Posters Galore!

 

Hello there!

I happened to be searching through my computer when I found some pictures of posters I created for my future classroom! I thought I would share. Some of these ideas I found on pinterest, inside actual classrooms, or in teaching magazines. Gotta love sharing the love when it comes to things like this- and by that I mean- sharing ideas and resources!

 

Found this idea in a teaching magazine and made it my own! 🙂

I saw this idea online somewhere. I LOVE IT. I have used it since the day I found it with my students from junior block and for substituting. It’s great to use throughout the classroom setting, but especially during testing. This way you’ll never have to feel bad again for that kid who is done and just waiting for you to collect their test- or the kid who has to go to the bathroom ASAP!

Throw worn out words ‘write’ in the trash! I saw this in a magazine and thought it was cute! Great for a writing center. The only downfall of this one is that I made it on poster board. It was so difficult to get it laminated and it is incredibly heavy! Don’t recommend the poster + laminate method.

PIE!

If I get a younger grade and teach about the ball of all!

And here we begin learning about verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Here we have VERB MAN!

Nancy noun reminds me of an older version of Mrs. Frizzle. Hehe.

And finally, Allyson adjective! This series was fun to draw!

Well that’s about all the pictures I had in this folder.

Hope you all enjoy!

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

 

Gradu-WHAT?

Well hello there! Long time no blog.

Let me give you a little update on my teaching journey, since it has been so long since I have visited this place!

 

FALL

This past fall I completed my last semester of classes as an undergrad! I enjoyed my classes and I VERY much enjoyed taking my last finals ever! I had a nice relaxing semester with fewer credits. Fencing took up most of the semester and I earned an E rating in foil (my weapon). To non-fencers this doesn’t mean much, but it’s what I’ve been working towards for the past 4 years at school! 🙂

 

CURRENTLY

Currently I am on an extremely long winter break (6 weeks). [Do they actually want us to graduate? Man it’s so long! Haha] So far I have substituted, worked on job applications, cover letters, surfed around for teaching ideas, and took the RVE! I get my test scores in a week or so. Here’s to hoping I pass, since this will be the last VA Cert test I need to take!!!  *fingers crossed*

 

SPRING

I received my student teaching placements for the spring a few days before leaving for winter break. I will have a placement in regular ed and special ed since I will have dual certifications.  I have been placed at a lovely school about 20 minutes away from my university. I had the pleasure of visiting my school and cooperating teachers before break and I could not be more thrilled! The school, faculty, kids, and my cooperating teachers are just wonderful. My first placement is in learning support for 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th grade. I am extremely excited about being in the upper grades for this placement. My second placement is in a 2^nd grade classroom!  I haven’t done a lot of work with second grade yet, so I am extremely excited for this opportunity.

 

Overall, I am just thrilled that I am almost there! Graduation is now actually in sight and written in my planner. I would like to try to update my website/blog every day with daily posts, however this may not be possible. I will shoot to update twice a week with ideas, thoughts, etc on my teaching and practice.  I never got around to typing up all of my teaching entries from my junior block. I admit, I got a little lazy at the end of it with writing entries. (Life got a little busier too, as it always does).

 

Here’s to an exciting Spring and last semester at IUP!

 

Ms. Schmidt

Ways to Spell Ms. Schmidt

 May 4th, 2012

Today the bonus word for the spelling test was Ms. Schmidt. My students had to spell my name. No one was able to spell it correctly, however there were some very interesting spellings I must share with you:

Ways to Spell Ms. Schmidt

Ms. Shmidt

Miss Smidt

Mis. Shmit

Mss. Smich

Miss. Smith

Miss. Shimdt

Ms. S

Ms. Shmaichet

Ms. Samted

Miss. Smeat

Mis. Shmet

Miss. Shmitt

Mss. Shmit

Ms. Shmit

Grading these tests was EXTREMELY entertaining. I especially liked the student who put Ms. S because this is what some students call me by who have difficulty saying my last name. I also like Smith, Smeat, and Samted haha. 🙂 I can’t make fun though because I would probably have a lot of difficulty spelling their last names too!

Creating our Products- Cereal Creations

May 1st, 2012

Today my students worked in their groups to create their products. They were so excited for social studies today. They kept asking during math when social studies started. (Makes me feel good 🙂 ).  We talked about the process we were going through of creating a product. We discussed assembly lines and how they assist when creating something.

My students had a little difficulty getting started right away, but they ended up getting a lot of work done. I LOVED watching them work on their projects. They were completely entranced with working and it was rather difficult to pull them away at the end of the period. The only difficulties I had with this lesson were handling materials. There are a LOT of materials involved (paper, glue, scissors, tape, etc). So I would suggest planning ahead and having materials ready in buckets or bins. I am very happy I pushed my students to plan ahead during the past lesson because it showed when they were working today. They knew what to do when they began working today, so their planning helped them in the end. If I were to teach this lesson again I would like it to be during a period with a longer amount of time. I was only able to teach this lesson in a 35 minute period. Unfortunately I could not have a larger period, nor could I make it last over two days. I feel that my students’ work would be much more complete looking had I been able to give them more time.

Overall it was a great lesson! I enjoyed watching them be imaginative and creative! 🙂

Check out some of our creations!

We did a great job working in groups! 🙂

🙂

Our final products! From left to right: Crunchy Crab Cereal, Trix Rice Lucky Reese’s Cereal, Fruit Pops, Mint Poptarts, and Grape Grams. 🙂

Designing A Product

April 30th, 2012

The topic of today’s social studies lesson was ‘Designing a Product’. Instead of talking about how we design products (which is not extremely exciting) I had my students work collaboratively to create a product! (Much more interactive!). Each group will be making their own type of cereal. They will create a name for it, the ingredients used, what it will look like, and much more.

Today was merely the planning stage. Each person in every group was assigned a role. The roles were questioner, recorder, designer, peace maker, and checker. The questioner asked the questions that the group needed to answer, such as “What is the name of our cereal?”. The recorder wrote down the answers on a piece of paper. The designer worked with their group to draw a rough copy of what they wanted the front of their cereal box to look like. The peace maker wrote down what each person in their group would be doing the next day when they actually create their product. This is my favorite role because it requires students to think ahead and make decisions. It holds every student accountable for contributing to their group work. They will use this paper tomorrow when creating their products. I am so excited to see what they have planned for tomorrow!

They worked so well in their groups today. I was a little worried that we would run out of time before all groups could finish, but we finished on time! Some of the titles of the different cereal are as follows:

• Grape Grams
• Fruit Pops
• Crunchy Crab
• Trix Rice Lucky Reese’s
• Mint Poptarts

All groups were collaborating ideas and working as a team. I even saw one of my groups voting for ideas by placing their hands in together in the middle of the table if they voted yes (awesome!). This was such a fun lesson to teach! I can’t wait to see their creations tomorrow.

Recorder Worksheet| Peace Maker Worksheet| Designer Worksheet| Questioner Worksheet

Senior Year!

Hello all!

I am back at school for my LAST year here at IUP! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by and I cannot believe that I am a senior! It is the first week of classes and I am really enjoying the courses I’m taking this semester. I am taking a methods math course, methods for students with severe disabilities course, a course about explicit instruction and struggling readers, a class about families and exceptionality, and a school law class. Phew! I am not going into the schools this fall, however I will be student teaching in the spring!

(So excited for it!) I know student teaching will be a lot of work, but regardless and I very much looking forward to it! I also can’t help but think that this time next year I will have my very own classroom! (Fingers crossed!)

I know that I want to keep track of my student teaching experiences on this blog/website. I had originally just posted about the different lessons I taught, but I have decided to keep them all together in one place on the site. On the sidebar on the homepage there is a section that says ‘Journal Entries’. I will create a category underneath for my student teaching experiences. I like seeing all of my entries in one place and feel that I can see how much I have grown as a teacher! I will still post about my different experiences as well, but I will have one main place where I keep everything together.

Here’s to a great year! 🙂

 

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

Exercise & muscles

April 25th, 2012

Yesterday there was a chorus of coughs in the classroom. Today I woke up with a dry throat. Coincidence? I think not 😦 I really dislike being sick, but it is even worse when it is nice outside!

I taught a lesson today about how exercise affects our muscles. I had my students up and moving for this lesson. I had them doing exercises in the middle of giving information. It was a nice change of pace from the usual talking/short PowerPoint. The kids got a kick out of it and begged for more. Though they also begged to stop. I guess they couldn’t make up their minds! They did jumping jacks, toe ups, squats, and lunges.

I also used response cards that had pictures of muscles before exercise and after exercise on them. The before exercise pictures show the muscle tendons being closer together, whereas the after exercise pictures show the muscle tendons further apart (they expand). The response cards were helpful, although next time I should make them larger. I also did not have the amount I needed. (I thought I counted correctly!).

Fun filled day,

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

Muscle Response Cards

This picture made me laugh a little. It made me think how much my students would complain if they had to lift weights. Haha! 🙂

When our bones & muscles don’t work

April 24th, 2012

Today my lesson was about what happens when bones and muscles don’t work. I was really excited when planning this lesson because I wanted to integrate social studies standards about accepting others. I felt that this was a topic that could possibly open students’ eyes and change their perspectives about people with disabilities.

The students completed a set of tasks using all of their fingers and then completed the same tasks without using their thumb. Granted this in no way shows the complexity of what it is like to have a physical disability, but it can at least allow students to understand how their life might be altered. The students worked very well on this assignment. I was proud of a lot of my students because they worked very well in their groups. At the end of the lesson we talked about the difficulty level of the tasks. Some of the tasks were: holding a pencil, writing their name, picking up a piece of paper, holding a cup, etc. Students said they had the most difficulty with writing their name. We discussed how their life might be different if they had a physical disability, such as not having all of their fingers.

The key point I wanted my students to take from this lesson is that people with disabilities are able to do a lot of things! I wanted to rid my students of their misconceptions that people with physical limitations are helpless. Instead we talked about how we have to be imaginative and creative to come up with solutions or different ways to do things. (Ex: Using a cup with a handle, using a pencil with a better grip, etc). At the end of the lesson my students were able to realize that yes some of the tasks were more difficult than others, but they were still able to complete all of the tasks.

I wish I could have added in more examples of how people overcome their disabilities. I could have had examples of different sports starts and how they overcome their challenges. 🙂

A good day,

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

Rating Scale | Recording Sheet

Muscles

April 20th, 2012

Today is a wonderful day because it is Friday! Our lesson on muscles went very well today. It was mostly a catch up day where students could finish work from previous science lessons. We worked on our flip books and added in a section about muscles. I also created a class set of mini arm dioramas that helps show that our muscles pull not push. It is a misconception that our muscles push and pull, but in fact they only pull. I had originally wanted my students to create these themselves, however after getting to know my class I realized that this would prove to be rather difficult. So I decided to make them myself, which took a rather long time for such a short demonstration.

Overall it has been a good day,

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

Joints

April 19th, 2012

I am feeling more rested today! Yipee! The bedtime worked! Today I was teaching my students about how we move our bodies- we use our joints! I demonstrated how we would move if we didn’t have joints (walking stiff & straight) which made them laugh. I gave my students examples of all 4 joints (gliding, hinge, ball and socket, and pivot). I then passed out response cards for each student. I would give students an example of a joint and they would raise their response card. This method worked very well.

Afterwards the students began working on a self-portrait. On their self-portrait they would circle joints on their body. I left the instructions a little open because some of my students have a lot of difficulty with writing. They will have to continue working on their portrait later today because we didn’t finish. I was amazed today when I took my students to art. They were WONDERFUL in the hallway! They are usually good but wow, this was another level of good. The kings and queens game has worked wonders! I will have to find other hallway games.

Happy Thursday!

Ms. Schmidt 🙂

Joint Response Card Pictures