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