Today we finished up the Protestant Reformation lesson using a Bell Ringer and a few mins to finish the rest of their materials from the day before. I took up the papers and despite telling them yesterday that I was going to take up these papers today, it seemed that not one of them had done extra work last night. Therefore I gave them some time to finish up today, and it helped a few of them.
We began with a journal entry about "what they were best at" and then went over some vocabulary words. As we were doing this, I got the students talking a little, but not as much as I would have liked. I'm going to have to think of a different way to do an anticipation guide type of activity when were dealing with vocabulary that is on a high level.
The notes went pretty well, and they did not have a note guide this time. Although they did have a list of key words and key people. Still interacting well with the students as far as questions go, but when it comes to a narrative style of lecture I'm not so good at that. I don't know if that is better or not. I suppose that depends on the type of lecture/activities that I am doing.
At the end of the notes I had them talk about partnerships and then get into groups to work on the build a business plan. This is where I made my biggest mistake of the day. I allowed them to work with their seat partners, and Dominic, Zach, and Coty ended up together. While the other pairs were talking about their ideas and being vocal, the three of them just sat there unphased by the fact that they may be on a time crunch. I had to prod them a few times and they eventually did start working, but I will have to make sure to strategically group every time from now on, because I don't feel like it was fair for me to do that to them. They will present with everyone else, but I feel like it won't be up to par. I could be wrong, and they might think about it over the weekend, but we'll have to see on Monday.
Things that need work:
- The SN presentation was okay, but it could use some more fun fonts- note- make better fonts for the Russia presentations
- The journal about what they are best at could have been discussed a little further and connected more at the beginning so it would make more sense at the end.
- Depending on the class, having an actual note guide might be a good thing. This way of introducing vocabulary only went so so
- I made a typo on the Business Model rubric and put no points for the presentation. I will have to make new rubrics for Monday.
- Music was playing during their business plan time, but I need more time for them to work and a bigger variety of music. Coldplay is going to get old fast.
- Still need to find a balance between telling them the history that interests me and covering just the basics for geography- not awesome at this and it hurts my time management.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Protestant Reformation- Sept 20
This morning at 730 we had our first Breakfast Bonanza where three different teachers gave us a few different tips on what to use in the classroom. I would really like to incorporate sound into my presentations, so that will probably be the one that I will use the most. I will also use the website we were given to look up a few templates on the Smartboard that I can use for games.
Since I was planning on beginning the Protestant Reformation and the giving the Europe Map quiz today, I got here a little early this morning to set up the carousel activity, but then Mike told me that the class was only going to last about 40 minutes today, so I had to adjust. I decided I would give the Map quiz, do the opener, and get through as much of the notes as we could.
As the students came in I gave them back their maps or told them that they needed to get their maps out from the day before and study them because we would be having a quiz. We reviewed together and I had several people come up to the board and label things that I knew would be on the test. They then had about 2 minutes to look over a little more. They took the test and everyone completed in about 12 minutes and no one seemed to have much trouble. I had to clarify a few things, but I don't think that I will alter the test the next time I use it.
I took up the tests as the students finished, and once everyone was done I passed out the Purchase Points activity. I told the students this was a letter from the administration and asked for reactions. Some of them jumped up and said that this was awesome and fair because it would mean less work. I was not quite expecting that level of immaturity but I guess with Freshman that is something that I will have to factor in next time I do an activity like that. I did get them back to the point that this can be connected to indulgences eventually by relying heavily on Madison, who has no problem at all answering questions when I need it.
I passed out the note guide and we got through about 5 or 6 slides before the bell rang. I felt like I did a good job of checking for understanding and making them repeat key phrases when there was an important vocab word, but we did run out of time and they had to leave.
Things to change:
- The map might need to be fixed a little
- I should use a timer when giving a quiz
- The Purchase Points activity could be an okay closer as well as an opener
- I am apparently getting too into the history and need more geography in my lessons
- I still have not found a way to reach Cody- he did fine on the quiz, but is still unorganized and not steller at homework or class discussions.
- Time management probably needs to improve as well, I can't keep letting my one day lesson plans get pushed into two because that will add up very quickly
Since I was planning on beginning the Protestant Reformation and the giving the Europe Map quiz today, I got here a little early this morning to set up the carousel activity, but then Mike told me that the class was only going to last about 40 minutes today, so I had to adjust. I decided I would give the Map quiz, do the opener, and get through as much of the notes as we could.
As the students came in I gave them back their maps or told them that they needed to get their maps out from the day before and study them because we would be having a quiz. We reviewed together and I had several people come up to the board and label things that I knew would be on the test. They then had about 2 minutes to look over a little more. They took the test and everyone completed in about 12 minutes and no one seemed to have much trouble. I had to clarify a few things, but I don't think that I will alter the test the next time I use it.
I took up the tests as the students finished, and once everyone was done I passed out the Purchase Points activity. I told the students this was a letter from the administration and asked for reactions. Some of them jumped up and said that this was awesome and fair because it would mean less work. I was not quite expecting that level of immaturity but I guess with Freshman that is something that I will have to factor in next time I do an activity like that. I did get them back to the point that this can be connected to indulgences eventually by relying heavily on Madison, who has no problem at all answering questions when I need it.
I passed out the note guide and we got through about 5 or 6 slides before the bell rang. I felt like I did a good job of checking for understanding and making them repeat key phrases when there was an important vocab word, but we did run out of time and they had to leave.
Things to change:
- The map might need to be fixed a little
- I should use a timer when giving a quiz
- The Purchase Points activity could be an okay closer as well as an opener
- I am apparently getting too into the history and need more geography in my lessons
- I still have not found a way to reach Cody- he did fine on the quiz, but is still unorganized and not steller at homework or class discussions.
- Time management probably needs to improve as well, I can't keep letting my one day lesson plans get pushed into two because that will add up very quickly
Monday, September 19, 2011
Europe Cont. Sept 19
Since my Europe lesson day went a little longer than I wanted on Friday, we had a few things to finish up today including half of the notes and the quiz. I thought that this might end up taking either the entire day or half of the day, depending on which one Mike wanted. He said I should try and get through all of this and not try to push forward into the Protestant Reformation since rushing that would probably ruin the set.
So while figuring out exactly how that would go down, Mike said we had a fire drill and Constitution Day today so we had to go outside and then go to the flagpole to sing the Preamble.
In addition, we had to be flexible today since it was Monday and do check in with the kids. Since we had to watch the videos of the Preamble and hen do check in, I tried to make the stories and the talk in the morning go a little longer so we could push all the way to nine when the fire drill was about to happen, and this seemed to work out pretty well.
After we returned we only had about 20-25 more minutes of class time for learning. Logan and Jeromy had been talking constantly throughout the day, so I finally separated them about 3 minutes into my lecture. I didn't make it into an argument or discussion, just told Logan to move since he seemed to be the one initiated the talking most of the time even though both of of them were at fault. This seemed to fix the problem. I hope that changing the seating chart will help this problem solve itself.
The notes went rather well as we only had about ten things to go over in their notes. I have succumbed to the fact that they will only write down things that are very specific. Phrases such as this will on on the EOC or you need to have this in your notes are being more and more common place in my lectures, and I hope I can find a way to do this with more variety. Putting exactly the words that they need on the screen helps, and I like working with Prezi because that can be done with several subtopics.
Only about half the students turned in their maps, which was very disappointing. I don't want to fail the students that I know will not be doing their homework, but I want to have rigor as well without having to have some casualties in order to make an example.
Academic vocabulary was Mike's main criticism of my lesson today, I used the term theater when referring to war and that didn't translate. Another thing I'm noticing is that Dylan wants to answer every single question, and I'm getting a little bit better about checking if the students are understanding throughout the lecture, which actually takes up time as well which is good for the slow note takers.
- I need to address everyone in the classroom everyday at least twice. There are only 11 of them and sometimes less there is no excuse to not make this happen.
Tomorrow they will quiz over this material and I will probably give them about 5-10 mins to go over their notes after we review some things together as well.
So while figuring out exactly how that would go down, Mike said we had a fire drill and Constitution Day today so we had to go outside and then go to the flagpole to sing the Preamble.
In addition, we had to be flexible today since it was Monday and do check in with the kids. Since we had to watch the videos of the Preamble and hen do check in, I tried to make the stories and the talk in the morning go a little longer so we could push all the way to nine when the fire drill was about to happen, and this seemed to work out pretty well.
After we returned we only had about 20-25 more minutes of class time for learning. Logan and Jeromy had been talking constantly throughout the day, so I finally separated them about 3 minutes into my lecture. I didn't make it into an argument or discussion, just told Logan to move since he seemed to be the one initiated the talking most of the time even though both of of them were at fault. This seemed to fix the problem. I hope that changing the seating chart will help this problem solve itself.
The notes went rather well as we only had about ten things to go over in their notes. I have succumbed to the fact that they will only write down things that are very specific. Phrases such as this will on on the EOC or you need to have this in your notes are being more and more common place in my lectures, and I hope I can find a way to do this with more variety. Putting exactly the words that they need on the screen helps, and I like working with Prezi because that can be done with several subtopics.
Only about half the students turned in their maps, which was very disappointing. I don't want to fail the students that I know will not be doing their homework, but I want to have rigor as well without having to have some casualties in order to make an example.
Academic vocabulary was Mike's main criticism of my lesson today, I used the term theater when referring to war and that didn't translate. Another thing I'm noticing is that Dylan wants to answer every single question, and I'm getting a little bit better about checking if the students are understanding throughout the lecture, which actually takes up time as well which is good for the slow note takers.
- I need to address everyone in the classroom everyday at least twice. There are only 11 of them and sometimes less there is no excuse to not make this happen.
Tomorrow they will quiz over this material and I will probably give them about 5-10 mins to go over their notes after we review some things together as well.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Intro to Europe= Sept 16
Today I began the unit on Europe. I began with an introduction about what we knew. I wanted to start with a story about how Europe got its name, but that turned out to be a very bad idea since the story is inappropriate in Greek mythology. The what do we know about Europe actually went pretty well. I thought it was a little bit dry and not much of a hook, so I want to be more creative than that.
I passed out the maps so that the students could color them
- I did not tell them where to find the information in their books, so that could have been done differently, but it is an easy fix.
- I did make a model of the map, but I should have scanned it and shown it from above for a better feeling for this
- I told the students that they could finish it as homework and that probably made them relax a little bit more which was not necessarily a good thing. It took about 45 mins for only 2 girls to finish so I need to put a bit more pressure on the kids to finish. The russia map will have to be a little bit different.
- I thought that the environment was a little bit dry for what we were doing, and I'm personally uncomfortable with silence so Mike suggested that I play classical music during that time and perhaps give them the time for listen to their own music as well if they like
- I do not like to flip over my own papers back and forth when making these things so I probably could have made a few more since the extras that I gave out ran out rather quickly even in such a small class.
The students asked for the air guitar competition when we were done, and I did not want to take that away from them so I killed about 6-7 minutes watching that, but the kids do seem to enjoy it. I think we might need something else though soon, it seems to have lost its novelty with everyone except for Dillon
As the competition was finishing up I passed out their note guides and we began to talk about Europe. I tried to make the information concise and emphasize what they needed to know. They have a type of brochure that they're using to take the notes and I hope it went well. It was a lot easier for me to talk about the countries and capitals than it was for me to talk about physical feature. I am not nearly as comfortable with actual geography so I guess that is to be expected.
We ran out of time about half way through the noteguide which I knew was going to happen when I started. We will finish the information on Monday, but I don't know if it will actually stick through the weekend for their quiz. After this lesson I am supposed to start the Protestant Reformation, and I will really need to time myself with that lesson, and I would really not like to push it into the second half of the next class, so we will try to fit all of the rest of Europe and maybe the quiz in on Monday.
Report with the students is still going well, they are starting to talk more and more everyday, and I'm getting better about taking whatever comment they happen to make and turning it into a connection to the lesson, so I hope I can continue that when we get into the more history oriented things in the lesson.
I passed out the maps so that the students could color them
- I did not tell them where to find the information in their books, so that could have been done differently, but it is an easy fix.
- I did make a model of the map, but I should have scanned it and shown it from above for a better feeling for this
- I told the students that they could finish it as homework and that probably made them relax a little bit more which was not necessarily a good thing. It took about 45 mins for only 2 girls to finish so I need to put a bit more pressure on the kids to finish. The russia map will have to be a little bit different.
- I thought that the environment was a little bit dry for what we were doing, and I'm personally uncomfortable with silence so Mike suggested that I play classical music during that time and perhaps give them the time for listen to their own music as well if they like
- I do not like to flip over my own papers back and forth when making these things so I probably could have made a few more since the extras that I gave out ran out rather quickly even in such a small class.
The students asked for the air guitar competition when we were done, and I did not want to take that away from them so I killed about 6-7 minutes watching that, but the kids do seem to enjoy it. I think we might need something else though soon, it seems to have lost its novelty with everyone except for Dillon
As the competition was finishing up I passed out their note guides and we began to talk about Europe. I tried to make the information concise and emphasize what they needed to know. They have a type of brochure that they're using to take the notes and I hope it went well. It was a lot easier for me to talk about the countries and capitals than it was for me to talk about physical feature. I am not nearly as comfortable with actual geography so I guess that is to be expected.
We ran out of time about half way through the noteguide which I knew was going to happen when I started. We will finish the information on Monday, but I don't know if it will actually stick through the weekend for their quiz. After this lesson I am supposed to start the Protestant Reformation, and I will really need to time myself with that lesson, and I would really not like to push it into the second half of the next class, so we will try to fit all of the rest of Europe and maybe the quiz in on Monday.
Report with the students is still going well, they are starting to talk more and more everyday, and I'm getting better about taking whatever comment they happen to make and turning it into a connection to the lesson, so I hope I can continue that when we get into the more history oriented things in the lesson.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Congress- Sept 13
Today I taught in Mrs. Steffey's class. I put together a prezi about the basic facts in Congress like the terms and qualifications, which is pretty dry material, but I was excited to make it work.
The Prezi went well and I also made a note guide that had the basic things in the presentation on it.
I noticed a lot of students not using the extra space and only writing down one or two words. I assumed that because they were seniors this would be a little bit better, but I'm finding more and more that if I don't tell them what to write down they will not write down anything and then they won't have the information.
The EOC that I made the review and this lesson based off of was surprisingly nice to use as a resource.
The questions are often high level, so I thought giving the students the background and story would be a great idea. However, when I would tell anecdotes or other specific things, they would often stop me and ask immediately what I should be writing down.
The presentation was only about 20 mins, but with a little more depth and inclusion of reapportionment and gerrymandering (the concepts that Michelle wanted to include in her next days lesson) this could easily be 25-30 minutes.
As per usual, I talked too fast. It was actually Michelle's only criticism. That coupled with the fact that I didn't have the background knowledge on black representatives made me feel a little bad.
High point! - Michelle asked me if she could use my note guide and prezi during her fourth period class as well, and I was able to show her how to use prezi so that made me feel good.
When we were working in groups online I noticed that the five or six black students in the back did not work with the research on the internet very well. I asked Mrs. Steffey if this was because they did not have much experience researching or if they did not have internet access at home very often. She said it was both. I focused my energy on helping these students with their research attempts. I feel like I'm getting better at leading students with questions instead of simply giving them answers to things.
I'm using the same review game I used in Geography in this class at the end of the week, but the questions are much harder and there are more of them. Hoping it goes well!
The Prezi went well and I also made a note guide that had the basic things in the presentation on it.
I noticed a lot of students not using the extra space and only writing down one or two words. I assumed that because they were seniors this would be a little bit better, but I'm finding more and more that if I don't tell them what to write down they will not write down anything and then they won't have the information.
The EOC that I made the review and this lesson based off of was surprisingly nice to use as a resource.
The questions are often high level, so I thought giving the students the background and story would be a great idea. However, when I would tell anecdotes or other specific things, they would often stop me and ask immediately what I should be writing down.
The presentation was only about 20 mins, but with a little more depth and inclusion of reapportionment and gerrymandering (the concepts that Michelle wanted to include in her next days lesson) this could easily be 25-30 minutes.
As per usual, I talked too fast. It was actually Michelle's only criticism. That coupled with the fact that I didn't have the background knowledge on black representatives made me feel a little bad.
High point! - Michelle asked me if she could use my note guide and prezi during her fourth period class as well, and I was able to show her how to use prezi so that made me feel good.
When we were working in groups online I noticed that the five or six black students in the back did not work with the research on the internet very well. I asked Mrs. Steffey if this was because they did not have much experience researching or if they did not have internet access at home very often. She said it was both. I focused my energy on helping these students with their research attempts. I feel like I'm getting better at leading students with questions instead of simply giving them answers to things.
I'm using the same review game I used in Geography in this class at the end of the week, but the questions are much harder and there are more of them. Hoping it goes well!
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