Positive Field Experience :)

This semester I observed in Mrs. Lalonde's 3rd grade classroom at Penny Road Elementary School. This experience was a very postive experience. She was very flexible with me coming to observe her any day\any time. Mrs. Lalonde had great classroom management, and knew how to have all her students "get it" even when she had students all on different levels. I was able to observe writing lessons, spelling, reading lessons, literature circles, and the writing process. Mrs. Lalonde was always very available to help her students in any way which she could. She would do this by after she gave an assignment out, she would either circle the classroom and offer help, or if many students had questions she would sit at the kidney shaped table and work with students as a group.
By observing in Mrs. Lalonde's classroom I was able to observe many topics which we discussed in class. By seeing the different things we talked about in class at my field placement, it helped me remember and understand the material more in class. The interview questions gave me a better sense on some things I still had questions about, therefore that was very helpful also.
Not only was I able to just observe Mrs. Lalonde, but she also had me help her students with the writing process, therefore I was also able to get the hands-on experience with the students.
I really enjoyed being in Mrs. Lalonde's classroom, she was very welcoming and was a great teacher!

Conferencing with Peers

I have mixed feelings on revising and editing with peers. I do like revising and editing with peers because I think its important to have someone else look at your work, and possibly find things in your writing that you may over look. Especially, since most people write the way they talk. I dislike revising and editing some because I personally am not the greatest at writing, and would find it as a disadvantage to someone who's paper I was editing\revising. Also, Im not a big fan of people reading what I write because I wonder what others might think of it.

I think that revising\editing would possibly work in upper elementary, but not in lower elementary. I think teacher\student revising and editing would work better. In middle\secondary I think you could defintally do peer revising and editing. The students are more familiar with grammar, and sentence structure to the point where they could help there classmates.

Experiences with different language arts strategies

Before last class I did not know much about writers workshop--but I do remember having similar methods in school. As a class if there were unclear topics, our teacher would do a mini lesson to review the topic usually followed by a worksheet after. We did have an area in our classroom where we could get supplies such as paper, pencils, stapler etc to use during our writing time. I did like having the mini lessons, I felt like it helped refresh our memories on topics that we had learned before. For example, punctuation, sentence structure etc.

I do not remember having literature circles in school, I remember having the same book as everyone else and we would do "popcorn reading" in class. Where one student would start reading and then after a paragraph the student would call on someone else to read the next paragraph. I did and did not like this method. I thought it made the students pay attention more to what was being read just in case it was there turn to read next. But I also was shy in school therefore I was paying attention, but did not like reading in class in front of everyone.
I also remember having an incentive to read--in school they had "book it" where after you read a certain number of books you recieved a sticker which went on your pin and after a certain amount of stickers you recieved a personal pan pizza for free! I did like to read in school, but this program did encourage me more to read :)

Assessment

I believe assessment to a teacher and to a student differ. I believe to a teacher assessment is to evaluate a students work, and try to help them find ways to improve and move forward in there education. Assessing students can also help teachers determine if there objective for the assignment has been met. To a student assessing includes judging a student on their work, and determining if they pass or fail the assignment.
While in school I liked certain forms of assessment. Test taking was not my strength, so anytime assessment was measured through a test I did not do well. If I was being assessed through a hands-on project or some way of showing creativity I did well.
I think all students have different strengths and weaknesses and when it comes to assessing a student a teacher must take into consideration the differences, and be able to assess the students by using different methods. For example, tests, hands-on projects, portfolios, group projects etc.

Using "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in the classroom

In my future classroom I would like to use The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This book has always been a favorite of mine. I have always wanted to use this book in my classroom, after thinking about how I could use this book in my classroom I realized it could cover many different subject areas. There are many themes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar: the life cycle of a butterfly, the days of the week, counting and nutrition. There are many activites a teacher could do in a classroom with this book. For a math lesson-have a graph of all the different foods the caterpillar ate and have each student place an X under the column of the food which they would eat. For a science lesson have the students do a sequencing activity placing the correct cycle of a butterfly. For language arts create a classroom book called "The Very Hungry Kindergartner," each student can create a page for the book which includes a month and the food that the kindergartner ate in that month. With this activity students can focus on phonics, writing, and math. The teacher could ask questions about the sequencing of the story, and asking about the different foods which the caterpillar ate.

What makes writing worth reading?

Every person has a different interest in the material they may read. Depending on how much the material is interesting to a person depends on how much it is worth reading to the reader. Many people read for different reasons: entertainment, to learn something new, to be persuaded about a specific topic, etc. Depending on the reader and the readers purpose. depends on if the material is worth reading. The reading material must be interesting and on the readers level for it to be worth to the reader to read.
The quality of the reading is depended on the reader.
Therefore, I believe that each person has a different viewpoint on there choice of reading material that is interesting and worth reading to them.

Sticks & Stones

I remember this saying from when I was growing up. My mom and dad would always say "sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you" I disagree with this quote. I think words are very powerful, and can defintally hurt a person. Especially while you are in elementary school things that other students say to you, can be very hurtful. An example of this is whenever I would do something bad, my parents would sometimes say that they were "disappointed" in me. Whenever they would say that one word, I would feel so bad because I never wanted to dissapoint my mom and dad.

Learning Language

While in school I learned language arts through phonics. We would have worksheets where you had to match the picture with the correct sounds. I also learned language from phonics at home. My mom would buy the books which had sound endings on them. For example, words with -er, -ar endings. I believe my experience with phonics was a positive experience. I am not very familiar with whole language, but know that memorization, and meanings in popular with learning from a whole language style.
My experience with whole language has made me a better speller today. Even with very difficult words, if I listen to the sounds in the words I can usually spell it correctly. One thing that I wish I learned more in school was grammar and writing. I feel like these subjects were very much over looked while I was in elementary school.

The 6 Language Arts

While learning about language arts in school, I remember learning through the six language arts. We would do book reports to the class which would require listening and talking. We would also participate in popcorn reading. Where we would have to comprehend what we were reading afterwards to answer class questions. In class viewing of movies was also common. When learning about the six language arts visually representing was most surprising to me because I did not think of this as a form of language arts.
I believe that viewing and visually represting should be a part of language arts because not all students learn the same way, therefore the visual aspect of learning language arts would benefit students who are better learning through movies, posters, and computer programs. I think that the digital and media influences would only help enhance students learning in the classroom.

What do I think of blogging?

I have used blogging before in the technology education class. I really enjoyed it, it gave us a chance to read other people's blogs, and see what they were thinking about certain ideas. I think blogging is a great way for other people to find out more about a person, and whats going on in there lives. I also think blogging is a great way for people to express there feelings, since not all people are able to express there thoughts and feelings through speaking. I am excited to learn more about blogging, and post more blogs throughout the semester :)