Day 16

Day 1 of Week 2.

Today I was not directly in charge of any lessons, however I try to help whenever I can.
After the morning reading I graded three large stacks of homework which wasn't too bad. The lesson I helped in was in the class called "English Games" which is exactly what it sounds like. The students play games to further develop their English skills, oral and written. Today they were doing a crossword puzzle with images of things that could be found in someones school bag. My co-teacher chose this activity because their next unit is "What's in my bag" and he thought this would prepare them for that. What I did in the lesson was immediately teach the students "Hands on top". This is a management technique where the teacher says "Hands on top" and everyone puts their hand on their head and the students call back "Means I stop". We practiced this for a while and I anticipate that it will take them a quite a bit to become automatic.

After I taught that management technique, I introduced the game by putting it under the document camera. For some of the images on the sheet, I was able to bring an artifact to represent it. For example, instead of just looking at a stapler, I brought in my mini stapler and showed it to them. As I was showing and explaining each item on the list, I was also writing them on the chalkboard and having them read the words with me. I did this for each image to make sure they understood what they were. After reviewing the images, I demonstrated how to fill in the crossword squares with one across and one down then I let them do the rest individually. My co-teacher designed the lesson, I just delivered it. We're working more on this lesson tomorrow during their Oral English period.

At the end of that lesson, I went back to the teacher office and finished writing my third lesson plan. Tomorrow during my students' English period I will re-teach  The Important Book. I am planning to bring in images of things that are important to each of our lives. I have a picture of a police officer, a home, and a school. The police officer is important because s/he protects us from bad people, a home is important because it keeps us dry and warm, and a school is important because it helps us learn! In this lesson I am integrating think-pair-share and thinking pads. I'm excited for this, it should be great. After my lesson last time, the students didn't want to stop working on their "important" sheet :) I am supplying them with a new one, however. I realized I could have made the lines clearer. If I don't finish my lesson in the 35 minutes I have, that's ok. I'll just do it another time. It's not like I'm rushed for time with my student teaching over here. We have 5 extra weeks compared to what we would have had if we student taught in winter quarter.

Well I am going to head to bed! Have a good evening, or morning I suppose :)