Goal #1 - Brain Breaks
My first professional goal for my final practicum is to incorporate brain breaks into student learning. By doing so, students will have an outlet to relieve stress and tension in a safe and healthy way. Brain breaks are crucial to student learning, as they will allow them to focus and concentrate better during work periods. By providing students with tools and strategies to use when needing a break from work at an early age, it will allow them to become more independent in self-regulating as they get older. Since I am a physical education major, I recognize the importance of movement throughout the day, which allows students to refocus and re-energize.
My goal for incorporating brain breaks into student learning is to include a brain break during work times that exceed 30 minutes. Each brain break will incorporate an aspect of movement, and will be teacher-led. Brain Breaks will begin the second week of classes. Discussions of the importance of brain breaks will be had with the students, and we will talk about the difference in how they are feeling prior to and after we complete a brain break. I will gauge this through asking about their energy levels prior to and after a brain break, using a 1-5; 1 being no energy, 5 being full of energy.
Resources
http://josianneseguineportfolio.weebly.com/uploads/9/7/3/4/9734238/brainbreakscollection.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=if+youre+a+kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmPy_JJDj64
My goal for incorporating brain breaks into student learning is to include a brain break during work times that exceed 30 minutes. Each brain break will incorporate an aspect of movement, and will be teacher-led. Brain Breaks will begin the second week of classes. Discussions of the importance of brain breaks will be had with the students, and we will talk about the difference in how they are feeling prior to and after we complete a brain break. I will gauge this through asking about their energy levels prior to and after a brain break, using a 1-5; 1 being no energy, 5 being full of energy.
Resources
http://josianneseguineportfolio.weebly.com/uploads/9/7/3/4/9734238/brainbreakscollection.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=if+youre+a+kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmPy_JJDj64
Goal #2 - Read Alouds
My second professional goal for my final practicum is to incorporate daily read alouds for my students. Throughout my time in the faculty of education, I have learned the importance and the impact read alouds have on students, even if it is only for 5 minutes a day. I recognize that through read alouds, students learn grammar, punctuation, and expression. They are also exposed to a large range of new vocabulary words, and topics they may have not otherwise learned about. My goal for incorporating daily read alouds to the students is to firstly include a minimum of 10 read alouds per unit. This will help me to continually search and find resources that will enhance our lessons. Secondly, I will end each day with a read aloud that is chosen from our class library. This is a great way to choose a fun story for the students prior to leaving for the day. Read alouds will be incorporated into the daily routine beginning second week; whether it be during our unit work, or at the end of the day. 10 read alouds will be the minimum amount students are exposed to for each unit. Through discussion regarding certain topics and vocabulary, I will be able to see the growth in student use of language. To keep track of the amount of read alouds, I will write down the titles in a document of the stories I would like to read to the students. After completing a read aloud, I will highlight the title. This will keep me accountable during units, and help me to recognize when I need to add more.
Resources
SENSES BOOKS
COMMUNITY BOOKS
HEALTH BOOKS
SENSES BOOKS
- “The Five Senses”
- “I Smell”
- “Five Senses”
- “Sense of Touch”
- “SkunkDog”
- “Smell” – Mandy Suhr
- “Moses goes to a concert” – Isaac Millman
- “My Three best friends and me, zulay” – Cari Best
- “The Very Busy Spider” – Eric Carle
- “Stellaluna”
- “Sight”
- “The Day the Crayons Quit”
- “Colour Monster: a pop-up book of feelings”
- “Red: A Crayons story”
- “I Aint gonna paint no more!”
- “Green is a Chile pepper”
- “The noisy paint box”
- “Maybe Something Beautiful”
- “Mix It Up”
- “Little Blue Book”
- “Little Blue and Little Yellow”
- “Colour” – Ruth Heller
- “The Dot” – Peter Reynolds
- “Monsters Love Colours”
- “My Many Coloured Days”
COMMUNITY BOOKS
- “I Like Me”
- “Our Community Garden”
- “What if Everybody did that?”
- “Giraffes can’t dance”
- “Should I Share my Ice-cream?”
- “The Invisible Boy”
- “My No, No, No Day”
- “No, David!”
- “The Crayon Box that Talked”
- “Magic School Bus”
HEALTH BOOKS
- “I Will never not eat a tomato”
- “Magic School Bus – A book about Germs”
- “Get Up and Go”
- “Medicine or Candy?”
- “The Black Lagoon”
- “The Gruffalo”
- “What the Fuzz”
- “The Black lagoon little league”
- “Angry Arthur” – Hiawyn Oram
- “The Watermelon Seed” – Greg Pizzoli
- “That New Animal” – Emily Jenkins
- “The Black Lagoon – Baseball”
- “The Big Game”– Gilles Tibo
- “Zero”
- “Nerdy Birdy”
- “One”
- “The Black Lagoon Thanksgiving”
- “Turkey Trouble”
Goal #3 - Sign Language
Although signing was not originally one of my professional goals, it quickly became a priority once I began to get to know the students in my class and their needs. Since I have two hard of hearing students within my class, it became apparent to me that I needed to learn how to communicate with them, and that the other students in the class needed to be able to communicate with them as well. Although I don't have a specific goal for signing, I am trying to incorporate signing into the units we are working on. I also have been teaching the students specific signs that can be used on a daily basis (boys, girls, lineup, thank you, etc.) Through signing, our class has become a positive and inclusive environment for all of the students. We have even started a "Signs We Know" bulletin board, adding all the signs we learn as we go.