LauraEvans-MyQuestioningTechniques

Usually, when I ask the students a question I ask it several times to be sure that they all heard and understood me. Then I give the students a few seconds to think and I encourage more to think and raise theirs during that wait time. Another technique that seems to be working well with the kindergartners is to pass a bean bag around to the students who are sitting crisscross with their hands raised. They have responded to this well and seem to want to answer more questions when we do this. Another technique that I have just learned is to encourage answers even if they are wrong, this keeps the student's confidence up and encourages participation. I have also tried letting the students stand up to answer questions, this isn't the best method, but it has kept their attention on a few occasions. Finally, I always try to give praise to the students whether their answers are right or wrong and they respond well to praise.

LauraEvans-TechniqueUsed

Last week,a lady named Joyce Evans came into the kindergarten rooms to teach a math lesson. Her lesson dealt with a 100's chart and a visual story problem. She began by cutting a large piece of paper into a pumpkin and as she counted, she had the students count how many times she made a cut. I liked this because it kept the students engaged and busy while she was cutting. Next, she asked the students to think of their favorite number while looking at the 100's chart. She called on a student to pick a favorite number and that was the magic number of the day. Then, Joyce began to tell a story problem about how her mother would only allow her to have nine pumpkins on her porch. (Nine was the number that the student chose.) The next part of her story was that a friend gave her four pumpkins, and how many more does she need to make nine? The students were prompted to refer to the 100's chart to find the answer. Joyce did this several times using different numbers as she wrote the equation on the pumpkin paper. As Joyce taught this lesson, she let everyone have a chance to answer and she encouraged them whether they were right or wrong. I really liked the idea of the lesson and the techniques that she used throughout. After the lesson, my mentor teacher and I decided that we would like to try this teaching technique and that we would continue to use this in the classroom. The next day I taught a similar lesson about slices of pizza using the 100's chart and it went really well. We are going to continue these math lessons and hopefully improve the student's math skills.

LauraEvans-ActionResearch

This week will be the eighth week of my action research study. My study deals with kindergartner's reading comprehension and whether the use of props during a story improves it or not. My study will last for ten weeks and during this time I have been alternating props in and out of three stories a week. I have chosen six students to focus my study around and after each story I have the students retell the story using a checklist that I have created. I also ask them several reading comprehension questions and take anecdotal notes in my journal. At the end of each week, I have the students circle a picture of which story they preferred that week. Thus far, my research has been going according to plan. The students have been able to recall more details from stories that I read with props. The reading comprehension questions have been about the same for stories read with and without props. The students have also preferred to hear the stories that I read with props more than ones without. I am glad that I was able to conduct this study because it was a topic I felt strongly about and truly wanted to know what the outcome would be.

LauraEvans-SuccessfulLesson

This semester, I have taught more lessons than ever before since I am full time teaching in the classroom. There have been lessons that went great and lessons that I felt could have been better. I taught a unit on respect, I used several means of technology throughout it and the students always enjoy that. To discuss diversity, we read a story called Hello World where we learned how to say, "hello" in many different languages. As we did this, we located that specific country on the map. The students were fully engaged and liked to see the world map and learn about people from other parts of the world. Another lesson that went well was one that I taught on the five senses. The students explored their senses through using an apple. They were able to feel, touch, see, taste, and hear when they crunched down on it. The students were engaged and excited to discuss the senses while using the apple because they could really get a hands on approach to it. I have found that most of my lessons work best when I incorperate technology and lots of movement.

LauraEvans-QuestioningTechniques

Over the past two months, I have learned and practiced several different methods of asking my students questions. I have just recently found a couple of ways that I really think are working well, I have been using a bean bag to pass around as the students respond to questions. They have become very familiar with this techniques and they know that they must sit quiet with their hands raised in order to have the bag tossed to them. I have also just started having the students stand up as they answer a short question. They like this method a lot, they respond well to it and feel important when they get to stand up. I know that even though these methods work well with this group of students, I will constantly need to be learning and practicing new ones for others.

LauraEvans-AfterSchoolActivities

Since the beginning of this semester, I have attended a few after school activities. I went to my PDS' open house where the choir performed a flag day show. There was also a PTO meeting that I was able to take part in. Parent teacher night was a good experience for me because I was able to listen in and gain knowledge on how and what should and should not be discussed at those conferences. I enjoyed getting to see the student's parents, this gave me a better idea of where the students come from. The Boys and Girls Club hosted an event at a local mall, it was called "Lights On." There were several booths set up with tons of different activites for all ages. I volunteered at the hair coloring booth where we colored the kid's hair with crazy colors. It was surprisingly fun! Us interns and the Boys and Girls Club also hosted a Fall Festival at our school. We planned haunted hallways, fall crafts, costume contests, etc. The event went great, the decorations and activities worked out nicely. I worked with the fall crafts, the kids seemed to enjoy this a great deal! I also made mystery boxes that the students loved! There are many after school events held by my PDS and I look forward to taking part in more!