My First Formal Evaluation!

So today I had my first formal evaluation...with many to come in my lifetime :)  Because I had class yesterday at UT, I got to the school super early to prepare my complicated lesson.  When I arrived at my classroom at 6:30am I found that my door was locked :(((((  One of the huge disadvantages of being an intern - I don't have a classroom key.  Long story short, I finally got in!  Needless to say I was a bit frantic that I only had about 25 min to get everything ready.  My nerves were shot, but then the lovely Jen greeted me with a Starbucks white mocha and helped me get ready!  (have I mentioned how much I love this woman? Because I do! :) )  I finally calmed down and then it was evaluation time :)

For the first part of our lesson I brought the kids to our carpet area and introduced a line of various sized pumpkins.  Each pumpkin was labeled with a number (5 in total).  Where did we get all of these pumpkins, you ask?  From our wonderful parents!  We actually had 10 donated!  How awesome is that?!  Very lucky to have supportive parents in our classroom.

So I had the kids guess how these pumpkins can help us in our lesson today.  After a few guesses (many very accurate!) and a short discussion, we read the book "The Bear Detectives: The Case of the Missing Pumpkin" (a Dr. Suess/Berenstein Bears book).  This book tied in great because it talked about predictions and dealt with pumpkins (exactly what our lesson is about...and you'll soon find out as I type more :) )

Only half of the pumpkins that were donated!  We'll be using these plus the other 5 in part 2 of our lesson tomorrow when we gut the pumpkins and count how many spoonfuls of seeds each one has.  The parents have been asked to join us in the activity, so it's a great way to combine home and school :)

After reading the book (the kids were VERY engaged and AWESOME), I introduced our objective 'I can use estimation to make predictions in math'.  Next step was to tell the kids what we were going to be doing and model it for them.

As the kids returned to their seat I explained that we'd be finding the 'circumference' of our pumpkins.  I asked if anyone knew what it was (and I wasn't expecting them to!). Some of the kids said 'it's how many seeds are in the pumpkins' another said 'it's the weight of a pumpkin!' After a few guesses, I explained that it's the length of a curve around a circle.  I wrote my prediction in my chart using marker (so I couldn't change my prediction after finding the actual answer).  Then I used a straight ruler and asked them how I could measure the pumpkin.  Some of them said to bend the ruler, others said to turn the pumpkin sideways, and then finally one said to use a string.  It was then I introduced to them that we could wrap yarn around our pumpkin, cut it, and then measure the yarn using a ruler.

Okay...I'm getting tired of typing so I'm going to start going into less detail :)

I then modeled how to predict and find the weight of the pumpkin, # of lines, sink/float properties, and # of spoonfuls of seeds.  Then I divided them into 5 groups of 3 and each group got a different sized pumpkin.  And they were set free to predict and then experiment! :)

First of all, the groups I made were PERFECT and everyone worked very well together.  They did a great job testing their predictions and then answered some reflection questions about it.  After this, we each group shared their findings and we compared all of the pumpkins as a class and put them in order from smallest to largest circumference and then weight.

Our whole class findings...if I could go back I'd definitely have a pre-made chart...but at least I learned from it.  Also, I think it's pretty obvious I'm still trying to work on my 'teacher handwriting' ;)

Overall, I think the lesson went really well for my first formal observation!  Of course it wasn't perfect and looking back I could've changed a few things, but as a whole I was happy with it.  I think it was fun, engaging, and academic as well - the perfect combination.  And of course, it was fall related and anyone who knows me knows my obsession with fall :)  I'll find out the score and some advice from my evaluator sometime either next week or the following week - so wish me luck! :)