E-pals project

I just watched the video or e-pals made for us. It made me smile. They did such a good job. I also loved the video he made me of him talking to me. It was so special to get to put a face with the e-mails. I have really enjoyed talking with my partner. He seems like he is a very special young man and has a lot to offer the world. I feel like I have really gotten to know him this semester. I hope that through our e-mails he has learned something. I feel like I can see a difference in the way he write now from the beginning of the semester. I also learned from him. By doing the QIWK assessment on his spelling test I learned a great deal about how children spell and how they think when it comes to sounding out words. Overall I think this has been a valuable learning experience for me and I hope that is has been for him too.

Last Practicum

I can't beleive that yesterday was the last day of practicum. I am going to miss my kids so much. They taught me so much about how they learn and what they like to learn. Yesterday they made cards for each of us and gave them to us before we left. As I read through the cards I was reminded not only how special and individual each child is but that they are all at different levels in their education. Since each child is on such a different level it will be my job as a teacher to prepare lessons that are easily adapt for all levels. I will definitely keep the two word lessons I taught in my portfolio so that I can use them. I liked how easy it is to adapt both the making words and KWL chart to reach the needs of each students.
Overall I feel that this experience has been extremely important in my education. I am so thankful I was given this oppertunity to work with these kids and teach the lessons I wrote. I can't wait until next semester and teaching more lessons.

Grading Papers

My teacher has been out for a few days for her wedding. Because of this she had tons of grading that needed to be done along with many other catch up work. When we came in today she seemed very stressed out so I asked if there was anything I could do to help. She said that the only thing she really needed was grading. So Angela and I sat down and started to grade papers while the students did their daily reading. I was fortunate enough to grade a set of papers that dealt with reading comprehension. I was shocked at how many students missed the answers. One of the questions asked a question that the answer was word for word in the text. Even though this information was easy to obtain many of the students did not put the right answer. In fact the students would randomly copy any sentence out of the text into the section. This really bothered me so I talked to our teacher about it. She told me that often times the kids don't even read the text or the questions so they just write down anything that looks important to them. She also informed me that as a class they would be working on reading comprehension and other mistakes from their worksheet. I don't feel like this is her fault or anyone else's fault but that students at the age are already conditioned to rush through their work so that they can get to the next activity. I feel that testing does this to students. When they take the end of grade test they are often told to finish as quickly as possible so that they can be sure to finish all of the questions. I feel that this is yet another downfall of teaching to a test and of state testing in general.

Bridge to Terabithia

My fifth graders are reading the Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. When I first started reading it I was once again surprised at how much children at this age know about the world. Some of the things that this book says really surprised me. For example the main character Jesse has a crush on his music teacher. This crush is describe in great detail. Also at one point in the story the author talks about one of the characters being pushed around by her father and how the whole school is talking about it. I know that children deal with these things in real life but it still surprises me that the author talks about it in the novel.
The other thing I wanted to talk about was the movie. I watched it after I finished the book today. I hope that children do not only watch the movie and not read the book because they are missing out on so much if this happens. I love the fact that children's books are becoming movies but I am afraid that children will stray away from reading because they think they can get the same things from books. I worry about this in our digital technological world.
Overall I like the book and the movie but as two separate things. Each had different things happen in them even though the story was the same in each. I would strongly suggest that students read the book before they see the movie but if they don't then they will at least enjoy a good story.

Pracitum Visit

On Saturday my Practicum teacher got married. And because of this we had a substitute teacher working with our class. Our teacher left worksheets for our class to do. Three of the worksheets wanted the students to read a passage and then answer questions. I beleive this is just practice for the EOG but the kids seemed bored. Some of them had trouble stay in their seat and doing their work. Also some of the questions seemed really hard to me. I didn't know the answer to one. It was about the main point, but it gave choices and I didn't feel that the main point was any of the choices and all of my kids put a different choice. Not one choice was picked more than the others. This worries me about the EOG. I want these kids to do a good job and they are all smart but I know as well as everyone else in the education world that that doesn't mean anything when it comes down to No Child Left Behind. Overall I feel like my students will do great in their schooling careers but I do not like EOG's at all!!

Guided Reading Lesson

Three things I liked about my Guided Reading Lesson are;

1. The kids knew how to do a KWL chart
2. The kids responded to my questions
   
3. I felt like I was well prepared.

One thing I did not like;

• Some of the kids really struggled with what they should write on their KWL charts and I felt like I ran out of time for those kids to finish.

Overall the kids did really well on their charts. When I looked over them all of the kids had all the criteria that I gave them and they had well thought out statement on their charts.

Word Lesson

Three things I liked about my word lesson were:

1. The kids had seemed to really enjoy the lesson
   
2. The kids came up with more words than I did
   
3. I learned more about children's spelling and reading skills.
   

One thing I did not like was:

• My double sided letters were messed up. For example the W and e on the back instead of w.

I already wrote about my word lesson but I did not put three positives and three negatives up. Overall I felt like my lesson went really well. I learned a lot about being in front of the class, writing on the board, and helping students out.

Lesson Plans

Yesterday I was given the opportunity to teach both my word lesson and my guided reading. They both went extremely well!!! The kids really enjoyed them and the teacher said I did a great job.
My word lesson used one of their spelling words for a making words lesson. I made letters to hand out to the class and had them raise their hands and tell me all the two letter words, three letter words and so on until they had to use all their letters. Some children had trouble finding the special word but I gave them the clue that it was on their weekly spelling list. They then all rushed to get out their spelling lists and tried to use their letters to spell their spelling words. I feel that this forced them to look at their spelling words and how they were spelled without making them think about doing spelling work. I heard one little boy say to his friend" that was so much fun I wish we could do it again" which made me feel really good because I feel like they really learned something.
My guided reading used a KWL chart with the chapter book that they are reading right now. I had questions already written down on my copy of the chart so that if I couldn't get response about the things they had learned or wanted to learn I could ask them direct questions that would lead them to the answer I had in mind. This lesson went very smoothly. The teacher commented on how well I manged the class time and how well I was prepared which made me feel like I did a good job and the kids all had really good KWL charts. In fact while I graded them I could only take one point off of three students. I told them they had to have 5 things in each section and two children had wrong facts written down and the other wrote the same learned thing down twice. I think this shows that the students comprehended the text really well.
Overall I feel like my lessons went really well and I am looking forward to teaching more lessons to this group of children!

Hatchet reading and QIWK Assessment

My second day at practicum went really well. I am really enjoy my kids. On Wednesdays I sat with a group of four students while they read chapter 6 from Hatchet. All of my group did really well with the reading section that they had. The only thing that surprised me was the fact that they struggled so much with answering the question that the teacher had assigned. The question was.."Why do you think it was Okay for Brain to eat the berries if the birds ate the berries?" The group wanted to answer the the question "because the birds ate the berries".The first problem with this answer is that it is not a sentence. The second problem is that answer doesn't answer the question it just restates part of the question. When I explained this to the group they looked at me like I was crazy. Finally after about 5 minutes of discussion we decided that a better answer would be. because the birds could fly so they weren't sick". Its not perfect and I was starting to help them write a complete sentence their teacher said it was time for them to go to their math class.
I feel that these kids know how to write a complete sentence they just don't do it. If it was my class I would not except work that was not written in a complete sentence because I feel that it is important for the kids to know that work needs to be the best they can do. When they go to middle school the teachers will expect them to write papers and have complete sentences.
The other important literary item that happened on Wednesday was that Angela and I did our QIWK assessment. After looking over the test for the first time today I was surprised to find that many of our kids did not miss any of the words. Some of our kids did struggle but overall they did really well. I think that the formal analysis will be a lot of fun to do.
Overall I am really enjoying myself and learning a lot in my classroom. I am also teaching my lessons on Monday morning which is making me nervous but my teacher said my lessons looked great and that the thought they will work well.

Practicum

WOW! Yesterday was a little overwhelming. I had a great day but it was a lot to take in. Angela and I are in a fifth grade classroom. Their are 15 children in our class and 20ish in the other class that shares our teachers. The two class have our teacher and another. One teacher teaches english and social studies while the other teaches math and science. I think this set-up is great because it helps the students get used to changing classes before they have to do it for everything. Also they stay with the same people which helps them get to know each other and form a strong learning community.
Yesterday we were given the opportunity to teach a lesson to the class. I don't feel like it went to well but at the same time I know it would have been better if we would have been able to prepare for it. Our teacher had to meet with someone at the last moment so she asked us to help the class read a passage out of their text book and to go over two worksheets with them. This would have been fine but we didn't know they had text books so we were reading to them from the book she gave us. Instead of having them read out loud or with partners. Also we didn't know the class' names yet so we had to call on kids who raised their hands or just by trying to identify them by something. This made it harder to move at a good pace because students wouldn't know who we were calling on. Our teacher said we did really well but I hope that my lesson plan will go over a lot better with the class.
Also yesterday was the second day that the class has been reading the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The kids really seem to be enjoying it. Our teacher has the class split into literacy groups and gives each child a new job each day. One child will have to write down all the words the group doesn't know, one has to retell the story and so on. This seems to work really well. They have a chapter a day to read in their groups and then they have questions to answer. The question the groups answered was "What would you do if you were in the same situation as Brian?" I think that this was a great question because it really made the children think and look at all the possible things they could do. I got the book from friend and I am in the process of reading it right now so that I will be able to keep up with what my class is talking about next week.
I think this experience is going to be great. I really love the kids and our teachers seem to really like us. Before I was unsure if I would be a good teacher and if I would be able to do all the things necessary to teach but now I believe that I will be able to and that it will not be as hard as I thought (although I still do not think it will be easy).

Guided Reading

I feel that my guided reading lesson went really well today. I really like the idea of the KWL charts for fifth graders. Not only are they reading but the chart forces them to comprehend what they are learning but they are learning the things they want to learn. I feel that comprehending what they are learning is the most important thing that children can learn while learning to read. As a college student I am required to do a lot of reading and I then have to explain what the reading meant. If I did not have reading comprehension then I would be unable to be a student. Overall I feel that these charts are helpful in teaching children to pay attention when they are reading.

Word Lesson

I made a making words lesson for the fifth grade class I will be working in. I really enjoyed not only making the lesson but also teaching it to my fellow students. I was really nervous and said "um" a lot but I feel that teaching it to the class will make it easier for me to teach it to the kids. I think I fixed all the transition problems and added new words that can be made. This should help the lesson flow more smoothly and effectively. Now I am looking forward to more feedback about my lesson and teaching it to the class!

Word walls and sponge activities

I love how word walls work!! I worked in a classroom in high school that had a word wall and it worked so well. The kids used the wall whenever they needed help spelling one of their sight words. I think it really helped them! I will definitely have a word wall and use it on a daily basis. The word list on our book is great, if you have not had time to look at it then I fell that you should. I know I will be keeping this book to use as a resource in my classroom!
I also like talking about sponge activities. I have a whole notebook of fun games that can be adapted to the classroom. I had never thought about play short fun games in the classroom to fill time. I am glad we talked about this now so that I can make sure to keep all the games I have collected to use in my classroom one day!

Emergent Literacy

Emergent Literacy is so important for the development of children. As teachers and parents review the scribbles and "reading" of young children they can learn such a great deal. The cognitive ability of the children is so apparent when we look at these scribbles. I feel that as elementary school teachers it is our job to help parents understand that their child is learning how to read when they are in this stage. I feel that since the standards are so high parents feel a pressure to get their kids to the top of the class so that they are able to be the best. If we as teachers help these parents see that their child is developing normally I think it will take a great deal of stress off the parents and children which in turn will help the child learn in a more effective manner.

Blog fixed?

I think I have finally had my blog fixed!!! Well at least it is supposed to be fixed within the next few days! I'm not sure why I have been having so many problems but not maybe I will be able to catch up with everyone else and get my opinion out there!

My classroom

I have a love for reading, so I would like my students to have the same love because I believe that this love is what has helped me become a better learner. In order to do this I will work very hard to make my classroom the type of environment that will encourage children to read.
First and foremost I plan on having a reading area that not only has a lot of books to chose from but that is also a comfortable place for children to explore. I plan on having a wide selection of books for children to look through including many different books that are aimed at both boys and girls. In order to do this I will listen to children in my class and buy books that I think will interest individual children to add to my collection. I would also have the reading area be a bright fun place for children to go. Maybe with pillows or a comfy chair. I saw a reading area in a classroom that I worked in that had a bright carpet on the floor and a beach chair for children to sit in. I would like to do something similar.
The other thing I will do is have time set aside for reading so that children in my classroom will have time to explore books of their choosing and not just books that I feel they need to read to learn from. I feel this is important so that children in my classroom are able to grow into their love of reading. In our classrooms today we are so focused on trying to get children to do what is best for the test that we cut out the things that help children learn how to love reading and learning.
Overall I feel that the most important thing for my classroom is helping children not only learn how to read but learn how to love reading.

Literacy

I feel that literacy is not only the way a person reads or writes but also how a person learns. People often times only see literacy as reading a writing but their are many people in our society who do not know how to read or write more than their name but are able to do many other things. For example their might be a person who is unable to read but they are an amazing mechanic who can fix any car. I feel that this person is literate in this area.