English and Black History: Reading “Roll of Thunder” (5 minutes)

- It is important to include all history, even when it is something we would rather forget
about
o Southern US schools would not teach about slavery and racism
- Micro-teaching
o allowing students to research a topic and find their own answers
o Keeps students engaged and attentive
o Report back to class as a whole to share information

Reflection: I felt the video was relevant because it talks about the importance of history and
making sure students have a full understanding about what happened in the past. This means we
teach about the horrible things that happened, like racism, as much as we teach about the
moments we are proud of. The video also brings up the concept of micro-teaching. This is when
students are given a topic to research on their own or in a small group and then report back to the
class. The students in the video also created a few questions to quiz their classmates about their
presentation. This helps keep students engaged in their learning.

Theater Boxes: Making History Come Alive (5.25 minutes)

- Tool used for students to act out history

- Students think its fun and easier to learn
- Allows teacher to know if they understand the concept

Reflection: I found this video relevant because it was about a new way to see if students are
understanding what they are learning. I had never heard of Theater Boxes before. I think it is
better than just having students write a script and “act” out the event that took place. With this
project, students have to create the setting of the scene as well as act out and describe their topic.

New Teacher Survival Guide (58 minutes)

- Establish routines
 - One-on-one strategies
o Not called out on in class
o Secret signals
- Games with competitive edge
- Positive motivation
- Create lesson plan with purpose
o End in mind
- 15-25 minute mini-lessons
- Walking around classroom
o Keep on track
- Independent practice
- Assessment
o What was my objective?
o What was the end goal of the lesson plan?
- Differentiation
o Different assignments for different students
o Begin with assessment of students
o Tier lessons
 Same topic but different levels of complication
 Students move based on evidence of learning
- Have a plan for PTC
o Issues or concerns
o Sit next to parent instead of across the table
o Keep track of missing assignments to look for patterns of types of assignments
o Let parents see evidence of learning
- Goal oriented meetings with mentors and/or other teachers (with more experience)
- Keep a journal on topics to discuss with mentors
- Ask for feedback after observations

Reflection: I thought this video was helpful for my journey becoming a teacher and for my first
years of teaching because there are stories from other teachers in their first few years. It was a
reminder that it will be stressful at first, trying to find ways to include all students at different
levels and keeping students on task. But there were some helpful tips through out the video.
Some that I thought were the most helpful were using signals to let students know they are
getting off task, using tier lesson plans when possible, planning out parent teacher conferences
beforehand, and keeping a journal of topics to discuss with a mentor.

Building Cultural Awareness Through Dance (11 minutes)

- Allow students to choose subtopics in lesson

- Interactive lesson with dances
- Students felt they learned about difference cultures and more about each other

Reflection: The reason I liked this video is because it gives a new way to teach about different
cultures. When I was in fourth grade, we had lessons on different cultures in the US. We were in
groups and had to present on a state in a specific region, and then for lunch, we had a meal that
was from that region. This video reminded me of those lessons because I think it is an activity
that could be added to something like that.

Bridging Content in a Bilingual Classroom (11 minutes)

- Translanguage instead of translating

o Reflect meaning instead of word for word
- Pair/group students to talk about things that do not make sense or do not sound right
- Make groups with at least one native English speaker and one native Spanish speaker
- Use formats that allow students to share work and work together
- “Parallel Lines”
o Share work with another student and give helpful comments to help each other
o Multiple opportunities to share and learn from others
- As a team, share what was challenging in the lesson

Reflection: This video gave skill on how to work in a classroom with bilingual students. I think it
is important for all teachers to know how to work with students that may not speak English as
their first language. I liked her strategy of Parallel Lines, which is something I think could be
used in any classroom, not just for languages.

Deeper Learning in Middle School Media Arts (26 minutes)

- Creative websites by students

- Learned and presented on organizations and fundraisers
- Critique time
o Students discuss their works with each other

Reflection: The teacher in the video allowed for a lot of freedom in this project. The students
were able to make the project their own, which is something I find extremely important. She
even had them review each other’s words and give suggestions, instead of it just being her. I
think this allows for more creative growth for the students as well as learning how to work with
lesson instruction.

The “N” Word (82 minutes)

- Discussion led by students

- Ask questions to inspire deeper thoughts
- Make teams of a “speaker” and a “coach”
o Speaker talks to class about what points the team found
o Coach talks speaker about what to talk about and give encouragement

Reflection: I picked this video for two reasons, even though it is from a high school class. It is
important to have discussions about heavy topics, so I chose this video to gain some
understanding of how to bring up these topics. I like how the teacher leaves most of the
discussion up to the students. That is the other part of the video I liked. It did not feel like I was
watching a class, but more so a conference. It seemed like the students felt comfortable instead
of forced into discussion. I also like the idea for the coach and speaker teams. I think it would be
interesting to try with a middle school class. I also liked how the class was set up. Instead of
having all of the discussion and them reflecting, there were break throughout the process when
students could reflection either individually or in their teams.
Complete Lesson on Critical Thinking & Sourcing (40 minutes)

- Back and forth between group discussion and class discussion

- Discussion on texts (read in class and individually) and photographs

Reflection: I thought it was interesting that he switched back and forth a lot between having the
students read or have a small group discussion. I am used to doing the reading or a small
discussion first. Then, normally, we would have a large group discussion. I think doing it this
way instead allows for me thoughts to come up. I also think it would make students feel more
comfortable sharing their thoughts because they get their ideas out to two or three classmates
before they share with the rest of the class and the teacher.

When a Lesson Goes Wrong Parts 1 & 2 (49 minutes)

- Students are not engaged

- Teacher is using a lot of repetition to get students to work
- Some students do not understand the assignment
- There was a lot of information thrown at them
- The teacher realized that the lesson was not working and found a new way to do it
- Able to get student in the second class more engaged

Reflection: I thought it was impressive how quickly she was able to recreate her entire lesson. I
am sure there were plenty of occasions that my teachers would do this exact same thing, but I
could not name one. It is a good reminder for an education student that some days just will not
go as planned, and also that it is okay to not always follow what you had scheduled for that day. I
was getting frustrated watching the first part of the video because of how little students were
paying attention or seeming to care. I understand that some days students will just not care,
especially when it is Friday like the teacher mentioned. But it is important to find ways to get
students as engaged as possible.
Using Science Games (35 minutes)

- Using beans to represent energy

- Games to get students moving and engaged

Reflection: I remember a similar game from biology my sophomore year of high school. But
instead of beans representing energy, we used beans as food, and we were birds and had different
ways of “eating”. It was a lesson on evolution. I remember a lot from that day because of this
game. So, I think that says a lot about using games for learning, because that was over four years
ago and I still remember the game, the topic, and most of the details.

The Earth Game (71.75 minutes)

- Game representing a community making decisions

- Some students worried about quality; some student worried about cost
- Students did not realize how their choices would affect them later on in the game
- Winning was if the community was left sustainability for future generations

Reflection: This looked like a really fun game; I was engaged just watching the video. I feel like
I did something similar in elementary school, but with a slightly different topic. I think it was
more about how we would live off the money we made in our dream jobs. Anyways, it really
seemed like the students were enjoying it. There were times that they were getting really excited
about something new being included in their community, or really upset about losing something.
In the end, I think a lot of them were surprise at how there were supposed to have won the game.
They were focusing a lot on making the best life for themselves, instead of thinking ahead on
how their actions could affect future generations and the well being of the planet.

“Two Cents”: Strategies for Student-Centered Discussion (32.75 minutes)

- “Makes sense of what doesn’t make sense”

- Using pennies like talking items
- Students seemed engaged in the discussion
- Equal opportunities for students to talk because they each had “two cents”
Reflection: This seemed like a super organized classroom discussion. There wasn’t any fighting
for time to talk, and the students were being respectful of each other’s thoughts. This would have
been nice when I was in school, because there were a lot of times that some students would over
talk during discussion. And there were students that wanted to share, but never got the chance to
say anything. Also, having the physical objects is encouragement for students to share their
thoughts and ideas about the reading.

History of Earth Complete Lesson (31 minutes)

- Visual representation of history

- Students are surprised at the distances
- Better understanding of how long certain eras were and how short others were
- Also, for how much happened in a short period of time

Reflection: I think visual representations are extremely important, especially for topics that are
harder to comprehend, like the history of the earth. It was fun to watch how students would get
excited when the teacher would show them where each era actually started/ended. They were
also so surprised at how much happened in a really short period of time. I remember doing
something similar to this is school, but instead we used post it notes on the white board with a
timeline.

A Student’s Perspective on the Writing Process (14 minutes)

- Enjoys writing
o Creative characters
o Coming up with new ideas and plots
o Expression
- Using a sort of idea map to start creating
o Writing down sentence or ideas that are important
- Revising so things are more gripping and make sense
- Dialogue is important for story development
 - Student talks about her story characters as if they are real people, like her friends or
classmates

Reflection: It was fun for me to listen to a student describe why she enjoys writing. She is so
excited about the entire process and really determined to make her story as strong as possible.
I related to her quite a bit because I was this way still I could start writing until high school.
Watching this made me want to start writing again! So, I think it will be important to
incorporate some sort of writing in my class so students can feel creative.

Making Punctuation Engaging (29 minutes)

- Language is music
- Fives uses for Commas
o Separate words in a list
o Introduce direct speech
o Join two sentences with a conjunction
o After adverb starters
o Embedding clauses
- Reading Shakespeare without any punctuation
- Clapping/tapping on commas

Reflection: He used a lot of methods that I have heard about before. The students looked really
engaged. To me, that says these methods are effective. I think it was important that he had
different types of methods, like music and sports. This way, he could reach students who had
different interests.

Mindfulness in the Classroom (45.5 minutes)

- Mindful breathing
- Attentive listening
o Listening on purpose
- Morning meeting/circle
 - Encourage all ideas
- Asking a lot of questions to get students thinking
- Being present
- Incorporate a story/book
- Meditation

Reflection: In one of my classes in high school, we used some of her methods, like the breathing
exercises. I remember a lot of students thinking it was weird, but I quite enjoyed it. I think
something that could be helpful would be starting these practices when students are younger, like
in this video. That way, when they are in high school, it does seem like a weird thing to be doing.
I also really liked her morning meetings. I remember doing this in elementary school, both with
the entire school and with my class. (I went to a very small school.) It was nice for us all to be
brought together and get on the same page as everyone else.

Animal Patterns: Integrating Science, Math, and Art (15 minutes)

- Graphic organizers
- Progress wall
o Where are you at in the project
- Independent work allows for working at individual pace
- Group work first to figure out common things, then work individually to work out
specifics
- Theater lessons to learn about movements
- Mashing together math and art by working with lines and shapes
- Working with younger kids meaning take a lot of little steps and modeling each step
- Art wall
o Show off work
o Compliment classmates’ works

Reflection: He had a lot of good ideas in this video. He explained a lot about making sure to take
things slow with younger kids. I really like the idea of an art wall. It is a bit different than just
hanging students’ art works around the classroom. The art wall gives students a chance to look at
each other’s work and compliment each other.

Teaching Channel Presents: Middle School (57 minutes)

- Passing Notes
o Build off each other’s ideas
o Excited to share their ideas
o Does not exclude anyone because students are not just sharing with their friends
o Teacher gives prompts for notes and responses
- Station Work
o Four problems at each station
o Two mandatory and pick two more from the other ten questions
o Allows students to choose which problems they want to do
- Exit Cards
o Shows what students have learned in the class
o A good review
o Students care and want to know if they are correct
- Kick Me Method
o Take out one word of an analogy
o Find the word on the back of a classmate
- Routes
o Students trace routes on maps
o Follow the paths of a specific group of people
o Technology and pencil/paper
- Video Clips for Discussion
o Create connections
o Start with student definitions then move to clips
o Higher engagement
- Digital Media
 o Critical thinking
o Writing and collaboration
o Prompt first (warm up question)
o Groups of 2 or 3 to share ideas
- Using Layers of a Lesson
o Start with more variety
o Build onto more specifics

Reflection: I like most of the techniques and methods from this video. I think exit cards (or exit
slips) are fairly common. I never remember having them in school, but I heard a lot about them
in EDUC 250 and my practicum last spring. The Routes method was interesting to me, but I
think it could be extremely helpful for students. Sometimes it is difficult to comprehend the path
or trails people took. Actually using a map and tracing it can put that into perspective.

Deeper Learning Through Student Voice Project (48.25 minutes)

- Students create their own fundraiser projects

- Choose an organization to raise money for
- Go out into the community to raise money
- In charge of money
o Buying items
o Reimbursements
- Communication with organizations
- Learning persuasive writing and speaking
- Add in reflections
- Very student led

Reflection: I really like the idea of students being able to go out in their community and raise
awareness for something they find important. I remember talking about things like this in classes,
like just bringing up issues, but we never got any chance to really act on it. I think it teaches
these students leadership and organizational skills that can be very helpful later on in life. It also
gives them a chance to get involved with fundraising and volunteering, which I think is
something important for everyone to do when possible.

Literature Circles (63.75 minutes)

- Starting class with updates/changes

- Talk about speaker and listener skills
- Each student has a different role
o The roles determine what they share in their groups
- Share as much as you can in your time (two minutes)
o It is up to you what you want to share
o Make sure to use all of your time
o Only one person per group is allowed to talk
- Summarizer
o Main ideas
o Overall plot
- Visualizer
o Explaining setting and characters
- Drawing connections and inferences
o Take away from the text
- Symbolizer
o Big ideas
o Connect symbols and ideas
- Word Detectives
o Vocabulary words
- Exit tickets
o Review of the lit circles
- Switch roles for each chapter or section
- Get attention of the class while also give out reminders and action cues
Reflection: I really liked this idea. I remember having worksheets in lit classes that included all
of these roles, but everyone had to fill out everything and never shared. I think everyone having a
role and something to focus on makes it easier to read. And no one is missing out on any
information because it is getting shared in the groups later.

Total Minutes: 730.25 (12.2 hours)