Dental Unit/ Travel Celebration

For the past two weeks, during health instruction, we have been learning about dental health.  We have learned about oral health, how to properly care for our teeth, and have also learned about the anatomy of a tooth.  Taking into consideration that all students may not have gone to the dentist, I have incorporated other useful information into this unit, such as what a dentist visit would entail.  We also have examined the differences in human teeth versus a variety of animal teeth.  This topic has fostered a great deal of conversation, as students are excited to share their experiences about loosing their teeth and visiting the dentist.  This Friday, we have a dentist coming into the classroom to share with the students about his job.  Not only does this relate to our dental health curriculum, but it also ties in to our Social Studies unit (jobs/services) that we did last week!

This Friday we are also celebrating our travel unit by having a luau!  The entire first grade has come together and has planned a ‘food tasting’ luau to give students the experience of tasting foods from around the world.  Many students have never had the opportunity to taste other ethnic foods, and I am eager to find out what they think!  The travel unit has opened up the eyes of my first graders, as they have learned so much about other countries and cultures.  Throughout this unit, students have collected their work (from the countries we visited) and have catalogued everything in a hand-made suitcase.  Since we kept each student’s work organized in their suitcase, they will be able to take this home on Friday and share it with their families.  This will be a great way for students to share with their friends and family what they have learned in the travel unit!  Room 7 has lots to look forward to and Miss Mule’ is just as excited as her students!

Entry 4

We just finished an economics unit in my first grade class.  One may think this topic is difficult to incorporate into such a young grade, but my students had a blast learning about needs, wants, jobs, services, volunteers, and money.  I planned and collaborated with the other first grade teachers and organized for our students to work over a two-week period to earn two dollars (by doing chores at home).  This assignment was communicated to the parents/guardians so they were aware of what they needed to do for this specific assignment.  To include all students in this project, we had communicated with the administration to ensure that we could cover the funds for students who could not afford to bring in the money. 

            With the two dollars that each student earned, it bought him or her a McDonald's happy meal (hamburger, cheeseburger, or chicken nuggets that included a drink and fries).  Each student had the choice to pick what meal they wanted.  Students experienced how good it felt to work for their money, and then were excited when they saw what their hard work earned them.  This hands-on activity also demonstrated how essential it is to save money in order to buy things in the real world.

            To incorporate the jobs part of the economics unit, we had parents come in and speak with our students about their careers.  The students also responded positively to this activity, as they were eager to learn about the many options they will have when they grow up.  To help students remember the vast amount of jobs that were discussed, I put together and made each student a book that had pictures and information about each job.  It was powerful to see how engaged my students were throughout this entire unit.

Zoo

Entry 3

I wanted to reflect/share about a goal that I made for myself......

Over the past two weeks I have made an individual goal, as a pre-service teacher, to make an effort to send positive feedback to parents.  I have observed multiple classroom teachers discuss their behavior management techniques and have found myself realizing that more often than not, teachers are communicating with parents when they need to discuss a negative behavior.  As I do understand that this goal takes extra time, I feel that it is extremely important and creates a positive relationship between school and home.  Ever since I sent the first positive comment home, I have received countless comments back from parents saying how much they appreciate the encouraging feedback.  I have enabled students to feel proud of themselves and have seen an increase in student self-esteem when they ask me to read to them what I wrote on their daily log sheet.

 To many people, this little gesture may not seem as important as I do, but I cannot emphasize enough how critical this is to increase parent involvement.  It is evident that all parents want their children to succeed in life, and it makes me feel good inside when I know that my students’ parents take pride in what comments I have to say.  This individual goal that I set for myself in my student teaching classroom will remain one in my future classroom, as I want all my students to feel proud and successful in what they can do, instead of only being told with what they can’t do.

 As Haim Ginott quotes, “Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression.”

Thanks for reading about my journey through student teaching.  I am currently teaching every subject to my first graders!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Entry 2

Guten Tag, family! 

Over the past few weeks, the entire first grade has been traveling around the world.  This traveling unit was put together to help students learn and become more familiar with different cultures and traditions practiced in other countries.  So far we have visited China, Germany, and Mexico.  Our next destination is Japan!  Each student has made their own suitcase and they travel in and out of the United States with their passports.  The passports have each student’s picture on the front, and inside of the passports are stamps that the students have been collecting from each country.  While at the destination, students participate in activities that allow them to see what kinds of food, clothing, and even leisure activities are popular in that particular country.  Students observe the differences and similarities in each countries flag, and showcase their suitcases with the collection of flags.  My favorite part of this experience so far is observing how excited students get when they are traveling.  Many students have never been on an airplane and enjoy opening their imagination to a world that they wish to see one day. 

This past week when we were visiting China, I was in charge of the painting station where students painted the Mandarin Chinese numbers from 1-10.  Many students were beside themselves when they saw how different the Chinese numbers were compared to our numbers.  Participating in this travel unit has opened up my eyes to many avenues as a pre-service teacher.  As I observe how beneficial this experience has been for my first graders, I could definitely see myself using this unit again in my future classroom.

Hope everyone is doing well!! Miss and love you all!

First entry

My goal is to try and write a weekly journal about student teaching to help remember the special moments.  I thought I would share them with you.  This is my first entry......

Last week I experienced an “A-ha” moment with a student.  We were working on number sense in math and were using a 100’s chart to fill in missing numbers.  I noticed that one particular student was struggling with this assignment and was getting upset that she couldn’t complete her math graphic organizer.  I pulled the student aside and began working individually with her.  As I was providing this student with extra support, my brain was churning away, thinking about what tools/strategies I could use to help her understand this mathematical concept.  I tried pointing to the specific numbers and even tried circling the numbers, but nothing seemed to click for the student.  While observing the student struggle, I realized that she was getting frustrated because she couldn’t focus in on one number, or even a few numbers because there were 100 numbers that were confusing her.  As a result of this, I asked Mrs. Young (my mentor teacher) if she had a 100’s chart that we could write on.  She grabbed a 100’s chart that was laminated and said we could use dry erase markers.  Now that I had a clearer visual for the student, I still had to think of a way to isolate the numbers that she needed to focus her attention on.  After playing around with multiple strategies, I found a way that worked for the student.  For example, if the question asked which number comes first, 21 or 46, we would circle both numbers and then she would take the dry erase marker and “follow the trail” (as I named it) starting from 0 until she hit the first number.  Then she would continue on the trail until she hit the next number.  This strategy especially helped the student when she had to list numbers from least to greatest.  The integration of the hands-on and visual component really helped the student and instilled her with confidence that she could do it.  I was so proud of not only the student, but I was proud of myself.  At that moment, I felt like I was flying in the air.  This was the first time in my teacher career that I experienced a student’s light bulb switch from on to off.

Thanks for reading! :)  I am in my third week already and everyday I feel like I am following my dream.  I have a wonderful class and my mentor teacher is incredible. Stay tuned!