SPACE DAY

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Space Day was a fun, exciting, tiring, and a huge accomplishment. I thought
Space Day was a huge success. I was place in the fourth grade clinical at Trace so I
was very excited because my students were going to get to Samford for Space Day.
This was especially special because a couple of the students that I work for were not
able to go to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL due to financial reasons. This motivated me
to make it the best day for them. I knew the students would be excited to be coming to
Samford because during my clinical placement they would always ask questions about
college. It was really neat that Space Day allowed them to come to Samford. I had the
moon room at Space Day. We had met several times before Space Day to come up with
a plan. Our plan was to play an intro video for while they were coming in. We would play
another rap the moon phase video for when they are sitting down. After that we would
do practice of creating the moon phases with playdough. We would have a laminated
place mat of the moon phases to serve as a guide to help them. Our closing activity
would be we give the students an Oreo. We would give them a phase of the moon and
they would create that with the outer cookie.
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It was finally time for Space Day. We had the sophomores decorate our room to
look like the moon. One of our main concerns going into Space Day was time. However,
when the kids came through we did not have an issue with time. The students really
enjoyed the videos. We were able to stop and pause it throughout to explain and point
out different important things. They especially enjoyed the play dough activity. It was so
cute during the video some kids were so excited that they would get up and dance and
jump around. The second part was a surprise. The Oreos, was by far their favorite
activity because after they made the correct phase of the moon with their cookie, they
were able to eat it. This made them so excited!
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Overall, I really enjoyed Space Day. I could tell how much the students loved it.
Space Day went very smoothy and is something that I can use in the future with my
students. Space Day was a success and was one of the highlights of this year because
I was able to see how my hard work was able to pay off through my students enjoyment
and learning level.

Reflection of Young Author Conference

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Today, we had the third graders from Trace Crossing Elementary School come to
Samford University. Our education block was split up into groups of three or four girls
per group. Each group participated in organizing a book study and decorating the door
so that it would be ready for the students to come. My group had the book Rules. We
decorated our door to look like the book cover. It was blue with a goldfish. It had some
of the rules from the book hanging up. When the students came into the classroom we
sat them down and asked them to raise their hands if they had an older sister, younger
sister, older brother, or younger brother. We were able to get them engaged and
involved by doing this. We asked them if they have ever given their sibling a rule or if
their sibling has ever given them a rule. We asked them about the rules that they have
school. We made it clear to the students that rules are everywhere. We then played a
short video about the book to use it as an engagement and introduction. They all really
enjoyed the video. After the video was done playing we lead them in a book talk about
the book. None of the students that came through had ever read the book. So, it was
very important that we explained the book to them in a way that was beneficial and
would make them want to go read the book. The last thing we closed with was an
activity of making a door hanger. The students would make a door hanger and put rules
that they wanted to have on it. The rules could be silly or serious. They varied from no
boys allowed to, in order to come into my room you must bring me some candy. When
everyone had completed decorating their door hangers, they stood up and shared with
the group at least one of their rules.
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The students all seemed to really enjoy decorating and brainstorming rules. Next
time, one of the things that we need to be aware of is saying decorating a door hanger
for your own room. Some of the students did not have their own rooms or even a room.
We were able to say it could be a door hanger for any room or you could hang it up on
the wall. This was one area of caution that we need to make sure that we look out for. If
we were to do it over again, I would adjust only two things the time. Sometimes we were
rushed for time and the students did not have time to finish decorating their door
hanger. It was also important that we had enough time for everyone to share at least
one of their rules and show the group how they decorated their door hanger. Another
adjustment would be to make sure that everyone had read the book. This would allow
for more group discussion rather than just the teacher doing all the talking about the
book. The students would be able to participate in the discussion of the book talk and
what happened.
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I really enjoyed Young Author Conference. It was neat to be able to put this on for
the third graders. They all seemed to have enjoyed what they were doing along with

learning something in the process. I really enjoyed working with the group of girls that
were in the room. We were able to work really well together. It was neat to be able to
bounce off of everyones different ideas. We were able to work hard and make it an
enjoyable experience for the students.
Culturally Responsive Lesson Reflection
___A. Commitment to students and their learning
Reflect on ways your group tried to include all of the students. Reflect on ways that you
were equitable and fostered self esteem, motivation and personal responsibility. Reflect
on ways that you helped students develop a respect for themselves and others. Reflect
on the materials/literature used in the lesson. Was it helpful in creating a climate of
respect for individual differences? Why/Why not?

Our group made sure that we included all students. We made sure that everyone was
supplied with materials and could fully participate in the activity of making a door hanger
with rules on them. When they were done we made sure to call on everyone in the
group to stand up and share what they created to the class. With everyone watching
and giving their classmates respected focused on fostering self esteem. It was very fun
to get to see everyone and see how proud they were to share. We made an
environment that was positive full of complimenting their other classmates. The
materials we used were door hangers, stickers, markers, and any other craft supplies.
We had them create their own personal door hangers with rules on them. It was helpful
in creating a climate of respect for individual differences because everyone had their
own personal style and rules to fit themselves. This is what made it unique and fun to
share because everyones door hanger and rules were different.

___B. Knowledge of the subject(s) taught and of best methods/principles to teach

Reflect on best practices used during the lesson to ensure student success.

We were able to play a quick video introduction about the book, Rules. We used this as
engagement and to capture the students attention. We than related the story to our
students. We did this by forming a sort of discussion environment that allowed the
students to open up and share about the rules that they have in their life. Then we did a
book talk about the book. The order worked really well and the students were able to
really comprehend and participate in the discussion along with us.

___C. Responsibility for managing and monitoring student learning

Reflect on ways that your group managed behavior to ensure time on task. Discuss
any modifications that were made for individual students to manage behavior.

Our group did a good job of managing behavior and making sure that we stayed on
time. There was only one small behavior problem, which we settled by separating the
two students that were interrupting and not working. They did not work at all when they
were sitting with each other so by simply moving them we were able to solve that
problem quickly. However, all the students had great behavior and were a joy to work
with.

___D. Systematic thinking about practice and learning from experience

Discuss any adjustments that your group made/will make in the future as a result of this
experience.

The only adjustment that I would say that we would make is to make sure that all the
students read the book that we were discussing about. None of the students had read
the book so I think by having them read the book before hand it would have allowed for
us to go more in depth. Other than that, everything flowed and worked out great.

___E. Engagement into learning community

Discuss how your group benefitted from collaboration.
I really enjoyed working with my group. We all worked really well together. We were able
to merge each of our ideas. This allowed for us to have to best plan for our students that
were coming through. I really enjoyed working with this group of girls in my learning
community.

Pep Rally and Game

Over Jan term, I was able to participate in a school wide event. The school I

observed at over Jan term went up to sixth grade, I was in the fifth grade observing.
After school, they had a pep rally for the girls and boys basketball team since and then
immediately following the pep rally the games were played. This was very neat to see
because the community came out and the parents were all there. It was cool to see how
excited the students got and see observe the school with the parents being there.

Dr. Seuss Week

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We helped at Trace set up for Dr. Seuss week. This was a great experience
because I did not realize how much went into setting up for Dr. Seuss week. It was neat
because as a block we all came together in order to get this huge task accomplished.
We had to decorate the halls and plan how to set up Dr. Seuss week. When it was done
it was a huge accomplishment and I think that it looked great! I was very impressed at
how hard everyone in our block worked and how well it turned out.