I think our lesson went well overall. It was hard to keep control of the student because we only had four students and we had more teachers than that. It just made the lesson seem awkward. It is hard enough co-teaching with one other person but having five teachers is really hard to balance. Also there were a lot of groups in one classroom and the other groups were distracting the students in our group.
I think the best part of our lesson was how fun it was. The kids absolutely loved making their boats. They got to be creative and have fun. Also they loved getting to test them out in water. The thumbs up thumbs down worked really well. We had them guess if the boat was going to float or sink but putting their thumbs up or down. This was a great way to informally assess their understanding. There were also a couple good teaching moments throughout the lesson that allowed us to further their understanding. At one point a paper towel tube was in the water and it started to get wet. The boat sunk because it wasn’t put together properly and it heavier on the top. When we pulled it up we asked the kids why the paper towel tube looked like that. We had a discussion about how making a good boat had to do with the materials that we used.
My main goal for this year was to learn how to challenge English Language Learning students and find ways to challenge them in the classroom. I found this hard to accomplish because reflecting back on all the lessons I was only really able to challenge the students when I was the lead teacher of the lesson. I wrote in my last reflection that I felt that I had accomplished my goals but now looking back I'm not so sure. I was lucky to teach one of our last weeks in the classroom. I think that gave me time to become familiar with the classroom. I was also grateful to see how other students were doing it and be able to change my plans based on those observations. I think that I was on the right track to making progress. I think there were a couple things that would have benefited my progress towards my goals. I think only being in the classroom a very short amount of time in very far separated periods hindered us from really getting to know the students. Also we only got to be a part of the planning and preparation for the one week. I know this made the most sense for the class but I feel like it made the experiences less beneficial for all.
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Commented on two classmate's blogs.
