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Technology is a key factor in how Mrs. Moerman's plans out her daily lesson plans. The students enjoy it but due to the lack of funding available within the school, it's not always easy to provide technology to the students. I was honored to see a teacher care about her students so much that she found another way to raise money so that they would have 7 new chromebooks within the class.
Read about it here: http://www.donorschoose.org/Mrs.Moerman?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=tp&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_content=teacherprojectposted&rf=facebook-teacherconnect-2015-10-teacherprojectposted-teacher_3135540&historical=true I was working side by side with Mrs. Moerman from August 17th-October 19th. Those few weeks changed my perspective on teaching and every student changed me to be a better person. Mrs. Moerman teaches Social Studies and Reading to 100 students at Dublin Elementary. The students work on a block schedule so that they have Reading, Math, Social Studies or Science everyday. 80% of the student population at Dublin Elementary School are of low socioeconomic students. Knowing this, Mrs. Moerman always ensures her lessons are interactive so that her students are able to retain more information. Every week Mrs. Moerman and I would sit together and brainstorm on how to make the lessons interactive for the students. I had trouble forming lesson plans at first so she modeled her thinking process for several weeks. Our lesson plans included activities like role play, using manipulatives, technology (Jtouch, Ipads, Itouch), cooperative learning strategies (think-pair-share) and many others. She invited me into different professional settings so that I would gain the political side of being a teacher. We attended several ARD, parent-teacher conferences and a 504 meeting. Every week or so all of the 3rd grade teachers would come together with the principal to configure a plan of how to work with the students. I was honored to attend the meetings and listen on how they make informed decisions. During the time that I took over the classroom, I included several interactive activities during daily lesson plans. Students learned how to earn, save and spend money by creating a real lemonade stand. By using this activity, students were able to see a real life example and see the use of the vocabulary words (employer, employee and income) take place in a real situation. By the end of the week, students were earning money, spending it and more importantly saving it. My last week of clinical teaching at this placement focused on heroes and how they contribute to forming communities. They learned about Sacagawea and created a timeline of her life using sentence strips. By the end of the week, students were learning about Daniel Boone. Over 100 years ago, a man found the Wilderness Road and helped people settle in Kentucky. They sang the theme song from a television series named after him, role played how he was kidnapped by Native Americans and created a book about his life. Learning was fun with these 3rd graders! I learned that if the teacher is passionate about what they're teaching the students are more likely to retain more of the information. When you're having fun, they're having fun. |
Social Studies, taught hands on!Mrs. Moerman's classroom was definitely hands on and interactive. Students always walked into her class with a smile on their face, They always look forward to what they were learning about that day. Above, is one of her students learning how to use a surveying tool.
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ObservationsThe first week or two, my job was to specifically observe Mrs. Moerman and how she worked with the students. This was a Social Studies lesson specifically of how to count and use money. Above, is Mrs Moerman working in a small group to learn how to count coins together.
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Meet the Teacher Night!The day before the first day of school, I was able to meet our homeroom class and their parents! I gave each student a Tarleton pencil!
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