“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” -Yvonne Woon

MY FINAL BLOG POST (in regards to my experiences within the course):

Participating in the Social Studies Methods course has allowed me to learn a variety of things about education in a general sense and about myself as a future educator. This course provided me with opportunities to develop lesson plans, to develop a unit plan, to work collaboratively with my peers, and to implement my lessons on a whole class scale. 

In regards to lesson planning, I learned the differences between direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning lessons. By studying and creating these three major types of lessons, I gained the knowledge and experience to implement them all in my future classroom. I was also able to study each lesson plan type in depth in order to understand the importance of each as a lesson format and as a mode of reaching students. Direct instruction allows a teacher to be the center of the lesson, providing information to the students in a brief amount of time. Inquiry lessons give students an opportunity to explore information and concepts in order to form their own opinions and generalizations. Cooperative learning lessons give students a chance to develop social skills, which in turn, prepares them for their futures as citizens of a global community. In my future classroom, I plan to incorporate all three of these lesson plan techniques. Direct instruction, although it is not my favorite method, benefits students because it condenses information and teaches the main points. Inquiry lessons and cooperative learning lessons will be the bulk of my teaching technique. I feel that both lesson techniques will prepare my students for a world that is full of questions and diverse people.

Furthermore, my skills of lesson planning increased because I not only created a direct instruction lesson, inquiry lesson, and cooperative learning lesson, but I also had the privilege of creating a unit plan. The unit plan built from the three aforementioned lessons and added three mini-lesson activities and a culminating project. Although I did not have the opportunity to implement these mini-lesson activities and the culminating project within a classroom, I see the benefit in creating these additions. By doing so, I experienced what a true classroom teacher would experience. In keeping with this thought, I also experience a true education environment by working collaboratively with my peers. Our lesson plans were developed and implemented within small groups. We also participated in group discussions throughout the semester, provided feedback to one another on our lessons and questions, and communicated with one another through our blogs. I liked the collaborative nature of this class because it allowed me to gain insight into other view points, displayed different teaching techniques of my peers, and further my resources for future teaching.

My personal growth surpassed any of my expectations. At the beginning of the course, I was soft-spoken and nervous. I did not want to teach in a whole class situation and I was skeptical of using technology within my lessons. As the course progressed, I learned to find my voice as a teacher. My group encouraged me to break out of my shell and I began introducing the lessons. Having the support and guidance of my peers, and close friends, made the transition from one-to-one instruction to full class much easier for me to handle. I began to become more confident with my abilities to instruct a class and in my abilities to be myself, while still remaining professional. Technology has also become my friend! I am now well aware of SmartBoard technology, the different aspects of GoogleDocs, Voki, Animoto, Prezi, Tagxedo, Wordle, and countless others. I am happy to have acquired this knowledge because our society is becoming more and more technology based. To be an effective teacher, I will need to be up to date with current technologies in order to reach my students. I know that my experiences within this Social Studies Methods course have helped shape me into an even better future educator and I am thankful for all of the experiences I have had throughout this semester!

MY FINAL BLOG POST (in regards to my fieldwork experiences):

My experiences at Bishop Dunn Memorial School were incredible. This was my first opportunity to teach a whole class, rather than one-on-one or small groups. By participating in this fieldwork experience, I gained the knowledge of how a full class would feel, before student teaching. The major difference between one-on-one/small groups and a whole class is the idea that you, as the teacher, will not and can not know everything your students are doing. This is somewhat scary because you may not be reaching your students during a lesson, no matter how much time you out into it and how engaging it may seem. I learned this fact through use of video recording. Dr. Smirnova encouraged our fieldwork groups to request help from our peers. We asked other groups to videotape our lessons in order to reflect and critique our teaching. While reviewing a video, my group realized that some students toward the back of the classroom were disengaged. This could have been due to our voice volume or lack of interest in our planned activity, but regardless, we were not reaching our students. After realizing this, our group was able to better project our voices throughout the lesson and we aimed to include those students we saw disengaged. We directed questions toward then an checked for understanding of the material more frequently. This method of videotaping and reflecting benefitted us during our time at Bishop Dunn Memorial School, but it also helped prepare us for the edTPA tasks we will need to accomplish during our student teaching placements.

During this fieldwork experience, I had the opportunity to create direct instruction lessons, inquiry lessons, and cooperative learning lessons. Each of these teaching techniques serve a purpose within the classroom and are beneficial tools for me to use during my future teaching experiences. Direct instruction will be the first way I will introduce a unit. Direct instruction is a teacher-based lesson that will allow me to provide students with an overview of our unit, focusing on key terms, dates and other factual information. Following direct instruction, I would move to inquiry lessons. Inquiry lessons provide students with the opportunity to consider the facts, explore the information more in depth, form opinions about them, and then form generalizations. Cooperative learning lessons would be my final choice for the lesson plan sequence because they allow students to apply what they have learned in a group context. Students need to express their opinions, respect the opinions of others, communicate effectively, and draw conclusions through cooperative learning lessons. Overall, I feel that I contributed to each lesson plan creation and implementation. 

Throughout my fieldwork experience, I reflected and critiqued myself and my peers. I am my hardest critic, so after each lesson I would write down how I needed to improve for future teaching. The commentary of my peers on discussion forums, brief discussions, and blog postings also helped to further my improvement during the course. The insights of my peers were some I had not previously considered. My use of informal language was a big sticking point throughout the semester, as well as my apparent nervousness. I learned to let loose and focus on the task at hand, rather than worry prematurely by working with my wonderful group! Throughout this course I also learned a lot from my peers. I learned new technologies like Voki and Animoto, which I plan to incorporate into my future lessons. I also got new ideas for lessons plans including a debate and timeline. Both ideas address Common Core Standards and New York State Social Studies Standards. 

Overall, my experiences through Social Studies Methods at Bishop Dunn Memorial School have helped me become a more engaging, more aware, more tech-savvy educator.

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary" - Donald Kendall

Monday 12/2/13:

During class today, my group worked on our culminating project for our proposed unit: The Road to Revolution. For this project, we decided to incorporate both a timeline activity with a Jigsaw activity. Students would be divided into three groups: pre-Revolution, during the Revolution, and post-Revolution. Each group would become "experts" about their assigned portion of the American Revolution. Once the entire timeline was completed, students would learn from each others work. 

The creation of a timeline uses different modes of thinking to exhibit the students overall knowledge of the unit. It displays the students' understandings of content knowledge, as well as their abilities to work collaboratively with peers. The creation of a timeline also accounts for the various ways that students learn. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners all will benefit from this type of project.

Below is the format for our culminating project!

VI. Culminating Project

Climb the Ladder to American Independence (Timeline Activity)

Description: Students will engage themselves in summarizing their discoveries from this unit to create a timeline of events. The timeline will cover events from the unit: Pre- American Revolution, during the American Revolution, and results of the American Revolution. They will be able to formalize what they know and understand the events in a new way. They can extract information from direct instruction lessons and apply it through an inquiry-based project.  The project will presented to their peers in other fourth grade classrooms.

Time needed to complete activity/project: 40 minutes

Goals: (might be several as this is the result of learning of the whole unit):

1. Students will develop an understanding for content of colonial life culture in which they will explore, make observations,  make predictions, and make generalizations.

2. The students will understand the meaning of vocabulary words and identifications.

3. Students will research topics related to the American Revolution and will present their findings to the class by providing details.

4. Students will show a willingness to consider other points of view before drawing conclusions or making judgments, suggest alternative solutions or courses of action, evaluate the consequences for each alternative solution or course of action, prioritize the solutions based on established criteria, and propose an action plan to address the issue of how to solve the problem.

5. Students will identify the main concepts of the events leading up to the American Revolution, the American Revolution itself, and the results of the American Revolution.

Objective: Given a list of events pertaining to the American Revolution and access to research materials, students will create a timeline at 80% accuracy (at least 4 of 5 events).

Task: Students will work collaboratively to create a timeline. To do so, students will need to share their opinions while respecting the opinions of others, make group decisions and communicate effectively to convey content information. Three groups will be created to address the events leading to the American Revolution, events during the American Revolution, and events following the American Revolution. By dividing the groups, the students will be participating in a Jigsaw-like activity. Each individual group will be an “expert group,” who will in turn, teach their peers about their particular topic. This will expand on their current knowledge and reinforce their learning.

Role and Purpose: This type of activity can be beneficial to students because it allows students “simultaneous access both to sufficiently long-term perspectives to see change as a process rather than an event, and to a close-up view with enough detail for them to understand what change actually meant for those living through it” (Vella, 2011, p.16).

Audience: The students will present their timelines to their peers in other fourth grade classrooms. This will encourage students to create higher quality work. The timelines will then be hung in the hallway for passing students to explore.

Materials:

- list of events related to the American Revolution

- construction paper

- lined paper

- markers/crayons/colored pencils

- glue/tape

- books/articles/computers/smartphones/iPads (for research)

Use of Technology: A powerpoint presentation will be shown briefly using the SmartBoard. Technology such as computers, smartphones, or iPads will be used by students in order to research specific events.

Assessment (Summative) Rubric: A rubric will be used to assess student work at the end of this project. Students will be assessed on their collaborative work skills, if they completed at least 4 out of 5 of the events for their topic, their neatness, spelling, punctuation, and accuracy.

Accommodations: Students with difficulty concentrating/staying on task will be seated closer to the front of the room. This will allow teachers to be closer to these students to provide additional support. Technology can be used to keep these students on task in the form of the “Helpful Hints” listed on the powerpoint presentation. This will serve as a constant reminder for students to the task at hand. Additionally, students can be called up to the board to record their findings. This way, the students are on motivated to stay on task and can be out of their seats in a productive manner.

Students with language disabilities will be given verbal instructions from the teacher. The teacher will also check that the student is completing the necessary assignments more frequently during the lesson.

Generalizations: After completion of this unit, students will formulate generalizations in regards to the American Revolution.

In regards to Colonial and Revolutionary periods, students will be able to compare colonial life to other time periods, observe and speak about different types of daily activities, understand the ways that colonists depended on and modified their physical environments, explain colonial governments and economy, the causes and important accomplishments.

In regards to The Revolutionary War in New York State, students will be able to locate New York state, explain the significance of the state’s location/explain geographic features that influence the war, compare Loyalists to Patriots in New York State, explain war strategies, select leaders of the Revolution and explain the effects of the war.

In regards to The New Nation, students will be able to explain the foundations for the new government and the ideals of American democracy as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutions of the State of New York and the United States of America, select and explain individuals and groups who helped to strengthen democracy in the United States, describe the roots of American culture, how it developed from many different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it and explain the values, practices, and traditions that unite all Americans.

Wednesday 12/4/13:

During today's class period, we were given time to continue working on our LiveBinders and other assignments. Today, Ericka and I worked strictly on the edTPA tasks. We began by addressing each of the questions individually. Dr. Smirnova informed us that rather than answer each question individually, we should be using the questions as a guide as we write our summary and commentary regarding our lessons.

edTPA is definitely causing me a lot of stress now, so I am glad I had the opportunity during this Social Studies Methods class to gain exposure to it rather than jumping in and trying to accomplish it while student teaching. The reflective nature of the edTPA tasks will be effective as I look back on my teaching style and lesson plans. By completing these types of reflections, I can become a more effective and engaging educator in the future.

Friday 12/6/13/:

During today's class, we participated in a mock interview. For this activity, each of the four fieldwork groups nominated a "principal." These principals created back stories about their lives and created a school that had open positions. Each of the principals shared their story and information about their schools with the entire class of possible candidates. After these introductions, we broke into fieldwork groups to begin the interview process.

Each of the principals asked our fieldwork groups "warm-up" questions. These questions included what colors or songs did we associate with specific methodologies of teaching: inquiry, cooperative learning, direct instruction. After the warm-up questions, the principals each asked one or two question to each possible candidate. I liked to be able to practice the interview process because it allowed me to be able to think on my feet, be flexible and apply my knowledge of the content I have been learning in all of my education classes. I enjoyed being interviewed in a group setting. This allowed me to build off of the answers of my peers and also set myself apart from my peers. During my first interview with Ms. Alex, a principal whose school followed the principles of behaviorism, I was able to apply my knowledge from my work experience at Hudson Valley Behavioral Solutions. HVBS allows me to work directly with students with behavioral issues, mainly autism, which gives me the opportunity to differentiate my instruction and manage behaviors effectively. I was able to impress Ms. Alex with my personal experience examples.

“Rest and be thankful.” - William Wordsworth

Monday 11/25/13:

During today's class we were given the opportunity to work on all assignments we needed to complete. Dr. Smirnova was available throughout this time to answer questions and clarify ideas. Ericka and I began working on all of the self-tests that aligned with our textbooks chapters. These self-tests were important for us to complete because they helped ensure that we had retained the content information from the class. After we had finished taking the self-tests, we began working on our third activity for the unit plan. We decided to create another direct instruction lesson plan to address information regarding the events leading up to the American Revolution: Activity #3. 

Wednesday 11/27/13 and Friday 11/29/13:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BREAK! I spent most of this break relaxing and enjoying time with my family. The remainder of my time was dedicated to completing assignments and catching up on work. I met up with my group mates, Alex and Ericka, to work on our LiveBinders. We were able to complete the "About Me," "My Philosophy for Teaching," "My Blog," "Professional Organizations," and "Social Studies Projects I am Proud of" tabs. We are well on our way to completing this professional online portfolio of work.

I enjoy using this online portfolio. I try to be eco-friendly as much as possible, and this would be a way to save paper by keeping all files online. I feel that this would be an important skill to teach students and future teachers because our society is becoming more and more technologically advanced and technology is becoming a major part of education.

“The only journey is the one within.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

Monday 11/18/13:

During today's class, we completed our Jigsaw Native American Project. This project was an extremely effective way to learn about Native American Tribes. The jigsaw method of teaching and learning information begins with the creation of a "base group." A base group is comprised of four to six students (in our class's case six students per group). This base group establishes who will research and present on what topic. For our class, each member of a base group presented on a specific Native American tribe: Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Mohican, Munsee, and Oneida. Each person then split to meet with "expert groups." An expert group focused their research specifically on one particular tribe. 

The information we were instructed to find included the history, geography, culture, clothing, food, habitat and famous people for our assigned tribe. We also were asked to focus on the question: "How did geography influence the Native Americans?" My group focused on the Seneca tribe. The information we compiled can be viewed through our Google presentation. In completing this research, our group decided that geography impacted the Seneca tribe in a variety of ways. The region this tribe lived in allowed its people to hunt, fish and gather, experienced seasonal weather that allowed for a change in clothing, and provided opportunities to trade with nearby tribes. 

After we had compiled all of our research together, we moved from our expert groups back to our base groups. Each tribe expert presented to the base group. Dr. Smirnova encouraged that we still use the format of a lesson during this brief presentation. During this time, we introduced our topics and probed prior knowledge, developed the lesson through direct instruction, allowed time for comparison and discussion, and assessed the skills learned through an assessment.

This activity allowed me to learn more about the Seneca tribe in particular, but also the other Native American tribes that were presented to my base group. My knowledge of Native American tribes was limited to what little instruction I received in elementary and middle school, regarding the interactions between the native peoples and pilgrims, the three sisters, and longhouses. Through this activity, I learned more specific aspects of Native American cultures, about famous people within each tribe and the impact geography had on each tribe. 

As a future teacher, I plan to use the method of jigsaw learning. I believe that it gives students the ability to become "experts" on a particular topic, which would improve their self-efficacy and self-esteem within a classroom. This type of activity also allows students to practice positive interdependence, by showing them that they all have responsibilities that effect other members of the group. I would use this activity to study the thirteen colonies, European countries, particular cultures, etc. Broad topics, such as these, can easily be divided into main points (New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, or England, Ireland, France, or religion, stories, language). These main points could be researched by expert groups, and then presented to base groups to get a fuller picture about a topic.


Wednesday 11/20/13:

During today's class, we participated in two current event lessons.

The first lesson, conducted by Madison, Brittney and Liz, focused on sequences of events. The teachers first began the introduction portion of the lesson by reminding students about the other current event lessons and talked about what current events are. They also activated prior knowledge by asking "Who can give me the definition of the word sequence?" The ladies transitioned from the students' responses to examples of sequences. We were asked to connect the word sequences to our own lives: getting ready in the morning, how we study, ways to get to school. The teachers moved into the development of the lesson by explaining that we will be putting a current event article into a particular sequence. Our class was asked to read the article prior to class, but in a full class application the teachers would have read the article aloud to the students. For the guided practice portion of the lesson, our class was divided into two groups. We were provided with a sheet of poster board, sentence strips and tape. We worked cooperatively and referenced the article in order to place the sentences in order according to the sequence of the current event article. After we had ordered and taped down the sentence strips, the two groups came to the front of the room to share their answers. We compared our order of sentence strips to the correct order of sentence strips. For the closure, the teachers asked if we had any questions about the activity. We also were asked if we found the activity difficult or easy to complete. The teachers also asked us to reflect on what a sequence was to wrap up the activity.

This was a well-executed mini lesson! I think that the three ladies who presented were well prepared to teach, had all the necessary materials, and spoke clearly. They were working on a condensed schedule, but the activity did not seem rushed. I like that the activity involved the entire class and was engaging throughout. I feel that this would be an activity that could be applied across subject areas. It would be especially beneficial in social studies teaching because it provides an alternative to traditional timeline instruction when learning dates or sequences of events.


The second lesson, conducted by Catilyn, Anne, Tara and James, focused on identifying the difference between fact and opinion. The teachers began the lesson by asking if the class to provide the definitions for fact and for opinion. After the class had provided these definitions, the teacher offered examples of facts and opinions on the PowerPoint, and then asked us students to expand with our own facts or opinions. We then moved into groups of three or four students to discuss an article about Veteran's Day. Each member of the group was assigned a role: manager, time keeper, recorder and speaker. We listened to James read the article aloud and picked out two facts about the article. We then were instructed to form an opinion based on the article and record it on an accompanying worksheet. After we had recorded our facts and opinions, we shared our findings with the class. To conclude, we discussed why teaching the difference between facts and opinions would be important to teach students.

This lesson was great, but time constraints limited how much we as students were able to take away from the activity. I think that if we had had more time to complete it, it would have been more meaningful and would have provided us with a better idea of how to execute the activity as a full class. Overall, I believe that this teaching technique is important to teach students because we are now living in an extremely digital world. Our students will be bombarded by information, and need to begin learning how to separate fact from opinion.

Friday 11/22/13:

During today's class, we were provided with the opportunity to use the class time as an open workshop to complete any work for our final portfolio. Ericka, Alex and I used this opportunity to begin planning our mini lessons. We decided to create lessons on a debate between colonists and the British, a scavenger hunt to find missing generals and a direct instruction lesson about the events prior to the American Revolution.

We used this class time to work on our second activity: the scavenger hunt. Our lesson can be found HERE. Our objectives for this lesson were: 1) 

Given a computer with predetermined websites and an accompanying fact/hint worksheet about a “missing” war general, students will research information about the particular war generals in order to provide the correct name of the general with 100% accuracy; and 2)

Given information found through research, students will present their findings to the class by providing three details that led them to the conclusion of who the “missing” war general is. 

To meet these objectives, we planned to introduce and pre-assess student knowledge of generals in the American Revolution. As teachers, we would model the research process through use of a familiar figure to fourth grade students: Selena Gomez. We would observe the fact list and then use provided websites to validate our facts. After this modeling activity, we would move into the activity by dividing the class into groups. Each group would be provided a fact sheet that would provide hints about who the general was. They would research through provided websites, then share their findings with a class.

This activity would be fairly easy to carry out within a full class application. Students would be able to be engaged in the activity from start to finish. They would be able to work collaboratively with peers and be able to share findings. They would also be able to expand their inquiry skills through this activity.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"- Mahatma Gandhi

Monday 11/11/13:

HUG THE GLOBE!

To begin today's class, Dr. Smirnova had us participate in an around the world activity. Each of us were asked to grab the foam globe, hug it, and share two things: an issue that concerns us about geography and how we will address it in our classrooms. I shared my interest in advocating for animals around the world, whether it be through poaching, deforestation, pollution, etc. I also shared that the Dawn dish soap commercials can bring me to tears, because my love for animals is so great. I discussed that I would encourage my students to become educated about issues around the world regarding animals and become advocates for it by writing letters or signing/creating petitions. If possible, I would also create outreach activities with the community that could benefit animals such as collecting litter or volunteering at a local shelter or animal hospital.

After this engaging activity, we moved on to discussing chapter twelve of our textbooks. The notes I took during this portion of the class are posted below:

Geographical Literacy- Geographically literate citizens are aware of (1) what is happening in the world, (2) why it is happening, and  (3) how it affects other people throughout the world as well as themselves. (Sunal 371)

The Five Themes of Geography

Theme 1 : Location, Position on the Earth’s Surface. 

-Absolute or exact location other times

-General or relative location; for example

-Learning activities including the location theme help students learn to locate places in the community, state, or nation; on the earth; or on a map or a globe.

Theme 2: Place, Natural and Cultural Characteristics. 

-Natural and human features of the landscape. 

-Mountains, capital cities, and the developing world. 

-Students gather data and answer questions such as the following to help them describe place.

Theme 3: Relationships within Places, Humans and Environments. 

-The natural environment tends to limit what people can do in a place. People have been quite clever in dealing with these limitations. In dry areas where water was not sufficient to grow needed food, people found ways to import water. Today, people in dry places use advanced transportation to import food. .

Theme 4: Movement, Humans Interacting on the Earth. 

-Movement of ideas and products affects not only places of origin and destination but also places along the way. 

-Raw materials are extracted, new products are grown or produced in factories, and transportation centers are expanded or established.

-Ideas such as preservation, conservation, and democracy are being attempted in new places. 

-People travel to other nations to visit and may spend part of their lives working or living in other nations. ----There are systematic movements among the natural forces on the earth. 

-Global problems are concerns of geographers as they study movements between places and regions.

Theme 5: Regions, How They Form and Change. 

-Geographers frequently divide it into regions. Geographers study all the places and activities defined by the other four themes. Geographers begin to get a picture of how the entire world works as they investigate the interactions between regions.

-A region can be as small as an individual classroom, school, neighborhood, or community with which very young students are familiar. In this region, they can observe and investigate. .

We also participated in quiz games to test our knowledge of geography and elements associated with geography using Jognog. Jognog is a website that utilizes the principles of gameification, by creating fun quizzes that allow students to earn points/coins and forms of praise for completing the quizzes. This site could be used for creation and implementation of pre-assessment quizzes and final examinations.



Wednesday 11/13/13:

To begin today's class, we participated in an activity created by Laura, Brianna and Rachel. Prior to class, we were asked to read four different articles. In class, we were divided into four groups to explore the articles more in depth. Each group was asked to identify the article based on three quotes listed on a given worksheet. This allowed us to use our inquiry skills, which are important for students to practice within the classroom. After each group had located its article, we were asked to identify the title and author, determine if the news piece was national/global/local, and provide a summary of the article to the class. This is another important skill for students to learn, because it allows them to identify the main ideas of an article.

I thought this current event project would be fun and useful within a classroom! It is a way to have students become familiar with news around the world, as well as in the local community. This activity could be useful as a unit. Each week students could examine different sets of articles. For instance, the students could begin with local news from their community. Next, they could explore county news. Following county news, the students could move to state-wide news. The exploration of articles from this point could move to tri-state, regional, national, hemisphere and global. When the unit moves into the global piece, specific areas could be studied together (African, European, etc.).

Friday 11/15/13:

Today in class we began to work on our Native American Jigsaw projects. My group is made up of myself, Alex and Liz and we are studying the Seneca Tribe. Dr. Smirnova instructed each group to talk about: history, geography, culture, clothes, food, habitat and famous people.

The link to our PRESENTATION is here.

I think that using a jigsaw activity is an engaging way to have students learn material. The use of base and expert groups allows students to feel power in their learning and gives them an opportunity to practice skills like self-management and self-motivation to complete a task. Jigsaw learning also encourages students to work collaboratively with one another by working on skills such as listening effectively, being respectful and sharing information with others.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” - Ernest Hemingway

I can not believe that this is our final week of fieldwork! I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. I learned my strengths and weaknesses within lesson planning and implementing lessons within the classroom. I am able to create lesson plans easily, but I need to have a strict format to follow in order to have all of the necessary information. I need to begin to use more formal language and project my voice within the classroom. I also need to be sure to always have a back up plan when implementing lessons in case I have extra time or technology does not work properly. I also learned that working with others can be challenging, but it is always a rewarding experience because we are able to learn from one another. Overall, I am extremely proud of myself and my peers for successfully completing our Social Studies Methods fieldwork!

Monday 11/4/13:

I had the opportunity to observe Groups 3 and 4 again. Both groups taught a cooperative learning lesson to the fourth grade class. Both lessons explained the social skills necessary for effective group work. The approaches to teaching cooperative learning for Groups 3 and 4 were different; Group 3 had students create their own Declaration of Independence, while Group 4 had students engage in a debate. I will presenting my notes on my classmates lesson's in a "3 plus and 1 wish" format.  

Group 3:
- Your group improved on time management during this lesson. The direct instruction powerpoint presentation portion of your lesson was streamlined, making information more clear and concise. I especially liked how Anne explained PIGS, in a quick and easy way for the students to understand and use during the lesson. The timer on the SmartBoard also allowed students to manage their own time during the time allotted for them to write their Declaration of Independence.
- I loved your activity! The writing of a Declaration of Independence from the perspective of students. I think that it was a smart idea to divide the aspects of the declaration so that each group wrote a different part under a common theme. I liked that each group had an opportunity to present its section and that the class listened respectfully. 
- I like how you built on the teachings from previous groups. This made the transition from one group to another more seamless.
- I wish that you had posted what the parts of the Declaration of Independence were on the SmartBoard. This would have eliminated questioning from students and using valuable class time for excess explanation. The slide could have been used as a reference for the students throughout the activity.

Group 4:
- I liked that throughout the lesson you probed answers from students. You waited for an appropriate amount of time for student responses, and when the students did not answer you made sure to rephrase the question or restate it. I like that you intentionally called on different students or asking to see new hands in order to be sure that everyone was engaged and participating throughout your lesson plan.
- It was smart to go over the vocabulary words that you planned on using during your debate activity. During this section of your lesson, I liked that you paused and waited to see if students knew the words or could make guesses about their definitions before showing the correct definition on your PowerPoint slides.
- I think that the debate was a smart choice of an activity! It was engaging and a way to get all the students involved. It is also a relevant topic across all subject areas, as well as in real life application. Students will need to learn how to formulate and express their opinions, while still respecting and attempting to understand the opinions of others.
- Although you all always do a fantastic job implementing the lesson, I wish you had switched up the order of who talks when during the lesson. Each of you as teachers will need to be able to do the introduction, implementation, and closing sections of a lesson plan, so this fieldwork time would have been a good time to practice!


Wednesday 11/6/13:

Today was our final day of fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School! I am so thankful for all of the experiences I have had: the most important being working with Group 1! I feel that we were successful as a group because we worked collaboratively throughout the entire fieldwork experience. We were in constant contact, whether it be through Googledocs, text messages or emails. We each made a conscious effort to stay in touch with one another. We always respected each others ideas and opinions. We worked for ourselves and our students, and in the end, we did a great job teaching our fourth grade class.

Hooray for group one! I also feel that this experience strengthened the bond I have with my friends here on campus. This semester, we branched out from only seeing each other during school functions and during classes, to meeting on weekends to work on our lessons. Although we would set aside an hour or so to work, we would end up spending half of our Sundays together in a classroom watching YouTube videos, chatting and sharing coffee. I am honestly so grateful for the friendships I have formed with these lovely ladies!

And of course, a thank you to Dr. Smirnova. Thank you for constantly editing our lesson plans late at night and providing thoughtful, helpful resources and comments that helped improve our teaching! We really do appreciate all of your guidance. Thank you for making me more tech-savvy as well!

For our final day together at Bishop Dunn Memorial School, we, as a class, designed a post-test for the students to complete. Each group created 3-5 questions that wrapped up what had been taught during our three lesson blocks. Before the students took the test, each grouped reviewed information about the lessons. The students were asked to complete the test on the computers, with an allotted time of 10 minutes. Upon the completion of the post-test, we all shared things that we had learned during our time with the fourth grade class. Each of us shared how much we enjoyed working with such a wonderfully smart class, and bits about things that we had learned from them. 

After we had all shared, the groups prepared for our closing ceremony. Each group had created a certificate for the students for completing fieldwork. Students were called individually by name to receive their certificates, while their fellow classmates clapped and offered words of praise. During this time, we congratulated the students. As a final closing, we participated in a round of fireworks!

Overall, this experience at Bishop Dunn has been incredible. I enjoyed working collaboratively with my peers and implementing lessons in a co-teaching way. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to practice this type of teaching before going into the field on my own.



Friday 11/8/13:

Today we reflected as a class on our fieldwork experiences as whole class! We each individually shared our feelings about the experience and what we had learned. My classmate, Courtney, shared that the most important part was actually implementing an entire lesson plan in front of a classroom. We have always been writing our lesson plans in the Mount Saint Mary College lesson plan format, but we have never experienced actually acting out the entire lesson plan. Now that we have done so, I have realized the importance of having an introduction and a conclusion. Without them, students will feel lost in regards to what content will be taught or what was learned during the lesson plan.

I shared that it is important to give students control during lessons. I know that this can be challenging for me, because I like to have control and for things to work out the way I had planned. Some of the best activities were the ones that students had the most control, such as the cooperative learning activities (skit, song, advertisement, acrostic poem, Declaration of Independence). I also shared that I loved working with my group and that collaboration was very important.

After we had reflected on our experiences, we created a LiveBinder account.

LiveBinder is an online portfolio for work that we have completed throughout the semester. The portfolio includes sections about me, my philosophy of education, my blog, professional organizations, social studies projects, my unit plan, and edTPA tasks. 

"To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe." - Marilyn Vos Savant.

This week was filled with many useful observations of my peers (Monday and Friday) as they presented their lessons plans following the direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning formats. I was also able to absorb new information by presenting a demonstration lesson to my peers about teaching current events to students through use of articles. By presenting to my peers, I was able to receive feedback about my lesson and teaching style.

Monday 10/28/13:

During today's class session, I was an observer of groups 3 and 4. Both groups implemented a direct instruction lesson plan using a PowerPoint presentation. I was able to take notes throughout this time in order to provide feedback to my peers. I will be presenting my notes in a "3 plus and 1 wish" format.

Group 3:
- I enjoyed the way you checked for understanding throughout the lesson (thumbs up/down/in the middle, "Stop and Check" slides on the PowerPoint, hands on head when students had completed the handouts that went with the PowerPoint presentation). I would suggest that rather than say "Okay" when clarifying directions and not getting a response, you should use methods like put your hand on your head if you understand the directions or encourage choral responding of "okay."
- I liked that your group worked collaboratively during the implementation of the lesson. When someone lost their train of thought, another teacher would jump in. If a teacher asked a question and a student didn't understand, another teacher would rephrase the question to help clarify. This made the lesson more seamless and cohesive.
- I think it was a good idea to assess the students prior knowledge before showing the correct answers on the presentation slides.
- I wish that you had connect the colonists gripes with paying taxes to a personal example for the students. For example, How would you feel if you had to give your teacher a dollar every time you sat in your seat? This would give the students a more personal example to relate their learning back to.

Group 4:
- I like that you had folders prepared for each student! This can make students have more ownership of their work and learning, as well as making them feel special and included.
- Katrina and Chrissy did a great job modeling the cause and effect activity. You both spoke loudly and clearly with your bodies facing the class. You not only modeled the behaviors you wanted to see from the students, but also the thought processes and collaboration the students should try to incorporate during the expansion activity of the lesson.
- Throughout the implementation of the lesson, you all either rephrased or restated your questions when you saw that students were unsure of how to answer, did not understand the question, or were not paying attention the first time the question was asked. I think that this is an effective teaching tool that will maintain the students' engagement throughout your lessons.
- I wish that you had more time for your lesson! The ending piece where students had to decide what phrase was a cause and what phrase was an effect was an engaging and effective way for students to demonstrate their understandings. I wish I had more time to see this portion of the lesson carried out all the way.

Overall, both groups did an excellent job on their first direct instruction lessons! I am excited to see and hear more from these two groups during our next few fieldwork sessions.


Wednesday 10/30/13:

During today's class, Ericka, Alex and I presented a mini-lesson to the class. 

The strategy we addressed was Listening for Details. To address this standard, students were asked to listen carefully to an article we read aloud. The article was read aloud a second time, and students were instructed to take notes about the Five W's (who, what, when, where, why) which would signal major details in the article. The students were then asked to record answers on a sheet (but we accidentally provided the answer sheet to our students). After the students individually recorded answers, they were broken into small groups to discuss their answers.

Here are the links I can provide for this lesson: 
Lesson Plan
Presentation

We also offered our classmates full class applications including, The teacher could model an article before breaking the students into groups, students could be assigned different articles. Students from each group could have a role (reader, time keeper, note takers) during the activity, and after the students have read, they can share their findings with the class. 

Overall, our classmates enjoyed our presentation. They felt that the article was interesting and relevant to the study of current events. Our classmates stated that they wished we did not provide the answers on our worksheet that way they could have experienced our lesson in its entirety. Our classmates also stated that they wish we chose a shorter article or only read the article once to be sure that students would remain on task and interested throughout the reading.


Friday 11/1/13:

During today's class session we observed Groups 3 and 4. Today, both groups created an inquiry lesson. Group 3 created a scavenger hunt, which asked the children to find missing museum artifacts by using the internet as a source. Group 4 created an artifact bag activity, which allowed the students to become involved with primary sources. Both groups did a nice engaging the students during the lessons, but time was an issue for both groups. During our fieldwork time, the fourth grade class is divided into two groups. The first group works with Group 3 for 25 minutes, and then switches to Group 4 for 25 minutes, and vice versa. This makes creating the lesson more difficult because all aspects of the lesson must be completed in a much smaller time frame. I would suggest that the groups meet before implementing the lesson in the classroom and conducting a "run-through" as a group. This will allow the group to establish what the most essential components of the lesson are, and what areas of the lesson can be cut back or removed for the sake of time within the classroom. 

 I was able to take notes throughout this time in order to provide feedback to my peers. I will be presenting my notes in a "3 plus and 1 wish" format.

Group 3:
- I enjoyed your pre-assessment of prior knowledge at the beginning of the lesson (Do you remember this picture? and the elaboration from students).
- I think that you did a much better job checking for understanding from students. You used methods like hands on head and saying okay.
- I liked that you modeled your inquiry activity, but I do have some suggestions. The way you were positioned made it difficult for the students to see what you were doing and to hear what you were saying. The modeling piece was also very long, so students began to lose interest and engage in negative classroom behaviors. I would suggest modeling at the front of the room with louder voices. I would also keep the modeling piece to 2-3 minutes. Another suggestion could be to avoid the modeling altogether. Each teacher worked with a group, so rather than use valuable time modeling, the students could access you as a resource throughout the activity.
- I wish that a teacher had announced that groups needed to be quiet while others were presenting. It is important to value and reflect on the works of others, so students need to be aware of this.

Group 4:
- I enjoyed when you clapped as a group to get the attention of your students at the beginning of the lesson. This set the stage for the students to focus on the teachers and the task that was going to be presented to them.
- I like that you all worked collaboratively as the lesson was implemented. When one teacher forgot what to say, another teacher jumped in for assistance. I think this made the lesson flow more seamlessly and made the lesson more effective overall.
- Your worksheet was so cute! I think it was an effective way to provide the students with guidelines for the activity. It also served as a way to assess the students' understandings of artifact bag activity and the steps for inquiry.
- I wish that teachers who weren't talking to the class would have walked around the room. This would allow teachers to address students who were not paying attention to the lesson or engaging in negative classroom behaviors.