Section #1 Whole Class Reflective Discussion Lesson 5: The Mayan Government and The Fall of Maya This lesson

was a continuation of the lesson from yesterday. I had to teach the remaining information on the Mayan Civilization, which was, the Mayan Government and the fall of Maya. I struggled more with this lesson then I did with the previous one. The PowerPoint that my cooperating teacher provided only had 3 slides that discussed the government and the fall of the civilization. Stretching this lesson was an unobtainable goal. I added to the PowerPoint by adding pre and post written quizzes. The first quiz was a question from the notes taken the day before. The second question was a two in one question, and I was based on the information they learned today. As they sat and waited for their classmates to finish their notes or quiz, I instructed them to continue filling out the KWL chart. I then took their papers up for my records. This lesson was extremely short so the lecture time was over in about 20 minutes. So the extra time was used watching clips from the movie Apocolypto. the students really enjoyed watching the human sacrifice and seeing how the Mayan may have really lived. The use of the videos came in handy, and I was able to use up some of the extra time I had left. This lesson was not my favorite, but it could be if I made a few adjustments. The chapter on the Mayans is full of information, but the government section is very skimpy. If I had to change anything, it would be the fact that I had so much time left. The video played a good part in the lesson, but in my classroom I would lead into the next section. I was asked to teach the Mayan section so I didnt want to go into something that I hadnt been approved to teach. In the end, this lesson was a good one, but I needed more material to work with so that it wasnt over so quickly. In my future classroom if we were to finish a section sooner than we

expected, I would move on to the next section. This would have happened if I had the approval to keep going, but I didnt want to overstep my boundaries in my mother-in-laws kitchen. Section #2 Three Individual Students Reflective Discussion High Performer: This student has gone above and beyond on all the work I have witnessed him turning in. This student is an Honor Roll student and puts forth great effort to produce quality work. I think the lessons that I taught caught his attention thats why he continued to do well. The majority of the classroom is male, so I think the content of the lesson which included human sacrifices and weaponry really worked in my favor with the male population. I also think outside influences have allowed him to be a great student as well; his mother is a teacher. Average Performer: This student is one of my few females in the room. During the time I was there I noticed that ELA was her strong subject. She did very well and participated in the lessons, but when I switched to Social Studies she lost interest. I noticed this during my all day visits as well. When it can time for Social Studies she was very disconnected. As I mentioned earlier, the unit the class was studying had lots of weaponry, war, and death; the girls seemed to be so uninterested. When it came time for her to do her pre assessment, this student would leave things blank and wouldnt put forth the effort to even make a guess. When she took her post assessment she scored a perfect score, I think this is because when I came to slide that had information I knew they would see again, I would bring it to their attention. If I could go back and teach the lesson again, I would highlight an influential female. I think this would trigger the interest of the boys as well as the girls in the class. Low Performer: I chose this student based on his participation in class. this student puts forth no effort to turn in quality work, and he sits in class doing nothing. This students pre assessment was a 0 and his post assessment was a 0. He was in the back of the room reading instead of taking notes, so when it came time for the post assessment he had no idea what was going on. I had instructed him to put the book away many times, but he refused to listen. This student is a quiet student, but he is very disconnected within the classroom. Im really not sure how I could affect this students success. For both assessments I told them while they were taking notes, that they would see this again in the near future. This student seems to have a lot of outside influences going on to cause his lack of success. He has a lot of siblings and very little parent involvement. To improve his success I think I would need to meet with my colleagues to see if they are having the same issues with this student, and if so then we would need to have an intervention with the student and the parents.

Section #3 Additional Lessons Lesson 1: Telephone Number Poetry Lesson one was not the first time I stood in front of this class. My teacher was absent and left me in charge of the class; with a substitute present of course. My first actually lesson occurred on 2/12/13, and it went over well. The students picked up on the concept extremely quickly, so the lesson was extremely short. I had students who completed 4 or 5 poems. I tried to relate this lesson to the students by having them use their own phone number. My plan was to show them that poetry can be created even when using something as obsolete as a telephone number. The students didnt find this difficult at all. This class is challenging to teach, because they are classified as the smart kids, and in a lot of cases this is very true. Challenging them is not an easy task by any means. If I were to teach this lesson again, I probably wouldnt with a STEMS class. The lesson proved to be too easy, and there was too much time left over. In a regular classroom I would definitely try this again, but I would change the guidelines a bit. Instead of having them create a random poem, I would have them pick a topic from a box. This would make the activity a little more challenging. My overall feelings about this lesson is that it was not up to par. I struggled for a while trying to figure out which lesson to start with, choosing this one was not a good idea. During this lesson I realized how easy it was for the students to finish so they were not being challenged. I taught this lesson in 3rd and 5th period, and in 3rd period I noticed how short the lesson went. During 5th period I tried to stretch it out by giving longer instruction, but they still blew through

it. This lesson was not a good way to start my immersion. After this lesson I have decided to never do this in a STEMS class. Lesson 2: Found Poem (Blackout Poem) This lesson I really enjoyed, and it was really neat to see what the students came up with. I introduced this lesson by asking the students if they knew any current events. They all had something to say about what was going on in the news. I then asked them about the Pope resigning; some knew some didnt. I gave each student a newspaper article about the Pope and asked them to read. After they read, I asked them to give me some information about what they had learned. Then I asked them did they see a poem within the article. This led into my lesson of Found Poetry. The newspaper article was effective in 3rd period, but not in 5th period. The students in 3rd period took the idea and created poetry. 5th period on the other hand, did not grasp the concept and instead created summaries of the article. This lesson would be used again in the future. I would change the free verse aspect of it, and have the students create a specific type of poem. If I were to have a class like 5th period they would have to pick a topic as well, this would keep them from summarizing the article. I feel that giving them so much freedom with the choice of the poem was not as challenging as it would have been if they had specific topics. This would be the positives changes I would make in the future for this lesson. During this lesson I used the Promethean Board to show what the poem should look like in the end. If I had the opportunity to teach this lesson again I would definitely use more slides to show my thought process. The students needed to see how the poem was constructed and if I had done that, 5th period would have had a better outcome with their poems.

Lesson 3: Candy Heart Poems During my lesson I used a power point slides to help assist in my lecture. I began with a Happy Valentines Day slide then followed it with pictures of Al Capone and Bugs Maron to give the students a visual of who I was talking about during the story of the St. Valentines Day Massacre. I feel my use of the slides on the Promethean Board were a plus in my lesson, because the students were able to connect the pictures to the story being told. The power point also included step by step instructions for the student s to follow so their poems would be completed correctly. The students also had to use their laptops to create word documents incorporating clip art. This made the use of technology very prevalent in this lesson. The students were engaged through the story I began with. The classes are majority boys, so hearing a story about a gangster was right up their alley. At the beginning of the lesson I had the students work in their table groups to write down everything they knew about Valentines Day. This incorporated group work and assisted me in leading into the story of The St. Valentines Day Massacre. The lesson included lecture and small group interaction. If I were to change anything I would make the groups a little more even. Teaching this lesson again will definitely happen. There are a few changes I would make like giving the students topics to write about or a specific type of poem to write about. A class at this level needs to be challenged more and allowing them to create free verse poem was too easy. I really enjoyed this lesson and with the modifications I think I could use this one day in my future classroom.

Lesson 4: The Mayan Culture This lesson was a struggle from start to finish. The planning stage of it was very difficult to me. After I was able to come up with a clear concept of how I was going to deliver this lesson things got a little easier. The lesson was about the ancient Mayans culture, which includes society, economy, and religion. I have had the challenge of making my lessons last the entire hour of class, but with this lesson I almost didnt have enough time. I started with a KWL chart that asked What do you think you know, What do you want to know, and What have you learned. Students were instructed to fill out the first two columns at the start of class. They seemed like they had never seen a KWL chart before, but my cooperating teacher assured me that they have used these before. After they wrote in the think and want column, I had them share. I then started into the lesson with a short video introducing them to the Mayans. We then proceeded with notes on economy, society, and religion. The PowerPoint that displayed their notes came from my cooperating teacher. In the region section we discussed the rituals that the Mayans performed, and one of them was the Mayan Ball game. At the end of the PowerPoint, I had the students to fill out the last column on their KWL sheet. While they were filling out the sheet, I passed out a Readers Theatre sheet and number cutouts. The reading was a review of everything we had just discussed. The students really enjoyed the Readers Theatre and I was a great way to wrap up my lesson. I would defiantly use this lesson again. In a classroom of my own, I would include pantomime as well as the Readers Theatre. This would give the students more movement during the lesson. This lesson included question answer sessions and speaking and listening, as well as integrating Theater. This lesson had a lot of information to cover, so if I were to teach it again, I would split Culture into two days.

My overall feelings about this lesson are that it went over very well with the class. The students were attentive and didnt seem to be bored, and in my book thats an accomplishment. I dont feel that I need to make any changes with this one. It served its purpose and engaged the students. Section #4 Professional Goals There have been a few changes from my 329 experience to my 429 experience. On my last reflection of professional goals I indicated that I needed to extend my instruction time. Well, this is still a slight issue, but I have become better at finding activities to do to utilize the time. This is still a goal I am working towards and hope my student teaching will help me reach my goal. The next are I want to work on is engaging my students better. I noticed in my clinical that when I tell stories to introduce my lesson, students are very interested in whats going on. If I had 429 to do all over again I would write extended lesson plans, because it is better to over plan then to under plan. I want to also work on my introduction to lessons, instead of jumping right in, I want to give my students a reason to want to listen and participate.