Nancy+D.


 * //Teaching Tremendously Reflection//**
 * //April 14, 2011//**

I feel like my science lesson plan went really well and I would definitely have the confidence to execute this lesson in an actual classroom. I was initially worried about the open class discussions that are part of my lesson but through teaching tremendously I realized that I have the ability to facilitate discussion through scaffolding and asking the right questions to guide my students to the correct answers. As smoothly as my lesson plant went, there are still a lot of things that could still go wrong in my lesson since I am dealing with real seeds and plants. There is a chance that my plants might not grow at all. I will definitely have to stay on my toes for this entire unit and just go with the flow depending on how my plants grow. I got excited last week during my classroom observation when I found out that my cooperating class will be in the middle of their plant growth unit when I teach a lesson in the field so my lesson will actually go right along with what the students are learning!
 * SCIENCE:**

Teaching tremendously opened my eyes to the fact that my math lesson plan is rather boring and has a lot of room for growth and creativity. The lesson plan that I taught revolved around graphing the growth of plants and was a lot of number crunching and graphing. I definitely need to come up with a way to keep the students more engaged. I think my second math lesson plan is a lot better and if I were to do a math lesson in the field then I would choose the second one for sure. In the mean time I will be on the lookout for ways to make graphing plant growth fun and effective for students
 * MATH:**

I enjoyed the teaching tremendously experience. Through assigning roles to my peers, I was able to simulate a real classroom experience. This was a fairly accurate way to assess whether or not our lesson plans would actually work in a classroom and how smoothly they would run. I enjoyed getting to see the lesson of other people as well. I feel like I get so wrapped up in my own lesson plans that I forget that other people are doing the same thing! Finally, I learned some new, cool things!
 * OVERALL:**


 * //"Formative Assessment"//**
 * //March 31, 2011//**

**WHAT DID YOU LEARN?** In the past assessment has been used as an intimidating way to motivate students and there has been a much larger investment in summative assessment with the implementation of high stakes standardized tests. Today, there is a more productive and useful way to use assessment in schools and teachers are starting to see the value of formative assessment. Teachers have realized that once-a-year standardized tests don’t happen frequently enough to track students’ day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month progress which can effect instructional decisions. Formative assessments allow teachers to test more frequently. The state does this to a degree by giving quarterly exams so in a sense, they are summatively assessing in a formative manner. Formative assessments also allow teachers to manage date more effectively. Since teachers are testing more frequently, they have more numbers and statistics to work with and therefore, more accurate results and manageable data. Finally, the most important part of the article (and the derivative of the title) is that formative assessment is //assessment FOR learning.// This means that these assessments are designed to provide students, teachers, and parents with a track record of student progress in the classroom. Through this, students and parents are able to see the linear progression from the beginning of the year all the way through the end and expectations are set very early on. Teachers are able to use this to direct instruction and make decisions and most importantly, students are involved and aware of their personal progress. In the beginning, the article suggests that in order for students to be driven they must develop confidence, optimism, persistence and a belief that if they try, they can be successful at learning. Using formative assessment as assessment FOR learning allows students to develop the belief that they can be successful because it concretely illustrates their progress over time and lays out high expectations for each student. Here you can find a related article about Assessment FOR Learning.

**THREE WAYS TO CREATE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT:** //Identify several sources for formative assessment ideas – including your texts from your current methods courses.//
 * 1) One way to formatively assess students is by using posters and sticky notes. We have done this in our field experience lab class. The teacher hangs up a poster with a big question or statement written on it and as students come into class, they take a sticky note and write down at least on fact that they know about that topic and stick it on the board.
 * 2) Another method of formative assessment is to ask students questions and let them answer using their thumbs. We have done this is Dr. Cunningham’s class a couple of times. Students have the answer of answering any particular question three ways, thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, of thumbs down. This allows the teacher to quickly survey the class and gather information about students’ prior knowledge.
 * 3) One final way to formatively assess students is through daily journals. In my math and science lesson plans, students are asked to keep journals documenting predictions, measurements, and observations of plant growth. By reading over students’ journals, teachers will be able to make instructional decisions on what misconceptions or misunderstandings students have about subject matter. This link shows how journals can be used for assessment along with many other concrete assessment examples.

**DOCUMENTATION AND USE:** //How will you document the info you receive from collecting student info on your students understanding? What will you do with that information? How can it inform your future instructional decisions? Can you identify ways to use a SmartPhone to collect data?// One way that I will document student progress is through having a grade book or charts with each individual students’ name where I will keep track of specific graded assignments. One way to document things like attendance and grades is through the use of the TeacherPal App which I just recently downloaded onto my iPad. I will use my gradebook and charts to make specific checklist of what the “next step” is with each of my students. This will allow me to best meet their individual needs. I could also use my iPad to record student answers to different questions and dissect their answers to determine whether or not they really understand the topic at hand.


 * //"Solar Farm Field Trip"//**
 * //March 28, 2011//**

SWBAT design their very own "backyard" solar farm. SWBAT solve problems to determine area. SWBAT find the mean, median, mode, and range of collected data.
 * STUDENT OUTCOMES:**

1.01 Develop number sensse for rational numbers 0.001 through 999,999 c) Compare and order rational numbers d) make estimates of rational numbers in appropriate situations 4.03 Solve problems with date from a single set or multiple sets of data using median, range, and mode.
 * NCSOS OBJECTIVES (5th Grade):**

Before the field trip to the Solar Farm in Taylorsville, NC, students will be introduced to the world of solar panels and alternative energy through the book listed under //English// and also through watching this video about a solar farm in California. This will help students see that North Carolina is not the only state with solar farms. Next, students will take a guided and informative tour of the solar far. Here they will have the chance to learn exactly what the solar farm does and who it helps. It will be important for students to ask questions on the field trip in order to find out the exact measurements of a solar panel so they can ultimately determine how many solar panels will be able to fit in their backyard solar farm. If the tour guide does not know exactly how big the solar panels are then the students will need to measure them on their own using either a tape measurer (if allowed) or coming up with an educated guess for a reasonable measurement.
 * FIELD TRIP OUTLINE:**

Students will create their very own "backyard" solar farms by collecting measurements and finding the area of their own backyard. Before students actually take measurements of their yard, I will have them predict what they think the area of their backyard is and also predict the number of solar panels that they think will be able to fit in their backyard solar farm. Once students know the area of their backyard, they will be able to determine the appropriate number of solar panels. The final product would be a drawing illustrating the students' house (which would be the beneficiary of the solar farm's energy) and the backyard solar farm with the appropriate number of solar panels and all of their measurements. Finally, as a class, we would find the mean, median, mode, and range of the number of solar panels used by each student.
 * ACTIVITY:**


 * CONTENT:**
 * Math: Students will use measurements to determine the area of their backyard and to determine how many solar panel they could put in their own backyard solar farm.
 * Literacy: Before the field trip I will read the book Solar Energy to my class in order to give them a very basic introduction to alternative energy choices and solar energy.
 * Social Studies: Geography will be touched on in their final activity where they have to decide how many solar panels can fit in their backyard.
 * Science and Sustainability: Students will have a chance to learn about alternative, green, energy choices through the field trip to the solar farm.

//**"Connecting Music and Math"**//
 * //March 2, 2011//**


 * QUESTION:** How can music help you teach math?


 * CONTENT:** Music is one of the best ways to expose children to mathematical patterns and rhythms at an early age. Children know that they are listening to a song but they are often unaware of everything else they are hearing and learning while listening to a song. I would focus this lesson around two themes: patterns and sounds. Patterns in music can be integrated into all other subjects.
 * Math: Students can pick out patterns in music and compare and contrast those to patterns in a classroom, on a numbers chart, and around the school. This link provides a good video enhanced introduction to patterns.
 * Literacy: Teachers can easily incorporate songs into an English lesson. The most basic and popular song in the United States is the ABC’s. There are numerous other songs that can be used to help teach different parts of speech, especially in foreign languages!
 * Social Studies: Teachers can have the students learn and sing the fifty-nifty United States song in a geography lesson as a fun and easy way to memorize the names of the states. There are other songs that include state capitals which might be a fun challenge for advanced students. Students could take this a step farther by looking at a map of the United States and finding patterns in the shapes, sizes, and geographical location of the various states.
 * Science: It would be very logical to incorporate a science lesson on sound into a unit on connecting music and math. Students can listen to various songs and compare the tempo (speed) and dynamics (volume) of each song. A lesson on how sound travels would also be appropriate as long as the students were an appropriate age. This website is wonderful because students can practice making their own beats and music while also learning about the science of sound pitches and frequencies.

**PEDAGOGY:** I think it is extremely important to have music in the classroom. Not only can it be used to set a relaxing mood but, many students learn best through putting subject matter in song or chant form. This is because the rhyming, rhythm, and patterns of songs are easier for kids to remember. In my classroom, I will encourage children to read poems or books that rhyme and to keep the beat of the book by tapping their feet or clapping their hands. I could also have students listen to music and count the beats out loud in order to help them see the patterns and keep the rhythm. Music could also be used as a classroom management tool; if students cannot hear the music then they are being too loud or if I have a tasks that students need to do quickly, then I could have them finish up an assignment or clean up their desks before the song ends.

**TECHNOLOGY**: The most basic way to incorporate technology into a lesson which connects math and music would be to simply play music from a computer, radio, CD player, iPod, etc. Another interesting technological tool that could be incorporated into a lesson like this would be a metronome which is an instrument that keeps a steady beat. The beats can be very slow or very fast and students could use it to count beats out loud and compare the tempo and dynamics of various songs. Student could also compare slower beats (whole notes) to faster beats (half notes, quarter notes, sixteenth notes, etc.) which would tie back into fractions in mathematics.

**SUSTAINABILITY:** The idea of tying sustainability into a lesson on music and math is a little abstract and difficult. However, if teachers get creative and think out of the box they can find unique ways to stress going green! One of the easiest ways would be to have students put on a “campaign” for recycling. They could sing “R-E-C-Y-C-L-E! It begins with you and me!” to the tune of Respect by Aretha Franklin and they could also create posters and signs to hang around the classroom and the school promoting recycling and conserving water. The teacher could have the students draw patterns on the posters or have them break their poster into sections so that one-third of the poster discussed recycling, one-third of the poster discussed conserving water, and one-third of the poster focused on saving energy or air pollution or whatever.

**IDENTIFY** (One each):
 * Assessment: Assessment will vary based on age differences but for younger grades, teachers could have students draw their own patterns. In upper level grades, students could have the assignment of coming up with their own jingle, chant or rhyming poem to show the class what they know about sound. A more concrete way to test student knowledge from social studies would be to have them label a map of the United States or list the states in alphabetical order (they would have to know the song to be able to complete this task).
 * Mobile Apps: This Glee Karaoke App would be so much fun for kids to sing along to in order to get a feel for rhythm and patterns in music.
 * Other Media : Hereare a variety of songs that go along with all types of subjects appropriate for elementary school students!

//** "Counting on Estimating..." **// //** February 2, 2011 **//

**QUESTION**: How many blueberries do you think are in this jar?

**CONTENT:**
 * Math: All the kids would come up with their number estimating how many blueberries were in the jar. After they know the correct answer they would be able to understand the concepts of estimating too high or too low
 * Science: The topic of blueberries could be incorporated into a science lesson on Health and Nutrition. I could have the kids come up with other foods that we could have estimated that would have been a less healthy option
 * Social studies: A lesson on agriculture would smoothly connect to this unit. This video tells a good story about American agriculture today. Students would also be able to talk about the past, present, and future of agriculture in America.
 * Literacy: A book about farming or blueberries would obviously be appropriate here. I could also bring in a lesson on alliteration using the work blueberry and have the kids explore other foods or names in the class that contain alliteration.

**PEDAGOGY**: I would have each student submit an answer estimating how many blueberries were in the jar. We would then count the number of blueberries as a class; for lower grades we could use a 100’s chart and for older kids we could incorporate multiplication by grouping the blueberries in sets of 5 or 10. Ultimately, we would determine which students answer was correct or the closest to correct. For the students who were way off on their estimations, we could have an open discussion about what strategies other students used to guess and which students answers were more than the correct number and which answers were less. Not only would they compare numbers, but the students would also compare healthy food options to less healthy food options during the science portion. I would bring in foods that were all round and small (similar to blueberries – things such as m&m’s, peanuts, cheerios, dried fruit, etc) and the students would compare which foods were the better choice. It would also be fun to incorporate a field trip to the local blueberry farm or farmers market in order to let the kids the products of farming and agriculture first hand. Students would also be able to talk about the past, present, and future of agriculture in America. Blueberries for Sal is a great children’s book that would be appropriate for this lesson.

**TECHNOLOGY**: A smart-board would be used in the video-clip segment of this unit. We would also use calculators or other smart-board tools to calculate the total number of blueberries and to do our math problems to determine which student was the furthest off in their estimations.

**SUSTAINABILITY**: To incorporate sustainability I would talk about the local farmers market. If I were here in Winston-Salem, I would obviously mention the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market and hopefully find a way to arrange a field trip. We would talk about the importance of locally grown foods and use this chart to show which foods are available during which months.. As a special treat, I could also bring in two of my good friends, Megan Hunter and Bailey Lockamey (both girls live on and have families who run blueberry farms).

** ASSESSMENT: ** I would formatively assess my students throughout this entire unit by asking frequent questions concerning blueberries throughout all the subjects. I would also have the kids keep an observation journal during the trip to the farmers market and subsequently would have some sort of quiz or worksheet for the students to complete upon our return to school.

**MOBILE APPS:** This web app would allow students to find a recipe for blueberry muffins that they could take home and try or I would most likely go home and bake some muffins using the blueberries we got from the farmers market field trip and bring them to class the next day for the kids to try.

**OTHER MEDIA:** This site is great for students to play around on while still learning about agriculture in America.


 * //"Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance"//**
 * //What do we have too much of on our campus? What do we have too little of on our campus?//**
 * //January 27, 2011//**


 * CONTENT** (Math, Science, Literacy, Social Studies): The most popular responses given to my group stated that Wake Forest had too much homework and studying but not enough space i.e. parking, dining, and outlets. For this assignment I am going to focus on the concept of //space// and how that applies to various subjects on the elementary level.
 * Math: A lesson associated with this activity would include measurements of the school cafeteria and the number of chairs and tables available compared to the number of students enrolled in the school.
 * Science: In our Science Methods class we discussed an activity in which students learned about community planning and how space within a community was most effectively and ethically used. I think this activity is very appropriate and relevant and I would use a similar activity to introduce my students to the organization of their school and community. This article lays out how curriculum standards will be met through learning about community plan
 * Literacy: Students would read books about maps (see the Dr. Seuss book under pedagogy).
 * Social Studies: Dealing with the geography aspect of social studies, students would map out their school. This would also tie into the science and math aspects because the students would use their measurements and directions in order to correctly make their maps.


 * PEDAGOGY**: On an elementary level, I would have my students compare the number of students in the school to the number of chairs and tables in the school cafeteria in order to mathematically understand how having enough space is an issue. To incorporate the literacy aspect, I would use the Dr. Seuss book, There's a Map on My Lap//.// This book is a great teaching tool because it introduces kids to the different kinds of maps, different formats of maps, the tools and symbols we use to read maps, and other funny facts. In the math, science, and social studies portions of this unit students would collaborate and work in groups to create their own maps of the school and to calculate how many tables and chairs are in the school cafeteria to determine whether or not the school has enough space. My class would ultimately create one big class map of the school, each student being responsible for a particular part of the map.


 * TECHNOLOGY:** In our class we were able to use Smart Phones to keep track of student’s responses. Most lower level elementary students do not have cell phones so in that setting students would use calculators and possibly an Excel spreadsheet (depending on grade level) to calculate how many table and chairs the school had vs. how many students were enrolled in the school. A Smart Board could also be used to pull up Google Maps <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> and show students an aerial satellite image of their school and community which would ultimately assist them in drawing their part of the school map.


 * SUSTAINABILITY**: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The most obvious way to promote sustainability through this activity would be paper conservation. Through the use of calculators and computers we would eliminate the need for each individual student to use a piece of paper. Also, using Google Maps and our class map, we could look at what parts of our school and community are reserved for wildlife and what parts are being used and polluted by man-made developments. Promoting land and paper conservation is an appropriate way to include sustainability in this particular unit.

**ASSESSMENT and MOBILE APPS**: My assessment and Mobile App happen to be a two for one special from the iTunes App store; with this app students would be able to do their calculations of the number of students enrolled in the school compared to the number of tables and chairs in the cafeteria in order to see whether or not there was a lack or abundance of space.

**OTHER MEDIA**: This interactive game from National Geographic is a great way for kids to incorporate city planning, maps and sustainability all in one fun game! It also allows kids to use math skills because they are responsible for buying supplies, land, houses, etc.