Week 4

I went into this week a little intimidated by being the solo teacher with a subsitute. But I quickly could see that it was going to be a good week of learning and growing for me and the students. Things went really smoothly and I felt that I was able to come more into my own of being a teacher. I was able to try a few different things to help the class run smoothly, and the students really enjoyed the slight changes. THe students were trying to get away with things with the substitute, that I would catch them on. I think this really helped the students to realize that I knew what was going on and that I was in charge that they could not push me over. I felt that they really started to respond to me more and better, which made our time very enjoyable. I realize that I still have a lot to learn, but this week helped me realize that I am really starting to take off, find my own niche and I want and need to fly, and bring my students with me. They are a great class and this week as been great.

Week 3

My conversation with Bonnie was good. Exactly what I expected. She said I can try anything that I would like and bring in any new ideas. I guess I was just feeling like I couldn't when she would correct me (sometimes in the middle of a lesson) and would phrase it "well I do such and such". So I was feeling like I needed to do things her way but I have since realized that she is just trying to tell me what she does, what she had found that works. I think it will also get better as I continue to do more in the classroom and I am planning more and more. So it was a good conversation that cleared up my miscommunication and misunderstanding. Day was good expect for one of my students R who was just not wanting to do anything I asked of him. He didn't want to stay on task, he would walk around the room distracting other students, when I moved him to a different table he ignored me and kept goofing off. I had to leave to go help another teacher, so I let Bonnie know what I had done to help keep him on task and after that He was good for her. At the end of the day we discussed his behavior again to remind him that I will not tolerate that kind of behavior. He is on a behavior contract so discussing his behavior at the end of each day is routine. And I praised him for at least telling the truth about not being respectful to me. I hope tommorrow is better, because he can be a great kid when he wants to be.

Week 2

This week as gone relatively well. I have started to teach math lessons as well as getting the morning routine off and going. I have also been able to work the the lower level reading students, in hopes that by the time Bonnie is ready to give them their reading test they will be on a higher reading level. The math lesson that I taught today went relatively well. I was teaching them a guessing game, but I noticed that I was not a specific as I could or should have been. So I am being reminded that I need to explain every detail. But other than that I felt the lesson went well and the students were really enjoying play the game. Like a mentioned earlier today, I am still uncertain how much Bonnie is expecting me to pick up where she has left off and how much room she is willing to give me to try out a few things of my own. I planned on talking today about it with her, but was unaware of a meeting she needed to attend right after school. So hopefully I will be able to chat with her tomorrow. I will let you know what comes of that conversation.

Week 1

The last couple of days have been good, getting back into the classroom, getting reacquainted with students, schedules, etc. Bonnie and I have been able to plan out what I will be in charge of, adding a little more each week until I will eventually take the entire class all day in the middle of Feb. I am grateful the the gradual process and know that it will be a very beneficial experience. I have been able to attend a faculty meeting this week and it was really nice to meet some of the other teachers. The students have been great. They have all been well behaved and I am enjoying that for the time being. J (my 6 year old student) was being tested back in Nov. for placement. Since then he has been moved into a 1st grade classroom and is thriving. I have seen and talked with him a couple of time and he really seems to be enjoying where he is at and what he is able to accomplish. Not only am I happy for him for his sake, but I will be honest, I am happy that I don't have to worry about him like I was back in Nov. Things thus far are great and I am happy to be back.

KUD'S

What I have learned with looking through these lesson plans is how important it is to be very specific in writing and implementation of the KUD's. By doing this it gives students a clear idea of where they are going with a particular lesson and what they need to accomplish. Then that way if a child is not understanding a part of the lesson they would know to get help. I really liked the science lesson and how many different approaches Eidson used in creating this lesson. There were many different activity that the students would participate in, but some being individual activities while most were done in various groups. These lessons are a great resource and example of what differentiated lesson can and should be like, as well as how specific the KUD's need to be for any lesson.

Pages 120-162

I am not really sure what I am suppose to be blogging about other than the fact that I really liked some of the lesson approaches found in these pages. I really like the graphic organizers because they really help the students to compare and contrast different subjects that are studied at the same time. For example, 2 or more characters in a book, planets and star etc. I also liked the interactive notes. This would allow for the students to really stop and think about what they are reading, and to make sure they are comprehending that in which they need to. Interactive notes would be a great way to tier the lesson to fit specific students and their needs, by having some students look for and answer questions that are straight out of the reading to questions that are abstract to help the advanced students think more deeply about the assignment. This would also lend to a great whole class discussion, staring with those students who had the more specific questions being discussed and moving toward the more abstract questions with the more advanced students. This would allow all for the student the opportunity to see how all the information is important. I also really liked the tiered example 2 with the aliens. This would be a great way to help students come up with different questions and answers about a given topic. Helping them to move from the more simple questions and answers to the more complex as they deepen their analytical think skills. There are a lot of great tools in the book that can be adapted to almost any lesson. Which would really help the students be clear about the objectives, giving them choices to make it more fun and interesting but tiered so that they are working withing their own ZPD.

TIERING

Tiering is teaching the essentials of any given lesson to students but by creating multiple tasks with varying difficulty according to the students readiness to ensure success for every student as well as keeping their educational experience with in each students ZPD.
Pages 130-135
These are great examples of tiered lessons. The basic assignment is there for all the students to participate in, but each task is slightly different accommodating the different levels of readiness. By the end of the assignment each of the students will have performed the task that was within their ZPD, solidifying their new found knowledge.
Pages 149-162
It is my belief that most lessons can be tiered. Some may take more creativity. Some of the lessons that may not be as tierable as others are math lessons,because there is such a natural progression of math skills. So as far as I can tell not all of these would be tierable. But with such lessons, students could still be groups according to readiness, or paired up with other students for a peer tutoring to ensure that students are successful with the assigned task.