Final Blog for Language Arts

· Reflection of your lesson
The lesson my partner and I did on Friends went well. With that said, I still would definitely like to try the lesson again, so I could try different discipline techniques and all. This was my first time team teaching a lesson and I had to try and adjust to that. Sometimes both of us weren’t on the same page and I’m sure success with team teaching comes with practice. Overall, I believe the lesson went well and I enjoyed teaching it.

o How did you (and your partner) prepare?
My partner and I prepared for the lesson by revising our first draft of the lesson plan and adding what we thought the lesson needed and taking out objectives that we didn’t think we would be able to accomplish. After, that we created worksheets and rubrics that we would need for the lesson. We also, checked our PowerPoint presentation and our podcast of Friends to make sure everything was running smoothly.

o Explain the objective and assessment measures of your lesson.
The objectives for this lesson were a reflection of the book. We wanted to make sure the students understood what the story was about, so that’s why the first objective was that students would be able to recall the characters’ names and hobbies. We would access this through a matching worksheet that would be graded with a simple rubric. For the second objective we thought since the story was all about Oscar’s encounters with other characters doing their favorite activities, that the students should be able to write what their favorite activity is in a sentence and draw a picture of themselves and Oscar doing that activity. This writing and drawing worksheet would be accessed by a simple check plus, check, and check minus rubric.

o Was your lesson plan executed exactly as it was written?
For the most part our lesson was executed exactly as it was written.

o What was the most important thing I tried to teach your students?
The most important thing that I tried to teach the students was to write and draw their own page to the book Friends.

o How do you think it went?
Overall, I think it went well and I accomplished my objectives.

o What did I learn from your students?
I learned from my students to have given them a book instead of a coloring worksheet, while they waited for other students in the classroom to finish.

o What would you have done differently?
I would have given my students a book to read first instead of a coloring worksheet.

o How could you have made the lesson even more effective?
To make the lesson more effective, I think I would have given the students a book instead of a coloring worksheet to read, while they waited for the rest of the class to finish their work. I would also have stuck to one disciplinary system.

o What do you think you need to improve or do differently?
I think I should have been sterner in my voice when it came to the disciplinary problems.

· Reflection of Podcast

o How did you and your partner plan to use the podcast in your lesson?
We planned to play the podcast along with the PowerPoint presentation of the book, the first time through. Then, have one of the teachers read the book the second time through.

o Did you use it during the class lesson? Why or why not?
We did use the podcast during the class lesson, because we thought it gave the students a different way of hearing the story and it also used technology in the classroom.

o How did your students react to the podcast?
I think the students really enjoyed hearing the podcast along with the PowerPoint presentation.

o How do you think it went?
Even though, the volume on the speakers was a little low, overall I thought it went really well.

o What could you have done to infuse the podcast into the lesson more effectively?
I don’t think we really could have infused the podcast into the lesson more effectively, at least with this specific lesson.

o Do you have any other ideas of how you would use podcasting in your lesson or future lessons?
The advantage of podcasting is that there are so many possibilities of using it in lessons. A perfect example of using it in the future is when teaching vowel sounds, I could record the sounds of the long vowel sounds and the short vowel sounds, so that the students don’t just see it, but also hear it.

· Reflection of other classmates' lessons

o Please write a short 2-3 paragraph reflection of your classmates’ lessons.
I thought all the lessons in the class this year, were absolutely great. It was really neat to see everyone put so much effort into their lesson plans. Also, this class allowed everyone to add feedback at the end of lessons, to help the students get ideas for the future or congratulate them on a great job.
There were two lessons that stuck out to me the most, one was two students wanted to use paint in an elementary school classroom, but instead of having the students get their hands a mess and therefore making the classroom messy, they tried something new. They used a shoebox and a bouncy ball to smear the paint around on the worksheet, so that the students never had to put their hands in the paint. The second lesson that stood out was two teachers created Popsicle sticks with each animal that was in the story and every group got one of the animals in the book. Then, every time an animal appeared in the story the group with that animal would have to make that animal’s sound. Overall, the lessons were great and I learned something new from each one.

o Include critiques or any methods you learned when participating in these lessons.
The methods I learned when participating in the lessons were mostly in the disciplinary systems. One method was each group started off with one piece of pie and if they behaved they gained more pieces of pie and if they misbehaved they lost pieces of pie. Then, there was one lesson where the students received golden tickets when the behaved and the student with the most golden tickets at the end of the day/lesson won a prize.

Almost There

Today, was a very successful day. Christine and I decided to team teach our book "Friends" and we also decided not to podcast our questions, because both of us rather ask the questions ourselves. Other than that we got everything done that we wanted to, in addtion to finishing our lesson plan. All, we have to do now, is to type up the lesson plan itself, make up all the worksheets and rubrics, and print out all the materials needed for our lesson. I'm looking forward to teaching this lesson. :)

Decision Time

Christine and I will write and podcast our comprehension questions for our story, so that we will have two options when we do our lesson(s).
Today, we will first podcast the comprehension questions. Next, we will discuss whether we want to team teach or teach our story and lesson on our own. Once we figure out what we want to do, then we will start to plan our lesson(s).

Podacasting II

Friday, Christine and I did a lot better than our first attempt at podcasting. There were no technical difficulties at all and we were more composed in our reading. Alternating page by page reading is working really well for us and we're pretty sure that we got exactly what we wanted on Friday for our final read through of "Friends." Hopefully, Tuesday we will be able to finalize any sounds or pictures that we may want and pick the 5 comprehension questions that we liked the best and that we think will work well with what we want to do in our lessons. Overall, we almost there!

Pre-podcasting II

Today, Christine and I will try the same method of reading for our book "Friends." This method is that Christine will read the title of the book, the author and the first page, then I will read the second page of the book and we will keep alternating the reading page by page.
These past couple of days I did practice reading on my own to try and familiarize myself with the book, since I had never read it before Tuesday. I believe this has helped me pace my reading and to know the right words, instead of making up words as I read. I guess I will see the results today when we podcast. Hopefully, we can nail the reading today without any mistakes. :)

First Podcasting

I really like podcasting a lot. Both Christine and I were away last Friday, so I'm not able to compare or contrast this week to last week. However, I liked our reading style (page by page) it worked really well. The only thing that we both want to fix is to practice reading the book a little more and to compose ourselves while we are reading. Also, the only problem we had in the beginning of the podcasting was switching the microphone back and forth, because you could hear us switching it in the podcast. Our solution to this, is that the next time we read is for one person to hold the microphone and the other person to flip the pages. Overall, I think it was successful and I can't wait to finalize our work on Friday. :)

Pre-podcasting

I'm working with Christine DeMedici on the book "Friends" by Rob Lewis. We decided to read the book page by page our first time through. If we think we should change the reading style up after we're done, we'll make adjustments the next time around. I hope it works and I look forward to podcasting our book for the first time. Our introduction to podcasting link is: http://christinedemed.podomatic.com/entry/2009-09-22T07_08_21-07_00

Podcasting

I really don't know what podcasting is. I was introduced to podcasting in Test and Measurements, where we would listen to Dr. Luongo's expectations/lessons for our class. I want to learn what podcasting really is and how to use it. From the little bit that I know of podcasting I think the advantages of podcasting are that you can listen to a lesson over and over again, refer to it or use that lesson as many times as you want and you don't have to be in a classroom to access podcasting. The only drawback about podcasting that I know at this point may be that it isn't easy to access equipment to actually do the podcasting.

My general pre-podcasting prediction is that it's going to be different, but fun. I think it will probably be something that I would incorporate in my lessons someday. I also, think that this is where technology in the classroom is headed, so it will be great exposure.

Standardized Test

As seen in the youtube videos that Dr. Luongo provided, the teachers have lost their creativity in their classroom, because they can only really teach the material that the students will see on the test. As a child I hated standardized test, because your teachers were always putting pressure on you saying how important it was to do well on the test and that you need to pass it to be successful. I always was a very poor test taker, but even more so on standardized test. I have recently learned to be calm before test and just to do the best that I can, but when I was young I felt like I had no control over my anxiety of tests. Standardized test in particular I felt were not a fair evaluation on how I was as a student, because a standardized test couldn't tell anyone if I was a hardworker or a poor test taker or an average or above average student, it only evaluated if the student(s) knew the material or didn't. For someone like me I knew the material, I practiced in class and at home time in time again, because it was repetitive, but that didn't mean come test day that I was going to do well with it. I felt like it wasn't a fair evaluation of me or of my teacher.

Now, I see that as a teacher it's not any easy then it was for me. Teachers are accessed on how well their students do on these standardized test, but what if there are students like me and my friends who knew the material in class, but were horrible test takers, how is that a fair evaluation on if the student really knows the material. My 7th grade teacher for language arts, made our class practice for the second half of the semester looking at a picture and writing a story of what each individual saw in the picture and exercises like that for the GEPA, which I would take in 8th grade. I practiced over a year for the GEPA, but my evaluation on the GEPA still wasn't equivalent to the evaluation that I was getting in the classroom on the same material. I believe that it's not fair for either teachers or students to have to be graded on this, but it's what the teacher and the students take out of it that will prepare them for years of standardized test to follow.

Report

Personally I believe report cards are a good way of accessing students' overall achievement in each class or subject. I believe it shows a student how he/she did throughout the marking period and/or semester. There is a lot of factors that go into a report card grade such as the classwork, participation, homework, projects, tests etc... and this grade takes into calculation the average grades for each category adding it up to the final grade, which is shown on the report card. A report card is not just based on one test or one assignment it's fair in the sense that its really how well the student performed. Each student can have a good marking period or a bad one, but that always leaves room for improvement and success in the future.

As far back as I can remember I had good report cards, there were some times that I remember not having a good grade on report card, but it was because I was struggling in a certain area. Even, with those grades I was upset, because it's was frustrating not seeing the grade my parents or I wanted. However, it always pushed me to do a little better the next marking period to prove that I can be successful, maybe with just a little more practice and/or time in one subject more than the others.

Portfolios

I really like portfolios and think that they are a very successful tactic to use in the classroom. I can only recall making maybe one or two portfolios growing up, but I remember being really excited that I could decorate the pages anyway I wanted too! I also, remember my teacher had us pick our own schoolwork (test or essay) that we wanted to put in it and she also wanted us to put a couple of the tests and papers she thought were important for us to include. I was really excited to put my 'A' essays and tests in there that my teacher put stickers on, and I also liked the items she had us include that weren't necessarily my best work, but it showed me how I improved from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Therefore, I think portfolios should be used in the classroom, the same way that my teacher had my clas create them. I think it should be a mixture of what the students want in their portfolios and also the items I think are important for them to include to show their growth throughout the class. I think its really important for students to design their own portfolios any way they want, I want them to be as creative as they can be and use things that make them excited and want to use the portfolio.

Essay test or multiple choice

Honestly, some people are really good test takers and some are not. From elementary school to high school, I was a poor test taker, because I would get so nervous before the test, that I blanked out. Therefore, I liked multiple choice growing up, because it would gave me multiple opitions, that made me think and reminded me of what I really learned in class, thus taking out for the most part the incorrect answers. I always felt intimidated by essay test, because I had no assistance when I went blank, thus I wasn't very successful and I started to hate test a lot.

In college I started to like both essay test and multiple choice test, for different exams. Sometimes I really like to elaborate on my answers and get every point down. I also like multiple choice, because it created me to recall information from class, but also know the wrong answers too.

I think it's important to give students a mixture of test, depending on the different units being taught, so that every student gets a chance to succeed in one way or another. I think it would be important to see what students in your class mostly succeed in, whether its multiple choice, true false, or essay tests and try to give them those types of test more, but not just completely limited yourself to give just one of those test.

Quizzes and Test

Hey guys, I don't know how many of you will respond to this post, but in chapter 5 it says roughly how much time is needed for middle school and high school students to take a test or a quiz. How long should elementary school students have on a quiz or a test, should those times that are given for middle school and high school be doubled? I don't know if any of you noticed this on your field experience(s) yet.

Homework and Teacher Expectations

One statement that the text book says about homework it that, "it may be inappropriate to assign summative letter grades from the results." I would have to agree with this statement. I believe as teachers there are so many other ways to assess students through teacher-made tests and quizzes, projects, papers, etc... that homework may count towards the students' participation, but I think its harsh to give it a grade. To me homework is where a student should feel comfortable with the material that was taught that day in class and is a chance for the students to step outside of the classroom and outside of the teacher's guidance and support, and for the student to think on his/her own and either grasp the concept or question the concept if he/she does not understand it. If it's graded I believe students would be afraid to question the work and that they would feel more frustrated and pressured in trying to get the right answer(s) and trying not to make mistakes than actually thinking about what they are doing. I feel that as a teacher you can evaluate the pattern of errors or the pattern of successes in the students' homework and classwork, because there should be no pressure on them and they should feel at ease to make mistakes and try to apply the concept to other aspects of their work.
Teacher expectations I believe are to make a clear learning target, that the teacher clearly understands and can present/explain it to his/her class, so that it is clear to their students and also for their students to understand why they will need to know this information. I think that teacher expectations also form around assessment of the students. The reason being, the teacher has learning targets to reach and he/she cannot reach these targets until the students reach them, so through proper feedback, that is clear and specific, letting the students understand what they need to improve on and what they excelled at, helps them to reach these learning targets.

Rubrics

As a teacher, rubrics come in very useful in the classroom to access your students. You can either let your students see the rubric and let them see what you are grading them on if it is for a single subject or if it is used for other subjects you can use it yourself, so that the students work hard on every aspect in the assignment. The Rubistar website along with the Rubric Maker were awesome sights, especially being able to use these sights as a future educator is great! The websites have a lot of great ideas to build off of and are a wonderful reference. I really enjoyed working on the rubric and the websites actually make it really simple and easy to understand.

Fairness in Assessment & Learning Targets

Fairness in Assessment is teaching lessons so that every student no matter what background, race, ethnicity, gender, disability,  learning disability or not can understand the material being taught.  Therefore, everyone has a fair and equal chance of comprehending the lesson at hand.  That means making accommodations, spending extra time with a student(s)  or providing an environment that every student can learn equally in.

Through learning targets  there are several ways to access students.  There are general learning, specific learning and mastery learning targets that can be targets for the class or individual subjects.  What i really like about the learning targets are that they incorporate taxonomy to get the most out of the target.  Taxonomy helps me organize my thoughts, into  what I want my students to really get out of my lessons and what the should achieve after the lesson is taught.  Therefore, learning targets not only help me become better organize in my thoughts, but they also help the students understand what they should achieve at the end of the lesson.

Assessment is an evaluation. An evaluation of how the students are handling the material they are taught; if they are understanding it or if they aren't understanding it and if they aren't understanding it, why is that? Not only do the students get to get an evaluation on their work with feedback to help them understand their 'mistakes' or their successes of the material, but the teacher gets an evaluation from the students. The evaluation can be positive, meaning all the students or a majority of the students understand the information, so that you, the teacher, can move on or it can be negative. The students or a majority of the students don't understand the material being taught and you as a teacher need to see what areas you went wrong in and then, go back and fix it and spend a little more time on this information.

There are all kinds of assessments formative, diagnostic, summative. A teacher can get this information in different aspects, but the most common way is a test and as the class can see in the 1620 video students take a lot of test and I understand that tests need to be given for feedback and other things, but it can't be the only assessment that a teacher gives. Students don't necessarily learn solely from test, some students might not be good test takers, so there other ways of assessing your students. You can ask students to write asummary or write about the things they learned in class that day and the things they didn't understand, not for a grade, but to see where your students stand. Then, the next day or at the end of the class that day you can review the material that the students didn't understand and review it with them so that they better understand the material. As a teacher you can give them projects related to the material you are teaching them, so that its not as formal as a test and its a little more fun for everyone. Projects let the students express their creativity and also makes them want to learn, because its better than lecturing them and making them take tests. One, more assessment is having a class discussion, by asking the students questions and making a classroom rule, "that there are no stupid questions" and "the only stupid thing is not asking questions".

These are just a few of many ways to assess students. The videos helped provide more information on how to not solely rely on just givning tests, but to be creative and help your students to better understand the material, because you have to remember as a teacher there are many different types of students who all learn in different ways. So as a teacher reach out to all your students and help every student learn not just one kind of students, such as visual learners.

My name is Leigha Ashmen. As I posted last time I'm a sophomore at SPC, where I'm majoring in Elementary Education and Political Science. I really would like to be either an Elementary School teacher or a Middle School Social Studies teacher. I love playing soccer it's been my life ever since I can remember, so as you probably could have guessed I'm part of the SPC Women's Soccer Team. I grew up in Winslow Township, NJ, which is a half an hour from Philadelphia and Ocean City. I love doing just about everything; sports, hanging with my family, friends and my boyfriend, and getting involved in Bible studies and church activities.

Now, why I wanted to become a school teacher. When I was in Kindergarten I went around telling everybody that I wanted to be a writer or an Elementary School teacher and as I got older I still had the career goal of becoming both of those things. As I looked more into the major requirements I realized that I couldn't major both in Communication and Elementary Education, so I made a decision to study to become a teacher and possibly a Social Studies teacher, for my love of being around children and helping making a difference in their lives, as well as, my love for history and the political systems around the world. Besides school and soccer I work at Victoria Secret, in addition to working all around South Jersey training youth soccer players.

hello...

Hey...I'm starting my blog today.

I'm a sophmore at SPC where I am majoring in Elementary Education and Political Science. I would either like to be an Elementary Teacher or a Middle School Social Studies teacher. I'll be back to write more later! =)