Reflection 4

In class yesterday, we had our first day of student interactive read-alouds. I really enjoyed listening to everyones stories. I also did my read aloud yesterday and, to my surprise, I had fun with it. I really didn't think I would enjoy it because I get nervous when the spotlight is on me. When I started my read aloud I could tell that I was nervous, but the more I read the more comfortable I felt. I enjoyed my activity of the connection chart because I know I will use this in my classroom and getting practice actually doing it in front of a class is very helpful. Another great benefit of doing the interactive read alouds is that we get to participate in our classmates activities and that gives us wonderful ideas for our own classrooms. I found the activity that Kayla did to be very fun and I could see myself using this idea with my class.

Another activity we did was a group activity where each group had a topic to discuss and make a handout for the class. In my group, one thing we talked about was basal readers and the pros and cons of using them. Now that I am more familiar with the basal readers, I remember that is the type of reading books my school used. During writing workshop, we brainstormed our ideas about the book each of us are going to write and illustrate. I believe I am set on titling my book, Roxie Tales, since my cat's name is Roxie. I think I am going to write about things she does when she plays and how I got her. I am very excited about this opportunity to feel like an author of a children's book!

Reflection 3

We had a full day in class yesterday. We finished up the bag of me presentations, which was fun because I got to share a little about myself with the class. We listened to the story Saturdays and Teacakes. We made a connection chart and got to share how we connected to the story. I think this is a great idea, and I don't remember any of my teachers letting us do that, so this was new to me. Words from the day went on the word wall. We had a partner activity about Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. My partner Charli and I had Reading. We made a chart about the five keys of reading as well as other important parts of Reading. We also, as a class, discussed things we would like to see in an emergent reading classroom. We said things such as a classroom library and a word wall with the students names on it. We also learned about lesson plans and how to construct objectives. I feel like this exercise helped me a lot. I will be more confident when writing out my objectives for my lesson plan. We went over things to do as teachers during the writing workshop like making a checklist for students we have helped.

Reflection 2

In class today, we learned of two theories for cognitive development. Piaget and Vygotsky are the two theorist that we learned a little about through the activities we participated in. I feel like I learn more when I am working with a group. It is nice to be able to share our ideas on the assigned topic. We added more useful words to our word wall today. Today was also the first day of the bag of me presentations. It was interesting to hear all the stories that students shared with the class that we may not have known unless they told us about them through this presentation.

We also had a discussion on things in the classroom such as learning centers and class libraries. I enjoyed learning new facts about learning centers and how to arrange them in a way that is both functional and educational. The class library will be very beneficial to the students. We had a writing workshop and I found that the sharing part was the best because we got to hear about the experiences of our fellow classmates. Overall, I enjoyed the day and I think I got a lot of information from the class today.