My Class Gets a SMARTboard

This week in my practicum classroom, my class recieved a SMARTboard. The students were extremely excited about the SMARTboard, and my host teacher incorporated the SMARTboard into many of her lessons. I think the SMARTboard is very beneficial to any classroom, because you can use it in so many ways and it is so versatile. After teaching my SMARTboard lesson to my EDU 315 class, I learned a lot of cool techniques to incorporate into a lesson. I even got to show my host teacher a few things I knew how to do. I'm hoping I will have a chance to use the SMARTboard in her classroom to teach a lesson!

Substitute Teacher

This week in my practicum classroom, the students had a susbstitute teacher. It was great to see a different style of teaching with the same group of students. The substitute was very hands on and the children seemed to really like her, and enjoyed all of the fun activities she did with the class. She was very engaging and the students were eager to learn and really listened to and respected her. One thing I really liked was how she incorporated "brain breaks" throughout the day. First graders are little, and they like to be active and move around. She had the students do different activities throughout the day such as "Simon Says". I thought this was a great idea and the kids loved it! She also brought cupcakes in for the class because it was her birthday. I thought she was a great sub and really enjoyed learning from her!

Teaching with SMARTboard

Last Friday, my group had to teach our SMARTboard lesson to the class. We chose to do our lesson on adding and subtracting change, part of the third grade math curriculum. Overall, I think our lesson went really well. I enjoyed learning how to use the SMARTboard and it's many different components. I think this lesson will be very helpful as a future educator, because many school districts are investing in the SMARTboards. SMARTboards are a great asset to any classroom, because the are so versatile. They can be used to teach any subject area and can be moved easily throughout the room. SMARTboards are also a great way to keep students engaged in the lessons and allows every student to participate. I thought this lesson was a lot of fun and am looking forward to using SMARTboards in the future! :)

Second Week of Observations!

This week, I could only go to observations on Wednesday because schools were closed on Monday for Columbus Day. On Wednesday, the first grade students were learning about addition using manipulatives. When I arrived in the classroom, the students were sitting in a circle on the rug. Each student had a partner. Each student also had a set of cubes, a different color from their partner. When the teacher asked the class an addition question, the pair had to show the addition problem using their cubes. Afterwards, the students did a worksheet which included both the numerical problem, as well as a picture of the cubes which the students has to color in certain colors depending on the problem. I thought this lesson was very effective and was fun and engaging for the students.

First Day of Observations!

Monday was my first day of observations in a first grade classroom! I was really nervous before I arrived but my host teacher and the school staff made me feel welcomed as soon as I walked in the door. My host teacher was really nice and the students were excited that I was helping out in their classroom. I enjoyed observing the class and learning from my host teacher. I helped out with checking papers and answering any questions the students had during their math and writing lessons. I also went with the class to their special area classes, which was art on Monday and computers and library on Wednesday. One example of technology my host teacher used while I was there was a website called starfall.com. This is an interactive website for young children which has different activities covering the topics of letter recognition, reading, and math skills. After walking around and helping the students explore StarFall, I noticed that the website is a great way to get students engaged and excited to learn. As a future educator, I would definitely use StarFall in my classroom and it would be great to post on my classroom blog so students could use it at home. I had a great time observing the first grade class and I am excited to go back next week! :)