It's that time of my practicum where I review my progress towards my Professional Growth Plan and show y'all some lessons that have met the requirements of my PGP Lesson Plan checklist. Up this week: a science lesson and a math lesson that were engaging and informative! ScienceThis Monday: in spite of a hiccup with the SMARTboard (a sudden repair required via remote assistance), I plugged forward with a set of three centers (two computer-based) which allowed students to explore the concepts surround Light and Shadows (Science Topic D in the Albertan Curriculum) -- specifically SLE's 5 and 6. Along with the centers, students had a booklet I created to go along with the centers to direct their discovery. This discovery period was really useful in shaping our discussions and activities for the rest of the week.
Here's how this worked out for my checklist:
MathOn Thursday: a jeopardy lesson involving a team effort to practice the new times tables (6x) that we learned this week. Loads of engagement, lots of learning opportunity (especially in "steal" opportunities) and a whole lot of fun! Below I've included both the SMARTboard jeopardy template (taken off SMART Exchange) and the version I doctored for times tables up to 6 x 9.
Checking out the checklist for this, things aren't as strong as some other lessons, but I felt this was worth including particularly because it can be so widely applicable to any number of subjects.
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This week as part of my efforts to accomplish my Professional Growth Plan Goal I decided to step into my school's grade 2 classroom.
It was an unreal learning experience, but in the strangest of ways: never before have I been in a classroom that was so quiet, with so little movement, excluding university classes. The strangest part: this class was choc full of high-needs students. From a pre-service teacher, the task of creating such a calm learning environment (it truly was calm - not a stifled, forced quiet, but a calm) seems a daunting one at best to establish. While I never got to speak with the teacher afterwards (it's been quite a hectic week), my observations led me to the conclusion that this teacher must have really done her homework -- finding out what makes each child tick and using it to help create an optimal learning environment. This meant that if students could handle working in pairs, they would be seated side by side; others who needed space were on their own. Students were also aware of each other (for example, the class understood that one student struggled to read and write at even a minimal level, so she was partnered with someone who would be able to help her contribute to Kagan structures. On the same line of differentiation, my visit to this classroom reinforced the idea that fair is not always equal: different students need different amounts of instruction, feedback and structure to help them be successful. Something I saw a lot of in this class was positive reinforcement: "I like that you did ..."; "Some good ideas I'm seeing are ..."; "Thank you [student's name], for doing ...". This seemed to be a really strong motivator for students. Another thing in line with this was a "Bucket Filling Classroom" bulletin board: as students were recognized throughout the week for good behaviours, increases in skill abilities and a number of other things, they would collect pom-poms in buckets hanging off the bulletin board. The pom-poms would then be tallied up at the end of the week. I think one final thing I would like to share from this classroom was the lengthy body break that she had her students do just before I had to step out to teach science. A rather long affair, students spent the better part of 15 minutes first patting a beat on their thighs while repeated Humpty Dumpty, then patting the beat and walking around the classroom repeating Humpty Dumpty, then varying the ways in which they walked before finishing with a long series of yoga poses and stretches. I had one chance to briefly speak to this teacher before the visit, during which time she told me that since her students were far behind in terms of physical development, it was important to take the time to strengthen their cores so they could sit still for longer, since their bodies weren't at a stage where sitting for any long amount of time would be achievable. The take-home message from this: as with all lessons I've been learning, the most important thing you can do for your student First full week of teaching! Here's a summary of what I taught. I posted my revised lesson plans on my lessons page, for any interested. TuesdayNewspapers - Learning about the 5W's and 1H Math - Skip-Counting - Beginning to make the associations between skip-counting and multiplication Spelling - Introducing this week's words with an activity and some desk work WednesdayMath - Skip-Counting - A not so successful lesson which may have muddled the connection between skip-counting and multiplication, not because of how it was written, but because I poorly executed it. Gym - Intro to Curling - Without a curling rink (or even a gym) I was able to introduce my students to curling - and have them practice it, too! ThursdayRead-Aloud & Journal - A simple lesson including a read aloud (by me) and a journal lesson Math - Skip-Counting - A different attempt at skip counting: making and using foldables! Reading - Analyzing - Wrapping up an analyzing unit in LA, we looked at the features of a map as a class and gathered information about Canada FridayMath - Grouping - For more about this lesson, please check out my blog post documenting my first successful step towards reaching my PGP goals.
Okay, so I probably should start this lesson off by saying that this post literally has nothing to do with the Lord of the Rings. Yet. Maybe I'll find a way to connect it as I go along. What this post is really about is a killer PS1 lesson I did today, that is contributing towards my Professional Growth Plan steps. For those of you who don't want to read through the whole lesson plan (I still recommend that you do), let me break it down for you: Today we began exploring grouping as a multiplication strategy. I gave a brief 5 minute shared example on the board (students followed along on their white boards), had them do some group work (using marshmallows as manipulatives for grouping) and then some individual work (using iPods to scan QR codes hidden around the classroom which had grouping questions on them). During the individual work as students were wandering around the class completing their questions, I held brief private conferences with students at my desk to see where they were at in terms of fact recall, grouping skills and how they felt about their skills in general. I told my Kurtis (my supervisor) before I started this lesson that I anticipated it would go "either terribly right or terribly wrong". Terribly right is a strange phrase, but that is exactly what I felt this lesson was, not only for me as an educator, but also for my students. For this reason, I have considered it for part of my advancement towards my PGP goal. Check out the full lesson below: Download it here:
I am extremely proud of this lesson. I took a lot of risks, and it paid off. More importantly, looking back at my Meaningful Learning Checklist, it hit a lot of points (bolded):
For each of my lessons, I simply wanted a checklist to reflect each of the KSA's. For me, it is important that I try and have at least 2 elements towards meaningful learning incorporated into my lesson plan.
Look at all that bold. At this stage, I think I've outdone myself. I would be so happy to share this with other teachers (along with my other lesson plans). If you try this out and you notice the QR codes are weird, or you see something that could make this lesson even better, please let me know! Special shoutout to Jo, who patiently helped me plan this lesson out to be so awesome and fluid! Late, in the middle night, instead of dreaming of sugar plums and Christmas carols ('tis the season, right?! It is for me anyways ...) I was dreaming of how I can check myself often for progress on my PGP. I came up with a simple little checklist that'll keep me on track, which I hoped to share with others to adapt as they needed.
For each of my lessons, I simply wanted a checklist to reflect each of the KSA's. For me, it is important that I try and have at least 2 elements towards meaningful learning incorporated into my lesson plan.
Today I had what felt like a brief 40 minutes of teaching experience. It wasn't exactly a full-blown lesson, but it was a nice way to ease into things for both me and the students. I started off on a more serious note by going over my rules and expectations in the class. This put an interesting tone on the class, but not necessarily a bad one. After going over these, I noticed that students seemed a little more tuned to the idea that I was an authority figure in the class. (Of course, this then had students coming over to me to ask if they could go to the bathroom when Mrs. P refused them; I reminded them of who was in control of the class). After that, I did a quick spelling game to review with the students, and then we did the spelling test. "Lesson" complete! I'll be reviewing my rules and expectations in class the next few times I teach. Lesson Plan below! So tonight I moderated an EdTeach chat on twitter for the first time, and I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on the technology itself and some things I enjoyed or might do differently next time. I really loved this experience, and I thought it was a great learning opportunity! Though I have made some nice connections over twitter, participating in the chat rather than being an observer really demonstrated the potential of using twitter as a tool to expand my PLN. The TechI was moderating twitter over the twitter client TweetDeck. One thing I enjoyed about this technology was the ability to schedule tweets to appear so I didn't have to worry about asking the next question -- I could engage with the contributors. I also enjoyed that I could have multiple "feeds" open at once so I could keep tabs on what was happening - for example, this evening, I had my regular twitter timeline, a timeline following #edteach exclusively, a timeline for all the twitter "Interactions", my favorites list for storing all the resources I got tonight and a timeline listing my scheduled tweets. It was super easy and efficient to switch through all of them. One downside was that following conversations was a bit difficult. It was a bit disruptive in my mind to have to click through to see the conversation and have that block the rest of my timeline, but I think it was a necessary evil all the same. The TopicTonight's topic was dedicated to giving Student Teachers some tips, tricks and technology suggestions for using formative assessment as they enter their practicums. I can't possibly hope to summarize all that came forward in this post and do it justice, so I hope you'll check out the archived version of our chat on the Schedule and Archives page on the #edteach website. For me, the organization freak, I was particularly interested in seeing how teachers tracked assessments of varying types in their class. Some technologies to try that came up were:
The ReflectionFor me this was a lesson in considering my questioning strategies. Twice in the chat I was asked to clarify my questions; the first time was a question about in what way I meant "Formative Assessment for Student Teachers" and the second was about who the audience was supposed to be. In the future, I would consider fielding these questions through a peer first to make sure I get my meaning across. I also think that in future edteach chats I might moderate, indicating the purpose of the chat (ie; help out pre-service teachers, share resources, etc.) might be useful so people can engage sooner rather than being confused. The ExtensionOne thing I still have a question about is how to document and organize all the paper that will inevitably cross our desk. File cabinet? Student portfolios? Would love to hear about what systems other teachers have in place!
So next week all of us hard-worked PS1 students are heading out into our practicums. Bit of a bittersweet moment; somehow the group of 36 of us became more like family than friends. To see us all separated is a bit difficult to think about, but I can't express how excited I am for each one of us to make our first mark as teachers. I am incredibly proud of the work each and every one of us has done to get here, and which I anticipate we will continue to do for the rest of our careers. You did it GHI! We are about to embark on a huge learning curve, to apply what we have learned in theory (and some practice) to the classrooms we have now become partially responsible for. I have enjoyed these last few weeks like no others in my undergrad, but let me just say
WE .... LEARNED ... A LOT. If I had to pick one thing to hold onto going into practicum, it would have to be that community is everything. Without a classroom community, classroom management, effective and meaningful teaching and teacher-student relationships are difficult, even impossible, to achieve. For me, everything hinges on community. From the moment those students enter my classroom to the moment they leave, it is my responsibility to keep them safe, to help them grow and develop as persons and to have fun. When I have achieved those things, I know my class is set up to be a positive learning environment. As part of my professional growth during this practicum, I have chosen to focus on one faucet of community within the classroom. In particular, I want to add a whole slough of meaningful teaching and learning strategies to my teacher toolbox. If you want to read up on how I plan to do this, check out my Professional Growth Plan. Fortunately, my TA in Riverside set me up for success in this aspect already. She has given me many resources to sift through, and had the students fill out a cue card with information about themselves and how they learn best. This already offers me direction in how I can make learning meaningful to my class. Here's to a new chapter! |
Meagan Fullerton-LeeMeagan is an aspiring teacher, voracious reader, tentative motorcyclist, and passionate gardener. In all things she sees education. Here she shares her passions. Archives
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