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I have loved seeing how quick I have gotten at locating and implementing California Standards as my primary source for my lessons. I remember when my first education courses asked me to refer to standards I was overwhelmed, confused, and slow. I have gotten so accustomed to knowing where to find the specific standards I need for a certain lesson that organizing lessons has become much easier. Recently, at my classroom's social studies publishing party I had the principal ask about the standard this unit covered. I was able to tell him that the 50 states is a fifth-grade standard which is why students were researching different states. Furthermore, when I taught my lesson on healthy eating my CT said, "Wow I didn't know that was a fifth-grade standard." This boosted my confidence in identifying and teaching standards (TPE 3.1).
As I follow the curriculum given to me in math, science, and ELA, I have realized that knowing and understanding the learning goals for each lesson provides me the freedom to modify instruction to best help my students understand the content. For instance, a learning goal in our Wit and Wisdom curriculum was having students identify how the Civil War has impacted people. As I showed my students videos or read passages I remembered to stop and have them reflect on how these sources give us more information on the war's impact on people. Since I was continuously reminding students of our learning goal and helping them identify specific examples from the sources, our Socratic seminar was very lively. (TPE 3.2)
Designated and integrated language development in my classroom has proved to be so vital to support my students. I have integrated DELD into our science, ELA, and math lessons by focusing on the academic language students are going to encounter in their state testing. Recently, we noticed that students in our classroom were not doing well on standardized exams because they have a lack of knowledge of academic language such as contrast, sum, difference, benefit, etc. In math lessons, I have been reintroducing and repeating academic language such as "quotient" and "divisor" so that students become more aware of using this language (TPE 3.5)
I have also been trying to incorporate the use of technology more often in the classroom. During our social studies unit, students were learning how to research or type their information on a Google Doc or Google Slide. During math lessons, we have used 99math and Blooket to deepen content knowledge interactively. I also used a jam board as a way for students to order a sequence of events for the story Born on the Water. (TPE 3.8)
ALL SUBJECTS
ALL SUBJECTS
Reading and Writing
Reading and Writing
I had never heard of The Phantom Tollbooth before my placement at Cleveland. When I read the story on my own I was amused by the detail and complex structure. You never knew what was coming up next which made the story more enjoyable. Teaching it to students on the other hand was mre difficult. My classroom has a wide range of reading levels and English proficiency. To introduce students to word play we watched the short clip Who's on first? It was difficult to interpret the humor to my Spanish speaker since there was no direct translation and the irony went over the heads of most students. We had to watch the video three times before it began making slightly more sense. Nevertheless, as the unit went on, students were identifying idioms, homonyms, and puns on their own.
Math
Math
Math is my favorite subject in school but it was also the subject I was most worried to teach because of how careful you must be when teaching it. I did not fall short of moments when something wasn't making sense for myself and I had to pause for a second to think about the problem or times when I made a mistake during my instruction and had to reteach the concept. Regardless, I was modeling a culture of error and demonstrating that I still make mistakes with math but its okay. A moment that struck me was when one student told me: "Ms. Hernandez when I try doing math I am confused but when you help me, I understand it."
Science
Science
The science lessons were different from what I had imagined because there was so much experimentation in their simplicity. A majority of our focus was on mixtures and solutions, dissolving, and melting. The prep for experiments was easy to access since the curriculum comes with all the materials you need but there were times when the materials were not in the boxes they should have been in which made finding all the materials more difficult. Students got to use masses to weigh solutions and Petri dishes to separate salt from water. Science lessons consisted of DELD, experiments, and scientific discussions.
Social Studies
Social Studies
I was SO happy with my social studies unit. My students were having so much fun everyday as they were getting closer to their publishing party. A majority of students had never done research like this before therefore a lot of instruction needed to go into teaching students how to form sentences to find what they were looking for. Although, using resources like Ducksters and Kids National Geographic made information easily accessible.
Physical Education
Physical Education
I enjoyed both of the PE lessons I got to teach this semester but my students' favorite was bump tag, which covered the reaction time standard. Students got to sit with a partner of their choosing to begin but because of the quick pace, they were constantly at a new spot, having to be ready to get tapped in at any moment. For another PE lesson, I taught Ultimate Frisbee since I remember doing something similar when I was in elementary school. This lesson was fun because it was a warm day outside and students had gotten frisbee throwing lessons earlier this year from Coach Ross (the PE teacher).
Art
Art
This classroom is filled with artistic and creative students. I was amazed to see how much they enjoyed the quiet time given to them for painting. Students would benefit greatly from the arts as they get to unwind and create images unique to them. The first lesson I taught introduced them to watercolor painting using sunsets. It was an idea I had gotten from working with Fun in the Sun over the summer. There was so much to learn about painting with watercolors starting with the strokes of their brushes, how much water to add, blending paints, etc. Although each student had the same goal, eahc painting was unique to their interests becasue of the sillouhettes they included in their paintings.
Health
Health
We thought teaching about Health would be beneficial to our students considering the moments when a student walks in in the morning eating Hot Cheetos or candy. Some of them have even admitted to not having breakfast in the morning. This lesson was an introduction to the nutrients that students receive from different foods and the importance of eating healthy. An analogy I used for students to better understand carbs versus fats was running a marathon versus sprinting. More than half of the students in my classroom are on the school's track team and I knew they would understand the need for energy when running long distances. I began the lesson with a diagnostic assessment asking students to write down some things they knew about the digestive system and healthy eating.
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