Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Teaching a Procedure to a Small Group

Module 4 Unit 6 Activity 3

Teaching a Procedure to a Small Group

Scavenger Hunt with QR Codes

·         Lesson Objectives: This lesson will teach students my young ELL how to follow directions but it focuses on learning prepositions of location taught during a lesson previous to the activity. The students will have to know the material and vocabulary to prepare for a test at the end of their semester.

·         Goals:  Learn new vocabulary, follow directions, and use technology using “I Do, We Do, You Do”.

·         Device: Smartphone or ipad/ tablet.

·         App: The app they will use is a free app called Google Goggles that they can download where they can scan QR codes.

·         Task: After teaching the students prepositions of location, they will have to go on a scavenger hunt around the different classrooms finding a QR code that is carefully hidden using prepositions of location such as:

1.    Go to the bathroom, it is next to the soap.

When they find the QR code, they will scan it on their phone and it will tell them a letter that they have to write on their clue sheet and give them directions to where the next QR code is such as:

      1.   Hurray! Your first letter is W.

                 2.    Next, go to the smallest classroom and it is under the table.

When they find all QR codes, they have to come back to their seats. Using all of the letters they have found, they then have to decipher what the phrase is.

The first students who decipher the phrase win.

Hopefully by looking at the vocabulary, and placing the objects in real life, not just in words and pictures, they will be able to remember the words (prepositions of location) and know what they actually mean.

* I usually do this outside with my university students but for these elementary school kids I am keeping it inside our small school.

·         Preparation: I will help them download the app one week previous to the activity during class time and explain the activity for the next week. I already know that all my students have smartphones but sometimes they aren’t allowed to bring their phones to my class. When I message the mothers, I will let them know they will need their smartphones for this activity. If their mothers do not allow them to bring their phones, they can always be partnered with a kid in the class who has a smartphone.

·         App Use: The app is very simple to use. Once the app is downloaded, all the kids have to do is press the camera button on the app and it will automatically scan the QR code. They will have to click on the link that they get, and their clues will appear on their phone/tablet screens.

Activity time:  60 minute lesson

5 minutes: Attendance and introduction

10 minutes: Explanation of prepositions and their tasks, demonstration of using QR codes (I Do). Here I will demonstrate to the students how to click on the application and then I will have a sample of a QR code. I will show the students how to scan the code and then show them the page that appears next that will show them a message.

5 minutes: As a class, I hand out the same QR code photocopy to each student and we practice using the application together (We Do). I will hand out a QR code to each student and we will all have to open the application together and then aim the camera at the QR code and scan it. They will all have a message that says “Good Luck” appear on their screen after they scan the QR code.

20 minutes: Students are put in groups and sent out to do the scavenger hunt (You Do It Together). In this section the students will have to go and find all the clues scanning the QR codes around the classroom where they are hidden. I will monitor and be there to help them if they need it.

5 minutes: Come back to their seats and decipher the clues

5 minutes: Review what they have learned and discuss their answers

5 minutes: Prepare for the next class and for their assignment they have to go home and find a QR code that they can scan (You Do It Alone) and take a picture of it so we can discuss it during our next class especially referring back to the lesson of prepositions of location.

Rubric:

Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Comprehension	Student seems to understand all directions and prepositions of location.	Student seems to understand most of the directions and prepositions of location.	Student understands some parts of the directions and prepositions of location.	Student has trouble understanding or remembering most directions and prepositions of location.
Respects Others	Student follows directions without without distracting others.	Student gets off tasks but does not distract others.	Student gets off task, distract others OR moves around in ways that distract others once.	Student gets off task distract others, OR moves around in ways that distract others more than once.
Participates Willingly	Student willingly tries to ask questions and find the clues on their own.	Student willingly tries to find clues but ask gets others off task by asking them for the clues.	Student does not willingly participate and tries to get answers from others.	Student does not participate.

Reflection

I believe that overall this activity went quite well. I have had these students before and this was not the first time that I have taught this lesson. It is one of my favorite lessons to teach and I feel that it really helps them learn the concept of preposition of locations as they are actually experiencing it for themselves.

I like bringing technology into this class and for this preparation is key. I made sure that my students knew what we were going to be doing from a week in advance and they all had their smartphones and apps ready to go.

My mentor and I applied “I Do, We Do, You Do” to the lesson and it really worked out well. Usually I let them do it individually but putting them in groups made the students collaborate with each other and use techniques to help them reach their goals faster.

All the students’ behavior was very good. They knew they were not allowed to run, push, shove other groups and as we have done similar activities in the past, they knew that if they broke these rules, they would have consequences. One group of students almost started running and I just gave them a stern look and they knew right away to walk.

My mentor mentioned that he thought I managed my time very well and like that I left an extra five minutes for flexibility during the time schedule. He said that he also thought this activity could work individually and I explained that that is how I usually do the activity, but that I also liked putting the students into groups as it brought more of a collaboration aspect to the lesson.

In conclusion, the lesson went as planned with no major behavior problems from the students and I hope a fun time was had and I will check how much they retained the coming week. 

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Collaborative Movie Project

Module 4 Unit 6 Activity 2

I was in a group with Sean and Caitlin. 

Here is our video:

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Observation and Report

Module 4 Unit 6 Activity 1

Observation and Report

I observed Mr. Hobden’s class at a small academy called Sunshine Academy for this exercise. His class was an English Language Arts class and the classroom had a very big space. It was rectangular shaped around 25 x 40 feet. The layout and classroom decor was great with a huge rug on the right side of the classroom with a fully equipped classroom on the left side. I found it a little problematic to draw the classroom layout with the recommended website (http://classroom.4teachers.org) because the desks can only be laid out completely vertically or horizontally on this program, but the desks in Mr. Hobden’s class were arranged at a 45 degree angle almost in an arrow formation. I have never seen the desks arranged in such a way, but I thought it was unique and worked really well for the students to view the board and also work in groups.

There were 11 boys and 12 girls in this classroom so it was quite large. The class walked in and sat directly in the rug. I guess this was a procedure that they do daily as the teacher didn’t ask them to sit there when they came in from their break. This was a non directed but purposeful student movement. Mr. Hobden was reading them a story and after asking a few questions about the story and teaching some new vocabulary, he stood up and the students returned to their desks on their own. This was another non-directed but purposeful movement I have watched. It was pretty amazing how the students knew what to do and went back to their desks in an orderly fashion. The green arrow above represents one of the male students that returned to his desk from the rug.

Mr. Hobden walked directly to his projector on the left side of the classroom and started with his lesson on segmenting and blending words. As he was explaining the exercise he was walking back and forth between the projector and the two desks closest to him until he called on a student to put one of the words together. This was a female student and it is represented on the picture above with the red arrow. This is an example of a directed student movement as he called on this student so she had to come to the projector. He also called on a few more students and again it demonstrated directed student movements.

When the students were working on their workbooks, one of the female students finished her work and got up to talk to her classmate. It is represented by the violet colored arrow below. She was distracting her friend from finishing her work and Mr. Hobden had to tell her to return to her seat. This was an example of a non-purposeful student movement. I was surprised because I watched this classroom for about 30 minutes but everyone stayed in their seat and I thought I would not be able to observe a non-purposeful student movement. Around the 28 minute mark, this female student got up so I was lucky to record that or else it would have been one of the most well-behaved classes I have observed.

While they were working on their workbooks, Mr. Hobden went around the front of the classroom to help a few students. Then he walked through the middle of the desks and returned to the area with the projector.

Watching the teacher’s movement patterns I couldn’t help noticing that he spent most of his time tethered to the projector and that he had very little contact with the rows in the back. Mr. Hobden spent a lot of the time on the left side of the classroom and walked back and forth in the front of the classroom from left to right. Perhaps he might not always work in the same movement patterns but because he was working with the projector today he might have been standing on the left side a lot for that reason.

One recommendation I have for this situation is that if he has a socket in the back of the classroom, he could move the projector to the back. That way he could have more contact with students in the back of the classroom but if he had to have everyone’s focus, he should have no problem walking to the front of the classroom where he spends a lot of his time anyway. This way it could balance out the time he is spending with the students in the front, as well as the students in the back of the classroom.  

I talked to Mr. Hobden after the class and told him what I saw in my observation. He said that he also found that he does spend most of his time in the front of the classroom and thanked me for my suggestion. He might move his desk to the side and move the projector to the back of the room. I also noticed that he had his transitions, and procedures well organized. He uses his classroom space very well including the rug area and the interesting way he organized his students’ desk. His class was well laid out and overall he didn’t have any major issues with any of his students’ behavior. I guess living in Korea helps. He managed his students very well and his class was a great example of having taught the rules and procedures properly to create a positive classroom environment.

* Here is the google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n1DX7vAuG-n84u71cfCJwk5iw3I7CHbwF4LX0FDp_wk/edit 

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Reflection Activity: My Biggest Fear

Module 4 Unit 5 Activity 3

Reflection Activity: My Biggest Fear

I have always been an organized person and as an educator this has been one of my key strengths. I always have a routine for my students to follow, and all of my classes run relatively smoothly most of the time. I had to learn a lot by trial and error, and I really love to connect with my students. I have a performing background and I think it is so important to make each lesson relatable, but also interesting. I instill my own form of “edu-tainment” for my students. Everything I try to teach, no matter how boring the subject matter is, can be made interesting to them when I put my effort to do so. The first objective is to learn, and the second is for them to relate to it, or find it interesting.

 One of the biggest fears I have as a teacher perhaps has to deal with a class or students that are physically violent. I have only taught in South Korea for 10 years and the students here are mostly respectful. Most of the problems I have with students here, is getting them to participate, but I have found my own successful ways to target no-participating classes, in an amusing way. I have never had to deal with anyone who was physically abusive or aggressive towards me. In case of a situation like that, I would think that I’d like to deal with it in a constructive way but if I was in physical danger, I don’t actually know how I would react.

I have had one situation in the 10 years of teaching, where a student actually stood up to me, and was verbally abusive. He was very close to my personal space and it seemed like he wanted to be physically aggressive. At this moment, I could not ignore this situation, or just walk away. I told him to leave, and I would have liked to talk to him afterwards, but in Korea, confrontation is one of the biggest fears  among this culture. I got a call from the head of his department to be the communicator between us. After I explained the situation, the professor requested I give him one more chance to come back into my class. I agreed, but this student never came back. This was no surprise to me as I have had students that chose to fail my class instead of facing me about their grades, behavior, or other problems (even small ones) in class.

Another fear I have is perhaps time management if I have a student with a severe disability in my classroom. I care equally for all my students and I haven’t had any students with disabilities in my classes so far. I am scared that if I do, I might have difficulty following my routine and either spend too much or too little time with those students neglecting the rest of the class, or that single student.

I am sure as I move to different countries to teach, I will have to face new situations and adapt to different cultures and people. I am actually excited and positive about new environments and new students. Experiencing difficult situations will only make me a better-rounded educator and I’d like to be optimistic thinking that I can manage a learning environment in a constructive way. My students and their learning is the most important thing to me, so failing them as a teacher will have to top my list of fears as an educator!

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Collaborating on De-Escalation Strategies

Module 4 Unit 5 Activity 2

Most groups had three people but ours had four. We decided to do a Prezi for ours as we could work on it simultaneously. Here is our Prezi:

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Video Annotation: Managing Student Behavior

Module 4 Unit 5 Activity 1

Another annotation: This one has strategies for kids with ADHD. This video is a bit longer than others, but it is only around 11 mins long. Here is the video:

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Using Technology to Record Student Behavior

Module 4 Unit 4 Activity 3

We were put into groups of four for this assignment. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vsRJOmPq2086remcTKZ6GIyuXKSgLn1bRIpxCobAbSc/edit