Dr. Diamond

WE MADE IT TO THE LAST DAY OF SOCIAL STUDIES METHODS! Today on the last day of our class we conducted a mock intervention simulation. I chose to be a part of one of the four administrators for the interview along with Amanda, Cierra, and Marie. I was required to create a fake profile about myself and the school I was in search of a teacher for. I introduced myself as Dr. Diamond. Dr. Diamond went to Stanford and obtained her bachelors in information technology. She then got pursued her education and got her Masters at Harvard, and then finally her ph.D at UCLA in Los Angelas. Dr. Diamond was looking to hire a teacher candidate as a 4th-grade social studies teacher who specializes in technology at Jewel Elementary School located in Cornwall, NY. I went into the mock interviews with a jar of questions. The jar of questions had different questions this way each candidate got a fair pick, and not one question was harder than the other. I asked questions specifically about technology. Technology is huge and extremely important for student learning. I wanted to see who would be the best candidate for my school, personally. Many of my classmates did well! They were actually nervous for us to interview them, which was funny because we are on the same level as them, but they saw us as higher. I really enjoyed this experience. In the end, we had to choose one candidate we would think is the perfect fit for our school! I chose Angie. Angie answered each question in depth, was confident, and had a positive personality. I think this was a great simulation to go through because it is truly like what the real world can be once we graduate and look for jobs. There will always be competition within you and someone else so you have to learn to market yourself to be the greatest. Show what you learned, show all the hard work you put into your learning, and show what makes you better than the next person. 




Today was also the last day of class. I am so proud of myself and where this course has taken me. This course really tested me and my want to be a teacher. It truly secured my want to be an educator. It showed me what the real life as a teacher will be like: staying up all night planning your lessons, trying to make them the best for the children. I am thankful for all the experiences provided by Dr. Smirnova, and am beyond proud of myself for completing the course! 

My Philosophy of Teaching!

Each teacher has their own educational philosophy. I am grateful for the education I have received from elementary school until present. Each teacher has impacted me in different ways, and some have influenced the way I see education. As a child, I always was amazed at my teachers. I always wondered how they knew EVERYTHING, and of course, if they lived at school. I always felt a sense of love when I was at school. I always had fun, and couldn't wait to go to school the next day to see my teachers! School is one huge learning experience. I believe all teachers need to have passion when it comes to their job. Teaching is a very passionate career. I will have a very important job, which is shaping the minds of young children, and inspire them to be the best person they can, through teaching. When I think about my educational philosophy, I automatically think of PASSION. My philosophy of education is passion driven. To be a teacher means to shape the minds of young individuals. Teaching is passion driven. I didn't wake up one morning and decide I wanted to a be a teacher. It didn't dawn on me until 11th grade in my US History class. I had such an amazing teacher, and he was so passionate about what he taught. It made learning so much fun! I know that teaching is such a demanding, tiring, and challenging field. But it is also inspiring, amazing, and rewarding. My main goal of teaching is to engage my students, have fun, and encourage them, this way they want to learn! 

I will find ways to accommodate each and every one of my students. I know every child learns differently, that is why I will differentiate my instruction this way I reach the needs of all my students. Some students may work better in groups, some students may work better independently, and some students may work better with my support. No matter what the student needs, I will be sure to provide them with instruction that is best for them. When it comes to teaching it is important that teachers share their knowledge with their students. Teachers have to be educated to the point that they have to share all their knowledge. This allows students to learn and is important because you are their basis for education which leads to their future. Teachers need to have compassion and be approachable. Along with having compassion and being approachable teachers need to be loving, caring, understanding, good communicator, and an even better listener. 

As a new teacher, I will be sure to incorporate everything I learned from this course. The 5 principles of Powerful Teaching which are, the role of inquiry, cooperative learning, educating young citizens, and problem-solving/ critical thinking skills. I think incorporating these 5 principles of Powerful Teaching will make me an amazing teacher. I will make my activities that are during class time engaging, interactive, and value-based along with collaborative. These activities will allow students to follow Bloom's Taxonomy and will allow students to think in a critical manner. When teaching Social studies I will incorporate technology, artifacts, WebQuests, treasure hunts, presentations that require problem-solving skills, and inquiry. Students will not learn if teachers just slam facts, dates, information, names, and graphic-organizers. Social Studies should be taught in an interactive, engaging, encouraging, loving environment. 

Cooperative Learning & Geography Come Together!

This past week we worked hard to complete a project about Native Americans, this project was called the NAT project. Dr. Smirnova split us into groups and each group got assigned a different tribe. JIGSAW came back into play! The different tribes were Dine', Mowhawk, Muscogee, Tlingit, and Lakota. The tribe I had to research along with my group was the Dine'. My group members were Alexis, Ganny, and Marie. The question we had to answer was: How did geography influence the Native American Tribes? Our task was to design a presentation that answered this question. The presentation had to include history, geography, culture, food, clothes, habitat, famous people, and generalizations of our tribe. We had to work Cooperatively and follow the rules of cooperative learning by following PIGS. PIGS stands for, Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, and Social Skills & Face to face interaction. Each part of PIGS was present while working with my group on this project. Positive interdependence was shown by taking a specific topic and working on it equally. Individual Accountability was present because we each chose a part of the Dine' tribe to research, and were accountable for completing our own work. Group Processing was present at the end of our presentation. After reading the 3 pluses and a wish from my classmates I was able to see what we could improve on. Most of my classmates wrote that they wished the presentation was shorter. I agree with them. I always try my best to add the most information this way I can teach an abundance of information. I believe my group did a wonderful job by making the presentation filled with pictures, and great information about the Dine' tribe. Lastly, Social Skills & Face To face interaction was present when working with my group. During class time we worked together and decided upon what we were going to be working on independently. During the class period, my group and I realized we were the only group talking to each other. We didn't know why no other group was talking considering this was a GROUP PROJECT. My group and I were connected after class as well by texting and facetiming about what we should include in the presentation. I believe working socially and having face to face interaction is key when working on a group project. 

While presenting our project we tried our best to engage the class. I included videos of tribal dances, the Dine' healing song, and we all did our best to make the slides VISUAL. To begin our presentation Alexis asked the class "How does geography influence the Native Americans?" and presented a word cloud to the class. We then proceeded by showing the class a word cloud and asked them if the recognized any words in the cloud. We asked the class to tell us the 5 themes of geography. The class responded and remembered the 5 themes. This was a great introduction to our presentation. We taught the class about the Dine' tribe. The Dine' tribe is also known as the Navajo's. The Dine' tribe is the second largest tribe in the nation and the largest tribe in the United States. The tribe extends from Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They believed in many gods such as the sun god, and Earth Mother. Earth mother was the most sacred God and was the most powerful. The worshiped the sun, wind, and watercourses, and did not like to talk about death. When Columbus came to the United States the Navajo's were forced to relocate. This movement was called the Long Walk of the Navajo from Arizona to New Mexico. They relied on their environment for shelter, food, clothing, and water. I taught the class about the Navajo culture. The Navajo's were very family geared. They speak a language called Athabaskan. They have many celebrations such as 8 months pregnant, baby's first laugh, coming to age, marriage, first footprint.  The grew their own crops which resulted in eating their own food. We ended our presentation with a post-assessment. We had the class participate in a KAHOOT to test their knowledge.

Overall, I think that this project was great! It was very helpful for teaching the 5 themes of geography and learning about different tribes. 

My Presentation

Muscogee 

Tlingit

Lakota

The Fun in Geography

Let's explore what Geography is all about! Geography is the study of the Earth. The study is divided into five themes such as Location, Place, Human/environmental interaction, Movement, and Region. Each of these five places is different from one another. So, you are probably wondering why geography is super important. Geography does a number of things.  There are four important points why geography is important. 

1. Geography helps students answer the four questions children are curious and ask: What is it? Why is it there? Where is it? What is the significance of its location?

2. Geography helps students understand important connections between the physical and human systems & how they interact on the surface of the Earth.

3. Students are able to practice critical thinking skills about the distribution and different arrangments of people, places, events. Children are able to see the importance and connect their knowledge to the world.

4. Geography mainly captures the imagination of students through a focus on exploration and adventure from different perspectives & media. 

"It's not just learning which way is North, South, East, & West. Or the scale of the map. Geography is the world and all that is in it" 

This is a wonderful quote from a video from Chapter 13 of the text. Click here to watch!

What is Geo-Literacy?

According to Daniel Edelson students need to be geographically literate to make decisions. It is the understanding of the skills that are necessary to make these decisions.There are three components of geo-literacy. 

•  Understanding human & natural systems
• Geographic reasoning
• Systematic decision making

Children have to be able to make effective decisions related to geography. They will understand how our world works, how our world is connected, and how to make well-reasoned decisions.

There are 5 Major Themes of Geography.

1. Location

2.Place

3.Human & environment interaction

4.Movement

5.Regions

There are wonderful activities you can have your students involved in. 

Activites you can include in your elementary classroom!

Location: Design a country, literature around the world, map puzzles, create an atlas.

Place: ABC book of your community, say hello in different languages, collect dirt, create a postage stamp or postcard, or a weather report. 

Human/ Environment Interaction: Read aloud The Lorax to teach students about human interaction, collect your town's growing population, have students identify their wants and needs, collect pictures of your town over 10 years.

Movement: The products we use, commuter graph, roots of their family, interview community elders, license plates from all around.

Regions: Map your school region, time zones, bingo, regions in your community & cultural regions.

There are different tools and analytical concepts for teaching Geography.

technology, maps, scale, change, diversity, models, systems.

There are two beautiful well -known songs you can incorporate when teaching geography. This will engage students and keep them involved. 

This Land is Your Land

America the Beautiful

Geography should be interactive and concrete. They should participate in experiences that will be most familiar to them. Some examples of having students participate in experiences are, neighborhood map art project, interactive geography games, picture books, virtual field trips, building maps, bring Flat Stanley into the classroom! These are all fun interactive experiences for children to be involved in and learn more about geography!

After viewing the power point 103 creatively simple ways to teach Geography  I chose 3 ways I'd like to teach Geography in my future classroom. The first way I'd love to teach geography in the classroom is through clay models. I would love have students create clay models with physcial features with plasticine. As a child, I loved working with clay. It was always engaging and fun! 

Another fun way I'd teach geography in the classroom would be through a Landscape in a Box. A landscape in a box allows students to be creative while learning. 

The next way I'd like to incorporate geography in the classroom would be by having students to participate in Adopt a Rock. The students will have the opportunity to give the rocks a home. The students will name the rock, make-up where it came from, why it is shaped the way it is. The students can take the rock home and take pictures of the rock and the travels the rock went through. The main thing to have kids realize is that every rock matters.

There is a wonderful video that you can watch to learn more about the 5 major themes of geography. Click here!

Artifact Bags are Super COOL!

"Using artifacts, from primary documents to items that can be held in one's hand, is a motivational strategy"(Fuhler, 2006). An artifact bag is a hands-on activity that increases childrens knowledge. Artifact bags can be used with any subject, topic, and grade level. Artifact bags are super engaging and informative. Students are able to become a real live

historian for the day! Artifact bags follow the inquiry investigative process. The inquiry investigative process is shown through artifact bag presentations because students have to figure out what the items are, and why they are in the bag. 

I got to make my own artifact bag! My artifact bag contained items that related to The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which was my unit plan topic. I had the opportunity to go a flee market the weekend before the artifact bag was due. I found 3 very cool items there! I was excited to share my artifact bag because my items were tangible. 

The first artifact I included in my bag was an Italian flag. An Italian flag represented Christopher Columbus' nationality. 

The second artifact I included in my bag was a compass. I found this compass at the flee market. I thought it was really cool because it was important to Columbus's journey. Without the compass, Columbus would have had a hard time figuring out which way to sail to reach land

The third item in my bag was a map. Columbus took 4 voyages after discovering America. He also used a map to help him figure out how to reach land!

The last item I included was this little pilgrim I found at the flee-market. This pilgrim represents the Taino people who were already in the Americas once Columbus arrived.

At the end of my presentation, my group and the group we were paired with (Kristen and Cassandra) were able to figure out that the artifacts belong to Columbus. During class, we shared our artifact bags with our group and group 3. Kristen and Cassandras artifact bags were interesting. They were on the Spanish conquistadors. The artifacts they created were really cool. Kristen included armor worn by the conquistadors. Cassandra included a fake bullet which was really cool. Cassandra included a piece of headwear that she made by herself that mirrored Moctezuma's headpiece

.

In my presentation, I included a book to learn more about Columbus. This book tells the story of Columbus and takes you through his journeys. This is a great book for children who want to learn more about Columbus from reading!

I also included a website where you can learn more information about Columbus. 

Overall I love the artifact bags. Creating the artifact bag was really fun. I loved that I was able to get tangible items. I will most definitely be using these in my future classroom. Artifact bags are great for students to research. They can be used to introduce a topic or to end the unit. It is great for the visual learners, and it is just really FUN!


Click on the links below to explore the class' individual artifact bags!
My Artifact Bag Presentation 
Alexis Artifact Bag
Gauen's Artifact Bag
Rachel's Artifact Bag
Cierra's Artifact Bag
Cassandra's Artifact Bag
Amanda's Artifact Bag
Kim's Artifact Bag
Aimee's Artifat Bag

Mystery in Artifact Bags

This week in class we participated in a Mystery Bag activity. We learned how to make history alive through an artifact bag lesson. The task was to choose a mystery bag and figure out what the significance was in the items. I worked with Kim, Rachel, and Alexis. My group & I were given a bag with very interesting artifacts. We were excited to open the mystery bag, unwrap our items and begin our research on what these items were and who do they belong to! The first item we unwrapped was this one doll. In each doll was another doll. The doll opened and had another inside it. After researching we found out these dolls were called Matryoshka. We found out Matryoshka is a doll which was first made in 1890 in Russia. These dolls are used for decoration and entertainment. Matryoshka is a popular item in the Russian culture. The next item we discovered was gzhel pottery. The pottery is a beautiful blue and white consisting of designs. Gzhel pottery is pottery created in the 19th century. After researching we found out that this was pottery from the Russian culture. Gzhel is named after a city located in Southeast Moscow, Russia. This pottery can be used for a number of different things. For example, gzhel pottery can be used for decoration, vases, candlesticks, clocks, tea, and dinner sets & more. The third item we found in the bag was an award for Dr. Smirnova! This award was presented to her. The award was the National Teachers Training Academy of Science.  She got this award in 2005 after she came to America from Russia! We had to translate this award this way we could figure out what it meant. It was in the Russian language. This was a really cool experience because we got to work together and figure out what these items were and how they related to each other. The gzhel & Matryoshka are both Russian decorations. This activity was hands on and engaging. I really love the idea of Mystery bags because it encourges students to want to learn. To end the activity we had to fill out a chart which asked us the 5 W's: Who, What, When, Where, Why. Ultimately, we all used the inquiry method to figure out what the artifacts symbolized. We had to use the information given, conduct a investigation, and conclude  our investigation with an conclusion which explained our evidence. Each group presented their bags & we came to the conlcusion that this was all about Dr. Smirnova. 

Here is our presentation!

Gzhel

Matryoshka

Dr. Smirnova's Award

Making History Alive in the Classroom

Here are some more Strategies that can make history alive in the classroom!

Using the technology of today, teachers will have the power to increase the engagement of students in the class! Making History Alive will be filled with meaning, value-based, participatory, and activeness. 

It is important to have students engaged while learning history. Learned from chapter 12 section 6
One strategy that should be used in the classroom is the EPIC strategy. The EPIC strategy:
EXPERIENCES- related to the topic being taught
PERCEPTIONS-feeling that students have, details that they remembered
INFORMATION-teacher shares information about the topic being studied
CONNECTIONS- teacher helps students make connections between the students' experiences and perceptions and the topic being studied. 



Role Playing/ Simulations- Leads children to be engaged and have a better understanding and purpose


Artifacts to get the students engaged in the lesson you will be teaching. Teaching with artifacts is a good way to keep the students engaged. Real life objects from the past are very cool for students to see.

Local History- Interview members of the community or family members that know about the past. You can combine geography and social studies. You can also have the students go to different historical sites in their area and see what makes their area unique.

A website to enhance your learning!

Experiencing Poverty

Yesterday I attended Poverty Simulation. Before attending the simulation I had an understanding of what poverty is, but would never think I would be able to experience it. Well, I didn't necessarily experience real life poverty, but I was put into a situation where I had to pretend. We got to experience one month in poverty through 4 weeks. There were four 15 minute periods. Each "day"(15 minutes) was considered a week. There were different agencies and shops set up in the room that helped/ harmed us. For example, there was the school, mortgage company, bank, quick cash, police department, jail, employment center, health care center. Each person participating in the simulation had a role. We had to stick to that role as much as possible.I was assigned Cindy Chen a mother of 3 who was married to Charles Chen. Cindy worked full time, 40 hours a week, making only 9 dollars an hour.  Her husband was unemployed. They had endless bills to pay, feed the household, and take care of their family... the problem was they didn't have enough money to take pay their bills and buy food. It was such a struggle! During the simulation, I lost my job. I left my employment card at the bank and they fired me. I don't think this was a real reflection on what would happen in the real world. If you leave your ID card somewhere you are most likely to get it back. Since I lost my job my husband applied for a job. He got the job! The only problem was he got his first paycheck, went to cash it, just for the bank to take his check away. The bank closed and took his check and wouldn't give it back. We told the police and he did not do anything about it. I do not believe that would happen in the real world. Although, there were many things that would happen in the real world. In the simulation, my daughter was 16 and pregnant. In our family description it said that she ran off with her boyfriend a lot. My 10-year-old son had to take care of my 8-year-old son. Since I was never home, and my husband was out doing other things such as buying food, our children got into trouble. My daughter came home with drugs and my boys were stealing and getting into trouble. It was impossible to make ends meet 




During the simulation, I realized the frustration people in poverty have to deal with on an everyday basis. No matter how hard and how much you try, NOTHING is enough. Trying to pay your bills, mortgage, car payment, and buying food each week was a struggle. There were weeks we went without food. There were times where we made our children steal transportation passes, and money to help our situation. I just wanted to give up. 
By the end of the simulation, I realized how important being educated on poverty is, especially being a teacher candidate. There are so many children in today's schools that are experiencing poverty. There are many children that I will encounter and have already encountered with my career choice.  School should be a safe place for these children. It is terrible to put children in situations where they feel like they need to help, stay home from school, and take their focus off of being a kid. The simulation changed my perspective on poverty. It influenced me to take the next steps to help those in need. As the holidays begin I realized how fortunate I am. I am so fortunate to live the life I do. I could not imagine what living in poverty every day would be like. I am lucky to have a the oppuntinty to attend college.  I am lucky to have a roof over my head, food to eat, and love from my family. What I am most lucky for is my future as a childhood educator and making children's lives better.

Life in New Spain

We finally made it to the last 3 lessons! Group 4 taught their direct instruction lesson on Thursday on Life in New Spain. This was such an interesting topic. I loved learning about Life in New Spain myself. My colleagues who taught this lesson were Olivia Green, Amanda Almodovar, Cierra Torres, and Ganny Kim. To start out the direct instruction lesson they introduced a "LEARN" poster. The LEARN poster was introduced to the students to accompany the captains vs explorers game. The students were told if they had more points than the teachers by the end of the lesson, they would get a prize. I really loved this idea because it kept the students motivated through the whole lesson. Each student was provided with an explorer folder. Inside the explorer folder was everything that the students would need for the lesson. I really loved the idea of the explorer folder because it wasn't time-consuming. The teachers didn't have to pass out papers. The teachers also introduced fireworks. Every time the key term were underlined the teachers along with the students would act out the fireworks motion. I think the students enjoyed this. Throughout the lesson, there was a lot of turn and talk opportunities for the students. For example, the students were told to turn and talk about "Why the conquistadors needed gold?" I like the turn and talk method because it allows the students to share ideas with each other, and have them check with each other for a correct answer. The teachers also enforced thumbs up if you agree👍, thumbs down if you disagree 👎. There was a lot of information for the students to retain. Amanda, Ganny, Olivia, and Cierra did a wonderful job. Each teacher was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and engaging.  Throughout the lesson, the students were copying down main points and key terms. The only thing I wish they did differently was have the students write less. Having the students write less would allow time for the guided practice. I can really tell each teacher worked very hard on the lesson. I know what it feels like to run out of time and rush a lesson. The teachers handled this very well and skipped to the independent practice. I think group 4 did a wonderful job and I truly enjoyed watching their direct instruction lesson. I can't wait to see inquiry and cooperative learning! Great job ladies💗!

Different Worlds Collide

This past week group 3 taught about Different Worlds Collide. Group 3 did a wonderful job. Kristen, Angie, and Cassandra created 3 different engaging lessons. The first thing I love about their lesson was the "Teachers vs Students" game. This was a game where the students strived to do well and follow rules and beat the teachers. If they beat the teachers, in the end, they got a prize. (The students wound up beating the teachers), Surprise! This game keeps the students on task, engaged, and follow directions.

They started their lesson with a short greeting and a blank timeline. I think the timeline was a great idea to keep the class on task. The students were really thinking about what they learned in the past lesson, which was the lesson my group & I taught. The class was introduced to multiple key terms. Some of the key terms that I remember were conquistadors, Tenochtitlan, New Spain, Colonist, and a few more that I don't remember off the top of my head. The teachers gave the students an important list of key terms and had them fill out the definition of each term. The teachers set up this game to check the understanding of the students. The game was a review for the Spanish clothing and Aztec 

clothing. This was a great way to have the students participating and active during the lesson. I loved one of their activities during guided practice. The teachers provided each group with a whiteboard. They put the definition on the board and each group held up the key term that accompanied the definition. The students held up the whiteboard to check their understanding. I loved the closure of the lesson! The teachers created a stop light poster. They explained what the stop light poster was. The teachers passed out a yellow, green, or a red post-it depending on what the student requested.  Yellow meant I kind of understand, Red meant I need more help learning, and green for I totally understand the material. Depending on how secure they felt from the lesson they placed their post it on the stoplight. I think this was a great idea to see what the students learned & didn't learn from the lesson. Overall Group 3 did a wonderful job! They should be proud of themselves for being so creative and hardworking!

Second Day of Teaching!

Today my group and I taught our inquiry lesson and cooperative learning! Between planning cooperative learning, and inquiry lessons, and creating activities, to say the least, this has been the most stressful week in my life. I am aware that being a teacher is going to put me in a challenge sometimes, but trying to juggle creating lessons, along with 5 other courses wasn't easy. Let's just say I fell behind in a few of my other classes. My group and I worked on these lessons for a week straight after we were finished working on direct instruction. We worked together in the library from 7pm- 12/1am. I am so happy with the work my group and I put into these lessons. We work so well together, between sharing ideas and putting those ideas to the lessons. I wouldn't have wanted to spend that much time with anyone else. Thursday came along and we taught inquiry and cooperative learning lessons. Both of our lessons were lengthy. Before we began we were nervous that we weren't going to have enough time to complete cooperative learning. 

We began our lesson by reviewing what we taught in our direct instruction lesson. After that, we began our inquiry lesson. The inquiry lesson was interesting. The inquiry lesson method is different than direct instruction. It involves the students using the information they learned in the previous lesson and conduct an investigation. This promotes independence and the use of the scientific method. The lesson was like a story. The students had to help Columbus fund his "5th voyage". We told the students to come up with a hypothesis for a statement given to help persuade the king and queen to fund Columbus again. I wish we would have done this differently because some of the students didn't take the hypothesis seriously, and they created a silly one. We split the students into 4 different groups. The inquiry lesson was more like a "treasure" hunt. We began by telling the students to check under their desks for a map and letter from Christopher Columbus asking them to help him fund his 5th voyage to the America's. The students were excited when we told them to look under their desk. After they found the map and note the students had to work on the first task given by Columbus. The first task was to find the countries that Columbus gave the coordinates to. The 2 important countries found was Spain and America. The students seemed to enjoy this part of the lesson. The lesson continued and the students continued to receive letters from Columbus if they got the previous answer correct. The inquiry lesson ended with the students having to decode a thank you letter from Columbus using key terms. 

After the inquiry lesson we transitioned into cooperative learning... keep in mind we only had 13 minutes to teach and have the students present our cooperative learning lesson. Cooperative learning is when students work together to and create a group project that they will present and reflect on. Collaboration in the classroom is extremely important. It allows students to build on social skills and engages students. Each student had their own role in our cooperative learning lesson. They assigned to be a scribe, illustrator, volume controller, facilitator, grammar checker, and keeping your group members on task. Each teacher was assigned a group and our job was to watch over the group and make sure they were doing the right thing and keeping on task. The cooperative learning lesson consisted of the students creating a poem based off the topic given. Each group had a different topic from the direction instruction information taught in the previous lesson. I felt as if we were rushing the students to complete the task, but that was because was only had 5 minutes to have the students share what they worked on. I don't think that we should have planned differently because there was just not enough time for cooperative learning and inquiry in one hour. It was impossible. We were on such a tight time limit. My group and I were so stressed because we worked so hard on the lessons and they didn't go as planned because of time. I understand that no teacher, lesson, or class is perfect but this was upsetting to us because we put our all into these 2 lessons.

I am forever greatful to have been placed in the group One Happy Globe. We worked so well together and I think we came up with 3 wonderful lessons. We've became so close from spending so many hours in the library together for 2 weeks straight. I wouldn't have wanted to learn, and teach without any of these girls! I am excited to watch the last two groups teach next week & the week after!

One Happy Globe Teaching!

One Happy Globe

For a week straight my group has been meeting in the library twice a day from 3-5 and then from 7-12 am to prepare for our Direct Instruction lesson we taught today. All this preparation leading up to one hour of teaching. I was so nervous before the lesson today because I thought I would forget to teach some important information! Luckily, from my point of view, the lesson went smoothly and great. I am so proud of myself and my group members #OneHappyGlobe.I truly know what teamwork is after experiencing lesson planning with these ladies. Teaching today came so naturally. I love how we taught the day after Columbus Day! It was so suiting! I believe the 5th-grade class enjoyed our lesson today. We taught the students about Christopher Columbus, The Columbian Exchange, and other explorers such as Amerigo Vespucci.We created a Christopher Columbus web with the students, and a Columbian Exchange interactive activity on a poster board. Towards the end of the lesson, we passed out an exit ticket. This was our independent practice. We were able to see what the students understood and learned by the results of the exit ticket. Some students didn't pay attention to us. We know that because they wrote the wrong answers on their independent practice. I am not sure if the 5th grade sees us as  "real teachers". During the Columbian Exchange, the students came up and placed the items where they thought they belonged. I think we should have done that faster and made sure every student had a turn. For the Columbus web, I think we should have had the students discuss with their tables, and send one member from up to write an answer down. From the video of my group teaching, I noticed that I say "so" a lot. For the future, I will work on not starting every sentence with "so". My group members need to work on not saying "guys". That is something major that stuck out to me while watching us teaching. Overall, the 5th grade was engaged, participating, and active during our lesson. The students were very helpful when teaching our lesson. They excelled with answering our questions when we asked to make sure they understood the content we were teaching. I think the students enjoyed the video, it was a little cheesy but still educational and informational. Something that stuck out to me and that my colleagues told me, was that they loved the rules poster. We came up with the idea of rules and having a rules poster. We stated the rules to the 5th grade & hoped that they would follow to stay in boundaries and stay focused. I thought it was important that we told the students rules because from the first lesson it seemed as if they had rules they would have had less trouble controlling the students. There were a few things we could have done differently now that the lesson has been taught. I am excited to teach Cooperative Learning & the Inquiry lesson on Thursday! 

Group 1 Fieldwork

This week group 1 kickstarted teaching to the 5th grade! Overall group 1 did great! I can't imagine how nerve wrecking it would be to teach first. I give Marie and Aimee a lot of props for going first and doing well. The students in the 5th grade seem to be a great class together. They are so intelligent! The students know a lot about the topic we are going to be teaching them (this makes our job a tad bit easier)! From what I saw, Marie is going to be a wonderful teacher. She is so encouraging, has a great, loud tone to her voice, and is very gentle with the children. Aimee has multiple good qualities as well. She is caring and uses great eye contact. Marie and Aimee taught about latitute and longitude. Their inquiry lesson included a lot of  The students question what the teacher says, that’s what I meant by they are so intelligent! Both teachers were well prepared with their replies quickly. During their lesson when students wouldn’t cooperate they would use a little line that said “1,2,3 eyes on me”.  I really liked that and thought it was cute. I am nervous yet excited to teach next week! Creating 3 different lesson plans have defiantly been a challenge! I am tired, and sleep deprived but I am so happy with the group I am in. We really are becoming a family. I think that we all will thank Dr. Smirnova in the long run for these long, endless nights in the library working on our 3 lesson plans! GREAT JOB GROUP 1! You set a wonderful example for the rest of us to follow!

Class Notes

During Fieldwork
Day 1- direct instruction
Day 2- half inquiry/ half cooperative learning

read edTPA materials
Task 1A completed before student teaching, learning context.


Questions we could ask students...

• Where have you explored to?
• What oceans have you've traveled to/ in?
• Would you call yourself an explorer? 
• Have you ever been on a boat?

Pre-assessment questions

When is Columbus Day this year? October 9 / or the second Monday of October
Why did he decide to voyage? he thought he might find an easier and shorter route to India.
What year did he start his voyage on the ocean blue? 1492
Did he think the world was round or flat? He thought the world was flat.
Name 1 of the 3 ships on his voyage? Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria
Did he have one voyage or multiple voyages? Multiple, 4 voyages.
Where did Columbus end up after his expedition? America