krisj' s blog

In case we don’t get to go over the lesson some time, I thought you had a very well thought out lesson plan. You had a quality video to show that was informative and interesting (students did comment on the video). I thought your assignment went well. The organization and creation of quality lesson plans is a great asset especially with a young person who still has college to go. As you proceed in your education, constantly look for opportunities to speak in front of people! This will stretch you as you have a quieter personality, but it will dramatically help your teaching voice and presence in the classroom. As you move on, you will find your own voice in the classroom. Do not strive to be as good as Mr. Steuer, but find out how great it will be to be Mr. Jarchow inspiring young people.

Right now the kids are getting into some more tall tale stuff and there really enjoying it. I admit one of my favorite aspects of writing is how creatvie the author can be and there is definitely that element any tall tale. So far with my intternship I’ve benn doing a combination between grading the students work, raoming around the classroom helping and child that needs it, and teaching a few of Mr. Steuer’s lesson. It’s been really great so far. I’ve had to get the kids to settle down a few times, but that will happen every class room.

Today we got to watch a video of Casey Jones which must’ve been made back in the first half of the nineteenth century but it really did a good job of explaning the tall tale and it was a fun cartoon for the kids to enjoy as well as learn from and that’s exactly what I want to do. I want for all of my students to have fun, but learn at the same time. Don’t get things mixed up there should always be discipline but there’s a time and a place for it. Overall though today was a good day of just observation. For the lesson plan that I come up with it might have a tall tale to.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today I actually wore a green necklace to commemorate the occasion. Also today we started of with some great videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pK0BQ9CUHk&feature=fvw (video)   I would definitely recommend this video to everyone that read this blog! Anyway I thought that this was a great way to  start class because it set the mood for the classroom. After that we worked on some more tall tales and the kids are filling up almost all of there charts.

Today we did some more tall tales this time it was about Johnny Apple Seed. Mr. Steuer handed out a packet and the kids just had to read it and I just walked around the room and helped the students when they needed it and answered the questoions they had. Between me Mr. Steuer and Mr. Timmons not a single student didn’t reacive help that needed it.  Also I graded a few papers and recorded the grades.

Today I got the opportunity to teach my own lesson plan and it was great! It was the end of the tall tales so I decided to end it with the story of St. Patrick because St. Patrick’s day was recent and it’s still fresh in everyone’s mind. I started out the lesson by having the kids watch a video on St. Patrick. After the video was over I went up to the board and (with the student’s help) made a list of what was said about St. Patrick during the video and what they knew about him before the video. After that I handed out a paper about St. Patrick to the kids and gave them instructions. (they could work in groups of up to four and they just had to read this paper and fill out there tall tales chart about St. Patrick) The groups went over really well and I collected all of the papers the kids had completed. For the last fifteen minutes of class Mr. Steuer had to give a brief explenation of there next project. During that explanation though the kids were kind of rowdy but they did fine during my lesson. I think though that being the end of the day Friday and being in groups with there friends might have added to there behavior towards the end.

Today was the book fair and the language class was postponed so that the students could go so instead of attending class I decided to read some more of “The First Days of School” and brainstorm for possible ideas for my lesson plan. So far “The First Days of School has been a good book all it’s been doing is giving examples of what a good teacher does in there classroom and what a bad teacher does in there classroom.

We started on tall tales earlier in the week and today we continued them by watching a video about Pecos Bill. I think the video was for younger kids but it was okay. Then after that the kids watched a video about the book fair that is coming Tuesday of next week.

Today there was a test and for the last class the teacher let me have control of the classroom and be the teacher. It was a good warm up for teaching an entire lesson. Plus earlier in the day Mr. Steuer had to take care of a problem and he completely left me to make sure the students got done with there journal starts and they did. I’m starting to do a little more with the class and I really like it.

Next week is ISTEP so all of this week the kids are getting ready for it. Today we were working on how a five paragraph should be written. (Basically just how to organize your thoughts) Mr. Steuer had this method called “I Star Star Star C” Basically the “I” acted as the introduction the “star(s)” were the details and the “C” was the conclusion. I liked this because he made all of the students raise there hands and on each finger they would say “I Star Star Star C.” I believe if the kids are interacting like that then they will remember it better. (I still remember prepositions from the seventh grade because our teacher had this little song) I also like today because I got to interact with the kids more and start to really have a connection with the students.