Winter Quarter - Final Blog Post

        As another UW quarter comes to an end, I am amazed at the amount of coursework and student teaching I have accomplished in just a few weeks time.  As I look back on this past quarter I can’t help but see that I have become quite reflective about my learning and teaching.  Since it still doesn’t feel natural for me to reflect via blogging, I find that I do much more reflection by talking with others, especially my Cooperating Teacher and others in my cohort.  I find that I like the dialog of sharing my thoughts, observations and questions and having that immediate feedback or insight given in return.  In fact, my favorite times in our UW classes are those where we are given the task of sharing with our small groups about our experiences in our classrooms.  Similarly, one of my favorite times of the day at my main placement school is the end of the day, when my Cooperating Teacher and I have time to reflect on our day, on our students, goals, and on how our teaching was effective and how it can be improved. 

       While I haven’t really enjoyed writing my own blog posts, I have enjoyed reading those of my cohort members.  I am continually impressed by their honesty and bravery in sharing vulnerabilities and struggles.  I am also impressed with their reflection, creativity and insightfulness.  If I had to chose one blog post this quarter that showed personal reflection and significant growth I would choose my post titled, The Math Teacher I Want to Be. (See link below).  In this post I admitted that I had been doing some serious reflecting on a math lesson taught by Allison.  In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and began feeling quite convicted.  Through deep reflection of my own personal beliefs and assumptions, I had come to an understanding that there is a big problem with ones teaching and with a classroom community if the students are never sharing incorrect answers with the class.  By thinking deeply and thoughtfully about classroom community and teacher expectations, I was not only able to see the flaw in my thinking but it has shaped the vision I have of the kind of teacher I want to be.  It was a powerful moment for me, and one I won’t soon forget.

Blog Post: The Teacher I Want to Be

~ Christy

One Hundered Days of School

        By far, the most exciting day in our kindergarten classroom was the one hundredth day of school! My cooperating teacher decorated the room with festive table cloths, streamers, and I covered the outside door in butcher paper so that the students could write their names below the sign that read "We are 100 days smarter!"  The students added their names to the door proudly.  My cooperating teacher and I planned a very fun filled day for our students in honor of their one hundred days of hard work.  First, the students cut and colored a 100 days crown.  The students then practiced counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens, dancing for 100 seconds, and giving 100 high fives to classmates.  Two other activities that were bit hits with the students were making 100 fruit loop necklaces to wear and eating a snack consisting of 100 things.  The original snack activity called for ten mixing bowls, each containing a different snack.  Students then went to each bowl and counted out only 10 of that kind of snack, putting it all in a ziplock bag.  After students counted ten of each snack item, they could sit at their desk and eat their snack.  Because we wanted our students to do more counting, we decided to add an extra step in the 100 snack activity.  We found a pre-made snack mat template online and printed them out.  We then had the students bring their baggie of snacks to the mat at their desk and we instructed them to sort all 100 pieces into the correct snack categories.  Only when the snack was completely sorted could the student begin eating.  This was a great motivating factor for the students!  To top off a fun filled day of celebrating, we had asked our students to bring in a 100 piece project of some kind to share with the class.  These were amazing and they were all so different.  My favorite was a caterpillar with one hundred legs! Overall, the children had a blast celebrating their hard work and demonstrating all of the ways that they are able to count to one hundred! 
~ Christy

 
    

My Science Self-Documentation Project