My original thoughts and plans for teaching have for the most part, gone out the window. Now, I have a better understanding of my students needs and abilities and can plan my lessons and units more accordingly. This is definitely going to be an interesting year and a fantastic learning opportunity for me. I am excited!
I'm quite sure what I was expecting as my first week as a special needs educator but I was NOT really prepared for the realities of my students. Many of my students are non-communicative, with several of them using a communication devices or only gestures to communicate their needs. At the academic level most were at about a pre-school level as well as globally functioning at a pre-school level, with all being in the Grade 2-3 age range.
My original thoughts and plans for teaching have for the most part, gone out the window. Now, I have a better understanding of my students needs and abilities and can plan my lessons and units more accordingly. This is definitely going to be an interesting year and a fantastic learning opportunity for me. I am excited!
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For my first assigned unit in my practicum I decided to use a variety of centers to teach the students. My unit consisted of 6 different centers that integrated a variety of skills and learning experiences. My students loved these stations and were excited to work at them and looked forward moving on to see what the next station entailed.
My Social Studies lesson, I feel, was very successful today with all four grade 8 classes. Within 40 minutes I had my students read out of a text book, watch two videos, and had a writing activity. I also feel that my exit activity was really strong. The students were very engaged all throughout the lesson. I taught like a pro today! To review for the chapter 11 quiz, I found a Notebook template file for a review Battleship game. I thought it looked awesome and that the grade 8's would enjoy this activity to help them review before their quiz. My 8C class enjoyed playing Battleship but 8D was much more enthusiastic and more strategic in their moves. However I did have to stop a few times to regroup/refocus the class. My ability to gain control of the classroom is getting better, especially as the students see me more as an authority or teacher figure. The Battleship game is a great review tool but the downside is that the review questions can only be multiple choice or true/false. This makes it a bit more difficult to make higher order thinking questions.
I have attached the components of my inquiry-based unit plan for my PSII placement.
Today, I taught my first lesson in PSI! I was really anxious and nervous going in but once I got started the feelings simmered down. I was introducing the grade 5's to their new unit in science - Chemistry. I started off the unit with the one and only Bill Nye the Science Guy video! I loved watching Bill Nye when I was in school and I am thrilled to see that this generation is just as enthusiastic about this scientist. My lesson went fairly well. There were a couple of blips but I worked through them. The first issue was that the lesson before ran late and really interfered with my lesson. I adapted, but there was not much time for the students to work on their unit title pages. In addition, I had some technical difficulties. Fortunately, the students and Mrs. Andreas were quick to help out. The first video didn't load but it wasn't a big deal, instead I went over the concept with the students without the technology. I was however sad I didn't get to use my smartboard activity that worked hard on. However, I was glad that I decided to introduce myself and go over my classroom expectations and I feel that it really helped to begin building a relationship with the students.
The invention of spreadsheet programs was brilliant! These programs make data analysis much less invasive and user friendly. Although I have little experience using spreadsheets, I think that they are such a useful tool, especially in the classroom. It allows such easy transitions from data information into graph information. This is helpful for students to be able to quickly visualize the results from their data, which is particularly helpful to to visual learners. Spreadsheets are also helpful to those students who struggle with calculations or math skills, as the spread sheet does the calculations automatically, as long as the formula is programmed into the spreadsheet correctly. If I can use the basic functions of a spreadsheet almost any student can!
I feel digital citizenship is very important in today's society. Instant access to a plethora of information, on literally any topic you can think of, as well as the invention of social media has become an important part of daily life for the majority of people. As a future educator I believe it is part of my job not only to use these new technologies and resources for teaching but also to inform students on how to use these resources safely and responsibly. Many students are very naive as to the consequences of using the internet. Students need to know the threats to personal safety by using the internet and social media. For younger children especially, it is hard for them to comprehend the consequences of telling an anonymous person online their personal information or posting personal information in a public space online. Students need to learn that not everyone on the internet is who they say they are and that divulging personal information about themselves can lead to gravely consequences. It is unfortunate but true. On the flip side, students also need to be guided to not use the internet as a place to cause other people harm. New technology has allowed bullying to go beyond the playground and affect students in a much harsher way. Today cyber bullying has become a huge social problem and I believe that being proactive will help to address this issue. Students need to learn that this kind of behavior is not accepted nor tolerated. The classroom can become a powerful platform to inform students of acceptable and unacceptable online behavior and start powerful discussions. Another part of digital citizenship is understanding the information produced online. It is not uncommon to find people to who believe in everything that they see or hear on the internet. Students need to be taught the skills to differentiate between fact and fiction from information gathered on the web and how understanding the information gathered can effect what they believe and how they think and feel. These are important skills that go beyond the classroom. Alongside this issue of digital citizenship comes plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence and students need to be made aware of the consequences of copying someone else work and taking credit for it. As a mother and as a future teacher, I feel that educating children on responsible digital citizenship is important and it should be taught in the schools as well as in the home. I love the technology available today to help students in their learning. I was very excited to learn we were talking about a program that I have just recently started to use myself. The Inspiration program is a program I wished I would have had access to years ago. I am a visual learner and this software has helped me organize my thoughts for writing essays and also to help me organize information in a logical for me to make sense of it to help me in my studying, especially for exam preparation.
Visual portrayal/web mapping programs is such a useful tool to have access to as a student and a teacher. It is important for teachers/educators to be aware of these kinds of tools to ensure that all students can be taught in way to help them to be the most successful. As a student, software that organizes information in a way that makes sense can instill confidence in a student and their learning. This software may also have students become more engaged in the classroom, especially for a visual learner that typically did not participate in classroom activities because they did not fully comprehend the material. If this type of student was given access to this software it may open up a whole new world for them and give them the opportunity to learn at the same pace as other students in the class and be excited to share their insights and participate in classroom activities and discussions. I feel integrating this technology into classrooms is very important. |
GaddzuksI am a dedicated wife and hockey mom, who wishes to educate young minds on the side! Archives
November 2016
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