Week 1
It has been quite a week! I have so much to say, and my brain is quite busy trying to organize my thoughts so I can give you all a clear idea of what I want to say. With that in mind, I think I'm going to break up this blog post with titles to keep myself organized. Please, bare with me.
My Cooperating Teacher
I was offered the opportunity to enter the 5th grade classroom the week before school began to assist my cooperating teacher set up the classroom. I spent about 15 hours in the classroom before school even started! It was an awesome experience because I had the chance to learn where things are located, and how she runs a classroom a full week before we had kids in the class. She has been teaching for 13 years, and had a wealth of knowledge,experience, and tips to share with me. She and I agreed that jumping in the first week and getting involved with the kids was the best way to build a rapport with them, and for them to look at me with the same authority in the classroom as her.
The kids began on Wednesday, and I was allowed to lead getting to know you activities and assist in picking out social studies pre- assessments. We gave the kids blank maps of the United States to label, and a worksheet asking them to read a map and answer questions related to it, label the seven continents, the five major oceans, the equator, and the prime meridian- all things that were covered in 4th grade. The kids were stressed out, and after looking at the pre-assessments, it was clear that these skills and concepts would need to be extensively reviewed. The 5th grade social studies curriculum the school uses has a short geography and map skills unit in the beginning before the content units begin. I suggested that instead of only covering geography and map skills in the beginning that we instead incorporate geography mini-lessons for the first 10-15 minutes of our hour social studies block throughout my time student teaching. I offered that suggestion because of how strongly I feel about understanding geography and the role it plays in EVERY social studies unit. She loved the idea and said she's going to continue with the mini-lessons even after I move on to my next placement. That really boosted my confidence, and made me feel like she valued my ideas and what I have to offer her class. She wants me to completely take all 3 social studies blocks by the end of next week!
It appears that I will be writing quite a few lesson on our first unit: Native Americans! This content has always been so interesting to me, and I can't wait to start putting together interactive lessons for this unit.
My kids
I learned every child's name in all the social studies blocks by the end of each class. They were so impressed! I was able to call them by name, and I actually think it meant a lot to them. They were very receptive of me. I learned quite a few things. First, my first week demonstrated to me the importance of classroom management. The kids REALLY need rules and routines for the day to run smoothly. Secondly, I learned the importance of communication about students, especially when considering medical plans. We have TWO students who have epilepsy. I also learned live and in color ( not in a text book or article) just how many different personalities and student characteristics are enveloped into each class, and how important it will be to offer a variety of learning experiences for each student to learn and thrive! The kids are so different from one another, and so awesome in their own ways! It was actually comforting to me- and helped me build confidence- to finally see and experience all these concepts and ideas that we have been learning for the last 18 months in a real classroom setting with real students.
In the coming week, I hope to continue learning my students needs, and begin to build engaging lessons. One goal I have is to come up with a geography mini lesson where they can use their hands to manipulate states. I have some ideas, but I want them to be able to begin to visualize where things are located in this world. It really does connect to every history or social studies lesson and unit.
Classroom Confidential
1. My hope is to be able to incorporate ALL the intelligences into my teaching because in any given classroom, I'm confident that all intelligences will be represented. Furthermore, a lot of the intelligences coincide with one another. If I can design lessons that incorporate all the intelligences, I think all the students will benefit. Even if it may not be their strength, they will be challenged by the lesson. Furthermore, incorporating all the intelligences into lessons for a unit will give the students a chance to closely interact with the content and develop necessary skills.
2. Yes, there are ways that I plan to use Schmidt's "full brain learning". All of the concepts are remarkable, but I love the idea of incorporating imagination and publishing into my social studies class. Social studies is a great class to be able to integrate ideas like imagining they are a historical figure and creating a skit or a dialogue. Publishing can used in the my class in the form of letters written in the perspective of a different person or time. I actualy just had an idea to have to the kids create a sort of newsletter on different lesson segments on the early Native Americans to work on together and publish as a class. Maybe we can even send it home at consistent intervals to parents? Or possibly post our class newsletter outside the door or in the hall for the rest of the school to see? It could include a variety of writing themes (which we are always trying to encourage), drawings, maybe pictures of models they build? It has so many possibilities.
Signing off until next week!
My Cooperating Teacher
I was offered the opportunity to enter the 5th grade classroom the week before school began to assist my cooperating teacher set up the classroom. I spent about 15 hours in the classroom before school even started! It was an awesome experience because I had the chance to learn where things are located, and how she runs a classroom a full week before we had kids in the class. She has been teaching for 13 years, and had a wealth of knowledge,experience, and tips to share with me. She and I agreed that jumping in the first week and getting involved with the kids was the best way to build a rapport with them, and for them to look at me with the same authority in the classroom as her.
The kids began on Wednesday, and I was allowed to lead getting to know you activities and assist in picking out social studies pre- assessments. We gave the kids blank maps of the United States to label, and a worksheet asking them to read a map and answer questions related to it, label the seven continents, the five major oceans, the equator, and the prime meridian- all things that were covered in 4th grade. The kids were stressed out, and after looking at the pre-assessments, it was clear that these skills and concepts would need to be extensively reviewed. The 5th grade social studies curriculum the school uses has a short geography and map skills unit in the beginning before the content units begin. I suggested that instead of only covering geography and map skills in the beginning that we instead incorporate geography mini-lessons for the first 10-15 minutes of our hour social studies block throughout my time student teaching. I offered that suggestion because of how strongly I feel about understanding geography and the role it plays in EVERY social studies unit. She loved the idea and said she's going to continue with the mini-lessons even after I move on to my next placement. That really boosted my confidence, and made me feel like she valued my ideas and what I have to offer her class. She wants me to completely take all 3 social studies blocks by the end of next week!
It appears that I will be writing quite a few lesson on our first unit: Native Americans! This content has always been so interesting to me, and I can't wait to start putting together interactive lessons for this unit.
My kids
I learned every child's name in all the social studies blocks by the end of each class. They were so impressed! I was able to call them by name, and I actually think it meant a lot to them. They were very receptive of me. I learned quite a few things. First, my first week demonstrated to me the importance of classroom management. The kids REALLY need rules and routines for the day to run smoothly. Secondly, I learned the importance of communication about students, especially when considering medical plans. We have TWO students who have epilepsy. I also learned live and in color ( not in a text book or article) just how many different personalities and student characteristics are enveloped into each class, and how important it will be to offer a variety of learning experiences for each student to learn and thrive! The kids are so different from one another, and so awesome in their own ways! It was actually comforting to me- and helped me build confidence- to finally see and experience all these concepts and ideas that we have been learning for the last 18 months in a real classroom setting with real students.
In the coming week, I hope to continue learning my students needs, and begin to build engaging lessons. One goal I have is to come up with a geography mini lesson where they can use their hands to manipulate states. I have some ideas, but I want them to be able to begin to visualize where things are located in this world. It really does connect to every history or social studies lesson and unit.
Classroom Confidential
1. My hope is to be able to incorporate ALL the intelligences into my teaching because in any given classroom, I'm confident that all intelligences will be represented. Furthermore, a lot of the intelligences coincide with one another. If I can design lessons that incorporate all the intelligences, I think all the students will benefit. Even if it may not be their strength, they will be challenged by the lesson. Furthermore, incorporating all the intelligences into lessons for a unit will give the students a chance to closely interact with the content and develop necessary skills.
2. Yes, there are ways that I plan to use Schmidt's "full brain learning". All of the concepts are remarkable, but I love the idea of incorporating imagination and publishing into my social studies class. Social studies is a great class to be able to integrate ideas like imagining they are a historical figure and creating a skit or a dialogue. Publishing can used in the my class in the form of letters written in the perspective of a different person or time. I actualy just had an idea to have to the kids create a sort of newsletter on different lesson segments on the early Native Americans to work on together and publish as a class. Maybe we can even send it home at consistent intervals to parents? Or possibly post our class newsletter outside the door or in the hall for the rest of the school to see? It could include a variety of writing themes (which we are always trying to encourage), drawings, maybe pictures of models they build? It has so many possibilities.
Signing off until next week!
It appears that you had a very full week and an excellent start. Very impressive that you already know the names of your students.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity in the week before school started to get acquainted with your CT and the classroom. I'm so glad you took advantage of that. I hope you see it as trust in you that you are beginning to take over some things right away. It's good that you can see the value of having rules and routines and of being consistent.
ReplyDeleteIf you are thinking of doing some publishing with your students, you might think about publishing online. Students can do blog posts and presentations and actually have an audience if you use some of these great tools.