Blog #2 Reactions to TWS

My initial reaction to the TWS was hmmm.... I haven't done such a detailed paper involving all of the TWS parts since my undergrad. program. After class this past Thursday, I feel better about the whole process. I like that I have the opportunity to do it in chunks, and I would have taught this material anyways. I'm excited that I get to break it up in such detail and make it a really good unit. I will also have the opportunity to self reflect and adjust things if needed.
The hardest part will be deciding on the minimum amount of standards. I tend to want to do so much within a unit. I need to scale back. I have decided to choose both Language Arts and Social Studies standards. The only challenges I forsee is making sure I get the current material I have planned taught, so it flows nicely with week 5-7 lessons I am planning. For Social Studies my class and I are doing a Civil War/Underground Railroad unit. According to our 4th grade "Ohio" curriculum after this unit it I will roll right into Women's Suffrage and the Civil Rights movement which will be a nice transition for my mini-Jazz unit. I am struggling with picking on too much to do. I know I want our English aspect to focus on the text style and possibly alliteration. The books I have chosen to do as read alouds and small group work has text styles that when read sounds like actual jazz music, such as scatting and stuff. I think my students will really enjoy this. Plus we will be learning biographical snip its of many jazz musicians, with a main focus on Duke Ellington. I chose to do this Jazz unit because my students don't get to have music class until they go to public school after 8th grade. Also, since I teach at an Islamic school, some Jazz musicians such as Art Blakey is a Muslim. There are other musicians who are also Muslim and I think my kids will be really excited to learn that, since they are also Muslim, and may one day choose to go into the performing arts field or take up an instrument some day. This unit connects very well to Language Arts and Social studies as well as current music standards. So we'll see. Well that's a lot of blogging for now.
Good Night!

This goes along with my first blog entry...

Wow, I really need to read and follow directions.... duh
Ok, so my first blog "ever" was my first thoughts about the class. As I read over my To do list, I realized that I was supposed to discuss the following in my first blog... here goes.

I wanted to become a teacher because I had wonderful teachers and mentors growing up as a student. I also enjoy seeing the spark of student's minds, and the progress they make while learning. It is really rewarding to witness, and realize what an impact and sometimes influence all teachers and adults have who are involved in student's lives.

Hmm... my greatest strengths in teacher.... Honestly I'm still trying to identify my greatest strengths as a teacher. I realize I have a long way to go to be satisfied with the answer to this question. I do feel comfortable teaching all Language Arts components and sub topics within. This may stem from enjoying reading so much when I was younger. I also have diverse teaching experiences especially in my current teaching positions and that makes me comfortable in any teaching environment. I believe I can grow in all areas of teaching. That's the great thing about education is that you never stop learning, and getting different perspectives on what I'm already doing is beneficial. I do tend to be fickle in my lessons. If I decide what I'm going to teach a few weeks before I teach it, I tend to change my mind and I'll want to do something different instead. So my weaknesses are to trust what I plan and go with it. If it's a flop, I get a second chance another day to reteach in a different way, but I do get worried when I find that some lessons are not successful. I decide how to teach required content by seeing what goals I want to achieve and what standards are incorporated with these objectives. I'll refer to texts, and write out my plans and think about what I want to do for my pre-assessments,and go from there. I enjoy discussions and interacting verbally or do an activity to see how the students are thinking, what they are thinking and then I ask them a question or give them a topic to discuss with me. It sparks their prior knowledge and go from there. I almost always incorporate a story, or point out a section of text that will be part of our discussions.

First Class thoughts

I wanted to think back to how I thought the first class would be like and how the class actually went. I really didn't know what to expect other than the listed assignments and course documents on Blackboard. I must say I am really excited to be in this class, and have such an open professor, who seems like she will be our partner in our journey and not just our leader. I look forward to learning in this class, and I am optimistic that I will be able to take a step back and refresh and redesign my teaching. I enjoy hearing about other classmates teaching experiences and I like to share my own as well. I think we will be doing a lot of this during the quarter. I enjoyed doing the 21st century learner activity. It gave the class a chance to get to know and discuss our ideas and opinions. Tomorrow is class # 2, and I'm anxious to see what we will be working on.

Good Night!
Jill