Week 16 December 10-12

This was my last week at my PDS. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at my school co-teaching with my mentor teacher and running errands around the school. I was so sad when I had to leave on Wednesday. I didn’t know how much of an impact the students had had on me or how much of an impact I had on my students. I became very comfortable in my classroom and was able to take charge when I needed to. The experience I have had this past semester is invaluable to me. I was so lucky to be given the opportunity to spend so much time in the classroom and experience what being a real teacher is like, along with the many different things (good or bad) that occur in the classroom everyday.

This week I got the opportunity to sit in with our speech teacher and observe her testing a student for a learning disability. The child was a student in my class so it was really cool for me to watch him and see the ending results of his test. This particular student ended up being right in the middle of the level the teacher was screening him for. This meant that he was not eligible for more screening for a learning disability. My mentor teacher, the speech teacher, and I were both very disappointed with the results because this student has an obvious problem in reading.

Overall, I have learned so much from my mentor teacher and students in my classroom. I was very lucky to have a mentor teacher that gave me full control of the classroom and helped me plan lessons and helped me with anything else I may have needed. I am looking forward to next semester with my release days in which I will be acting as sub in the classroom. I believe this semester gave me the experience and confidence I need to have my own classroom one day. Getting up in front of the class and teaching is no longer scary for me and has become easier and easier. I used to be so nervous teaching, however, now it has become so normal for me. I am grateful for the teacher education program I am and the experience I have been given through the PDS.

Week 15 Dec 3-7, 2012

This was my final week of full time teaching and implementing my study. The biggest challenged I faced was planning lessons, teaching, and collecting data and analyzing it all at the same time! I was overwhelmed often with trying to balance everything. However, I did it! I found planning lessons becoming easier and easier as the week went by. Even though I only did full time teaching for 3 weeks at each of my placements, I do think it would have been even easier come week 6! This week was crazy with all different activities going on everyday! On Monday, we had a two-hour early dismissal, which means our schedule was all switched around and we didn’t have afternoon stations. On Tuesday, about an hour of our day was spent waiting for and attending a school wide puppet show that the students really enjoyed! On Thursday we had a filed trip to the CAC to see Aladdin. The field trip was so fun for the kids, but absolutely exhausting for me and the other teachers! On this day we only had afternoon reading and math stations. So, with all the crazy scheduling, I had to be really flexible with our time and had to make sure I planned activities that we needed to get done, like the spelling test and my vocabulary lessons.

I am starting the findings section of my research paper and it is so much work! I decided that I would look at each students activities according to week, and then look at the entire week and see if there were any improvements from the words the students missed on the pre-test on Monday and their change during the week. Second, I decided I would look at the individual activities with all the students and examine them for any change. Did they show improvements or not? Was there an activity where they showed success or one they did not? The final thing I decided I would do is look to see if there was a particular activity in which all students succeeded or did not succeed.  I am still going through this process. However, I did find one interesting thing. My below level male participant is able to show his understanding and knowledge of the words through his illustrations pretty easily. However, when it comes to showing his knowledge through writing or representing the words in a journal entry or sentence, he really struggles. The above level female student was very consistent with her vocabulary words. She either never missed a word on the pre-test, or she missed one. Her pictures and definitions were always correct. The only area I would say she needs improvements would be coming up with original words that mean the same thing as the vocabulary words. I believe she should be able to come up with creative words, but she needs more practice with words that mean the same thing.

Next week I will be at my PDS Monday through Wednesday. During this time I will be sitting in with the speech teacher/ IEP coordinator to observe some testing of a student in my class. I am really looking forward to this! I will also be scheduling some of my release days for next semester. I’m really going to miss my students. I have become so comfortable with teaching them and I know for sure now that I can be an effective teacher! I was terrified at the beginning of this semester, but I have really come to see that this is something I love doing and I will miss my students dearly!

Week 14 Novemeber 26-30, 2012

     I just finished my 2nd week of full time teaching. I was worried that
since the students had all last week off for Thanksgiving break that
they would be really crazy, but they weren’t! Monday and Tuesday went
really smooth, from there on out they were a little wild, but nothing
too bad! They really see me as their teacher and I like it! Mrs.
Wilson lets me do whatever I want to in the class and she really had
given me full control of the classroom. She buts in when she has
something she needs to say, but for the most part it is me and the
students. I really like that she trusts me so much and she lets me
handle the situations that arrive in the classroom even if she is
standing right there. I feel that I am getting a ton of experience
handling student situations. This includes things like arguments and
tattling. I have been able to handle a lot of situations that include
students crying. Even though it is really hard for me to sit there and
watch them cry and not hug them, I have to tell them are responsible
for themselves (if they forget a paper etc.), or to ignore those who
are making faces at them or saying things to them.

      Planning for the week has gotten so much easier! With the exception of
the stations the students go to twice a day Monday- Thursday, I have
developed a routine and that is one thing I have found that is so
important in the primary grades. When things are not done in a routine
fashion and students are surprised and don’t know what they are to do,
things get crazy! When I have my own classroom I will always have a
schedule posted, this not only helps the students keep track of what
subject or activity is coming up, but it also helps if a substitute is
in the classroom. I have also found that having all my materials ready
for the week ahead allows for a stress free week and I am not running
around the day of a lesson with my materials not ready. The first
thing I do when I get to school on Monday is look ahead and see if
there is anything I need to copy. I make the copies and then paper
clip everything together along with the lesson it goes with. I know in
the future this will be harder to do when I have a family and have to
plan absolutely everything (for example, Mrs. Wilson and I plan the
stations together)but for now, it is a good habit to get into because
it keeps me organized with school and teaching.

      This week I also conducted my science learning cycle. I did this same
unit with Mrs. Wilson’s second grade class last spring and the
difference between the two groups of students is amazing! Even though
I did the unit with her class in the spring when they were about to be
3rd graders and my students now are in the first half of 2nd grade, I
still see an extreme difference! I had my learning cycle ready to go,
but soon realized since the 2nd grade daily schedule changed, I didn’t
have as much time as I did last year. I also realized that the ability
level, motivation level, and maturity level was way different. I ended
up changing a bunch of individual activities or unsupervised small
group work to whole group work. I did this because I knew the students
I have now need more support than the students from last year. I had
to change the rubric for the final assessment to a much simpler form
because I changed the material to a different level. For example, we
didn’t go as in depth about the 3 different types of rocks as we did
last year. We did not complete the My Rock Journal because of time
constraints and because this was a small group activity the students
did together out on the playground and I wasn’t sure how the students
would handle this. They have a hard time getting along and are still
learning how to work together and deal with adversity when it comes to
arguments with other students. The small group activities we did
together encouraged them to share materials and ask each other
questions. This was a good way to get them working together, but it
was still supervised by Mrs. Wilson or myself.

      This week was also my 5th week of my research study. I decided how I
would go about analyzing my data and things I could and should be
looking for. Meaning, I found what I wanted each student to learn
during each activity. I decided to look at each student’s folder of
work. I then looked at their work week by week and tried to see if
there was a growth during the week. So, I looked at all the activities
for each week. Then, I looked at each individual activity for each
student. I looked at all 5 of the pre-tests, illustrations, foldables,
webs, and journal entries for each student and tried to see if there
was improvement from the first time they did the activity to the last
time they did the activity. I then decided that I would look at all
the students together and see if there was an activity that stuck out
to me that they all showed improvements on or did not. I plan on doing
this for each student, each week, and each activity. I will then begin
the findings section of my paper and write about what I found when I
analyzed each of the above. As I analyze the data, I am keep a
notebook page for each student and what I found when I looked at each
student’s work.

Week 13 November 12-16, 2012

     This week I started my first week of full time teaching. I have been doing most of teaching since I arrived back my home PDS, but everything this week was mine. There was no school on Tuesday due to it being Veteran’s day, so I had 4 days where all the instruction was mine. I have reflected on this fact before, but the students really look to me as one of their teachers. They always come to me with questions if it is dealing with a lesson I have taught them. If they go to my mentor teacher with questions, she tells them to ask me because I am their teacher. This tells me she really trusts me with her students. Many times during this week, my mentor teacher would need to run errands in the building and was out of the classroom. I handled the class very well I think and was able to teach the class without having her in the room to help out if I needed it. I feel this is helping prepare me to do my release days in the spring and also substitute. I have found it easier and easier to plan my lessons. My mentor teacher has been a huge help in offering suggestions and telling me how she would teach a particular lesson. She really lets me do whatever I want and I like having the freedom because I know some people have mentor teachers who don’t let them teach at all! Mrs. Wilson is more than willing to help me with anything, but she also lets me do a lot on my own, which is helping me become more comfortable in the classroom.

We finished our contract hours this week and many of my hours involves me leaving my PDS to co-teach in the feeder school for my PDS. My PDS only goes up to the third grade, so I feel like I have missed out on not being in a 4^th or 5^th grade class. I am also planning on co-teaching in an ELL class and doing some shadowing in a Special Education classroom that focuses on students with autism. Unfortunately, my home PDS does not offer these different classes on the level that the PDS I will be visiting does. With this being the case, I am hoping to learn about different services offered in different schools.  The other interns at my PDS and myself are going to design a book room at our school, which will include all the books the school shares in alphabetical order and put in order by grade level. We have also decided to present a PLC to our school’s staff. We are going to put on a math night and present our new findings to the staff. This will be a great experience for me and help me become more familiar with the process of setting up a PLC. I plan on using my resources from the PLC as one of the artifacts in my electronic portfolio.

            I finished my 4^th week of research and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Luckily, my mentor teacher is going to sit down with me when we return from Thanksgiving break (which is next week) and help me sort out my data and look for trends. One of my participants has gone out of the country for religious reasons and will not be back until December. I am still going to use her as a participant, however I will have to make note that she was gone for these reasons. This week’s groups of words all have to deal with being around water and the ocean. One of my participants commented that these words were easy and many of the other students caught onto the meaning of the word faster than they have the other words from previous weeks. This may be because all of these words have a very distinct connection compared to the other words. I look forward to sitting down with my mentor teacher and making sense of all my data. I don’t have a super large amount of data, I feel it will be the perfect amount to analyze, I am just not sure exactly how I should group things and what I should be looking for. After I talk with my mentor teacher, I have a meeting schedule with my teacher that is over seeing my research, so hopefully I can go to her and have her look at my ideas and see if I am heading in the right track. After Thanksgiving, I will be doing another week of full time teaching. I will be teaching my learning cycle again, which I am very excited about because I put a lot of work into creating it. I am a little scared to do it with this class because of their maturity level and the amount of time I will have each day for the different activities, but nonetheless I am still very excited! 

Week 12 November 5-9, 2012

I completed my 3^rd week of my action research, it is coming along nicely and I am getting enough data, however I am trying to figure out exactly how I should be analyzing it. I have enough data to look at, but I’m still trying to figure out exactly how I should go about looking at all the information I have. I have noticed the students have caught onto the routine I have them in with the different activities each week and they really seem to enjoy the activities where they are drawing.  Their writing is getting better too and they seem to be remembering the words better. An example of this would be me not having the write the vocabulary words on the board for their reference; they can recall the words from their memory.

This week there was also a sub in the class. Luckily, she was an intern at my PDS last year and did her intern semester with a first grade class, so she had many of my students before. This was helpful because she already knew them and they already knew her, she they had her respect and viewed her as an authority figure. She did a great job subbing. She let me do most of the teaching because I am beginning to full time teach now, but she would chime in every once in awhile and help me out if I was struggling. I have really started to get a hang of the routine we have in my classroom. It is so different than the middle school where there was time in between classes and I taught the same lesson two class periods in a row. Now, I feel like I am constantly having to do something in order to keep the students focused and engaged, it’s exhausting! Teaching the little kids is actually really fun and I’m enjoying it. I am able to write my lessons and review them the night before to make any changes and teach all day. My mentor teacher helps me with the stations because this is a lot of work for her, let alone me having to plan all the stations each week. So, we do this together which has really been nice.

One thing I have found with my 2^nd graders is how chatty they are! They talk and talk and even when I turn the lights off to try and calm them down, they still talk! It has sometimes turned into a power struggle where I am not raising my voice and asking certain students to calm down, but it is very hard. However, I have found one strategy that works fabulous with this class! I write the word recess on the board and I am able to erase letters throughout the week, if they lose all their letters, they lose their recess. They can earn letters back and this had been a real incentive for them to listen and follow directions and get the students around them to settle down as well.

I was only in school for 2 full days this week and a few hours on another day because it was Election Day and I left early on Thursday because I had my regional cross country meet out of town on Friday. My mentor teacher has been so helpful with helping me plan my lessons and filling in for me when I am unable to be there to complete my action research activity for the day. I plan on having Mrs. Wilson look at all my data and help me come up with some ideas about the students’ learning.

Next week will be even crazier because we have no school on Monday due to Veteran’s Day, leaving us 4 days of school and than Thanksgiving break! I hope the students aren’t too crazy. I am planning a lot of Thanksgiving activities; I am trying to stray away from the teacher manuals. My mentor teacher uses their topics but very rarely does she teacher her full lesson from those books. This is the type of teacher I want to be! I can’t wait to be a teacher who has all their materials set up from previous years and who has so many resources outside of the teacher’s manual! My mentor teacher has helped me to start developing into this type of teacher by always making me copies of her activities for my resources folder. 

Week 11 October 29- November 2, 2012

Woah! What a busy week! Although it was an extremely crazy few days, it only prepares me for my future in an elementary classroom. Monday went pretty smoothly, with the exception of the kids being a little rowdy because their Fall Festival was the next day. However, with the freak snow storm from hurricane Sandy, school was canceled Tuesday, and thus moving the Festival to Thursday. If Halloween, Fall Festival, and a snow day wasn't enough to make my head spin, Wednesday was a 2 hour delay and Mrs. Wilson had a sub come in! Luckily, the sub who came in has been a Suncrest numerous times and knows many of the students. She was very helpful in keeping the classroom routine in check, as much as it could be during this crazy week!

Thursday was our Fall Festival, and man was it exhausting! The students left school at 11:45 to change and eat lunch and then returned to school to complete games and stations. Mrs. Wilson and I made sure to keep Thursday morning the same as it always is, the kids were extra chatty, but we made sure to tell them that the party was a special treat and that in order to attend, they needed to be on their best behavior all morning! Luckily we had this talk with them before I was observed my school's liason. She said I did a very good job even though the math lesson i was originally going to teach had to be moved back because of the snow day and other events going on through the week. She says I have very good classroom control and that I am very enthusiastic with the students.

Thursday morning myself and the other interns meet with our coordinator and liason to discuss our contract hours for next semester. I was pretty nervous about this because I had no idea how I was going to reach 135 hours, but they helped us out so much and I am pretty close to having enough hours already! We are going to plan a family math night as part of our contract hours, so this will be a lout of work but I am really excited to see how we put everything together! The theme for my contract is life long learning. All of my contract hours are going to revolve around building my teaching knowledge.

This was the 2nd week of implementation of my research. I decided to skip Tuesday's activity because of the snow day and there was no way the students were going to stay focused on Wednesday to do 2 activities. Since election day is this coming Tuesday, I may just end up throwing my Tuesday data out because I will only have 4 out of the 6 weeks worth of data to look at. I am starting to think of ways I can organize my data and make sense of it, but I am having some trouble with this. Hopefully Mrs. Wilson can help me locate some patterns in the data I have collected so far. Next week, I meet with my research teachers to begin looking at my data, so this will be really helpful too.

Week 10 October 22-26, 2012

I just finished my 2^nd week at my PDS. Wow, time is really flying by, I only have 6 weeks left! This week at my PDS, I took notice of the collaboration among the teachers. Our PDS has new principal this year, and she has changed the whole schedule of the 2^nd grade. I thought since I had been with my mentor teacher before that this would be a piece of cake mainly because I already knew the schedule of the day. Well, everything has been changed!! We now have reading stations in the morning and math and more reading stations in the afternoon. This means there is over 5 new stations for math and reading each week! This is a ton of stuff to prepare for. Luckily, my mentor teacher said she would definitely help me when I start full time teaching because even she gets confused about the weird rotations we now have. There is only one other 2^nd grade classroom at my PDS. Since both 2^nd grade classrooms now have this new schedule, the two teachers really try to share resources and bounce ides off of one another, because let’s face it, there is a ton more planning to do now compared to the last time I was with the 2^nd grade! Collaboration makes their lives so much easier because they get to share their stations. I wouldn’t mind working with or even being a collaboration teacher. I worked with one at the middle school and my mentor teacher and I did a lot of co-teaching. The collaboration I see at the elementary school is different though, I se more of sharing resources than I do actual collaboration teachers, which I don’t think our school even has.

I also began my research study this week. It’s a lot more work than I thought it would be. I found it really difficult to fit in my vocabulary lessons for my research and all the other lessons we need to teach during the day. Luckily my mentor teacher is really flexible and allows me enough time to finish what I need to. I decided to look at 6 student’s work for my study. 3 girls, and 3 boys. I picked one boy and one girl each from the 3 reading groups; on level, above level, and below level. Unfortunately the girl student I picked from the at level reading group was absent from class during day 2 and day 3 of the this week’s vocabulary words. With this being the case, she missed the actual vocabulary lesson on Tuesday. I was out of town this week Thursday and Friday for a cross country meet, so my mentor teacher implemented my activities these days. I sent home day 1 and 2 activities with the student so she would still be able to complete them, I just may not use these in my data analysis and if I do I will make sure to note her activities were completed at home. I don’t have much to analyze yet because I have only conducted each activity one time and I am looking for comparisons among the activities.

One day this week we had a sub. This sub was no help at me all and it makes me feel bad for the students when there is a sub because their whole day is completely messed up. Even the students told my mentor teacher that the sub didn’t do anything all day. I ended up teaching the whole day, which was fine because I need and enjoy the experience, but the students definitely tried to see how far they could push my buttons. They were so chatty all day and it was really hard for me to get them to calm down. Turing the lights off didn’t work, giving them laps to walk at recess didn’t work, giving them slips didn’t work. Nothing. This is something I am going to talk to my mentor teacher about because it was very frustrating for me as a new teacher. My mentor teacher has told me many times that that class is very immature for 2^nd graders, and I definitely saw that when I was teaching the whole day. I had one student who cried 4 times throughout the day. One time because the gym teacher didn’t let the boys come into the building first. It was a very tiring day and at the end of the day I questioned if this was something I wanted to do all my life. I told myself that next year I will have my own classroom and I will be seen as the real teacher and hopefully my students will find more respect for me. The next day at school my mentor teacher told me that she noticed a huge difference with how the students approached me. She said she saw them coming to me instead of her and asking for my self and guidance. She said this was because I was the boss yesterday and they were starting to look at me like they look at her. This made me feel really good and that I actually did teach and make an impact on the students the day before. My mentor teacher also told me that the principal at our school complimented me on what a great a job I did with the students while Mrs. Wilson was away, so this was really good news!

Next week I begin week two of my research study and start teaching more math and reading, which I am really excited about. All my math lessons this week went very well and I am definitely more confident teaching the younger students now than I was when I was teaching the 2^nd grade last Spring!

Week 9 October 22- 26, 2012

 I just finished my first week back at my home PDS, Suncrest Primary. I really missed being in the familiar setting. However, I started to miss the 6^th grade students and the daily routine I had established with them. I like the structure of the middle school with 45 minute classes and the students rotating throughout the day. But, I have already begun to learn about each of my 19 2^nd graders. The one thing I like most about the elementary setting is that I have the same students each day all day, so I definitely get to know them better. I feel more physically exhausted at the end of the day because we are always changing something or doing something different.

I experienced one of the most frightening things in my life this week. My mentor teacher and I had lunch duty; this rotates throughout the 2^nd and 3^rd grade teachers. Anyways, a student started to choke! The little girl across from him raised her hand, I was totally focused on what she needed and then when she calmly pointed at him and said, “he’s choking,” I panicked. Luckily, Mrs. Wilson was within reach and by the time we both got to him, he had coughed up the food that was trapped in his throat. I almost cried watching him, but it was all-ok, and he started to eat again. This showed me how ANYTHING can happen, especially with little kids. We had the nurse come in and talk with the students about the lunch room and if you see someone choking, do not raise your hand, it is ok to get out of your seat! This made me think, I am first-aid and CPR certified because I work at a day care over the summer, but my teacher education program does not make us take courses or be certified. I think this is something I am going to bring up to my program because had I not been certified and I was the only teacher in the room at the time, I would have not known what to do.  It was very scary.

I started to take over the calendar time in the morning. This was nothing new for me because I did this with the same mentor teacher last year, so I know the drill pretty well! This coming week, I will start the morning math. Two times a day, we have reading stations, where one group works with my mentor teacher and a few students who need intervention work with the interventionist and the other student’s work independently. For the most part, the stations rotate nicely. Each group is at that station for 30 minutes and this rotates among 4 days of the week. There are reading and math stations in the afternoon that are 30 minutes each as well.

This week I also am beginning my research study. My mentor teacher helped me pick out 6 students, a boy and a girl from each of the above level, on level, and below level reading groups. We decided that we would dedicate time in the morning to do the vocabulary activities as a group, this way I am sure to get some useable data! My mentor teacher says this is one of the most immature group of students she has had in awhile, so everything with them needs to be done step by step and as a group if possible. So, I am excited to get my study started! I feel like I have done so much preparation for this point it almost seems unreal that I am actually starting it and will have some data to analyze at the end of this week. Unfortunately, I leave for Texas for a cross country meet this Thursday and will miss two days of my research, but my mentor teacher said she will make sure everything gets done. I am really luckily to be placed with her again because she really wants me to be involved with the class and she really trusts me with her students.

As I mentioned before, the maturity level of this group of students is very low. I student taught with 2^nd graders last spring and they were so mature! I know that these students are a lot younger than the students I worked with in the spring because it is still early in the year. I am hoping that when I come back in the spring to do some contract hours that the maturity level of this group increases. They are a great group of kids, they are just so needy. The biggest thing I have noticed with them is that they cannot stay in their seat and they talk a lot! They talk to themselves for the most part! This was funny at first, but after a day of it, I was about to go crazy! If they need something they always come up and start pecking on my shoulder, so we are really working with them about raising their hands if they need something. I really like this group and can’t wait to start teaching them more. They are a really energetic group and seem really eager to learn!

Week 8 October 8-12, 2012

This was my last week at my middle school placement this semester. I wasn’t expecting on being so sad, but once all the students started saying good-bye to me and my mentor teacher and other 6^th grade teachers wished me well, it hit me. I didn’t realize that spending only 8 weeks in the classroom would have such an impact on the students, and that they would have such an impact on me! When the students told me they would miss me, it really made me think about the impact I had on them and how much they really looked up to me. It was probably one of the best feelings I have had while teaching. 8 short weeks proved to be enough to gain the respect of my students and have them look at me like a “real” teacher. I will really miss each and every one of them. My mentor teacher and the other 6^th grade teachers really opened their classes up to me and made me feel like apart of their team. I hope that the school I teach in has a staff that is so close and works so well together. They asked for my opinions and really taught me how to deal with all the stresses that come along with teaching.

On my Monday of this week, we had an ISE day. There were no students, but the teachers had to report, including myself. The first two hours of the day was spent doing parent conferences. My mentor teacher was not able to make it into school that day, so it was my responsibility to fill her position and actually take part in all 3 meetings we had with students that day. Mrs. Atkinson and myself act as one of the student’s homeroom teacher, so I didn’t have much to share other than her SR and ABC record. I had to show the parents her chart and tell them what she had received an SR/ABC for.  The second student was in my math class. I had to give my opinion on how he behaved in class because this particular student has an issue with talking back to teachers. I had experienced this before with this student so I was able to tell his mom what I saw from him in the classroom. The third student is also in one of my math classes. As his teacher, I didn’t see the many behavior problems like some of the other teachers have seen. He is respectful for the most part, the only issue we had with him in our classroom is his inability to sit down and raise his hand when he needs something. He had trouble getting his homework in at the beginning of the year, but this has improved. Since he has had so much trouble in school, with suspension and fighting, his meeting was really long. This was good for me because I was able to see how the other teachers dealt with the parents and all the parents! I was so nervous during the meetings because I have been with the students all year up to this point so it was my responsibility to tell them how their children have been doing in my class since I was the teacher in charge for a few weeks. Talk about stressful!! After the parent meetings, we had Faculty Senate meeting with all the entire staff. They discussed issues in the school and other items that were happening in each of the grade levels.  It was nice to see the whole staff working together to make the school a better place for them and the students! I was glad I was able to be apart of this ISE day.

My mentor teacher and I, along with a SPED teacher, collaboratively taught a math class this semester. I really like collaborate teaching and I think all classrooms should have this regardless of if there are students who need assistance in the classroom. Mrs. Atkinson and I worked really together, which shows me you need to be compatible with the collaborative teacher if you are going to teacher successfully together. Collaborative teaching is something I am fully open to and would like to do in the future! It was so nice having 3 teachers in the classroom; this helped all the students in the class, not just those who needed the special educator. We were all 3 able to bounce ideas off each other and add things to lessons that may help different students in different ways.

I was so hesitant to be teaching 6^th grade, but I quickly learned that 6^th grade is definitely a level I would be willing to teach! I like the structure and schedule of middle school. Although, I found it hard to make lessons new and exciting, compared to the fun arts and crafts you get to do in the elementary grades all the time. The one thing I liked about 6^th grade is that I can take what I have learned in all my English courses in college and apply them where as this is harder to do in the primary grades. I actually really like this age group. For the most part, many of them are still excited to learn and want to do well! It may have been that I had an awesome mentor teacher and literally, all the students LOVE her, which made my experience so grade, but I also had great students to work with as well! My experience in the 6^th grade has been invaluable to me. I am glad that I was able to broaden the grade levels I have student taught in, this makes me confident to apply for middle school positions in the future. 

On Monday I will take on the 2nd grade as the final step in my internship, I am excited to work with my mentor teacher and also start my research study!! 

Week 7 October 1-5, 2012

This week was my final week of full time teaching in my 6^th grade class. I have one more week left in this placement before I return to my home PDS. I have learned so much these past few weeks of full time teaching. The biggest things I have learned is how to get through changes and be able to switch plans at any moment. Monday morning I began teaching 1^st period math and noticed right away during their individual 5 minute check that many students did not understand the lesson that was taught on Friday. Based on this assessment, I decided to reteach the entire lesson, so this put my math lessons behind a whole day for the entire week! So much for detailed lesson plans when everything can change at any moment! Luckily, my mentor teacher is so flexible and understands changes in the schedule that she agreed with me that we needed to reteach the lesson.

My mentor teacher noticed that I have taken a lot more control of the classroom over the past few weeks as well. She told me my improvements have made lessons go smoother and the students also realize that I am a teacher too and in control of the classroom. I no longer stay in my corner of the classroom; I am walking around the entire time and showing that I am in control. I am definitely being more assertive when it comes to behavior in the classroom, I ask them to raise their hands if they need something instead of blurting out loud during instruction; this is something some students are still working on! I have made big improvements with the amount of questions that are being asked during my 5^th period English class. I think now they understand that if they are going to ask me if their answer is right o wrong, they better not ask it! I am giving them clearer and more step-by-step instructions so I think this helps them not get so confused during the period. I still have a lot of little hands going up in the air during this class, but it is definitely getting better. If there are questions before we begin an activity, I make sure to tell them to listen closely because I will not answer the same question twice. I’m not sure if this is a good strategy or not, but for students whom I know ask questions just for the sake of asking them, I will ignore them and see if they put their hands down or keep them up. For the most part, they put their hands down and move on. We were spending SO much class time answering questions like, “is it ok if I have a blue pencil instead of a dark blue?” or “she didn’t dot her “i” is that ok?” that we were not having time to do anything else and that needed to change!

Mrs. Atkinson also showed me how to record the SR’s and ABC’s. This is so time consuming especially if you have students who get a lot of them! It is good for documentation though. During a conference with a student’s parents, we were able to show the improvements of number of SR’s and ABC’s based on the record we keep. The first week of school their line of reminders was really high and as the weeks went on, you could see a decrease in the height of the line. Even though this is good documentation, it still takes up so much time and you have to remember to do it everyday or you will get behind and have so much recording to do!

Another thing my mentor teacher noticed that I am doing a good job with is calling on students during lessons that are off task. Doing this gets them to see they need to pay attention during lessons. It also shows my mentor teacher and myself that I am multitasking, I am teaching a lesson and watching all the students at the same time and noticing what they are doing. This skill takes practice, but I also think it is a good classroom management strategy because I am watching the students’ behaviors and if one student is off task, I can see it and get them back on task by asking them a question they should know.

On Friday there was a sub in my classroom which meant I was teaching and doing everything all day! I have done this before so it wasn’t a big deal, it just shows me how much needs to get done and be done by the end of the day! I was the teacher the students went to if they needed anything and at times that meant I had 5 students at my side! It can be overwhelming, but it is invaluable experience that I will be glad I had once I am able to sub and have my own classroom. Being able to be the head teacher towards the end of my time here has shown me how much the students look up to me. They respect me and follow what I ask them to do. Very rarely did I have students who were acting up because there was a sub in the classroom. This makes me feel really good and shows me that I can have control of the classroom and have respect from the students. They know that I follow Mrs. Atkinson’s classroom rules, so they need to follow them even when she is not in the classroom.

Next week I will slowly start to give Mrs. Atkinson control of the classroom and teaching. I am really sad to go and will miss the students a lot. 6^th grade is definitely not what I thought it would be! Next week I will teach a few lessons and prepare to move on to my home PDS.

Week 6 September 24-28 2012

This week I continued full time teaching, making it my 2^nd week. What I have found these past few weeks is that there is literally no time during the day to get anything done! I reached for my teacher notebook to look at notes I had taken about this week and was surprised to find that I didn’t have any! Full time teaching has forced me to make mental notes about things I have seen and hope that in between class periods if I am not making copies of something or preparing for the next group of kids to come in…there is no time to take notes!!! Even though I arrive at school earlier than I am suppose to, prepare at home, and use every free moment at school to review lessons and see what changes I can make, there never seems to be enough time!

On a more positive note, my mentor teacher and I decided we would tackle our 3^rd period collaborative math class together. It is a collaborative class after all. So, my mentor teacher, the SPED teacher, and myself all teach this class together and switch off between example problems and walking around the room to help various students. This has seemed to work the best! It has also given the SPED teacher an opportunity to see how my mentor teacher and her collaborative teacher did things last year…she is used to more one on one resource room teaching.  I have to admit collaborative teaching is something I really enjoy and would like to learn more about and get involved with when I become a teacher in the future. I think this really helps the students because sometimes other people are able to explain material in a different way that different students will understand better.

My English class is still moving forward with their novel Walk Two Moons. My mentor teacher gave me some suggestions with this class and their tendencies to ask many questions that really do not need to be asked. During one lesson, we were checking a paper that could have more than one answer. As soon as we were done reviewing there were about 8 hands in the air. I asked them if they had a question about whether their answer was right or wrong, than they needed to put their hand down. And ALL the hands went down! I don’t think this was to harsh because I had spent 5 plus minutes explaining to them that their answers may be very different than others and that was ok. My mentor teacher also suggested that when their questioning gets to out of hand, to tell them if they have a question, write it down and come to me after class. This helps save time during instruction.

We took our students to the “safe place” this week also. This is a place the school is suppose to me incase the building is not safe. My mentor teacher has to carry a bag with parent numbers, emergency contacts and a lot more. This definitely opened my eyes and made me think that when I am a real teacher, I will be in charge of 25 lives at all times and it is my job to make sure these students know what to do and that I know what to do in case of an emergency. It is very scary and overwhelming knowing that soon I will be the one in charge.

As I being my 3^rd week of full time teaching I am expecting on being exhausted, but I am also expecting on learning a lot and taking in as much as I can about middle school.

Week 5 September 17-21, 2012

This week I took over my mentor teacher’s collaborative math class. We both felt like this was a good idea because our collaborative class is one day behind our first math class. This allowed me to watch her teach the first math class and then the next day I would teach that same lesson. I felt really comfortable doing this which made me more comfortable to take over BOTH math classes the following week!  Teaching the collaborative class wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! My mentor teacher was in the room along with the collaborative teacher. This really helped me keep the lesson moving while they helped out around the room.

This week there was also a sub in my class. She was a lot more helpful than the previous subs I have had in this class. But, I did all the teaching! I was so nervous once collaborative math rolled around because the collaborative teacher also had a sub! We did a 5 minute check quiz to see if the students retained the information from the lesson the day before. I learned from this quiz, that they did not retain as much as I would have liked them too. This was a great opportunity for me to assess and act on what I saw. So, I decided on my own that I would reteach the lesson from the day before. When I talked about this with my mentor teacher she said it was a great decision. I noticed that the students had a lot more respect for me as their teacher this day with the sub than the previous days with the subs. They came to me with all their questions and followed all the classroom rules. I only had to hand out SRs to students who didn’t complete their homework.

In my English class, we are moving forward with the novel Walk Two Moons. I have really enjoyed this class and my lessons because I am a BIG literature person! I am looking forward to my lessons this week because we are discussing metaphors and similes. We did literature groups for the first time and they worked out great! This group of students can work independently, with a partner, or in a group wonderfully! They discussed the book with one anther without being told to and they looked out for their vocabulary words that they will be quizzed on soon. This class really wants to do well in school and this means they ask questions and participate in class.

One thing that I have really been utilizing while I am full time teaching is the SmartBoard with Microsoft word. Before each class I put a list of things the students need to have out on their desk that way once everyone is seated, we can start the lesson and there is not confusion on what needs to be out and what we are doing. It avoids a lot of questions and gets the students focused as soon as they walk in the class. This is definitely something I will be doing when I have my own classroom. Another thing I tried this week was playing music during my English class. I played some classical music while the students worked independently and silently. Many of the students commented on how it was really relaxing and it kept the room from being completely silent 

Week 4 September 10-14, 2012

For the past few weeks in my PDS, my mentor teacher and I have been implementing her form of classroom management. I have found it is a lot different and sometimes harder to create a management plan when you are teaching in a grade that switches classes every period compared to a class (like an elementary grade) that stays in the same class the entire day. Luckily, I didn't have to think to much about some type of plan for my classes because my mentor teacher has already developed a really good one. She has all 5 periods of classes she teaches written on the chalk board with 5 blank spaces going out from each of the 5 periods. Her plan is that she will not ask a class to QUIET down. She will go over to the board and write a letter each time she feels like the class is out of control. At the end of each week, the class that has the fewest letters receives an award like an Opps Coupon, or first to lunch coupon. This is a great system because the students are still really young, just coming out of elementary school and they are still competitive and awards like the coupons work well for them. If a class gets the entire word QUIET spelled out, they eat lunch in our classroom.

This week I tried doing some partner/group work with the English class I have taken over. It worked really well! This particular class gets a long very well, even though they are awfully chatty! They still get quality work done, so as long as they are working cooperatively and not disturbing other groups, I don't mind if they talk. They worked with a partner to fill out a few sheet for their Chapter 1 grammar test, and they enjoyed it. I think this was a great way for the students to work together on something that can be kind of boring and tedious, so it was just something different for them.

This week I also got to sit in on a SAT meeting. It was very eye opening. It truly showed me how much the teachers and administration care of each and every student. They took their planning time to meet along with the student's parent. I was able to see all the documentation like SR's ABC's, grades, and papers done by the student that is needed to prove this student needs a SAT. The mother of the child really seemed to want to help her child, which seemed to make the meeting more peaceful and move smoothly. My mentor teacher cautioned me that sometimes parents become defendant of their child and look past the issues that may be there. I saw how the team of teachers came together and formed a special plan for the student in order to get them back on track with their grades and classwork.

The team of 6th grade teachers at my PDS have built a really great professional learning community. They come together everyday and discuss everything from announcements to issues in their classrooms. They offer each other advice and critiques, but in a way that is helpful. I hope that when I become a teacher I have a strong relationship with the other teachers around me. They have each other to fall back on when something isn't going well. I think the most important thing about being in teaching profession is to build that strong relationship with others and share advice and ideas with others. We shouldn't hide behind our classroom doors and not be open to suggestions of others. We should let other professional educators in and hear their advice, even if we do not agree with it.

Next week in the English class I currently teach, we are starting a novel study and I am really excited because literature is my favorite thing and the group of students I have do really great work!

Week 3 September 3-7

I have slowly started to take over more and more responsibility in my classroom. I am now fully in charge of my mentor teacher’s English class. I am so excited to teach these kids! Not only do I love English, but they are also a really great group of kids who work hard. I have also started teaching the skills group station in the Read 180 class. This class includes a full group lesson for 20 minutes, and then 3 rotations of computer, silent reading, and skills group each for 20 minutes. With this type of schedule, I teach the same lesson 3 times and I have noticed over the past few days of teaching this class that I become more confident and comfortable by the third rotation. This shows me how great it will be down the road when I am teaching the same thing year after year. I am able to reflect on how the lesson went in between rotations and hopefully change a few things before the next rotation.  However, I feel bad for the first group of students because I feel like I don’t provide them with a good enough lesson compared to the middle and last group. Is this the case? How can I change things throughout the lesson in order to benefit all students?

After one of my lessons this week, my mentor teacher discussed some things she noticed. She had a ton of good things to say but she also gave me some suggestions. I love getting feedback from my mentor teachers because they are the professionals and are helping me become a professional myself. She told me during some of the lessons I need to try to move quicker, specifically during skills group. She noticed this with the first rotation group and said the pace greatly increased as the groups rotated through, as I became more fluid with what I wanted to teach them.  She said that I ask a lot of questions, which can be a good thing, but she suggested I try to form some of my questions into commands. Instead of asking who would like to read a passage, I could say, “(student’s name) please read the passage.” I tried to use some of these suggestions the next day when I taught and she said she noticed a definite change and I seemed more confident. I can say that each day that goes by I am becoming more and more relaxed with my classes. I know I have an issue with moving quickly through lessons because I am so used to primary students and working at a day care over the summer, that I want to make sure each and every child is aware of what is going on, but sometimes you must move on in order to get through material. The students are old enough by now to know that they need to be paying attention and it is there responsibility to ask questions and get help if they need it. Timing of lessons and keeping them moving will be some thing I work on as the weeks progress.

Next week I am fully in charge of the English and Read 180 class! I have developed my lessons and am very excited to get started. With the Read 180 class, since it is a special program, I can’t really deviate from the material, but my mentor teacher told me I can switch things up as I come to them if I would like to! She is awesome about sharing her class with me and really encouraging me. She has really great ideas so most of the time I have been using her lessons and adding some of my own things. Next week I will also start taking over one of the math classes. We have one regular class and a collaborative class. The collaborative class makes me kind of nervous because I just want to be able to reach all the students. With the collaborative teacher’s help, I can move towards this goal. It is still sad to see students struggle so much. Each Friday my mentor teacher and the math collaborative teacher plan together. I really like this because they are able to talk about what they can do to help the students in their class. Today they decided to take the SPED teacher’s case load to a separate place in the classroom to help them complete a 5 minute check. They also took a few other students in order to mix it up and not make it so obvious that only certain students were getting pulled away. This really helped because they were able to go over the material even slower and it helped the other students in the class because they could move at a faster-pace as well. 

Week 2 August 27-31, 2012

This week has bee crazy! First, I started taking over some of my host teacher's classes. She asks me what I would be comfortable with teaching, shows me her ideas, and we go from there. I find this way less stressful! My teacher's lesson plans are simply a chart of the week with each class and what she plans on doing in those classes for each day. They are very clear and easy to follow, without being ridiculously long! I have started to teach math first. This was a good place to start because she teaches the same class 1st and 3rd period and has her planning period 2nd. This allows me to teach 1st period (or watch her teacher) and then model her teaching during 3rd period. I have also started taking some of the responsibility for her English class, which I have really enjoyed. I am specializing in English, and her class seems like they will do excellent work when I assign them projects I want them to do!

The 6th grade teachers at my school have TEAM planning 8th period. This is when all the 6th grade teachers come together and discuss issues in the classroom, upcoming events, and anything else that will make their days go smoother. I didn't see anything like this in my home PDS, which is a shame. During this time I have learned so much about the students and what problems teachers face. A lot of time they discuss certain students, how these students behave in each other's classes, and what needs to be done to fix the problem. They discuss IEPs, SATs, and setting up meetings with parents. There is a ton of professional collaboration and feedback. I have enjoyed being apart of these meetings because I really feel like part of the staff! I hope the school I teach at in the future has something like this because all the teachers are a "team" and work together to meet the needs of each student. The best thing is, these meetings are everyday, which allows everyone to know what is going on at all times.

To meet a requirement on my rubric, I attended the school's cross country meet on 8/30. Having run cross country at Suncrest it brought back a lot of memories. The kids were all really excited to see me there too, I think it meant a lot to them. I was also able to tell them how I run cross country and track for WVU, which they thought was really cool. I liked being able to show my students that we have something in common and that a passion you have in middle school can be something you do all your life! I think making connections and showing students their interests is also one of yours is very important in forming a good relationship with them! It was great to see such a large number of students participating in an activity that keeps you so healthy!

To end my crazy week, there was a sub in room Thursday and Friday. Although I was a little nervous, I had no choice but to suck it up and make sure the kids had a great day. It was excellent practice for when I take over full time teaching! The subs didn't do much, they sat at the computer which meant I taught the whole day full time! It was fun and exciting! The students really relied on me for problems and questions. They all know my name now! The day went by super fast as well. This experience taught me how organized you must be if you have to call in a sub. My mentor teacher left great notes and I had no problems at all following what she needed done. It made me feel like I can actually do this! Having taught full time for 2 days, I have learned how hectic a day can be when you are the only teacher in the room. Sometimes there are 10 students asking different questions, but I learned that you just need to take a deep breathe and remember that you are their role model, the one they are looking to for help, and to me, that is the greatest job in the world! I am starting to really feel prepared to teach my students everyday very soon. I also believe the unexpectedness of having a sub 2 days in a row was a great thing for me to work through. I am such a planner and like to know what I am doing days before it happens. However, I learned that being a teacher and especially a sub, you will not know what you are getting yourself into. This experience showed me that I can show up and do what needs done, even without planning! Something I was worried about and didn't want to have to do was give students SRs. I finally had to today, I felt bad, but the student knew he needed to fill it out.

There is one particular students who has done no work for any classes. I wonder why she is like this? What can I do as a student teacher to help her complete work?

EDUC 600 Picture of Education

This picture represents how I view Education. The blue piece of paper represents the word with a boy and girl in the middle. These are our students. The red and yellow paper have the words explorer, problem-solver, independent, respectful, and responsible. All of these words are things we need to teach our students that are not necessarily in the curriculum. Not only do we need to teach our students math, science, social studies, and English but, we also need to teach them to be successful in the real world and to become a part of society. If students are able to master all of these things, they are on their way to be life long learners in the world.

Week 1 August 20- 24, 2012

I just ended my first week at Suncrest Middle School and I have already learned so much!  The past two years I have been placed at a Suncrest Primary school, which only serves pre-k to 3rd grade. This semester I am doing an 8/8 week spilt beginning with 6th grade. I was so nervous coming into this week, I wasn't sure what to expect from older students. I soon learned that there really isn't to much difference between the younger students and older students, besides the curriculum! The 6th graders are new to Suncrest as well, so they are still getting used to the middle school routines and expectations, such as not leaving their books in the desks when they switch classes. 6th graders still need very clear instructions, meaning, you can not expect them to read your mind and know what you want from there. I found this very similar to the young students I have worked with. Clear instruction is important know what grade level you are working with!

I have enjoyed watching my mentor teacher this week and learning from her style of teaching. She is very positive in everything she does. If a student, for one reason or another, is struggling with something, does not understand directions etc., she always points out something good about what they are doing. This can be something as simple as raising their hand if they are known for blurting out. She certainly makes each student feel good about themselves.

For the next 8 weeks I will be teaching 2 math classes, a reteach class, English class, and Read 180 class. I am not excited about the English class! I am looking forward to having them create some unique products. I am also excited about the Read 180 class because I would like to become a reading specialist. We have already tested the kids to see what level of reading they are on, so I am already becoming familiar with the program. I am a little nervous about the math classes because I am not a math person, but my mentor teacher has assured me I will be fine!

As far as research goes, I have done a little bit of thinking about my wonderings, but it is hard to pick a topic when I have not even met the students I will be working (I am doing my research during the second 8 weeks!) I am definitely wanting to do something with English, reading or vocabulary. Perhaps something with literature circles? I plan on contacting my mentor teacher at Suncrest Primary and ask her for some advice.

Inquiry Celebration at my PDS

I won’t be able to attend the Inquiry Celebration this weekend, so I attended the staff meeting at my PDS where the interns presented their action research studies. I was glad I did this because I was able to see what I will be doing next year.

It made me excited to think of a topic to study, but it also made me see how hard it is to think of something so specific to implement. I believe that will be the hardest part about doing my Action Research next year. Analyzing the results and thinking of things to do in the classroom will be difficult, but in my opinion, not as difficult as first thinking of a research question. Luckily I have all summer to think about this. Next semester I will be spilt between my home PDS and a middle school, so I will also have to think about in what setting I will want to conduct my research. I am more familiar with the teachers at my home PDS so I’m thinking I will be more comfortable doing research there.

The interns did a really nice job. They created PowerPoints that had a bunch of important information, but were not bogged down and boring.  They all presented their results in table format, which is something I will probably do next year, this really gives a great visual representation of all the data. One of the interns did a pre and post assessment in which they gave the same test/activity before and after they implemented their study. I will make sure to do that next year as well because it really helps you see the affect your study had on the student’s learning.

It was really interesting to see what they did in their classroom. One girl looked at vocabulary lessons in her classroom and two other interns did theirs together and looked at number sense. I thought it was really cool how the two girls did their together. I wish there was going to be in inter at my school that was placed in the same grade as me so we could do ours together. Theirs was interesting because they were both in a kindergarten setting and were able to compare results from their activities in the two different classrooms.

Overall, I wish I would have been able to attend the Inquiry Celebration because I was not able to go last year either, but being able to watch the interns do their presentations in front of the whole staff at my PDS gave me confidence that I can do the same next year. I also know how I should create my presentation next year.

Characteristics 6 & 7 of the Novice Teacher

Characteristic 6: We believe that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of content.

An artifact I can represent Characteristic 6 of the Novice Teacher with would be my Education 461 Literacy Workstations. I am specializing in English, so I believe my workstations show what I have learned from not only my literacy classes, but also the many English classes I have taken the past 4 years. My Literacy Workstations include many activities for the students to do that revolve around West Virginia Social Studies. Other subjects like math, science, and vocabulary are also integrated into the workstations. I believe this shows that I can take my content specialization area and connect it to many different subjects.

Characteristic 7: We believe that the novice teacher should effectively integrate content and pedagogy.

An artifact I can use to represent Characteristic 7 of the Novice Teacher would be my Education 440 (Science Methods) learning cycle on rocks and minerals. I believe this artifact represents characteristic 7 because my learning cycle uses the 5-E Teaching Model of engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation to teach the students about rocks and minerals. During my learning cycle, the students work in groups while in stations. I also utilized a lot of visual arts in order for students to express themselves and be creative. Since this is a science learning cycle, I believed the best way for students to learn the content was to have them be hands on and discover information for themselves rather than me telling them the information. I think science is a very hands on discovery subject and during my learning cycle the students get to experience that. 

Characteristics of the Novice Teacher

CHARACTERISTIC 5: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD HAVE IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF 

PEDAGOGY. 

An artifact I can use for characteristic 5 of the novice teacher would be my Special Education 360 Tool Kit. Throughout this tool kit, I used multiple technology tools to create different activities for students. These activities require students to interact with the technology throughout the lesson. One lesson I did with an actual student was a vocabulary lesson. The student who participated in this lesson is a special needs student. I found out this student really liked to draw, so instead of having her use crayons and paper to illustrate her vocabulary words, I found a "Create Your Own Cartoon" program online and had the student create cartoons of her vocabulary words. This allowed the student to do something different with the lesson and kept her attention. I found that this particular student learned well through drawing.  I also had a group of students use a program called Study Stack to create their own crosswords and hangman games using their vocabulary words. I believe both lessons described above in my Technology Tool kit uses different instructional models and teaching strategies to reach many different types of learners. In my Tool Kit there are also three other technology activities, all of which include a specific rubric for the activity during the lesson. 

CHARACTERISTIC 10: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD BE LIBERALLY EDUCATED. 

An artifact I can represent characteristic 10 of the novice teacher would be my Art 103 Unit Plan. This unit plan was developed around the idea of students creating their own totem poles. I believe this artifact represents characteristic 10 because this unit brings in the culture of the Native Americans. It integrates math, english, and social studies with the arts, while the students explore the Native American traditions of the totem poles. There is also a Native American tale included in the lesson so the students are exposed to different cultures. During this unit, the use of technology is incorporated as well by using multiple PowerPoints during the lessons.