Let's Watch Again!

Group 3 - Indirect Lesson

Group 3 did a great job with their indirect lesson.  

One aspect of the lesson that I really enjoyed was the skits that Group 3 did during their introduction. They used these skits to reinforce the vocabulary they had learned in the previous lesson. Students were able to share what they thought was being shown in the skits. 

Another aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the Voki. They used George Washington as the Voki character. I like how they used Washington in their first lesson and were now bringing him back for the second lesson. He is somebody that the students have heard of and I think that made it more exciting for the students. 

One final aspect that I like was that they modeled the Inquiry process for the students. This is a very important thing to do during and indirect lesson. This helped students know what they were expected to do. It made the lesson move much smoother. 

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have changed some of the terms used when doing the inquiry process. Some of these words were hard for students to say and I am not sure if they really knew what some of the words meant. This made it difficult for them to present the information that they came up with to the class. 

Overall this was another successful lesson. I really enjoyed observing this lesson because again I was able to see a successful indirect lesson, which was something my group struggled with!

Let's Watch!

Group 3 - Direct Lesson

Group 3 focused on the topic of trip to the bank. They had a lot of creative ideas, and there were many things that I enjoyed. The lesson were put together very well and I really enjoyed observing. 

One thing I really enjoyed about the lesson was the money boxes. Each group of students received a box and whenever the group was listening, paying attention, or answering questions they were rewarded money in their box. Also if students were miss behaving money was taken out of their box. This was a great way to keep students on task because they want to earn as much money as possible. I think Group 3 had the most control over the class because of this fun and creative method!

Another aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the video that went over all the new vocabulary terms. The topic of trip to the bank included a lot of vocabulary words that students needed to know, so I think that the video was fun and helped to reinforce the new words. Students seemed interested the whole time and really seemed to enjoy the video!

One final aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the activity where each student received a bag with picture and a sheet of paper and the students had to put the different pictured in sequence. I think the students really enjoyed this activity because it was hands on.

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have tried to have students engaged at all times. during some of the activities after the group finished they began fooling around and getting noisy. Maybe students could have been given a fun activity sheet or something to keep them busy while other groups finished up. 

Overall you did a great job group 3! I loved your lesson and I really think the students did as well. I look forward to observing your indirect lesson.

Stepping Back Again!

Group 2 - Indirect Lesson

Group 2 did a great job with their indirect lesson plan! I was eager to see this lesson because it is the lesson that my group had the most trouble with. There were some many things that I enjoyed about this lesson. From beginning to end I thought it was done very well.

I liked that they used a Voki to get the attention of the students. They did not just used the Voki in the beginning they also constantly referred back to it during their lesson. This kept the students thinking about the message and what they needed to do. They also had a follow up message, which should students that their hard work was appreciated. 

I like how they went through the inquiry process with the students. They modeled for the students on the board before having them work in groups. During this time they showed students how they should be thinking and what steps they need to take. They also went over a hypothesis. They emphasized that your hypothesis might not always be right and that's okay. I thought it was great that they showed an example where their hypothesis was wrong, this really helped to reinforce the idea for the students. 

One final aspect of the lesson that I really liked was that they went over all the different jobs that need to be in a group. They also assigned students specific jobs rather then having them choose their own. Some students did not like this at first, but they quickly got over it and did a great job with the job they were given. 

I thought this was a great lesson, but if I had to change one thing I would say next time when doing the Voki instead of using the website voice try recording your own voice. I think this would have made the Voki seem more really for the students. 

Stepping Back to Watch!

Group 2 - Direct Lesson

Group 2 introduced the class to the topic of goods from the factory to you. They did a great job putting together their lesson and there were several aspects of the lesson that I enjoyed. 

The first thing I really enjoyed about the lesson was the Verizon skit the group did to introduce the lesson. This was a great way to get the students interested in the lesson. It was different and fun for the students. 

Another part of the lesson that I thought was very good was that they went over the new vocabulary in several different ways. Students were hearing several different new words, such as producer, consumer, advertisement etc. Group 2 did several different activities to reinforce these new words. They first had a PowerPoint presentation with all the new words, then a SMARTBoard activity, and also a worksheet.

One other aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the video about how crayons are made. I like how it showed the crayons being made in the factory. Students all paid close attention to the video, I think they like it because it was a product that they are very familiar with. I thought the video was a great idea!

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson, I might have collected the Popsicle sticks when the students no longer needed them. The Popsicle sticks had a green and red side, students used them to agree or disagree. I really like the idea, I just noticed that students began to play with them instead of paying attention to what they needed to do.  

Overall great job group 2! I really enjoyed observing your lesson and look forward to seeing what you have planned for lesson 2. 

Teaching Comes to a Close!

3 Days of Teaching All Summed Up!

Now that my group has finished in teaching in the classroom, I feel that I should reflect on my experience as a whole. I had a create time working with the students in second grade. The students were great and we all had a good time. This was a great learning experience for me. This was the first time that I had the opportunity to teach and work with a full class. This is very different from just working one on one with a student or with a small group of students, these are situations that I have had the chance to work in. Being in charge of a full class even with four other people in my group was a bit of a challenge. We had to work long and hard on creating lesson plans that would really capture the attention of the students and get them engaged in the lesson. Though it was hard work, it was also a lot of fun and a great chance to learn and grow. 

Like most learning experiences there is always room for improvements. I think that we could have been a bit more organized with with some aspects of our lessons. I learned that being organized is very important for having a successful lesson. At times I felt that students did lose focus and we struggled with regaining it. One other thing that I felt we struggled with was creating quick and effective introductions. We often spent too much time on this aspect of our lesson, which left use pressed for time in the end of our lesson. Though we do have some things to work on, it is clear that our third lesson was greatly improved compared to our first lesson. 

I also must say that having a group to work with was wonderful. I loved working with them, they were all so hardworking and determined. It was great being able to go back and forth with them, sharing ideas and help each other. This was a very stressful thing to do and I am glad that I had such a great group to do it with. I am so proud of all the hard work we did and I am excited to get back in front of the classroom and teach again. 

Final Day in the Classroom!

Last Day Working with the Students!

Friday was my last day teaching the second grade class, with my group. Though I was relieved that all the stress of lesson planning and preparing to teach was over, I was sad that it was over. Being the third and final day most of my nerves were gone. I was ready to get up in front of the class and teach them our cooperative learning lesson. We would be wrapping up on the topic of goods and services in the community. Our lesson really brought together a lot of the ideas that we had been teaching in our previous lessons. For this lesson students would be taking on a lot of the work. They had groups, jobs, and task that needed to be accomplished by the end of the class. 

Like our previous lesson we did a review of goods and services. We briefly had students talk among themselves about these words and what they meant and where they see them in their community. We then went to every group and had them share what they came up with. I definitely think that this took too much time. We could have easily asked each group to share one idea and then moved on. 

Activity 

For our final lesson with the students we really wanted them to tie in everything that they learned. To do this we had each group create there own communities. Before having students take control we went over somethings. We wanted to make it clear to the students that they would have to work well in their groups and get along. In order to do this we had to make it clear that all students within their groups need specific jobs. We listed the jobs on the board and also gave each group a list of the jobs. We gave students the freedom to chose their own jobs because this is important when it comes to working as a team. Along with a list of jobs, each group also had a paper with suggestions of things that should/could be in a community. 

We used an alien Voki to really catch the attention of the students. The alien shared a message with the students. He needed help creating a community and learning how to make a community work. Students were eager to help and began filling in a packet with the different things that would be in their communities. Students had to compromise and reach agreements in order to create successful communities. Each community was only allowed to have fourteen buildings, so this was a challenge for some groups. Once the whole group agreed on the buildings they wanted, they were then free to color and arrange the buildings in their community. 

To finish the activity, our professor Dr. Smirnova went to each group and asked about their communities. She asked the students why they chose certain buildings, the name of their community, and how they worked in their group. Students were then rewarded a certificate for their hare work. 

Overall I was very happy with the way this lesson turned out. Students knew exactly what needed to be done. They also worked very well in their groups, it was great to see them compromising in order to get their communities set up. The only thing that I would have changed was shortening our introduction. This lesson does require a good amount of time and towards the end I did feel like my group and the students had to rush to finish. I had a great time working with second grade!

Teaching Day 2!

Second Day in the Classroom!

Wednesday was my second time teaching in front of the second grade class. Like the first lesson I was nervous to get up in front of the class and teach, but this time it was for a different reason. My group had a bit of trouble making our indirect lesson plan, so I was nervous to see how it might turn out. We continued with the topic of goods and services in your community. Being an indirect instruction, the lesson was meant to be like a mystery, that the students would have to solve within their groups. I must say that this was the weakest of our lessons. We had limited time, which made us nervous and caused us to rush, with resulted in us leaving out certain importation that would have made our lesson more effective. Though this lesson was not perfect I still feel that it went fairly well, students seemed to understand and were very involved in the lesson. 

The lesson started with a review of goods and services. We did an interactive sort on the SMARTBoard, this reinforced the definitions of goods and services. Being part of the introduction, we definitely should have cut down the amount of time we spent on this activity. It was very repetitive and students began to lose focus. To view this activity click the image to the left.

Activity 

For the activity each group received an envelope that had about 3-5 phrases in it. As a group the students read the phrases and as a whole had to determine what service was being described. Students really liked this activity, but it did get a little out of hand. Before handing out the envelopes to the groups we should have gave a bit more direction about what the students should be doing. Also I think it would have helped if we went over different roles that each person in the group should have. This would have helped keep the activity a bit more organized. 

We then closed up the lesson by having the groups share their phrases and what service they thought was being described. We then asked the rest of the class if they agreed or disagreed. 



Overall I think that this lesson could have gone a bit smoother if as a group we just slowed down. Being our first indirect lesson plan I think it went okay, but there is definitely room for improvement.