Phonics Lesson

I created a lesson for my phonics course to assist students in letter recognition. I decided to read the book "LMNO Peas" by Keith Baker 

and do an activity where students would flip over "pea" cards with letters on the other side. 

After flipping over the cards I had students identify the letter and the sound it makes. After implementing the lesson, I realized I should have focused first on letter recognition then moved on to identifying letter sound.

Urban Education Conference

Since the theme of this semester has been preschool, my friend and I decided that we should do a preschool-themed presentation for the Urban Education Conference.

Giving Students a Head Start: The Importance of Preschool in Early Childhood

Using the information we've learned throughout the semester, we created a presentation explaining the benefits of preschool. We used pictures from our placements as examples of appropriate classrooms and we gave everyone who attended the presentation an Wiig assessment and discussed how a child who had attended preschool would benefit.

I found presenting at the conference this year to be far more rewarding than last year's presentations. It was great to learn from my fellow learning community members.

Head Teacher

For this semester of classes, I am placed six hours per week at a preschool placement. Throughout the semester we had to be "head teacher" two times. This means we had to watch over the classroom, discipline children and instruct other teachers as needed. The first time I did this, I was paired with another teacher and we shared the responsibility. The second time, I had all the responsibilities while also having to plan a unit-type lesson. I was in a group with four other people that planned the other four days of the week. Our theme was health and body and my day was concerning food. I read a story called "The Donut Chef" by Bob Staake and talked about what is unhealthy about donuts. I brought fruits and vegetables cut in half for students to paint with along with a sorting activity with healthy and unhealthy foods. I also brought some fried potatoes and baked potatoes and allowed students to feel, smell and look and decide which was healthier.

Overall, the lesson went really well and the day went smoothly. I found it surprising how much time was involved in preparing for four hours of teaching. It struck me suddenly that I would be doing this on the daily soon, but preparing for a full day of teaching. I know that in the future it will become second nature to create lessons and there will be less stress involved. I understand now why we have to write so many lesson plans for classes and even from the beginning of the semester to now I have become more comfortable with lesson planning. I know that in the future it will only become easier.

Multicultural Initiatives Committee Presentation

As a result of the trip to Aldine Independent School District myself and one of my peers created a presentation concerning the effectiveness of implementing inclusive practices and their ability to meet the needs of their diverse classrooms. Using information we gathered from an online survey that was sent to everyone who attended the trip, we created a poster board, pamphlet and Prezi. The Prezi contains a brief overview of all the information we gathered, while the poster had more graphs and the pamphlet had more quotes from participants.

Little did we know when we arrived at the Multicultural Initiatives Committee's Student Research Forum on Diversity, but we were the only undergraduates who created a presentation. At the end of the session, we received a certificate and $25 recognizing us for this achievement. After a very stressful week, it was great to be so appreciated for all our hard work.

Aldine School District

For spring break I went on a trip to Aldine Independent School district in Houston, Texas. Here was a rough outline of the itinerary:

Saturday

Depart from Cleveland Airport at approximately 2pm

Arrive in Houston around 6pm

Dinner

Sunday

Toured NASA

Galveston Beach

Monday

Observed at Johnson Elementary

Went to the Rodeo

Tuesday

Observed at De Santiago Preschool

Departed from Houston at about 6pm

The trip was taken with about 30 people that are in the Early Childhood program, and as you can see contained many things in a short period of time. As hectic as it was, everything went incredibly smoothly. Here are a couple things I learned from this trip.

Collaboration is Key

The amount of communication and collaboration I witnessed  between teachers was exciting. Teachers at Johnson would divvy up the week's lessons between themselves based upon their strengths. The teachers would then share their lessons with one another. Besides sharing with each other, they were more than happy to share information with me. In my past placements, I would often sit in the back of the room and I would be completely unaware of why the teachers were doing what they were doing. In the Aldine schools I visited, teachers would explain what they were doing as they were teaching. They were very receptive to questions and were more than willing to share materials.

Passion is a Must

At De Santiago Preschool I observed in a deaf education classroom. I had never observed in this type of environment before and I was blown away by the dedication of teachers. Despite the lack of parental involvement it was evident these teachers were passionate about educating their students. The teachers expressed their frustration to me, but their performance in the classroom was not affected in any way. The classroom had a great amount of energy and enthusiasm circulating that the students could not help but being  excited about.

Sorting Lesson

I created the activity below prior to choosing a book to be paired with it. The activity is a picture of a house with labeled rooms and cut outs of different household items. After creating the activity, I struggled to find a book that would fit well with this theme. When it came to me, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. "In A People House" by Theo LeSieg follows a bird and mouse through a house as they talk about all the things you might find in a person's home. The simplicity and rhyme make it a good book to be tied into literature lessons while the illustrations are charming. This was one of my favorite books as a child and I was so excited to incorporate it into a lesson.

Flannel Board

"The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding" is an adaptation of a Latin American folktale written by Alma Flor Ada. The illustrations, created by Kathleen Kuchera, were made by carving pieces of wood to create stamps. As the story goes, the rooster was walking to his uncle's wedding but got mud on his beak. As he walked he asked passing creatures to help him get the mud off of his beak. 

I created flannel board pieces to accompany this cumulative story. I presented it to my class, and although I think it would be a little too wordy for the preschool class I'm placed in, I would love to pair this with a folktale unit in a kindergarten or first grade classroom.