Well I certainly did not plan to have to review as much as we had to today involving pennies and nickels. I planned to quickly review and work more with dimes but they seemed to need a lot of reinforcement after the week’s break. So I decided to settle down and make sure the students have a thorough understanding of pennies and nickels before moving on. Today I had separate stacks of pennies and nickels and gave the students two bowls to separate the two different coins. That seemed easy enough but then I had them work in groups and one student would trade 5 pennies for 1 nickel from the other student. They continued this activity until they had traded all their coins. It seemed to really be working so I sort of turned it into a race to see who could trade all their coins first. It got very exciting and a little wild but very worthwhile.
After a lot of thought I have decided that I still have a lot of great activities involving money that I would like to do. So I am going to pick out a much simpler activity to use for the videotape and then continue on with this unit for the next couple of weeks. I don’t feel comfortable jamming all the activities in this week just so I can videotape the certain activity that I wanted to. I will still follow my inquiry plan but it will be on a lower level that what I had planned. I hope as teachers everyone will understand the need to be flexible and adapt the plan to best fit the student’s needs.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Engaging in Inquiry Plan Week 2
It has been a busy, busy week at Owen Co. Primary School. We give a practice test which gives lots of pertinent information as to how students will score on “the big test” at the end of the year as well as it being the week before spring break. It was difficult getting my lessons in, in order to stay on schedule with finishing my video.
I started from scratch with sorting and examining pennies and nickels. We did crayon rubbings of each side of the coin. This activity was a big hit with the kids! After deciding they could really identify these coins we moved on to counting pennies. One day I had index cards with values between 1 and 8 cents written on them. They would take turns drawing cards and counting out the correct number of pennies. As they successfully completed pennies we continued the activity with nickels. The students are making great progress and really understanding the value of pennies and nickels. Trading in pennies for nickels still seems to be difficult. They still like to have more coins (5 pennies) that to have 1 nickel.
I also have a problem of the day and as students enter they room we quickly solve this problem as a group. Quickly is the word since I only have a brief time with these groups daily. I still have a ton of activities I can do working with money. I am a little stressed about finishing this unit and getting the video done by the deadline but I seem to work well under pressure.
It has been a great Easter starting the day with church activities and lunch with family. I am working on this as we are driving to Blowing Rock, NC to visit my husband’s family. I think most of you have already had spring break so you know how it feels to have a much needed break. I plan on shopping, relaxing and eating a lot of good food. Then it is back to work for 8 more weeks after I get back. Have a great week!
I started from scratch with sorting and examining pennies and nickels. We did crayon rubbings of each side of the coin. This activity was a big hit with the kids! After deciding they could really identify these coins we moved on to counting pennies. One day I had index cards with values between 1 and 8 cents written on them. They would take turns drawing cards and counting out the correct number of pennies. As they successfully completed pennies we continued the activity with nickels. The students are making great progress and really understanding the value of pennies and nickels. Trading in pennies for nickels still seems to be difficult. They still like to have more coins (5 pennies) that to have 1 nickel.
I also have a problem of the day and as students enter they room we quickly solve this problem as a group. Quickly is the word since I only have a brief time with these groups daily. I still have a ton of activities I can do working with money. I am a little stressed about finishing this unit and getting the video done by the deadline but I seem to work well under pressure.
It has been a great Easter starting the day with church activities and lunch with family. I am working on this as we are driving to Blowing Rock, NC to visit my husband’s family. I think most of you have already had spring break so you know how it feels to have a much needed break. I plan on shopping, relaxing and eating a lot of good food. Then it is back to work for 8 more weeks after I get back. Have a great week!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Engaging in Inquiry Plan
Much of my work on the inquiry plan this past week was talking with teachers about specific needs, searching the internet and gathering materials. Also everyday in small groups I would orally assess students to see exactly where they were and what specific skills (involving money) they have not mastered. So now I have a clear idea of how I am going to execute my plan. I have found a lot of good activities on the internet and resources from teachers. I found an intervention kit in one teacher’s room that she didn’t even know she had. It had awesome ideas and goes right along with the math curriculum.
So this week was basically reviewing with the kids and organizing things so I can start using the activities this week. Money is such a hard concept for kindergarten students to grasp that I am really anxious to see how this plan will improve their skills. I have found so many resources that it is going to be hard to get them all in before taping. Oh well, I am sure as it goes along I will be able to cut out or shorten some activities. I would really like to get a lot done this week so I will be ready to video toward the end of the week after spring break.
I should have more time now that my Kentucky Wildcats got beat out of the tournament. It was a sad night last night in the Gill household.:( It has been so much fun watching them play this year.
So this week was basically reviewing with the kids and organizing things so I can start using the activities this week. Money is such a hard concept for kindergarten students to grasp that I am really anxious to see how this plan will improve their skills. I have found so many resources that it is going to be hard to get them all in before taping. Oh well, I am sure as it goes along I will be able to cut out or shorten some activities. I would really like to get a lot done this week so I will be ready to video toward the end of the week after spring break.
I should have more time now that my Kentucky Wildcats got beat out of the tournament. It was a sad night last night in the Gill household.:( It has been so much fun watching them play this year.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Task Five:Deeper Thinking about Domain One
I spent way too much time trying to find just the right article and video to watch that might relate to my classroom situation. In doing so I read many interesting, informative articles and watched several videos. Probably the most interesting were articles about using video games to motivate students to want to learn and the depth of knowledge they can gain. Games have also proven to lower violence, improve school culture and improve quality of education. If you get a chance, they were quite enlightening especially for high school teachers.
The article How Should We Measure Student Learning? The Many Forms of Assessment contends that assessment is the heart of education. This is sad but true. Instruction is driven by testing in our school district. The article was so true in saying that teachers and parents use scores to gauge student’s academic strengths. The quality of the education system is judged by the community by looking at assessments scores. Many good points stood out in this article such as teachers teaching to the test at the expense of more meaningful learning activities. I don’t know how many times I have to cover certain material so the students will be prepared for the test instead of doing other beneficial activities that would probably better prepare them for life. The Edutopia staff emphasizes that standardized testing does not teach teamwork, collaboration, and moral character that will make a literate 21st century citizen. Ultimately this should be our goal as educators. As more districts experiment with project learning, etc. hopefully the ideas will spread throughout education that standardized testing is not the way to go.
The video I watched reiterated the ideas and concepts of the article. Some of the key terms I jotted down while watching included students being over tested and under examined. Standardized testing shows little indication of what kids can do in the real world. I scanned numerous blogs and found much of the same information. So it seems most agree on assessment issues. It just seems we don’t know how to come together to fix the problem that would make students better prepared for life. It is encouraging to know that steps are being made in the right direction.
It is hard for me to answer how this fits into my classroom. For those of you that don’t know, I mostly do data collection and analysis for grades K-5. I only teach 1 hour a day involving math intervention. And some days ironically I am assisting teachers with other tasks such as helping prepare students for the upcoming GRADE test which measures reading/comprehension skills. So I am starting to find it difficult when trying to relate these concepts and ideas into my instruction. It concerns me trying to decide on an inquiry plan. Hopefully through more research and my group member’s recommendations it will all fall into place. Dr. Clarke-thanks for your suggestion about developing a resource binder. Now I just need to pick a topic.
The article How Should We Measure Student Learning? The Many Forms of Assessment contends that assessment is the heart of education. This is sad but true. Instruction is driven by testing in our school district. The article was so true in saying that teachers and parents use scores to gauge student’s academic strengths. The quality of the education system is judged by the community by looking at assessments scores. Many good points stood out in this article such as teachers teaching to the test at the expense of more meaningful learning activities. I don’t know how many times I have to cover certain material so the students will be prepared for the test instead of doing other beneficial activities that would probably better prepare them for life. The Edutopia staff emphasizes that standardized testing does not teach teamwork, collaboration, and moral character that will make a literate 21st century citizen. Ultimately this should be our goal as educators. As more districts experiment with project learning, etc. hopefully the ideas will spread throughout education that standardized testing is not the way to go.
The video I watched reiterated the ideas and concepts of the article. Some of the key terms I jotted down while watching included students being over tested and under examined. Standardized testing shows little indication of what kids can do in the real world. I scanned numerous blogs and found much of the same information. So it seems most agree on assessment issues. It just seems we don’t know how to come together to fix the problem that would make students better prepared for life. It is encouraging to know that steps are being made in the right direction.
It is hard for me to answer how this fits into my classroom. For those of you that don’t know, I mostly do data collection and analysis for grades K-5. I only teach 1 hour a day involving math intervention. And some days ironically I am assisting teachers with other tasks such as helping prepare students for the upcoming GRADE test which measures reading/comprehension skills. So I am starting to find it difficult when trying to relate these concepts and ideas into my instruction. It concerns me trying to decide on an inquiry plan. Hopefully through more research and my group member’s recommendations it will all fall into place. Dr. Clarke-thanks for your suggestion about developing a resource binder. Now I just need to pick a topic.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Task Four: Instuction Domains of Professional Practice
After a lot of thought and rereading information on the 4 domains, I chose Domain 1 to research at a deeper level. I am finding it difficult to pick a domain because of the type of work I do which involves very little classroom work. Since I really don’t know for sure what position I will have next year I chose this domain because I think I could utilize this information especially if I am in a classroom.
I am most comfortable with Component 1b…demonstrating knowledge of students. As Danielson says in chapter 4 on this component, he stresses that part of knowing students is knowing which ones require additional assistance in learning parts of the curriculum or which ones must demonstrate knowledge in unique ways. I interact with most of my student’s families which enlightens me in many ways about the student. The students are also assessed at least every 6 weeks or sooner so this also gives updated data to better group the students and reteach certain skills. So I feel I have this component covered from all areas.
I believe that component 1a…knowledge of content and pedagogy is most strongly tied to instruction. Let’s face it, if a teacher doesn’t know the content it would be impossible to have a successful classroom where learning takes place. A statement from the book was “A person cannot teach what he or she does not know.” So I firmly believe this component is strongly tied to instruction.
I would like to focus on component 1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources. While I have ample resources that go along with the curriculum, I know there is a world of information and activities out there to reteach certain concepts that I am not aware of. Danielson says that when teachers are aware of this wide range of resources, they can plan instruction to incorporate the resources into their teaching. This leads back to Domain 1:Planning and Preparation which I would like to focus on. Right now planning and preparation is done with 2 other interventionists. We follow the curriculum but we also discuss activities that worked and what didn’t and supplement with new ideas. We have common planning on Fridays which certainly helps in preparing for the next week.
From my group members I would like to know any useful resources you might use in your classroom to enhance learning in small intervention groups. Hopefully I will learn many throughout this course but I thought you might have a resource that I could use right away. It would mainly be for reteaching kindergarten math skills.
I am most comfortable with Component 1b…demonstrating knowledge of students. As Danielson says in chapter 4 on this component, he stresses that part of knowing students is knowing which ones require additional assistance in learning parts of the curriculum or which ones must demonstrate knowledge in unique ways. I interact with most of my student’s families which enlightens me in many ways about the student. The students are also assessed at least every 6 weeks or sooner so this also gives updated data to better group the students and reteach certain skills. So I feel I have this component covered from all areas.
I believe that component 1a…knowledge of content and pedagogy is most strongly tied to instruction. Let’s face it, if a teacher doesn’t know the content it would be impossible to have a successful classroom where learning takes place. A statement from the book was “A person cannot teach what he or she does not know.” So I firmly believe this component is strongly tied to instruction.
I would like to focus on component 1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources. While I have ample resources that go along with the curriculum, I know there is a world of information and activities out there to reteach certain concepts that I am not aware of. Danielson says that when teachers are aware of this wide range of resources, they can plan instruction to incorporate the resources into their teaching. This leads back to Domain 1:Planning and Preparation which I would like to focus on. Right now planning and preparation is done with 2 other interventionists. We follow the curriculum but we also discuss activities that worked and what didn’t and supplement with new ideas. We have common planning on Fridays which certainly helps in preparing for the next week.
From my group members I would like to know any useful resources you might use in your classroom to enhance learning in small intervention groups. Hopefully I will learn many throughout this course but I thought you might have a resource that I could use right away. It would mainly be for reteaching kindergarten math skills.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Task Two:Enacting Curriculum
First let me say that I love snow! I love snow days! And if it is going to be cold, it might as well snow! My kids love it and so do I! Sleigh riding, snowman building and snowball fights are favorite activities at our house. I am also looking forward to the Super Bowl tomorrow and hoping for a snow day on Monday because we will be up late. Now I will try to refocus my mind to comment on curriculum. Enjoy the weekend!
While recalling the articles for this week’s readings I am pondering on what the purpose of curriculum is and what role do teachers have in this purpose? My first thought is that teachers have a huge role in the purpose of curriculum whether we like it or not. In the Morey Schwartz article, he states that all curricular materials are subject to the interpretation and individual application of the teacher. Wow…what pressure that places on we the teachers! The purpose of curriculum revolves around the student and is used by the teacher to organize the year in order for the students to cover the necessary material. As the article, “Put Understanding First” states that curriculum is not just about covering material but preparing students for the world beyond school allowing them to apply their learned skills to issues and problems they will face in the future.
In considering how much control we have in designing the curriculum, I have to say we have very little control. Up to this point teachers in our district have been encouraged to follow the curriculum that has been laid out for them. It seems the administration likes this tool to help evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher. Change is in progress where a new curriculum coach is encouraging teachers to branch out and find new ways to enhance learning while still using the curriculum as a guide. Ultimately the teacher should have a lot of control in designing the curriculum since they live it day to day and are aware of the changes that need to be made in order for all students to be successful. A lot of documents look great on paper but the execution of those plans depends on the intuition and insight of the teacher of what works and what doesn’t.
It is hard to say what curriculum looks like in my classroom since I have students for very short periods of intense instruction. Curriculum throughout the school in which I teach and which my own kids attend seems to be quite rigid. Teachers are expected to finish certain units in a given nine weeks in order to cover all material in the curriculum for the year. Hopefully our school is beginning to move toward some of the advanced new ideas in curriculum design. I feel we have a successful curriculum in place but the different approaches and expectations I read about in these articles reiterates that we need to be more flexible to individualize the curriculum to make our students more successful after graduation.
While recalling the articles for this week’s readings I am pondering on what the purpose of curriculum is and what role do teachers have in this purpose? My first thought is that teachers have a huge role in the purpose of curriculum whether we like it or not. In the Morey Schwartz article, he states that all curricular materials are subject to the interpretation and individual application of the teacher. Wow…what pressure that places on we the teachers! The purpose of curriculum revolves around the student and is used by the teacher to organize the year in order for the students to cover the necessary material. As the article, “Put Understanding First” states that curriculum is not just about covering material but preparing students for the world beyond school allowing them to apply their learned skills to issues and problems they will face in the future.
In considering how much control we have in designing the curriculum, I have to say we have very little control. Up to this point teachers in our district have been encouraged to follow the curriculum that has been laid out for them. It seems the administration likes this tool to help evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher. Change is in progress where a new curriculum coach is encouraging teachers to branch out and find new ways to enhance learning while still using the curriculum as a guide. Ultimately the teacher should have a lot of control in designing the curriculum since they live it day to day and are aware of the changes that need to be made in order for all students to be successful. A lot of documents look great on paper but the execution of those plans depends on the intuition and insight of the teacher of what works and what doesn’t.
It is hard to say what curriculum looks like in my classroom since I have students for very short periods of intense instruction. Curriculum throughout the school in which I teach and which my own kids attend seems to be quite rigid. Teachers are expected to finish certain units in a given nine weeks in order to cover all material in the curriculum for the year. Hopefully our school is beginning to move toward some of the advanced new ideas in curriculum design. I feel we have a successful curriculum in place but the different approaches and expectations I read about in these articles reiterates that we need to be more flexible to individualize the curriculum to make our students more successful after graduation.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Task One:Curriculum Design
It is quite intriguing to think about why we need to consider curriculum since our school district is hard at work trying to decide the best approach to align the curriculum throughout grades K-12. As teachers, curriculum is important because we need a purpose for what we are teaching and why is it important. It also serves as guidelines to follow to make sure we are covering the necessary material at a reasonable pace in order to cover all material required for the year. As administrators, curriculum provides guidelines to follow to monitor teacher’s progress and it also serves as an accountability tool.
I found it difficult to respond to the model of curriculum that best fits my current role. I reread areas of Applebee’s article several times trying to find which style my job relates to. I finally decided that in teaching small group math intervention, the catalog structure seems to fit the description. Since I have a short period of time with these students each day, memorization and recitation is really the only approach to use in this situation. I realize this may not seem like the best option but my job is to teach them the facts so hopefully the classroom teacher can use different techniques and different curriculum strategies to build knowledge from one content area to another. I also consider my position as being a closed conversation model.. again having such a young age and so little time we can’t participate with equal status and have meaningful conversation. My groups closely fit the definition of one part (me) as being higher in status directly instructing the lower (students).
It seems that the episodic model best fits the definition for an effective curriculum. This model encourages conversation where students learn more and have a deeper understanding of material. So naturally this model seems ideal but do schools/teachers really use this model on a consistent basis?
While reading and contemplating on Wiggin’s article on trying to teach everything of importance, the same thoughts kept running through my head. What could modern curriculum look like? As Wiggins continually stresses the importance of questioning and students being comfortable doing so, this would be a necessary place to begin. The direction of the courses would be on the foundation of student questioning. The “so called lesson plans” would not be the basis for instruction. Teachers and students would have to be flexible to go where the questioning leads within boundaries of the content area. A modern curriculum would allow students to use prior knowledge, hands on activities, and newly acquired knowledge together to prepare them for life after high school. They would not be strapped to the contents of a textbook and could move at a pace that best suits the class. Open communication would be a key concept in succeeding in a modern curriculum.
It seems obvious to me that a new approach to curriculum would be ideal. Although it can be comfortable having a scope and sequence, lesson plans, etc. to rely on, moving toward new ways of helping students succeed in life is essential. While there are lots of successful students graduating, there are also lots of students who are not. This tells me that a more modern curriculum might enable a larger population of students to excel during and after high school.
I found it difficult to respond to the model of curriculum that best fits my current role. I reread areas of Applebee’s article several times trying to find which style my job relates to. I finally decided that in teaching small group math intervention, the catalog structure seems to fit the description. Since I have a short period of time with these students each day, memorization and recitation is really the only approach to use in this situation. I realize this may not seem like the best option but my job is to teach them the facts so hopefully the classroom teacher can use different techniques and different curriculum strategies to build knowledge from one content area to another. I also consider my position as being a closed conversation model.. again having such a young age and so little time we can’t participate with equal status and have meaningful conversation. My groups closely fit the definition of one part (me) as being higher in status directly instructing the lower (students).
It seems that the episodic model best fits the definition for an effective curriculum. This model encourages conversation where students learn more and have a deeper understanding of material. So naturally this model seems ideal but do schools/teachers really use this model on a consistent basis?
While reading and contemplating on Wiggin’s article on trying to teach everything of importance, the same thoughts kept running through my head. What could modern curriculum look like? As Wiggins continually stresses the importance of questioning and students being comfortable doing so, this would be a necessary place to begin. The direction of the courses would be on the foundation of student questioning. The “so called lesson plans” would not be the basis for instruction. Teachers and students would have to be flexible to go where the questioning leads within boundaries of the content area. A modern curriculum would allow students to use prior knowledge, hands on activities, and newly acquired knowledge together to prepare them for life after high school. They would not be strapped to the contents of a textbook and could move at a pace that best suits the class. Open communication would be a key concept in succeeding in a modern curriculum.
It seems obvious to me that a new approach to curriculum would be ideal. Although it can be comfortable having a scope and sequence, lesson plans, etc. to rely on, moving toward new ways of helping students succeed in life is essential. While there are lots of successful students graduating, there are also lots of students who are not. This tells me that a more modern curriculum might enable a larger population of students to excel during and after high school.
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