Reflect & Connect 12/2

Dear Performance Fans,

This past week has been very stressful at 123 Elementary. For me, it is finals week with a project due every night, and for my focus group we changed from Book Club to having a Readers Theater. The children are so excited to put on a play for the other second and third grade focus groups! This is my first readers theatre so I am learning with my students. They have been practicing their lines this week and tomorrow we are making props for their play. I am very excited for them to perform but I am also very nervous. I am nervous because I gave them their lines last Wednesday and our assistant principal said she is going to invite their parents to come in this Wednesday to watch them perform! We still have to make props and learn how to act out what we are reading. I am very excited but am also impatient that we could not have more time for my students to practice. I expect them to try their best, and to most importantly have fun with readers theatre! After all thats what it is for, fun fluency.

Wish us luck! :)

-Miss Hester

Reflect & Connect 11/18

Dear Anyone Who Needs A Break,

I have good news! Fall break is this week for students and teachers! It is awesome to be apart of University of South Florida's Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program because of the teacher experience it gives we have access to. I am in the classroom Monday through Friday and I get to go to faculty meetings, lesson-planning time, and a staff book study. This upcoming week I have off school Monday through Friday because 123 Elementary has their fall break. I love how the URTPP treats their students like teachers. My friends at USF do not have off until Thanksgiving. I feel my CT and I have been so exhausted and in need of a break. This week off I am going to be spending time with loved ones and finishing all of my homework!

Last Tuesday was Family Literacy night at 123 Elementary. Teachers decorated doors for Thanksgiving for families to see. Here is a picture of our door!

My CT and I had our students write on each finger, of their hand turkeys, the name of someone they are thankful for. Our students loved crafting their turkeys. It is such a spin on what they do everyday that they were happy for some change. During family literacy night I connected to my Emergent Literacy class because the station I was working at had activities for young and mature readers. My station was all about bones in the body. Students would learn about bones in an x-ray machine then they would read a paragraph about a broken bone and they would have to guess what bone it is from x-ray pictures. This connects to my Emergent Literacy class because the comprehension pieces included a literacy lesson involving ELL, young, and mature readers. I learned it is important to have all students be engaged in learning no matter what their reading level is. There is always room for accommodations to improve understanding! 

Readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your break,

Miss Hester

Reflect & Connect 11/11

Dear Elementary Education Interns,

Over the past two week I have started to teach social studies and I absolutely love it! It is so much fun  to teach American History. My CT gave me a lesson plan packet, made by the district, on American symbols. The purpose of teaching American symbols is to teach students why they represent America and how to research these symbols. I have read a few non-fiction books to teach my students how to use research from a book to find out information on symbols. Then, after I taught my lesson I went to Teaching Children's Literature and we learned all about the importance of informational text. I learned how informational text is connected to Common Core State Standards and how it motivates younger children to read. These were my favorite facts of what I learned about non-fiction because I would love to teach kindergarten and get them hooked on non-fiction books! It is so great how it connects to CCSS.

I was thrilled to know that what I was teaching my second graders made an immediate impact. For example, a student of mine raised his hand at the end of the lesson asking a question about the Statue of Liberty. I did not know the answer but my CT gave him a non-fiction book to research and find what he was looking for. A few minutes later he was raising his hand in the air like an eager puppy, because he wanted to share the facts that he found. After recess my class went to centers. At individual reading time a couple of my students came up to me showing me the non-fiction book they choose to read to find some interesting facts. I love how my classes connect to my internship. I cannot wait until spring semester when I get to take Teaching Children's Social Studies!

Here is a picture from my Social Studies lesson.

Enjoy,

Miss Hester

Connect & Reflect 11/4

Dear Multicultural Readers,

Last Tuesday, my Teaching Children's Literature professor asked my class to bring in a multicultural children's book. Everyone shared their book and I learned a lot about different cultures. The cultures talked about was African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Jews, and people with disabilities. There was book about Autism that I fell in love with. It is called My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete. I was so happy that we got to share our books and learn from each other because it really opened my eyes to why multicultural books are so important for children. In second grade we have a student with autism but his parents do not want us to give any accommodations. I always wonder if students know that he struggles with autism. My Brother Charlie would be a great real aloud because it can teach my class to understand autism and maybe it could point out to my student who has autism that it is okay to be different.

During focus, my group of students participates in a literature circle. This week I picked a multicultural book to open their eyes to different genres of books. It is called A Birthday Basket for Tia and is written by Pat Mora. It is a story about a girl creating a birthday gift for her Great Aunt. The story is written mostly in English but some parts are in Spanish.

I introduced the book to my focus group by looking through pictures and words. Then we started reading the book by playing the game popcorn. While playing popcorn, one of my students got so excited and happy to see words written in Spanish. A boy was struggling to pronounce the Spanish words and she raised her hand saying, "Miss Hester I can do it! I know Spanish!" Then I paused the popcorn reading and asked if anyone else knew Spanish. Nobody else did. She was so excited to be reading out loud in Spanish. Also, it was an eye opener to the rest of the group because they loved hearing something new. I was so happy to see that what I learned about multicultural books in class was happening right in front of me. I got to experience the powerful effect that different genres have and how many teachable moments there are in reading.

Sincerely,

Miss Hester

Connect & Reflect 10/28

Dear Planners,

I don't know about you but I always plan out everything. I have a total of 4 planners that I use daily. I love having my life planned out and organized. Today in class I had a big problem with organizing my main idea of classroom management. My professor handed out a blank piece of paper with play dough and told us to create what we think our main idea of classroom management is only using play dough. I had such a hard time because I only had a few minutes to plan out what I thought classroom management was all about. Classroom management is so broad to me that I did not think I had a main idea until this in class project. I decided to show that I want my classroom to be student centered surrounding by fairness. The children in the picture below represent my student centered classroom. The blocks that they are standing on represents that I want a classroom environment where my students know that being fair is not always equal.

After we created our main idea of classroom management, my class laid out their  creations and we went around in a circle writing what we thought the main idea was. I was very pleased with the comments I received. It told me more about myself as a teacher than what I thought I knew. During the week I noticed when I teach I use these classroom management main ideas that my class wrote about my play dough creation. I create community during the morning meeting. I demonstrate fairness in my classroom by meeting all of my students needs. I teach my students teamwork by having them complete group work and solving peer conflicts. I loved this classroom management in class assignment because it really taught me what I think classroom management is. Also, I got to connect my ideas immediately in the classroom. This is why I love being apart of USF's urban teacher residency program!

Sincerely,

Miss Hester 

Fall Family Literacy Night (Reflect & Connect 10/21)

Dear Fall Literacy Lovers,

Last Thursday at 123-ABC Elementary school was fall family literacy night. Family literacy night is about getting parents involved with the school and teaching students literacy techniques to use at home. Every grade had their own literacy station. I worked with second grade and our literacy station was called Fall Comprehension Trees. At our station students from any grade level could come up with their families. They had to cut out leaves and color at least two. Next, they would write a comprehension checkpoint question on their colored leaf. The comprehension questions were printed on 4 sheets of paper so that students had a variety to choose from. Lastly, they would glue their leaves to a tree trunk. I really enjoyed family literacy night because I had the opportunity to meet my students parents and get to know my students in a different setting. Teachers, students, and parents could come to fall family literacy night dressed as their favorite book character. I thought this was a really cool idea because it influences children to read so they can dress as their favorite character. My collaborating teacher dressed as Pippy Longstockings because that is the chapter book she is reading aloud to our class for fun. Another reason why I loved fall family literacy night was because I got to work with new children that I normally do not have the chance to. I noticed something about myself when a kindergartener and a fourth grader were at my station. I have a higher pitched voice with the kindergartner and had more of my focus on him because he needed help using scissors and with writing the comprehension question. Then my voice level changed when I was working with the fourth grader. She knew what she was supposed to do so all I was doing with her was telling her how good of a job she was doing and I asked her questions of why she choose the comprehension questions she did. I realized then and there that it does not matter to me what grade I teach. I love helping and teaching all children. I am still in the process of learning the differences of each grade level but I feel that teaching comes naturally to me and I would be thrilled teaching any student at the elementary level!

Here is a picture of second grade's Fall Comprehension Trees station.

During this week, 123 ABC Elementary had their book fair. I bought three books for my classroom library during fall family literacy night. I am so excited to share these because they are my first books I have collected for my classroom library. I bought these books because for one the book fair had excellent prices, and two I instantly thought of a lesson plan when I began to read each book. I am going to share with you my favorite of the three. It is called My Teacher for President by Kay Winters. Here is what the cover of the book looks like. 

I think this book can be used in primary grades to teach children about the president's duties. We can have our voting lesson intertwine with literacy and social studies. I am very excited about this book because My Teacher for President gives great examples of what the president does and connects it to the classroom.

In Teaching Children's Literature we read a great article called Seven Rules of Engagement by Linda B. Gambrell. My professor separated us into groups and has us highlight our teacher takeaways. Then one by one we wrote our most meaningful takeaway on the board. Here is my group's teacher takeaways. 

I really enjoyed this article because it has ideas on how to motivate children to read. For example it says, "Access to books also implies that teachers should invite children to read by raising interest and curiosity about books and other materials." This paragraph is talking about having a variety of books in your classroom library. I completely agree with that statement and my Classroom Library board on my Pinterest page expresses the variety of books I want for my classroom. To get my students motivated by having a variety of books I would use a teaching strategy I read in the book Kindergarten by Julie Diamond. Diamond had a ritual, created by her students, that very Wednesday a student would read a book to the classroom. I love this idea because the child is presenting a book they enjoy and sharing it with the class will have students who have not read that book be motivation to try it out. 

This week has been a fun fall literacy time. I hope you guys are having a great fall season so far!

Sincerely,

Miss Hester

Reflect & Connect 10/14

Dear Rhyming Queens,

This week in my Teaching Children's Literature class, we learned all about poetry! We went over chapter 8 from Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature. I love how my professor made what we read in the textbook come to life in class. She lead be example by reading a few of her favorite poems aloud. Then she had us separate into groups and write our own poems. Here is a picture of what my group's poetry. Our task was to write about our experience so far in UTRPP.

Next, we practiced reading aloud to our groups and a few students read aloud to the class, including myself. I raised my hand to volunteer because I love, love, loved the poem I read to my group! I had so much fun reading it, so I decided to practice my read aloud and I presented the poem to the class. Once I started reading I remembered my voice being gone at the morning meeting in second grade. Ut oh, I thought, this read aloud cannot go well because my voice kept cracking and squeaking!  In the end everything was great. My Teaching Children's Literacy class had fun because I made the poem come to life with my different, weird voices. I even had some of my peers laughing. I learned so much in this class about having to teach students the love of reading. That is how my professor started the class and that is how I left the class. Before Tuesday I hated poetry. Now I want to read poems to my second graders and teach them the importance of reading.

Sincerely,

Poetry Queen Bee Intern

P.S.- I hope you like the poem my group made! I had a hard time with rhyming but they taught me a lot during group work. I love how the teacher residency program has so much group work because I already feel better prepared to work with my team in the future elementary school I will teach at! :)