Tuesday, August 30, 2011
A New Year
This year I am focusing on how to make my lessons and my classroom more inquiry based. With the crew I have, it's a challenge.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Two More Days
Two (and a half) more days until summer vacation. Then a few more days after that and I am done with the course I am taking.
A week from today I will be free.
A week from today I will be free.
Monday, June 6, 2011
What I Learned This Year
One of my students gave an answer today that made me feel like I have done something right this year. In an assembly of the elementary students, the elementary coordinator asked all the students a question: What did you learn this year?
Most other students talked about facts or this and that. I actually thought some of the answers were pretty good. Then one of my students raised his hand and I felt tense. I was worried that this little guy was going to give a boneheaded answer.
Instead he replied, "Teamwork". Brilliant.
Most other students talked about facts or this and that. I actually thought some of the answers were pretty good. Then one of my students raised his hand and I felt tense. I was worried that this little guy was going to give a boneheaded answer.
Instead he replied, "Teamwork". Brilliant.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Role Play
Today I video taped the lesson for this class. Splicing the video was a real challenge since I am not used to using a Mac and I thought that creating the video in iMovie would be the best choice. That was a headache.
The lesson went really well. It was the first time that I have incorporated role play into a lesson. Wow! The students really enjoyed that aspect. They liked it so much that they begged to extend the lesson. When I asked what they liked about it, they said that they liked feeling that they were actually an artist [in this case] and one student said that they wanted to continue it.
I was really surprised by this. First of all I didn't expect that they would like it so much, but then they took the activity seriously on top of that. Especially for EAL students, this will be a powerful tool next year.
As for the inquiry part of the lesson, that surprised me as well. I had several parts of the lesson planned, but didn't do any of them since the students were so engaged with the first part of it. I need to examine this lesson and think of the parts that made it special, then use those for future lessons.
The lesson went really well. It was the first time that I have incorporated role play into a lesson. Wow! The students really enjoyed that aspect. They liked it so much that they begged to extend the lesson. When I asked what they liked about it, they said that they liked feeling that they were actually an artist [in this case] and one student said that they wanted to continue it.
I was really surprised by this. First of all I didn't expect that they would like it so much, but then they took the activity seriously on top of that. Especially for EAL students, this will be a powerful tool next year.
As for the inquiry part of the lesson, that surprised me as well. I had several parts of the lesson planned, but didn't do any of them since the students were so engaged with the first part of it. I need to examine this lesson and think of the parts that made it special, then use those for future lessons.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Integration
Today I sat down with my headmaster to talk about my goals for the year. We started talking about how things went, but it was was we started talking about next year that the conversation got interesting.
One of my goals this year was about how I taught reading and writing, and my headmaster and I started talking about ways I could better integrate reading and writing, as well as math, into the curriculum.
What was to be a 15-20 minute meeting turned into one hour and 10 minutes. Afterwards my head was spinning with ideas for next year like packages of math problems per unit and reading packs. I am also considering having each student build something like a portfolio for every unit where everything from the unit van be put.
I think I will have a busy summer.
One of my goals this year was about how I taught reading and writing, and my headmaster and I started talking about ways I could better integrate reading and writing, as well as math, into the curriculum.
What was to be a 15-20 minute meeting turned into one hour and 10 minutes. Afterwards my head was spinning with ideas for next year like packages of math problems per unit and reading packs. I am also considering having each student build something like a portfolio for every unit where everything from the unit van be put.
I think I will have a busy summer.
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