Mountain Man Webquest

Here is the link to the Mountain Man webquest that our group created. I hope you enjoy it! Click on the picture to view it.

Finals are Over!!!

It feels so nice to be done with finals! Hopefully everyone will have a nice break! We are going to Arkansas to see my family and to go to my sister's wedding. I am really excited because it has been a long time since I have been home.

A Sad Time....

It is so sad that today was our last day in the field! Now we have to start making sure all the papers and stuff get written. Monday we took our students to work on the stories in the computer lab....that was an experience. They went in today to finish them and most of them were deleted by someone else. So some of them started over. There were only three students who finished, but we knew that was going to happen. Yesterday we went and sat through SEPs for the whole time. While we were listening we were working on some more things for the gifted exam thing they did earlier this year.

Oh! I almost forgot! Tuesday we got to go see the play "Bye, Bye Birdie" at Timpview HIgh (it is right next store.) The students did well, but at the end they started to get restless. And of course they were all grossed out and covered their eyes when the boy kissed the girl. It was fun.

I hope everyone else enjoyed their field experience!!!! See you on Monday!

Observations..

Well our week of teaching went well. We were not able to finish everything in the amount of time allotted to us each day, so the teacher had the students finish some of their assignments during times when we weren't there. It is okay though, the students learned what they needed to learn. We know this because they were able to recall the information that we stressed plus some that we mentioned in passing!!!

We were observed our last two days of teaching. We had not had any real problems with the students misbehaving until Thursday (the first day we were observed!). What happened is every day we taught in the morning except for the Thursday and Friday, because our Intern Coach could not come to observe us earlier in the day. We were scheduled to teach at 1:30. Thursday morning Laura got a message saying we needed to teach at 1:00. This posed a problem because we could not be observed until 1:30. We decided to stretch out the beginning of our lesson so that she would see both of us teaching. However, about 15 or 20 minutes into this, the students got bored with the activity but the intern coach was not there yet, so we had to stretch it just a little longer before we started the next part. We were ending our lesson with sand art which would have been fine if we had not had to drag out the first part of the lesson. The students were not able to finish the sand art (most barely got started) before they had to go to a presentation and then recess. We learned much from this experience.

Friday went better because we knew ahead of time that we would be teaching for half an hour before we were getting observed, also, we had ways of keeping the children from getting bored or out of control. We are going to do a little more on our lesson on Monday. The students are really into the writing we are having them do right now (even some of the ones who normally would not be).

It is nice to be in the field and I am learning a lot. Now all I have to do is get all the papers written that are due when we get back.....

How The Cactus Got Its Spines

The week has gone well so far. We did our cooperating group lesson plan today, but we had to leave some parts out. The students really enjoyed it though and participated in all the activities without any major problems. We are nervous because tomorrow and Friday we are being observed. Hopefully those lessons will go well!

If you look towards the bottom of my page, I have posted my digital story! It isn't as clear since I had to convert it to Quick Time. It looks much better in the iMovie form. You do what you can do!

Lessons....

Hello!! We have now taught two lessons! I taught yesterdays and it went well. We had a substitute teacher in the class. The students would behave for us but not as well for the sub. I am impressed by how much the students knew and participated in the discussion. Today Laura taught and the students really got into the activity. They are able to recall a lot of information.

We have already changed almost every lesson we have written. The students were supposed to have already learned about the other native american tribes but have not yet learned about most of them. Also, the make up of the students has had us change some of the things to better accomadate for them.

We have three more lessons to go!!! Hopefully everyone is having a good time in their classes as well!!

What I learned...

Today was easy and went well. Laura and I were asked to regrade the math section of the gifted test and then to put percentages and raw scores on more of the tests we graded yesterday. This is the time we learned a valuable lesson. Mrs. Wall has two high school seniors who come in and help her out. They had graded part of the mulitple choice tests and math sections. When she asked them to put percentages on them, they did not know how to do this. At this moment, she realized that she had a problem. She asked us to regrade the work which was a good thing. As I was grading the math problems, I realized that the high school students were not able to correctly grade the tests. Some of them had specific answers and then on other questions more than answer was available. For example the answer for one was 1/4 or any other fraction that could be reduced to 1/4. In other words, 25/100 would work. However, since all the options for answers were not written, the students marked wrong everyone that did not write 1/4. From this, I learned that I have to be careful and know the students who are helping me and what they are capable of. Also, explicit directions on how an assignment is to be done is needed. In my classroom, I will have to know the strengths and weaknesses of those helping me. If a student is terrible at math, I might have them help in a different area.

This experience also worried me. Here these two seniors are graduating this year and they are unable to do simple fractions (even with a calculator), convert scores into percentages and do simple multiplication. As a teacher, I want to try my best to help studetns not get behind. I need to make sure that my students grasp the concepts and information before I move on or the students will be behind.

The students are well behaved and respectful. The mobile computer lab came to the classroom today. Each student knew exactly how they were allowed to use the laptops. They followed the rules and listened when they were spoken to. They did not horse around or misuse the equipment. I was really impressed by their behavior.

Tomorrow will be fun. It is Halloween and our first time with a substitute teacher!!

First Day of Field!

Today was the first day of our field experience. I am in Mrs. Wall's fourth grade classroom in Edgemont Elementary. The class was rewarded with a class party for fulfilling a class goal. When Laura and I arrived, we were put to work making popcorn and putting it into brown paper bags for each of the students. As the students watched a video, we took a list of students and their birthdays and converted their ages into months. The data is being used to decide which students qualify as gifted. After this was finished, we were in charge of recess duty. It was easy, just cold. When we came in, we worked on making root beer floats for the students and then we graded the multiple choice test that the students took to see if they were gifted. When we first started grading the tests, we were confused because all the students were doing poorly towards the end of the tests. That is when we found out it was for the gifted program. It was okay that they did not do well.

Today was nice to come into the classroom because it was so laid back. I know it will not always be this way, but it was nice to experience this side of the class. Our cooperating teacher had no problems with the students behaving during the activity. Also, there was a new student today and the class seemed to accept him with no problem. The experience today has helped to calm fears about being in the classroom. The students are well behaved and there is a sense of community in the classroom.

Navajo Indians!

I hope you are all getting excited about our upcoming unit on the Navajo Indians! We are going to learn about the environment in which they live and about their legends and art. Wait until you see the type of houses they used to live in! Also, we will learn how to dye wool using the plants they used and how to pull the wool! At the end of the unit we are going to make some of the foods that the Navajo's eat and we will get to taste them.

Contact Me

I have an open door policy. If you have any questions at any time, you can come and talk to me. If you feel more comfortable, you can e-mail or a post your question or comment on our classroom blog. I will respond as quick as possible. Never be afraid to ask a question because I want to help you!

A Little About Me

My name is Mrs. Earl. I love to teach and learn. I am excited for this school year and the fun we are going to have. I have always wanted to be a teacher and love to work with children!

I wanted to be an elementary teacher because I love students your age! We can have fun and learn at the same time. I am able to learn from you as I teach you. Together we make a good team!

I enjoy to spend time with my husband and family. I met my husband at Disney World when I was working there!!! We like to go back and visit. This picture is of me eating my favorite treat at Disney World. It is Pineapple icecream with pinapple juice.

I have lived in Colorado, Arkansas, Tennesse, Alabama, Florida, Spain, Utah, Illinois, Iowa, and Virginia. Wow that is a lot of places!!! My family still lives in Arkansas. My favorite movie is Pride and Predjudice. In school, my favorite subject was math.

In this class, we will be using technology. I feel this is important because it is a major part of your life and it is necessary for the future. I am open to ideas on ways you think we could use technology in the classroom.