VTS 1 Week 10

Lesson 4- I choose (with Mary's help-thank you) two images that related to the project my group was about to start.

After we VTSed these images we then read an article about the Australian Aboriginal Artists. They are making dot styled aboriginal art :) 

Here is the link to my video
http://youtu.be/wriGJSxEsKw

Assessing, Reflecting, and Planning

Student Engagement- I had 19 out of the 24 kids in the class respond, with 35 total responses. Still working on getting a few quiet ones to join in the conversation. Today they seemed less focused on their vts responses. My story telling friend who is usually very involved, was distracted, at one point he was playing with cups that were on his table and I had to take them away. You can here him drumming with pencils so I called on him, which helped, but he was not wanting to pay attention. This was the 4 day I had VTSed this image, they are usually the first group to VTS an image, and I was disappointed with the fact that this group had a few different ideas, but my other groups did not get bogged down by repeating the same ideas over and over. With the first image, they were very convinced that the people in the picture were making a rug, and what it's purpose was. The second image they were able to come up with many different ideas. It was interesting that they kept thinking the images were related, that one was in preparation for the other. Ideas such as location of Africa, or the beach were discussed, tools and materials, what was in the backpack, and even the fact that the woman looked poor to one child, but not to another. I really enjoy the way the kids connect to one another's ideas, and the politely disagree and then can provide evidence why. I am not seeing conditional language or flexible thinking yet... Should I be?!?!  I was not great a varying my questions. I think kids are learning to connect and slowing some are even building off each others ideas, this became very evident with a few and they would say, "I agree with (child's name) because.... And I think....."

Reflective Practice- The VTS lesson has gotten very comfortable, in fact as I watched myself, I feel like it maybe getting too comfortable. I have to admit, I was sick that day, and went home from work an hour later. I noticed a sense of rush and unfocused about myself as a result of how I was feeling. I need to force myself to give better wait time, talk slower and more clearly, give some wait time between the child's response and mine (more time to think through my thoughts). I do feel like my paraphrasing is getting better as I'm getting more comfortable with the process. I think I just need to spend more time mentally preparing for each image.

Planning- For the future, I need to practice my wait time. I also want to practice slowing myself down in my responses. As I said earlier, I need to find the time to be more mentally prepared for these images. Overall I am excited every day that I VTS, it is excellent to see this side of my students!