Week 3: Reflection Blog #etlead

Week 3: Reflection Blog #etlead

This week I have shared a few resources, although none of which are tech based.  One of these resources is the use of song to help aid in transitions within the classroom.  There are several content/topic area children songs that teachers can teach their students to sing while they are getting their material, moving from one spot to another...and so on.  These resources are available for a variety of topics and are great to use in elementary schools.  It helps reinforce concepts and helps limit the amount of time students may become disengaged from the particular topic/subject. 

Another Idea I put out there, although it’s not a particular resource, was for teachers to look over their topic areas and figure out what areas students might have trouble in, and provide potential mini-lessons they could use to help aid in understand.  I frequently find that having these types of mini-lessons handy help when my original lesson failed.  By having a ‘back up’ teachers can avoid the void and get on with the topic.

            I’ve shared the idea of song with several of my co-workers.  I’ve often saved songs I’ve used in the past and printed them out for other teachers to use if I knew they were teaching the topic.  This past week our 2^nd grade teacher was having a bit of trouble with transitions, as students would end up talking to each other and getting distracted/disengaged as a result.  I helped her in finding quick songs she could use that dealt with her topic.  Amazingly enough she taught it to the students that very next day, and it has totally worked!  Students transitioned faster (they had to be back in their seats by the end of the song) and they were excited to learn more about the subject.  Even the lyrics helped!  The teacher was able to refer to the lyrics to reinforce learning and the students were able to use them to help remember particular items they were learning.

            One thing I might do differently next week is to find more resources that dealt with technology.  Since I do not really have a backpack filled with tech programs or resources, it will require a lot of research on my part.  But I believe that If I can find these resources for other people, I would probably get some benefit from it too.  One resource that someone shared with me-to help with reflecting with my lessons was the idea of having duel planning books.  One would be for my actually lesson planning, an the other would be a reflection book.  They would be the same type of book as well, and instead of writing the plans in the other book, I would write a brief reflection on the lesson scheduled instead.  That way I can see quickly what the lesson was, and how it went. If I needed to provide additional resources, or if It took longer to teach than others.  I hope to incorporate this idea into my regular day-to-day in the next couple weeks.