Week 4

This week in class was great! I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to sit in a class in James Love Elementary. I got a chance to sit in on a first grade class. I loved getting to watch how the teacher ran her classroom and how she interacted with the students she had! I learned a couple of things that I like and dislike in a classroom setting. First thing that I liked was the children working in small groups. I think group work is really effective and it gives the teacher a chance to sit and work more closely with a particular student. One thing I disliked though, was the teachers inability to maintain control of her classroom. I think that it is SO important to be not only the teacher figure, but also the authority figure. In my future classroom I will be sure to set very specific rules and expectations on the first day of class, so that when I deal with issues later on, I can at least say the students knew the consequences and knew what was expected of them. Another thing I liked in this classroom was the integration of technology. The teacher really utilized the programs on the computer to enhance the student's learning experience. A second thing I disliked, though, was the underplanning. I watched how the teacher handled her classroom and it seemed as though she was planning her lesson on the fly. There was not much creativity and a lot of down time. I know that it is SO important that students are engaged in what they are learning. I think that this comes directly from having a well-prepared teacher. I learned a lot about how a teacher truly has to figure out what ways they can best facilitate learning in their classroom. There are so many things to think about as a teacher, including each student as an individual.

I read this article on the importance of planning in a classroom: http://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/books/14002_lesson-planning_ch-1.pdf?sfvrsn=2
One of my favorite quotes was,

There are a number of benefits to writing a lesson plan. First, lesson planning produces more unified lessons ( Jensen, 2001). It gives teachers the opportunity to think deliberately about their choice of lesson objectives, the types of activities that will meet these objectives, the sequence of those activities, the materials needed, how long each activity might take, and how students should be grouped.

I think this really explains how important planning really is in a classroom!

 

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Week 3

This week in class we focused on the different Philosophies of Education. I really love how we used the Infomercials to learn about the philosophers and how they think a classroom runs most effectively. Not only did we have a chance to work in groups and collaborate, we had a chance to be creative with the information. We had to work together and think critically in order to figure out how to most effectively communicate the concepts. This project incorporated all 4 C's of education - which helps to prepare students to function well in the 21st-century world outside of the classroom. In my group, we focused on constructivism. This is a student-centered philosophy. 

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know. 

We said that constructivism is best applied by putting students into groups and giving them discovery-based activities. to work through. This puts the teacher in a position of guiding rather than spitting out information.  For example, when I was looking up what activities fell in line with this theory, I found that group work with hands-on activities is best. Stimulation increases the learning rate. So using rich multi-sensory resources, lively activities and generating a sense of fun when possible will enhance student learning. This is the learning theory that I most identify with. In my future classroom, we will have a lot of group, discovery-based work. Students will be encouraged to express their curiosity and find out new information for themselves. This will take very much work on my part, as the teacher, to ensure that activities work well with all students. Being able to do this pulls in the Facilitation of Learning NCTCS. I have to be paying attention to the strengths and weaknesses of my students and cater my lessons and activities to them in order to best facilitate their learning.

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Week 2

This week during class was a big one. Lesson Plans. I am SO excited to have been introduced to writing lesson plans! This is what I wanted to do when I decided to become a teacher- to brainstorm and develop ways to help students learn to the best of their ability. I believe that every student can learn and that every student has a great mind! We, as teachers, have to learn how to develop lessons that draw out the strengths in each of our students. On Monday we had a chance to experience the "Walking Classroom" for the first time. I personally loved this learning experience! I learn well when I am able to take information in at my own pace and can get more details when necessary. With the walking classroom, I was able to pause to think and take notes when I needed to, and able to replay information that maybe I missed the first time through. The walking classroom was ideal for the way I learn. This is similar to how I learn through videos as well. I LOVE to learn with videos because of all of the same reasons that I loved the walking classroom. I was so interested in this teaching style that I read an article about some other ideas for creative ways to engage a class. One idea that I stumbled across was "lightning round" discussions.

Lightning Rounds

Just the name "lightning round" suggests energy. Make it even more dramatic by playing up the concept of speed, fun and excitement. Have your discussion questions prepared in advance so that you can ask them faster. Short-answer questions obviously work best for this technique. Students have 30 seconds (or a more appropriate time for your particular class) to answer. They can either answer or pass -- and no negativity is associated with passing. Ask the questions rapidly while growing the anticipation for each next question by imitating quiz show lightning rounds: "Are you ready for the next question? Here it comes." Ask the question before calling on a student so that all students must be ready to answer. The lightning round should take no longer than ten minutes, the approximate time that the energy begins to diminish.

I love this because it creates fun in your classroom! Students hardly even realize that they are sitting in a classroom learning because it feels like a game show! I love that.

Through this fun and different learning experience, we got a chance to be introduced to the 6-Point Lesson Plan. I loved getting to start working on writing my first one. I think it is really interesting to see how my teachers followed a very similar structure throughout my time in grade school. Learning how to write these lesson plans is so important to us as teacher candidates. Being able to successfully plan your time in a classroom shows that you are able to lay the groundwork before you step in front of students. If we had not learned how to do this, our classrooms would be a wreck because of the lack of planning. With my future class, I think that I will go through and unpack all of my standards during the summer. Then, I will plan all of my lessons one week at a time. I can plan the lessons over the weekend (or even earlier) so that I know what I am doing every day for that given week. This gives me a chance to have time for creativity and I will be able to be fully prepared with all of my materials needed.

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The Beginning

Welcome to my blog!

This blog will be full of information about my journey through Gardner-Webb's School of Education. Yes, this blog was created to fulfill a requirement in a class, BUT it is so much more than that! It is my journey to becoming an elementary school teacher!

So far in my School of Education (SOE) career, I have only been to 3 days of education class. My first reactions have been both excitement and nervousness! Dr. Clark and Dr. Parker have both done a great job of engaging us as students in their classroom. For example, on the first day of class instead of having us sit in our chairs and introduce ourselves to each other, they put us in groups and sent us out to do an activity. This activity included running around campus and completing tasks. The whole purpose of this was to facilitate the development of relationships between us students! I loved how they did this in a new and interesting way - not the traditional introductory class. This got us up and moving around! Studies even show that there is a link between exercise and cognitive function. So, getting us moving during class helped us to stay engaged through the rest of the class time. Over my years in school, I have definitely seen the effects of staying seated too long in class. It results in disengaged, uninterested students. 

As well as keeping us engaged during class, Clarker has done a great job of presenting the learning material to us. The way the material has been taught has left me feeling comfortable with the process of unpacking standards.After much discussion and practice during today's class, I feel confident to look at standards and unpack them myself! I know that this will be not only useful but extremely necessary in my future classroom. Clarker has helped me to be able to understand what my responsibility is as the teacher and what the goals for my students are! I will have to go through the NCSCOS and be able to understand every aspect of the document. As teachers in North Carolina, we will be expected to be able to look at the standards and understand what our students need to leave with. 

I am so excited to continue with my journey to become an educator! I am intrigued by Clarker's teaching style and I am excited to learn from them in a way that will hopefully benefit my future classroom. 

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