The End is Near... And So Is The Beginning

Today was my last day of college undergraduate classes. It is so surreal and I honestly can't believe it. I walked by my dorm from freshman year today, and I felt as if it was just yesterday that I was moving in and making Michigan State my new home. Now, I have finished four years of college, will earn my Bachelor's Degree in one week, and start my Master's Program and Student Teaching in the next six months. How fast the time goes... At the beginning of this semester I felt that I still had too much to learn before graduating and moving on to my internship, but now that it is over I feel as prepared as I can be for next year. The ideas, concepts, and experiences I have gained in this past year, I believe were the most important out of all my courses here at MSU. My favorite experience was in my placement this year at Central Elementary in Okemos. My CT, Mrs. Tazelaar taught me so much about being a teacher, that I only hope that one day I will be as good as her. The students also taught me a lot about classroom management, relating to one another, and building classroom community. I will definitely miss Mrs. Tazelaar and her first grade class, but I am thankful for all the memories and lessons I gained and learned from them.

Multicultural Literature in the Classroom

I am in the Multicultural Literature course this semester (TE 448) and I wanted to post some ideas here that I have gained through that course, but can also be applied to all teaching courses.

I have really enjoyed my experience in this class (TE 448) because it has completely opened my eyes to another dimension of education. I think about the issues raised in this course now in my everyday life. Whenever I encounter a situation where I hear a racist remark or joke I feel responsible as an educator not just for students, but for society as well, to speak up and fight for acceptance which embraces our world of diversity. Diversity plays such an intricate role in education that the possibilities are endless. Whether your classroom has a diverse population or not, diversity is an important concept to teach. When a classroom does have students from a variety of different backgrounds, those students should feel as if they are being represented in the curriculum. Then, even if the students in your classroom are more of a homogeneous group, it is beneficial for those students to learn about people outside of their community, and realize there is more to our world than the "bubble." I grew up in a white suburban neighborhood and went to a school that comprised of 99% white students. I had one African American friend, two Asian-American friends, and one Native American friend in all 12 years of public school. I was naive to the rest of the world around me, until I came to Michigan State and began to meet new people and learn about many different cultures. I believe that literacy is the best avenue to take when introducing topics of diversity. Books can help students relate to the characters and apply the events in the book to their own lives. This is a great method to give your students an experience of empathy for other cultures and ways of life. My own personal philosophy of multiculturalism and diversity in the classroom, is to incorporate it into all areas of the classroom. Although it would require more planning, this method would be more effective because it just becomes a part of the classroom, versus a month long unit on diversity. I also think that the ideas need to be introduced gradually starting at the beginning of the year and continue to add in more bit by bit. Some of the issues can get very personal for some students, so it is most important to establish a comfortable community of learners in your classroom so everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and experiences. My biggest concerns about bringing multiculturalism into my teaching is that I will arrive at a difficult situation and not know how to handle it. Being the teacher in the classroom, the students rely on you for the answers and management of the discussion/activity. I realize that there are some of those difficult questions that don't have solid answers and I just hope that I will be able to manage those "gray" areas with my students. Regardless of my fears, I have higher hopes and am so thankful to have this diverse children's literature course as a background in my education.

Children's Ideas About Different Groups of People

cWhen I was in my field placement last week, I overheard a very interesting conversation between a few of my first graders. Many of the students live in the same apartment building and talk about their experiences together about being at home. One student was talking about the building she lives in. She started describing to me that all of the doors in the apartment were green. This really bugged her and she said that she wished they could all be a different color. The other girl agreed and said she wished she could change it too. I suggested to the girls that maybe they could make some artwork and hang it outside the door to decorate a little more. The girls thought this was a good a idea but then started complaining about the smell in the hallway. The first girl said, "Those dang Russians are always stinking up the hallway." I was really taken off guard by this comment. She went on, "Those Russians stink up the hallway because of all the food they make. Their food smells sooooo bad. And they cook a lot. But sometimes though they can cook up some really good meals." Well, I asked her how she knew they were Russian, and she tried to avoid my question. The best answer I got was that she had heard it from an older girl who also lives in the building. Then from the rest of the conversation I got the impression that she had been invited to dinner to eat sometime before, but I wasn't entirely sure because her comments were not consistent. This made me think that this girl had these preconceived notions about the "Russians," based on what she had been told by different people. It seemed to me however, that she very strongly believed that only the Russians in her building would cook strong smelling food. I just found this conversation very interesting and found it worth mentioning. This was the result of a young impressionable girl taking on ideas that may or may not be true of a group of people. I fear that these notions will stick with her, and begin a cycle of stereotypes or worse. It is important that as teachers, we realize how impressionable these kids really are, and that they are influenced by many outside sources. This is why in teaching it is so important to get at the students misconceptions and previous knowledge, ideas, and understandings, in order to start breaking those walls down.

Digital Literacy Exploration

I have really enjoyed exploring different technologies. It is a great interest of mine to become more fluent in today's up and coming technologies, especially in their uses for classrooms and students. Although, I realize there are some frustrations that come with the territory, this is also part of the learning process. My particular exploration dealt with visual literacy and digital storytelling. These two components fit together nicely because the technology uses images to influence a viewer, a main purpose of visual literacy.

I also took a look at one of my peers exploration on social literacy with blogging. Blogging can be a very useful tool for students in a classroom. It can be used to create an online community, post upcoming assignments, and keep absent students up to date with the events of the classroom. These are all components of social literacy and create a technological/ digital community of learners.

Through this exploration I have been able to learn about different and new technologies and the various ways they can be used in classrooms. In my future teaching, I will be able to look back on this experience and use the ideas I have learned about. I have also become more well-rounded in my understanding of "literacy". There are so many different aspects of literacy that can be handled in thousands of ways. Students can benefit from the different literacies, and I am glad that I will be able to assist my own students in this area.

First Graders Debate Religion

When I was in my field placement last week, I overheard a very interesting conversation between a few of my first graders. Many of the students live in the same apartment building and talk about their experiences together about being at home. One student was talking about the building she lives in. She started describing to me that all of the doors in the apartment were green. This really bugged her and she said that she wished they could all be a different color. The other girl agreed and said she wished she could change it too. I suggested to the girls that maybe they could make some artwork and hang it outside the door to decorate a little more. The girls thought this was a good a idea but then started complaining about the smell in the hallway. The first girl said, "Those dang Russians are always stinking up the hallway." I was really taken off guard by this comment. She went on, "Those Russians stink up the hallway because of all the food they make. Their food smells sooooo bad. And they cook a lot. But sometimes though they can cook up some really good meals." Well, I asked her how she knew they were Russian, and she tried to avoid my question. The best answer I got was that she had heard it from an older girl who also lives in the building. Then from the rest of the conversation I got the impression that she had been invited to dinner to eat sometime before, but I wasn't entirely sure because her comments were not consistent. This made me think that this girl had these preconceived notions about the "Russians," based on what she had been told by different people. It seemed to me however, that she very strongly believed that only the Russians in her building would cook strong smelling food. I just found this conversation very interesting and found it worth mentioning. This was the result of a young impressionable girl taking on ideas that may or may not be true of a group of people. I fear that these notions will stick with her, and begin a cycle of stereotypes or worse. It is important that as teachers, we realize how impressionable these kids really are, and that they are influenced by many outside sources. This is why in teaching it is so important to get at the students misconceptions and previous knowledge, ideas, and understandings, in order to start breaking those walls down.

First Grade Writing

Fortunately I have been able to observe quite a bit of writing at my field placement. These first graders never cease to amaze me because some of them write around 5-7 sentences in one journal entry! My CT sets aside time each morning during the literacy block to have the students write on a journal page. Sometimes the students are given writing prompts and sometimes they can write about whatever they want. It is really cool to see a student get excited about an idea they have and just run with it in their writing. I experienced this when I taught my lesson. I had the students journal about a time when they had a conflict with a friend. One student, Julianna, thought of a story she could write immediately. She was so excited that she just wrote and wrote and wrote until the entire front and back of her paper was filled and she drew a picture to top it off! I was really excited to see my teaching make an impact and motivate even just one student to enjoy writing. That was probably the best part about my lesson :)

Teaching the Reading and Writing Processes

In our class reading of Tompkins Chapter 2 there is a discussion of the reading and writing processes in a balanced literacy program. My group came up with some working definitions of the key points to these ideas. The following two terms I will discuss are both inter-related and work with each other. Reading, we decided can be considered as an extension to writing development and comprehension. Comprehension happens when reading and writing come together to form meaning. These two ideas were most helpful for me in planning my lesson. The best example of this application is in my lesson plan objectives. My knowledge objective states that each student will describe and discuss the qualities of a good friend and the consequences of lying. My capacity objective states that each student will apply his or her prior experiences to the text and journal about a situation involving friendship. The journals in turn showed me if they were connecting with the lesson. When the students could write an entry that related to our book we read, that showed me that they were comprehending the reading and meeting my objectives.

Teaching Lesson Plan 2-25-08

Yesterday in my field placement I taught my discussion lesson. I thought that it actually went very well, better than I had anticipated. I read my book to the students and while I as reading the students showed me that they were already developing ideas about lying and friendship by asking questions and making predictions. After I read I began our discussion and the students were very willing to share about their own personal stories related to the book. Some students would talk over others and when this happened I would remind that student whose turn it was to talk. After our discussion, the students wrote about their experiences in their writing journals. Some students were reluctant to think about something to write but with some probing they all finally found something to write about. We shared their journals at the end o the lesson and the students did an awesome job of staying engaged for the hour that I was teaching with them. My CT hasn't provided me written feedback yet, but just after my lesson she said that the lesson went well and the students seemed to really enjoy sharing their experiences.

Final Lesson Plan IDEA!!

Well I finally chose a book for my language arts lesson plan. The book is called Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin. The book deals with two students who get into a disagreement about a toy whom both students claim to be theirs. The twist is that one student (Ruthie) is lying. The story works through Ruthie's feelings about her lie and what she does to fix the situation. I have decided to base our class discussion around lying and friendships with my first graders. I believe this will be a beneficial lesson because first grade students run into situations as these with each other all the time. I hope the students will bring their own personal stories to relate to the text. After the discussion I will have my students write a journal entry related to a personal experience about lying and disagreements with friends. I am looking forward to this lesson and seeing how the discussion will go with first graders. I liked the suggestions my colleagues left me about directing a discussion with young children. I have decided to establish ground rules before beginning the discussion. The students will need to know that they have to raise their hands before talking and be respectful to other's comments. The students in my placement class are usually good at participating in class discussion type activities so I hope my lesson will go well!

Progress on my Lesson Plan

The biggest struggle I am dealing with regarding my lesson plan is the discussion factor. I have a first grade classroom full of rowdy wiggly students. I am afraid to open the floor up to a discussion where students can talk out of turn, etc. because I think the class will lose control or start to get off topic. I am trying to think of a strategy to direct a good discussion with students who are still learning how to raise their hand when they want a turn to talk. I believe this task is not impossible but I do believe it will be difficult. For those of you who have students in the younger grades, how are you thinking about planning your discussion? I would like to know what some of your ideas about this are... Thanks!

D is for Digital

I cannot even explain how exciting it is for me to participate in the growing digital age. Even more exciting, that I will be a new teacher from the digital generation teaching to the digital generation. My beliefs about technology in the classroom are best summarized in this online article written by Michael Culligan. The article explains the growing importance of technology integration in our classrooms. Children are now immersed in technology within EVERY aspect of their lives. Teachers should foster to this growing need and learning style. The article also shows how technology is not only changing the face of our school classrooms but also the business world and our United States military. There is a quiz on the webpage that will help you determine if you are a digital native or digital immigrant. I found that I am a digital native, but with room to learn as well. There are so many different routes to take with technology as a teacher that it would be virtually impossible to conquer them all. I encourage you to take the quiz and see where you stand. I would say that if you find you are a digital immigrant, take some time to learn about the areas you failed on.

An Interesting Thought on Reading... 1-28-08

Yesterday when I went to my field placement I witnessed something very funny to me but at the same time very interesting to think about. It was during workshop time when the students rotate through literacy based centers and I was sitting on the center called, "Read with Mrs. Tazelaar." During this time the students read to my CT and she takes notes on their decoding skills, comprehension, summarizing, etc. I was listening in on Evan, a more advanced reader when he made the most interesting comment. He finished reading his passage and had a little bit of trouble with some new vocabulary words. They were words that he had never seen before and he said, "I think I was a better reader when I was four." Mrs. Tazelaar and I were both really surprised when he said this. To an observer the obvious would be, how could a first grade student reading chapter books be a worse reader now than three years ago. His reasoning was that he knew how to read more words when he was four-years-old than now. Then he started reading again, and came across the name of an animal called an Eland. He pronounced the word perfectly although he had never seen or heard of this animal before either. Mrs. Tazelaar stopped him and asked how he knew to pronounce that word. He said that he knew the word "land," and simply put an "E" in front of it. Mrs. Tazelaar asked him if he could read that word when he was four? He said no. She then pointed out that he is in fact getting better at his reading. My interpretation of this entire instance is in the new challenges Evan is facing as an advanced first grade reader. Before, when he was only four-years-old, I'm sure he was only given books to read that he COULD read. I can't be certain, but this is what I would assume. And now, he is given books with unknown words and a greater level of difficulty so he interprets his ease of reading at four as BETTER than at seven. But, really I believe that it is just his challenge that he cannot recognize yet.

My Language Arts Lesson Plan

My lesson plan for language arts is still in the very very rough stages. I haven't really been able to talk to my CT about the lesson plan in full detail yet but I plan on being able to do that this coming Wednesday. I am wondering how it will actually work when I go to teach my lesson because my CT has a very structured literacy block in the morning. The students begin with morning workshop, where they rotate through centers of which are mostly literacy-based. Then they have a snack while my CT reads them a story, usually a chapter out of a chosen book. After snack and story the students move on to writing in their journals. They can mostly write about anything they want, but my CT usually tries to give them some ideas. Lastly, after writing the students go to partner reading, where pairs of students share a book and read it aloud together. I was thinking of possibly basing my lesson around a book, and then having the students do some sort of writing prompt to go along with it. Possibly, something like reading a book but not finishing it, so the students can write in their journals what they predict will happen. Then coming back together in the group and reading some of their ideas, before actually finishing the story and finding out what really happened. Unfortunately, though I am still in the process of talking it out with my CT and finding a book. When I find one I will keep you posted :)

Goals for TE 402

I have chosen two main personal goals I would like to accomplish out of the literacy portion of TE 402. My fist goal is that I would like to learn methods of accommodating to the ESL and ELL(English as a Second Language and English Language Learner) students in an effective manner, while also including those students in all classroom activities. Growing up in a white suburban area, this was never an issue in my classrooms, but I can see though my field placement experiences that there is a greater number of ESL students in classrooms who cannot be left behind.

My second goal is to develop my own literacy philosophy on education. This is also an objective for the course as well. I believe this goal is important to establish before I am in my internship and teaching literacy lessons, because I believe it would lay the foreground to being more effective with my students.

What Is Your Dialect?

I have decided that it would be useful to also post my e-notebook entries here on my blog as place to compile all of my thoughts throughout TE 402. So with that, I would like to respond to the question, "what is your dialect?" When this question was first posed to me I thought it was funny and I just answered to myself, as I thought if I had to actually choose a specific dialect I would name it mid-west English. But, I never really thought I had a dialect. To me the first thing that came to mind was "accent." I don't have a Spanish accent, or a German accent, etc. And then I realized there was a difference between dialect and accent. Dialects are just simply the way you speak and there can be thousands of dialects within a single language. In class, we talked about the phrases, "like," and "you know," or better put, conversation fillers, and it was interesting to me that these were considered part of a dialect. I had never thought about that before...

To Differentiate--

Differentiation, to me, means to accommodate to all learners. Every classroom has a variety of learners and it is the teacher's responsibility to adhere to all of those different learners in the classroom. Differentiation in most cases applies to struggling students who require more scaffolding. This could mean that the teacher breaks students into leveled reading groups so that each student is challenged, while not being bored or overwhelmed. From my own experience in elementary school, I never noticed my teacher's practicing this very much. But now as a teacher candidate I can recognize that it is a very important aspect to keeping students motivated in school. I also think, in my opinion, that the students don't even need to be completely "aware" of what "level" they are, or that they are doing different assignments. I know that students are very intelligent about figuring this out on their own, but I don't think that it should be discouraged for a student to travel outside of their specified level. When this is allowed, I believe that is the point that growth and learning has taken place.

"I don't want your help! I want hers..." 1-14-08

During my time in the literacy block at my placement yesterday, something happened that really sparked my interest, in terms of how to go about handling the situation. I don't want to build this up like it was something huge, actually it was quite small, but it still sticks out in my mind as significant. The students were asked to write about a moment or a story that can be told very simply but they needed to use lots of details. Some students had a really easy time coming up with an idea to write about and others needed some extra probing. I began to work with one girl who couldn't think of something to write. We started to talk about what she did over the past weekend, and she decided to write about the games she played with her sister. I let her get started on her ideas and began to move on to other students in the room whom also needed help. It was when I was helping another student, when the parent volunteer who was also assisting in the room, tapped me on the shoulder and brought it to my attention that the first girl I had worked with was refusing to accept his help on her story and only wanted my help. While I was thankful this student was showing a need for my help and a want, I also felt that it could be hurtful to the student to neglect other forms of assistance as well. I went over to her, but before we got started I explained that I do like to help her, but there are lots of other students in the class that need help as well so sometimes its hard for the teacher to only stay with one student, and that when extra help is available it can be very good even if its not the person who you wanted. On the flip side though, I can understand why she felt that she needed my help. I started working with her from the beginning, so she felt comfortable with me since I was already familiar with her ideas. She probably thought someone else couldn't help her because they didn't know her story already. At this particular moment in the class there were three adults available to assist students who needed help. This is actually a very lucky circumstance compared to most classrooms that has just the teacher to provide support. I see that it can be hard for a child to seek help from someone they are not as comfortable with, but I also think it is important to teach children how to utilize their resources to the fullest potential. This is such an important life skill that can be shown even in first grade.

Button Button Who's Got the Button? 1-9-08

Today was the first time I have observed a math lesson in my field placement. Going into it, I was excited to observe Mrs. Johnson, see how she taught the class, and learn what unit the class was on. For me, math is my "most-feared" subject. It's funny because I always do fairly well in math in college and when I was in high school, but it definitely is not my favorite subject. I also say it is my "most-feared" subject because I have never taught math before, and it is the subject I am nervous to teach. Anyways.... Mrs. Johnson has the students walk into the room and sit down on the carpet. She tells them she has a secret number between 1 and 30. The students begin guessing and as they say their numbers Mrs. Johnson adapts her scale according to the guess for example, a student guesses 5. Mrs. Johnson would say, "My number is greater than 5, but still less than 30." Then a student would guess 19. She would say, "My number is less than 19, but greater than 5." And the students would have to adjust accordingly until someone would get it right. I really liked this short activity because it got the students attention, and it got them involved... EVERYONE wanted to guess!! And once Mrs. Johnson had the class' attention, she could introduce the activity for the day. On each student's desk there was a pile of buttons. They were asked to sort the buttons into two piles. One pile would have a "secret rule" and one pile would be the "not pile". A secret rule could be square buttons, two holes inside, round, etc., but the students were supposed to come up with their very own rule and sort accordingly. After the buttons were sorted, they were supposed to draw a representation of their two piles on a piece of paper and write down their rule. It was really interesting to me to see the variations between students and their "secret rules". Some kids came up with ideas I would have never thought of... buttons that were crooked, had ridges, string in the middle, and many more! It just shows the appreciation for a six-year-old's creativity.

First Day Back! 1-7-08

The first day back from a long vacation is always an exciting one. The students want to talk about what they did, where they went, and after a holiday, the presents they received. Well Mrs. Tazelaar's were no exception to this. They were full of stories and lists of their new presents. Mrs. Tazelaar gave them a few extra minutes during morning group time to share with the rest of the class, but then it was time to get back to business. The morning was spent mostly doing workshop. During workshop the students rotate through four centers that are mostly based around literacy. The workshop centers can also change from day to day. They include reading on the rug, partner reading, writing word wall words, puzzles, and the one that remains constant is reading with the teacher. Mrs. Tazelaar has the class divided into four groups that reflect students who are mostly on the same level for reading. This is the group the students travel with through the centers. Since this was the first day I was observing for literacy, I took the time to walk around and work with different students in each of the different centers. I really enjoyed sitting in on the center where the students read with Mrs. Tazelaar. Depending on the reading level the students interact with Mrs. Tazelaar in different ways. In the advanced group, the students start by sitting at the table and reading their chapter book to themselves. Then, Mrs. Tazelaar sits with one student at a time and has that student read a passage out loud to her. She then asks comprehension and decoding questions and works through the text with the student. When the student is done, she takes notes on what methods the student was using, what methods she used, what the student did well, and what they need to work on. I really enjoyed observing this because I was able to get inside Mrs. Tazelaar's head and find out her teaching method/thinking/rationale behind the activity. I saw this activity very useful in a few different ways. First, the record she keeps on each student is very handy in tracking progress and necessary to look back on when reassessing the students, filling out report cards, and talking to parents in conferences. Second, I saw this activity useful because it was a way for Mrs. Tazelaar to meet with each individual student during literacy time in a one-on-one setting. I am excited to see what is to come in the rest of the semester :)

Field Placement

I first want to start out by introducing my field placement. I am in a first grade classroom at Central Elementary School in Okemos. Our class has some diversity with students who come from places ranging from China, Burma, Nigeria, and the Middle East. We have a few ESL students in the class, whom I am thankful for the opportunity to work with and watch grow throughout the year. When I refer to my students I will only provide a first name for the privacy and protection of the students. I will introduce to you though, my CT (corresponding teacher), Mrs. Tazelaar. I could not have been blessed with a better CT. Mrs. Tazelaar graduated from the education program at Michigan State a few years ago, so she is good at providing sympathy and advice having gone through this experience herself... It also would be important to note the setup of the classroom. Mrs. Tazelaar team teaches with the other first grade teacher, Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Tazelaar's class and Mrs. Johnson's class switch room in the afternoons to have the other teacher do a different lesson with them. Mrs. Tazelaar does science and social studies with both classes and Mrs. Johnson always does math. This means that when Mrs. Tazelaar's student learn about math I will travel with them to Mrs. Johnson's class to observe the lesson. With that said, I will be writing my reflections on literacy and math here... along with some reflection on other subjects, classroom management, and anything else I find worth writing about....

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my TE 402 Blog. The purpose of this online journal is to track my progression through my very last teacher education course in my undergrad study at Michigan State... aww that kinda makes me sad, but I also feel a high sense of accomplishment as well. This is my last chance to prepare before moving into my student teaching during my internship, which will take place in the coming school year. I am very excited about graduating and earning my Education degree from Michigan State, but I also feel that the time has really snuck up on me and I'm not quite ready to leave. This feeling reminds me of when I first came to Michigan State as a freshman, in tears because I didn't want to leave home. Well now I have made this my new home, and now instead of being sad to come, I am sad to leave. Anyway... this blog will have posts that will talk about what I am learning in class and in the field. I also plan on reflecting on my field times here as well. I will tag the posts accordingly so I hope this blog will be easy to navigate. There are two components to the TE 402 course: math and literacy, although sometimes the two areas might intertwine I will also tag them separately for more convenience. I hope you enjoy reading, and please feel free to comment-- I love to get feedback and different opinions so don't be scared to share!! Thanks*