Day 13 Reflection

This process has definitely been exhausting and I have been trying to think of ways that the material prep time could get cut down. It was nice being able to try teaching the same class 4 times, as well as teaching back to back. It gave me a chance to try different ways of teaching the class as well as material management.  I had given myself 15 minutes in between classes and that was trickier than I anticipated to clean up and set up.  In the future I would give myself a little more time if I were to do back to back classes again. The first week I had done twisty ties with blue tape for name tags and the second week I cut sticky notes in half and had the students just place them wherever they wanted on the jellyfish.  The twisty ties were a little distracting and the students had a hard time attaching them.  The sticky notes didn’t seem like a good idea until I started adding the thread and realized I could place the sticky note on the inside and sew through it. 

I am planning on going in tomorrow afternoon to attach thread to the rest of the jellyfish. 

Day 12 Prepping and Changes

I decided to make small kits and big kits for today to limit the number of things that I need to hand out. I still left the square tissue paper separate so that each student could still choose their color. I also had asked the teachers from last week for any advice and they both suggested showing one step at a time and then letting the students catch up until I continued. I also made a quick slideshow of photos documenting the process so that they could reference these photos while I talked about it.  

Most students today finished their jellyfish, although I think I still could have broken the tutorial down even further. 

I spent 3.5 hours after the classes ended cleaning, attaching a couple tentacles, and sewing thread through all the dry jellyfish so that the school will be able to hang them in the hallways. 

Day 11 Class Preparation and First Class

Something that has been a bit more overwhelming than I anticipated is the communication part of teaching this class.  Communicating with the teachers on dates/times, missing students and getting kits to them, planning on attaching strings once jellyfish were dry and installing the jellyfish in the school. 

I was up till 4:30am the night before and woke feeling planned but also pretty exhausted and nervous. I had class in the morning and realized I hadn’t printed my lesson plan yet so on my way to the school I stopped by MCAD to print the lesson plan but the printer ended up not working and I went without the lesson plan. I got there a little later than I had planned which made me feel rushed and stressed.  I was able to get my computer connected and ready to go (this was something I was especially nervous about because I didn’t have a great backup plan if it didn’t connect). 

It took much longer than expected to get materials out and I had wished that I had been able to do so before the class started. One thing I was nervous about was the students not being able to choose their own colors since I had pre-packaged all the tentacle materials, however, I was able to keep the tissue paper squares (for the heads of the jellyfish) separate and had the teacher go around and let the students choose a color.  

The transition was tricky from the first class to the next.  

I also noticed that when it came to asking the students questions about the project (reflection part of class) I felt extremely shy and skipped it in both classes. 

I would say in the first class maybe 25% of the students finished their project and in the second class maybe 75% of the students finished their project.  I spent an hour and a half after the classes ended attaching tentacles to the ones that hadn't been attached yet. 

Day 10 Lesson Plan

I have finally decided on the materials and design of the project. I was able to get my hands on 120 deli lids which I cut the centers out of so that they could be the base of the jellyfish.  I cut ribbon, yarn, tissue paper, and garbage bags into strips and packed them into little baggies. I also cut wire into strips and tissue paper into squares. 

I was able to ask each class to bring their own scissors and glue stick (each student has them in their desk) which helped a lot on my end. I had small paper plates for glue palettes and bought 96 2” chip brushes for applying the glue.

Day 9 Lesson Planning

At this point I am pretty set on the design of the jellyfish, however, I am still working on materials. I tried making one jellyfish starting with a pipe cleaner shaped into a circle, attaching tentacles and then wrapping paper around it.  This version wasn’t as structural which led me back to the sculpting wire. 

 I have also been thinking about how to explain this project to the students. Something that helped me get started with this was teaching it to a friend of mine and seeing what was clear or unclear and which parts of the project were tricky. 

Day 8 Lesson Planning

I have tried a few different 3D jellyfish at this point. After looking at some examples and not totally liking them I decided to approach the project how I might approach a project for myself. I used sculpting wire, a decoupage glue, and tissue paper and made something that resembled a jellyfish.  I was thinking about how a student might handle the sculpting wire and how much they could handle. With the first jellyfish I had used the sculpting wire for the structure of the head as well as the tentacles using all one piece of wire. This seemed like too much to handle so I looked at more examples online and found some that used a soft serve ice cream lid and strings/tissue paper/ribbon for the tentacles. I also tested white elmers glue instead of mod podge to see if they worked similarly and they did. 

Day 6

January 12, 2022 (9:30-11:45am)

I was very curious to see how distanced learning would look for 2nd graders, especially with no less than a little more than 24 hrs to prepare for.  It went really well! I was surprised at how attentive the children were and that they all attended (I had asked if attendance tends to go down with distanced learning and they said it typically does). They started with a game where they turn off their cameras and then Mrs. Archer would say something like, “turn your cameras on if you’re wearing blue!” They did this for maybe 3 minutes.  Then the teacher spent quite a bit of time explaining to the kids the schedule and how it would work online. Online etiquette was also given a lot of time and she gave the kids plenty of time to ask questions about this. I felt very calm during this class and the rest of the class (a reading and math lesson) went very smoothly and kept the kids involved. 

Day 5

January 11, 2022 (9:20am-4pm)

I spent today in two different classrooms, first in Katie Emerson’s room and then in Shannon LaTourelle’s room. The teachers were notified last night that classes were going to be moving to distanced learning starting tomorrow (1/12). Today was very busy and I spent time in 3 of the 4 2nd grade rooms helping allocate papers, make and label folders, and help tape usernames and passwords to everyone’s ipads.  The teachers communicated a lot throughout the day to each other on how they were going about teaching the kids how to login and  what programs they were all including for at home.  During lunch I sat in with them and this is when they created the slide show with the schedule for the next 7 days online.  They spent time thinking about wording and if they would share end-times for activities. 

One student was crying throughout the day. At one point it was because of a drawing assignment; they asked me for help with a drawing so I showed an example and then suggested they try. This made them  angry and they shouted at me to do it all for them. I wasn’t totally sure how to respond and the teacher jumped in before I really had to. Whenever students cry or become upset I have noticed that I internally feel upset or emotional and am quite sensitive to it.  It is interesting to see how teachers respond to it and for the most part teachers seem to mostly ignore it and let the child self soothe. I am curious if this is something that is taught or more so a response to past experiences. 

Day 4

January 10, 2022 (9:20am-4pm)

Today I helped the teacher reorganize math worksheets and made some rulers out of paper. The kids in this class seemed particularly independent and there was less managing them in between activities.  I worked with a few students on reading and working through some worksheet activities. It was nice to have some more concrete tasks today. This day gave me a better look at things the teachers are working on at home or while the students are at music/gym. 

Day 3

January 5, 2022 (9:20am-4pm)

So far each teacher has followed similar steps to teaching the students.  Many of them utilized short fun videos that explained the concept/current topic being discussed, followed by the teacher asking questions and having the students make guesses. The teacher will then explain the topic or task themselves, followed by physically showing the students what they will be doing and then finally the students begin the activity. 

All of the classes have a method for sharpening pencils and I really liked the way today’s class handled it. They kept a cup in the back with unsharpened pencils where the students can discard their dull pencils and then a cup with freshly sharpened pencils that they take from. 

For movement breaks in Mrs. Archer’s class, there were multiple routines that the class seemed to mostly have memorized and would do them all together with music. 

 All of the teachers make a practice to praise students who are quiet and still, choosing those students first for sharing or questions. Also, whenever a student shares, either something personal or an answer to a question, the teacher repeats what the student has said, showing understanding and care.  

Today I was more focused on thinking about my lesson in relation to the room and the students, trying to notice what things the teacher is doing that I can incorporate into my lesson.

Day 2

January 4, 2022 (9:20am-4pm)

 I was able to introduce myself in today’s class which helped me feel a little bit more comfortable with the students. The students started their day similar to the last class, but for sharing they all sat in a small circle and played a game to say hello to everyone. The game involved sharing your last name, but the teacher made it clear that students did not have to share their last name if they didn’t want to; she gave them two options to do instead (sharing middle name or saying first name twice). 

The teacher took 3-4 movement breaks. In this class they would watch short, themed videos that walked the students through some sort of movement.  This practice seemed very helpful and effective in giving the students a break and allowing them to refocus for the next activity. 

Today, I noticed myself fighting being a friend vs teacher to the students. Navigating relationships with all the students and giving equal attention to all the students felt very difficult. This dynamic is something I had forgotten about when it comes to teaching, especially with younger students, and is something I want to work on tomorrow. 

Day 1

January 3, 2022 (9:20am-4pm)

Upon entering the room, the kids have a few things to get started on on their own right away. They all have a name tag that they grab at the front of the door and then they get started on bell work (short worksheet that seems to involve coloring of some sort) or finishing their breakfast.  

Kids also took time to go to sharpen their dull pencils for the day. 

Mrs. Emerson pulls all the chairs to the colored dots on the floor that form a circle. The students read a daily affirmation and then take turns sharing about their break.  

All the kids use ASL sign for connect to show the student talking that they also liked the new spider man movie etc. 

Today was my first day in the school and I was definitely a bit nervous; it helped that most of today was spent solely observing.  I think the most unexpected thing that I noticed was how much time the teacher spends managing the students and moving from one activity to another.  The teacher is constantly reinforcing habits that have been put in place to help make communication easier and more efficient. In this class, Mrs. Emerson used a bell, a hand raise, and clapping to get everyone's attention. For tomorrow, I would like to make sure I talk to the teacher about how I can be more involved and helpful in the class.