IT 573 - Dinosaurs NTeQ Unit Day 1

I began my NTeQ Unit of instruction today. The internet was down yesterday, so I did not sleep well last night. I did have a plan B - pick up a dinosaur movie from the school library rather than watch a clip on the internet. Luckily, the internet worked well this morning. I arrived at school one hour early to make sure all our materials were prepared and ready to go.

My first thought, after all materials were prepared and ready, was to be sure and create a comfortable learning environment for my students. I made sure to greet each student and initiate conversation with them. My goal before I taught my lesson was to know every student by name.

They met in the Art Room where breakfast was served. While the students ate their breakfast, I went around and introduced myself, asked their names, and initiated conversation. By the end of breakfast I knew everyone's name. I believe that this is a vital to creating a comfortable learning environment. Seventeen students showed up for the first day.

Next, Mrs. Stewardson, the summer school teacher, took care of some summer school procedures. She then introduced me to the class and let me take over. I began by first reintroducing myself and discussing with them my excitement to use the Smart Boards and computers during summer school. I then informally surveyed the students as to how many of them enjoyed using computers. All students raised their hands!

We then proceeded into the Title classroom. They watched a video clip from National Geographic about dinosaurs. Students seemed to enjoyed the video clip. It lasted about 4 minutes.

I introduced the KWL. Students were separated into two small groups - each meeting at a different Smart Board. Students were asked to add information to their KWL (only the K and W columns). Students added their information to the Smart Board. This took longer than expected. Students seemed to enjoy adding information to the KWL. Since it took longer, we did not meet again as a large group to discuss the KWLs. We proceeded to the vocabulary words. Both groups participated in word wall activities and mapped the words. Students added information to the Smart Board.

My group proceeded with the matching game and crossword puzzle. Mrs. Pieper's group did not get a chance to complete the matching game and crossword puzzle. They will do this activity tomorrow.

Both groups completed the journal entry. I read through them quickly. For the most part, students are sharing very positive feedback in using the Smart Board. A few have given suggestions of tools to use tomorrow for the Word Wall Activities. One students suggested to use a sorter tool to determine the order students take turns adding information to the Smart Board.

Today's activities went much longer than expected. I used 90 minutes of instruction time for today's lesson. Students enjoyed adding information to the Smart Board, but this took a long time.

We will begin tomorrow by discussing the day's goals. We will then break up into guided reading groups. Groups will begin by reviewing the previous day's vocabulary words. After guided reading activities, students will write in their journals.