A Growing Nation Part 3

Today my group taught our first cooperative learning lesson. We were very nervous because we have ever taught a cooperative lesson before. Teaching cooperatively was my favorite lesson I have taught thus far in fieldwork. The class was broken up into group five groups and assigned a teacher as well as a cause they had to support. The causes the students had to support were Women's Rights, the Cherokee and Seminole fight to keep their land, abolitionism, and rights for workers during the Industrial Revolution. The students had to support their cause in a creative way, such as a rap, song, poster, poem, etc. My group was the Cherokee Indians and they had to fight to keep their land back. They chose to support their cause with a rap and a poster. Each person in the group was assigned a job. They all did their jobs well and really impressed the rest of the class with their rap. The students enjoyed the cooperative lesson the best they told me. I had a lot of fun watching them come up with ideas, and it was pretty awesome for them to spit back facts we taught them during the direct instruction lesson. Overall, I had a blast teaching this cooperative lesson. Sadly though this was the last day of fieldwork!

PIGS

Positive Interdependence

Individual Accountability

Group Processing

Social Skills

Face to Face Interaction

I did not realize how important the aspects of working collaboratively are. In class we were all broken up into groups. My group was to research positive interdependence and individual accountability We were to make a presentation and present it to our fieldwork groups, who would also present their topics to the group as well. The P.I.G.S. jigsaw was really beneficial to me. When teaching the cooperative learning lesson on America as a growing nation I did not understand completely what P.I.G.S meant. I wish I learned what it meant before I taught, because our cooperative learning was pretty good, but I wanted it to be pretty great! It is very important to teach children at a young age the important aspects of P.I.G.S when working in a group. P.I.G.S can help children out not only in the classroom but with future jobs and sports. I definitely see the elements of P.I.G.S come out in my daily life. I work on a team daily and all parts of P.I.G.S are very important for all of us to be successful.

A Growing Nation Part 2

Today my group taught an inquiry lesson to the fifth grade class. We brought back our friend Petunia the Panda. Petunia's library had been flooded by the snow storm we had, and all her biography books were destroyed. She needed the fifth graders to help her using their I-pads. Each group was assigned a teacher as well as a person Petunia needed them to research. The students used a WebQuest on their I-Pads to research on approved links. The people they had to research were Samuel Slater, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Andrew Jackson, and Frederick Douglass. My group researched Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The WebQuest was also really easy to navigate for the students and easy to make for the teachers. I am excited to use WebQuests in my future classroom. The students enjoyed writing their letters to Petunia, and Petunia was grateful for all their help.

Wasted?!

Today I attended the Wasted Conference at Mount Saint Mary College. It was very informative for me as a teacher candidate as well as being a Resident Assistant. I can hold informative programs in the Residence Halls, and educating programs in my future school for both parents and students. I learned a lot about how much food actually goes to waste, and how we all take it for granted. The presenters showed me what they do to the waste so it isn't "waste" anymore. Reduce, reusing and recycling will be very important in my classroom.

Come on Roboto. Mr Roboto (Technology)

I learned many different types of technology this semester. Some I enjoyed using and others not so much.

Google forms: I understand how to use it a lot better now from creating pre and post assessments for fieldwork. I am glad I expanded my horizons and stepped outside my comfort zone this semester.

Pinterest: I gathered many ideas for my lesson on this website. Avid Pinterest user. I am very familiar with this website because I use it for lesson ideas and RA boards and door tags.

Powtoon: I was not a fan of using this for my violent weather project from Science Methods. I need to do more research on it before I use it again in front of a class.

Voice Thread: I am very familiar with using Voice Thread because I used it for my science fair project as well as my About Me Project this semester. I will definitely use this audio/visual animation program.

Glogster: I live being able to make collages on the website. When I tried to log on the other day and now says I have to pay.

Thinglink: I love this type of technology that I have used it in other classes for projects. Thinglink reminds me off an upscale powerpoint.

I am so happy I stepped outside my comfort zone and was not afraid to try new types of technology. I am now more familiar with certain websites than I have ever been before.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Today I was able to play News of the World trivia in the library with my best friend Danielle and her fellow Writing Center friends. I read News of the World over winter break so I wasn't sure I was going to remember much of it, but I ended up actually remembering a lot. The questions were a mixture of News of the World, pop culture, and Texas questions. I went to Texas over spring break so I knew a lot of answers about Texas such as the flag, the capital, and the state animal, which is the Armadillo for those of you who wanted to know. My team ended up winning the trivia and won a $25  Visa gift card. My competitive spirits really came out during the trivia. Gina Evers, head of the writing center,  was on my team as well. I had a lot of fun and the school should do trivia more often!