How I will forever change the way I teach

This course has allowed me to explore various resources that i may have known were out there but simply did not take the time to use them.  After seeing how easy and beneficial they are to incorporate into my teaching i will try very hard to use some of the resources available on the internet and in my community.  It is too easy to get stuck into a pattern and not try different things, however using some of the resources I have found in this class I will make my students more interested in learning and keep them involved in the work.  I had also never blogged before, I think I may just  create a blog for my parents and students where we can share classroom news and celebrate successes.  Overall, I learned a lot from this class and Am glad I was able to tap into some outside resources I may have never taken the opportunity to find!

instructional Plan

Unit Title: A time for change
Description:  a unit of change and life cycles for kindergarten students over a two week time period
Key highlights:  Students will read several books about life cycles such as The carrot seed, the very quick cricket and the very clumsy click beetle.  Students will compare texts, respond to text adn create their own text using technology and pencil and paper.  The students will also get a chance to plant their very own seed and keep a daily journal at home with help from parent tracking the changes of the seed.  We will explore animal life cycles also by watching a video on the Eno board.  We will then collaborate to create our own class presentation/book of a life cycle to watch and read as a class.  Parents will also get a chance to watch when it is uploaded to the class website.
Assessments:  Studnets will engage in preassessments such as KWL charts, journal entries, response logs entry slips.  Post assessment will include exit slips, finished writing peice, journal, and a culminatinig acitivity in which they will draw and write about a life cycle and present to class. 

Professional Partnership Plan

Professional Partnership Plan
1.  Name: Eileen Schoroeder
                 Program Director
                 Springer School and Center
                 2121 Madison Road
                 Cincinnati, OH
                  513-871-6080
eschroeder@springer-ld.org

2. As a Kindergarten Special Education Teacher I am frequently presented with the challenge of trying to find ways to teach my students to read, recognize the alphabet  and begin writing.  I work very hard to incorportate multisensory techniques into my daily lessons.  After a training with Eileen this summer I realized a whole new world of reading techniques that can be easily used in my classroom.  Eileen will be available to conference with me throughout the course of the school year as ongoing education process.  I will be attending another training offered during the school year as well.  Eileen will come to my classroom and observe when needed if I have a particularly puzzling student.  She will provide me with  methods to make my teaching, planning and assessment more effective.
Eileen has provided me with a list of reading resources that can be used in my planning as well as games to allow students to play on the classroom smart board.  We will also plan to skype a mulitsensory reading lesson during the school year.

3.  Kentucky Standards Addressed:

RD-EP-1.0.1

Students will apply word recognition strategies (e.g., phonetic principles, context clues, structural analysis) to determine pronunciations or meanings of words in passages.

4.  Assessment:

Students will be assessed weekly on their reading targets using teacher created assessments and Aims Web weekly probes and progress monitoring data. 

                  

service learning

Title of Project: Ronald Mcdonald 10’s

                 

Grade Level:  K

Number of Students Participating: 20

Contributed by: Melissa Tveten

            Teacher: Melissa Tveten 

            School:  North Pointe Elementary                    

            District or County: Boone

Overview/Description of Project: The kindergarteners at North Pointe Elementary will collect pop tabs to contribute to the Ronald Mcdonald House charity. The students will learn group the pop tabs by 10’s to aid in learning to skip count. 

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Goals: By the end of the project students will 

• Be able to count by 10’s
• Understand the importance of recycling
• See the difference they can make in the lives of others

Core Content Areas:

CC.K.CC.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens

CC.K.CC.4  Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality

SS-EP-1.3.2

Students will identify and give examples of good citizenship at home, at school and in the community (e.g., helping with chores, obeying rules, participating in community service projects such as recycling, conserving natural resources, donating food/supplies) and explain why civic engagement in the community is important.

STEP 1: PREPARATION

1.  Students will participate in a unit on skip counting by 10’s.
2. Students will participate in a social studies unit on recycling.

STEP 2: ACTION

1.     Students will be given a letter to take home asking families to save pop tabs to contribute to the Ronald Mcdonald House Charity. The students will learn about the Ronald Mcdonald House and its mission.  They will understand that they collect pop tabs to raise money to allow services for children in need.

2.     A  letter will be placed in the school newsletter so that other grade levels can contribute and it will appear on the school morning news.

3.    As students collect pop tabs we will group them into tens in order to count them easier. 

4.    The tabs will be placed in the math center and students can group them during center time.

5.    As part of our calendar math time we will keep a running total of pop tabs in our classroom.

STEP 3: REFLECTION  ( Reflection is not sequential; rather it is encouraged throughout the lesson)

Throughout the lesson students will be able to reflect on how they are impacting lives by recycling.  What would be the difference if everyone we know recycled pop tabs?  What are other things we could recycle?

STEP 4:  CELEBRATION/DEMONSTRATION

 As a closing celebration a representative from the local Ronald McDonald house will come and give  a presentation to the students.  The students will present the representative with the collected pop tabs.

web resources

I found the website Florida center for reading research very useful.  It takes quite some time to navigate it, but when i found the section with student activities on it I was amazed.  The activites are short and easy to assemble.  They are broken down into categories as well as grade level.  I love the printable games that are ready to go!  I will use these in my classroom as interventions for struggling students as well as incorporate some of these games into my centers.
You should check out http://www.fcrr.org/

This video would be great to use in my classroom on the eno board.  Students would love to watch the life cycle of a butterfly instead of just reading about it!!!

first blog post

Hello!!! My name is Melissa Tveten and I am a kindergarten special education teacher at North Pointe elementary in Hebron, Ky.  I really enjoy working in early childhood education and feel very strongly that students must be actively engaged  in the classroom.  Teaching students with disabilities is a challenge, a challenge that i Love but it is sometimes hard to keep them motivated and interested in learning.  In my classroom 90% of the day is spent doing.  I use manipulatives whenever possible.  I implement brain gym and minds in motion activities into my classroom daily.  It is so important that students move around to get their brain awake and ready to learn. I also incorporate multisensory techniques into each lesson.  I allow students to experiement and touch things when possible.  They need to create as many experiences as possible.  My school has recently adopted Marzano strategies to implement in our school so there are several strategies that I feel do keep students engaged.  Throughout our building we have posted I can statements.  It was very interesting to see students looking for I can statements.  They really do seem to be so much more focused knowing exactly the purpose of the lesson.  This is a strategy taken from Marzano, which is also the book I have chosen to read.  Making the learning meaningful to the student is vital!  Studnets must feel accountable and a part of their leaning.