Thoughts on First Lesson:

We conducted our first lesson on March 21^st. We planned our first assessment around the goal of continuing to address Virginia and its bordering states since the pre-assessment seemed to frustrate some. This way we could jump right and at show them that even though something seems unfamiliar if they are given the tools they can learn and acquire new information. We figured that the best way to illustrate this lesson and the majority of our lesson was via PowerPoint. While the SOLs only call for students to have an understanding of relative location, and bordering states we thought that it might be less dry if we focused on these concepts, but also incorporated some interesting facts. We even allowed for random moments for our class to veer slightly of task and make connects based on prior knowledge and past experiences. Thinking ahead and understanding that things sometimes go wrong we arrived early to make copies. I decided to go on ahead and make copies for our next lesson since our unit days were pretty much back to back. I think that having this already completed put us both at ease and ready to get right into the material. I didn’t know until now how quickly 45 minutes goes. We had the class right after recess, which meant that the students had a bit of extra energy. We gave the students a map that was pretty much identical to the pre-assessment to fill out while we went through the PowerPoint. I must say that we learned the importance of guiding children and that some children are easier to keep on task than others. We thought we would have enough time to have the students construct their “Virginia Journals,” but time didn’t allow for it so we decided to make that activity a homework assignment. They found the idea of design something interesting anyway. Overall, I think that this lesson definitely served my partner and I well in that now we are used to possible kinks in our original thinking. We are definitely better prepared I think that at least now the students are aware of the fact that we will start coming in on a regular basis to conduct our unit. I am at least thankful that I classroom teacher Mrs. S is a wonderful resource and gives us ideas and materials for our lesson as we go, her feedback is also useful since she interacts with the children on a daily basis.