Love the World... Hug the World!

Last week we did an activity about the world. I thought it was a great way in engaging the class to learn for the day. Dr. Smirnova brought in a soft world that we passed around. Each person that held the world, hugged in first and then told one way that they would work on helping

save our world when we are a teacher. It was great to here so many interesting ideas. I personally would encourage recycling in my own classroom and limit the use of papers and worksheets. With the help of learning so much technology in both of Dr. Smirnova's classes this should be simple right? Maybe not... When trying to help our environment we need to go past the normal recycling. We need to step up and do what is right in order to help this place that we all call home. I mean, why destroy where we live? In reality, most people do not realize how much damage they are really doing to our environment. As a future teacher I want to bring not only my student, but families and community into help clean up our world. If I can inspire students maybe they will inspire their parents and this could become a chain reaction. I can't make everyone help but anything is better than nothing. Their is so much world pollution and

doing this exercise  helped my learn of new ways that I can help out. It inspired and intrigued me for changes in my life. This spring I am looking forward to planting my own garden and I want to help pick up garbage in my community. I also want to teach others that with a few simple changes, they can actually be a big help! Technology can be helpful especially in the classroom because it can greatly reduce the amount of trees being cut down. If everyone went one year without using paper for projects and homework and notes and resorted to technological ways I am sure we would save billion upon billions of trees! I also would love to bring my students outside to pick up local garbage and show them how

great it can feel to make a difference. If they learn when they are younger, it will really help them as they grow to be more conscious of the ways that they might be causing pollution. Pollution is no laughing matter! It is costing environmental changes, death of animals and a dirty community.

Let's change that!

 

 

Exploring American Indian Tribes

This week in class we researched and investigated important information about 5 different tribes: The Lakota tribe, The Muscogee Tribe, The Mohawk/Iroquois Tribe, The Tlingit Tribe and the Dine Tribe. Each group was responsible in finding information about the culture, geography, history, food, houses/shelters, culture, important leaders etc. about each tribe. We used the Jigsaw method in order to learn and teach others about our tribe. My group was responsible for the Muscogee tribe. We made a powerpoint that showed the ways in which the location of this tribe, greatly affected the life that the Muscogee tribe lived. Each group was also responsible to make a generalization statement. Attached below are the powerpoints for each of the groups:

Lakota Tribe

Tlingit Tribe

Dine Tribe

Iroquois/Mohawk Tribe

 

Before doing this project I had very little knowledge of Native American Indian Tribes and was actually unaware that these tribes even existed. The only ones that I recognized were the Mohawk and Iroquois tribes. It is interesting how those tribes are so popular and that many people who live in America are not knowledgeable of the other tribes. I am glad that I was able to learn about the various tribes that existed and the living conditions/culture of these people through this project. The Jigsaw Method was very helpful in learning about the tribes. I was able to learn many details about each one from my base group members. Although it was hard to learn a lot of the information ahead of time, I have the links to each presentation that was created so I can revisit them and research more! From the class reading I was able to learn about the Indian Removal Act as well. The website Dr. Smirnova provided is linked here. The Indian Removal Act was passed in the 1800s when Andrew Jackson was president. Jackson believed that removal was the only way to save Native Americans from "extinction". The Indian Removal Act gave the president the permission to set up districts within the Indian Territory and provided for the general re-settlement of Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. Over 60,000 Native Americans were forced to migrate and as stated on the website "Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears."  This information was not covered in our projects but was very interesting to learn about. It is such a tragedy that these Indians were forced to move west and that so many died along the way. I could not imagine what it must have been like to live during this time period! On the page that Dr. Smirnova provided there are also links for teacher's pages on the Removal Act and teaching it to students.
Overall I learned some important information from each of my group members when we proceeded back to our home groups. The Dine tribe relied heavily on their land and environment for shelter, food and clothing. They used stones and logs for there shelters and animals for food and clothing. The logs were used to cook the meat from the animals and the skin and fur was used for clothing.

The Tlingit tribe was known for being a tribe based on seafood due to its close proximity to the ocean. The ocean provided fishing and gave this tribe a symbol as the whale. Cedar trees, lush forests, and wildlife were all important to the Tlingit Tribe. The cedar trees influenced art especially totem poles and provided shelter and clothing. The lush forest and wildlife were important because they provided food such as deer and berries and also provided clothing such as the use of deer hides.

Geography influenced the way the Lakota tribe lived because of the resources available to the Lakota were buffalo. Because this source was available, it became the main source of food for them and was also used for clothing.The Lakota tribe was a nomadic tribe which means that they moved with the buffalo herds. They used horses to follow the herds and also had houses that were light an potable so they developed Teepees.

Finally the Mohawk and Iroquois tribe was affected by its location because they used animals in their region as a source for clothing and food. The Eastern Woodlands region made longhouses convenient for this tribe. More permanent living locations due to prime water sources were around the Great Lakes region. The seasons in the area also influenced the growing seasons which in turn affected their food.  

Overall, the Jigsaw method was once again a great tool to teach one another about information we each researched. Through this project I learned so much about my given tribe and all the other tribes. I truly enjoyed this jigsaw project. I feel that the jigsaw assignment was very beneficial and informational. I had to become an expert on my tribe and teach my peers about my tribe. The same for my classmates. Jigsaw enables all of us to learn about a variety of tribes in a small amount of time.  Each person in the group was responsible for the overall outcome and success of the project. If each person didn't do their part, then it would reflect in the presentations. In our group we were unfortunate to have two members of the group who did not help work on the assignment so the other three of us were responsible for the whole powerpoint which was really tough. However, I am happy that by doing more work I winded up learning more. A group processing form would have been helpful in evaluating our group members. I learned so much about teaching about geography and Native Americans! I learned about the 5 themes of geography which are: Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement and Region. All of these concepts were researched and taught within our individual PowerPoints. I was also not aware of the fields of Geography which are physical and cultural. By reading further in depth about geography and the American Indians and also by completing this project I learned information that I will one day use in my classroom. I also learned a great method for an inquiry instruction lesson - The Jigsaw Method!
Technology was very helpful in completing this project and can be very useful in the classroom. Technology permitted the different groups of students to create various representations for their project. Some students used glogster, some used PowerPoint, and many other websites. This is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom and teaches students about tools/websites that may be used as well. The teacher can even include a mini online quiz afterwards on the information that was learned as a form of post-assessment. The lesson should be active, meaning that students should be involved and engaged in the lesson. With this lesson, the students will get an approach of actually taking their own action and in a way, teaching themselves through research much like our class did! The lesson can also integrate other disciplines into it. An English lesson can be based off the lesson and the research found. The students can write a paragraph about what they learned or they can each write on a sticky note what they learned on lino.com. The information that being taught should be related to the student's lives in some way in order to to make the information meaningful to them. When students are learning they sometimes don't absorb the information because it means nothing to them and does affect their own life. However, a great assignment would be to have each student write a letter to a friend in another tribe including information about their tribe. Or they can write a letter trying to appeal the Indian Removal Act displaying their fears and thoughts in order to give them an experience of how the people on the trail of tears must have felt! This project can also be changes for the various elementary grades. The students at a higher level would most likely be able to write the letter/paragraph but for students at the lower level learning about this topic can get a more hands-on approach. Maybe by creating mini houses as a class, with mud and sticks would be a good idea to teach the students. The students can create longhouses or tee-pees! This will teach the students a small portion of information since they will not be able to retain all the information at a young age. Under the National Standards this project could relate to the theme: Time, Continuity and Changes. This theme states: "Through a more formal study of history, students in the middle grades continue to expand their understanding of the past and are increasingly able to apply the research methods associated with historical inquiry. They develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for differences in perspectives on historical events and developments, recognizing that interpretations are influenced by individual experiences, sources selected, societal values, and cultural traditions. They are increasingly able to use multiple sources to build interpretations of past events and eras. High school students use historical methods of inquiry to engage in the examination of more sophisticated sources. They develop the skills needed to locate and analyze multiple sources, and to evaluate the historical accounts made by others. They build and defend interpretations that reconstruct the past, and draw on their knowledge of history to make informed choices and decisions in the present." (NCSS) Through this project the students would get a better understanding of the changes that occurred from then to now and understand more about this time in history. In addition it also uses many of the Social Studies Practices for New York. Through the inquiry method of learning this information and using the jigsaw method the students would be "Gathering, Interpreting and Using Evidence". In addition the students would be using "Geographic Reasoning" in order to learn how geography is important to each tribe! The Practices are outlined here on the engage.ny website.
  Overall, I really enjoyed this project and will definitely implement similar activities in my future classroom!

 

 

 

Yo... whats up guys? Lets talk academic language!

Academic language is a very important topic to discuss. It is crucial to use academic language within the school and in life. After conducting fieldwork, I really opened my eyes to the importance of academic language.

Academic language is used in school and work. It is the language of text, assessment, power and academic success. It is important as professional adults that we speak using proper academic language. Throughout fieldwork, most of the class used "guys" as a way of addressing the students. This would be considered social language, not language we as educators should be using to address the students. We lead by example, if we speak properly, our students will be more likely to use similar language, but it goes beyond modeling. Academic language is something that needs to be taught. The differences between social and academic language can be taught by providing two passages, one written using social language, and the other using academic language. The students can read the passages and determine the type of language being used. Based on grade-level, students should be taught academic language in a different context. Here is a break-down by grade-level groups:
Pre-k-4th: Teach age appropriate language through show and tell.
4th-8th: Provide set examples, allow students to develop academic language through practice in groups and as the educator, gradually pull back support for individual ability.
9th-12th: Complicated grammar structure should be taught.
ELL's need extra help with learning academic language. Explicit, specific instruction is necessary for ELL's to use, understand, pronounce and develop academic language. 

I feel teaching academic language is important for several reasons. The first being that using academic language is beneficial to academic success. The second is because the use of technology in today's society. Students are surrounded by a world of technology; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, computers and texting are part of the average student's social world. The language used is often slang, which I am finding to be interfering with language used in schools. Reading papers and talking to students, I am finding "gunna, wat and goin" as trademarks in papers. As a future educator, I am worried that students will continue this social language into their professional careers. It is important that we as educators teach and use academic language with the students. I will strive as a teacher and professional adult to use academic language and teach it to my students in order to help develop college and career ready individuals.

 

It's a Puzzle - JIGSAW!

This week in class we worked on our cooperative learning presentations using the jigsaw method. I really enjoyed this. At first I was hesitant to the success of the assignment and method, but after personally experiencing it, I understood the purpose and method of using jigsaw. I personally would implement jigsaw in my classroom. Many teachers are resistant to using jigsaw, but if it is used properly, it can be a successful way for students to become "experts" in a topic and take charge in their learning. Jigsaw seems very similar to a research project. Rather than calling it a research project, which sounds very overwhelming, especially for children, it is a fun, hands-on cooperative project. I also like that jigsaw allows the students to take a firm role as "teachers" of their topic within the project. We taught the cooperative method, PIGS. One person from each group took on a

specific letter of the acronym, researched it, became an expert, and created a presentation with the other group member who had the same topic. Then we each taught our letter/topic. This made me feel more responsible to fully understand my topic. Jigsaw does not leave much room for any student to fall under the radar. Each student is equally responsible for their topic and it is very clear for the teacher to observe to see which students do not fully complete the assignment. We were assigned another jigsaw project based on various Native American tribes. I am excited to see jigsaw in practice again. 

Let's Assess!

Pre-assessment is crucial in the field of education. It is important for teachers of all ages to pre-assess students’ knowledge before teaching a certain topic. 

At first, our group had a hard time understanding exactly what we needed to include in our pre-test. With some talking through we finally understood that we needed to ask the students some questions about the topics we would be teaching them in our lesson plans and also what they already learned about the topic. We taught the students about our country’s leaders. I didn’t realize how important a pre-assessment was until this class. Pre-assessments are very helpful for teachers to see what information students may have about a given topic and what misconceptions the class may have in order to figure out the appropriate approach to teaching the lessons. Our group developed our pre-test questions together. For the post-test we edited some of the pre-existing questions and then we added some new questions to be able to see how much the student’s learned from our lessons. We all agreed on particular questions that we felt would be the most useful in our assessment of seeing how much the students knew and how much they actually understood and remembered by the end. The pre-test questions were fairly easy to create and our group didn’t have many issues.

The only problems we had was due to confusion on what we needed to include in a pre-assessment question. However, we learned that when asking questions during the pre-assessment we should use more “broad” questions rather than specific. This helps us to see what the students personally know about certain topics as a whole. They might recognize or remember certain words or topics but not in detail. The post-test questions were fairly easy to create because we were able to look back at what we taught the students and what we asked in the pre-assessment to adjust some questions and then add some more specific questions that they should have definitely gotten from our lessons. Since out chapter on Choosing Our Country’s Leaders was brief, there was a limited amount of information and vocabulary words which also posed a little bit of a problem when trying to create these questions. The results of the pre-test were helpful in establishing the necessities of our lesson plan and in figuring out which topics and vocabulary terms were more important to focus on over others. The results helped our group to see how  much the student’s really knew and what information our lessons should focus on more. This also showed the lack or overlay of knowledge that many students had. Some students were able to answer all of our questions correctly while others had answered none of the questions accurately. From looking at the answers that the student’s wrote on the pre-assessment it was obvious that most to all students knew what a president was and who the current president was. We could also tell this by the first day we met the students. We asked them information about our country’s leaders and many of the students mentioned the president. However, students did not know much about what made an ‘active citizen’ and what the leader of a state is as well as what a capital was.

 By this we knew that we had to focus on these terms and on voting especially, which we did in our inquiry and cooperative lessons. Since the students were in second grade, we felt that we needed to approach our lessons on voting and citizens with a hands-on approach, as we did with the voting booth. By bringing the student’s into the actual process, they were able to comprehend the task in a different way and will most likely remember it for years to come. In addition our group referred to the real-world often in order to bring our lessons to life. We said that their own principal would be retiring and we had them vote on ice cream flavors in their own cafeteria and when the future principals answered their interview questions, their answers reflected changes that would affect them personally. This helped students to see how important their personal vote was in making a change! The results of the pre-test also were helpful when relating to the edTPA commentary prompts because it helped our group and me to see what we needed to do to make sure that this information was being taught to the students in a simple and understandable way that the student’s would walk away knowing the information. The edTPA commentaries were beneficial for all groups in designing their lesson plans and unit plans to maximize their teaching potentials.

Teaching Social studies

Fieldwork has come to a close! Everyone can now relax and reflect on their experiences. I really enjoyed the entire fieldwork experience and I learned a lot from my own teaching and the teachings of my peers. I chose this quote because it ultimately sums up how I felt from the fieldwork. We were teaching the students, but in return they ultimately taught us how to be better teachers. It was a beneficial learning experience all around! I learned about the three types of lesson planning. (Explained in my blogs below). Direct lesson planning involves main instruction from the teacher with limited involvement from the students. Our group learned how to instruct a lesson directed completely by the teacher. We learned how to check for student understanding as well. I knew that this was the foundation of the lesson to provide the important information to the students so we worked hard to make sure that all types of learners needs were met.

Before our class and group began teaching the students took a pretest. The pretest was used in order to see how much the students knew from the year before and from this year and also to see how much the students knew about the topics we would be teaching them.

The pre-test is a type of pre-assessment that helps teachers to see what misconceptions or information students may know so they can approach their lessons and teaching in a certain way that will maximize the student’s learning. Formative assessment was also used throughout the process. Formative assessment helped the teachers and the student’s see what information they were understanding from the lesson plans and what they were having trouble with. This can help a teacher to see if the majority of students are understanding the information in the way it is presented to them. Teachers may need to alter their instruction based on how well students are doing. In our case, we were able to see how several groups conducted their assessments and were able to learn which ways would work best for our second grade class. Overall, this class was well-behaved and very intelligent! There were several struggling students but we made sure to help these students to understand the information. We tried using a mini booklet in order to take away from traditional note taking sheets. When the pre-test was given to the class, many of the students had a hard time answering the questions and answered many of them incorrectly. By the end of teaching, our students improved greatly and learned a lot! Attached below are also examples of student’s work of varying levels! We also used many informal methods of assessment throughout our lessons. When a student would answer the question, I would ask the students if they agreed or disagreed by putting their thumbs up or thumbs down or standing up and sitting down. This was a quick way to involve students to express their answers without completely singling each student.

Pedagogical content knowledge is knowledge that is gained through experiences and preparation. Teachers develop this knowledge the more they teach and from this they can develop skills to help them become a better teacher. In the direct lesson students learned through repetition and explicit instruction of the content. The direct lesson gives the main focus on the teacher and it involves a structured lesson to present the information to the students directly. The inquiry method is a little different and it involves the students using the information they just learned to conduct an investigation. It is important to present an activity that fosters exploration.

It promotes independence and using the scientific method. Third is a cooperative lesson in which students learn to work together with one another to create a group project that they will present and reflect on. Collaboration I feel is very important in the classroom because it builds on social skills. It also engages the student in learning because it allows they to talk and work together instead of just taking notes. When presenting a cooperative lesson it is important that each student has their own role in the making of the project. It is important for student's to reflect on their experience in the end to see what they learned and how they felt about the project and others projects. The most important part of instructing lessons is making sure that all student's needs are met. Each student is much different and it is the job of the teacher to encourage all types of learning. I think my group did a great job in reaching the diverse learners of the classroom!

   

 

As we do in class, I will give three pluses and a wish for each groups teaching as part of my reflection.

Group One: Bryanna LeBron, Payge Yerks, Heather Nolan, Joseph Timmons, Melissa Kochoves

1.   The project was fun for the children and hands on.

2.   The teachers showed improvement and confidence.

3.   The teachers spoke loud and clear to students and provided support throughout the lesson.

Wish: I wish that the group planned their time better in order to make sure all of the parts of the lesson were addressed.

Group Two: Erin Correa, Paola Martinez, Christina Moscatello, Samantha Mullarkey, Lauren Skinner, Moira Tolan

1.   The transitions were fast pace, which kept the students under control.

2.   The lesson was well thought-out and planned/practice.

3.   I like that you gave the students time to work on their independent practice in class.

Wish: I wish that the students had more time to work on their papers and the word wall.

Group 3: Melissa Kelly, Elizabeth Pozzulo, Emily Meehan, Keilani Wilhelm, Kim Cruz   

1.   I like the use of an American flag for student’s to agree.

2.   I loved the song at the beginning of the lesson, it definitely engaged the students.

3.   I loved that your group switched up the way they answered the questions. (Hand signals or saying things like “the british are coming”)

Wish: I wish that the timeline in the guided practice included pictures.

Group 4: Kimberly, Mallory, Kelly, Rose, Jenna, and Sarah

1. I liked how well practiced and thought out the lesson was. Each teacher did a great job explaining their information and the lesson flowed great.

2. I liked that we had the opportunity to get the students out of their seats during the independent practice and that they were all involved.

3. I liked that that the teachers worked well to involve students in the lesson in their own way and talked clear, concise, and loudly.

Wish: I wish that our lesson didn’t end so early and that we had enough time for another guided practice or made one of the other ones longer.

Overall, fieldwork has been a memorable experience. I learned a lot from watching my peers teach. I really enjoyed working with my group, Ms. Pozzulo at Bishop Dunn and especially with the students.

xox,
Kelly

First day of Teaching - A Success!

Today was the first day of teaching in Social Studies with my group (Mallory Menneci, Rose Linehan, Kim Rivera, Jenna York and Sarah Lehrfield). The last couple of weeks have been filled with hard work, compromise, group collaboration in order to make this first day go so well. We taught a direct lesson which means that the teacher talks and teaches for the whole class with little student interaction. Kim started out the introduction of the lesson and pre-assessed the students knowledge. She also explained the vocabulary booklets and signals for attention. Next, we transitioned right into the vocabulary words. I think that we did very well in describing each word and relating it to the 2nd grade's lives.

We also worked on introducing the word instead of saying, "and the next word is...". I had the word president and I explained to the students the main roles of the president and guidelines for being a president. I also showed an exciting president video which I really loved! Although it may not have been completely educational I believe it is important to break up 2nd grade learning. Students need a mental break and the students really loved it. It was very funny and appropriate for 2nd grade. Next we moved right into the guided practice. I explained the practice and also modeled with Kim. This went very well and the student's understood what was expected of them. Students matched the correct vocabulary word to the definition. However, they did so by an action. For example, my word was president. When each student heard the correct definition, they spun around once and sat down. This worked well because we were able to get individual opinions but also were able to engage the students and even get them out of their seats! The next guided practice was a brainstorming bubble that I also directed. I was particularly proud of how I directed this activity. I explained the students the activity and then gave an example for students to copy down.

I then, gave guidelines for students to base their thoughts off of. For instance, students explained that an active citizen would recycle and pick up garbage in order to help the environment. I also provided room for students to write down a person or people they know that are active citizens. The students even shared with their class! It was wonderful to hear how much this class and their families and friends are involved in helping their communities and at home. Finally, Kim closed out the lesson and went through the independent practice with the class by reading the questions and providing time for students to answer individually. Overall, my group was very divided in making our lesson but when it came to that day and to our overall lesson we were able to come to our senses and create a great Direct Lesson. The only way I would have changed my instruction would be in getting my students involved ad excited (and I wish I didn't say fun). We were the last group so I learned so much of what I should and shouldn't do and I finally made it through the entire lesson without saying "guys"! Yay! (It was not easy but I am breaking my habits slowly).
I just want to reflect on my outlook of teaching. Words can't describe how nervous and stressed I was the first day of class. Helpful criticism was extremely hard to give and receive for many of us after how much work we put into our lessons. However, I learned so much and it truly has helped me improve myself. I can now say that I have improved my academic language and have become increasingly more confident in teaching. I am proud of how far I have come and look forward to my future as an elementary school teacher!