Student Teaching!

I should have announced this earlier, but I'm really excited about knowing my placement! I got to meet my 2nd graders at Pleasant Valley Elementary School!!  I already went for my field experience for 10 hours.  Soon, I'll be there every single day for a whole semester!  Can't wait!!

Similarities and Differences

In my curriculum class, we have been studying what research shows about various strategies to use so students learn better.   

Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock is given credit for this information presented here.

I'll start off with...

Identifying similarities and differences.

The percentile gain is 31-46%!

What it is?

There are four parts to this strategy:
Comparing:  what do the two objects/ideas have in common, what is different?

Classifying:  first identifying similarities and differences and then organizing into two or more categories based on similarities/differences.

Creating Metaphors:  identifying abstract similarities and differences between two elements.

Creating Analogies:  identifying how two pairs of elements are similar and different.

Thank You...

Ron Clark has inspired me to come up with my own by combing two of his rules.

I believe appreciation and saying thank is extremely important.  Therefore, every week, have your class write a thank you note for someone working hard in the school (but not always receiving the gratitude they deserve).

These people can be:
cafeteria workers, bus drivers, janitors, volunteers that come to the school, other teachers who come and help out in the classroom, etc.

Who doesn't like being thanked for what they do?!  Plus, it teaches your students to be more grateful!

Ask ?Questions?

Inquiry lessons take more time to plan and do BUT they are so important and beneficial to the classroom.  Wait, you might be asking a question...what is an inquiry lesson?  Perhaps, you do these all the time (I hope!). 

Inquiry lessons provide students the opportunity to ask questions AND find out answers for themselves...with you helping and guiding along the way of course!  It might hard to do lessons like these every single day, but once a week is quite manageable!  

An example of an inquiry lesson (combining science and math) is giving your students various sodas and scales and get them asking questions.  You can model a few questions to get them to start thinking:  does diet weigh less than regular; does carbonated weigh more than flat soda; etc.  They can use the scientific method to test the various questions they come up with; come up with a hypothesis, and so on.  Let them come up with the questions and be the curious beings that they are (or hopefully are)!

Positively Positive!

Notice when someone asks you to do something in a nice way, you're bound to do it more than if you were asked in a negative way?  Yeah, that's the idea with children.  They ARE human beings after all so when treated with respect, they'll treat you back respectfully (HOPEFULLY)!  However, I see way to many adults who treat children like someone less than them.  No, they deserve respect too!

Therefore, using positive statements when asking your students to do something can make quite a difference.

It's not "don't run"  it's "walk please".
It's not "don't talk while I'm talking" it's "please be quiet while I'm talking".

You get the drift!

Experience Social Studies

I am all about variety in the classroom!  Here are various ways to make social studies come alive for students:

*primary sources
*re-enacting
*current events (newspaper, magazines, etc)
*guest speakers
*field trips
*movies
*music
*art
*props/costumes
*timeline
*map
*children's literature (especially ones from various cultures so children have various perspectives on the same event)

What Do You Think Of....

I like the introductory activity that goes something like this:

What do you think of when I say...penguin?!

Or what do you think of when I say...Greece?

Whatever the topic is for that day, you use the word instead and write their answers on the board, overhead, Smart Board, etc...

It gets your students thinking about the topic and you can assess them on what they already know and what connections they have already with the topic.  Not bad, eh?  Easy, fun, AND useful! :)

Vocab Fun and Plus

Here's a few activities to learn vocab!

Cubing:  making paper cubes with questions such as:  1.  What does it look like?  2.  Where does it live?  3.  What does it feel like?  Etc.  Can be used as activity in the beginning to assess what students know already, in the middle to expand their knowledge, or at the end to assess what they have learned.  You can even use this for math problems as shown below!

Connect To:  giving students words or having them come up with 2 lists of words, and then have students connect one word from one list to another word in the other list.  They can be a stretch but it really makes them think.  The activity can show you if students have any misconceptions about any of the words and the level of comprehension the students are at. 

Manipulative Graphic Organizers:  give your students words that can be put into categories and straws and let them take it away!  This can be used for vocab in any subject:  math (real numbers, non real numbers, integers, etc); science (warm-blooded, cold-blooded, mammals, birds, etc) social studies (Northeastern states, Southern states, etc); word study (nouns, adjectives, etc)...you get idea!  I like that it's a hands-on graphic organizer!

Ron Clark

So I have been reading a book called The Essential 55 by Ron Clark, and it is SUCH a fabulous book!  I recommend everyone to check it out!  Ron Clark just inspires you to be a passionate teacher like no other!  Check out the website:  http://www.ronclarkacademy.com/!

Koool Subjects

Math.  Science.  Social Studies.  Reading.  Writing.  Sound familiar?  Uh duh!

Well, why spin those names into something fun and creative?!  Writing can be Author Time!  Who says it can't?! Kids will be more excited about going to Author Time rather than to...Writing.

I'll be honest, I totally stole this idea from Educating Esme:  A Diary of a Teacher's First Year.  But then again, teachers don't steal ever...they borrow! :)

So be creative and come up with your own cool names for subjects!  If anything, you can always purchase the book.  When our professor read it to us, I absolutely loved it!  It's definitely worth having this in your library!

Spelling on the Ceiling

Want your students to know all the spelling words?!  Put them on the ceiling!  Even before the end of the year, they'll know all the words already without a problem!

Yes, they can obviously cheat during tests but they'll know them so well by the end that it'll be worth it.  Since that's what matters in the end, right?!

Where Are You?

So in curriculum, my professor modeled a very awesome lesson for us today about latitude!

Before we went outside, she passed out two note cards randomly to each student with the vocabulary and their degrees latitude on a separate card:

North/South Pole
Arctic Circle /Antarctic Circle
Equator
Tropic of Cancer/Capricorn
Southern/Northern Hemisphere

Outside, in chalk, she drew an "earth" with the mentioned above words but unlabeled of course.  She placed a student at the North Pole with a scarf on and another student at the South Pole with ear muffs on indicating cold.  At the equator she had a student on each side sitting on beach chairs with sunglasses and hats indicating lots of sun.  That  was really cool because it was such a great visual!

Then, she placed a boat in the middle of the ocean and said it was lost.  How were we to find it?  This is where the importance of latitude and longitude came in!  That day we only focused on latitude but you can introduce longitude and its importance or save it for the next day.  This was a really great way to relate to students because at some point, they have probably got lost somewhere before.

After everything was in place, we started putting our note cards on the corresponding lines on latitude.  While we're doing this, we had a worksheet with a circle on it to place what we had on our "earth" already.  Having a sheet to fill out as we go makes it less possible for students to stop paying attention once they were done placing the cards they had in their hands.

It was so hands-on and even though I obviously knew all these concepts, I think from a child's point of view, I would've remembered it a lot better than just sitting in class and doing a worksheet!

Hands On...All the Way!

While doing my astronomy homework, I realized just how important hands-on/real life experiences are because if I didn't have my astronomy lab today, I would've had no idea how to do this homework.  Eventually, I would've figured it out, but it would probably take up hours to do so.

Therefore, the idea of hands-on activities was reinforced even more for me.  That is, once again, what I keep in mind for my lessons.  Yes, not absolutely everything is going to be hands-on and interactive BUT it definitely has to be a big part of your students' experiences!  Working collaboratively in groups or with a partner (aka cooperative learning) is so crucial to the classroom!!

"I" Goals

I realize now that my blog has a little of a...I don't know, a problem maybe.  As I have learned in curriculum, it's important to look at the end goals and what students are going to learn.  An activity may be really good, fun, and creative (like I'm all for) but students might not learn much from it.  Nevertheless, I still want to keep writing my blog and it's here for inspiration to you all!  

It's important for students to have personal goals in what they're going to learn.  Therefore, in the beginning of a lesson, students can write "I will learn...".  When students have a goal in mind, they will learn better and be more attentive (hopefully) since they have a goal to achieve here!  They can even share those goals with a partner to be accountable for their goal and to have a sense of community!

Goldfish and Dog Food

Today's post is actually going to be more of a lesson to us teachers rather than just an activity.  Never thought I would learn something blog worthwhile in my astronomy class, but I did.  Amazing!  My professor had a pretty interesting story so I have to share.

The activity is pretty cool I guess.  All kids probably love experiments so either as a class or individually, you can set up this experiment and find out a thing or two maybe. 

The experiment goes like this:

There's 4 different fish bowls. 
One golfish (the control) is in freshwater and eats fishfood.
Another fish is in freshwater but eats dog food.
Another fish is in saltwater and eats fish food.
Another fish is in saltwater and eats dog food.

Which fish is better off?  Well, that's for you and your class to find out.

What was really fun (and really sad at the same time) with my professor's story was the following:

His daughter got points off because she didn't have a control in her experiment (yes, she did have the fish in freshwater that eats fish food).  The moral of the story is:  teachers, know your facts (as obvious as that sounds). 

Have a happy Wendesday :)

Art & Music

What a great way to start the semester...I already learned the importance of incorporating art and music in your classroom.  I never thought about it but it's quite a great idea I would say!

As an introduction to her class, she  turned on "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong and flipped through the colorfully illustrated What a Wonderful World book.  It was awesome!

After that, we used 3 symbols to describe the 3 most important things in our lives (of course mine were my Jesus, my husband, and my baby)!  It was a creative way to introduce ourselves to each other!

Anticipation Guides

Recently, I came across a very good section in a textbook with good ways to teach reading and writing.  Some of them I remember using in my school/college years and some are new that I have never seen before.

The first activity mentioned was an anticipation guide.  I remember doing one in my first  year of college and it was pretty interesting finding out the stereotypes I had.  It's amazing how you can change your mind after reading something or after looking closely into why you think the way you think.

An anticipation guide is pretty simple.  Just need to know the facts before giving it out to your students.  Examples of various kinds are shown below:

 

Word Wall

As a classroom or on an individual basis, create a word wall.  For lower elementary, ask your students to cut out (or as assistance from an adult if required) words they recognize...on cereal boxes, in magazines, whatever it may be. 

For older elementary, have them cut out words they like the sound of, that they recently learned, or a word they would like to learn. 

This can even be a bulletin in your room with colorful words out of various places your kids bring!  This bulletin is so easy to make, that it requires your kids to work, not you!

Another option is for you to make your own words to put on this wall that you want your kids to learn, but that doesn't require any contribution from your students, thus, not as engaging.

Map It!

So the coolest two maps I have seen in my life were in 2nd and 4th grade.  Not only did I see it, I ate it too!

Teaching mountains, rivers, etc etc...make a candy map with your kids!!  Including their sense of taste will make them remember better whatever it is you're teaching them...for sure/1  Here's a few suggestions (feel free to add, subtract, and substitute your own ideas)!  There's hundreds of candy out there that you could use for your specified lesson.  Be creative :).

Land:  green icing
Oceans:  blue icing
Mountains:  chocolate chips
Rivers:  Twizzlers (separated, preferably blue)
Major cities:  Gumdrops or something of that sort

What...a Worksheet?!

Hate worksheets?!  Me too!  But, put a spin on the whole worksheet ordeal!  Have your class make a worksheet themselves!!

Each student writes a question on whatever topic it is that you're doing...may it be a math worksheet, science, social studies, whatever...and then you compile the worksheet and give it out.  Imagine how proud they feel about their contribution!

And maybe throw in some of your own...they'll never know ;).

 

They can act!!

One thing I hate when children grow up learning to read out loud without expression.  And when they get to to be adults, they're stuck expressionless. 

So...why not set up a theater in YOUR classroom (or if you can, use the auditorium)?!  Get out those props, costumes, and have them do a play and make them use EXPRESSION!!  No one wants to go to play where the actors have no sense of voice.  At least I don't!  If you don't wanna go through the trouble of having props, costumes, and lots of movement, then just read the play out loud with (but don't forget to make them use:  expression, Expression, EXPRESSION!).

Blog About A Blog

Kids looove the internet so why not have them publish on the net?!  You can have your own classroom blog!  It's free, it's easy, so why not?!

Each week (or day, it's whatever schedule you want) one student can post something on your classroom blog.  They can choose the topic (or you can, it's also up to you).  Then, they can share the link with their parents, friends, family, neighbors, etc.  Imagine just how proud they'll feel!

Create, Edit, Create Some More

Do your kids dream of being on the front of cover of a magazine? 
Well, why not make your very own magazine with your class (or grade)?! 
They can create a magazine with all the sections a real one would have but it would be personalized just for your class!  They can have an Advice section, Featured Stories, even advertisements!!
Divvy up the responsibilities and getting the writing, editing, photographing, designing going in your classroom!!!

Bonus:  Sell it to the parents and make some money :).

Write to Each Other

I think one of the most fun ways to get kids to write is when they journal about themselves and you comment on their writing, sharing parts of your life as well.  Walking through Barnes&Noble, a book there inspired me to write this post.  It was a book with ideas for journal entries.  I am so totally going to buy that book and USE it!!  Kids like writing about themselves and I like to know my students :).

No English?!

Let's face it, one day you'll have a new student...who doesn't speak any English.  That was me a few years ago...we won't mention how many.  To this day I remember how I cried..and cried...and cried the first few days.  However, I won't forget how my teacher calmed down my anxiety with....

PICTURES!  

That's right!  First of all, I had no idea what was going on, so my teacher made a schedule for me with illustrations so I always knew what in the world was going on!  I don't know...might not work for all crying, anxious little ones, but it sure helped me!

Just Thinking...

I really wish I knew what grade I was teaching in the future so I could be more specific with my blog, but I guess it's nice to have a variety of activities.  Plus, they can sometime be adapted to each grade.  So hopefully, you guys find these useful and even inspiring!  If anyone has cool ideas, send me an email at martyxa91@gmail.com or post a comment on this post.  I looove to hear new ideas!  The more the merrier as they say!!

My little family :)

Children's Meseum

As a kid, a lot of what I remember from school are field trips!  Kids always enjoy field trips, that's for sure.  One place you should go find is your local children's museum.  I found ours downtown in Harrisonburg, VA.  You can find out more at Discovery Museum.  It's an interactive museum and what can be better than that?!  I'll definitely want to take my kids there! 

If you don't have a children's museum in your area, then that's ok...there's plenty of other places your children can visit.  Or just find the nearest one.  I'm sure it will be worth it! :)

Dreaming About Preschool

Today there's no activity, but I just want to say I can't wait to find out where I'll be student teaching!!  Hopefully, I can get my request which is at the Blue Ridge Christian School.  I've never been to a private Christian school so I really want to see how it is.  Maybe I'll even be able to get a job there.  If not, I'll have to open up my Christian preschool.  That's my ultimate dream.  Yes, I even have a name for it already! :)

So Mariam Rossoshanskiy, I'm waiting for you to come here to Virginia and we can start it together!!

ABCs Everywhere

The English language has 26 letters in it.  I knew you already knew that, but that's 26 different things your students can write about in their ABC book.  Whatever the subject may be, an ABC book is easy and fun to do. 

In 4th grade, we did an ABC book for Virginian history.  This idea can transcend into so many other subjects.  Just pick one and have your student write an item for each letter, describe it, and for visual memory, add a picture for each word!

Yummy Books

If your class reads a book that is related to food, then make the food together as a class!  It's fun and tasty, and the kids will remember it for awhile! 

In 5th grade we made doughnuts after we read Homer Price.  Is your class reading a book about Mexican culture?  Make Mexican food!  Ancient Greece?  Have some Greek food!  Whatever it is, don't forget the sense of taste in your lessons once in awhile!!

SSR With a Spin

Not everyone agrees on SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) because you can't hear your students reading so it's not very useful...blah blah blah...but if your school/class practices SSR, then why not give it a little twist?

If it's a nice, warm day outside, take your kids to a quiet (and scenic) place and have SSR under the pretty blue sky and green grass (or picnic tables)!  Of course, the playground should probably be avoided due to noise.

Scrapbooking

As I start this summer, I look forward to a lot of scrapbooking.  So I thought...is there a way to incorporate scrapbooking in the classroom?

Sure!  Why not?!  Let it be a creative writing project for the whole class!  Each student can decorate a page about themselves and putting all the pages together will create a nice masterpiece for the class by the class!

Ideas for the kids to include in their pages:

Ask for a funny story about them, a favorite quote, an embarrassing moment, who's their hero, who they want to be when they grow up, their favorite vacation, etc, etc.  Let the kids choose from a variety of questions to include in their page!  They can come up with their own ideas as well!!

Also, ask for the kids to bring in pictures if possible!  And provide materials as well such as magazines to cut out pictures, stickers, markers, pretty paper, you name it!