Field Week 4

This was a my final week of Field. Although my partner and I did not have lesson plans to teach to the class we participated in helping our supervising teacher with some lesson plans of his own. For our very last day in the class the students were having colonial days. I was assigned to teach the students how to tie and quilt a blanket that we would be donating to the Children's hospital. During the lesson I noticed one of the students becoming very emotional. He had heard some negative comments from another student about a recent death in his family, which made him emotional and begin to name call. Soon our quilting lesson turned into a discussion about name calling, feelings and appropriate language and social behavior. This was such a great experience fore me, at first I was unsure of how to handle the situation but slowly things came together and I felt that things progressed along and many lessons were learned, including the one I learned.
As far as technology goes I noticed that in one of the classroom they had a smart board. Since I had only ever seen them on TV I thought it would be excited to learn how to use one and see it in action. AWESOME! I think that every classroom should have one, students could learn so quickly and be entertained so easily with the smart board. I know that they are very expensive but if every school in America bought one for every classroom, couldn't they be made in bulk and then the price would go down? I think we should try it because they are AWESOME!

field week 3

Well we finished up our lessons. Field has been a great experience and I have learned so much. I started out thinking that the teacher and the students in this 5th grade class ran by some strange rules, yet I finally get it. Giving students the freedom to be who they are going to be and guiding by example and expectations does actually work. I would have never guessed. Some fun things that I learned this week are that students are so advanced in technology these days. I would not be surprised if in the next couple of years a lap top computer is added to the list of supplies that students need for school. The students in this class already use computers at least two times a day to help them with testing, typing, language arts, math and social studies and then some of them come in on their lunch break to surf the web and catch up on current event. It is incredible and so advanced, we have come so far!

Field Week 2

This week was a bit more stressful. We were preparing our next two lessons and I came down with a horrible flu/cold. But despite all the stress of being sick and trying to ignore it our lessons were great! One thing that I did realize very quickly was that it was a lot more work to put our lesson plan into action for all 29 of our 5th graders than it was to just write the lessons. We decided that for our Guided Inquiry lesson we were going to have our students in pairs research a historical character from the Revolutionary War and present their character in a Wax Museum we would be doing at a later date. The idea itself seems awesome and simple but when it came down to it I realized that you can't just leave the research to the 5th graders they will need and outline, predetermined information and a pre-written biography to go off of. So I spent most of the week putting together information for biographies on 15 historical characters. It was a bit overwhelming but I sure did learn a lot!
We had our final evaluation on and Friday and from our first evaluation to this one I could really tell that we had come a long way and was pretty proud to show our evaluator how far we had come. The feedback that we were given this week was just to make sure we always have a game plan of what is suppose to happen, what should happen and what we can have the students do next. We found out in our lesson that some students finish much faster than other and we should always have the next transition set for those fast finishers. This was good for us to realize and prepare for. Overall, it was a pretty good week in the classroom. My partner and I have really learned a lot and are so grateful for the experience.

Field Week 1

This week I started my field experience. I really like the students, teacher and class that I am working with. Some the most interesting things that I have noticed is the teaching style of this 5th grade class. The teacher really feels that students need their space to be who they are so he allows them to stand up, stand on their chairs, stretch, wander and speak openly during his instruction. I thought at first that this was going to get very out of hand but he has developed this complete respect and control of his class. All he has to say is "Ready or not" and all the students instantly reply "we shall be taught" and quiet down and focus on what he has to stay despite their wandering or movement. It have been very cool to watch.
My partner and I started our teacher on Friday. We were both a little nervous about how it was going to go for us since we were teaching a movement lesson and 5th graders can get a bit out of hand if asked to do movement but over all it was awesome! The one thing that we notices could have gone smoother is if we had given full, complete, step by step instructions on everything we were doing, how loud they were allowed to be and what was expected of them and what would be expected for them not to do. I think we forgot that 5th graders especially try to find ways and loop holes to bend the rules! ;)
We had a great week!

My beliefs : PDP #3

After watching and reading the information about how technology has helped benefit students through the years I absolutely think that we need technology in our schools. Schools need to have better funding to help provide for technology and ways to teach teachers about up to date technology. So much could be accomplished if teachers knew and used technology more. Students could chose to want to take tests like in Harrison High School were taking a test was more like playing a game show or how social networks and texting could help students stay on top of their homework and their ambishions to learn. Technology is vital for our future generations and so it is vital that we as teachers learn technology and incorporate it into our classrooms.

Lessons Learned : PDP #2

I loved learning about all the different ways that technology could be used in the classroom or school setting. My favorite and most memorable thing was the article and video about Harrison High School and how in every classroom they had different ways to use technology. I loved the way they took their cheer squad and figured out that by using the different technology tools they had access to they could figure out the right appropriate exercise regimen to use to help them stay fit, not over worked and the appropriate way to help them do their stunts perfectly. That is amazing that you could figure out what your body needs and is trying to tell you through a computer and machines. Amazing!

Strength & Weaknesses : PDP #1

1. What were your strength/weaknesses according to the UNI survey and NET Standards?
My weakness when it comes to technology is using the new up to date programs such as power points presentations, spreadsheets, excel programs like this stump me. I have tried to watch and learn but until I readily implement them into my daily routine I am not sure I will learn them.
In my classroom I plan to learn and utilize such programs to help me keep organized and present information that is organized and easily understood for my students.
I plan to also take some online tutorials from word and apple to help me learn about their programs and how to use them. Some other ways I think that would help me learn about such programs is watching you tube videos and listening to pod casts.

Digital Story 2/ Did you know Video reflection

This week we learned about the different programs we could use to make our digital story.
I think that Windows Movie Maker might the be easiest and most familiar for me to use. My group prepared our topic, story board and script. It was pretty interesting and worth it to do things step by step. Now all we need to do is just insert our pictures, add the audio and narration and we should be pretty set for our next class session.
I think that making a digital story would be a great way to express information for students and an easy way for students to grasp the information. The digital stories not only relay information but they are fun to watch and full of exciting sounds and easy to understand narrations. I also think it is beneficial to have the narration along with the pictures because I think that our minds tend to correlate the two and it is easy for us to store the information if we have both the visual and audio remembrance.
In my class I know that I will use the digital stories. I can see it being very beneficial especially for subjects such as Social Studies or Science for students to have both the visual and audio narrations for the subjects. I think they are great, I enjoy them and I know that my students will also.

Did you know? reflection
I have seen this video a couple of times and a couple of different variations for this video. Every time I see it, I still feel overwhelmed but the statistics. It is so amazing how rapidly people are learning, using and spreading technology. Children at young ages and older people all involved doing the same things, using the same Internet, connecting and helping technology spread like a weed. Amazing!