Field Experience #3

Wow field experience has flown by! Can't believe this is the last week we will be there. I had the time of my life and I really don't want to go back to college. I really am starting to get attached to these 5th graders and I've only been there 3 weeks. It's insane really!
So this week we taught our social studies lessons again. Technology cooperated with us this week (cue the angel choir singing!). But I found that my videos took a little too much time and I kinda left Loryn in a lurch with hers even though I cut a few videos out. We did a diamante poem for the kids and wanted them to perform some for our 2nd drama activity, but we ran out of time for them to read them in front of the class.
Science went well too. I taught a lesson on chemical reactions and the students went to different stations to try mixing different chemicals. Some of my students didn't understand one of my worksheets, so I brought the class together and explained it. Took me 2 days to get through my science lesson, but I felt like I got them to understand chemical reactions really well and do what I wanted them to with the worksheets. I realized it's better to take 2 days to do something rather than cram it into one and they don't get what you need them to get.
Now I'm off to England to enjoy the sights there. Most of my field papers are in or will be in shortly and I'm very excited! Thanks to the teachers who helped me get here and worked with me to make this happen!

Field Experience Post #2

This week Loryn and myself did our first lesson on Patrick Henry and Benedict Arnold. A lot of our technology wasn't working (neither the Digital Story nor my Powerpoint would open up. So we had to do a lot of improvising and being flexible with the schedule. I ended up using a reader that projected my printed slides on the projector. Loryn's part with Patrick Henry went really well and she was super flexible with making things work. At the end of the lesson we did Decision Alley, which didn't work as well as I wanted it to. I don't think they fully got the concept of what they are supposed to do. Also, it was right at the very end of the lesson and there wasn't very much time to do it. So I think that contributed to it not working as well as I wanted.
We also taught our first science lessons which went really well. The students worked with chemical reactions. The first day, they mixed baking soda, calcium chloride and phenol red solution. This caused a heat reaction as well as a release of gas. The next day, the students had to figure out, using their own experiments, what chemical caused the heat to happen. They found out through the experiments that it was the calcium chloride that was causing the heat.
This coming week, we are teaching Patrick Henry and Benedict Arnold with a drama insert from the Diamante poem and we will be doing some more experiments with chemical reactions in science. Stay tuned!

Field Experience #1

Our first week of field flew by pretty quickly for me and Loryn. We've been working hard to try and make our lessons work the way we wanted to. We learned that we would only do 2 social studies lessons and 3 science lessons. That kinda freaked us out a little bit, but then we decided to just roll with it and make it work. So we got some materials from our teachers and we observed the students and helped where we could around the classroom.
We corrected tests, pulled staples out of a wall(lots of fun) and helped keep the students on task. I worked with a student who scored low on their math test. It was really cool to do that on the spot. It was kinda trial and error to see what worked to make this kid get the concepts of division. But by the end, he was doing it without my help and it was really amazing to see! So far field has been an awesome experience!

Vidcast

Podcast Series:
Renaissance (vidcast)

Core Curriculum:
Renaissance:
Social Studies 6th grade
Standard 2
Students will understand the transformation of cultures during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the impact of this transformation on modern times.

We thought that this vidcast would be a good introduction to a unit on the Renaissance. It would introduce children to the important people who shaped the world and made landmark changes that we still feel today. We just wanted to give students a good idea of what we would be learning in our unit.

INTASC standards that connect to our vidcast:
Standard 2
C. Design and articulate instruction aligned with Utah Core Curriculum standards.

NETS standards:
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers:
a. demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations
c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats

Drawbacks to this assignment:
I would like to work on this vidcast a lot more to make it work better, but that would take more than the time allotted to make happen. I would also like to ask students about what figures might interesting to them so I could tailor it more to their interests instead of what I think is interesting to me.

Future plans for this series:
As stated before, I would like to perfect this vidcast a lot more. I would also tailor a lot more of my video to my students interests rather than just what I found interesting for me.

Vid Casting

This week we started throwing around ideas for a vid cast that is due in a couple of weeks. We kinda decided to do one on the Renaissance, but hadn't gotten any farther than that. We talked a lot in class about how to use vid casts possibly in a classroom. I really look forward to using and learning more about vid casts as I work on it further.

Podcasting

Today we experimented with Podcasting. We did it with a public service announcement. Me and Lori chose to do it on cyberbulling. I had a ton of fun with it. We were laughing and had tons of fun writing the script and recording it. I mean we seriously had to try it at least 15 times to get it right.
I would like to use this now to help me possibly with homework for teachers. If they are willing to allow me to record them, then possibly on the days that I'm gone, I can listen to their lectures on my iPod. That would be so totally awesome!
When I become a teacher, for certain subjects (This really wouldn't work well with math), I could record and podcast my lectures so that my students would know what I talked about during class and be able to listen and keep on top of their homework.

EDEL 3250 Google part 2

This week we worked on building a Google site. I have to say that it was a lot of work! Most of it was a review from 2200, but it was nice that we went over it step by step in class. I really think if I worked at it, I could probably get comfortable working with a class website.
I really don't see myself running a website at this current point in time considering my schedule, but it's good practice for when I am ready to start working on my very own real class website. It really works well for me to learn now when I have Doc Waters to help me if I get stuck rather than being frustrated on my own with no one to help me.
Once I become a teacher, I could really see myself using a class website in one form or another. It would be helpful to my students and parents. Students and parents can check announcements related to the class, get missed assignments, etc.