On my last day of student teaching, I was blowing up balloons in the back when my teacher called all of the students to the rug. She gathered them, then had two students come get me and sit me in a chair in front of the whole class. She then presented me with a stack of books, each representing something I worked with the students on. She had the students sign one of the books because she knew how much it meant to me when I get a personal note in books. They also gave me a plant and the flower pot was signed by each of my students! This was so surprising and so special. I was even more moved when she presented me with a special page book. Each student wrote me a personal note, like they do for the student of the week. They came up one by one and read their notes to me out loud. I felt so silly because I cried like a baby. This has been an amazing semester with a great teacher and fantastic students I will remember forever. I was so emotional and touched by all of these students who I have only been with for half of a school year, I cannot imagine the attachment I will have to my students when I spend a whole year with them. THANKS FOR AN AMAZING SEMESTER!
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It has been a wonderful semester full of ups and downs but mostly ups. I cannot believe how attached to these children I have become. I have not only learned about them as student but people too. It has been unbelievable to see my students grow, change, overcome struggles, share and learn. Each student has qualities that are unique and individual to him or her. I wanted to share how special each student is and why, so I decided to write a personal end of the year note to each of them on their favorite color paper. Growing up I always saw my mom become super attached to her students. She has a horrible memory but can remember the name of every student she has ever had even 30 years later. I never understood how this was possible until now. She wasn't just remembering names of students who have come and gone in her life. Rather she knows them as people and has seen all the things I have seen in my students this year. Her students have left an impact on her life just as my students have left an impact on my life.
Today we went to the zoo, which is obviously an educational place for students. There are tons of animals with information about them and lots to discover. What was so neat is, before the zoo field trip, students had to do a report on an animal that would be found in the zoo along with a diorama. The reports were either typed or written and asked the students to talk about 5 specific things. At the end of the report the students had to use a concluding sentence or two. The students then presented their reports orally with their dioramas. The students did a great job. All the students were confident and most knew all of the information they presented. After they shared their report they shared how they built their dioramas that went with their report. See below for some examples of their dioramas.
At Legoland the second grader classes were divided into 4 different class. Our class was put into a lego robotics class and the students had the choice to build one of two different types of lego projects. One of the projects focused on lego robotics and the other focused on pulleys and levers. Before the students got to build they were instructed on pullys levers and fulcroms, all of which are part of the science standards for second grade. There was so much learning fun and adventure. The trip was completely worth it. A Lonley Boy's Guide to Survival (And Werewolves) Our school was fortunate enough to have a visit from the La Jolla Playhouse, a traveling theater group that puts on plays for schools. Before we saw their play, each class got to individually work with one of the play writes in an hour long session. The play write had the students act, talked about main concepts such as plot, characters and theme and encouraged students to think out of the box. Students had to pretend to be different characters solely based on body movement. It was so fascinating to see different students interact and participate. Our outgoing active social student got very into it and was moving around the class as if he was really performing on stage. Another student who is older and less interested in participation looked nervous but smiled as the teacher and I interacted with him. Again each student's individual characteristic showed through. What surprised me was our selective mute student volunteered to be part of the activity in the front of the class, which is completely out of character for her. We were very excited that she chose to participate. The play write who worked with our class gave the students hints about the play to get them excited and curious, however he did not give too much away. Therefore a week later when the POP playhouse came to present A Lonley Boy's Guide to Survival (And Werewolves), the students could not wait to see how what they learned and practiced would be executed during the play. The many roles were played by only 4 people, which the students were told to look for. The students were asked to notice how the actor made it clear about which role they were playing. After the play the students were allowed to ask questions and make comments. I believe an interactive play or at least one where the students can ask questions at the end, is the best way for students to learn. If students go to a play that does not allow for interaction, the teacher should have a discussion or writing assignment after to develop story concepts, ideas of a play, person reflection, understanding of someone else's point of view, writing concepts, and deeper level class discussions. With student teaching the littlest things can become big challenges. I have decent writing but definitely not great writing, and that is only when I spend a REALLY long time writing what I need to on a piece of paper. Writing on the board, forget that. Well my "little" challenge came when my teacher asked me to make a chart and not type out the instructions. Although this saves a bunch of time, I hate my writing and worry that students won't be able to read it and think it makes me look unprofessional. Any way, I worked really hard to make my printing as perfect as possible, fit in the lines and so on. I don't think the chart turned out so badly. As I continue to make more charts they look nicer and nicer. I am great at making charts on graph paper with straight lines and numbers haha. It sounds silly but this is one of my biggest downfalls and I am happy to constantly work on it.
The students worked on writing valentines to their parents the other day, which met many bench marks but more importantly it showed their creativity. I wanted to share with you some of the most moving, cute, creative, funny and special quotes I heard today: "Roses are red violets are blue I want to be a parent just like you" – Brendan "When you pass away it will not break my heart into your life because you love me" - Vench "I so love you mom" - "I love you with all my heart" - Michael "I know how much you help me so when I'm older I can take care of you and give you all my love" - Dylan "I forgot you do laundry for me every day" - Jonathan (at the end of his letter) "Lets sing songs about love" - "I hope your heart feels happy" - Caleb "To me you are caring" - Trevor "Thank you for taking care of me all my life. You are the sweetest thing in the world to me" - Jared "I like flowers but I do not know if you do" - Austin "I give you my heart because you guys are special and hard workers. I thank you for all the things you do for me" - Stephania "When you pass by me it feel like cupid is shooting me with an arrow. You smell like flowers mom" - "I love when you sing songs to me at bed time." - "I care about your heart and you. Thank you for everything and I love you" - Anthony What is so special about this activity is that I see the personalities and thoughts of these children shine through their writing. The things I observe about the children, the things they tell me, and things I think about them came through in many of their letters. Stephania speaks so highly of her parents and at a young age can recognize their hard work efforts and how much they care about her and work to make her happy. Michael struggles greatly in school but this is overshadowed by his excited, kind and enthusiastic personality. In his way of writing he came up with one of the most caring phrases "I so love you". A way people do not write any more, almost Shakespearian. Then closed his letter with the same amount of love, "I love you with all my heart" Anthony is very descriptive and creative, writing with flair and thoughtfullness. His personality literally bursts out of him as he jumps around and stands behind his chair to work, bouncing around making excuses to leave class. A creative brain and soul that just need to get and out and be shared with the world. Vench is funny and gentlemanly. Smiley and happy, someone you might overlook as the average student but never should because he is anything but that. Vench is kind and excited and silly. Austin is logical and methodical. He likes things done his way and protests when things do not seem to make sense or when he believes there is a better way to do things. He has a dry sarcastic sense of humor that he doesn't recognize yet, because he thinks it typical. He has a grasp on other people and expresses it through his logic. With subtle humor, logic and personality he says, "I like flowers but I don't know if you do". Jared knows so much and has such a large vocabulary which he loves to share, but not in a boastful way. He is kind and just wants to share when he knows with the class, he wants to help. So its perfect for him to express himself by saying "Thank you for taking care of me all my life. You are the sweetest thing in the world to me". He is showing his understanding and viewpoint all at the same time, as he is usually able to do. These are just a few of the students who I have gotten to know and can truly see their personality show through their writing. This tasked allowed me to see sides of children, that I had not seen yet. It is a treat to get to know my class better everyday.
There is an amazingly sweet child in our class who is very reserved. His native language is Tagalog and he is working on his English skill. I have only been in the class since January but my teacher explained that when he started school he would cry frequently and would not talk. She told me that he is not always comfortable talking so it is alright if he does not talk to you. Slowly he has been getting more comfortable and will occasionally converse with me. As I have gotten to know him more, I see his personality shining through. He will light up in inexplicable ways that just make you smile. He was in my group on a field trip we took and you could see how much he enjoyed it. When the docent asked him what he liked he would not answer but when I asked him if he had fun, he confidently said yes in a way that showed his delight. In the begging of class we do morning songs. My teacher introduced the Apples and Bananas song. When we got to the part where the vowel sound change, he started to giggle and light up. It was one of those moments that you will see in your head forever, that reminds you why you teach, why you love children and how special each child really is and how unique each of their personalities is. When he noticed I was watching him he tried to not giggle as much but couldn't help it. He was swaying and smiling in the brightest way. I wish I could post his photo so show his beautiful young smiling face! Today I presented a math lesson on fractions using sets. I used the book The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. The students had a bit of a difficult time with the idea. Additionally I did not connect the book to the lesson very well. I asked students what they have been learning about and talked about some key terms. I said this book would show us how we can use sets to show fractions. I left the connection at that. After reading the book I did a model of the cookies with counters on the doc cam then had students come up to show another type of group. I paused and said now we are going to do a worksheet showing this. Again not really connecting the two sections of the lesson. Additionally I did not use the book as an opportunity to focus on Literary goals.
I should have asked the students to guess what it is about or how it could connect to what we are learning in math. After I read the book I should have reviewed the previous questions and answers. Then I would have moved from those answers to saying let's show what happened with the cookies, with counters (And reviewed a problem using counters.) Next I would connect the children model by saying there are other types of groups that can represent a fraction, then show the students. Finally I should have asked for some ideas or key points to connect it to their worksheet. To be honest I am a bit disappointed in my lesson. Normally I do better with teaching and covering all the bases. My master teacher asked me to review the lesson and book connection tomorrow with the students to help them master the concept and connect it to the book. I created a worksheet for them to do after a guided discussion and review. I also created a list of specific questions I want to ask to help direct the conversation and lesson to connection and review concepts, apply them and find the connection between these concepts and the book. My master teacher challenges me to be a better teacher who thinks of all aspects.I thoroughly appreciate this. There is a fun and cute valentine activity, called a heart basket that I will be doing with my second grade students. Its complicated but if done with the students step by step it won't be too bad. The challenge arose when I was asked to create a procedure chart for the students for this activity. It is kind of like those placemat weaving projects except each line is actually part folded piece of paper. essesntiall you have a long rectangles with curved ends (like a half circle) Each is folded in half and then the middle strips are cut. So instead of being able to say over under over under it comes out like red of strip 1 through pink of strip 5 and then pink of strip 6 through red of strip 1. I am excited for the lesson and the challenge. Since my brain works very logically, the only way I could think to have students understand this is by numbering each part of their project and listing the procedures as doing part x through part y. This may be hard for people who are visual learners or struggle with a-z type of thinking. Since I will be modeling the first phase of the lesson, hopefully students will be able to get the hang of it. As they complete the next part on their own I will walk around and see if anyone needs help or try to have a friends help them. To work cross curricularly, students will write a short paper on how they would explain this to a friend or family member. Would they write it the way I did or do they have a better way of explaining it. |
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