Recently I have been able to attend a computer session with my host classroom. I have also been able to observe students completing reading work and quizzes on the classroom computer. Students, who I rarely see speaking in class, are easily able to complete tasks and questions that they usually struggle with when doing reading handouts or speaking in class.
Also, students were able to show a great amount of Math knowledge and skill when being in the computer class. Students logged onto the computer and were able to go onto a website that gave them practice problems. As I walked around, I noticed many students were easily completing the questions and moving onto different topics.
Students have a very firm and good grasp on using technology. Doing the regualr dittos seems to not work as well with students. But sadly there is not a lot of technology in my host classroom, which is a shame because those students would really benefit in showing their skills and learning abilities.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Practicum Experience
Over the course of my practicum experience so far I feel like i am not learning anything really beneficial from my host teacher. Let me try that again. I am not learning anything that I would really use in my future classroom. Instead I am learning how NOT to act as a teacher in the classroom.
For example, if my students have a question or are confused about something, I will not just simply brush them off and move onto the next topic or question on a ditto. There is one student in the classroom that gets visibly frustrated whenever he gets stuck on a question for an extra few seconds or an additional minute. The teacher seems to ignore his frustration and moves onto the next question. This causes the students to verbally voice his annoyance, thrown down his pencil, and dismiss the ditto or sweep it to the floor. For the rest of the lesson he will usually just sit there while the other students do their own dittos. I have been trying to work with the student whenever I notice him struggling and try to encourage him and help him to complete the ditto so that he does not fall behind the rest of the class. I let him know the parts that he got correct and try to guide him using his strengths, which tends to work most of the time. Also, I try to surprise him with my support and relate a problem or question to his life or interests.
But it's hard when I don't seem to have the support or guidance of my host teacher on my side.
Recently, I helped the student completed a diamond poem that students were working on in class. He came to me with spelling struggles and even let me help him fix some things that the teacher wanted corrected or changed. I really felt very happy inside when he came to me with a question or a correction.
For example, if my students have a question or are confused about something, I will not just simply brush them off and move onto the next topic or question on a ditto. There is one student in the classroom that gets visibly frustrated whenever he gets stuck on a question for an extra few seconds or an additional minute. The teacher seems to ignore his frustration and moves onto the next question. This causes the students to verbally voice his annoyance, thrown down his pencil, and dismiss the ditto or sweep it to the floor. For the rest of the lesson he will usually just sit there while the other students do their own dittos. I have been trying to work with the student whenever I notice him struggling and try to encourage him and help him to complete the ditto so that he does not fall behind the rest of the class. I let him know the parts that he got correct and try to guide him using his strengths, which tends to work most of the time. Also, I try to surprise him with my support and relate a problem or question to his life or interests.
But it's hard when I don't seem to have the support or guidance of my host teacher on my side.
Recently, I helped the student completed a diamond poem that students were working on in class. He came to me with spelling struggles and even let me help him fix some things that the teacher wanted corrected or changed. I really felt very happy inside when he came to me with a question or a correction.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Substitute + Harvest Party = Chaos!
So i finally got to experience my first time with a substitute teacher this past week in my practicum classroom. It was not too bad but really it was kinda strange. The sub did not really do much and she basically was just there to be there.
The students seemed to not really like her that much and ran wild. She could not really control them at all, and some of the time i had to step in to do something. But there was also a harvest party that day in class, so i got to experience my first classroom party with the students.
For the most part the students behaved themselves. They had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing the different party games that the parents brought in to the classroom. Afterwards they each received candy and a Halloween goodie bag with more treats. So needless to say, students were very very hyper at the end of the day. :)
The students seemed to not really like her that much and ran wild. She could not really control them at all, and some of the time i had to step in to do something. But there was also a harvest party that day in class, so i got to experience my first classroom party with the students.
For the most part the students behaved themselves. They had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing the different party games that the parents brought in to the classroom. Afterwards they each received candy and a Halloween goodie bag with more treats. So needless to say, students were very very hyper at the end of the day. :)
Friday, October 28, 2011
Technology Observation
I was lucky enough this past week to get to visit the technology classroom with my host class. The room was filled with computers and each station had a mini net book laptop. . . not really sure why since the students could use the regular computers.
The students logged onto the computer and went on the internet to access a website where they did little practice math problems. There was a whole long list of differnet skills that students could practice and work on. It was really interesting to see the student using the internet and benefiting from technology. After each problem student would see the correct answer and work on improving next time. After they finished, student were able to play some interactive games on the computer that were appropriate for their grade level.
The students could also do some reading comprehension work and used headphones to listen to the read-a-loud. It was really great to see the students benefiting from using the technology and practicing different subject skills.
The students logged onto the computer and went on the internet to access a website where they did little practice math problems. There was a whole long list of differnet skills that students could practice and work on. It was really interesting to see the student using the internet and benefiting from technology. After each problem student would see the correct answer and work on improving next time. After they finished, student were able to play some interactive games on the computer that were appropriate for their grade level.
The students could also do some reading comprehension work and used headphones to listen to the read-a-loud. It was really great to see the students benefiting from using the technology and practicing different subject skills.
Friday, October 14, 2011
SMARTBOARD presentation in edu 315!
So i kept forgetting to upload this from my computer but this goes back to the day that my group presented to class using the SMARTBOARD. I was so nervous in the beginning because I am horrible with technology. I can just use the basics like PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. And even those can be challenging whenever there is a software update. Also I get so nervous being up in front of a crowd.
Surprisingly the presentation went pretty well. It was fun using the SMARTBOARD. I found the tools to be simple and not that difficult for a novice like myself. It was fun creating the word problems too! I could tell that my classmates enjoyed reading about themselves in the problems. It was fun to see students come up and use the SMARTBOARD to move the coins around and solve the problems. The graphics were nice, colorful and creative too! Students really seemed engaged!
Surprisingly the presentation went pretty well. It was fun using the SMARTBOARD. I found the tools to be simple and not that difficult for a novice like myself. It was fun creating the word problems too! I could tell that my classmates enjoyed reading about themselves in the problems. It was fun to see students come up and use the SMARTBOARD to move the coins around and solve the problems. The graphics were nice, colorful and creative too! Students really seemed engaged!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Field Observation 1
Well on Wednesday I finally did it! Finally I was able to walk down the halls of an elementary school building and meet my third grade host teacher and the students! As I was walking to the school I felt all my nerves gather up inside. Literally hundreds of tiny butterflies were flapping their wings against my stomach. Sure I had been around children before but never in such a structured setting as a school classroom. As I walked towards the room my mind kept repeating a mantra of questions: Would the students like me? Could I really handle impacting how a student learned a lesson? Would the students feel comfortable enough with me? Would they even let me help them? But I was pleasantly surprised just how easily the day went after I got over my initial uneasiness.
The students were actually very interested in what I spoke about. When I went to introduce myself and described that I enjoyed reading, sports, watching shows that the students might also enjoy, and playing video games, I took note on how the students responded. Many of them went on to say that they also loved reading, played a variety of sports (cheerleading, soccer, football, etc.), and almost everyone said he or she enjoyed playing video games too! The students then asked me questions and my favorite things and took great delight that I was able to understand exactly what they were talking about when speaking about their favorite things.
My host teacher even had me read aloud a book to the students about Abraham Lincoln. Now here was something that I knew all about: making stories sound fun and interesting to others. The students were engaged in the reading as I asked them questions about various points in the book.
Later on in the day there was a small grammar lesson and ditto for the students to work on. During that time I was able to walk around the room and assist students when they had a question or appeared to be struggling with a certain question. I noticed that some students looked up at me when I walked by just to make sure that I was there if they needed me. I was amazed at how some of the students were at completing the ditto! Some of them even were writing out there answers in cursive! Wow!
One of the last things I was able to do was help a student one-on-one. The student and I went out into the hallway and worked on correcting her math ditto that she completed earlier in the morning. I helped the student look back at the problems, re-read the word problems and discover where she struggled in finding the correct solution. She was able to pick up on her mistakes pretty quickly and I was patient on the parts where she had trouble coming to the answer.
Even after my first visit I know that I will still be nervous each time that I go in to do my hours. Being a teacher is nerve-racking but I think that these are good nerves. I am not dreading it. Instead I am excited and cannot wait to see what I can teach the students. More importantly I cannot wait to see what they teach me!
The students were actually very interested in what I spoke about. When I went to introduce myself and described that I enjoyed reading, sports, watching shows that the students might also enjoy, and playing video games, I took note on how the students responded. Many of them went on to say that they also loved reading, played a variety of sports (cheerleading, soccer, football, etc.), and almost everyone said he or she enjoyed playing video games too! The students then asked me questions and my favorite things and took great delight that I was able to understand exactly what they were talking about when speaking about their favorite things.
My host teacher even had me read aloud a book to the students about Abraham Lincoln. Now here was something that I knew all about: making stories sound fun and interesting to others. The students were engaged in the reading as I asked them questions about various points in the book.
Later on in the day there was a small grammar lesson and ditto for the students to work on. During that time I was able to walk around the room and assist students when they had a question or appeared to be struggling with a certain question. I noticed that some students looked up at me when I walked by just to make sure that I was there if they needed me. I was amazed at how some of the students were at completing the ditto! Some of them even were writing out there answers in cursive! Wow!
One of the last things I was able to do was help a student one-on-one. The student and I went out into the hallway and worked on correcting her math ditto that she completed earlier in the morning. I helped the student look back at the problems, re-read the word problems and discover where she struggled in finding the correct solution. She was able to pick up on her mistakes pretty quickly and I was patient on the parts where she had trouble coming to the answer.
Even after my first visit I know that I will still be nervous each time that I go in to do my hours. Being a teacher is nerve-racking but I think that these are good nerves. I am not dreading it. Instead I am excited and cannot wait to see what I can teach the students. More importantly I cannot wait to see what they teach me!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Puzzle Project FUN!
So for an optional project we had to make a puzzle. So at first I was thinking, "ok how can a puzzle teach a student to learn?". I mean when i think of puzzles i think of too many pieces becoming lost and a lot of frustration, so I was a little hesitant about actually attempting the project.
However once i clicked the project tap and read the details of the assignmentI actually thought it sounded pretty neat. It also made me think about all the different dittos that my elementary teachers would hand out to the class and have us complete during each day. Different lessons, topics, or special events always warrented a new set of papers for my ever growing folder.
Looking back I could probably find a bunch of old dittos from halloween, science, spring, spelling, and probably even some about math too. Really no lesson was off limits or impossible to make a puzzle for. As a student you never really think about the benefits of doing a simple puzzle or that you are even learning something but really you are. Through puzzles we are taught vocabulary, science and math terms, and other different facts. And as a student we find puzzles to be both challenging and fun at the same. Part of the challenge of being a teacher is to incorporate fun activities into lessons so that students enjoy learning new facts.
After making a few of the puzzles I actually found myself wanting to make some for myself just for fun. My friends even enjoyed doing some of my puzzles after I printed a few out. Puzzles are very versitle and can be used for anything!
And really what student doesn't enjoy solving a good puzzle challenge?!
However once i clicked the project tap and read the details of the assignmentI actually thought it sounded pretty neat. It also made me think about all the different dittos that my elementary teachers would hand out to the class and have us complete during each day. Different lessons, topics, or special events always warrented a new set of papers for my ever growing folder.
Looking back I could probably find a bunch of old dittos from halloween, science, spring, spelling, and probably even some about math too. Really no lesson was off limits or impossible to make a puzzle for. As a student you never really think about the benefits of doing a simple puzzle or that you are even learning something but really you are. Through puzzles we are taught vocabulary, science and math terms, and other different facts. And as a student we find puzzles to be both challenging and fun at the same. Part of the challenge of being a teacher is to incorporate fun activities into lessons so that students enjoy learning new facts.
After making a few of the puzzles I actually found myself wanting to make some for myself just for fun. My friends even enjoyed doing some of my puzzles after I printed a few out. Puzzles are very versitle and can be used for anything!
And really what student doesn't enjoy solving a good puzzle challenge?!
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