Reflection of other classmates' lessons

I think the lessons went really well, they all had different ideas, activities, and techniques. I definitely learned a lot from all of them; great worksheets, different ways to read stories to the students, get their attention, etc.

The only critique would be that we all need to work in our techniques of controlling the students, we need to remember that kids will always misbehave and try to talk and play with their classmates, and there's nothing wrong with it, we just have to let them know they will have their time to talk and play. Let's not forget that they are kids, and if we really want to be teachers we need to be patient and love to work with children. If we don't have those characteristics we should not be teachers.

Reflection of Podcast

In our original lesson plan we had included the podcast, but then the last time we met we decided to take it out and use it in our individual lesson plans. We struggled a lot when recording the podcast, but it was not because of the software, it was because of the computer we were using. But at the end we were able to finish it on time. We recorded it a few times until we had the almost fantastic one :). I really liked the idea of podcasting; I will definitely use it with my students in the future.

A funny story about the podcast; I never thought people would actually go to our blogs and read our postings, but a few weeks ago my boyfriend texted me and asked me about my podcast. I had never said anything because I felt shy about it, but he found out through a classmate in his university that found Dr. Luongo's Blog and was talking about it in class; "a blog where future teachers write about their experiences and different activities they do". It was so funny, but people actually read our blogs and listen to our podcast :).

Lesson plan

I think our lesson plan went pretty well, we were able to do everything we had in our lesson plan and a little more. We did a few things that were not in our lesson plan, but they actually went well with the lesson; like having the students write their sentences on the smart board. I think my partner (Renee) and I worked really well together, we did our best to keep the students under control, but we also made sure they were learning and having fun. We met a few times to plan our lesson. The first time we worked on the actual planning of the lesson, the activities we wanted to include and the things we wanted the students to learn. The last time we met, we organized where the students would seat and who would seat next to whom; we did these based on their behaviors. If I'm not wrong we did two seating charts, we wanted everything to go smoothly, and I think we got it. I will be very honest I don't like working in groups much, but I'm happy my partner and I did a nice job together.

I learned that having the students work in pair may work really well, especially if we have a reward system, where they will both benefit if they both do a good job or behave well, but if one of them does something wrong or misbehave they will both lose points. I think this kind of system works well because it encourages students to help each other and to behave well.

I think the only thing I would change is giving the students the opportunity to say yes or no. Even though we didn't give them the choice for everything, we did give them the option of getting the points or not.