Artifact Bag Reflection =)

    I really enjoyed working with the artifact bags during class as it gave us an opportunity to first, learn about different cultures (and Dr. Smirnova's life), and secondly an opportunity to share our own artifact bags.  I do agree with the article that,  "Using artifacts, from primary documents to or items that can be held in one's hand is a motivational strategy that can tie readers to a variety of genres and bring a period of history to life in the process."  I agree with this because doing hands-on projects gives the students an opportunity to be involved with the lesson, which he or she will carry with them and remember more so than just being given a lecture about the lesson.  Using artifact bags in the classroom is not a difficult process.  Once the teacher decides upon the period of history to be studied, the first phone call could be to the library or a local art or historical museum.  Holding a real historical artifact is an irresistible invitation to learning that will not easily be forgotten.  When doing an artifact bag, it teaches the students a lesson on history while actively engaging learning and collaboration in small groups and it takes learning one step further, helping learners to better understand other people and other places from the inside out.  When I become a teacher, I will definitely use this in my classroom as I saw how much my class and I enjoyed it, it will be even more exciting for younger students to work with.

Artifact Bag

Artifact Bag!

Today in class, we shared our artifact bags in our groups.  I included pictures of movie making such as cameras, directors, and actors.  I chose to use the book and movie, Bambi, made in 1941 and the old time 1961 television show Mister Ed.  As a group, we opened each others artifact bags and tried to guess what the pictures meant.  We all included old time movie posters, movie tickets, scenes from the movie, and more!  It was an exciting way to share our artifacts with one another.  Our artifact bags related to our unit plans because we used movie making when working with BizMovie.  I will be able to tie movie making into my unit plans to teach students about working as companies, and young entrepreneurs.  This can be used to provide the students with a choice of what their movie can be about.  Economics was involved in this with the pictures of money, cameras, film strips, and movie directors pictures in my bag.  

Caitlin chose the movie The Mighty Ducks. The movie came out in 1992. In my artifact bag I included the front of the team's jersey, one of the player's jersey, a movie reel with popcorn, and dollar sign confetti. I included 50 individual pieces of the confetti to represent the profit of the movie being 50 million dollars.

Cynthia's movie of choice was Casper the Friendly Ghost. The movie came out May 1995. The artifacts I included in the bag a movie ticket for a showing of this movie from May 30, 1995, a movie poster from the movie, and a personal photograph of me dressed in a Casper costume. 

Melodie chose to use the movie, Alice in Wonderland, in her artifact bag.  She included pictures of scenes from the movie.

Voicethread!

Voicethread would be a good way to enhance higher learning skills and get the class interacted with one another through comments and voiceovers.  This would be good for an assignment and a great tool that is easy to use and easy to teach others.  Voicethread would be a good way to collaborate.  It can be a voice guide through a lesson.  This is a new technology so many may not be able to access it at home, but it can be learned while working with other students or teachers.  This would also be great because if a student is out sick for the day, he or she can catch up on what was missed by seeing what was taught in class that day.  Because oicethread is easy to use, teaching to students would be very simple.

Here is a way to access the great way to teach! https://voicethread.com/?#u1585.b223095.i1175934

Native American Lakota Tribe

Today, in class, our groups will work on our Native American project where we will explore interesting facts about the lives of the Native Americans.  I will research and learn about the Lakota tribe.

The Lakota tribe is a Native American Indian tribe that started in the 1700s and still exists today. Their society centered around buffalo hunting on horse back. There was roughly around 20,000 Lakota in the mid 18th century. When superior tribes, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidasta were damaged by the small pox and other diseases, the Lakota was able to cross the Missouri for the first time. In 1765, a Saone exploring party led by Chief Standing Bear discovered the Black Hills. In 1776, they defeated the Cheyenne and took control over the land.  The Lakota tribe lives mainly in North and South Dakota. It is the westernmost of the three major Sioux groups within the Great Sioux Nation, which also include the Eastern and Western Dakota. The Lakota people traditionally speak Lakota, one of three Sioux dialects.

Importance of Assessments!

Assessment is the means to determine a student’s mastery and understanding of the information, skills, concepts, or processes.

Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, and curriculum.  There are three types of assessments: formative, diagnostic, and summative.  There are many components to assessments such as feedback (from teachers, schools, and school systems), evaluation/progress, and student and teacher friendly.  It is to follow the student's progress throughout the year by giving information about the student's strengths and weaknesses, and the provision of opportunities to revise or do further learning.

Assessment is not just a matter of grading.  They grade a student's prior knowledge before new content without difficultly to analyze or understand.

What assessments should do: 
Assessment should bring about benefits for children. Gathering accurate information from young children is difficult and potentially stressful. Assessments must have a clear benefit—either in direct services to the child or in improved quality of educational programs.

In The College Classroom

Even though it is a completely different learning experience than at Bishop Dunn, learning in the college classroom I find helpful as we all share ideas with each other.  I also feel that the PowerPoint we go through during the class help me memorize (for example) the different types of assessments and what they contain.  
+Learning all together.
+Sharing ideas and concerns.
+Working as a class.
Wish: Not so much work in a short period of time.

Skyping For Peace- Article Review

I enjoyed the article review assignment as it opened my mind to new teaching strategies and techniques.  The article I read was about students Skyping with other students from different countries to share experiences in learning.  I felt that this was a great idea because the students were engaged in the lesson and enjoyed the experience.  When the students skyped with other children across the world, it opened their eyes to how different cultures, education, etc is everywhere.

Award Ceremony

  For our last lesson, my group and I hosted an award ceremony for the companies to reward their hard work.  We made certificates for the companies for "Best Costume", "Best Animated Film", "Most Cooperative", etc.  The students were all so excited for the awards celebration and acted as if they were real like movie stars.  Aside from some technical difficulties in showing the movies, it was a success! The companies were also given a trophy with their certificate.  BizMovie taught the students new vocabulary words, how to work together, how a company works overall, and much more!  I do believe that the students enjoyed the experience and learned from it.  I would use BizMovie again in the future when I become a teacher.

Movie Making Time!

For my second lesson, our group started the lesson with a quick review of the vocabulary words with words associated with their companies.  Due to lack of time, we soon began filming our movies! My group worked well together as they were focused and stayed engaged in the lesson, because they felt like movie stars and played the part.  The group members and I recorded the students voices as they stated their lines.  To put the movie together, we used still pictures and their voices that we recorded.  The students came dressed in costume and excited for the movie making.  With time and effort, the movie was completed and ready to be presented at the award ceremony.

Now It's My Time (March 11, 2013)

Today was my first time teaching the 4th grade class with my group in front of the class.  I believe that it went very well and I feel comfortable and confident with my lesson!  My group and I started teaching the 4th grade class new vocabulary terms relating to the funding of their companies (starting with the words Asset, Debt, Balance Sheet, etc.)  The students were not as engaged/enthuasiatic as I would have liked them to be, but they still understood the new terms and were able to use them in sentences as we asked them to do.  After introducing the new vocabulary, we assigned the students to continue working on their movie scripts and begin filming the movies.  My group, in particular, was not ready for the "movie making" part as our script is not yet finished.  We will begin the filming the next time we meet. :) 

Ready, Set, Action!

  As the time approaches for my group to teach, I can't help but think (over Spring Break), of what to do, and what not to do when teaching the 4th grade students.  I have seen all my other classmates go and I feel that has definitely prepared me for the experience.  My group and I will continue to work with BizMovie (that the students love) and will begin to wrap up the lesson! Our group will focus on reviewing vocabulary that they have previously learned, wrapping up ideas, and making the movies!

Acting Out The Commercials!

 On Wednesday, our companies acted out their commercials for their movies.  The students were excited to dress up and be movie stars for the day!  My group, in particular, finally worked together and enjoyed this session!  It is great to see the students agreeing on decisions and having fun while learning at the same time!

Here are some pictures from the experience:

Group 3 (The Girls)

Group 3 did a wonderful job teaching the students using a Prezi presentation with old and new vocabulary.  They started with a review of old words that they new such as 'Entrepreneur', 'Capitalist', 'Copyright', etc!  The students were on task and engaged throughout the lesson and seemed to enjoy learning about the "cool" animations and sounds that a movie has to decide on.  From what I saw, the students learned that making a movie takes a lot more time, money, and effort than they thought! Now, the students know how hard it is for companies to get together and agree on ideas.  I think that the students learned a lot from this teaching experience and group 3 did a great job.  From observing the lessons, I have gained a lot of "pointers" for when it is my turn to teach.

Group 2- Second Day of Teaching

On the second day that group two taught, the students from Bishop Dunn took a short walk and came to Mount Saint Mary College! The companies worked on making up a story line, characters, plot, etc. for their movies.  This was a great time for all members of the company to share their ideas on what the movies should be about.  My group, specifically, had difficulty deciding, or agreeing on events of the movie and who should be in it; this is normal for a company to not agree on everything!  My group/company learned from this experience in our classroom because they realized that in order to get their movie "rolling", they need to work together and listen to what EVERYONE has to say.  Congrats to group two on another great day of teaching!  :) 

Bishop Dunn(Week 2-Group2- First day)

  Today was the first day that Group 2 taught at Bishop Dunn Memorial School and it went great! The four teachers (Rachel, Chelsea, Joe, and Matt) all spoke loud and clean in front of the class, keeping the students attentive and engaged in the lesson.  My group did very well in answering the questions and working together on the packet.  The whole class loved the activity where they threw the ball into the SmartBoard to reveal the answer/definition.  Overall, very productive job today!

Bishop Dunn Memorial School

Today was a great experience at Bishop Dunn Memorial School.  It was Group 1's last time teaching and I think it went very smoothly.  Our class as a whole was involved in this teaching experience as we were to work in groups with the students of the 4th grade classroom.  In my group, we came up with a company name "Jack D.L." with the logo of a ninja, and the slogan "Hi-yah, it's Ninja Time!"  Our group had some difficulty deciding on a name, logo, and slogan, as there were always two or three students who did not agree on everything.  Our group (of college students) were able to solve the dispute and include all the students ideas into one.  This showed me how important problem solving is and making the students happy.

All Eyes On Me; Excited To Teach

  As the time is getting closer to when my group teaches, I am becoming very nervous and excited at the same time.  I am excited to show my abilities, yet nervous to present them in front of the class with many people (and peers) watching.  I have been preparing for my time to teach with my group/classmates, and I feel that we will be very prepared to put on "our show".

Teaching; Group 1

  Group 1 did a great job teaching!  I was proud of my peers to go first, and make the very best of the situation.  From observing their classes, I was able to take down some pointers and learn through their own experience.  Siobhan, Stephen, Alicia, and Kelsey all did a great job at teaching the 4th grade class about "Business," "Capital," "Revenue," "Profit," "Expenses," etc.  The students seemed very engaged throughout the three lessons.  

What I learned from their teaching:

-Do not use the word "guys" to address the students.

-Use their names (as they have name tags).

-Timing is important! Keep an eye on the clock and keep things moving.

-Organization is key.

Inspiration

  I wanted to take the time to write a blog about one of the many inspirations I have to become a teacher.  Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher.  This dream of becoming a teacher became more important in my life when I was around the age of fourteen, when my younger cousins were born.  Watching them grow from babies to young girls, and being able to observe their mental and physical growth has been an amazing experience!  I spend a great amount of time with my three little cousins Caitlin (6), Molly (4), and Lillianne (1 1/2).  Through spending time with them, I was given the opportunity to first handedly follow the growth of a human being.  My little cousin, Caitlin and I have been reading together for the past few years, and I have seen the great difference between her as a Kindergartener, and her as a First Grader.  Molly, who is four years old, is still at an age where she cannot fully read books, so I help her with words, spelling, and her choice of words when speaking (such as the difference in past tense words, "deer" vs. "deers", etc.). Lillianne, who is almost two years old has shown me how incredibly smart a two year old can be!  Just in the past few months, her mental growth has been incredible;  just from November to February she went from barely knowing any words to now making sense of the words she is using, and understanding what people are saying to her.  In seeing their individual stages in life,  I have loved to help them and teach them with everything and anything.  The feeling of teaching someone is the best feeling I have ever felt.  

-Megan O'Brien =)

Getting To Know My Peers

   Our first assignment was to make something that describes our character.  I put together a "T Shirt" including pictures of my heritage, where I want to teach when I graduate, what makes me nervous, and my love for traveling.  I began to introduce myself to the class by telling them my name and asking them, "Why do you think I have these pictures on my t-shirt.    My plain t-shirt reflects my plain style (a white t-shirt, with no pattern);  I also explained this to my peers.  At the end of my introduction to the class, my peers were informed that I am 100% Irish, want to teach at Springhurst Elementary School, get nervous with a lot of work, and my love for travel.  In doing these short introductions to "getting to know my peers,"  I learned that most of the class is made up of an Irish/Italian population, with
elementary teachers, not adolescent.

-Megan O'Brien