Artifact Bag

Today in class we learned about Artifact Bags! As we broke up into our fieldwork groups, Dr. Smirnova explained to us what Artifact Bags were and then provided each individual group an artifact bag that was full of little surprises that many of us had never seen before. When I reached my hand into the bag I pulled out and unwrapped an artifact called a nesting doll. This was something I have never seen before and I was amazed at how beautiful these nesting dolls were and all of the beautiful colors that stood out to me.The dolls came apart, every time you opened one there was another one inside, there was a total of five by the time we opened all of them. We then looked up some information about nesting dolls online since many of us have never seen them before and wanted to know what they represent. As we continued to open the Artifact bags we discovered a number of different objects inside. We opened up a small plate/ dish that had a pretty blue color on it and we looked up what these were used for as well, it was tiny and fragile but had beautiful designs on it too. There was also a booklet inside of the bag that we opened up, we were not quite sure what this booklet meant because some of it was written in Russian, but we were determined to find out. After some translating websites we were able to find out what this booklet represented. It was a certificate in teaching that was awarded to Dr. Smirnova.  This was an award she had received in Russia and she has it to show us today, which I found to not only be awesome but very interesting and rewarding as well. After we were finished discovering what was inside of our Artifact Bag we needed to come up with a conclusion, why were these pieces in the bag? who could have this bag belonged too? When we were done observing we came to the conclusion that this bag belonged to Dr. Smirnova and she was the one who had filled this bag with all of these interesting and unique artifacts!  After we discussed what we had figured out and gone over in class it was now our turn to go home and create our own individual artifact bags that we would be able to share with the class. We all put different artifacts into our bags, my bag consisted of money, shoes and gold/ jewelry. These were all things that could be bought at a market throughout the medieval times. Along with creating my artifact I also had to create a slide on my groups powerpoint presentation, my slide included information and pictures on what was in my bag, what the importance of it was, and I also picked websites and books that I thought would be informative to children about this topic. My Artifact bag looked like it was from the middle ages by the time I was done burning that paper to give it that rustic  look. After having our bags created we also worked in different groups to talk about and try to guess what they had in their bags and what the meaning behind all of it was. I thought this was a great interactive assignment. It was fun and it also provided us with information and gave us background knowledge on artifacts and different things from the middle ages. I would love to use this assignment in my classroom one day, its quick, easy, fun and engaging, what more could you ask for?



                              

Time to say Goodbye

These last few weeks have came and gone so quickly. Today is our last day at St. Josephs working with the fourth grade students. Each group has had their opportunity to teach a lesson and today the final group will wrap up the complete lesson on medieval times for  the last time. Today's set up was a little different then normal being that their were state exams being given. The students met us in the gym and sat on the floor rather than their desks and waited to be taught their last and final lesson. Us college students sat around the gym in chairs for one last time. I thought the last and final group did a great job wrapping up their lesson being that they were dealing with a different situation than usual. The kids were not sitting in their desks they were on the floor but they worked well in their groups and completed everything that they needed too.

At the end of the lesson it was our turn to ask questions and say goodbye. We talked to the kids a little bit about what they have learned throughout our time at St. Josephs. We also thanked the students for allowing us to come into their classroom in the middle of the school year and work with them. Each and every student worked hard and worked well throughout our time at St. Josephs. It was such a pleasure to be able to work with these students along with working with each other to make this time spent with these children unforgettable. We were given the experience we all cannot wait to have one day and that is to stand up in front of a classroom full of children and teach. We opened up to each of them as they opened up to us over time. We were able to teach lessons, create projects and see how each individual student worked and their thought process by reading the questions some left in thew wonder box and so much more.

It was finally time to go, we clapped for one another and thanked one another for this awesome experience. I hope we were able to impact some of these children's lives as each of them impacted ours throughout this semester.


                                                

Watching Our Classmates

Throughout this semester we have been given the opportunity to watch our classmates prepare lessons and teach them to Mrs. Darling's fourth grade class. We were able to see how each group had a different way of teaching and had different techniques that they use while in front of the students. I was able to obtain a lot of information on medieval times throughout this semester. My peers had a lot of good lessons to teach the fourth grade class and I myself even obtained information that I did not already know. I learned about the churches, and Thomas Beckett, along with the towns and markets and so much more. Working with a fourth grade class gives us the opportunity to plan activities and engage with the students and get to know them over the few weeks that we are here with them. I think it is a great opportunity that we get to plan lessons and give feedback throughout the semester as well. Giving feedback and having feedback given to you is very helpful, constructive criticism goes a long way. This is a learning process for each and every single one of us. We do this to better ourselves and to help one another along the way. One day we will all have a classroom of our own and this 100% prepares us for that moment. Although we may all face our frustrations, we are so lucky to be given this opportunity to work with students and to help each other and give our feedback. It helps us prepare for our next lesson. I think the fourth grade class really enjoyed our company over the last few weeks, our time here is coming to an end and all I can hope is that we made some sort of impact on these children's lives and that they were able to learn some information. 

Time to Teach

Today was our second day at St. Joseph's Elementary School but it was no longer a getting to know you day, it was time to teach and to let everyone get to know us as teachers. Myself, Ms. Vakirtzis, Ms. Popolizio, Ms Moses and Ms. Mauch were ready to teach our fourth grade class everything we had prepared for Medieval Times. The first day teaching can be very nerve wrecking! you never know what the expect and you need to be prepared for anything and be open minded to others ideas and statements. The first day we were teaching our direct lesson plan that we had put together to our fourth grade students. We had a powerpoint in front of the class that we would have the students follow along and fill out the note packet that we had provided for them, this way they were obtaining the information we were teaching them and had a reference to look back on if needed. Each teacher had a part of the powerpoint that they would be teaching to the class, as this was going on the other teachers circled around the classroom to make sure that the students were following along and filling in the blanks.  After all of the information was provided from our powerpoint and the note sheets were  complete we then asked the students work in their groups to complete what we called a Medieval Match Up. Each group had one student come up to the poster board and stick the vocabulary word next to the correct definition in order to show what they had learned throughout this lesson and what they understood about the vocabulary. This allowed us teachers to see where each group landed in understanding what they had been taught today. After the medieval match up board had been completed we gave the class an exit ticket to work on before they were able to leave. Us teachers had provided the class with an emoji board. This board was used to see where each of the students felt their understanding after the lesson today fell. If the student felt really confident about the information we had provided them with and felt as if they learned a lot they were asked to write down two things they had learned today and place it next to the first emoji symbol on the board to show that they understood and learned. The second emoji was for students who felt alright about the material they had learned today but still had some questions, these students were asked to write down what they learned and what they wanted to know or what they may still have questions or be confused about. The third and final emoji was for students who felt completely lost after the lesson. They were asked to place their post it with questions next to the third emoji. This allowed us as teachers to see how each of our individual students felt about what they had learned today. It was very helpful to see where everyone felt they had been after this lesson was completed and it allowed us to work on our second lesson and be able to give students to answers to any information they may have had questions on.  Students were also asked to place a post it in the wonder box! Which we were able to look at the next time we met as a group to address any questions the students may have had.  I personally thought our first lesson went very well. It is very nerve wrecking to be the first group to get up in front of everyone and begin teaching but i feel as if we did a great job working together to complete this first day teaching with one another!

                                                                                                                                        

Preparing Our Lesson

We were the first groups to go, the pressure was on but we were ready to begin and do whatever we needed to do to make sure that the children in Mrs. Darling's class did not only learn about medieval times but they enjoyed their activities throughout the lesson as well. We met in the library for numerous hours and helped one another with our ideas that we presented to the group. Although creating a lesson can be stressful at times, I think this time we were ready and prepared because we had the opportunity to do this last semester as well. We were assigned to teach the children about Markets, Merchants and Mudd. We prepared a powerpoint that we would show to the students and a packet so that each individual student could fill in the vocabulary as they followed along. We also came up with the idea of having the children walk around the room and spend the money they had been provided at individual markets throughout the classroom. These were all the ideas that we had come up with for our first and second lesson. We had all of the materials cut out and ready to go and we also had a Voki that  we were going to use to introduce the children to medical times and pose a question to the class and a wonder box where each student would leave a post it note with a question they may have based on the topic. The wonder box was something that i had used in my group last semester and i felt as if it was very helpful and beneficial because we were able to review the questions that the students may have and address them the next time that we meet. My group worked great with one another, we were able to complete so much in such little time and prepare two great lessons that we were ready to teach. Plus being the first group is never easy, but we are ready!