Science Post 5: Fourth time in the classroom

Last Thursday, I had my very first experience being in the preschool room at Brigham Elementary. I was very nervous to go to that specific classroom because I had heard from my peers that these students are very quiet and do not often participate. However, I do try to not let what others say influence my perspective about things, including classrooms and children. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say I was a little sad about not going back into the kindergarten classroom. I feel like I have started to become comfortable with the kindergarten students and the same for them with me. In my last lesson, one of the kids said to me, “Hey! I saw you in here before!” I knew that I would not get one of those greetings in the preschool classroom. I was, however, a bit pumped that I might be able to use my second language to help the preschoolers. Little did I know, the preschool students were not all Hispanic. In fact, only about 2 out of 11 students were Hispanic. Considering my limit of languages, for I only have two, walking into the preschool classroom was the first time I felt like I was at a disadvantage and therefore the students were also. How was I supposed to connect with the students and make them feel comfortable despite the language barrier if there was actually no way for me to jump over the said “barrier”

While in the classroom, I was a teacher assistant for two of the other girls who would be teaching their lesson. They allowed for me to pick which station that I would like to run that corresponds with the five senses. I chose the “seeing” station as it had to do with sorting colors into a bin labeled with the color words and the colors. I thought if I could in any way use my second language to help even two of my students, I would be able to do so at the “seeing” station. Once the first group of students came by my station, I quickly knew that it would be more than being able to say the colors. I wanted to know how I was going to be able to make these students feel comfortable with me and able to connect even though there might be a language barrier. I pride myself in that fact that I was quickly able to consider how I might encourage my students while they sort the objects according to color at my station. I decided to incorporate “fist bumps” with the kids after they would make a correct color and object match. Almost all of the students smiled and giggled as we would fist bump for their successful match. This was something that may seem so little but I really feel like it helped for the students to feel comfortable with me and also excited to learn further. In addition, I made sure to be gentle with the students specifically when they made an incorrect color and object match. I feel that my gentleness again helped the students to feel comfortable and able to learn. I also wanted to be extra sensitive to the English Language Learners because I can understand how hard it might be to not understand what others are saying and how that can affect one’s learning. Not to mention, it might be challenging to even try to participate if you feel like you are always wrong. All in all, I would call last Thursday a success!

The definition of a fist bump is: a gesture of greeting or affirmation in which two people lightly tap each other's clenched fist.

That is all folks, until next time!

-Alaina Murphy

EXCEEDS: Over 500 character requirement. Definition of a fist bump.

Science Post 4: Clinical Lesson Reflection

Last Week, Taylor Primrose (another first grade teacher also located in my PDS clinical site) and I teamed up to introduce the topic of food chains to the three first grade classes.  Taylor and I have been co-teaching the science lessons for the three first grade classes since September and therefore we are fairly confident in our ability to be interactive and engaging for the students. Not to mention, we knew that the students would certainly take away new ideas from this lesson as they begin to make connections to their lives. After having discussed with our cooperating teachers and looking at the curriculum guide, the topic that best fit the week of choice was food chains.

Taylor and I were able to read through the curriculum guide and take note of all of the important parts that needed to be introduced and taught in this first lesson. This included discussing the term “food chains” as well as “oxygen” and “energy.”  These terms would need to be broken down and explained in first grade terminology. Taylor and I know that introducing AND using academic language throughout a lesson will not only help the students to understand what is being taught but it will also help them to remember what they learned. The topic of food chains was a perfectly placed unit because it followed the topic of habitats. With this background knowledge, we knew that the students would be better able to link the pieces of a food chain based on what animals live in each habitat.

A huge part of planning for this lesson included piecing together all that Taylor and I knew about food chains as well as what was included in the curriculum books about what needed to be addressed. Taylor and I both knew that food chains prosper because one living thing gives energy to another living thing through consumption, or food. That said, we knew that a wolf would eat a bunny and a bunny would eat grass. Therefore, the energy passed from the grass, to the bunny, to the wolf. I also knew that the amount of energy that is passed from one living thing to the next is always less than before because most of the energy received the first time was used up. However, this was something that I knew would be too advanced for the first graders to learn right away. To begin the lesson, we decided to introduce the idea of food chains by explaining what it looks like and what it does. Then, we decided that we would present examples of food chains that we would do together as a class. Taylor and I also knew that we had to keep the lesson to no more than 40 minutes given the amount of students that we have and their attention span. In order to meet the needs of our students, we planned to have interactive time in which we would complete a quick SMART board activity and also do some hands on activities. In doing this, the students would be able to move from fine to gross motor movements.

From many experiences working with all three of the first grade classes, once again I felt that Taylor and I managed classroom/student behavior very well. Often times when one teacher would take the lead to explain a new fact or to lead the SMART board activity, the other teacher would wander about the room to redirect students that were talking or not keeping their attention on the lead teacher. I personally think that this is something that I am very capable and good at doing. Being able to do this not only helps the selected student to better focus and learn, but it also helps the students sitting around him/her to have the same ability to focus and learn on the lesson as well. This is also something that my cooperating teacher noted as a strength for the lesson. She stated, “Good job keeping the kids accountable-Ms. Primrose was teaching, Ms. Murphy kept them quiet.” During the times where Taylor and I were actively co-teaching, we would stop to remind the class that “When the teacher is talking, YOU ARE NOT!” This is a phrase commonly used in all three first grade classes and the students all join in to repeat the last line with the teachers. This is a great auditory reminder for the students to be actively listening to the teachers.

Taylor and I also made sure to incorporate a variety of checks for understanding that the students are familiar with in order to gauge their understanding throughout the lesson. These included; blow and shout, turn and talk, and raising hands. These checks for understanding served as quick tips for which students were able to understand or connect with the learning and which students still needed more practice. The more hands raised, the more discussion done through turn and talks, and the more participation in blow and shout would signal to Taylor and me that we could move on to the next piece of the lesson. The less hands raised, the less discussion done through turn and talks, and the less participation in blow and shout would signal to Taylor and me that we needed to stop and re-explain or explain differently so that all students would be able to learn what was being taught. In general, having a variety of checks for understanding is a strength for any teacher because it gives the teacher new information each time that it is incorporated. Also, it ensures that all students are able to respond appropriately and not simply mirror what the other students or teachers are doing.

Another great part of the lesson was the interaction with the SMART board in actively explaining a food chain and also playing the food chains match game. This assisted the students by incorporating a visual support for learning as well as an actively engaging tool for learning. My cooperating teacher wrote, “Good way to visualize lesson (using the SMART board), kids were excited to see the food chain.” Taylor and I prepared questions that were paired with the SMART board activity and also with the SMART board game. This supported our students’ learning because we were actively scaffolding their learning. We could see the students beginning to understand by the smiles that would light up on their faces and the amount of hands in the air waiting to be called on. We often would incorporate a “silent cheer” in which the students could evaluate themselves on their guesses. This was used when only one or two students were given the chance to share their guess or thoughts with the class. The silent cheer also served as a formative assessment for Taylor and I as we could see how many students were also thinking of the correct answer. Again, this was something that my cooperating teacher reflected on as a strength throughout the lesson.

After the lesson, the students were given a chance to create their very own food chain on the prepared paper that they were given before the lesson. The students were given one task, “The first box must have the sun because the sun gives off energy for things to grow.” From there, the students had the freedom to draw any plants or animals that they desired to represent a working food chain. The students worked individually or in groups of two or three to complete their food chains. Taylor and I made our way around to every group to offer our feedback as well as to gauge the students in conversation. One thing I made sure to do was to ask the students how the food chain that they created worked. The goal was for the students to explain how the energy passed from one thing to the next by it being eaten. After having visited each group, I was very impressed with the drawings and thoughts that went into the students’ food chains. I saw plants and animals that were not discussed as a whole group but that made sense in the student’s food chain. I was also delighted that the students were able to explain how their food chain functioned. I think that the way we organized the lesson to allow for the students to actively create their own food chain based on what they had learned about them was a great way for the students to practice and apply their new knowledge.

I would only improve a few things with our lesson. One thing that I would make sure to do is to continue to consider academic language and ways that new terms can be broken down into first grade friendly language. In doing this, I would also want to make sure that I can explain the term in more ways than one. That said, should the students be unsure of the vocabulary, I would have a second or third way to explain the term so that all of the students understand the terms used throughout the lesson. Also, I would want to continue working on improving the noise level of the students during the lesson. This would require organization in the planning pieces of the lessons so that the students have appropriate times to be quiet and appropriate times to be louder. This would really serve the students’ learning because they would not be required to be silent throughout the whole lesson or for even more than 5-10 minutes. All in all, I think that this lesson was very successful and fun for me, Taylor, and the students of course. Taylor and I received great feedback from our cooperating teachers referencing the great game we played on the SMART board to practice creating food chains, to the ability to maintain classroom management.   

That is all folks, until next time!

-Alaina Murphy

EXCEEDS: Planning-included visual in lesson plan. Reflection-extremely exceeded the 1,000 character requirement. (1,659). 

Science Post 3: Third time in the classroom

Last Thursday, Jessie, Megan, and I were the girls in charge of presenting a lesson in the kindergarten room at Brigham. If we are talking about emotions that were experienced prior to walking into the classroom that day, you just may be surprised about just how it was that I felt and thought upon entering that afternoon compared to the last time I was in the kindergarten room. First of all, I was extremely nervous about presenting the lesson. “Why?” you may ask. Well, we had a strict 30 minutes to present a lesson that we did not have much time to run through AND we had to collect A LOT of assessment data. Let’s just say that my poor heart was beating really fast. The funny thing is, my nerves instantly settled as soon as I crossed the threshold into that kindergarten room. I do not know what it was about that day and the change of emotions. It was either that I just realized my game plan, or perhaps being in the classroom and working with kids is just perfect for me. I would go with the latter. I was excited about the excitement that I had for these students this week because I knew it would only help me to teach better and love on the littles in the class.

Jessie, Megan, and I had prepared to teach a lesson about Land, Water, and Air. Considering the lesson from the group that was in the kindergarten classroom just one week before, we knew that our lesson had to either tie in and build off of recycling, or we had to approach the topic in a completely different way. We had decided to pick a new standard altogether and build our ideas off from there. We chose this standard: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live. We knew that this standard would be easy to build off of because the kindergarteners had the previous knowledge of what it was that a living thing needed to be considered a living thing. We mentally collected this data from having been the teacher helpers in the past few weeks in which the students sang a song and learned about what a living thing needed to be considered a living thing as well as what the three characteristics were of a living thing. W e thought that this knowledge would create a perfect bridge into talking about the different needs of living things and where it is that they live. Therefore, we decided to briefly introduce habitats as a way to begin building up the students’ knowledge in this area.

For this lesson, the three of us decided that we should do 3 stations in which the students would get to learn about humans, plants, and animals and what it is that they need to live. We also created an extension for what would be a day 2 for the lesson. In this part, the students would begin to observe why humans, plants, and animals live in certain places and why that is affected by what the living thing needs. I really think that the stations idea was brilliant. We timed the rounds to be 5 minutes each which turned out to be a perfect amount of time for the students to become engaged with the station and learn new concepts. I “ran” the animals station which introduced habitats and required the students to pair an animal with the best habitat for it. I think that this activity was very appropriate for English Language Learners because there were visuals used the entire time. I made sure to incorporate my Spanish skills whenever possible to ensure that the students were able to be completely engaged and able to understand. I also feel that I was able to work on improving my goal of being conscientious of gentleness towards the students in understanding their needs to hear directions more than once as well as for words to be paired with pictures of even with their native language. Reflecting on my station, I feel that my students performed really well considering that they were mostly familiar with all the habitats that were mentioned as well as the animals that were used to match with each habitat. I was very determined to scaffold the students in their turn to make an animal and habitat match because I knew that prompting the students would not be enough to ensure their understanding. What this looked like was me asking simple phrased questions such as, “What kind of weather does the penguin (pinguino) like?” The student may have responded with, “Cold.” I would then have replied with, “Which of these habitats or homes would a penguin (pinguino) love to live in? Remember, the penguin (pinguino) loves to live where it is cold.” I had to do this multiple times with the students because they may not have been able to make a choice on their own initially.

Aside from being gentle with the kindergarteners, the other goal of mine that I feel I was able to work on while in the classroom was the act of opening up room for the kindergarteners to feel comfortable and capable of learning despite the language that they spoke. I feel that I was able to work on this goal by purposefully utilizing Spanish whenever possible to connect to the students’ previous knowledge of familiar words. In addition, I made sure to correct behavior that ranged from talking out of turn to turning around and losing focus. I feel that when one student is talking out of turn that it limits the other students’ chance of being able to fully participate, learn, and become engaged in the activity or lesson. I remember correcting behavior gently in order to gain the trust of the students as well as for the students to remain comfortable in my presence. I feel that in doing this, I really served the needs of all of my students because they were all able to have a turn and feel important.

All in all, I think that the lesson went really well and was not only engaging for kindergarten students, but it was also ELL friendly due to the use of graphics and Spanish spoken when possible. I continue to find that I am able to work towards my goals each week that I am in the classroom. Specifically, I found that through teaching and really interacting with the students this time that I was able to focus more on how I could work on my goals.

That's all for now folks! Until next time!

EXCEEDS: Over character limit. Included standard used in lesson. Alluded to last blog post about how I felt about going into the classroom. Included sample questions to ask students during animal station. Included Spanish word-pinguino- to show as an example of how I met the students where they are at with their native language.