Last Week of Field

What: I completely forgot to blog last week. This was our last week in field. I am really going to miss it. The students were wonderful and this experience reinforced for me how much I really enjoy fifth grade.

While working at this school I noticed that the only specialty classes that the students had were P.E and computers. At my kids school their specialty classes are P.E., music, art, and computers. I asked one of the students when they have music and art, I thought maybe they had it later in the day when we were not there. The student told me that they don’t have art or music. This made me sad and a little angry.

So What: One of the days that I was there the students had some free time were the teacher told them they could do SSR (silent, sustained, reading), work on their tall tales, math, spelling or if they had all that done they could have some free time. There were many students that I know for a fact didn’t have their work done for those subjects and took the free time but I didn’t say anything. The reason I didn’t say anything was because almost all of the students that took the free time got out art supplies and started making pictures. The teacher, even though she doesn’t know a lot about art herself, keeps many kinds of art supplies available for her students to use. She has water colors, markers, colored pencils and lots of paper. Most of the students got out the water colors and were using several different types of techniques. When I asked one of the students were she learned to do what she was dong she said her teacher last year showed her how. I really feel like the class needed this time to be creative and unwind. I was happy to see that the teacher gave the students this time to explore and be creative.

There was one particular student that I noticed was really struggling in every subject. It wasn’t because she didn’t know how to do what was being taught but she had a hard time concentrating. One day she noticed my plastic wrist bands and asked me what they were for. I told her they were for Zumba. She told me she did Zumba also and really liked it. She also takes other dance lessons. I got thinking that all this student may need to succeed is to have some core lessons (math, science, lit.) done through creative movement. I wish I had notice this before we had taught all our lessons.

Now What: When we become teachers we don’t know what kind of conditions we will be teaching in. It may be a school like the one my kids go to that still has art and music or it may be like the one I did my field work in that has no arts at all. It will be my job as an education to expose my students to as many of the arts as humanly possible. I would like to take them on field trips to see plays, concerts, dance recitals, and art exhibits. I would like them to create their own works of art and share them with the class. I am very thankful for the PTA and their reflections program. I was in charge if it one year at my sons school and got to be a judge for several categories. Many of the students are so talented and have amazing abilities that need to be fostered. My husband shared this link with me today and I found it very interesting. I hope you do too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Field 2

What: This week we taught two social studies lesson were we integrated the arts. One, drama, did not go well at all. The second one music, went very well. The students also performed at the UVU Veterans day program.

So What: Our first lesson was on the settlement of Jamestown. We did a jig saw lesson using the book My Jamestown. We started off by dividing the class into six groups of four and assigning each group a part of the book to read together and decided the most important parts. Then each person in the groups was given a number between one and six. All the ones got together, all the twos got together and so on. Each group member was to tell the rest of the group about their part of the book so that they would all know the whole store. Then we divide the six groups in half. The ones were suppose to be the interviewers and the twos were suppose to be any character from the book they wanted. The interviewers were suppose to ask questions and the others were suppose to answer as if they were from the book. The students hated it and there were even some tears. I think we gave them to much material to read and the groups should have staid smaller. Instead of four groups of six, we should have kept it at six groups of four. We also should have better demonstrated the interviewing section of the lesson.

Our next lesson was on the Mayflower voyage. We did the same lesson that we did in our arts integration class a few weeks ago but with the new lesson plan that we e-mailed you. We got back from UVU so late that we only had time to do the anticipation guide and book the first day. On the second day we reviewed the book and learned the song. This class loves to sing. They really got into and I over heard on student singing the song later that day.

As I said earlier the students sang for the UVU veterans day program. They got a standing ovation on the last song. They did such a good job that UVU has invited the fifth grade to come back every year and perform. They used the music and actions from the Hope of America program.

Now What: We learned a lot from our first two lessons. I know that arts integration works. I am curious to see how they do on the end of unit quiz we are going to be giving next week. I have a feeling that they will do best on the questions that have to do with the subjects were we used drama and music. I need to find out more about the Hope of America program. My partner Krystal says she did it when she was in High school but I have never heard of it before and I have had two children of my own go through the fifth grade. There is still so much to learn. Isn't that great.

# 10 Field week 1

I’m not really sure how to follow the what, so what and now what formula for this blog so I am going to just write what I observed, feel and think. I hope that is ok.

The first day of field the teacher was gone and had a sub. I didn’t notice much in the form of the students art work around the room. There were some pictures of a horn of plenty that the students had painted. As a fast finisher some of the students still had their horn of plenty that they could color. From what I have learned that isn’t really art. Maybe if the students had drawn or sketched their own picture, choosing their own median to work in. But I wasn’t there for the lesson so perhaps there was more to it.

On the second day, Thursday, the only art was during writing. The students have been learning how to write tall tales. They were suppose to do a pre-write and part of the pre-write was drawing a picture of their mane character. I hope they take it a step farther and completely illustrate their stories.

On the third day, Friday, the students practiced a song they learned that they will be performing on Monday for a school assembly and then again at UVU for the Veterans’ day program. The teacher had the words to the song pulled up on her smart board, she had them sing through the song, then she covered up some of the words and had them sing it again and the last time she had the smart board turned off and turned down the CD a little. The students sounded grate I just wish the CD didn’t have children singing on it. It would be nice to hear just my classes beautiful voices.

Next week my partner and I start teaching. On Tuesday we will be doing a lesson on the colonization of Jamestown. We plan on reading a small part of a book called Our Strange New Land. Then we are going to divide the class into groups and give them another excerpt from the book. The students will read and discuss it in their groups. Then we will divide the groups again so that each group has one person from each of the other groups in it. Each person will have a turn to tell their new group about the part that they read. Then the group will choose which three members will be characters from the book while the other three in the group will be reporters. The students will then take turns interviewing each other as the character from the book. We have a shy class so I hope we can pull this off. I’ll let you know next week how it went.

On Thursday we are teaching a lesson on the Mayflower voyage. We will start by reading the book On the Mayflower and then discuss it. I wrote some new lyrics to the tune I’ve Been Working on the Rail Road. The words are about some important thing s that happened on the ship. I hope that the song will make it easier for the students to remember some of the facts. We will also be discussing and learning the differences between rhythm, tempo and beat as we learn the song whole to part.

It should be a fun week filled with much learning for both us, our students and maybe even our cooperating teacher.