The day has finally come! Today I graduate from Missouri State University with my Bachelor's in Elementary Education with an emphasis in eMINTS. Im so thankful for my family and friends that have helped me through college.
0 Comments
On the second-to-last day of my internship, I took my students a gift to thank them for a great semester. I found the idea on Teachers Pay Teachers and added and changed things to make it my own. I got envelopes and filled them with the little toys you see. Below is the document I attached to the front. E-mail me if you would like the word document to use with your own students.
Day 1: During the first day of the lesson, the class made it through the engage and explore phase. When we started off the lesson, students told me about the physical characteristics by answering questions I asked them. During this part, I did not ask students to explain their answers for the sake of time. One student told me the water was liquid as a physical characteristic, so I put that at the top of the column. This helped me lead the students to name the first column as solid and last column as gas. Based on these responses, I showed students the definitions of the three states of matter to be used as reasoning at the conclusion of the experiment. I asked students if they agreed with the definitions before we moved on. We then read the book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and students took notes on words that describe the Oobleck, which I stopped at to point out. Students then decided if each word described a liquid, solid, or gas. They then logged into INTEL to make their predictions. I provided the sentence frame “I think Oobleck is a…” for them to finish typing into INTEL. The dragged words over to support/disprove their claims. Most students got creative and described Oobleck as something like a “liquidized solid.” When they write their final claim, I will have them pick either a solid or liquid to provide better evidence and a better-connected reasoning. I asked a few students to share their prediction with the class and I asked, “how do you know?” and they told me words from the text. I showed them how to use the data table and reviewed the safety rules for the lab. Students played with the Oobleck and I went around asking students, “what happens if you…?” to propose tests for them to complete. Next class time, we will complete the explain phase, including writing our explanation and reasoning. Day 2:
Today started with a revisit of the explore phase. I reminded the students of the Oobleck experiment and told them to write down any more observations as possible. We then created a class data table of observations. Students told me things to put on the table, and I frequently said, “tell me more.” The student would then go into more detail and give me better information to share with the class. For example, Trenton told me that it was solid when he hit it. I said, “tell me more,” and he explained that when he punched the Oobleck it was hard and when he lightly touched his finger to the Oobleck it sank in. When students were running out of observations to share, I asked if any of them dropped the marble into the Oobleck. Three hands raised; one told me the marble sank immediately, one said it stayed on top, and one said it sank slowly. I used this as an opportunity to explain that we had several tests that had slightly different results. Once we got it all recorded, I told students to have at least five things recorded on their paper in each column. I then explained to the students that I understand most predictions said it was a “liquidized solid” or something similar. I explained what Oobleck is made of and how it displays properties of both a solid and a liquid. One of the students, James, told me that made sense because the corn starch is a solid and the water is a liquid. With that information, I told students I wanted them to pick whether Oobleck is a solid or liquid and I explained we would be supporting our claim with evidence. Students decided and wrote their claim on the line. We graphed the number of students that said each state of matter; 8 students picked solid and 13 picked liquid. I asked those that picked solid to raise their hands. I called on a student and asked for his evidence. Dylan told me “I picked solid because corn starch is a solid.” I redirected him by asking which thing in the data table proved that it was a solid. He then told me “poured slowly from hand to hand.” I said “if it pours, I would think more like a liquid.” Ayden said, “that’s what I was gonna say, ‘cause like syrup is a liquid.” Dylan then told me, “dries on hands” and I circled it. I explained that students that selected solid should also circle it on their own papers. I repeated the same “evidence” procedure with the liquid students. Ayden gave me the evidence of “poured slowly from hand to hand” and we returned to his comparison to syrup. He went on to explain that “not every liquid has to pour fast.” I explained that they should have at least three pieces of evidence circled on their data table. We then moved onto the explanation. I showed students the sentence frame, but explained they would get six choices to demonstrate their knowledge; graphic organizer, drawing, skit, rap, poem, or writing. They were allowed to work individually or with a partner. I asked what they needed to be successful, and Joseph helped remind the class they needed three pieces of evidence. I also reminded them to include the state of matter they selected to support. Students took eight minutes to prepare and I walked around the room helping students. At the end of the time, I refocused the students and we talked about scientific reasoning. I showed them the sentence frame, “this happened because…” and none of them knew how to finish it. I showed them the definitions of solid and liquid from the first day and explained how the definition was the reasoning. The students then recorded the reasoning on their paper after I repeated the instructions. This would have been best to do at the very end, but I was supposed to be out of the classroom to meet with my supervisor when I would normally include this in the lesson. The kids then began presenting their explanations. I tried to make sure each kid gave me their choice and three reasons. I had one kid only give me two reasons because he was absent the first day. Once presentations finished, I had the students complete my survey. "Why do you want to be a teacher?" It's the question every professor in the education department asks on the first day. It's the question I had to write a lengthy paper to answer this semester. It's the question I get asked after witnessing the crazy stares from people right after they ask about my college major. It's the question I had to answer to myself when classes started getting more difficult. But this weekend I was reminded of the answer.
I want to teach so that I can have a job where I can go home knowing that what I did that day was important; that I made a difference in someone's life besides my own. I met Dalen four years ago when I was still in high school helping at the youth wrestling practices. He was the first kid that helped me experience what it meant to be a teacher. After every practice that year, I went home feeling proud of the work I had done and I knew I wanted to feel that way for the rest of my life. My senior year, I decided on elementary education and I haven't looked back since. With my student teaching right around the corner, there is no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision. I had the opportunity to attend a technology conference at Missouri State and here are the three summaries I had to turn in for class. J2 Training
This was the first session of the day, taught by Janet Corder and Joan Gore. The first thing they mentioned during the session was how they hate using PowerPoint because “kids are PowerPoint-ed to death.” Instead, they had all of their presentations on Smore, which is basically like a website or blog format. They had all of their information and links on that page, with a “TinyURL” on their business card linked to this page. We played a game on Kahoot! at the start of the session. It was basically a way to create a quiz for students where they can answer on any device that can access the internet. It was a fun way to interact with material on the screen and find out what students know, but many audience members experienced technical problems during the quiz. The next tool they presented was called augmented reality. This is a new innovation utilizing tablet or smartphones. The speakers used the app called Aurasma that would scan ordinary items or printed images and digitally add a three-dimensional figure to it. This would be great for things like cell diagrams or space models because it allows kids to digitally manipulate them get a better understanding than just seeing a flat image in a textbook. There was another app called 4D Elements that I tried out at home afterwards. The app takes you to a website where you print off cubes the company has created with different elements from the periodic table on each side. You put the elements on the camera of your device and it makes the cube appear to hold that element. When you put two of them together, it shows what they make, such as hydrogen and oxygen making water. I look forward to finding out more about how this technology can be used in a classroom to enhance learning. They ended the session with showing us various tech tools they like to buy to accompany their devices. Their Smore has links to the iPad cases they were using as well as the styluses, earbud cord wraps, and microfiber cloths they were handing out. Flipping the Elementary Classroom This was the second session of the day, one that I chose to attend from the list of options. The session was taught by Sara Tipton and Greg Katzin from Logan-Rogersville schools. Mr. Katzin is a Senior-level Social Studies teacher at the high school who has flipped his classroom by using Camtasia to create videos of lecture material for students to watch at home before attending class. Mrs. Tipton is a Kindergarten teacher who has spent the past year flipping her classroom in a much different way. Mrs. Tipton said that she has three main things that are part of her flipped classroom. She create videos for parents to watch to learn how to help their child, videos for students to watch at home over content, and mini-lessons to be used during workshop time in class. The latter of these would be the most beneficial in an elementary classroom, since it would be hard to ensure that all students are able to watch videos at home. This teacher had a few Surface tablets in her classroom on which she would load the videos for students to watch; she taught them all how to scrub through, pause, and rewind. This allows her to be working with a small group of students while still offering instruction to students via the videos. Some of the pitfalls she found were students and parents with no internet at home, parents that didn’t have the technology skills, and accountability. With families without access to internet, she recommended sending students home with the video on a flashdrive or dvd or allowing them to watch videos at school during a down time. She said her librarian also allowed parents to come in during the last 30 minutes of the day to access the videos. She also recommended having a parent tech night to teach them about using the website and playing the videos. For accountability, you can add in quizzes using Camtasia, which would be more appropriate for older students. She also recommended using a learning log where a student could journal what they learned from each video. Mrs. Tipton also mentioned she keeps her videos to about 2 minutes maximum to keep the students’ attention. There is also a feature in Camtasia where you can add in the video of yourself narrating the screen capture. She said that she wasn’t comfortable using that feature yet, but it would be very helpful to students to be able to think, “hey, that is my teacher.” She also talked about a teacher in St. Louis that includes a funny picture of a cat behind him in every video, which gets the students excited to watch the videos. I love this idea and plan on stealing it in the future! App Smackdown The final session I went to was also taught by Janet Corder and Joan Gore. They hooked their iPad up to the projection system to highlight their favorite educational apps, most of which are available on other operating systems. I downloaded many of them and here is just a summary of a few: SockPuppets: This app allows the user to create a puppet show on the device. The free version only allows for 30 seconds, but I believe the paid version has no time limit. One funny thing about this app is that it makes all the voices high-pitched and immediately makes the viewer smile. The presenter said she was teaching a class in which two middle school boys were “too cool” to present about a Social Studies topic, but when allowed to use this app, they got very excited and included tons of factual information. Endless Reader: This app was one I had previously downloaded on my iPad, but it is great to teach reading. The user spells out words by dragging letters to the correct spot. While the child is dragging the letter, it says over and over what it sounds like. When the word is spelled out, it then puts it into a sentence and animates it. It has letters a through f for free, but you can pay to download more words. Chicken Coop Fractions: This app is free but I think you must pay to download more levels. The level that I got to play on was about estimating fraction values. It had a slider on the bottom with 0 on the left and 1 on the right. The chicken tells you the fraction and you have to move hay to the decimal representation of that fraction to catch an egg. This is a great app to show students the meaning of fractions and converting them to a decimal. Tellagami: This app creates an avatar person that you can make speak by talking or typing. It would be a fun way to introduce a lesson or have students make to present a topic. SquiggleFish: This app costs $2.99, but it would be a fun one to use in the classroom. Students can draw and design a fish with a dark outline on any piece of paper. You can then use your device’s camera to add it to a virtual fish tank. One teacher used this as a reward for the student of the week. For my ELE 500 course this semester, I had to take part in an event called a "poverty simulation." After this experience, I had to write a letter to a friend to be graded. Here is that letter: Today I participated in an event called a “poverty simulation.” When I walked into the room I was assigned a character, Gerald Garofalo, a one-year-old boy, to become throughout the afternoon. I also met my 19-year-old mother and her 25-year-old boyfriend when I took my assigned seat at the homeless shelter, since the Garofalos did not have a home when beginning the simulation. The simulation consisted of four fifteen-minute “weeks” during which my family had to pay for bus passes, food, clothing, and miscellaneous expenses. My mom also was required to find us a place to live by the end of the second week and get a job by the end of the month. Once we got our house, we also had to pay our mortgage and utility bills.
Since I was only a one-year-old during the simulation, there wasn’t much I could do while in character. I spent most of my time following my mom around to the places she needed to visit, making her spend an extra transportation pass everywhere she went. It made me personally feel like I was just a burden, so I felt pretty relieved when we visited the community action table and I was placed in day care for a week. However, while in day care I just sat there at my seat not learning or interacting like I should have been doing with my mother. I also experienced hunger until finally during the last week my mother was able to afford to buy food for the family. I was also very happy when my family got our own home during the third week. One important thing I learned from following my mother around was how frustrating it can be to find the right help. The first place we visited was Quick Cash to buy transportation passes. However, since they only accepted cash, we were out two bus passes and not able to purchase anything. When we visited the community action area, they had run out of funds to assist my family with utilities, so we were referred to the social services office that also told us they couldn’t help us. The main thing I learned that will affect my teaching is about basic needs. In order for learning to occur, a child must have all basic needs met. Throughout the simulation, I was hungry, homeless, and wearing the same clothes. I also didn’t get many opportunities to interact with anyone including my own family, since my mother was too busy taking care of our living situation and finding a job. It is easy to understand that, even though my mother cared for me and wanted the best for me, other needs came before spending time with me. I hope that you will get the opportunity to take part in a similar simulation to learn about the effects poverty has on the individual. It was an enriching experience that I believe all teachers should have. There are many ways a teacher can use cooperative learning in the classroom. It can be used in the form of team building, class building, and academic work. It is important for the teacher to ensure that group work follows the Kagan model of PIES, (positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation, and simultaneous interaction) so that all students are learning.
The biggest reason to use cooperative learning (1) is to ensure students feel safe, physically and emotionally, in the classroom. In my eMINTS class we do fun community builders every class period to get to know other students in the class and feel more comfortable in the environment. After doing these activities, I know the names of my classmates and quite a bit about their lives. I also feel more comfortable sharing my ideas with the whole group during discussions. The next reason for using cooperative learning (2) is to help students in their learning of a concept. This focusses on the idea that none of us is as smart as all of us. With cooperative learning, students get to put their heads together to come up with answers and solutions to problems. This comes in handy when material is especially difficult. Another reason for using cooperative learning (3) is to teach students valuable social skills. These are life lessons that students will need forever. Using cooperative learning allows students to talk with classmates without disrupting others, because they will actually be focused on class material. Cooperative learning teaches kids teamwork, communication, and discipline. Cooperative learning is also useful because (4) it allows individualized instruction. In much group work completed with cooperative learning, each student is assigned a role, such as the recorder, checker, gatherer, or quiet captain. These types of roles can be assigned based on students’ individual multiple intelligences. For example, an artistic role in the group would benefit an artistic student. The final reason to use cooperative learning is (5) it creates a great relationship between teacher and student. In the typical teacher-centered classroom, students work individually and are punished for talking. When this happens, there is hostility between teacher and student. When students are allowed to work together, they build relationships with their classmates and they also enhance the teacher/student interaction. I plan on using cooperative learning every chance I get when I become a teacher. I feel like my eMINTS training has completely prepared me for getting students to work together cooperatively. I will use cooperative learning for academic projects as well as for fun team and class building. I don't want to become the teacher that is putting on a performance or spoon feeding my students. Almost every college class I've taken has involved the teacher lecturing and testing over what was said in class. Occasionally we are assigned a chapter of the textbook to read, but usually the professor covers what was in the chapter in class (so there's no reason to read it).
I don't want to teach like that. I want my students to EXPERIENCE knowledge and gain the skills necessary to EVALUATE the world around them. Why should my students believe anything I teach them (or that they read on the Internet)? How do you know if you’re a good teacher? According to the government, it’s about test scores at the end of the year. According to parents, it’s about grades. Well personally I think it comes down to two things: students exploring their own passions in learning and knowing that their teacher cares about them. When those two things occur, students continue learning, even outside of school! For those that are my friends on Facebook, you may have seen I’ve had some problems with Crowder College this summer. My original professor, after two weeks, went to the hospital and had to take time off. The new professor was brought in and he changed everything; the grading, the teaching styles, and even the class curriculum. He changed the Physical Science class into strictly Geology, since that is what he normally teaches. The problem with this is that I will be taking Geology again in the Spring, so I am missing out on all of the other areas of Physical Science. I have taken this to the chair of the department, and basically got the answer of “take the A and move on.” But what is this really teaching us? It says to me, “your education is not important, and thus neither is the education of your future students.” After sitting through this agonizing class for two weeks, I have decided there is at least one thing I am learning: how to be a great teacher! Enough with my rant; here is what I have taken away from my class so far. Education is too focused on grades and tests! On Wednesday in my class, we had a test review. This meant he read us the questions and answers off the test and we wrote it all down. I went home that night, memorized it all, and came back Thursday and regurgitated all that I memorized, in the exact same order and phrasing. That isn’t learning; I couldn’t tell you today the difference between conduction, convection, and radiation, but I sure did ace that test! And the professor’s reasoning? “I look good if you all get A’s.” That is ridiculous. Photo from Venspired.com I want to have a classroom that revolves around competencies rather than grades. Students should be able to demonstrate to me that they have mastered a concept, and they should have choice in that demonstration. I don’t want to know that they have great memorization skills; I want to know that they know how to research and question and think freely. I want my students to be prepared for life, not just prepared to go on to the next grade or class. This also means that students that already know about a topic don’t have to relearn the material. I believe students that have mastered a concept should be allowed to participate in enrichment to advance further. This idea also cuts down on behavior issues from students being bored in class.
I’ve also learned that lectures are BORING! Almost every topic we are discussing currently could be portrayed in a lab experiment. Hands-on learning is much more stimulating and memorable than listening. The few experiments we have done have been done by the professor, where our only job is to write down what we are told. My students are going to be immersed in learning. I fully believe in the eMINTS model, where the teacher is merely a facilitator, serving to ensure all students are engaged and help when needed. Learning is not a spectator sport. I sit in class every day, hoping for 1:30 when I get to leave for the rest of the afternoon. I take few notes, sometimes because the material is incredibly simple or sometimes because I remember we are going to get the test answers handed to us anyway. But tomorrow I’m going to start taking more notes; notes about what NOT to do when I become a teacher. |
AuthorI am an MSU graduate and 4th grade teacher in Carthage, MO. This is just a collection of things I've learned that I thought were important enough to share. Archives
October 2016
Categories
All
|