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.

Questions for the Very Busy Spider

Today we were finally able to record the story with the sound effects and everything, it's not the best one, but it sounds pretty decent. We recorded a few times before we agree on one that we liked. It was very funny because by mistake we erased one that we really liked and had to do it over, I think we both enjoyed this very much, it was an exciting experience as well as something totally new.

Our Story: The very Busy Spider
By: Eric Carle
Questions:
1. What do you know about spiders?
2. Why do you think this is a very busy spider?
3. Are you a busy person? If so explain why?
4. What were some of the animals mentioned in the book?
5. Why did the spider fell asleep?

Last day to podcast!!!

Hopefully today well get to finish, we recorded the sounds effects to my cellphone and now we are going to try to record the story with the sound effects. We are using different computers today so hopefully this will help us finish on time.

Some problems...

I have had a lot of problems with the computer, it gets really slow and it doesn't let me do anything. Today we worked with two computers hoping it would make it easier, and it did but still a little difficult. We were not able to do much, but at least we started to record and practice, we had problems recording the sounds on time, since it was a little difficult to to read, record, and get the sounds effects within a shot time. We really hope to have better luck next tuesday...

3rd day!!!

Hopefully today we'll get to read and record our book, I have had a lot of problems with the computer it gets really slow, I cant open more than 4 websites at the same time. Now we are working with two computers so this may help us do the recording faster and easier.