Confidence

I have been thinking about confidence recently. Both my Penn Mentor and Classroom Mentor have told me at certain points that I just need some more confidence or that they could tell that I did not feel comfortable at some points. At first, these comments surprised me because I do not think of myself as lacking confidence. Therefore, it caused me to really reflect on this aspect of my presence in the classes. I think that it is easy to use my student teacher status as a cop-out for certain behaviors. I realized that I needed to think of my teaching practices with more confidence. Even though I am still learning, I need to approach it with a stance that will command presence, for the sake of my students and to get the most out of my student teaching experience. I think that the difference might be viewing student teaching as a job and not as an academic endeavor or internship type experience. I think that this perspective will allow me to grow more as a teacher.

Dodgeball

Yesterday I had the chance to go to a Dodgeball tournament (as a spectator). It was really fun. There is a group in the Philadelphia called the Philadelphia Sports Network, that runs different intermural sports leagues. I think that they also have kickball, baseball and soccer, as well as other sports. This dodgeball game was the last of their season, the championship match. I watched the teams that were playing for 1st and 2nd place. It was a very exciting sport to watch! These teams were very good and pretty evenly matched. At some points it was even hard to follow because the balls were flying so fast. One team was up to 6 points (you need 7 points to win). In the match the winning team was going strong. There was only one person left on the other side and it looked like the game was going to be over. In a big upset, the one person left got all four people out to win the match for his team. The team with 6 points did end up winning in the end, but it was an exciting game. Next semester some of the people at GSE are talking about putting together a kickball team to play in the Philadelphia Sports Network. If they do, I will be sure to cheer on their team at the games as well.

Having a plan

I had a really great week of student teaching. I feel like I am finally coming into my own as a teacher. It started with my 1st grade lesson on Tuesday. I finally felt like I had a good class with them. The focus of the lesson was to wrap-up the unit on solids and liquids. The curriculum guide was not very helpful this week in figuring out how to plan the lesson. Mostly they suggested that the students look through their science notebooks and share with each other what they have learned about solids and liquids. This posed two problems for me. 1. The 1st graders do not have science notebooks, instead they have been making their observations in groups on chart paper. 2. I did not feel that the activity was structured enough for 1st graders, or maybe just not for my group of students. I decided to use one of the activities that they suggested where the class would fill in a Venn diagram about liquids and solids with post-it notes. I still needed some other ways to wrap things up. I found a book in our classroom about states of matter, so I read that to open the class and get them thinking about the concepts. Then I had them write down properties of liquids and solids to post of Venn diagram, sharing key points with the class once they were finished. For the final activity, I had several ideas in mind (and the supplies ready for all). I decided during the class that I would have them do the scavenger hunt activity. Each student got slips of paper and walked around the room as detectives to record where they saw solids and liquids. It worked beautifully and I was proud of the results that they came up with. I was also proud of myself for remembering to set clear expectations for this activity. Before they began I asked the class how they thought they should behave when they were walking around the room. The students said all of the things (such as not running, sharing turns, not yelling, not going in the office, etc) that I wanted them to be mindful of.

Something that I have realized while analyzing my small group lessons (and from this experience) is that I work better when I am not trying to strictly follow my lesson plan. It works better for me to have the structure and focusing question or goals laid out, but to have a couple of options of paths to follow once I am teaching it. I guess this makes sense when I reflect on it because it is important to follow the pace and vibe of your class. It surprising to me, however, that I work better in this way because I am usually a very detail oriented and organized person. In the professional world I like to have a plan and follow it closely. On the other hand, I have been told by employers that I am good at handling things on the fly. Maybe I need to start viewing myself in this light more.

4th grade conflicts

I had some interesting interactions with the fourth graders this week as well. It is interesting because I am finally feeling like a strong presence in the classes at this point in the semester. The students across grades now know my name and will often wave to me when they see me in the hallways. Because of this stronger presence, I also can feel my role shifting in terms of interactions with students. On Tuesday the 4th grade was continuing to do research about their science fair projects in class. My CM was working with students at the computer and I was floating around the room helping them find books and summarizing. At some point, the class started to get rowdy and a little out of hand. I noticed this and turned around to see a boy try to pull a chair out from a under a girl. I obviously had to address it, but wasn't really sure how. I went to the table and told him that it was unacceptable behavior. I then had him sit at a different table until he was able to act properly. It feels strange having these types of interventions or disciplining. In the fourth grade class on Wednesday, I was also faced with a difficult situation. One of the students informed me that someone was crying in her group. I went over to the table to find out that she was upset that people were making fun of her laugh. I wasn't sure exactly what to do. I saw that one of the students was trying to comfort her. I paired the two of them up to work together for the remainder of the class. But I knew that there was more that I should have done, such as sitting down with them to figure out the real situation. I did not feel equipped to do this maybe because of lack of time and lack of understanding of the social dynamics of the class. It made me realize why it is so important to set classroom norms and ground rules at the beginning of the year. If we had done this, then I could maybe refer back to a rule about respect or kindness. I also think that it is important to set expectations for how these types of situations will be handled from the beginning.

Hands-on science

Today was a really fun day with lots of hands-on activities happening in science. It started out with 3rd grade exploring how sound travels through different materials (wood, string and aluminum foil). They had to work as a group to test these different objects with tuning forks and listen to the different sounds. It was a great group activity because they literally could not do these experiments alone. Two people had to hold the materials, while another person tested the tuning fork, and a fourth person listened for the sound. It was encouraging to see them working so effectively together. I also liked how my CM set up the expectation that each person in the group should try each job in order to avoid conflict. She even modeled how they could do this by using students to demonstrate where to stand when doing a particular job and how they would rotate. I think that these detailed instructions allowed for the peaceful cooperation during the activity.

First grade is wrapping up their unit on liquids by testing two new liquids. They were to each fill out a worksheet by doing all of the explorations they have been doing in science class. It seemed like a very chaotic class and I started to get frustrated by the end of the period. It seemed like there was a student coming up to me with a question or problem every second of the period. There were sharing conflicts, large spills, confusion about the worksheet, clarifications of directions, and a lot of complaining about sticky hands. Even though I got frustrated by all of the commotion, my CM seemed to think that I did an excellent job handling the class. I think I could have structured the activity a little bit differently to avoid some of the chaos. I used the assessment worksheets from the teacher guide. However, we have not used these type of worksheets before. They also were each filling out the sheets individually, whereas every other time in science they have had to work and record information together.

The second grade made parachutes out of paper napkins. (They are learning about air.) After they made them we took them to the third floor to release them. They really loved this activity. My CM was able to keep them quiet by telling them that they were secret spies and couldn't let anyone hear what they were doing. It worked pretty well. It nice to see the kids getting really excited about science, but it was important for them to understand the expectations of how to behave in the hallway with other classes going on.

Small group vs. whole class instruction

I have been thinking a lot lately about small group versus whole class instruction. In my teaching methods courses, we learn about many different techniques to engage students in instruction. One of the common themes throughout the course work is small group lessons. The benefits are clear: the teacher can tailor instruction to meet specific students' needs, the students can learn how to work cooperatively and the students get more individualized attention. It seems that this method of teaching is a new, forward way of thinking about how to structure classes. As a new teacher, I can feel myself gravitating to these types of strategies when I am planning my instruction. However, I was thinking about how I was as an elementary school student and how I would have reacted in these situations. Since I was very shy and did not like attention, I think that this type of instruction might not have been the most effective with me. Perhaps because I experienced mostly whole class instruction as an elementary school student I have a difficult time envisioning the situation. Regardless, it made me realize that varying teaching strategies and methods is the best way to go to be sure to appeal to all learning styles and personalities.

In a similar topic, there it is often implied in my courses that worksheets and "busy work" are not effective teaching methods. I agree with the reasoning behind these pedagogical beliefs. However, I began to think about it in terms of my own learning experiences as I did with small group lessons. I remembered that I loved worksheets and things that qualified as busy work. I could have filled out a workbook all day and be completely content. Whether or not I learned the desired objectives from these activities is suspect, but again it made me wonder about how to reach all learning styles while still providing authentic and meaningful instruction. These are questions that I will continue to consider throughout the year.

Thanksgiving

We had Thursday and Friday off this week for Thanksgiving break. It was so nice to have a couple of extra days off. The end of the semester is quickly approaching (only 3 more weeks!) and my big Term III assignment is due in less than 2 weeks. Needless to say, I have been feeling the pressure of trying to keep up with school work while also planning, teaching and analyzing lessons. I decided that I was only going to do work on Sunday during the break to truly give myself some time off. Thursday I had stuffed myself with lots of good food. (Side note: It was the first Thanksgiving in about 10 years that I ate turkey because I have recently retired from vegetarianism.) Friday I watched 4 movies in a row! It might have been a little excessive, but it was a nice treat as part of my relaxing weekend. Saturday my roommates and I made 3 pots of soup and had lots of friends over for dinner. Then Sunday it was back to work: catching up on readings and more lesson plans. It was perfect timing for a mini-break, as I feel refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the semester.

Getting ready for science fair

Today was a very busy day. The 4th and 5th graders were taking the science benchmarks. I read the questions out loud while they answered. Then the 4th graders were deciding on their science fair questions. There were very few students that understood how to set up a good science experiment. Most of them had research questions that they wanted to investigate or they had too many variables for a project. I got to work one on one with students to help them refine their questions or come up with new ones. It was a nice way to get to know students by asking about their interests outside of school and in terms of science. I thought that some of their research questions were very interesting and would be good to build on in other units during class. It reminded me of my Term II assignment for my classes. Term II was focused on understanding the student as an individual. We had to interview one child from our classes in order to get to know their thinking through the different subject areas and outside of school. It was an interesting exercise that allowed us to think about ways that we can integrate this information into lesson planning. Working with the 4th graders on science fair questions was like having mini interviews with them about their prior knowledge and interests. It was a fun, but exhausting day.

Managing group work

I had a lot more responsibility this week. Today I taught the 1st grade again. It went much smoother than last week. I started the class by reading a poem that related to the lesson. It was amazing how this really helped to focus them and get them ready for the lesson. I adapted the lesson to make sure that the students could work in groups instead of partners this time. I think that this helped with some management issues as well. There was some chaotic times during the group work when several of the groups needed my assistance at once. It didn't make it easier that this turned out to be a particularly messy lab. There were lots of spills that had to be attended to and the students had to wash their hands at the end of class. One of the groups had a hard time working collaboratively. They were arguing over what prediction to write on their poster. They were also arguing that the same person is always the recorder/reporter. This comment made me realize that the same students are usually the ones reporting their findings because they are the ones comfortable with writing. I think that I might change the jobs next week so that the recorder is one job and the reporter is another. Maybe we will hear different people reporting with this change.

Cranberries

I had the opportunity to go to the Cranberries Reunion Concert this past week. It was super fun and a childhood dream come true! It was the band's 20th year reunion. I could not believe that it had been that long since they first got started. They played in a medium sized venue in Philly called the Electric Factory (because it is an old factory). They put on an amazing show. There was so much energy. Dolores, the main singer, still has tons of spunk and was dancing around the stage throughout the show. She would often turn her back to the audience and dance when she wasn't singing. I remember reading that when she first started performing, she had to sing with her back to the audience because she had stage fright. They played all of their big hits: Zombie, Linger, and ended an encore with Dreams. They also played lesser known songs from their albums, including a song from Bury the Hatchet (a more recent album that did not do very well commercially). Dolores sang some of her solo songs, too, which were mostly slower songs. Her signature voice, with the high trailing vocals, sounded exactly as I remembered from countless hours of listening to their CD's. It was a fun night and I am glad that I made the time to go.

Middle school observation

Today I visited Wissahickon Charter School. I had the opportunity to sit in on the middle school science class. The teacher was very inspirational. He has been teaching for 15 years, but still had so much energy and enthusiasm for both the content he was teaching and for the students. He was teaching an integrated social studies and science unit. They were studying the history of the school building, which used to be a radio factory. In addition, they were learning about the science of radio waves. He had the students demonstrate radio waves with slinky's and gym balls. He clearly was passionate about teaching. His classroom management style was really nice to see as well. He would stand next to a child that wasn't paying attention. If they did not correct their behavior, he would quietly whisper to them a suggestion or tell them to "take a break". (There was a "take a break" chair in the class where the students could sit away from their table, but still pay attention to the lesson. They then came back to their table when they were ready.) It was informative to be able to observe another school and different grades.

Teaching 1st grade

Today I had the chance to teach the 1st grade class. I read over the curriculum teacher guide and prepared the materials in the morning before school. I did not have time to discuss it with my CM before school started, so I just followed the teacher guide closely. When the students first came in the room. I realized that I did not know exactly how to get the class started. I think that this speaks to how important transitions are. In the 4th and 5th grades, there is a log question written on the board before they enter the class. As soon as they come in, the students know to start writing the answer to the log question in their science notebooks. I tried to remember what ritual my CM does with the 1st grade, but I just instructed them to take their seats and then got started reviewing what they had done last time in science.

As I started the class with this review discussion, I realized that there were always the same 5 or 6 students raising their hands. This was something that concerned me and I wondered how could I get the other students engaged.

I next explained the lab portion of the class, then passed out materials. As the students were exploring the materials, I was torn between wanting to walk around and interact with the students and thinking about the next piece of the lesson. It felt so much easier and I felt more free to walk around the class during labs when I was not the teacher in charge. I also had the task of judging an appropriate time to bring the class back together.

The next part of the activity was for partners to make a Venn diagram comparing two liquids. After they prepared these diagrams, I tried to have the students share out their findings to the rest of the class. The sharing out portion of the class did not go very smoothly. It was difficult to get the students to speak in front of the class and to quickly move them along. It surprised me because the previous week they did a great job with sharing their findings. My CM and I talked about it afterward. She said that that is why she has them work in groups of 4, not partners. There are too many people to report back and they work better when they know what their role is. She said that she tries to adjust the scripted curriculum in order to fit this structure. It made complete sense to me, especially since they seem to love the "jobs" (investigator, materials manager, reporter/recorder, timekeeper) in science class. Overall, it was a great experience. I am excited to try it again next week and continue to practice being in front of the class.

Intrinsic Motivation

Today we had a Special Topics seminar about classroom management. It was led by one of the Penn Mentors. Penn Mentors are people that are either taking a break from teaching or retired who help to guide the student teachers throughout the year. They are a terrific resource!

Lana, the Penn Mentor that led the seminar, taught middle school language arts in the Philadelphia School District for 30 years and is now retired. She spoke about the classroom management techniques that she used while teaching. It actually sounded very simple when she presented it. She would start each class with a time called "Connections". Connections is basically a time at the beginning of each class when students can talk about anything they want to share. The students sit in a circle. Only one student speaks at a time and there students do not make any responses or comments to the previous statements. Lana would take about 5 minutes at the start of each class for Connections. She said that it was a way to allow the students to have a voice and feel like they were part of the classroom community. She also used it as a way for students to relax and talk before starting the lesson. She felt that by taking this time, she prevented a lot of possible behavior problems.

Another important part of her classroom management was having the class create the rules together. At the beginning of the year, the students come up with appropriate rules and consequences for the year. These include expectations for both the students and for the teacher. After they are argeed upon, the students sign them and the rules are posted in the classroom as a reference.

Lana's perspective on classroom management was a nice balance with the perspective that we received from a different seminar about the same topic. The other seminar focused on a behaviorist point of view, advocating positive reinforcement type of systems. Lana's perspective focused more on intrinsic motivation. It is interesting to think about which perspective to use in the classroom.

Class Size

The 3rd grade took a test today. They were noisy and the room still seemed slightly chaotic even though they were doing individual work. The class is overwhelming at times because there are 27 kids in a very small space. The class size really does make a difference in terms of the atmosphere in the room. With the 3rd grade, the students are sitting so close together and the room buzzes. I recently read an article for a class that stated that smaller class sizes can be the most influential thing for improving schools. I can really see the difference from the 3rd grade of 27 students and the 5th grade with 20 students. It is so much harder to know the students individually and to be able to provide each one of them with the appropriate support and productive learning environment.

Playing vs. Investigating

I have been constantly thinking about inquiry-based learning since starting student teaching. Obviously this is a natural thought process, as I am in a science classroom with a teacher who uses an inquiry stance to teaching. However, it has been interesting to observe this type of learning in the younger grades. In the beginning of the year, I felt that some of the 1st and 2nd grade students were not getting the content that they needed out of the activities. They seemed to be "playing" instead of investigating. I tried to pay more attention to how students in these grades were approaching the material. The 1st graders have really come to a better understanding of how to behave and work in science class. The students that were "playing" at first, now seem to understand that they need to use the materials to observe and answer questions.

The 2nd graders are now better at staying on task with the investigations as well. Today, they were learning about rolling. They made ramps out of cardboard and used straws and plastic disks to create different rollers. They then observed how the position of the disks and the use of big or small disks affected the rolling. It was great to see the students learning by doing. They wrote down observations or conclusions in their notebooks. There were some students that were still having difficulty with this inquiry model, though. I think that these students could benefit from more guided instructions. Maybe next time I will sit with them to see if I can understand their thinking better.

Planning for Term III

Right now I am in the thick of planning my Term III assignment. For Term III, the focus is on small-group instruction. We need to examine our personal teaching beliefs and philosophies. Then, we plan 4 different lessons (one in each subject- literacy, math, science and social studies) that we will teach to a small group of about 4-6 students. I have been consumed with thinking about how to integrate what we have learned in our methods classes, the current core curriculum being taught in the schools, and an engaging lesson plan. In addition, we have to figure out an appropriate time to do the lessons in school, fitting in with our classroom schedule, our Penn Mentor's schedule, and other student teacher's schedules. It is a little overwhelming to try to think of all of these things at once, especially because all of the lessons need to be completed in 4 weeks! I think I am finally realizing what it means to be in an accelerated program. However, I think that teachers also need to be thinking of multiple aspects throughout each day and often have limited time to plan as well. I am going to continue to think and plan. I will be excited to teach the lessons soon!

Switching from observer to facilitator

Today we had 3rd grade during first period. My CM taught them a lesson about mineral hardness. Then I took over explaining the lab that they were going to be working on and managed the class while they worked on it. After they were finished, I also led the wrap-up discussion. It was great getting a chance to be in front of the class. I found it more difficult to try to observe and monitor the class when I was the one in charge. When I was in the position of being the support person, I could think more about observing the class as a whole. However, this time I was thinking more about monitoring the students' behaviors to make sure that they were staying on task and not getting too rowdy. It was interesting to think about how I viewed the class room dynamics differently in this situation. When I was leading the wrap-up discussion, some of the students were being noisy. I tried to get them to be quiet by using the "I am going to wait to move on until everyone is quiet" method. It worked for some of the kids, but not all. My CM had to eventually quiet them down. It made me think about what else I can do to assert myself as an authority in the room. Later in the day as I was observing some of the other classes, I realized that there was some noise going on during other wrap-up discussion time. However, it didn't bother me or stick out to me as an observer. I think that I was super aware of it when I was in front of the class and felt like I was being tested by them. However, the science room is a noisy place. All of their work is group focused. Therefore, some talking during discussion time might not always be bad. The trick will be to learn how to detect productive noise or activity from distracting ones.

Exploring Liquids

This week I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders because the Child Study assignment is done! We had our big integrated assignment for Term II due. It was involved observing and interviewing one child from our school to learn more about the student as a learner and individual. My final paper ended up being about 30 pages and it felt great to turn it in! I have been itching to move away from observations and into teaching lessons now that the Child Study is over. I definitely got to experience more teaching this week. Today I worked with a small groups in the 1st grade while they did their lab. They have been exploring liquids and were comparing water, glue, shampoo, and oil. I walked around while they first got started to make sure that everyone was on task. Then I sat with a particular table while they went through their investigations. It was a great experience of trying to ask open-ended questions that were building on their inquiry (such a hard thing to do!) I was so proud of my group when they shared their findings with the rest of the class. I am going to slowly gain more responsibility in this class and teach some of the lessons soon.

The World Series

This weekend was very busy! It was Halloween and the Phillies games. For those of you who don't follow sports, the Phillies are in the World Series. It is a very big deal in Philadelphia. Even though I am not originally from Philly or a big sports fan, I love watching the play-off games. It seems more exiting when there is more at stake. The whole city talks about the games, so it is nice to have this in common. Last year when the Phillies won the World Series, it was madness in the city. I was watching the game at a bar at 42nd Street. I remember going outside after they won and seeing people literally running down the streets to get downtown. (A side note: we were about 25 blocks away from Broad Street, where everyone was celebrating downtown!) Needless to say, people get pretty crazy about sports here.

This weekend was not the best for the Phillies. They lost the games on Saturday and Sunday. Basically if they lose one more game, then they will lose the whole series. The next game is tonight! It is hard to balance my school work with the baseball games. Other people in my cohort have been lamenting about this fact as well. No matter how hard you try to get work done during commercial breaks, it is usually too hard! If the games keep going on, I will need to prioritize and be very efficient with my time this week. What seems to worked for me last week was getting my work done first and watching the remaining innings afterward. It works for me because I can see the end of the game- the most exciting part!

Scavenger Hunt

On Wednesday, we had a half day and got to work with the kindergarten classes. This is the first time I have worked with them since they don't come to the science room during the week. Kindergarten is such a different type of setting. The students are literally learning how school functions and about their role in it. They all wanted to share ideas with the teacher. It seemed like it would be such an exhausting job to be a kindergarten teacher. Just getting their coats on and lining up took multiple directions, management, and some individual assistance.

We took the students outside to do a scavenger hunt about fall objects. They were trying to find things like leaves, acorns, bugs, and other natural objects. They each had little bags to collect things that they could keep. The students were so excited about this activity. I was surprised that they were even excited about finding bugs. They collected some worms and slugs to take inside to their class' terrarium. The students were also introduced to the school garden. We picked vegetables from the garden and gave them to the classes to eat or investigate further.

It was great having a chance to interact with the kindergarten. It was also invigorating to have informal interactions with the students outside. I used to do environmental education in various forms, so it reminded me of what originally inspired me to go into teaching. Seeing the students discover new things is a magical experience for both teacher and student.

Classroom management

The 4th grade class was particularly rowdy this week in student teaching. They were whispering, playing with the materials in the buckets, and one girl was even flipping upside down in her seat. My CM carried on with the lesson because there was only about 10 minutes left of the class and she wanted to get through the material for those who were paying attention. It was so frustrating to watch. It also made me wonder what would happen if I got a difficult class next year. I guess sticking to a routine and structure is important, but what more can you do? The cool thing about my student teaching placement in the science room is that I get to see a lot of different classes throughout the week. It has made me realize that the dynamic of a class can really be dependent on the mix of students and personalities sometimes. I can definitely notice some classes that have a greater mix of dynamic personalities than others. It can really change the way in which you have to teach and manage the group.

Small group instruction

I was able to work with a small group in the 3rd grade. I pulled four girls out to do the same lesson that they were doing inside with the teacher. We were talking about minerals and starting to look at some of the properties of minerals. The girls were very excited to be working one-on-one with me. I wondered how I could maintain their excitement, but also keep my role as a teacher figure and the lesson to still be considered schoolwork. The small group work made me realize how important questions are for the lessons. I found myself asking questions that were not open-ended or that were trying to get them to say particular answers, even though I know this is not an effective method. I think that for the future I might want to think more clearly about the objectives of the lessons beforehand in order to inform my questioning process. We finished just as the classroom teacher was coming to pick up the class. I told the girls that we could wait for them to come outside for them to join the rest of their class. This one minute of free time turned out to be difficult in terms of behavior issues. The one girl that I had a hard time keeping on task, then took this opportunity to sit under the water fountain, take excessively long drinks from the fountain, etc. It was a learning moment about allowing unstructured "free time".

Butterflies and Seesaws

This week was pretty exciting in my student teaching. NancyLee, the TEP program coordinator and Science Methods instructor, came to PAS to release monarch butterflies. We were working with 2nd grade when she was there, so we took them outside to watch the release. The kids ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the butterflies and screamed in excitement when they flew away! Since we already had them outside, my CM brought them down to the school garden area. We sat in a circle and reviewed things that we knew about balance, the unit that they have been working on in science class. I think that she then decide the next part on the fly. She brought over a big wood stump to the middle of the circle and then placed a wooden beam from the garden on top to create a seesaw. She then had the kids get on each side to see if they could balance it. They were able to review vocabulary by pointing out what was the fulcrum (the wooden stump), the beam (the wooden beam), and the counterweights (the kids). She also allowed them to explore their own questions. It was hard to get the beam to balance at first because of its placement and the different sizes of the kids. One of the students suggested that they find someone who was their same height. She had them test that theory. Some of the pairs still were not balanced, so then they would have to add 1 or 2 more kids on each side to get it balanced. It was truly inquiry based learning. I was also really impressed that she came up with this lesson on the spot.

Science is not boring

Today we had a really exciting 1st grade science class during my student teaching. The 1st graders have been learning about the properties of solids by doing different observations and experiments. Today they were determining if objects were magnetic or not. First they had to predict what they thought would be magnetic and then test their predictions. They loved this activity! The room was filled with excitement as they tested their predictions. Students began to try all different kinds of combinations and test different theories. They tried putting paper or plastic in between the magnet and the magnetic objects. Another student tried to see how many paper clips they could get on one magnet. One student found out that the magnet stuck to the leg of the chair. Soon lots of children were walking around the room trying to find other places in the room that were magnetic. It was truly exciting to see the students exploring the materials and learning about the objects through their own questioning. It was a great example of inquiry based learning in practice. It was a direct way that I was able to see the theories that we are studying in class take place in real life classrooms. My favorite quote of the day was when one of the 1st graders said to another, "No one would say science is boring!"

There aren't any answers

Today in my Field Seminar class we had two guest speakers from the Prospect Center, Lynn Strieb and Rhoda Khanev. Both women taught in Philadelphia for over 30 years and came to class to guide us in a descriptive review process. A descriptive review of a child is a method that some teachers use in order to better understand their students as individual learners and to get feedback and suggestions from other teachers on how best to support that child. The integrated assignment for this term at GSE is to write our own descriptive review of a child that we observe in our student teaching. Hearing about the process from experienced teachers was incredibly helpful in thinking about how to structure the project and its importance for teachers.

It was also a powerful experience to learn from and interact with these women who are clearly passionate about the craft of teaching. Something that stuck out from the session was when Rhoda said, "There aren't any answers." It was comforting to hear an experienced teacher give this piece of advice to us. As someone who is new to the profession, I often feel myself wanting to know the answers or the best way to do things in the classroom. However, it is important to know and understand that "there aren't any answers." Teaching and learning is going to be different for every classroom and for every individual. As a result, we cannot possibly know the answers and will always need to be evaluating and reevaluating our classroom. Rhoda did offer us with the wisdom that "It is a focus on understanding and coming to know the child." She presented a kind of teaching that is filled with compassion and is the kind of teaching that I hope I can pursue.

Field Trip

Wednesday was a half day at PAS, the school where I am student teaching. I did not know what to expect for the day since I work in the science classroom and no students were going to be visiting our room. My classroom mentor and I went on a field trip with a 3rd grade class to the Arthur Ross Gallery at Penn. It was amazing! The current exhibit is watercolor paintings by David Kennedy. He beautifully painted detailed pictures of various buildings in West Philadelphia during the 1800's. There was an educational program that two local artists put on for the 3rd grade class. They first had them carefully observe and describe the paintings in the gallery. Then, they did a performance storytelling piece about the artist's life. It was truly moving. They used shadows, projections, and 3-D props to help illustrate the story. The students (and teachers!) were very engaged. The students were literally getting out of their seats to try to see every part of the action. At the end of the storytelling, the artists asked some questions to review some of the main points of the story. The students clearly understood the main ideas and took away important lessons about the artist's life, the industrial revolution, and changes in West Philadelphia.

It made me think about how I could incorporate this type of learning in a classroom setting. Most of my previous educational experience has been at informal educational settings such as after-school programs, museum interpretation, or outdoor education workshops. Therefore, my limited curriculum writing experience was based in trying to "sell" education as recreation or entertainment. I wonder why I couldn't use this idea of performance-incorporated education in a classroom. Obviously it would not be appropriate all of the time. But I was thinking that it might be interesting to use props and other performance elements in read aloud's and then have the students model this using a book of their choice or a piece of their own writing. It would also be interesting to use with a history lesson, as these artists did in their piece. After the storytelling part of the field trip, the students had a chance to draw their favorite painting from the gallery. The artist incorporated a small lesson about perspective and proportion before they began, which included a mini math lesson. Overall, the field trip was a great example of how to use a single topic for an integrated curriculum unit and made me think about creative ways of teaching lessons.

Phillies Game

I went to the Phillies game last night. This is now the second game of the season that I have attended. The first was over the summer. We had standing-room only tickets, so it made the game seem a lot longer. Last night we had seats in a section right behind the foul ball marker (I am not really a sports person, so I don't know the technical term.)

One of my roommates had bought the tickets a couple of weeks ago for our house. I planned out my homework assignments for the week so that I had everything finished by Wednesday night. (I have found that I need at least a week's notice to commit to weekday evening activities.) My roommates and I had such a great time, even though the Phillies lost.

We got there right as the game was starting. It was a beautiful, clear night, but a little chilly. I brought my scarf and leg warmers and we bought hot chocolate to warm us up right away. I love going to baseball games because of the excitement in the stands and for all of the sights and sounds of the stadium. Unfortunately, it was not the Phillies best night, but it was still fun to be there cheering them on. Actually, the game on Wednesday night was the one that determined that the Phillies are going to be in the playoffs. There was a little girl in the stands that had a sign that said, "Dad, you should have bought tickets for last night's game!"

The highlight of my night actually did not have to do with baseball. For my science methods class we have had to keep a moon journal, recording our observations of the moon. This assignment has been more difficult than it initially sounds. Since it was such a clear night, the moon was visible almost all night. It was beautiful, too, almost full. At the bottom of the fourth inning, I look up at the jumbo-tron to see a live image of the moon! I was so excited, I stood up and pointed at it, yelling "the moon!" My roommates have been helping me try to spot the moon over the course of the assignment too, so they were also very excited for me, although a little embarrassed by my outburst. Overall, it was a great evening and a nice way to relax at the end of a busy week.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! I am kind of new to the whole idea of blogging, but I think I am going to have a lot to write about this year. I am enrolled in the Graduate School of Education (GSE) at Penn to get my master's in elementary education. We have already completed our first semester this summer and are 3 weeks into the fall semester. I am loving all of my classes! We are taking classes to learn about teaching/learning theories for math, social studies, science and literacy, plus a field seminar class. On top of all of these classes, I am student teaching 2 days a week. I am working at the Penn Alexander School (PAS), which convieniently is right down the street from my house. It is a unique public school (K-8) that partners with the University of Pennsylvania on a bunch of different initiatives. I am so happy to be student teaching there. I am already learning so much from my classroom mentor and other teachers at the school. My life feels pretty hectic recently, but I think I am finally adjusted to the fall schedule and have my homework plan in place. I look forward to writing more about my experiences in student teaching, Penn, and life in Philly this year!