I did my two hour observation on a child in the children center. I was placed in the kindergarten classroom which had about twelve to sixteen kids at a time. The teacher asked me what I was trying to observe and I told her I wasn’t looking for anything in particular that I just needed to observe one of the students in the class for two hours with one hour each day. She commented on the kids that were more active and probably were I would get the better observation. From the ones she suggested I chose this one particular little girl because she was playing in the sensory box that they had in the class and she was the only girl. I reason I knew this was because she made it clear that girls don’t play in the sand box. With that first reaction that I saw that is what attracted me to her.

            As I was watching her play in the sand she was taking sand from one mini bucket and dumping into another mini bucket. She then grabbed the toy truck she was playing with and set it on a shelf because she noticed it was time for clean up. As she was helping to clean up the classroom she grabbed a toy phone and threw it on the ground which she soon picket up because everyone started looking at her. She then started jumping up and down because she was pretending a snake was going to get her. She states “snakes are coming alive.” As she runs around yelling she leads herself towards the sand box again. She grabs the mini rake and brushes her arm with it. She then goes to the house area and picks up a few purses that she saw on the ground and places them on the hook. She starts telling a child reading a book “it’s time for clean up Lucas.” With that same child she starts flipping the boy’s book pages without any permission but the boy pulls away so she went to the book case and grabbed her own book. She sits on a foam chair. While she’s sitting there she says to another boy that her clothes and shoes are for girls. She then goes to the potty and flushes the toilet. She then goes to the sink and washes her hands and dries her hands with the paper towels. She then goes and sits at circle time and starts counting from one to fifteen. She states that the weather is windy, rainy. She states that bears come out of hibernation in the spring. As they go outside she grabs her coat and zips it up with no problem.

            As for the next hour of the observation I start by seeing her make some comments on a student’s drawing by saying “why did you paint like that?” She then commented on the painting the teacher was making and tells her it looks pretty. She then decides to put her drawing away so she could finish it at home. She takes her book and shares it with her friends. She sits while listening to her friend to pretend to read the story. She tells her friends that she’s Queeny McBear, a character in the book. The teacher had colored a picture for her and she grabbed the picture and told her friends that she colored the picture. Her friends knew that wasn’t true ad she said to pretend she did. She then goes to the restroom and tells her friends that she needs to wash her hands because that’s gross she stated. She makes a fish face to the mirror while she was in the restroom. She then takes her book and puts it into her cubby. She pretends she was the teacher reading the book to the class. She tells her friends she needs to sit on the floor.

            The teacher then redirects the class to start doing a worksheet. They are asked to write the letter I on the paper as many times that it fits on the line presented on the worksheet. When she was done the teacher asked her what sticker she wanted and she said she wanted the Daphne one.

            From the moment I saw this particular child I noticed she was full of energy and that’s why I thought she would have been a good person do the observations on. She was very social when I came to telling her classmates what to do. I noticed she had a bit of a problem with boundaries. Meaning she didn’t know how to respect her classmates areas. She also I noticed liked to tease the other kids which most of the time the kids ignored her. She was also at the same time very nice to everyone.

Social	She shared her book with her classmates
Emotional	She comforted her classmate when he had a problem.
Physical	She was very hyper jumping around and pretending there were snacks everywhere.
Cognitive	She knew that bears come out of hibernation in the spring.
Creative	The way she played in the sand box by making tracks.

 

 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=234884

Children Center Kindergarten classroom April 1, 2010:

·         Taking sand and dumping it in a container.

·         Taking a toy truck and setting it on the shelf to clean up the room.

·         Taking the phone and throwing it on the ground.

·         She starts jumping because she was pretending a shark was going to get her.

·         “Snakes are coming alive!”

·         Starts playing with the sand by taking the mini rake and brushing the sand.

·         Grabs the purse and hangs it on the hook.

·         She tells a child reading a book “it is time for clean up Lucas.”

·         Starts flipping another child’s book pages without permission.

·         She grabs her own book.

·         She sits on her foam chair.

·         She tells another boy that his shoes and clothes are for girls

·         She goes potty.

·         She steps on the stool and she turns on the faucet. She then puts her hands under the water and then bumps some soap onto her hands. She then rubs the soap around her hands and then washes the soap off and then turns off the water. She then grabs some paper towels and dries her hands, throwing the paper towel in the garbage.

·         Counts the days in Spanish and in English.

·         Sites for circle time.

·         Says windy, rainy for spring weather.

·         She says bears come out of hibernation for the spring.

·         She pats her friends back because he was sad.

·         She says that she made a penguin in Ms. Mary’s class.

·         Lay’s down when listening to a book being read by the teacher.

·         She grabs her coat and puts it on.

Children Center Kindergarten classroom April 9, 2010:

·         She commented on a picture a child drew.

o   “Why did you paint like that?”

·         She also commented on the teachers painting that she was doing, “Pretty.”

·         She put her drawing away to finish at home.

·         She shared her book with her friend

·         She sits down while listening to her friend read a book.

·         She tells her friend that she’s Queenie McBear, a character from the story.  

·         The teacher colored a picture for her and she grabs the picture and she tells her friends that she colored the picture. Her friends knew that she was not telling the truth and she told them to pretend like she did color the picture.

·         Goes to the restroom and tells her friend that she needs to wash her hands because that’s gross.

·         Makes a fish face to the mirror while in the restroom.

·         She takes her book and puts it into her cubby.

·          She pretends like she is the teacher to some of her friends and starts reading a book to them.

·         She tells her friends that they need to sit on the floor.

·         She goes to the table and she starts making I’s on her paper.

·         She said she wants a dolphin sticker when the teacher starts handing out stickers to everyone that is done with letters.

·         Asked to play with pony’s

·         Starts dancing and starts singing “shabambam.”

·         Says it’s the middle of April when a friend asks for the date.

            I started doing my field work at the university preschool today. While I was there I was very interested in learning the ropes around what they do everyday and how well everyone manages around. I saw everyone doing a little bit of everything. Some were doing art projects with paint shirts that they put on themselves. Others played on the computer. Each person that wanted to use the computer had to write their name down and as they went they crossed their name out. I also noticed other kids played in a tub filled with sand. They kids would grab toy trucks and would make marks on the sand to see what patterns they made and many times I was them hide an object and another child would try to find it.

            I saw a lot of independents throughout the children. One child caught my eye that first morning while we were doing some projects. The kids were supposed to trace their arm on a piece of long construction paper and then cut and past it on another long piece of construction paper. I noticed this little boy did not enjoy cutting very much. So as he moved on to his new task he seemed not to enjoy that project as well which was gluing marigold seeds on a piece of paper. The paper had square’s which had a number in it and that’s how many seeds went in each square. What he did was grab only one marigold for each square but he new that sometimes a square asked for more than just one seed because he named off all of the numbers. To me he seemed unmotivated to do anything that had to do with school. It seemed like all he wanted was to play in the play house.

1.0,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

Link to an article on how to motivate students:
http://www.edreadysearch.org/content/821/preview-naesp714_motivatingunmotivatedstudents.pdf?rhost=portal.ers.org

            This week I was a little more comfortable with the kids. I felt like I knew a little about them and I was interesting in knowing more. Walking into the classroom everyone was doing the same routine of picking and choosing what activities they wanted to do. I noticed that everyone gravitated to their interests levels which I found normal. Once it was time for clean up everyone was glad to pick up their toys and projects some needed a little more pushing then others but everyone cooperated.

            After they had circle time one of their projects was to take the popped popcorn that was spray painted with red and glue them on a strip of paper. One of the girls in the class was doing her work diligently but as I was there at her table she whispered to her classmate “I don’t know she makes us do these projects.” To me it seemed like she was enjoying herself because she was doing her work so carefully but with that comment I found out she was doing it because she had to. Which got me to think about the other kids in the class and how much they were all doing their work but who was really enjoying the projects? This also got me think about how are teachers supposed to fill the interests of every child through the day, everyday? I know that with every project their might always be one that won’t enjoy it as much as the other but my goal is to always find that medium with each and every student.

1.0,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

Link to how to boosting interest levels of a child through posture:
http://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/03.mota-picard.pdf

            As I walked in everyone was mostly playing on the computer and in the play house. The kids that were in the play house were playing house and I noticed that they each had different names for each other. They had a mom a dad and brother and sister and a dog. The girl that was playing the mom was refereeing to the dad as honey. Which I thought was very interesting because it got me to think how much children pay attention to their home environment.

This week I walked in and the kids were playing with an umbrella that they found so interesting. I saw that one of the kid’s was using it was not wanting to share. So they figured out that everyone will play with the umbrella for the count of ten. For the most part it worked but one of the kids didn’t want share. He grabbed the umbrella and ran way from where everyone was playing with it. Most of kids told him to share but he seemed not willing. So the kids let him play with it and they used the other umbrella. One of my questions watching the child that didn’t want to share was how do we help the students that don’t want to share? I noticed that the kids in the class do a good job to encourage each other to play with everyone. I noticed the more the kids told him to share, he eventually said “it’s your turn; I’m done playing with the umbrella.”

1.0,1.4,2.3,3.1,3.5,4.1,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

           

Link to improving a child's social skills:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1128645?cookieSet=1

            I walked into the classroom and the first thing I noticed was that in the middle of room they had a big tower of Lego’s stalked very high. As I walked towards it one of the kids said for no one to touch it because he worked very hard on it. As I went toward the kids at the computer one of the kids waiting to be next was telling the kid that was already on the computer to cross out his name. As he was done writing his name he saw that someone else was writing their name as well. He told his classmate that he wrote his name wrong and that he forgot to write an “N” at the end of his name.

            From what I’ve noticed in the last couple weeks this student seemed to call out everything the students do wrong in the class and also when he is not called on. To help him I tried to sit next to him during circle time because that is where he seemed to have the most problem when it came to shouting out. Sometimes I sat next him and he did a good job but there were times you had to remind him to raise his hand or stay quiet while someone else was talking. He gets very excited and he wants to shout out. I noticed that when this happens the students get distracted but there are times where he helps motivate activities when they need that extra boost.

1.0,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

 

Link to if students influence skill levels in preschoolers:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VB9-4JMM5VW-1/2/2f48091af4c03c30582be1e5a966b420

            Walking in the class today I saw everyone playing with Lego’s on the activity tables in the front of the room. As I was watching everyone make towing trucks, police men, gas station and many other things. I enjoyed this activity because it helped me to see everyone’s creativity. The kids would search for wheels for their trucks and others would search for heads and legs for their people. A lot of the times they saw someone make something and then everyone wanted to make the same thing.

            I noticed one student was teasing another student about his creation. The student was making a police man and he said that police men don’t look like that. He grabbed the police man and took it apart. He fixed the look of the police man and said that police men look like this. For some reason everything he made the student kept teasing him. The student used his words and said “Not all police men look the same” and stepped away from where he was at and went to the other side of the table.

            After they were done playing with Lego’s they started their activities for the day. They were asked to make a card for mother’s day. They cut out flower petals and glued them on the card. Each petal had a task that they would do for their mother. I was working with a student that seemed to be unmotivated for the activity. As I was helping him he told me that I’m allowed to help him because I’m not his teacher. I let him work independently and if he wanted help from me he could ask me and I stepped away .

1.0,2.1,2.6,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.1.5.9.2.9,9.3.2

Link about dealing impulsive students in the classroom:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Teacher-Tips:-Dealing-With-Impulsive-Behaviors-From-ADHD-Students-in-the-Classroom&id=4038

            Today I work a lot with a little boy that seemed to be very shy in the classroom. I had watched him before during these last couple weeks and every time he seemed interested in the activities the kids were playing with but didn’t know exactly what to say or do to join. In this particular moment the kids and I were playing with domino chips and trying to stand them up right next to each other to make a trail and then knocking them down. I saw that his particular student want to join our activity. He was standing by the table where we were playing and just staring. I asked to come join us and that’s when the other kids asked him to start on the other side where there was an open space. The kids were very welcoming but I noticed that he didn’t say much he just smiled. He did his part in the trail but he was very quiet. The other kids were chatting with each other.

            That same day after they did activities they were getting ready to go outside but not everyone was done with their snack so they started reading books on the carpet. The same little boy asked me to read him a book and I would ask him questions as I read the book and he was very interested. I noticed that when I worked with him alone he was very talkative but when I worked with him in a larger group he was very timid. When encouraging him to join activities with a larger group he seems to be react positively.

1.0,1.4,2.1,3.1,3.5,4.1,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.1.5,9.2.8,9.3.2

           

Link to dealing with a shy child:
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/disorders/shy_child.shtml

            This week everyone seemed a little over excited in the classroom. Right when I walked in they were running around the classroom by pretending to be dogs and dog walkers. They barked and yelling as they went around the tables. After they were done being dogs two of the kids took the strollers they had in class and started racing them around the room. Sometimes they would run into each other.

            During circle time the kids were still a little jittery and could concentrate on what was going on the lesson that was going on. As the teacher redirected them into a more active activity where they enjoyed jumping, yelling, hopping, spinning and running around they became very tired after about five minutes of it. The kids sat back down on the carpet after the physical activity. Everyone was a bit calmer because the kids kept saying how tired they were after their jumping and running activity. They seemed to be more attentive when it came to the lesson second time at it.

            Dealing with a hyperactive bunch like this classroom seems like it could be hard to deal with sometimes. The kids always having to be redirected which sometimes doesn’t work. I noticed this when I asked a group of kids what else they can do that wouldn’t make so much noise? They were building towers and then knocking them down. They decided to build the towers without knocking them down.

1.0,1.4,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

Link to dealing with a hyperactive student:
http://www.school-for-champions.com/education/hyperactive.htm

            Throughout the weeks that I have been here at the university preschool I have noticed well most of the kids use their sense of time when it comes to completing assignments. One particular boy I have noticed does a very good job when it comes to the understanding of the material and can follow directions very well. What I have noticed is that sometimes when everyone else is finished with their assignments he is still trying working. Sometimes he gets anxious because he is the only one working and does a poor job at the end. An example was when the teacher read a book about primary colors and how mixing different colors makes other colors. The assignment was to color a picture with every color possible. He was doing a very good job until he was the only one at him table not done. In a rush to finish he grabbed a crayon and scribbled the whole paper and then he turned in the paper.

            I have seen him do this type of thing before where he seems to run out of time and then all of a sudden he does do such a good job. I tried helping him with his time sense with another project they had. They were asked to rip up strips of paper then glue those strips on a bird cutout. I told him to take his time and if he didn’t finish the assignment to come back to it tomorrow. He finished up his assignment on time without the last minute rush to finish. I’m not sure he finished because he was sure if he didn’t finish today he could finish it tomorrow but he complete his assignment regardless.

1.0,2.1,2.6,3.1,3.5,4.4,5.1,5.5,8.2,9.1,9.2.8,9.3.2

Link to helping an unorganized student be organized:
http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/35089.aspx

            When I think of early childhood I think of the needs of the individual child. With this comes teacher, parent and community unity. This unity helps the child exceed to their fullest with the help of everyone in his or her life. Developing a program that meets the needs of the child without ignoring other parts of the child’s life is my philosophy. Developing a connection with the individual child is only part of what my philosophy is. I think there also has to be a strong connection with the parents. Knowing that the parents are the first to influence the child teachers have to work twice as hard to impact that child.

Principles and Beliefs

·       Every child is unique.

·       Every child is important.

·       All children can learn.

·       Be creative.

·       Community building

·       Integrated curriculum

·       They learn from each other.

·       Showing self worth to produce a better self-esteem.

·       Encouragement

·       Let them choose.

·       Learn with a variety of different activities.

·       Everyone learns different.

·       Respect every child.

·       Every child wants to learn just giving them the right sources 

            This week was the first day of class and it was the typical first where we go over the syllabus and talk about how everything works. We talked about finding a field work placement where we will work with the teacher and students to create a learning environment. I was excited about this just because I’m placed yet and having that involvement with the teacher and the kids will be a great learning experience for me.

            Also this week we talked about how later in the quarter we are supposed to create and implement a program for the class. I’m a little confused about this part because I’m not sure if we do this within the actual class or we do this with the class at our field work. I also had a question about how to get placed in an actual classroom.

We also talked about principles and beliefs about early childhood education and what assumptions there might be about early childhood.  Listed are some of the beliefs we went over in class and some that I thought were important:

Article link:
http://www.learningtolearn.sa.edu.au/Colleagues/files/links/ValuesBeliefs.pdf

Principles/Beliefs of ECE

 

1.      Young children learn holistically

Developmental domains

Cognitive skills and social/emotional intelligence

Integrated Curriculum

 

2.      Teacher in a facilitator role

Positive teacher/child responsiveness

 

3.      Teacher education in ECE is influential in the learning and development of young

              children

 

4.      Early Learning Environment as the third teacher

 

5.      Child Sensitive Curriculum : teacher values child independence and self-esteem

 

6.      DAP

Teacher beliefs are more DAP appropriate than teacher practices

Teacher personal practical knowledge determines his/her decisions rather than

            child development and learning theory (Spodek 1987)

Find it difficult to maintain an appropriate classroom climate even though they

            say they believe in DAP  (Macmillain 1992)

 

7.      Teacher-Child Interactions

Supportive

Establishing Trust

Encouraging Individualization

Being a Role Model

Demonstrating Mutual respect

 

8.      Learning Environment

Safety

Age Appropriate activities

Teacher resourcefulness

Clear Expectations

            Take Care of Yourself

            Take Care of Others

            Take Care of Materials

                        Predictable Routines

 

9.      Children’s Learning Opportunities

Play

Hands-On-Activities

Peer Interactions

One-on-one Activities

Small group activities

Guided exploration

Child-guided activities

 

10.  Reflective Practices

 

 

 

            This week we did a lot of talk about how to create a framework for the observations for the individual child we were asked to follow for two hours. We talked about how to create that framework by looking at five different aspects. Those aspects are social, emotional, physical, communication and creativity of the individual child.

            During this week’s class we also talked about how to make children successful at school. We talked about letting the kids grow independently so they don’t depend on the people around them. One way to influencing this is by letting them choose what they want instead of telling them what to choose. Letting them communicate with you is also very important because it allows the child to develop their communication skill especially if they are having a hard time expressing themselves with words. We also talked about how early literacy influences the 100 languages of a child. Having them explore to the point where they ask questions.

            The also talked about the certification process for becoming a teacher. I found a link to the OSPI website where I found two different certifications, residential and professional certification and what is required of each. There were also other certifications such as substitute and limited teacher certification which I found interesting because had never heard of a limited teacher. We also had to look at the GLEs and the ECE competencies so we can use these for our observations throughout the quarter.

Link to an article about a whole child:
http://www.ednews.org/articles/the-whole-child.html

                                                            School Rules for children

Run	Saw	Play	Follow
Jump	Hammer	Be alone	Watch
Dig	Paint	Examine	Watch
Explore	Ride	Experiment	Hear
Talk	Imagine	Express	Smell
Build	Sing	Emotion	Taste
Tear down	Wonder	Work	Mix
Pour	Measure	Lead	Create
Yell	Ponder	Lead	Daydream

 

School Rules for Adults

· Listen

· Observe

· Be prepared to “step in” w/ guidance when a child is at the verge of 1.      Hurting themselves 2.      Hurting other children 3.      Destroying property

 

·       Reid Elementary Equipment

o   No color

o   A prison

o   No protection

o   Random placement of equipment

o   A lot of grass

o   Bark

 

·       Children Center

o   Benches

o   Great color

o   Trail for bike riding

o   Sand box

o   More realistic

o   Child friendly

o   Garbage cans

o   No grass area

o   Nature

o   No variety

o   Number squares

o   No swings

o   Umbrella

This week during class we went out to the playgrounds of what used to be Reid Elementary and also the playground of Children Center here on campus. We got into groups and went out and observed the playgrounds. When I was doing this activity I saw myself writing a lot more about the children center playground than the Reid elementary playground. In Reid I noticed there was no color except the color of metal and the color green because there was so much grass area. It reminded me a lot of a prison how everything is plain and simple. What I found strange about the playground was how the equipment of the toys location. The way the set of swings were scattered all around the playground and also how high they were I found very strange considering they were at an elementary school. Under the swings there was bark which sometimes with children that can be a little dangerous. Overall I found Reid to be a bit unsafe and not very fun for the kids because of the lack of variety in equipment.

            At the children center there were benches where the kids could sit on and a trail for the kids to ride a bike around. The color of the playground was much brighter than Reid’s playground. Everything at the children center looked much realistic; thing such as the mini gas station. Other thing such as the storage unit that was in the middle of where they had most of their grass was covered. They had garbage cans which I liked and they also had an umbrella just in case they wanted to stay out of the sun. One thing that they did have in common was how neither playground had much a variety of equipment for the children.

            In addition to looking at two different playgrounds we also talked about the ethical code of conduct and saw some videos that we could learn more about. As I watched the videos I saw that the ethical code of conduct for early childhood education is such a good tool to have when dealing almost all types of dilemmas in the classroom from all sorts of topics.

Climbing Equipment

*Monkey bars
*Wood or Metal

9 Remedies

*light reflected objects
*sounds wind chimes
*living things
*bamboo flutes
*motion oriented objects
*heavy objects
*electrical objects
*colors

Roles of a teacher

·      Resource Provider**

·      Roving facilitator

·      Second parent

·      Care giver

·      Individual relationships**

·      Role models

·      Safety

·      Flexibility

·      Redirecting

·      Negotiation

·      Curiosity

·      Passion

·      Theme (interests)

·      Modeling (curiosity)

·      Experiences

·      Choices

**Important to me

            During this week’s class we mostly talked about the role of a teacher and much of an influence they are to the child. We talked about what they can do to make a student’s experience in the classroom a positive experience instead of place they never want to come back. This week we also looked at different curriculums we can use in an early childhood classroom. We saw an example of a Reggion Emilia classroom. We say an example of a High Scope classroom, Head Start and Montessori. Also for this week we were asked to follow an ECE teacher which I had already been doing throughout my whole field work experience.

            I saw very similar things in all of the early childhood curriculums and the way I saw the teacher I observed. One thing I noticed with all was how independent every child was in those classrooms. They chose what they wanted to without any limitations on what they could and couldn’t do. Many times in classrooms kids are limited to one or the other but with the early childhood classes I noticed a lot of self choice.

            When we talked about the role of a teacher we had a list of what everyone thought was a good thing to have when you are going to be a teacher. The list is attached labeled role of a teacher. In that list I found most of those things very important but what I found most important was how we have to build relationships with those students to make them feel as comfortable as possible. I also found very important was resource provider. At time a teacher sees things that sometimes are hard to deal with in a family all a teacher can do is offer her knowledge where one can receive help in any way.  

Instructional Plan

 

Subject: Reading and Art

Grade: 1^st

Lesson Title: Mental Imagery

 

Phase One:

            Teacher discuses with the class the meaning of mental imagery, in order to make the meaning relatable for first graders, the teacher breaks down the word and helps them to understand the different meanings of each word and what they mean combined.

            Teacher asks the class if they can visually make up pictures through their imagination in order to understand written the text, or if they rely on the pictures to provide the meaning of the story.

Phase Two:

            In order to help the students understand mental imagery the teacher conducts an activity to help students become aware of the mental pictures that their imagination forms. The teacher instructs the class to close their eyes while she tells a descriptive story. Later on, she asks the class what mental image they saw based on the story. This allows the students to see that everyone forms a different picture based on their imagination.

            The teacher presents four poems for the class to choose from and students form groups based on what poem they selected. Within their groups one student reads the poem out loud. After the poem has been read, each student will have the opportunity to illustrate the mental imagery they formed.

Phase Three:

            Groups take turns presenting their poem and illustrations to the class. The teacher asks the class questions in order for them to understand the importance of mental imagery in reading.

• Why do you think that you all have different images?

-Diverse backgrounds and different life experiences provide students with multitude of responses and images.

 

• Why do you think it’s important to have a mental imagery?

-To form a better comprehension of the story.

“This morning I woke up to the buzzing on my alarm clock, I jumped out of bed and tripped over my dog. I apologized to my dog, and headed straight to the bathroom. After getting washed and dressed, I tip-toed downstairs so I wouldn’t wake the baby. I ate breakfast with my family, got my book bag and put all my books in it, then headed outside to our car”.

 

• What color is the dog? What breed of dog?
• What kind of clothes are they wearing?
• What did they eat for breakfast?
• What color is they book bag?
• What kind of car do they have?
• How old is the person? Adult? Child?

            This week we didn’t meet for our regular class time. Instead we were asked to plan, implement and assess a project in a group. Since the week before we were divided into groups do to what grade level you would like to teacher. The options were preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third grade. I chose first just because I want to teach either first or second grade. Our group decided to do our project on mental imagery. That we liked about this activity was that you can flexibly integrate this lesson with many different lessons such as reading, writing, art and punctuation. We chose to do it on reading and art combined.

Two of the girls in our group had already done this same lesson with their classroom there in. We all came together to write a little short story what had words and sentences that you could really picture. After the story was finalized we set out in search of poems we could read to the class as the next part of our project. After reading the first story and talking to the class about mental imagery and seeing what they think it means we decided to read aloud four other poems that would help them imagine what the story is saying. Based on the interest of the students we then deiced that’s how everyone in the class would be grouped. Everyone would draw a picture of what they saw and if they wanted they could talk about it to the class. Our activity was based on the three phases. Our instructional planning is formatted my phases because that’s the best way we understood the project and also this was the best way we thought to meet all the requirements.

Link to the effects of mental imagery:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/mentalimagery.html

            For the preschool lesson activity they did a frog lesson. They first asked us questions about certain types frogs and if we knew anything about them. They then set out four different centers. The centers contained a tank with little frogs in them. We asked questions about them and they answered as well as they could. The other center was photos of different frogs in different settings. There was one where the mother kept their baby in their mouth. It was very interesting. The other center was a book that one of the members in the group made. It was about creation and the coming of a new life through frog’s reproduction system. The other activity was a game where you have a hula-hoop and you try to make these little plastic frogs jump over the hula-hoop.

            I think that the activities were appropriate for the grade they were wanting to portray. I think that they activities were fun and I think the kids would learn a lot from having those hangs on things. The part that I liked the most was the tank with the frogs. I like how they had a magnify glass so they could look closer at the mini frogs.

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Summer/

The last group that went during presentation day planned some activities for the kindergarten classroom. During their presentation they did not do any of the activities in class the way that I would have liked them too. They talked about an activity where they would present all of these different words cut up and you put them together to make sentences. I thought this was a hard activity for a kindergarten classroom just because some of those words I find it hard to believe that a kindergartener can read. The other activity they did was where they read a book and while they are reading the book we were supposed to motion the punctuation went at the end of the sentence. There was another activity they did were they showed videos that involved a lot of punctuation.

            I think that this group really lost track of what a kindergartener can do. Most of their activities they had seemed like they very hard for them. We also talked about how sixty percent of kids are below their reading level. We had a big discussion about how important that this is such a great problem with literacy in school.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_k_lang.htm

            During our lesson of mental imagery we decided to start out with asking questions to the class if they knew anything about mental imagery. When we started the questions no one really said anything except comments about being crazy when we asked them what mental meant. After that we defined the two terms. When we went on and we read a story while everyone closed their eyes so they could experience some sort of mental imagery experience. After that we read aloud four poems. Everyone got into groups by the poem that appealed to them the most.

            While at the centers we asked them questions about what they are drawing and why they drew what they drew. After that we had each person present their picture if they wanted to. Mostly everyone did except a few. I liked knowing everyone’s personal story behind where their story came from. I noticed that everyone had a story that related to their real which I thought was pretty interesting. We take pictures of what we know and we create more pictures.

            We had some miscommunication with a certain someone in our group. We were going to do a conclusion but she accidently just closed the presentation without saying anything and everyone thought we were done.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0D-3YKM384-K&_user=10&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F1995&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1362538791&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=4d77a96c9e35f028a557e078ccf37879

            With the second grade group there topic was the rainforest. They started out with a video off you tube. It was a song about the rainforest and the things that live in the rainforest. While we watched the video I noticed a lot of colors. After the video they told us to draw something they saw in the video that we enjoyed the most. During the song there was a lot going on. There were trees, birds, monkeys, tigers and leaves. After we were done drawing our picture we were suppose to share what we drew and why we drew it. I decided to draw a toucan with a lot of bright colors and with a very long nose. I drew my bird on the top of a tree with really big leaves. I also drew some berries for my toucan which was not in the video I just wanted to add that part. I think the activity was a little broad. They didn’t really talk about what we learned or anything that could really lead from it. I would have wanted to see how much more we could have lead off from the lesson. I think that second graders could do so it was appropriate but I don’t like it would have challenged them.

Rain forest lesson plan ideas:
http://www.arthur.k12.il.us/arthurgs/rainfor.htm

             The first group that went we made ice cream. I liked how we got to all the pouring and shaking ourselves. I also liked how we got to eat the ice cream at the end. One thing that I didn’t think was necessary was read the directions to us. I feel third graders are able to read directions and or recipes. I didn’t like how I was being talked down to because I’m pretty sure third graders wouldn’t like that either. The activity itself was good because kids would have the opportunity to use measurements and learn how to use a thermometer and also how to read a thermometer. I also didn’t think it was necessary to tape the recipe on the table. I had a hard time seeing the directions because I was too far away from where they were tapped. Over all I thought the project was good. They all had great involvement. There were things I think they could have done different but my over all thoughts of this activity were positive.

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/454.html

            This week during class we had one of our peers, who is a grad student give a presentation on how to implement inclusion in the classroom. She gave us a set of questions and we answered them within our groups. We answered these questions to the best of our ability.

We didn’t really talk about how to deal with parents in certain situations we mostly got distracted in talking about how to implement reading in the classrooms without the regular routine of giving a child a book to read and then that’s their reading lesson. The magical question was how to do influence the supposed unmotivated? We also talked about that sometimes when children seem not to be interesting in reading its sometimes has to do with the ability of the child. Some don’t because they don’t know how but sometimes it is because the material presented is not interesting to them in general. We also didn’t talk about how to approach interviews or case studies of parents and community member regarding their perceived role in the early education process which was on the syllabus. During this class time we also did class evaluations which was the finale of our class for the quarter.

Link to an article about parents involvement in the classroom:
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=MN2Q12QM0nlMwR4q7tckpvJy29L0bls0WvnDN6BDLy0wkrpL31Vl!1748356985!-2083947951?docId=5009425797

1.      Educate yourself to cater to your students needs.

2.      Enrich our classroom with books and toys and any equipment all over the class to provide diversity.

3.      Parents and family inclusion (invite parents to class and monthly updates on classroom activities/ programs).

4.      IEP’s and special needs for the individual child. Such as their specific learning style.

5.      Same as #2

6.      Reggio Amelia would be our choice of curriculum. It allows for diversity and socio economic status equality.

I give myself a 3.5-4.0. This grade was based on my attendance to class and the amount of work and effort I put in to meet certain deadlines. I attended every class session we had not including the one week we didn’t have class. I did all my work and did it to the best way that I knew how. Sometimes I missed some stuff because I didn’t know how to put it on protopage.