Once Again Every One Great Job

April - 4th Grade Character Setting and Reading Comprehension- I really liked the story telling rope work sheet that you had under modification.  The visual aid would be a great help for students in need of modification. It would also be a great way to introduce the concept of characters, settings, and reading comprehension to earlier learners.

Karen- Firework Song Figurative Language- Music is a great way to help students remember. I like that you hare using it as not just an aid but as the source of your lesson. It will be relevant and fun for your students.

Marley-Cloud in a Bottle- Oh my goodness this would be so much fun.I like the idea that you are giving your students pieces of the puzzle and letting them think while also giving your time to get things set up. I also like that through out the lesson you pause and give your students time to think. It gives them time for the information to sink in and allows their minds to create hypothesis about what will happen next.

Me- Solar Oven-I am so glad I am finished presenting. I was so nervous. I have learned so much listening to each of you present. I am a bit disappointed that I wont be hearing more of your great ideas.

Have a Great Thanksgiving Everyone! 

Great Job!

Once again you all hit it out of the park. I am loving getting to take a this class with other future teachers who really seem to have a love for what they are doing.

Jacob Plumer- Identify Figurative Language- I liked the idea that your students will look for poems or poets that speak or resonate with them. This will make this lesson so much deeper and personal for your students.

Allison H. Retelling Stories- I 💗 the idea that you included circle time in your anticipatory set. I think that circle time is a great way to start a lesson especially for your younger learners. I like the idea of putting the pictures in the right order to retail the story.

Miranda Needy- Counting Coins- The truth is kids don't see $ exchanged much any more let alone the smaller ȼ. I like the idea of actually having a hands on activity with the store.

Scott Hill- First of all WOW Man! ALL 10 Finished! You are AWESOME! I am in fact in awe. 
Lesson plan over 13, 14, 15 Amendment-I like the idea of using a post it note for a formative review check. I also really liked your civil war political cartoon idea. I almost would have made a lesson plan around that or made my Performance task a review of one. That would be so cool to find and to brake down the thought process behind.

Kim G. - Punctuation- I loved your punctuation fill in the sheet. It was so colorful and would definitely get your students attention. I also loved the use of songs. Then you also included a scavenger hunt. You are making sure that you are diversifying your teaching so that you include all of your learning styles. I think that is very important.

Once again everyone, GREAT Job!

This Weeks Blog is a Shout Out to all of the Students Who Presented First This Week!

Way to GO!

Great Job!

Andrew H.- Letter to History-I love the idea of writing to a person in the from the past kind of like a reverse time capsule. I used to pretend to do this when I was a kid. I always wondered if anyone else did. Now I think that at least someone else played the same pretend game. It is kind of cool to think what parts of history you could change if you could just let someone know a vital little part of history. If you just keep going up the hill they only have 100 troops to your 500  or all sorts of little things through out history like that. I love the idea it make history personal.

Jessica K - Dates and Addition -I like the idea that you looked at morning work or bell ringers. This is a part of the school day that I plan on making routine in my classroom. I think that it is great that you are already thinking about it and how you will implement it. I am working on lesson plans for 1st grade. I observed a 2nd grade class this semester and hope to get into a 3rd grade class next semester but my heart is for Kindergarten or even better stay at my Pre-school. I want to know though that I can do the others because we all know that in the end when the job opening comes open we will take it. So I have bell work for my preschoolers that I have gathered over the years while working with my teacher and a lot of times she lets me plan morning work, but I have not thought of working on them for other grades. 

Ali G. - Recycle -I wish that I was better at recycling. I really do care about it but our town charges me extra for pick up or I have to drop off my own and I neither have the time nor honestly the desire (I used to but the dump smell stayed in my car for days). I like some of your upcycling ideas. I am always impressed with the ladies that I see at the store who bring their own bags. I have even bought the bags to "remember to bring" but seldom (never) do. I am big on using anything my kids make me so I would probable use a bag that the kids made me at school. I think most moms would. (My kids are mostly adults and they still know mom will keep it and use it if we make it for her. I am a bit worried because my son has picked up the hobby of weaving while he has been deployed. I have no idea what wonderful scarf I will be wearing next winter.)

Tiffany-Weather Note Book Journal-I like the idea of journaling at any age. We journal in our Pre-k classroom. It is a unique way for visual learners to see what is going on. Journals can look different for each student and you will quickly learn who your visual learners are through this tool. Even for your students who are not visual learners it is a good task. See it Hear it Do it are usually good keys to helping students learn material. In case you didn't get the link this really is a great song for weather.

Angela Jackson- Light and Dark-I am afraid that pencil is over looked way to often but what a simple a direct way to get your students to see and under stand the contrast and the value difference between light and dark then with pencil and shading. It might be a lot of fun to also work with black construction paper and a white pencil. I might have to get out my art note book this week end really feeling like doing some shading now. Kids are often afraid of art. They can't draw. The truth is neither can I but I can shade and I can texture. As kids work on simple stuff like this then they can see things in the picture and suddenly the kid has made art and it doesn't matter that they can't draw. 

                                          

Once Again GREAT Job!

Thank you so much for going first guys.

Teaching With the End in Mind

In this weeks blog we are supposed to look at our students final performance task at the end of week 10. This is one that has been bouncing around in my head since we started talking about our end performance task. I have looked it up and haven't really been able to find exactly what I am picturing. After a lot of Google searching though last night and again today I finally found something similar to what I am wanting to do for my students final performance task. 

                                                      

It is a Circle Map about the Sun. The map can include all the connections that the students have made with the different lessons through out the ten days. This could even be included about it not being seen at night when we discuss the moon and stars. I do not have a rubric of any sort yet for it but I am really excited about the culmination that this performance task would provided.

Unit Lesson Plan Round 1

Tonight the first group of students stepped up and took one for the team.

Ali G. was the first to present. Of course computers never seem to work when you need them to but Ali was a trooper. She discussed what she would be doing to help students learn place value. 

Jessica was next to present and her Unit looked really nice. She will be doing her unit over recycling. I like the idea of finding ways of recycling all of the plastic bottles. It is a great way to make it relevant to the students as well. 

 

Angela went last I am afraid I missed a large part of hers because my computer kept on going in and out. I did here some discussion on how to write the Objective and how  to  write the modeling. This was all very helpful to me and information that I was needing. I am still impressed that these ladies were willing to step up and put themselves out there.  

I know that my biggest fear is that my lesson plan will not make since. I know where I want to go with it and I am excited about put it together but I am afraid of what it will all look like on paper. These ladies have given me faith that it will be okay. I will probable have mistakes this first time but this first time is to help me fix those mistakes and to make them better.

The Difference Between Performance Task and Formative Assessment

This was a very informative class. I ended up with about 6 pages of notes but the discussion was extremely helpful. I graduated high school back in 1995. All we did was text and quizzes. The discussion tonight allowed me to look at new and different ways to assess my future students.

Performance Task (Summative or at the End)
The Key is that Students take what you have taught them and bring it into the real world.

• Display board
• Something that the student has written and then reads aloud or performs to the class
• Thinking Maps
• Posters
• Diorama (built in class so that we don't just get the art work of the parents)  

Students could design a playground using Math

Students could create a display of the water cycle

Formative Assessment (As you go along)

Informs the teacher if the student is understanding the material they are being taught.

• Give me a green check if you understand
• Thumbs up Thumbs down
• Can include general questions and discussion
• Lets the teacher know if they need to go back over something
• Helps refine learning

Marzano's 9 Strategies

This week we look at Marzano's 9 Strategies. These strategies are:
1. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
2. Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
3. Cooperative Learning
4. Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
5. Nonliguistic Representations
6. Summarizing and Note-Taking
7. Homework Practice
8. Identifying Similarities and Differences
9. Generating and Testing Hypothesus

We were asked to look specifically at one of these and I chose to look at Nonliguistic Representation because it was one that I felt I need more explanation over. Nonlinguistic representations is one that enhance students' ability to use mental images to represent and elaborate on knowledge that they already have. Here are some example of a few that can be used in a classroom:

• graphic organizers
• sketches
• pictographs (stick figures and symbols)
• concept maps
• dramatizations 
• flowcharts
• computerized simulations
• math manipulatives

https://youtu.be/zkiJv4AlXcA

Week 4 Thinking Maps

WELL MAYBE NOT Understand MAPS BUT Understanding THINKING MAPS WAS THE KEY TO THIS WEEKS LESSON 

As a future teacher I hope to get to work with early childhood.  I will be honest I did not know how I would even use a few of the different thinking maps for Kindergarten, 1st or even 2nd grade. Going on to Pinterest was a lot of help. It let me see how I could use each of the different Think Maps. For example:

Circle: In a Unit over the ocean students can use a circle map go group animals that they would find living in the water.


Flow: In a Unit over the cycle of a day students could create a  flow map to see how the sun rises and eventually sets.


Bubble: This is actually a thinking map that we use quite often in my classroom. The problem is we do not use the terminology. It is very important that our students begin to hear these words because they will become common practice throughout  their school years. This is a bubble chart that we have done several times.


Double Bubble: This Thinking Map gives the teachers a nice way to transition units and students a fun way to compare and contrast. For example, next week we start a two week unit over apples we will then have a two week unit over fall and pumpkins.

 
Tree: Sometimes things are so simple that even if they are right in front of us we do see them for what they are. We have tree maps like these all over our class rooms. We simple don't think of them as three maps. The more we have though in our class room the more exposure our students have to them.


Brace: What elementary teacher doesn't enjoy Johnny Appleseed week. This brace map would be a lot of fun for the students and would make it easy for them to see the different parts.


Bridge: This and the Brace Map were the two that I worried that I would have the hardest time finding anything for the younger age group. I will admit that this would be a thinking map that my students would help me fill in discussion. I would then put in up on the wall for reference throughout the Unit.


Multi Flow Map: I will be honest this one is a  . The closest Multi Flow Map was one for Dr. Seuss. On the top part students found words that they liked from the book. I am not sure how they flowed like a said a stretch and they they then found words that then rhymed with those words. A multi flow map might be a big more tricky to find for the younger age groups.

Week 3 Madeline Hunter Lesson Plan

Which part of the Madeline Hunter Lesson Plan Design will be hard for me?

I am not sure that I understood checking for understanding. I always thought this meant the test at the end of the unit or the lesson. It will be hard for me to move complete away from this way of thinking. I do not feel that all test have to be formal but I do feel that I have to have a way of evaluating and documenting what they know.

Dr. Steffes discussed using temperature checks. I think that these would work great as you are teaching the unit but not as a full disclosure of understanding.

Which Part will be easy?

I think that the easiest part for me will be guided practice. I work with pre-school students now and this is always my favorite part of the day. This is when I get to see the students show me what I have modeled for them. I get to guide them during this time and I find it very rewarding.

Which part has the most impact on the students?

Probable the Anticipatory Set has the most impact. The Anticipatory Set grabs their attention, it gets them ready and excited to learn, it helps them create the connections to make it worth learning. With out the Anticipatory Set you will loose many of your students before you even get started.

Which part plays a lesser role and why?

This might just be for me but to me the part of the lesson that I could almost skip would be materials. It is not because I don't want to be organized. It is not because I have every thing that I could possible need at my disposal. It is because when working with preschoolers even the best laid plans wont really matter. My motto is keep it simple on materials and I just might make it through. Do you plan on seeing what happens when you mix glue and corn starch together? Awesome guess what at least one kid is going to pee  them self even if you just had a restroom break. That is okay though because glue and starch do not go bad (at least not for a long time) and you can do the lesson tomorrow instead. Plan on making hay stack cookies for The Three Little Pigs (Homes) Unit? Awesome but guess what even though a note went home the week before with the words PEANUT in bold letters and a medical form went home at the beginning of the school year requesting documentation of allergies one of your children are going to EXCLAIM! My Mom Said That I Will Die If I Eat or Get Near Peanuts! What? Where was that allergy alert parents? So for me materials is a finicky friend.

Week 2 Blog Post #1

Question #1

 Are Objectives Important? Why or Why Not?



I work in a school and I have heard teachers talking (Complaining) about writing their objectives. For many of them Objectives were just one more on their endless list of paperwork. I have heard so many teachers say "They can get more paperwork from me or they can let me teach my students."

The way the Objective was explained to us tonight made it's usefulness so much more clear.  As a teacher I need to to know who will be learning A-Audience (students), what I want them to learn B-Behavior, know the context or the way that I will be teaching C-Condition, finally I want to know my expectations for my students D-Degree.

After looking at objectives this way I can see how important they are. They help a teacher know what their students need to know, how they can teach it, and how they can find out if  the students have learned to the extent that the teacher needs them to.

Question #2

Write an objective for something you've wanted to get done at home:

Given the paint and brushes that I purchased from LOWES, I will finish painting the cupcake stands with 100 % accuracy.