Week 11

     Well this week I completed my first ever edTPA lesson plan...17 pages later. I am hoping this process gets easier the more I write them. I am glad that we are starting to do edTPA now and not waiting until 435, even though it is a lot of work. This week in class we unpacked the different tasks of edTPA which was helpful. We learned that the steps in the tasks are to plan, teach, assess and then task 4 is math. This is what a good teacher should do every time they teach. They need to plan appropriately with differentiation which is NCPTS Standard 2, Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students, under “teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults” and “teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world.” After they have planned this lesson, they need to teach using these standards as well. Once they teach they need to assess and see how well the students have understood the lesson. If there is confusion the teacher needs to evaluate their teaching and think of a different way to reteach this lesson in a way that students might better understand this concept. Lastly is math. Teachers need to see where the students are struggling and identify a central focus based on the misconceptions. They will need to reteach and use 3 students as samples to show their progress. A commentary will then be written and an evaluation of their teaching will be preformed.
    Washington continues to be a great experience as well. This week was the first week I had my own small group for 45 minutes. We read about different household animals. We had great discussions and the students took their assessment after the reading the information about the animals. Some were short answer and some were multiple choice so the students could not just guess, they had to cite where they found the information in one of the questions. Lastly, they had a flower and in the middle they wrote the topic of what we read and in the peddles of the flowers, they wrote different facts they read in the story. I am learning a lot from being in Washington and it is great experience.
    For my outside research for the week, I researched the website called flocabulary.com. This is a great online website to practice vocabulary words. Instead of simply writing the vocabulary words on the board, on this website you can create vocabulary words with videos, animations and students can even create their own songs and raps to help them memorize different words. Kids would have a blast using this website and they would also be learning the words. For me it is much easier to memorize a song than it is to memorize a list of words, so why not put that "list of words" in a song so students can remember the words easier. There are also activities and assessment that are aligned with different standards that the students can play with. This would be a website the students would enjoy for sure.
https://www.flocabulary.com/plans/

6 Weeks Left!

I can not believe there is only six more weeks left until the end of the semester. Just thinking about it and all the work that we have due in the next six weeks stresses me out.
 This week in Washington we had the duty free lunch where we let the teachers have a break and we watched the students in the cafeteria for their lunch time. The teachers were very appreciative of this so I am glad that we had the opportunity to give them a break. I liked how each table had a red, yellow and green cup on it. The red meant the students could not talk, yellow meant they could talk quietly and green meant they were able to socialize. When they first got to lunch they were all on red so they could focus on eating before they started talking. As long as they behaved, they would be at green by the end of their lunch period. I think this is a great idea and will suggest it in my future school. The student do not have a very long lunch and many of them get distracted and run out of time if they are not focused on eating. This is a great tool for time management.
  This week we have also been doing an edTPA boot camp and we unpacked the tasks in class today which was very helpful. This was very beneficial in preparing us for our own edTPA lesson plans. Even though they are long and a ton of work, it will only help us in the long run when we have to do edTPA lesson plans during student teaching.
  For my outside technology resource, I researched about an app called "iLearn United States." This is a great tool for students to learn about each state and where each state is located on the map. It also gives facts about each state including the capital, state nicknames and more. After you learn and practice your states, you can then start playing the games. In one game, you have one minute to see how many states you can name. This is a good tool to assess how well you know where each state is located. The good thing is, each time you play, you can try to name more states and hopefully show progress. If you got 6 states the first time, set a goal to get 7 the next time until you can get more and more each time. You can also upgrade the app by paying only $0.99 to get pronunciation of each state, be able to section off the map so students can focus on one part at a time, and include spelling as well. This is a great tool to use for formative assessment. Teachers can see if students are learning their states by how well they can name, label and spell them. This relates to NCTCS 4, Teachers facilitate learning for their students under the category of "teachers integrate and use technology in their instruction." Instead of giving students a paper map to sit there and memorize, why not make learning fun and let them play a game to learn their states. We are in the 21st century, and need to realize that how students have grown up now is different from when we grew up, everything is based around technology. Below is the link that describes the app.
https://edshelf.com/tool/ilearn-us-states/

Spring Break Time!

This is my last blog after a very stressful week before Spring break. It's like all the teachers plan to give us homework, tests, quizzes, midterms and lesson plans at the same time! Thankfully Dr. Parker is giving us extended time for our flipped lesson plan in edTPA format. That is a weight off my shoulders for sure!
  This week we only have SSED307 on Tuesday and we were in Washington. I was able to give an ORF reading test again. I am getting used to giving these test and they are getting easier and easier each time we practice. I also learned exactly how hot dots work today. The students have to read a passage and then on the back there are questions to answer about the story. They are supposed to right down what they think the answer is on a sheet of paper and then they check to see if they got it correct with the hot dot pen. They then have to mark on their paper if they got it correct or not. This is a good way to teach students honesty. The teacher isn't going to sit there and watch to make sure they are not cheating, but it is up to them to be honest and not change the answers once they find out the correct answer.
    My outside research with technology is an app that I have found for my February app evaluation assignment. This app is called Math Climber HD. This is an awesome app that includes 18 different categories of math and has three different levels of learning. level 1 being the easiest and level 3 being the hardest. Students can choose what level they want to work on and what different category of math they want to use. It has fun games and one of the games is a rock climbing wall. The students pick and design their own character. For every problem they answer correctly, they move up the wall and for every question they answer incorrectly, they move down the wall. This will motivate students to really practice their math facts, especially the students who are competitive because they will not want to go down a level. This is definitely an app I will use in my future classroom during centers. It includes technology and is a great way to get better at math while having fun. This app covers NCTCS standard 4 Teachers facilitate learning for their students under the category "teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction." It is a great way to include technology in math and a great way for students to practice all types of different math problems.

One more week until Spring break!

One more week until we get a break from everything! We have a lot going on next week so it is time to buckle down and get our work done so we can enjoy our break!
  This week in Washington, our 2nd grade class was celebrating Dr. Suess throughout the week. Colleen Savannah and I were able to read a book to them and then do two different worksheets and a craft with the class. My favorite worksheet was the one where the students each got a bag of goldfish and they had to graph how many of each color they had. The worksheet had four columns labeled "yellow" "purple" "green" and "orange". They had to count the gold fish and fill in how many boxes of each color they had. After they had the numbers written on their paper, they were allowed to eat the gold fish and then answer questions that went along with the activity. One of the questions was "what color did you have the most of?" This was a great activity that included Dr. Suess's book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". This lesson included language arts by reading the book, fine arts by including a creative way to do an activity and a craft, and math by counting the fish and having to solve problems using the numbers they collected. Integration is key in lesson planning. This connects to NCTCS Teacher standard 3, "Teachers know the content they teach" under the category teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines. If a teacher can connect his/her lessons to multiple subjects areas and include outside information in their lesson, it will be more effective and relatable to the students lives. I want to strive to achieve this standard in my future  classroom because I think it is so important for students to be well-rounded and be able to connect different subject areas and outside information that is used in the real world.
   To continue with my outside resources with technology, I have researched about a website called "Starfall". This website was also shared at our digital learning day. It is a website specifically for kindergarteners that covers the ELA and math curriculum. There are so many fun games and sing alongs that students will love. There are also online books that can be read to the students. This would be a great tool for the students to also use at home if their parents do not have time to read to them. Instead of giving the students homework at night, the teacher could have their students play on this website and have one book read to them each night that they have to follow along with.
This is the link to the website. http://www.starfall.com/index.htm?