Reflection of other classmates' essons

I thought that all the presentations went well. Everyone seemed very prepared and knowledable. I think most of the students were great sports when it came to some of the crazy behavior. I really liked the lesson plan with the cookie. The book was truely enjoyable and the lesson plan had some fun activities for everyone. If you recall that is the presentation when some us stayed on the floor in the fron of the class workking on something and the rest went to their seats and did other activities. I thought it was a great way of controlling the ba behavior and keeping everyone doinf something they enjoyed. We even talked about it in class. They really did a good job of having enough activites for all of us to keep busy and not misbehave. This really showed prepararation on their part. It also showed that not one activity will keep everyone's attention. All students learn differently and as educators we have to be prepared to approach one subject in several different angles.
There were many different teaching styles which made each presentation unique. The only critique I have of the lesson plans is that sometimes I thought some of the students didn't look excited or enthusaitic about what they were teaching. I know we discussed it in class but it all I can think of.

Reflection of Podcast

Kathie and I planned to use the podcast for the first part of our book. But unfortunately, it was too low and no one could hear it. So, instead I read the book to the class. We did not use the podcast at all which was a bit of a dsappointment since I had fun recording it. Our students did not have a reaction to the podcast because they never got to hear it. The podcast portion of our presentation did not go well but I felt that we bounced back right away and just continued with the lesson. I think we should have made our podcast louder and we could have used it again at the end to highlight a favorite part of the book. I know that I would definintely be using podcasting in the future. I like the idea of podcasting the classroom library for those students who finish their seat work before everyong else can go enjoy a book while we move on to the subject. I think it will give my students an incentive to finish their work in a timely fashion so they could get this extra treat of a book on podcast.

Reflection of My Lesson

Overall, I feel that our lesson plan went well. This was my first lesson plan presentation and I will admit I was very nervous. I have never taught a class before even though I spear-headed many meetings at my previous job I felt totally intimated by presenting in front of my peers. These women have much more experience in this than me. The behavior cards didn't help. The other students took them very seriously and really caused a chaotic atmosphere sometimes. I guess that is what the classroom will be like. In order to prepare for the lesson, Katie and I met several times to create our lesson plan and to bring together all of our ideas and materials. The centers had alot of materials and we did not want to forget anything. We also created a behavior chart which was well received by the students on professional level. I loved it and thought that the day of the lesson it worked great. Another thing I liked about our lesson plan was our "surprise" guest--turtle. The students looked so excited about it I can imagine what a real 2nd grade would have been like. The first objective of the lesson was for the students to be able to write a prediction about the story after listening to a portion of it. We used a summative assessment of a rubric to assess it. The other objective was for the students to work well in groups during center time. We assessed this formatively by walking around and observing the students at the centers. Unfortunately, our lesson plan did not go exactly the way we had planned it. Which was very disapointing to me since Katie and I put alot of effort into the centers and the students did not have any time to enjoy them, especially the board game which I made myself. I really wanted to see how the students would react to it. The other thing that went wrong was the podcast. It was too low for us to play it to the class. But that didn't really hold us up because I read the book instead. It was not a big deal. Besides that I thught our lesson plan was a success. The most important thing I tried to teach the students was about the swamp animals. What I learned from the students is that I have to remain calm and cool. Like the saying says "Never let them see you sweat". I think that if you project control and calm even when they are at the peak of their misbehavior they will compose them once they get it out of their system. Especially with those students whose mouths were more of a problem then their physical behavior.
I think we could have definitely improved our podcast. I think our mistake was to record during class. Because I was trying not to interrupt the people next to me so I didn't really speak into the mike loudly. I don't think we could made this lesson more effective because we reached our goals which was to teach the students about the swamp. I think I would improve the quality of the podcast next time.

Final reflections

Well, we got alot done today. Our entire book is now on the podcast in 4 episodes. Yes, I said four episodes--it is a long book. We will be adding images to our podcast. So, I will update you on how that goes. As for our lesson plan , we did not get started on that but Katie is confident that we will do just great (I wish I felt the same way!!!) We will be talking to each other through out the week to see what we come up with. I don't think it will be that easy since our book is unique. But we definitely have to get our ideas together so we can get our materials together. Well, gotta go so I can respond to my classmates. Ciao!

Podcast Questions

After reviewing the questions Katie came up with last week. We decided we are going to go with them because they are really good. I don't want to change them unless we need to. So the questions are a go. Here are the questions:

Before the story...

1. Look at the cover page, which character do you think is Elizabeth? Which is Larry? and which is Ed? Why do you think that?

After the podcast...

2. What do you think Elizabeth's surprise for Larry is?

Once the students have read the entire story...

3. Why did Ed move in with Elizabeth and Larry? How would you feel if that happened to you? Where would you go?

4. The last sentence of the story says, "And there was a special place set aside in the swamp for all of its unusual creatures." Who were some of the "unusual creatures" we met within this story. What makes them unusual? Do you know of any other unusual creatures and where they live?

Afterthoughts...

5. Go back to the beginning of the story, the illustration on the first page shows Elizabeth and Larry relaxing in front of their home. What do you think life was like for Elizabeth and Larry before the story began? .

Hello, Today is my 3rd day of podcasting. Today is going to be a busy day for me and Katie since we need to catch up on the podcasting. I was not at the last class so we need to review of what we have accomplished so far. After that we we will be working on our questions which I think she said she already started. But I want to add one or two of my own so she doesn't feel like she is doing all the work. Then we will be having a brainstorming session for our lesson plan. Well, it is time to say good-bye and starting working. Ciao!!!

Reflection

No podcasting today for us. Katie and I did not realize how long the book we chose was until we were going throught the logistics of recording it. But all was not lost we were able to come up with a creative solution (with the help of Dr. Luongo) to our dilemna. We are going to be dividing up our book into episodes. I don't know how that is going to effect our lesson plan yet but at least it gave us the opportunity to see who was going to read what. I tink this was a great relief to Katie since she is stressing about her voice over the podcast. I think she will be great. Well gotta go ...CIAO...