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Reflective Teaching Podumentary : Professional Growth. Created By Jill Fuhrman 5.29.09. NOTE: click to activate sound and video within each of the slides. Overall Goals. For Maymester. Adapting Lessons to the Students’ Needs Transitioning Vocabulary Classroom Management Techniques.
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Reflective Teaching Podumentary:Professional Growth Created By Jill Fuhrman 5.29.09
NOTE: click to activate sound and video within each of the slides Overall Goals For Maymester Adapting Lessons to the Students’ Needs Transitioning Vocabulary Classroom Management Techniques
Bodies of Water: Lesson 2 Maymester Date: May 12, 2009 Lesson 2 Bodies of Water Sub-Driving Question: What is the difference between a river and other bodies of water? Objective(s): LWBBAT represent where they think water exists on Earth. LWBBAT define what they think a river consists of. Grade(s): 1 Standards from the Michigan Department of Education: Materials: -overhead of match the water bodies and Michigan Quarter Reverse -picture of pond, lake, river, ocean, and stream -crayons -copies of Michigan quarter and Match the Water Bodies -3 bowls of different sizes, and a plastic cutting board for the river and streams Modified from “A coin out of water”http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/lessonPlans/50sq/2004/_k01-1.pdf • Pass out the Michigan Quarter ReverseExplain to students the US mint issued several of these quarters in commemoration of each of the states and this is what the back of Michigan’s quarter looks like. With the students, examine the design on the coins reverse. Have students point out the water and the land on the map. Instruct them to color the water blue and the land green. • Where does it look like the water is on in comparison to Michigan?-around Michigan • What is Michigan known for? It is written on the coin somewhere, who can point it out for me… “The Great Lakes State.”-the great lakes are large bodies of freshwater that have lots of rivers running into them. -the Kalamazoo runs into lake Michigan like this… -show on overhead copy Using the bowls, cups and pan show the different bodies of water“There are several different types of bodies of water other than a Lake and a River, I am going to show you a few right now and then you will have to show me what you remember in the next worksheet I pass out. • Oceans –large bowl with some water in it. Then pour some salt in it. • Lakes- smaller bowl with some water in it and no salt • Ponds- saucer cup with some water in it. • These are usually not noted on large country maps and globes. • Rivers- long ribbon of water that moves down hill. • Streams- much like the long ribbon of water just smaller in size. Now I am going to pass out a worksheet with several pictures on it that show the different bodies of water. • First we are going to write the words… as I am on the overhead. Starting from the top of the list of pictures ask the students to raise their hands and have them guess and then describe which of the words match the picture in question. “Raise your hand and tell me which word matches with picture… as well as why you think that” • Complete the following pictures and follow along on the overhead.
Demonstration of Bodies of Water; the Students Were Very Interested!
1st Conference Notes • Need to explain “big words” to them • Surrounds, peninsula • Direct questions to students that are not focused. • Demonstrations keep the students interested • Having students “do things” keeps them engaged • Overall, the lesson… • Was a good topic • Was understood by the students • Kept their interest • Presented some confusion, but I was able to pick up on that and went back over the information with them • Was successful seeing as the students learned
Memorandum 1 • To: Mrs. Jeannette Aerts • From: Jill Fuhrman • Date: 5.14.09 • Re: Reflections from after school conference from 5.12.09 • Message: • I would like to thank you for taking time to comment on my performance on Tuesday the 12th of May. As part of my podumentary I am required to restate what was said during our conference after each of my lessons. You made very insightful comments on what I didn’t do so well as well as what areas where I seemed to teach to the level of the students. You mentioned how I tend to use “big words,” such as ‘surround’ and ‘peninsula’. I realized that sometimes I do expect the kids to “just understand” what I am talking about. However that is contradictory to my philosophy of teaching, seeing as, I believe the students should be able to explore the unknowns and develop a relationship in understanding these unknowns to then gain new level of knowing. I was expecting the students to know what I was talking about without giving them the opportunity to poll their background knowledge on the subject. Another piece you mentioned was that I need to direct more questions to students that were not paying attention in order to get them to focus on the task at hand. • On the other hand, you made several nice comments on what you thought went well on Tuesday. You mentioned that I was able to find demonstrations that kept the students interested as well as engaged. The worksheets I gave allowed the students to stay on task and focused on the lesson. You noted on how the lesson went overall as you thought it was a good topic for the students seeing as it built off from the day before and was at a level that they could understand. At one point I saw some confusion within some of the student’s work and realized I needed to work through the confusion with them. You stated that this was nice to see me correcting any confusion early on before we move too far forward in their work to address the issues of confusion as a class. Overall you pointed out that the students were able to learn and enjoyed it, which is my ultimate goal while I am here for the Maymester period. • Along with the students learning, I have some other goals for myself during the Maymester period. My hope is to become even more confident in my teaching ability. I have been told by some teachers that even though you plan your lessons thoroughly; you will still feel like the lesson is falling apart while you are teaching. I often feel this way even though I know it is completely natural to “go with the flow” during your lesson because otherwise many of the students may get lost. I feel very confident in my science knowledge while I feel less confident scaling it down to the students’ understanding. I am hoping that by the end of May I will be able to teach to the kids needs instead of teaching everything within my lesson plan. I will know that I reached that when I experience more students are inquiring about rivers now which will lead to gaining knowledge later. Thanks for mentoring me, • Jill Fuhrman
Introduction to Wetland Animals and Plants: Lesson 7 • Maymester • Date: May 19, 2009 • Lesson 7 ___ Introduction to Wetland Animals and Plants • Sub-Driving Question: What is the difference between Wetland Animals and other Animals? • Objective(s): LWBAT specify which animals and plants live within wetlands • Grade(s): 1 • Standards from the Michigan Department of Education: • Materials: *note; needs to be prepared before class picture of duck, bass, cattail, crayfish, great blue heron, minnow, frog, beaver, painted turtle, waterweed worksheet of questions reference worksheet • Estimated Time: 35 minutesIntroduce 10 objects that can be found within wetlands: • Each student should have the following handout. • Pass around one picture per student. Tell them they get 2 minutes to look at the picture and write down what they think it is. After that gently trade pictures with the individual across from you. You need to get a picture that you haven’t wrote about yet. For those of you sitting on the outsides you may come in and ask to trade with someone. *If I see any grabbing you will be set in the time out spot. • You will then write the letter the picture is and tell me what you think its name is, where it lives, and describe to me what it looks like. • Then I will go through each of the objects and explain what they are, maybe read some of the questions to answer what they are. I will keep the students involved with the learning process as they will receive a handout that has with the pictures of the objects on one side and a space to name them and some descriptors for them. I will use simple words and terms to describe each of the items as not to make it more of a reference sheet for them with their future productions.
2nd Conference Notes • Great Idea • Makes the kids think • They only get frustrated because the don’t want to think and they want to be done quick. • This is expected when they are learning • A little confusion- at first with demonstration (show not tell) • Timing them makes it a fun game • Any time the kids are moving around during the lesson; they are more motivated and focused on the task • Make a game out of learning (Great!) • Doing the unknown first makes the students be more attentive when they are then learning about the unknowns.
Memorandum 2 • To: Mrs. Jeannette Aerts • From: Jill Fuhrman • Date: 5.23.09 • Re: Reflections from after school conference from 5.19.09 • Message: • I would again like to thank you for taking time to comment on my performance on Tuesday the 19th of May. I was very interested as to what you had to say for this conference since I though the kids seemed flustered which then made me nervous that I was doing something wrong. You made it a little clearer when you said that it was good that the kids get a little flustered sometimes because it means that they are only frustrated because I am making them think on their own. The one part I agree that I need to work on big time, is making sure I make more transparencies so I can demonstrate and not just tell them how fill out their pages. For some reason I can remember to tell them the order of how I would like the activity to be delivered, but I cannot remember that a simple example or demonstration would make it easier for them to understand my procedure. If I was to demonstrate better I know it would make it a lot easier on them as well as myself. • I appreciated that you thought my lesson was a good idea and that making them get up and move during the lesson made it more interesting and fun for them. You did mention that there was some confusion in the beginning and that if I was to do this in front of a classroom observer it would have been wise to practiced it the day before so the students were well rehearsed in the procedure. I thought that was a very good suggestion for my future teaching experiences. • As for my goals for the remaining week of Maymester, I hope to be able to demonstrate my lessons better. I feel as if I can reach this goal by using more transparencies to demonstrate my worksheets. I would also like to try working with the students more in front of the class and then when I give them time to work more independently, I will be able to move around the room and help students individually. Another way I can demonstrate better is by listening to the students’ needs, for instance when the students are confused on my procedure or vocabulary I need to ask them what specifically they are confused about and then try to break it down to it is more comprehendible. • Again, thank you for your insight, • Jill Fuhrman
What I learned about my teaching • Adapting Lessons to the Students’ Needs • I learned that I need to demonstrate my direction more often. Advice given to me was that verbal demonstration can only go so far for some students, a visual demonstration will help reach more the other students, while a physical demonstration can capture even more students. I feel as if I am capable of doing the demonstrations; I just didn’t do them in the lesson 7. With further experience I will gain more knowledge of how to plan demonstrations and make them effective. • Transitioning Vocabulary • The transition from taking college classes to teaching in an elementary school is similar - in terms of vocabulary. In my college courses definitions made the difference between getting my point across or not. Funny, how the same thing is true in elementary schools. If I say a term that the students don’t know during my instruction time, it could spark further interest in the word or leave them completely confused. I order to prevent complete distraction from the subject, I need to be better at thinking on a different scale of background knowledge. Like when I said that the river was streamlined; that just means that it is follows a more linear (straight) path than something else. • Classroom Management Techniques • Even though I do not discuss meeting this goal specifically, I felt as if I learned about this everyday during the Maymester experience. Each day I walked into the classroom there was a new situation presented to me about a student’s motivation, engagement, behavior, maturity, ect. While each of those days I would either watch Mrs. Aerts handle the situation and take mental notes, or I had the opportunity to handle the situation myself. Most often I would try listening to what the students had to say first then I would try resolving the situation. Many of the situations seen in the clips are of students not understanding their work and so I would take the time to re-explain or help encourage them throughout the lessons. Other management techniques that were shown in the clips are instances of students talking out of turn, the physical placement of students during my lessons, and misbehavior during my lesson. Each of these are very different in how I handle the situations, but all were experience in trying to see what the students responded well too. As first graders, they need to be reminded consistently on what they are suppose to be working on. I found it to be more instructional at times to remind the students with “what are you suppose to be doing right now?” Also, I found that I keep the students attention better by whispering, instead of talking over them. I would simply get quieter and wait for the students to lean in, in order to hear me. They soon would cease all their talking because they wanted to be able to hear what I was saying. This ended up being one of the best classroom management techniques that I picked up on during Maymester. Instead of yelling overtop the students and inevitably giving myself a headache, I would just whisper and the students responded better than any of my previous field placements. Overall, every experience in the classroom, for that month, was more of a learning experience for me than for the students.
Thank you for viewing my podumentary. My hope is that you were able to see the developments I made to my pedagogy during the Maymester 2009 experience.
