Student Teaching: the Finale

WHAT?

This week was our final two days of student teaching. I have to admit that I will miss it—my experience was wonderful and the students were amazing. It will definitely be an experience that I remember for the rest of my life.

SO WHAT?

These last two days we taught two small lessons—reading group lessons with four-five students at a time. We were each assigned a group of the most advanced readers last week, and asked to instruct them in a guided reading book. I had my group do a Literature Circle, where they each took a “job” such as summarizing the section they read or finding words they didn’t understand and listing them. We would then discuss them during the circles. I also gave them a further assignment, which was visualizing and drawing a scene from something that they read. Whether the reading incited a memory or a day-dream, I wanted them to draw it and then share it during our last meeting. They responded eagerly to this lesson and asked to do it several times over.

NOW WHAT?

I decided to make the class a present from the photographs that I took of the students over our time there. I am making a type of digital story for them, consisting of the photographs and a special song that I thought embodied all of the students within the class. I wasn’t able to finish it before our last day there, so our Cooperating Teacher gave me permission to bring it to her after school sometime within the next few weeks, and she will then show it to her class.

Student Teaching (Week 3)

What?

During our second full week of student teaching, we taught our last three lessons, plus some. We also got to assist with the school’s fourth-grade “Mountain Man Festival”, and had a blast doing it!

So What?

Our three official lessons this week were a lesson on verbs, a lesson in Math, and two individual book groups that we’re working with. I taught the lesson on Verbs, reading the students a book on verbs called “To Root, to Toot, to Parachute”, and then we played a game that integrated social studies with verb-words. In our Math lesson we taught the students how to do 3x1 multiplication, and the different ways to solve it. We passed out a worksheet that half the class worked on while the other half played a multiplication game with dice. Half way through the lesson, we switched and had each group do the other activity. It worked really well and the students responded eagerly to both ways of learning.

Now What?

The “Mountain Man” festival was a lot of fun, and yet another chance to bond with the students and learn about their individual personalities. It lasted all day so there were no lessons taught Friday. Unfortunately, my partner and I realized that we only have two more days of student teaching before it’s over, and that has been a real downer. This experience was invaluable, our class has been amazing, and I wish that I had more time with them.

Student Teaching (Week 2)

What?

This week we had a full five days of student teaching. My partner and I were asked to teach two lessons, one on Visualization and one on a book Genre. Ashley (my partner) did Visualization, while I took Genre, and taught about Fantasy.

So What?

I chose to do three activities—a question-session, a game, and an activity where the six tables each took an element of Fantasy, and made a picture about what they visualized when they thought about that element. The question session was a lot of fun, with the students answering all of my questions enthusiastically. They also liked the game—which was a relay between two teams to see who could come up with more “Fantasy” words. The poster part could have gone a little better—they didn’t want to stop once they’d finished.

At the end of my half-hour teaching session, I showed my digital story on the “Elements of Fantasy”. It was a huge hit with the class, and they left for their rotations still talking about it.

Now What?

Ashley and I will be teaching at least three more lessons, although our cooperating teacher has requested that we help her with more than that, as well as remain the whole day on Friday to help man booths for the schools’ Mountain Man Festival. The lessons we’ll be teaching will be Math (teaching 3x1 multiplication), English (teaching about Verbs) and Reading Comprehension in book groups.

Music (pt.2)

What?

Writing music lyrics is fun. Fitting them to an already established tune is much harder. But it was a fun process, and I enjoyed learning about how to turn a book into a song, and then to put that song to music. In fact, I enjoyed the whole process until our presentation day, when I felt too sick to really participate.

So What?

We need to remember that while songs are fun (and should be sung during free time in the classroom), songs that fit into the core curriculum are scarce. So most teachers need to make their own or “borrow” from others’ ideas.  And that’s alright. Teachers need to be flexible so they can alter songs to their own needs.

Now What?

I’ve already been looking through Thanksgiving songs that we have received in some of our classes, along with looking at books I could potentially turn into a song for that Holiday. Since our student teaching will be ending right before Thanksgiving Break, I think it would be a fun last-day activity to have us teach the class these songs and sing them together (to give them something to remember us by).