Student Teaching Here I Come!

The semester is almost over. I can’t believe we are finally at this point. We student teach in a little over a month. I’m excited for this next chapter in my educational career, but I’m nervous too. This past month, I have spent a lot of time in my classroom, really working on developing those relationships with my students and preparing for next semester. I have planned with my CE when I will take over full instruction and we talked about those weeks. It is crazy to me that I will be graduating in May. This past month I have really learned the flexibility that comes with being an educator. I had lessons that I had plan to teach, but we would have to complete a state required test that day or a reward day would come up. It really taught me about being flexible and being ready for any changes that may occur. We just have to accept those and keep going because they will never stop. I enjoy this part of education though because there is never a dull moment!

For my outside learning this month, I went to Twitter. I am a firm believer in having students reflect on their own work. I feel that this is a great way for them to assess themselves and great things can come from student self-assessment. A teacher has created a board in her classroom that has a list of questions for students to ask themselves before turning their work in. This is a great idea for my classroom because I have noticed that many of my students rush through their work and don’t really take the time to stop and reflect. I plan to implement this in student teaching. I will submit the link to the tweet below.

https://twitter.com/teacher2teacher/status/1067947507311759360

This month my learning relates directly to NCTCS Standard 4. A part of this standard says that each teacher has multiple ways to assess their student’s learning. By having students assess themselves and reflect on their work, I am adding another form of assessment into my classroom that is different from the traditional test.

In my future classroom, I plan to implement this strategy of having students really stop and reflect on their work. I know that this will be a good thing for the group of students I have right now and I will implement it in the future with other students as well. It is something powerful when students can assess themselves and see where they are in their learning. Sometimes, they know more about their learning and work than they are showing us.

Fellow student teachers, here we go! The next semester is almost here! We’ve been waiting for this moment for the last 3 ½ years. We got this!

Learning in Science

This past month in Science Methods has been full of learning experiences. Some of my favorites were the science fair project and the science through my lens project. These were two experiences that I really enjoyed doing and I feel that I learned a lot from them. We had a few struggles during our science fair project, but for the most part everything went well. We had a few hiccups in transferring the plants, but they did well. I felt that these learning experiences would be great to do in my own classroom. The group that we had for our science fair project worked well together. We all had important parts in completing it and we worked together to make sure everything was done well.
Over the next month, I plan to have my science lesson taught in my clinical and have the majority of my unit completed. I am interested to see how the rest of my unit planning goes. I have enjoyed completing this unit about the solar system. I think it will be fun for my 3rd graders. We will be measuring shadows at different times of the day and collecting data.
My outside learning and research took place on Twitter. I found that virtual field trips are becoming more and more popular. I found two great virtual ones from Discovery Education. One took you on a trip to visit the polar bears and one takes students to the set of the newest Spider-Man movie and what they did to create it. Both of these are great resources!
Twitter:

This is one of the virtual field trips that takes you to the set of the new Spider-Man movie. This would be great for teaching students are comparing and contrasting. They could compare their knowledge of spiders to what happens in the movie. 

This is another virtual field trip that I think would be awesome! This gives you an in depth look at polar bears without ever leaving your classroom. Who needs to travel to the zoo? 

This is a great resource on teaching students how stem skills are used to solve real-world problems, which teaches them 21st century skills, problem solving, and critical thinking. The great thing is that this resource is also available in Spanish now! A great way to accommodate for our ELLs! 

A current event I learned about this past month was the outbreak of measles across the country. This is a great way to incorporate the human body system into your classroom and how we are supposed to take care of our body and keep it healthy. 

This past month, I learned some more about NCTCS Standard 4. An important part of this standard is to keep students engaged and involved in the learning process. Students should be a part of what they are learning and they should always be engaged. Learning should not just be the teacher standing in front of the room talking to the students. Students should take part in learning experiences and self-assess to see where they are in their learning. This is so much more beneficial in the end. 

Feedback & Twitter

It’s hard to believe that we have a little over a month before this semester is over. It has gone by so fast and I feel that I have grown so much in my educational career. The end of the semester is approaching, as well as, student teaching! I’m excited and nervous at the same time.

One of the biggest learning experiences that I had this past month would be when I received feedback on a lesson that I taught from Dr. Clark and Dr. Parker. I was teaching a small group lesson on finding the evidence in the text. It was a text about bats. The feedback I received was very helpful. I learned that I need to take that opportunity to teach science and support inquiry. I had always planned on integrating, but I wasn’t realizing the opportunities I had right in front of me. After talking with my professors I realized how much I could be doing with that one text. The next find the evidence passage is all about shelter dogs. I am excited to do different things with it to spark the student’s curiosity and get them all excited about shelter dogs! I plan on showing pictures, talking with the students and their experiences, and I may try to call an animal shelter.

My outside learning this month took place on Twitter. I have begun following a page called @Teacher2Teacher. They have short conversations at least once a day that ask different questions. For example, “How do you use social media in your classroom?” and “How do you teach group discussion skills?” Teachers from all over answer it and all of the sudden you have all these different strategies to use when it comes to social media, group discussions, etc. It’s great to read what other teachers do in their classrooms and what works!

I feel that my learning experiences relate to both Standard 3 and Standard 4 of the NCTCS. In regards to standard 3, I am making instruction relevant to students by allowing them to participate in discussions regarding shelter dogs. They will get the chance to talk about real-life experiences and we will talk about how many issues have come up with shelters being too full lately. In regards to standard 4, I am integrating and utilizing technology in my small group lesson and in my instruction because I am learning new strategies on how to teach through Twitter. I am also planning instruction appropriate for my students.

In my future classroom, I will think and plan more for integration. The feedback I received helped me to see that I need to not focus as much on the skill of finding the evidence, but I need to open up a whole new world of learning for my students to allow them to become well-rounded.