatly call my CT, in case I got worse before I had to leave. But then I decided that after 3 hours I would probably be feeling better-plus I've been waiting to teach this lesson long enough!
When I got to the classroom the noise level was high, especially for publishing time. The students should have been sitting in their seats, writing a story based on the drawing that they first completed. Many students got excited that I was there and tried to read their stories to me-some from all the way across the room. While it's exciting that the students are so engaged in their stories, it's also disruptive to yell across the room. The first chance my CT had to say something to me she said, "I don't know what's wrong with them today. I can't do anything!" (in reference to their behavior level and loudness). What a great way to begin my first time teaching in front of this almost stranger!
After the kids came in from recess we sat down on the rug and I introduced my story to them, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". I asked the students to listen as I read, because at the end I was going to ask them if they thought this was a real story, or a fake story.
As I was reading the story, which is quite funny, some students began repeating the name of the town (Chewandswallow). At first, I ignored it. But it quickly became a distraction and I had to stop and acknowledge the fact that it was a funny name. I then told the students that from this point forward they can say it one time-and then they need to let me continue with the rest of the story. That seemed to work :)
Once we finished the story and the students acknowledged that it was fake, we made a list of different types of weather that come down from the sky. Rain was quickly mentioned, along with snow. I had anticipated to hear sunshine, lightening, and hail-all of which eventually came out. One boy said "Crystals" which I immediately knew was a connection from my CT's lesson on clouds the previous week. I then used this as a seg-way into asking the children who else thought of another connection to something they already know.
Next my CT lead a demostration of the shelter drill during severe weather situations while at school. I had decided that this drill would be most beneficial for the students if the instructions came from my CT as she will be the one giving instructions to them if they ever have to do this drill again.
Once we returned from that we had a discussion about where information about severe weather comes from. The students decided that news about severe weather comes from 3 places; the TV, the Internet, or the radio. I guided the rest of our conversation about severe weather information as coming from the TV and talked about a weather man's job.
Discussing the job of a meteorologist smoothly led into my next activity, which involved using a concrete manipulative to stress the color of warnings/watches to the students. The object was a traffic light and we repeated "Stop, and seek shelter" for warnings and "Slow down, look around" for watches. The students were dismissed to their seats where they completed a worksheet that I made. On the worksheet student had to fill in missing letters of the sayings and color a traffic light.
When I woke up this morning I was without a voice. At first, I contemplated whether or not I should immediatly call my CT, in case I got worse before I had to leave. But then I decided that after 3 hours I would probably be feeling better-plus I've been waiting to teach this lesson long enough!
When I got to the classroom the noise level was high, especially for publishing time. The students should have been sitting in their seats, writing a story based on the drawing that they first completed. Many students got excited that I was there and tried to read their stories to me-some from all the way across the room. While it's exciting that the students are so engaged in their stories, it's also disruptive to yell across the room. The first chance my CT had to say something to me she said, "I don't know what's wrong with them today. I can't do anything!" (in reference to their behavior level and loudness). What a great way to begin my first time teaching in front of this almost stranger!
After the kids came in from recess we sat down on the rug and I introduced my story to them, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". I asked the students to listen as I read, because at the end I was going to ask them if they thought this was a real story, or a fake story.
As I was reading the story, which is quite funny, some students began repeating the name of the town (Chewandswallow). At first, I ignored it. But it quickly became a distraction and I had to stop and acknowledge the fact that it was a funny name. I then told the students that from this point forward they can say it one time-and then they need to let me continue with the rest of the story. That seemed to work :)
Once we finished the story and the students acknowledged that it was fake, we made a list of different types of weather that come down from the sky. Rain was quickly mentioned, along with snow. I had anticipated to hear sunshine, lightening, and hail-all of which eventually came out. One boy said "Crystals" which I immediately knew was a connection from my CT's lesson on clouds the previous week. I then used this as a seg-way into asking the children who else thought of another connection to something they already know.
Next my CT lead a demostration of the shelter drill during severe weather situations while at school. I had decided that this drill would be most beneficial for the students if the instructions came from my CT as she will be the one giving instructions to them if they ever have to do this drill again.
Once we returned from that we had a discussion about where information about severe weather comes from. The students decided that news about severe weather comes from 3 places; the TV, the Internet, or the radio. I guided the rest of our conversation about severe weather information as coming from the TV and talked about a weather man's job.
Discussing the job of a meteorologist smoothly led into my next activity, which involved using a concrete manipulative to stress the color of warnings/watches to the students. The object was a traffic light and we repeated "Stop, and seek shelter" for warnings and "Slow down, look around" for watches. The students were dismissed to their seats where they completed a worksheet that I made. On the worksheet student had to fill in missing letters of the sayings and color a traffic light.
Friday, November 2, 2007
What is a Kindergarten Education Worth?
After learning last week about the significance of this lesson for some of my students I have decided to take my CT's suggestion of bringing in a local weather station to heart. I really want the students to remember this lesson; not so I can feel proud, but rather so they can learn this really important information.
So, I called Channel 6 News and talked to Darrin Rockcole. You won't believe what he said...
Hello, I am an MSU senior majoring in Elementary Education. For my field placement this year I am at Pleasant View Elementary Magnet School and I will be teaching a lesson about severe weather on Friday, Nov. 9th. I would love it if someone from your weather lab could bring in a weather vehicle and talk with the Kindergartners on Monday, Nov. 12th around 1:15pm, for about 30 minutes. Please get back with me at your earliest convenience to make arrangements if possible. Thanks!
Re: Hi Kelly- First grade is our low end cut off for school visits. Younger than that and we just don't have anything to offer to them and it becomes a waste of all of our time.
Re:Re: Darrin, Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I understand that with young students there is often a lack of background knowledge and attention spans with topics such as this; however, I was just wondering if there is any possible way for you to come and do a modified school visit that specifically focuses on weather safety? I will be teaching the students a lesson on safety precautions during severe weather and I want to emphasize that we get these warnings from the TV. I would love it for someone to come in and just explain that process to the students. Please let me know what your thoughts on this are. Thanks!
Re:Re:Re:Kelly- After years of doing school visits, we just do not have anything to offer to classes lower than first grade.
What an insult to the future generation! I cannot believe that a man in his position would say such a thing! People don't give Kindergarten teachers a lot of credit and I don't understand why. With Kindergartners, you're shaping a life. You're not dealing with the latest drama of whose dating who or petty things like that; instead you've got children who have a lot of respect for you and the things you teach them are the foundation for several more years of education. To say that you cannot accommodate the needs of the children that will someday take care of you is ignorant.
Even though I was very upset at this point, I went out on a whim and contacted Channel 10 News. Rob Dale is one of the nicest men I've ever had the pleasure of talking with. He came to our school on less than a weeks notice and did a fantastic job teaching two classes of Kindergarten students about meteorologists, severe weather, and safety. Not only did he come and give a presentation, he brought coloring books for every student and let every single student sit in his weather van. I know that this was a memorable day for many of my students and I feel like this kind of stimulation re-inforced what I had already taught them. As they were answering Mr. Dale's questions correctly they kept looking back at me, almost as if to say, I remember you saying that.
So, I called Channel 6 News and talked to Darrin Rockcole. You won't believe what he said...
Hello, I am an MSU senior majoring in Elementary Education. For my field placement this year I am at Pleasant View Elementary Magnet School and I will be teaching a lesson about severe weather on Friday, Nov. 9th. I would love it if someone from your weather lab could bring in a weather vehicle and talk with the Kindergartners on Monday, Nov. 12th around 1:15pm, for about 30 minutes. Please get back with me at your earliest convenience to make arrangements if possible. Thanks!
Re: Hi Kelly- First grade is our low end cut off for school visits. Younger than that and we just don't have anything to offer to them and it becomes a waste of all of our time.
Re:Re: Darrin, Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I understand that with young students there is often a lack of background knowledge and attention spans with topics such as this; however, I was just wondering if there is any possible way for you to come and do a modified school visit that specifically focuses on weather safety? I will be teaching the students a lesson on safety precautions during severe weather and I want to emphasize that we get these warnings from the TV. I would love it for someone to come in and just explain that process to the students. Please let me know what your thoughts on this are. Thanks!
Re:Re:Re:Kelly- After years of doing school visits, we just do not have anything to offer to classes lower than first grade.
What an insult to the future generation! I cannot believe that a man in his position would say such a thing! People don't give Kindergarten teachers a lot of credit and I don't understand why. With Kindergartners, you're shaping a life. You're not dealing with the latest drama of whose dating who or petty things like that; instead you've got children who have a lot of respect for you and the things you teach them are the foundation for several more years of education. To say that you cannot accommodate the needs of the children that will someday take care of you is ignorant.Even though I was very upset at this point, I went out on a whim and contacted Channel 10 News. Rob Dale is one of the nicest men I've ever had the pleasure of talking with. He came to our school on less than a weeks notice and did a fantastic job teaching two classes of Kindergarten students about meteorologists, severe weather, and safety. Not only did he come and give a presentation, he brought coloring books for every student and let every single student sit in his weather van. I know that this was a memorable day for many of my students and I feel like this kind of stimulation re-inforced what I had already taught them. As they were answering Mr. Dale's questions correctly they kept looking back at me, almost as if to say, I remember you saying that.
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