I have been entirely negligent of this student teaching blog and I felt that this snow day was the perfect time to catch up.

I am currently in my fifth week of student teaching (eek!). Up to this point, I have taught fourth and fifth grade science, and third and fourth grade social studies. I feel as if this experience is going by so fast!

It took a little bit to adjust, but I am so much enjoying my experience thus far. It presents many challenges, but I feel that's why I love it the most.

Fifth grade Science:
This was the first class that I began teaching the first week. The students were starting a new chapter about cells and it made sense to pick it up from the beginning of the chapter. As I taught the first lesson of the chapter, I realized how dry the material was to these fifth graders. I definitely had some blank stares! I knew that I needed to revamp the lessons to ensure that I wasn't entirely losing these students throughout my lessons. I tried to incorporate as many projects to make the material something the students could relate to. To learn the functions of the parts of the cell, I had the students draw either a plant cell or an animal cell. They had only learned about 5 parts of the cell so I told the students they must research and find one other part to include in their drawing. Once the students were finished drawing the cell, I had them mount it on a piece of construction paper and look in magazines to find items that are analogous to the functions of this cell part. The students had a good time searching for the perfect magazine clippings to paste onto their diagram. As a conclusion to the chapter, I had students write a song about what they learned in the chapter including 5 facts. I divided the class into groups and allowed them one class period to write the song. The next day they performed the songs. They LOVED this. It was so much fun watching these performances! We have just begun a chapter on the human body which I am entirely excited about!

Fourth grade Science:
When I took over teaching fourth grade science, the students were in the middle of a chapter about matter (states of, properties of, measuring). I figured the best way to teach this would be through doing so I planned a day for the students to work in centers. This day turned into 3 days! In these centers students practiced measuring the volume of a box, finding the volume of an object in a graduated cylinder, and measuring items using the metric system. I also did a demonstration in which students had to hypothesize the layers in a density column using vegetable oil, rubbing alcohol, water, corn syrup, and dish soap. It was really neat and the students really enjoyed it!

Third grade Social Studies:
The third graders had been studying about Native Americans for quite some time when I took over teaching. I found a play about Sitting Bull that we worked on for a few days when I first took over. I love incorporating plays into the lessons. The students are always enthusiastic to participate. I feel as if it allows for more conversation about the topic at hand. To better illustrate how the Native Americans may have felt being forced onto reservations, I began talking about if someone were to come to the class and scoop up all the students and take them to a plot of land that had NOTHING to do. On top of having to move, the students couldn't speak language and could only speak Italian...even though they didn't know the language! Once on this reservation, the students had to live be someone else's rules. Instead of waking up in the morning and brushing their teeth and eating breakfast, they must wake up, not brush their teeth, and eat dinner. I asked the class how they felt about this to which a girl in the front row replied, "I'd kick them where it hurt with a pair of high heels!"
This week the students are making buffalo skin drawings on paper bags that the local grocery story donated to me : )

Fourth grade Social Studies:
The students are learning about Lewis and Clark and I was able to find a play for this topic also. As a precursor to the lesson, I had found a "choose your adventure"-like website that we went through as a class on the Smartboard.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/west/
It has "Did you know?" facts about the expedition, narratives, and real journal entries. The kids really enjoyed it.
I've only been teaching social studies to the fourth graders for a week so I don't have too much to talk about : /

I've been using what I learned in my health studies class and giving the students energy breaks. They love to hokey pokey and tooty ta! As an incentive, I allow each grade to pick a dance that they wish to do at the end of the week. I will write a 5 letter word on the board having to do with the dance they picked (e.g. The fifth graders picked the Cupid Shuffle and I wrote CUPID on the board). If students aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing or getting chatty, I will take a letter away. However, the class can earn the letter back for good behavior. If the entire word is on the board at the end of the week, we move the desks aside and do the dance of choice. This has been working fairly well. Doing the dance at the end of the week is something these students really want to work hard for!

Overall, I have been enjoying myself so much on this experience. I wake up every morning 100% enthused and excited to be driving to school and teaching.