// Fifth Grade Zing \\

The tone of the classroom was set early on by Madam Hooch today. She wasn’t having a good day because she has been sick all week. Before school started, one of the students, Ron, came into class and sat down. He then took out his Nintendo 3 DS and began playing it. Since third grade Ron has been at risk of failing every year. Some days he will do some work, but other days he refuses to engage. Madam Hooch has been very patient with him throughout the year in order to gain a relationship with in to increase his motivation. However, today Madam Hooch’s patient lacked. When the school bell rang to begin the day, Madam Hooch gave instructions to take out their math book. When she saw that Ron still had his gaming system out she took it out of his hands and shouted at him loosing her cool. Throughout the rest of the day, Madam Hooch had a short temper and I could tell that the students were walking on egg shells.

Even with this set back, the students were excited to start to build their roller coasters for the science Olympics. The last couple of weeks, the fifth grade curriculum has been working in a LDC roller coaster physics work book (FEAP 1A). The final assessment is to build a mini roller costar applying the ideas they learned about including: acceleration, inertia, force, kinetic energy, and potential energy (FEAP 1D, 1F 3B). Each fifth grade class chooses one group’s roller coaster in their class to compete in the science Olympics. The winner is determined by the distance the force of a marble coming out of the mini roller coaster pushes a cup. I was excited to have the opportunity to watch the students sketches come to life. As the groups began their designing process, I was able to walk around and discuss with various groups their reasoning behind their design (FEAP 1E). When I came to Luna and Susan’s group, they were experiencing difficulty with their coaster. The marble keep stopping before going around the tear drop loop, since they should be in-between Piaget’s Concrete and Formal Operational Stages, I questioned them asking: “why do you think this is happening?” (FEAP 3F) Luna’s logical response clearly showed an understanding for abstract reasoning because she said: “the marble doesn’t gain enough kinetic energy before entering the loop.” She then hypothesized a change of design, theorizing to place the loop closer to the initial drop. Susan, on the other hand, was preoccupied with the fact that she might loose her teacher directed P.E. because they were having to redesign their roller coaster. I reaffirmed them that if it came to that, then I would stay in the class with them while their working. Luna proclaimed right away, “that sounds like a deal!” I told them that I would check back in with them so I could see what the other groups were doing. The difference between Susan and Luna seemed as though a difference in their self-efficacy. Luna appeared to have a much higher self-efficacy and was self motivated to figure out why the roller coaster wasn’t working. She seemed determined to be successful in the task at hand, whereas Susan didn’t seem to care if she was successful or not. She only wanted to play outside. This could all be influenced from their past experiences within this field of education. After reflecting on this activity, I was pleasantly surprised by how much creativity and initiative the students had. Also, until today I never really had gotten back such a positive reaction to my presence in the class. The students never seemed phased. It gave me joy to know that the students actually really enjoy me being in there!

Additionally today, Madam Hooch had to finish up assessing the easyCBM reading fluency assessment. She advised me to sit in on the rest to give me experience in how this assessment worked. The easyCBM is a system that allows to progress the development of the student’s reading fluency (FEAP 4C). Every few weeks the school will give the teachers this assessment to give to their students and afterwards the teacher will send in each student’s results. At the end of the year, each teacher is able to see the progress that their student’s made in their reading fluency (FEAP 5B). I am glad that I got the opportunity to see how this official assessment worked because I will eventually run into these types of things when I am an official teacher with my own class (FEAP 5D).

Reflective Questions:
1. How can I help increase the self-efficacy and self-regulation of every student? Even those that aren’t motivated?
2. What can I do to have students think for themselves when asked higher order questions, instead of pulling answers out of them?

// Just Jump In \\

When I stepped onto the grounds of Hogwarts Elementary School, my thoughts as to how the day was going to play out were nothing like what actually happened…

Arriving before the students, I took the silent opportunity to discuss a few things with my collaborating teacher, Madam Hooch. As I mentioned an observation lesson, she–without hesitation and unexpectedly–suggested that I should just teach today for practice. Almost immediately my heart rate escalated. Madam Hooch, sensing my anxiety, reassured me that she would be right here and that they best way to learn is to just jump in. Although “just jump in” is often clique, preferably I like slow, steady, gradual steps; However, even with a slight uncomfortable feeling, I listened tentatively to her explanation of the guided reading lesson she wanted me to do. Since reading is the last subject covered in the school day, I was able to briefly review the questions throughout the day. After she finished explained the guided reading to me, she went even further to ask me (excitedly) if I wanted to teach the math lesson as well. At this point I was feeling slightly overwhelmed, and the day hadn’t even started. Nevertheless, I proceed to ask what they were learning about. When Madam Hooch responded with “I don’t know, let’s go see”, I began to understand why she suggested me to “just jump in”. As we both reviewed the math workbook for the first time, I politely but bluntly told Madam Hooch that I really needed to be prepared to teach math since it can be difficult material for many students. With great relief, she understood. As the day carried on, the time gap for reading was drawing closer. Before starting, I passed out character roles to each group since the guided reading was a play. For each scene the character roles were going to rotate between the groups so that every student that wants to read had the opportunity to. As the class and I progressed through the reading, I sensed that the students were quieter and weren’t exactly themselves, but we made it through and the student’s responses to the higher order questions throughout the story were impeccable (FEAP 3f). There was never one time were I didn’t have hands raised to answer a question. When Madam Hooch and I were reflecting on the guided reading she gave me a few pointers that included: walking around the class to prevent behavioral problems, allowing the students to reflect upon a question as a group first, and various phrases that the class is familiar with–i.e. turn and talk indicates to talk to your neighbor.

After the day ended and I was able to clear my head and think about the occurrences of the day, there were many tips and reflections that were extremely useful.

When the students arrive in the morning, they have a routine to fill out their agenda with the following information: topics that will be discussed in each subject, homework, and spelling words. Madam Hooch informed me that her motherly instinct was her drive for this this routine. It is so essential to keep parents involved with your student’s education, and I think that this is a great routine because it not only informs parents of homework, but also about what their children are actually learning about and doing throughout the day because it increases the parental participation. When I’m an educator I’d like to create a weekly newsletter that informs parents or guardians what they can expect in the coming week. I would include information for volunteering opportunities in an effort to increase parental involvement because research in EDP 3273 showed that the expectations and involvement varies greatly on cultural values (FEAP 2d). Parental involvement can do wonders in a child’s education. It can increase attendance, increase positive attitudes and behaviors, increase willingness to do homework, and increase a student’s academic achievement. This is why it’s is so vital to try and reach out to parents and inform them of their child’s education. Another great resource that Madam Hooch presented to me was a Pandora Internet Radio station called ‘Classical goes Pop Radio‘. She was informing me about how students enjoy listening to music while they’re working quietly, but a lot of the Pandora stations aren’t radio edited (Radio edits are when all profanity is taken out). Classical goes Pop offers the tune of familiar songs without any of the words. I always loved when my teachers played music during individual work, so I’m thankful that Madam Hooch provided me with a family friendly route for popular music!

Questions for further development:
1. How can you get a child to do their work without continually asking, if they aren’t really interested in anything?
2.In an upper elementary classroom, how do you include your ELL students without making exceptions that lower expectations?