Reflections on Small Group Presentations

I liked Monday’s class where we did small group presentations. I was in the “Inquiry” group, and I think being held accountable for having to teach the article to the class helped me in my reading. It forced me to think about what I found important in the article, and not just skim over it without really thinking about it. I like how we only had a short time to put our presentations together. Practice in putting presentations together quickly is one of the valuable experiences I think we can have as future teachers. I know in the future, I will be forced to put presentations together quickly, yet I do not have much experience with this. So, I really enjoyed our experience in class last week because it showed me that I/we can be creative, and teach a valuable lesson in a short amount of time. I think that it worked well having half the class read one article, and the other half of the class read another article. Truthfully, I did not read the Duckworth chapters as closely as I read the Inquiry article, and I think that this had some benefits and some negative aspects. What I found helpful about not reading the Duckworth article as closely is that I probably learned more about the article than I did about the Inquiry article (obviously because I did not read it as closely.) I was more engaged about learning the material in Duckworth than I was when the other Inquiry group presented. When the other Inquiry group presented, I was more interested in examining how they approached teaching the article. It was very interesting to see how a group who read the same article, and had the same amount of time to come up with how to present it, presented in such a different way. What I learned from all of the groups was the importance of keeping an audience engaged through activity.

I think the main reason you gave us this assignment was to show us that even in a small amount of time, it is possible to come up with some very engaging presentations. This is something we will be doing probably on a daily basis in our future careers, so it is important for us to get some practice doing this! Also, I think you did this to almost put us in “your shoes,” or in the shoes of a teacher. We were able to see how important it is to understand what we will be teaching in the future. It showed us that we must be prepared for what we are going to be teaching our students. It was interesting presenting because you could tell as a presenter who did and did not read the articles in the “audience.” I think this is where the importance of engaging activities comes in, because they can get students interested in the material.

Field Day 9

Last Tuesday I taught my science lesson and it turned out to be a very valuable learning experience for me! The lesson I was supposed to teach was on roots, stems, and leaves. The objective was for the kindergarten students to be able to identify and observe roots, stems and leaves. To begin the lesson, I lead a whole group discussion with the students on the carpet. They looked at big book pictures of roots, stems and leaves, and we discussed the function of these three main parts. Students came up and pointed to the roots, stems, and leaves on the different pictures. The goal of this was for them to see that although different kinds of green plants may look different, they all have these three main parts. We also talked about how trees are plants. Many students had the misconception that a tree was not a plant because it is so big. They associated plants with smaller plants such as flowers that one would see in their yard or at a park. When I asked the question “are trees plants,” many of the students said no. So we discussed how trees are plants, because they too have roots, stems and leaves. After the whole-group discussion, the students went to their tables which had plants, pictures and seeds on them. I had three different kinds of plants, pictures and seeds for the students to observe. They used hand lenses to observe the plants, and I walked around and talked to the students about what they were looking at. Due to the cost factor, only three of the five tables had plants, all had lima bean seeds, and two of the tables had pictures. I rotated the plants and pictures so that all of the students would be able to look at them. The pictures were taken on my cousins farm and clearly showed the roots, stems, and leaves of a cucumber plant. I wanted to give the students a variety of visuals to look at. I had one clover leaf plant, one African violet plant and one hyacinth plant. While the students were observing and discussing the plants, pictures and seeds, they were also drawing a picture of a plant and circling the roots, stems and leaves one the plant as an assessment. I had the students circle the three parts in different colors in order to see if they knew what the three different parts are. One misconception that I found a lot of students had was that they drew a picture of a flower and circled the petals as leaves. This was a good learning experience for me, because next time I will know to address this misconception. My CT watched my lesson and then had to leave; the substitute was also in the room watching my lesson. She suggested that next time since the kids are only in kindergarten, draw the pictures on the board with the students while they are drawing the same picture at their seats and circle the parts together etc. Overall, I thought my lesson went fairly well, I would do things different in the future such as have enough plants for each table (although expensive) and address more misconceptions.

Field Day 8

There was no school on Tuesday where I have placement, and my schedule does not allow me to go in any other day during the week.