Kindergarten China/Korea and 1st Clay

1st grade was in their classroom due to a location conflict (exhibition). The class went well according to me, the students, Mrs. Mahoney (the Media Assistant) and the 1st grade teacher who nicely connected my lesson to hers. The clay I left with was sculpted pricelessly since the focus of course was not on sculpting---the focus was on change and what causes change and what changed in the story I read and how it changed. Students used clay and gave me about 15 different verbs that they used to describe what they did to the clay (smooshed, moved, put, shaped, rolled, etc.)

The students got to the points of your hands being necessary as well as your brain as well as a plan and an idea. What makes your hands work was asked by me and they said your brain. They eventually got that food is necessary for your brain to work.
Revisions to the lesson were made just to reinforce previous lessons on solid, liquid, and gas.

The teacher's use of language also helped at the end.

I need to print out article on sleep for Homework club.

I worked on imputting titles from the binder into Destiny list which I will then change into a category.

I was assisting the 5th grade Historians as I was reviewing my lessons for the day.

I put on book labels.

Exhibition, Shelving, Letter regarding Cash, Book Challenges, Post-observation Lesson, Lo Po Po

I taught a 2nd grade class the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood.

They gave me several differences between the two versions.

They also summed up the lesson by saying that even though the story was based in China, the story/moral/theme is basically the same. Because it is Chinese did not change much more about it than tiny details.

During the exhibition the media center was utilized by the 5th grade. I assisted some 5th grade students with video and computer instructions.

I discussed a lost-library book collection system with Nely, my cooperating media specialist. She had to explain why they used a cash only system. She admitted that a specific checking account would be best, leaving a "paper trail", but that is not currently in the works.

She also discussed with me that there are book challenges and that every book that is purchased has received a book review from a renown source, such as Amazon, Follett, School Library Journal, or The New York Times.

My Post-observation was reviewed again making it clear that I am creating too many objectives. A plan was made for us for the remainder of the time here.

My second grade lesson was reviewed before I performed the read-aloud and Nely liked what she had seen.

Students were basically ready for their teacher. I think I will really move them when 5 minutes is up next time. They enjoy Dan Gutman books very much. I need to research similar authors.

St. Patrick's Day

1st grade enjoyed a book about St. Patrick.

I examined a 2nd grade text as well as a Kindergarten one.

I supported and observed Ms. Miguel as she gave the Do's and Don'ts to the 5th grade students who are working with video recording and iMovie. The Media technical assistant provided a mini lesson to the students on firewires and their faster capabilities over USB's.

The students learned editing skills.

I worked with them for their initial use of the software.

I thought of my video course at Fairfield as well as Integrating Technology into Language Arts and Social Studies by Dr. kennedy as she gave us some great resources for video taping.

I will search for them as soon as I can.

Spring books to be read to 1st grade this week as some classes will miss Friday's lesson since there will be no school.

Easter books are opted out.

Observation Day

I have items to practice.

I thought the lesson was successful being that every time I stopped in at a station that learning was occuring and wondering was happening and interest and conclusions were right on.

Practice makes perfect. Having items to tweak comes with time.

Solids, Liquids, and Gases may be a more advanced concept.

Interview discussion

Nely siggested that Iinquire about assistants, parent volunteers after speaking with her about an interview.

Chairs, Set-up

Janitor told me about how the chairs got in the media center.

We discussed the aestetics, durability, safety, and necessity of them.

Everyday Mathematics suggested texts project.

I am creating categories of available texts that we have in Destiny so teachers do not have to go very far to get a book that is suggested to complement their math lesson--not all teachers are information literate.

I thought of an idea to take the web archive of the titles and have the students transpose it into an Excel spreadsheet.

Have the students give different varieties of the information to see that there are more than 1 way to arrive/create/design a spreadsheet.

It is better than teaching in isolation because it is a real problem that needs a solution.

Nely thinks that interative tutorials are better for elementary learners and that this may be better for high school or a student on an internship in the library.

Getting observed tomorrow.

1st grade class went well. Students who normally are bouncing all around seemed to find contentment in the lesson.

Solids liquids and gases.

The book needs chapter refinement.

Examples of matter consisting of more than one property/Senses

Students figure out in this lesson's pre-discussion that they use their senses to determine what property of matter a given object/substance is.

I will be giving this lesson to the other first grades. I generally watch the Media Assistant perform first lesson and give the rest of that grade level myself.

I just thought of other objects to use and try for this lesson.

A coconut. Liquid and solid on the inside. The sense of hearing and seeing the size of the fruit helps us distinguish that.

A water balloon may not need to be brought into the room to be able to visualize what is in the balloon.

Inserting a solid figure into a balloon may be another idea to clearly obtain the objective that solids and gases can not be in the same space at the same time.

Percentages of air/percentages of liquid/percentages of solids.

Lesson still in the works.

Type to Learn

Assisting 3rd graders position their hands on the keyboard correctly.

Left hand for the left side of the computer and right hand for the right side.

Home position was physically put on the keyboards. Having students sit up straight and not worry about how fast they can type. Some students complained and said "but, I am being scored on how many WPM".