Month: March 2019

After taking some time to process through last nights class I feel as though I have developed a little bit of a better understanding of the impact that literature can make in the classroom. As someone who loves books and plans on having a large number of them in my classroom, this is something that I am going to have to be careful about when selecting which books to allow in my room. It also allowed me the think to think about that fact when reading books such as some that were mentioned I never noticed the stereotypes due to the fact that I bring my own bias with me into a situation. As I edge closer and closer into stepping foot into a classroom full of children from different backgrounds I need to remember that my background will most likely be different than those of the students I am teaching. Tonight was a great reminder that I need to constantly be aware of my specific background.

After working with a partner on the lesson plan, it was helpful to see that process that a peer goes through when working through the template. While the lesson that was selected did seem like a lot of information to attempt to teach a first grader in two days, it helped me work through taking something that I was given and making it my own. As we talk about this in class, being prepared for this to be the case once I am in a school this was great practice. Continuing to get practice with writing lesson plans is a great way for this process that can sometimes be a little bit confusing to become more understandable!

 

 

After taking some time to think about class, I feel as though I was able to see the importance of starting off a lesson strong. Allowing us to see a map and spend some time looking at it making observations helping me to truly begin to develop deeper questions about all of the items that were on the map. As someone who loves poster paper and wants to find many ways to use it in my future classroom, walking around the room and seeing what different groups observed was a great way to see that while some minds may think in a similar way, not everyone always processes things as others. Seeing the connection between the original map and the one that we were given at the end was a great way for me to make connections to present day Virginia verse historic Virginia during 1606. Growing up in Chesterfield County, with Jamestown so close I have lost count of the number of times that I have been there on field trips, however, now looking at it from a teaching perspective I can see why it is a common trip. The amount of history and cross-curriculum that can be included into lessons about Jamestown is incredible.

Reflecting about the discussion about lesson planning I think personally it was helping to be reminded that the grade that we first get is not the grade that we are stuck with. As someone who works extremely hard for every grade, I know that I always have room for improvement. I will certainly be the student who submits them until time runs out, or I get a grade that I am happy with. It was helping to hear what exactly the social studies lesson plans should include so that moving forward I can make sure I approach them the correct way.

Each class that I am able to participate in hands on activities is a great reminder that teaching social studies content is so much more than having the student memorize facts so they can pass a test!

While tonights class seemed to be very term heavy, I do feel as though I came out of it having a better understanding of the many acronyms that come with being a classroom teacher. Assessments are still something that I feel like I am working through as there are so many options for ways to determine if students understand the information.

As someone who still thinks that I want to teacher the younger grades having the two kindergarten teachers come in and talk about how they implemented a DBQ and all of the components that come with it into their classrooms was extremely helpful. Seeing that this is very much something that I could help create in my future classroom was very encouraging. Learning the process of scaffolding of a big idea, such as would you rather be a Pilgrim or Native American allows it to be placed on a level that even the youngest learner can understand. Being reminded that students can think deep when we teach them to is so encouraging as I begin to think about how my style of teaching will develop over the next few years.

Looking forward I am interested to see how I could take some of the standards that are in the grade that I teach and implement something similar to what we saw presented tonight. It seems as though when you have the ability to step a little bit outside of your comfort zone the possibilities that it will create for yourself as the teacher and your students are endless.