Top Test-Taking Tips for Elementary Students

Date: November 17th, 2022

by: Hailey Palella

4th Lesson! Math

I taught math today! Math has always been a struggle from me. I think it is because I had such horrible math teachers and they were never helpful. The only math teacher that I ever had that was good was when I was a student at Joliet Junior College! I never want to be those terrible math teachers. I went into the lesson being nervous but I always am! I just have very high expectations for myself and I want to keep doing my best! I am going to be honest but usually during this time in the semester I begin to slip and get so unmotivated and tired of doing a lot of work (burnt out), I am going to try my best not to do that this year! Anyways, I thought I was really prepared to teach math today and I had enough practice to feel confident teaching. As always, I tried my best and that is all I can do!

Here is the outline of the math lesson that I taught today:

• AS: Brief Introduction to Lesson- “I Can” Statement
• DI: Fluency Practice- Rewrite Expressions as 10+ sentences, 5-Group Flash, Teen Number Bonds
• GP: Concept Development, Application Problem
• IP: Exit Ticket
• C: Student Debrief- Review (debrief questions regarding problem set)

Here are some of my lesson materials that I used to teach this lesson!

Link to Eureka Math Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zONwJCKIRQ97iglbU2heJqzXADSVCqnfE-b9LJQu8Ns/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some of the slides!

During all of my lessons, I always try my best to incorporate all of the things that I want to before running out of time. This lesson was different because I was able to teach longer which was nice. The students start their day with math every Thursday, so it was nice to start my lesson at 9:15am and end around 10:30am because we did not have to stop and switch or do anything throughout besides a bathroom break. I was originally going to start teaching at 9:30am but my MT said to change it because she said she starts math earlier, which was fine because it gave me more time to teach and make sure I got all of the content in.

This week was the last week before Thanksgiving! The students are really excited to have a break for Thanksgiving and I am sure the teachers are too! I am also excited to have a little break and have sometime to get things done for my courses. There are so many things to be thankful for, so I am going to write three things that I am thankful in this post as Thanksgiving approaches, my family, my field placement now and student teaching placement, and my job/ my daycare babies. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I read a book to the students called, “The FireFighters Thanksgiving” written by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Terry Widener. It was such a good book and the students loved it!

I am very excited for student teaching and I am going to implement all of the things that I have learned from this field placement when I got to student teach. My MT right now is the definition of loving what you do. I look at her everyday with awe of how well she manages her classroom/students, and how well she teaches, especially math, she’s amazing at it. I hope to become a teacher like my MT some day and I am really going to miss her when our time ends. The students in the classroom have asked me to come back for the end of the year and I told them I would stop by. One student asked me, “So you are not going to be in the year book?” and I told her, “No, I am not a real teacher yet, just learning to become one.” and she said, “Can you come back and see us?” and I said, “Of course.”

I look forward to my last lesson which will be science, which is my favorite subject!! I asked my MT what my topic is going to be for science so I can get a head start on my lesson plan during the break. The theme/topic that I will be teaching for science is candy canes and predictions! I am very excited to teach science as I mentioned because it is my favorite subject when I was in school. Science is so fun, interesting, and most importantly hands-on which is something that students’ need throughout the school day!

I am very pleased with how my lesson went today. I know that every lesson will not be perfect in the field, student teaching, and once I get a job in teaching, however at the end of the day I want to be the best teacher that I can be. I hope to keep improving and become the best person and educator that I can be for these kids, they deserve it!!

Here is a picture of one of the students’ exit tickets, this student received mastery on the rubric that I created! This makes me happy.

I look forward to my science lesson and having the week off for Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble!

posted on Thursday, November 17th at 6:41pm

Date: November 10th, 2022

By: Hailey Palella

Always Be Kind and Help Those Who Need It!

Don’t be a bully!

Today was another great day! I was very excited to come and spend another day in the classroom. Today was really exciting because at 9:30am we got to go to an assembly! I have not been to an assembly in a long time! This assembly was about bullying, which is really good and important for the students to attend to. The students had a blast at the assembly because the guest speaker was so nice and brought in puppets in order to illustrate and explain bullying to the students and show the ways that students can help themselves and others when they are in a situation were they or someone else is being bullied. The assembly was great and age appropriate for the students! This assembly was necessary and a very important and serious conversation to have.

As always, I read another story to the students. This story went along with the theme of Veterans Day. The story was called “Hero Mom” written by Melinda Hardin and illustrated by Bryan Langdo. In this book, readers learn about the kinds of jobs that many women do. One mom builds buildings, one mom works with animals to find missing people, one mom works in airplanes to help them fly, one mom works on trucks, and one mom works on tanks to help them roll. The moms in the book are superheroes. They may not leap over tall buildings, and they may not have super-human speed. They do all kinds of things to help create a safer world. These superheroes are moms. Military moms. Hero moms. Hero Mom is a combination of children’s perspectives on what their military moms do while serving our country. This story was a great story to read to the students because some students who have family in the military would be able to relate to the kids in the book, which is really cool and sentimental.

“Hero Mom” written by Melinda Hardin and illustrated by Bryan Langdo.

This week the students have been preparing for their Veterans Day assembly which is tomorrow, I wish I could attend because some of the students get to read the letter that they wrote to the Veterans at the assembly tomorrow, which is going to be so sweet and wholesome. The students who are reading their letters tomorrow get to read it to the Veteran in their family, who will be in attendance at the assembly tomorrow, which is very sweet and wholesome.

Last week all of the students wrote a letter to the Veterans regardless if they have a family member who has served or not. Tomorrow the letters will be passed out to the Veterans. The teacher who put all of the Veterans Day assembly did a great job!

Next week, I teach Math! I am very nervous and I plan to practice a lot this weekend and the days leading up to my lesson.

Here is my Math Lesson Outline:

• AS: Brief Introduction to Lesson- “I Can” Statement
• DI: Fluency Practice- Rewrite Expressions as 10+ sentences, 5-Group Flash, Teen Number Bonds
• GP: Concept Development, Application Problem
• IP: Exit Ticket
• C: Student Debrief- Review (debrief questions regarding problem set)

I am very excited for another week in the classroom next week. I have two lessons left; Math and Science! Woohoo!

posted on November 10th, 2022 at 7:53pm

“A Cupcake Party” written by David McPhail

Date: November 3rd, 2022

By: Hailey Palella

I cannot believe it is November already! I am almost more than half way done with this semester and I cannot wait for student teaching! Today I taught my third lesson out of five, over half way done! (Week of October 31st). I taught reading today. The focus of this week is story structure and dialogue. Before my lesson today, the students were already exposed to the story for this week, “A Cupcake Party” written by David McPhail. The students were also learned about quotations before I taught my lesson. To introduce the lesson, I referred back to what my MT mentioned that the students learned about this week and that was dialogue, we discussed what dialogue was and I gave them a clue because they forgot. The clue that I gave the students was drawing quotation marks on the white board and that little cue switched a light in their brain.

I thought this lesson plan was the easiest so far to complete, I am not sure why. I am thinking the reason is because I am getting more and more confident as I write them, which I think is great.

As always, I was very excited to teach today. I was prepared and had everything ready to go before hand. I made sure that the technology worked and also assured that I had a back up. It is very important to have a back up plan just incase technology fails, because it does and it will.

Here is the outline of the lesson that I taught today:

• AS: Introduce Visualization (five senses), provide examples of five senses- (ask students for examples of what they feel/touch/taste/see/smell/visualize when they are at the movie theater- SB activity)
• DI: Discuss visualizing parts of a story, review and read the story, “A Cupcake Party” written and illustrated by David McPhail (TTW point out specific parts in story that students can visualize, TTW pause and have students visualize parts in the story and then have students explain what they are visualizing); model visualizing strategy.
• GP: Brief, turn and talk activity- visualization of a playground in the summertime (google slide with image)
• IP: Complete premade graphic organizer with six boxes (five senses- what can I hear/see/smell/touch/taste/visualize in the story from the story)
• C: Review visualization with students (TTW ask for some examples), prepare students for phonics

Overall, I thought the lesson went well. As I mentioned before, I always think that there can be room for improvements. For my next lesson, I hope to improve on facilitating instruction, differentiation, and engage students in more problem solving and critical thinking. I hope to do all of these things for my last lesson, which is science. My next lesson (November 17th) is math and I am not too sure how I would be able to do much differentiation with such a scripted curriculum. I still have time to think about it.

I am very nervous to teach math, as I mentioned in my last post, knowing this I need to practice a lot before I teach.

I look forward to week 11!

Lesson Materials:

• “A Cupcake Party” book cover

• Graphic Organizer- Visualize It!

posted on: November 3rd, 2022 at 5:29pm