The student teacher had their first site visit observing Kindergarten and first grade classes. In Kindergarten, two reading groups were taught a story but there was not enough time for a planned follow up activity due to engaging discussions. The afternoon group had fewer distractions and finished the story. For first grade, an internet safety lesson went long due to student discussions, but adjustments were made for the second lesson to improve timing while still meeting objectives.

1. Elm School Work Journal
Student Teaching – April 2013
Tuesday, April 16
This was a very busy day with lessons and my first site visit. There were two
special Kindergarten reading groups that came in during the morning and
afternoon sessions. We read the story Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace
Fleming. A 45 –minute Kindergarten lesson is long and I wanted to break up
the time by incorporating an activity that would have the 5 students help me
“review and illustrate” what we heard in the story. I had set up a dry erase
board with a basic picture of the setting and was going to call on the students
to help me fill in the details. I thought this would be not only a good activity
to have them recall events, but also one that allowed them to call only
multiple intelligences and also have a chance to move around and get out
some of their “wiggles”. As it turns out, the students and I did a lot of
discussing and sharing during the story, but we ran out of time before we
were able to move to our other activity. I think this might be the “norm” for
this lesson, and can see, based on the level of engagement by this small
group, why it happens, but I wanted to try to change it for the afternoon
lesson. When the afternoon group came it, we seemed to be moving more
swiftly through the story – still having meaningful conversations and making
connections to other texts and personal experiences, but with fewer
distractions – until the fire alarm went off! When we returned to the
building, we had time to finish the story, but again, did not get to the activity.
I think that without the drill, we would have managed it and I’m glad to have
had the second opportunity to teach the lesson so I could make some
modifications and improvements in the timing of the lesson, the pace I set for
the kids in terms of discussion and reflection, and how I moved them along
through the story.
I also did 2 first grade Internet safety lessons. The first lesson felt like a bit of
a disaster. I had prepared a PowerPoint to share with the kids and also had a
video clip I wanted to show them on Internet safety. Though I had practiced
my lesson and timed how long each component would take, I could not
account for or factor in the impact of student input on the timing of the
lesson. It was important to me that each of the students be heard and have a
voice, but as a result, I only made it about half way through my lesson! I
knew I had to make some changes for the second lesson and decided, based
on the discussion that surfaced after the initial 5 or 6 slides, that much of
what I had planned to share with the students was redundant and that they
understood the message after the first few slides. Without stunting the
discussion related to those slides, I was able skip several slides and move on
to other concepts. I think I was also better at managing how many kids got to
share and keeping the lesson moving. Without negatively impacting my
objectives or lesson, I was able to get to all of the topics I wanted to discuss

2. while still managing the time. I was actually very pleased and proud with
how much I was able to adapt and be flexible in my second lesson to improve
issues with timing, discussion and overall length of the lesson – all on the fly!