Inquiry Blog 1

PART A: TAKING ACTION AS A TEACHER- TELLING YOUR TEACHING STORY

Over the past two weeks, I have began my data collection for my inquiry. Since this is still the beginning portion of my data collection, I am focusing on collecting data of what normally happens in the classroom. I will be able to use this information to show the difference that my strategies that I implement make on the transition time. If you don’t have information to compare your action data too, then you are loosing a key part of your inquiry. I first conducted an interview with my teacher that illustrates how she implemented her transition routine into her classroom. I wanted to know exactly what her process was so that I could keep a similar routine when implementing new strategies so that I get true data on the effectiveness of the strategy. After completing the interview I begin my data collection of the regular times, directions, and engagement level of the transitions within the classroom. I began my collecting process with recording the time of the transitions within each of the centers during Daily 5 time. I wanted to record the time in the beginning so that I could see if any strategy I used would yield different transitions. This will allow me to get an average transition time during this time period. In this transition time chart I also included the amount of students engaged right when the teacher starts talking to refocus the students. The time of day is mentioned in the notes portion of the chart, I plan on making a record of various transitions throughout the day to see any type of consistency within time of day and time it takes to transition. The students responded like how they would normally, which was exactly what I was looking for. The average time for the three transitions during center time was one minute and 68 seconds. The average amount of students engaged after the transition was 12.33 students. This will give me a good beginning running record to see the effectiveness of the transitions. I just have to remember that if I use a transition strategy during any time other than center time, the data may be skewed if I try to compare it because time of day could be a variable that affects the transition time.

Another piece of data that I was able to collect over the past two weeks was a model of the students movement during a transition. I wanted to collect this because with this I will be able to understand the paths and movements that the students make while transitioning which will shine light onto how the tables influence the time. I saw that there is a general path that the majority of the students follow, many of them go in the same direction, there wasn’t much conflict on having students bump into each other. They seemed to follow directions in coming to the back table to turn in their paper then went straight to the carpet. I think that if they weren’t going to the carpet, then there might have been traffic jams almost because after turning in their papers they would have turned right around into the oncoming students. Instead, redirecting them to another section of the room allowed the congestion to be almost non-existent.

The next piece of data that I was able to collect was a reflection journal entry of my experience implementing the transition strategies that my CT uses while she was absent and I became the main teacher. This opportunity gave me rich data because before implementing new strategies, I need to see how the students respond to their daily routine when someone other than their teacher does them. The students response to me being the main teacher without the other teacher in the room actually surprised me. They did exactly the same things that they normally did when my CT did the transitions. There wasn’t really any students that strayed from following directions. This may be because I have been in their classroom for a little while so they are familiar with me and understand that I am just as much their teacher as my CT is. Even though this wasn’t a planned piece of data that I was going to collect, I think that it will benefit my experience with the inquiry process doing these reflection journal entires because unlike antidotal observation notes, a reflection allows me to articulate my entire experience from the day and not just one portion of it.

PART B: REFLECTING ON LEARNING- FORMATIVE DATA COLLECTION ANALYSIS

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

During this time of data collection, I learned a lot about the normal routine of how transitions look without any type of different strategy implemented. I learned that even if my CT isn’t the one doing the transition, the students still follow directions in the same manner. This is a key portion of understanding what strategies actually work and which are effective in the classroom. Another thing that I learned that I’m glad I realized in the beginning of my inquiry, is that there can be a lot of uncontrollable variables within what can affect the time of a transition. I think that I need to remember this throughout my inquiry, because if I only implement a strategy once, I may not get accurate information. Implementing the strategies more than once and taking the average will allow me to really understand a true time of the transition. Another variable that I need to remember to make note of during my data collection is the amount of students that are present that day, and any type of occurrence that may have happened during the day that could affect the time. I believe this learning was important for my inquiry because now I’ve gotten rid of the guessing game of how effective something was when I get to the analysis part. If you don’t have something to compare your end results to then how will you know what works and what doesn’t work? I think that my next step of data collection is to video the transitions, this will give me the ability to really analyze and get a visual on the factors of the transition such as the tables, the movement and direction, and the expectations that were set. Another step I would like to take is getting a student interview at some point in my inquiry. I think that the CT interview did provide me with a lot of data that is beneficial for my inquiry, but getting the opinion of the ones that are actually doing the transition might provide me with more ideas of how I can better the transition time even more. Based on the data that I’ve collected, I still wonder how me implementing new strategies will differ from my CT implementing new strategies. Will there be a difference or will it be the same just like when I became the main teacher when there was a sub?

// Guided Reading Instruction \\

*Discuss student learning. What did students learn? Provide evidence for this learning (discuss student work, observation data, video, etc.). How do you know that students learned?

In order to prepare for this lesson, I observed my teacher facilitate her guided reading small groups during the Daily 5 center time so that I would be familiar with the routines and strategies she uses. While I was observing her, I noticed that the students genuinely enjoy the guided reading time so I wanted to keep the structure of it similar to hers. Additionally, this would be my first time teaching a small guided reading group so I wanted to make sure that the strategies that I used would be beneficial for the students. My CT wanted to expose me to teaching the enrichment group first so that I could become familiar with the strategies. The structure that my CT uses for her guided reading is to read an on level text, then write a sentence–in this enrichment group their focusing on beginning, middle, and end–and if there is time remaining they play and educational game according to their reading level.

The goal of learning that I was wanting my students in the small group to achieve is to have the ability to comprehend the text to summarize the beginning, middle and end of it. I was able to see this learning through the use of white boards that they wrote their sentences on. The structure of the guided reading groups have the students do a picture walk and first read through on the first day they are given a book. After the initial read through the students come up with a one word summary of each the beginning, middle, and end and they must write their sentence on their boards in the designated section that they labeled as either beginning (B), middle (M), or end (E). I know that the students learned by examining their sentences at the end and analyzing the answers they game throughout the story. Both of these allowed me to understand their comprehension level of the content within the book.

*Select several questions from the USF lesson plan reflection sheet based on content.

What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that happen?
When I was having the students complete the beginning, middle, and end summaries, some of the students wrote their sentence much faster than what I expected. I am used to working with my students that need extra support, so I now know where my enrichment children are at in their capability to write sentences. Additionally, another thing that went differently than what I planned was how the students were going to react to the game. I thought that the students were going to be ecstatic throughout the entire game of sight word bingo. Although they were excited in the beginning and middle of the game, it was when one of the students won, I noticed that one of the students got upset about it. This is a whole other lesson that I have to instill in my students, to be okay with failure. There is nothing wrong with loosing, and having the ability to loose gracefully is a much better quality to have than being able to win gracefully. 

If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do
 differently? Why? What would you do the same?  Why?
Since my CT wants me to take over the enrichment guided reading small group, I will be teaching a similar lesson to the same group of students soon. I think that I will make it even more challenging with the assessment that I give them. I might try to take the scaffolding graphic organizer of beginning, middle, and end out so they have to write a paragraph summary. I might even give them a different task such as compare and contrast characters because that is a standard that they must show mastery of by the end of the year. I really like how my CT has the game at the end because it brings a fun and positive experience to correlate with small group instruction so they don’t find it to be a tedious task. I will still use the game at the end of the lesson to continue this fun aspect of the lesson and a good academic way to spend extra time. I want the students to associate small group reading instruction with a positive phenomenon.

What connections can you make to your lesson today from your coursework, the
literature, and  any previous lessons or experiences?
I think that since this lesson was purely a differentiated lesson for my enrichment students, I could really see the connection to my planning course that focused on differentiation and how to do it effectively. There are three different things that you can focus on to differentiate for: readiness level, learning profile, and interest. You can also differentiate the material in the lesson such as: the product, content, process, and the learning environment (Tomlinson, 2001). In this lesson I differentiated the readiness level and the content specifically. I did small differentiations with the other categories, but I think you can clearly see the differentiation of the readiness level and the content in my lesson. The students were in need of enrichment (readiness level) so I was able to expand their knowledge than what is normally given to them in reading instruction for whole group. I was able to give them more critical thinking questions that required them to think in a higher manner to answer the questions of why something might be happening. Additionally, the other students in my class aren’t exactly ready to write summary sentences like these students do on their own. I differentiated their instruction in this by allowing them to come up with summaries without my assistance. You can see that I differentiated the content of their instruction by providing a book that is appropriate for their reading level. In order for them to be fully challenged during small group, they needed a text that isn’t too easy for them. I am there to push them so that they may reach their fullest potential in their comprehension and fluency of reading. The book that I chose gave them that challenge that they need.
Another connection that I was able to make in my lesson was to my Emergent Literacy class. In this class we learned about the Daily 5 and the structure of it. During this routine, the students rotate in centers while the teacher works in small groups. My CT has this learning structure taking place when she does small group. It allows the students to be self sufficient and engaging in quality learning rather than just doing busy work while the teacher works with the small group. I also was able to use what I learned about where students’ knowledge in the emergent reading level is at to support and push my students to the next level of the reading stage. These students that I worked with are beyond emergent readers whereas most of the other students are still in the ending stage of this level. Since these students are in the early readers stage, I was able to use what I learned about this stage to support my understanding of what I needed to work on with these students. In this stage the students are able to predict words on their own by using strategies such as sounding out. Emergent readers still need the assistance of a teacher to predict words. So when there would be a word that this enrichment group didn’t know I would challenge them by having them go letter by letter and sound out the word. This would allow them to use the strategy of blending the word themselves (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008).

Identify an individual or group of students who did especially well in this lesson today.How do you account for this performance?
The student that I took a picture of for an example of student work is the student that did especially well in this lesson. While we were doing the picture walk he wouldn’t just look at the pictures and say what he saw, he made connections to the character’s feelings and how he had played hide and seek before too. During the first read, he was able to keep the pace of reading aloud for the other student that was needing a good pace. While reading, he would pause to sound out words that he wasn’t familiar with; even if he miss pronounced the word, after I corrected him, he didn’t just skip it, he would repeat it the word. After reading, he made the first summary sentence for the beginning section of the book. He set a great example of what a summary should look and sound like. He didn’t describe one instance that happened in the story, he gave an overview of what happened in the beginning of the story. I chose his writing sample, because he had great spelling of sight words and even words that aren’t sight words. You can clearly see that he pulled the words apart to hear the sounds of letters in the word before writing it. For example, in the word “friends”, he wrote “frens” which when said out loud sounds just like the word “friends”. Although he does have some things to work on such as capitalization for the beginning of a new sentence, I think over all he did great with the lesson!

In considering the needs of all ELL students in your class, what have you done to
ensure that your  ELL students are learning the material and keeping up with the rest of the class?
Even though in this small group there weren’t any ELL students, I still used a strategy that is great for ELL students. Having the students first do a picture walk prior to reading the text allows them to become familiar with what content is in the book and they have a general idea of the plot of the book. This strategy supports their reading instruction because if they are unfamiliar with a word they might be able to deduce what the word is through sounding it out and from the clues of the pictures. I think that having and ELL student in kindergarten is a great time for them because there is so much foundational learning still happening for the English language. Many of the students are still having to support their knowledge and learning through images and visuals, in which ELL students need much of as well.

*What did you learn from engaging in this lesson?

After teaching this lesson, I learned how to facilitate a guided reading small group. I never really knew what teachers actually do during this time so I think that having the opportunity to teach this was beneficial for my growth as a teacher. I have always been given the task of teaching whole group throughout my entire internship experience, whereas many of my peers started off with small groups. I think that this actually helps me understand how to differentiate for each of the levels that exist within my class. It illustrates what the students are struggling with and what their strength may be. This information from the small group can be directly incorporated into your whole group instruction differentiation. Even though in whole group instruction you are teaching the entire class, it’s still important to differentiate for the different leveled learners in the class. Thus, understanding each of the students’ reading and comprehension ability will aid your chances of supporting all your students so that they may reach their fullest academic potential.

Another thing I noticed while watching my video of teaching the lesson was that some of the students within my enrichment group are at different levels as well. There were two students that were able to read by themselves without my assistance of non-sight words. I saw that they finished the book and was just waiting on me to finish with the other two students. I would like to reflect upon this and think of ways that I could enrich those students even more so that their time isn’t being wasted.

*What are some of your goals based on what you learned from this lesson?

After doing this lesson, I would like to continue my experience gaining in small group instruction. I would like to expand upon my teachers normal routine of guided reading for my enrichment group and use a variety of strategies with them. Since they are the group that needs to be pushed farther because of their abilities, I think that trying other strategies may be beneficial to them because they are able to be exposed to other ways of instruction. The more outlets that they are able to express their knowledge through, the better the comprehension of that content will be. Additionally, another goal that I have after teaching this lesson is to integrate what I learn about my learners in the class into my whole group instruction. I want to implement strategies and tools that will support all of my students strengths and struggles during whole group teaching because I think that is just as important. The majority of the day the students are being taught in whole group instruction so if their needs aren’t truly being met during this time then their level of learning may be faltered.

References

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Developmental word knowledge. In Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (4th ed., p. 20). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Week 1 of Final Internship

1.  Think about your hopes for inquiry this semester.  What do you want to learn?  How do you expect to grow both professionally and personally from engaging in and writing up your inquiry during your final internship semester?

The experience I hope to learn through my internship this year is how to micro-manage all of the things that are required at an ERT school. There are a lot of extra responsibilities that teachers are given and I think that if I am able to handle this then I could handle almost any other school. I would also like to learn how to manage my time wisely when lesson planning, collecting data, analyzing data, and going to faculty meetings. I think that it can be overwhelming if it isn’t done properly.When writing and engaging in my inquiry I will grow professionally by seeing how time can be better managed in the classroom when doing transitions. I will be able to take what I find from my inquiry and apply it to my future classrooms. I expect to grow professionally though the understanding of knowing how to lesson plan for more than just one lesson at a time. I will develop the ability to plan fluently and also gain spontaneity in the classroom. Personally, knowing how to manage time and individuals is a great thing to tool to have because it is applicable in a lot of aspects of daily living.

2.  Consider your fears about this course.  What worries you about engaging in inquiry this semester?  What concerns do you have as you continue your inquiry work  as a part of your final internship?

The thing I am most worried about is getting burned out from being at a ERT school. I fear that the dislike that is steaming from all of the other teachers will get to me and influence my own thinking and discourage me from teaching at any time in my life. Specifically to my inquiry, I’m worried about the time that I will have to dedicate towards collecting data. I want to have viable data but it might be difficult to collect while I am teaching the entire day. I just don’t want to finish each day remembering that I didn’t time any of the transitions because I my mind was elsewhere. Another concern I have is that I won’t be able to give both the inquiry and my internship my best ability because each one is an extensive process. I want to fully concentrate on teaching, but if I have a due date for a part of my inquiry that is interfering with my ability to lesson plan then I won’t be able to give each my best effort.

3. Use your Inquiry Research Plan from last semester and your Goal Sheet and complete the following sentences:

Last semester my wondering was….

• Does using carpet and tables impact time usage?
  • Can tables affect organization?
    • Does this affect the time while transitioning?
  • How does moving to the carpet affect student attention?

I believe my inquiry topic is important for student learning because…

• The time that students have to learn is dependent on the time spent during transitions.
• If the students’ behavior is not correlative with the teacher’s expectations, then a lot of the time will be spent managing the behavior rather than transitioning smoothly into the next lesson
• When students have the chance to have a space of their own, they are able to put unnecessary items within it.
  • These unnecessary items can get in the way of other supplies, thus inhibiting the time it takes to get the appropriate items out during transitions.

The key forms of data I hope to collect to more deeply understand student learning related to my inquiry are…

• Observation notes: To see the student’s arrangement during the transition
• Data Chart of Times: To display the amount of time it takes to transition during certain times of the day.
• Table of Types of Transitions: To show the variety of transition techniques that are used.
• Interview with Teacher: To have an explanation as to how she implements the transition techniques and how they came to be.
• Video of Transition: To observe the students in real time making the transition

The most important changes I hope to make/actions I hope to try related to my practice are…

• The techniques and strategies that my CT uses to transition plus any additional researched strategies to see what the influences the students use of time positively.
  • Transitioning to the carpet between subjects.
  • Giving clear directions and expectations as to what they should be doing after transitioning.
  • Seeing how tables influence student attention and engagement verses desks.
  • Giving students a set time that they have to finish transitioning by and seeing if they can bet that time.

The key forms of data I hope to collect data to more deeply understand myself and my teaching are…

• The videos that I collect will not only show me the transitions, it will also show me my “withitness” with the class and my ability to manage the students. It will allow me to develop my self-reflection towards what I need to work on.

One thing my supervisor needs to know to help me “create a space” for inquiry in my classroom is…

• I will be using my phone as a time for many cases during transitions and for the videos.
• Most of the strategies that I will be using flow into the day without any disturbance to their normal routine.
  • I planned my inquiry this way because kindergartener’s developmental level needs some sort of routine that is followed.

One thing my course instructor needs to know to help me write-up and share my inquiry with others is…

• Since I am using videos I want to ensure that the students identity is safe, but I also think that showing the videos will be beneficial for my inquiry. So I need to brainstorm how I am able to access these videos but still keeping students identity secure.

goal-sheet

inquiry-brief

inquiry-presentation

// Nonverbal Cues and Field Trip Views \\

This week, the kindergarteners went on their first field trip ever! I’m glad that I was able to experience this new adventure with the students because it was actually my first time going on a field trip as a chaperone/teacher. So it was a first for all of us. During the field trip, there was a tour guide that we had to listen to. As my role as a chaperone/teacher, I had to keep the kids under control as the tour guide was talking. In order to not disturb her while she was talking I had to use a lot of nonverbal cues. Since there wasn’t a lot of structure, the students especially needed a lot of guidance.

In the beginning of the field trip we went to the field where they kept their compost. The students had never heard of that before, but even with this unfamiliarity to the topic, the students got antsy. I think that their excitement was getting the best of them during the beginning. In order to keep them under control, I would walk closer to a group of students that were talking. This proximity change was an effort to show students that I am there and they should be quiet. Another nonverbal cue that I had to use a lot was putting my index finger on my mouth. This symbolized to the students that they needed to stop talking and be quiet. Both my CT and I used this cue the most. Normally, she would capitalize on using the management system of clips she has, however, since we weren’t at the school she wasn’t able to use it. This nonverbal cue is a quick and quite way to tell a student to stop talking without adding to the noise. The third nonverbal cue that I used a lot on the field trip was a simple tap. The simple shoulder tap got the students attention if they weren’t looking in my direction. I think that out of the three I used this was the most influential one. Looking at a student or walking near a student only does so much, but the tap snaps a student back to reality real quick because it reactivates their attention. It also gives a more personalized approach towards behavior management. After tapping their shoulder, I would give a quick head shake symbolizing no.

Although I did use a lot of nonverbal cues, that wasn’t the only thing I used to manage. I also told students what they should be doing, when it was an appropriate time. I think that having these times to give appropriate expectations was a important addition in this case because this was their first field trip. Therefore, they might not know what should or should not be done. Additionally, because I have an ELL student giving nonverbal cues may not be enough due to a difference in cultures. However, implementing nonverbal cues in the classroom can be a huge benefit when wanting to quickly and quietly get a message across. Especially during times when you aren’t trying to disturb the students, these types of cues are essential. As we discussed in my management class this semester, using nonverbal cues can have positives but there are two sides to every argument. There are times when nonverbal shouldn’t be used or it just might not be enough.

// Organizing Hands-on Materials \\

Every year the kindergarten grades have to do an “LDC” type of science activity. Each class has to come up with their own experiment to undertake, and the students are ultimately the ones that are actively doing the experiment. This year my CT told me that they would be doing a gummy bear experiment that studies which liquid the gummy bear absorbs the most. My CT instructed me to take a small group of four students to the back table with me to do the experiment. She specifically told me that I needed to give the students the autonomy and independence to do the experiment themselves, the only thing she wanted me to do was pour the liquids in a separate cup for them to pour themselves. While I have a small group pulled back, she works with the rest of the class in their science journals. Each day I can only pull back 4 students because we have to do multiple tests to ensure that the data is coherent and properly tested.

As the students come to sit in the back with me I ask them their opinion on what liquid they think the gummy bear will absorb the most. In order to get ready for the students to do the experiment, I have to pour sprite, lemonade, water, and apple juice in individual cups. My CT got lemonade that was powdered, so I have to make sure to stir the powder into the water before giving it to the students. After pouring each of these liquids in the cups, I asked the students which color gummy bear they would like to use (only did that on the first round  because that is one of the variables). Since the students choose red, I handed each of the students a red gummy bear. I told them that they could place the gummy bear in the empty cup in front of them. Then I instructed the students that when I give them their cup of liquid, not to pour it in right away. After each student had their liquid, we went one at a time to watch each student pour in their liquid. Every student in the small group was captivated by the entire process. They even watched the gummy bears after the liquids were just poured saying they think one already looks bigger.

Having manipulatives that the students are actually actively using to learn is, in my opinion, the best way to learn. I think that when students are doing they are learning because they are putting to practice what they know. They are able to visually see and do something thus making their learning much more concrete. When using manipulatives in the classroom, it is important to properly organize them before the lesson because otherwise you might loose precious learning time or you might mis-explain instruction because you are to busy organizing your materials and multitasking. Although I think that being spontaneous is an important characteristic as a teacher, there are certain things that should be pre-planned in order to optimize student learning. If there isn’t an opportunity to really organize and see what manipulatives will be beneficial for student learning then it might not be wise to use them.

// Reflecting to Connections in Lessons \\

1. What major insights did you gain from completing the two connected lessons (along with the formative/summative assessments)?
   From completing the lesson, I gain insight on how to use data continuously through a lesson to adjust a new lesson. I saw in my data that many of the students did make gains in their learning. Since I had never really done two lesson one after the other, it was an interesting experience. I felt much more confident in what I was teaching because I knew what the students were taught and what knowledge they had about the content. I’ve attached a paper of notes of observations that I noticed from the multiple assessments I gave. Most of the students showed some sort of learning through the two lessons and formative/summative assessments.
2. How do you think the connected lesson cycle–pre-assessing, planning, lessons, revising them as you go, etc.–helped differentiate and meet the needs of your students?
   I think that doing the steps of this connected lesson allowed me to really address concerns that students had with the content. It showed me what students I needed to push further because they already mastered the concepts being taught. Additionally, it allows a visual of misconceptions students have. If a student has a misconception, and it isn’t explicit taught then it may exist further down the road of their leaning. Not only does this process display misconceptions, but it also allows a teacher to see if instead of moving on,, they are able to reteach the content in a different manor. The purpose of this entire process is designed to truly form and mold your classroom according to the learners.
3. How can you realistically apply concepts learned from the connected lesson cycle to everyday teaching in your own classroom? What do you think will be the limitations and how will you overcome them?
   Realistically, you may not be able to do this kind of connection every single day for ever single lesson if you are a self-contained class. However, if you use your resources wisely, there are many assessments that give instant results. For example, kahoot, neared, and other technology tools allow this type of instant feedback. If technology is not an option, a simple exit ticket is an easy and quick way to view student learning. I believe that within every lesson you should be able to walk away with some sort of knowledge of your students learning; without that, how are you knowing what or how to teach them. If you don’t know what they know or don’t know how are you able to fully support them? The limitations to this process is that it could increase the work load on a teacher if not properly organized. If a teacher is viewing assessments every day and making adjustments everyday it could become overwhelming. It might be more beneficial if there is a pre-assessment that you are able to see where students are before the lesson unit, then adjust your unit accordingly. Throughout the unit you can use formative assessments so you know you’re going in the right direction. If you were to ONLY give a summative assessment after teaching, you would probably be confused why students may have done bad. This is why doing the lesson cycle should be a realistic goal for teachers.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

// Changing the Physical Environment \\

I have always believed that some sort of change in the classroom can reactivate the mind to refocus. Without some sort of change students become accustomed their surrounding and they might become oblivious to aspects of schooling. Changing the seating or the physical environment are two ways to keep students focused.

When I first came into my internship class, there were 23 students. After the school got a new kindergarten unit, we decreased our class size to 18. My CT decided to adjust the seating arrangement so that the table groups will be heterogeneous groups. Additionally, when teaching throughout the day, she varies between sitting on the carpet and sitting in their seats. Although the students are still in the same physical environment-the classroom-my CT still u see changes in the students visual stimuli and body arrangement. Moving from the carpet in between each lesson is one aspect that interests me in her classroom transitions.

In one of my lessons, I changed the physical environment in which the students were in. As an individual that values nature, I decided to change the environment to outside. One of Howard Gardener’s multiple intelligences is naturalistic. In this intelligence type, an individual learns best when surrounded by natural elements in some way, whether that’s by being in nature or incorporating natural elements within a lesson. This lesson involved physically being in nature. The students were to do a shape hunt in which they find objects in nature that are shaped like a rentable, square, triangle, and circle. This not only is beneficial for students that are naturalistic intelligence, but also it applies to real world applications. While being outside the students were extremely well behaved, they were focused and had very good discussions within their groups. In some regard, I do believe that this positive experience was to due to the change in physical environment. at this age, students are naturally curious about the world, so allowing them to explore in the world captures this curiosity and harnesses it.

Since I am a strong advocate for Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligent and nature in learning, I will be incorporating that into my own classroom as much as possible. The lesson that I did, reinforces my advocacy. Having students learn outside satisfies that necessity to change environments. Additionally, I think that changing the seating arrangement can positively affect learning as well. Modifying the layout to match the learning style of the lesson can increase the type of learning desired. For example, if you are having a discussion in class, arranging the desks in a circle can increase collaboration and discussion. Understating how changing the seating arrangement/physical environment can benefit learning is the first step in increasing achievement in your class.

// Forming Classroom Management out of Play Doh \\

1. What did you learn about your philosophy from making a model?

I learned that it is actually really hard to try and make a tangible thing that represents my belief for classroom management. My philosophy for management is looking at the reasons why students behave in certain ways, and trying to represent “rationale” is a hard thing to do. Additionally, as I was making the model I my ideas for management seemed to expand. As I made each piece I thought about how something else I needed to add to try and explain my reasoning.

2. What did you learn about your philosophy from your classmates observations/comments?

I learned from my classmate’s comments that I would like to add certain aspects into my philosophy statement. I hadn’t really said anything about having a positive environment and somehow through my representation, my classmates said “positivity”. I am glad that my model did represent “positivity” because I think I took advantage of thought that was more of an unspoken characteristic of my belief. I also saw “tools for success”, which I thought was a very great way to think of management in a positive manner. In my classroom management belief, giving students the tools to be successful and overcome their needs gives them a sense of belonging and initiative.

3. How did you expand your philosophy? Explain?

My philosophy expanded by giving me a new perspective on how to construct meaning through tangible items. My philosophy expanded through showing me that there are more to my philosophy then meets the eye, a philosophy is made up many branches and can be grown as time goes on. My philosophy expanded in the way of giving me more to think about with classroom management such as positivity and being understanding. Both of which I hadn’t thought about when developing my classroom management philosophy but they are things that are key for students to feel safe and comfortable.

4. How will you implement this philosophy in the classroom during internship (provide examples)?

Although my CT has a differing philosophy as my own, I can still bring in the positive and caring portion of my philosophy into the classroom. I can look into the aspects of why students are acting the way they are so that I can find out the root of the matter to solve this. This can assist my CT because it may support my students and mitigate the “inappropriate” behavior.

// Sneaking Naturalism into Learning \\

When I was told by my CT that I was teaching the students shapes as my connected lesson, I knew I wanted to bring nature into the classroom (as being a naturalist). I thought, what better way than taking the students outside to explore the shapes that naturally occurring in the outside environment. This gave them not only a stronger understanding that shapes exist everywhere and not just though manipulatives, but also they were able to really explore and use creative thinking to learn.

As a teacher, you are constantly connecting lessons back to another lesson throughout the school day; however, as an intern you don’t have the opportunity to do that as often as a normal working teacher does. For this lesson, I was able to collect data from the day before in order to adjust my lesson according to the needs that I saw from my students. The lesson topic was on two dimensional shapes such as circle, triangle, square, and rectangle. For this lesson I used a formative assessment that involved the students completing a shape hunt exit ticket worksheet. From that, I was able to see what students needed to be challenged and what students needed extra support for this lesson. In this lesson, the students were going to go outside and find shapes in the natural environment and label their drawings with words. The students were going to work collaboratively with their peers (groups made from their formative assessment) and learn through doing rather than being a passive warm body in the room. I think that because this was a connected lesson, I had more confidence teaching this lesson than the ones from the past. This might be because I knew what the students had learned yesterday, and I had full confidence in what information they knew and what information they still needed a strong foundation in. The thing I really liked that I did for this lesson was my explicit directions. That has been something that I have struggled with the past couple of lessons, however, this time I made sure to explain everything and not to leave anything out. These students need every detail when it comes to directions, and especially since the students were going to be doing something that was out of their normal routine, explicit instruction was necessary. I felt as though because I did give such clear directions, the students didn’t stray from the activity, they stayed on topic the entire time, no behavior problems, no complaining, no questions. Additionally, another thing that I liked that I did was the discussion after the lesson. I think that discussion is something that is sparsely used in kindergarten because we think they are not structured enough for it. However, these students were perfectly capable of staying focused, attentive, and respectful for this discussion. During the discussion, I asked the students what they liked about the activity and they input their opinions in a very informative way.

Even though there were good things, there are always things that I could improve on. Some of these things were my differentiation skills. Although I had differentiated the lesson activity, I felt that I should have given more of an enriching opportunity such as letting students find different types of shapes other than circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. Something that went differently than what I had planned was the speed of the entire lesson. My lesson from the day before took a good 40/45 minutes, so I was expecting the students to take around 40 minutes for this one too. However, the students stayed on task so much that they didn’t need as much time as what I thought. This isn’t something necessarily bad, however, the speed could have been influenced by my lack of challenge for some of the students.

The aspect of the lesson that I was surprised about was the conversations that I was hearing from the students. The collaboration groups were collaborating in a very mature way, in that they were feeding off of each other’s knowledge and building upon each other’s strengths. The groups were heterogenous so that the students would benefit from each other in multiple ways. These groups allowed my ELL student to be able to thrive in the activity because she had visual cues and was able to watch her fellow peers in what they were doing. The differentiation of adding in the sentence starter “I see…” gave her the ability to see how that sentence would look.