Miss Katie's Corner! "You may feel that you are only one person in the whole world in the life of a child, but to that child, you may be the whole world" -Maryln
Introduction My name is Katie Schaefer; I am an Early Childhood and Special Education major with a minor in psychology. I work at Carlow's Early Learning Center as an Assistant Group Supervisor. I have worked at the ELC since my freshman year at Carlow. I am very excited and nervous about student teaching. I have dreamed about becoming a teacher since I was 7 years old and now I can hardly believe I am months away from making my dream come true! :)
January 6, 2012 Today brings my first week of student teaching to an end. I was extremely nervous this is the oldest group of students that I have worked with. However after the first day and now the end of week one I am very excited to be in 3rd grade. This group of students works so well together, which is great I love cooperative learning. I have done a lot of non-teaching duties this week, taking down and putting up bulletin boards, checking homework, helping students correct homework, helping students struggling to catch up with the class, and starting Monday I will be teaching. Next week I am going to start with spelling, it is only taught twice a week, and a math lesson or two. Next week I will add math which is taught everyday and continue to add a subject a week until I am teaching all day everyday. This week has been a very busy fun filled week as one of my students always says, "it is always a fun day in 3rd grade." Today started off great and took a turn downhill at recess, it was finally nice so we were able to go outside today. While outside one of my students was playing and fell as he fell he tried to catch himself on the ball hurting his arm. I felt so bad. His arm is bent in the middle of his forearm, so he had to be taken to Children's Hospital. The rest of the afternoon was a blur the students were all gloomy and extremely worried about their classmate. He will most likely come back in a cast, so I will have to keep that in mind when I begin to plan my lessons. He will either need computer access to type or a partner from the classroom to write for him. It has been an exciting week for my first week of student teaching and I look forward for more to come. :) *Here is the link to my classrooms website, I also have my own page on the website. http://teacherweb.com/PA/CarlowCampusSchool/MrsDeSilva/apt4.aspx
January 9: I taught my first lesson today. I thought I would be more nervous than I actually was. This was the first time I was actually teaching, I have worked with a small group or pair of students on a review lesson but I have never actually taught a lesson. Not only have I never taught a lesson to a whole group but I have never really worked with 3rd graders either. I have to say the lesson went well it took a little longer than I had actually planned, but I only went over by about 5 minutes, which was not bad considering one of my students returned to school today with a cast on his right arm causing him to take longer when completing assignments and making his handwriting harder to read. I did give him the option to type up his spelling list and pretest for the lesson today but he wanted to try to write so I had to be flexible and give him the time he needed to complete the assignment. I am excited to take on spelling for the rest of my placement. I am also going to start teaching math this week only one lesson this week, next week I will teach more.
January 10: Supervision Summary During my first week it was obvious that the teacher has high expectations for her students. The students come in everyday and say “good morning” to everyone in the room, hang up their stuff in the coat room, turn in their homework, write down the homework for that night in their assignment books, put their binders away, if they have morning jobs they will complete them, and if they have work to finish they work on that while waiting for morning meeting. At 8:00 every morning the pencil sharpener gets plugged in and each student sharpens two pencils. Then they all sit down in the circle and wait for morning meeting. I love it! I am the type of teacher who would rather set a routine than rules and due to the routine the students are used to every morning there are no behaviors and it is a very smooth transition. The students are expected to be respectful to adults, teachers, as well as their classmates. They are always welcomed to talk to the teacher if they are having trouble with homework, at home, or classmates. Due to the overall structure and atmosphere of the school the students are all very good friends. The majority of the students have been together since preschool or kindergarten so they are all very close. Anytime someone is behind on their work those classmates who are finished volunteer to help their friends catch up. It really is a wonderful learning environment. The classroom uses curriculum books for all subjects except reading. Although they do not always follow exactly what is in the curriculum manuals they more or less use it as a guideline of what topics to teach. The teacher will sometimes use activities from the manuals or create her own lesson based on the topic in the manual. I like the manuals not to use all the time but to give you some ideas for lessons or activities to do with the students. In reading, they read novels which are great it allows so much room to be creative with your lessons. The students really seem to enjoy school and what they are learning. The students also like the routine they have throughout the week within certain subject areas for example math on Monday we do basic facts review, on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday we do lessons, and on Friday we do a game or review activity. The teacher loves discussions and more activity based learning rather than direct instruction. More often than not when she is doing direct instruction she will have the students sit in the circle like they do for morning meeting and will do her lesson at that time. It makes it feel more like a conversation and less structured than it does when the teacher is standing at the front of the room instructing the students. The students do a lot of cooperative and hands on learning activities which is great they love to work with classmates and it breaks up the day nicely so they are not simply listening to the teacher talk all day. The activities are usually tied to everyday life for example this week the math topic is large numbers so today we did an activity with the census of the United States. The behaviors of the students in the classroom that I am student teaching in compared to the other third grade are complete opposites. My students are so calm and soft spoken, which is exactly how their teacher is; whereas the other third grade is very loud and restless. It is amazing to see the difference in the two groups and how differently they interact with the other teacher. The 3rd graders are with the same teacher for the majority of the day, however one teacher teaches science to all of 3rd grade and the other teacher teaches religion to the whole third grade so I have the opportunity to see both groups of students. My cooperating teacher does not tolerate behaviors but she also picks her battles if students talk out a little bit she will let it go, but if it continues and becomes disrespectful she will not tolerate it and the students no when she has had enough of the behaviors. The teachers use monopoly money as a behavior management system, so if the teachers have reached their limit they take monopoly money back from the students. Also if the students had a really good day or worked really hard, the teachers will reward either individual students or the whole class for their cooperation and hard work that day. The classroom is very comfortable and free spirited, the students are encouraged to think deeper and question things. They are also given the opportunity to express their own thoughts, ideas, and concerns throughout the day. During just about every lesson there is opportunity if not designated time and topic for discussion it is encouraged by the teacher unless the students begin to get off topic then the teacher will redirect them back to the topic of the lesson. My cooperating teacher is easier going than some teachers sometimes she thinks she is too nice but with this group of students she can be. They do not need someone in their face telling them what they need to do and reminding them constantly of appropriate behavior, she has already enforced that through her daily routines. The classroom is very flexible due to it being a contained classroom for most of the day unless the students are in specials. Therefore the students are usually given the opportunity to finish all of their work before having to move on to another subject. If they do not have the time to finish as they teacher is telling them what they will be doing next she reminds them they will have more time to complete the assignment during SSR time, tomorrow during this period, or during independent time. She will usually give the students a warning that in 1 or 2 minutes they will need to put their things in their desk, pouch, or neatly in the corner of their desk and tell them what they will need for the next lesson. Sometimes she will hit a chime and show the sign of peace which means to be silent. The students know now that when she picks up the chime its time to show sign of peace and be quiet so some students may show sign of peace before she even hits it. The other day she went to move it and a few students stopped working and showed the sign of peace. Once the students have finished their work they must always show finished work to the teacher she may just look over it for accuracy or completion and give the students a star or she will have them turn it in for a grade. She always writes something on their work to show that she looked over it, it may be a star, a grade with a sticker, or just something little she writes about how neat their handwriting is or what a great idea that was. It is her way to stay on top of the students making sure they understand and are not falling behind in their work. As I previously stated the overall classroom environment is a hand on and cooperative learning. The students are always working with classmates discussing and solving problems. The students are encouraged to think outside the box and ask questions. The teacher also frequently asks open-ended questions to allow the students to think more in depth. Due to the more laid back and almost home feel to the classroom the students and teacher often rely on conversations to develop and enrich a lesson.
January 12: Yesterday I taught my first actual lesson. I really was not very nervous but it did not go as well as I planned. We have been working with large numbers so I did a lesson w the students using statictics involving length of time and having them figure out their statictic in other lengths of time, weeks days, and years. This would give them practice with large numbers as well as multiplication. I gave the students time to look up their own statistic in almanacs and on the computers. Some of the students knew exactly what they wanted to look up and google searched it poof preseto. On the other hand I had students who no matter how many times I explained a statistic and gave an example they did not understand. I took a little bit of risk with this activity because I could not filter what statistics the students would find so some of them I had to help them because the statistic they found was hard to work with. I also went over the math period by 15minutes although math is hard in the morning because we start math when we finish morning meeting and some days it takes longer than others cutting into the alotted time for math. Overall the students enjoyed the opportunity to research and find statistics. Their findings were used again today t write a number story, then they traded with a classmate to solve each others number story. The lesson could have been a lot worse and I can say overall I am satisfied with it. It was my first real lesson that I created and taught 100% on my own, I have never actually taught a lesson to a primary group of students before student teaching which honestly was nerve racking but in the end it really did not turn out so bad. Next week I will be teaching math all week as well as spelling and picking up grammar, cursive, and possibly writing.
January 15: I love being a teacher. I love dressing like a teacher and see my students everyday. On Friday I got my first note from one of my students. She is a year older than the rest of my class due to language barrier. She has come so far since the beginning of the year, but still has some difficulty forming complete sentences. I will try to upload it as a picture but this is what she wrote:
Dear Miss Katie, I have lot fun with you and my classmeat! Day was very silly day with girls at ressce. L was very silly at ressce. I was very happy to know at yours birthday is on I birthday. I wort this for you, and I going to haveing with youy theach us math or reading. I love your teaching us we all very happy you miss katie. Z, L, N, M, J, J, H, G, and I (names of all my students) we all very happy for you and we all love you. I want you save this note for me and my lovely classmates. Miss Katie loves us all go have a surprise for you. 3rd is very smart in class. going to be when you grown up just write me backs. you the best teacher ever! I love you! :) Love, Z.Z
It was the sweetest thing ever! After student teaching I am going to frame it, until then it is going to be the first page in my portfolio! I cannot wait until next week I will be teaching spelling, math, cursive, and possibly grammar. I am very excited and after thinking that my lesson did not go as well as I wanted it to, to get that note that says they love when I teach encourages me that it was not as bad as I thought it was and even though a lesson may not go how you planned or as smoothly as you had planned to the students it may be a perfectly fine lesson.
January 20: This week I was observed for the first time. I can honestly say that morning I was extremely nervous, I have never been that nervous. I think because I knew my supervisor would be sitting in the back of the room starring at me and taking notes, where as when my cooperating teacher is in the rooms she does her own thing which is usually planning for what she will be teaching that day. As 8:15am approached I became more and more nervous, and all I kept thinking is why am I so nervous? I have been teaching for 2 weeks now, I must be doing fine my cooperating teacher has never had to intervene on a lesson. Finally I thought back to the first time I taught them and how excited the students were, and the note that I received last week. I took a deep breath and the butterflies went away. I can do this, I was meant to do this, I am a teacher. I started math and my supervisor came in the room. I was relaxed. We did a lesson on the smart-board. It worked, no technical problems. The students were engaged and actively participating. Overall the lesson went really well, although after checking their homework I realized they are still struggling a little. I introduced them to decimals this week, and after correcting their homework I found that many of them have a hard time understanding how to write a whole number and decimal as a decimal from word form, ex: thirty and twenty-five hundredths = 30.25. So this week before I get into the next decimal lesson in the book we are going to practice writing decimals with whole numbers as well as decimals. Then we will get into the next lesson. My cooperating teacher is very supportive and told me to take my time with the lessons and if reteaching is necessary that's fine, it is the students understanding of the concept that matters not how fast you move through the material. It was very comforting to know how supportive she is. In looking back through my lessons I realized I only briefly went over problems like that most of them simply dealt with tenths and hundredths. So in teaching this week I learned that all teachers make mistakes and sometimes reteaching is necessary. I also learned the importance of completely looking over the homework and making sure you do examples of every problem during class before the students take it home, don't just assume that because a worksheet is listed as the homework in a curriculum book with the lesson that if you do an activity from that lesson your students will have practiced all problems on the worksheet. Lessons taught are lessons learned that's the beauty of being a teacher!
January 24: This week is going great! Yesterday I introduced the new spelling list and played Strike Three Your Out in math to review basic addition and subtraction facts. Today the periods got switched around because the library teacher went home sick so my class went to library 1st period with the other 3rd grade class. In math I retaugh writing out a decimal from word form when it includes whole numbers, since so many of them missed it on the homework last week. Then in math today we practiced writing and saying decimals while measuring. I sat with the students on the floor and demonsrated measuring and how to convert from centimeters to meters. After completing a practice page together I had the students get in pairs and find 4 objects in the room and measure it. Once they found how many centimeters the object was they had to figure out how many meters it was. They really enjoyed moving around and getting the opportunity to choose what to measure, some of the students measured each other. After math we did grammar, which is when I was observed. I had to do lessons from the workbook so a page could be graded becuase grades close this week and we are trying to put more grades in the grade book. So to make the lesson a little more fun and since we were working with the verb "be" and helping verbs, we sang The Helping Verb Song. They loved it. They started to get silly so I embraced thier silliness and took a vote on if we should ding it as fast as we can or as slow as we can. Then I let them sing it as slow as they could. Then we did two pages in their workbook together before they did the page independently for a grade. I was a little worried today whille playing the verb song, because they started to get silly and a little noisy. I do not like to yell so I tried to redirect them and eventually used the chime and sign of peace, which I try not to use. However it is sometimes necessary. I am glad everything went well today and that my supervisor had only positive things to say about me. I discovered that I am more comfortable when I write my plans using a block plan rather than writing LEP's for everything I teach. I am more comfortable when I do not have a strick lesson plan. I fell then I have more wiggle room with my plans.
February 2: Student teaching overall is a lot less stressful than I thought it would be but it is exhausting. It is a long day at school and then a long two hours at work after. But it is all worth it. I absolutely love teaching. I love seeing my students succeed. Today I gave and corrected my first math test after teaching them the math unit and they all did so well the lowest score was a 36.5/40. I was so proud, because decimals was something very new to them and they had eally struggled with it so it was reassuring to see them succeed. This week has been a little crazy. We are celebrating catholic schools week, therefore everyday has been a dress down day. It really shows in their behavior. The students have been so silly lately, and sometimes when they are like that it is nice to give them the chance to be silly. So yesterday before we started the reading lesson I made them stand up and shake their bodies as I sang "shake! shake! shake your sillys out! shake! shake! shake your sillys out! and wiggle your giggles away!" Today I let them practice writing their lower case cursive letters in shaving cream that they smeared on their desk. I have noticed this week because of the extra silliness multiple students are very far behind. So today in reading I only read ne chapter and let them get caught up on their work. I rotate how they read either in partners, groups of three, as a whole group "popcorn" style, or as a group using the sticks. Today we read as a whole group and since on Monday we did popcorn style, today we used the sticks. I used to be completely against popcorn style because not all students like to read in front of a group. But after being in multiple classrooms and seen reading done multiple ways I think it depends on the students you have. My group of students like to read outloud, I thought if anyone would be reluctant it would be ZZ because she is an ESL student but she volunteers to read as much as anyone else. They really all love to particpate, its wonderful! I cannot believe I only have 2 weeks left it is crazy, I am going to miss them all so much!
February 12: This week went really well. I taught every subject except religion, and I love it. I have got better with my timing and transitioning from one subject to another. I started my project with them this week. We are focusing on black history, because their lesson in their book this week was the Great Migration and communities becoming cities. I begin everyday with a question of the day that have been chosen by the students. This week we asked: why is black history month in February? Why were blacks discriminated against? Who is Jackie Robinson? Who is Harriet Tubman? They really enjoy this every morning. This week we also started a writing project they researched an African American and are now in the process of writing a letter to the US Postal Service to honor the person they have chosen by putting them on a stamp. They are writing a persuasive letter and designing the stamp, then we are sending them. They are so excited! We are also doing geometry this week so on Friday we talked about the quilts the slaves would make to help others escape through the underground railroad. Each of them are designing their own quilt piece and naming it as well as coming up with a story behind it. I am really excited about the projects they are doing and look forward to next weeks activities. We are looking up inventors and doing a scrapbook page, we are also starting the glogster next week as our final project.
February 14: Happy Valentine's Day! I can hardly believe this is my last week with my students. This week I handed back math and reading which are taught everyday, it is so hard now to sit in the room or simply help the students with their assignment. I miss teaching them already, I never in a million years would have thought that I would have enjoyed working with this age group. However, after experiencing it, now I love it. I think it is important for all future education majors to go into the program with an open mind and be exposed to many age groups and have more experience actually teaching them rather than just observing even if they observe for 30 hours and teach one or two lessons. That was what I was most scared of when it came time to student teach. I had never actually taught a lesson to any students other than preschool and younger. Although as Mrs. Peduto told me, a good teacher can teach any age and any grade they just usually have a preference! :)
February 22: Today was day #2 in my preschool placement, and it is a big change. I am still not used to the overall environment of the school.It is very different than any of my other preschool placements, first of all it is a laboratory school and is run by the psychology department rather than the universities education department. It also has two half day programs so I have two classes of young threes in my room (the blue room), but the only time I just have my class is at circle and snack time every other part of the day we are mixed with the other three (older threes in the red room) and the fours (the green room) so it is a lot to take in. The teaching and overall staff is fantastic its just a little crazy. It also primarily exists for the psychology and research majors, so they come in all the time for observations and pull the children out to "play a game". It is something I really need to get used to. My teacher is very excited for me to be here and redo a learning center or maybe even create one that is not often or at all available. On Fridays there is no three classes and the teachers have professional development and planning time so I will be able to sit down and plan out when I will start planning what and exactly when I will be taking over the whole class day.
March 3: This week went really well. The children are really warming up to me.On Tuesday I went with my teacher to see the Pittsburgh Montessori School and one of the girls in the room we observed I had at Carlow' Early Learning Center for 3 years. She remembered me it was nice to see how well she is doing in that type of setting. I have read and studied about Montessori. I have seen tools used in a Montessori classroom but this was my first experience seeing how functional it is in the classroom. I have so much respect for those teachers, they have to do so much teaching and setting-up for the classroom to run smoothly. My teacher really liked some of the tools they used in the classroom so when I redo the science center I am going to incorporate some Montessori like tools. The children in not only my room but the whole preschool are loving February's unit "My Healthy Mind and Body." It is amazing how much information they really grasp with such a complex idea such as the human body. I think a lot of things (expectations, content, curriculum, etc.) that are part of a lab school are pushed to the side in most preschool settings. It is a very different feel since it is run through the psychology department, however I think a lot of times now we underestimate these children. At the same time I miss the nurturing and free expression environment of traditional preschool settings. I think a happy medium would be perfect. This week I did circle Thursday afternoon on sleep. It went great! I started circle by introducing new faces in the room and reviewing with the children what we can do when we see someone we do not know (smile, wave, say hello, ask them what their name is). I then reviewed the expectations at circle and told them, "all my friends know the rules of circle time. You need to be a good listener, and listen the first time. If you do not listen the first time you will leave circle and come back when you are ready to listen the first time." Only one child needed to be pulled from circle and once he was returned he was a great listener. During circle time in the afternoon it is extremely important keep the background noise to a minimum, one of my students is deaf in one ear so it is very hard for him to hear when there is a lot of background noise. As part of his services we have a microphone and speaker to where during circle to help him. We did our daily routine hello song, weather song, and then I read them a story on sleep. We discussed why we need sleep and what happens if we do not get enough sleep. We finished circle by discussing bed time routines and how everyone has something they do before bed to get them ready to go to sleep. I prompted the conversation by showing pictures of children's bedtime routines and asked each child to share their bedtime routine. For a first observation it went really well. Thursday night was our family festival. We set up each room in the school for an activity and the families come around and do the activities. This year we did family festival based on our mind and body unit to show families what the children have learned. We had a peaceful room of stories and quiet music, a room to make your own zen garden, brain games and puzzles, a senses room, healthy teeth, yoga, healthy food and portions with the food pyramid. It was nice to be bale to meet the families and see how different the children are around their parents. It was a great event!
I realized today that I never posted the link for my Black History Month Glogster I made with my 3rd graders...so here it is: Black History Month Glogster(Make sure to check out the video in the middle, its a quick overview of what we did throughout the project)
March 10: This week was a very busy week in the blue room, we had many visitors during circle time. Elizabeth's mom came in to read a special story and enjoy a special snack to celebrate Elizabeth's 4th birthday. Hugo's dad came in to show us x-rays that he borrowed from his work. Maggie's mom joined the blue room and red room friends for a special session of yoga. It was interesting to see how the friends reacted to their parents being present. I thought Maggie would have done really well we prompted her prior to her mom coming and encouraged her to be a special helper to her mom, but she refused to participate and instead was hanging on her mom. Hugo on the other hand did incredibly well. He has a hard time with transition but was over joyed with the idea that his dad was coming to school. He sat on his sitapon and only got up a few times to give his dad a hug. We then encouraged him to sit next to his dad and help him with the x-rays. He was so excited he continuously told his dad, "we have lots of stuff to show you, the playground where we ride bikes, the discovery area, how we eat snack, and the skeleton dance!" We reminded him that dad could not stay long he had to go back to work but he could come see the discovery area. When it was time for Hugo's dad to leave Hugo said good-bye and gave him a hug. It was awesome not one issue, he was so grown-up and so proud of his dad. It was a nice way to end our unit of Healthy Mind and Body having so many special visitors. Next week we are on spring break so no school all week. When we return on the 19th we will have another transition week, since both this unit and our next unit on space is very content heavy we will spend transition week reading funny fiction stories to take a break from so much content this will also allow us to finish assessments on the children and prepare for spring conferences. I am very excited for space we will be doing lots of great activities, including making our own three dimensional space creature using wire and clay!
March 24: I can remember one of my first days in this placement I was building with a few of the children, asking them questions about what they are building. It was at this time I realized the questions I was asking were very basic and were not inquiry based questions that really made them think and discover on their own. I was not asking bad questions but I also was not asking the best questions. These children are so smart and so curious they really need someone to enrich and encourage them to go up and beyond average play. Now when I am in the block area I enrich their imaginative play and try to give them problems to solve. This past week my morning friends started by building a bridge but we could not get it to stay up so they had to figure out how to better balance it. They placed more blocks around the two holding up the bridge to give it more support. Then they decided to turn it into a tower, and they began adding more and more blocks. One of the children brought over toy mice and they decided to place the mice in the garbage of the tower. Then they needed a door so they could not escape, but their were secret passageways that they had to block as well. One door kept coming open and the mice kept escaping so the students brought over the fix-it truck to fix the door and they then created a key to lock the door. Another student decided they needed to hide the key in case the mice escaped so they could not find it. Then they decided they needed a back-up key in case the mice found one of the keys they would have another one. This play experience was absolutely incredible the amount of teamwork and problem solving they did. It truly is amazing that depending on how you interact with the students as they are playing will effect how much they will get out of a play experience.
March 30: It is hard to believe next week is my last week. It has gone by so fast. I absolutely adore the children although I have not formed as close a bond with them as I did with my 3rd graders, which kind of makes me sad. Although I do not think I could have done anything differently. I think they are just so used to many different people being in and out of the room all the time that me being there was not anything unusual. But I do have a stronger bond with them than the work study students and you can see a difference in their interactions with me and the work study students they see me as their teacher. Next week is our second week on space and I will be doing most circles which is good I can get more of the pages of the book done. This weekend I will be finishing up the science center. This week we are planting seeds to put in our science center since we have been talking about earth and earth is the only planet that can grow plants.
Miss Katie's Corner!
"You may feel that you are only one person in the whole world in the life of a child, but to that child, you may be the whole world" -Maryln
Introduction My name is Katie Schaefer; I am an Early Childhood and Special Education major with a minor in psychology. I work at Carlow's Early Learning Center as an Assistant Group Supervisor. I have worked at the ELC since my freshman year at Carlow. I am very excited and nervous about student teaching. I have dreamed about becoming a teacher since I was 7 years old and now I can hardly believe I am months away from making my dream come true! :)
January 6, 2012
Today brings my first week of student teaching to an end. I was extremely nervous this is the oldest group of students that I have worked with. However after the first day and now the end of week one I am very excited to be in 3rd grade. This group of students works so well together, which is great I love cooperative learning. I have done a lot of non-teaching duties this week, taking down and putting up bulletin boards, checking homework, helping students correct homework, helping students struggling to catch up with the class, and starting Monday I will be teaching. Next week I am going to start with spelling, it is only taught twice a week, and a math lesson or two. Next week I will add math which is taught everyday and continue to add a subject a week until I am teaching all day everyday. This week has been a very busy fun filled week as one of my students always says, "it is always a fun day in 3rd grade." Today started off great and took a turn downhill at recess, it was finally nice so we were able to go outside today. While outside one of my students was playing and fell as he fell he tried to catch himself on the ball hurting his arm. I felt so bad. His arm is bent in the middle of his forearm, so he had to be taken to Children's Hospital. The rest of the afternoon was a blur the students were all gloomy and extremely worried about their classmate. He will most likely come back in a cast, so I will have to keep that in mind when I begin to plan my lessons. He will either need computer access to type or a partner from the classroom to write for him. It has been an exciting week for my first week of student teaching and I look forward for more to come. :)
*Here is the link to my classrooms website, I also have my own page on the website.
http://teacherweb.com/PA/CarlowCampusSchool/MrsDeSilva/apt4.aspx
January 9:
I taught my first lesson today. I thought I would be more nervous than I actually was. This was the first time I was actually teaching, I have worked with a small group or pair of students on a review lesson but I have never actually taught a lesson. Not only have I never taught a lesson to a whole group but I have never really worked with 3rd graders either. I have to say the lesson went well it took a little longer than I had actually planned, but I only went over by about 5 minutes, which was not bad considering one of my students returned to school today with a cast on his right arm causing him to take longer when completing assignments and making his handwriting harder to read. I did give him the option to type up his spelling list and pretest for the lesson today but he wanted to try to write so I had to be flexible and give him the time he needed to complete the assignment. I am excited to take on spelling for the rest of my placement. I am also going to start teaching math this week only one lesson this week, next week I will teach more.
January 10:
Supervision Summary
During my first week it was obvious that the teacher has high expectations for her students. The students come in everyday and say “good morning” to everyone in the room, hang up their stuff in the coat room, turn in their homework, write down the homework for that night in their assignment books, put their binders away, if they have morning jobs they will complete them, and if they have work to finish they work on that while waiting for morning meeting. At 8:00 every morning the pencil sharpener gets plugged in and each student sharpens two pencils. Then they all sit down in the circle and wait for morning meeting. I love it! I am the type of teacher who would rather set a routine than rules and due to the routine the students are used to every morning there are no behaviors and it is a very smooth transition.
The students are expected to be respectful to adults, teachers, as well as their classmates. They are always welcomed to talk to the teacher if they are having trouble with homework, at home, or classmates. Due to the overall structure and atmosphere of the school the students are all very good friends. The majority of the students have been together since preschool or kindergarten so they are all very close. Anytime someone is behind on their work those classmates who are finished volunteer to help their friends catch up. It really is a wonderful learning environment.
The classroom uses curriculum books for all subjects except reading. Although they do not always follow exactly what is in the curriculum manuals they more or less use it as a guideline of what topics to teach. The teacher will sometimes use activities from the manuals or create her own lesson based on the topic in the manual. I like the manuals not to use all the time but to give you some ideas for lessons or activities to do with the students. In reading, they read novels which are great it allows so much room to be creative with your lessons. The students really seem to enjoy school and what they are learning. The students also like the routine they have throughout the week within certain subject areas for example math on Monday we do basic facts review, on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday we do lessons, and on Friday we do a game or review activity.
The teacher loves discussions and more activity based learning rather than direct instruction. More often than not when she is doing direct instruction she will have the students sit in the circle like they do for morning meeting and will do her lesson at that time. It makes it feel more like a conversation and less structured than it does when the teacher is standing at the front of the room instructing the students. The students do a lot of cooperative and hands on learning activities which is great they love to work with classmates and it breaks up the day nicely so they are not simply listening to the teacher talk all day. The activities are usually tied to everyday life for example this week the math topic is large numbers so today we did an activity with the census of the United States.
The behaviors of the students in the classroom that I am student teaching in compared to the other third grade are complete opposites. My students are so calm and soft spoken, which is exactly how their teacher is; whereas the other third grade is very loud and restless. It is amazing to see the difference in the two groups and how differently they interact with the other teacher. The 3rd graders are with the same teacher for the majority of the day, however one teacher teaches science to all of 3rd grade and the other teacher teaches religion to the whole third grade so I have the opportunity to see both groups of students. My cooperating teacher does not tolerate behaviors but she also picks her battles if students talk out a little bit she will let it go, but if it continues and becomes disrespectful she will not tolerate it and the students no when she has had enough of the behaviors. The teachers use monopoly money as a behavior management system, so if the teachers have reached their limit they take monopoly money back from the students. Also if the students had a really good day or worked really hard, the teachers will reward either individual students or the whole class for their cooperation and hard work that day.
The classroom is very comfortable and free spirited, the students are encouraged to think deeper and question things. They are also given the opportunity to express their own thoughts, ideas, and concerns throughout the day. During just about every lesson there is opportunity if not designated time and topic for discussion it is encouraged by the teacher unless the students begin to get off topic then the teacher will redirect them back to the topic of the lesson. My cooperating teacher is easier going than some teachers sometimes she thinks she is too nice but with this group of students she can be. They do not need someone in their face telling them what they need to do and reminding them constantly of appropriate behavior, she has already enforced that through her daily routines.
The classroom is very flexible due to it being a contained classroom for most of the day unless the students are in specials. Therefore the students are usually given the opportunity to finish all of their work before having to move on to another subject. If they do not have the time to finish as they teacher is telling them what they will be doing next she reminds them they will have more time to complete the assignment during SSR time, tomorrow during this period, or during independent time. She will usually give the students a warning that in 1 or 2 minutes they will need to put their things in their desk, pouch, or neatly in the corner of their desk and tell them what they will need for the next lesson. Sometimes she will hit a chime and show the sign of peace which means to be silent. The students know now that when she picks up the chime its time to show sign of peace and be quiet so some students may show sign of peace before she even hits it. The other day she went to move it and a few students stopped working and showed the sign of peace.
Once the students have finished their work they must always show finished work to the teacher she may just look over it for accuracy or completion and give the students a star or she will have them turn it in for a grade. She always writes something on their work to show that she looked over it, it may be a star, a grade with a sticker, or just something little she writes about how neat their handwriting is or what a great idea that was. It is her way to stay on top of the students making sure they understand and are not falling behind in their work.
As I previously stated the overall classroom environment is a hand on and cooperative learning. The students are always working with classmates discussing and solving problems. The students are encouraged to think outside the box and ask questions. The teacher also frequently asks open-ended questions to allow the students to think more in depth. Due to the more laid back and almost home feel to the classroom the students and teacher often rely on conversations to develop and enrich a lesson.
January 12:
Yesterday I taught my first actual lesson. I really was not very nervous but it did not go as well as I planned. We have been working with large numbers so I did a lesson w the students using statictics involving length of time and having them figure out their statictic in other lengths of time, weeks days, and years. This would give them practice with large numbers as well as multiplication. I gave the students time to look up their own statistic in almanacs and on the computers. Some of the students knew exactly what they wanted to look up and google searched it poof preseto. On the other hand I had students who no matter how many times I explained a statistic and gave an example they did not understand. I took a little bit of risk with this activity because I could not filter what statistics the students would find so some of them I had to help them because the statistic they found was hard to work with. I also went over the math period by 15minutes although math is hard in the morning because we start math when we finish morning meeting and some days it takes longer than others cutting into the alotted time for math. Overall the students enjoyed the opportunity to research and find statistics. Their findings were used again today t write a number story, then they traded with a classmate to solve each others number story. The lesson could have been a lot worse and I can say overall I am satisfied with it. It was my first real lesson that I created and taught 100% on my own, I have never actually taught a lesson to a primary group of students before student teaching which honestly was nerve racking but in the end it really did not turn out so bad. Next week I will be teaching math all week as well as spelling and picking up grammar, cursive, and possibly writing.
January 15:
I love being a teacher. I love dressing like a teacher and see my students everyday. On Friday I got my first note from one of my students. She is a year older than the rest of my class due to language barrier. She has come so far since the beginning of the year, but still has some difficulty forming complete sentences. I will try to upload it as a picture but this is what she wrote:
Dear Miss Katie,
I have lot fun with you and my classmeat! Day was very silly day with girls at ressce. L was very silly at ressce. I was very happy to know at yours birthday is on I birthday. I wort this for you, and I going to haveing with youy theach us math or reading. I love your teaching us we all very happy you miss katie. Z, L, N, M, J, J, H, G, and I (names of all my students) we all very happy for you and we all love you. I want you save this note for me and my lovely classmates. Miss Katie loves us all go have a surprise for you. 3rd is very smart in class. going to be when you grown up just write me backs. you the best teacher ever!
I love you! :)
Love, Z.Z
It was the sweetest thing ever! After student teaching I am going to frame it, until then it is going to be the first page in my portfolio! I cannot wait until next week I will be teaching spelling, math, cursive, and possibly grammar. I am very excited and after thinking that my lesson did not go as well as I wanted it to, to get that note that says they love when I teach encourages me that it was not as bad as I thought it was and even though a lesson may not go how you planned or as smoothly as you had planned to the students it may be a perfectly fine lesson.
January 20:
This week I was observed for the first time. I can honestly say that morning I was extremely nervous, I have never been that nervous. I think because I knew my supervisor would be sitting in the back of the room starring at me and taking notes, where as when my cooperating teacher is in the rooms she does her own thing which is usually planning for what she will be teaching that day. As 8:15am approached I became more and more nervous, and all I kept thinking is why am I so nervous? I have been teaching for 2 weeks now, I must be doing fine my cooperating teacher has never had to intervene on a lesson. Finally I thought back to the first time I taught them and how excited the students were, and the note that I received last week. I took a deep breath and the butterflies went away. I can do this, I was meant to do this, I am a teacher. I started math and my supervisor came in the room. I was relaxed. We did a lesson on the smart-board. It worked, no technical problems. The students were engaged and actively participating. Overall the lesson went really well, although after checking their homework I realized they are still struggling a little. I introduced them to decimals this week, and after correcting their homework I found that many of them have a hard time understanding how to write a whole number and decimal as a decimal from word form, ex: thirty and twenty-five hundredths = 30.25. So this week before I get into the next decimal lesson in the book we are going to practice writing decimals with whole numbers as well as decimals. Then we will get into the next lesson. My cooperating teacher is very supportive and told me to take my time with the lessons and if reteaching is necessary that's fine, it is the students understanding of the concept that matters not how fast you move through the material. It was very comforting to know how supportive she is. In looking back through my lessons I realized I only briefly went over problems like that most of them simply dealt with tenths and hundredths. So in teaching this week I learned that all teachers make mistakes and sometimes reteaching is necessary. I also learned the importance of completely looking over the homework and making sure you do examples of every problem during class before the students take it home, don't just assume that because a worksheet is listed as the homework in a curriculum book with the lesson that if you do an activity from that lesson your students will have practiced all problems on the worksheet. Lessons taught are lessons learned that's the beauty of being a teacher!
January 24:
This week is going great! Yesterday I introduced the new spelling list and played Strike Three Your Out in math to review basic addition and subtraction facts. Today the periods got switched around because the library teacher went home sick so my class went to library 1st period with the other 3rd grade class. In math I retaugh writing out a decimal from word form when it includes whole numbers, since so many of them missed it on the homework last week. Then in math today we practiced writing and saying decimals while measuring. I sat with the students on the floor and demonsrated measuring and how to convert from centimeters to meters. After completing a practice page together I had the students get in pairs and find 4 objects in the room and measure it. Once they found how many centimeters the object was they had to figure out how many meters it was. They really enjoyed moving around and getting the opportunity to choose what to measure, some of the students measured each other. After math we did grammar, which is when I was observed. I had to do lessons from the workbook so a page could be graded becuase grades close this week and we are trying to put more grades in the grade book. So to make the lesson a little more fun and since we were working with the verb "be" and helping verbs, we sang The Helping Verb Song. They loved it. They started to get silly so I embraced thier silliness and took a vote on if we should ding it as fast as we can or as slow as we can. Then I let them sing it as slow as they could. Then we did two pages in their workbook together before they did the page independently for a grade. I was a little worried today whille playing the verb song, because they started to get silly and a little noisy. I do not like to yell so I tried to redirect them and eventually used the chime and sign of peace, which I try not to use. However it is sometimes necessary. I am glad everything went well today and that my supervisor had only positive things to say about me. I discovered that I am more comfortable when I write my plans using a block plan rather than writing LEP's for everything I teach. I am more comfortable when I do not have a strick lesson plan. I fell then I have more wiggle room with my plans.
February 2:
Student teaching overall is a lot less stressful than I thought it would be but it is exhausting. It is a long day at school and then a long two hours at work after. But it is all worth it. I absolutely love teaching. I love seeing my students succeed. Today I gave and corrected my first math test after teaching them the math unit and they all did so well the lowest score was a 36.5/40. I was so proud, because decimals was something very new to them and they had eally struggled with it so it was reassuring to see them succeed. This week has been a little crazy. We are celebrating catholic schools week, therefore everyday has been a dress down day. It really shows in their behavior. The students have been so silly lately, and sometimes when they are like that it is nice to give them the chance to be silly. So yesterday before we started the reading lesson I made them stand up and shake their bodies as I sang "shake! shake! shake your sillys out! shake! shake! shake your sillys out! and wiggle your giggles away!" Today I let them practice writing their lower case cursive letters in shaving cream that they smeared on their desk. I have noticed this week because of the extra silliness multiple students are very far behind. So today in reading I only read ne chapter and let them get caught up on their work. I rotate how they read either in partners, groups of three, as a whole group "popcorn" style, or as a group using the sticks. Today we read as a whole group and since on Monday we did popcorn style, today we used the sticks. I used to be completely against popcorn style because not all students like to read in front of a group. But after being in multiple classrooms and seen reading done multiple ways I think it depends on the students you have. My group of students like to read outloud, I thought if anyone would be reluctant it would be ZZ because she is an ESL student but she volunteers to read as much as anyone else. They really all love to particpate, its wonderful! I cannot believe I only have 2 weeks left it is crazy, I am going to miss them all so much!
February 12:
This week went really well. I taught every subject except religion, and I love it. I have got better with my timing and transitioning from one subject to another. I started my project with them this week. We are focusing on black history, because their lesson in their book this week was the Great Migration and communities becoming cities. I begin everyday with a question of the day that have been chosen by the students. This week we asked: why is black history month in February? Why were blacks discriminated against? Who is Jackie Robinson? Who is Harriet Tubman? They really enjoy this every morning. This week we also started a writing project they researched an African American and are now in the process of writing a letter to the US Postal Service to honor the person they have chosen by putting them on a stamp. They are writing a persuasive letter and designing the stamp, then we are sending them. They are so excited! We are also doing geometry this week so on Friday we talked about the quilts the slaves would make to help others escape through the underground railroad. Each of them are designing their own quilt piece and naming it as well as coming up with a story behind it. I am really excited about the projects they are doing and look forward to next weeks activities. We are looking up inventors and doing a scrapbook page, we are also starting the glogster next week as our final project.
February 14:
Happy Valentine's Day! I can hardly believe this is my last week with my students. This week I handed back math and reading which are taught everyday, it is so hard now to sit in the room or simply help the students with their assignment. I miss teaching them already, I never in a million years would have thought that I would have enjoyed working with this age group. However, after experiencing it, now I love it. I think it is important for all future education majors to go into the program with an open mind and be exposed to many age groups and have more experience actually teaching them rather than just observing even if they observe for 30 hours and teach one or two lessons. That was what I was most scared of when it came time to student teach. I had never actually taught a lesson to any students other than preschool and younger. Although as Mrs. Peduto told me, a good teacher can teach any age and any grade they just usually have a preference! :)
February 22:
Today was day #2 in my preschool placement, and it is a big change. I am still not used to the overall environment of the school.It is very different than any of my other preschool placements, first of all it is a laboratory school and is run by the psychology department rather than the universities education department. It also has two half day programs so I have two classes of young threes in my room (the blue room), but the only time I just have my class is at circle and snack time every other part of the day we are mixed with the other three (older threes in the red room) and the fours (the green room) so it is a lot to take in. The teaching and overall staff is fantastic its just a little crazy. It also primarily exists for the psychology and research majors, so they come in all the time for observations and pull the children out to "play a game". It is something I really need to get used to. My teacher is very excited for me to be here and redo a learning center or maybe even create one that is not often or at all available. On Fridays there is no three classes and the teachers have professional development and planning time so I will be able to sit down and plan out when I will start planning what and exactly when I will be taking over the whole class day.
March 3:
This week went really well. The children are really warming up to me.On Tuesday I went with my teacher to see the Pittsburgh Montessori School and one of the girls in the room we observed I had at Carlow' Early Learning Center for 3 years. She remembered me it was nice to see how well she is doing in that type of setting. I have read and studied about Montessori. I have seen tools used in a Montessori classroom but this was my first experience seeing how functional it is in the classroom. I have so much respect for those teachers, they have to do so much teaching and setting-up for the classroom to run smoothly. My teacher really liked some of the tools they used in the classroom so when I redo the science center I am going to incorporate some Montessori like tools.
The children in not only my room but the whole preschool are loving February's unit "My Healthy Mind and Body." It is amazing how much information they really grasp with such a complex idea such as the human body. I think a lot of things (expectations, content, curriculum, etc.) that are part of a lab school are pushed to the side in most preschool settings. It is a very different feel since it is run through the psychology department, however I think a lot of times now we underestimate these children. At the same time I miss the nurturing and free expression environment of traditional preschool settings. I think a happy medium would be perfect.
This week I did circle Thursday afternoon on sleep. It went great! I started circle by introducing new faces in the room and reviewing with the children what we can do when we see someone we do not know (smile, wave, say hello, ask them what their name is). I then reviewed the expectations at circle and told them, "all my friends know the rules of circle time. You need to be a good listener, and listen the first time. If you do not listen the first time you will leave circle and come back when you are ready to listen the first time." Only one child needed to be pulled from circle and once he was returned he was a great listener. During circle time in the afternoon it is extremely important keep the background noise to a minimum, one of my students is deaf in one ear so it is very hard for him to hear when there is a lot of background noise. As part of his services we have a microphone and speaker to where during circle to help him. We did our daily routine hello song, weather song, and then I read them a story on sleep. We discussed why we need sleep and what happens if we do not get enough sleep. We finished circle by discussing bed time routines and how everyone has something they do before bed to get them ready to go to sleep. I prompted the conversation by showing pictures of children's bedtime routines and asked each child to share their bedtime routine. For a first observation it went really well.
Thursday night was our family festival. We set up each room in the school for an activity and the families come around and do the activities. This year we did family festival based on our mind and body unit to show families what the children have learned. We had a peaceful room of stories and quiet music, a room to make your own zen garden, brain games and puzzles, a senses room, healthy teeth, yoga, healthy food and portions with the food pyramid. It was nice to be bale to meet the families and see how different the children are around their parents. It was a great event!
I realized today that I never posted the link for my Black History Month Glogster I made with my 3rd graders...so here it is:
Black History Month Glogster (Make sure to check out the video in the middle, its a quick overview of what we did throughout the project)
March 10:
This week was a very busy week in the blue room, we had many visitors during circle time. Elizabeth's mom came in to read a special story and enjoy a special snack to celebrate Elizabeth's 4th birthday. Hugo's dad came in to show us x-rays that he borrowed from his work. Maggie's mom joined the blue room and red room friends for a special session of yoga. It was interesting to see how the friends reacted to their parents being present. I thought Maggie would have done really well we prompted her prior to her mom coming and encouraged her to be a special helper to her mom, but she refused to participate and instead was hanging on her mom. Hugo on the other hand did incredibly well. He has a hard time with transition but was over joyed with the idea that his dad was coming to school. He sat on his sitapon and only got up a few times to give his dad a hug. We then encouraged him to sit next to his dad and help him with the x-rays. He was so excited he continuously told his dad, "we have lots of stuff to show you, the playground where we ride bikes, the discovery area, how we eat snack, and the skeleton dance!" We reminded him that dad could not stay long he had to go back to work but he could come see the discovery area. When it was time for Hugo's dad to leave Hugo said good-bye and gave him a hug. It was awesome not one issue, he was so grown-up and so proud of his dad. It was a nice way to end our unit of Healthy Mind and Body having so many special visitors. Next week we are on spring break so no school all week. When we return on the 19th we will have another transition week, since both this unit and our next unit on space is very content heavy we will spend transition week reading funny fiction stories to take a break from so much content this will also allow us to finish assessments on the children and prepare for spring conferences. I am very excited for space we will be doing lots of great activities, including making our own three dimensional space creature using wire and clay!
March 24:
I can remember one of my first days in this placement I was building with a few of the children, asking them questions about what they are building. It was at this time I realized the questions I was asking were very basic and were not inquiry based questions that really made them think and discover on their own. I was not asking bad questions but I also was not asking the best questions. These children are so smart and so curious they really need someone to enrich and encourage them to go up and beyond average play. Now when I am in the block area I enrich their imaginative play and try to give them problems to solve. This past week my morning friends started by building a bridge but we could not get it to stay up so they had to figure out how to better balance it. They placed more blocks around the two holding up the bridge to give it more support. Then they decided to turn it into a tower, and they began adding more and more blocks. One of the children brought over toy mice and they decided to place the mice in the garbage of the tower. Then they needed a door so they could not escape, but their were secret passageways that they had to block as well. One door kept coming open and the mice kept escaping so the students brought over the fix-it truck to fix the door and they then created a key to lock the door. Another student decided they needed to hide the key in case the mice escaped so they could not find it. Then they decided they needed a back-up key in case the mice found one of the keys they would have another one. This play experience was absolutely incredible the amount of teamwork and problem solving they did. It truly is amazing that depending on how you interact with the students as they are playing will effect how much they will get out of a play experience.
March 30:
It is hard to believe next week is my last week. It has gone by so fast. I absolutely adore the children although I have not formed as close a bond with them as I did with my 3rd graders, which kind of makes me sad. Although I do not think I could have done anything differently. I think they are just so used to many different people being in and out of the room all the time that me being there was not anything unusual. But I do have a stronger bond with them than the work study students and you can see a difference in their interactions with me and the work study students they see me as their teacher. Next week is our second week on space and I will be doing most circles which is good I can get more of the pages of the book done. This weekend I will be finishing up the science center. This week we are planting seeds to put in our science center since we have been talking about earth and earth is the only planet that can grow plants.