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Miss Brittany's Student Teaching Blog! "The influence of a good teacher can never be erased."

__Introduction:__ ‍‍My name is Brittany Chelkis and I am senior Early Childhood/Elementary Education major. I have just finished my elementary placements in 3rd and 6th grade, w ‍‍hich went really well. I am excited to start my early childhood experience and to work with the younger children again. I know this is going to be completely different than what I have already experience, but I am up for the challenge. After completing my first two placements, I know that I have chosen the right career and cannot wait to have a classroom of my own. I love working with children, helping them discover and learn about the world around them. __April 13, 2012 __ My first week of student teaching in preschool has gone by so fast! Coming from sixth grade, it did take a little while for me to get use to the PreK setting again. Having story time, play, and naps have not been a part of my daily experiences, but I am glad to have them back. My class is a mixed classroom of 3-5 year olds who work really well together. You can clearly see all of their friendships and how they genuinely care for one another. The teachers in the room are also very welcoming and caring towards the children and towards me. Their love for teaching is shown through thier personalities and actions. This past week, I mainly just observed the classroom's daily routines and watched how the children interacted with one another. I did get a chance later on in the week to help out more with the classroom duties and even be a part of a small group activity, which was fun. Next week, I am going to start leading some large group meetings and continue to help out in small groups. Our theme for the next two weeks is the ocean, so I am really excited to help plan the activities. This theme comes at a great time because on Friday we had a Pajamas Party and watched //Finding Nemo//. The children all came in dressed in their pajamas and had thier stuffed animals/blankets they sleep with. As a group, we watched the movie and ate Goldfish snacks! Everyone had a fun time and I cannot wait to see how the children react to the ocean activities planned next week. All in all, I'm easing my way back into the PreK setting. I love the class I am in and everyone at the school is extremely nice and welcoming. They are very supportive and willing to help out anyway they can to make my experience the best it can be. ‍‍I am confident this is going to be another rewarding experience and I'm eager to see what the next six weeks have in store! ‍‍

__April 18, 2012__ I am writing this now because I will be going out of town this weekend. My second week of student teaching has gone very well! I have started to take on more responsibilities within the classroom and the students are becoming more and more comfortable with me. The teachers and I met to discuss what we were going to do for the week and who would lead the different activities. I lead my first circle time/large group meeting on Tuesday - except for forgetting the weather song, it went smoothly. The kids made sure to remind me and we just did the weather twice! After doing their daily rountines, we read the story //The Rainbow Fish.// Some of them weere familar with the story, but still enjoyed it. Many of them asked if I had the other adventures of the rainbow fish, which I did not so I may have to look into them for later story times. We did have a nice discussion about feelings and sharing after reading the story and everyone agreed how important it is to share our toys and things we have. It is so nice to see how considerate the children are of one another and how they want to please you! Learning all of their morning songs has been a challenge, but everyone, including the kids, are willing to jump in and help. I have also been assisting with the small group activities. These are mainly completed by the students, but we are there to help them if needed. We did some sand art and sea shell prints to go along with the ocean theme of the week. Also, we had the kids draw different instruments found in an orchastra because they will be going to the symphony on Wednesday. They all liked looking through the book of instruments and picking their favorite. Next week, I will be leading a couple of these activities myself, which will be exciting. I did sit in my first staff meeting today which was nice to see. They talked mainly about their Spring Carnival coming up in May, as well as the ‍‍new NAEYC standards ‍‍ they have to complete for their upcoming visit. I am learning new things everyday and I am enjoying the experience so much! The weeks are flying by so fast though...before you know it, May will be here!!!

__April 28, 2012__ Week three of student teaching was full of many new experiences. I taught my first small group this week, which went very well. Throughout the week, ‍‍we alternate partner time ‍‍ and small group activities. For the small groups, the students are split up into three different groups and then rotate to the different activities planned about every 15 minutes. Groups were formed at the beginning of the year and still seem to be working well. When I asked my teacher about how the groups were broken up, she explained that both personalities and academics were taken into consideration. After the second week of school, she said they had a good idea of who worked well together and which students needed extra help in certain areas. Taking all of these into consideration, they created groups with both higher and lower level students who would work well together and help each other out. After being with the students for three weeks now, I think the groups are excellent and very benefical to the kids. The stronger students are there to help the ones who struggle a little more and guide them like another teacher would. <span style="color: #f406a9; font-family: 'arial black',gadget,sans-serif;">We continued the ocean them this week and my group focused on sharks. When the students came to my group, we started by looking at different pictures of sharks and comparing them. We saw that some sharks are big, some are small, and some have different colors/designs on them. I also brought in a shark's tooth for the children to look at and touch. After everyone got a look at the tooth, we used the book to figure out what type of shark the tooth came from. The kids had a lot of fun feeling the tooth and matching it to the picture in the book. Finally, they made little shark books. These books had pictures of the different types of sharks we talked about and the students could color them in however they wanted. It was interesting to see which students took the time to color the sharks neatly and which ones rushed throught to finish. Some colored their sharks to match what they truly looked like, while others made rainbow and very colorful sharks. All in all, the students enjoyed making the mini books and were excited to take it home. The next morning, I had some parents tell me how much their child loved their shark books. One mom even told me her son slept with it! He was standing with her when she told me and he was so cute about it; he said it was so tiny it fit right in his pocket. <span style="color: #f406a9; font-family: 'arial black',gadget,sans-serif;">Next week, I am taking on many more small group activities and one morning meeting. After seeing how excited and involved the kids were this week with the ocean activities, we are continuing this theme another week, and designed many more activities to go along with their interests. <span style="color: #f406a9; font-family: 'arial black',gadget,sans-serif;">I have become so close to these kids already. It is an amazing feeling to see their excitement and joy when you plan a lesson they love. Even just being there in the mornings to greet them or playing with them during free time - they are so happy you are there. They continuously want to share a story or involve you in their game somehow. <range type="comment" id="603487">‍‍I honestly cannot wait to go to school every morning! ‍‍

<span style="color: #1997c2; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">__May 4, 2012__ <span style="color: #1997c2; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">I cannot believe I just completed week 4 of my placement! Time is just flying by and I am accomplishing more and more each week. Although I only do circle time once a week, I feel comfortable in leading that activity. We usually sing a greeting song first, welcoming everyone in the classroom. From there we do the jobs and then have a little discussion. Kids can share what they did the previous night or what they will be doing over the weekend. This past week, the other teachers and I were talking about the possibility of creating a talking stick for the students to pass around. With this, each child would have about 2 minutes to say whatever they wanted to and everyone else would listen quietly. When their time is up, they then pass the stick on to the next person. So the only person talking is the one with the stick and everyone else is listening. I really like this idea and think it would make the children feel important when they are sharing their stories. <span style="color: #1997c2; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">This week, because the kids loved the Rainbow Fish books so much, I found the following chapters that continue his journey through the sea. We read these during circle time and discussed the underlying themes within each story (such as sharing and meeting new friends). For group times, I continued my shark lesson with the children and they did some stensil drawings of sharks. With these drawings, we created an ocean mural that will be hung up in the classroom - it looks amazing! Also this week, I led the groups in making a jelly fish. We started out by painting a large paper plate, using bubble rap, which gave it a unique design. After the paint dried, the children picked out different oolored tissue paper to represent the tenticles of the jelly fish. Finally, to continue on with the Rainbow Fish idea, we added glitter to make the jelly fish sparkle. These too, turned out really well and will be hung up in the room with the other giant fish the kids have made this past week. My final group activity centered around categorization. As a group we discussed what categorizing means and used the different shape pieces in the classroom to do so. Using size, shape, and color, we categorized the shapes into different groups. Overall, the kids did well with this concept. Some grasped it more than others, but everyone had fun with the concept. This activity gave me a little glimpse of where the children are at academically, allowing me to see who may need additional help in future activities like this one. <span style="color: #1997c2; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The children and I have gotten really close over these four weeks. They respect me as another teacher and will listen to what I have to say. I was out for two days this week, subbing up at the campus school, and when I came back, they all asked where I was! They missed me as much as I missed seeing them - that feeling is incredible. And although I think I would prefer to be in an elementary school as a teacher, I love being around the PreK age. They are so enthusiastic about learning and life in general which makes everyday exciting and unique. The children are growing up so fast and impress me with their capabilities on a daily basis.

<span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">__May 11, 2012__ <span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Week five has come and gone in a blink of an eye. One of my small group activities that stood out this week was a science experiment. After reading the story //Baby Beluga,// to go along with our ocean theme, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about how ocean animals stay warm in the colder waters. To do this, we discussed how whales have blubber. For our experiement, I had a bowl of cold water for the students to put their hands in. We talked about what it felt like and what humans do to stay warm in the cold weather. Then, I had a glove filled with feathers for the students to put on. While wearing this, they stuck their hand in the cold water and compared the feeling to when they did not have the glove on. They found that it was a little warmer. Finally, the students put on a glove that was filled with crisco (representing the blubber in ocean animals). The students found that when they wore this glove, their hand was the warmest, even though it was in the cold water. Making predictions and then testing them for results were the two main skills in this lesson and the kids did amazing with them! Their findings and discussions were very interesting to be a part of. One child even knew that people use to hunt whales for their blubber to use for oil! This class of students continues to amaze me on a daily basis. <span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Another big accomplishment this week was our hamster maze. The children have two hamsters in the classroom that they are able to take out and play with. In the past, the kids had to build a maze type structure out of wooden blocks for the hamsters to go in - this way they would not go off running all around the room. This worked, however a teacher always had to be there to make sure the blocks stayed together so the hamster could not escape. Another downfall to this set up was that the blocks were so much bigger and heavier than the hamsters. The students would build these amazing houses, but sometimes they fell over. If one of those blocks would have landed on a hamster, the outcome would not have been good. So I decided it was time to make something that the hamsters could safely run around in, but was made by the students. <range type="comment" id="668421">Out of cardboard, I made a large rectangle with sides high enough the hamsters could not get out - and the rest was up to the kids. We cut out different shapes and used paper towel rolls to create tunnels, houses, and even a dance floor! The kids were so excited to put the pieces together and the <range type="comment" id="794676">hamsters LOVED it ! Now the kids can sit and watch the hamsters run and the teachers do not have to worry about them escaping or something falling on them. I am so proud of the kids and their amazing hamster maze. <span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Next week we are moving onto a new theme - the 5 senses. There is so much to do with this topic - I cannot wait to get started! <span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Here is a picture of their maze :) <span style="color: #a916f3; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">