Ready, Set, Grob!

You are never quit ready to present anything. I was watching my fellow classmates present and realized that I did my presentation wrong, lol. I am doing a novel study with the book, The Watson's go to Birmingham. I did my presentation on my unit as a whole and not on just one of my lesson plans. That was funny but redeemable. I think I did pretty good in adding in my standards, what topics my novel study would touch on which is vocabulary, reading, and writing, materials needed and some more stuff. I think it came together pretty good. I got really excited to present it and even had to jot down some ideas that I got while presenting from my instructor. I think my classmates presented very good. There were some good videos presented, websites that were shared, and some really cool interactive projects. One classmate used a very cute and simply explained video that would help students in the 1st or 2nd grade with writing opinion papers. I loved the video and I know it works because I...

In class tonight we talked about poems. Poems are not my strong suit but I do like them in song form or spoken word. Below is my poem from class. I thought is was cute and fun. A classmate had the idea that this would be a fun for students to introduce themselves to the class on the first day of school. I like that idea. What do you think? April Short, coffee skin, kinky hair, glasses Sibling of Glenda, Tiara, Frankie, Frank, Ashley, Donje, Joshua, and Gabriel Lover of coffee, books, live theater, family Who fears being far up off the ground Who needs God, Pepsi, and hugs Who gives kisses to my boys throughout the day Who would like to see the latest scary movie Resident of St. Louis, MO Grob

The five ways I have taught vocabulary are as follows: 1. I Write, I say, and have student repeat word 2. I write, I say, I have student repeat the word, and then have student to write the word 3. I write, I say, I have student repeat the word, and then have student to write or say the word in a complete sentence. 4. I have also use magnetic letters on a cookie baking tray. I would say the words, students would repeat the word, and then they would race against each other to put the word together using magnetic letters. I would do it as a friendly competition game with the students, they would all either race against me, or each other in teams of two. There are no losers, and no scores kept. 5. I also would use vocabulary puzzles that I would make, sometimes the students would make them themselves and the puzzles would be laminated so that they can also be used during free time. I really wish I had access to my classroom to take pictures of these different ways that I have done ...

I've always liked the idea of Word Walls but from my experience in the classrooms that I have the privilege of working in and observing in, it's hard to utilize word walls the way they need to be used, due to the lack of space in the classrooms. With district and state policies saying that there needs to be so many things on the walls already from quick step by step instructions of units that need to be up, like the fact families in Multiplication, etc., the different ways to multiply and so much more. There's not enough space to have a nice word wall without it being partially or almost completely covered. The idea of Word Walls to me is also not a concept that I'm completely on board with because I often wonder, if students are still having a hard time remembering how to spell words properly or remember what the words mean, how does a word wall serve them properly?  Well after a long talk over many weeks with a 6th grade teacher and looking at the creativity of a 4t...