What I Want for Christmas

Sorry, there's not much here yet, but as I think of things, I'll add them!

CocoMotion (By Mr. Coffee)
I would REALLY REALLY love one of these! You can get them at Walmart for $15 (or at least that is how much they are at the walmart by UVU).
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=1894448

CD Holder for my car
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10333819
It doesn't have to be this exact one, but something like it. It holds 30 CDs!!

Teeth Whitening
Some kind of teeth whitening, such as Crest Whitening Strips.

DVDs
Incredibles
Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Beast
Toy Story
Peter Pan
Newsies
Ice Age
Tarzan
Robin Hood

It's Over...Already??

WOW! I can hardly believe that my 3 week field experience is already over! Oh how time flies! I had a wonderful time at field and am so grateful for the teacher and class that I was assigned to. The teacher, Mrs. Carol Lindley, has already taught me so much! And so have the students! If I had to list the hardest things from my field experience, I think that I could narrow it down to two things: 1.) My first math lesson, and 2.) Knowing how to treat the students, learning how to show the students that I AM a teacher, that I am THEIR teacher, and that they need to respect me as such.
In the past field experiences, I haven't had a hard time finding that roll, and if I did have a little trouble, I didn't worry about it because it was only for 3 weeks. But this time it is different: I'll be their teacher for 10 weeks in the spring as well. Carol has given me tips as to how to inform the students that I AM their teacher, and I will definitely take her suggestions and I trust her that they will work!
I am excited to go back in January. I already miss the students and wish I didn't have to be back at my UVU classes because I love so much being in the classroom teaching!
I am grateful that I will have the opportunity to work with Carol on my teaching skills and that I am not just thrown into a classroom of my own. Yikes, the thought of that scares me still, even though I know that wont happen to me!
I felt that my first math lesson was a little shaky, but Mrs. Lindley said that it went pretty well, and gave me pointers for the next math lessons. Both Carol and I felt that my math lessons got progressively better, which made me very happy! I didn't realize how hard math would be to teach until I had to do it! But I did it, and I liked it by the end!

Day One!

Ok, so I haven't taken our Literacy 2 Midterm test yet, and it's only in the testing center until Saturday, so I totally should be studying for it. But before I start studying, I wanted to quickly post a blog about my first day. It doesn't look like you've checked my blog in a while, but I guess you should never assume either. So here it goes!

Today was fun in my class! I am in a 3rd grade classroom in Pleasant Grove. Nothing extraordinary happened, but I had a fun time getting involved with my class. Tomorrow my teacher will be gone for about 3 hours at a funeral. During that time, the students will be at computers, lunch and lunch recess part of the time. The rest of the time there will be an aid in the classroom, and I'll be "teaching!" I put it in quotes because I didn't do any of the work behind the lessons. I am simply taking the lessons that my teacher would have been teaching and teaching them for her. Which, I know, really IS teaching, but not it wont count towards anything for field :( Too bad, but I don't mind, I'm still excited! Also, my teacher wants me to teach a unit on Persuasive Writing. I am very excited for this as well!! I don't think this will count towards anything towards field assignments either, except for the writing thing that we have to do for...your class I believe. I think I'll try to stretch it into my literacy lessons, but I'll have to ask Pro. Harward first. I wish I could just go and teach during field and get the points needed instead of HAVING to teach this and that and the other. It'd be a TON more enjoyable that way! But I understand why it's not possible.

Well, I'm off to study for my Literacy midterm...yuck.

Rapping in Class!!

Professor Waite joined in the rapping today in class!! It was great fun!

October 20th

(I'm posting this one early because I'm going out of town for Fall Break and I don't want to worry about it while I'm on vacation!)
Pages 120-162
Last week, we read pages 130-140 and 149-162, so really the only pages to be read this week are pages 120-129 and 141-148.

Pg. 120-129
These pages were full of organizers; graphic organizers, note taking organizers, evaluation/learning style organizers, flow charts, etc.
The learning menu seems like it is a type of tiering, but I’m not quite sure if it is or not. On the “menu” the students have one ‘main course’ assignment that everyone has to do, but then there are a few different ‘side dishes’ that the students can choose from. Because the ‘main course’ is the same for all of the students I would say that this idea is not quite tiering. But it would be helpful to have the different ‘side dishes’ because the students can choose an assignment on their level.

Pg. 141-148
Complex Instruction was a little harder for me to follow. I think the basic idea is that in groups the students were given a task to complete. Then after all the groups were done, they shared with the rest of the class what they had learned. This could be tierable because the teacher can put the students into groups that their task fits their learning level. This is a good way to teach a lot of information in a limited amount of time!

October 13th

Pg. 136-140
What is tiered?
Tiering is creating tasks at different degrees of difficulty so that students who are at differing readiness levels can all achieve at levels of difficulty appropriately challenging of them as individuals. Or in other words, creating lessons where all of your students learn the same thing, but in different ways depending on their ability.

Pg. 130-135
Are these tiered? If not how could you tier them?
Think-tac-toe is tiered, it has different questions for higher level and lesser level learners. But at the same time they overlap enough that it doesn’t make it a big deal to the students.
I wouldn’t consider the RAFT as tiered because all the students have the same choices. If it was tiered, then some students would have different activities to choose from that would fit their level better.

Pg. 149-162
Are these “tierable”?
I think that Learning Contracts can be tiered. The students have a group of activities and assignments they have to complete, but the teacher can change what activities certain students do to fit their level as long as the learning objective is still met. The best way to do that might be for the teacher to create a packet of assignments for each student with their level of assignments.
ThinkDots can be tiered. In the reading it says that ThinkDots can be created with different activities on them based on their level.
The sample of Multiple Entry Journals in the book was created in a tiered way. There are basic and advanced versions. So yes, this lesson can be taught in a tiered method.

September 29 Redo

I went through chapters 3 and 4 again and found different things to talk about. I'm still not sure how I got confused on the chapters last time, but thanks for letting me know so that I could fix it!

Chapter 3
This chapter talked a lot about what an invested teacher and a persistent teacher does. When it was talking about all the things an invested teacher does, I was feeling very overwhelmed! If I want to be an invested teacher, students should want to be in my classroom during every free second because they want to be in a place of sanctuary and scaffolding, share my thoughts about the class with my students, want my students opinions, reach out to know and support my students outside of the classroom, be an advocate, be a partner, have clear personal goals that I’m always working towards, exemplify the pursuit of excellence, is not easily discouraged, doesn’t assume a student “missing the mark” is incapable but rather needs to be taught in a different way, and so very much more! I am hoping that a lot of it comes naturally, but as I was reading, seeing everything that I needed to be was almost discouraging! I really want to be all of these things, but what if I “miss the mark?!” In our math class this semester, Professor Shaw has told us on more than one occasion that the job of a first year teacher is to survive. The first year is the worst, so if you can just survive it, then the rest will come easier. I’ve always had a little bit a of a problem with that because I feel as a teacher we need to do a lot more than “survive,” but I don’t know how to disagree with him-you can’t disagree with him!! But I think this chapter has at least part of the answer. Yes, our first year will be hard, but we have so many things we can do to be an invested teacher, and in my opinion we should at least be trying to do these things!

Then we have the persistent teacher. The teacher who generously acknowledges the distance a student has come academically and the distance they still have to go, the teacher who believes failure is not an option, the teacher who finds another way to teach students who are having a hard time learning it the first way it was taught. This teacher seems to be all about the student’s success. In what ways can we motivate a student to continue succeeding? How do we show them that they can succeed? This teacher seems important as well, and I think it will also come naturally. I’m not sure why, but this teacher doesn’t make me as nervous as the invested teacher.

I think the difference for me is that the persistent teacher can take place is school, while the invested teacher is an ongoing thing – inside and outside of school. I am nervous about teaching taking over my life. I love teaching, but I also love to do other things! I don’t want to be so busy being an invested teacher that I don’t have time for my own life. I know that with experience and time I will be able to even things out and find the right balance, but It still makes me a little worried.


Chapter 4
I liked chapter 4 because it gave a bunch of small and good ideas as to how to make the classroom environment the best place for your students. One that I particularly liked was how it talked about having your classroom divided into different learning types. Have a space for quiet individual learners, interactive learners and hands-on learners. Your students can’t always learn in different ways, but whenever possible, you can create different ways of learning a concept and the students can decide which way they learn the best! Another idea that I really liked was to teach your students time management. With that, I also thought you can talk to your students on an adult level. As much as possible don’t just expect them to “not understand” why things are done or the way you feel about something. Whenever possible and appropriate, explain things to your students. They will probably understand more than you are giving them credit for! A scenario that I liked talked about a teacher who had a big box of old keys. Each student got a key ring and as they had “breakthroughs” in knowledge or behavior they received a key. The teacher said that the cool thing about it was when a guest or parent came into the classroom, each student could tell the guest why they received each key. Although the keys normally wouldn’t mean anything to the students, the teacher used them as a positive reinforcement, and it worked really well! It just goes to show how simple things can create a huge impact. In the book it didn’t say anything about this, but I’m sure the teacher used some kind of catchy phrase, such as “You hold the keys to your success” or “you create the keys to your success” along with the keys.

October 6th 2008

Chapter 5
I liked how it compared the two teachers and then said, “The difference was that the first teacher taught algebra. The second teacher taught me German.” I think that is an important capability. Our students want us to invest in them and be interested in how they are doing! We need to work with our students the best we can to teach them in a way that they learn the best. That can get tricky when you have 30 students, but as a teacher, we need to do our best to work with each child so they know we care and believe they can succeed!
We need to engage our students into our lessons. I liked the list of ways to do this: novelty, cultural significance, personal interest, personal relevance or passion, emotional connection, product focus, potential to make a contribution or link with something greater than self, and choice. I think that these things are truly important and using these engaging factors can create a great lesson! We want to keep our lessons demanding but not overwhelmingly hard for our students. When an assignment is demanding and they accomplish it, they feel great about of themselves and feel like they can do other things that are hard for them. But if we give them an assignment that is overwhelming, then there is a good chance the student might give up!

Chapter 6
When the student’s work is focused, important and engaging, the students will have an easier time knowing what the most important information is and getting their work done. In return, the teacher will know more clearly what the student understands and how they focus best.
A great way of teaching is to use real life scenarios. Teach the students about traffic accident patterns. After learning about them your students can devise a solution to the problem. Not only does this teach your students problem solving skills, but how to get involved in the community. You can take this project another step further and have your students prepare presentations to present their ideas to the City Council. They can either present them to the class, or you can have the City Council come to your class and listen to the presentations. This teaches the students how to create a presentation and to be persuasive with their ideas to important people.
I don’t remember ever doing that in any of my classes, but we did take on adult type rolls. I remember being the store keeper in our classroom store. I had to apply for the job and then I was in charge of making sure it all happened right. I was so excited to have the job, I thought it was so cool!

Ice Skating

Some of my friends and I went Ice Skating last week. The boys wanted to do a trick, so I used Sean's camera to record them doing their trick. When we were done I saw that we had quite a bit recorded so I decided to combine it all into one video. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

September 29th

Chapter 3
We, as teachers, need to help the students have equal chances. Not only do we need to make sure this happens, but we should also make sure the students know that you are trying your hardest to provide them an equal chance. I liked the example of the teacher who greeted each child individually and had the student put their “troubles” in a basket on their way into class and write down a word they aren’t familiar with (which they go over later on in the day). I liked how it talked about mentors, advocates and partners. I can see the benefit of trying to be all three of them to our students

Chapter 4
I like how it talks about mistakes can be helpful. Even the teachers mistakes, when shared with the students, can be used to show why something doesn’t work, or how to figure out the correct answer when you’re wrong. I liked how the book told about a teacher who created a code word. “Bingo” meant that the students had done their absolute best work. So when the teacher asked if a paper was bingo, and the student answered yes, it meant that the student had worked their hardest and done their best on the paper. I think that you could find a word that means something to your students and have it be a code word for excellence. If the word means something, like an acronym, the students might feel like the word is even more significant. I liked the ‘teach up, work up’ because it reminded me of the saying, “Shoot for the moon, even if you don’t hit it you’ll make it to the stars!” If you give your students work that is slightly above their level, they will still try, and who knows, maybe they’ll be able to make it! But even if they don’t quite make it, they will have tried and have learned something new! I liked how it said that your observations of the students should be 50% on the positive things they’re doing, and 50% on the deficits. I think that is very important; it means you don’t focus on their deficits any more than ½ of the time! Another thing is that while observing the students, keep in mind that whatever conclusion you come to should be taken tentatively because the student is always changing, meaning the student is always doing better!

September 22nd

As for the getting to know you questions, I think that some of they would be great to use! I don’t know if I would use them for my student teaching because I will be coming in half way through the year. The students will already know each other, so I don’t think I’d send this home with them. We could play a short getting to know you game with those questions. For my student teaching, I will talk with the teacher I will be working with.

When I have my own classroom, I will definitely use a set of questions like the ones we looked at. Instead of learning about your students only through observations, I think a getting to know you sheet is a great way to get to know your students and how they learn in a much quicker. It looks a great way to find out about the background of your students. I especially liked the idea of taking the getting to know you papers to the students houses so that you can observe their home environment.

I also liked the content specific inventory. I think the inventory is a great way to introduce your students to a new subject in an interesting way. It is interesting to me, as a teacher, to see how much my students know, and it is interesting to a student to be able to see what they already know and what they’ll be learning!
The papers on the writing evaluation I think would be good for older grades when they’re doing writer’s workshop or some kind of self evaluation of their own or a peer’s writing.

There were quite a few different papers that looked as though they could be fun and/or helpful

Differentiation blog

Readings: Blackboard article, Part 1 from Differentiation in Practice and Chapters 1 and 2 from Fulfilling the Promise

Okay, I'm not 100% sure what is expected from this blog, so I'm just going to talk about what I liked from them.

From the blackboard article I really liked how it gave the guidelines for how to make a good Morning Meetings. It said that morning meetings are the closest some of your students will come to a "breakfast conversation". And how even the students felt that it helped them focus better in school!

The Practice book did a good job of making me aware of what I'm getting into! It reminded me a lot of my last field experience. The teacher, Mrs. Cox, had math groups. Each week she would place the students into math groups depending on their level and then they would rotate through centers, one of which was direct instruction from the teacher. It worked really well for her, but I could see how it was more work on her part. However, if you're going to teach differentiation, its probably a good way to go! I also really liked the baseball camp metaphor. I feel that as teachers we will be doing the same thing the coach did (50% school instruction and 50% life instruction). We will be teaching our students about responsibility, being dependable, honest, how to study, focus, and so many social skills!

I felt that the readings in Fulfilling (chapters 1 and 2) were a lot like the Practice reading...I liked how it talked about every student wanting a personal connection to the teacher. Through teaching diversely I think we get to know the students on a personal level better.I am starting to see how Morning Meetings can help a student find what they seek (purpose, power, affirmation, contribution, and challenge). It makes sense to me that through a morning meeting we can make the students feel a part of a community.