Last Day in Field

April 22 was my last day in field. It was actually very sad to say goodbye to all of the students and my cooperating teacher. When Kaitlyn and I got to class in the morning we had a pile of thank you notes for each of us from all of the students in the classroom. They were ADORABLE!!! The students thanked us for teaching them and they drew pictures for us and put a picture of themselves on their thank you note. I loved the students in this classroom and I am so glad that they enjoyed Kaitlyn and I being in their class this semester! Today was different from the rest of the days we have experienced in field as well. First of all, they do not have RBI anymore so the schedule was different and the students had more time for "thumbs up and thumbs down" and had time for announcements and discussions about that day and week. Also, her reading class was significantly smaller because so many of her students have progressed so much that they were able to move up to the next level of reading. This was really exciting to see and I loved to see that their hard work was paying off! Saying goodbye was hard enough for me after this semester, I can only imagine what it will be like when I have to say goodbye to my own class!

Field 4/15

On April 15th Kaitlyn taught her math lesson. I filled out her adept form and observed her lesson. She did an introduction lesson on division. She read them a book first and stopped during certain parts and had the students come up to the board to do the problem presented in the book. The students were so excited to be introduced to division. They really enjoyed the book. After reading the book the students used manipulatives to figure out some problems that Kaitlyn told them. She even talked about the relationship between multiplication and division and showed them how they could multiply to check their answer. They were then given the opportunity to create their own division problems and then they got into remainders. It was really interesting to watch the children and how each child was trying to figure everything out. They were so engaged throughout the lesson and really enjoyed figuring out the answers. Sometimes students would do the problem backwards and instead of dividing 6 by three they would divide 6 by two. I loved watching the students trying to figure out what they were doing. Kaitlyn did a great job at recognizing the children's mistakes and explaining to them that they were doing the problem right but in a different way. She was very encouraging and made sure each child understood what was going on. The students loved this lesson and it definitely allowed them to do some higher-level thinking. I was definitely impressed by Kaitlyn's lesson and will incorporate her ideas into my own lessons in the future!

Tammy's Story

This movie was very interesting. It was incredible to see how some people have to live and how much they struggle to support their family. Tammy worked very hard to raise her sons well. She works at burger king and has to walk 10 miles to work everyday. I could never imagine having to walk 10 miles to work and back everyday. Tammy was dedicated to her family and working to raise money but her long hours at work prevents her from having anytime to get anything done at home. It's very sad to see the conditions this family lives in. I was really surprised by her sons' attitudes about working. They seemed to not care about cleaning up and stated that they were just lazy. I feel like since Tammy is not there to teach them a good work ethic, they just lay around all day because no one is there to teach them or direct them. Her sons still have hope for the future and hope for an education past high school. They have high hopes and dreams, which is a great thing. I liked how her son was so proud of his awards that he received from school. I think that the rewards he receives definitely boosts his confidence and self-esteem. If I were these boys' teacher I would try to encourage them to work hard to reach their educational goals. I would also try to help them to be more confident and not to be ashamed of where they come from. The sons should learn to work hard and take care of themselves and their home. I think that Tammy's sons could do a lot more to help her out. I think she has hope for their future as well as her own, which is a great thing. If I were their teacher I would try to teach them about having a good work ethic and to take care of themselves and their families.

My Brown Eyes

Watching this movie affected me a lot. It was so sad to see the little boy struggle so much with his differences at school. He knew little English and the teacher did not know how to deal with it. The principle was very unhelpful when the teacher came to ask her for advice that day. None of the administrators seemed to care about him and how the other children were making fun of him. It was really sad when the students were making fun of his sandwich because he had worked so hard to make it for himself that morning. He barely gets to see his parents because they work late at night. However, you can tell they care about him because they bought him new shoes for his first day of school. He obviously loves them and misses them because he makes breakfast for them in the morning and leaves them a note when he leaves for school. He also secretly stays up waiting for them to come home. I was really disappointed to see how badly the school handled his situation. The principle left him to sit in her office for so long that he wet his pants waiting for her to come back. The teacher should have done more to protect him by telling the students not to make fun of him and to be nice. She should have punished the children who were laughing and making fun of him and explain to them why it is wrong to make fun of others. All the teacher said was "settle down everyone" when they started laughing at him not speaking in class. I felt like this little boy was so lonely and if I were his teacher I would want to do everything in my power to help him make friends and give him the support and love that he needs to strive and do well in his academic and social life.

Teaching Area

On April 1st I taught my math lesson. My cooperating teacher told me that I should give them a lesson on area. She has the lowest level of math students so she said that they pretty much don't know anything about area. I made my lesson an introduction lesson and made it very simple so that the students could simply gain an understanding of area and understand what is used to measure area. I first asked them some questions about what they knew about area and explained to them how to measure the area of something. I showed them examples of measuring shapes on a poster board that I made. I showed them how to fill it with squares and count them to find the area. The students seemed to have a good understanding of this concept. I handed out worksheets with pictures of two shapes on them. They had to guess which one they thought was bigger and then measure them to find out. The worksheets got harder as the lesson moved on. I eventually told them to start guessing exactly how big they thought each shape was so that they could try to gain an understanding of estimation. The students had fun trying to guess how big the shapes were and finding out the answers. Some of the students kept on saying that the person next to them was cheating by looking at their answers. I did not really know how to deal with this situation, so I just told them to focus on their own work. The students had a really good grasp on the concept of area and how to measure it. I felt like they could have been challenged even more if I had introduced the concept of length x width. I really think the students could have understood this and I would have had a lot of fun teaching it to them. If I had known how quickly they would grasp the concept of area, I would have planned to incorporate length x width into my lesson. However, the lesson went really well and the students enjoyed it. They were actively engaged the whole time and loved using the manipulatives to measure their shapes. I enjoyed this lesson a lot.

Long Range Plan

I am very glad that I have had the opportunity to develop a long range plan. I feel like it is very important to be able to develop a plan for a specific subject for an entire school year. I would have had no idea how to go about this if I had not been given the opportunity to create one in my Introduction to Early Childhood class. It was great to be able to develop a plan for social studies. I was able to look at the entire picture and be able to meet all of the standards and indicators in my long range plan as well as incorporate goals for my students such as learning to cooperate and work together. I incorporated many different groupings throughout the semester and included individual work as well as group work. I have several formative assessments planned for the course as well as a summative assessment at the end of my plan. It is very different than planning individual lessons because you have to be able to look at the whole picture and decide what the best order to put the lessons in and how to build prior knowledge throughout the semester. I'm so glad that I have had the opportunity to plan a long range plan so that I will know what do to and expect for the future.

Dragonflies!

Kaitlyn and I taught a lesson on dragonflies to our second grade class on March 18th. This lesson went beautifully! The students really enjoyed learning about the life cycle and the body structure of the dragonfly. They had already been learning a lot about insects and their life cycles and body structures so they were able to use the information they already knew and apply it to the dragonfly. I started the lesson by reading a book about the life cycle. After I read the book I asked the students some questions about what happened in the story. We went over the stages of the life cycle and used a poster to show them the cycle. They were able to place the correct stage on the picture to give them a good visual of the cycle. I asked them several questions having to do with recalling information and then went on to ask them why they think a dragonfly changes. I was surprised when one of the students answered that the dragonfly changes because it's environment changes (in simpler terms). The students in this class showed that they are very capable of higher-level thinking. Kaitlyn did the second part of the lesson, having to do with the body structure of a dragonfly. She used a picture to show them the dragonfly and labeled the parts. The students were then able to make their own dragonflies out of play dough. This was very exciting for them. The students did a great job with this and they were able to name all of the parts of the dragonfly by the end of the lesson. I really enjoyed teaching this lesson because the students seemed very interested and excited to learn about such an interesting insect! They remained actively engaged throughout the lesson and I really loved watching and helping them learn.

Assessment

How does your co-operative teacher use assessment?
What are your experiences this semester with assessment in the field?

My cooperating teacher uses several forms of assessment for the children in her class. We observe her reading class every Wednesday and she gives them a weekly reading test on Wednesdays to assess their comprehension of the book they have been reading that week. The tests are mainly multiple choice and have questions relating to comprehension as well as vocabulary. There are two short answer questions on every test as well. She told me that she does not expect the students to pass the test, which I thought was kind of strange, but I guess once they have learned the test format and begin to pass all of the tests, that is how she can tell if they are ready to move up to the next reading level class. She uses assessment for her math students through observation. She has the lowest level of RBI math. She has them use manipulatives during the class time and she walks around the room to observe them and assess their understanding. She is always so encouraging and makes a point to recognize the students who are doing exceptionally well that day.

ECDC vs. Field

Write about any developmental differences you've observed between the case study child and field observation children. What can field children do that case study child cannot yet do? What are the classrooms structural differences?

First of all, there is quite an age difference between my students in field and my case study child so their behavior is very different. My students in field are very independent and know the routine of the day. They are well behaved and understand rules and why they are there. My case study child is younger so he is more reliant on adults to help him do things and direct him throughout the day. The classrooms are set up very differently and the atmospheres are different as well. At ECDC the children seem to have a lot of freedom and can roam around the classroom as they need to. They spend a lot of time playing actively. In my field classroom, the students sit in desks all day and switch to different classrooms in the morning. They are not nearly as active as the students at ECDC because their schedule is very concrete and it seems like they don't really get a break from sitting all day. The classroom at ECDC is much larger and is set up so that the students have a variety of choices about what to do and where to sit. There are definitely some profound differences between the two classrooms.