I can't believe it's already over!!!!
It's definitely going to be weird going to school on Monday. I'm having a hard time being away from my students and becoming a student again myself.
Our lessons this week went really well. I taught a lesson about the different styles of music and how the elements of music have an effect on our emotional states. We talked about why that is, and the students took notes and were assigned to complete a homework assignment that was similar to what we did in class.
On the last day, all of the students made each of us cards to let us know how appreciative they were for our efforts. The cards were very cute and some of them talked about their life in general after saying "Thanks." It was very cute. The teacher was kind enough to give us cards and gift bags. In the bags were cute notepads and $10 gift cards to Barnes and Noble. We couldn't believe it! She also brought donuts for us and the class to munch on. We were able to give the students a card we wrote for each of them and a bag of cookies and candy. We gave Mrs. Lindsey a card and plate of cookies as well.
Overall, it was a great learning experience for me because I was able to do a full-on lesson plan and experienced a lot of last minute adjustments, trial-and-error situations, and I learned a lot about myself and my expectations for students. This has definitely been a valuable experience for me and has helped me to improve my teaching greatly.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
11/21/09
Field!
Field is going great! I'm not looking forward to returning to school in a couple of weeks. I love our fifth graders and they are wonderful students who are really behaved.
So far, I have headed up a newspaper lesson. For it, I created a GooglePresentation that talked about Newspapers and showed an example of what we expected from our students. We broke the students up into groups and each group was assigned an inventor/invention. They wrote a main article about the invention, one about the inventor's life, and two about cultural events happening. We then had the students use the classroom set of laptops and classroom set of books to do research for their paper. They created the papers and then presented them to the class.
Adriana did a lesson about Civil Rights and the accomplishments of those in history. The students worked in groups and read a section of the textbook. Then, those group members went to different groups and shared their information. Students then created a fold-able for their information.
Monday I have a music lesson that I'm very excited for and on Tuesday we will be doing a PE lesson as well! I'm definately going to miss the students when we leave!
Field is going great! I'm not looking forward to returning to school in a couple of weeks. I love our fifth graders and they are wonderful students who are really behaved.
So far, I have headed up a newspaper lesson. For it, I created a GooglePresentation that talked about Newspapers and showed an example of what we expected from our students. We broke the students up into groups and each group was assigned an inventor/invention. They wrote a main article about the invention, one about the inventor's life, and two about cultural events happening. We then had the students use the classroom set of laptops and classroom set of books to do research for their paper. They created the papers and then presented them to the class.
Adriana did a lesson about Civil Rights and the accomplishments of those in history. The students worked in groups and read a section of the textbook. Then, those group members went to different groups and shared their information. Students then created a fold-able for their information.
Monday I have a music lesson that I'm very excited for and on Tuesday we will be doing a PE lesson as well! I'm definately going to miss the students when we leave!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Class as of 11/7/09
What?
Adriana and I have been student teaching at Herriman Elementary with Michelle Lindsay as our cooperating teacher. So far, we have just been observing and helping to grade homework as well as taking students aside one by one when they need extra help.
So What?
We are student teaching now in order to give us a head-start on our teaching careers and learn more about how the classroom works, what to expect, and the work we have to put into it. This also helps me to keep the classroom in mind a lot more while I plan lessons for classroom use while attending UVU.
Now What?
We have learned a lot about what to expect from students when they turn in their papers! This will help us both a lot to understand the different levels our students may be on, and what to expect from students in that age category. This experience has also taught me a lot about working with a partner. I have so many ideas and things I want to incorporate, but I have to work with Adriana in order to complete a small task or even an overall large one. This will be very helpful as a teacher one day because I will know what things I need to do to "back off" and let someone else help out and give ideas.
Adriana and I have been student teaching at Herriman Elementary with Michelle Lindsay as our cooperating teacher. So far, we have just been observing and helping to grade homework as well as taking students aside one by one when they need extra help.
So What?
We are student teaching now in order to give us a head-start on our teaching careers and learn more about how the classroom works, what to expect, and the work we have to put into it. This also helps me to keep the classroom in mind a lot more while I plan lessons for classroom use while attending UVU.
Now What?
We have learned a lot about what to expect from students when they turn in their papers! This will help us both a lot to understand the different levels our students may be on, and what to expect from students in that age category. This experience has also taught me a lot about working with a partner. I have so many ideas and things I want to incorporate, but I have to work with Adriana in order to complete a small task or even an overall large one. This will be very helpful as a teacher one day because I will know what things I need to do to "back off" and let someone else help out and give ideas.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Class as of 11/1
I'm really confused as to whether or not we are supposed to do a normal blog post on top of the other 3 so I'm doing this just in case. In class I thought we were told to just do the 3, but then the website still has the questions so...?
WHAT
We are learning about digital stories and the best way to present them to the class, as well as the most useful tactics and elements to include in them to make them effective.
WHAT
We are learning about digital stories and the best way to present them to the class, as well as the most useful tactics and elements to include in them to make them effective.
SO WHAT
This helps me to have more capabilities and skills as a teacher. It will prepare me for the future to give more variety to my lessons in class and in every-day presentations. It also will help me to have more skills to teach my students.
NOW WHAT
Learning how to use new technology and software helps me to be more valuable to the staff. It also will help the students to learn how to use different software and programs as I teach the different concepts to them and they complete different tasks using all of them. This kind of project has to be worked on in class, but if they ever wanted to use the information for out-of-class projects, they can easily download the free software to do so.
VIDEO
The video "Did You Know" about technology and corresponding numbers was very interesting. However, the most interesting was "A Vision of Students Today." It was COMPLETELY true and I could relate to it 100%. It's true that technology may help us, but it sure distracts us as well! I know plenty of people (including myself) that are on Facebook instead of in class. I know texting is probably even more prevalent. It's more important to socialize than listen to the 2nd hour of a boring lecture, especially when it seems like the class does not pertain to you or your future at all. I think some of this occurs just out of habit of checking email and Facebook all the time, and then the urge of needing to continue to check it even during class. It can be very helpful, but very distracting at the same time.
My Beliefs
Technology in the classroom is very important, especially in our day and age. I believe that it can really improve learning, especially for those who are impaired or who have difficulty learning things by staying in their chair and listening to a lecture.
While technology can be an incredible help, it should not be used too much, and create an even bigger dependance on something besides a human brain. It's sad when people can't add simple problems without a calculator. Technology can be useful, but too much of it is a bad thing.
While technology can be an incredible help, it should not be used too much, and create an even bigger dependance on something besides a human brain. It's sad when people can't add simple problems without a calculator. Technology can be useful, but too much of it is a bad thing.
Lessons Learned
There was a lot of information in these sites and videos that opened my eyes, or held concepts that I agreed with. I thought a lot of the data was interesting, especially the numbers, especially the idea that if MySpace was a country it'd be the 8th largest. It makes me wonder what Facebook would be like! I also once again felt like technology was flying in progress! Even thinking about my life 2 years ago with technology has changed pretty dramatically! The future will be amazing!
Although there are a lot of good things about advancing in technology, I'm a little concerned because it will increase the "right here right now" attitude that we have. However, increased technology will help us do more, help more people, and reach others. It can also help to improve the health and living conditions of others as well. It's very important to keep up to date with these concepts and use/teach them in the classroom.
Although there are a lot of good things about advancing in technology, I'm a little concerned because it will increase the "right here right now" attitude that we have. However, increased technology will help us do more, help more people, and reach others. It can also help to improve the health and living conditions of others as well. It's very important to keep up to date with these concepts and use/teach them in the classroom.
Strengths and Weaknesses
I feel as if I complete all ISE Technology Standards except for the last one because I haven't ever worked on diverse learning with technology. The only "if's" or concerns I have about them are that I haven't implemented them in the classroom (only because I'm not a full time teacher yet), but I plan to or have completed activities that show that I know how to.
My UNI wasn't surprising. Especially the spreadsheets question! But mostly overall, I was right about my abilities. Overall, I know how to do a lot of things and how to incorporate them into the classroom. The UNI survey showed me that working with Spreadsheets are actually pretty important. So far I've gotten by without them pretty well. However, I wouldn't have realized this unless I had completed the UNI.
As a beginning teacher I will have to implement goals on how to use a spreadsheet. Although this is higher technology than elementary school, I could probably show concepts such as creating simple formulas in cells.
I would have them listen to podcasts that told them about the usefulness of spreadsheets, then view an online tutorial about how to create formulas in cells. We would then work as a class to create assignments and data for a project.
My UNI wasn't surprising. Especially the spreadsheets question! But mostly overall, I was right about my abilities. Overall, I know how to do a lot of things and how to incorporate them into the classroom. The UNI survey showed me that working with Spreadsheets are actually pretty important. So far I've gotten by without them pretty well. However, I wouldn't have realized this unless I had completed the UNI.
As a beginning teacher I will have to implement goals on how to use a spreadsheet. Although this is higher technology than elementary school, I could probably show concepts such as creating simple formulas in cells.
I would have them listen to podcasts that told them about the usefulness of spreadsheets, then view an online tutorial about how to create formulas in cells. We would then work as a class to create assignments and data for a project.
STRESSED
Honestly, this class is stressing me out. This is a 2 credit hour class and I'm spending hours upon hours on it-much more than other classes-only to receive harsh grades. I know that I'm not the only one that feels this way because I've talked to other classmates and they also feel overwhelmed. Not only that, but during field we have huge assignments to do. One is finishing our digital story-which will take forever and you can't collaborate it like a google doc. Not only will I be teaching at a school and doing lesson plans, I also have to find a way to travel from Salt Lake to Orem to work on our project when I wasn't planning on having to do this. Plus my team members are teaching at their own schools and our schedules are different. To me, this class is getting ridiculous. I feel like there are SO many assignments, and as much as I appreciate the technology, the class isn't fun anymore and I feel like I'm drowning. Instead I dread it and dread learning. I feel like there is SO MUCH being packed into this one course that I can't have a chance to breathe or really soak stuff in. It's frustrating because I don't have a printer right now that will print off the stuff for the PDP (my laptop is still in the shop and I have to borrow my grandparents' computer with a printer that doesn't work), so doing that part of the assignment is difficult and I can only print at school. But since I won't be at school for a while...
I'm just stressed and frustrated. Any suggestions or help? I'm sorry for being a little bit harsh, but I'm so overwhelmed now! I'm not trying to hurt feelings or anything, I'm just frustrated! Is there any way to take on this course and become less stressed?
I'm just stressed and frustrated. Any suggestions or help? I'm sorry for being a little bit harsh, but I'm so overwhelmed now! I'm not trying to hurt feelings or anything, I'm just frustrated! Is there any way to take on this course and become less stressed?
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