Miss Rylee's Educational Journey

As we went through more lesson plan presentations tonight I felt super excited and proud of all us on how hard we have worked on putting these lesson plans together. I think that we have put a lot of thought and time into these babies and it is showing! Great job to everyone who had presented tonight. I'll go through each of of you though: Lindsay Holler: You're always so good at being descriptive and explaining things. I always know exactly what you are meaning and could picture your lesson plan in my head. I loved the idea of a family tree, I honestly do not remember ever doing a family tree it school. Great job! Andrew Elliott: After class I went and watched the wolf video and it made your lesson plan even more fun! I love learning about animals and ecosystems, I feel as though this would be such a fun and interactive lesson to teach. I think this lesson would give student the ability to be creative but learn so much! Nice work! Kylie Woods: I still have T- Swift in my...

Tonight I was able to hear a few lesson plan presentations from my peers. This was really good to hear for two reasons. First, it made me feel more at ease about my own lesson plans that I have been working on. Second, I really enjoyed hearing my peers creativity and ideas that they will one day have within their own classroom. I believe that we all have been stressing a little bit about these presentations and lesson plans, at least I know I have. A lot of us do not have experience with lesson plans yet and this was our first real go at them, how intimidating! I think that we will all learn from this class and our lesson plan experiences as a whole. I already have learned a lot just from our presentations and blog post. I am grateful that everyone can give me feedback on what I have done well and what I could do better. All of our presenters today did an awesome job presenting their lesson plans. So, shout out to Rebecca, Debbie, Tiffany, Kris, and Samantha, you guys did great and I...

When it come to rubrics that we use in the classroom there are two different types that we are most familiar with or have been graded on in the past. Those rubrics are called Analytic and Holistic Rubrics. Heard of them? Analytic Rubric: breaks down parts of an assignment into smaller portions in which allows the scorer to itemize and define how and what aspects were provided and which either were missing or need improvement. Holistic Rubric: is a pretty general rubric, it usually have about three to five levels and a description of characteristics to describe each level. What makes this holistic rubric an holistic rubric is the way each description is lumped together. So, you ask which one is better to use for my students? Well the truth is neither one is better than the other. Each of these rubrics place a general assessment of the student but it really just depend who you are assessing and who is assessing. Example:  - There are less details in a holistic rubric which m...

I was asked to discuss the most compelling idea that I have learned of the past eight weeks and what was my "Aha" moment that I have had through this semester. This really has me thinking tonight... When starting my education at Columbia College I was almost 100% sure that I wanted to be an Elementary Teacher. I always had this doubt though, what if I am just not good at it, what if I am not smart enough, what if my students don't show growth? I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way either. We put our life and our future on the line when choosing what we want to do for the rest of our life. It is pretty common now for people to go all the way through school and then not like what they end up doing in the long run. Is this a fear anyone else has? This brings me to my next point and how I am so grateful that Columbia College allows me to observe in the classroom setting. I have had awesome experiences and amazing teachers that I have been able to observe that ...

What is Student Engagement? Student engagement is something that we as future teachers have to really understand, and learn the importance of. Student engagement is when students are independently motivated while learning, they are working through challenges and engaging in their own understanding by thinking deeply and making connections. There are many different ways that we can promote and incorporate different engagement strategies for our students. Students who are engaged, learn at higher levels and have a profound grasp on what they are learning. These students also will retain the information that they are learning when they are engaged in the lessons. Also when students are engaged it is easier for them to then transfer their knowledge to new concepts they are learning and compare them. Below is a a chart with many engagement ideas that you can use in the classroom. I myself remember using some of these strategies when I was in school. I also see teachers that I am observ...

Assessments.... that is a word that none one likes to hear, even me as a future teacher. One of my goals as a future teacher is to not have your typical boring assessments. My goal is to have my students show me they have met my objectives for them in a fun and creative way. My unit will be a first grade science unit in which my students will be able to describe the presence of the Sun, Moon, and stars in the sky over time. My lessons will be a lot of hands on lessons and small assessments throughout the unit. I will be using a lot of models for my students to hopefully help them have a full understanding. To give you a couple examples of how my lessons will go I will briefly explain what my lesson plans will be about. Lesson #1 : Teaching my students how the earth rotates to show day and night time. I will use a blow up globe to represent the earth and a flashlight to represent the sun. I will show my students how the earth rotates to create day and night. Assessment #1: Stude...

Blooms Taxonomy has major categories of educational objectives. In 1948 Benjamin Bloom formulated a classification of the educational process. A group of more educational psychologist helped develop classification of different domains. Bloom also realized that over 95% of test that students answer only requires them to use the lowest level to recall the information. These levels of learning that I have mentioned below flow into Blooms Taxonomy idea and model. Cognitive Learning - is learning that is demonstrated by knowledge that is recalled and intellectual skills. Affective Learning: is learning that is demonstrated by behaviors that represent attitude, interest, and attention. Psychomotor Learning: this learning demonstrated by physical skills, coordination, dexterity, and manipulation. Below is a model that I found from fractus Learning website. I like the model because it is different, colorful and it shows the higher order of thinking skills.  Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs...