I have made some corrections and additions to the wiki website last night. Also I added a photo gallery, I have pictures from all of your classrooms that I put up. If you both want to add some more pictures of your classroom feel free. Just go to photo gallery, under virtual tour, and hit insert, then image. Under each picture I wrote a sentence or two describing the picture. You do not need to add anything unless you want to.
-Deirdre Conway
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Reviewing Blogging Experience
In my first post about blogging I talked about how it is beneficial to our program in positive ways of organization and keeping in contact with classmates, I stated that the blogs would be very informative which they definitely have been with my partner, Emily and I since we are have been tutoring around the same grade level and we have been sharing information and feedback for each other. Also I talked about writing about my experiences in my PDS and my thoughts about them which we have been doing and it is very informative to receive feedback on my comments as well as seeing Emily’s and my seminar facilitator comments which are the most helpful for me. Since I had to switch small group classes because of a class time conflict I do not have Maggie anymore and I have Michelle which I have not received any comments from her yet so I will talk to her to make sure she received my invite. Also I have not received comments back from my mentor teacher but she told me in the beginning of the semester she would read them and I told her not to feel obligated to answer. So this is very helpful for me that I still have Emily’s feedback because she gives me great reinforcement on some of my ideas as long as encouraging my goals which is very nice to hear!
After looking at my first blog and my intentions of using the blog I can see now that the blog does help in many ways most importantly my partner and I have progressed and we have been helpful to each other. This blog will be nice to always have to look back on and see what my thoughts were concerning and what my new thoughts and ideas will be later in the future.
I feel that the possibilities that we could share feedback on the blog could be on things we have tried that have been very successful with being engaging as well as effective to the students learning. It would be beneficial if we would post good ideas to do with the children during lessons and also good activities that the students loved. These new ideas can be so helpful with sparking new ideas of our own and I think that it would be really nice if us as tutors could share things that went well, as well as things to avoid while teaching.
Emily my question to you:
Would you like to blog more, or add into our upcoming posts, about our experiences in the classroom and things that have really stuck out to you as well as I will blog about experiences with my students and what things have been very fun for them and effective for their learning. This can help us bounce back ideas with each other for good brainstorming!
Also is there anything you would want me to do such as give you more feedback on a certain question or experience you are having? Or is there anything you would suggest to change? Let me know how I can help because you have been very helpful and encouraging for me and I really appreciate that!
After looking at my first blog and my intentions of using the blog I can see now that the blog does help in many ways most importantly my partner and I have progressed and we have been helpful to each other. This blog will be nice to always have to look back on and see what my thoughts were concerning and what my new thoughts and ideas will be later in the future.
I feel that the possibilities that we could share feedback on the blog could be on things we have tried that have been very successful with being engaging as well as effective to the students learning. It would be beneficial if we would post good ideas to do with the children during lessons and also good activities that the students loved. These new ideas can be so helpful with sparking new ideas of our own and I think that it would be really nice if us as tutors could share things that went well, as well as things to avoid while teaching.
Emily my question to you:
Would you like to blog more, or add into our upcoming posts, about our experiences in the classroom and things that have really stuck out to you as well as I will blog about experiences with my students and what things have been very fun for them and effective for their learning. This can help us bounce back ideas with each other for good brainstorming!
Also is there anything you would want me to do such as give you more feedback on a certain question or experience you are having? Or is there anything you would suggest to change? Let me know how I can help because you have been very helpful and encouraging for me and I really appreciate that!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Practicum Plan Blog
· Consider one or more of your learning goals and what progress your making toward those goals.
Some of my goals were to speak louder, take more initiative over the classroom while teaching, and keep up with paper work. The progress that I have made towards these goals were by practicing, I keep in mind that I need to speak louder and I practice talking loud when I am in charge of the classroom. Also with my goal to take more initiative over the classroom while teaching, I was able to practice that when I did my read aloud. Since I am in a kindergarten class I read them a story and asked them questions throughout the book which caused some distractions because the children would want to keep talking and tell me a million stories, so I took charge and would let them know, in a nice manner, when I needed to move on. Also it is easy to keep up with the paperwork because of the practicum plan because I know what comes next and what is due when. I am making progress on each of my goals by simply practicing these skills and being conscious of them to keep them in mind.
· Talk about what changes you've made to your plan as you've moved through the semester so far - what things you may have added or removed.
Some changes I have made with my practicum plan were just some dates and more information on my work. In the beginning of the semester we did our practicum plan right away within the first or second week so when I went over the assignments with my teacher I had no idea what some of them were but I knew the date. So now that we have talked more about the syllabus in certain classes I am able to go back over with my mentor teacher and give my understanding to her for us to plan. I have no removed anything from my practicum plan just made some minor comments with my mentor teacher to help us both understand.
· How would you evaluate your own progress in relation to completing the activities you've listed on the plan?
To evaluate my own progress in relation to completing activities would be good because of the practicum plan I believe. I think that this was a really good assignment for the tutors to do because that helped us to organize all of our syllabi’s together which allowed us to present our expectations and deadlines to our mentor teachers. I thought this made things a lot easier because it is more organized and it helps us as tutors know what’s coming next. Also it is easy to keep up with completing activities on time because we have everything mapped out. I think that the practicum plan was a really good idea that is very helpful for us as tutors.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Digital Storytelling
I truly believe that story telling is such an important part of a young child’s life and it is so essential for adults to share and provide stories for children. Storytelling opens so many doors for children in learning as well as with their skills such as observing, listening, being patient, waiting their turn and most importantly fuel for their imaginations. In my PDS I have been with a first grade class and now I am with a kindergarten class and I love reading stories to the children because of the excitement they feel when they use their imaginations and create things in their minds that allow them to fall in love with storytelling. I think that digital storytelling is a good thing because digital media such as videos and pictures can help expand children's imaginations. Also it can give children some information to help them better understand the story and be able to create a picture in their minds, for an example my first grade teacher was reading a book with little pictures and the animal platypus was in the context but some of the children interrupted her and were confused about what a platypus was, so the teacher had to pull up a picture on her computer for the students to understand. I think that digital story telling can help with problems like that so the children can bring characters to life and better comprehend.
I think that digital story telling has many benefits and that using pictures or videos can be more attention grabbing for children. Also recorded audio of silly animal noises or voices will allow the children to interact more because they will be very interested. I believe that what makes a story a good story is the moral learned in the end. Good morals of life lessons are important in stories to help teach children what is right and wrong, good or bad, or simply morals or endings that make you smile and laugh.
Some ideas from my PDS experiences that I would consider to include in my digital story could be the importance of reading books to children, importance of being fair to them, the importance of classroom management, the importance of the teacher student relationships, and
the importance of the “tutor” student relationships for children to be able to make a connection with you and put their trust in me. But the topic that I would go with right now would be the importance of exciting activities and lessons in classrooms. I would have to go with this one because when I would teach my short lessons in my first grade classrooms I would try and make the activities very exciting for the children so they would be better engaged, which they were, and there would be an overall better more positive outcome with the progress. An interesting story could be about how I taught a lesson about corn stalks and I started out reading a story to them, then I drew on the whiteboard and has them copy, draw and label the cornstalk, and lastly had them fill out a worksheet on corn and popcorn. So of course to make it more interesting I brought went in the back and popped bags full of popcorn so it would make the worksheet easier to fill out how the popcorn smelled, felt and tasted like. During the lesson I kept the energy level high and everyone was motivated and when I brought in the popcorn it was nice to see them having so much fun. The one boy even ran up to me gave me a hug and said “this is the best day ever!” I feel that lessons and activities that are engaging and fun for students, would be the ones that they will always remember what they learned that day. Another activity I did was have them get up and jump around while we practiced spelling words, there was a ton of engagement with that also. These lessons are important for children to take interest in what they are learning and keep it in their minds and with them forever!
I think that digital story telling has many benefits and that using pictures or videos can be more attention grabbing for children. Also recorded audio of silly animal noises or voices will allow the children to interact more because they will be very interested. I believe that what makes a story a good story is the moral learned in the end. Good morals of life lessons are important in stories to help teach children what is right and wrong, good or bad, or simply morals or endings that make you smile and laugh.
Some ideas from my PDS experiences that I would consider to include in my digital story could be the importance of reading books to children, importance of being fair to them, the importance of classroom management, the importance of the teacher student relationships, and
the importance of the “tutor” student relationships for children to be able to make a connection with you and put their trust in me. But the topic that I would go with right now would be the importance of exciting activities and lessons in classrooms. I would have to go with this one because when I would teach my short lessons in my first grade classrooms I would try and make the activities very exciting for the children so they would be better engaged, which they were, and there would be an overall better more positive outcome with the progress. An interesting story could be about how I taught a lesson about corn stalks and I started out reading a story to them, then I drew on the whiteboard and has them copy, draw and label the cornstalk, and lastly had them fill out a worksheet on corn and popcorn. So of course to make it more interesting I brought went in the back and popped bags full of popcorn so it would make the worksheet easier to fill out how the popcorn smelled, felt and tasted like. During the lesson I kept the energy level high and everyone was motivated and when I brought in the popcorn it was nice to see them having so much fun. The one boy even ran up to me gave me a hug and said “this is the best day ever!” I feel that lessons and activities that are engaging and fun for students, would be the ones that they will always remember what they learned that day. Another activity I did was have them get up and jump around while we practiced spelling words, there was a ton of engagement with that also. These lessons are important for children to take interest in what they are learning and keep it in their minds and with them forever!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
PDS Reflection
My experience at my PDS has been wonderful and I have definitely built a good relationship with my first graders. This has been a really good learning opportunity for me in many ways. Throughout the semester I have worked with children off to the side, during the lessons, and I have even taught lessons on my own. I learn more information about the students everyday I am there. I am able to understand the similarities and differences of most of the children, and understand why the act the way they do sometimes and that there is a deeper meaning to everything.
I work with six through seven year old and I have found that there is a wide variety range on their learning abilities. Some students are at such a high level and do not usually ever need help, some children need help only sometimes, and some children need constant help and a little push to keep them motivated. I have noticed that there are more male students that struggle with their reading and math skills and when my teacher asks me to tutor them off to the side I have only worked with males. I have definitely taken notice on the different learning styles the children have and I try my best to adapt my teaching, to the best of their learning abilities.
Student engagement has been my biggest wondering and focus with this classroom. I have observed that the students engagement can be very on and off at points and it is pretty challenging to keep everyones attention for more than a short period of time. My teacher has even said to me that the class this year is more difficult than other years. Disruptive behavior occurs, but the children do not have bad intentions, mostly just wanting to play or talk and receive attention.
Throughout this semester my teacher has given me a ton of opportunities to work with students by myself one-on-one and also the opportunity to teach the classroom as a whole. The one day I did a corn stalk lesson and it was so much fun to teach the children, I enjoyed it tremendously! I started off with drawing on the white board, I drew a picture of a corn stalk and had them follow along drawing at their seats. We labeled the parts (ex. Corn, roots, leaves..) and I practiced repetition drills to help them practice. After that I read them a story, as they sat on the carpet circled around me, about how corn is picked and made into popcorn. I brought in 5 bags of popcorn and though it would be a good idea to have my teacher make the popcorn while I read the story. After I was done reading the story I passed out a worksheet for them to do independently at their desks about popcorn. It had popcorn pictures and places to label the smell, taste, sound, touch...of popcorn and just as I was asking them to think of the smell the teacher came back and the children were so excited! It also made filling out the worksheet more engaging for them and helped them understand better.
I have recently had academic improvement with one of the males I have been tutoring off to the side. Just last week he struggled through his reading and I noticed that when he did not know a word, he would physically get uncomfortable, move around in his chair, fuss with his pencil. After a couple seconds he would just shot out a random word that was way off the word in the book. I started to notice that he would say the same few words each time that he liked to use (like, them, came.) I talked with him and explained that whenever he comes across a word and starts to feel uncomfortable, to relax, have confident, and look at the spelling of the word. Next spell out each letter and then sound them out together. I explained to him that this is a much more efficient, easy way of learning new words. I motivated him and would not give up, no matter how much he wanted me to just tell him the word. I would make him say each letter, then make the sound each letter makes, and then put it together. As he started picking up I would give him high fives and encourage him on how well he was doing. Then this week I worked with him again on a different book and he was showing improvement immediately and was still using the technique that I taught him!
It was a really good feeling to know that I helped him with his reading. I have made a lot of relationships with mostly all of the children and they are just so adorable.
My question to you Emily would be: In your pre- k classroom do you have trouble with disruptive behavior and student engagement at such a young age? What did you observe about their learning and what techniques did you do to improve the results?
I work with six through seven year old and I have found that there is a wide variety range on their learning abilities. Some students are at such a high level and do not usually ever need help, some children need help only sometimes, and some children need constant help and a little push to keep them motivated. I have noticed that there are more male students that struggle with their reading and math skills and when my teacher asks me to tutor them off to the side I have only worked with males. I have definitely taken notice on the different learning styles the children have and I try my best to adapt my teaching, to the best of their learning abilities.
Student engagement has been my biggest wondering and focus with this classroom. I have observed that the students engagement can be very on and off at points and it is pretty challenging to keep everyones attention for more than a short period of time. My teacher has even said to me that the class this year is more difficult than other years. Disruptive behavior occurs, but the children do not have bad intentions, mostly just wanting to play or talk and receive attention.
Throughout this semester my teacher has given me a ton of opportunities to work with students by myself one-on-one and also the opportunity to teach the classroom as a whole. The one day I did a corn stalk lesson and it was so much fun to teach the children, I enjoyed it tremendously! I started off with drawing on the white board, I drew a picture of a corn stalk and had them follow along drawing at their seats. We labeled the parts (ex. Corn, roots, leaves..) and I practiced repetition drills to help them practice. After that I read them a story, as they sat on the carpet circled around me, about how corn is picked and made into popcorn. I brought in 5 bags of popcorn and though it would be a good idea to have my teacher make the popcorn while I read the story. After I was done reading the story I passed out a worksheet for them to do independently at their desks about popcorn. It had popcorn pictures and places to label the smell, taste, sound, touch...of popcorn and just as I was asking them to think of the smell the teacher came back and the children were so excited! It also made filling out the worksheet more engaging for them and helped them understand better.
I have recently had academic improvement with one of the males I have been tutoring off to the side. Just last week he struggled through his reading and I noticed that when he did not know a word, he would physically get uncomfortable, move around in his chair, fuss with his pencil. After a couple seconds he would just shot out a random word that was way off the word in the book. I started to notice that he would say the same few words each time that he liked to use (like, them, came.) I talked with him and explained that whenever he comes across a word and starts to feel uncomfortable, to relax, have confident, and look at the spelling of the word. Next spell out each letter and then sound them out together. I explained to him that this is a much more efficient, easy way of learning new words. I motivated him and would not give up, no matter how much he wanted me to just tell him the word. I would make him say each letter, then make the sound each letter makes, and then put it together. As he started picking up I would give him high fives and encourage him on how well he was doing. Then this week I worked with him again on a different book and he was showing improvement immediately and was still using the technique that I taught him!
It was a really good feeling to know that I helped him with his reading. I have made a lot of relationships with mostly all of the children and they are just so adorable.
My question to you Emily would be: In your pre- k classroom do you have trouble with disruptive behavior and student engagement at such a young age? What did you observe about their learning and what techniques did you do to improve the results?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Blogging Possibilities
I believe that blogging is beneficial to our program in positive ways of organization. It is beneficial to keep in contact with the main advisers of our program and also other tutors in our graduating class. I think blogs are very interesting that you can type a post and it will send to all the mail recipients that you need. It is engaging to keep in touch and organize and information that needs to be shared. Also the best thing about blogs are that they can be very informative of any information that I will need to share with others, or others will need to share with me. Blogs are great for the Benedum Collaborative Five- Year Teacher Education Program for everyone to be able to reach each other and keep all the information organized in one place. Also it is beneficial because you can view old blogs which will help us in the future if we need to pull up old information. I envision my blog to support my experiences with keeping everything organized and receiving comments back from our main advisers of our program, and also my classmates. I imagine that I will be writing about my experiences in the classroom (my PDS) and my thoughts about them. Also I will provably write about how I dealt with my experiences or any certain situations that I came across. I might also give feedback about my certain PDS teacher and the certain children at the PDS for that semester. I could definitely imagine writing about how these experiences will benefit me as a teacher in the future and ways that I can incorporate what I learned to my teaching techniques.
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