What Makes a Classroom 10/21

Sunday was the 20th annual Rays of Hope Breast Cancer benefit walk held in Springfield. It was a lot of fun and awesome to participate in such a great cause! We want to thank Stephanie, Callie and Kelsey for joining us in the  walk!

Monday marked our third meeting of the year! The theme of the meeting was What Makes a Classroom! The instructional strategy introduced was a word wheel. A word wheel is a great use for teaching vocabulary! The word that is being taught goes in the middle and around it are words that describe it or synonyms. Word wheels come in many shapes and styles. They can be adjusted in many different ways that will fit the needs of a classroom! Below is an example of a word wheel:

 

To continue on our theme of what makes a classroom as a whole group we talked about lesson planning! The board provided examples of lesson plans that they have done here at Westfield State. Topics like the curriculum frameworks, where to find lesson plan ideas and the format where discussed. Listening to suggests, concerns and questions allowed for a great discussion! One great suggestion offered by one of our members was to buy a 5 subject notebook and label each section a content area (ELA, math, science, social studies, ETC.). When you think of an idea or see one write it down in the notebook so you have to reference later on!

 

The next topic we discussed was about time spent in the classrooms! Tips about apparel, what to do in situations and what to expect were provided. Important topics like restraint training and being seen as a teacher in the classroom were discussed. As a whole group we also discussed past practicum experiences. We got to hear some real funny stories!

 

To wrap up the meeting was a Bigs and Littles activity. As a whole group we arranged ourselves in certain orders (height, birthday and first name) then chatted with our neighbors. A few topics we discussed were sibling order, one interesting fact about yourself, one thing that is going well in your life at the moment and what is your favorite class this semester!  Do not forget Littles to come up with some fun field trip ideas :)

 

Don't forget to check out our Pinterest: WSUSNEA that is run by our two underclassman reps!

Let us know if there is anything that you need :)

See you at our next meeting; November 4 at 7:00!

Julie

Editor