Coming to the End

 By: Melissa Cabrales

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Today as the students walked into the classroom, I greeting them all and said good morning. They all came to give me a hug and told me how much they've missed me. I had to break the news to them that I only had two more days with them left and next week would be my last time teaching them. They all seemed sad and asked where I was going. I explained that I'm almost done with school and now I would be switching to a new school in January to learn how to teach 1st graders. I didn't think I would get attached to this kids because I'm not that kind of person but a piece of them will stay with me. This is the first class that I actually had to teach face to face and its a bit sad to have to leave them now. It's like a bittersweet ending. I'm so excited to be done with another semester and one step closer to finishing school but of course sad to have to leave this group of students. They have been such a dream class. They allowed me to be able to teach them and get to know them on a personal level. It's been such a joy to work with these students.

I didn't have to teach this week but I'm already preparing for next week when I teach my last and final literacy lesson. I'm excited for this lesson because it's the last one and because I'll be teaching the students something new. My students always do well with new topics so I wanted to try something they haven't done before. I think they'll have fun with this lesson too. I plan on including different activities for them to do. I can't believe we're almost at the end though. In the beginning the end seemed so far away and now I feel like the weeks flew by. 

Bucket Filler/Dipper

 By: Alejandra Govea

12/2/2021

The students came to school with so much energy at 9AM. I miss the 3rd graders and of course they were excited to see me. I received so many hugs and It made me realize that I have one more time to see them and I will not see them again. It's like we get so attached to the students and it makes me sad. The students were so excited to learn and participate. The students read a reading where they each had a turn to read aloud. They were also introduced to geometry math where they were excited to try something new. 

I liked that the teacher taught about the bucket filler and bucket dippers. The students were able to participate when the teacher asked what a bucket filler is. They enjoyed the activity because they were able to tell a time where they filled a bucket and a time where they were the bucket dipper. This relates to real life situations where students can relate to and I think this is very important for this 3rd grade class that has a hard time listening and following directions.

Literacy Lesson

 Alexandra Slater 

Thursday, December 2nd 

    Today we had a sub. My MT emailed me the day prior letting me know she was not going to be in class. She asked if I could help out the sub with the technology and daily schedule. She also encouraged me to jump in as much as possible. I did the morning opening lesson, yellow book, foundations, and my literacy lesson. So I would say I taught 50% of the day. The kids seemed to be a little crazy since we had a sub. Between the sub and I we had to clip down 5 students. We had two students on orange and 3 on yellow by the end of the day. Besides, the behavior issues it was a decent day. We got a lot of work done even though Mrs. Sikora was not here. I taught my first literacy lesson and it went pretty well besides the students being very hyper after lunch. I read them a story that used a lot of mental image for my anticipatory set and they all loved it. They were super engaged and were excited to answer my questions after. Im glad my topic for the literacy lesson was mental images because Dr. Kelly taught us great beneficial information on the topic a few weeks back. After the AS we reread our story of the week and i included mental images in it. We also took a look at an anchor chart that provided us with mental image types. The types included using our 5 senses while creating mental image. From there on we did a mystery box activity using our 5 senses. The students absolutely loved it! They did get a little wound up during it and i did the best i could to try and calm them back down and focus for the remaining of the lesson. The remaining part of the day they had gym and then spent the rest on their chrome books.  It was nice working with a sub because the more i work with different people the more i get to know the staff here. Its good to make connections and relationships with other staff / teachers. The sub was actually the reading specialist teacher here so it was nice talking with her about her experience here at Monee Elementary. She also told me about her college experience and student teaching experience. The only downfall to having a sub today was that I didn't get to get my teacher mentors feedback at the end of the day. After every lesson I teach I always stay late talking to my teacher mentor about how I did on my lesson and getting advice for the next one. Next week is my last lesson though wooo! I can't believe this experience is already over! It flew by....   Good luck to everyone on their last week in the classrooms and the upcoming tests! :)

Literacy Lesson - Problem and Solution

By: Alejandra Govea 

11/19/21 

The students were happy to see me and I was excited to teach my lesson plan. I did not teach until 12pm so the students started off with using their Chromebook and solving math problems. The teacher took some groups aside to work on some things independently. If the students were done early, they were able to read a book using an application on their chrome book. The teacher then read them a book and they had to act out the scene. This made the students more engaged by acting out other people’s voices during a reading. I was so excited because I had planned for them to role play in my literacy lesson. 

During my lesson plan the students were so actively engaged and participating in class when I did the anticipatory set and direct instruction which made it easier for us to do the guided practice together and independent practice on their own. Once I started with the guided practice, the students were going crazy. It went from shouting to interrupting to sitting wrong to talking back to other students. This is when my mind was everywhere I was stuck. I did not know what I was thinking of because they lost me. I had to set expectations AGAIN and give them strikes. The students were still misbehaving but I was able to go through the guided practice and independent work.

Field Experience- Cordova

 Hi Everyone!

This was my week off, I took the time to observe the students during Math to see how that teacher manages the class. We were also able to meet after school to discuss possible topics for my lesson. I was nervous at first because Math is not really my strong suit but after meeting with the teacher today I am feeling a lot more confident. Today was a pretty busy work day for the students, since tomorrow they are having a class party before Thanksgiving break. They are lucky and get the entire week off! One of the students who has been having behavior issues was pulled out of the classroom today by the assistant principal. He had to spend the whole day in the office and do his work in there. My MT informed me that they have done this before and the student still continues his behavior once he is back in the classroom. I wonder why they continue the same disciplinary actions if it does not seem to be effective. 

For Science, the students are learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly and there are caterpillars in the classroom. They are in their cocoons
now and we are predicting that they will come out over break. The students are excited to release the adult butterflies and watch them fly away. I also got to teach a lesson today on identifying words with double consonants in a short story. At the end of the day, the students watched a video on how to be confident in yourself and recognize all of the great characteristics you have. They then made a rainbow with 4 positive characteristics that they wrote about themselves beginning with I am. 

Have a great Thanksgiving! 😊

Week #12 by Aranis Samra

    Lesson Day! Today was my fourth lesson, and it focused on literacy. For the first time, I could declare that I was not anxious and that I was confident in my ability to teach my topic. My sequencing lesson went well, and the students enjoyed my anticipatory set. I brought a toothbrush, toothpaste, a cup, and a pretend sink from my kids' toys, and the kids got to explore their prior knowledge of brushing their teeth to discover how sequencing works and how things get strange or feel incorrect if we don't follow steps. This week, I owe a debt of gratitude to my MT, who worked closely with me to ensure that my lesson did not exceed their grade level of comprehension and, most importantly, their reading level. That was really essential to me since I didn't want anyone to feel left out or incapable of completing the job. Throughout the class, the kids were engaged and extremely active, and I was really satisfied with their good behavior and the amount of attention they paid to the subject. They like writing in their journals and illustrating their bat knowledge.

    In the last few lessons, I believe I've gained a lot of confidence and understanding about what I'm doing. It's true what they say about getting comfortable with the students every day; I can attest to that. It's the thing that has benefited me the most in my day-to-day interactions with students, I believe. Not only via my personal experience, but also through my work as a substitute teacher in my district. Something I want to improve for my final lesson is my lesson plan writing; I want it to be great, and I hope that I am just as confident and comfortable in my next one as I was in this one. As the days pass, I become wistful because I've grown to love the kids; they're so kind and inviting it will be difficult to leave them at the end of the semester. If there's one thing I've learned from this experience, it's how much I like my job and how gratifying it is.

A Lesson on Perspective- Sylvia L. Bradshaw

Today was an interesting day to say the least.  I was so excited to see the scholars, especially since I had not seen them for two weeks, only to find out that half of the classroom was absent due to one positive COVID case. There were only twelve students out of the twenty two that are usually in the classroom and I must say that I did miss having everyone there.  Although there were less student in the room, the classroom routines remain unchanged, in fact they went just a bit faster because there are less students going to the bathroom, and less time spent lining up to transition to other activities. 

I was able to work with two students today on adding two digit numbers. I was happy to see that after the 20 minutes of this lesson that I was able to see a little growth in the students' knowledge. One thing that I noticed working with these two girls is that even though they are two of the lower performers for this subject, I still had to differentiate the instruction between the two of them.  One of the girls needed a lot more visual modeling.  I used the whiteboard with her and had her try to follow my directions step by step so that she was able to get the repetition that was needed to complete the math problems and eventually be able to complete the problems on her own.  It was exciting to help the girls and give them a couple tips that they could use in their future.

Towards the end of the day I taught my first literacy lesson on perspective.  I was restless the night before thinking of all the things I wanted to make sure that I covered in my lesson. I woke up out of my sleep at three o'clock in the morning and started entering notes in my phone that I didn't want to forget for my lesson.  The funny thing is, I didn't feel nervous at all but, I mind was racing with thoughts and I just had to write them down.  Parts of the lesson when really well and then I believe with it being the end of a long day the students were getting a bit board and that is something I was not expecting.  Starting with the positive, I started the lesson with optical illusion pictures to demonstrate the idea of perspective.  I showed a total of three photos and had the students tell me what they saw in the picture.  I made sure to tell them that there was not wrong answer so that they were comfortable answering confidently.  The students loved this activity and you should have seen the look on their faces when they saw the other hidden picture.  I even did something as  simple has having two students standing face to face and putting a printed six in the middle of them and having them tell me what number they saw.  I feel that this was the perfect intro to my lesson. I also think that the book that I choose by Anthony Browne Voices in the Park was an excellent book to have as a read aloud.  This book looks at a day in the park of two families, from four different perspective.  The author of the book is also the illustrator and his pictures and creative imagery gives this book life.  There are so many things to infer from the pictures and so many different tiny details to discover while reading.  I enjoyed getting the students away from their desk and setting with me in a semicircle so that we were able to have an intimate discussion on the book.  This was another area that worked well to have less students in the room.

Overall the day was good, I hope that after the break all the students will be back in the classroom. I'm already thinking about my last literacy lesson and how to make it a bit more exciting for the students because it will take place at the same time of day.

 

Week 12: Eleventh Day in the Classroom

Week 12: Eleventh Day in the Classroom

Date: Thursday, November 18^th, 2021

By: Monica Schrank  

This week I got to teach my fourth lesson to the students. They finished reading The First Thanksgiving book, while also summarizing and gathering the important details from the section that I read to them in class. The summarization part was what I was worried about, but since this was the students’ fourth time summarizing the text using the summarization key word starters (somebody, wanted, but, so then) the students knew exactly what key details to take from the section we read for the summarization of that section in the book. The students also did a Nearpod activity which they really enjoyed. This was my first time using Nearpod, and I thought it went really well! The students were using their book to be “text detectives” to find the answers to the questions either for a quiz, typing or speaking their response or even drawing a picture to answer the question. The students were able to learn about the importance of The First Thanksgiving while also practicing their summarization skills.

 During math, the students were learning how to add using a number line by figuring out how to get a given number to the next whole ten number then learning how many they ‘jump’ or add on to get the end result. About half the class needed more help with this math concept. That said, my MT and I split the students up that needed more help and we worked with them in groups on the math concept. I noticed that by having the students use a hundreds chart as a tool to refer back to as they are figuring out how many tens to add to get, it was very helpful for them to visually understand how many ones and tens to add by drawing the lines across for ones and down for tens. MT teacher and I spent a good amount of time helping the students while the rest of the class worked individually on the math problems. The students that my MT and I worked with were able to understand the concept more after we went step by step to figure out the problem.

During guided reading this week, I met individually with four students as they read three passages for me for their reading fluency. I was able to meet with the students that are higher academically, and they did very well with their reading fluency. However, one of the students kept reading fast just to get more words in but kept missing words along the way. Another student would read one line and not move down and pick back up at the line ahead of where he should be reading. I mentioned to this student that they should use their finger to help them read so they follow along and do not accidently move up a line. All of the students that I met with improved with how many words that they used to read in a minute which my MT was going to provide for each student during parent teacher conference next week. Overall, this was a busy day filled with so much learning, reviewing, and helping the students to improve in their understanding of what they are learning.

What Do You Think?

 By: Melissa Cabrales

Thursday, November 18, 2021

    Today I taught my first literacy lesson. I was nervous because I knew I was first to teach on the schedule at 10a. I was well prepared and ready to go with my lesson when it was time. I really enjoyed this lesson because it was fun, interactive, and the students learned something new. My lesson was on inferencing. I taught them how we can make inferences depending on the music in movies and t.v. shows and in books when we use text evidence and schema which is our prior knowledge. The students really liked the book I chose for the read aloud. They were laughing and having fun all throughout the reading. It was a fun book! I showed them a game called splash the sub which gave scenarios and whichever teacher that was clicked on that was holding the correct inference, got to get splashed with a water balloon. It was a fun but educational game. I also had them play a Kahoot! during the IP and the students really enjoyed it. I think any time the teachers can do something with technology instead of a boring worksheet, it's definitely worth it. The kids are so engaged. This was my best lesson to date. I felt so comfortable and really had a good understanding of what and how I wanted to teach it. 

After my lesson was done, I got to work one-on-one with a student who's reading at the 1st grade level in second grade. I like being able to work with him because I know he needs a lot of extra help and I found ways to motivate him. He likes when I set goals for him and make a game out of the work he has to complete. I feel that when he thinks it's more of a game than learning, he can have fun with it and he's more encouraged to work harder. I set goals for him because it motivates him to try. I started off with an easy goal and every time he hit the goal, I would set a new goal. I told him I would bring him a treat the next time I came for working so hard and hitting all his goals....and he asked for Takis. This made me laugh. Kids and their hot chips! 😂 

After lunch the students began working on Thanksgiving activities. They were able to watch a virtual field trip with the National Geographic Channel and learned about the Native Americans and the different tribes. They got to see how Native Americans look today and the work they do on their farms. A young woman spoke about how she became a journalist to to be able to tell the real stories of people from different tribes and not have fake news out there misrepresenting them. I'm so excited for Thanksgiving. I can't wait to eat all my mom's cooking and get a break from school work while enjoying time off with my family. This break is much needed so I can finish strong this semester when we come back after the holiday!

Week 10: First time with a sub!

Week 9

Alexandra Slater

Thursday, November 18th 

    Today when I walked into the classroom we had another new student! This is our 4th new student of the year. As usual, I introduced myself and ensured he was supported the whole day because today was only his second day. I worked individually with him on math on foundations. I explained to him that everyday we will be doing math, literacy, and foundations. He seems to be adjusting well already which is great! Besides our new student, I did my typical routine of the morning opener, yellow book, and foundations. I really enjoy doing foundations! Doing foundations is probably my favorite part of the day. My MT had a doctors appointment today so she left at lunch time. We had a sub come in during lunch which I introduced myself to and helped her get ready for the afternoon. The students had some behavior issues with the sub so luckily I was there to help her and put them in check. I had to have a couple students clip down because they had been asked multiple times by the sub to pay attention or not shout out. These are rules and procedures they already know. It seems with this class whenever the teacher leaves they think it can become silly time. With that being said, it's important to set the rules and expectations for the students as soon as my MT leaves the room or when you are in charge. We did a lot of thanksgiving activities today which I found a little strange because I thought we weren't allowed to celebrate specific holidays at school? I also heard the word Indiana serval times, which I know now a days isn't appropriate. So, I thought that was pretty interesting. We made handprint turkeys and read a story on the first thanksgiving as well as mini stories on thanksgiving. 

    Overall, it was a great day! Im glad I got the experience to work with a sub and see how the class acts when their teacher is gone. My MT and I discussed my lesson plan for when we return December 2nd. This allows me to have the whole thanksgiving break to work on it and get it done so it is perfect! Below I attached some drawings the students made for me! <3 They're the sweetest and I am seriously going to miss them when this experience is over. 

Week 11: Tenth Day in the Classroom

Week 11: Tenth Day in the Classroom

Date: Thursday, November 11^th, 2021

By: Monica Schrank  

This week was fun day in the classroom. During math, the students were learning how to subtract with re-grouping using a number line. The students first reviewed subtracting using a hundreds chart which made it easier for them to visually understand how to subtract by tens and ones. Some of the students were adding instead of subtracting, so I worked individually with a group of students focusing on the concept of going up on the hundreds chart because you are subtracting and the number is getting smaller (as opposed to going down where the number is getting bigger). This concept can be difficult for students to understand which is why it is important to use visual representations (a hundreds chart) and to review constantly with them because this is new for them. The more practice we give students on learning new skills, the easier it will be for them to understand and master the skills

Since I taught the students about the ocean habitat last week, my MT asked if I wanted to teach them about the arctic habitat. I put together some information on a PowerPoint about the temperature, plants, animals, and how the arctic is changing due to the warming of the climate. The students were so engaged and loved using their science notebook to write down the information that they heard about plants and animals in the arctic. When I talked about an animal that lives in the arctic, they shouted the name of the animal and wrote it in their science notebook. You could tell it was fun for them because it helped them to be more engaged and focused during the lesson to keep an eye or ear out for the different animals or plants that live in the arctic.

For Daily 5 this week I got to meet individually again with three groups of students. The students were practicing their nonsense words. The first group of students I met with had more difficult nonsense words because they are the more higher-level students academically. The lowest group academically had nonsense words plus real words that had the same vowel sound being pronounced in the nonsense words to better understand and pronounce the words. For each group, we highlighted the vowel sound which was a short or long ‘a’ (depending on the group) to make it easier for the students to pronounce the nonsense words.  

            The students were practicing their writing skills today by re-writing their stories about fall. The students were only rewriting the first part of the paper such as the attention getter(s) and topic sentence. One of the things I thought was a really fun idea was that my MT had the students put on plastic glasses (without lenses) which were called their "Zoom Zone" glasses to ‘zoom in closer to their writing’ while they used their writing buddies which was ring that they wore that had eyeballs on it to help them to track their writing and use special handwriting pencils. The little writing buddies helped the students to see what they were writing and helped them to catch any spelling or grammatical errors while writing. The students were so excited to use these materials as they wrote to help them to be more focused an engaged, and I could tell it did help the students a lot. The littlest of things that teachers can do in the classroom to help the students to enjoy an activity is very important to help them to want to do the activity more and make it more fun for them.