Final Reflection ...

Looking back on my 488 classroom experience, I feel as though I have really grown as a teacher. At the beginning of the semester, I envisioned my role as a teacher similar to that of a pitcher for a softball team. While I still believe that there are many reasons why this metaphor holds true, I have come to realize that my role as a teacher is far more complex. As a teacher, my position will be at the heart of the classroom. With each new student, I must assess their abilities and strengths to determine the most appropriate type of instruction. Similarly, I must be prepared for all types of students and the individual perspectives and experiences they will bring to the classroom. This process of differentiation is certainly not as easy as I thought it would be. In addition, as a teacher, I must be an effective leader in the classroom. However, I must remember that while the teacher must serve as the base, there must also be a strong relationship with the students. The teacher and students must work together to develop new ideas and make important classroom decisions. Finally, I realized that like a pitcher, I would be lost without the help of my coaches. I will certainly need the help of the school community (other teachers, the principle, etc) to be successful. Working with these first graders throughout the course of this past school year has certainly been a rewarding experience and I certainly feel more prepared to approach the challenges of being a teacher.

Friday - March 30, 2007 - Lesson #5

Today, I taught the last lesson of our economics unit. Honestly, it was quite sad to have to say goodbye to the students. Working with these first graders throughout the course of this past school year has certainly been a rewarding experience. Over time, I feel like we formed a real bond with the students and earned their respect and admiration. In addition, I feel as though Emilia and I have learned a lot through our experiences (both good and bad) and have grown as teachers. I can only hope that we made even a small impact on this lively first grade group.

To begin the lesson, I conducted a review of some of the main concepts we had covered in our previous four lessons. I asked the students for definitions and examples of needs and wants. I also reviewed making economic choices and saving money. The students seemed to have remembered a great deal of information. They were especially good at recalling examples from our lessons.

The focus of today’s lesson was: how the economy functions as a whole in a community. In addition, I wanted to revisit the concepts of goods, services, buyers, and sellers - the ideas that we thought were the most difficult for the students (and as evidenced by our formative assessments - caused the most confusion for the class). Therefore, I had the students pretend that they were going to create their own “class town”. Once a name for the town had been established, I explained that this town needed an economy. I reminded students that economics involves the making, giving out, and using of goods (things people make or need to satisfy needs and wants) and services (activities that satisfy people’s needs and wants). In addition, there must be buyers and sellers of these goods and services to move money through the economy. I then asked the students for ideas of stores (businesses that provide goods) and places that provide services that we would need in our “class town”. Next, I had each student draw a picture of an assigned establishment to contribute to our town. For example, students created scenes for the: grocery store, clothing store, toy store, hospital, restaurant, library, fire department, etc. The students were really excited about receiving their assignments and got straight to drawing (one of their favorite things to do). When everyone had finished their pictures, it was time to share. As I picked names out of a cup, students came to the front and shared their drawings in the “Illustrator’s Chair”. The students were really excited about getting their names picked out of the cup for an opportunity to come to the front! During the sharing, I asked students to identify elements such as goods, services, buyers, and sellers in their pictures. I think it was a great idea to let the children share their work with their classmates. Not only did they learn a lot through the discussion, but it made them feel proud of their work.

On the whole, the student’s behavior during this lesson (like yesterday) was so much better then it had been in the past. They’re participation, cooperation, and positive attitudes have improved greatly. Especially during these last two lessons, the students were really paying attention and actively engaged. They were eager to answer questions (sometimes even raising their hands before the question was fully presented). I must say that I was really impressed with their good behavior!

Finally, I administered the summative assessment for our unit. I explained to the students that these were only a few questions to see what they remembered from our teaching (and that they would not be graded). The assessment consisted of eight questions – four selected response questions and four constructed response items. I believe that the students had a much easier time with the constructed response questions because those involved giving examples. Our selected response questions, on the other hand, involved matching words and definitions. Even thought some students may not have been able to remember the definitions, they certainly would have been able to give examples. I don’t think it would be fair to measure students understanding of the lesson based on whether they correctly answered the selected response questions. If we could go back in time, Emilia and I would have constructed the summative assessment differently (changing the structure a little). Consequently, to gauge student understanding of our lesson, I feel that we must look at all assessments (both formative and summative) to really get a clear picture.

Thursday - March 29, 2007 - Lesson #4

Emilia and I decided to split up the teaching for the last two lessons of our economics unit. Today, Emilia taught a lesson on saving money. In my opinion, this was certainly our best lesson so far! Emilia began by gathering the students together on the carpet area for an interactive read-aloud of The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money. In the story, Brother and Sister Bear learn some important lessons about earning and spending money. Eventually, the bear cubs find the middle ground between being spendthrifts and little misers. Our first-graders really enjoyed listening to this story because it was both funny and realistic. They were excited to see that we had selected a book from the Berenstain Bears collection; obviously one of their favorites. Consequently, they did an excellent job paying attention during the story. In addition, they were active participants in the Emilia’s discussion of the book. Emilia had marked the pages she wanted to discuss with sticky notes. She did a great job clarify difficult vocabulary (such as miser) and explaining figures of speech. Emilia also asked the students to classify the ways the cubs earned money – revisiting the terms goods and services. After the reading, Emilia had prepared several discussion questions about how Brother and Sister Bear went about spending and saving their money. The only suggestion I have for Emilia (and really this is a reminder for myself as well – because I definitely know I do this too) is to be careful to include everyone in the discussion. During the lesson, several of the same students were raising their hands to answer questions. Others were sitting silently in the back or off to the side. It is important to make sure you engage all students in the discussion, especially the ones who look like they’re not paying attention. Calling them out by name to answer your question would probably be the best way to approach this. It’s really hard to try and remember everything at once – balancing effectively delivering the material with managing student participation is not easy – this is something that we’re going to have to work on.

Next, Emilia did a role play where the she in the students engaged in a money-saving “journey”. The ultimate goal was saving up enough money so that Emilia could buy the kitty cat she had always wanted. As Emilia is “walking” to the store to purchase the kitten she encounters several opportunities to buy objects. The idea was for the students to help her make choices about spending and saving along the way. As a class, the students must hold up signs labeled “spend” or “save”; voting on whether or not Emilia should buy the object in question. We brought in fake money and the actual objects to display the choices (a book, candy, flowers, food items, a UVA basketball, etc.). The students were asked to record the decisions on prepared worksheets, keeping track of their spendings and savings. Emilia also kept a record of the budget on the chalkboard. The students were really engaged and excited about this activity. They all enjoyed the opportunity to have a say in the decisions that were being made. During our planning, we tried to make sure that we would be able to keep their attention by making sure they were active – voting and recording the choices. I believe that this really worked because they were all eager to participate! Unlike our last lesson, this interactive learning experience was much less chaotic. We discovered a good way to keep the whole class involved in the learning!

In our classes, we talk a lot about the importance of the integration of other content areas. Although this lesson was about economics, we also incorporated a little math. The students conducted simple calculations during the savings journey to keep track of their budget.

Thursday - March 22, 2007 - Lesson #3

Emilia and I decided to team teach for our third lesson. The focus of this economics lesson was: people make choices because they cannot have everything they want. We began with a discussion about the importance of making sound economic choices, drawing on personal experiences. We then explained the concepts of opportunity cost, value, and scarcity. After the discussion, we had the students fill in a decision tree. They were asked to make a choice between getting a class pet and having a candy machine in their classroom. Together, the class came up with a list pros and cons for each choice and recorded them on the tree. At the end of the activity, the students voted on a decision. They decided, almost unanimously, in favor of a class pet.

One thing that I discovered I need to work on during these types of discussions is my use of language. For example, several times, I used the phrase “weighing” to talk about using the pros and cons to make decisions. Later, in our meeting with Jen (who came to observe this lesson), she pointed out that this conception of weight is most likely too advanced for first graders. I also used the words “pros and cons” and “good points and bad points” interchangeably. For first graders, explanations must be clear and consistent. Even though it may seem tedious to us, it is important to choose specific age-appropriate vocabulary to be repeated throughout the discussion (so as to really drill these words into the student’s heads). If too many words are used to describe one thing, students won’t know what to attend to, and consequently may not pick up on anything. One way to accomplish this goal would be scripting my lesson beforehand. Next time we teach, I plan on writing out a detailed script that focuses on fine tuning my language so that it is clear and consistent.

We then moved on to the main part of our lesson. During our planning, Emilia and I decided that the best way for students to learn how people make economic choices was to actually have them make choices for themselves. We thought that an interactive hands-on activity would be the best way to accomplish our learning objectives and keep students engaged in our lesson. Therefore, we created a choice game. We split the class into seven groups of three and gave each student “money” to spend on an assortment of items (squares of paper with pictures and costs). The students were told to take turns selecting items that they wanted to “buy” and then glue these items and their corresponding dollar amounts to a piece of construction paper. The gluing process was to reinforce the fact that once choices are made, they are final. The goal of the activity was to have students carefully evaluate their choices, using the decision making process to think about the pros and cons of each choice.

Although we thought our lesson was carefully planned, it certainly did not go the way we expected. However, Emilia and I felt that this was still a valuable lesson, because we really learned a lot. We understand that we still have so much to learn about being teachers. One of the best ways for this leaning to occur is through experiences, both good and bad.

Emilia and I learned about when to give directions. During our lesson, we had given the directions for the activity prior to passing out the materials. Even though Emilia had explained the directions clearly and carefully, because there were so many directions, some students had trouble remembering them all by the time they actually got their own materials. Emilia and I realized later that it would have been a better idea to have grouped students, passed out their materials, and then gone through the directions with the students. This way, they could have been performing tasks as they were explained and modeled, eliminating any confusion.

Emilia and I tried to prevent arguments about who goes first in the game by creating colored cards. The students were told to pick a color, and later, a chart was revealed that indicated who was to go first, second, and third based on color. Even though we thought this would eliminate conflicts, some students were still angry and upset that they had chosen the color that was assigned to go last.

We also learned a lot about managing groups. Seven groups of kids was way too many to manage! Even three of us (Emilia, the classroom teacher, and I) circulating the room to monitor the activity was not enough. We could not always there to supervise behavior, answer questions, or clarify directions. Even though some groups were able to work diligently on their own, others were more dysfunctional. In our meeting with Jen after the lesson, Emilia suggested that this problem could have been solved by possibly creating only two groups instead of seven. To keep students engaged, we could have had the rest of the class serve as a discussion panel while students were making their choices.

Emilia and I also learned more about forming groups. During our planning, we tried to create groups so that there would be at least one successful student paired with one student who may need extra help. We though that this would help with discipline problems and following directions. However, we quickly discovered that this put the more successful students in a compromising position. Grouping is something that I definitely need more experience with before I can come to any conclusions. In addition, it really depends on the students. The key is knowing your students and then doing trail and error with groups to see who really clicks and works well together.

Friday – March 16, 2007 – Lesson #2

It was Emilia’s turn to teach today. The focus of this economics lesson was: people are both buyers and sellers of goods and services. When Emilia and I entered the classroom, the students were going crazy! They had just returned from an assembly and discovered that the leprechaun had paid them a visit! The leprechaun had disorganized their classroom, dumped glitter on the carpet, and left each student a little treat on their desk. The students were so excited and couldn’t wait to explain what had happened when they saw us. As I have mentioned before, our first graders have a quite a difficult time staying focused. With this additional distraction, Emilia and I were afraid that they would now have even more attention problems. Unfortunately, we were correct.

Emilia began with a short review of the previous day’s lesson. She then conducted an interactive read-aloud with William Miller’s Rent Party Jazz. This book addressed the concept of needs (paying the rent) and the idea of providing a service (playing the trumpet) in order to earn money. During the reading, the children in the first two rows on the carpet remained focused, answering Emilia’s questions throughout the story. However, the other students in the class were having a hard time paying attention. Many of them seemed to be more fascinated with the glitter that the leprechaun had left on the carpet than the story Emilia was reading. I moved to closer to them, so I could remind them to pay attention without distracting the rest of the class.

Next, Emilia asked the children to return to their seats. She had created a poster with pictures of different goods and services. Using the integrative model, she asked students to draw conclusions about the poster. Again, during this discussion, the students remained fidgety (playing with things inside their desks, etc). Even their teacher had to remind them several times to pay attention. Then Emilia asked the students to come to the board and place a sticky-note identifying the buyer and seller in the pictures of services. The student’s interest was certainly renewed at the prospect of getting an opportunity to come to the board. They were eager to participate, raising their hands even before Emilia asked the question.

Emilia then had the students fill out mini “dictionaries” using the important economics vocabulary that she had taught that day. Emilia assisted in the creation of the definitions, but for the most part, they were thought up by the students. By creating the definitions for themselves, the students were constructing their own meaning (and would hopefully be able to remember it better). After developing the ideas together, Emilia wrote the definitions of the vocabulary words on the board. The only suggestion that I would have for Emilia would be to label the definition with the corresponding word. Since the definitions were scattered around the chalkboard (to avoid other work), not having the corresponding word written above caused some confusion for the students.

Some students were able to write the definitions faster than others. We anticipated this, and consequently had another activity available for those who had finished early. The last activity was a formative assessment (exit cards) in which students were asked to provide one example of a good and one example of a service.

Emilia and I understand the importance of keeping our first graders active and involved during the lesson. However, because this lesson included a lot of vocabulary words and important concepts that needed to be taught and thoroughly explained, not every activity could be hands on. I wish I knew how to keep students from being so fidgety and restless. In addition, I am interested to learn how to discipline one student without taking away too much instructional time from those who are not misbehaving. I would really like to learn about behavior management! I am disappointed that the Curry school does not provide us with adequate instruction on disciple issues. It is unrealistic to assume that everyone will be able to take the Behavior Management class. Personally, just to fulfill all the requirements (area requirements for Curry and the College, major requirements, and the 102 College credits) I am taking 19 credits now, must take four classes this summer, and probably 18 credits next spring. I know it is my own fault for taking on so much – but there is no possible way for me to enroll in behavior management. I just wish that maybe Curry could incorporate discipline into some of our other classes.

Thursday – March 15, 2007 – Lesson #1

My partner Emilia and I are teaching a first grade economics unit. The focus will be on: goods and services, buyers and sellers, making choices and saving money. Although Emilia and I completed our planning together, we decided to split up the actual teaching of our unit. I taught today’s lesson on needs vs. wants, and Emilia will be teaching tomorrow’s lesson. Identifying the difference between basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) and wants (things people would like to have) is an SOL that the students should have mastered in Kindergarten. However, after administering the Pre-assessment, we discovered that our first graders still did not possess a solid understanding of theses two concepts. This assessment of prior knowledge definitely influenced our instruction. We decided that the first lesson of our unit should be more of a refresher, with a few new concepts such as buyers and goods introduced as well.

The first grade students in our class have a very difficult time staying focused and on task. For our lesson, we took this into consideration by attempting to minimize the amount of time that the students were being lectured. We tried to create activities that would keep them involved and hold their attention. After a short direct instruction lesson on the differences between needs and wants, the students participated in an interactive game. Going one by one in a circle, the students were asked to respond to these questions: “What is something you need?” and “What is something you want?” The goal of this activity was for the students to recognize that their list of needs (things they had to have to survive) was much shorter than their list of wants (which could potentially go on forever).

This gave an opportunity for all of the students in the class to make a contribution. It forced them to think about the idea they were going to share with their peers. It also required them to listen carefully to their classmates responses (so as not to repeat an answer). I feel that this activity was beneficial because it obligated the students to construct their own responses and draw their own conclusions (versus simply being fed information from the teacher). In addition, our first graders often have problems talking out of turn. Consequently, during this activity, I decided to designate a little teddy bear as the magic key to being able to speak and contribute to the discussion. To avoid disruptions and help the activity run smoothly, I told the students that only the person holding the teddy bear was the allowed to talk.

The formative assessment for this lesson was a picture sort that was collected at the end. The students cut out and arranged by category eight different pictures of needs and wants. While circulating the classroom during the picture sorts, it appeared that most students had understood the lesson and grasped the important concepts. However, it is important to note that this activity contained selected response items. It would have been interesting to see if students exhibited the same level of mastery if we had given them constructed response questions instead.

In our planning, we also made sure to consider the student’s diverse needs and varying ability levels. We anticipated some students taking more time to complete their picture sorts while knowing others would finish quickly. If students finished with the sort before their peers, they were asked to flip their papers over and expand on the list of needs and wants using words and pictures.

Just a note ...

BLOG entries for my three teaching observations are not posted here.
I decided to hand in hard copies to Jen instead.
:-)