The lesson.. and the plan.

"Ir"- Three Tenses & Map Activity

On Tuesday the lesson plan I had created was brought to life in front of 20 students. Lucky me-- I was the first one to teach! Bringing in creativity to a lesson requires a lot of time and effort (sometimes tedious effort). I'm glad I took the time to personalize the boarding passes so that I could incorporate them in the lesson. I received a lot of positive feedback about them. I prepared mainly by reviewing the PowerPoint, and planning the ways in which I could explain conjugations and translations to the students. I wish I would have had a behavior plan! In my opinion, a plan for behavior would have polished the lesson to perfection-- or something close to it. I know that those who are due to teach learned at least one thing from me-- have a behavior plan and make it effective.


My objectives were as follows:
Students will be able to...

-Use the four tenses of the verb “ir” (to go) by creating sentences

-Have a conversation using the proper verb tenses by working in groups of two

-Identify proper tenses usage of the verb

-Locate specific countries of South America on the map by pointing them out on the SmartBoard

Assessment:

-Sentence creation with partner demonstrates knowledge and use of reference

-Exit Slip*

*The exit slip was essentially for myself. I was interested in finding out what students had learned.

The lesson plan I had originally written up paralleled pretty well with the lesson. I really wanted to get my students comfortable with the language and speaking it. One thing I accidentally left out was having the students share their responses out loud. Instead I went straight to the capital/location activity. Whoops. I skipped a section of my procedure. I think the lesson went fairly well, but I would have changed quite a few minor details:


1. I would have gone more in depth with the conjugations (lack of time, really)
2. I would have had a list of vocabulary words that they could incorporate into their sentences, displayed on the Smart Board (I was under the assumption that the students knew more Spanish- assumptions are bad)
3. I would have had a behavior plan
4. I would have enforced some rules, given the "sick" student a hall pass, and thrown paper back at the student who was throwing it at me (just kidding, I should have given him a limited amount of warnings before isolating him)


I love the idea of having peer reviews, although anxiously waiting while my companions filled them out was nerve-wrecking. I did not even want to look at them until about a half hour later. After building up the courage to read the critiques, I thought they were fair and had good points. Since I am my harshest critic, I thought that they would be worse than what they were. Maybe my classmates were just being nice (Thanks!)


Overall, this was a good experience. The twist of the behavior cards was a challenge, but a realistic challenge that I will someday face on a daily basis in the classroom. The element does create a more genuine environment, as not all students are willing to sit down and learn.

Good luck to the upcoming teachers! :)

Don Quijote Digital Story

Here it is...

Digital Story.. continued.

So today my partner Leydy and I made good progress on our digital story. Our ideas were put onto paper and we started to get a better idea of what we will actually portray. Don Quijote can be a fun topic to work with, and browsing through music and pictures helped us to visually imagine how our final product would come together. We both know a lot about the novel, as we spent a whole semester learning about it last year. When we actually get to using iMovie, I think we're going to be fine.

Digital Story Day 1

Today is the first day of the Digital Story. I always thought of myself as a person who was technologically saavy, but I will admit, starting this blog gave me a bit of a headache. My initial blog didn't work out very well, and this is my second attempt. Let's see how the digital story works out...

Bulletin Board

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

CELEBRANDO DIVERSIDAD

Stephanie Montanez

Kevin Persson

Lesson Topic

Project Partners:

Leydy Dotel and Stephanie Montanez

Topic:

Don Quijote de la Mancha
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Child Literacy

"The most important thing you can do to ensure your child's academic success is fun for both parent and child and it's free. Literacy experts agree that reading aloud to your child from an early age is the single best way to prepare him or her to learn to read. Those good reading skills will provide the foundation for acquiring other knowledge later on.

Any time you read a book to your child, or even talk or sing, you're laying the foundation for what educators call “early literacy.” Early literacy is essentially everything a child knows about language and reading and writing before he or she can actually read or write. By creating a language-rich environment when your child is very young, you are supplying the building blocks for learning. Experts say this early learning pays big dividends later, when your child enters school..."

 Read on at:
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120209/LIFESTYLE/120209004/Experts-emphasize-importance-early-literacy