The End of the Fall of 2010

As I reach my final blog of the semester, I am sad and relieved! The semester flew by, but I guess time flies when you are having fun! I have learned so much these past two semesters with Dr. Smirnova as my professor. I always felt as if I were being pushed to be better and better.

I also realized that everyone makes mistakes this semester. I messed up some things with my Direct Instruction lesson and Dr. Smirnova gave me the option to fix it on google docs with her. I was also told she wanted to use my work as a student example which I felt honored to be chosen!

I would do anything to improve my work and my learning. It doesn't matter to me all of the extra things I do and don't receive a grade for because in my mind I am grading myself and I never take the easy way out. I love to be challenged and I also love to be rewarded.

I also feel that it is important to help others who are struggling. Who would have guessed that arriving two weeks into the course I would be the one people came to when they needed help. That really means a lot to me and I was more than happy to help!

I have also learned so much about technology and how I could use it in my classroom when I am a teacher. I don't think I would have been able to become so knowledgeable about technology if it were not for these past two semesters with Dr. Smirnova!

I think I am different today then I was in the beginning of the semester. I am much more confident than I was in the beginning of the semester. I feel more confident in that I know what I am doing with lesson planning, and Smart Board Activities and so on.

I have learned that being a teacher is the most rewarding experience a person can have. My fieldwork experience has made a lasting impression on me in that I had the best time working with Mrs. Ferguson and her class. I really felt like I was getting through to them in the expansion of their minds with technology use.

The lesson planning process made me think and discover in many ways. At first I was having a difficult time coming up with something to teach and then once I got it I discovered a million different ways of implementing it by using the different techniques learned in class such as : Webquests and Think Pair Share.

I think all of the methods worked for me in the Elementary setting throughout my fieldwork. It was a positive experience and all of the methods helped me differentiate the different aspects that go into to teaching using those methods. My Peers, Dr. Smirnova, and Mrs. Ferguson helped me in this process.

If I had to think of what I could improve in myself I think it would be to be able to create my own Smart Board lesson activities. I expected to learn something I didn’t know before through this course and the college experience as well and I think I am going to walk away from this course with a bundle of knowledge! I have experienced lesson planning, different methods, webquest planning, treasure hunt creation, thinking hats, fieldwork, teaching in a classroom, using a Smart Board and so on.

The long road to becoming a teacher is truly an exciting endeavor! I am looking forward to semesters to come and to graduating from the Mount. I also look forward to the life I am going to lead as an Elementary School Teacher! Most of all I am looking forward to raising a family and living my life in the country happily married one day!

When i look into my future I see all of this and more!
FIREWORKS!!!!

The 6 Thinking Hats

The class was given an assignment to come up with an activity using the Social Interactive Model. The activity that my group was given were the Six Thinking Hats! The Six Thinking Hats are an example of a Social Interactive Model Method that can be used in the classroom. For our activity different colored hats with a matching index card were given out to six groups. On the back of the index card there was a certain type of thinking described. On the SMART Board there was a list of each color with a topic assigned to each group to think about! After everyone had time to talk in groups we let each group give us their explanation.

This was a really great activity because each group had to deal with only one type of thinking and I think that can be helpful at times. Also, it was like an evaluation of the course so a lot of the student's were able to voice their opinions on the positive and negative aspects of the course so far.

I would definitely use this activity in my classroom because it promotes social skills and helps students think in a way they are not used to doing.

Treasure Hunt Adventure!

The Treasure Hunt experience was a memorable one for me. I enjoyed creating a treasure hunt and I also very much enjoyed working with Meghan Stackpole and Rebecca Kenol. I thought a treasure hunt could be a great way to get students focused on a topic in a fun way.

For the project our group was assigned to create a treasure hunt on Information Processing Techniques. We split up the different techniques and my main focus was on Mnemonics. The video shows one way of learning how to remember the order of operations in math.

I didn't know much about this technique until after I completed my part of the Treasure Hunt! I actually fell in love with this technique and thought it would be a useful tool for any teacher to use in the classroom to help their students remember a concept.

Mnemonics is a phrase that helps you memorize important concepts. Example: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally is another technique that can be used to remember the order of operations in math: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

I enjoyed the treasure hunt and hope to one day be able to use it in my classroom as a learning technique for my students, and I will definitely be using Mnemonics!

Learn to Teach &Teach to Learn

In class we learned the following models of teaching would be used to create our lesson plans to teach in the classroom: Behavioural Model (Direct Instruction), Information Processing Model (Indirect Instruction) and Social Interactive Model (Cooperative Learning). I think the process of creating a lesson plan can be very time consuming and is a lot of hard work. It takes time for me to think of something I want to do because I want it to be challenging and wonderful! I could spend hours upon hours lesson planning. I liked how we had a lesson plan frame for each lesson we were teaching so that I could use it as a guide to facilitate learning. An example of a lesson plan frame can be found here.

My topic was on Bar Graphs for Fourth Graders in Mrs. Ferguson's classroom at E.J.R Elementary School in Pine Bush, NY. I made sure that I was in the classroom a few times before I was actually teaching so that I could get to know the students, but my friend Mrs. Ferguson had another plan for me. Mrs. Ferguson gave me her math lessons to teach every time I was in the classroom before I even had to teach my own. I think she did this to help me feel comfortable in front of the classroom and believe me it worked. When it was time to teach I felt so energized and completely at ease which really helped engage the students into my lessons.

The following picture is of me teaching my Direct Instruction lesson from the Behavioural Model:

I thought the lesson went really well and I didn't feel nervous at all. The lesson was also timed perfectly for the amount of time I had with the class. What really made me believe I was becoming a teacher was when I came in for my next observation and Mrs. Ferguson told me that one of the girls in her class enjoyed my lesson so much that she took it upon herself to make her own bar graph based on favorite colors. I thought that was really sweet and it made me feel that my lesson was interesting to the students, especially if it made one of them want to go home and do something extra like that!

The following picture is of me assisting a group of students during my Indirect lesson from the Information Processing Model:


This lesson was a condensed version of my webquest. I chose the Inquiry method of Information Processing Model because I thought it would be interesting to teach the students how to use technology and to see their research skills. The class hardly ever used technology until I came into the classroom and I am happy that I had the opportunity to teach them about a topic while using technology because I feel technology is so important in learning today.

The last picture is of me introducing my Cooperative Learning lesson from the Social Interactive Model using a SMART Board!!!:


For this lesson, I chose the Think, Pair, Share method where students would think about a certain topic, exchange thoughts with a partner, and then share with the rest of the class. Some pictures below show the students working in this method. It was a valuable experience for me because the students were really coming up with intelligent questions based on their bar graphs. They used terms such as "altogether", "more than", and "less than" which really impressed me. I was happy to see that they were learning and having fun at the same time.

The following video is about Think, Pair, Share!



My Experience with Mrs. Ferguson was a memorable one that I will never forget! Mrs. Ferguson has become my friend over the past 10 weeks and I have had such a blast learning and teaching in her classroom!

Hands On & Minds On!

Up Up And Away with Bar Graphs!

The webquest was a big topic of this weeks classes. Using the pbworks site, my task was to create a webquest on bar graphs. I had to remember that a webquest gives the student a problem to solve. I struggled with this aspect for a while trying to come up with an idea of something the students could do. I researched a lot of different webquests looking for ideas.

After a lot of pondering and thinking, I had the students become detectives and find lost data. Once my webquest got rolling I was on the ball. The webquest was becoming for me what the unit plan in basics was: My baby! I absolutely fell in love with the process involved in creating my webquest and I must say it was addicting. I spent endless hours adding links, pages, and pictures to make my webquest appealing to the student's that were going to be using it and to other teacher's that may want to use my webquest.

I also spent a lot of my time helping others in the class with their own webquests. There was a lot of confusion especially for those who weren't familiar with the use of the pbworks site. I offered a lot of my time into teaching the students in my class how to add pictures, links, and pages. I also offered my suggestions to them about their topics or tasks when asked.

The webquest overall was an incredible experience and I walked away from it learning a lot about the process of creating a webquest. I also learned that I can be creative, and for me that was huge because I struggle a lot with creativity! I tend to think too much about something and I always worry that it isn't going to be good enough. I have learned a lot over the past two years with Dr. Smirnova, and as a result I have become much more confident in my work and my thoughts.

The Ups and Downs of Planning a Lesson!

Creating a lesson plan is a long process with many steps involved. Before beginning my lesson plan on "Bar Graphs", I researched about how other teacher's taught Bar Graphs and I also used the resources on Moodle as a reference. The Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Frame was my best friend throughout the process of creating my lesson.

The hardest part for me was figuring out what I was going to teach and what it was going to take for me to help my students understand what I am teaching. My biggest fear going into this profession would be that I would not be successful in helping my students reach automaticity in their learning. I know I can do this but there are times when I think of the what if's and I begin to doubt myself but then I get up there in front of a classroom and I feel totally at ease and extremely comfortable.

I spent a few hours so far with my teacher that I will be observing for going over what I am going to teach and presenting her with ideas. I have also begun my observations. Throughout my time in the classroom I am rarely sitting down. I have helped the teacher review word problems, I go over their "Do Now" problems with them before their lesson for the day, and I also go over the answers with them to their homework assignment from the night before. According to Mrs. Ferguson (The 4th grade teacher I am observing) one is born to be a teacher, it is in their hearts. She continued to tell me that I either am or I am not and that my job is to prove to her that I am born to be a teacher (And thank goodness she told me I have proven to her that I am).

I have enjoyed creating my lesson plan and coming up with the ideas for the lesson. It is very time consuming, but I care enough about it to put in the time and energy that it deserves into the planning process.

Evaluate Evaluate Evaluate!

This week in class was all about evaluating: Direct Instruction Lesson Plans!!

I was given a direct instruction lesson plan on money to evaluate using the direct instruction lesson plan frame as my guide. This was a lot of fun for me! Honestly, I could spend hours looking at lesson plans! I am personally not the biggest fan of direct instruction. I think this type of method is necessary when introducing a new topic but, it should not be the only method used.



I enjoyed the way literature was used in the math lesson. The students were going to be read a book about how Alexander spent his dollar. After reading the story, the students were asked to write their own story about how they would spend a dollar if they had one. I love when teacher's can connect literature to their lessons because seeing things through the eyes of someone else really can help aide in student understanding.

I think that the development would have been easier to understand if it were broken up into parts. If the development was in parts it would be much easier for the teacher and anyone else reading the lesson plan to understand. Lastly, the development was also missing closure which is an important aspect to creating a great lesson plan.

Overall, the teacher has a head start and is in the process of creating a great lesson plan on money!

Creating Closure in Direct Instruction!!

After teaching the class about Direct Instruction, the co-teachers had another job ahead of them. Our next task was to assist the other students in the class in creating power point presentations based upon the different elements of a direct instruction lesson plan. The group I chose to assist was the Closure Group. Their job was to create a powerpoint discussing the importance of closure and how it can be used in a direct instruction setting.

I gave the group some suggestions of websites they can use to assist them in creating their power point. I created a presentation for them to work on in google docs and shared it with them. I also suggested that they use a wordle for their anticipatory set to associate all of the terms that go along with closure. I also assisted in showing the group a video on youtube called "Language for Learning" which provided an example of how closure is used in the classroom. Lastly, I suggested that a useful direct instruction strategy to conclude their presentation would be to make a quiz on quizlet and have the rest of the class take the quiz to see if they have acquired the information that was taught to them.

I was happy to see that the closure group took my suggestions and I thought that they all did a wonderful job up there teaching! I made sure I made myself available to help anyone in the group that needed my help. This was a positive experience for me, for the group, and for the rest of the class.

I Think I'll Put My Thinking Cap On For This One!

This week in classes involved a lot of thinking, in my opinion. The first reading that I read on moodle involved the topic of assessment. It was a good read for me because it refreshed my memory on the types of assessment and the different methods of going about assessing children to find out what they have learned as a result of the teacher teaching. The internet also has a lot of resources to help a college student understand assessment. The link provided is a slideshow from slideshare.net that talks about assessment. This slideshow helped me to even further understand assessment and how it is being used in the 21st century.

I also read about Models, Strategies, and Methods. From reading the chapter I was able to give my own definitions of the following words:

Model- The broadest approaches to teaching (Behavioural, Information Processing, Social Interaction, and Personal).

Strategy- A set of steps that the teacher needs to follow in order to reach a goal.

Method- The most specific way of implementing a strategy.

Skills- are the learned capacities in order to carry out pre-determined results.

These four words are very important when it comes to teaching, in my opinion.

Lastly, this week i learned about the differences between aims, goals, and objectives. I got to work on formulating my own objectives using the Mount Saint Mary College's CBC format. I have to admit this is something I struggle with. I did feel that the more practice I had formulating objectives, the better I was becoming at it. Some of the objetives I formulated were:

1. Given twenty cubes, the student will practice counting by fives, with no error.

2. Given a microscope, the student will examine two slides, writing atleast five differences between the two in their science journals.

3. Given pictures of the planets, the student will create a poster, displaying the planets in correct order.

Overall, I walked away from the second week learning a lot and I am excited for the weeks to come.

Born to Teach, Eager to Learn

This week I was one of four volunteers to teach the class about Direct Instruction and the Behavioural Model with Dr. Smirnova. The process was time consuming but enjoyable. I enjoyed meeting with Dr. Smirnvoa and my team mates on the computer to discuss the roles that would be assigned to each person. I decided I wanted to add more to the slides that were provided, so I added two videos (video 1 and video 2) and group work.

On the day of the presentation I felt pretty confident about the material and what I was going to have the class do but, I decided to meet with Dr. Smirnova anyway to be sure that I was all set to go.

Overall, I wanted the class to enjoy the presentation and I wanted to engage them in learning more about direct instruction and involve them as much as possible. I think it is important to do these things when you are teaching a class because it helps the student to learn and makes it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

When we finished the presentation I got to see some of the feedback that was posted on moodle from my peers. Most of it was positive which made me very happy. I did agree that the group needed to be louder and go a little bit slower because the class was trying to take notes. For me personally I wish I had spoken a little bit slower.

I had the time of my life being able to teach. Something happens to me when I am up in front of the classroom. I am usually such a shy person but when I am teaching it makes me feel like someone else. It is the most fun and enjoyable experience to be in front of the classroom speaking and it is even more amazing when you know that your peers have walked away from it learning something.

Aims, Goals, Objectives, Oh My!

After learning about the four models of teaching, the class got into the beginning stages of direct instruction. If I had to choose a model to go by in my own classroom I think I would be a social interaction/personal kind of teacher because those models interest me the most but, I am sure I will use all four models of teaching because every student has different abilities.

Direct instruction and Indirect instruction are two possible strategies a teacher can follow. I think my students would enjoy more of an indirect path because there are three possible ways you can teach indirectly: Interactive, Independant, and Experential. Although I will use Direct instruction at times (especially when introduing a new concept) I feel like indirect would be a better approach to keep my future students engaged.

In class we also had some more review formulating goals and objectives. I know that a goal is a general statement and that an objective is the most specific statement of a teacher's intention of how a lesson will be taught. I think that before I can find success in formulating goals and objectives one would have to be familiar with what a goal and a objective is.

When researching to learn more about goals and objectives I came across this video. I thought it ws helpful because it was a review of what goals and objectives are and why it is important to use goals and objectives in your teaching.

Overall, this was a great week in class and I walked away from it learning many things that will help me when I go to plan lessons and create my webquest.

All About Me!

I thought the T-Shirt Project was a nice way to get to know the rest of the class. It is amazing to me that each individual person has their own dream of where and what they want to teach. I like that each individual person had their own way of presenting their t-shirts to the rest of the class.

By completing the t-shirt project it allowed me to focus in on what I really want to do with my life. I had to focus on what I want to teach and what state I would want to teach it in. I also had to think about what was important to me in my life.

I think it is a great way of starting the class off on the right foot. I came into the class three weeks into it and I enjoyed the project and enjoyed hearing the projects of my peers. It definitely helped me feel that I belonged and was welcomed.

The project also gave me an idea for when I am an educator. Things that show other people who you are allows one to become comfortable in their environment. I think it would be a great idea to do something similar to the t-shirt project in order to allow my students to become comfortable in their environment and with each other. When I am a teacher I will definitely do something like the project we had to do in class.