Connecting Presentations to Real Life

The students completed their projects and another teacher came into the classroom to see how they looked. Her class was completing the same unit, however, they were not doing dioramas. We combined ideas, and to help the students see how what they were doing matters, we created a "museum tour" of their work. Our class stood behind their dioramas and were presenting to our neighboring class. The other group of students were taking a "tour" of Native Americans and were taking notes of what they learned. Our class was responsible for making sure that the other class learned from their presentations. The neighboring class wanted to see how their Native American group lived, and how our class showed how they lived.

I believe the students benefited from this tour of Native Americans. They were familiar with presenting because they had completed their presentations the day before, so they were calm. It helped the students with their speaking skills, and their taking turn skills of letting other people present as well.

While the students were presenting, I walked around listening to their presentations as well as taking pictures of what they were doing!

Social Studies Presentations

I have been feeling those "ah ha" moments when teaching this semester when the students do a great job on something, but the feelings I had when they were presenting their social studies projects was indescribable.  We had been working so hard on these presentations for around 5 weeks, from beginning to end and the end result was amazing.

The students first started off with research in the computer lab a few times throughout the first two weeks. The entire project was completed at school so they did not have to worry about finishing things at home. After research, the students started organizing their research that they had onto a power point presentation to help in their presentations.

One other requirement was that the group had to complete a diorama of their Native American group they were researching. There were requirements throughout this diorama, which the students LOVED doing. They were given three days to complete the diorama, and they were allowed to bring things in from home. However, I made sure that I had a sign up place on the board for them to write what they needed if they did not think that they could bring items from home.

A second visual was required as well throughout their presentations, which could be as simple as a headband that was worn, or as involved as dressing up as your Native American.

Overall, these presentations almost made me cry. They were so involved in their learning and really put forth the best effort that they could. While we had some group work issues, I believe the students learned an immense amount about themselves as independent learners and as group members. The following pictures show their dioramas and their hard work.

2nd Grade Observation

Yesterday I had the opportunity to observe a second grade classroom in the afternoon. The moment I walked in, I felt calm and relaxed. The teacher had music playing while the students were transitioning to the carpet which allowed the students to know how long they had (because they knew how long the song was) and gave them something to hum to while they were moving. Once the students got to the carpet, they were so well behaved and engaged in what they were doing.

The students were participating in reading workshop where they had just finished reading a book of their choice. Next, they were coming to the carpet to share what they had learned. Not only was it a "share time" but the students were sharing things that related to what they were learning. The students were making connections to texts and were explaining these connections and how they related to the story. They were also talking about what an author said and what the author meant by what they said. The students started the sentence off by "The author said..." and followed by "The author meant...". It was really incredible to see their minds at work through this lesson.

The students then transitioned to social studies (which was a fast and efficient transition!!) where they were in a rectangle on the class rug. They worked together to read through a pamphlet on the state of Georgia, sharing materials and taking turns reading. There wasn't an issue where the students were impatient or mad that someone else read. I am interested to talk to this teacher outside of the classroom to figure out how she did these things!!

All in all, I was very impressed by this classroom I visited. I have witnessed that different things work for different teachers, and I am learning from each teacher that I observe. I have formed really great ideas based upon what I have witnessed and I have also learned some amazing behavior management ideas!! One thing I really loved about this second grade teacher was the fact that she allowed the students to finish their thoughts, regardless if the thoughts related to what they were talking about. For example, one student made a text-to-self connection that really did not make sense or pertain to what they were talking about, however, she allowed him to finish his thoughts without cutting him off. This shows the other children that everyone's thoughts are important, which I think is a great thing to teach these students!!

Start of ITBS testing

This week I am helping proctor the ITBS to a third grade class. The first thing I noticed when I walked into this classroom was the fact that there were only 20 students!! Wow! A huge difference from coming from a class of 31 :) I talked to the teacher of the class, and she said she loved the size of the group because she could do so much with them and behavior management was not an issue because of the small group.

While beginning the ITBS I learned that this was their first time completing the ITBS on their own without teacher assistance of reading and calling out the choices. It was also their first time transferring answers from the answer booklet to an answer sheet. While walking around, I saw that many students were doing great at this, or from observation that's what I thought! I did not know the answers, but I saw confidence on every student's face. The teacher said they had been practicing how to complete multiple choice questions and transferring answers on their homework which I think helped the students succeed on this aspect of testing. I think this was a great way to incorporate test taking skills because they were still completing homework based upon what they were learning, but they were still practicing how to complete a bubble sheet.

I am still helping with the ITBS for two more days, so I am anxious to see how this goes every day! The students seemed really rested and eager to go this morning!!

Projects coming to a close!

For our social studies unit, we are working on Native Americans and how they used their environment to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. The student have spent a few weeks researching (due to interruptions such as clusters and field trips), and they are now working on how they are going to present their information found. The students are working in groups, which has been an interesting and learning experience for me, and therefore, they are presenting as a group.

I have allowed the students in their groups to break apart and work on various components of their project together. I believe that in the future, I won't do this again, but once I said it, there was no taking it back! Some students strive on power point, some love to do arts and crafts, and some love to write. While all three of these components are in their project, I thought they could break apart to complete these tasks. However, once I have seen some issues arise based on this decision, I have decided it wasn't my best one :) But hey, at least I'm learning from my mistakes!

The students are working on dioramas to aide in their presentation. They are really getting into these things!! The whole project is completed at school, however, I told them that if they wanted to do some at home to bring in, that was more than okay. So, some students have gone above and beyond to complete their dioramas.

There will be pictures to come once they present their projects! I'm excited to see what they do!!

*Last Day of Kindergarten Clusters*

Friday marked the last day in my Enrichment Cluster with kindergarden group. I had been helping out with this cluster for 5 weeks, once a week, and have fallen in love with those little kids!! Their sweet, innocent comments will definitely be remembered!

This cluster group was called "Oceans Adventure" and the students were learning about a different ocean animal every day. When I walked into the classroom on Friday, the teacher was busy dealing with another issue, so she asked me to begin the lesson talking about whales. She had an ocean book where I read the book to the students. Boy, was this a task :) After I got everyone settled and began the book, they were amazed at how big whales were! It was precious to see them comparing their size to a whale's size. While we were reading, I was making sure to stop and ask questions, which a year ago was a difficult task for me, but I have seen myself progress in my questioning development. We learned how big a Humpback Whale is, what color they are, and various other facts. The students LOVED talking about whales.

After this, the students watched a Magic School Bus video of the ocean adventure while eating goldfish and drinking "ocean juice", which was blue Koolaid. They were thrilled to hear the juice called ocean juice. While they were watching the video, they were creating their own ocean scene. We told them to use ocean creatures that we had learned about. It was very interesting to see them recall the various elements of the ocean that we had talked about. They were even coloring them the ways that we had talked about they looked and were giving the octopus the right amount of legs! Some students even gave their sea stars suckers to hold on to the floor!

From this cluster, I have learned to make sure that the students are challenged, regardless of age. I believe that every student needs to be challenged in order to develop to their full potential.

I have also learned a great deal on how to keep kindergarteners interested and on task! One way is to give them a job, which I will definitely do in my classroom. One student was really outgoing and could not stay on task for long, so in order to help him, I asked him to be my glue patrol and to tell me whenever someone else needed glue. It was SO precious to see him take on this role and really strive at it! The students loved the help from another student!

-Power Points-

This week, the students are creating a Power Point pertaining to a book of their choice that they are reading. They are to inform the class of the characters, the setting, and the plot along with a "cliffhanger". The students have enjoyed being in the computer lab working on something that they are going to present, however, they are more focused on making the "coolest" slideshow than getting the information down to present.

While at recess, I was discussing with another fourth grade teacher of the issues of getting the students to complete their work in a timely manner. She gave me really good advice, which seems basic but I did not think of before! She said that when her class is creating a Power Point, she gets them to write out everything that they are going to put in their slideshow on a piece of paper. Once they show this to the teacher, she allows them to move on to creating the slideshow. However, they are not allowed to add details until they get all of their information down on the Power Point.

When I took the students into the computer lab, they had a very detailed sheet explaining the purpose of the activity and what was needed on the Power Point. The first things the students did was to go through and change all the colors of the background, the font of the title page, and looked through clip art for pictures. This took the students almost an entire class period!

In the future, when I want to do this activity again, or one that is similar, I will make sure to have steps that the students take before they begin their Power Point. Having steps before allows the students to really brainstorm what they are going to write before they get distracted by various aspects of Power Point.