Wrapping It All Up

 At the beginning of this semester I set four goals for myself. Throughout my clinical experience I have been working on each one of these goals. The first goal I set for myself was to better my planning and differentiation skills. This would include making appropriate and effective modifications for my students. As I have spent time in my clinical placement I have experienced many opportunities to plan and differentiate for my students. I think I have improved on my skills to differentiate for my students in new and creative ways.

The second goal I had set for myself was to be able to effectively and professionally work with my colleagues. This would include my peers in my college classes along with my cooperating teacher and other faculty at my clinical placement. Throughout this semester I got to practice this skill in numerous aspects of my education. In my classes we worked with co-teachers to complete a unit project. In class we also worked with a grade level team to create a curriculum map for an entire school year. These experiences in class were very enriching and helped my build many of my cooperating skills. Outside of the classroom I got to witness and experience my cooperating teacher working with another kindergarten teacher. The two teachers would meet everyday during lunch and work on their plans for the future week. The teachers set a great example of discussing, planning, and making compromises to fit each of the teacher and students’ needs. I think this really helped me grow as an adult this semester.

The third goal I had set for myself was to broaden my horizons when it comes to content areas. In the past I had only had experience in math or literacy lessons and lesson planning. This semester I have been able to broaden my teaching horizon in many ways. My cooperating teacher has given me many opportunities to experience and try new things in her classroom. I have had the opportunity to teach science, social studies, and literacy. I also participate in math and literacy activities each time I am in her classroom. She has also made me see how easy it is to think on my feet. For example we had to have some maintenance done in the classroom spur of the moment last week, so we went to the foyer and I read the students a book about frogs and then taught them a music and movement song I know about frogs. I have been given a lot of freedom along with guidance in her classroom. I definitely feel like I have broadened my horizons and I can’t wait to experience more as my teaching career goes on.

The fourth goal I had set for myself was to be able to better interpret formal and informal assessment data. Last semester we had some practice with this process, but I think this is a task that you get better at with time and practice.  This semester I have got to experiment many new and different types of assessments. I think getting more practice with these has made it easier for me to decide which assessment is best to use in different situations. I still think I need improvement and that practice will help make this an achievable goal for me in the future.

The fifth goal I had set for myself was a goal that was close to my heart.  My person goal was to become a compassionate teacher. My cousin who passed away became a teacher that gets to know each and every one of her students on a personal level has inspired me to do the same. I worked very hard in the short time that I was at my clinical placement to get to know my students and build a connection with each of them. I believe this semester I was able to make progress and get to know more students that I ever had before in past clinical experiences. Throughout my education I would like to continue to grow and learn as a compassionate educator.

In the future I still hold these same five goals. I think there is always room for improvement, as I become a teacher. As I enter student teaching I will continue to improve in each of these areas and remind myself each day to be compassionate as I enter the school building. One area I have come to realize that I need improvement on is my classroom management. This is an area that I won’t fully have control of until I am in my first year of teaching. Each semester I am introduced to knew ideas of classroom management and I have changed my opinion on teaching method throughout that time. I’m looking forward to becoming my own person with my own strategies in the near future.

Overall I think this semester was a blessing. I was placed with a cooperating teacher who was challenging but also so inspiring. I learned so much at my clinical placement. I was tested in ways I never thought I would experience. I was tested inside and outside of the classroom this semester but I think I was able to grow as a stronger independent adult because of it. I also had a clinical supervisor how challenged me in ways I hadn’t been challenged before. I think both of these people combined have had a giant impact on who I will be and how I will conduct myself in the future.

Since this is my last assigned blog post I would like to leave everyone in the education world with this:

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

I would like to leave my lovely peers with this:

            “Promise me you will always remember- you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

            -Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh

I love each and everyone of you.

Social Studies Lesson Extension

After teaching my social studies formal lesson I was able to do an extension lesson the next day I attended clinicals. I taught my formal lesson on Monday April 7th and got to complete an extension today. The students needed a little bit more time to finish a flipbook they were completing during my formal lesson. My cooperating teacher also wanted to give me a chance to see what the students had retained from my lesson and practice some of the techniques that we discussed during our debriefing. I was not feeling very confident after teaching my lessons because I ran low on time due to not having the proper ability to pace myself and keep track of time during the lesson.
When I completed the extension lesson today I felt way better about the lesson I had taught and my teaching abilities. I was able to use a clapping attention getter that the students readily and easily responded to. This helped me keep the students attention and their focus throughout the lesson. I was also able to better communicate with the students and let them speak out and discuss on their own. Since I was able to teach this extension I was able to reteach my academic language and make sure the students really took away the important facts I was trying to teach the students.
My cooperating teacher was very supportive throughout the lesson and gave me time before the school day started to prepare. She was going to finish the flipbooks on tuesday but decided to let me finish out what I had started so it would be a good learning experience for me in the long run. During my prep time I took out two of the pages that proved to be too difficult for the kindergarten grade level and that made the completetion of the flipbook a more developmentally appropraite task for the students.
I am excited to take away everything I have learned from this teaching experience and apply it to my future lesson implementations.

Science!

Science in my clinical placement has been like the warm weather in the past few months, off and on.

This semester we are required to teach once science lesson at our clinical placement. Before teaching this lesson the only science I experienced was the teacher doing the mid-year assessments. I had never actually witnessed her teach a science lesson. From our discussions what I can tell is that science is not a topic they spend a lot of time on in kindergarten at this particular school. The lesson time for ANY topic is from 10:10-10:40 this is a time of the day that my cooperating teacher has set aside for whatever large lesson she is teaching that day.

Since I taught my lesson I have seen one science lesson taught in the classroom. My cooperating teacher and her students created an anchor chart about what they thought they knew about the sun and earth, what they proved were facts, and what happened to be misconceptions. This was interactive for the students and they discussed the reasoning of each fact and misconception as they created the chart. Since a lot of this was discussion that my cooperating teacher then had the students participate in a gross motor activity by acting like the planets as they revolved and rotated around the sun. My cooperating teacher was the sun and the students spun and walked around in a circle. As they were doing this my cooperating teacher also explained the seasons. The planets (students) that were far away from the sun and not facing the sun were in winter. The plants (students) that were close to the sun and facing the sun were in summer. The students were really understanding and grasping this idea. The more she continued the activity the more the students began to understand the concept.

I wish science was taught more in the classroom. The students really love the topics and ideas that the teacher does teacher. I honestly really agree with the ways my teacher has taught science when I am there. I believe I implemented my lesson in a similar manner. My cooperating teacher has been very inspiring with many of her teaching techniques. She is very spirited and engaged with the lessons that she teachers. She also continuously gives me tips while she is teaching and whenever we have a break in the day.

Comparing what I have seen to what I am learning at Illinois State University is almost incomparable. In my current science class we are learning all about 5E lesson plans and using Next Generation Science Standards. In these lessons we have learned a lot about cross cutting concepts. This is not at all what I am seeing in my clinical placement because science isn’t very often implemented when I am there. Science is something that comes around during assessment time or when there is extra time in the schedule.

This is a great explanation of the techniques we are being taught at Illinois State University.

YouTube Video 5E Model

In the future I plan to teach science at an inquiry based level. I have enjoyed learning more about science education and finding out how much young students can actually do. I would like to let students explore and experiment with ideas and concepts in the world around them. I can’t wait to have the freedom to implement this in my future classroom. I love seeing students come up with questions about science related topics and then work together or on their own to find the answers.

I am wondering if I will have time to implement the types of science lessons I am hoping to when I have my own classroom. There are many details in a daily schedule that are out of the teachers’ hands. I believe this is what makes it so difficult for teachers to find time for subjects like social studies and science.