Month: April 2019

After the final class of the semester and my drive home, it is hard to believe that the semester is over. In thinking about all of the information that we have covered in the past 14 weeks I feel as though I have a large of amount of resources that I will easily be able to use in my classroom.  As I start to think about student teaching and I would like to to teach content during the fall semester, using methods like the jigsaw is a great way to help my students learn very valuable information.

The process of the virtual field trip and the presentation allowed me to see that while all students may not be able to physically go to the place in which we are studying, helping them infer about what it may be like there is a great way to cover different topics. As Sarah and I were able to take a large amount of information that we discovered at the State Capital and put it into a first grade content area. Working with a partner on this project helped me balance all of my ideas and work effectively to present information that a first grader would understand!

 

Thank you for a great semester!

As the semester is winding down, and I am becoming steps closer to being a real life teacher, conversations like the ones that I was able to have tonight are a great reminder that I am not alone. During the first portion of the class where we took some time to reflect on areas that we feel we are weak in, I was a little bit worried that others would not feel the same way about the topics that I had chosen. I was quick to speak up and self identify the areas that I feel I am weakest in and found that I was not alone. Personally, it was a good reminder that I may assume others have a better handle on something than they really do, and the only way to know that they also have questions is to speak up.

Considering again the type of bias that I may bring to a situation, I was reminded tonight that I consistently need to be self evaluating how I am walking into any situation. As someone who is not against working in a Title I school, I need to be extremely aware of the cultural differences that I may have from the moment I step foot into the community. Helpful reminders like the conversations tonight are a great way to see the areas that I have to grow and learn in!

Admittedly, as has been mentioned many times over the semester I would not say that social studies was one of my favorite subjects while I was in school. Ironically enough, however, the personalities of the teachers who were teaching the subject were in fact some of my favorite.  Maybe there is something to be said for that after hearing Lynn’s story tonight about the teacher that knew when she needed to use best practice rather than following the crowd. It was encouraging to hear that there are educators currently in the classroom who have been able to determine when is a good time to go out side of the box and do what they think is best for their students. I think personally that is an area that I find a little bit nerve racking. How will I know when to push the boundaries just enough to help my students learn that material in a way that is not reciting facts at them?

In reflecting through both of the methods that were taught last night in class, I am continuing to gain insight on the many ways in which information can be presented to students. Use the chart method that we started class with truly engaged my thinking. Though I had background knowledge on the topic as I was in the group who read the novel about the Civil Rights Movement, I still wanted to know more. Asking the many questions that we were able to formulate made me want to dig in even deeper that I had already done! This is something that I could see myself using in my classroom as it sparked wonderful conversation among peers.

Overall, I do feel that I am becoming better prepared to enter into the education world with a great understanding of the many methods that I could pull out of my pocket to help teach students!

Class last night was possibly one of my favorite this semester. I have always found the jig-saw method to be extremely meaningful during class time. Last night being able to participate as a student, but using my teacher frame of mind I was again reminded of the importance that it can play. Using this method allows for a wide range of documents and information to be covered in a relatively effective time. I have typically seen this done only using wide ranges of texts, so being able to see it done with a range of primary documents was exciting. I learned more about the dust bowl in the short amount of time that we had for group discussion that I would have otherwise.

As we were able to continue to work through this beast that is lesson planning I continue to find it very helpful to talk out the different aspect with my peers. Collaborating with other teachers allows me to see many different styles but also helps me craft my own. I am feeling more confident in my ability to write lesson plans and not send myself down a rabbit hole of trying to have each part perfect, but rather think about what will be the more impactful for students.

It’s hard to believe that the semester is almost over! Practicing many different methods of approaching teaching continues to remind me that I get the awesome privilege in a few short months of doing this in my own classroom.