Tuesday, May 10, 2016

The Beauty of Teaching

     Last week was the final week of our spring semester and it was bittersweet. Social Studies methods seemed so very hard and I thought it was going to be impossible to make it through, but I did. I learned a lot of valuable teaching lessons and I feel that I grew as a person as well. 

     The course outcomes were, in a summarization, to be able to teach different aspects of Social Studies through different types of teaching skills. I feel that these skills, inquiry and cooperative learning, were definitely developed and mastered throughout the course of the semester. Also, I enjoyed learning about the different aspects of Social Studies. Before this class I was not very confident in teaching Social Studies, now I feel I could just teach Social Studies. I also feel that Social Studies is such a fun topic now. I really loved all of the topics that we covered in class and the different aspects of Social Studies. Another course outcome that I am extremely excited about is the edTPA course outcome. I felt that this was unnecessary originally; however, I am excited to have had an advantage among other students who not done this practice edTPA. Overall, I feel I learning a lot from this course.

     My unit plan was very tedious but, again, I feel this was very helpful in teaching me more about education itself. My unit plan design starts with my three main lessons on the three Native American tribes: The Pueblo, Sioux, and Powhatan. These tribes then moved into my last lesson, the artifact bag. I completed my artifact bag on the Pueblo tribe. The fourth lesson plan was a little different, and focused on strong women. Also referred to as “Women in History.” This can tie into the rest of my unit plan because it has to do with history, and in our lessons we touched on an important woman from those three Native American tribes. I enjoyed putting together this lesson plan because all of my topics were interesting. I loved the “Women in History”  lesson the most. 

     Fieldwork was a huge part of this Social Studies methods class. I feel that I grew from working with a whole class versus small groups. I actually preferred to work with the whole class because I feel it is more realistic to what teaching is going to be. Also, by working with students on so many different academic and social levels I was able to gain experience with all of them. I also enjoyed our cooperating teacher, Ms. Pozzulo. She was helpful in showing us what we should use. I really enjoyed fieldwork this semester and I am excited to see where the students go. 

      Overall, I den say that I am coming out of this class more informed. I am also better prepared to teach students of the future. I would like to say thank you to Dr. Smirnova because without her, I wouldn’t have made it through this semester. She was always understanding and was very helpful when I asked questions. I wish the best to everyone from Social Studies Methods Spring 2016.


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

I GOT THE JOB

     Mock interview day was today, and wow. I think that these mock interview with administrators were extremely beneficial. They gave the interviewees an insight into the world of getting a job in a school. I really loved this experience, because all of the administrators had great questions that would definitely show up in a real interview.

     All of the administrators, Erin, Mallory, Emily, and Melissa, came to the groups with their a-game. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to them. To start off, I was interviewed in a group by Melissa. She was the administrator for direct instruction school. My favorite question from Melissa was about the house. There are three levels, the foundation, walls, and the roof, and she asked our group to choose which goes on top and which goes elsewhere. I said that the foundation was standards because standards are the base of all our lessons. Next, I said that I would put assessment and lessons were the walls because they are the base of all teaching which is: learning. I answered that learning would be the roof because it is within learning that all of these others aspects come. The second administrator, Emily, came to my group next. Emily was very insightful and her focus was cooperative learning. She asked a question about what color do we think we would choose to represent cooperative learning. I felt this was a great question because everyone has their own opinions and they gave great, descriptive answers. The third administrator for our mock trial day was Mallory. Mallory was focused on using inquiry skills within her school. There was not a question that she asked that I felt was an outstanding question. She was very polite. The final interviewer that we had was Erin. Erin focused on the cooperative learning process. I do not remember the exact question she asked, but it had something to do with a type of learning. I felt that her handshake in the beginning was also very formal and realistic. I really enjoyed her interview. 

     Overall, I ended up getting the job out of my group members. This was exciting, although not a real interview. I enjoyed this experience and the things we worked on. 

Monday, April 25, 2016

The Pueblo Stopped By!

   During the week of learning to teach History, we completed an artifact bad project. This project was based a topic of our choice that relates to the topics of our Unit Plan. I completed my artifact bag on the Pueblo tribe! I choose to do my Artifact Bag on the Pueblo tribe because I completed three other less plans on their tribe and I find them very interesting. 
     Overall, history concepts and skills are being developed through this process because the students are working on different inquiry skills. Inquiry skills that are being worked on are questioning, investigation, and deeper/critical thinking skills. Before this project I felt that I was generally knowledgable in history; however, after this project I feel that I have been able to gain a deeper understanding of pedagogical knowledge. Content knowledge, specifically, has developed through this project because the students are able to learn about different parts of history through the different articles. This project also allowed us to develop pedagogical knowledge because by practicing this in the class as the students, we as teacher candidates, can better serve the students because we know the inquiry process in and out.

     For grade one I will adapt this project by splitting the students into one or two groups to show them a teacher made artifact bag. I would make this adaptation because the students are still completing the steps of the inquiry process without getting distracted by the bags, tissue paper, and items. For third grade, I would adapt this project by having the teacher make the artifact bags, but the students will be split into small groups of four or five. Also, roles will be assigned to each students and there will be a checklist to keep all of the students on track. I would make these adaptations because the students are reaching the maturity of being able to work on projects with groups. I would do the same for fourth grade. For fifth and sixth grade students I would allow them to choose from a list of events in history to do an artifact bag on. I would still use roles and checklists to keep the students on track. State standards that this project will be meeting are: develop questions about the world in which we live that can be answered by gathering, interpreting and using evidence and identify arguments or opinions of others with support.

     Generalizations will be a breeze to teach students because we are going to connect the geographical concepts to the types of historic events. Students are going to be using the inquiry process as well which is making hypotheses. This relates to different readings from the course because it is showing teachers how to help students make generalizations. This article: American Indians and american Environments is helpful to teachers and students. These projects are helpful in teaching history because it is engaging for the students. Students are getting excited to learn about the different historical concepts when they are doing projects.

     Overall, this project was helpful in teaching me about history. I enjoyed finding artifacts for this project and creating a visual representation of the tribe I used. I learned a lot about being able to teach history, and I am excited to use this process in my class. 
   

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Geographers or Students?

    Both!!! Last week working in class, we touched on the topic geography. We had many activities such as: Our NAT project, our "Hug the Earth" activity, and the beginning of our Artifact Bag project. This week we focused on lab time for our LiveBinders, as well as, learning to be economists. These past two weeks have been extremely eventful.

     To start off, last week we studied different ways to teach geography through our own practice. On Tuesday we focused on working with our expert groups for the Native American Tribe project. My expert group focused on the Mohawk Tribe. This was an awesome experience because I was able to learn many in-depth details about the Native American's own Mohawk tribe. My group worked very well together and we enjoyed doing this project together. On Thursday, we presented to our base groups. I enjoyed learning about the other tribes, as well as, teaching my group about mine. Next, we completed the Scavenger Hunt in class. This game was fun; however, it was a little unfair because our group only learned about three of the tribes versus all five tribes. We were at a bit of a disadvantage, but I think that we still learned a lot from this activity. In my own class I would love to use this activity, I think it would extremely fun for the students. This may have to be done with iPads or using poster paper, especially because younger students may not be computer savvy and/or the resources may be scarce. Otherwise, this is a valuable and interactive experience for all students. Our hug the earth activity was also another activity that I would to use because it is showing the students the importance of taking care of the earth. When we did this activity we talked about how we would promote taking care of the earth, and I thought that all of my peers had valuable activities/projects for the students to do in order to show the students the importance. I really enjoyed our week as a geographer. 

     This week we focused on being economists. This topic was okay to learn about, I found it to be boring. I feel like when the students are that young they do not necessarily grasp the concept of money. I do believe that it is valuable to introduce them to the concept of the economy, but for grades one, two, three, and maybe even four they are not going to understand money well. However, I do believe that it is valuable to start teaching them about money by the end of fourth grade and up. Our Economy project was interesting and I learned a few things about teaching economics. The rest of the week we worked on our LiveBinders, otherwise know as our e-folios. This was not interesting, but it is nice to be getting some class time to finish them because they are very intensive. I feel that a lot of students complained about them being a lot of work; however, I feel like they do not understand how valuable this e-folio will be to employers. In fact, they will love this e-folio!

     Overall, this week was very calm on the school front. Last week was valuable in learning about different ways to teach geography and history. I am enjoying this enriching in-class experiences. I am looking forward to the end of the semester.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Historians in the Making

This past week we worked on teaching history for elementary students. 

Teaching history is extremely important in an elementary setting because 
most of the time history is one of the only things that primary and some 
secondary classes focus on. I feel that my knowledge on teaching history 
and geography has deepened thanks to the enriching activities from class. 
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our first Current Events Project, from Group 1. 
Group one consisted of Erin, Christina, and Lauren. unfortunately Lauren 
had gotten sick so she was not there to present, but he group did a great
job! The presentation was tastefully done and it made sense. I also 
enjoyed the group's project.Group one used the JIGSAW method for 
their method and it was tastefully done. I feel that I learned something 
new about working with my groups. The tool that they used was Linote 
and I really enjoyed using a new tool because it is widening the amount 
of tools I feel comfortable using for my one classroom. On Tuesday we 
also started and of rhte most part finished out Native American Tribe 
projects. The Native American Tribe project was a lot of fun for me as 
a student, as well as, a teacher. I thought that learning about the 
Mohawk tribe was one of my favorite projects. My group also worked 
extremely well together. 

Our homework, for Thursday, was to familiarize ourselves with the 
different contents and resources for teaching history. Even though we 
began history a little bit on Tuesday, for the most part we did not really 
start it. For homework I familiarized myself with some of the tools listed 
above. Two tools that I would like to use in my own classroom would be 
the QR Code treasure hunts and the bringing history to life tool.
choose to use the QR Code treasure hunt because I feel that this is 
extremely fun for students and it gets them enthusiastic about learning! 
The second tool that I decided I would use is the Bring History to Life 
tool because I feel that bringing students real-life or life-like tools from 
history will help the students be more engaged. Also, in preparation for 
Thursday we were asked to read an article on Social Studies strategies. 
A few strategies that I had not heard of are: the Bransford and Stein 
IDEAL model, teaching concepts, and community based instruction. 
The Bransford and Stein IDEAL model is a problem-solving method. 
I enjoy this model because it has an easy acronym for students to 
remember. Also, a poster could easily be made with this acronym. The 
next strategy that I like is the teaching concepts strategy because I 
feel like this is a difficult thing to teach to some of the younger 
elementary students. It was helpful for me to read about how to use
them in the classroom. The last strategy that I enjoyed learning about is 
the Community Based Instruction. I have seen this strategy in use, but I 
never knew what it was called. This strategy to me is very interesting 
because it is getting the students involved in the community, while they 
are learning a valuable lesson. One last article that I would like to 
mention is the reading like a historian article. This article to me was an 
extremely interesting and beneficial article. I really enjoyed reading this 
article and I will definitely be putting it to use when I am an elementary 
teacher.
Reading Like a HISTORIAN:

Establish relevant background info

Pose essential question
Students read
Answer guiding questions (graphic organizer)
Whole class discussion

On Thursday, we had another Current Events presentation from 
group two. Group two consisted of Samantha, Jenna, and Paola. 
Group two had us do a different activity than what the first group 
had, they did a debate versus the JIGSAW method. I enjoyed
group two's debate, I thought it was fun and the teachers were
great at time management. After group two presented, we broke
into our base groups for the NAT Project. This was okay, I thought
it was poorly constructed. My base group only had three people 
the day of presentations so the QR Code Treasure Hunt at the 
end of the presentations was a little hard. I feel that this was 
extremely unfair to the groups who had less than five people. 
Otherwise, I enjoyed learning all about the different Native 
American tribes.
Overall, I think that this week was great in the area of 
knowledge that I can use in the future. I am just excited for
classes coming to an end because there is a lot of work in 
this class particular. It is extremely stressful and I cannot wait
until the end!





Friday, April 1, 2016

Why I love Being a Teacher

Fieldwork is an experience that all future teachers must endeavor. For fieldwork in Social Studies Methods we completed fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. I had the joys of working with Ms. Pozzulo's second grade class. The unit that we focused on in second grade is "Our Country Long Ago."

Overall, fieldwork contributed to the master skills of teaching because we are focusing on writing different types of lessons, and implementing the lesson designs into the classroom. Our master skills, as a class, are being developed through the creations of different lesson plans. I feel that developing these different lesson plans we are widening our abilities as a teacher. It is important to keep an open mind when teaching, and these lessons plans allow that. By creating a direct, inquiry, and cooperative learning lesson we are opening a gateway to creativity. By implementing these lessons into the classroom we are opening a window for all children to learn differently. We are making it easier for students, who do not learn just one way, to learn the same material that their peers are learning. Also, we are making the material easier for the teachers to know how to teach to all students. We are also widening the horizon in which we teach. My observations of the lessons created has also allowed my, not only the teacher, but also the student to think outside the box. So many of my peers have thought of so many different, creative ideas that I personally was not able to think of. Personally, I think this shows the power of teamwork and teams versus individually. However, I think watching my peers implement the lessons was another roller coaster. It was interesting to see a lesson on paper and then to see them execute it. I feel that seeing my peers execute their lessons just made us, the class, realize that it is imperative to executing a lesson plan properly to stay on time.


Overall, fieldwork as a whole was extremely rewarding. I loved working with the second grade class at Bishop Dunn. I feel that it was a great learning experience as well. I hope that all of the teacher candidates made as much as an impact on the students as they did for us.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Teaching Geography: Without Geography we would be Nowhere.

     Then there was six weeks. As the semester comes to a close, we are back in the classroom to learn about different aspects of Social Studies. This week we are focusing on Geography. Geography is probably the first thing that most Social Studies teachers focus on at the beginning of the year. I personally am excited to learn about Geography!

     On Tuesday, we finished our JIGSAW activity and presented n our expert groups the 5 PIGS. Tuesday was a good class, I felt that I learned a lot from the other groups in the class. I feel that the Individual Accountability group was very loud and kept their lesson to the point. Christina, Paola, Payge, and Sarah seemed very knowledgeable on their topic. The third group, group processing, included Elizabeth, Kelly, Lauren, and Keilani. This group was also knowledgeable and loud. I enjoyed the video that they included to teach us and show us real life examples of group processing. Overall, today was a great practice for the upcoming mini-lessons.

     In preparation for Thursday's class, we were asked to review the 103 Creatively Simple Ways to Teach Geography. When I looked at this PowerPoint on teaching Geography, I mostly felt confused. I felt that personally I did not understand the PowerPoint. Three that I would like to comment on are: the Mystery Box, the Landscape in a Box, and Sending and Receiving Postcards. The first aspect that I choose to comment on are the mystery boxes because I have seen this in action and I absolutely love the idea of this. I believe that it is a reward for students and it would encourage proper behavior to receive the mystery box on a Friday to go with their Geography lesson. The second aspect/element that I choose to comment on from this PowerPoint is the landscape in a box activity. This activity seems to be a very cool activity/element to implement during the geography unit because it is an activity you can implement during a cooperative learning lesson. This lesson also lets the students to see an in-depth view at the different layers of the land. The final element of the PowerPoint that I choose to comment on is sending and recovering postcards. I feel that this activity is special because the students are working on literacy and at the same time learning about geography. Different resources that I could use to teach geography are Google Earth, creating the landscape box, and using other projects made out of recycled materials. 


      On Thursday, the rest of the groups presented on the 5-PIGS. The group on social skills and face-to-face interaction and direct instruction versus cooperative learning. The last two groups presented well, they were knowledgeable and taught everything they were supposed to. Below is a picture of a graphic organizer we did for the last group. After the groups finished presenting we choose our Native American tribes for another lesson that we will be doing in class. After we picked our tribes we did an engaging activity with a small ball that looked similar to earth. I enjoyed "hugging" the earth and saying one thing we learned, and one way we plan to implement science into our classroom. This activity was very engaging and had all of the students participate. I thought it was a great activity, and one that I would like to implement in my own class one. day

Click here for larger version
  Overall, this week went very well. I feel that I know everything that is going on in class and I like doing the hands-on activities with my peers. The class is turning into a great learning experience for my own classroom and ideas for other education classes. Hope next week goes as well as this week!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Spring Break is Here!

     The final days leading up to spring break were intense and rewarding. Tuesday was our last day of fieldwork and group four's last day of teaching. On Thursday, we collaborated in class on a "Jigsaw" activity. This past week was intense in so many ways that I cannot explain; however, our last day of fieldwork was bittersweet. 

     To start the week off we had our last day of fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School AND group four had their last day of teaching. Tuesday was a bit stressful, not for me personally, but I felt the stress for group four. Group four had to teach two lessons in a forty five minute period, so we could then have our Celebration of Learning. Group four had a fantastic lesson and time management. I really enjoyed their voting booth because it enhanced the students cooperative learning experience. Group four was very positive and they all seemed interactive and knowledgeable on their topics. I thought that the children really enjoyed all the activities and picked up the concept of voting. Next, the Celebration of Learning was on Tuesday. The celebration of learning was fun because we all, the teacher candidates, said what we enjoyed about teaching the students. We also got the teacher a gift because she was very understanding throughout the semester. I loved working with Mrs. Pozzulo's second grade class this semester. 

     The articles that were assigned for this week, were the same articles that were for last week. So, I read the articles last week and I thought that they interesting. These articles reinforced information that we had taught our self in the process of cooperative learning lesson plan. I did learn about the 5 PIGS and the SIM Model. I enjoyed reading these article and watching these videos because I feel like I deeply understand the cooperative learning process. Below is a video that I found on the JIGSAW activity. The JIGSAW activity is what we worked on in class on Thursday. We split into groups based on the five PIGS to teach the rest of the class. I really enjoyed the JIGSAW method because I feel that it is going to be highly successful for students to teach each other versus traditional lecture. I am excited to teach the class on Tuesday (after Spring Break!).
     I really enjoyed these past few days of class. I feel that the class environment was more relaxed this week than ever before. I also enjoyed the Celebration of Learning, as well as, the JIGSAW method. I am excited to see what the rest of the semester has in-store for us. 

Thursday, March 10, 2016

All About Different Assessments

     It is week seven of fifteen and we are officially halfway through the semester on Friday. This semester has gone by fast and it seems that life is in fast forward mode. On Tuesday this week, I had the lucky chance to visit New York City for the day whelky peers were observing group four teach their direct lesson plan. On Thursday in class we worked on our unit plans, edTPA, and discussed the first half of the semester and the second semester.
      I am blogging on what it was like to use assessment in my lesson plans and importance of using assessment throughout my lessons. As a teacher in training, I try to take note of what I dislike about other aspects of other teachers. To comment on assessment in the classrooms/lessons as asked, I think that it is important to constantly check for understanding because that is usually your tally marker for whether you can move on in the lesson or not. If a teacher does not assess, how can s/he really know where their students are? Assessment, however, can be controlled. I feel that professors/teachers/educators can overwork their students with assessment which is too much, especially young students. When referring the making of the pre/post test, I found that this task was easily attacked. When making questions for the second grade class, I felt that they were pretty basic questions. I would not label this task as difficult. I wrote my groups questions in, but we all created the questions together because that's what we were instructed to do.
     In today's class we discussed the beginning of the semester and the rest of the semester coming ahead. I felt that today's question was very frustrating and disturbing. Today in class we were informed that we need to get our cooperating teaching and her assistant teacher gifts because we were a burden on them. I COMPLETELY disagree, the teacher has said many times that she has enjoyed us (the students of the social studies methods class) in her class. I personally feel that I would gladly love to make something for Miss Pozzulo; however, it is rude to assume everyone in the class has money to give. Next, we were then informed of all of the assignments due in ONE WEEK. We have multiple assignments  due in one week with no advanced notice. We couldn't even see the assignments on eClass, so it was just sprung upon us. My frustration has reached an all new level. Otherwise, we worked on a variety of things for edTPA, reflections, and lesson plans.
     Overall, Week seven has been a hot mess and I have not felt more frustrated with the un-organization of this class more than now. I am not looking forward to the last week before spring break.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Group 3's Days to Shine

      This past week, during fieldwork, students were learning about the colonies and the American Revolution. Group three taught their direct, inquiry, and cooperative learning lesson plan. On Tuesday, group three started and today, on Thursday, group three finished their teaching with the inquiry and cooperative learning lesson plans.

     To start off, group three started with their direct lesson plan. Group three started off strong with their lesson plan about The American Revolution and the thirteen colonies. I thought that group three seemed very rehearsed and knowledgable about their topic. I enjoyed listening to the song they also used to help the students remember the thirteen colonies. Next, the teachers all went through the information. Although all of the teachers were knowledgable, I think that the development was too long. I found myself getting very antsy and impatient during the end of their development. It would have been beneficial for the teachers to split up the information with an activity. However, overall their development was strong and may have ended a bit weak. The guided practice was well thought out as well. Their activity was to fill out a booklet containing information about The American Revolution.  The booklet was a great idea because the students could keep it in their desk and always refer back to it. The other activity that group three did was a timeline, that the students had already filled out during the course of the development. I thought that this activity could have been included int he development and that it was kind of a waste of time to do it as a guided practice. Although, I understand it in the sense of the students being able to organize themselves. Towards the end of their time slot for the lesson, they began to rush. I could see that group three got through their conclusion but rushed through it and the same for the independent practice. It would have been better to maybe go over the first question for the independent practice and then had them do it at home. Overall, I think that group three had a pretty well thought out direct lesson plan!

     Today, group three taught their cooperative learning lesson plan and their inquiry lesson plan. The inquiry lesson plan was an activity working with artifact bags. Each of the artifact bags contained different pictures and elements from different events during the time period they were teaching. As the students entered the classroom they provided groups for the children to get into which saved time because the teachers were not trying to do this in the middle of their lesson. As the students started to finish, the teachers, had the students present their findings. Also, at the beginning of the group work they assigned roles for each of the students to have which was very smart. I also enjoyed that Ms. Melissa and Ms. Emily presented how to do the inquiry process in the beginning of the lesson because it helped the students figure out what they needed to be doing. For the independent practice the teachers had the students write to the first graders which was wonderful! They started the homework in class and they were told to finish at home. I loved this because as for the first two groups they did not get that far in the inquiry process. Overall, the inquiry process was very smart. The cooperative learning lesson plan was next. For the cooperative learning lesson plan the students were creating an acrostic poem for the word independence. The students were very excited about starting this poem. this was a great activity for the students. The students worked with their groups to create words for the word INDEPENDENCE. Next, the students were asked to write a sentence about what they learned over the course of the past two classes, to put altogether in a book for Ms. Pozzulo's book. This has to my favorite idea altogether!!! The teachers then had presented the poster, with the word: INDEPENDENCE and the students were able to contribute what they came up with in their groups. Overall, the cooperative learning lesson plan was FABULOUS!

     The past week has been a fun learning experience for myself and for the students in Miss. Pozzulo's class. The children seemed to pick up a lot of the information from this group's lessons. I liked their lessons for the second day and I thought that they were very creative.  I am excited to see what group four has in store for us next week!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

How many more weeks until Spring Break??

     This past week Bishop Dunn had another snow related closing, so we were back in the classroom. On Tuesday, we were in the classroom and on Thursday in fieldwork. It is now the start to week six and we will be in fieldwork for the week. We had to watch a video on how to blog mindfully and read an article on a different educational system in Finland.
     On Tuesday, we focused on edTPA. Well group one in particular focused on edTPA because the other groups were working on their lessons. It was nice to have some class time to work on edTPA but it was kind of frustrating. I feel that the groups are getting a foot ahead of my group because of the class time and personal attention they're getting from Dr. Smirnova. For me this was frustrating because I feel that other groups are getting more personal time with her than we got and she is looking over their lessons and pin point what they should change before their lesson. Otherwise, I accomplished  a lot in one period of time. I was able to finish most of Task 1 Part B. I am also finished with Task 1 Part A and E.

     The video we were asked to watch is a tutorial on how to comment and write in blogs. I thought this video was super helpful to our task at hand. For example, the first tip was to "comment the write in a specific way." This is important for all people to keep in mind when commenting because it makes your comment seem more thoughtful and meaningful. Also, by adding specific information to the comment makes it sound like you are really interested and you may be sharing information the writer does not yet know. By ending with a question you are leaving the topic open for discussion. You are inviting the writer, or possibly another person to comment and keep the conversation going. 

     The article How Finland broke every rule- and created a top school system was interesting. I really like the fact that the article talks about how America does it all wrong. I 100% believe that America's school systems are for money and not for the students. This is upsetting in a lot of ways because these kids, in America, depend on us and somehow I feel like we constantly fail them. Although coming out of school teachers can and most likely will be successful in being creative, most teachers burn out. Once a teacher is burned out their really isn't much jump back from that. Teachers are tired of politics taking over the Education system, so they are doing what they're told to do and leaving it there. There is no thanks, or prize around teachers anymore. I think that the Education system needs to make a huge change, but until then I will wait for one. 

     This video and reading were helpful and provided new insights for future endeavors. I enjoyed reading the article about school systems in Finland. The video on commenting on blogs was helpful as well. 




The First Travelers

     For the past week, Group 2 has been exploring with Miss Pozzulo's second grade class. First, they learned about Native Americans from my group, and now they will be furthering their knowledge on "Our Country Long Ago." I thought that group two's overall teaching experience has been a good one. I think that overall the students enjoyed the activities that group two has implemented for them. Group two consists of Erin, Samantha, Lauren, Christina, Moira, and Paola. This group seemed to have work and flowed well together.
     To begin, group two started off last week on Thursday, because of Bishop Dunn's snow day on Tuesday. Group two started out strong. Their direct lesson plan was well rehearsed and the group transitioned well. A few things that stuck out of their first teaching experience was their attention to details. For example, group two included pictures and GIF's into their power point that signaled different actions that the students should look out for. For example, they had an old explorers hat which the children associated with "thinking caps." For me this was really brilliant because when the students saw this figurine/picture, they understood what was expected of them. Another part of their lesson that I really enjoyed was the matching activity, otherwise known as the guided practice. This was an interactive, yet direct form of practice for the students, and the students were beyond eager to participate in this activity. My last favorite part from group two's direct lesson plan was the teacher candidates ability to function as a group. A lot of times, groups cannot/do not act efficiently during presentations, especially when their rare so many students, so I really enjoyed their professionalism and group work. Some thing that I believe group two could work on is their understanding of the direct lesson plan. Group two did not show complete understanding of the direct lesson plan by their actions throughout the lesson. For example, group two asked for the student's input before they were taught the material. In direct/explicit lessons it is important to not ask the students questions without teaching them the knowledge. Also, in the beginning of the lesson I noticed that one of the student's in the class, who has been determined as a child who needs one on one help, was not being assisted. It is important for assistance to be provided for students who need it. Group two did eventually sit with this student; however, I felt that it was not okay for him to start the lesson without help. Overall, group two's direct lesson was very well organized and created.
   

     Group two's second and final day of teaching was today, Thursday. On Tuesday, Bishop Dunn had a early dismissal due to more weather problems. Group two their inquiry and cooperative learning lesson plans. To start off, group two started strong. Their review and way of activating prior knowledge for the kids was great and it got the students engaged right off the bat. I thought that group two also did really well in going through the steps of the inquiry process. Group two could have modeled the inquiry process for the students but I think that the time constraint on the groups makes it impossible to cover everything in the "30" minute window we have. Next, the teachers all split off into their groups for the inquiry process, and from what I noticed the teacher candidates let the students make all of the inferences and didn't help them. From my group, this was a step up because we helped the students make inferences. Group two then went straight into their Cooperative Learning lesson plan which was different, but I think for the time constraint it worked. the group did not really get to a closure in their Inquiry lesson; however, it would have been pointless for them to go over the same information twice. For their presentation for their CL they were presenting their information from the Inquiry, so personally it wouldn't have made sense for them to make the students present twice. ALSO there is not enough time. Overall, I know that group two had problems with time management, but as I have said over and over, it is almost impossible to cover everything that is deemed necessary, (by the rubrics,) in an hour for TWO lessons. Group two got to their closure in the CL lesson and they had each of the groups present their posters. 

     Overall, group two did a wonderful job with all three of their lesson plans. I think that they nailed the concept of each lesson as well. Speaking from experience, I think time management is a problem every group will have so I am happy that group two combined the last two lessons. Great job group 2! I am excited to see what the last two groups to present. 

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Three Types of Lessons Reflections

     Today, in the virtual class we discussed the three types of lessons which included: direct, inquiry, and cooperative learning lessons. Direct is a similar type of lesson to explicit. the inquiry lesson is about getting the students to critical think with problems given to them by the teacher. Last, the cooperative lesson is incorporating their social skills and group work. 
     The first type of lesson, the direct lesson plan, which is straight forward instruction. The direct lesson plan was a type of lesson plan that i had trouble with to begin. To talk in the lesson plan as a single teacher was difficult. It is new trying to learn how to just lecture the students, because I always felt that the elementary age group was too young to just lecture. My direct lesson plan was a journey learning how to teach explicitly. It was a new learning experience. When it came to teaching a direct lesson plan, it was actually surprisingly easier than other lessons. Just lecturing second graders turned out to be very easy for me. I really loved teaching the direct lesson plan in the end. I also think that the students retained a lot more of the information from the direct lesson than any other of the two lessons we did. 

     The second type of lesson is the inquiry lesson. this type of lesson was very difficult to follow. Overall the inquiry lesson was the hardest. I find that the critical thinking part of the lesson was very difficult to get the younger students to grasp. Also, I think that the students need a sufficient amount of time to be able to complete this type of lesson. The inquiry lesson is a long and developmental type of lesson, so to only give student maybe twenty minutes to work on the task is not fair. I also personally think that it is not only unfair, but almost impossible to do in twenty minutes. The students, who have little to no ability to think critically are now being asked to develop that skill in twenty minute intervals. The point I am trying to make is that for students to develop a strong sense of critical thinking, the students need time and good prompts. The ability to work with group members is one that the students will need for the next lesson, cooperative learning. 

     The last, and final type of lesson that I am going to mention is cooperative learning. The cooperative learning seemed to be less effort to put in the lesson and more within our actual materials. For instance, when putting together the lesson I just had to write down my ides, but when preparing it took a few hours just to plan out the materials and putting the materials altogether. Cooperative learning lessons are a little tricky when it comes to the 5-PIGS which are: positive independence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills, and face-to-face interaction. It is important to make sure that these 5 PIGS are included in the cooperative lesson because this is what you will be evaluating yourself on when finished with the lesson plan. Also, these are the most important skills that the students must pick up.

      Overall, I think it is important to know these types of lessons, especially cooperative learning and inquiry because these are the student centered lessons. This is also what edTPA focuses on: student centered learning. I think that the virtual meeting for class today was beneficial because it helped all of my colleagues and I elaborate on the different types of lessons. I am excited for Group 2 to start teaching on Thursday!

Friday, February 12, 2016

First and Last Day of Teaching

    This week was the first official week of fieldwork. It was a great time! It was also one of the most stressful weeks in my college career. The classroom that we were in was Ms. P.'s second grade class at Bishop Dunn. Bishop Dunn is a catholic school on the Mount Saint Mary campus. My group was obviously group 1 and some of the challenges we faced were difficult to overcome. Being that the time restraint on these lessons was very short, we felt a lot of the pressure on us. 
     The first day of fieldwork was on Tuesday. Tuesday was a little nerve racking because it was our first fifty minute period that we would be teaching the students. Our first lesson plan was the direct lesson plan. I found that putting together this type of lesson was long and strenuous. It was really hard to make sure that everything in that lesson plan was teacher-centered. When I go through other methods classes it is nowhere similar to this type of methods class. They are also not really teaching teacher-directed lessons or direct lesson plans. They tend to move towards cooperative and inquiry lesson plans. So, I had no background in writing a teacher directed lesson plan and their were only three of my group members working on it. I think to me that was one of the hardest parts, because when we would meet up our other group members were on their phones or they weren't really helping out. It was a lot of work that paid off though. Our first day with the children went extremely well. I thought that we did very well, and the SMARTBoard went out in the middle of our lesson. We were able to recover from the SmartBoard outage and keep going, we finished strong. Everyone in the class also believed that we did well, even Dr. Smirnova! That had to be one of the best feelings, when Dr. S. said that for our first lesson we did well. I have heard so many stories about Dr. S. ripping everyone a new butt because they did not do well, and I was nervous for that, but it never came. The kids also seemed to retain a lot of the information and I really enjoyed that group of kids. They are bright in so many ways! 
     Thursday was my second, and last day of teaching the class. Now Thursday, although my second time, seemed ten times the amount of stressful. I felt like we were not prepared at all for Thursday and it was frustrating. On Wednesday night, we gathered to finalize the lesson plans, which were the Inquiry and Cooperative Learning lessons. It was a mess from the beginning. Being that my group couldn't decide on what they wanted to do for the lessons, we decided on doing that Artifact Bags. However, we did the Artifact Bags wrong. All of the parts of the lesson that we did not clearly plan out a week ago seemed to be falling and crumbling on top of us. Next, we attempted to make examples of the Native American shelters because that was our CL project. The materials that I had picked up for the group seemed that they weren't good enough. As the group complained I looked over the other lesson plan only to find out that no one, and I mean NO ONE had revised them. This was the last straw in my bucket, because only three out of five group members worked on the first lesson plan and out of the five only two revised the lesson plan. So to me, I was tired being that I was just getting over a stomach bug and I, with two other people, did the entire twenty page lesson plan. But I guess it was how the cards fall, that I ended up revising the last two lesson plans as well. Anyways, Wednesday night was just a mess, and we all went home aggravated and feeling stressed. As I revised the lesson plans until midnight, I just felt happy that it was almost done. On Thursday morning, four out of the five group members met up an hour early to finish putting everything together. When we were done we went over to Bishop Dunn to start setting up for our lesson. I felt the beginning of this lesson was strong, and I feel that it started out strong, but as we emerged into the different parts the lesson crumbled much like the night before. Our lesson was not organized enough and it showed to the all of the teachers and teacher candidates. By the end of the sixty minute lesson, I was exhausted, hot, and ready to have our lesson handed to us. The teacher candidates felt that we had good ideas but that we were not able to execute them correctly and with the correct time management. Dr. Smirnova agreed and I couldn't say that I didn't disagree with them. I felt that the lesson had good ideas but it was poorly executed. 
     Overall, this week was a great one but definitely a learning lesson. I feel that there are areas that we all need to improve on and there are areas that we did fabulous in. I am excited to see what the groups after us are able to scarp together. I feel that this week was a learning lesson for all of us. Now  here's to a stress-free weekend!

Monday, February 8, 2016

The Role of Bloom in Teaching


Week 2 Articles:
     The models, strategies, and methods for assessment are extremely elaborate. Different models of  The different strategies are direct, interactive, independent, experimental, and indirect. These different strategies are very specific learning methods. I found this chart to be extremely helpful in explaining itself. I was a tad confused when I first looked at the diagram/model; however, I think that it was very well-thought out. I found this article to be informative. 
     The article "What is Social Studies?" was kind of boring. I have always found that Social Studies as a whole to be not necessary. I believe that Social Studies is just a game of memorization and that has never been a strong point in my school career. I found that this article addressed that students now learn throughout all of the primary and secondary grades, but the emphasis is primary on the core subjects (literacy and mathematics). Also, this article discusses that the purposes of Social Studies are to "promote civic competence, and it is to integrative, incorporating many fields of endeavor" (National Council for the Social Studies, 2010). The importance of promoting civic competence is the knowledge of a citizen. I feel hat these topics are important but they are not a hundred percent necessary for the younger students. The purpose of integrative incorporating many fields of endeavor is the purpose of history. I understand why at one point in time this would be important for students to understand; however, it is important to make sure students understand how to read and complete mathematical problems before understanding the branches of government and how to be a good "citizen." 
     The National Council for Social Studies standards were interesting but I think they were age appropriate. Most of these standards for the primary grades were similar to each other. I think this is important that these standards are similar because as I said in the above paragraph, the students are not able to process a lot of information as well as learn how to read. When students are struggling with learning sight words it is unfathomable to have students learn the different areas of Social Studies. I love that these standards are more focused on general ideas of understanding communities or geography because these are basic concepts that are appropriate for young students. 

     The article on Deep and Fragile Knowledge was interesting. I liked that they mention that just because a student tests well doesn't mean that they know the information. They may not understand the deep knowledge of the learning. "Insert knowledge allows students to remember information when testes, but does not give them the ability to apply I outside of the classroom" (Perkins, 2003). I think this statement to be utterly true. Just because a student can take a test and score well doesn't mean they can apply the knowledge in other academic areas. As well as, just because a student doesn't score well on a test doesn't mean that they cannot apply the knowledge in other academic areas. I agree with Dvid Perkins, as he says in the article, that deep understanding is a theory of being able to explain, apply, and process the knowledge that has been taught. By having students do the things that demonstrate deep knowledge will show the teachers/professors of that the students have moved from fragile knowledge to deep understanding. 
     What is Understanding? A Deeper Look was an article that was similar to Deep and Fragile Knowledge . Both of the authors of these articles made the same points. They both addressed the fact that students understand when they do. To reproduce it is a skill that all teachers look at understanding. However, I think that this article addresses the fact that, as students we may not understand everything, but we adapt our understandings enough to be able to get our point across. This point can be communicated through a lesson, an essay, or a presentation. 
     The article "Powerful Teaching and Learning" was a great read. I think that, as the authors nation, it is important to have public commitment and time. As I mentioned in the second paragraph, it hard to find time for Social Studies as well as the other main areas of academics. It should be the focus of your lesson to converse the main focus of the lesson, not just trying to get through the lesson. A way to change this is to make the lesson main ideas related to the students interests or fun, active activities. It is important to to create at school. 
     Bloom's Taxonomy was big article/reading. I love that the article broke Bloom's taxonomy down into the six skills of human thinking. Pulling out knowledge is a question that is asking "how many" or "when." To pull out comprehension having the students "explain" or "interpret." Application is by applying previous learned information to a new situation by using the word "apply." Analysis is breaking information into parts by asking "what are the differences?" Synthesis is applying prior skills to combine elements by using "create." Last, evaluation through assessing students knowledge. I loved that the website had printable and vocabulary words that could be useful for all teachers. I especially like the printout of Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs because they are gong to be helpful for lesson planning that is coming up. My favorite resource was the third resource "How to Use Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom." This was my favorite because it provided tons of resources for using Bloom's Taxonomy in the classroom. The website explained it so that all types of learners would be able to understand it. The "22 Way to use Bloom's Taxonomy with Twitter" was also extremely creative, especially for students in todays age. This poster is just beyond creative and appealing to me, so I can imagine that it would be for students as well. The next resource that involved Pinterest was cool, and I followed the Pinterest Blog that involved Bloom's Taxonomy.  I though that the quiz that was required was a bit hard, I felt that there should have been an article containing that information. Having the information on the quiz and then to be tested about it made it kind of difficult to answer questions on it. I believe that Bloom had a huge impact on teaching. His thought process is one that most teachers love and use today. Even if they unknowingly use it they probably do somewhere throughout the year.