Dear Questioners,
I am very excited to inform you that I will be making a lesson plan for my Instructional Planning class and a unit plan in Teaching K-6 Social Studies class. I have chosen the CCSS, "SS.2.G.1.2
Using maps and globes, locate the student's hometown, Florida, and North America, and locate the state capital and the national capital," for my Instruction Planning class. I chose this standard because I want to create lesson plans for my internship I have with second grade. It is a social studies standard because I only get one K-6 Social Studies class while I am earning my Elementary Education degree at USF. So far it has been difficult for me to create essential questions for my lesson and connect them to the six facets of understanding. The six facets of understanding include, explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. As I continue to learn from my professor and intern experience I hope to be the best at creating essential questions for my lessons. I feel as if they are the heart of the lesson because it shows the class the lesson purpose. I want to be able to connect my essential questions to their life outside of school.
As soon as I have my essential questions complete I will post them here for you all to see!
Feel free to leave comments. :)
Sincerely,
Miss Hester
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Reflect & Connect 1/27
Dear Teachers who Teach for a Cause,
This past week I learned a lot about myself as a teacher. My internship consists in an urban school district. I have learned through my experience I want to teach in an urban setting when I graduate. I would like to do this for many reasons, but I learned my true passions during class. For my level II intern class we are learning about teacher inquiry and how to start our own inquiry. We looked at this by reading examples of passions teachers inquire. The passion I connected to the most was social justice. My passion for social justice is to understand how to meet every students needs when it comes to their culture. In my Teaching Exceptional Students class, we watched videos concerning African Americans versus Caucasians when it came to education in America. I learned our education system needs some changes when it comes to teaching minorities. Teachers need to learn how to teach different cultures with their learning styles. As a teacher, I want to be apart of my students community and show them everyday how much I care. I will support my students and set high expectations.
In my second grade classroom, I was struggling with the fact that I knew about how rough life is at home for most of my students and that there is not much I can do to change that. As a teacher I want to teach in urban schools to have my classroom be their safe, second home. I cannot wait to create a safe, fun, learning community environment in my class.
Growing as a Teacher,
Miss Hester
This past week I learned a lot about myself as a teacher. My internship consists in an urban school district. I have learned through my experience I want to teach in an urban setting when I graduate. I would like to do this for many reasons, but I learned my true passions during class. For my level II intern class we are learning about teacher inquiry and how to start our own inquiry. We looked at this by reading examples of passions teachers inquire. The passion I connected to the most was social justice. My passion for social justice is to understand how to meet every students needs when it comes to their culture. In my Teaching Exceptional Students class, we watched videos concerning African Americans versus Caucasians when it came to education in America. I learned our education system needs some changes when it comes to teaching minorities. Teachers need to learn how to teach different cultures with their learning styles. As a teacher, I want to be apart of my students community and show them everyday how much I care. I will support my students and set high expectations.
In my second grade classroom, I was struggling with the fact that I knew about how rough life is at home for most of my students and that there is not much I can do to change that. As a teacher I want to teach in urban schools to have my classroom be their safe, second home. I cannot wait to create a safe, fun, learning community environment in my class.
Growing as a Teacher,
Miss Hester
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Reflect & Connect 1/18
Dear Interactive Teachers,
One of my assignments for my Teaching K-6 Social Studies class was to go to the Tampa Bay History Center. One MLK Day, I celebrated by visiting the history center. I had so much fun! I learned how to take in the history, as a student, so I can take my class here in my future career. I played on horse saddles and felt like I was really horseback riding. My favorite experience was during a 15 minute film. The theatre was set up in Florida's forest. It had a screen and two active models. The film was about the Seminoles tribe in Florida. I loved learning about this because it showed the Seminoles perspective and the American General's. Also, I am currently teaching a Native Americans unit in second grade so it was great to learn both perspectives of what happened toNative Americans in American history. I think this is very important for my teaching because I want to teach my students both perspectives so they can learn everything about history and follow what they believe in. I bought a graphite arrowhead for my students to write with and connect to the Native Americans they are learning about. They loved it! I know have a better understanding of fully learning the content you are teaching, I can make my Native American lessons so much more interesting because I learned fun facts from the Tampa Bay History Center.
Look in my gallery to see pictures from my trip at the museum!
Sincerely,
Miss Hester
One of my assignments for my Teaching K-6 Social Studies class was to go to the Tampa Bay History Center. One MLK Day, I celebrated by visiting the history center. I had so much fun! I learned how to take in the history, as a student, so I can take my class here in my future career. I played on horse saddles and felt like I was really horseback riding. My favorite experience was during a 15 minute film. The theatre was set up in Florida's forest. It had a screen and two active models. The film was about the Seminoles tribe in Florida. I loved learning about this because it showed the Seminoles perspective and the American General's. Also, I am currently teaching a Native Americans unit in second grade so it was great to learn both perspectives of what happened toNative Americans in American history. I think this is very important for my teaching because I want to teach my students both perspectives so they can learn everything about history and follow what they believe in. I bought a graphite arrowhead for my students to write with and connect to the Native Americans they are learning about. They loved it! I know have a better understanding of fully learning the content you are teaching, I can make my Native American lessons so much more interesting because I learned fun facts from the Tampa Bay History Center.
Look in my gallery to see pictures from my trip at the museum!
Sincerely,
Miss Hester
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Reflect & Connect 1/12
Dear Explorers,
Last Friday I went on my first field trip as a student intern. My second grade class traveled to a Riverfront Park. It was a lot of fun! We got to go on a nature hike, learn about trees, and learn how to plant a tree. It was interesting how 123 Elementary had no buses, so individually we had to drive our students there. The majority of the class was not well-behaved during the field trip, which I was very surprised about because compared to the other second grade class their everyday behavior is amazing. I learned a lot from watching how my CT reacted to certain behavior situations. For example, there was a child who kept running away, wanting to do something else. My CT talked to the child about their behavior and said they can still be sent to the office because our school was right down the road. As a new teacher learning about how to become a teacher I wish there was another way to handle misbehavior without rewards/punishments. That is something I am inquiring on my own. I have learned from my Level II Intern class that we should research and reflect everything we do as teacher's. I am taking my time to learn from a book by Dr. Marshall called, Discipline Without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards, to teach myself how to take away rewards and punishments from the classroom. This connects to my Level II Intern class because we are currently reading,
Last Friday I went on my first field trip as a student intern. My second grade class traveled to a Riverfront Park. It was a lot of fun! We got to go on a nature hike, learn about trees, and learn how to plant a tree. It was interesting how 123 Elementary had no buses, so individually we had to drive our students there. The majority of the class was not well-behaved during the field trip, which I was very surprised about because compared to the other second grade class their everyday behavior is amazing. I learned a lot from watching how my CT reacted to certain behavior situations. For example, there was a child who kept running away, wanting to do something else. My CT talked to the child about their behavior and said they can still be sent to the office because our school was right down the road. As a new teacher learning about how to become a teacher I wish there was another way to handle misbehavior without rewards/punishments. That is something I am inquiring on my own. I have learned from my Level II Intern class that we should research and reflect everything we do as teacher's. I am taking my time to learn from a book by Dr. Marshall called, Discipline Without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards, to teach myself how to take away rewards and punishments from the classroom. This connects to my Level II Intern class because we are currently reading,
The Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom Research: Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn Through Practitioner Inquiry.
Have fun researching,
Miss Intern
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Reflect & Connect 1/5
Dear Revolutionaries,
This week I have returned to 123 Elementary. I am so happy to be back in my second grade classroom. I sure have missed my students over break! UTRPP has brought me exciting new opportunities for the 2014 year. First, I will be experiencing intermediate elementary school. I am paired with a fifth grade teacher at 123 Elementary for two hours a week. My first day I was very nervous, but also super excited to see what teaching an intermediate grade level is like. I loved every minute of fifth grade. My collaborating teacher is energetic, loud, and very passionate about teaching fifth grade. I observed her teaching a social studies lesson, where her and her students were reading along to an article about a woman who helped Colonists during the American Revolution. It was very cool to learn about history with a women in power. This article she was teaching connected to my social studies class from earlier that week. My social studies professor taught us how to teach students history from a different perspective. This is important because it teaches students the unwritten curriculum of our cultures values. For example, I never knew women helped out during the American Revolution. I assumed their only job was to be housewives and have children. Also, in my instructional planning class we read an article by Banks called Curriculum Reform Approaches. This article connects to teaching social studies because it went over how teachers cultures and backgrounds are the perspectives they teach from.
I am very excited to see what else connects in my future classes with my new fifth grade class! Also, I wonder if getting experience in an intermediate grade is going to change my mind for what grade I want to teach. As of now I am set on Kindergarten but my experience in fifth grade might change my mind. We will have to wait and see!
Happy New Year!
Miss Hester
P.S. Here is a picture of the social studies article from a students binder and the set up of a science/social studies/math word wall my fifth grade CT's classroom.
This week I have returned to 123 Elementary. I am so happy to be back in my second grade classroom. I sure have missed my students over break! UTRPP has brought me exciting new opportunities for the 2014 year. First, I will be experiencing intermediate elementary school. I am paired with a fifth grade teacher at 123 Elementary for two hours a week. My first day I was very nervous, but also super excited to see what teaching an intermediate grade level is like. I loved every minute of fifth grade. My collaborating teacher is energetic, loud, and very passionate about teaching fifth grade. I observed her teaching a social studies lesson, where her and her students were reading along to an article about a woman who helped Colonists during the American Revolution. It was very cool to learn about history with a women in power. This article she was teaching connected to my social studies class from earlier that week. My social studies professor taught us how to teach students history from a different perspective. This is important because it teaches students the unwritten curriculum of our cultures values. For example, I never knew women helped out during the American Revolution. I assumed their only job was to be housewives and have children. Also, in my instructional planning class we read an article by Banks called Curriculum Reform Approaches. This article connects to teaching social studies because it went over how teachers cultures and backgrounds are the perspectives they teach from.
I am very excited to see what else connects in my future classes with my new fifth grade class! Also, I wonder if getting experience in an intermediate grade is going to change my mind for what grade I want to teach. As of now I am set on Kindergarten but my experience in fifth grade might change my mind. We will have to wait and see!
Happy New Year!
Miss Hester
P.S. Here is a picture of the social studies article from a students binder and the set up of a science/social studies/math word wall my fifth grade CT's classroom.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
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
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
Monday, November 25, 2013
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!
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
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