Mindy and the "Aha Moment"

Throughout my education at Caldwell University I have learned many different teaching strategies. However, the one that stuck out most was the Monday Warm-Up that Mr. Rampolla discussed when he gave the seminar workshop a few weeks ago.   He talked about having the children work in groups to discuss 60 seconds of good news. Each group would have a spokesperson and report their group's good news back to the class. As soon as I heard this strategy it reminded me of  The Weekend News that we use in our classroom. Each Monday morning the children write about their weekend and then sit in a circle to share, but only if they choose to. Unfortunately, one of our students never shares and his parents have communicated to my cooperating teacher and me that he gets anxious about returning to school on Mondays.  He specifically referred to being uncomfortable with The Weekend News segment of Monday morning.  

After making some small adjustments, I implemented Mr. Rampolla's strategy with my class. I gave 6 groups 5 minutes to read their Weekend News to each other and then asked one person from each group to be a spokesperson. I gave the recalcitrant student the option of being his group’s spokesperson. He agreed and gave me a big smile! Not only did he report the weekend news for his group, but he shared highlights from his own. When I asked if he had anything else to report, he continued with additional details from his own weekend again. For me, this exercise was something I considered to be a huge success. Later in the week we met with the reluctant student’s parents for a conference. They brought up The Weekend News and shared with us how much their son enjoyed the new approach to this reporting activity.   They thanked me. Seems like something so small, but I felt so very accomplished at that moment. After so many classes and so many years, my dream of becoming a teacher has finally become a reality!!!!  

My questions to you are:
What teaching strategies have you implemented in your class during this student teaching experience that were new to the students and successful as well?
What moments have you had within your classrooms that have made you feel that you have accomplished something very positive?   Do not be shy………share those moments with us here.   

Lauren and parent-teacher communication

They say that your first teacher is your parent. This is why the roles of both parent and teacher are essential in a child’s life. Parent involvement is so important. Thus, it is very important that certain pieces of information are sent home to parents by the teacher.   One of the programs that I find helpful for communicating student progress is  “iReady.” iReady addresses both language arts and math skills.  This program shows the parent and teacher how much progress a student has made in both of these areas.   It shows the teacher what still needs to be worked on and, at the same time, parents are able to see how their child is doing and what their strengths and weaknesses may be in language arts and math. I believe that this program is an easy way to keep parents involved in the education of their child.  

Throughout my student teaching, I have observed my cooperating teacher speaking on the phone with parents. In addition, my cooperating teacher is emailing parents constantly, some more than others.   But, for the most part,  email is the most convenient form of communication. She also sends home unfinished work with a note explaining why the work is being sent home.

There are many ways to get in touch with parents……email, phone calls, i-Ready, notes, and parent teacher conferences. All of these communication devices keep parents and teachers in close contact with a student’s progress.    Thus, these are my questions for you:

1.)  Is there any parent involvement in your specific classes?

2.)  How does your cooperating teacher get in touch with parents?

Kyle and checking for understanding

With class sizes of 20 or more students, crazy schedules and the various time restraints that teachers face, where do you find time to check for understanding? Sometimes I see teachers just glance at homework while others grade the homework every day.   I try to check for understanding constantly.   Homework, classwork, answers to daily questions, along with exit tickets all help me to know if the lesson that I just taught was successful or whether the objective needs more time and more review. 

Earlier this year I came upon a program entitled  Plickers.com.   It is a program that enable the teachers to check for understanding in real time.    It is intended for the teacher to have "quick checks" for understanding to know whether students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills.   I would like it if we  could implement this program in our school .............hopefully we will soon. The program works so that when a student holds up a white board with an answer others can see it.   Others may copy it but with this program students have their own card and don't know what they are showing to the class. This program would enable me to check the understandings of individuals or the whole class,  which is great. The drawback is that all questions are multiple choice. Has anyone had experience with this program?    Is it helpful?    Would you recommend this program?    
In the meantime, what are some ways that you check for understanding in your lessons?