Post 4 Week 5

The last week of my field experience was just as great as the first. This week was a little different than the usual, but that was nice because I got to see what they do during the afternoon (when I'm not there). Usually on a regular day, the students come in, work on their morning work, and we start the day by doing calendar and then we go right into the daily 5 but this week like I said was different. After doing calendar, we jumped right into STEM. The students were learning about chemistry and how in chemistry, we need to follow a process (steps). The CT demonstrated this in a fun way, by having the students make play-doh. In order for the students to make this, they had to follow a process. They made low quality play-do, and high quality play-do and they compared/contrasted to what they did differently. Throughout watching the CT give directions and incorporate other standards into this lesson, I couldn't believe how well she does all of this. She is such a good teacher, and I can tell that she has been doing this for many years because she explains and teaches things in such a fun, organized, way to where the students understand and that is something that I hope I can do when I become a teacher someday.

It was fun doing this with the students and having them learn what way to make play-doh is the best and why. The CT and I asked the students questions and they answered back with the correct statement so we could tell that they have been listening and focusing on what the CT was telling them. I really liked seeing them learn other subjects other than literacy because it allowed me to experience a little more.

Overall, I had such a great experience and I can't even begin to tell you all how much I learned! This experience was so fun and I loved getting to know the students and seeing them grow and learn just in 5 weeks is incredible. I can't wait to start my next field experience and eventually have my own classroom!

Final Week

I ended my week singing Twinkle, Twinkle Litter Stars with the Kindergarteners. I was really happy to learn so much from my cooperating teacher, from classroom management to actually understanding that 6-7 aged children are not so hard to handle if you have transitions. I was also happy to have a partner that has a lot of experience with kids and show me how to get er done. Something tragic happened on Thursday, that affected me enormously and didn't want to go to my final day of field experience, but my husband assured me to go because it would be best to go than to stay at home. I went to my field experience on Friday and what Joy it was to laugh and smile the whole day, I nearly forgot the tragic incidence. I would definitely agree that love cures many things and I am so glad I am loving to be a teacher! This experience could not have finished any other way, the best experience yet!

Post 4

This last week with my kindergarten class really showed me how much the students can grow with practice every day. Every morning we got the opportunity to practice sight words and number with our students, and some of them really struggled with many words and the blending sounds like th, sh, and ch, but after practicing every morning on the same words and sounds, they were able to get the hang of it and eventually remember them. I really enjoyed seeing them succeed and they were very happy when they were getting their words right too. When I showed excitement in their success, they were proud of themselves, and this went a long ways.

I also got to read my last read aloud this week, and I read a book called "My Life as a Chicken" by Ellen Kelley. I chose this book because my kindergarteners are hatching chicken eggs in an incubator in the classroom and they are super excited to see them every morning when they walk in. I learned to listen more carefully when they ask questions during my story to bring up a conversation. The students were able to point out the rhyming that went along with the story, and this is a benchmark they have to have down in kindergarten, so going over these words would have been beneficial as well.

We decided to stay for a majority of the day on our last day because we wanted to get the chance to see more than their reading hours, and I'm glad we did. I learned a lot from this experience and I am excited to see what else I'll learn in the next couple semesters before I have a classroom of my own one day!

Post #4 week 5

This last week was eyeopening. From seeing how much the kids have grown to growing closer to my CT and learning how she runs her classroom. We were able to attend a field trip with the kids to the green house. It was hard to manage a class, while still respecting the workers at the green house. The kids were so interested in the plants, but sometimes a little bit too much at times. It was a good way for us as student teachers to learn that the change in the environment can change how kids behave. They need structure, and when things are changed that it is hard for the kids. Overall the field trip went well, and I am glad we got to experience this within our last week with the kids. I am sad that this was our last week with the students, but it makes me excited to start my career as a teacher. Seeing how much the kids value our opinion, and also seeing how much the kids can change us was amazing as well. I cannot wait for the future, and to learn more about the teaching field!

Post 4 Week 5

It makes me so sad that this is the last week of field experience. I feel like I have made a lot of connections with the students and I feel like I didn't get enough time with them. My CT said that he would be okay if I still came in after my classes were over and I am very excited about that because I would love to continue going. Also the chicked hatched and all of the kids are so excited. They had a hard time focusing on their schoolwork though because they all wanted to sit and stare at the chicks. On Friday they each got to hold a chick and their reactions were so cute. They were all so excited and my CT had them praciticing how to calm their bodies so they wouldn't scare the chicks. My CT does such a great job with his classroom management and I have found myself taking notes to keep track of things that he does that I would like to do in my future classroom. I couldn't have been more lucky to have been placed in the classroom that I was placed in. I got along great with my CT, the para and the students. It was one of the best experiences that I have had in a classroom setting and I know that I learned so much from my CT. Also on Friday we had a little going away party for me and my partner and we brought in treats for the students so we got to eat cookies and go outside and play and it was a lot of fun. It was such a bittersweet goodbye (even though I know I'll be going back in like 2 weeks). I'm already counting down the days until I get to go back!

Post 3 Week 4

I did my second read aloud this week and I chose to read Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el. The children giggled their way through the whole book and it was so fun being able to get them engaged in a book like that. This week in class we also planted some seeds for flowers that the kindergarteners will be able to take home later. Each student had their own pot that they planted a couple zinnea seeds in and then there were some extra pots that were used to plant some beans, sunflowers and peas. Also, I forgot to say this in my second week post but an incubator is in our classroom and we are in the process of hatching chicks and some of them we can see beginning to develop. My CT has taken an egg out a couple of times and he uses his flashlight on his phone to see through the egg and we can see the veins forming and the yolk is turning into a little chicken fetus. I feel like there's never a dull day in kindergarten. We're always busy and doing awesome projects. This week I followed the EBD student and his para around to see what they do when they aren't in the classroom and it wasn't what I thought it would be like. The student has a chart of pokeballs and when he gets to 5 pokeballs he's able to go on a "break" and that's what I was curious about. He gets to choose what he does on his breaks and he chose to use a body sox and I had never seen one before. It has a similar effect like a weighted blanket. If you don't know what a body sox is I highly recommend you look it up. It's hilarious and also very helpful for students who need that calming kind of pressure.

Week 5

            Week five concludes the time in my field experience, and I will definitely miss the students in my class. I have learned a plethora of information from observing and helping out in this classroom, which I hope will help me to become a successful educator in the future. In the past week, there were a few guest teachers who came to teach the class and both the students and the guest teachers had to learn from each other and realize that things may be a bit different from the student’s regular routine. At times the class was pretty chaotic because there was not a ton of structure within the classroom when a new guest teacher came in. The guest teachers did not really have a plan or an idea of how the student’s regular routine went, so the classroom environment was difficult at times. Even though the last few days of my experience was not what I was expecting, I have learned a lot and would not have traded the experience for any other!

Post 2 Week 3

I did my first read aloud this week and it went really well! I chose to read Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman. I didn't feel nervous at all until I sat down with my book, and even then it wasn't that bad. I'm used to talking infront of 150 kids a day and I knew that reading a book to 20 kids was really no different. This was the first read aloud I did and I had my CT and partner grade it and my CT said that I sounded very confident and I appreciated that he said that because I was afraid that they would be able to tell that I was a little nervous. I had been watching my CT read books for the past few weeks and I tried to mimic what he did because I liked how he read. At the beginning he always made sure to go over the author and illustrator, whether it has any awards, and if the book is fiction or non fiction. I was surprised when I heard him read his first book (the first book he read to the class when I was there was "Hotel Bruce") and he discussed with the children whether it was fiction or nonfiction and I had just assumed until that point that using the words fiction and nonfiction were too hard for kindergarteners but they understood what it meant and I was impressed. So when I gave my read aloud I made sure to talk about the author, the caledcott medal it won, and the fact that the book is fiction. The children really liked the book and it was sweet how attentive they were when I was reading.

Post 1 Week 2

During all the commotion of waking up early for field experience, heading to Kidstop and still finding time to keep my sanity- I forgot to post my blogs. I've been keeping track of my days in kindergarten in a journal for ED 310 or 315 (I can't remember which one) so I decided that I'm just going to go through and type up what happened throughout my weeks at kindergarten even though I'm a couple weeks late (whoops). Enjoy my many blog posts in a row.

My first 2 weeks at kindergaten kept me busy that's for sure! I made it my goal to get to know the kids as fast as I could and I had all their names memorized before I left the classroom on the first day. The classroom that I was in was fairly diverese. There was an ELL student who also had developmental delays, a child with EBD and there was a child on the Autism spectrum. All of the students were so excited to have me and my partner in the classroom to help out. It was weird having them call me Ms. Morris since I'm not used to being called by my "teacher" name. There was a boy who had just gotten transfered into the class who had EBD and my CT asked if I would try to help him out in the classroom when his para wasn't there or if she was busy with the ELL student. I said yes and he ended up bonding with me really quickly. It was kind of sweet because we both started in the class at the same time so we had that special connection. Over the first 2 weeks me and him worked together a lot and it was super rewarding being able to watch him become more adjusted to the classroom. One of my favorite things that would happen is that everyday after he would come into class (he ate breakfast with the special education teacher) he would ask if he missed recess even though he had only been in school for around 25 minutes.

I was definetly not used to waking up so early to get ready for school and if it wasn't for coffee I probably would have been a zombie for the first week. There were some days where I really didn't want to wake up but I was so excited to go to kindergarten that it pushed me out of bed. I guess that's what people mean when they say that the kids are what keeps you coming back!

Katie's final post

This week was a short 4-day week.  The students had MCA testing on Wednesday and Thursday, which shortened our time with the students even more.  During their testing time, we were left with a lot of grading, housekeeping in the classroom, and example making:

Above, I created an Ozo Bot path as an example to retell If You Give a Moose a Muffin, to show them what they are going to do on Monday while the Minnesota Department of Education visitor is in the classroom.  My cooperating teacher has shared this story to the students, but they are going to create a path to create a finished circle story for If You Give a Mouse an iPhone.  That story doesn’t end where it started, so she asked the students to complete the circle and use their imaginations and come up with a great way for the child and mouse to come home.

I got to teach and reteach temperature again.  Negative temperature and scale (how some thermometers count by 2’s on the hashes, and some count by 1’s) can be a tricky concept.  I saw a lot of light bulb moments, which was rewarding.  We also got to witness additional frustration in having to deal with difficult parents.  Talking through her thinking and ideas was insightful and helpful for preparing me for the future—I really appreciated being allowed to see the inner workings of her thinking on the matter.

Thursday had a really weird vibe in the building.  My cooperating school is undergoing a transformation next year.  The whole school will be Spanish-Immersion.  The English-Speaking classrooms will have to have Spanish instruction everyday (a hybrid classroom of mostly English, part Spanish).  Our cooperating teacher took part of her planning period to go find out if she was going to have a job at this building again next year or not.  When she came back, she seemed shocked, with a mixture of confusion and excitement.  She is being relocated to a new building and will be teaching 4^th grade.  She seemed happy about the change and excited to make the move, but with all change, there were stages of grief and shock.  The staff lounge was buzzing with talk of who was staying, moving, and just gone.  My cooperating teacher had multiple people stop through, very upset that my teacher was being moved.  It was an aspect of teaching I hadn’t given much thought about.

On our last day, my partner and I decided we’d share a treat and an Earth Day activity.  The teacher chose two books for us to read aloud, we did Earth Day Bingo, and we had a gluten-free, dairy-free, fruit-free, and everything-I’m-allergic-to-free snack. I feel like I made great connections so it was sad to say goodbye.  

Final Week: Sara

This week was a short week but it seemed as though the opposite of what I expected to happen, happened. The students were so focused their day back it was interesting to see because I totally thought that they were going to be crazy. This week I did my final read aloud which was a book called Hot Air Balloons. It was all about the parts of the balloons, how they work, and how they're made. It went along with the theme of things that are found in the sky. The students really enjoyed all the colors and pictures that were in the book. We also did another guided reading but this time with the highest reading group. They were reading Flat Stanley books which are in the second grade range of reading. They read the first chapter to themselves and Jamie and I asked comprehension questions and then the students read the second chapter alternating every page. It was so interesting seeing the development in readers from both lowest reading group to the highest reading group. We also have been pulling students out every morning to work on the sight words they have trouble with, counting, shapes, etc. It has been amazing seeing the students go from hardly knowing any of the words and shapes on their sheets to knowing almost all of them. It shows how repetition helps the students a lot to remember things they need to. It was challenging at times with the troublesome new student I spoke of before. I noticed that he knows exactly what he's doing and that it's wrong, but he wants attention. There was another student in the classroom with Jamie and I that babied this student and let him get away with a lot. It was really annoying because Jamie and I would try and put our foot down and tell him that he needs to listen but then this other student would come in and baby him and it was frustrating to see and deal with. We also got to stay a full day our last day. It was really awesome because we got to see the second grade classroom they go to to partner read. That teacher had such an amazing room that I took pictures of it because it was so amazing and I learned a lot from how she set up her room. I can't believe that the experience is over but I learned so much and grew a lot as an educator.

Week 5

It felt weird starting the week on a Tuesday but even more so as it’s our last week of field experience. I know I’ll have many options to learn more this week with everything our CT has informed us we’ll be doing. I had to help three of the boys finish writing journal entries to start the day. All three could keep writing sentence after sentence filling their journals if they simply focused on completing their work but with each one, either working in small groups or individually, needed to be reminded to “keep rolling” at least once every couple of minutes. When one would look up frustrated and say they don’t want to write anymore I just want to say, “if you would have been working this whole time you would have rejoined the class ten minutes ago.” It’s especially maddening when the student only needs to copy their “sloppy copy” to their writing journal. How hard is it to copy your own words? At Target, I found a couple books that I had to buy to use as my final read aloud books. One was a third in the series started with Iggy Peck, Architect which I had never known was printed, Ada Twist, Scientist. The second book was called The Book with No Pictures and it is unbelievably funny. I also think it will help the students in the future with writing stories because it breaks some of the boundaries of children books. Abbie and I played rock paper scissors to find out who helps with a spring art project and who needs to help with writing journals. After misfiring twice, we finally got the one, two, three, shoot rhythm correct and I won. I spent most the day in the kids connection room helping the students glue paper squares onto what should become plant stems. Most of the students seemed to care about the quality of their work while a few just seemed to want to race to the finish. I was surprised as some of these students were the ones that could care less about some of their other work. Why don’t you want to spend as much time on this fun work? I’m glad that the CT was impressed with the speed at which I helped the students finish the first step of the project. The students left to gym at their usual 10:45 and our CT had plenty of work for us to grade, again reminding us she’s going to squeeze all the help out of us as possible. Some of the grading is really fun actually, especially math and spelling quizzes. We are planning on doing the spelling quiz review activity again tomorrow, our last day. It should be an exciting way to leave the kids. On our final day we find out that the students have this reader’s theater in the library which will not allow us to do our activity, which I’m pretty bummed about. I raced through cutting out their paper stems while the rest of the class, Abbie, and our CT were at reader’s theater. After the students got back to the class we found out they had a special sending off for us which included a cute signed card. In groups of two the students approached us and either could shake hands, give fist bumps, salute or give us a goodbye hug. It was adorable that most chose the final option. I’m planning on stopping in a couple times before the school year is done and hopefully will have time to try out a new activity or two. Of course we squeezed in about forty-five minutes of grading and sorting assignments before our final clock out. I feel like I had twice the take away from this semester’s field experience but it solely felt like classroom or work time. I know I always hope to have close connections but maybe I need to flip that switch to just think of the educational benefit.

Week 4

I’m excited to read the second book in a series, yes another rhyming book. The first was Iggy Peck, Architect. Today I’m reading Rosie Revere, Engineer. The books are silly because they rhyme but they have a fun storyline and I’m thinking show the students all the possibilities they have; maybe I’m being too sentimental, too hopeful of meaning. Anyways, only two shortened weeks left. I have mixed feelings, while talking to classmates we miss our schedule of IM and ED courses but classroom time with the CT is such a great resource. I’ve been documenting more ideas provided by the CT and thought myself. Even though it isn’t for future classroom use, I wrote down to tell share with Cassie that it would be very useful to have one day where we (Block 1) students can attend one of our classmates’ rooms. We always share stories from their experiences but being able to plop into their scenarios for a day would be quite beneficial. The added experience seeing other CTs and students would also be helpful and an enjoyable time. Today and yesterday have been some of the most fast-paced yet working with the students on their research papers. At first watching them try and type their information was very tedious; could not be more than five words per minute with some although this should be expected I assume. Our CT said it was not only fine to help type but encouraged which gave more time to research and fun fact finding (I may copyright the tripe F phrase). Cassie visited today and I was wearing one of my most casual outfits to date. I was hoping she would come tomorrow as I brought awesome pants at Express last week. She showed up as the students left for Art so she wasn’t there to see us interact with the kids. I’d hoped those interactions could have been seen so that some feedback could be given, even if only some pats on the back. I’m starting to realize how fast these weeks fly by. I was hoping Abbie and I would have found time to design more lessons and work one-on-one with some of the students we are making progress with. My wife’s car had issues last night and since my only class on campus today was Math 201 we carpooled to her school together, missing my first (and hopefully only) day of field experience. I emailed my CT last night to let her know I wouldn’t make it but promised I’d swing into the class a couple times in May as a little I owe you. I had a couple books from the school’s library checked out so over Easter I’ll have time to test them out of family whether they like it or not.

Week 3

Yay! Short week one of three! Less work days are always exciting however I believe number one, more will be on our plates, and number two, I’m afraid the students may be a bit wilder without having a typical structured five-day schedule over the next weeks. I feel like today (Monday) is the first in which the new field experience schedule feels quite normal. I’m especially liking my morning drive and spend a lot of time thinking of new activities and what books I’m going to read aloud during the week. I’ve had to catch myself too many times putting a book back at Target, the students are going to love this book but are they going to $19 like it? After finding out we would be leading the Red Group with their guided reading lessons I was a little nervous about how well leading the “most challenged readers” through a full lesson would go. One of the girls was very excited about the process while the other had no enthusiasm. The girl with zero enthusiasm can easily complete her work, if she attempts it and stays on track. The girl that was excited to begin has trouble staying on track and even attempting to read through challenging words. Yay…time to pull a rabbit out of the hat (I think I’ll a lot of rabbits here on out). We didn’t have enough time to finish on the first try which was quite deflating. Through this week we have been reminded on a few assignments with varied students how it shouldn’t be taking as long as it has been to finish their work. I want to make sure it shows that our attention to detail is visible but at the same time it’s a timed race, hashtag struggles; I think a trip to Express is much needed medicine. Cassie is coming to visit sometime next week, I’m really hoping I have some big shining moments to display. It was hard to believe how well behaved our class was at the student of the month assembly. I can’t lie; I almost got a bit emotional when our student received his student of the month award. He looked incredibly proud of his award. We will start working on the students’ first research papers next week which I’m looking forward. I feel like I’ll be able to teach the students some useful tips (initially wrote tricks) while also showcasing much progress to the CT. I wish we had just as much field experience but spread out over more weeks so that we could be around the students during more varied lessons.

Week 2

Again, I am looking back at last semester. I brought my camera in for student portraits (part of a project they have been working on for the past months) and I’d say most were excited to have their picture taken and wanted to see it but the excitement ended there. Last semester my students would ask about what I take pictures of or maybe their parent or a relative has a nice camera, or even how they want to have one for Christmas. I don’t know if I’m trying too hard to critically think about it all but maybe the lack of personal connection with this class is allowing for a more meaningful drive to focus of learning. A few of the students are especially hard to deal with as they excel in most subjects but are either distracted or continue to chat with students around them; students that need all the silent work time available. I must keep asking one student to stop talking and work by himself and he genuinely seems to feel disappointed in himself for getting in trouble. I feel like in the future these could be some of the students which will cause the most frustration, I just want to say “Dude! You’re a good kid and student just FOCUS!” It doesn’t take as long as I’d assume to learn the best approach to control each student and thusly assist with any learning struggles they experience. We have read aloud every day which makes finding a wide variety of engaging books challenging. The library here seems to get new books every couple days which is quite helpful. I’ve chosen many books simply by the cover art and I believe three days in a row I’ve read a rhyming book. This has been the first experience that I feel the need to start reading the books prior to reading in front of the class. During math board time, I experience the most struggles controlling the class. One student will spark a metaphoric fire which keeps growing until most the class is inattentive. On a bright note after only a week I feel as though I can, with slight confidence, use a variety of tactics to help certain students with their work, especially the more challenging students. Our CT sometimes appears shocked when we say student A or B has been especially difficult but our short term with new faces compared to her months with the class exhibits the bond formed over time. Friday rolls around and I find myself without Abbey so the fast-paced activity I have planned will be slightly more challenging. I definitely noticed an increase in hyper activity which caused for much more rule restating and commands to stay focused but I was fairly proud how well it progress and finished. Even during the activity, I was thinking of adjustments which could be made. After I thought of other options as well however I don’t know if anything besides more experience in the classroom or with the same students will work as well. Although it was a lot of work it was the first time I had multiple students approach me eagerly wishing to play again next week. That bright note was multiplied because I got to choose the student of the month. It was especially exciting because the award is given in front of the school during their monthly assemblies.

Week 1

I keep comparing the experiences from last semester’s and there are quite a few differences. Our daily tasks of listening to the students individually during read to self time proceeds at a slow pace. Although there are times occasionally that one of the students needs help with a challenging word it feels more like the job of listening is in place to make sure each student is keeping on task. We lead our first reading session, with the red group, and it really dawned on me the differences in reading and writing level these kids have. It’s not like I didn’t believe there would be a gap but the girls in this group were having trouble with level H books. It’s tough to categorize these areas needing improvement as simply a lessened ability because inability to stay on task and emotions seem to further saturate the issues. Friday resulted in a few shiny moments. I get to bring my camera in Monday for individual portraits for the students’ About Me books they’ve been working on all year and I started having an ELL student who recently moved to the United States begin to write down words he is unfamiliar with (or has trouble sounding through) so that we can work on them together the next day…yay! teaching moments. I have begun to write down all the little everyday things that the teacher uses in her routine that I want to use or adapt in my future classroom. Even the “Take a Break” chair, pretty much an evolved time out, is of note. If a student needs to “take a break” they usually proceed to the chair no questions asked. There is a chart by the chair which has two steps. Step one asks why are you current taking a break? The second asks have I done what’s needed to learn from this and rejoin the class. From what I’ve seen, it seems at the very least to provide a short term calmness which is usually much needed relief. There is so much time spent reading while we are in class. When we spend class time on non-reading activities even some of the well-behaved students stop listening to instructions to be silent, eyes forward, or take turns. Last semester I feel like I could easily control the entire class if I had to by myself and now I don’t know if I would be able to successfully calm these twenty students without bribery or extended time. After one week I have definitely felt as though I have had many great opportunities to effectively learn but I’m not receiving the same daily gratification my last class provided; never ending smiles and praise from the students and CT.

Week 5 (Post 4)

My last week was bitter sweet. I'm relieved that I've successfully completed my first field experience with no disasters or hitches, but I will miss the students a lot. In this last week I was able to do a guided reading lesson and it was fun to feel like a real teacher for a little bit. I noticed one of the students who was in the higher level reading group, was struggling slightly with the guided reading lesson when I had the students take turns reading aloud. After the guided reading lesson I consulted with my CT and she said that that particular student is at a high enough reading level to be in the group, but often tries to read to fast and zoom through sentences and that's when the student has trouble. She also said that just reminding that student to take their time makes a big difference in their comprehension. On the very last day when the kindergarteners hugged me and waved good bye I felt almost like I could cry because I will miss them so much. I can't imagine having to say bye to a class after an entire school year with them. Overall, this was a productive learning experience. I learned things about myself in regards to what kind of teacher I want to be, as well as what kind of teacher I don't want to be. Of course, there will be lots of trial and error and trying again in my first few years of teaching, but it's nice to have some trial and error and trying again already under my belt. I can't wait for my next field experience!

Zach's Bolg Post 4

 Well this past week was the last week of our field experience which is sad but I come out of the experience with a lot of knowledge and experience that will help me in the future. The final week was similar to previous weeks for me in what I did in the classroom. I did a read aloud and worked in group work helping students. I also did some activities with the class after I would do morning meeting. I have learned a lot from this whole experience. It was rewarding watching students learn and grow throughout the five weeks in the classroom. I was able to witness students at highs and lows and see the difference of how to handle both. My CT taught me many things that go along with classroom management. Spending time looking at how diverse a classroom can be with different level students was a good learning experience. The five weeks flew by but man did I learn a lot throughout them!

Week 5

 The last week I got to do a read aloud of a book based on celebrating Earth Day. Also, this week I got to teach my guided reading lesson plan. I choose a book about frogs blending into plants. I had so much fun teaching the lesson, that it increases my anticipation to have my own classroom in the future. On Friday, the class wore their Earth Day shirts that they previously made in class before. My partner and I helped the students plant either Sunflower seeds or Zinnia seeds for Earth Day. I know it has been only 5 short weeks, but the connections that you build with the students is incredible and it makes me realize how much I am going to miss being in the class with the students. On the other hand, I am excited to hear all of your experiences in person when we get back to class on Monday. I hope all of you enjoyed your field experience, like I did mine.

Wk 4

So on Thursday we got to go on a field trip with our class to an Arboretum & got to take a plant home plus I bought a super cute succulent pot. It was a lot of and a lot of work keeping the kids in line and getting them to follow the rules the tour guide set in place. Most kids followed the rules but there's always a few who don't ;). I thought it was so odd how short their field trip was. We left the school at 9:45am and got back on the bus to head back at 11:30am. And it took 25mins to drive there. So we got there around 10:10am. There wasn't much to see anyways but still I remember when I was a kid a field trip was an all day affair with lunch and everything. It was kind of a bummer also to hear that the district picks where and what the field trips are.

Friday was our last day and it was bitter sweet. All the kids kept asking us not to leave & even our CT asked us to stay! She was just awesome and I'm so thankful for having her as my CT this semester! She had so much to teach and knowledge to pass on. I will forever remember her and her kind heart! She got us a couple gifts, a card and had the kids each write and draw us notes! Seriously so so so sweet! We also got her a couple gifts, which I received a text from her today saying she loved them!

Field experience was great and I've learned so much more from my CT and being in her classroom than I have all semester, or really the last almost two years of school. I'm more of a hands on learner so I don't learn much from sitting in class listening to someone talk non stop and showing powerpoints after powerpoints. I'm sad to have to come back to IM and ED 310/315 this week, it's been a really really nice break from those classes. Kind of wished the other two classes I had went on a break too during this time. It was hard to go from field experience back to campus each day and go to class for 2 hours. Looking forward to school being done in 2 weeks and going to Texas for 4.5 days.

The last week

This was a pretty exciting week for the students in my Kindergarten class. The eggs in the incubator finally hatched! I'm sure you can imagine how exciting it was for the students. The week prior to the hatching the students predicted how many eggs would hatch. This turned into a great math lesson as the students tried to figure out which prediction was the closest and by how many. My CT then went over the directions for how to handle the chicks. The students were eager to hold the chicks so they were very good listeners. They obviously knew that if you didn't listen then you wouldn't get a chance to hold the chick. Only one of the students didn't want to hold one. He just watched as the other students took their turn. This was such a great experience for the class as many of the students had never had the chance to see this process. This week we also celebrated Earth Day. We read books about Earth Day, discussed ways to help keep the Earth clean and then made our own Earth Day shirts. The students wrote on the shirt with a Sharpie and I painted over them. They turned out really cute. As a culmination to the week they wore their Earth Day shirts on Friday.

Last Week

Our last week flew by! This week felt very productive as well and the students were bursting with energy! We tried to finish up a lot of our little side projects for our co-teacher this week and we succeeded in getting the majority done. One thing I noticed this week is that the students who really fall behind and don’t understand the lessons are the same students who do not pay attention. I thought this was a fitting correlation, only I didn’t know how much of a difference it makes. Students really need to be on their game and paying attention (most do). Also, some of the attention problems we see have to do with lack of motivation as well. So my co-teacher and us are constantly trying to “light the fire” in some specific students.

            This week we taught a math lesson, surprisingly! Our students who receive higher instruction’s teacher was out for the day and so my teacher decided to teach them instead, and have us teach the lower/average student’s math lesson. We literally found out about 30 seconds before! That made me nervous, but thankfully the lesson was an extension of the previous day’s lesson and so the students all caught on and did great on their homework! I was surprised by how well they listened when they were actively learning. It was a nice experience!

            I’ve noticed that many of our “trouble” students have matured these past five weeks. They stopped trying to cause problems and they seem to respect each other more. My co-teacher believes they are maturing more and that’s why they have become more kind and respectful. I really appreciate these students. They have taught me way more than they would even guess! Being in a classroom and experiencing my future career directly like this is a great honor. Not everyone has the privilege of job shadowing for such a great length of time.

            Lastly, our last day, today, was very emotional for us and the students. Many of our “trouble” students began crying! I realize now that these are the students who need us the most. Our co-teacher had the class sit in a circle and each shared one thing they appreciated about us student teachers being there. This was so inspirational and endearing. Many said they were going to miss us and that they will “hold the memories in their brains.” A lot of them thanked us for being there every day and helping out when they weren’t understanding something. One student who really falls behind, thanked me specifically, for helping him on his math so that he could learn it. Each of their comments meant so much to me and I will always remember them! At the end, our co-teacher gave us a card that they had all secretly signed during the week and wrote a message in. She also gave us a future classroom item of a wooden hall pass. I am going to miss them all so much! They were the best teacher and class I could have asked for, especially with the many challenges as I have learned so much. 

Last Week

I was very sad to leave the classroom today, I can't believe that the time went by so quickly! I am happy I was able to participate in their classroom for five weeks. I was able to see the students grow and learn as well as develop a relationship with them. I feel like I gained so much knowledge about how to run a classroom smoothly. My CT was very wonderful and flexible with what I wanted to do for the class. I am very much so looking forward to being able to be in more classrooms in the future and I can't wait to be a teacher!

Final Week

To the future educators,

   Today marked our last day with the students we were assigned with. Although I didn't cry, I am very sad that this is the end. It feels like it hasn't been five weeks. I was blessed to have such a great CT who helped me through it all and answered all questions I had. She made me feel like this is THE profession I should be in and that I can be successful doing it. I learned so much from this experience like I stated in the last blog. It's such an indescribable feeling of the impact these students had on my life. Who would've thought 5 year olds could do that to someone? 

   I am choosing to still visit my classroom when I get the chance so I think that made it easier to leave them all today. Are any of you going back? I also have very exciting news. Our eggs started to hatch and I have some chickens of my own but now I GET TO KEEP TWO CHICKENS WE JUST HATCHED! Meet Staavy :)  (Sorry for the grammar errors Marcia I need to express my excitement)

I am excited to see you  all on Monday!

Much Love,

Summer

Post #3.

It is sad to see hear and see that it is our last week. The kids have grown so much while we have been there, not only in their literacy, but their interaction with us as student teachers. I hope that as we work one-on-one with the students, that they will be able to take the information they learned and apply it to their everyday life. As I mentioned in the first blog post, the children are like sponges, grasping any information we give them. As I am nearing the end I realized that they are taking the information we taught them, and using it outside on the playground and at home. I love to see that even our "lower" level students are coming such a long way with their reading. I am sad that it is our last week, but excited to see what the future holds!

Week 4

            Week four gave way to my first read aloud. I was very nervous about my first time reading in front of the whole class and my cooperating teacher, but I think it went fairly well. Hopefully my first experience will help me to feel more at ease during my second and third read alouds. Chaotic would be the word I would use to describe this week. I think with the nicer weather the students were really antsy and wanted to be able go outside and play instead of having to sit in the classroom. We did have a special guest come in on Monday and Wednesday though, who was teaching in ways that incorporated dance with math. It was a really insightful to see how this was accomplished and the students really enjoyed being able to get up and dance around a bit. Overall, the week went pretty well and I am excited to see what next week has in store!

Week 4 ~ Semana 4

Failure, disappointment, joy and gladness within an hour.
Surprisingly, I do not want our field experience to be over! Although, I did learn this week how much teachers appreciate the "days-off" because being a teacher is not an easy job.
Thursday, April 13th the students were very hyperactive in a negative way. The best part is that my guided reading was that same day. I had a plan, everything was to run smoothly, I'm prepared, okay maybe I expected some bumps, but I found myself doing the guided reading and trying to come up with a plan B, plan C, D, E, F, but nothing was popping in my brain. I wanted to cry and felt like such a failure, but then that ah, ha moment came! Cynthia is best at making games, and making things fun! Therefore after my two failed guided readings, my other 3 guided readings were a hit! I wanted to burst out with happy tears! Honestly, I have been going out to recess with the students, but that day I just wanted to go home. But, yes but, I managed to tell myself, "teachers undergo this all the time, but you don't see them going home, so stay and have fun at recess, continue to fight this good fight!"

Zach's Blog post 3

This week was another great learning experience I was the most involved in the class as I have to this point. It was a busy week and I was involved in a lot that  happened in the classroom. I continued to get experience doing morning meeting every other day. I also did another read aloud on a curriculum reading. This week I also got an opportunity to do a guided reading lesson. I learned a lot from doing all of these things. I learned a lot from seeing the vast level of readers that can be in one classroom. Having students of many different levels makes a teacher have to adapt and find a way to teach the best to all of the students. I have been getting experience using the technology in the classroom and I am becoming more comfortable with the technology especially the smart board. On the last day of this week my partner and I were able to have a great learning experience by pretty much being handed the reigns of the class when our CT was busy in meetings and with some co teaching. There was a sub for the morning but our CT and the sub thought it would be good to have us do most of the teaching since the students were familiar with us. So my partner and I pretty much ended up being in charge of the class for the morning and it was a great experience. I can definitely see how important all the experience we are getting is because if I were to be ask to do what we did at the beginning of the experience I would had definitely struggled with it and it likely could've turned out to be an epic fail, Instead I think we did a great job given the circumstances and it was a great success and the experience I gained from it can't be measured.

Post 3 Week 4

The fourth week of my field experience went just as great as the other weeks. Everyday when I walk into the classroom, the students always come up and say good morning, it really is such a good way to start the day. This week I practiced with the students their vocabulary words and helped them with any homework questions they had. A few of the students has really advanced in their reading and spelling and there are a few that still need to practice, but they are getting better. I got to do morning meeting everyday with the students and it's been so fun. The first few weeks, I watched the CT and how she did morning meeting, and I thought to myself, "oh thats easy", but once I got up in front of the students it was actually pretty difficult but after a few times of getting practice, it went really well. I'm super glad my CT lets me get as much experience as I can because it's so fun getting involved and doing as much as possible.

Post 3 (Week 4)

This week was especially fun because the kindergarteners painted Earth Day shirts. I got to help them paint and design their shirts. It was fun to watch their creativity come out. It was also difficult to try and not fix their mistakes and let them do their own work. It ended up being super adorable to see the kindergarteners mistakes. I also had my third read aloud. I enjoy reading fiction books far more than informational text and so I was able to have more fun with this read aloud. I did notice that when I'm nervous I talk a lot faster so before I got into my story, when I was just introducing it, I was talking pretty fast. I am going to work on this for my next read aloud.

Post 3 (week 4)

This was another great week for me! I did more assessments with students.  They had to read a list of high frequency words to me which was not timed. I felt so great during this assessment because I could see how much each student improved compared to when they read the list at the beginning of the year. One girl in particular over doubled the amount of words she could read. My CT was so impressed with her she told the class how much this student improved and the class congratulated her. When my CT asked how she got so much better the student said it was because she practiced the words everyday with her parents at home. I love the idea of celebrating student success and you could tell that all the students were so proud of their classmate!

Week 4: Sara

This time has flown by! I can't believe that we're going into our last week already. This week was interesting as it always seems to be in Kindergarten. I did my second read aloud on the book called Lady Liberty. It was about how the Statue of Liberty wanted to see the country that her people created and she traveled "from sea to shining sea" to find "amber waves of grain". Our theme for this week was traveling and the USA, so this book fit really well. I had to ad lib the book a little bit because some of the wording was too advanced for Kindergarten but I couldn't find any other book. It went really well though because I ran through the book a little bit before having to read it. Jamie and I also did two read aloud lessons and made a lesson plan for them as well. The first group we had was the bottom of the class in reading and that was trying and an interesting time. They have a hard time with the easier sight words, even. It just kind of amazed me how the class has students that can read at a fifth grade level and then there's students who can barely read at the Kindergarten level. The second read aloud was with the middle group. These students were working on their word blends such as -ch, -tion, -ou, -ur, -ir, etc.
 This week the behavioral student I had previously talked about really tested my patience and made me grow as an educator. He was very sassy and liked to back talk during group activities this week and did not take Jamie and I very seriously when we told him he had a warning. So, I had to learn how to put my foot down and how to discipline properly. My cooperating teacher is excellent and classroom management and I am learning so much from being in his classroom. I learned that I have to realize that I can't always be gentle to the kids because there is a time and place for firm foot and being stern. I'm really enjoying all the skills I'm learning and I can't wait to see what the last week has to hold.

Katie's 3rd Post

What a blur this past week has been!

I did my second read aloud and activity and it went very well!  We discussed Cause and Effect and created a chart from If You Give a Pig a Party to outline cause/effect.  This is prep work for a larger Ozo Bot activity they are doing for the representative coming from the Minnesota Department of Education.  This visit from the Department of Ed happens our Monday back to class, after our field experience is over.  I saw them prepping for MCA testing and then they took part of the MCA Reading test this week.  We weren't allowed to be in the room for that, because it requires completing training, that we didn't do.

I led station learning in measurement and money.  The students learned about function tables and temperature as well.  We were going to start double-digit multiplication, but we ran out of time.

We had a really fun Thursday this week.  The students brought something to share with the class.  They earned a popcorn party.  We got to see a performance by Third Coast Percussion.  We went to the library.  We also had our Ozo Bot and ELA lesson.  We watched If You Give a Mouse an iPhone and the students had to retell the story (sequencing) and create an Ozo Bot path to retell the story.  This lesson leads into what they're doing next week, for the Department of Ed visit, when they write their own original story with an Ozo Bot path.

This week also included a lot of tips, questions/answers, and advice, from my field experience teacher.  She's been sharing a lot of aspects to teaching--things I hadn't even thought about--from organizational strategies, to district politics, to classroom management, to curriculum enrichment, to balancing work and family life.  I have a lot of mixed feelings about being done with this field experience.  I look forward to getting to the end of this semester and the earlier mornings, but I'm sad to be at the end of my time in this classroom, with these students, and this teacher.  I've learned so much--and I have a lot more to learn!

Third Post

I can't believe our time is almost done in our field experience! This has been another wonderful week! I did another read aloud to the class but this time it was a curriculum based story. It went well and it was good to get the experience of doing something tied to the curriculum. Also this week, my partner and I had the chance to pretty much take over the classroom. Our CT had to go to a meeting for two hours and there was a substitute who came in. However, when he came in he asked me "so what students am I going to watch." When he said this I thought he was joking because he wasn't supposed to be watching over a few students, he was supposed to be watching over all of the students. This of course made me panic a little inside but I figured he was joking. Guess what? He wasn't joking. He sat and observed while my partner and I ran the class. We also had the Para in there who knew about the class and was able to help out but for the most part it was my partner and I leading the class! This was nerve wrecking but at the same time a great experience. I got to see what it is like to try to manage a classroom and also teach at the same time. We did the morning meeting like we normally do, we did a greeting activity, a matching vocabulary game, we covered the vocabulary for the week and had the students present the word like they have done in the past (they had to know the word, know the definition, and use it in a sentence), we went over the high frequency words and also did literacy rotations. It was crazy at times but we made it through and it made me more excited about teaching because I got a taste of what it would be like.

Third Post

I can’t believe we have already completed week four! It feels like we are just now beginning to get into the groove of the classroom and really begin to understand what the student’s need and what our teacher needs us to do. This experience is really invaluable. I am learning so many techniques and ideas from my co-teacher that I will be able to use in my future classroom. The students are beginning to respect the student teachers more and get that we are pre-service teachers and they have to actually do what we say! Each week, we work on guided reading lesson plans and each week I have more and more fun with my group. We have had the same group since day one. I can see them begin to listen to me more and value what I say and work towards understanding the vocabulary and grammar parts more. I have two ELL students in my group and I started giving them sticky notes so that they can write down new words they didn't know from the book. One of my students really takes it to heart and saves all her sticky notes and mine (my cues for the questions I want to ask during the lesson). It seems that this week, we have had very productive days and have been getting a lot of work done to help our co-teacher out. We do a lot of pulling struggling students aside and re-teaching/practicing the lesson with them. I like this because it helps me think of new strategies to attempt to explain the concept to our students. I am excited for our next week, but sad that it is our last. I have gotten used to "going to school" every day already and will miss them. 

Week four, only one left :(

It breaks my heart knowing that I only have one more week left with my students. I felt like I have learned so much in these fast four weeks and it's hard for me to realize that we're going to be back in our classroom at State, soon.

The connections I have built with these students is incredible because they we are all so different. I got to help an ELL student with learning the letter T and have that total teacher moment when he realized he got it, and then proceeded to yell T out loud in the class. Whoops Ms. Knudsen created a disturbance. Another thing that impacted me this week was on Wednesday I was in total control of the class during station time because I got to do my guided reading lesson all by myself. I was nervous at first, but soon got into the groove of things. Being in control of the bell sounds like nothing, but my oh my did it make me feel like the only teacher in the room when I got to do it.

Until next time classmates

Much love,
Summer

Post #3

This week we got to do our first guided reading lesson. We were assigned with our lowest reading level and we worked on recognizing sight words, using pictures and context clues to figure out new words, and our sound-letter relationships. I learned how to accommodate and be on my toes because there was one student who was misbehaving and not paying attention while some students were doing just fine  and reading the whole time. I learned as a teacher you have to be stern sometimes and stand your ground so the students know when you're serious and what you expect of them.

I got to do my second read aloud this week as well. I read "Postcards from the United States" by Denis Allard because this week our students learned about places around our country. I learned during this reading that I need to pause and wait if some students are talking, and wait until they are ready to listen because they were interested in my story and hated to know what was going to happen next, but they were being a distraction to the rest of the class.

I'm excited to see what else I will learn in our last week with this class, and I'm looking forward to spending a full day with them next week as well to see more of their day other than just their reading time.

Week 4

     This week my class worked on making t-shirts for earth day. They each got a shirt and created an earth on it and added different designs. I did my 3rd read aloud this week with a nonfiction book on The Liberty Bell. The class was really confused as to why and how the bell cracked and why they just do not replace it. Also this week, the class received a bunch of baby chicken eggs that were placed in an incubator, the class is going to be watching the eggs and waiting until they hopefully hatch.
     I noticed that my CT includes a lot of technology into her teaching of the classroom and through that I have learned exactly how much technology I will actually be wanting in my classroom. I am excited to do my guided reading plan next week. I am glad to be in a classroom because it gives me the itch to want to be a teacher even more and teach the class in my own way.

Post #2

As I get further and further into my field experience I find myself more comfortable with the students, and realizing how much the children affect me from day to day. The more read alouds I do the better I am getting at them. It is almost like the read alouds are muscle memory, and I am just a natural teacher in her own room. Our read alouds are based upon an essential question each week, and although I find it hard to find a book that correlates, it makes it more interesting as a student teacher. Im sad that our field experience is coming to an end, but I am exited to start the journey of our blocks in the education department!

Wk 3

This week so far I've done my second read aloud. I feel it went a lot better in some ways than my first read aloud did. It was a lot less nerve wrecking though, I felt a lot more comfortable and less nervous! I read The Waterhole by Graeme Base. It was a cute book with a lot of animals noises I had to make, which the kids liked along with my CP haha. The kids did get a little out of hand but I was able to correct them and continue with my reading. I do sometimes feel awkward correcting them because I'm not the teacher but then I think "but I'm an adult and they need to listen to me". I always struggle with finding my voice in the classrooms I'm in when it comes to correcting students.  I asked my CT about it and she said it's something you'll always question yourself on because you have to approach each student differently. She said she still has to think "am I being too mean, too nice, etc.", so it's good to know that I'm not the only one who struggles with that. Seems like it's an ongoing struggle for some teachers.

Week 3: Sara

This week there was a second new student introduced to the room. So, in this classroom in this short amount of time, there has been a substitute teacher and two new students! It's been a little bit crazy but yet an amazing learning experience. I have discovered that kindergarten really is not my strong suit but it's been fun learning the pros and cons of the young age. I did a read aloud this week and so did Jamie. I read a book that was from my book collection titled "All Kinds of Trucks". It was about a little boy who wanted a toy truck from the toy store and all the way to the store his aunt and uncle were guessing what kind of truck he would want. In the end, he picked a truck that was just like his uncle's. This went along with the transportation theme of the week. The new student seemed to have some behavioral problems. He participated in flexible seating by getting a "waddle" chair for him to rock side to side on. It helped his attention span a lot and the benefits of the flexible seating was pretty remarkable. I look forward to my next read aloud as well as participating in a guided reading lesson that Jamie and I will do with a small group.

Week Three

As I began this week it just settled in that I only have 2 weeks left in this class and I am sad. It's so crazy that in the short three weeks these children have that much impact on my life. They have taught me patients and how to problem solve in seconds. I have also been blessed with a great class and opportunity to read aloud to them with no struggles. This week I read When Daddy's Truck Picks Me Up. It went along with the transportation theme for the week. So far everything is going well. I really enjoy doing this field experience. It makes it easier to get up in the morning as cliche as that sounds. I am excited to see what this week has to bring! Unfortunately we only have 8 days left :(

Much Love,
Summer

Week 3

This has been another great week out in the field! This is the first week that I have seen the students have a hard time behaving especially this past Thursday. The beginning of the week on Tuesday we had a little puppet show that we went and saw in the gym and I think that had a little bit to do with them having a hard time behaving because it changed their regular schedule. After the puppet show, we went back to the classroom and we made puppets with the students which was very fun to do. It was fun seeing the students make their puppets and the different ways each student made their puppet. My CT noticed the behavior and she stepped in right away and had a good talk with them about it and she did it in a great way. Ever since she had the talk with them, they got back on track to what they were supposed to be doing and they started behaving again. I’ve been asking many questions of how she does things, looked at her lesson plans, etc., and learned many great things. On Wednesday I did the guided reading lesson with the students which was very interesting. We read the book "The Wright Brothers" and I have to say, it was very difficult keeping the students on track when reading the book. Everyday when we do the Daily 5, and when the students read to self, they always do a wonderful job because they are able to pick their own books of their choice, but when I picked the guided reading book to do, they weren't interested in the book, therefore they didn't put their whole focus into it. I had to remind the students multiple times to concentrate on the book and what we are reading because I would be asking them questions after. Other than that, the students did a good job answering the questions even though they had to go back in the story to find the answer. I learned a lot from the guided reading for next time.This week I also did my second read aloud with the students and that was really fun. I love reading to the students because they are so engaged in the story and they do such a wonderful job listening. Everyday they ask, "are you going to read today?" They really look forward to me reading and I enjoy that a lot!  I had a great week of field experience, I can't believe we only have 2 weeks left! I am sure going to miss all the students! 

Lexi Schmitz 

Week 3

            During my third week, I have continued to still do quite a bit of observing and helping out at stations. There are a lot of paras and students being pulled out of the classroom during the time I am at the school, so there are not a ton of things for me to be involved in during the morning. One thing I noticed from this week and the past week is how much the students love brain breaks. Every morning my cooperating teacher chooses a Go Noodle video that gets the kids up and dancing and they just absolutely love it and get so into it! I definitely would love to incorporate brain breaks into my classroom because the students really enjoy this time to just let loose. One day during the week a substitute had to come in, and I was able to see how the students responded to her. After my cooperating teacher left the classroom it was complete chaos. The substitute’s approach of classroom management was very soft spoken and the students really did not respond, but instead just kept talking and playing around.  It was definitely thought-provoking to see how the students reacted to the substitute. Furthermore, my experience continues to be positive, and I look forward to next week!

Week 3

Personally, I am making changes in my life. The way I think, the way I act and so forth. I learned that it is easy to love those that love you, but difficult to love those that don't or are hard to love. For me, it is easy to love others, but when it rubs wrong against you, then things start changing. How to come around a student that is disrespectful? How to approach a child that gave a statement that was racially inappropriate? Every student has been influenced by either home or the community, and one thing is for sure, one does not want to start a fight between what I personally think is incorrect and what the parents/community thinks?
Also, honestly, I hope next field experience we can work without a partner because I would like to know what would be different and if I can be more comfortable in my classroom/teacher. At the moment I feel like I am on my tippy-toes hoping I am not in the way or being a problem in any way. So perhaps there may be a difference with working with a partner and not. I hope we can get that opportunity.
Talking about technology, since technology is changing and we want to create readiness for our students, I realize there is a lack of technology in schools. Also, there is simply no time.

Zach Blog Post #2

This past week of my field experience went well. It was another productive week of learning what it is like to be in the classroom. I did a read aloud this week and the story I read was part of the curriculum. I think my first read aloud definitely went well. This week I continued to do morning meetings every other day. Doing morning meeting helps build a relationship with all of the students. Morning meeting is one of the few parts of the day when most students will be in the classroom because at other times they might be pulled out for different specialist. One major learning moment for the week is how important paras are in a classroom. One day during the week a para who works one on one with a student was gone so a different para had to play that role which caused a sub para to be in the classroom and the sub didn't have the same effects on the students as the normal one and it was evident. I am learning more and more and becoming more comfortable every day that goes by in my field experience which has definitely made it a success to this point.

Post 2 (week 3)

This week I was very busy. I did my second read aloud. The book had 2 different stories in it. The fiction part was about an orange and the nonfiction part discussed a farmer's market. The class was very rowdy the whole day so while I read the book I had to try to keep them focused which was quite challenging at times. I feel like I could have transitioned between stories better. That is why I love this classroom experience because I am finding ways that I can grow as an educator. I also had a chance to do a one minute letter recognition assessment on the sounds each letter makes individually with the students. The students have done this before so they already knew the process which made it go really smoothly. Now I know some different assessment strategies. My CT uses the same page for each student to compare their progress each month by color coding the results. This made it really easy to look at a student's results quickly to determine if they are improving or if they need additional help.

Second Post

This week was different and exciting because we acquired a new student! The students seemed to be very active all week and had a lot of energy. This made the week pretty challenging actually. We started doing statewide testing from Mon-Wed. I liked to see how the students reacted and felt about it. Most students were indifferent. I think they were even excited to do it because it was something new and they got to use laptops and be in a different classroom.

The second and most absolutely cool thing we did is use the technology “Dash & Dot” robots. Instead of doing our regular math lesson and a game/worksheet. We had a paper we filled out as we used the robots to make it move forward a certain number of centimeters based on the math equation. For example, one problem said, if I start at 10 cm and end at 30 cm, how many cm did I travel? So the students needed to solve the problem then “code” the robot to travel the distance. It was really cool! The students were so excited and were able to practice their learning. We had the rooms divided into stations so while our co-teacher was doing that part, one group was practicing coding on the chrome books, and the other group was in the hall with my partner and I practicing a converted Yahtzee game of place value. Then the stations rotated so everyone had a chance to try everything. I found it challenging to explain the rules of Yahtzee to all the students in our groups because they were in the hall and not really wanting to pay attention at first. However, they listened and were able to play with help from my partner and I. We were noting with our co-teacher how often it is that our group of high achieving students are the ones with the most behavior problems and the group that does the least amount of work. My co-teacher thinks it’s because they are used to having the answers just come to them and don’t want to work hard at new things. She doesn’t let them get away with it though, she is always challenging them with new lessons that work on 3^rd grade problems (they are 2^nd grade). We have a cluster classroom, so about 1/3 – ½ of the class are the high achieving students within 2^nd grade.

            Overall, it has been an exciting week getting to delve into some of the topics further and really understand how the personality of each student affects the needs they have when they learn. My co-teacher makes the job look easy of providing for every student, but I know it is way harder than it looks! 

Katie's 2nd Post

I started my new schedule this week.  Since the literacy block is in the afternoon, I made it work to stay all-day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Being able to do this has brought a full-picture to the responsibilities I’ll have once I’m a teacher.  I’m so excited by it!  It’s solidifying that I have chosen the right profession.  Teaching is part science, part art, and part calling. I'm feeling incredibly satisfied with my journey and destination!

This week, I got to jump off the back of a bus!  Bus safety went very long!  We had an Ozo Bot Task day.  The students had to complete various tasks as outlined on their task cards by drawing with the Ozo Bot Markers and using grid paper.  Students with all abilities participated—even the 2 students who have paraprofessionals joined in and were engaged with the activity.  Some of the students with more advanced Ozo Bot skills worked with the district technology teacher on an app on the iPads called Shape Tracer.  Students had to build code to tell the Ozo Bots where to go.  The volume and the enthusiasm in the classroom was exhausting!  I also did my first read-aloud and it went really well!  I did reading, asked questions, and we had an activity.  It seemed like the students will remember sequencing very well after our lesson!  I also did one of my own, and one of the teacher’s, morning messages.  I’ve now done three messages from my Morning Resource Guide.

Did you know that it’s testing season?  MCA testing is coming up so we have specialists coming in to show how to take the math portion of the test.  We went over many strategies for taking the reading portion of the test.  I find value in teaching students test-taking strategies.  Unfortunately, it seems like the current prep for testing suspends teacher-directed instructional time for about 6 weeks while they prepare to take the standardized tests.  Are the students still learning?  Yes, and it’s important for them to know how to test, but the material they’re learning from isn’t very engaging or enticing.  Students practice comprehension skills and reading strategies, but it’s not the same as how the teacher instructions on ELA concepts the rest of the year.  It was even “testing” season for my cooperating teacher—she had a peer observation this week! 

I gave a change-making, money assessments, during math.  I also led a station for creating composite shapes.  I gave a comprehension assessment, where I read a story, then students had to answer questions on their testing sheet.  I also administered a timed multiplication assessment.  My cooperating teacher had me create a diorama as an example for the students.  When I showed my diorama, we talked about the parts of a diorama.  The students will soon be creating their own dioramas depicting what they believe the magical candy store looks like in The Chocolate Touch. 

Challenges this week included students who were willfully ignoring corrections for transitions and for inappropriate behaviors.  My cooperating teacher said that these are great examples to learn from.  She’s shown me many ways to handle these inappropriate behaviors, and says there are a million other ways to handle them too.  I’ve noticed she has multiple incentive “programs” going and that she doesn’t just use one particular classroom management technique either.  There are many layers to classroom management and I’m privileged enough to benefit from observing and learning from her experience.  Another challenge this week has been exhaustion!  It’s not the getting up early that’s a problem.  It’s not even the being in a classroom from 3-7 hours at the same time as carrying the workload of six college courses.  It’s not even my three kids and husband and the crazy family needs I’m working at that has me so tired.  I’m getting exhausted from all the learning!  I’m constantly absorbing all these wonderful tidbits my field experience teacher is peppering, intentionally and unintentionally, throughout the day!  I’m so glad I was placed in her classroom!

Week 2

This week was even better than last week and the very first week of field experience! I have gotten to know the students better. This week I was able to do a read aloud for the students which went really well. It was a story about pirates and even though it was not connected to the curriculum, the students seemed to really enjoy it. I also had the chance to do guided reading lessons. I did a lesson with each reading group (there are 5 total). I was able to see where each child was at in their reading progress and I was also able to see the difference between the high readers and the lowest readers. All of the students seemed to enjoy the story we read as a group and all of the students answered any questions I had for them about the story. This was a great experience, I feel a little more prepared now that I did a lesson with all of the students. This week I also had the chance to do the morning meeting every other day. I did this last week as well and I think it is helping me to get more familiar with the SmartBoard and also practice doing morning meeting. I feel way more confident about being able to do some of the things that teachers do and I am looking forward to getting more experience in schools.

Week 2

This week I did my second read aloud. It was an informational text so it wasn't as fun as my last book, but I felt more confident with this read aloud because I had already done one. I'm feeling much more comfortable in the classroom and I'm starting to really recognize students strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits. At breakfast each morning there is one particular student who always sits by me and we tell knock knock jokes. All of the students get into it, however their jokes make no sense, they're funny in a cute way though! Anyways, earlier this week this child told me that he wasn't eating breakfast because he was hungry, but eating just for fun. Then the next day he said "I'm just so funny". I think somehow I've found myself as a child!! Hope everyone else had a great week!

Week 3

This week I did my second read aloud, a book called Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus by Mo Williams. This was a great book to read to the Kindergarteners, because it held suspense and the students were adamant on not letting the pigeon ride the bus. My CT even gave a worksheet/coloring picture activity to go along with my read aloud. I thought this was really cool, because I felt like my read aloud actually meant something for the class, instead of just practice for myself. Also, this week the class worked on the sight word "here" and the theme for the week was transportation.

Week 2

Week 2, I did my first read aloud this week. I read a nonfiction book called Bears by Gilda Berger. It was hard to put tone and excitement in my voice when reading the book, reason being, is because it was all informational text. Also, this week I got to work on site words with the Kindergarteners, their word of the week was "they." The child I talked about in my past post, who I mentioned does not speak English, I have noticed has already increased his vocabulary in the short time of a past week.

Post 2

This week we got another new student in our classroom, and one of our friends moved to a new school. Our new student has a harder time sitting still and not rocking on his seat, so he got a new seat that allows him to balance and sway a little bit. With the new chair, his concentration increased and he was able to learn more that way.

We also got to do our first read aloud this week. I read a book called "The Leaving Morning" by Angela Johnson. I was able to relate this book to my students because it talked about some of the feelings the characters were going through about packing up and moving to a new house, and with our new students in the classroom we could relate well. We ever got to brainstorm different ways to make our new friends feel welcomed in our classroom. I was nervous about reading my story in front of the class at first, but it helped to practice because I knew what I was going to ask once I started reading and everything went smoothly. We were able to schedule when my next read aloud will be and now I have an idea what to expect.

For part of our activities in the class, our CT uses his smartboard, and because the screen doesn't register the kindergarteners' tiny fingers very well, he uses a tenner ball. When I first saw this I was very surprised because I wouldn't have ever thought to try this idea. It works very well for the students and when it's someone else's turn they just pass the ball off.

I've really become to understand the importance of routine and how much more smoothly the end of the week can run compared to the beginning because I know what works and what doesn't so I can fix what I need to in order to make stations run more smoothly and quicker. I'm excited to see what next week has in store and what new tricks and tips I will get to learn.

Wk 2

Wk 2- Mar 29
Today we got to class as normal and our CT Mrs. R was on the phone. She informed us she had to go to Urgent Care and a sub would be coming in. She told us to continue with the small groups and research papers we started the day before. A guest teacher came in and when the class came back didn't help us quiet them down. My CP and I ended up taking over the class for 45minutes before the Sub could get there. It was a little overwhelming having my CP and I do everything while this guest teacher didn't do anything or offer to help. We did the best we could trying to remember when everything started and when to do transitions. We didn't realize until later that we completely skipped one groups vocabulary lesson. Our CT was in contact with us via text checking on the students and making sure everything went ok. We told her it had, there were a few bumps but we got through it! I noticed the energy level increases when she is not there and all manners and attitudes go out the window. It was a hectic day for sure and I feel very drained. My CP and I made a list of things to talk to her about and to ask where certain things are located in case this happens again! That way we can be a little more prepared.

March 30
Each week our class has an essential question they go over for literacy and this weeks question was "How are children from around the world different from us". So I found a book called "This Is the Way We Go to School. A book about children from around the world." By Edith Baer. Today I completed my first solo read aloud to my 2nd grade class. I was really nervous but excited. The first couple of minutes I felt very anxious but after I got into it, it went smoothly. The kids were really engaged in the book and looking for new vocabulary they hadn't heard before. My CT said I did really well and that as she listened to me read it sounded like a teacher was reading. That definitely boosted my confidence :) one thing to remember she said was to make sure to wrap everything up at the end. Which I had planned on but we all got to talking about the book that it completely slipped my mind :( definitely next though!!

Mar 31
We had a sub today and I felt myself getting "mama bear" feelings of protection over the kids. I didn't care much for the subs tone of voice when he wanted to get them to quiet down. My CP (cooperating peer) and I ended up taking over the classroom and what needed to be done. It released some stress off of the sub and it got the students to calm down too. It was a great learning experience being in charge. I liked it a lot :) My CP and I did our first guided reading with the upper level students and I think it went well. We followed the little card that comes with it the best we could. For our first time I think it went well. I think we'll do better next time!

Wk 1

Wk 1 Field Experience
Mar 20: Today was the first day I was feeling a little nervous about meeting my cooperating teacher (let's call her Mrs. R). You just never know if you'll get someone you mesh with well & I think my cooperating teacher is a good fit. The classroom is not very colorful, it's more neutral colors and plain. The cooperating teacher is very energetic and outgoing, I admire her energy and confidence. The class is very diverse and the energy level is not low but not too high. So as the first day my cooperating peer and I just observed how the classroom is run and observed the students. What I observed most was how she interacted with her students even when they were acting out or not wanting to do something. She talked with a respectful tone of voice and wasn't threatening but the student knew she meant business. Those particular students who did act up/out changed their attitude and went about the lesson. It was really nice to see how she could get her point across without having to raise her voice or even get a mean or nasty tone of voice. I've done field experience before where I observed a teacher (let's call her Mrs. S) talk rudely to students who were acting out. But it was very apparent in her classroom that Mrs. S had no respect from the majority of her students. But this teacher Mrs. R commands respect in her classroom, towards each other and towards her. She does this all in a very calm and polite way. It was just really interesting to see how they each handled their students in similar situations.

Mrs. R has asked my cooperating peer and I to do a read aloud tomorrow on our second day to start practicing before we do our actual read aloud lesson. So my cooperating peer is reading a book and I will be asking questions about the book. So we are doing a co-teaching read and response practice mini lesson :) I'm a little nervous but excited!

I was disappointed that Mrs. R did not introduce my cooperating peer and into the class the entire 3 hours we were there. The students awkwardly stared at us wondering who we were. I don't think either of us felt comfortable to ask her if we could get introduced as it got kind of busy. Tomorrow I plan I talking with her and asking if we can introduce ourselves for a few minutes during snack time. But overall it was a good day and I can't wait to go back! I also would like to add that I saw my "big idea" was already implemented into this classroom. Sign language for classroom management. The students use the bathroom sign, the same sign (for when they have the same answer or agree with a classmates answer), etc. It was one thing to see a video and research it but to see it in person being implemented and that it works was reassuring that I picked a good topic. Something I definitely plan on implementing in my own classroom one day!

Mar 23
Today I did my practice read aloud where I read the book and my CP (cooperating peer) asked questions. The reading went really well, I was nervous but was able to control my stuttering with this calming oil my mom got me. I put a little under my nose so I could smell it and it did the job! Because I was nervous I kept stepping on my CP's toes with the questions being asked. I liked her questions a lot but I had practiced reading and asking questions the night before and wanted to ask my questions too. Over achiever over here..haha Before I started reading my CP and I talked about some vocabulary that would be introduced that they may not know so we read the words and after each one asked the class to tell us what they thought it was. After that we gave them the correct answer if they weren't able to guess. Then we talked about phrasing when we read and I did a test read to see if they could tell me which was the correct way to read. They picked the correct one :)