Lets get Direct, about instruction!

 Hi Blog babies!
This week and last week we worked with Direct Instruction everyone has at one point or another in there life experienced direct instruction. Whether you loved it or hated it you still remember what you learned like how to spell friend, or breakfast or any of those words that you struggled with. What your multiplication times tables are (9x9=81) and that the declaration of independence was signed in 1776, but we did not actually gain independence until 1781 with Cornwallis's surrender in Charleston South Carolina. Couldn't help myself that's the history major in me.
The point of  Direct instruction is simple, in your objectives you use words like define, label, group. It builds up the facts that you as a learner need to know sop that when you move on to analyzing, and information processing your not talking about 9x9=72, or that  friend is spelled freind, and the declaration of independence was signed in 1781 and we gained independence in 1792.
Direct instruction builds up the foundation of knowledge necessary for you as a learned to move on and be able to think critically and defend a point against someone else. It also is a very teacher focused method, lots of lecturing and modeling and demonstrating everything. Looking back at my school career i remember my fifth grade teacher Mr. Salvestrini i remember his ugly idol collection, and moo cow. Looking back i remember how he would use his body to create letters when someone in class would appear stuck and could not think of the word, how he modeled how he wanted us to do things like our DOL and our papers. I remember Mrs. Flynn in third grade and how we used to play around the world with our multiplication facts. how much i dreaded it yet how i know almost all of them to this day thanks to that. I remember Mrs. Sweely in second grade and doing mad minutes in math. How i despised them, the system then was you did one mad minute until you got 90 percent correct. After that you would move to a different sheet. I was the slowest to move from sheet to sheet. There was no instruction or anything just the same sheet with the same problems over and over agian. i copied other peoples, dreaded them did everything in my power to move but i never did. She was reinforcing the bad patterns and i never experienced success. That is Direct instruction gone bad and i swear i will never teach like that

M to the E to the T to the H to the D to the S = STRATAGIES!!!!!

HI! welcome to week two, this week in class we focused our attention to review. Lots of review of bloom, and objectives and goals and types of instruction. I must admit that my head was spinning. I felt that Dr. Smirnova was telling me to do things the exact opposite way that Dr. Lewis had last year, I can be a really stubborn person so changing how i thought about writing my objectives was a little bit challenging however once i got out of my own head a little bit i understood how Dr. Smirnova wanted us to do them and i did it that way i also found this meathod easier, it was the CBC model, conditions, behavior and criteria. We also worked on recognizing how blooms taxology fits into direct and indirect instruction and the instructional models, of behavioral, information-processing, social-interactive and personal.  Though there was a lot of review this week the activites and readings were interesting and full of important information.
All of this information is vital for any classroom teacher we have to know why we are teaching students what we are teaching, if we don't than that dreaded question teachers get asked all the time will really throw us for a loop, in case you never asked this (like i did) the question is drum roll please... "when are we going to actually use this?" the answer is up to us. Knowing how students will use the information that we provide on every level lets us know "yes you are NOT wasting your time"... as much as your students would like you to believe that you are.
In conclusion getting a review in bloom and all the methods of teaching was a relief because in all honesty i forgot almost everything i learned in basics last year. Oh summer how you mess us all up.
Check in next week!
love mel

T-Shirt Activity

Welcome to my blog! Over the semester hoefully you guys reading this will learn about me as i learn how to teach. The first week of class was scary to say the least, this is the frist time that i have had Dr. Smirnova although i have heard about her! (nothing bad, just that you were a tough grader :) ) It's a small college what can i say? So i was prepared to get swamped with work the first day when that didn't happen it made me even more nervous.  The fewer grades that you have the less chances to improve if you go fatally wrong on a test or project. The first assignment that we had was our t-shirt project, we were presenting them on that first friday in class, we worked on them during class on Wensday in the curriculum library. The assignment was easier than i had thought it would be originally a few clicks from my facebook page insert some pictures and then wa la i had completed my t-shirt.


In Class on Friday wepresented our t-shirts to the class.  It was more fun than i had originally thought it was going to be. Our class is small which makes it easier to present in front off, and lets face it if you know me you know that i am no shrinking violet! So for me to talk  about myself was a cake-walk! It's the perfect topic to not only break the ice but one in which each student is the expert. No one knows who  we are better than we do. I enjoyed the lesson it was simple, and it can be converted from technology to paper easily enough. I also thought it was a great way to teach a micro lesson and get us accustomed to speaking in front of the rest of the class. I liked knowing that i am not the only one who fears teaching math, or wants to teach outside of New York State. I enjoyed everyones presentation and enjoyed guessing what each picture meant. I like to talk, just a warning for the rest of the semester :) so for me this was a great activity to introduce me to the class. I also enjoyed the game we played as well, i liked all the questions and kind of wanted to answer them but it was fun and definitely something that i am going to remember  when i am teaching my own classroom.
The purpose of ice-breakers in a classroom is one that i won't overlook again. I will definitly take these ice-breakers into my classroom for use during the first few days of the year.