Journet - Week 4

Fourth Week Experience:

            

            This week is over as far as teaching goes. Due to the sub zero weather conditions, The Chicago Public School are closed Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday was a scheduled non-attendance day for students.  This blog will will focus on Monday and Tuesday reflections.  On Monday, we had a late start due to heavy snow and many late students and teachers who had to dig themselves out of snow.  School starts at 8:00 a.m. but we only had about 11 students at 9 a.m.  At 10 a.m.  we had 19 out of our 22 students.  We spent the morning letting the students catch up on friday missed quizzes and missed work.  Others were able to finish decorating their writing journal with personal photos and art.  We supervised the students working with mod podge and the other students taking missed quizzes and assessments.  We did not work on guided reading groups.  I took attendance electronically and took the students to lunch.  My cooperating teacher taught a Social Studies lesson on the rug as I prepped for my Math Lesson and welcomed my supervisor Ms.Royster.  I was thankful that Ms. Royster braved the weather and arrived safely to observe me for my first observation.  I had a fabulous lesson prepared with slides and fun activities.  I prayed that my smart board would not glitch during the lesson.  With a 90 minute math block I have to be very creative to keep 3rd grade students engaged.  During the lesson, I had my first situation where a student wanted to test me.  This particular student has never "Tested" me during the other 3 math lesson that I have taught.  I approached him quietly and respectfully asked him to sit up because he was laying on the carpet and I also asked him to stop calling out.  He said, "Ok."  The lesson started out great, I had the students very engaged but I did notice them start to dwindle at about minute 12 or so.  I was well prepared with the content and my visuals included scenarios with the students names and relatable situations.  For example, I have female student who loves everything Pokemon.  The lesson was about paying someone using the least coins and how to start by using the largest coin value first (quarters).  In the slide, I say SandSo is selling pokemon cards for 87 cents.  How many quarters can you pay SoandSo with out going over?

           I also created a virtual store slide so that students can choose an item to buy.  The items I chose with my students in mind.  I see that one of my students loves to bake with her mom.  One student loves to draw transformers and another one loves Takis chips. Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students – Performance Indicator 1L) uses information about students’ individual experiences, families, cultures, and communities to create meaningful learning opportunities and enrich instruction for all students.  

          Being a techie person I love incorporating smart board activities, videos, and visuals.  For this lesson I customized the JUMP Math Curriculum Slides with names and scenarios that my students can relate to.  I use BrainPop Jr videos to reinforce my teaching.  I was able to use a similar theme that Moby and Annie use.  This way my students can associate the Jump Math Slides to something that is relatable.  Let me Show you how I customized my slides.  The slide at top you see the original Jump Math Title Slide for lesson 39.  On the bottom slide you can see the one I customized .

Original Black and White Title Slide

My Customized Colorful Slide

       This shows how I can deliver instruction in many ways. Using technology, videos, poems, visuals.  Standard 5 - Instructional Delivery – The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.    5N) uses technology to accomplish differentiated instructional objectives that enhance learning for each student;  I am able to deliver the content in many ways in order to teach to the different learning styles.  I feel that the lesson was very well prepared and the visuals truly enhanced the lesson. I was able to engage the students with a personal story of me working at the grocery store as a cashier.  I then told them that I had a teenager paying for his hot Cheetos with all pennies.  I told the students that he was taking his sweet time to pay and that he could have used the other coins(fewer coins) in his hand.  The students were worried if my other customers were getting upset.  I drew them in with this story.  I then connected it to what they learned last week and began my lesson with what we will be able to do (objective) make a total using the least amount of coins. Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice. 

           Earlier I mentioned that I began to lose my students attention and in talking to my supervisor she was able to give  me constructive feedback.  She said that I had them at the rug for too long.  She advised me that I chunk out my lesson and that I get to the "meat" of the lesson early on.  In retrospect I did have them on the rug for close to 20 minutes.  My supervisor reminded me the rule of thumb when keeping the students on the rug in minutes according to their age.  I Should keep them no longer than 8 to 9 minutes because they are 8 and 9 year olds.  If I need more whole group time she advised to chunk it out and after and activity I can bring them back to the rug for another 8 to 9 minutes.  and then continue with another activity or centers work at their table.  
           I had awesome content knowledge, I made the slide relatable and colorful but because I kept them too long, I began to lose them.  When we switched over to the partner work.  They were probably relieved to get started on something hands on but a good chunk of them did not understand my instructions.  I realized that I did not give clear instructions so when the activity started I had at least 5 students asking me the same question.  I have to remind myself that they are 8 years old and need simple and clear instructions and also they need me to model it for them.  Once everyone was participating, i feel that they enjoyed the lesson.  I think that they understood the main concept and why it was important and relevant to learn.  I know that behavior management is an area where I will have to practice and my skills will be refined with time.
             In reflecting on my supervisors feedback, I was able to immediately take her advise when I taught my math lesson the next day.  For the whole group activity, I set a 9 minute timer and I also modeled the activity at the carpet with large foam dice.  The lesson was on multiplying money.  One dice represented money like quarters, dimes, and nickels.  The other dice represented the amount of that same coin.    Like 5 dimes equal 5 x 10 cents equals the total value.  I had a huge anchor chart where I recorded the data.  I called 5 students to roll the dice and record the data on the anchor chart.  They really enjoyed this activity.  Their engagement on the carpet was much better because it was shorter.  I moved them to their tables to work with their partner with regular size dice and to record the data on a blank paper.   One thing I wish i had done was provided a data recording sheet because some kids created one similar to my anchor chart but other kids just wrote math facts on paper but it wasn't very organized.  I think providing them with a graphic organizer or a pre made table to record their data will be helpful.         
        Mondays lesson I provided a work mat for coins and even designed my own sheet so that they will record the data collected.  On Tuesday however, I didn't provide them with a sheet and they could have really benefited from one. 

This is virtual store i created.

I designed this sheet so that the students record their data.

I provided Counting Mats so that the students had a place to record their data.

            I made differentiated exit tickets for the students in which they had to replace coins with less coins ( assessment).  For example replace 5 pennies with a dime.  Replace 2 dimes and a nickle with a quarter.  Replace 5 dimes with 2 quarters.  I use more change with some exit ticket and less coins with another.  I want my students to feel successful and not overwhelmed.  I wanted to see if they learned the goal of replacing coins with less coins to make the same amount.  I also provided money counting resource called magic money to help students who do not know how to count coins or do not know how to associate nickles with counting by 5's or dimes with counting by tens.  Standard 7 - Assessment – The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student 6 growth, and evaluating student outcomes.  Standard 3 - Planning for Differentiated Instruction – The competent teacher plans and designs instruction based on content area knowledge, diverse student characteristics, student performance data, curriculum goals, and the community context. The teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement. 

            
Goals for the next week:

·         Track data for small groups.

·         Continue to give word work and phonics support.

·         Continue teaching money unit

·         Practicing behavior management in the hallways.

·         Practice time management with lesson s and activities.
       Keep students on the rug for no more than 9 minutes.
       Write as much as I can for EdtPA.