Engineering Lesson

For our lesson for the last week in the kindergarten classroom, Andrea, Samantha, Emily, Laine, and I decided to do a sinking vs. floating lesson and bring in a tub of water!  We gathered materials to create boats that would sink and boats that would float.  The children's job was to first create a boat that would be able to float on top of the water and then create one that would sink to the bottom. The children in our group were really excited about it and actually knew what floating and sinking meant. We used thumbs up for float and thumbs down for sink to give them some gestures to go along with the vocabulary.  Some of the children even used Spanish to tell us sinking meant that the boat would go under.  When Andrea asked the children what sinking meant, Jennifer said the Spanish word for under.  Luckily for me, I knew what that word was so I was able to solidify that she was correct with what she was saying.  She also used a gesture with saying that, so I think that helped everyone else with understanding what she was trying to say.  If a child had said a word I was not familiar with in Spanish, I would have been confused as to how to respond to the answer, just as I had been confused during my sense of touch lesson with the students.  I would not know how to respond to a child’s answer I was not sure of because if they were correct but in a different language so I didn’t understand them and told them they were wrong, it would create more gaps in their academics.  This is something I think I will forever struggle with because there are so many different languages around and it is impossible to learn them all.

I think that getting to work closely with the students during this lesson was not beneficial in me getting closer to my goals.  My goals are to become more comfortable in a diverse classroom and to be able to communicate with all of the students.  Since there were five teachers to four students in our group, it was extremely difficult to get to interact with the students more than one at a time.  The teacher to student ratio was just too high to get any time to instruct the children besides being right next to them. I did not get many opportunities to explicitly teach them anything because one teacher would say one thing and then we all built off of it.  I was interacting mostly with a little boy.  While he was building his boat, I asked him questions like “Do you think that will help it float or sink?” and “What else do you think your boat needs in order to float?”  Even though our materials were mainly for the children to figure out how to make the boat float, he thought it needed a ‘flag’ and a ‘light’ on top of the straw.  This showed me that he has made a connection to a boat that he had seen prior to this lesson because we did not show him an image of a boat or give them any guidelines as to how to construct their boats besides making them sink or float. 

Living vs. Non Living Reflection

Teaching My Lesson

This Thursday was the day I finally got to teach my science lesson with Andrea!  Ahead of time, we decided we really wanted to help ourselves reach our goals with our lesson since we hadn’t seen much Spanish implemented in the lessons we helped out with.  Because of that, we thought that using a song describing the weather and seasons, (our science topic for our lesson), would be a fantastic way to use Spanish in the bilingual classroom.  The video we found were words we were both familiar with in Spanish: ontoño, invierno, verano, and primavera.  Those mean fall, winter, summer, and spring.  The whole plan of the video was to assist the children in learning about the weather in their native language for better comprehension.  Right away, the children were excited and asking us “In Spanish?” like they were so shocked to see it implemented by someone other than Mrs. Silva.  Right then I knew Andrea and I made a good decision.  Being able to choose our own lesson we wanted to do, implementing Spanish was the first thing we wanted to make sure we did.  Using Spanish was a great help for me to get so much closer to both of my goals.

Since I am familiar with the class and their attention grabber, I think our classroom management went really well.  Since it was a small group of children, it was much easier to control the actions of the kids but also keep them engaged throughout the lesson.  Introducing the topic with the Spanish song was a huge hit and I saw kids dancing on the carpet.  When we initially asked the kids if they knew the seasons of the year, we could tell they did not know. After the song, most of the kids raised their hands to tell us what the seasons are.  They stayed engaged throughout the lesson as well.  Andrea and I instructed them to go to their seats and have the teachers move to each table to teach all 4 seasons to the kids.  We wanted to make sure that the kids got to do group work and individual work, so they had to decorate a tree like it would look like in the specific season they were learning about.  Then they had to draw and color appropriate clothes on their paper dolls for each season.  We provided books for them to look through for each season and made sure we implemented our Spanish words for the seasons as well as the English words. When all of the tables learned about all of the seasons, we had them come back to the carpet to share their work.  They got to come to the front of the class, show them their doll for the season we selected, and then share what types of things their doll was wearing.  The kids were really eager to raise their hand to volunteer to come to the front of the class and share their work, which is awesome.  I could tell these children were excited about our lesson. 

At the beginning and we asked them what each season was like, they used the terms cold, hot, snow, etc., but could not answer much more about them.  We even asked them the types of things they wear in each season and did not get much of a response.  At the end, we asked the same questions and they were able to answer them with more details. For example, we asked Jennifer what her doll wore in the winter.  She said things like a hat, gloves, and boots because it is cold and snowy, whereas at the beginning, she thought “cold” was a season.

One of my goals was to feel more comfortable while teaching in a bilingual classroom.  I feel like I got so much closer to that this week.  Even though I only used a few terms in Spanish, I think the children felt more comfortable with us being in their classroom as well.  Implementing Spanish on their worksheets they used to draw and color on as well as saying the words to them along with the English word was a really cool experience for me.  Sure, I’ve spoken Spanish before because of high school, but I have never had the chance to use it in a classroom full of native Spanish speakers.  This week prepared me to teach in a bilingual classroom more than ever.  Even though I see this class 3-4 times a week and have been in the classroom while my classmates teach science, this week helped me get closer to my goal than I ever have been before.

My other goal was to be able to communicate with all students in a diverse classroom.  This is going to be extremely hard for me to ever achieve because America is so diverse, but I think I got a little closer to it this week being in the bilingual classroom at Brigham.  Since the entire class speaks Spanish and English, I only had to prepare to accommodate for the students with Spanish and English. I knew that if Andrea and I planned a lesson that included both languages, we would more than likely help every student meet our objectives.  I think that looking up different songs that featured Spanish, our topic, and for children was the best idea to begin our lesson. The words we used were easy enough for us to use, the children to use, and our teacher helpers to use.

While I walked around each table, (each table was a different season), I noticed the children using the Spanish words for the seasons like we heard in our video at the beginning.  It was awesome to hear them trying to communicate in both languages to our teaching helpers.  I also noticed that because of our videos and labeling in both languages, even the teachers were able to comprehend the Spanish the children were using.   We encouraged the helpers to use those terms as well to make sure it was really being implemented the entire lesson. 

Preschool Classroom

This week I had my first experience being in the preschool classroom at Brigham.   I was nervous about moving closer to my goals since I had never been in there before.  I heard that the children did not talk a lot, if at all. I knew that alone would be a struggle for me because it would be hard to reach my goal of communicating with students in a bilingual classroom if they did not talk.  I honestly am not even sure which children in the classroom were the Spanish children.  Every child I talked to, except for a little boy named Jonathan, gave me a blank stare.  I’m still not sure if they were not understanding me because they did not know what I was saying, if they were shy because there were 6 new teachers in the classroom, or if they were not interested in us. 

Unlike the kindergarten classroom, I did not feel very comfortable in there.  I realized that I know both of the preschool teachers because I eat lunch with them every day I am at clinical, but even they were quiet when we were in the room.  When I asked the children their names, they did not respond or responded too quietly for me to hear them.  That was a big issue for me trying to communicate to them. A lot of times, I had to get down at their eye level and get in front of them in order to get their attention.  I think that if I knew how the classroom was run, the names of the children, and which ones were the bilingual students would have been extremely helpful.  It was hard to get any closer to my goal than I was two weeks ago in kindergarten.  Getting the opportunity to work in the preschool classroom prior to this week would have also helped. 

Having 3-5 year olds in a classroom with unfamiliar teachers had an effect on my goals as well. If I didn’t feel comfortable as a teacher, I think it would be hard for the children to be comfortable as well.  Being around unfamiliar people and trying to learn would be difficult for them.  I noticed that when I first walked into the room, they all were very quiet and barely made eye contact with us.   

I ran the cup phone station with Taylor, and I think she was also having a hard time communicating with them.  I have come to realize that in order to reach my goals, being in a classroom consistently will be key.  Since I only have the kindergarten classroom left and my lesson in there until the end of the semester, I think my goals will be easier reached.   I am comfortable in that classroom because I see those children 3-4 times a week and know them by name.  I know that Mrs. Silva implements Spanish and English in her instruction, so Andrea and I are implementing Spanish into our lesson to get closer to our goals.

Using information from this week, I learned that my goals are going to be harder to reach without being in the same classroom consistently.  I plan on continuing to prepare myself for the classroom by learning the words in Spanish that will be implemented in the lessons.  By doing that, it will also bring me closer to my second goal, which is to be more comfortable in a bilingual classroom. 

Exceeds: Comparison of preschool to kindergarten classroom (comparing goals) and exceeded the word count

Second Day in Kindergarten

Thursday was my second day in Mrs. Silva’s kindergarten classroom.  When I went in two weeks prior, I noticed that some of the children had a hard time expressing themselves using English words during our 5 senses lesson.  This time, I was prepared to hear them answering my questions with some Spanish words.  My first goal was to be able to communicate with all of the children in the classroom, regardless of the language they decided to speak.  My second goal was to become more confident while in the classroom with diverse learners.

Over the time I have spent at Brigham, especially since it is my PDS placement as well, I have noticed that Mrs. Silva’s class has quite a few children who are rambunctious and have a hard time sitting still.  I also noticed this during the 5 senses lesson.  This week I was prepared for this by making sure I knew each child’s name I would be working with.  That way, I was able to calm them down by being able to address them by name.  When each child got their own picture card to decide whether it was living or non-living, they got really excited and needed to relax a little bit.  Being able to get their attention by saying their name was really helpful in keeping the group on task.  They were really into getting to draw their own cards and tell Jessie and me if the thing in the picture was living or non-living.  They were also very eager to assist each other, even when they did not need any help from one another.  I really liked the lesson this week and would actually like to implement a similar lesson in my clinical setting.  To expand on their knowledge, I would allow them to go to http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/plantsanimals.html in order to practice living and non-living things on their own during their computer centers. 

Unlike last time, this week I only had one student answer one of my questions in Spanish.  All responses besides that were in English. Allison said “si” instead of “yes” for a living thing, which was an easy word for me to understand what she meant.  This was different than last time because it was actually a Spanish word I was completely familiar with.  I’m thinking that during my own lesson, I would like to implement Spanish into it so I can really benefit from getting the opportunity of teaching a group of bilingual students.  If I am in a bilingual classroom and do not ever get the opportunity to implement a different language, I do not think I will get as much out of the experience as I should.

I feel as though this week I did not get to make much progress on my first goal besides working on getting to know each and every individual child.  It did not help my goals that the children responded to my questions in English because I was not able to try to understand their Spanish words.  I do feel as though I have been making progress on my second goal: gain confidence when working with diverse students.  I think that since I have the privilege of working with the children not only when I am in the classroom every other Thursday but also on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I have become more and more comfortable around the children.  It is a huge advantage to me getting closer to meeting my goals.

Exceeds: Went over the word count & included a link to a living and non-living game appropriate for kindergarteners. 

Brigham Kindergarten Day 1: 5 Senses

            I like that I had to set goals before actually going into a bilingual classroom because I was really able to reflect on them while teaching.  Seeing as my PDS placement is at Brigham, I already knew quite a few of the children in Mrs. Silva’s class.  I knew the children that would have a harder time paying attention and following directions, so that was extremely helpful for me personally.  One of my goals was to be able to communicate with all of the students, since they are English Language Learners.  Going into the classroom, I did not expect the children to try to speak to me in Spanish as frequently as they did while I rotated my station through the whole class.  I hear them speak English every day I’m there, so I know they’re capable, but experiencing them speaking Spanish first hand was new for me. 

While allowing the children to feel the balloons, I went around the table to ask them what they thought might be in the balloon they were holding.  Some of the children were able to say things like “dirt” or “rocks”, but there were 4 or 5 who tried to explain to me what they thought by using Spanish.  At first, I was not sure whether they were speaking Spanish or English and asked them to repeat themselves.  Once they repeated, I realized that they were speaking Spanish and I had no idea what those words meant.  I did take 3 years of Spanish in high school, but never learned the words for dirt or rocks or rice, so it was extremely difficult for me to understand what they were saying.  They could have said the Spanish word for dirt and I would not even know they were right when feeling the balloon with dirt. 

I think I could have better prepared myself for this lesson by asking Mrs. Silva or Dr. Osorio ahead of time how to say all of the words of the things that were actually in the balloons.  That way, I would have a better grasp as to what the children were guessing.   With that being said, if the children were guessing things that were not in the balloons, I would still not understand what they were saying.  I think that as time goes on, the children will get used to our class being in their classrooms and learn that not all of us know Spanish, but I’m not really sure that would be beneficial to us as their teachers or them as students.  It’s part of their class to speak both languages, so I think we should encourage them to do so as much as possible. 

My other goal was to gain confidence when working with diverse students.  Since this was my first week in the classroom, I did not have much confidence aside from the fact of knowing the students already.  I think the confidence will come as I am in the classroom more often and I get more comfortable with the students trying to speak Spanish to me. 

The action steps I chose for myself when I filled out the sheet remain the same, even after my first time in the classroom.  I still want to learn Spanish words in order to effectively communicate with the students, get to know them all in order to accommodate them, (especially for my lesson), and continue to reflect on how I do each day in order to build my confidence levels when teaching a diverse classroom. I think a lot of these steps will come over time and I will be more comfortable by the end of the semester.