12/4 Tech Club Reflection
Our last day of Tech Club was a success. After 10 minutes of Dance Mat Typing (which the students just love and are always very eager for), we reviewed the material we had covered over the past 5 weeks. We reviewed the stories we read over the past couple weeks and prompted the students to discuss what they had learned about hurricanes and tornadoes. We also asked them what to do in the case of either natural disaster. After a long discussion, we passed out crayons and colored pencils along with the sheets of paper upon which students had typed sentences over the past few weeks and instructed the students to draw pictures of the sentences they had typed. We were hoping to have been able to use a computer drawing program, however it would have been too much of a hassle having to get a program or website approved by the computer teacher at Longfellow and then installed in every computer. So we decided to have the students draw by hand instead. At the end we collected all of the pictures and sentences and created a book: "All About Weather" by Longfellow students.
This time, our time management was better, but not great. There were a few students that were done drawing much earlier than others and we hadn't thought of anything productive for them to do. We had one girl make a cover page and a couple others practice writing and typing the words "tornado" and "hurricane". I've come to realize that issues time management and students finishing tasks at different times are almost constantly present. I think that a person can hone tactics to better address these challenges, but every day will require juggling and rearranging.
Overall, I have learned a lot from this Tech Club experience. I preferred my Tech Club experience to my Book Club experience because in Tech Club we had more guidance. We were required to submit lesson plans ahead of time and Liz, our "supervisor" was able to make tweaks and suggestions that helped us better prepare for the upcoming week. She was also there with us in the computer lab and offered a perfect amount of support -- she was there when we needed her, but in general let us run the show. I also appreciated Liz' presence because she had more insight into the lives of the children we were working with than we did. For example, when a student struggled in reading she let us know so that we knew what to expect from him. It was nice to debrief with her immediately afterwards to reflect upon what went well and what did not.
In general, my field placement experience has been incredibly beneficial to my understanding of differentiation. I feel like the after school environment is the perfect place to see the range of age, development, family situations and attendance that will exist in any one classroom.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Tech Club Reflection for 11/27
Tech Club Reflection for 11/27
I felt like things went really smoothly this week. We executed a similar lesson plan to last week. After 10 minutes of Dance Mat Typing, we read the students a real-life story about a tornado in southern Minnesota from the website we are using which is Web Weather for Kids: http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/. I am from southern Minnesota, so it was fun for me to read this story to the students and share with them some of my scary tornado moments and ask if they had any. Growing up in Bozeman, most kids did not have tornado stories. However, our discussion questions prompted students to think about what to do in the case of a tornado, and students had a lot to contribute to that conversation. After reading and discussing the story, the students opened Word and wrote a sentence about something they learned or found interesting.
Overall, it was a good lesson. But, as often happens, time became an issue. In the past, we didn't give the students enough time to type because we didn't realize how much time they would need. This time, things got started late so everything was pushed back 5 minutes or so and we didn't keep an eye on the clock well enough to successfully manage it. Had I realize how behind we were, I could had skipped certain aspects of the story and discussion so that students could spend more time typing. Modifying lessons due to unpredicted issues or time constraints is something I'll have to work on in my future work in schools.
I felt like things went really smoothly this week. We executed a similar lesson plan to last week. After 10 minutes of Dance Mat Typing, we read the students a real-life story about a tornado in southern Minnesota from the website we are using which is Web Weather for Kids: http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/. I am from southern Minnesota, so it was fun for me to read this story to the students and share with them some of my scary tornado moments and ask if they had any. Growing up in Bozeman, most kids did not have tornado stories. However, our discussion questions prompted students to think about what to do in the case of a tornado, and students had a lot to contribute to that conversation. After reading and discussing the story, the students opened Word and wrote a sentence about something they learned or found interesting.
Overall, it was a good lesson. But, as often happens, time became an issue. In the past, we didn't give the students enough time to type because we didn't realize how much time they would need. This time, things got started late so everything was pushed back 5 minutes or so and we didn't keep an eye on the clock well enough to successfully manage it. Had I realize how behind we were, I could had skipped certain aspects of the story and discussion so that students could spend more time typing. Modifying lessons due to unpredicted issues or time constraints is something I'll have to work on in my future work in schools.
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