STAAR Testing

Tomorrow, my students will be doing STAAR testing, and, as a student teacher, I will be on bathroom duty (aka sitting outside the bathrooms grading papers and making sure only one person goes in at a time).

Mrs. M and I wanted to give the kids a little something to get them pumped for the STAAR. We did our Pinterest research and had a few ideas that all turned out to be too cutsie or creative for the likes of us. In the end, we settled on giving them lucky pencils and presented them in the following hilarious manner:

We cannot stop laughing at ourselves. What nerds!

Mrs. M and I posed for the pictures, then decided it would be even more fun to have pictures with the vice principals and principal too. We're pretty happy with how they turned out, and the kids have loved them. Happy STAAR week Texas! Good luck kids!!!

3rd and FINAL Formal Observation: Transitions

I used blendspace.com for this particular lesson plan, so you can view my whole lesson at this link. It's another website that allows students to follow along and interact throughout the lesson on their tablets. It's pretty user friendly. I especially love the embedded videos and the quizzes for formative assessment. I can see in real time who is not getting the answers as well as who is not participating.

Blendspace was fine for the classroom environment, but I think it would be even better for independent work. I'd love it for homework or an alternative option for students who miss class. Also, after students "join" your class online, they can then turn in their own blendspace assignments... Not sure how I could use this feature yet, but I like the idea of it!

This lesson was mostly a review, but here are the two videos I used to keep my students interested:

Also check out this one- It's AWESOME!

And with that, I am done with my observations! I still have 2+ weeks left in the classroom, but I can now apply for my teaching certificate!!! I can't believe I'm nearly done.

2nd Formal Observation: Active & Passive Voice

I waited until the very last minute to schedule my 2nd formal observation. Luckily, my supervising instructor was available, and I was able to throw together a lesson on active and passive voice. This was a topic I didn't feel 100% comfortable teaching, so I figured it would be a perfect learning opportunity. I went through my normal lesson plan preparation routine (which consists of doing lots and lots of research to ensure that I fully understand the concept and have enticing ways to teach it), and here is what I came up with:

I started by showing my students the quote, "'I must do something' always solves more problems than 'something must be done.'" We briefly discussed the universal truth of the quote as a brief introduction before moving on to my real hook. I showed the students gif files and asked them to answer the question, "What just happened?" by writing two sentences- each with a subject I had provided.

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Subject #1. The balloon

Subject #2. His face

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Subject #1. The raccoon
Subject #2. The cat food

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Subject #1. The trash truck

Subject #2. The trash

I then had the students share some of their examples. We sorted their answers by whether the subject had been the one acting in the sentence or the one being acted upon. Then, I introduced how active voice is demonstrated when the subject is the one acting, whereas passive voice is when the subject is the one being acted upon. I also think it helped that I used the example of kicking. I would do a karate kick to show myself as the acting subject, and I would cower to show myself as the victim being acted upon. I also included lots of examples and humor to help them make connections.

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To further help them understand, I found the following video clip:

For the remainder of the class, we went over examples of passive and active voice, talked about when to use them and when not to, and I had them create their own passive and active sentences. I got a lot of great ideas from this website. Finally, I had them take a passage that was written entirely in passive voice and rewrite it in active voice as an exit ticket strategy. From this, I was able to tell to what extent each student had grasped these concepts. I talked with the students who had errors and got them sorted out too. So far, it seems like they got it. I've been bringing it up everyday since then to make sure it's set in their minds.

Well, five down, one to go! Can't believe I'm almost done...