Video Fun

Hello,

Yesterday was a productive but enjoyable class.  To start off, we had conferences and went over our rough drafts for our final written piece.  This was very useful for me because both Lindsey and Rachel gave me feedback about my children's book.  They helped me come up with ideas to make my book better as well as guide me with ideas that I had been stuck on.  I feel that I gave good constructive feedback to both of my partners as well.  The best part of class was constructing our digital movies.  My group is doing our movie on Christmas.  Our video is getting me very excited for the holidays.  I think making digital movie in a classroom is a wonderful idea.  It gives students a chance to work with technology as well as using their own creativity.

It is sad that the semester is coming to an end.  I am finally starting to feel comfortable with my classroom at University and now we are going to be leaving.  I wish the placement was longer.  I would really benefit from spending more time in one classroom.  I feel like I am starting to understand students strengths and weaknesses and wish I could be there for a longer amount of time.

Have a great break everyone!

Marisa

...Social Issues...

Hi all,

During class yesterday, we focused much of our time on social issues in our community.  This activity had my full attention because it was something that interested me.  I was surprised when Linda told us what the example picture was.  At my first glance, I thought it was a list of family names for the dispense of food.  I was under the assumption that there was a natural disaster and they were in desperate need of food.  Once I found out that the list was for medication for HIV positive patients, I was dumb founded.  I knew that HIV and AIDS was a huge concern in Africa, but I never understood how desperate people were to get help.  This picture is extremely upsetting because if you think about it, not all people in Africa are able to get the medication.  How does one choose who gets it and who doesn't?  What happens to the people and families who aren't fortunate to get the vaccination?

I did my social issue on homelessness.  I am originally from Philadelphia and this has also been a concern of mine for a long time.  Living in Bloomington, I have also seen the impact of homelessness on the community.  I work at Village Deli, which is not far from the public bus station and the public library.  Every time I drive to work, I am surprised by how many homeless people I see.  Bloomington is definitely different than the city of Philadelphia because I feel that homeless people in b-town are accepted.  There are countless shelters and soup kitchens for such a small town.  Compared to inner city Philly, there are not nearly as many options and there are triple the amount of homeless people.  I volunteered at a soup kitchen during high school and was taken back by the stories that I heard from the homeless people.  Many of the people had families and were trying to provide for their children.  There was a family that I encountered that lost their house because they could not afford it.  The mother worked at walmart but could not pay rent.  Her and her two young children were living out of their car.  This is definitely a social concern of mine that needs to be taken seriously.


Marisa
 

Project Fair

During class last week, we had our project fair.  I thought this was a great way to share with the class our 5 genres.  I was excited to share about my topic and get feedback from my classmates.  Doing a project fair enables students to learn a little bit about all of the topics without having to read through 29 papers (which is unrealistic).  I was surprised with how many different topics were represented in our class.  The wide range of topics made the project fair more interesting and it was fun to hop from one topic to another.

Last Wednesday at University may have been the most productive day I have had yet.  I felt like I was able to work with my kidwatching child as well as work with many other students who needed extra help.  One student in my class needed help on a reading and writing assignment and I thought I did a great job working with her.  I reread a story with her that she had already read by herself.  After we read the story together, she had questions that she needed to answer.  We broke up each question into smaller pieces which helped her to understand it better.  I also helped her with understanding how to answer a question in full sentences.  By the end of the questions, she was answering them all by herself and answering the questions with full detail.  I was very proud of her and myself.

Great Day!

--Marisa 

Fall Break Party

Today my second grade class was celebrating fall (fall break tomorrow).  We had a blast doing a bat diagram while enjoying our yummy snacks.  The best part of the party was that a "bat expert" came into the class to share.  We learned about various types of bats and their habitats, what they ate, and we even saw real bat guano (bat poop).  The children were very interested in the topic because they have been learning about bats all week. 

Lauren and I participated in an activity which demonstrated echolocation.  Half of the class were bats and the other half were mosquitoes.  It was a fun activity that taught us useful information about how bats find their food.

My favorite part of E339 today was when we divided into groups and acted as one of the characters from "Voices In The Park".  I was able to interact with some people that I never had the chance to before and we all had a great time sharing ideas.  It was fun to pretend we were Victoria and act the way that we thought she would.

I am anxious to finish my research project and share it with the class next week!

Marisa

Challanges and Positive Experiences

Hello classmates,

Yesterday during our visit at University, I did a lot of individual work with my child who I am kidwatching.  Ms. Scott gave me 2 work samples (one that I could keep and one that I observed) from my child.  Both were very beneficial to look over.  The first piece I looked at was a word search but the challenging part of the word search was that my child had to do it for homework and recall detail from a story that was read in class.  He had a difficult time recalling information from the story when he was at home and had a hard time completing the homework.  The other piece that I got to take with me was a copy of a journal entry.  This valuable tool shows me what strengths and weaknesses he has with writing skills.  I was able to guide him in completing this journal piece about pioneers which gives me great information about his writing process.

During our reflection time at University, my group did a yarm activity with the entire class.  The object of the activity was for everyone of our classmates to share something that has challenged them during our time at Unviersity or a positive experience that they have shared at University.  This activity went over very well and it was very enjoyable to hear everybodys voice and stories.

Yesterday was a great day, especially making our genres in class!

--Marisa

Mrs. Mori's 4th Grade Class

I thought yesterday was a great experience in Mrs. Mori's 4th grade class.  I was impressed with how well she captured the students attention during writers workshop.  I enjoyed working with the student that I was partnered with.  He seemed to love talking about the topics that we were brainstorming.  I felt that he warmed up to me right away.  The story that we started was about the last time he saw his fish.  It was actually pretty comical because he had two fish but the bigger fish ended up eating the smaller fish, which only left him with one feisty fish.  One of the main goals for writers workshop yesterday was to use BIG DETAILS so we both had a great time adding details to such a fun story.

From working in Mrs. Mori's class during writers workshop, I was able to see how well it works with students.  Even having the students pair up and share ideas (when the extra adult help isn't available) is a wonderful way for students to brainstorm ideas for writing.  

I think it is important that the students in her class have to write in their notebooks for 15 minutes a night.  I also like that she does not correct anything in their notebooks.  This is their own place to write anything they want.

..Kidwatching..

Hello class,

I wanted to start off my post today with answering Linda's questions from last week.  Yesterday, I worked a lot with the student who I am kidwatching and I made some distinctive observations about his writing.  While we were working on his writing piece about The Sun, I noticed that he has a vast imagination and is very creative.  Even though he has difficulties with his spelling, his imagination shines through his writing.  I also have noticed the less I say, they better he uses his creativity.  I have learned from just the couple of weeks that I have worked with him that If I say something, he will just write it down.  He produces much better work when I just guide him through his writing.  I have noticed that he has trouble spelling and doesn't have the most confidence in spelling, but he has been improving with his motives and has been trying harder to sound the words out.

I felt like Lauren and I helped a lot in Ms. Scotts second grade class yesterday.  We were able to help multiple students with their writing pieces.  I am enjoying the second grade atmosphere more and more every week.

--Marisa

Literature circles in Ms. Scott's 2nd grade

Hello all,

I was very impressed today with the literature circles that were being formed in second grade (two of the classes).  Ms. Scott and another 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Thomson, are working together with all of their students combined.  For 25 minutes everyday, students are divided into smaller literature groups and assigned to an adult.  With the two teachers, assistants, and reading specialists, the children are able to be in groups of 7-8 and have an adult all to themselves.  I thought this was an amazing opportunity for both the teacher and the students because the students were able to get more individual attention, while the teachers were able to assess and gain more knowledge about each student. I am anxious to see how these smaller group literature circles play out for the rest of the semester!

Today, before literature circle that is, I worked individually with the student that I am going to pick for my kidwatching observation.  I have been working with him since the first day that I was at University.  It is nice to see him open up to me and feel more comfortable being himself.  Today I felt like we accomplished a lot by writing his "Magic Leaf" story.  He seemed very proud once he finished the piece of writing, as I did too!

In our E340 class, I have really enjoyed teaching the lessons that I prepared (or my group). Though it is very different teaching in front of our peers in placement for our future students, I have found it very helpful in guiding me to be more comfortable speaking out loud and in public.  These lessons have also helped in boosting my self-confidence.  I think going through the process of constructing our own lesson plans has helped immensely because it allows us to gain more knowledge of the entire process.

--Marisa

We Are Always Learning...

Today was our second day at University.  I still feel fairly new to the school environment and students, but I am slowly getting the hang of it.  I have been doing a lot of one-on-one work with a new student.  Since today's word of the day was moon, we did a lot of activities to help guide the process of understanding the meaning of the word and how it can be used in various sentences.  The second graders are learning how to use a dictionary so we started out by looking up moon in the dictionary.  It is a lot harder than one may think.  Alphabetical order is a newly learned concept for second graders so it took sometime to find the letter M and then go in alphabetical order to find mo.  Once we finished the dictionary assignment we had to construct sentences with this weeks spelling words.  Since the spelling word sentences took a chunk of time, we did not have time to write about the moon in his journal.  I think next week I may try doing the journal first.

In class today I really enjoyed sharing our craft lessons with our peers.  In my group we had a situation where two lessons that we picked to teach were the same lessons.  I learned how important it is for teachers to not get bent out of shape if their lesson doesn't go perfectly as planned.  Instead, we were able to think of an alternative to our lessons and on the spot make it work.  In a real class setting this can happen to any teacher and it was a good lesson to learn.

I think the book "Up, Up, Up, Down" was a great example of how teachers can get their students engaged in the literature.  The entire class participated and followed along with the story and we all seemed to enjoy it!

I am excited for our lessons (invitations) next week!

Marisa

"Teach a child how to think, not what to think." - Sidney Sugarman

Long but productive day!

Hello all,

Today was very tiring after going to University for the first time.  I am in need of a nap soon!  I am exciting to start working with our new WN partners.  I think this is a great way to get to know one another and get in the swing of conferencing.

In class I felt it very helpful to go over the different ways of interpreting text (ex. sound words and show don't tell).  By doing this activity with just our classmates, I was able to realize that there were many interpretations that I didn't see that other classmates did. This showed me how differently my future students may interpret the text.  I think this way of learning is great for children because they are able to use their brains and figure out what the author is trying to say.  Like Ms. Coggin stated in class, it is vital to let the students come up with their own ideas.

I am pumped to start mini-lessons in class.  Just from skimming through the Craft Lesson book I got excited.

Hope everyone had a great first day at University!

Marisa

Bedazzling Our Notebooks...

I would first like to start off by saying how much fun I had today making my writer's notebook my own.  I enjoyed cutting out pictures that represented my life.  I feel that my writer's notebook is becoming my own and I am anxious to see what I will have in it by the end of the semester.

Today in class we talked about Fletcher's book on A Writer's Notebook.  I wanted to post a couple quotes or ideas that I wanted to remember:

The first one was on page 54 and it was about his son and his "nightmirror" instead of nightmare.  I thought this memory was adorable and it gave me good ideas of childhood memories that I could write about in my writer's notebook.

The second one is on page 60 about his son and how he made the comment about people "puffing" up.  This memory gave me ideas of writing about my younger brother or even my students in field experience that say cute things that I want to remember.

The last one is on page 133 when Fletcher said that our writer's notebook should fit like our favorite pair of jeans.  I thought he said it perfectly!

We also talked about Spelling in class today.  I was fascinated by all the activities and tools we as future teacher could use with our students.  I think it is very important for us to realize that all students learn differently.  We should set our classroom up so every student can improve their spelling.  Like the example in class today, both students were different learners. 

First E339 class

Hello class,

I am really anxious to get the hang of this "blogging" chatter.  I have used blogger.com during my freshman year when I was enrolled in W200, but I feel that I have forgotten even the basic tools to navigate through my blogger.  The instructions for creating a blog for this class helped a lot!  I am excited to start a new semester of classes, especially now that we are all in clusters!  Time has flown by, I can't believe I will be student teaching next year!

During our first class last week, I felt really intrigued by what we will be doing in this class.  Don't get me wrong, I am not the best reader or writer, but after I left the class I felt confident in what we will be doing and learning.  I am excited to brush up on my writing skills and learn new ways and strategies for writing.  I am looking forward to learning from our instructor as well as each other.  I like that we are all in the same cluter this semester (reading and language arts) because I feel that we will all bond as a class.  I wrote for the first time in my writers notebook this weekend!  I think the writers notebook is a great idea!  I had a diary when I was in grade school but stopped it once I got into middle school.  Having my own writers notebook makes me feel like I am back in grade school writing in my diary.  I like the idea of having our writers notebook as a reference for our future classrooms.  I think it is a unique way to encourage our future students to have their own writers notebook. 

I am eager to get this semester started!

--Marisa