Watching the Lessons

For about a month already, we have been presenting our lessons to the class. Many of the students in the classroom are given a specific behavior that they must act out. The only problem with this is that realistically speaking, students in 1st or 2nd grade would probably not act like that with their teachers. The class has been very disrespectful and I don't see any of them having their entire class behave in such a foul manner. Although, it is rather amusing to see young adults prance around and behave like 7yrs old. Many of them are very good at misbehaving, which makes you wonder if they behaved that way when they were younger.

Our Teaching Experience

Liz and I finally did our lesson infront of the class. I have to admit, I was so nervous, because I knew that the class would miss behave. I had intentions on including the podcast and I couldn't because I not only didn't have the time, but with 5-6 students misbehaving, it is so easy to lose focus.
The only difference between this and a real classroom is that in a real 1st grade class, the students are afraid if you say their going to have detention or that their parents are going to come in.


We also have been watching a lot of other students doing their lessons, although most of them are good, there are some that might need some work. (Not much)
I feel a little bad saying like that but its good to hear constructive criticism from a peer, its a lot less threatening.

I look forward to seeing the other lessons next week.

Lesson Plan due soon

So, Liz and I have our lesson plans due on Friday and we have been working very hard to come up with different ways to incorporate a lesson into the story "Are you my Mother". As easy of a story that it is to read, the lesson plan is not so easy to just come up with. I have many ideas, as does Elizabeth, but for some reason, too many ideas doesn't really work in your favor. I am really happy that we get to go first. I hate having to hold on to that anxiety and stress from wanting to do something already.

We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, we'll get an A++ for our great work.

Are You My Mother on YouTube....

This is a video of our story.

Are You My Mother????

Dr. Luongo's RSS feed

http://professorluongo.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml

This Morning!!!!

This morning Dr. Luongo gave us the option to team teach and I thought that this would work out great for Elizabeth and myself. Both of us were scheduled to do our lesson plans on the same day so this is a great opportunity for us to not only to learn how we work together but to be able to do more work because we can rely on each other.
I usually don't warm up to working wit others but this may allow for me to break out of my shell. I have many ideas for this lesson plan and I am looking forward to presenting this to the classroom.

This Morning though... Elizabeth and I will take one last shot at recording our story over the podcast. After we are finished, we will start working on our lesson plan and begin to get all the information that we need to do this beautifully.

5 Questions

Are you my mother? By P.D Eastman

1) By hearing the name of the book and looking at the cover, what do you think this book is about?
2)Why do you think was the reason baby bird did not wait for his mother to come back?
3)What is the name of the animal that made the loud SNORT noise on page 49?
4) If you were baby bird how would you feel if you couldn't find your mommy or daddy?
5)At the end of the book, baby bird tells his mother all the animals that he asked if they were his mother. What are some other animals that baby bird could have ran into that wasn't listed in the book?

I think the questions that I posted up are well thought out. It requires for the student to use different methods to come up with the answers. For some the child can easily look in the book and get the answers, for some they may need to look online, and for some they have to use their imaginations and minds to come up with creative yet logical answers to the questions.

Very much excited about doing a lesson plan on this...

Are you my Mother on YouTube...

Elizabeth and I came into our book on Youtube. If you want to listen, here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1s4ZUYgUGw&feature=related

Want to listen???

The computers in my school are very old and I am having some trouble linking my podcast to my blog. The computer also shut down 2 times while I was using it and was signed on. As frustrating as that was, I was able to post the link up for you guys so you can take a listen to it.

Listen to what Elizabeth and I said...

http://cristina01486.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-09-25T07_21_09-07_00

I hope you enjoy!!!

Our Podcast

So this was some what frustrating. We had to record and their were some people in the class that were very loud and we had to record it 3 times....

Podcasting with Elizabeth

So today is going to be an interesting day. Elizabeth and I have been coming up with ideas to incorporate them into our podcast. We have had some great ideas, although, the out come of these great ideas hasn't been really helpful with our podcast. I went online to see if I can find my book in an instrumental reading, but I haven't found anything. It is very hard to make sure that everything you want is going to be executed.
I will most definitely keep this in mind when teach. You might have an idea that would be great but if you cant find the materials you need than it isn't going to work and you have to come up with an alternative to your original plan. I am very excited about doing this, even though it isn't going to be 100% the way I would have liked it to be. I guess I have to improvise.

Want to listen to our first Podcast?

Follow this link and listen to our first podcast...

http://evilla.podomatic.com/entry/2009-09-22T07_41_42-07_00

Thank you

Our First Podcast

So Elizabeth and I just finished our first podcast together. I think it went very well. We got through half the book before I started to laugh during my reading. Elizabeth kicked in very fast and read the remainder of the sentence that made me laugh. We are not finished with our recording but Elizabeth did save it as our first mistake(that is cute) When we come to class on Friday, we will have more sounds to go along with the reading of this book. We will also be more prepared because this next time we would have read the book more than once and we will be familiar with the flow of the book. This time was a lot easier than the first time I used the podcast. I felt a lot more comfortable. I am very happy that I do have a partner that works so well with computers and technology since I am technologically challenged, I appreciated her help.
I am really looking forward to doing this and I hope everything goes according to plan.
Until Later.....

Found A Partner: Podcasting Today

So this morning Elizabeth and I will be reading a book called Are you my Mother? By P.D. Eastman. I am very excited about reading this over my new podcast. We are trying to figure a way to read the book, whether we read it together or I read 5 pages, she reads 5 pages. I am not sure yet but I was thinking about adding sound effects and music in the background. I think this would definitely grab the attention of the listener and make them a lot more relax while Elizabeth and I read. I am really happy about having a partner and not working alone. She and I will have a great time doing this.... Elizabeth and I will be breaking the book up into different sections. I will be reading 10 pages, we'll read 10 pages together and then Elizabeth will read 10 pages and the rest of the book we'll read together.
Elizabeth will be looking for this story on lime wire so we can incorporate sound effects into the reading of this story.

My Cool Lesson Plan

I just spent about 4hrs doing a lesson plan for one of my classes. After reading the lesson plan over to myself, I was very proud of my work and my time and effort was well worth it.
Although the fear of God is put into me every time I think about doing lesson plans, I have faith that I will be successful in every endeavour I come across. I found these really helpful websites that allowed for me to come up with my very own great ideas. As a student, you don't fully understand the pressure a teacher is under and how much responsibility falls on them. Now that graduation is approaching and I am facing the "real world", I am more sympathetic of the troubles my teachers have gone through.
I finally understand just how much effort gets put into a lesson plan for students. The rubrics, test and quizzes, homework and classroom activities that fall into play when doing a lesson in the classroom.
Teachers have a harder job than what I thought. I am completely up for the challenge...

Stay Tuned for my next posting guys!!!!

Working alone is SAD!!!!

Although, it was my idea to work alone, I am so sad about it. There is no one to go to and ask if what you are saying makes sense or if what you are attempting to do would get your point across. There are some advantages for working alone but there aren't may. Aside from being in this extremely hot classroom that has a bad odor, I am starving as well. This is an exciting experience and I have so much to say. I hope that I don't over talk.

I am coming up with some great ideas that will work for the book that I will be posting up on my podcast. I hope everyone enjoys what I have in store for them....

My feelings...

I am setting up everything for my first podcast. I am trying to be open minded about this but I cant help but wonder how many people are going to be able to access everything I have to say. I am having a great time working with this and I hope that everyone enjoys listening to what I have to say. I am feeling a little weird, everyone has a partner but me....

This is my podcast address http://cristina01486.podomatic.com/entry/2009-09-18T07_26_48-07_00

Come listen to what I have to say guys. It is going to be an interesting semester. I will be reading different books and basically this will be a form of training for me. I want to be the best that I can be and I will try and find new ways to grab the attention of my readers and listeners.

I hope you guys come visit my podcast and have fun with me!!!
This will be a shared experience.

How am I feeling???

At this present moment my classroom is going to be working with our podcast right now. I am feeling a little under pressure right now. I think its because I am someone that when having to learn something I dont know how to do, I feel stressed because I dont want to make a mistake.
This classroom is TOO HOT!!!! They need to have some AC in this room.

What is Podcasting???

What is Podcasting?
Honestly speaking, I have almost no clue what it is. We are in a day and age where technology is used in everyday life. Children as young as 2 years old, are using the internet and ipods. I am interested in knowing what it is and what its used for but I do have to do some research.....

After reading a bit on what a podcast is and what its used for, I have concluded that a podcast is a group of digital files that are downloaded through the internet. Also, this I didnt know, the most common form of podcast is the MP3. I was amazed by this, only because those are the files you (I) use to download music. This made me feel like I was not as technologically challanged as I thought.

I would like to become even more familiar with podcasting. I would like to be able to incorporate technology in my lessons as a teacher, especially since children know so much about technology. I want to be able to grasp the attention of my students by using other methods of teaching.
I want to know what else you might be able to do with podcasting, other than downloading music and media files.

I dont want to be negative but I do feel that using such advanced technology in the classroom might take away from beneficial "old school" methods. I may or may not be wrong. But I feel that it might take too much time away from learning other materials because you as a teacher are spending so much time trying to find a way to incorporate this into your lesson.

In any event, I am very excited about working with podcast systems in my college class.

Here's a thought

So, i haven't really told you guys anything about me...

My name is Cristina Alicia Rivera. I am 23yrs old born in Jersey City. And I am one of 4 children. 1 older brother, Edgar and 2 younger sisters, Stephanie and Paige.
I live with my boyfriend, George.
I have wanted to be a teacher since I was young enough to go to school. I always knew that i was someone who had a passion to have a demanding career, such as teaching, and take it to the next level.
At first I wanted to teach High School, than I thought that it would probably be better to build up my courage with a less intimidating crowd. This lead me to want to teach 1-5th grade.
Lately, I have been wondering about what else I would like to do with my love of teaching and my desire to become a principal one day.
I thought for a while than decided that i really really would love to write a children's book. I have so many ideas and thoughts about what my different books would be about, how I would attract my readers and further more, how I can incorporate everyday life to a book that is read by a 7yr old.
I guess by applying myself and believing in myself, anything can come true.

Hello

Hi, this is my first blog...