Moving on to the next chapter!

"The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth." --Dan Rather


I never thought this moment would come as fast as it did. Sitting in class the first day, I imagined the end of this class being, what would feel like, years away. This semester flew by and I have learned so much about teaching, learning and myself in such a short time. In the beginning this class was one of the most stressful and complicated classes. Although I felt that way all semester, it is hard to admit that this class has helped me grow so much and I learned more than I thought was possible in a quick, short semester. I feel that I have never done as much work for another class as I did for this class. Everyday was a new challenge, but it only helped me to become a better learner, educator and future teacher! This is one class that has definitely prepared me for my future as a teacher.

Coming into this class, I knew it was focused heavily on technology. I thought I knew enough about technology and technological resources to use in the classroom. But, I was very, very wrong! I learned about so many new resources that I will definitely be using in the future.

The thought of having to create three lessons and teach them to a class in front of my classmates was one of the scariest thoughts. After doing it and succeeding, I felt so much more confident in front of the classroom and behind the scenes preparing lessons. Throughout this class I learned a lot about effectively working together and communication. A huge portion of this class was working with others and succeeding as a team. Although it was very difficult at times, it has shown me the importance of collaboration and team work.

I can take with me all the new skills, philosophies, knowledge and experience I learned in this class and use it in my future. I have prepared a lot of activities that I can see my future students loving! In the end, for the most part, the knowledge and wisdom I have gained was worth the stress!

Here are the links to my fellow classmates blog posts that I have commented on: 

Kelly Raich's blog

Mallory Menneci's blog

Keilani Wilhelm's blog

Melissa Kelly's blog

Emily Meehan's blog

Mock Interview

Time for an interview!

Today in class we had a mock interview. My four classmates, Mallory, Emily, Erin and Melissa took on the role of a principal/administrators and prepared thought provoking questions for us to answer.
We did not know what questions they were going to ask us. At the end, the administrators all came together and they chose who they would hire for their school. One person from each group got hired. 

This was certainly a nerve-wracking experience at first. We had to think on our toes and come up with well thought out, educated and relevant answer to the question. This was excellent practice for a real interview that most of us will be going on in the very near future. We had to reflect and think about everything that we learned all semester in order to come up with professional and accurate answers. One of the questions that really stood out to me was asked by Mallory. She asked "How would you manage a classroom during a cooperative lesson to ensure that there is valuable learning going on and not just chaos in the classroom?" This question stood out to me because it incorporated so many principles and values we learned in class. It goes to show that everything we learn overlaps. In order to answer this question you need to know about proper classroom management, cooperative lesson requirements as well as valuable learning. A question like this is one that we can all definitely except to get at a real job interview. 

Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience that really kept me on my toes. I got the chance to share my experience and opinions about different topics that we explored all semester in class. My classmates and I took this very serious and it really provided us all with a great learning experience. 

Keeping up with Current events

Each of us got into small groups and were to deliver a ten minute current events project to our class. My group and I connected our current events project to our unit plan we taught at Bishop Dunn. Our current events project had to do with politics and the budgets in schools. Before class we asked our classmates to read an article about Free School Lunches in schools. For our project we used a cooperative learning method of teaching and used the Think-Pair-Share strategy.

We created a PowerPoint for our class. In the third slide there were two videos for the class to watch. One video talked about how school lunch costs around $1.50, but some students cannot afford that. The second video was about how an elementary school kitchen manager got fired for giving free lunch to students who were crying because they were hungry. Since we only had ten minutes to teach our lesson we did not show these videos to the class, but encouraged the class to watch them on their own time. After the videos we explained the Think-Pair-Share model, what it is and what the students responsibilities are. Now, we asked the class a question "Should schools hire uncertified teachers as substitute teachers?" We asked the class to hold up their agree/disagree cards and then create two groups. All the students who agreed were instructed to go to one side of the classroom and the students who disagreed went to the other side. Now the class was split into two groups and we gave them about a minute to talk about why they felt that way. After a minute we posed another question to the class "Should schools provide the uniforms to their students?" We again

asked the class to hold up their agree and disagree cards. 

Our expectations were that the cycle of splitting up into groups would repeat and we would now have four groups. But, everyone in the class agreed that schools should provide uniforms to students. So, we decided to let the groups stay and just split up so that there was technically four groups that would work together. We gave the class another minute to discuss about the question and their thoughts. 

Now, we asked the students to pull up the Padlet that was linked in to our PowerPoint and answer the three questions. We wanted the students to work collaboratively on this quick assignment. We gave the class about two minutes to work on this. We then went around to each group and began to share. The students had some very well thought out answers to the questions! As an independent practice we wanted to see what the students in our class felt were the top three most important services they felt should be included in school budgets. We taped a string to

the board in the front of the classroom and gave each student a clothespin and small piece of paper. They were to write their
answers on the paper and when they were finished we asked them to hang them on the string on the board! This part worked out really well, the students seemed to really enjoy it and it looked fantastic! Lastly, we had a 123 contact form where the class filled out a final evaluation of their thoughts on our presentation and topic. 

The point of our lesson was to show that politics isn't always black and white. There is usually a grey area. If you are a Republican you may not agree with the Republican party on every single issue, same with Democrat or any other party. We wanted the class to see that there are multiple opinions on issues and because you agree with one issue or topic does not mean you will agree with every issue/topic. Overall, I think our lesson went fantastic! As a group, we really enjoyed planning it and delivering it to the class. The class seemed to enjoy it as well!

Fun with Artifact Bags

  

An artifact bag is an activity that goes along with an inquiry lesson. An artifact bag is like a mystery bag that students have to figure out what is inside. Inside is a multitude of artifacts that students have to investigate to figure out what they are and why they are significant.  In the end, the students are responsible to come to a conclusion about the artifacts inside the artifact bag. The students are encouraged to use the 5 W’s when trying to figure out the importance of the artifacts which are: Who, What, When, Where and Why. 

            Prior to taking part in the artifact bag activity, I had never heard of it or had any idea of what to expect. After taking part in the activity I was amazed at how enjoyable the activity was even as a college student. It gave me a better sense of the importance of artifacts as well as primary sources. For me, it showed the true difference between primary and secondary sources and reinforced how genuine primary sources are as compared to secondary sources. Being a college student, this activity also furthered my knowledge of historical skills. During this activity I got the chance to put certain skills into use. Taking part in this activity you have to be ready to use skills such as reasoning, deductive skills and effectively coming to conclusions. What helped in gaining new knowledge were the connections that one has to make when discovering and investigating the artifacts. You have to use your skills to make connections between the artifacts and their significance.

            An Artifact bag is a great activity to go along with a social studies lesson, but it gives the students the opportunity to learn and grow in many other areas. According to an article written by Carol Fuhler (2006), artifacts give students motivation to want to learn and investigate more. By having something in your hands, students become intrigued and want to find out more about the item. Students can begin to make connections between the artifacts and discuss possible ideas of where these artifacts could have come from. Students can make connections between the past and the present. During this lesson, a teacher can even put students into discussion or literature circles and integrate reading with social studies (Fuhler, 2006). Artifact bags open up a whole new world of possibilities for students where they become so curious. Students take on new roles of being investigators to find out more about the artifacts, but the fun does not even have to stop there. So many other activities can be roped into an artifact bag lesson to give children even more of an opportunity to investigate and make connections.

            Using an artifact bag is a great idea for any grade level and really gets students involved in the lesson with a hands-on activity. I created my artifact bag for second grade which I would use to go along with my unit plan which was “Choosing our Country’s Leader’s”. The artifact bag activity aligns with the national standards to have students examine the interaction of human beings and their physical environment, the use of land, building of cities, and ecosystem changes in selected local regions. As well as the national standard of recognizing different forms of evidence used to make meaning in social studies including primary and secondary sources, such as art and photographs, artifacts, oral histories, maps and graphs. This activity is great for any age, but second graders would thrive on the investigation and conclusion aspect of this activity. An activity like this would certainly engage and fascinate students at this grade level and make for a memorable experience for them.

In my particular artifact bag the outside was decorated with stickers and print outs that followed the theme of America, which related to my unit plan. There were many flags, red white and blue ribbons and sayings that said “USA” and “God Bless America”. After investigating the artifacts, the word that the students should have concluded was voting. Inside my bag I had three artifacts. The first artifact was an “I Voted Today” Button which people are given after they vote. I chose this artifact because it was simple and helped to get the point that someone just voted. My next artifact was an American Flag. I chose the American flag because it is a symbol of our country and you must be a citizen in order to vote. My third and final artifact was a voter registration card. I chose this artifact because before someone can vote, they have to make sure they are registered to vote.  All three of these artifacts went together very well and made it clear that the bag and artifacts were symbolic of voting. In a classroom I would use the artifact bag after teaching the students the vocabulary words of the unit, voting being one of them. This would give the students another opportunity to learn about voting but through a different style and approach.

Along with my artifact bag I had a book and a website that went along with the theme. I chose

the book “Vote” by Eileen Christelow. This is a wonderful children’s book that would be perfect for second graders. It goes through the process of voting and helps to make it very clear to the readers the steps that one goes through to vote. In the book they are voting for a new town mayor. The reader’s get an inside look into the campaign and the voting process. In my classroom I would read this book to my class after they have completed the artifact bag. The students would have the general knowledge from the previous lesson where they learned about the word vote. Therefore, the book would be another reinforcement to allow the kids to become more familiar with word and the overall process of voting. A website I would use would be extremely helpful to give students even more of an insight into voting and the whole process. This extraordinary website gives students the chance to see what a difference one vote can make, step into a virtual voting booth, cast a vote and see how they can become part of an election. This website provides so many learning opportunities for children and is an excellent way for them to learn even more about the voting process and how important it is to vote. Since students are not old enough to vote in an actual election, they can vote on other issues on this website. In a lesson I would use this as an extension activity and for students who finish early. This way students can have what seems like a break from learning on the computer, but they are really furthering their knowledge on voting and the process.

            Artifact bags provide an experience unlike any other for both the students and the teacher. This may be the first time students are getting the opportunity to uncover and detect artifacts. All teachers should incorporate artifact bags into lessons because it really helps to provide a different form of instruction to students. The artifact bag activity also helps to develop student’s pedagogical and content knowledge. This lesson helps students to further their skills through the use of a hands-on, motivating and engaging activity. Students need to develop reasoning skills and goals during this lesson as well. They need to be able to reason with each other and come to conclusions about the artifacts. It would also be useful to teach students about primary vs. secondary sources before this activity if it had not been previously discussed. Students will then get experience with the difference between primary and secondary sources and can see how the bias changes depending on what source they are using.

            The artifact bag also plays into the importance of the five elements of teaching. These five elements are meaningful, integrative, active, challenging and value-based. The artifact bag contributes to each of these elements in a different way. First of all, the artifact bag is active because it is hands on and students are taking on another role of investigating. In this activity the students are constructing their own knowledge independently. It is meaningful because the students are making connections, examining artifacts and are can even bring personal experience and impressions into their ultimate end conclusion. This activity is value-based because it is contributing to their overall knowledge and connects to standards and what students should be learning. It is also an integrative activity because students are piecing together the artifacts they are finding; it is not one simple task that they are completing. This activity can also be paired up with a multitude of other resources, content areas and forms of technology to further students learning beyond belief. This activity provides almost a limitless amount of opportunities for students. Lastly, the artifact bag activity is challenging because the answers are not given to the students. The students are given clues and they have to use their prior knowledge to uncover the meaning behind these artifacts, make connections and find out their significance.  Students must use the inquiry process in order to uncover the final answers from the artifacts. Therefore, students have to use their past knowledge of the inquiry lesson and build on to it with this activity.

            Although this particular artifact bag is geared for a second grade lesson, it can be adapted to align with other grades and the standards. This lesson can be modified for older grades and have more artifacts. The artifacts for older students could also be more in depth and not as straightforward as the artifacts would be for younger students. Field trips can also be paired up with this activity. Students can uncover replica artifacts in their bags and then after the lesson is completed the class can take a trip to a library or museum to see the real artifacts.

            Overall, the artifact bag is an excellent activity that can fit into many lessons. The bag also opens the door for other opportunities and other content areas to be intertwined with it. Artifact bags are a genuine activity that not only motivates but engages students as well. Every teacher should incorporate artifact bags into their teaching platform. Students simultaneously have an enjoyable time while constructing knowledge and furthering many of their skills. Since the artifacts are tangible, it is a lot different than most work that students are used to such as looking through a textbook or doing something online. Artifact bags are definitely something that I would use in my classroom because the possibilities are endless. This activity would leave a lasting positive impact on students and be something they remember throughout their school years.

Here is the PowerPoint I made to accompany my artifact bag to show my classmates. 

Resources

Fuhler, C. (20016) Building literacy skills across the curriculum: Forging        connections with the past through artifacts. The Reading Teacher. Retrieved             on April 7, 2016 from https://drive.google.com/a/my.msmc.edu/file/   d/0BwC7OGFCEPfydmZyOVREOXNDSUE/view

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State         School Officers (2010). Social studies common core standards. Retrieved on          April 7, 2016 from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sscore1.pdf

Piecing together information through Jigsaw

As a class, we took part in a Jigsaw method of learning. The Jigsaw method involves students breaking up into groups, called their home or base groups. Each member of the base group is assigned a topic, in our case it was a different Native American Tribe. Then, everyone in the class that is assigned the same topic forms another group. These new groups are called your expert groups. So, I met with four of my other classmates and this was our expert group. Together, we each researched about our Native American Tribe, which was the Muscogee Tribe. We each took a different element of the tribe to research. In our PowerPoint I personally researched the history of the Muscogee Tribe and the important people associated with tribe. We continued researching until we all essentially became "experts" on our tribe. After we declared ourselves experts, we returned to our home/base groups. Then, we each taught our classmates about our Native American Tribe through the use of some form of technology. My expert group and I chose to use a PowerPoint. 

The Jigsaw method requires all group members to contribute to the process and we each become dependent on each other. After we all finished our projects and teaching each other we were able to piece together all the information from each member to learn about all the Native American Tribes. So, in the end we were all educated and all the pieces of information we learned fit together just like a jigsaw puzzle!

This is an excellent method that I would definitely utilize in my classroom one day. This teaches students how to effectively work in groups and collaborate as well as giving them the chance to experience being both the student and the teacher! This method shows the importance of communication skills and responsibility. With younger students it would be practical to assign roles within the groups. This is a great form of cooperative learning that gives students the chance to stray away from the traditional learning styles in the classroom like a direct method. I think that students of all ages would benefit and thoroughly enjoy this activity. I am very glad that I got the chance to take part and experience it!

Primary vs. Secondary

A primary source can be looked at as an original source from the time. This can be something like an artifact, a recording, a letter or a document from that specific time. Some helpful places that one could find a primary source can include: a museum, libraries, schools etc. These places may have files from the time period that you need! To many people history is looked at as just a series of facts or times. By using primary sources it can help students realize that history is so much more than that. Many times, when you are reading a textbook, which is not a primary source, you are reading how the author is portraying the material. By using a primary source you are getting accounts from that exact time from whenever you are studying happened. This may provide a more meaningful look on the events in history. You will see that primary sources do not have a particular point of view like some secondary sources may have. Primary sources are real and interesting because you can evaluate and analyze evidence straight from a specific time period. Primary sources are so crucial when teaching history because it can make history so much more meaningful for students. Primary sources can also help to not only engage students more but help them to build and construct their own knowledge and develop better critical thinking skills. 

A secondary source are documents written after the events have taken place. Secondary sources often provide a certain point of view and analysis. Some places that you could find secondary sources would be: in a school textbook, in a book written later after the event has occurred, on the web or a newspaper article written at a later time. Secondary sources are usually based on primary sources. Secondary sources can often provide an analysis for the topic and include the author's point of view. When looking at a secondary source one should base the genuineness on these characteristics: authenticity, credibility and meaning. Secondary sources are usually very quick to find and can often answer questions you may have directly. Secondary sources are crucial when it comes to teaching history because it is another former evidence that can be used to study history and the past.
 
Both forms of sources are extremely important in history. Both sources can provide meaning to a specific topic you may be learning or researching. They can help to provide clarity and make the topic more interesting.   

Making geography fun!

There are 5 themes to geography, which are: Place, Location, Movement, Human-Environment interaction and Region. Let's review what these five themes mean!

• Place: An area that is defined by everything in it. Every place has unique features that distinguish them from another place. For example, a school is a place and it includes walls, floors, classrooms, students, teachers, staff etc.
• Location: Location helps us to determine where something is. There are two types of locations: Absolute and Relative. Absolute location is a specific location on a map using longitude and latitude. Relative location can be in a general location. For example, down the road a little, next to this building etc. It is not an exact point.
• Movement:movement is how ideas, people, products, information etc. move from one place to another. It can be as simple as how did you get to the store or as complex as analyzing a mass migration of people.
• Human-environment interaction: Human-environment looks at the relationship between people and their environment. When thinking about human-environment interaction you can think about three questions: How do people depend on the environment? How do people adapt to their environment? How do people modify the environment?
• Region:A region is an area defined by similar characteristics. The characteristics that make a region similar can be physical, natural, cultural or human.

In this creative google slide presentation, it shows many creative ways which we can teach geography and make it fun! One idea that I really like is idea #36: woordle stereotypes. This is great to introduce a topic and see what similar words students can think of. It's a great way to introduce students to a lesson and each student can make their own and share them with the class. Another great idea is #40: Describing photos. This is where one student has a photo and describes it to the second student while the second student draws what is being described to them. This is a wonderful way to also introduce a topic and gives students the opportunity to work on certain skills. Idea #48: Don't get "blogged" down is another useful way to teach geography. After each activity students would be responsible to go to their blog and write about the and their finding. Each students blog would be individual and unique and give students the chance to analyze their findings! I think #67 Mnemonic devices is one of the most handy ways for students to remember things. Students can associate a phrase or saying that helps them to remember certain vocab or important words. 

A Mnemonic device can  be used to help students remember the five themes of geography. A great Mnemonic device that can help students remember the five themes of Geography is "Mr. HELP"!

M ovement

R egion

H uman- E nvironment interaction

L ocation

P lace

Reflection on fieldwork

Fieldwork provided me with an experience unlike any other. I got the chance to see what my strengths and weaknesses are as well as those of my peers. By seeing this, I thought of ways I could build on my strengths and fix my weaknesses. Fieldwork gives us teacher candidates the chance to see students grow, get comfortable with the process of making lesson plans and put our skills to the test. 

Before beginning our lessons the students took a pretest. The purpose of the pretest is to see where the students currently stand with the material. It is a way for teachers to be able to see what students know and what they do not know. The pretest is a form of assessment but there are many other forms that teachers use during their lessons. A pretest is a formal assessment. It was very helpful to myself and my colleagues to look at before we began teaching. After going over the assessments one can properly give feedback to the students which is incredibly important. Researchers (e.g., Black & Wiliam, 1998, Sadler, 1989), have identified elements of the formative assessment process. The elements are: Identifying the gap, feedback, learning progression and involving students in building their own knowledge. These are essential elements because they are the best way to get the most out of assessments. Formative assessments with appropriate feedback is so powerful and can help students achieve success (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). When we gave the pretest to the class, many of them were unaware of some aspects of our lesson such as who can vote. By the end of our first lesson, students were able to successfully answer four questions that went along with our lesson of choosing a country's leaders. But, of course as expected, not every student fully grasped the lesson by the end of one days teaching. That is why it is also important to incorporate and let the lessons build off of each other. Students should always be revisiting past knowledge they learned. Here are some students work; those who understood right away and those who are on their way to the finish line! 

There are other ways to assess students informally during lessons. We used many of these informal methods doing our lessons. For example, when a student answered a question I would ask the students who agree to put their thumbs up and those who disagree to put a thumbs down. This was a quick way to see what the students were thinking. I used this several times during the three lessons.

Teaching is an ongoing process. Teachers are constantly building their knowledge and developing certain skills to become the best teachers. While teaching social studies, you have to be secure with your content knowledge as well as your educational contexts. This can include all information related to the content of social studies, and knowing classroom management and grouping etc. Pedagogical content knowledge is gained through experiences and preparation on the teachers end. I think that the instructional methods that the students benefited from the most were the direct and inquiry. During the direct, which was just lecture, the students were fully engaged in the lesson and were paying close attention. Through the use of repetition in the direct lesson it allowed for the students to really remember the information. Another benefit of a direct lesson is that it is very structured. The inquiry method was good as well because it allowed for more independence to fall within the individual students. All the students took an active role to investigate. I think that students learn better when they are actively participating. 

In order to support collaboration within the classroom I think it is important to provide lessons where students work together. By having students work together it increases their social skills and they learn how to be a group member. It is important that students learn to work together toward the same goal. A cooperative lesson helps students to realize their individual differences and at the same time taking responsibility within the group. The best way to implement cooperative learning is making sure that all students within groups have their own responsibilities as well as positive interdependence and social skills.  
The best ways to support inquiry learning within the classroom is by providing activities that foster exploration. Inquiry learning helps to develop critical thinking and gives students the chance for a reflection. Having students reflect is really important because it invites students to think about their thinking, processes and skills. 

In order to engage and support all learners within the classroom the content learned should be relevant and flexible. What works for one student may not work for another. If students can create a bond or relate to the information, they may be more engaged and involved. Another way that would be really helpful is by teaching students to self monitor. Self monitoring is a resourceful tool that can help students take control of their behavior and in return become more engaged with the lessons. 

How lessons create experiences~

I can't believe we have finished fieldwork! I must say, I have learned so much and gained a great experience. I have observed in classrooms plenty of times and worked one on one with students. But, nothing compares to being up in front of the classroom and teaching a whole class. It is very intimating but it is a great feeling. This was my first time so it was all completely new for me! What's even better is teaching students and having them really understand and enjoy the lessons that you have worked so hard on. I don't think theres any better feeling! It really shows that your hard work has payed off! The students we got to work with were excellent in every single way. They were always so ready to learn new things and so engaged! This experience has really taught me so many things that you cannot learn from a textbook. I really learned the importance of collaborating and working together. It can be hard at times but it is so crucial. Working together is the best way to get things done and creating lesson plans has really showed me that. Collaborating can make a task much easier and you can get a different perspective and more insight from other people. Through this experience I got to learn what things work and what doesn't work in classrooms. One of the biggest struggles I personally faced being up in front of the classroom was my academic language. I am so used to saying "guys" and I worked so hard to try and take that out of my vocabulary! Academic language is so important and many people seemed to struggle with it. But, I think I really got a handle on it and was able to use correct academic language. It is very hard to try to break a habit or something you are so used to doing/saying. I tried to control myself in every situation so I could try to take it out of my vocabulary completely so that it would not be an issue!Another important thing that I learned from fieldwork was that not every student learns in the same way and not every strategy works for all. While creating lessons plans you have to think about every student and make adjustments based on different students. It is really important that you fit the need of every student in the class. Fieldwork has really opened my eyes to that and I got to see the differences in how students learn. This experience has also made me so much more comfortable with creating lesson plans. I am a junior and I have been creating lessons plans for quite some time. But, this has given me the chance to create a lesson plan, teach it, and then adjust it if needed. It was an experience that I am fortunate enough to have. Dr. Smirnova assigned us another task where she asked us to make edits to a personal copy of our lesson plan. It was really helpful because although we created the lesson plan with our group, we got the opportunity to personalize it and make it our own. So, if something happened during one of my lessons that I did not particularly like or don't think went so smoothly I changed it in my lesson. This gives us all a chance to make the lesson plan more personalized to each of us. Overall, I am ecstatic that I got the chance to be a part of such a wonderful experience. The 2nd grade class we taught was so great in every way possible. I'm sad that the end of fieldwork approached so quickly! 

Fieldwork flew by!

Wow, I can't believe that today was our last day of fieldwork! It feels like just yesterday we were starting! Today me and my group taught our last two lessons; Inquiry and Cooperative. I was very nervous going in because we only have 60 minutes to teach two lessons. But, we also had to leave some time at the end for a whole class wrap up and celebration. So we really had to teach two lessons in about 45-50 minutes! It was a very intimidating thought to think about! 


I must say, the lessons went EXCELLENT! During our inquiry lesson we had students formulate a hypothesis about who they thought the best candidate would be for a new principal. Then, three of my fellow colleagues played the role of potential candidates and had a mini interview with the students in the class. The students created questions and asked them to the candidates. The students really seemed to love the whole process! Then the students got the chance to vote! We had a voting booth for the students to go into and cast their vote. In this photo, one student just finished voting and two students are waiting their turn to enter our voting booth! ->

For our Cooperative lesson, students made a poster on the best principal candidate and what were some of the great things about them that they learned from the interview. The students really loved doing this as well and they worked so well together! 

Overall, I am so pleased with how well all three of our lessons went and I think we did a really excellent job. My group worked extremely hard on them and I think it really showed! I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity! This was my first time teaching a whole class of students and I am really happy that the class was so cooperative and ready to learn! 

If I could change one thing about teaching today, I definitely would want to change the amount of time we had. We had two really awesome full lessons. The students seemed to enjoy them a lot and I think they would have really loved the full lessons since we had to cut out some aspects for time sake. But, other than that I am extremely proud of myself and my colleagues.

I really think that all four groups did an awesome job and we all worked really hard to create amazing lesson plans. I think we should all be very proud of ourselves. I am extremely thankful for this opportunity because I feel that it has really prepared me for my future and gave me a glimpse of what it will be like student teaching!

Assessments

Assessments are extremely important because asking students to demonstrate what they learned is a crucial aspect to learning. Once students learn material, it is important they know how to apply that information. Teachers can make sure that students are applying and understanding the material through the use of assessments. As a teacher,  you need to make sure that the students in your class are achieving the goal you have set for them. If they are not, it is a way to see how you can adjust or help particular students who do not seem to be meeting the goal.

Assessments are also a way for teachers to set standards based on the class because they get to see where every student is currently at with the same material. Based on assessments, teachers might realize certain things need to be changes. Assessments can also help teachers to evaluate themselves. It can show teachers what is working with students and what is not and also where to go from there.

Creating an authentic assessment for students can be a difficult task. There are many things that you have to keep in mind in order to make the assessment meaningful. The first thing that should be wondered about when creating an assessment is what the students should know and what skills should they have.  You also have to make sure that you are testing students on what is being taught to them and that it is clear and concise. I personally believe that there should be a variety of question types on assessments. So, there should be some multiple choice, fill in and true and false. Therefore, the students get the chance to work with different types of questions and appeals to different forms of knowledge. By having different types of questions, some may be easy to answer whereas others may be more thought provoking and require more thinking and analyzing. Blooms Taxonomy shows us how to create questions that appeal to different ranges of thinking.

The most challenging part about creating assessments is that although assessments are a mandatory aspect, not all students may perform well on them. Just because a student may do poorly on an assessment does not mean that they may not know the material or how to apply it. It is also hard to create questions that are simple enough to answer but provoke thought at the same time. Each question takes a lot of time to think about.

Assessments are key in lesson plans though because a teacher has to see where his/her students are. If the whole class is not understanding something, it would be a bad idea to move on and not address any difficulties. Assessments are used as a tool to help the teacher and the students evaluate performances. Along with assessments, there should be other ways to collect data on student performances.

Completed teaching day 1!

We have finished our first day of teaching! It was a little nerve wracking at first, but I think overall the lesson went very well. The students seemed to stay engaged throughout the whole time. It was a direct lesson so we tried to get them involved as much as possible. One thing we used that they particularly seemed to like was having yes and no symbols. So when we would ask a question if students agreed or disagreed we would instruct them to use different symbols. Some of the symbols included standing up, thumbs up, hand on head etc. 

The students proved to be very knowledgeable about out topic. We showed a cute presidential fact video that was humorous and educational. The students really seemed to enjoy the video. We did a lot of review and revisits after introducing new vocabulary words and for the most part, the class remembered the material. 

If I could improve one thing from our lesson, I think it would be our time management. Seeing many of the previous groups run out of time, we overcompensated and finished our lesson about five minutes early. We did not have another quick activity that we could have the students do.
We will teach our next two lessons, Inquiry and Cooperative, a week after we delivered our direct lesson. I hope that the students will remember the information we covered. 

I am nervous but excited to teach the next two lessons. We have excellent and engaging lessons planned that I think the students will really enjoy and have a lot of fun with. I think it is important to plan lessons that will get students directly involved and have a fun time with because I think they retain the knowledge better that way. 

Hopefully our next two lessons will go as well as our first lesson went! 

Teaching groups 1-3....Done.

So far all three other groups in my classes have delivered their lessons to to the second grade class at Bishop Dunn! Nerve wracking. All of my fellow teacher candidates did an excellent job with the creating and carrying out of their lessons! That leaves my group and I, group 4, with a lot of pressure on our shoulders! Each group had to deliver the three lessons to the class: Direct, Inquiry and Cooperative. The Direct lesson was one class period and the inquiry and cooperative had to be completed together in one period.

The first group covered the topic of Native Americans. I believe they did very well and I commend them for their courage to be the first group and dive right in. They struggled with time management but it was the first time and things happen. Even worse, while conducting their lesson, the SmartBoard when out! Tragic. But, they did such an excellent job recovering and carrying on with their lesson. I don't know if I would have been able to recuperate under that immense pressure as smoothly as they did! So, excellent job!!!!

The second group covered the topic of Early Travelers. Like the previous group, I think they executed and delivered the lesson very well! This group did especially well with keeping the students attention and quickly ending any any side chatter or excitement from the students. Timing again was an issue, but they got everything they needed done and done well!

Group three covered the topic of colonies gaining their independence. The third group really improved on everything that the previous two groups struggled with. They managed their time precisely and excellently. The activities they planned were very well and kept the students strongly engaged. My favorite part of the group three's lesson was when they began their introduction with a cute song. The teacher's sang it first and then asked the students to join in with them. The students really seemed to enjoy it!

Finally, my group will cover the topic of Leaders. There is a lot of pressure on us to be the best because we have seen many mistakes that happen. We have been practicing very hard and I am confident in my group and I. I think we will do a great job and I am very excited!

Time management is a big concern of mine because many of the groups struggled with it. Overall, the groups all did a wonderful job and I was extremely impressed with their lessons and how they carried them out! 

Finland; Best Education System in the World? You Decide!

"If you look closely and open your mind, you may see the School of Tomorrow." 

William Doyle recently wrote an article called "How Finland broke every rule- and created a top school system" for the website: The Hechinger Report. Apparently, Finland started to do the exact opposite of what education reformers think should be done in classrooms in America. Students in Finland are given basic instruction in math, language, science, as well as training in second languages, arts, crafts, music, physical education etc. As well as the instruction, students are given four outdoor play breaks throughout the day lasting roughly fifteen minutes. The amount of homework depends on the teacher, but overall is considered to be very light. Instead of control, competition, stress and standardized tests, Finland's approach to success includes collaboration, warmth, and teacher led encouragement and assessments. Technology is used in the classroom, but a smartphone or tablet will not be seen in the classroom. Just a smart board and the teacher's desktop. 

In Finland, a profession in teaching is highly respected and is the most desirable job next to medical doctors. Finland is thought to have the most effective school system. Apparently, Finland does everything [in regards to the educational system] just the opposite of how it is done in America. Of course, Finland's education system is not perfect, but it seems to be working very well for them. 

Now of course there are critics who argue that such policies as Finland's would not work for schools in the United States, such as inner city schools. Inner city schools focus on "drill-and-practice", no excuses, and relentless standardized tests. 

So looking at all this information  it seems that Finland knows what it is doing when it comes to the education policies implemented. The U.S. and Finland seem to have different outlooks on how to be successful with their systems of education. For Finland, they seem to be excelling in delivering educational excellence. Finland seems to know how students learn the best. As for the United States, I think slowly adopting some of the methods used in Finlans would not hurt. Now of course, it would vary depending on schools. The United States education system is based on a rigid curriculum. Standardized testing are something that every student has to deal with again and again. Finland focuses more on self assessments and peer assessments which can take away some of the stress and fear that come with standardized tests. 

Personally, I think that Finland's approach works very well. Students are achieving excellence and seem to prosper in the relaxed school environment that Finland provides. It is hard to say whether or not the United States would have the same success as Finland does. The United States and Finland are very different and both have many different attributes that make them special. I agree that there are certain aspects to Finland's education success such as the peer assessments and warm environment as opposed to the rigid standardized test and drill an practice used in the United States. I think the United States would benefit from adopting some of the techniques used in Finland to help contribute to the overall success of the education system and the students reaching excellence.