Bear Creek Elementary Observation

What were the objectives of this lesson? How well do you think your students understood the overall purpose and relevance of the lesson? (APS 4.A–C)

How successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for them to learn? How do you know?

Starting my opening school experience I was nervous. I could not eat or sleep the day before. I woke up bright and early to arrive at Woodland Middle School by 7:30am only to find out the school did not open up till 8:30am. I was not upset that I got there so early, and in fact, it was a great because I got a chance to get familiar with the school and its principal, Dr. J. Stamper. Woodland Middle school is located behind Camp Creek and is on Stone Rd. Their colors are blue and gold. The mascots of the school are the Wolverines. Woodland’s mission statement: “Woodland Middle School is on the P.R.O.W.L. I am a Problem Solver Recognizing Opportunities, and I am Willing to become a Life Long Learner.” (Woodland, 2015)

During our second Bear Creek visit, I observed the English Language Arts Professional Learning Community also known as ELA. When I first heard about the PLC, I was surprised because it is a brilliant concept. I never knew this existed. The English Language Arts PLC ran smoothly because the teacher that was presenting knew the standard she was going to focus on and how she was going to present the content to the students. All of the ELA teachers also had a schedule about how the meeting was going to flow so that no one was confused. They also used technology to present the standards and the content so that all of the teachers could see and make suggestions and ask questions. One teacher was questioned about why she chose a particular book

For this observation, I was in Mrs. Dye’s 5th grade math class when the students were learning how to add and subtract decimals. Mrs. Dye started the class with having the students write a math prompt about explaining how to add decimals. After about 5 minutes she asked one of the students to read their prompt out loud to the class. Then the class were told to work out the daily question and it was about adding decimals. She asked another student to come and work the problem out on the smart board and to explain it step by step. Then Mrs. Dye would read problems out of a work book that she would ask the students to work out on their own sheet of paper, but then ask other students to work them out on the board again explaining the problem step

The last part of the math lesson was Math Workshop. It was split into three groups consisting of 1)Dreambox, 2)Arrays with the teacher, and 3)Elapsed time with Miss Muskelly. Teacher allowed me to work with students on elapsed time because her assistant never showed up. I was very fortunate to be able to work hands on with the students and learned a lot about their personalities as well as their learning needs from the experience. For future reference, I know which students can work without a lot of supervision and those that need to have someone making sure they are on task at all

This morning was very interesting in Mrs. Ferguson’s class. Before the students arrived, Mrs. Ferguson and I talked about how we can help the student I have been working one-on-one with. The student does not know her teen numbers and we think it is some type of language issue because if you ask to find the number, she doesn’t have a problem, but if you hold up the number, she cannot tell you which number it is. We talked about reaching out to her parents and former school to see if she had any issues in kindergarten when it came to learning numbers. Once students started arriving in the classroom, we stopped talking about the issue and greeted the students.

During my student teaching experience at Jefferson Elementary School, I had the pleasure of observing two sixth grade classes. I was able to learn from Ms. Much while observing her social studies lesson about Greek Mythology. In Ms. Heartman’s class, I got to observe the collaborative math curriculum. This experience opened up my eyes to how rewarding teaching sixth grade is. Before observing, I was hesitant as to whether or not I would have the knowledge and qualifications to teach an upper elementary grade. After working with both of these wonderful teachers, they showed me

In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for them to learn? How do you know?

However, it was a much needed lesson. I saw many lights go off when Ms. Marquez was asking them questions like, “How many feet are in 48 inches?” Many students were engaged and raising their hands. Most students remembered how to do their conversions. They were able to explain with words how 1 foot was equal to 12 inches and therefore 12 times 4 was 48. They then had to make the make division problem when we said 5/6 year = x months. One student was even able to identify that she could find the lowest common denominator and multiply both the numerator and the denominator to get 10/12. She then said that the answer was 10 months because 10 was the part and 12 was the whole. This student was able to share her thinking with the class and was praised by the teacher. As part of their motivation for learning the teacher showed the students a video about a teacher that makes math lessons fun and solves math application problems with his

One of the most surprising teaching tactics she used was emotional learning. She was the head of a small committee that volunteered at food shelters, she would take us along, and explain how important volunteerism is to society and self.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the way the lesson went. The students were understanding the instruction I delivered and were giving the answers I had hoped for. The students were on task and engaged for the entire lesson and when they weren’t engaged, I could draw or mention sticks and I would get more active participation. Before I asked students to work independently or with a partner, I modeled exactly what they should be doing and how they should do it. This made a huge difference from my first lesson because there was no confusion. When I had one students come up to the board and share their answer, everyone in the class had the same answer. While I was formatively checking their understanding, this told me that the way I was teaching was working because they all understood the problem. I really can not think of anything that did not go as I had planned or that I was not happy with. Although, there was one point where my math was wrong because I was not thinking logically. I need to make sure I slow down while I am teaching to check my own work so I am not teaching the students incorrect information!

I chose this task because the students have learned: how to count and they should know how to add/subtract and compose and decompose numbers up to 10.

Although I was very pleased with my lesson, there was a couple component in particular that I would have changed to make my lesson stronger. The first component would be to use more vocabulary throughout my

Next, I am going to focus on how much time I spend lecturing. Even though this lesson required more direction, I still want to be conscious about how much I am giving directions. If this was a science lesson, my overwhelming amount of lecturing would make my lesson resemble one like Mrs. S’s. Science lessons need more opportunities to be creative and if I am explicitly telling my students what to do, they will lack creativity which leads to a lack of engagement. Prior to the lesson, I am going to review my plans to see how much time I anticipate lecturing. During the lesson, I will watch the clock to ensure my lecturing at the beginning only lasts a designated amount of time. Also, instead of telling students what to do, I will ask them questions to scaffold their thinking towards what they need to know. After teaching, I will analyze and reflect on what I explicitly told my students and how effective that was for the lesson.