Greg Mortenson...inspirational

Last night, my husband and I met up for dinner after seeing Greg Mortenson speak. I told him a little bit about his background and the amazing accomplishments he has made. It got us talking about what Mr. Mortenson closed his speech with... What mark are we making on the world?

My husband is a public defender and while he was in law school is was very active with the crisis ministry on meeting street. To my knowledge, the law school requires everyone to do a certain number of hours in the field doing work such as this. I am in graduate school helping to teach students in public school, many of which live in poverty. Both our careers are service jobs helping those in need. Before teaching, I worked at an Advertising Agency who one day a year had who ever wanted to go out to a site and help build a house for someone in need through United Way. I jumped at the chance to get out of the office and to do some manuel labor.

Despite this, I feel we need to do something, not because its our job or an excuse to get out of the office, but because we feel very passionately about a cause, such as education. We started talking about some ideas and are really going to try and volunteer in our community. With the mid-term elections just finishing up, it makes me think about all the people, myself included, who "bitch" about the economy, education, health care, etc, but who really are not out in the community physically trying to do something about it. We might start small, helping out at a soup kitchen around the holidays or adopt a family to give Christmas gifts too. My hope is that the satisfaction we get out of helping others will drive us to want to do more.

This weeks field...

Marisa taught her last lesson this week. While helping and observing her, I was reminded of a very important aspect of being a teacher, particularly a kindergarten teacher, and that is... thinking on your toes.

She had the class broken into centers. I worked at a table with students who each had a bag of cheerios and a number card. They were to read the number on their card and count out that number of cherios. We did this several times and I consciously gave each student single and double digit numbers. After about 7 minutes of this I could sense the children knew what they were doing and were loosing interest. I leaned over into a bucket near me to grab a white board. We started writing the numbers and talking about the different properties (i.e. an 8 is like an s that's closed...Lydia). I also had them do some addition and subtraction, asking them questions such as "if you have 7 cheerios and you want 10, how many more do you need?" Most were able to do this and were happily surprised when I told them "do you know that right now your doing addition and subtraction! " I was also reminded that we need to set high standards for our students and give them the encouragement and scaffolding to think beyond what they think they can. Marisa's lesson ended early and she came up with an activity using a pocket chart and numbers.

A little boy in one of my groups is an ESL student. It was clearly visible that his language was acting as a barrier in learning his numbers. Also, rather than knowing them from recognition, he would look at the number line and count up from one. I tried to work with him more closely and I also had his classmates help him. When he didn't know a number, I would ask the 3-4 other students, what number is this? Then I would turn to Andres and ask him what number is this, and he would repeat what his friends just said. When I first read this technique in Lemov, I thought that it would make a student feel insecure and "called out", but that was not the case. I kept the pace of doing this moving quickly which I also think helped. I think its important to teach students that their classmates can also act as teachers and support when they have confusion.

Final Lesson Taught

This morning I taught my final lesson on phonemic awareness and the letter Ff. I was happily surprised that the students were extremly well behaved, especially for it being the day after Halloween. Mrs. Hearn, the teachers aid, told me that this particular class gets incredibly chatting in the afternoon, around the time that we usually come. I really enjoyed teaching the phonics lesson where I had the students identify the beginning sound in words I said orally. I tried to call on all students at least once which was challenging with 27 students, but from those that I did call on, it was very obvious who struggled with this and who could easily attest to the sound. When I asked for the beginning sound, the students often told me the letter. It's great that they could tell me the letter, but they have to distinguish between sound and letter. I was consistently having to remind them of this, but by the end of the whole group lesson, they seemed to have gotten it.

I worked in small reading groups with the children reading their My Ff Book. First I worked with the lowest students in the class, which includes 3 ESL learners. I enjoyed working with them to decode unknown words and consistently reminding them to use their reading hand and finger to ensure that they read each word on the page and in the appropriate order. The children usually have to circle the letter that the book is about, for example all the B's in their My Bb Book. I had them circle all of the F's and underline the words in the book that began with F. I am really glad I added this on because many still have confusion between a word and a letter. Being able to break paragraphs into sentences, sentences into words, and words into letters is a skill that children need to have. I also got to work with the highest students in the class. It was pretty intersting to see how large the gap is. They could easily read all the pages in the book and they were also writing extra words with their pictures, such as the color that they were using to color in their pictures. This lesson definitely reminded me of the importance of differentiating your teaching techniques.

I really enjoyed reading Chapter 10 of the Grant book. Alot of the chapter discussed that the family and the community are the child's first teacher. We have discussed how many parents don't know how to work with their children to enhane skills they are being taught at school. I think its so important to educate your parents on small things they can do at home that are fun activites for both the child and parent. Some examples might be talking about your favorite part of the day during dinner, or having the child work on counting by setting the table. Because the community and family are the child's first teacher, we as teachers need to know as much as we can about them since they effect what the child is like.

Field Update...

This week I primarily worked on our advocacy project during our class time, but I was able to sit with Mrs. Patterson during leveled reading groups. Each week the students get a book that concentrates on one letter and a few high-frequency words. Our class is on the letter "Gg". I was really surprised to see that the font they use in the books is typing text, not the way in which the students would actually write the letters. I think this has to be really confusing to the students. They are told to write lower-case 'g' a certain way, but when they read words that contain it, it looks completely different. I really enjoy working on literacy instruction with the children and using various techniques such as choral and shared reading, helping them to make predictions by looking at the pictures or reading around a word they don't know to see if the rest of the sentence will give them a clue. It makes me think that if I continue with my education after graduating, I would like to talk additional literacy courses.

The topics covered this week in the Grant book really interested me, primarily because I think we are all going to encounter students who are either homeless, experience violence or neglect, or have or are living with someone that has a chronic disease. Every situation is different, but its really helpful to discuss hypothetical scenarios in class. It reminds us that we really have to take into account what is going on in a students life or what a parent is dealing before we place blame on them. Many times people are justing trying to survive, especially in an economy like today.

1.5 Hour Lesson

This week I taught my hour and a half lesson. I was really excited about teaching this lesson because I created four centers in the classroom where the students got to sort various objects by attributes. One center the students were independently sorting cylinder and squares by color, at another they sorted various sized and colored attribute shapes, with the lead teacher they sorted coins, and at my center they sort all different kinds of buttons. I remembered sorting the buttons in Dr.. Nabors class and was lucky enough to borrow them. This week I read about Lemov's technique, "Change of Pace". This is such an imperative technique to use with young children as their span of attention is so short. The way I set up the lesson was for the children to concentrate and work on one skill, but it various formats. My hope was that the transitioning between centers would feel like starting something new although they were still practicing the same skill but with different manipulatives.

I think the activities themselves were good, but I felt the lesson did not go smoothly because the classroom was so chaotic. 27 kindergarten students in one room! Unfortunately, that is many teachers realities in public school. I really needed to create tighter transitions, which was hard to explain given the 1.5 hour time frame. I haven't observed any routine transition behavior in the classroom, otherwise I would have used that. It got me thinking, what might I use in my classroom to help transitions between activities run smoothly. Each table that the students work at needs to clearly be marked. I have seen colored chair covers, which I love. Other ideas I though about were adhering colored shapes to the chairs of table (one table would be the triangle table, one could be the circle table). Identifying the tables by a skill the children need to learn, such as shape identification, is a great learning tool. You could switch it up periodically throughout the year. In my lesson revision, I created specific instructions for when the students are doing activities where they have to move from table to table. I though it seemed a bit "strict" while writing it, but my hope is that it would become a habit over time for the students. I would have a wind chime, bell, or some sort of noise making device that the students automatically associated with changing tables. As soon as the students hear this, they put what ever they have in their hands down, stand up, push their chair in, and quietly move to the next table. I've been reading a book on classroom management and I think its really important to establish these habits with your students at the beginning of the year to help class run more smoothly and create an atmosphere that is easier to learn and teach in.

Observing Running Records

This week I was given the opportunity to see my professor perform running records with some of her students. We haven't talked about them too much in our classes, so it was really nice to see how it is done (or have a refresher) because it is something that all teachers do. I saw this done last year in a first grade class, but I found it very interesting to see how it was done in Kindergarten when the majority of the class can read very few words. From what I could see at this point in the year, the teacher is really looking for the students' understanding of concept of word and the decoding skill of looking at the illustrations to help identify words. Mrs. Patterson explained that most of her students currently are at a level one, some are at the very beginning stage of level 2. By the end of kindergarten, all students are "supposed" to be reading at a level 3. What she told us next shocked me... at the beginning of first grade students are suppose to be reading at a level 8! So somehow between the end of one school year and the start of another, the students reading ability is suppose to rise by 5 levels. There seems to be a loop-hole here. Many of these kids regress during the summer too. I selected Kindergarten as my grade level for clinical practice in the Spring. Although I will be be other students, I feel it will be very useful to me to see what students start off knowing at the beginning of the school year and what they know by the end.

The technique I read about that I tried to use often in my 30-minute transition lesson was technique 48, Explain Everything. I can remember being in school and my teachers giving me short answers like "put your hand down", or "don't do that", which made me feel they didn't value what I had to say or that they didn't like me (I think 5 years olds feelings are very sensitive and they can pick up on negative energy). By explaining everything students learn what behavior is appropriate, what is not, and WHY. As Lemov says, "students understand the logic behind decision making and will be more likely to both believe that the systems are in their best interests and make rational choices on their own."

First Lesson Taught in the Field

This week I taught my first lesson.  I kind of felt silly, like I wasn't really teaching a lesson, because it was just a transition.  I got the kids lined up and took them to music and picked them up and brought them back to class.  However... I really learned a lot!  Rather than just having the students line up, I created a learning experience.  I told the students I was going to create a pattern as I tapped students lightly on the head to line up.  Once they were all lined up, I asked them to identify the pattern and what type it was.  Patterns are something that the students have been working on and this little lining up activity helped the students to practice the skill and allowed me to talk to them about it.  

Mrs. Patterson just got two new students.  She now has 27!  She explained that it happened unexpectedly and that you need to "just roll with it".  You can't stress out about having more students in the classroom, but rather make the appropriate adjustments and get them up to speed.  I have planned my lesson around 25 students and had to adjust it based on having two more.  I think being flexible and accommodating is an important skill to have as a teacher.

The other lesson that I learned through teaching my lesson is how difficult it is to watch an entire line of 27 students.  At one point we had made it to the end of the hallway and students were still coming out of the classroom.  I was really proud of the students for behaving well in the hallway and doing just as I asked... quite mouths, hands to yourself, and stay in a straight line against the wall so that other classes can pass.  I now realize how critical it is to have an aid in Kindergarten.  You really have to keep an eye on all the children and continually reiterate appropriate behavior.  Having one teacher at the front of the line and one at the back really helps.

I used some of the Lemov techniques that we have been reading about in class.  I used Call and Response and Pepper when talking about patterns.  I asked quick questions that built on each other, and alternated between asking specific students and the whole class.  I repeated the appropriate behavior I expected from the students while walking to music demonstrating the Tight Transitions technique.  Rather then telling the students "don't touch him" or "behave", I have specific directions and comments on how I expected the students to act with comments such as “remember, Emily, we are quiet when we walk by other classes so we don’t interrupt them” and "Quincy, we are walking in a straight line against the wall so that if another class needs to pass us they have plenty of room.”

I felt really good about my short lesson and am looking forward to teaching an hour long lesson next week.  From what I'm observed in the class, independent practice takes place in small groups, which rotate between the lead teacher, the aid, and working independently.  I think this will make the lesson planning challenging, but as a kindergarten teacher you have to be responsible for planning what all the students will be doing, even when they are at various stations.

Second time in new classroom at Spann...

I had another great day at Spann this week.  When we first arrived the students were in DI (differentiated instruction).  Students are broken up in groups based on level, where they might be on a on-going project, or randomly.  One group works with the lead teacher, one works with the assistant, one group works independently on something they are finishing up or a new task the teacher has given then after doing a small group mini-lesson and guided practice, and the other students who have finished their work can go into a center of their liking.  I really like this because it gives the teachers time to work more directly with children in small groups, while also giving other students independent practice on a skill they have been working on.  I worked with the group who was working independently.  They have been learning all about different apples the past few weeks and using apples across many content areas.  The students were finishing up counting books, 1 -10), where on each page they had to draw apples and write numbers.  Without being at this table watching the children work, many would have miscounted, written their numbers incorrectly, or rushed through their work without including much detail.  This makes me realize how hard it is to constantly watch each child to see that they are doing something correctly or understanding the concepts or skills you are teaching.  It also poses the challenge of having students do multiple activities in the class at the same time.

For snack, Mrs. Patterson made a homemade apple pie and gave each child a slice of red, yellow, and green apple.  The kids were able to try the three different kinds of apples they were talking about in class, as well as try something made with apples.  The kids loved this and it was a nutritious snack.  You could hear the students at each table discussing which apple they liked best, whether they liked, didn't like, or love the apple pies, etc.  After snack, Mrs. Patterson had all the students come to the carpet and sit on a circle.  She then created a graph based on which apple each student liked best.  The kids really enjoyed this and it was a great way to tie things together.

Lastly, we broke all the students into three groups.  Each student got a small amount of shaving cream.  When I told my group of six students to go ahead an take both hands and rub the shaving cream so that it was smooth layer on the table.  They looked shocked and really EXCITED.  They loved getting their hands dirty.  I rolled a die and which ever number came up, the students had to write it in the shaving cream.  I've done this before in another class I taught it.  I've also done it in sand.  Kids love this and its a great way to introduce them to different mediums, while at the same time having them practice their writing skills.  With working with just a few students, I was able to watch each of them write their numbers and help correct them when they wrote them incorrectly.  I also was writing the numbers in shaving cream and as I wrote I talked about the different strokes that I was using to write the numbers.

A recent Lemov technique that really interests me is "What to do".  Often we give children abstract commands like "behave", or "pay attention", or "cut it out" or define the the behavior we want of the child with negative statements such as "don't get distracted", "the behavior was inappropriate" or "stop fooling around".  In early childhood, kids don't necessarily know what you mean by these statements, and it also leaves room for interpretation and defiance.  In order to be effective, the books says that directions should be specific, concrete, sequential, and observable.  If we tell the child exactly what we want of them, in order they know, there is no reason for them not to do it.  I'm really going to try to remember this in my own classroom, because it can become very easy and habit forming to use short commands that don't resonant with the students.

I really enjoyed the new book.  I read the first chapter and chapter 2.  Chapter 2 discussed each of the different systems of the ecological model in detail.  Being at Chicora this week and driving around the neighborhood, it is very apparent that the environment that the students live in effects how they behave in school and in general.  They may be  exposed to things, such as drugs and violence or have parent(s) who don't watch and shelter them as best they could.  These things all effect the well-being of the child and influences their behavior.  As a teacher, when a child is acting up, is consistently tired, or late to school, I'm not going to take it as the student being "bad".  I am going to try and consciously think on a higher level "is something else going on here that is effecting this child's behavior".  I really enjoyed the parent educators speaking with us about this.  

First Day in My New Kindergarten Classroom at Spann

This week Marisa and I started our first week at Spann. There is one last thing I will say about my experience at SES before putting it aside and moving forward. I learned that in my classroom, I am always going to acknowledge and make visitors feel welcome, whether it is a new student, a faculty member, or a parent. I recently was reading a book that a professor I am working with gave to me, "The Essential 55". One of the 55 rules discusses this. Children are very perceptive and can pick up on hostility and stress that a teacher is projecting. I want to make sure that I am creating a warm, nurturing, and inviting classroom for all that come in.

I got this immediate feeling when I went into my new Kindergarten classroom at Spann. My teacher walked over and welcomed us with smiles and excitement to have us in the classroom this semester. She also had the children wrap up early what they were doing and meet on the floor so that she could introduce us, explain what we would be doing in the classroom over the next few weeks, and so that they could introduce themselves and say one thing they have learned so far in Kindergarten. There is a lot of pressure for teachers to stay on schedule and to get everything covered that they have planned for the day. The reality when your teaching five and six year olds is that things don't always go according to plan and that you have to learn to "roll with the punches" or you will get so stressed out. Our teacher was explaining to us that they had had a fire drill in the morning which had thrown their schedule off, so rather than doing what they usually do after special area, they were continuing differentiated reading groups in the afternoon and that they would make up what they had planned to do within the next few days. I think this is an important lesson to learn as someone that is going to be a first year teacher next year. We want to make sure that all the standards are covered and the children learn what they are expected to, and the path getting their might take a few turns.

I was lucky to be able sit with our cooperating teacher as she worked with her low group of students in guided reading groups. She even felt comfortable with me working individually with a couple of the students, which made me feel confident that she trusted my ability. Two of the students in this low group are ESL students. Building these children's' vocabulary is very important. The students were reading a very predictable book that concentrated on the word "the" and taught the skill of looking at pictures to help decode what they are reading. After reading the book several times as a group, broken apart so that each student reads a page, and individually, Mrs. Patterson used the stretch it strategy. The book was written from the point of view of a little boy getting ready for school. Mrs. Patterson asked what other characters were in the story. The kids first looked confused, but after giving them a little bit of time the students soon realized that the boy's cat and mother were in each of the pictures of the book. She also asked where is the boy going. When a student said "school" she asked him how he know that and he said because their was a school bus in the picture. I thought this was a great way to get the children to think on a higher level. She also was able to integrate other content areas into the lesson by asking such questions as "what color is the school bus", "what shape is his lunchbox"...

This morning I watched the president speak on the state of education in this country on the Today Show with Matt Lauer. There are many things I could talk about from this conversation, but there is one that I will mention. A comment from a viewer mentioned the responsibility of parents. There is so much talk now about bad teachers and failing schools, but rarely do you hear about the parents part in this equation. Like may of the parents in the Weiss book, parents work really hard, often long and stressful hours. However, I feel that if your going to make the conscious choice to have children, part of your job, whether you are getting "paid" for it or not, is to take the time and help educate your children. Families talk so much less now then they used to. Simple conversations whether its at the dinner table or in bed settling down at the end of the day are opportunities for children to learn. I saw some of the children in the new class I'm in not know their colors or shapes, and honestly, I was quite shocked. These are simple things to reference throughout the time you are with your child starting very early on. Perhaps the parents don't know what their child should know at various stages of the early childhood? Who is responsible for educating them on that? The idea of having longer school years was another topic that interested me.

Day 2 in the field...

 

This week the lead teacher was in the class after having been out with a sick child.  The experience I had with her this week was very uncomfortable and disappointing.  Despite this, there was a lot of valuable “lessons: I learned.   Our teacher spoke to us a little about the format of the EDI lesson plan.  She told us that there was research saying that it was very effective, but it required a lot of work for her and the other teachers. When I received a copy of the document, I visually could see how much time and effort goes into it.  I love the idea of this type of plan where you access prior knowledge, teach a mini lesson, guide the students in practice, and allow them to try it independently. The flow of this type of lesson makes so much sense.  But seeing this document that is put together weekly, the daily schedule that is adjusted every day to state the specific standards being taught on that particular day, and the daily forms that the teachers have to fill out or send home reminds me of how much bureaucracy there is public school.  I feel that so much effort is put towards a “specific process” when a lot of it could be spent on really good teaching instruction.

 

Back to the EDI lesson plan…our teacher explained that each kindergarten teacher writes a specific section of the plan for the week.  So someone always writes all the phonics lessons, another writes all the social studies lessons, etc.  I think this is wonderful.  It breaks up the workload and forces all the teachers to really work as a grade team and be accountable.  However, I also saw the negative effects of this.  During a phonics lesson our teacher was reading off of the EDI lesson plan that had been put together for the week.  She got to a section in the plan that she did not understand and proceeded to tell the children that she didn’t know what she was supposed to do for that particular section and that she was going to have to contact the teacher that had written it.  I find this not only a waste of time, but also unprofessional.  I don’t feel a teacher should give her students the impression that she is unprepared or clueless of what is going on.  We’re supposed to be role models and leaders and this is not showing that.  If you are given a lesson plan before the week that you are teaching it, it is your responsibility to look it over and ask questions any questions you have.

 

On a more positive note, I saw what is so far my favorite Lemov technique work effectively in the classroom… Cold Call.  I saw it being used during a phonics lesson on blending initial sounds of words with the rest of the word and during a math lesson on ABB patterns. The teacher alternated by calling on students individually by first name, by the color row that they were sitting in, by their math group (pigs, fish, cow, horse), and as a whole class (mixing it with the call and response technique).  I saw that this helped to keep the students engaged in what she was doing, while at the same time kept the flow of the lesson moving a quick and effective pace.  The questions she would ask were required short, one or two word answers.  I am definitely going to use this technique in the lessons that I teach.    

 

Our teacher misunderstood the family assignment we have.  Instead, she would like for us to go to certain students’ homes and tutor them.  The students that she selected our ones that are very low academically, but also do not have a strong support system at home.  A particular student was being asked by the aid that she lived with (mama, grandma, great grandma) and the students could really answer her, which was really sad.  The aid was explaining to the student that she needed to contact someone at home, but this poor child couldn’t come up a person that she feels is her “real” guardian. I did not read the case study on Dionte, but his situation reminds me of how difficult it can be to work with a child or get that child the appropriate help he or she needs when the communication between the teacher and guardian is either minimal or non existent.  The other problem is when there is not a sole person, but multiple (mother, social worker, grandmother, etc) and not knowing to whom the channel of communication should go through to be effective. 

This week we are moving to a new Kindergarten class at Spann and I’m really excited!!

 

 

First time at Summerville Elementary

I had a wonderful time during our first visit to Summerville Elementary School. Our cooperating teacher was not there, but we were able to meet her aid who was running the class just as well as I would imagine the lead teacher does. There are 20 studetns in the class, 9 boys and 11 girls. They were all very excited that hear that we would be in the classroom with them every thursday. I was also impressed that the majority of the class knew our names by the end of the day.
One of the first things that struck me about the school was how large the classrooms are. It's amazing! The classroom has large windows that let in a lot of natural light and the classroom felt calm and not cluttered. Last year I was in a first grade classroom that was a quarter of the size and had more students. I struggled with doing whole group lessons on the floor because there was little space and the students were on top of each other. The kindergarten classroom that I am in at SES has a large rug with plenty of room for all the students The classroom has four small desks so that the students can work in centers and cooperatively, which I think is really important in kindergarten becuase they are still developing their social skills. It also allows the teacher to circulate easily around the room to see how the students are doing on their work.There are also doors that provide the students with access to the "kindergarten only" playground. I thought it was nice that there was a playground dedicated to the grade where the students didn't have to worry about older,stronger students sharring the space with them.
The classroom schedule was chopped up into short increments, about 20 - 35 minutes each. Children at this age don't have a large span of attention. By changing things up rather frequently I could see that the students rarely lost attention to the aid. As a teacher, I like this schedule too as it keeps the day running smoothly. Something I found interested was science and social studies is at the end of the day. The aid told us that they only do it if there is time. As much as I think that reading/writing and math are important, I don't hink that science and social studies should be dismissed.
Looking at the student's work hung up on the walls and seeing what they are learning about (letter recognition and sounds, sorting) reminds me of how much there is to teach in Kindergarten. Some children have had no previous schooling and are starting from scratch. Having done my field in first grade last year, I can see how much is learned throughout the Kindergarten year. Being able to really establish a foundation for alphabet knowledge and beginning mathin your students is something that really excites me. I'm really looking forward to see how the children grow academically during the time we are there.
I saw some of the Lemov techniques in action by the aid. When the students were learning about sorting, she made a point for the students to use the vocabulary they had learned from a short video they watched... classifying, sorting, grouping. I also saw the use of right is right. When a student answered somethin incorrect or partially right, the aid used responses such as "that's close..." and "we said that one already, can anyone else help ___ identify...." One of the newer techiniques that we read about this week is "begin with the end". I remeber when I first started this program I was always coming up with "cute, elaborate" ideas for lesssons and then struggling to find a standard that corralated with the activity. I soon learned that the best way to plan a lesson is to start with an objective or standard that you want the students to acheive and then build the activity around that. The writing paper that some of the students in the class were using had lines to help guide them, but also a key at the bottom of the page with drawn pictures and words remiding them of what they need to include in their drawings and writing. Each item has a check box so tha the students can review what they've done to make sure they have included everything (I used at least 4 colors; My picture is tru e to color, size, and shape; I left spaces; I wrote my words; I started with an uppercase; I used punctuation). I find this to be a version of the "break it down" technique.
All of the students in my Kindergarten class either got picked up or took the bus at the end of the day. I was a little surprised that no one was staying for after school programs. I'm curious to learn whether there are any after school programs available. The case study about Cindy sparked my interest in findingout what programs are available for families where parent (s) work past the time that their children are out of school.

First Post!

I'm really looking forward to going to Summerville Elementary this thursday.  The field classes always excite me because what we learn and experience in them is the closest thing to what we actually will be doing once we graduate from the program and get a job teaching in a school.  Of all the fields, this one is the one I have been most excited about.  Often I feel we write this very elaborate, "cute" lesson plans.  In reality I don't think our teaching day will be made up of lessons like this.  I'm excited to teach what the actual teacher will be teaching and to get the opportunity to use some of the curriculum texts that the district is using.  I think this field will give us a better understanding of how the day flows at school versus the other fields where we primarily observed the morning meeting and the reading block.  Last semester I was at Drayton Hall and had a wonderful cooperating teacher who was anxious to share her knowledge with us.  I'm hoping for the same this semester!  I'm also interested in trying out some of the techniques that we are reading about in the Lemov text book.  

The technique I think will be most intuitive for me to implement in my classroom is format matters.  I am hoping to teach Kindergarten or first grade.  Children at this age are still at the very beginning stage of this writing.  Consistently correcting their format errors and re-teaching  skills that students are having difficulty with will hopefully get the students to a point where the correct format becomes automatic to them when they are writing.  I have also often seen children at this age mix up their tenses, omit words, etc. when they are speaking.  Requiring my students to answer and speak to me in complete sentences will help them with their "voice" and will give me opportunities to correct them and explain their errors (when appropriate).  No Opt Out may be the most difficult technique for me to implement in my early childhood classroom.  Not trying will not be an option for the students in my classroom. If they genuinely don't know the answer, I don't want to make them feel "stupid" or insecure about sharing their point of view in fear that what they have to say is not what the teacher wants to hear.  I like the idea that a student doesn't have the option to not answer or participate, but I think this technique might have to be slightly adjusted for early childhood.