First lesson!

Today my group taught our Direct lesson and this was the first time we have taught in front of a class. We have been working so hard on our lesson plan and going over each slide and what we were going to say and what information we wanted to the students to know. It was difficult to make it fit into that 30 minute block, but it was fun being in front of the classroom. I like being in the front of the class, but I like when the students are more involved in the lesson. That is hard to do with direct lesson with teaching three topics in one session, but It was fun. I am very excited for the next two lessons Inquiry and Cooperative learning.

         The first lesson plan was overwhelming to work on alone, luckily we had a group of people to help us develop the lesson plan along with the power point of the information.The Direct instruction lesson I believe is the hardest lesson to plan and write. I think that it was hard to figure out how to capture the students attention and how to keep it. Although, my group was the second to go I don't believe that the group did that bad. I think that we all worked together fairly well which was very helpful. I liked that we met for days before we were to present our lesson, and that we worked as a team on the finished project.

            The second and third lesson plans were rough. The team was very busy with their own personal lives, and so the actual face to face time we got with each other was limited and small. We pulled it together though, and we made it work. We knew what we wanted to do for the inquiry lesson, but it was the getting it together that was the tough part. I thought that using mystery bags or artifact bags was a great idea. The students were very excited to explore them, and I was excited to see how the lesson plan would work out. I thought that the lesson was successful in the aspect of the students learning about the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and the different theories. I thought that teaching wise there was a lot of room for improvement, but I thought that the lesson was better then the direct lesson. 

The third lesson plan Cooperative learning was a lot of fun! I thought that the students really enjoyed making their own Jamestown with each other. I thought that the students were engaged. The groups were a little rough one of the groups the students fought over parts. The students had trouble working together, and when the teacher tried to walk them through it the students calmed down a little. The students presented well, but it was clear which students were part of the planning and which students were not. I liked this type of learning the best, and I loved how hands on cooperative learning is. I think that the students will walk away with some knowledge about what makes a society and how the Jamestown society worked.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU IS HOW TO MAKE THE DIRECT LESSON AS INTERESTING AS THE INQUIRY LESSON AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING LESSON. DIRECT LESSON IS IMPORTANT. HOW DO YOU PLAN ON ENGAGING THE STUDENTS SO THAT THEY ENJOY THIS LESSON AS MUCH AS A COOPERATIVE LEARNING LESSON?

Until Next Time

Meeting the students!

MEETING THE CLASS!

Today we met the students and we had to design an activity that would get them interested in what we would be teaching and trying to active prior knowledge about the topics we would be covering. This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed talking with each student and getting to know a little bit about each students.

This also gave us an opportunity to work with the group that we would be teaching with, and I think it was a great introduction to each other of how of our teaching styles. I thought that the group meshed well together, and that we were all on the same page about the learning outcomes of the students for the first day. We wanted to leave the students with some kind of valuable knowledge that they could use later on when we taught our cooperative lesson plan.
     I really enjoyed meeting with the students and coming up with a getting to know you activity. I thought that the students were engaged and liked our getting to know you activity. I am very excited to work with the students and teach them all about New Spain, The Lost Colony or Roanoke and about Jamestown.

Lesson planning!!

LESSON PLANNING

I think as students we take advantage of the lesson's that our teachers present to us. Many of us don't think about all of the work and effort put into these lesson plans by the teacher. I myself have never thought much about how much goes into planning a lesson until...Social Studies methods with Dr. Smirnovia! This class really gives you an appreciation of all the work and effort teachers put int their lesson plans.

There are three different types of lessons that you will be teaching as a teacher. Direct Lesson, Indirect or Inquiry lesson, and cooperative lesson. Each lesson need's a separate lesson plan, and I have talked about what is detailed in each type of lesson plan in my blog titled "Models of Teaching". My group used webquest to help us plan our inquiry and our cooperative learning lesson plan. Each lesson needs to include an objective, the common core standards linked with the students needs.  Goals that you want the student to reach.

Materials and resources used.  Introduction with how you will introduce the lesson how you link it from the last lesson and where you are going today in the lesson. Always need to have independent practice, and a closure. It would be weird to just stop a lesson in the middle with no closure to tie it all together. Always have to have accommodations and modifications for the students that may need them. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS YOU NEED TO REFLECT ON YOUR TEACHING. HOW DID YOU DO TODAY, WHAT DID THE STUDENTS LEARN. Always have to think about this so you can grow as a teacher.

But have no fear there are resources to help you plan your mighty lesson plans.  Webquest is a good site to use for inquiry and cooperative lesson plans. Also, pinterest is an awesome site for ideas. Teachers pay teachers is another great site.

Keep in mind when you are designing your lesson plans that you will have students who need extra attention/help in certain areas..how will you modify/ accommodate your students? Every class has unique learners..and teachers should make every effort to meet all of the students needs...how will you.

until next time