School: St. Pius X School

Bailey Kerin

Clinical

School: St. Pius X School

Teacher: Second Grade

Cooperating: Teacher: Rebecca Updergraff

Three Lessons:

Is that me?

What’s that Habitat?

The life cycle of a Chicken

The second grade classroom that I was in at St. Pius X elementary school was different from most schools that I have been in. This was the first catholic or private school I had ever observed. My only experience in this type of atmosphere was when I attended grade school. This second grade classroom also had five students in the entire classroom. Ms. Updegraff told Audra and I that most of the children were only children and that one child had attention issues. The classroom was very interactive and was led by Ms. Updegraffs fun and enthusiastic personality. The classroom had a reading corner with several bookshelves. On one bookshelf she would place books about what they were learning, the current season, or holiday. They also had classroom pets. There were five turtles, a snake, and tarantula. These animals were often referred to during Ms. Updegraff’s lessons. Each week a child would be in charge of feeding the turtles.

Our lesson was a lesson out of the “Project Wild” book, “Are you me?”. Audra and I started off the lesson with the book “Are you my mother”. We then asked the children why the dog and all the other animals could not be the little birds mother. After we discussed the book we began to talk about the differences between themselves as a newborn, themselves as second graders, and their parents. Then we handed out index cards to each student. Each index card either had a baby animal or adult version of the baby animal. The students were told to match up with their older or younger version. After they were all matched up the students were then asked to compare and contrast the animals. Afterwards the students were each given a piece of paper and told to draw a picture of the animal they had in an opposite version of their given animal. After the students were done the children all got up and presented their drawing and they all stated a few difference between the adult and baby animals. I thought that this lesson went really well. When we came back for the following week the children all asked if we could do the same lesson. One problem in this lesson was that the children were not drawing second grade level drawings. One student became very discouraged after a few minutes. Her drawing consisted of one color and a stick figure drawing of the animal. I calmly asked her to think about it more and to add more color. She again started to get up set. I sat with her for a few minutes and helped her with ideas and colors to use. She then became happy and continued to work on her assignment.

The second lesson was also taken from the “Project Wild” book, “What’s that Habitat”. The main objective of this lesson was for children to understand that they belong to habitats, just as animals do. First we began the lesson by asking the following questions:

What is a habitat?

What does a habitat consist of?

The class then came to the conclusion that the habitat was the home of an animal. In this home the animal needed shelter, food, water, and living space. Each student was given a piece of paper and asked to draw their habitat. The students all drew their house, bedroom, kitchen, and their dog. Then the children all presented their drawing of their own habitat. The students weren’t very enthused about drawing their own habitat. Then we handed out a blank piece of paper and asked the students to pick any animal and draw that animal in its habitat. We then all gathered up again after drawing that picture and presented the information. Then afterwards the whole class would pick an animal and draw the habitat of the chosen animal on the board. If I could do this lesson again I would first have the children draw the animal in it’s habitat and then have them draw themselves. At first I was nervous about the lesson but the children ended up having a positive attitude about the lesson.

The last lesson we did was about the life cycle of a chicken/rooster. The children were first given a small coloring book that had four pages.

Page1=Egg

Page2=Chick

Page3=Chicken

Page 4= Rooster

The students were asked the following questions:

What do you notice about this coloring book?

What is the difference between a rooster and a Chicken?

What is the life cycle of a chicken/rooster?

As a follow up activity the students made mobiles with the three different stages of a chicken’s life. The students were given blank index cards, string, and a piece of construction paper. The students were asked to draw the stages of the life cycles on each of the three index cards. The index cards were each tied to a string and stapled to the construction paper that was then stapled into the a circle. I thought that this was the best lesson plan we had done. The students were proud of their final pieces of art and wanted to hang them up around the classroom.

Methods of teaching were quite different in the classroom I was in because of the fact that there were only five students. The lessons were very hands on which is easier to do with a smaller group pf children. There were many art activities and activities that involved the children tog et up and move around. I felt that the students did benefit from this type of learning because how engaged they became in the lesson.

My cooperation teacher was extremely nice and helpful throughout the whole process f student teaching. We would email frequently and talk often throughout the days of being in the classroom. She was very well organized yet if thing went astray she went with it. She was a great teacher and I would love to follow in her footsteps as a teacher. She was very passionate about her job as a teacher and showed great concern for the children. She constantly tried to make her lesson entertaining and academic at the same time. When the children learned about snakes she brought out her classroom snake and allowed the children to touch and hold the snake. I was so lucky to have the opportunity to work with Ms. Updegraff. I would highly recommend her to next year EDUC 140 students. She was an amazing teacher to observe and be a guest in her classroom. I hope that as a teacher I have the passion, energy, and enthusiasm that Ms Updegraff showed in her classroom.

My critical task was about habitats. I used one of the lessons in my critical task in the second grade classroom. (“What’s that habitats”) Other connections between my clinical and my critical task were the different learning styles that were presented in both. The students of St. Pius’s second grade all were unique people with a different way of grasping information. While I did not have real students for my critical task I made the assumption that all the students would not be able to best learn the same way. In my critical task I took one subject and made several different lesson plans that taught the same information. Throughout my life as a student science has never been a strong subject of mine. Through my clinical experience and Ms. Gettlemen I learned that not knowing an answer is okay. It gives you the opportunity to have the students explore the answer themselves or the teacher the opportunity to incorporate research into the lesson plan.

I also learned that the difference between a private school and a public school with the standards is that public schools must stay with the standards while private schools have more wiggle room. I was in a private school for my educ 140 clinical and the teacher had more room while in my public school clinical all the 2nd grade classrooms did the same assignments day to day.