This month we have focused more on our group science fair projects, the unit, clinicals, and water cycle project. If I have learned anything with these group projects like the science fair, or water cycle that is that I have some great partners and just a great group of future teachers. I feel like we just divide and conquer no matter how big the project and it always seems to just come together seamlessly. I have planned and taught my clinical learning segment for our practice edTPA. This was an interesting learning experience. I have learned that with kindergarten you never know what to expect or what they will say. It is something new every day. I am proud of the fact that I was able to work ahead and go ahead and knock this out before Thanksgiving. I did however consider this a struggle too because I was only given around 20mins of instruction time each day and this was at the end of the day when these students are just done with school and trying to pay attention, so they seemed all over the place. This is definitely something that I want to work with my CE on in the future with student teaching and maybe rearranging the schedule or doing more integrating for the future.
Below is a great resource I found that talks about some tips of how teachers should end their day and avoid the usual hectic bookbag throwing, teacher yelling, classroom a total mess typical ending.
This month we suffered yet again some hurricane weather, and this was a great current event plug that my water cycle group decided to use in our presentation. This gives us great practice for when we have a classroom of our own and how to integrate those current events right into the lessons. Which also brings me to the fact of this relates directly to the NCTCS: 3c teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content area/disciplines, 3d teachers make teaching relevant to students, 4a teachers know the ways in which learning takes place. By plugging in current events teachers are integrating. In order for this to be successful they make it grade level friendly and relevant to students. To be able to do this, teachers must also know in ways in which all learning takes place.
This past week we also participated in the Hands on Halloween event and I contributed by leading a group in the problem solving station. This was a fun activity that gave some great experience in an upper grade level that I don’t have much practice in. In the upcoming weeks I plan to continue to work alongside my peers and encourage them in any way I can as we begin to wrap up this semester. Some action steps I would like to take as we continue through this course is to now really start working on my unit. This seems to be the learning experience that I push to the side. I have picked the topic I just really need to take the time to dive in and start working on chunks of it weekly.
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| What a wonderful activity to incorporate into the classroom. This tweet showcases a group of students doing a team building activity to portray how mental health works. This teacher had students break a planting pot write encouraging words on each broken piece and then work together to glue it back together. So powerful! |
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| This is a great project that I found that talks about sparking student inquiry. This has been a topic we have talked about all semester and a personal goal that I have. If students are engaged and interested what the lesson is about they are more likely to contribute to the class and result in successful learning. |
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| This is an article I found that discusses how to the 5E model can be brought in to the classroom. I also found this tweet to be very relavant to our classroom discussions we have had on what the 5E are and how they are easily drive student learning. |
Abby,
ReplyDeleteI loved how you talked about the hurricane for your current event and how we incorporated that into our water cycle project! This was something that is going to affect our students and or our students family.
I also loved how you discussed talking about how teachers have to realize the interconnectedness of different subjects and how they can teach while teaching multiple subjects within the school days. We only have a certain amount of time in the classroom to teach the students and we do not have enough time to teach everything throughout the school year. It is important that we use integration throughout the school year.
Abby, I agree with you on all of the projects we have been working on this semester! While I only have one other person I am working with since we are online I still agree that it is wonderful to work with someone who has amazing ideas. Sage is so helpful and I feel like we work so well together, it would be a great thing to work with her as teachers on the same grade level team! I am glad you were able to do a practice lesson plan in your clinical setting. I agree with you that you may want to work with your CE for a better time to teach, the room I am in is the same way at the end of the day. It is hard for kinders to stay focused at that time because they are more than ready to go home! I am sure you did better than you think though! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteAbby,
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that you could be apart of hands on halloween too and have such good time. I think that we are both learning alot about time management with all of our projects. I am happy to see that you also talked about our water cycle project. I even learned about the water cycle from that project. I know your science lesson went GREAT!
Abby,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that awesome resource for classroom management. As new and aspiring teachers, reading those kinds of tips is so helpful in building our classroom management skill-set. I have so much to learn but starting out with a few tricks up my sleeve for when kids get rowdy is a great place to start. It seems like you are not the only one struggling with finding the best time to incorporate the science learning segment. I know that with careful planning and maybe more integration, we will all figure out the best way to accomplish what we need to accomplish!
Abby, Good resource! I am also glad to see that you have gained additional understanding with the 5E model and how it can be used to drive student learning.
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