Ghady- had a problem posting my comment on your wall too

Ghady, your lesson reflected your personality in so many ways. It was organized, well managed, and very smooth. I like how you used a famous Disney character as a hook to gain students attention and using that as a starting point for your lesson. The lesson was a combination of indirect approach and student center approach. Having the students to use their imagination to predict the story and organized the sequence of it was very effective. Using your phone to create a feeling of an underwater atmosphere was great. God bless the Iphone!

Rola - had a problem with posting my comment on ur wall

Rola, you delivered your math lesson creatively. The concept of greater than and less than was demonstrated in an age appropriate manner. I like the idea of the alligator eating bigger numbers and personally I benefited from the lesson, specially that I have my own weaknesses in math (and dislikes). The video brought the lesson to life and visually stimulated the students, yet you verbally explained the concept and physically too on the board. Not to mention engaging the students through the activity to make sure they digested the concept of the math lesson. Getting the students to participate as a class and watch their classmates demonstrate the right and wrong answers on the board with the help of the rest of the class was the best part of the lesson. Good luck!     

Mirco-Teaching 2 (my reflection on myself)

Once one of my teachers was observing me teaching my first class (during my teaching diploma) as I was very nervous and systematic. I was worried about the steps of my lesson plan rather than to enjoy teaching this class and passing this joy on to my students. So, by the end of my lesson my teacher said one thing to me, she said " your students will forget what you said, they will forget what you did,, but they will never forget how you made them feel.." . Ever since, I always try to live my teaching experience and make sure my students live and love their learning journey.

My introduction (or my hook) was a character; his name was Camel, which came from another country with a warmer climate. The purpose of having a new Camel in lesson and using this character as an introduction is for many reasons. One, the character is a new element and anything new that gets introduced in a class is a reason for students to pay attention to. I made sure that this Camel not only gains their attention but to keep it to. So through the indirect teaching and learning though questioning, the students asked Camel what they needed to know and they answered all his questions and exchanged knowledge.

Then the hands-on part of my lesson was not only related to the topic of the lesson (paper snowman), which is new task, but also reinforced pervious knowledge. Students built on their previous e knowledge of colors, face and body parts, and skills (pasting and coordinating).

For a KG2 group of students, those are back bone of my lesson and lesson planning:

-          To always pay attention to time of the instructions and tasks (due to their short attention span)

-          Movement (fine and gross)

-          To shed awareness on as much topics I can introduce  to my students

-          To build on previous knowledge

-          Move from simple to complex

-          Improve my students skills (physical, social,..)

Most importantly to enjoy my lesson with my students and let them feel this joy!    

Microteaching 2 - Lesson Plan

Teacher: Ms. Sarah Abdallah

Room Number: 114

Class Period(s): 4

Grade Level: KG2-B

Course Tile: Art

Unit Topic: Winter

Lesson Topic:  Paper snowman

General Objective: Students will be able to explore the idea of a snowman through developing their own paper snowman and will be roughly introduced to the concept of "melt" and "freeze" in relation to snow.

Physical objective:

Students will enhance their gross motor skills through general movement and dance (if they choose to) while playing the "freeze and melt" game.

Students will work more improve their fine motor skills through manipulating objects like glue, paper, and cotton balls

Students will develop their eye and hand movement and coordination through out the paper snow man activity

Cognitive objective:

Students will be able to work on putting together pieces to make a whole (snowman) and that focuses on the holistic and visual operation through cutting and pasting to form a one figure as a whole.

To increase artistic awareness

To develop a basic understanding for weather, focusing on the winter theme

To develop a good shape and size recognition

Social objective:

To socialize with a new character (the puppet) and to share and exchange knowledge with the rest of the class.

Material:

Puppet

Video on the board

Paper plates

Cotton balls

Construction paper

Glue

Pencils

Introduction

Introductory activity: (10mins)

Students will sit on the carpet and will be introduced to the guest (puppet)

Sharing stories and exchanging knowledge with the puppet will be followed by a video song called little snow flake (http://youtu.be/tbbKjDjMDok)

The concept of "melt" and "freeze" will be roughly introduced in relation with the following art activity.

Developing activity: (10mins)

Students will change their setting from the carpet to their desks.

Students will observe the teacher while introducing and putting together the art activity (paper snowman) as a model for the students to learn from

Students will develop their own snowman

Closing activity: (5mins)

Students will be reminded of the concept of 'freeze and melt' while they are working. The teacher will walk around and say "freeze" and the students should stop and freeze and when the teacher says "melt", students will move around. 

If She Can Do it, I can Do it

Dr. Johanna Blair was an interesting guest speaker at our advanced instructional methodology class. Her introduction was a good hook that grabbed my attention. Beginning with her educational background, and then shedding the light on how getting her MA degree was a turning point in her career. Hearing that from someone who is professional at this point was crucial, especially for students like us who are working on their MA degree and at some point may have felt tired or overwhelmed. 

"Quick Fix Arts" was the main focus of Dr. Blair's presentation. How to add an artistic touch to one's lesson which unwanted material like boxes and scratch paper. And the hands one part, where Dr. Blair made us actually make our puppet stage and characters on stick was her message of proving how easy and simple it is to do a lot in no time (in other words, if I can do it you can do it) . Not to mention, the bled of approaches like learning through inquiry, student-center, indirect and direct method of teaching and more which was demonstrated through our activity; which also shows how with time experienced teacher use different methodologies involuntarily and flexibly . Of course, as new teacher we worry a lot about when and which approach to use and miss on how to enjoy our students and the teaching process as a whole.        

Dr. Blair session was just like a quick recipe for a perfect and a well-balanced meal. If I would've looked backwards to the lesson, I would have defiantly thought that the preparation for the exhibition display or the puppet show took a decent amount of time and energy to get done. Instead, Dr. Blair guided us smoothly and precisely throughout the simple steps of 'How to combine quick fix arts to ones lesson' in neither a time nor energy consuming way. Most importantly how to not only teach but make our students aware of how valuable it is to give your work life through presentation without much effort but with technique.   

I just wanted to share with you this video which I related today's class too.  Unfortunately, the internet was slow in class but I hope now you can watch it and enjoy it. This is creativity!

Pure Art :)

The Rational Behind My Lesson

As seen in my written lesson plan and observed while performing my lesson, one might want to know the reason behind certain decisions I took for this math class.

The classroom setting was divided throughout the lesson. At the beginning of the lesson students sat on the floor to observe and participate in the activity. Then students sat on their tables in a u-shaped arrangement for application (paper and pencil). Moving the students into two different setting was to physically help differentiate between the activities and to keep them moving and prevent boredom.

First of all, one should keep in mind that the students I was dealing with are KG2 students, and their age varies from 4.5 to 5.5 years of age. There for, I focused on involving the students physically and mentally as much as I can to be able to deliver the concept taught (addition and subtraction) without losing their attention; where students of this age have a short attention span. Choosing students in pairs to jump on the number line was to make the lesson fun for the students and enhance their gross motor skills. To also, choose a third student to write on the board while the peers where jumping on the number line was to enhance fine motor skills and to apply collaborative learning. However, the reason behind having to colored set of number line on the floor, one was from 1-10 A4-sized paper and the other number line was from 1-5 in an orange A3-sized paper was because of the different levels of students I had in my class. The slow learner in my class had reached 1-5 in learning the numbers unlike the rest of the class. The bigger sized papers were easier to jump on for physical difficulties and her favorite color is orange to encourage her to participate, using self reference, and to make sure that besides the student's differences, the class would participate as a whole according to their individual learning styles. Yet, not to make the difference obvious between the shorter orange colored number line and the other longer one, I gave other students the option to jump on the orange number line as a second round if they pleased. In a way or another, making the students take over the activity through participation, writing on the board, choosing a teacher-helper, and having them decide and choose their partners were all for gaining the sense of responsibility, excitement, involvement, and having a student-centered classroom. Most importantly, relating the concept addition and subtraction through moving/jumping and forward/backward to the calendar (which is to one of our daily routine) was for reasons like:

-          Relating the lesson to real life experience starting from the calendar

-          Opening a window to the students minds indirectly to other ways one can use the concept of addition and subtraction

-          Students will remember this math lesson every morning while reading the calendar during circle time and keep the concept refreshed in their memory.

-          During the math class, students that liked to be challenged would find relating two different concepts like addition and subtraction to the calendar interesting

Finally, I believe that positive reinforcement is the essence of encouragement in and out of class for all ages. However, choosing the kind of reinforcement that suits the age and the interest of the student is the key element for right positive reinforcement. While teaching KG2 students, I used smiley face stamps on each student's hand who participates, to encourage and acknowledge their performance and to give them a good feeling. I chose stamps instead of stickers because stickers would quickly fall off, but stamps would at least stay till they reach home and their parents would ask them about it, and they would remember and would proudly tell their parents about their accomplishments of the day!

The centers or stations are always a part of my lesson. Students who finishes quicker than others has to be always doing something useful or else they would be unintentionally   distracting their peers. For that reason, students would finish their work/activity and choose which center they would want (drama, blocks, drawing, reading).