Week 10... Traveling Stories (or sentences)

The Traveling Story was an activity that I have never done in a classroom setting. It was fun and I can definately see how it could be an activity for a secondary classroom. This activity can be modified for many different content areas, for example:
    in social studies the students can retell facts of an ancient civilization;
    in science students can restate the life cylce of animals and organisms;
    in math the students can randomly state addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts; 
    in history students can name a historical figure and name his/her accomplishments.

This activity is fun, engaging, and great for obtaining student participation.

Week 9... Rough Draft of 4 Week Unit Project

Topic: Solar System

Grade: 6th

TEKS:

(1)  Reading/Fluency. Students read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension. Students are expected to adjust fluency when reading aloud grade-level text based on the reading purpose and the nature of the text.

(12)  Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Procedural Texts. Students understand how to glean and use information in procedural texts and documents. Students are expected to:

       (A)  follow multi-tasked instructions to complete a task, solve a problem, or perform procedures; and

      (B)  interpret factual, quantitative, or technical information presented in maps, charts, illustrations, graphs, timelines, tables, and diagrams.

ELA: 10 days - read 2 informative books on planets and solar system
          1wk (1 writing stage per day) - write a descriptive essay about what a planet is like, the atmosphere, temperature, features, etc... for 3 planets
          1 wk (1 writing stage per day) - trade descriptive essay with elbow partner - write a comparison between your planets and your neighbors planets (choice: t-chart, venn diagram, essay, etc..)

Social Studies:
          2 wk - how and what ancient civilizations thought/knew about space (stars, moon, sun)
          2 wk - how stars were used as navigation tools in past, what the instruments looked like - how they impacted the technology of today

Math or Science (unsure of which):
          2 wk - measure distance - how far between objects in space (ex. sun to moon, earth to pluto, stars to stars) using scientific notation
          2 wk - gravity and how its different on every planet - how much do you weigh on all nine planets?

Art: (in groups of 3 or 4)
         4 wk - build a scale model of the solar system, including all moons, milky way, and asteroid belt

(14)  Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

      (A)  plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended meaning to an audience, determining appropriate topics through a range of strategies (e.g., discussion, background reading, personal interests, interviews), and developing a thesis or controlling idea;

      (B)  develop drafts by choosing an appropriate organizational strategy (e.g., sequence of events, cause-effect, compare-contrast) and building on ideas to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing;

      (C)  revise drafts to clarify meaning, enhance style, include simple and compound sentences, and improve transitions by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging sentences or larger units of text after rethinking how well questions of purpose, audience, and genre have been addressed;

      (D)  edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling; and

      (E)  revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish written work for appropriate audiences.

Week 8... No Blog

Week 7... What is Assessment

Week 6... Informative & Persuasive

Informative writing is when someone is trying to teach something. Informative writings have tons of facts and information about a particular subject. An Informative Writing activity can consist of a brochure or pamphlet that has details of a particular item.

Persuasive wrting is when someone is trying to persuade you one way or another. Persuasive writings have descriptions that tend to peoples emotions or their ego's.  An example of Persuasive Writing can be to have students make ads for different items... or to have the students do a commercial.

Week 5... Writing

Writing is a process. It is done in stages.

1) Prewriting is the act of brainstorming, making lists, thinking of themes or topics.. these are the very beginnings of the thought process.

2) Drafting is the act of actually writing out the ideas and putting pen to paper.

3) Revising is the act of making changes in words, filling in proper transitions and adding details if necessarry.

4) Editing is the act of correcting punctuation, format, or any grammatical errors.

5) Publishing is act of placing the writing in the necessary place, if it's a letter - mail it, if it's an email- send it, etc...

Week 4... Good Readers

Good readers are those who can read fluently, comprehend what they're reading, and know when they need to re-read. I feel I am a good reader because I do all these things.


Teaching students to be good readers is one of my fears as a future teacher. I know and understand why it is that reading is so important, but I  know that it will not be that simple to explain to those students who do  not like to do it, or may be a struggling reader. I hope to be the teacher who models good reading and writing habits, who shows her students that reading is essential to all, and who is the one teacher that instills the love of reading unto them, and that they carry that with them all through school.

Week 3... Games in School

I definitely will be using games in my class. Games are a fun, exciting, and not so ordinary way of teaching students skills such as patience, sharing, and team work. Everyone likes to have fun, and games are a great way to incorporate fun into school. Students like to think that when they are playing games they are not learning, but, in fact they are. To play games students must take turns, read instructions, count, sometimes add or subtract, they might have to learn songs (memory), or learn movements and dance. All this is learning. Learning skills that will help them not only in school, but in life.

Week 2... Motivation

Motivation is the drive one carries inside of them to complete a certain set of tasks to the best of their ability.

To me motivation is the drive to better my family - starting with me. I want my kids to know that alot of times it takes hard work to get good things, and once you've done the hard work the "things" you get as a result are far more worth it. I have a picture of our "dream house" on our "dream land" taped to my refrigerator door and when one of my kiddos asks me "when are we moving there?" I tell them that we still have a lot of hard work to do to get there.. mostly I do. I have to finish college and get a good job to help Dad pay for our dream.. and that once we get there we will be so much happier and it'll be so much more appreciated. And, so in the meantime, I will need their help.. when it comes to being quiet so I can study, or understanding that sometimes I can't go to their game because I have a late class.. or sometimes we have to eat BBQ three times a week because that's all Dad knows how to make. For the most part they understand and go along with it..and when that hectic semester is over they appreciate the times we get to spend together... which is how it will be all the time.. when we are in our dream home.

Week 1... Culture and Literacies

Culture and literacies are going to be a big part of life as a teacher... Students will not only have different learning methods and different skill levels, but they will have different backgrounds, family lives, friends, and extra curricular activies, they will have different knowledge about books, media, news, entertainment, technology .... each student will bring their "culture" into the classroom with them when they talk about the news, music, family event, or extra curricular activity that made some sort of impact in their live.


I don't think it will be an easy thing, but as a teacher, it has to be a top priority to learn the culture of the classroom and to try and teach so that the culture is enhanced by learning... does this make sense???