New beginnings

Today was the first direct instruction lesson from the second group; Susan, Maureen, and Kristen. Overall, I thought the lesson went very well! Many of the comments that the class, and Dr. Smirnova have been making, have been incorporated into the lessons. There were many little things about this lesson that I really liked. I thought that the hands on your head for "yes" and finger on your nose for "no" direction was very fun and engaging for the students. This was a good way to get them more involved with the lesson while also serving as feedback to the teachers. I also thought that the questions that were asked were helpful because they encouraged students to raise their hand to explain their thinking.

There were also parts of this lesson that I think could have been stronger. The transitions were a little confusing, instead of having a lesson that continuously drones on it is important to chunk it up. By changing the pace, and introducing new activities the students become more engaged and the lesson feels more exciting, and organized. Also the guided practice was not very helpful to test the students' understanding of the lesson. The questions were too easy and almost all of the class knew the answers immediately. I personally liked this idea, but it was not as effective as it could have been because of the questions.

Making the full circle of lesson plan types

Today was Shannon and Sara's last lesson; the cooperative learning lesson. I thought out of the three lessons, this was the best one so far. I really feel that Shannon and Sara did a great job of taking the advice of the class to create a better designed lesson each time. Although the main problem with this lesson was the time went a little bit late, all of the components were there and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Cooperative lessons are one of my favorite types of lesson plans because it allows for a lot of social interaction, and helps the students to work together as a group while also having independent responsibilities.

For this lesson, the students were given a folder which gave them each responsibilities, and directions for a poster they were asked to create. By giving each student a responsibility it helps to avoid one or two students doing all of the work while the others mess around. While the students created their posters, the teachers walked around and offered assistance when needed.

I thought that this activity was a good way for the students to learn about individual aspects of certain tribes. The graphics gave students a visual representation of the different shelters, food, art, etc that the tribes used. This was all tied together in the end by allowing the students to come to the front of the room to present their findings.

Overall I thought this was the best lesson from Shannon and Sara. I could tell that the information they received from Dr. Smirnova, as well as the class' reflections, have been incorporated into their lessons.

Taking the dive into inquiry

Today during our third field experience Shannon and Sara taught their Indirect / Inquiry lesson. I thought this was a very interesting lesson to observe because in my field experiences I have not seen many of these types of lessons. Inquiry or problem-based instruction revolves around a problem that students work to solve. This is similar to cooperative learning in that students are often put into groups and are working to complete a desired task. However in problem-based learning, the focus is not on social interaction to solve a common problem, but rather the students methods of solving a given problem.

Even though Shannon and Sara were hard on themselves about the lesson there was a lot that went well with it. Their introduction was helpful because it gave students review about the different Native American tribes and also helped students to review the shelter, means of transportation, and food inherent to these tribes. Moving on to the development, the students were given an activity in which they were to use the given materials to fill in the required information on a template, and use this information to justify a hypothesis they created. Students were then asked to share their group findings before being given a worksheet to complete as independent practice / homework. While all of the components of an effective inquiry lesson are here, improvements could be made in some areas.

• A better explanation / modeling of a hypothesis could have been given.
• Steps of the development could have been split up and discussed during the lesson to help children that have problems and provide feedback.
• All groups should have been allowed to share at the end, but this was more of a time management problem than anything else. 
• Inquiry activity may have been a little difficult for 2nd graders.
• Text size could have been bigger on the handout. 

Again, I think the lesson was good overall. All of the components were there, it was just a matter of fixing some activities, and details. 

Photo Credit: Julie DeBellis 

Beginning teachers

Today group #1 did their direct instruction lesson on the Native American tribes. The time went a lot quicker than I expected because before I knew it, group 1 needed to rap up their activities for the lesson. Overall, I liked the lesson. The kids were engaged, and were very excited to be able to come to the smart board and interact with the teachers. Also, being the first group to teach must have been a very nerve-racking experience. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into designing, and implementing a lesson, especially for first time teachers. Being able to see another group go before you is very helpful because it helps to prepare you for what to expect. With that being said, all of my suggestions/ improvements that could have been made for this lesson are all mentioned with this in mind. I thought group 1 did a great job to introduce their topic but this is what I would have done differently:

1.) The thumbs up/ thumbs down cards were a great idea for something that the children can do to stay engaged, and also express that they agree or disagree with something stated. However, they were noisy, flimsy, and from the back (the side that the kids saw) it was hard to tell which way the thumb was pointing.
One way to improve this would be to cut out each 'hand' individually, and to laminate, and glue a popsicle stick to it. This would make it less flimsy, noisy, easier to use, and easier to distinguish. 

2.) The powerpoint seemed to be used more of an aid for the teachers rather than for the kids. I thought some of the slides included great pictures, and maps that would have helped the students a lot but were too small to really see. Additionally, from the back of the room I could not see many of the shelters and traditions that students were supposed to pick out. So, it would have been helpful to give some of these pictures their own slides, and some more information on the powerpoint slides. 

3.) Transitions could have been smoother. Instead of telling kids that they are going to do an activity, tell them why they are going to do an activity. Tie it into the lesson. 

4.) They should have put more emphasis on the different tribes' shelters since that was on one of their worksheets. Plus, since it was only 3 options many kids could have guessed and got it right anyway. 

Aside from that the lesson was overall, very good. There is a lot of improvement to be made, but it was very helpful to be able to see the first group teach. Our group will take these changes into consideration and incorporate them into our own lesson. 


“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” 
― William Arthur Ward


Photo Credit: Julie DeBellis

In the field

Today was our first day of fieldwork! I was a little nervous to meet the class, and our group specifically, but it went very well. The kids were very energetic and a lot of them told us that their favorite subject was social studies. As a kid in elementary school I did not like social studies much so it feels good to have kids that are already interested in it to begin with.

Today was a very mellow day because it was mainly a day for introduction, and testing the students' prior knowledge. We had about 5-10 minutes with each of the four groups, and spent that time introducing ourselves to each other and showing the kids pictures that will be discussed in our lessons to the class.

To test for the students' prior knowledge we brought in a sheet of construction paper with four pictures; a Native American and two pioneers, a prairie dog, a grizzle bear and the Rocky mountains. We began by asking the students to make predictions based on the first picture. Many of the students were able to tell us that there was a Native American in the picture. They were able to back this up by telling us that they could tell this because of the clothes that they wore. For the other pictures, students were stumped by the prairie dogs, but were familiar with the mountains, and the grizzly bear.  Aside from the prediction about the Native American in the first picture, the students did not offer many other predictions.

I am very excited about fieldwork this semester. The kids seem great, and I feel very good about my group.

The work begins...

Today was a weird day because we had a lot of catching up to do. Although we were able to still have class the previous 2 days this week, it still felt like there was a lot of catching up to do. We decided to postpone our presentations of our jigsaw projects in order to do an overview of edTPA. All I can say is wow. The introduction of this was extremely overwhelming. There are many parts to edTPA, and a lot of work that is going to be put into this. I already know that this portion of the class is going to be giving me major headaches throughout the semester.

Despite this, I am somewhat excited to begin the process. Not only is it great practice in staying organized, and keeping records of everything that I do throughout the semester, I feel it will also help me before I go into my student teaching. Right now I really do not want to be bothered with this, but i am so glad that I am doing it. 

With that being said, I am realizing all of the work that needs to be done, and it has finally hit me; this is going to be one of the toughest, yet most beneficial semesters of my college career. 

Snow Day? No way.

Today was our second WizIQ virtual class, and the first snow day for MSMC. The experience was much better this time around; the audio quality was well improved, and I was wearing sweatpants in the comfort of my own room. Although I do not love the idea of bringing school back to my house on a snow day, this was a great experience! I have used Skype before but not in an academic setting, and it worked much better than expected. The entire class was attending and we discussed and organized our plans for the Jigsaw Groups.

During our live chat we briefly discussed Jigsaw groups but we got right to business in forming our groups and getting to work. For our project, we are using the Jigsaw method to learn the 5 characteristics of cooperative learning. After splitting into groups and choosing 1 characteristic to focus on we were all put on the task of completing a powerpoint to become the experts on our topic.

The characteristic I am becoming the expert on is Social Skills and Face to Face Interaction. I am glad I am becoming the expert on this characteristic because it is one that is of great interest to me. My philosophy of education has a contructivist overtone to it and I love the idea of enhancing students social skills through cooperative activities. I feel this is a great way to learn.

My only problem with the jigsaw method is it can be inconsistent with the separate parts. If one group does not put as much work into their presentation of one of the characteristics, the group as a whole will suffer from it. Additionally, some group members can slack off and leave the project to the other members of the group. This is not only hurting the working group, but also the group that the information is to be shared with.

Slippery travels

I should have stayed home today. MSMC closed down in the afternoon, and we had a virtual class today. The virtual class was very interesting but many of us were not prepared with ear buds, and the school computers did not work so great.

We at least got to talk a little bit about cooperative learning. We watched a short video clip that showed some different methods. This showed some important ideas; children sometimes need to learn from each other and develop social skills. These interpersonal skills are necessary for the outside world.