Our Nation in Words

For our last day of teaching, we taught using cooperative learning. The lesson was SUCH A SUCCESS! We divided the class into 4 groups. Groups 1 and 3 were to write a poem about the constitutional convention. Groups 3 and 4 were to create a bill of rights that all schools should follow. We provided each group with a project folder. Inside that folder was: 

1. The project you will be making.
2. Your individual jobs.
3. The checklist (rubric) for your project.
4. Loose leaf paper to draft ideas.
5. Peer Assessment sheets.

I went over what it means to work as a team with the class and together we chorally read an acrostic poem about "teams"

Then we gave the class 15 minutes to finish their projects. Once the 15 minutes was up each group presented. The 4 groups did an amazing job collaborating and creating their poems and bill of rights!

  
 


Then the students had to reflect, it was basically our wrap up of our three days of teaching. They had an independent practice to complete that stated
"You’re getting interviewed for a history magazine! Answer these questions using as much information as possible from the lessons we’ve taught you!

• Why was the Bill of Rights important?
• Describe the Compromises and why they were important.

List the three branches of government and explain why checks and balances are important"

Almost all of the responses were impressive! This was by far an incredible class to teach. The students were well behaved, engaged throughout every lesson, cooperated and collaborated amazingly together and I am very happy and thankful to have experienced teaching Social Studies to them!

I am also and very thankful for my group members. Everyone did a great job working together, meeting up to plan, came up with great lesson ideas, provided materials for the lessons, and really took interest in making sure we were all prepared and confident before teaching!!

Quest of the Consitution

Today my group and I taught the 5th grade social studies class using an inquiry approach. We started off with a Kahoot! game to review/ see what the students learned/remembered from our last lesson. The students love Kahoot! It is a very competitive game but it is a great way to keep the students engaged and to see what they know. Surprisingly out of 8 questions the whole class only got 2 wrong!

Then we moved onto the students' web quest task. The students' task is to complete a WebQuest on the Constitution, after completing it they are to write an article for the school newspaper to people who do not know what the Constitution is. Click on WebQuest to view the site!
We provided a WebQuest Research worksheet with questions that they are to answering using the resources/article on the resource tab.



Once they finished their WebQuest worksheet they started their news article. I was very impressed with the students' articles! One student from each group shared their article with the class. They were actually really excited to read out loud!


I enjoyed the concept of this lesson plan, but as always when creating a lesson plan that strictly uses technology there is always going to be a technical difficulty. And, of course, there was but we all stayed very calm and worked through it. We went around to each group, triple checking with each student to make sure everyone was getting logged into "Google Classroom" and were accessing the WebQuest website. 

By the end of the lesson, hearing the articles that the students shared made me proud to see how much these 5th graders were learning from what my group and I are teaching!

Forming A New Nation

Day 1 of teaching: I have never felt more confident after finishing that lesson then ever before!

Today my group and I taught about the birth of our nation. Our PowerPoint presentation was so well put together, we provided the students with a note sheet to follow along and fill in the blanks. We went over classroom rules that we expected the class to follow, and played a student vs. teacher game to keep them engaged throughout the lesson. This came is played like this: if the students are following along, listening to directions and classroom rules then they receive a point, if they are not listening and being disruptive the teachers will get a point. Whoever has more points will receive the prize! The students behaved so well and received 7 points for the day! I was very impressed.

Throughout our lesson we included review slides with 2 questions on what is being taught. The students knew all the answers which tells me 2 things:
1. Our lesson was well put together and we knew the content we were teaching
2. Our note sheet worked to keep students involved during the lesson

At the end of our lesson, the students had to write on a sticky note one of the following
-one thing they learned
-one thing they still have questions about
-one thing they did not understand still
I was very happy to see that every student wrote something that they learned, (like what a preamble is, and the three branches of government) and only the few students who were at band practice during the lesson had questions on what was taught.

All in all I was very happy with my first day of teaching 5th Grade Social Studies!!

Hopping Through History!

Today we met our 5th grade students!! My group and I prepared a "Getting to know you activity" for them. We played a board game with them. The rules to this board game were, if they landed on a pink square they answered questions about themselves, if they landed on a blue triangle it was a 7 second challenge, if they landed on an orange circle it was social studies questions about the topic we are teaching them, and if they landed on a question mark they asked us a question.

The class was split up into 4 groups. So we were able to plat the game with each group. The students seemed to enjoy the game. I enjoy this first day of fieldwork because it gives us an opportunity to meet the students and learn about them like what type of learners they are, their interests, etc..
Because of this day we were able to see who can work together in groups and who we did not want working together during our days of teaching. This made grouping them easier for us!

I am excited to teach this class, all the students seemed eager to learn and very smart!

Digital Me Reflection

I learned a few new digital tools during the "Digital Me" project. They were: Tiki Toki and Goanimate. I enjoy this project because I get to hear all the suggestions on how these tools can be used in the classroom, which is very helpful.

After presenting my "Digital Me" project I leaned how important it is to make eye contact and make sure to speak loud and clear while presenting. I also learned that it is important to be knowledgeable in the topic you are presenting and the digital tool that you are using. This helps you be more positive and shine while you are in front of the class.

The feedback from my colleagues is always helpful because they respond with 3 positives and a wish. The wish is something that they suggest you do better for the next time. A few colleagues suggested I speak louder, which is very helpful to know because once fieldwork starts I am going to be in front of a whole 5th grade class so I need to make sure that I project my voice loud enough so the students in the back of the class can hear me.