Week 16: Barton Open (7 hours)

Barton Open School - Allison Barton - 7 Hours

May 3rd. Today in the morning I did a lot of getting ready for my lesson, making sure I had all my supplies.  Also I was making sure the PowerPoint was ready to go and that nothing sounded confusing.  I think that overall the lesson went pretty well.  We started off with Allison giving a quick 5-minute math lesson to the children to remind them of some of the skills that they would be using for this art infused lesson.  While she was talking I handed out supplies so that we could make the most of the hour because I had not planned on Allison doing a mini lesson in my backward model lesson plan but I switched it up on the fly.  I think that my PowerPoint was really effective in showing the kids what they were going to do and showed them how it was used in many real world situations. It was also nice to see their faces light up when they saw how even I used math with in my own work that was a great suggestion made by my professor Lynda Monick-Isenberg. I should have had a few more examples of how to draw the ratio of the gird but Allison being the pro she is stepped in to help me out and drew a gird on the board for people.  Children were involved the entire hour and a lot of them were exited to take it home because they wanted to see what the whole picture would look like once it was all put together.  

May 4th.Today I came in for a few extra hours.  Allison did a lesson for the first half of class and the second half of class the kids continued to work on their drawings.  I also assigned it as homework again to try and get the kids to finish it or put in a little bit more detail.  I also asked the kids what they liked and didn’t like, the only didn’t like was that they didn’t like to draw so Ill take that as a win.

May 5th. I  went in to put the piece together, put it up in the hallway, and take a picture.  Unfortunately one person forgot their square at home so it is missing one but Allison told me she would take one when it is complete.  

Week 15: Barton Open (4 hours)

Barton Open School, 8th grade - Allison Barton - 4 Hours

April 26th. Today was a fun day it was a lesson that Allison had asked me if I wanted to teach because it had to do with photography which I honestly did but I thought I should make my own lesson and I wanted to take the opportunity to see how Allison teaches an Art infused lesson in her classroom.  She started of with showing the kids a mini lesson and then gave them a quick 3 problem worksheet to work on with the person next to them and then hand in when they were done.  After the students completed that she went on to the next part which was explain the art side to this plan which was to take their picture and use some part on the as a parabola and the transform it.  She got them excited by showing them past examples that the kids had made, she picked kids that some of them knew as well.  I think that was a smart strategy because if they saw that a bigger kid that they know tried hard it will make them want to do the same.  Next she assigned homework that they had that they could work on while she went around with her laptop and took picture of the kids with this filter to make 4 different colors of their face.  That took about the rest of the hour to make the pictures, the kids will work on the next part of it tomorrow when Allison can go and make prints.  We did this for 2 different classes. 

Week 14: Barton Open (4hrs)

Barton Open School - Allison Barton Jr High - 4 hours

The children are working on graphs, inference graphs, parabola, liner graphs, and exponential absolute value. The first hour was taken up by going over homework and then what was being assigned for the day.  

For the first part of dance class she had people lead each other around without talking to one another, also one person had to close their eyes.  So only by leading someone around with their hands and using proper gestures could they move their partner around with out getting someone hurt.  I think this is a great lesson to learn before going into high school.  I feel like as years go on schools are becoming more violent and children are increasingly talking back to their teachers and I think this is a good way to teach each other to communicate. 

 Kids are learning slope intercept form it amazing how different the dynamic between the two classes are even though they are taught the same material.  In this class she uses a microphone so that the kids will not only pay attention but so that they get excited to talk into the microphone and not each other which I thought was a great strategy.   

Week 13: Barton Open (2 hrs)

Barton Open School - Allison Barton Jr High2 hours

Got to the class room and no one was there I guess they were out playing kickball.  Which is always a great way to get the energy out.  

Today they are working on domain and range.  I think some of the kids are starting to warm up to me helping them.  There is an extra help in room already so a lot of children were slow to ask me for help I feel like going up to the kids that need help may be working work rather then asking them since they seem stand offish or maybe they might think that I don’t not know the answer.  

Dance was next I think they were preparing for a final show.  It was awesome at the end before I had to leave to go to my advisement.  They were throwing one little boy around.  Six of the students came together held each others hands and the little boy got thrown up into their arms and the they all went down and through him up in the air together and caught him.  It was great to see all the team work and what dance can do to bring students together.

Week 12: Barton Open School (3 hrs)

Barton Open School - Allison Barton Jr High - 3 hours 

Got to class and the class was working on their common errors packets. They had issues with some of the problems were so simple that they had over looked how easy it was.   For example the answer had the wrong unit at the end or that some needed to be squared and wasn’t.  If someone was talking to friends she was quick to correct them by calling attention to them and making sure their following along with her.  They are working on correcting yesterday’s homework and she is going around to make sure they are done and marking off that they handed it in.  After they are done with that assignment they partnered up and started working on an exponent assignment.  After they finish that they can work on a crib sheet or their homework for tomorrow, but most of them didn’t get that far.  Allison is very good at making sure her students are understanding what is going on and paying attention while she is going over material. 

 Today in dance they were practicing for a flash mob that they are going to be doing for a teachers meeting on Friday.  It was great to see all the kids excited to do something for the teachers.  It was also surprising the amount of energy and enthusiasm they all used.

Week 10: Barton Open School (5 hrs)

Barton Open School 7&8th grade - Allison Rubin-Forrester - 5 hours

I got there and I was a bit early which was nice.  Got to speak with Allison a bit before class and she let me know what their schedule is usually like.  Normally they have their morning meeting, homeroom, dance, algebra, algebra, geometry, and then lunch.  But this morning was going to be a little different because there was a teacher missing so Allison needed to watch another classes for a bit so she took the classes into the commons and played kick ball for their homeroom. 

Dance was next, as I am not a good dancer nor do I know any of their routines, I sat on the sidelines and observed how Allison was teaching the kids through dance.  This was more then just a dance class it was about connections, teamwork, and social interaction.

During both Algebra classes which are mirrors to each other, they were presenting their posters that they made on spiral denotations and spiral growth. I really enjoyed seeing these because this was already a use of art in teaching kids math and yet they were having fun designing their spirals at the same time.

Geometry is the last class of the day.  Allison let me know that this class isn’t quite like the other ones and that some of the kids tend to be chatty and that’s why they were in the front. I thought that this was a great way to deal with the kids that are chatting during math because in reality it is those kids who probably don’t understand the math as well, which is why they are chatting in the first place.

Week 9: Expo (6.5 hrs)

Expo Elementary 2nd grade - Ulla Tervo Desnick - 6.5 hours

Ms. Ulla is sick today and Ms. Olivia is in charge along with a licensed substitute in the room.

We start off today by going down to the library to get new books for the week.  The kids are really loud today and goofing off I think that’s because Ms. Ulla wasn’t here and there is a lot of kids taking advantage of that.  


After Ms. Olivia passes out their pen pal letters that they have to read and then write a rough draft to be corrected to respond back to them.  Some of them were having trouble trying the think of a question to write back to them that they didn’t already ask them.  So I was trying to help them come up with one thing that really interested them.  From this they could from a few sentences and then a question at the end.  It seemed to help them be able to figure out a question easier.  


Next it was my turn to teach my Minecraft math lesson.  I was extreme nervous and didn’t know how the kids were going to react with out Ms. Ulla here and with my teacher and a video camera.  Ms. Olivia sat them down on the carpet in front before lunch and explained to them what would be happening with the camera and my teacher coming in so it wouldn’t be a surprise to them and let them know what kind of of behavior was expected from them.  At first I was a bit nervous but I shook the nerves out and I think in the end it was an amazing project.

The only think I forgot was to have the kids measure each side of the square and count how many 1inch square fit in it at the end to access them but in the end they all completed at least one and in most cases two.  It was a fun project and I think the kids learned a lot from it I was happy with the out come.

Week 8: Silverwood Park (4 hrs)

Silverwood Park Camera Club - Artist Linda Dobosenski - 4.0 hours

When I got to Silverwood Park for Camera Club let by Photographer and teaching artist Linda Dobosenski, there were already people in the entry way and Linda let me in.  The park is an amazing park I had never been there before.  After me and Linda introduced ourselves she brought me into the room where the presentation would be and let me know how camera club works.  How it works is they have someone come in and talk about their practice for a presentation for about an hour then after the Q and A people put thumb drives into a basket.  Then one by one they go through 5 pictures on the thumb drives and give feedback towards each other on the photos shown.

Most of the participating people were hobbyist but they’re a few who take photography fairly seriously.  It was nice to give some feedback to people who truly appreciated it and I also helped give them a few Photoshop tips. Today’s presentation was Keith Crowley who is a wildlife and nature photographer which is very fitting with it being a park.  I learned a lot about different ways you can get up-close and stay safe in order to get wildlife pictures which was neat.  I was left with questions about the gear he used and wonder if others also had these questions.

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Week 7: Expo (5.5 hrs)

Expo Elementary 2nd Grade - Ulla Tervo Desnick - 5.5 hours

Today started off with Ms. Ulla getting the kids ready for library time and there was also a small book fair that some of the children got to go to.  To calm some of them down and prepare them to go to the library she called the children up to the front of the room had them lay down and then started to read them what they were going to do today the prompt read:  Happy March, Today we’ll continue with book recommendations.  We’ll also meet in reading groups.  Let’s work hard.

Then we started to work on their “I recommend sentences.  I helped one of the little girls with reading aloud.  Helped out around the classroom on the down time by blowing up the blue balls that the children sit on and bounce as they deflate.   After that I walked around and helped kids form their paragraph to be corrected.  Some kids had to rewrite theirs due to them not saving a space for the corrections to be written on.

At lunch Ms. Ulla, Ms. Olivia and I sat down and went over my lesson plan.  Ms. Ulla gave me some tips on how I could improve and finish within the time that I am allowed.  Most of these kids are really helpful to each other which is nice but it can also make silent study time quite loud.  Ms Ulla handles it well by spacing out the talkative children. 

Math is the last part of my day.  Ms. Olivia is teaching the lesson today.  She starts off by having the kids put rulers on the outside of the rug in the front of the room.  Quickly she is realizing this isn’t a good idea because it is turning into a zoo with these kids trying to fit on the rug so she has them all go back to their desks -  but overall I think the kids were having fun with the rulers.

Week 6: Expo (7 hrs)

Expo Elementary - Ulla Tervo Desnick, 2ne grade teacher - 7 hours

Happy March!

Today we continued with book recommendations that they had been working on over the last few days.  First we started of with forming sentences that start with “I recommend this book to”. As I walked around the class and helped people with their questions most children were having trouble thinking out what to write down not how to form the sentence.  So I was helping them come up with ideas on why they liked the book, or what stood out to them.  Next they went into their reading groups and I helped a few of the student with sounding out bigger words they are working on paragraphs.  They then went to working on their paragraphs which was a bit hard for them to get the concept, after Ms. Ulla let me know that paragraph forming in at the 4th grade level but they were just trying to introduce it to them.  Some children had to re-write theirs due to that they didn’t leave big enough spaces in-between their words.  While Ms. Ulla read to the I filled up the big blue balls that they sit on out in the hallway, some were a little deflated. 

After recess, which we go out with the kids for, Ms. Ulla, Ms. Olivia, and I sat down for lunch and discussed my lesson plan that I will be teaching in 2 weeks.  She gave me some tips on how I could improve and finish within the hour time frame I have.

Towards the end of the day the start working on math, today was perimeter.  They are starting off on the carpet square that is in the front of the room by putting rulers on the outside of the carpet.  The other TA from St. Thomas is teaching the math lesson today and things got a bit out of hand I don’t think she thought about all the kids having a yard stick on this small space and what might happen.  It was deferentially a good learning experience for me to expect the unexpected.  In the end she got them to calm down and the project ended up working out.

Week 5: Expo (6 hrs)

Expo Elementary - 2nd Grade Teacher Ulla Tervo Desnick - 6 hours

Tuesday Feb 23rd 2016. The kids are starting to get to know me its sad that I am going to have to leave them soon.  I really enjoy helping them learn especially during the math lessons I feel like I have really made a difference.  I think I have a bit more of a creative side when it comes to teaching math.  They 2 very interesting exercises today that I wouldn’t expect 2nd graders to understand but they did.  The first one was a writing exercise where Ms. Ulla played a video of a mother eagle caring for her nest and had the kids just listen and watch then write down their observations.  After they were done they came to the circle up front and shared what they wrote down and I was really surprised at how much they had really toned in onto in the on 60 second clip.  The next was a yoga exercise where for about 2 minutes they did a yoga pose and then after they all shared how it made them feel and I was really surprised with the reactions and how much the children really thought about how it helped them center the thoughts and calm down.  I’m excited to teach my lesson but at the same time I wish could complete all my hours at this school I really enjoy the classroom and the teacher.

 

Week 4: Expo ( 0 hrs)

Tuesday Feb 16th 2016. I emailed Ms. Ulla to let her know I wouldn’t be coming in due to fever. Planned my lesson and made my backwards learning model plan.

 

 

 

Week 3: Expo (6.5 hrs)

Expo Elementary - 2nd Grade Teacher Ulla Tervo Desnick - 6.5 hours

Tuesday Feb 9th 2016. They are making maps that name the landmark and make a map.  They are titling the map and making markers for landmarks.  Kids really liked me help when it came to drawing the picture of the landmark.  It was pretty cute one of the students drew me at a camera taking pictures in the redwood forest.  I think the hardest part of this project for the children was to think about what to write down for their most interesting fact - I think they got a little overwhelmed.   I also got lesson plans form a few weeks ahead so I can start to make my lesson plan for an art infused math project.  They also had a math test today it was hard to help them but not tell them the answers.

 

Week 2: Expo (6 hrs)

Expo Elementary - 2nd Grade Teacher Ulla Tervo Desnick - 6 hours

Tuesday Feb 2nd 2016. Today is my first day on site.  It was such and exciting day to meet all the children and see their smiling faces in the mornings.  Some gave me hugs when they came in the door to introduce themselves others were shy and I could barley hear then when they walked back.  They started of the day today by taking out the packet they had already been working on about different famous places or monuments.  The students went back and read their notes and then started rewriting their corrected sentences in their final booklet.  They pretty much just copied what they already had and I tried to help them understand the corrections made to their paper.  We got out with them on recess and I about froze with no hat or anything, I was not prepared for that.  Math is the last subject before I leave for the day they were working together with partners on word problems that dealt with adding and subtracting.   I really excel at math and enjoy helping kids understand math in a way that can be fun to them.  After that I said my goodbyes till next week.

 

Week 1: Expo (1 hr)

Expo - 2nd grade teacher Ulla Tervo Desnick - 1 hour

I have been working on my placements this week I have a meeting with Ulla on Friday and I hope to get placed elsewhere soon.