Lesson Planning- Week #5

I always get a little nervous when I start making lesson plans or unit plans, but once I am on a roll, I enjoy the process. I think it will be easier to lesson plan when I have a team of teachers who are teaching the same grade level and are in the same school as I am in. I've also learned that I can become overwhelmed when looking online for ideas. Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers and Education.com are just some of the resources that I have looked at, but wow, are there a lot of ideas! It's wonderful to have so many resources available, but I find that I keep coming up with different ideas as I look. Sometimes too many options are not good! I feel pretty good about the unit plan and lesson plans I am creating for this class. I still have a couple left to do, but will get those knocked out soon.  Like anything in life, the more I create lesson plans, the more comfortable I will become!

Teaching Vocabulary- Week #3

TEACHING VOCABULARY

I think like all things in teaching , we must make lessons meaningful and engaging for students and teaching vocabulary isn't the exception! Learning vocabulary is important and teachers need to make sure students have different ways of learning.  There are many ideas online for teaching students vocabulary. I was particularly interested in teaching vocabulary to elementary aged students, as this is my area of certification. Some ideas that I liked were...

• Guess My Word-      students give clues and the definition of words and other students can guess                                   the word

• Act It Out-                students take turns acting out a word and the other students guess the                                             definition 

• Vocabulary Roll-      students roll a dice and the dice has instructions on each side, for example,                                     define the word, give a synonym for the word, etc.

• Word Scramble-       students unscramble words to match the definition

• Memory Game-        make cards with the vocabulary word and the definitions and play like you                                   would play memory

Word Wall- Week #2

I really like word walls for younger grades. I've only seen word walls in the younger grade level classrooms- grades, K-3 and I feel like students utilize them well from my past observations. I absolutely think that word walls could be used in any classroom and now that I'm reflecting on this, it makes me wonder why I've never seen them in the upper grades. I spend most of my time in younger aged elementary classrooms, but will have to check out some upper grade levels for word walls. I think like all things in teaching, we must make word walls meaningful if we are going to use them. They might look cute and take up space on the wall, but without meaning, students won't utilize them. I think teachers must introduce the words before putting them up on the word wall and offer opportunities to use the words and learn about them as well. Helping students make meaning out of the word and relating the words to their everyday life will be beneficial. For example, the picture at the top of the page has the word "from" in it. Teaching students what from means and how to sound it out needs to be done before adding it to the word wall. Offering ways to use the word is important also. Making cards or invitations with the words "to" and "from" is just one way to make the word "from" meaningful. There are so many examples of word walls online and making one for your classroom that is pleasing to the eye and at eye level for students is also important. I plan on using a word wall in my future classroom and helping my students utilize it!

I think it's important to remember that word walls can be used for any content area. The example above is for math and I really like that it has words and visuals on it.


The word wall to the left with the post it notes on it is a way for students to be more involved. Students can write the words on a post it note and put in onto the word wall, which allows them to have a sense of ownership!

Week #1- Reflection from night one

These 8 week classes seem to go by so quickly and I feel pretty good about this class after having our first evening together. I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment with the assignments, however, this tends to be something I feel when looking at the syllabus for the first time with any class. The workload always seems like a lot, but taking small steps towards the finish line is always helpful! I have done a unit plan in the past, including the 10 lesson plans. I haven't spent a lot of time making assessments or with Bloom's Taxonomy and I think both of those assignments will be helpful for me. I really appreciated the professor allowing us time in class to create a blog and write our introduction. 4 hours is a long time to sit in front of a computer and changing it up is really nice. I have taken most of my classes in seat at Columbia College and that is my preference. It can be difficult with 3 kiddos and a dog at home, even though my husband is very helpful. Is there an assignment that you are feeling anxious about?

Please see my 2 truths and 1 lie below. I look forward to getting to know you better!

Truth:     Teachers must model what they expect their students to learn and do before expecting them to complete the task.

Truth:     Language Arts is multi-modal.

Lie:        Students don't need to know the goals for the work they are doing, they just need to do the work because the teacher said to do it.

Introduction to Me!

Hi there! My name is Katie Stockamp and I currently work at West Blvd Elementary School as an Instructional Aide in a Title 1 Preschool Classroom. I will be student teaching in a first grade classroom in the Fall at Hallsville Primary. My family and I live in Hallsville and I'm very excited about my student teaching placement. I've been married to my husband, Ryan for 15 years and we have three great kiddos together. We also have a spoiled rotten labradoodle named Abe. I actually went to Columbia College as an undergraduate and earned a Bachelors in Social Work in 2003. I lived on campus and was a day student. I practiced Social Work for many years and feel like my experience will help me in teaching. I have gone back to school for a second career and am almost finished with my certification classes and only have 2 more classes for my Masters in Education. This timing couldn't be better, as I'll be 40 in July! My passion is teaching and helping children. My goal is to teach first grade and I'm looking forward to this class. I've never had a blog before. I enjoy literacy very much, reading and writing alike. I wish I had more time to read for pleasure, but my time will come. When I'm not working or doing homework, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, being outdoors and relaxing in the sun.