First Day of Fieldwork

Yesterday at Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School we met our sixth grade class that we will be working with for fieldwork. There are 19 students in the class and they are all on different levels. It is a very diverse classroom and two of the students have autism. It was very good to know who the students are that will be needing extra attention so we can plan our accommodations better for our lesson plans. The first day we were instructed to do a getting to know you activity with all of the students. The students set themselves up into groups and our group of teacher candidates rotated every 10 minutes. Each group of students got the opportunity to participate in each of our activities. My group made a sixth grade geologist poster using cut out minerals. The students wrote their names, something they knew about rocks or minerals, and something they want to learn about rocks and minerals on their paper. Then they were able to decorate it and stick it onto the poster board. The students seemed to highly enjoy this activity and it helped a lot seeing where the students stand in terms of knowing about rocks and minerals. These students surprised me about how much they knew. They are all brilliant young kids and I cannot wait to work with them and teach them more. I am very excited for Tuesday to start actually teaching them about minerals and I think our group will do a great job.

Digital Me Projects

As we are in the middle of the third week, approaching the fourth week of classes, I am feeling very overwhelmed. It actually helps to take a breather and just write in my blog about some of the positives to remind me that I will get through this! These positives include how many different ways I have learned to make a presentation. We learned these through our digital me projects. Everyone in the class was assigned a different way to present a project telling the class about themselves. My app was called "tellagami", where you record yourself and get to dress up a character that speaks for you. Tellagami is a great way to differentiate the instruction for students. The students might be really interested in the new character on the board and focus and listen more to her. This would be a great tool to use when you want to explain classroom expectations and rules, or directions for an activity or project. You can only record for 90 seconds, which is why it is good for something that requires a short period of time. This project was a great way for everyone to get to know each other and teach how to use technology is many different ways in a classroom. We then got to give each other feedback which helped me out tremendously. Seeing what I did well and not so well has really been pushing me to fix those things I did not do so well, and keep improving on the things I did do well. This project was very motivational for me and began to excite me about becoming a teacher and using different means of technology that I believe my future students will be interested in and have a blast with.

an example of what the app Tellagami looks like!

Another positive that excites me but also has been stressing me out at the same time is starting fieldwork! Last class we went to the cirriculum library to have a mini tour and got to see where all of the books and resources are located for us. After our mini field trip, my field work group met for a short amount of time just discussing what we are going to do for our icebreaker activity. Our group came up with a great idea that our students will love. It is super fun and exciting and will give the students a great opportunity to share something about themselves, and give us teachers the opportunity to tell our students about ourselves. Our ice breaker activity goes along with our topic of minerals which is also really cool. I am very excited for our first day of field work and to meet the students.