Guess Again!

It has been quite some time since my last educational blog post. I hope you all missed me because I’m back and have LOADS to share with you. We left off in the final days of my last clinical course. Now, fast forward a few months; I’m currently in my final weeks of student teaching. The magnificent experiences that I’ve gained and had the notion of sharing with my fellow bloggers left me quite unsuccessful. If you think being a new teacher, completing coursework and maintaining a social life and blog are easy, guess again my friend! I almost lost my mind in the mist of it all at one point until I remembered; it was still up there it just had me fried hard. However, I’m not new to this anymore, I’m true to this so don’t fret! I’ve documented my experiences thus far and have a ton of fun, catchy titles to go with.

Let me begin by sharing that I opted for an unconventional student teaching course. I was able to spend six weeks teaching in Bridgeview, Illinois (living back home for the free). The remainder of my semester I student taught abroad in the England while living with a host family and almost 10 other of student abroad students, some who also traveled  abroad to study  in the UK. This opportunity came with the responsibility of completing most all of my assignments in half a semester before I left for England. This along with prepping for 2 months away from America was no joke. I also didn’t anticipate the work that goes into teaching a full day of school from Monday to Friday, week after week. My throat couldn’t handle the stress of reaching 22 sets of ears on a daily; this led to yet another lesson learned. Nonetheless, this semester has given me so much insight and molded my pedagogy in ways that I never expected.

Be on the lookout each week for comparisons of curriculum in the UK versus America, ideas for your classroom and other exciting experiences from Ms. Allen. Meanwhile, check out some amazing photos of my lovely schools below. 

 I enjoyed creating the seating arrangement more than your average teacher should.

Year 2 learned all about Spain and it's culture.

Beautiful hall decor for Reception who learned about night time animals.

One of  my favorite hallway displays!

Love it!

Super learners!

I Did It!

For those of you who have been following my blog, I began my blog at the beginning of my clinical experience before I begin student teaching. I'm in an incredible 2nd grade class once a week and I'd set four goals for myself. Goal number one was to put the polish on Ms. Christine and become a stronger teacher. Goal two, network both inside and outside of school, plan an amazing science lesson and lastly, teach an exciting science lesson. Can I tell you how that went? You’re right; I should feel free because this is my blog.

First and foremost, did I improve my teaching persona? Yes, I did! I know this because I have gotten multiple compliments by my supervising teacher and science instructor on my rapport, tone of voice and demeanor when handling stress. These were not initially things I thought of improving when I sought to reach this goal. I wanted to become more creative, cultured, and reflective. I truly believe I have done this too.  Working closely with students with hearing impairments in my classroom and using this information to build curriculum in my courses made me more cultured and diverse. My classroom lacked much cultural diversity but the experiences  I brought into the classroom as well as the ones I will be walking  away with  has also made me a  more cultured person. Lastly, in reflecting on my overall performance, I’ve become more creative because it forced me to look through different lenses in my pedagogy. Can I also add that being reflective was another compliment I’ve gotten during this experience!

Have I networked with other professionals inside and outside of school? Check! As I enter school each week, I stop to smile and talk to the monitors outside, the secretaries in the office, the nurse and other teachers. I don’t care if they don’t even speak back, as long as they notice me. I ended up networking and getting a reference for a future job opportunity this summer by simply being friendly and talking with other teachers in the school. Not to mention each lunch period, many faculty members come together for food and conversation. Most weeks we have a special occasion where everyone brings in things from pizza to desserts. Maintaining good eating habits or indulging in unhealthy snacks here or t here in front of other women can truly bring us ladies together.  Who would have known?

Create and implement science lesson, yes I did it. The experience I had creating and teaching one science lesson in a bilingual classroom with two other teachers was a bonus. On my search for science in my clinical classroom, I was able to teach a science lesson last minute and rock it out. Check out my Searching for Science blog from a couple weeks ago to read more about it. 

My last goal was to create and teach an engaging social studies lesson. I am happy to report that I have done this too. The social studies content my instructor models during class helped me to produce an incredible social studies lesson for my 2^nd grade students. We focused on wants and needs in economics through a pretend shopping trip. What better way to get engaged in an economics lesson than to go shopping for things you both want and need, even if it is for pretend. Young or old, having money is something we all can enjoy. My students were excited in the end and begging for eager to get more money to keep shopping in the end.

Despite the busy semester it has been, I am proud to say, I accomplished many things. I  have learned  many things through each goal and experiences I have shared with you all through my blog. Adding polish to my pedagogy is an educator's never-ending duty. Look forward to reading more about the Ms. Christine side of me because as a future educator, that is huge a part of me. Networking is also a never-ending goal I have moving forward. Feel free to connect with me by commenting below! I would love to get to know some of my fellow followers and learn things through your experiences as well. 

 It feels great to share with others positive, meaningful experiences you’ve had and goals you’ve achieved. Thank you for allowing me to do that with you all.  

A Lesson Learned

It is the official countdown until Summer Break begins! This can mean different things to different people. Your teachers are expecting projects,  presentations or for you to remember most of what they hoped you learned in the course, in paper or final exam format. For many people like me that often time means, grind time, especially if you have been a friend of procrastination. For those o f you who have  never been experience grind mode,  this means lots of resilience, less sleep, high caffeinated drinks and good  snacks. Along with this, came an extra  lesson learned, free of charge. 

A couple of weeks ago, I made the bittersweet decision to stay up working late. Why bittersweet? Because I worked hard  until 4am knowing I had to wake up at 6:30am that same day. I could barely stay awake and focus but I was determined to finish up a lesson  plan I was working on earlier that day. By 3:30am I kept awaking  to random thoughts or dreams typed into my lesson plan template. The good thing is, I finished it and still woke up at 6:30am, rolled out of bed and started my day as normal. The bad part is, I payed for that lack of sleep in multiple ways that day.

For many of you who begin your  days around 6:30am, you know how vital sleep is to your day. Being at school with 20+ students for the day, requires rest the night before. Two and a half hours of sleep is nothing  a  teacher would want to play around with. I could barely stay standing without feeling my body begin to rest after being  still for more than one minute. I couldn't sit down for more than 30 seconds without my eyelids slowly coming down. To top it off, my teacher was called to leave  because her daughter  broke a bone in gym. I  was quickly called to  step in, finish our read alouds, see that the class rats Gabby and Gracie were cared for,  send the class to gym, complete the math  lesson for the day and end the day with a science lesson and distribute homework. You all should have seen  my face when I tried to convince myself and my cooperating teacher that  we would be fine while she ran to her  daughter's side. With one of my student's sign interpreter there to encourage me, I made it through the day. That load of responsibility truly woke me up. 

I lost  my keys and was so close but so far away  from my bed that I slept in my hallway until my roommate came home. Two hours into my nap I found out via Instagram that my roommate who  stayed up  until 4am with me was in the hospital. She cut her hand at work and bled for about an hours before they sent her to the hospital. Unfortunately, on her way out the door she fainted and  busted her head. The crazy part is she only thought about the work she wasn't able to get done due to the situation.

I share my  story with my  fellow bloggers to encourage someone out there is who procrastinating as you read. Someone who is  in grind mode right now or if you are simply someone who enjoys a good story. Please, care enough about  yourself  to avoid putting yourself in this predicament. Be mindful of the stress you put on your mind and body to avoid it shutting down on you. And know, just because some people can survive off those habits, your body clock may not be about that life. I realized, I'm not about that life. That was an eye opening lesson learned the hard way. 

Ms. Christine.

Searching for Science

The time has finally come! Science instruction in my clinical classroom has begun and I am like a kid in an amusement park. Instead of using the last 30 minutes of class to focus on social studies, we have transitioned into focusing on science. The current unit they are working on is about frogs. They have been reading a variety of frog books, both fiction and non –fiction.

During my first science experience my CT began with a fictional book that involved a frog. She read a story to the class for about 10-15 minutes. The students really enjoyed the having this reading time before science lessons really begins. This past week the students were able to choose their own story to read about frogs. As a creative writing activity and nice bulletin board idea, they created frogs that are reading books. They created the books the frogs were reading based on a book about frogs that they chose to read independently in class. Some students wrote creative back covers and well-drawn front covers. Some students wrote summaries of their books inside for their frogs to read.

This same day my CT offered me the opportunity to teach science. She handed me a stack of Scholastic articles and showed me how to navigate the SMART Board Scholastic activity. I began the lesson by having the students analyzing the real life picture of the toad on the front.  Most students did not know the difference between frogs and toads. The students were eager to tell me that they usually take turns reading these kinds of articles. I began reading before calling on students to read also. After reading the first article I played an interesting video about toads. After reading the entire article and reviewing vocabulary and context clues to justify their meanings, we concluded the lesson with a true or false SMART Board game. We divided the class by boys and girls and they both got a win before they were dismissed from school for the day.

My science experience in my clinical is not the same science experience I have had at ISU in my 276 course. In my class we have been working on completing actual experiments that allow students to engage in learning experience. The science instruction we do in our 276 course always involves build and constructing knowledge through an activity.

In my past experiences in the classroom we always did similar activities. Our science lessons mostly involved reading from a text book and answering questions. My teacher would do the same thing my CT does and have us take turns reading aloud. We often times responded the same way my clinical students did, excitedly raising hands to read. After what I have learned at ISU I plan to move past these practices. My goal is to create lessons like my 276 instructor does. I have been practicing creating life science and physical science lesson plans that are hands on and allow students to construct their own knowledge through experiments. I’m looking forward to implementing a fun, hands on activity in my clinical in the near future.

Check out this adorable Spring bulletin board!

The Inside Scoop on Social Studies

Recently, I’ve been focusing on the social studies component of my clinical classroom. Each week science or social studies is done from 2:20-2:50PM. This past month, my CT has chosen to spend this time on social studies. This small 30 minute window also incorporates literacy, reading, math and other skills with social studies. When I began my clinical, they were working on the life of Abraham Lincoln. I had the pleasure of helping assist students with a final presentation about the former president’s life. They did a little of everything from making videos, clay dioramas and pictures. The next unit was about Goods and Services; I had the pleasure of teaching my own lesson within this unit two weeks ago.

During Social Studies instruction my CT usually uses readings from a text as part of a mini lesson. This usually requires students to begin lessons on the carpet area or at their desks as a whole group. The texts read have been from fiction or non-fiction books, a magazines or textbook reading. My teacher then creates an activity for students to work on following this reading. Some days this activity is drawing, a worksheet or projects. In my past social studies lesson, I chose to incorporate math and language skills into my lesson on becoming a wise shopper. In my lesson, I chose to begin with analyzing a picture and starting some whole group discussion to get their juices flowing. Then, we pretended to shop and practice being wise shoppers. My lesson required the students to alternate working in both small groups and as a large group. This was something I had not done in past lessons but my CT is very versatile in her teaching and in turn, so was I. I found it really cool that I had a lot of leeway in my approach to teaching this subject.

 Personally, I have experienced a lot of textbook curriculum when it comes to social studies and science. This was not always very engaging for students to sit and read from a textbook. However, students have a handful of engaging strategies when using these different types of activities and lessons in my clinical classroom. One example of an engaging social studies activity the students love is using iPads to make a short video as a summative assessment. Students were able to share what they learned by putting it in a video. Strategies like these, really excites the students, and I love it! In my past clinical experiences the time spent on science and social has never been shared in this way. However, I have learned in my 277 course that teachers often time use this dual content time in their classrooms. It has been a joy experiencing it for myself in my clinical classroom. I must admit I’m anxious to see what types of activities my CT has lined up for science. Another aspect of social studies that is new to me this clinical working with 2nd grade students. The kinds of activities I am able to do with an older group of students helped me expand my ideas for teaching social studies. This definitely allowed me to think beyond what it is like for very young children to grasp key concepts. Lastly, I have started learning to create a curriculum map of social studies lessons based on learning objectives. I’m sure my CT maps out her year in order to fit both social studies and science in that 30 minute window throughout the year. I thought it was hard just mapping out social studies lessons but I’m sure it is harder limiting lessons in order to squeeze in science lessons too.

In my future classroom I hope my school allows me the chance be just as open with my social studies lessons. I would love to implement some of these lessons again. I have taken the time to revise my previous social studies lesson and truly hope to use it again; the students seemed loved it! Follow me on Pinterest and check out some of the amazing work-jobs I have created this semester. There is a social studies board full  of great ideas for young children. Copy and paste the link to find me http://www.pinterest.com/christinea43092/social-studies/. 

Looking at Literacy

So far, I've been to my clinical school twice this semester! It has been an amazing experience so far, my new cooperating teacher is great (insert sigh of relief).  The students are such a diverse bunch of 2^nd graders. Having only been there twice, I must admit I do not have all their names memorized. I realized I still don’t know all of their names just yet when I confused my teacher during a conversation. I have definitely been enjoying getting to know them all so far.

This week I've been focusing on my classroom’s literacy instruction and assessment. According to the class schedule each morning; literacy begins each day with PAWS followed by reading literacy.  PAWS begin each morning at 9:00AM-9:30AM. I have yet to observe a classroom that uses PAWS as a part of their literacy curriculum, so I must admit I’m a bit disappointed. For those of you like me who are not too familiar with the PAWS for Reading program, let me explain what this is. This is a 30 minute reading period where students spend time reading. They choose to be a part of the Cats or Dogs team and each day they track their reading time. It also includes plenty of cool rewards and fun activities. Unfortunately, on the day of the week that I visit, all of the 2^nd grade classes meet for 2^nd Step, a social and academic skill building school-wide curriculum. Following 2^nd Step is literacy reading, during this time students separate by reading groups. In my cooperating teacher’s reading group were 3 students, 2 of her students and 1 from Mrs. Gordon’s classroom. They began with a phonemic activity led by my CT, it focused on building words and identifying real and nonsense words. Next, they played a Lakeshore Who, What, When, Where game that focuses on reading comprehensions skills, allowed the students to demonstrate detailed comprehension. For this game, students read a short story as a group and/or individually and played a game similar to Jeopardy.  Students were required to show evidence in the text to support their final answers. I like that my CT engaged all the students when answering a tough inference question someone struggled with. This allowed them all to support each other and was a great way to keep the group on task before the wait caused distractions for others. Surprisingly, the kids loved this literacy game. They were anticipating which category to begin with in order to win with the most points this time. Funny thing is, so far they always end with a tie. After this activity the students returned to their respective classrooms for story time. During this time, my CT read aloud to them as they followed along silently at their desks. Mrs Beard added digital literacy one day and allowed groups of students to use iPads to reenact a scene from the chapter and share it with the class. Reading literacy in my classroom was pretty interesting to observe so far.

                Compared to what I have been studying here at ISU, my CT uses popular strategies for literacy.  In my opinion, it’s great for building comprehension skills and the students really enjoy it. It’s also at a just-right 30 minute time span; just learned about those in my 277 course. From my standpoint, I give reading literacy a thumbs up. In the past, my experiences with literacy focused mostly on phonemic awareness.  My students always were able to enjoy a good read-aloud and the same hold true this clinical experience. With this older group, they were able to follow along with their own copies and experience what good reading is like. 

I must say, I picked up a couple things about literacy and assessments thus far. I already knew how truly important it is to allow young, developing readers to hear good reading skills in practice. I took the initiative to show some of my own reading skills to my class, after lunch. I chose and read a short story about Abraham Lincoln’s life. As many stories as my CT kept near her chair on Abe, I knew I had to make this story sound engaging and worth listening to. I also took note about asking questions to ensure that answers to comprehension questions are backed with evidence. Asking meaningful questions can be used as a formative assessment during any activity. Questioning also allows students to build inquiry skills and promote learning. Young children and their imaginations manage to shock me often when they explain why they are correct and the conversation often takes a turn somehow. During small group reading instruction, I realized that is something I should begin to do more of in my teaching career.

                The literacy and assessment components of my clinical are all I’ll focus on this week. Meanwhile, continue to follow me on my journey as an ISU clinical student. I have much more to share and I’m anxious to hear any comments you may have. My next post will focus on another aspect of my class and all about the experience. Stay tuned bloggers! 

Am I ensuring my students 4 C's are met?

Meet Christine and Christian

Hello Hello, welcome to my first blog! For all of you who have gotten a chance to meet me, you know that my name is technically Christian. Both Christine and Christian are technically, me in this case. My name is Christine Allen and I am a senior Early Childhood Education Major at Illinois State University, born and raised all over Chicago. As an ECE major, I'm the type who loves working with the sweet and adorable babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Despite where my passion may lay; I'm studying to go as far as 3rd grade. This semester I'm practicing my studies in a 2nd grade classroom. I'm anxious to find what awaits me at this new school. I'm currently counting down the days until I'm completing my last clinical, then it's off to begin student teaching.At this point in my academic career, if I were to develop four goals this semester they'd include putting some polish on my teaching persona, chatting it up with current teachers  and lastly, take my greatest shot at creating and implementing science and social studies lessons. I'll be taking you all a sort of journey with me to kick off my first blog page!    

My first goal is to really become Ms. Christine, the  teacher. Seeing that this is my last year studying teaching before I'm applying to actually teach in my own classroom. This semester I want to become more creative, reflective, cultured and talented with my teaching skills. I want to strengthen my teacher voice, especially since  these students are not babies anymore. What type of teacher would I be if I thought I'd make it without a couple of classroom management strategies handy for both me and my students? I realized in my past clinical classroom how important classroom management is until the real  teacher left me alone and in charge. As far as my becoming more creative  in my pedagogy, I'm sure my classes will not let me drop the ball on that one. I'm moving  and  further from the stifling ways of teaching that many  students my age endured.With the many assignments and projects I have this semester, it's just the push I need to become more innovative with my teaching. With each new classroom  that I work with, I challenge myself to become a bit more cultured and reflective. That will remain the same yet again this semester.

My second goal is to get to know as many new people as possible, my students and networking  with other education  professionals. I really want all the help I can get  from other professionals. This is of course one of the best times to do it. In my past clinical schools, I never talked much unless it was with my cooperating  teacher or other students from my school. I also want to get to know my students as much as I can. That way I can  better tend to their needs. I just hope when the time comes, I do not shy  away from  building great new relationships.

Third  goal  of mine is to create and implement an amazing science lesson. So far my teacher has split us into groups and I must say I'm anxious to work with these 2 classmates. It's not too often you hear about the great things  teachers are doing  with science in their K-3 classrooms. Ladies and gentleman,  look no further. One of my courses this semester is all about creating and implementing science at the elementary school level.

My last goal  is to discover just how to teach engaging social studies lessons. After reviewing the assignments  from my 277 course, all I will be able to do is some up with lessons. My goal is that my professor is not only  challenging me to produce numerous ideas but to make it engaging and interactive. I've never been asked to create a social studies  lesson plan before, this will definitely be interesting. History has always been one  of  my favorite subjects and I hope I get my  students to find some joy in  it too.

Now that I've shared my goals with you  all, and plan to keep in touch; help a sister out and leave some comments. Journey with  me through my first blog and  let me know what you thinking!

Think about it