Reflection #9

This week was way too short! I wish we could've stayed just a little while longer. I ended up exceeding my hours by about 2 hours and I still wanted to stay longer. The students were warming up to us and I was feeling comfortable in the classroom. One of the students that I've been struggling to get engaged got a really bad bloody nose on Tuesday so I was able to help him out and connect with him a little bit more. The teacher is trying to keep this student on task, but he said he even has a hard time with him. We are all wondering if he has ADD, he just can't seem to sit still or follow instructions. Before we left the students thanked us for "making the lessons fun" some even told me they would miss me. I was able to take the students to one of their rotations and play a game with them while we waited for the other teacher to finish getting ready for us. The kids caught onto the game just as it was time to go in so it worked out perfectly. I said goodbye to them before class started and then headed off to work. I had a great experience and am going to miss being in a classroom every day. I'm really excited to be moving on and can't wait until I can start teaching a class of my own. So much Fun!!

Reflection #8

What a great week! we had a lot of fun with our lessons and the kids even seemed to actually get something out of it! We played a relay game with the students where they had to place examples of freedoms, laws, class rules, and responsibilities into buckets. The students did really well and only missed a few. We talked about how some of the laws or rights can also be responsibilities and vice versa. The students were great at deciding what was responsibility and what could also be placed in another category. We also started our final project on Friday and had students creating power points of the 4 lessons that we covered. The students worked well together and followed directions perfectly. There were a few tiny hiccups, but it still worked out just fine.

Reflection #7

This week has flown by! We taught on Tuesday and Wednesday and we will be teaching again on Friday. Our lessons have gone well and we are hoping they will continue to get better. The students have been very respectful and have been a lot of fun to be around. I am enjoying being in the 5th grade and could see myself teaching this grade in the future. The students pick up on a lot more than I thought they would, though they still have a hard time paying attention for very long and instructions have to be repeated numerous times. We are using the "give me 5" system as well as "freeze please, stop, and go". I have noticed that the students like to take their time on projects and so we've had to extend time and have to consider that with our future lesson plans. So far I think we've done a pretty good job of making the constitution fun for the kids. After teaching our lessons I have found areas where we can improve the way we presented as well as adding to and changing the lesson plan. I'm looking forward to teaching again next week and hope things continue to run smoothly for us.

Reflection #6

So far so good. I'm enjoying the experience and have learned a lot about how our teacher runs his classroom. Our teacher is really laid back and likes to joke around with the students. The students seem to really enjoy being in his class, and past students are often sticking their heads in to say hi as they pass. He hasn't sat down and talked to us about the students or about how he does things. We have been oberving and have a pretty good understanding of how the teacher student dynamic works.

I'm worried about all the work we have to be doing while in field. I'm confused on a couple of the assignments and hope I can get it all figured out and done. I plan on getting all of the field work assignments at least started by next week. I'm thinking next week will be a bit different. We start teaching on Tuesday and I'm more excited than nervous. It will be a fun experience!

Reflection #5

There is a lot more than just color and shading that goes into an art piece. The way an artist represents emotion can be through color, texture, movement, shape, value, space, and lines. By looking at children's picture books we can help students to appreciate and better understand art and the different mediums artists use. Students can learn what makes art powerful and how to express their emotions and stories by being exposed to different types of art and becoming familiar with the emotions and techniques that other artists use to convey their feelings.