Final Blog Post

Marisa, Meredith, and I did a great job on our lesson. By experiencing everyone else's lessons, we were prepared for anything that would be thrown our way. We wanted to make sure we had our class rules set beforehand so that each student knew ahead of time what to expect, and it seemed to work well because our class was really active during the entire class. My partners and I prepared the lesson around an interactive mindset. We wanted our classmates to be involved using as many of the senses as possible. Our preparations focused on technology and interactive principles. We realized that the podcasts did not work well if they were played for long periods of time, so we made sure that our podcasts were short and to the point to grab the students' attention. Our anticipatory set grabbed our students and put them in the mood for our lesson. Our lesson was executed in the way we wanted it to for the most part. We were a little behind during the reading/watching of the story because of the students' behaviors, but we got them back on track by asking questions. I wanted the students to be able to take what they read in the story and interpret answers for questions, and I think for the most part they understood what was going on in the story and for the questions. I learned patience from my students and how to word answers and questions that  would not spark an inappropriate comment or laughter, but it sometimes did not work. Joking with the students helped a little, I think, because it showed them the teacher can make a joke as well, and maybe she isn't as boring as they thought. I probably would only show a little bit of the movie the next time I teach this lesson because the students (and me at one point) dozed off a little because it was too much of the same thing for too long. I think the only thing I need to improve on is my mannerisms, because sometimes the way I talk is not appropriate or professional enough for the classroom. At first we wanted our podcast to be the whole story, but then we decided it would be better if we only played the questions, that way the students would not lose concentration. Some of the questions were not very loud so the students talked through some of the podcasts. I think I would use podcasts for homework assignments and homework readings rather than during class because I believe that it would be more effective outside the classroom. I could have added sound effects or made the podcast louder to make it work better. 
My other classmate's lessons went very well. I think that everyone had their moments with behavior problems, but each student took control over the class and fixed each problem. I think that some students' lessons could have been more developed. Some of the lessons were not cohesive and I think if they put more materials together to flow better, the lesson would have been a better success. I really liked how almost every group used technology to enhance their lessons. I learned a lot about using smart boards and how to keep my "cool" during a tough class. Everyone's lessons were a success and we all learned from each other during this time.