Siete

The lesson today was learning new vocabulary and working on grade reports. Student engagement is half and half. The student's are responsible for being open minded and ready to learn and be engaged. The teacher is responsible for drawing the students in and causing them to think, be engaged, in the lesson. Miss Noble is really good at engaging students in her class, she connects ancient history to what is happening today in the world. We worked on higher order thinking in History class a lot because we'd talk about what happened and how it affected the world today, and how the world would be different if something else had happened. Being able to apply what you're learning to your life and looking at the big picture is really important when learning because it helps you not only to remember but to be able to apply what you're learning later on. I would like to teach a lesson on Spanish in America. To get students involved I would let them do research projects on different aspects of Spanish and America, history, culture, present etc. One of the questions they'd have to answer would be how their lives would be different if they were born in a Spanish culture and the affects that Spanish has had on our country. The most challenging aspect of teaching is that the classroom is never the same from day to day or period to period to deal with this I will be flexible and relaxed so I don't get stressed out when things don't go as planned.

Seis

Today the class was assigned a project that is used to apply what they've learned. They have to keep a list of what they eat and how they exercise and write it in spanish and organize it into a chart. Todays classroom was based on going over what they already know and how to apply it into their writing project. The learning goal is that the students will understand what to do on their project's. There weren't really any specific learning strategies used, it was the teacher explaining the project and then the class asking questions if they have any.

Cinco

Today was mostly remembering. The class had to remember vocabulary. They repeated words in spanish and then translated them as a class. Instead of everyone yelling out at the same time the teacher could do the random picking of a student to answer the questions to make sure everyone's participating and to see if a student is struggling with a certain word. Then the class stood in a circle and passed a ball around the circle to spell out the vocabulary words. The teacher would say the word or phrase like "i'm thirsty" then the class would say "tengo sed" and then pass the ball around and each student would say one letter and spell it out as a class. The students weren't allowed to tell each other what letters to say but they all say together what the vocabulary word is so it didn't help with vocabulary review just with how to spell the words. The good thing with the activity was that when they mispelled the word the teacher wouldn't say what they messed up only that they messed up so they'd have to correct the class and other people would spell the word. The bad thing was that the class got really into it so there was a lot of pressure on the individuals if they weren't good at spelling. I'd say the learning goal was that the class would all be able to comfortably spell the vocabuary words by the end of the period.

Observation 4

The strategy used today was the one where the teacher asks the class did I do this right? and the class corrects it. This was used today when learning how to apply adjectives. The students were kept engaged by yelling out nouns and adjectives to put into the sentences on the board. Also before they took a quiz Miss Roloff was at the front of the room reviewing the vocabulary words, she'd hold it up and the kids would yell out what it means in english. If they didn't want to review as a class they could review individually. I would like to know what different standards colleges have for people who want to become teachers because all teachers do things very differently and obviously some are good while others are horrible. So I'd like to know what qualifications they all had to pass. Also I'd like to better understand how you plan out lessons because each of your classes are going to be different so what works for one class won't work well for another.

Observation 3

The first class is quiet and nobody's talking but the second class today is full of energy and ask each other questions on the homework. The bell ringer today was "comemos muchas naranjas," the first class only one person answered and it was very quietly while in the second class period everyone tried to answer the fastest. The culture fact today was "in coasta rica the phrase 'you're welcome' is 'con gusto.' The first class was really quiet with no energy but the second class ad a lot of energy but immediately got off subject talking about hair cuts. To begin with Miss Roloff passed out a new stamp sheet and informed the class that they'll have homework tonight. Then she read out how to answer the whole back of the homework because it was more difficult. The first class two students asked questions when going over stuff but most just stared at their papers. Miss Roloff tried to get the first class to participate by having them finish what she's saying but they didn't answer. Then she went over the important dates which are now posted on the board. After that Miss Roloff stood at the front of the room with flash cards to go over vocabulary, she'd say it in Spanish then the class would repeat and then translate it. The first class wouldn't really participate so she had them get up and to jumping jacks. The second class participated but it got a little hectic. In the last two minutes of class the class got out their note sheet on irregular verbs to take notes but they got antsy and you could tell they weren't focused. The lesson today was reviewing vocabulary and then direct instruction on how to conjugate Ser. The first class today it didn't seem like they really learned anything because everyone was quiet and not involved, but in the second class they were TOO involved, everyone talking over each other etc so it was also not the best learning environment.

2

The energy for the both classes started up high but then when the teacher got to the front of the room the first class got quiet while the second class continued to talk over her. To get the classes attention the teacher uses a "Bell ringer" which is a phrase in Spanish that she reads out loud and then the class has to translate. Today's bell ringer was: "A Rodrigo le encanta nadar." Rodrigo loves to swim. Then there's a culture fact which today was: "Pura Vida" a commonly used catchphrase in Costa Rica.
The lesson was on new vocabulary today, the class is learning about foods and meals. Miss Roloff passed out a vocabulary list and had the students get books to go through and find definitions for themselves. Then she went through and read the list out loud in Spanish and had them repeat the word, then she would say the definition and give the class time to write down a way to remember what the word means. I'd say that today the lesson was taught by the students learning the words and then the teacher re-affirming the words.
It was very interesting to see the difference between the two classes, while the first class was quietly working and barely participating; the second class was never quiet even during work time. For the first class they obviously were not involved in the lesson and they were just doing busy work. The second class could not be kept on track and were talking about random things the whole class period. The other thing I noticed is that the teacher did not correct the student's when they did not pronounce the words correctly. Also today at least she did not help the student's to learn the information she simply gave them time to learn it themselves.