Reflection/Appendices

After reading the Appendices I realized how much I have learned from this class so far. It discusses study trips and teaching context that relate to real life uses. I realized that I did this without even thinking about it in my lesson. I taught my lesson on Monday to the kindergartners. The lesson was on fall and leaves. I thought that the students would get more out of the lesson if they went outside and view fall so the students and I went for a fall walk. As we walked we looked for signs of fall. They looked for butterflies, falling leaves, leaves changing color, flocks of birds, fall and Halloween decorations such as pumpkins. We stopped at trees that changed color and discussed how it is different than in the summer or spring. The students all got a bag in which they collected leaves and acorns. They really enjoyed it and were very excited when they found a cool leaf! Then we went inside and they got to observe their leaves as well as their peers. We made a math lesson out it by graphing the leaves and deciding what we had more of. They also got to complete leaf rubbings of the leaves they found. We discussed what they do with the leaves and what others may do with leaves. They got to relate to the topic and experience fall in an educational way. I know they can go outside and see leaves everyday but I am sure they do not think about them changing color. I learned first hand how important being there experiences are. I feel that it wasn't a big "study trip" but it was something that can be done easily and still have a big impact on the students.

Part D Reflection

The little section about science as core really made me start thinking. This section discussed making science the core of your planning. I have always heard teachers say to start there but I did not know there was a reason based on the brain. This section explains that science is a great equalizer. Students’ differences in science backgrounds are not as expanded as they are in language. It also explains that science is the subject with the most sensory input therefore there is physiological change which means more learning is taking place.
As I thought about this more I realized how important it can be to start with science. Children are very curious and science is one subject in which they are able to explore their curiosities with hands on experiences. I believe there is so much to science that it would be very difficult not to start there. After reading this and learning how the brain works it makes more sense about exactly why integration should start with science. I also feel that it is great to use science as a core because it is a subject that can sometimes get pushed aside. If science is already integrated in to the curriculum then it will not be pushed aside and students will be able to have great hands on experiences.
I have already used science as a core for my unit plan. I started with animals and then I am going to integrate it with math and language arts. This will definitely be something that I use when planning curriculum in the classroom. I will first look at the science or even social studies standards and then I will base my units off of a few of those standards. This is a great way to plan units to make sure the students are learning the most they can.

Classroom Management

I have been substitute teaching on Fridays. It has been a great experience for me. I really feel that it is helping me prepare to become successful in classroom management. By going into different classes as well as different grades I am able to see how each classroom is managed. I am also able to see how it changes from early elementary grades to older elementary grades.
Since I am only subbing in one school district I do see one behavior plan that is used by many teachers. The students start off on a green card. If they misbehave they pull a card and they are on yellow which is just a warning. The next color is red, which means inside at recess, and the last card is black which means call home and visit to principle. It tends to work on most students but I find that it doesn't faze the students that tend to misbehave all of the time. I do not see this kind of behavior method in the older grades. The last class I was in the students had to write their names on the board but I was not sure what their punishment was if that happened.
In a first grade classroom I had a student that was misbehaving and I tried to discuss the problem with him. Like in the section in Chapter 5 “When Behavior Agreement are Broken” I explained that he is not going to be punished but I needed to understand what was wrong so that we could work it out. We talked about it and he seemed to do better for about two hours then something else happened and it was another thing to work on. I believe that if I was in the classroom everyday it would help this student because I feel he needs an adult to listen to him.