Lights, Camera, Action

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays you will no longer find me on campus, you can find me in my classroom at the back, kidney shaped table, teaching and working with various groups of students.  My CE is beginning to expose me to more and more responsibilities in and out of the classroom that come along with the profession of teaching.  I was really excited when I got to observe the TRC testing of some of my students!  My CE also asked me to sign their agendas and help them pack up at the end of the day, so I was able to practice that routine with them as well.  This past week I was able to stay my first full day and eat with the kids, they loved me sitting down with them and having normal conversation.  All of them were asking me questions and telling me stories all at once, and I barely could hear myself think, but that was the best lunch break I ever had!  This week I started to record my lessons, or at least attempt to, and the students were infatuated with the iPad setup.  I had to warn them to be on their best behavior because if they caused me to get a bad grade, I was not going to be happy with them.  They took it serious, and like my CE always says, she loves third grade because you can be direct with them and they understand.  My third graders knew my expectations for while I was recording, and we had no problems... at least for day 1!

I found another article on Edutopia.org that was about letting students take brain breaks and doing focused attention practices.  This first caught my attention because my CE does brain breaks quite often in her class.  However, some of their ideas for these activities and techniques did not line up to what I have been seeing in my classroom, so I decided to read further into it.  During my experience, I got to do a read aloud with my students, but in the article, it was more of student lead activities.  I am just going to tell you my top two brain break activities from the article, which were: Squiggle Story and Opposite Sides.  Squiggle Story is where one person, or the teacher draws a squiggle line, and then the student has one minute to draw with their opposite hand and complete a figure or picture out of the squiggly line.  Opposite sides is a movement activity where the students, for an example, will blink their right eye, while snapping their left hand.  These are just fun, relaxer activities to break up the routine when needed sometimes.  The second half of the article talked about focused-attention practices and how to calm the students before instruction.  These activities will allow students to disregard any thoughts that may be causing them distraction.  My favorite two from this list of suggestions was: Colors and Sound.  The colors activity is a breathing activity where the students breathe in a brighter color, such as green and breathe out a duller color like a darker gray.  The other activity, sound is calming music that is supposed to help one focus and stimulate the brain.  As a matter of fact, I am listening to a piece while I write this blog post.

If you would like to check out some of these different activities to boost your students' interest in your classroom, or calm them before your instruction click here.

Here is the sound piece that I listened to while writing this blog post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYG0a7NOW_E

This blog post correlated with NCTCS number four.  The teacher is responsible for facilitating learning by allowing the students to complete activities that engage the students and expand their thinking skills.    

Ready for the Real World

As we are continuing to familiarize ourselves with our clinical placements, I have been spending more and more time in my classroom observing, assisting, and teaching.  Today, I spent my first full day at my clinical site and loved every minute of it.  It was a typical Monday, so the students were a little drowsy coming through the doors; however, my teacher found a quick fix to that when she allowed them to turn and talk with a partner during their morning work time.  The students got to discuss what they did over the weekend.  She used this exercise to improve their active listening skills, and to get them engaged and excited to start their day.  I also started my small group instruction today and I was very pleased with the effort and participation from all of my students!  I look forward to continuing to work with them throughout the semester.

This week, the principal at my school actually sent us an article from Edutopia.com bragging about how great it was and she encouraged us to check it out.  The article is called "9 Ways To Plan Transformational Lessons: Planning The Best Curriculum Unit Ever" After reading this article, I was able to gain some great tips on how to make my lesson plans stronger and more meaningful.  This article did a great job of explaining the importance of the 9 ways to plan the best curriculum unit.  Some of the tips were common sense, but it always nice to have a refresher that emphasizes the importance of teaching the standards by being creative, using different technological resources, and working together to share ideas on how to teach a particular concept.  The 9 Ways that this article lists to plan great curriculum unit are as follows:

1. Know the Standards, Curriculum, Core Concepts, and Strategies

2. Shift From Solo to Collaborative Lesson Design

3. Create the Assessment Before Developing Content

4. Write Objectives for Students (Not an Administrator) to Read

5. Create Presentations That Do More Showing and Less Telling

6. Don't Forget the Introverts

7. Provide More Opportunities for Students to Choose How They Accomplish Tasks

8. Plan Ahead

9. Integrate Productive Struggle Into the Curriculum

Here is the article if you would also like to check it out: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/9-ways-plan-transformational-lessons-todd-finley

 

I love that this situation my principal took the initiative to share a resource that helps to better the professional development aspect of her school.  I think this resource can tie in with NCTCS 1 because a teacher leader shares their ideas with others.  It also correlates with NCTCS 3 because the article clearly states several times, teacher should know the curriculum they teach.  Also, when applying these 9 ways to plan a great unit, NCTCS 2 and 4 are addressed because the teacher should recognize the differences in among the students and be able to differentiate instruction to cater to their strengths.   

 

1,2,3.... EYES ON ME!

As I have been completing my Learning Experience 4 and starting on Learning Experience 5, I have been observing and researching different classroom management techniques.  I just find this topic so intriguing because every teacher has their own style in how they go about handling the procedures in their classroom.  Learning from m observations I have seen that  my Clinical Educator is very direct with how she handles communicating her expectations for the students.  If the students do not follow her instruction, or do not obey the rules, she either uses nonverbal or verbal reminders to get the student back on track without allowing it to disrupt class.

This week I found an article that gave 5 priorities of classroom management for beginning teachers.  I thought this article was very helpful because it listed out and elaborated on each item that was listed, as well as incorporating other resources that supported each point.

The 5 Priorities that this article covered are as follows:

1. Developing effective working relationships with students
2. Training students on how learning takes place in your classroom
3. Protecting and leveraging time
4. Anticipating student behaviors in well-written lesson plans
5. Establishing standards of behavior that promote student learning.

I agree with each of these points that are listed because I have witnessed the importance of building a relationship with each student in the class, and how it affects their perspective of learning in your classroom for the rest of the year.  Also, as I am observing in my clinical placement and the school year has just begun, it is very important to train the students how the learning procedures take place in the classroom.  This will help save time, which is the third on the list and will make things more comfortable and time efficient for all.  As the teacher learns and builds those relationships with their students, it is important to implement things like the students' behavioral patterns, attention span, interests, etc. in your lessons to make the best learning experience for the students.  Lastly, students need to know the expectations and standards that are set for them to meet and how to achieve them up front.  Don't expect your students to know how they are supposed to behave in a certain situation, if you have never taught them.  These are just five things to keep in mind as you begin to design your own classroom management plan and I hope you enjoyed reading over these priorities!

Classroom management can really relate to NCTCS 1,2,4.  It address teacher leadership, by the teacher establishing authority in the classroom and demanding the students' respect.  Classroom management can also tie in with teaching standard two, because the teacher should treat each student as an individual and should really invest in every student.  Lastly, facilitating learning for students can be used along with classroom management because lesson planning is key to success in the classroom, and planning lessons that are appropriate for their students can make or break a learning experience.  

Here is the link of the article if you would like to read for further information:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-priorities-classroom-management-ben-johnson

         

Create, Conduct, Critique

This week, everything has turned around for me!  I am going to my classroom multiple times a week now and my communication with my CE has became more stable.  Last week, I decided to put together a calendar list of everything that was due for the semester.  With a pretty lengthy document, it was easy for me to become overwhelmed.  However, I keep telling myself that I will tackle one assignment at a time and will be successful as if I prioritize my time.  Time management and routine are starting to mesh together, which is making my week go by faster and smoother.

I found a really interesting article on Edutopia that presented an awesome idea called "Change It Up With Integrated Learning Day".  This article got my attention because it was about something I had never heard of before.  To break it down for you in a quick manner, basically the entire school day is centered around one theme.  Teachers are supposed to collaborate and pair up to create hands on workshops for the students to become engaged in and learn something out of them.  During the article, it provides step by step how to build an integrated learning day. The steps are, as follows: Step 1. Create a buy-in
Step 2. Plan, collaborate, and plan some more
Step 3. Make it work
Step 4. Reflect on your accomplishments.

This idea actually was presented at an EdCamp, but if you would like to know more about how to "Change It Up With Integrated Learning Day", I really suggest you check out this article for more details!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/change-it-up-integrated-learning-day-samantha-pack

The teaching standard that immediately popped into my head while reading this article was standard 1.  Teachers demonstrate leadership.  The ideas and actions that this article talks about models everything this standard emphasizes beautifully!  Also, teaching standard number 5, reflect on one's practice; recognize the pros and cons of how the integrated day went.  Reflect and remember what to change or improve for the next integrated day that is planned,

 Do you think this would be something you would want to try in your school, or grade level?!!