While researching school districts and individual schools for an upcoming career fair, I am once again reminded about my student teaching experiences. During student teaching I learned that it is not the students that you have that make your class but the environment of your room as well as the environment of the entire school. I want to work in a school that I am comfortable in and where I have friends. If the teachers are friendly and enjoy working with one another, even getting together outside of school, the atmosphere is much better and the students respond well to that. They enjoy seeing their teachers having fun together and being positive role models for making and maintaining friendships.
Also while searching Early Childhood centers I find that I am taken aback by the number of centers that boast direct instruction for 3 to 5 year olds. I continue to find myself being drawn more and more to Montessori schools, especially for early childhood because I find these classrooms more developmentally appropriate for that age. The Montessori classes also tend to be smaller and contain varied ages, much like the COC rooms.
The more I search for jobs within schools, the more particular I become. I am drawn to early childhood centers, especially the infant and toddler classes, that are accredited, inquiry-based, focused on the whole child, and that have positive atmospheres in which teachers enjoy being. The most important for me is inquiry-based learning focused on the whole child because I believe that is developmentally appropriate for early childhood. I prefer accredited centers because they typically have higher standards and have gone through the rigors of accreditation.
From this career fair, I hope to find a better understanding of what I want as an educator job-wise. I also hope to develop lasting connections with leaders and school districts in my area that could one day provide me with a job or link me to a job in another area. I have already begun my journey on discovering what I want out of a job, now I just need to find the right match in the right area. If anyone has any suggestions or more information on Montessori schools feel free to send it my way!! :)
Monday, April 30, 2012
Continuity of Care
These last four months I have been in Continuity of Care (COC) rooms and I thought I would share my reflections on a reading about COC rooms.
These rooms keep a group of children and their caregiver together until pre-school. The groups can be all the same age, or mixed ages like the rooms I have been in. Unlike traditional rooms when children move up when they are a certain age or reach a specific developmental milestone such as walking. This leads to detrimental transitions as much as every six months, requiring the child to rebuild trust and confidence with new caregivers and peers every transition.
The goal of COC rooms is to promote deep and secure attachments to develop between children and their caregivers, and also allows parents and caregivers to develop trusting relationships as well. Infants and toddlers greatly benefit from continuity with their caregivers because strong attachments are required for healthy brain development. The COC rooms resemble family care or nannies and allows bonds to form between caregivers and children, as well as between the children themselves. It is less stressful for the children because they do not have to worry about new transitions, places, or people, and are therefore free to learn and play at ease. COC rooms also provide parents with more comfort knowing that their children are safe with a trusted and known adult with whom they feel comfortable sharing their concerns. In multi-age rooms the children are more relaxed and calmer. They develop at their own pace but are also challenged by older peers and help to teach younger children. They learn caring behaviors and empathy as well as self-care. These behaviors are taught and learned more naturally in COC rooms than in traditional rooms because of the diversity of skills.
COC rooms also benefit the caregivers, giving them comfort knowing the children that will be in their classroom and how they behave and react to specific actions and stimuli.
For further reading about COC read NAEYC's publication Relationships, the Heart of Quality Care.
Baker, Amy C., and Lynn A. Petitt.Relationships, the heart of quality care: creating community among adults in early care settings. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2004. Print.
These rooms keep a group of children and their caregiver together until pre-school. The groups can be all the same age, or mixed ages like the rooms I have been in. Unlike traditional rooms when children move up when they are a certain age or reach a specific developmental milestone such as walking. This leads to detrimental transitions as much as every six months, requiring the child to rebuild trust and confidence with new caregivers and peers every transition.
The goal of COC rooms is to promote deep and secure attachments to develop between children and their caregivers, and also allows parents and caregivers to develop trusting relationships as well. Infants and toddlers greatly benefit from continuity with their caregivers because strong attachments are required for healthy brain development. The COC rooms resemble family care or nannies and allows bonds to form between caregivers and children, as well as between the children themselves. It is less stressful for the children because they do not have to worry about new transitions, places, or people, and are therefore free to learn and play at ease. COC rooms also provide parents with more comfort knowing that their children are safe with a trusted and known adult with whom they feel comfortable sharing their concerns. In multi-age rooms the children are more relaxed and calmer. They develop at their own pace but are also challenged by older peers and help to teach younger children. They learn caring behaviors and empathy as well as self-care. These behaviors are taught and learned more naturally in COC rooms than in traditional rooms because of the diversity of skills.
COC rooms also benefit the caregivers, giving them comfort knowing the children that will be in their classroom and how they behave and react to specific actions and stimuli.
For further reading about COC read NAEYC's publication Relationships, the Heart of Quality Care.
Baker, Amy C., and Lynn A. Petitt.Relationships, the heart of quality care: creating community among adults in early care settings. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2004. Print.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Realizations
Today while I was getting my hair cut, (I have a particularly chatty hairdresser) I came to the realization that there are many under-qualified daycares out there. She was telling me about her search for a place to take her 3 year-old daughter and about the experiences she had at church daycares and home daycare. She also informed me that the quality daycares were too expensive for her to afford on her daily tips (yes I give her 20% but that's still not enough). It made me realize that there is a large portion of children who are not receiving quality childcare, and it is not the lower income families, but in fact the working class who do not receive government aid. It breaks my heart that people like my hairdresser want the best for their children but actually make too much money to give them the quality education that they need. I also realized while she was trimming up my layers that I could never work for a child center that was not accredited. I have been in two NAEYC accredited child care facilities and I am familiar and accustomed to the rigorous standards that are held in these centers; it would be extremely difficult and annoying, if not repulsing, to me to be in a center that had not gone through accreditation, nor felt it necessary to keep high standards for the sake of the children that they care for and teach.
Reflective Teacher
It is necessary to reflect on yourself in any profession to assess how you are managing your tasks and to ensure quality work. This is especially true in education. The impact you make on your students, both positive and negative, lasts a lifetime. By reflecting on your actions, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, and lessons, you can assess yourself, your students, and your teaching style, and make critiques and modifications for the future. It also gives you insights about your dispositions as well as your students'. Below you will find some reflections I have made during my time at Ball State University in both university classes as well as in elementary and early childhood settings. (Sorry some of it is a bit lengthy.)
Fall 2008
Reflection on Service Experience
Artifact Description:
I have meditated on my service at Motivate Our Minds as a Girl Scout leader, including my views on handling a group of young girls and attempting to teach them new things in a fun environment.
Reflection:
I fulfilled my service hours at Motivate Our Minds (MOMs) where I am a Girl Scout leader for a group of eight girls aged 6 to 10 for one hour a week. Before I began this endeavor, I knew that this would be a very stressful and time-consuming task. I knew that there would be a lot of paperwork and that it would be difficult to maintain the interest of the girls. However, I do not think that I realized quite how difficult this task would be. The girls are usually very well behaved in the beginning but by the end of the hour they are hyper. I usually get frustrated at the end of the meeting and the girls begin to argue. I am learning many things from these girls. They taught me that in order to get them excited about something, I must first be excited about it and show them that I am excited. I plan on continuing my service here for the rest of the year and possibly next year. I have not yet been able to take them on a field trip or take them into the community because only half of them have returned their Girl Scout registration. However, I hope to have them sell cookies later on in the year.
The girls are slowly beginning to develop positive values, social competence, and positive identity. Through the Girl Scout Promise and Law, they learn about caring for each other, honesty, and most importantly respect. As a troop, we have been focusing on respecting each other. The girls often get into fights and mess with each other’s things. I try to stress respect as much as possible in the meeting, because without respect it is hard to have fun or learn anything. I have learned that the strongest way to teach the girls about these important lessons is to model them myself. Also going through the Promise and Law with the girls is very useful. I created an activity in which the girls draw out each part of the law with an example and then they explained it each other. It showed me what the girls understood and allowed me to teach them each individual part to make sure they really knew what it meant.
I now know that it is difficult to keep girls’ attention for an hour. I have discovered that I work better with one-on-one situations with the girls. It is difficult for me to keep the attention of all the girls at once. I need to work on establishing boundaries and expectations and maintaining order during the meetings. This may help me to hold their attention and allow them to have more fun during the meetings. I enjoy creating the meeting plans and choosing activities for the girls, especially crafts. I have also learned that the girls love to make crafts from food because they get to eat it afterwards.
Rationale:
After every meeting, I reviewed how the meeting went. I logged what I liked and what I disliked about the meeting and then I contemplated how I could improve myself as a leader. I then put those ideas into practice at the next meeting and then reviewed whether or not those tactics worked.
Spring 2009
After my teaching experience at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, Indiana, I reflected with other EDEL 200 students and also by myself on how well my lesson went. I then wrote a reflection, weighing my strengths and weaknesses during the lesson. I then contemplated how I could improve the lesson and myself as a teacher in the future. In addition, two current teachers gave me suggestions on how I could improve both the lesson and myself as a teacher.
In the future, my peers and bosses will periodically review me to ensure that I am teaching my students as best as I can. Reflecting back on my lessons will allow me to improve them for future students. Reviewing back on the day will allow me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and give me an opportunity to grow as an educator.
Fall 2010
Reflection on Practicum Experience
Artifact Description: This assignment is a representative plan to simulate an integrated unit for kindergarten children. Requirements of this assignment include a unit graphic, a rationale statement, activity plans and content area standards, supporting resources, and INTASC reflections specifically related to the unit plan.
Reflection:
I created this Integrated Unit Plan for Kindergarten students. These students were enrolled in a half-day program that primarily focused on mathematics and literacy skills. In order to address the other subject areas, we had to integrate them with math and literacy concepts. I chose a unit plan on weather and seasons because the weather in Indiana changes often and it was relevant to the students. Throughout this unit, the weather outside changed from snow and ice to rain to sunshine. As the weather outside was changing, the focus of the lessons inside changed as well.
I created a graphic of my unit using an online-based presentation software called Prezi. If you are not familiar with Prezi, I highly recommend it! It is fantastic and much more interactive and engaging than PowerPoint.
Spring 2011
As a practicum teacher in the Burris Kindergarten room, I reflected on all of the lessons that I taught, as well as some of the lessons that my colleagues taught. I wrote down my reflections in a journal and made notes on my lesson plans about what went well and what I should change in case I used them in the future. While observing other lessons, I found useful strategies for working with children and I implemented them in my own teaching philosophy, and I made note of strategies that did not work well. We discussed our lessons and what we observed in the classroom as a class as well.
Spring 2012 - Student Teaching
Artifact 1: Journal Reflections
Description:
Journals can help one keep track of reflections and experiences, as well as future suggestions if lessons are going to be taught again.
Analysis of what I learned: Even though you reflect mentally about your experiences everyday, recording them in a journal where you can look back and read them again and again has immense benefits. It allows you to see your progression over time as well and see what you still need to work on.
Demonstration of competence of INTASC 9:
I reflected upon my experiences in the classroom weekly. I recorded what I thought went well and what I thought could have gone better. I also took notes on what suggestions I received from other teachers and supervisors and I noted some things that I thought would improve my lessons or classroom management in the future.
Artifact 2: Observations of other teachers
Description: Observing other teachers and classrooms can help you develop more classroom management strategies as well as instructional strategies.
Analysis of what I learned I noted many great strategies that I now implement in my own lessons and classroom management. Observing others helps me to see how certain strategies can be carried out and how the students respond to them.
Demonstration of competence of INTASC 9: I have observed and taken notes on numerous teachers this semester, both in the grade levels I am currently teaching as well as some that I am not. I have taken some strategies that I have observed and use them daily with my current students.
Fall 2008
Reflection on Service Experience
Artifact Description:
I have meditated on my service at Motivate Our Minds as a Girl Scout leader, including my views on handling a group of young girls and attempting to teach them new things in a fun environment.
Reflection:
I fulfilled my service hours at Motivate Our Minds (MOMs) where I am a Girl Scout leader for a group of eight girls aged 6 to 10 for one hour a week. Before I began this endeavor, I knew that this would be a very stressful and time-consuming task. I knew that there would be a lot of paperwork and that it would be difficult to maintain the interest of the girls. However, I do not think that I realized quite how difficult this task would be. The girls are usually very well behaved in the beginning but by the end of the hour they are hyper. I usually get frustrated at the end of the meeting and the girls begin to argue. I am learning many things from these girls. They taught me that in order to get them excited about something, I must first be excited about it and show them that I am excited. I plan on continuing my service here for the rest of the year and possibly next year. I have not yet been able to take them on a field trip or take them into the community because only half of them have returned their Girl Scout registration. However, I hope to have them sell cookies later on in the year.
The girls are slowly beginning to develop positive values, social competence, and positive identity. Through the Girl Scout Promise and Law, they learn about caring for each other, honesty, and most importantly respect. As a troop, we have been focusing on respecting each other. The girls often get into fights and mess with each other’s things. I try to stress respect as much as possible in the meeting, because without respect it is hard to have fun or learn anything. I have learned that the strongest way to teach the girls about these important lessons is to model them myself. Also going through the Promise and Law with the girls is very useful. I created an activity in which the girls draw out each part of the law with an example and then they explained it each other. It showed me what the girls understood and allowed me to teach them each individual part to make sure they really knew what it meant.
I now know that it is difficult to keep girls’ attention for an hour. I have discovered that I work better with one-on-one situations with the girls. It is difficult for me to keep the attention of all the girls at once. I need to work on establishing boundaries and expectations and maintaining order during the meetings. This may help me to hold their attention and allow them to have more fun during the meetings. I enjoy creating the meeting plans and choosing activities for the girls, especially crafts. I have also learned that the girls love to make crafts from food because they get to eat it afterwards.
Rationale:
After every meeting, I reviewed how the meeting went. I logged what I liked and what I disliked about the meeting and then I contemplated how I could improve myself as a leader. I then put those ideas into practice at the next meeting and then reviewed whether or not those tactics worked.
Spring 2009
After my teaching experience at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, Indiana, I reflected with other EDEL 200 students and also by myself on how well my lesson went. I then wrote a reflection, weighing my strengths and weaknesses during the lesson. I then contemplated how I could improve the lesson and myself as a teacher in the future. In addition, two current teachers gave me suggestions on how I could improve both the lesson and myself as a teacher.
In the future, my peers and bosses will periodically review me to ensure that I am teaching my students as best as I can. Reflecting back on my lessons will allow me to improve them for future students. Reviewing back on the day will allow me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and give me an opportunity to grow as an educator.
Fall 2010
Reflection on Practicum Experience
Artifact Description: This assignment is a representative plan to simulate an integrated unit for kindergarten children. Requirements of this assignment include a unit graphic, a rationale statement, activity plans and content area standards, supporting resources, and INTASC reflections specifically related to the unit plan.
Reflection:
I created this Integrated Unit Plan for Kindergarten students. These students were enrolled in a half-day program that primarily focused on mathematics and literacy skills. In order to address the other subject areas, we had to integrate them with math and literacy concepts. I chose a unit plan on weather and seasons because the weather in Indiana changes often and it was relevant to the students. Throughout this unit, the weather outside changed from snow and ice to rain to sunshine. As the weather outside was changing, the focus of the lessons inside changed as well.
I created a graphic of my unit using an online-based presentation software called Prezi. If you are not familiar with Prezi, I highly recommend it! It is fantastic and much more interactive and engaging than PowerPoint.
http://prezi.com/i_vtyuj8ruwy/edel-351-integrated-unit-plan/
As a practicum teacher in the Burris Kindergarten room, I reflected on all of the lessons that I taught, as well as some of the lessons that my colleagues taught. I wrote down my reflections in a journal and made notes on my lesson plans about what went well and what I should change in case I used them in the future. While observing other lessons, I found useful strategies for working with children and I implemented them in my own teaching philosophy, and I made note of strategies that did not work well. We discussed our lessons and what we observed in the classroom as a class as well.
Spring 2012 - Student Teaching
Artifact 1: Journal Reflections
Description:
Journals can help one keep track of reflections and experiences, as well as future suggestions if lessons are going to be taught again.
Analysis of what I learned: Even though you reflect mentally about your experiences everyday, recording them in a journal where you can look back and read them again and again has immense benefits. It allows you to see your progression over time as well and see what you still need to work on.
Demonstration of competence of INTASC 9:
I reflected upon my experiences in the classroom weekly. I recorded what I thought went well and what I thought could have gone better. I also took notes on what suggestions I received from other teachers and supervisors and I noted some things that I thought would improve my lessons or classroom management in the future.
Artifact 2: Observations of other teachers
Description: Observing other teachers and classrooms can help you develop more classroom management strategies as well as instructional strategies.
Analysis of what I learned I noted many great strategies that I now implement in my own lessons and classroom management. Observing others helps me to see how certain strategies can be carried out and how the students respond to them.
Demonstration of competence of INTASC 9: I have observed and taken notes on numerous teachers this semester, both in the grade levels I am currently teaching as well as some that I am not. I have taken some strategies that I have observed and use them daily with my current students.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Knowledge of Content
Knowledge of content is a huge part of being a teacher. The teacher must know the content herself before she can be expected to explain, demonstrate, or guide her students to understanding the concepts as well. Here is a journey of my experience with knowledge of content through my college career.
Spring 2009
As a student in EDEL 200, I taught a lesson to second grade students at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, IN on the relationships of time. In order to write my lesson plan, I first had to research the topic. Once I had gathered all of my materials, I taught myself the content so that I knew it from memory. I then created the lesson and brainstormed ways to apply it to the students’ lives, such as using a calendar to figure out on what day their birthdays will be and how long daily activities will take. In addition to memorizing the units of time and how time was measured, I also learned about clocks and calendars. This additional information was helpful when explaining why clocks and calendars are used to measure time. It was also useful as supporting material in the extension of the lesson.
As a future educator, I will be creating and teaching many lessons. I must research and acquire vast but specific knowledge about each of these lessons to effectively instruct my students. Also, if I teach a lesson more than one year, each year I must research and look for updated information and check my current lesson for outdated or incorrect information. This is a very important aspect of preparation for a lesson and will allow the lesson run smoothly if the content is known thoroughly.
Spring 2011
As a practicum teacher in the Burris Kindergarten room, I researched all of my topics before I taught them to ensure that I knew the material well enough to teach it. Many times students asked questions that I did not expect them to, but since I researched it beforehand, I was able to answer the questions correctly and intelligently. I was also able to present the material in a meaningful way to the students. Some content areas have specific structures and tools of inquiry that are most effective, such as experimentation in science. Most content areas are most effective if there are hands-on materials or manipulatives for the students to manipulate. My teaching style also changed depending on what subject I was teaching. For science, I was more of a facilitator, while for mathematics, I was an informer who explicitly taught the concept. Each subject requires a different teaching style to a certain extent. It is important to know the material as well as the most effective way to teach it to your students.
Spring 2012 - Student Teaching
Every subject has specific features that go along with it. For example, history has timelines, science has microscopes and experiments, writing has a process, and math has charts and graphs. It is necessary for teachers and students to know and understand how to use these features in order to interact with and learn the material.
Artifact 1:
Writing Process
Description:
I taught and used the writing process to the students so they could produce a formal narrative. They went through the pre-writing process, created a rough draft, edited, revised, and published their narrative. I provided support during the editing and revising process through the use of an editing checklist as well as an anchor chart explaining what the difference was between edit and revise.
Analysis of what I learned:
I actually had to research what the difference was between editing and revising because I had not been taught that. Knowing the difference and how the writing process worked helped me to scaffold their writing and improve on it. The more that they understood the functions and why we were going through all of these steps, the better their writing became; it also became easier for them.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content:
When teaching a subject you must know and research the aspects of that subject in order to effectively teach the material. I had to know and understand the writing process myself before I could teach it. Without the writing process, understanding how to read and write become difficult. Using the writing process and going through it step-by-step allows the students to understand each aspect of the writing and develop good habits when not only writing but reading.
Artifact 2: Sorting
Description:
In the Kindergarten classroom I taught multiple lessons over sorting. Instead of telling the students how to sort I gave them a variety of materials and told them to put the material into piles by a specific characteristic that they chose, such as color, shape, or size. By doing this they learned from the experience and not by direct instruction.
Analysis of what I learned: I noticed as I monitored their sorting techniques that they were sorting by color and then by size. Some sorted into shiny and not shiny. Others sorted by type. By intentionally not telling them how to sort I could tell what they already knew about sorting. I also found out that there are some concepts that you cannot teach directly but that you must use experiments to learn them.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content: Sorting is just one of the many topics that require experimentation and hands-on material. I provided many different types of objects for the students to sort on many different occasions. They sorted buttons, pasta, animals, blocks, cubes, cars, and insects. They also sorted individually and in groups to help their social skills as well as to help each other understand the concepts of sorting.
Artifact 3: Fact Sheet
Description:
In many of my lessons I created a fact sheet containing background research that I had compiled to ensure that I knew the content and could answer any possible questions that my students had.
Analysis of what I learned: I noticed that as I was teaching I would delve more in-depth with the concepts because I had done that research ahead of time. I would find myself explaining some of the more complex ideas and concepts to the students, even the toddlers.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content: Below is a fact sheet from my early childhood experience from a lesson on magnets. I found myself explaining to the toddlers why the magnet would stick to the chenille stick but not to their shoes or the shelf.
Spring 2009
As a student in EDEL 200, I taught a lesson to second grade students at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, IN on the relationships of time. In order to write my lesson plan, I first had to research the topic. Once I had gathered all of my materials, I taught myself the content so that I knew it from memory. I then created the lesson and brainstormed ways to apply it to the students’ lives, such as using a calendar to figure out on what day their birthdays will be and how long daily activities will take. In addition to memorizing the units of time and how time was measured, I also learned about clocks and calendars. This additional information was helpful when explaining why clocks and calendars are used to measure time. It was also useful as supporting material in the extension of the lesson.
As a future educator, I will be creating and teaching many lessons. I must research and acquire vast but specific knowledge about each of these lessons to effectively instruct my students. Also, if I teach a lesson more than one year, each year I must research and look for updated information and check my current lesson for outdated or incorrect information. This is a very important aspect of preparation for a lesson and will allow the lesson run smoothly if the content is known thoroughly.
Spring 2011
As a practicum teacher in the Burris Kindergarten room, I researched all of my topics before I taught them to ensure that I knew the material well enough to teach it. Many times students asked questions that I did not expect them to, but since I researched it beforehand, I was able to answer the questions correctly and intelligently. I was also able to present the material in a meaningful way to the students. Some content areas have specific structures and tools of inquiry that are most effective, such as experimentation in science. Most content areas are most effective if there are hands-on materials or manipulatives for the students to manipulate. My teaching style also changed depending on what subject I was teaching. For science, I was more of a facilitator, while for mathematics, I was an informer who explicitly taught the concept. Each subject requires a different teaching style to a certain extent. It is important to know the material as well as the most effective way to teach it to your students.
Spring 2012 - Student Teaching
Every subject has specific features that go along with it. For example, history has timelines, science has microscopes and experiments, writing has a process, and math has charts and graphs. It is necessary for teachers and students to know and understand how to use these features in order to interact with and learn the material.
Artifact 1:
Writing Process
Description:
I taught and used the writing process to the students so they could produce a formal narrative. They went through the pre-writing process, created a rough draft, edited, revised, and published their narrative. I provided support during the editing and revising process through the use of an editing checklist as well as an anchor chart explaining what the difference was between edit and revise.
Analysis of what I learned:
I actually had to research what the difference was between editing and revising because I had not been taught that. Knowing the difference and how the writing process worked helped me to scaffold their writing and improve on it. The more that they understood the functions and why we were going through all of these steps, the better their writing became; it also became easier for them.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content:
When teaching a subject you must know and research the aspects of that subject in order to effectively teach the material. I had to know and understand the writing process myself before I could teach it. Without the writing process, understanding how to read and write become difficult. Using the writing process and going through it step-by-step allows the students to understand each aspect of the writing and develop good habits when not only writing but reading.
Artifact 2: Sorting
Description:
In the Kindergarten classroom I taught multiple lessons over sorting. Instead of telling the students how to sort I gave them a variety of materials and told them to put the material into piles by a specific characteristic that they chose, such as color, shape, or size. By doing this they learned from the experience and not by direct instruction.
Analysis of what I learned: I noticed as I monitored their sorting techniques that they were sorting by color and then by size. Some sorted into shiny and not shiny. Others sorted by type. By intentionally not telling them how to sort I could tell what they already knew about sorting. I also found out that there are some concepts that you cannot teach directly but that you must use experiments to learn them.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content: Sorting is just one of the many topics that require experimentation and hands-on material. I provided many different types of objects for the students to sort on many different occasions. They sorted buttons, pasta, animals, blocks, cubes, cars, and insects. They also sorted individually and in groups to help their social skills as well as to help each other understand the concepts of sorting.
Artifact 3: Fact Sheet
Description:
In many of my lessons I created a fact sheet containing background research that I had compiled to ensure that I knew the content and could answer any possible questions that my students had.
Analysis of what I learned: I noticed that as I was teaching I would delve more in-depth with the concepts because I had done that research ahead of time. I would find myself explaining some of the more complex ideas and concepts to the students, even the toddlers.
Demonstration of competence of Knowledge of Content: Below is a fact sheet from my early childhood experience from a lesson on magnets. I found myself explaining to the toddlers why the magnet would stick to the chenille stick but not to their shoes or the shelf.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
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