Final JA adventure

The day has come and the end to my JA activity has arrived. This past Monday, Erica and I finished our last JA lesson plan. It was very hard, for Erica and me, to say good bye. The students did not know it was going to be our last day attending their classroom. But we both decided to make it a good day and give it all to make this lesson plan the most interesting possible. The activity was taught as usual, giving the lecture first and the activity second. However this time we gave students extra time for questions, thoughts or comments. We first asked them about the activity and we then proceeded to ask them about what they thought about their experience with us. Many of them were very happy, but at the same time sad when we told them that it was going to be our last day there. The teacher offered us the opportunity to go again if we ever wanted to make a presentation or lesson plan activity. I really appreciated the great team our teacher, Erica and I made. It was fun, interesting and challenging. I'm also glad that we managed to end it just before finals because next week is going to be crazy. I remember how at first, at the beginning of the semester, I was somewhat scared to present in front of a classroom. but after this great experience, i feel way more comfortable and ready to teach!! I wish the best of luck to everyone in finals!!

JA adventure #5

Crazy: The perfect term to define my past couple of weeks. Tests, homework, busy etc etc. That's what a student is all about. Anyways, its been some time i really haven't written in this wonderful blog site. So, to update everyone, I would like to talk about my 5th JA activity day. It actually took place last week, but its never late to recap. This lesson plan in particular was different due to all the absences, but we tried our best like always to make the lesson plan interesting. This time however, Erica and I decided to change the way we presented the lesson plan. We presented the lesson plan together. In other words, instead of Erica having to lecture and me having to do the game, we both did the assignment together. the lesson plan was about communitcation (newspapers). Both of us really liked the activity because it was related to history and both of us want to be history teachers. Overall, the activity went good. I cant wait to comment on our final JA activity. For now it will be all I will write because i still have tons of hw to do. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

4th JA activity

HEy everyone...hows the week going for all u guys? hope its all going good. Finals are just around the corner!! But lets not worry too much about that for now since thanksgiving is here...time for some turkey!! Well, today i would like to share with you guys my fourth JA session. The lesson was on natural resources and their role in transportation. Erica began first by introducing the theme. She defined and gave examples of natural, human, capital resources. She gave a great presentation. Then i came into the picture and once again had the role to explain the game to the students. But this time, I did need some help, so erica came in the picture too. It was really fun, like always. It is a challenge, but once you get the hang of it, it no longer is a challenge. Erica and my self have done our best to bring out an interesting session every time we go up there. Enough for today. Its time to get some rest from school and somewhat enjoy my vacation, cause i still got lots of homework to finish. Have a great weekend everyone!!

JA Adventure #3

Hey everyone, I'm back to share with you guys my third JA adventure. I'm half way done...only three more activities to go. Last Friday (November 14) my partner Erica and me went to our school site to present our third lesson plan. As opposed to the last two lesson plans, this time I went first, since I was really interested in presenting the lecture part of the lesson plan. The lesson plan was about the Gold Rush. In other words, it was going to be an activity that was mixing Economics with history. I started out by greeting the kids. Most of them noticed that there was going to be a difference on how the lesson plan was going to be handled. So they were curious to watch how I was going to handle the lesson plan and how Erica would handle the game. I presented my information for the first half of the class period. The tough part for the kids was that compared to past presentations, there were too many terms to remember. Among the terms I talked about were Entrepreneurs, supply and demand, boom towns and prospectors, among other terms. for the most part students managed to understand most of them. For me it was an opportunity to test my self on how good or not good I am so far in teaching history, since i want to become a history teacher. Once i finished my lecture, Erica took over the scene and proceeded with the game, which was called Strike it Rich game. The main purpose of the game was for students to answer questions that revolved around the terminology that I went through during my lecture. Many students participated, although many of them were, for the most part, taking guesses. Overall it was a good day for Erica and me. Looking forward to the upcoming 4th lesson plan. It been a great experience so far.

JA adventure #2

Good Morning Everyone!! Kinda late to wake up huh? Well, here is my update on my second JA adventure. Two days ago (November 12) my partner Erica and myself completed the second JA lesson plan activity. We went this past wednesday because it was postponed last friday due to the teacher's absence. Opportunity cost= we have to go twice this week and use time more effectively to do more activities in less time. Good thing I am a college student and used to it.
Both of us had to leave work early to meet up and review one last time the lesson plan to make sure we were on the same page. So we finally arrived to the class and the first question we got from students was Why didnt you guys come on last friday?? It made us feel really good because it meant that they remembered us!! Just like last time, Erica started explaining the lesson plan, while I was monitoring that students were paying attention. The topic for this second lesson plan was about how agriculture played a role in the economic development of the U.S. She also reviewed economic terms such as opportunity cost, benefits and costs. Once that was done, she proceded to explain and describe what the Homestead act was. Last but not least, Erica went over the passage located in the student workbook about Daniel Freeman. And then.....Finally it was my turn to take over the lead!!! The kids were doing a good job paying attention throughout the lecture. The activity consisted of creating 5 to 6 groups. Erica helped me monitor them throughout the game. But this time, it seemed as if many student took the game time as free time. Many were engaged, but many others were getting distracted. It was a difficult task since you cant really hold students accountable for their actions, most of all since we are just guests. We tried our best to get them engaged. Overall, Erica and me had fun. I think we passed the test!! Many times it is not about what the teacher says, but how the teacher controls the class and tries to get them engaged. So that was our day....But it is not any where over...We have another session today with the kids.. I just hope that they are not tired of school since its friday...But both of us have the energy to do it!! For now, its time to go for breakfast....

JA Activity #1

Finally!!! I started my JA lesson plan this past monday (4 days ago). I been so busy with homework that I just didnt have time to write on this blog...But the time has finally come.
This first thing i would like to share is the fact that I was nervous since the day before. I really tried my best to study the lesson plan so the presentation could come out like I wanted. And I think it did help.

General Information: My site was a middle school located in the southbay. The teacher that accepted me in his class had been of teacher of mine many years ago when I was in middle school. I was really glad he remembered me!! What made this lesson plan activity more interesting was that I was going to team teach with Erica, one of our classmates. The first thing Erica and I did was ask the teacher if we could post the JA banner on her classroom wall. Afterwards, we spoke about how to manage our time and how long the lesson plan would be. The teacher was really excited since he believed it would be a fun way to learn economics for the students.

Finally the students came little by little. They stared at us with confusion but yet interested in knowing what we were doing there. Once they all sat down, the teacher introduced us and afterwards we gave them a brief explanation of the reason for why we were there. They students were excited, and that really helped us feel more confident. The first thing we did was pass out the student workbook and the take home news letter. Many of them were starting to chat among eachother taking guesses on what type of activities they were going to do. Erica was the first one up. She gave the lecture part of the activity while I was going to be in charge of the game. Erica started to talk about the several topics that were going to be covered throughout the activity. Among them were Immigration, Emigration, Entrepreneurship, push and pull factors. Erica explained for a couple of minutes the importance of foreign immigration in the U.S. during the 19th century and about the 5 most important immigration groups that came to the U.S. Among them were the germans, the irish, the scandinavian, the italian and the chinese. While reading their workbooks, I walked around to make sure they were understanding what they were reading and answering questions if they had one.
Once Erica finished talking about the lecture on immigration, it was my turn to talk. I started by explaining how the game was going to work. It was a simple but yet interesting game. The instructions were the following: Students were going to read a small paragraph and they had to match it with the immigrant group that it corresponded to. The title of the game itself portrayed what the purpose of the game was going to be. The title was The Who Am I? game. students were very engaged and at the end told us they had alot of fun. Of course, there were always those students who were trying to be the clowns of the class, but we managed to use that energy to play the game. the forty fives minutes finally passed by and its was time to leave. We told the students that we were going to come back friday (tommorow) t0 do a new activity. A couple of them cheered, causing us to have a smile. Before leaving, we told the teacher how thankful we were and how excited we were to come back on friday.

I have some words to say about this week topics in class. For some reason, i had a very difficult time understanding Externalities. Its is one of those topics that you think you understand but at the end you dont. I didnt get a good grip of it at the beggining and just never managed to understand it. On the other hand, I think that the assessment assignments helped alot, since it gave us the opportunity to really understand our own work. In my case, i decided to make an essay questions to evaluate what my students learned. I believe that essay questions really put people on the spot and will show how much or little someone knows about a subject. That is why i decided to make an essay question. The assessments that I have graded from other students in the class have been really good, since they make the student think about what they did and what they learned. the only thing i have left know is the book review. It is a beautiful day today, why not enjoy it reading a good economic's book.