Teaching My First Lesson!

The last two Wednesdays  I have been in my Pre-Intern class. I am very excited to say this past Wednesday I was able to teach my first lesson! It went very well, the grade 4/5 class was very engaged, they answered questions, asked questions, and even enjoyed the activity!

My partner and I taught a social lesson, on the major resources in Saskatchewan. The kids new a lot more than I thought they would on potash, uranium, and oil. This was something that made me less nervous once we got started because i felt they had some background information. We did a map activity where the students were able to use a fill in the blank sheet to paste resources in the proper places on the Saskatchewan map. When they finished they worked on a word search that we made for them about Saskatchewan major resources. During the map activity one student said “You guys are really nice and fun” I was somewhat surprised by this comment, but smiled and said thank you quietly. I was glad to hear they were having fun while doing a social lesson. I had that feeling that day that the children didn’t just learn important things about Saskatchewan but had fun doing that.

The other great thing of last Wednesday was we were told we may have some difficulties with one of the students in our class, they are very behind in reading and writing. We knew this while making our social lesson so we made sure to adapt it for him. We were also told that they may disrupt the class or have trouble following along. During the lesson when I could I went and sat with him making sure he was staying on task and following along. What was great was they told me they were good and understood and could do it themselves! I was shocked by this but then very happy because it made me feel that we had done our job by adopting the lesson to fit there needs.

Our first two full days in the classroom have been amazing experience and I hope the next six are just as exciting!

Look back at the end of the week for how my first visual art lesson goes!

Third year..Introduction activity ideas?!?

The third year is well on its way, the homework is piling up, should be doing homework but thought I should take a break and write a quick blog. So far everything is going well, this week we found out our placements for pre-internship I am very exited to get back into the classroom! My partner and I are in a grade 4/5 class which will be very different but I think alot of fun.

Our first task on the first day which is next wednesday is to come prepared with a game/activity to introduce ourselves, I have heard of many different ways, but not really sure which one I should do or will work well. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!!

Summer lovin..

I can not believe that summer has come and is already pretty much over. I had a very busy at times and relaxing summer.

May and June began by taking a spring class ELNG 326 which was very interesting. Talked a lot about working with ESL students in the classroom and teaching overseas. I spent lots of time working juggling 3 jobs was very interesting but I made it through it.

I had decided to purchase season tickets for the Riders! Which was a great purchase in my opinion So far have had a great time at all the home games, and excited for the many more. My July work schedule was much better only one job, more time to relax and soak up some sun! Attended Craven and was able to see some great concerts especially Kenny Chesney!!!

August was time for adventure. Started off August by a family trip to San Fran for a week. It was an AWESOME trip! I had never been, was able to see the Golden Gate, Exploratorium, Alcatraz, Museum of Modern Art, Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory and a lot more! The weather wasn’t the greatest but we survived by bundling up. We were even lucky to catch a baseball game, the Giants vs. the Cubs. It was a good game went into extra winnings at the San Fran Giants won! I was able to do lots of shopping in the nine story mall and union square. Alcatraz was super interesting and we were able to attend the 76th Anniversary. There was guards that had worked there and children who had grown up on the island. We were able to meet and talk to them as we toured around the island.

Golden Gate on a foggy and windy day

 After returning home I attended a wedding, my boyfriends cousin got married on Aug 21. The cermony was outside it was a windy but sunny day it ended up being perfect. The rest was then held at the Turvey Center. It was a beautiful wedding!!

 

I recently went to my cabin which is located about 2 hrs north of Prince Albert. Located on the lake of Weyakwin, I spent 5 days way up there, it was pretty chilly but still had a great time, sitting around the fire, boating, and relaxing! I really wanted to get up there this year because I hadn’t been 2 years and not sure how much longer we will have it for seeing that it is for sale…

There goes the summer school starts in one week and as much as I need to go back and get back on routine, I don’t want to have to sit in class and deal with loads of homework but its life right?! I am very excited to get back into the classroom this year. Pre-internship here I come!

Hope everyone else’s summer was Great!

Final Reflection

As the semester finally rolls to an end I am very excited that I will be half done university. As I sit back and reflect over the past two years it has been a long and challenging journey but I have made it to the half point, so there is no stopping now. As the nice weather comes around I get more and more excited for their to be nice sunny days and no more snow. I can’t say I love going to school everyday all day or working everyday all day, but I know once this is all over I will be doing what I want to be doing and enjoying every moment while it lasts.

The last three weeks have been crazy I have had a million things due in every class, sometimes get the feeling like the homework load is never going to go away. I felt like that a lot these last few weeks, just as I was finishing one thing another was thrown at me. But here I am with one day of classes left, including 2 in-class essays, a fun night of reflections and one final! I am very excited but then thinking in less than a month I will be starting a 6 weeks spring class, but just one so it should be better than five.

Over the semester I have learned so much about technology once again. So for my final reflection I decided to use my computer and technology skills and create a video to sum up a few of the things that I learned and I believe are and will be an important part of my teaching in the future. You can check my video reflection out below! Unlike many of the other students in this class I still have two years left, so I feel that I can give many of these tools a try in my pre-internship and internship in the upcoming years.

Thanks for everyone’s help, support, guidance through the journey of ECMP 455. Have a great summer and good luck with your future classrooms and or classes!!

Collaberation 104

This is my final post about our final project. Janna and I were able to send Lee our video’s we created for her grade 4 students. She was thrilled with our project and even wrote about on her blog and her class blog.

Janna and I have also discussed with her about getting a time set up for a video conference. We are really excited about this, but it won’t be occuring till after finals are over. But we both look forward to this!

Other posts about our collaberation project can be found below:

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Final Art Project

Tonight, I finally finished my final art project. Like I explained in an earlier post, this is a project about identity. I decided to do it on personal identity. After all the work of finding different materials and putting it together, it was fun after all. Everything on my collage has something to do with personal identity, regarding past and present, more or less about me or a person my age.

I decided to use materials such as, childhood pictures, photos, ticket stubs, cd, university stuff, fabric, candy wrappers, and even hands holding the world. The fabric I used is from a dress my mom made for me when I was a child. I thought it would be cool to weave it throughout connecting everything together. I have completed this on a 24 x 30 canvas, so it is pretty large.

I am really happy how this turned out and hope my instructor likes it too!

Collaberation 103

Well after all the waiting in the late hours of the night Janna and I were able to successfully view our final project for Lee Kolbert’s class. You can now view them on YouTube. Let us know what you think!

And to finalilze our project we will have to wait to hear back from Lee’s class on what they think, we hope they like the video’s!!

And a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped us create our video’s and Lee Kolbert for letting us have this oppurtunity!

Collaberation 102

After, coming up with our two important questions that we have to ask our interviewees for our final project for Lee Kolbert. We went along to the university and started finding people to interview. We searched high and low for people and found exactly who we needed. A variety of people that was! We had to ask people two grade four questions.

The questions we used were:

1) Can you name the planets starting at the sun?

2) Do you know why we have seasons?

After interviewing people we were very surprised to see the amount of people who could not answer these questions or who had great difficulty. These are two questions that most people should have learned and something we should still know years later. But it seems like it is something we do not remember! Could you answer these questions on the spot?

The entire purpose of this project is for Lee’s students to see that adults don’t always know everything!!!

After all the interviewing we spent time working on the two videos, one for each video. We did the video’s Jay Leno mixed with Are You smarter then a Fifth Grader…Fourth grade edition!

Are video’s are completed at this moment but we are waiting paitiently for them to upload on YouTube…Says it was going to take two hours so the waiting has begun….

Digital Identity

After listening to last nights class I found it very interesting even though I have learned about it previously in EMCP 355. But I of course learned more than I knew before. The video that Dean introduced the topic with was so interesting and mind-blowing.

  

It basically explains that your digital identity begins before you are even born. Which when I thought about in more detail it really does all make sense.

Have you ever thought of googling yourself? What comes up? When I googled myself it came up with a few things my twitter, Facebook, University class things and my blog. I was not surprised these things came up but didn’t think as many that did would appear.

Do you want to be clickable? I don’t want people to know everything about me but at the same time I want them to know who I am. Important thing to remember is that the things people find should be positive and not negative and it should be in my control and no one elses. The thing is how do I make sure I can control what people can find?

Interview a learner

My interview a learner was with Jan Smith. Here is what she had to say.

Here is my response, hope it helps.

1. How do you use technology in your classroom, and do you find it useful?

a good guideline is don’t do it unless it benefits student learning, so the tech I use must prove itself “useful” or we quit using it. So any technology we use is tied to that these three ideas: help kids to connect to people, ideas, and information help kids to process ideas and information and help kids transform the ideas and information they have been exposed to. I want kids to be successful, agile communicators, I want them to collaborate efficiently, I want them to create and share their work with a wide audience, I want them to connect with people and ideas outside the classroom, and I want them to care about their neighbours close to home and far away. So we blog. http://huzzah.edublogs.org  It is the core tech tool, but not the only one. We also use Diigo, Skype, Google docs, animation software, flickr, search engines, …

2. What are your thoughts about cell phones in the classroom?

It isn’t really an issue for me as my kids are younger. The conversations I have had are around picture taking and how the images are used: I fold it into the context of good digital citizenship which we cover extensively in the early days of blogging. As most students don’t have them we don’t use them collectively, but I often use my iPhone to record their voices/responses.

3. What technology tools do you use the most in your classroom? Which do you find the students enjoy the most?

Blogging… kids probably enjoy animation the most. Our class blog and the student blogs give a hint about what we do.

4. Do you get parents involved using the technology as well? How?

I have given workshops to parents on blogging as well as a general “life online” with colleagues.

5. What are your thoughts about blocking certain websites in schools? Does your school block any specific ones?

Blocked for kids, but not staff: mainly youtube and facebook. I am frustrated that youtube is blocked because it is so useful for learning.

6. What are your school’s views of technology in the classroom and its involvement with students and parents?

Technology in this district is adequate in hardware and infastructure, but missing the teacher comprehension part to a large extent. Leadership and vision at the board level is what is really needed. I blogged about it here: http://resiever.edublogs.org/2009/07/12/tech-whisperer/

7. Do you have any tips for future teachers wanting to use technology in the classroom?

Build a strong personal learning network that is about sharing and learning (not taking) Experiment, but keep your eye on the prize–student learning. Take risks, and leverage your mistakes. Help others, but don’t be pushy. Use social book marking to keep track of the best stuff.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Jan

 Jan Smith

Brooklyn School (Lazo Campus)

SD 71, Comox Valley, British Columbia, Canada

ph: (250)339-2232

email: jan.smith@sd71.bc.ca

class blog: http://huzzah.edublogs.org

Computer Using Educators LSA wiki: http://sd71cuebc.pbworks.com

I found all her answers very interesting and something to think about.

Thank-You again Jan!