Month: April 2019

The presentations on virtual field trips gave me such a better perspective on the possibilities within the virtual experience. I really enjoyed how each individual approached the assignment in their own way and that we had the opportunity to see content from varying grades and subject areas. For my assignment specifically, I do wish that I had more time for my peers to actually walk around the room to access the QR codes that I created since that’s where the thick of my material actually was. The post-it activity gave me a chance to reflect on my own learning which was a really good feeling to close another chapter in this program. Each course helped to shape me and I feel proud of myself and my work until this point. I thought that the gallery walk was a great way to gauge others perspectives and to target active listening in a different way. It was cool to make connections to others, even if anonymously, and to reveal where other students might be at the end of everything. I think what resonated with me the most, was the big idea about following the truth and trusting your instincts. This was my very last class in the TLP program before student teaching. When I first started in 2017, I couldn’t have possibly fathomed that I would feel so confident in my abilities to become a successful teacher. Absorbing endless content in both sped and gen ed, strategies, endless lesson plans, and learning how to effectively collaborate, has brought me to where I am now. And through all of that, nobody ever said to me before, “Just trust yourself”. Thank you, for 3 little words that meant so much to connect our program to our practice. Thanks for a great semester!

• I am adding this post late due to inconsistencies with the website. I did send this post via email on its original due date.

I was really excited about last night’s topic because I had identified this discussion from the beginning of the semester as a matter of importance to me: Talking about the difficult topics with students. I really appreciated the worksheet that encouraged us to think outside of the content and forced us to reflect and evaluate our own strengths and weaknesses as an educator. Our topic was Thanksgiving, and until this assignment, I didn’t realize how much emotion and thoughts/opinions I would actually bring to the table and how that might affect the way I’d want to teach the content. I do wish that we would have had more of an opportunity for our groups to explore a variety of ‘heavy subject’ ideas rather than just one. I feel more prepared after our lesson to teach these big pieces but I also walked away feeling more nervous than when we started. I think I feel this way because even though I have been given the tools, I realize just how many things must be considered, and from so many angles. I do feel like we’re not going to get it right the first time, and maybe not even the second, but working through the parts that were good, and identifying the places where we went wrong, will be the best indicator of our success. What resonated with me the most, is the importance of relying on your team to guide one another through the hard parts. Use your resources!

I really enjoyed how you guys decided to connect the lesson content to our presentation. I really like the idea of using that in an elementary setting to have peer-to-peer instruction, giving students the opportunity to be more independent and self-directed learners. I think what resonated with me the most from last night’s class, is using more metacognitive strategies to think about the way we are asking questions. The activity helped me to understand not only the importance of wondering’s and asking questions for our young learners, but it helped me to further appreciate the true value in the meaning of our questions. Meaning, I understand that in order to receive the answers I expect, I need to pose questions in a way that supports those answers. Such a very simple concept but definitely a big aha- moment for me. Overall, I really appreciate the use of so many primary sources in our exercises this semester. It really demonstrates the impact they have on making important connections to content, self, and others. Finally, Mentimeter is such a great way to incorporate simple formative assessment into lesson planning. I am wondering if this can be linked to SeeSaw in anyway, or more just for other systems like SmartBoard.

Due to my absence from class on 4/2, I’ve choose to reflect on our assigned readings. Chapter 8 discusses the power of pairing the arts with social studies content. The chapter specifically uses literature, drama, and music to demonstrate how to deeper connect students to the content. I like how they used dramatizations in social studies and was intrigued by how many pieces of the deep learning framework were able to be demonstrated through this activity (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity). Through this exercise, teachers are able to engage students with varying intelligences and learning styles. I really liked the idea of having students role play. I think that this is a good strategy to make the content more than just the factual historical pieces, but also to engage students with feelings of empathy and deeper understanding by acting out particular emotions and/or responses from people during that time period. Very similar, I also think this could be accomplished through a readers theater lesson for younger grades. What resonated with me the most though, is connecting students to social studies using music. Teachers can play the music from a particular time period that they are teaching to transport students to a different place and time. Music is a very powerful force in my life and allows me to make personal connections to things all the time. I believe that it would be similar in these examples. I liked the idea of having students analyze lyrics. You could do many activities including “I wonder, I notice, I predict”, stickynote predcitions, or a writing prompt. Finally, the power of good literature. This entire program has taught me the importance of having great books in our classroom. The chapter definitely recommends having a large variety of books on one single social studies topic available to students during the unit. It will add to lessons, be useful for further research, and can be used to benefit early finishers. I will definitely reevaluate how I would like to use the arts in my classroom moving forward!