Getting to experience the inquiry conference before going into my first year of teaching was humbling and inspiring. I realized just how much there is to learn about the field I am entering from management to content strategies. I was so impressed with some of my colleagues and fellow teachers. I really do feel that I was able to take away from a few of the inquiry presentations, specially one on turning the work of management into the students hands This teacher was able to take the tedious task of managing off task behaviors and give the student that responsibility. The outcome of this was very effective and I can’t wait to apply in my own classroom. When presenting my inquiry I realized just how much I really did learn and that I truly was passionate about what I was studying.
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This week I am taking the time out of my day to get to observe other teachers for the last week of my residence. Since I am doing this it is making me realize just how much I have to do in order to be prepare for the coming year. How do I want my ELA block to look more like my CT’s or the third grade teacher across the hall. There is just so much that goes into the preparation of setting up my classroom and management style. Since I have been observing I know I must go back to the books I read for management and find more, so that I can really determine where my own preference align. This week in school we had the amazing opportunity to plan across multiple curriculums. We have linked science to writing, reading, and social studies! In science we are learning about invasive species. In order to maximize on student leaning our literacy planning merged with our science instruction. In literacy we are reading about different invasive species, the students have to read a mystery and be able to infer what invasive species is causing the problem in the story based on the articles they have read about a set list of species. In writing they are comparing and contrasting two different species and how humans effect them, there are then taking this information and writing an action plan to inform other of how they can help these animals. In social studies they are picking from a set list of animals and looking out how this species has directly effected Florida’s environment. Creating lessons like this really helps the student conceptualize and understand the concept.
My students, like almost every grade level, are moving into life science. We started off with setting up and LTI so that they can really experience a plant as it goes through its life cycle throughout the unit. We are supposed to jump right into the parts of a flower and discuss how a flower goes through reproduction. However I wanted to see what they retained from third grade where they learned about the parts of a plant. In my pre-assessment I found that only one student knew what the flower purpose was, and they all seemed to be even more confused with how the other parts functioned. They saw them as all separate parts and not as one cohesive unit, not seeing that the parts of the plant work together to keep it living. Because of what I found in my pre-assessment I felt that we needed to go over a brief over view of the parts of the plant and their functions. In order to demonstrate that the stem carries water up the plant we started another investigation with celery and food coloring. This is an experiment that many of the students have done but I feel as though it will serve as an important refresher. As we continue in the unit and start to learn about how plants reproduce I will have to make sure to keep referring them to the things that they learned last year in order to provide them with the refreshers.
Over the last few weeks I have been going through my final mathematic content coaching cycle. After planning and delivering for the lesson I have realized there are a few things that I could work to improve. I need to make sure that when I am having students share their work that I am not just having a public conference with this student. By this I mean that it’s not just a conversation with myself and the student why the others just sit and watch with sheepish eyes. In order to change how this is going I think it would be beneficial if they were the ones asking the questions. This will get students who aren’t sharing their work to be a part of the conversation as well as helping the student how is sharing to become more familiar with the process and methods they are going through to solve problems. One way to help with this process would be to have math stems, sets of question for the student to use to enhance and drive their conversations. I haven’t found exactly what I want these stems to be and they would vary based on the content being taught (geometry and fraction stems would be very different. Both my content coach and I are on the look out for something to fit this need. Another thing that I would like to improve upon would be the resource I choose to use. For this lesson I created my own worksheet but ended up using more of the Go Math questions. In the end this made it harder for them to do problems with multiple steps in them because the Go Math hadn’t given them the exposure they needed.
In class we did mock parent teacher conferences, In this process we had to gather evidence and talk the parents through how are chosen student is doing in school. I found that behavior talks were much more difficult for me then the academic talks. Even in the case that the students were struggling academically I felt that I had enough data to back up how they are doing academically. Where as when it came to behavior it seemed harder to justify, because as a teacher our view of the student is so far off from the parents view. This just tells me I need to have a way to record daily behaviors, or even some sort of journal system for each student. This process would ensure that I have enough data to back up my claims. In science this week we are moving on from natural resources and are talking about the life cycles of plants. I have come to realize that so much of this is stuff that I just assumed I knew. I was using terms very interchangeably, that certainly shouldn’t be used as such. It just shows me how much I have to reteach myself before I can talk to the students. That being said I feel like learning this information for the purpose of teaching it is so much more beneficial to me. Because I am not familiar with the concepts I am thinking much my students will be, this allows me to structure the lessons to build on their prior knowledge and really support the students. I am intrigued as to how this unfamiliarity will affect my teaching.
Because we were preparing the students for the FSA’s we wanted to make sure to at least introduce them to the types of problems they would be expected to see on the test. In order to do this we had to move very fast through some very difficult concepts. Now that testing is over we get the opportunity so go back and reteach these concepts to make sure the students have a solid understanding of these concepts.
This week we are going to be looking at perimeter and area, because we aren’t sure how much stuck with them we are taking planning day by day. For instance today almost none of the students misunderstood how to calculate perimeter but had more issues with the computation. So tomorrow we will move on to area and then pull a small group to catch those who still need a little help on perimeter. It is my hope that one day I will be able to manage my classroom where I can do this all of the time and not worry about keeping up with the district calendar, doing this will really allow me to focus on student needs and give them a strong understanding to help them through the years. On March 19th I had the awesome opportunity to attend Hillsborough County’s Spring Student Intern Information Meeting. As a future Elementary Educator of Hillsborough County I was pleased with what I learned at this meeting. I got to learn about teacher orientation and find out the dates the county would be holding this for elementary educators. I got more insight as to what the county looks for on a resume and learned about their application process. Most importantly I got to hold a mock interview with the Principal of Graham Elementary School. In this interview I was able to answer almost every question she asked quickly, a few I had to think about to ensure it was what I truly thought, not just saying the first thing that came to my mind. Also upon reflecting on the interview and my answers I feel as though my responses were very closely aligned with how I believe and I was not just saying something to get something out. Lately I have felt as though I am not equipped or that others seem to have just a strong grasp on things then I do. When I was in the interview situation I surprised my self with how confident I was in my own answers and questions, the whole process made me realize how close to being ready I truly am and what I need to focus on for the rest of my time in the UTRPP. (All 4O some days I have left.) Another valuable lesson I took from the mock interview was how important it is to know about the school. I was unaware of all of the schools that would be present at this meeting, so when it came time to the interviews and I found out I took my time to look at where the schools were and then learn more about schools that were closest to me. I only had 5-10 minutes to research Gram Elementary before my interview. This made me realize how many questions I still had. I wanted to know what the Demographics of the school, the schools grade and how it varied though the years, was the school Title One? I now know for my next interview, even it were to be at my internship school I really need to be sure and do my research before even going to the interview. I have felt lately that my fourth-graders who are a part of my literature circle have become bored or simply not challenged. Because this is an enrichment group I knew I had to change things up and really change them. In order to do this I came up with Mr. Baker’s Book Blog. http://mrbakersbookblog.weebly.com/
This site will have a variety of different uses. I will use it to post student work but also as a discussion board to extend on what we talk and read about. I also hope to use it in order to keep more of a consistent schedule for my student while I am away for testing and after May because I am not sure how my role will change. By building the routine now It is my hope that the student will continue their literature circle even if I am not present in the classroom. |
AuthorTeacher in Training Archives
April 2015
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