My Mentor--Mr. Taylor

With a degree in political science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Mr. Taylor returned back home to Saipan to put his degree to use. Unfortunately, he was not able to find a career related to his degree upon his return. He then found himself in the midst of what he thought would be a temporary job in teaching at Garapan Elementary School. It was at G.E.S. where he first realized what fun it was teaching children and got "hooked"! Mr. Taylor even went through the masters program here in the C.N.M.I. to obtain a Masters degree in education from Framingham University. He has also managed to attain certification in Early Childhood. Since then he has worked within the Public School System as a teacher and at one point as an administrator for the Head Start Program here. He is currently working at Oleai Elementary School as a Kindergarten teacher. Through first-hand experience with Mr. Taylor, I have seen his abilities and I commend him for his dynamic teaching style. Mr. Taylor is an inspiration to his students and an effective teacher of the school system.

Learning about Numbers

During our math time, I set up cards with numbers from 1-10 with a few missing numbers. First, I had to demonstrate what I expected them to do with the missing numbers by placing the appropriate card where it belonged. Then, I asked for a volunteer to help me with the next card. Pio is shown in this photo placing the number one where it belonged. He had seen what I had done with the other missing numbers and used that to help him place the appropriate card at its place.

Multi-purpose of resources

Kirsten, David, and Leana are shown in this photo working in library center with the carpet. Initially they were placed in the center to work on a learning book with numbers. To my surprise, they used their environment to enhance their learning and experience. Kirsten had asked David to show her the number nine on the carpet and he was successful! I commended their group for taking the initiave to use their environment for the purposes of creating a learning experience. Great Job!

Left & Right

In this photo I am seen singing a song about the left and right hand. I use this song as both a learning activity and a management strategy. When I see that students are getting a bit bored and distracted, I have them stand up and show me their left and right hand to start out the song. I love this song because it can serve two great purposes--learning left from right and recollecting the group.

Animal Rhythms

Usually after circle time, we jump into language arts reciting the A, B, C's. There are a variety of materials we use for the alphabets and in this photo we are focusing on letter sounds and words that start with the letter of the week. One of the materials we use for this activity is the animal rhythms. In the photo, I am pictured using the pointer to help students follow along in reciting the animal rhythm of the day. This activity helps students recognize different words that start with a specific letter that we are learning. When we do this activity, we make sure to review the previous letters that we have already learned about. The children enjoy this activity because it targets kinesthetic, visual, and musical learners. Students get a chance to move around to make the movements of the pictures shown on the clip board. I enjoy this activity myself because it helps students emphasize on the letter of the week, its sound, and the different words that start with the letter. Animal rhythms are a great way to set a foundation for reading.

Student Learning

This photo was taken during circle time. In the first couple of weeks of school, Mr. Taylor and I had done started off circle time with calendar, days of the week, months of the year, and the weather. Mr. Taylor and I would each take turns leading the class with circle time. In this photo, we had David and Yoyo work together to lead the class with calendar and the rest of circle time. This photo is evidence of student learning to show that students know the procedures of circle time and can recite and understand of the days of the week and months of the year. For David and Yoyo to be leading the class during circle time shows the percent of retention the rest of the class will gain from this experience.

Spirit Week

For the month of November, the student council sent out letters to homeroom teacher to inform them of Spirit Week for Thanksgiving. In the letter, teachers were told that each grade level and, if desired, each classroom, had to come up with a cheer of some sort for flag ceremony to show school spirit. In the photo above, the students are lined up on the stage wearing their turkey hats that they colored and holding signs up with the letters spelling "Oleai" and "kindergarten". To lessen the hassle of coming up with a dance and teaching it to the students, Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Carreon and I all decided to do a simple cheer from the movie, "Kindergarten Cop". The cheer went like this:

"Reading, Writing, Arithmetic,

Too Much Homework makes me think.

When its time to pass the test,

Kindergarten is the best!"

The students had alot of fun with it and by the end of the ceremony, students could not get the cheer out of their heads!

Fire Drill

This photo was taken during a fire drill. This had been a first fire drill for this session and unfortunately, it had not been a good one. From this event, I realized that emergency drills needed to be taught and explained to students for them to understand the importance of listening and following directions. Two of our students in this photo are shown holding their bags, which is a "no, no" when it comes down to it. During this event, many students were more concerned of their bags and tying their shoes as opposed to just lining up and following directions. When we got back to the class, I had to take the time to explain to the students that time was important when drills or warning bells are going off. Although my students may were not able to drop their work and concerns quick enough to get outside, I was happy that I remained calm to get them together and out to the safety zone.

First Professional Development

In this photo, the staff and administration of Oleai Elementary School were at the general gathering of the school year's first professional development day. This was a two-day event for teachers and administrators to take part in a variety of workshops to enhance their professional career in education. This event was a first for me and I was very excited to take part in all the workshops that were being offered. I was able to attend three for both days and they included, "Games to Play in a Classroom K-12", "What Great Teachers Do Differently", and "Writing Workshop 4th-12th". These professional development days gave me a glimpse into the different resources that teachers can benefit from to become an effective teacher. All in all this event was a success for me!

Diversity in Flag Ceremonies

It is a school-wide tradition to participate in monthly events called Flag Ceremony. At these ceremonies a number of things take place. In the photo to the left, my students are shown performing the proper stance to sing the national anthem and to the right, a picture of the American flag being raised up the pole during the national anthem. As with many special events and ceremonies, our flag ceremony starts out the same with the national and local anthems. As the ceremony progresses, the administration schedules numerous announcements and activities that include and are not limited to recognition of students of the month, teacher of the month, support staff of the month, contest participants and winners, and other various announcements. This exposure to this type of ceremonies informs students of what takes place in the school and how they could possibly be informed. I see these ceremonies as a way for students to recognize different authority figures of the school and perhaps, even students.

September Flag Ceremony

Leana Cristobal and Raj Bravante were given the Student of the Month rewards for the month of September. These rewards are usually given on the first Mondays of the month during flag ceremony. These ceremonies are held to recognize outstanding students of each classroom of each grade level. Leana and Raj were chosen because of their excellent behavior in and outside of the classroom.

Halloween Costume Contest

For the month of October, the school scheduled a culminating event for Halloween by having a costume contest. All the students that came without costumes were still able to partake in the contest because we provided extra costumes and masks for those without one. Fortunately for this, all our students from both kindergarten classrooms were able to take part in the contest making our grade level gain a bigger advantage ratio-wise for students with costumes. All the students were very excited about the contest and were not shy to show off what they were wearing. I was excited to see that all the students were in the spirit of the occasion!

October Flag Ceremony

For the month of November, we celebrated yet another flag ceremony to recognize outstanding students for their hard work in the class for the previous month--October. Once again, Leana was our star for the morning session and Niffton was able to represent the afternoon session with his excellent diligence with classwork. At the same time, we recognized the teacher of the month for October as well and the award went to Mrs. Carreon, room #2 Kindergarten teacher. All our students were excited to see that their teacher had also won an award for outstanding performance in the classroom.

Hosting Flag Ceremony

During the November flag ceremony, Kindergarten was assigned to host an activity. In this photo, all the morning and afternoon session kindergarten students were combined to perform one of our exercises we do for P.E. called "Chicken Macarena". All the students were on the stage performed this exercise activity and at the same time demonstrated the proper way of performing it to the entire school. By the end of the ceremony, many of the students that attended this flag ceremony were able to perform the same exercise and recognize the song. The kindergarten students had alot of fun performing and showing off their dancing skills!

Student Council Induction Ceremony

The students pictured on this stage were reciting an oath of promise to the students of Oleai Elementary School. This was an induction ceremony for the newly elected Student Council officers who were elected to serve as school leaders to represent the student population at this school. One could say that this ceremony came at an impeccable time for the kindergarten students to comprehend the concept of civics and leadership. The week of this induction was Civic Awareness Week. This week was focused on the different aspects of civics. For the kindergarten students, they were introduced to the concept of leadership and responsibilities for civics awareness. Throughout the week, candidates for the different positions visited classrooms and voiced out their platforms. My students were excited to take part in this event especially the voting process. Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures of my students making their votes. The voting process was a bit complicated for my students because they could not read, but I read out the names of the candidates on the list and they told me which name they would like to mark. This was a very eventful activity and I was glad my students were able to take part in the process.

Technology Activities

The photo to the left is of our special needs student, Regan and his one-to-one aide, Mr. Sumor working on their daily routine of scheduling with Regan's "First and Then Cards". I consider his materials as technology because these materials assist him to perform different tasks and keep him on task. The photo to the right is also of Regan using his assistive technology to perform a task. As part of his daily routine, Regan is required to use picture cards to transition into different centers and to ask for something.

Technology Activities

These photos were taken during circle time of the afternoon session. After the class goes over the dates for the day and the weather, we jump right into the language arts period with the A, B, C's. In the photo to the left, I used the C.D. player to play a song that my mentor teacher and I have decided to call "Alphardy". This song is used in the classroom to assist students with letter sounds. The song starts from the letter 'A' to the letter 'Z' and the children absolutely love this song. The picture to the right is of me holding one of the learning books with the letters of the alphabet. I use this as a supplement to the song to add more of a retention percentage to the activity. The song helps with musically inclined students while the book helps with visual learners.

Technology Activities

To prepare for Halloween, the Kindergarten teachers and I got together and decided to have the students watch a video based on the upcoming occasion. We decided to play Barney's Halloween Party seeing as how the video focused not on what Halloween was about, but also how to stay safe. The students enjoyed watching the video and they were able to retell the story of the video and the safety tips that were discussed by Barney and his friends.

Portfolios

In the writing center, my students are given worksheets of their alphabets to trace, write, and color. In this photo, Yoyo is shown putting her worksheet away in the portfolio box. All the students are required to do worksheets for their alphabets in the writing center. When the students are done with any work they do in this center, they open up the portfolio box and look for the portfolio with their name on it. This is a form of assessment that also meets the standard 14 required in the subject of social studies. The portfolio box is an assessment tool that we use to record the students’ progress with writing center worksheets and homework requirements that are due every Friday of the week.

Fine & Gross Motor Skills Assessment

This photo is another portion of the Reading First Assessment where students were instructed to write their first and last name on two different lines. This portion of the test was to assess their fine motor skills and meet standard 14 for the subject area of social studies (14.K.1: Knows his or her own name, gender, age, and place in family).

Fine & Gross Motor Skills Assessment

These are photos of the students and I outside during a session of P.E. This performance based assessment tested their fine and gross motor skills by having the students catch and toss a ball. The importance of fine and gross motor skills at this grade level is crucial to understanding the level of performance in regards to writing and movement in the student.

Math Assessment with Modifications

This is a photo of Regan, my student with autism, working on his assessment of shapes. He has two sets of each shape and he is trying to match the first set with the second set that was laid on the table. Regan is being helped by his one-on-one aide, Mr. Sumor. Most of Regan’s assessments are based on sorting and matching with only one characteristic—shape.

Math Assessment

These photos are of the afternoon session exhibiting a cooperative group experience during a performance based assessment of grouping and sorting of shapes. They were instructed to put each shape into groups using one characteristic which was based on their shape rather that their color.

Math Assessment

This photo is of Pio and Raj doing their sorting and grouping of linker cubes into the same color groups. This was an informal assessment to see if they could understand the concept of grouping using one characteristic of objects and as you can see they were successfully in placing the same colored linker cubes into the same group.

Math Assessment

This photo of Raj shows him using the number cards and teddy bears as manipulatives. I was assessing Raj’s understanding of one-to-one correspondence, number construct, and number order. This form of assessment is part of the Reading First Assessment that is given to students at three periods of the school year—beginning, middle, and at the end.

Mini-lecture

This photo of me is an example of a mini-lecture. In this photo I was explaining to students what they will be doing for peer groups with the learning books. A mini-lecture is a concise way to provide students with background information to spark interest and give them a target--setting up an activity or discussion.

Small Group

This picture shows my afternoon session students working on a cutting exercise in a small group. Both my morning and afternoon session students are always put into groups to make transition periods into the different centers easy-flowing. In small groups, students working together can help stimulate each others creativity. Small group activities are cooperative, but have less formal structure than cooperative learning. These activities encourage collective thinking and provide opportunities for participants to work together and increase social skills.

Celebration

This photo was taken on October 31, 2007 on Halloween day. We were celebrating the Halloween occasion with costumes and the children had snacks for the day as well. A celebration is an activity that focuses on the joy of completion and accomplishment. These activities serve as reminders and markers. It is appropriate to stop and acknowledge and appreciate their accomplishments.

Student Expert

This photo of Roger shows him in our math center with the rest of the class. He is our student expert and helps his fellow classmates count from 1-100 using the pointer and the counting chart. Having a student expert is another way of having active learning. Give the student information and let them read and learn what they will then resent to the class. In this case, Roger is an experienced student and knows this part of the lesson very well that he is able to assist his classmates.

Simulation

Delvin and Fionna were simulating a cashier and a customer in this photo. This photo was taken during our unit theme, “Helping Hands”, based on community helpers. They used their prior knowledge of customers and cashiers to do a simulation of community helpers. A simulation is an activity structured to feel like a real experience. Participants are asked to imagine themselves in a situation, or they play a structured game or activity that enables them to experience a feeling that might occur in another setting. The power of a situation is that the students, participants FEEL the experience.

Games

In this photo, my students were combined with the other kindergarten students for P.E. When we have indoor P.E. we create games for the students using music to observe their listening, thinking, and fine and gross motor skills. Again, games go hand-in-hand with puzzles and focus on review, reinforcement, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.

Puzzles

In this photo, Niffton and Raj were working together to finish a puzzle. This activity was a great start to show students team work and cooperative group learning. Puzzles can be used to provide a different learning environment in which learning can take place. Usually puzzles go hand-in-hand with games in which both strategies focus on review, reinforcement, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.

Illustration Analysis

This photo was taken in the library during the week of Halloween. I was trying to simulate an illustration analysis with a book related for the upcoming Halloween occasion. Illustration analysis activities, participants observe, thing about and discuss the meaning of an illustration. These activities provide opportunities for students to work together, share ideas, and find out that people sometimes see things differently.

Cooperative Group

This picture was taken to show a cooperative group experience at this grade level. Students were given a chance to work on their individual assignments, but with a twist in order to get a true feel for what a cooperative group was like at their age. For this grade level, we had students work on their own assignments. When they done with their work we have them help their group members finish their work so that they can move to the next center as a group.

Artistic Expression

This picture shows my student, Putra, in the writing center coloring his work. I chose this picture to show an artistic expression strategy that we use in the classroom to get students to use their creativity with illustrations they are given. With these illustrations students are given a chance to express their views on color schemes through prepared illustrations that relate to the days lesson. Artistic expression accommodates to the different learning needs and talents of students. Completed work is usually displayed.