Well, since I forgot to do this all week and Emily kindly reminded me... here goes nothing!

Day One: Monday
I taught a creative writing lesson on the Powerball (which winner was very previously chosen... lucky ducks)! The kids LOVED the fact that they were able to be completely involved in the conversation, and that many of them got to share what they wrote. I first discussed with them how Powerball tickets can be bought, etc. We then discussed the writing prompt that they wrote on which stated, "If you were to win the Powerball of $550,000,000, how would you use the money to benefit St. Marcus and the city of Milwaukee? Do you think your personality/outlook on life would change after winning so much money?" It was awesome to hear the kid's positive responses to this writing and we had many students share what they wrote. It is amazing to see how far they have come from writing fractured sentences to now writing with complete thoughts and perfect grammar. Overall, today was a great lesson which my student's really enjoyed.

Day Two: Tuesday
Today was also a very good lesson. I focused on the topic of using feeling within the student's writing. I wanted them to dig deep into their emotions and find how they can express these feelings through writing. Some students struggled with finding a topic to write on, but eventually came up with something. I assessed the students on their creativity and writing skills they had been working on the week prior to me teaching the class. I still find it amazing how great of writers some of the students I have are. The way their minds think is incredible. One thing I would like to improve on is reinforcing the expectation that everyone is quiet while they have time to write. I have found that while some students are holding conversations, it is difficult for many students to focus.

Day Three: Wednesday
Today we had an All-School Chapel Service to celebrate the first week of Advent, which also meant my class time was cut down to 20 minutes. Wednesday's always seem to be a crazy day in our room (not sure why), but this Wednesday proved to be no different. Many students were unfocused and would not participate in the writing portion of the class. Due to the fact that it was a shortened class, many students seemed restless. Once the students were given a topic to focus on for the day, the rest of the class ran smoothly. Unfortunately, no students were able to share what they wrote today because of the shortened class periods.

Day Four: Thursday
Today went really well! I taught a lesson that focused on fixing sentences with various things wrong with them. Think uncapitalized letters, bad grammar, wrong word choices, etc. The kids had a BLAST correcting the sentences. This was a very practical lesson as well because it is a lot of the mistakes I see the students use in their homework everyday. The student's took notes on the most common mistakes and corrected various sentences for homework. I also allowed them to come up with their own incorrect sentences for the class to correct. They love getting involved during the lessons and it makes for a fun atmosphere without many disruptions.

Day Five: Friday
On the last day of the week, the classes are shortened because the students have an earlier release time. Friday's are always dedicated to creative writing so I had to come up with an engaging and interesting prompt that the students would enjoy writing about. I allowed the students to find a topic on CNN Student Center that they found interesting and create a unique prompt. The students decided they wanted to write about Heisman trophy and what it takes to be a winner. Overall, the students had a great time and their responses were very clever and well thought out. For a Friday, the students did a great job of keeping focused.

Reflection Day Ten

REFLECTION & REVISION (This part is to be included in your daily reflections after teaching the lesson. How did I feel about my lesson today? If I feel successful, what did I see the students saying and doing that made me feel that way? What changes to tomorrow’s lesson need to be made as a result of today’s class):

      This day was very successful. I only had a limited amount of time because they had a special Daily Five. This was a good thing that we reviewed how to write a reflection the day beforehand. I went over each point of how to write a reflection and then the students had a chance to write a sentence of two about the prompt. Many of the responses were the same. For example, many student said they learned about morals and what moral are, but they did not tell me what a moral is or give me any examples. Also, a lot of students said that their favorite part was writing the books. When the students completed writing their reflection, I read their books aloud. There were lots of laughs and giggles, but most importantly the students were very proud of what they created. I had a lot of students come out of their shells because they were happy that their ideas were incorporated into the story. Then it was time for me to go. I had all the students say goodbye to me and even asked me if I could come and teach third grade. I am really going to miss them. 

      There are a few things that I would do to change this lesson. One thing would be more time because I did not have enough time to reinforce the parts of writing a reflection. Then another thing I would change is that I would have the prompts written on the board and then let the students write for a very long time. I also would have written each activity on the board because we did so much that the students did not remember what we did, or that they were sick. This has been a great experience and I would not change it for anything. 

Day 5

After finishing up the book yesterday I wanted to introduce the student to writing book critiques. This is a new topic for them. I outlined the basics of what a critique might look like. The summary of the story, what a reader liked, what they didn’t like, or parts of the book that could have been changed. I had the students rate Katie’s Trunk and give supporting details as to why they thought the way they did. I am not entirely sure why they didn’t get the concept of supporting details because we also talked about it this week during Social Studies. Yesterday, everyone was able to summarize the story and give key details as to what happened while reading. I was surprise that the class average for the book was 2 stars. I should have asked them about a book they would’ve give five stars too and have them compare and contrast. It was interesting to see how the influence of one student could sway the other student’s opinions. Once the class clown said the book was boring it was all downhill from there (even though for the past two days they didnt want to stop reading the text). The good reads app was not connecting to their internet, so I couldn’t connect what we were doing in class with real- world application for them to see how other’s write reviews. This time together felt very rushed. I gathered their language arts folders with all of the works for the week. I feel like this is a fairly accurate assessment of what the students knew and how much effort they put into their work. You can see which students did their work based on how much they participated in class.

Day 5! -Morgan Lueck

Day 5:
All of my students were in different places in their writing at the beginning of class today.  One student was finished and ready to email it to me when another student was not even close to be finished typing her story up on Scribble Press.  We spent the first 30 minutes typing the stories onto the iPad.  I walked around helping students and encouraging them to finish before the end of class.  There were two students who were done early on in the class period.  They worked on other things for another class and read silently.  There was one student who I had to keep under control, because he got up frequently and wandered around.  When I had the students share their stories they had a fun time.  There were a couple of times I had to refocus the class because they got very giggly.  I had such a fun time teaching these students how to write fiction stories, and I am glad I got to take on this challenge with a small class of five.  I cannot wait for student teaching where I can hopefully do this again with a bigger class.   

English Day 5

            English was great today.  The students assembled their poem booklets and we watched a clip from “Dead Poet’s Society.  The clip was about perspective and taking the time to look at things from different perspectives.  This led us into a discussion about respectful while the fellow classmates are presenting their poems.  I had the students’ names on strips of paper and randomly selected them to read a poem.  I read some of my poems too.  Each student had a chance to read 3 poems.  The students did really well.  They were respectful throughout the readings and we snapped for each poem.  I was impressed with the student’s poetry as well as their attentiveness to their classmates.  There was one student that did not feel very confident in her poems and her classmates impressed me by building her up every time it was her turn to read and after she read a poem. 

Week 2 Day 5

Today’s lesson went well. I ended up not using the file folder games that I had originally planned on due to the fact that the students can’t read and it would have been quite a challenge. Instead we worked more with syllables, rhymes and creating words. In order to create the words I have been using a strip of paper with boxes on it and then students find letters to fill in the boxes. There are five boxes on the strips of paper and I think I would bring it down to three boxes and explain to the students that every box needs a sound. Some of the students really struggled with creating the new words and I think that would have helped them a little bit. Overall, I am pleased with how the week went and feel more comfortable with teaching language arts. I realized that it is important to incorporate children’s books into the lessons as it get the students more engaged and excited about learning. I look forward to continuing on with teaching language arts in the future.

Reflection Day Nine

REFLECTION & REVISION (This part is to be included in your daily reflections after teaching the lesson. How did I feel about my lesson today? If I feel successful, what did I see the students saying and doing that made me feel that way? What changes to tomorrow’s lesson need to be made as a result of today’s class):

     Today was pretty successful. The kids were really hyper because St. Nick had come. Plus, the students were excited to illustrate their books. While one student was illustrating the book, the other students and I were discussing how to write a reflection. This went alright, but the students were more interested in the pictures than they were in actually writing the reflection. There was a lot of times when I would have to wait for the students to finish their side conversations. I told the students that it was their assignment and not mine, and that seemed to get them re-focused. The students were able to answer each prompt that I have for them, such as "What was your favorite part?" and "What did you learn about folktales?" The students and I had a very good discussion. It also helped that I said the person who could illustrate next would be one of my best listeners. They seemed to like that reward. I would definitely do this lesson again. 

      The major thing that I would change in the lesson would be classroom management. Instead of having the student draw by the rest of the students, I would have the student go draw somewhere else. This was too distracting for many students. Also, I would of had them do a drawing sheet for them to do for homework so that everyone would of had a chance to draw on the iPad. I am excited to give the students their books today.