My placement is really stressful for me sometimes. I get things done that I need to for class, but, my CT has me doing a lot of other things. I don't exactly like his teaching methods, but, I understand what he is trying to do. One thing I noticed that he is really good about is reading to the kids everyday. I see a lot of reading happen in my placement, however, it is not viewed as a fun thing. It seems like it is just another part of the school day. If the children finish homework early their reward is going on the computer not free reading. It is not used as a reward. I think this is normal for classrooms though. The writing process is more difficult for the kids. They struggle with putting sentences together, spelling, and making a paragraph. I see most of them attempting to write a paragraph in bullet form. They are still learning to start writing their sentences at the left of the paper and not in the middle. They have to re do their papers until there are no mistakes then they are allowed to make a final draft. For many of them this is really frustrating and they can get really discouraged. When I'm there I try to help them understand their mistakes and make the process less stressful for them. I find writing one of the most challenging things to help with.

Placement

This past week we worked on writing quite extensively. We used a form of writing workshop to finish the rough drafts the students were making about Thanksgiving and what they were thankful for. I am having a difficult time trying to find a good method of teaching writing. Its not that I can not help the students but rather that I don't know when and how to assist them. When they are stuck on ideas how much assistance do I give them? This is just one of the many questions I have about writing in the classroom. I asked my CT about his thoughts on teaching writing and how he approaches the students. He said that this is his weakest area and that many teachers struggle to find a method that works at all levels. This is something I want to learn much more about because I think it is the essential part of success later in life. Being a good writer can open so many doors in life. If you guys have any thoughts or suggestions It would be great to hear about them. 

Another experience I had this week was making a pie in class. We made a pumpkin pie from scratch, minus the baking part right in the classroom. This was a great lesson for the children and gave them opportunities that many of them don't get at home. My center was taking the seeds and skin from the pre-baked pumpkins. It was very good to see a teacher doing a activity that builds positive learning and roles in the classroom.

Hope everyone else's placement is going well. 

writing workshop - Google Videos

Group Presentation

Hey guys! Here is where we can post notes and ideas from the articles for our project. . .

New Literacies Project

I chose to create a scrapblog about my experience teaching through the arts. This is something that I am very passionate about and also, I had pictures from my experience so I thought a scrapblog would be a good technology to apply to this topic.

When I began using this new technology it definitely was an experience with a “new” technology. I very seldom come in contact with technologies that are entirely new to me, so this was interesting to feel the frustration that can be linked with learning to use and understand a new program. I think this was good because it allowed me to understand how these need to be clearly taught to students; they need to be guided through the process so they can have a positive experience using the technology.

When using the scrapblog program, the creator needs to be able to read the words and the symbols on all of the buttons. If they are like me and used the “help” section a lot then this involved reading longer paragraphs and the comprehension of this text determined if you will be able to learn to use the program. There is not any speaking or listening involved in using this technology. Viewing is an important skill because you must be able to view, analyze and figure out what you want to create next.

I am learning how to plan ahead. At first I jumped right into the creation of my scrapblog and I am now finding myself going back and “fixing” and reorganizing everything. If I would have taken time to think about my ideas first then I wouldn’t have to do all of this editing.

If I were introducing this technology to my students I might compare this to a PowerPoint or a paper scrapbook. This would allow me to activate their prior knowledge and we could even compare and contrast the two to see which technologies might be better for different types of projects. I know that this program was quite confusing and frustrating to me at times because it simply wasn’t working and doing what I wanted it to do. I might address this with my students and have us work together in learning how to navigate the program.

I think that this technology tool does not match up to what I may have considered literacy to be prior to using it. However, now that I have I think it can be a powerful tool. Although the scrapblog pages don’t call for many words portraying your ideas and feelings on a certain topic using little words, pictures, colors and designs is a skill in itself. I really enjoyed using this new technology and once I master the program and feel confident with it I think it is a tool that my students can use to make a project with.

More Reflection on My Placement

In my kindergarten placement, I am starting to doubt the effectiveness of my CT's techniques and activities. Although she is a very nice woman and works well with children her activities aren't stimulating or thought provoking. ALL of her activities are cut and paste or coloring worksheets. She has them sit at the carpet and she demonstrates the whole activity, "this is how you do it" then she sends them back to their seats to regurgitate the actions that she just did. Especially since all of these students are the lowest performing kindergarten students in the school, I worry that there is not enough creativity, stimulation, structure, etc.

...It is a constant learning process for me especially since this is my first time in a kindergarten classroom

My Placement.

I really like my placement, I am still not sure about my CT. I think he runs a good classroom and is a good teacher and role model for the students. Especially the boys. We get along good and have formed a good relationship. We are going to start co-teaching some things and I think it will be a great opportunity to get more practice leading discussion and lessons for a classroom. I have started to form great relationships with my students. I know all 27 of their names and have a unique bond with many of them. I truly can say I love what I am doing. At times I have been unsrue about my passion and ability to teach. But this year has made a great impact on me and I have disscovered its my passion along with politics.

Chapter 4

The reading this week in Gibbons regarded the growing problem for second language learners but also the gap in language development in low income urban areas. This is a problem because we ofter know that society coins people who do not speak the "norm" dumb or uneducated. There is a large gap between minority students and their white counterparts. Often we see the language used in their environments to be very different. The model according to Gibbons must be set early on and be consistent through out the year. It stated that instruction should be led though appropriate language that is consistent with cultural norm. He said this is a difficult task for teachers but can be done through corrective speech and explanations that model appropriate terms and vocabulary. The trick is to explain things in words and ideas the students can understand. This is more difficult and means that we need to be careful to fist use the cultural accepted speech then further the explanation in terms that might be more relateable. With my students in the class at Cavanaugh Elementary we see several off them with poor grammer and speeking skills. When kids talk with me I will often say the correct form of speech back in way thats not corrective but allows them to hear the proper form.

Book Club

My book, The Silent Boy, got pretty morbid towards the end. I enjoyed the book but it left me with lots of questions:

1.) Where/ How/ Why did the author write the story?
2.) What did this idea stem from?
3.) Did she develop the characters based on anyone in her own life?
4.) Was Jacob supposed to be autistic? If so, was someone in her life autistic?

I would love to read the authors biography or rationale for this book to see the answers to all of these questions.

My Placement

So far my placement has been pretty sad and frustrating. Still to this day my CT doesn't know my name even though I where a name tag and she signs my sign in sheet. This is pretty frustrating because although she is nice she seems pretty passive and doesn't take an interest in me and on Monday she gave me an activity to get ready and cut out all of the materials while she was in the room. We were in a room together silent for 35 minutes. I have tried in the past to create conversation but it doesn't carry on after I spark conversation and ask questions. I wish she would take more of an interest in my place in her classroom.

Also, as I have talked to many people about she doesn't do much with her kindergartners besides worksheets. She shows them how to do a worksheet and then they go to their seat and do it. There is no creativity, songs, movement, there is not much given to them where they can flourish and use their imaginations. This is a huge concern because all of these students are very low performers, very low, so they need things that they can succeed at and be creative and grow.

Curriculum Cycle Response

This article was not one of my favorite article but I did really enjoy the "Curriculum Cycle" and the recommendations for how to implement/go about each stage. For example to give the students background information or "building knowledge of the topic" by developing a word wall and picture and sentence making and barrier games, or watching a video and giving the students an information grid. I personally can see myself using a word wall because I think it a great tool and also picture and sentence matching because I think that this technique would really help my students. In the "Modeling the text" stage the goal is for the students to understand the overall purpose and structure of the text. I would personally like to use the text reconstruction tool where students where they sequence jumbled sentences into a coherent text. I can see this being a fun activities for the students and also very beneficial to get the students to understand the structure and organization. In the "join construction" stage the teacher will model writing a text so that the students can understand how to write a text but not have the anxiety and feel threatened to do it on their own. At this stage the text recommends that you constantly keep asking questions to make sure the students know what is happening and check their understanding. At the last stage the students write their own texts and can do this in pairs or by themselves. I personally would have them do it on their own since they have had lots of group, class and partner work and I think they are ready at this point to take on the task themselves, and be successful at it!

Serching

I think this article is really important and more so than ever. We constantly hear that we are not supposed to used google. when working in my placement i find kids who are dependent on google which is very easy to use and becoming more understandable every day. We must though work with students to give them the knowledge of good info and searching techniques. In the article it speaks about the 6 skills important to searching. These are very broad and basic ideas but must be understood. Although my second graders do not write research papers, if they begin to understand how to look thinks up on the web they will be much better writers and readings. Some of the same concepts in the article are critical to comprehension of any reading. Students must learn that we look for certain ideas when reading that help us understand an idea of concept. Using concept maps, brainstorm sheets and other things will help students to start thinking about what is relatable to there topic narrowing their search.

SEARCHing for an answer

When reading this article I recognized the students in the beginning as me. I have never been good at searching for information online. Since being in college I have improved immensely. As the article states,

"Students need new reading comprehension skill sets to effectively search for information while engaged in learning opportunities with the Internet and other ICTs."

A thing I always found would happen to me was frustration at not being able to find what I was looking for. in the article they talk about what can happen if students do not have the right skills to search online,

"... information overload can occur creating frustration with the search task and ultimately resulting in students being unsuccessful in locating information."

The six ideas for being successful in searching are;

1. Be specific- Narrow your focus.

2. Be exact- use the words or phrase you hope to find.

3. Be direct- Search for one focus at a time.

4. Be distinct- Don't repeat your focus.

5. Be succinct- Eliminate unnecessary words.

6. Be concise- Select keywords mindfully.

I agree that there needs to be some kind of instruction on how to find appropriate material for projects in school. Schools are on such a tight schedule to teach a lot of information and students do not need to be wasting time trying to search the best they can and not succeed. It will only make students more frustrated and more turned off to learning with technology.

Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry Based Learning is a technique where the students choose a topic they would like to know more about and they research it. They are able to ask questions do research and put a project together. This can be seen in schools but maybe to a lesser degree. It seems like the students dont have as much decision. I see projects where the students are given topics to choose from. Thhis may be a better way to go.

The factors of Inquiry Based Learning are;

Student curiosity

Making inquiry visible

Importance of topics and questions

Facilitate the process of gathering and presenting information

Technology and Inquiry

These factors are important in ensuring success while using this technique.

Student curiosity is maybe the main role of Inquiry based learning. The students are able to pick their own topics that they are most interested in. This allows the student to maintain interest and not get bored in the subject. It is the teachers job to make inquiry visible. There should be examples of projects and questions available for the students to look at. The topics and questions are a key component. There are three components of the choice of topic that tend to determine the success of the project; interest in the topic, prior knowledge of the topic, and the nature of the topic. These components are a good indicator of how the project will turn out.

Inquiry Based Learning is kind of a new concept for me. It seems that it would be really successful in a classroom, but, I'm kind of skeptical about it. It would have to be really supervised and really controlled and if a student had a hard time with it, it could become a complete disaster.

Search Engines and Students

I had never realized what a complex skill using search engines was. I have been searching for information on the Internet for such a long time that it never even phased me. I was trying to think back to when I was in elementary school using the computers and if I was "taught" what words to use etc in order to get the results I wanted. I am sure that I had to be taught this skill but I can't remember. When I think about technology and my future classroom I honestly get nervous because of all of the garbage that I know is out there and partially accessible. teaching students HOW to use search engines to find information is a lesson in itself to allow them to be able to get the most from the Internet as a learning tool.

I found the bulleted/listed points that students can use to remember to get the results they want to be simple but helpful:

1.) Be specific
2.) Be exact
3.) Be direct
4.) Be distinct
5.) Be succinct
6.) Be Concise

Although these are very simple words this information needs to be conveyed and discussed with students.

As the article discusses searching for information on the Internet requires reading comprehension techniques specifically for the task at hand. Not only do students need to be taught that search engines will give very different results depending on the words used in the search but also once the results are shown students need to have an understanding of how to "sift" through this material to find what they are specifically looking for.

I think concept maps and tools that allow students to write out their ideas on paper are wonderful starting points for projects and papers. These tools allow students of all ages (I even use concept maps) to organize and see their ideas and the task in a different way. I like that the article supplied and discussed virtual organizers like these. These are wonderful tools that I will use in my future classroom. After reading this article it has helped me to understand that as a teacher I need to remember that students need to be taught how to find information on the Internet. This requires many skills and needs to be broken down so that students can really understand and make use of the Internet so that as the article mentioned various times, the student does not walk away from the computer without information simply because they didn't know how to find it.