This has been the first full week of school we've had in November. It was a struggle to get through all five days. I've been so spoiled! The week went well. We've been focusing a lot of our instruction around a Thanksgiving theme, included the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. The students learned the sound for the letter Ii, so it worked out perfectly. They make wampums, Indian headbands, Pilgrim hats and bonnets, canoes, pots, and lots of other fun crafts. For their ABC book, they made an Indian, to represent the letter I. I was impressed to see how well the students caught on to the word Wampanoag and how much they understood about the way they lived during that time. I videotaped a vocabulary lesson on Tuesday for my portfolio. I read the students the book, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," and had them incorporate movement. They loved it! The lesson tied in the vocabulary words with the story. They did a great job with it.
For action research, I let the students play different games they seem to enjoy the most, such as fishing for letters or matching upper and lowercase letters. I also had them write invisible letters on the wall with their fingers, and make the letters using their whole bodies. They surprised me with how well they could do. Their favorite activity is matching the letter flashcards when they are face down and I timed them. We did these activities everyday during that morning block. The biggest problem I faced was attendence. Three out of my four students missed over half the week due to pink eye and other sicknesses. I just decided to take whoever was there each day, and keep my research going. I think it was helpful to the students that were present because they had more of my attention. On Friday, I assessed the students for the final time. It was wonderful to look at the chart and see the progress they made within five weeks. Of course I know that their was a lot more that went into that progress than what I did, but I'm glad that they are closer to being on level with their peers.
No school next week!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Student Teaching Week 12
This week was a very hectic week. The school conducted their bowling incentive, so our schedules were flip-flipped on Monday through Wednesday. Of course, in Kindergarten, this was tough because the students are so used to their schedules, and the change rocked their worlds! I was observed during one of my lessons that totally failed during small groups. Since rhyming is big for phonemic awareness in kindergarten, I had a lesson to reinforce the skill. In the small group, I first said two words and wanted the students to give me a thumbs up if the words rhymed or thumbs down if they didn't rhyme. This failed for two reasons. One, it was too loud in the room and the students couldn't really hear the words. Two, they use the thumbs up/down/to the side when rating a new book during a read aloud, so they didn't grasp what I was asking them to do. A lot of them were just doing a hand motion without really understanding why, but just copying the person next to them. I then had a cube with words on it for them to take turns rolling and then they would say a rhyming word. This went okay, except they can't read, so I had to wait for them to roll, read the word to them, and wait for them to think of a word. Looking back at this, I now know that I should have used pictures rather than words so they could easily identify and think of a rhyming word. The third activity I had was a concentration game with picture cards of rhyming words. Of all the activities, this went the best, because the students were familiar with the pictures and they enjoyed matching them up. When planning this lesson, I thought it would go great, but it just goes to show that not everything goes as well as planned. Kindergarten is definitely harder to teach than it appears to an outsider of the classroom. I never quite understood this until I really started teaching in the classroom. The students are all so different that you never really know how a lesson will work out.
My action research this week went pretty well. Once again, I only got to meet with the students one time, but the activity I planned was successful. I had them use fingerpaint on glossy paper to practice writing their letters. I had a dry/erase board, and would write a letter, have the students identify it and make it's sound, and then I would have them write it on their paper, while repeatedly asking them, "What's this letter?" I only focused on the letters we've learned the sound to, as well as the letters in their names. The students seemed to enjoy playing with the finger paint and most of them were exclaiming things like, "This is fun!" and so on. On Friday, when I assessed the students, I was pleased to see their progress once again. Although I know that my part in their progress is small compared to all they do in one school week, but I am happy to see that they are coming along. Next week is my last week collecting data for my inquiry. I am anxious to look over all of the data I've collected and see how everything will fall together for my paper. I am also planning on assessing the students after they have that week off for Thanksgiving, to see how much they have retained over the nine day break. I think it will be interesting to see who increased, decreased, or stayed the same. I am hoping that their parents will use the letter flashcards we sent home to help them practice, so they just keep progressing!
My action research this week went pretty well. Once again, I only got to meet with the students one time, but the activity I planned was successful. I had them use fingerpaint on glossy paper to practice writing their letters. I had a dry/erase board, and would write a letter, have the students identify it and make it's sound, and then I would have them write it on their paper, while repeatedly asking them, "What's this letter?" I only focused on the letters we've learned the sound to, as well as the letters in their names. The students seemed to enjoy playing with the finger paint and most of them were exclaiming things like, "This is fun!" and so on. On Friday, when I assessed the students, I was pleased to see their progress once again. Although I know that my part in their progress is small compared to all they do in one school week, but I am happy to see that they are coming along. Next week is my last week collecting data for my inquiry. I am anxious to look over all of the data I've collected and see how everything will fall together for my paper. I am also planning on assessing the students after they have that week off for Thanksgiving, to see how much they have retained over the nine day break. I think it will be interesting to see who increased, decreased, or stayed the same. I am hoping that their parents will use the letter flashcards we sent home to help them practice, so they just keep progressing!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Student Teaching Week 11
This week a little hectic, because Valley only had school for 3 days. On Monday, I read the new story called Animal Babies in the Grasslands. The book focused on the different names for child animals compared to what their mother's are called. The students seemed to really enjoy the book, compared to how they sometimes react to books included in the basal curriculum. I introduced three new sight words, and the students were already pretty familiar with them because of the daily news report done at the end of the day. We, my, and like are used a lot in kindergarten, so most of the the students didn't have a lot of trouble picking up the new words. On Tuesdays, I taught the initial sound /p/. The students liked making the noise with their mouths, and did not have much trouble with recognizing what letter the sound matched up with. Since it is fall, I decided to plan most of my activities for the rest of the week around a pumpkin theme, since "P is for Pumpkin." I read books about how pumpkins grow, and they created a book about the life cycle of a pumpkin. The vocabulary words for the week were fun words, so the students picked up on them pretty quickly as well. It's so interesting to see the difference in how much they learn when they are actually enjoying themselves!
For my action research, I did not get much data collected in the three days we had school, because no school for students on Friday was a last minute decision due to one of the staff passing away. On Monday and Wednesday; however, I had the students roll playdoh to form letters. I had them put die-cut letters underneath clear plastic plates, and roll playdoh to form the letters on the plates. The students did really well with this. My hope is that by forming the letters, they picked up on their different lines and circles to descriminate between each of them. On Thursday, I played BINGO with the students in the conference room. They had to spin to get a letter and then find the letter on their card. I was surprised to see how well some of them were doing with their letters. It also helps a lot when I make the sound of a letter they can't recognize right away. This shows me that there is definitely a strong correlation between letter recognition and letter sounds. Last week, we sent home capital and lowercase letter cards along with a ring to hook them onto. Students that did not do well recognizing their letters on their progress notes received these. Since there is research that says that students need that extra parent motivation and help at home, I am hoping this will help not only the small group I am focusing my action research on, but all of the students who need the extra help.Next week, I plan to have the students write their letters on wax paper using finger paint, and writing their letters on trays filled with sand. I'm hoping these kinesthetic activities will continue to help them learn their letters. I plan to continue to only focus on the letters we've gone over in class, vowels, and the letters in their first names. If they veer from these letters, of course it is okay. But I feel this is a better approach rather than overwhelming them with all 26 letters.
For my action research, I did not get much data collected in the three days we had school, because no school for students on Friday was a last minute decision due to one of the staff passing away. On Monday and Wednesday; however, I had the students roll playdoh to form letters. I had them put die-cut letters underneath clear plastic plates, and roll playdoh to form the letters on the plates. The students did really well with this. My hope is that by forming the letters, they picked up on their different lines and circles to descriminate between each of them. On Thursday, I played BINGO with the students in the conference room. They had to spin to get a letter and then find the letter on their card. I was surprised to see how well some of them were doing with their letters. It also helps a lot when I make the sound of a letter they can't recognize right away. This shows me that there is definitely a strong correlation between letter recognition and letter sounds. Last week, we sent home capital and lowercase letter cards along with a ring to hook them onto. Students that did not do well recognizing their letters on their progress notes received these. Since there is research that says that students need that extra parent motivation and help at home, I am hoping this will help not only the small group I am focusing my action research on, but all of the students who need the extra help.Next week, I plan to have the students write their letters on wax paper using finger paint, and writing their letters on trays filled with sand. I'm hoping these kinesthetic activities will continue to help them learn their letters. I plan to continue to only focus on the letters we've gone over in class, vowels, and the letters in their first names. If they veer from these letters, of course it is okay. But I feel this is a better approach rather than overwhelming them with all 26 letters.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Student Teaching Week 10
This week went much better than last week because my health was finally back in order. Since Halloween was on Saturday, my lessons for the week tied a lot around that theme. We had a lot of Halloween book read alouds, the students created their own Halloween books, and they completed a journal on what they were going to dress up as. I think that the students definitely see me as their teacher, rather than just a student teacher; however, they are still a little talkative at times when I'm teaching whole group. This is also due to them being 5 and 6 year olds! I am definitely getting much more used to the flow of the lesson plans, and it is becoming easier and easier to plan for the entire week. I have also developed a greater sense to timing and if students aren't ready for a certain lesson or activity I may have planned for them. The students learned the initial sound /s/ this week, and I had a lot of fun incorporating that into almost everything we did throughout the day. I also started sending home a weekly parent letter this week to inform parents of concepts we are working on and how they can practice these with their children at home.
On Thursday, I stayed after school to help with the Authurdale Service Club at Valley. The two head teachers of the club were past mentor teachers of mine, so I felt very comfortable at the meeting. I helped the students create treat bags that would be passed out during trick or treating at the Authurdale Historical Building. It was nice to work with an older group of students and to help them out at the club meeting. I definitely want to attend more in the future.
My action research this week went well. I decided to play a game on Monday and Tuesday called Roll-Say-Keep with the students. On the game board, there are six spaces and in the top left corner of each space is one side of a die (i.e. one dot to stand to represent the first space, two dots to represent the second space, and so on). Using the game board and a stack of note cards with lowercase and uppercase letters, you place one card, face up, on each space, leaving the remaining cards in a pile. The student take turns rolling the die, and identifying the letter in the corresponding space. If the student could identify the letter, they get to keep the card. If he or she couldn't, I would tell them to "phone their friends" and get the answer. Thus, they still got to keep the card. The students loved this game, and it was great because they got lots of exposure to the letters. To tie it in with Halloween and the initial sounds, /s/, I mixed in cards with spiders on them. If the student rolled and got those cards, they had to say the sound they heard at the beginning of spider. I made a big production out of the spiders, so they all tried to roll the number to get the spider cards.
The students had RTI Wednesday morning, so I was not able to pull my AR group of students on that day. On Thursday, I just pulled all five out of their playtime together and used the Fishing Pole Game as incentive. Since I know they love the fishing poles, I figured it would reduce their behaviors and they could just take turns. The students did a good job cooperating, and they helped each other out when one of them didn't know the letter. Since they were sitting in a circle, it was easier for them to see all of the letters, and get more exposure to them. During both activities, I've continued to notice that a lot of the students relate letters to the names of their classroom peers. I plan to use this method more next week to see if learning how to spell their classmates names helps their recognition.
To assess them on Friday, I did the usual flashcards I've been using. This time, I got the students much more involved with the sheets I circled the letters they knew, and brought out the "Letter Stars" poster. If they had three circles around a letter, they were allowed to put a star sticker by that letter on the poster. I had them find which letters they had three circles, and let them pick out the color star they wanted to designate as their color. We counted how many new letters that had circled, and they all showed excitement about the poster and the stickers. I am hoping that this type of reinforcement will encourage them to try harder and practice more with letters. Next week, I plan to do more kinesthetic types of activities with the students to make them more aware of letter formation.
On Thursday, I stayed after school to help with the Authurdale Service Club at Valley. The two head teachers of the club were past mentor teachers of mine, so I felt very comfortable at the meeting. I helped the students create treat bags that would be passed out during trick or treating at the Authurdale Historical Building. It was nice to work with an older group of students and to help them out at the club meeting. I definitely want to attend more in the future.
My action research this week went well. I decided to play a game on Monday and Tuesday called Roll-Say-Keep with the students. On the game board, there are six spaces and in the top left corner of each space is one side of a die (i.e. one dot to stand to represent the first space, two dots to represent the second space, and so on). Using the game board and a stack of note cards with lowercase and uppercase letters, you place one card, face up, on each space, leaving the remaining cards in a pile. The student take turns rolling the die, and identifying the letter in the corresponding space. If the student could identify the letter, they get to keep the card. If he or she couldn't, I would tell them to "phone their friends" and get the answer. Thus, they still got to keep the card. The students loved this game, and it was great because they got lots of exposure to the letters. To tie it in with Halloween and the initial sounds, /s/, I mixed in cards with spiders on them. If the student rolled and got those cards, they had to say the sound they heard at the beginning of spider. I made a big production out of the spiders, so they all tried to roll the number to get the spider cards.
The students had RTI Wednesday morning, so I was not able to pull my AR group of students on that day. On Thursday, I just pulled all five out of their playtime together and used the Fishing Pole Game as incentive. Since I know they love the fishing poles, I figured it would reduce their behaviors and they could just take turns. The students did a good job cooperating, and they helped each other out when one of them didn't know the letter. Since they were sitting in a circle, it was easier for them to see all of the letters, and get more exposure to them. During both activities, I've continued to notice that a lot of the students relate letters to the names of their classroom peers. I plan to use this method more next week to see if learning how to spell their classmates names helps their recognition.
To assess them on Friday, I did the usual flashcards I've been using. This time, I got the students much more involved with the sheets I circled the letters they knew, and brought out the "Letter Stars" poster. If they had three circles around a letter, they were allowed to put a star sticker by that letter on the poster. I had them find which letters they had three circles, and let them pick out the color star they wanted to designate as their color. We counted how many new letters that had circled, and they all showed excitement about the poster and the stickers. I am hoping that this type of reinforcement will encourage them to try harder and practice more with letters. Next week, I plan to do more kinesthetic types of activities with the students to make them more aware of letter formation.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Student Teacher Week 9
This past week was a bit frustrating for me because I was sick. Towards the end of the week, I lost my voice and the students could barely understand what I said. Apart from that, the week went well. I started implementing my action research on Monday and throughout the week I had to make a lot of changes to accomodate the students and the times that were available to do activities.
On Monday, I set out the Wikistix one of the tables during free play. At first, the students enjoyed the Wikistix; however, the glamour of them soon wore off and the students quit using them to actually make letters. They began sticking all of the stix together and ignoring the letter cards. I tried not to intervene as much as I could because I wanted them to use a form of "self-discovery" when using the Wikistix. The other problem was that the students weren't saying the letter name as I could they would be, they were just silently doing the acitivity. Eventually, they stopped playing with the stix totally and went back to their puzzles. I had the wikistix out again in the afternoon as an alternate activity when they finished their work at quiet table. Although there were other choices, a few of the students played with them and used them correctly. Higher level students were saying the letter name and looking for specific letters in the pile of cards. Another thing I did together was put the magnetic letters up on the board. In called each student up during their free play and had them pick a certain letter. This took a lot longer than I expected, and didn't do much good considering they only had to find one letter. I didn't have as much time before bathrooms and transitions, so my whole plan of doing short activities during those times failed immensely.
On Tuesday, I changed things up a little and decided to pick two lower level students to do the "Fishing For Letters" activity. This activity worked well, especially with only two students, because I could prompt them to say the letter at first, and then they eventually just said it on cue when they "caught" a letter. All of the other students were in awe of the activity, so I decided to put it out during groups so everyone could have a chance to play with it. There are only four poles, so I told them that only four people could play at a time. The student responses to the activity varied. Some students would independently say the letter they caught without any prompting, while others just tried to catch as many letters as possible. I walked over a few times when students at my table were busy working and prompted them to say the letters, but I couldn't supervise the entire time. I also set the wikistix out at a table, and some students would chose to sit there if there was no room for them at the fishing site.
On Wednesday, I had decided that I was going to focus on a small group for my AR rather than the entire class. Since Tuesday's morning activity went much better than Mondays, I decided that maybe just focusing on a small number of students that need the entra help with letter recognition would be better than trying to focus on the entire class of 21 students. Also, when I went through my baseline scores, I realized that there was a significant difference in the majority of students that knew over three-fourths of their letters versus the minority of students that knew less than ten. These five students are all in RTI Tier II, so I decided that they would benefit most from the extra help. I decided to do an activity with playdoh and letter stamps with those students during the free play time in the morning. The students were a little confused at why they were sitting at the table, but once they started playing with the playdoh, they weren't too distracted anymore. At first, I had to prompt the students to tell me the letter they were stamping, but eventually a few of them started to say what letter they were using. I've noticed that the students' have a difficult time staying on task for more than 15-20 minutes when doing these activities, and when it passes that time limit, they just start messing around with the manipulatives rather than using them for their assigned purpose.
On Thursday, I had decided to pull the five students out to the hall at a table to do the activity I had planned. I got the idea from a Dr. Jean Reading book to glue dotted letters onto the unlined side of notecards. Since the glue basically dries clear, the students couldn't tell what the letters were. I had them do crayon rubbings and told them they were mystery letters, and they had to feel first and guess what the letter was, and then use the crayon to rub on a sheet of paper over the letter to find out what it really was. It was a little difficult to do this activity with five of them at once, especially because two of the students were late coming to the classroom because of breakfast so they didn't hear the directions. At first, they seemed to enjoy guessing the letters and called them out when they were finished with the rubbing. After about five minutes, they just started picking different letters and rubbing the crayon too hard to even see the outline of the letter. I also had to prompt them to identify the letters for me, instead of them just calling them out, like before. I do think they enjoyed this activity, but it would be better to do with a smaller amount of student at one time.
On Friday, I spent the morning giving the students their weekly assessments. I was happy to see that they were all able to recognize more letters than they did when I took my baseline data. I also noticed that they were all able to recognize the letters they had been learning the sounds to during their comprehension story, which included Aa, Tt, and Mm. From this, I can see that there is a strong correlation between letter recognition and letter sounds.
Next week, I plan to continue working with my small groups during that small chunk of time in the morning when they have free play. I may decide to only work with a few of the students at a time on certain days, so they don't entirely miss out on that social time with their peers. I have written all of the lesson plans for the week, and I am excited about teaching full-time. My main concern is keeping the students' behaviors under control. The school already has a behavior plan set for kindergarten, so I have been doing my best to implement it. The students are still getting used to me being their teacher, so they are still setting their boundaries to see how far I will let them go. I know that I am going to have to crack down on some of the students that act out a lot to set an example of what kind of teacher I am. It's going to be rough, but I can do it!
On Monday, I set out the Wikistix one of the tables during free play. At first, the students enjoyed the Wikistix; however, the glamour of them soon wore off and the students quit using them to actually make letters. They began sticking all of the stix together and ignoring the letter cards. I tried not to intervene as much as I could because I wanted them to use a form of "self-discovery" when using the Wikistix. The other problem was that the students weren't saying the letter name as I could they would be, they were just silently doing the acitivity. Eventually, they stopped playing with the stix totally and went back to their puzzles. I had the wikistix out again in the afternoon as an alternate activity when they finished their work at quiet table. Although there were other choices, a few of the students played with them and used them correctly. Higher level students were saying the letter name and looking for specific letters in the pile of cards. Another thing I did together was put the magnetic letters up on the board. In called each student up during their free play and had them pick a certain letter. This took a lot longer than I expected, and didn't do much good considering they only had to find one letter. I didn't have as much time before bathrooms and transitions, so my whole plan of doing short activities during those times failed immensely.
On Tuesday, I changed things up a little and decided to pick two lower level students to do the "Fishing For Letters" activity. This activity worked well, especially with only two students, because I could prompt them to say the letter at first, and then they eventually just said it on cue when they "caught" a letter. All of the other students were in awe of the activity, so I decided to put it out during groups so everyone could have a chance to play with it. There are only four poles, so I told them that only four people could play at a time. The student responses to the activity varied. Some students would independently say the letter they caught without any prompting, while others just tried to catch as many letters as possible. I walked over a few times when students at my table were busy working and prompted them to say the letters, but I couldn't supervise the entire time. I also set the wikistix out at a table, and some students would chose to sit there if there was no room for them at the fishing site.
On Wednesday, I had decided that I was going to focus on a small group for my AR rather than the entire class. Since Tuesday's morning activity went much better than Mondays, I decided that maybe just focusing on a small number of students that need the entra help with letter recognition would be better than trying to focus on the entire class of 21 students. Also, when I went through my baseline scores, I realized that there was a significant difference in the majority of students that knew over three-fourths of their letters versus the minority of students that knew less than ten. These five students are all in RTI Tier II, so I decided that they would benefit most from the extra help. I decided to do an activity with playdoh and letter stamps with those students during the free play time in the morning. The students were a little confused at why they were sitting at the table, but once they started playing with the playdoh, they weren't too distracted anymore. At first, I had to prompt the students to tell me the letter they were stamping, but eventually a few of them started to say what letter they were using. I've noticed that the students' have a difficult time staying on task for more than 15-20 minutes when doing these activities, and when it passes that time limit, they just start messing around with the manipulatives rather than using them for their assigned purpose.
On Thursday, I had decided to pull the five students out to the hall at a table to do the activity I had planned. I got the idea from a Dr. Jean Reading book to glue dotted letters onto the unlined side of notecards. Since the glue basically dries clear, the students couldn't tell what the letters were. I had them do crayon rubbings and told them they were mystery letters, and they had to feel first and guess what the letter was, and then use the crayon to rub on a sheet of paper over the letter to find out what it really was. It was a little difficult to do this activity with five of them at once, especially because two of the students were late coming to the classroom because of breakfast so they didn't hear the directions. At first, they seemed to enjoy guessing the letters and called them out when they were finished with the rubbing. After about five minutes, they just started picking different letters and rubbing the crayon too hard to even see the outline of the letter. I also had to prompt them to identify the letters for me, instead of them just calling them out, like before. I do think they enjoyed this activity, but it would be better to do with a smaller amount of student at one time.
On Friday, I spent the morning giving the students their weekly assessments. I was happy to see that they were all able to recognize more letters than they did when I took my baseline data. I also noticed that they were all able to recognize the letters they had been learning the sounds to during their comprehension story, which included Aa, Tt, and Mm. From this, I can see that there is a strong correlation between letter recognition and letter sounds.
Next week, I plan to continue working with my small groups during that small chunk of time in the morning when they have free play. I may decide to only work with a few of the students at a time on certain days, so they don't entirely miss out on that social time with their peers. I have written all of the lesson plans for the week, and I am excited about teaching full-time. My main concern is keeping the students' behaviors under control. The school already has a behavior plan set for kindergarten, so I have been doing my best to implement it. The students are still getting used to me being their teacher, so they are still setting their boundaries to see how far I will let them go. I know that I am going to have to crack down on some of the students that act out a lot to set an example of what kind of teacher I am. It's going to be rough, but I can do it!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Student Teaching Week 8
This week, I was able to be a lot more involved in the classroom. I taught a mixture of Mrs. Sausen's lessons as well as my own lessons. I was also able to accompany the students on a field trip to the Fire Station on Monday, which was a lot of fun. It felt great to be in front of the class and to be working with all of the students versus just a small group. This gave me a chance to get a feel for the rountine of the lesson plans, and allowed me to become familiar with the basal and vocabulary book since I haven't written those lessons yet. I feel a lot more comfortable with reinforcing behaviors and the students are listening to me as if I was their own teacher. I have gotten to know a lot of them a lot better throughout the week and I can pick up on behavior issues and things that tend to set them off.
I spent a lot of the week preparing for my action research study, which I plan on implementing at the beginning of next week. I haven't decided if I want to collect data on all of the students, or just a small group, but I figure I will get a better idea once I start. I have gathered a lot of different activities, games, and my assessments and feel pretty confident to begin. The one factor I am worried about is time management. Since I am going to be doing short activities throughout the day, I am worried that I will end up skipping a lot of them because of lack of time.
Another worry I am having is my choice of activities. It's very hard to tell if students will love or be bored with an activity. I feel that the first week or two of my study, I will have to weed out the activities they dislike, and repeat the ones they like. I can find variations to those activities to use as well.
I spent a lot of the week preparing for my action research study, which I plan on implementing at the beginning of next week. I haven't decided if I want to collect data on all of the students, or just a small group, but I figure I will get a better idea once I start. I have gathered a lot of different activities, games, and my assessments and feel pretty confident to begin. The one factor I am worried about is time management. Since I am going to be doing short activities throughout the day, I am worried that I will end up skipping a lot of them because of lack of time.
Another worry I am having is my choice of activities. It's very hard to tell if students will love or be bored with an activity. I feel that the first week or two of my study, I will have to weed out the activities they dislike, and repeat the ones they like. I can find variations to those activities to use as well.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Student Teaching Week 7 - Valley Elementary
On Monday of this week was my first ISE day of the school year. They had meetings on Writing, TechSteps, and a Faculty Senate meeting at the end of the day. It was interesting for me to be a part of the whole process because I was not just looked at as a student teacher, but I had a voice and could participate in the discussions. When the students returned on Tuesday, we all expected them to be crazy, but much to our surprise they were excited to be back. They all did a wonderful job at remembering the daily classroom routine.
This week, I took over math and one of the small groups during reading. I also did the read alouds before we broke into small groups. The students act comfortable around me, and about half of them remembered my name from last week. I took the free time in this week to collect a lot of observations and re-access each students' letter recognition to gain more baseline data. A lot of the students' stayed in their same range, with the exception of a few students that increased. I definitely want to stick with my idea of using kinesthetic activities to practice with letters. Although I had hoped to have everything ready to begin implementing my plan next week, it is just not possible yet. I have a lot of good ideas, and have my research brief finished, but I need to write out a detailed plan for the remaining weeks of my placement before I feel comfortable enough to begin. Thankfully, I have a lot of time to conduct the activities with the students, and I am able to pull the most at-risk students for one-on-one practice during their playtime in the morning.
Next week, I am going to start full-time teaching from a mixture of Mrs. Sausen's lessons as well as my lessons. I am looking forward to being more involved in the classroom, and not just be observing or walking around during whole group activities.
This week, I took over math and one of the small groups during reading. I also did the read alouds before we broke into small groups. The students act comfortable around me, and about half of them remembered my name from last week. I took the free time in this week to collect a lot of observations and re-access each students' letter recognition to gain more baseline data. A lot of the students' stayed in their same range, with the exception of a few students that increased. I definitely want to stick with my idea of using kinesthetic activities to practice with letters. Although I had hoped to have everything ready to begin implementing my plan next week, it is just not possible yet. I have a lot of good ideas, and have my research brief finished, but I need to write out a detailed plan for the remaining weeks of my placement before I feel comfortable enough to begin. Thankfully, I have a lot of time to conduct the activities with the students, and I am able to pull the most at-risk students for one-on-one practice during their playtime in the morning.
Next week, I am going to start full-time teaching from a mixture of Mrs. Sausen's lessons as well as my lessons. I am looking forward to being more involved in the classroom, and not just be observing or walking around during whole group activities.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Student Teaching Week 6 - Valley Elementary School
This week, I returned to my regular PDS at Valley Elementary in Preston County, and it honestly feels like I have returned home. I didn't realize how much I've missed the school, my coordinator, the staff, and all of my past students until that first day. The school has a wonderful way of working together, and it is evident in the attitudes of everyone present. My mentor teacher, Mrs. Sausen, is wonderful and possesses all of the qualities a kindergarten teacher should. It is so evident that her students love her. As I watched her on these first few days, I am amazed at how many learning opportunities she provides her students on a daily basis, without them even realizing they are working. I only went three days this week, because they had Thursday and Friday off for the Buckwheat Festival. Since the students have already dealt with a lot of big changes recently, I didn't want to totally impose on their set routine. For these first three days, I decided to just follow Mrs. Sausen's lead, and help out as much as I could. I also want the students to get used to my face, learn my name, and start to feel comfortable around me. Mostly, I love just watching the students work/play/socialize; they are so interesting to me!
On day one, my main focus was learning all of their names. I got that accomplished, and attempted to place their learning styles and abilities. The students had just taken their September assessments a week before I arrived, so I had a chance to look those over and gain some background knowledge on my students levels. I also discussed the students with my mentor teacher. These types of things helped me with figuring out some ideas for action research, which is a big relief. I noticed from their assessments that a lot of the students do not know their letters, both capital and lowercase. Although I original planned on doing my action research with writing, I have decided to downgrade a little and go for letter recognition. Simply because, if the students do not know their letters, how can I expect them to write? I still plan to tie in writing in some of my lesson plans later in the eleven weeks I am there. For now, I want to be sure they have their basic skills down.
Luckily for me, my liason, Sharon, was at the school on Wednesday. It was a special day for kindergarten because their whole morning was dedicated to Buckwheat festivities. It was also a good day for me, because I had time to sit and discuss some ideas and questions with Sharon. I showed her the students assessments, and she helped me pick apart the data they showed. We also discussed what I could make a my main focus be for letter recognition, and I decided on studying how kinesthetic activities affect the students ability to recognize their letters. She gave me a ton of ideas to start out with, and since then I have been researching online, through books, and simply discussing things with my mentor teacher. I plan to do activities where the students can be actively engaged in learning their letters. I am already so excited to get started! Next week, I plan to collect even more baseline data and try to fill in and hopefully finish my research brief. I want to begin implementing my study as soon as possible, since I know only have nine weeks to get all of this done (counting the entire week Preston has off for Thanksgiving break). Back into the grind I go!
On day one, my main focus was learning all of their names. I got that accomplished, and attempted to place their learning styles and abilities. The students had just taken their September assessments a week before I arrived, so I had a chance to look those over and gain some background knowledge on my students levels. I also discussed the students with my mentor teacher. These types of things helped me with figuring out some ideas for action research, which is a big relief. I noticed from their assessments that a lot of the students do not know their letters, both capital and lowercase. Although I original planned on doing my action research with writing, I have decided to downgrade a little and go for letter recognition. Simply because, if the students do not know their letters, how can I expect them to write? I still plan to tie in writing in some of my lesson plans later in the eleven weeks I am there. For now, I want to be sure they have their basic skills down.
Luckily for me, my liason, Sharon, was at the school on Wednesday. It was a special day for kindergarten because their whole morning was dedicated to Buckwheat festivities. It was also a good day for me, because I had time to sit and discuss some ideas and questions with Sharon. I showed her the students assessments, and she helped me pick apart the data they showed. We also discussed what I could make a my main focus be for letter recognition, and I decided on studying how kinesthetic activities affect the students ability to recognize their letters. She gave me a ton of ideas to start out with, and since then I have been researching online, through books, and simply discussing things with my mentor teacher. I plan to do activities where the students can be actively engaged in learning their letters. I am already so excited to get started! Next week, I plan to collect even more baseline data and try to fill in and hopefully finish my research brief. I want to begin implementing my study as soon as possible, since I know only have nine weeks to get all of this done (counting the entire week Preston has off for Thanksgiving break). Back into the grind I go!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Student Teaching Week 5 - UHS
Today was my last day student teaching at the high school. It is definitely a bittersweet feeling, because I'm happy I'm done with part of my required student teaching, but I'm sad to leave my students and mentor teacher. I have grown to really like the high school aged students and I wish I could have spent more time with them. I've learned a lot about how to handle different behaviors and personalities, and how to differentiate material for students that are on completely different academic levels. It has been quite a challenge, and I feel that I surpassed my own expectations I set for myself on the first day I walked into the classroom. Today was a sort of "fun day" in all of my classes. After briefly reviewing a topic or after finishing a quiz, I played Monopoly with my smaller classes. It was nice to relax and just have fun with them. To my surprise, they were all very into the game and very good at it as well. I left on a good note, and plan to return again when I have a day off of kindergarten, and definitely for some of my contract hours. It was my pleasure to get to know Mrs. Broker and her students, along with the other faculty and staff at University. I only wish I could have stayed longer!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Student Teacher Week 4 - UHS
This week at the high school was very busy. I have started writing a few IEP's on top of teaching and I can already see why so many special education teachers complain about the process. I reviewed the students' files and there is so much information that goes into revising the forms. I must say that the practice is helping me learn a lot about what's helpful when doing a child's yearly revisions. I am also a lot more understanding of how to create modifications for the student's and how they should be based on certain scores. Another thing that caught my interest was watching a teacher go through the student's IEP with him to make him a part of the process. I thought this was extremely important because it helps the student feel important and have a voice instead of allowing others to speak for him. I had a lot of fun with my students this week. I'm sad that next week is my last week with them. It's crazy how much my attitude has changed about being in a high school placement. At first I wasn't too sure how things would pan out, and now I don't want to leave them! I definitely could see myself teaching at a high school level when I graduate, but my heart is still in elementary. I am looking forward to being in kindergarten, and I'm so excited to meet all my new students.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Student Teaching Week 3 - UHS
Through this third week of teaching, I have realized that you will have great days, okay days, and just terrible days. By now, I have taken almost complete control of the classroom, and it's a been crazy, but fun! Although I'm stressed, I still look forward to each day. Planning has gotten much easier, especially now that I am familiar with the text books and corresponding websites. I have also become quick with coming up with extra assignments when all I have planned doesn't fill the entire period. The students treat me with respect, and I feel comfortable enough to reprimand them whenever necessary without having to look to my mentor teaching first. Today my teacher was not at school, so there was a substitute in the classroom. Since I have been in control of the class full-time, I tested myself to see if I could handle the whole day without any assistance from my mentor teacher or the substitute. Surprisingly, the students were great. There were no behavioral issues and the day went by smoothly. This gave me a lot of confidence in myself. For the past few weeks, I have been back and forth about whether I could handle high school special education as a full-time job. Now I know it's possible and I might even enjoy it. I definitely need to keep my sense of humor though!
Another thing that has improved is my collaborative class for transitional math. At first, the students were shy about asking me for help over the other two more familiar teachers in the room. Now, they raise their hands and ask me to come over to help. Although I am not always sure how to do the problem immediately, I work through it with them and check to make sure I led them in the right direction. I have a lot of fun in that class and it's nice to have a mixture of students as opposed to just having all students with IEP's singled out. I also think it's interesting to see them in an inclusive setting. On the first day of this class, I after walked around the class to observe them do independent work. I could only suspect one or two students as maybe having learning difficulties. When my teacher and I discussed the other students, I was surprised at some that had IEP's. This definitely makes me lean towards full inclusion, especially when students just have mild learning difficulties. It's amazing how the social aspect of LRE's can have an affect on the students academic abilities.
For next week, my goal is to differentiate intruction for my algebra classes because the student's are so different in abilities. My only worry is that the students will have trouble staying on task while something else is going on in the same room. For example, I may briefly go over a concept to the whole group, then assign higher students independent or group work while I explain the concept more in-depth for lower students. I have already been doing this for the past few weeks on the spot, but sometimes I feel like I have students sitting with nothing to do for a few minutes, and I definitely want to avoid that.
Another thing that has improved is my collaborative class for transitional math. At first, the students were shy about asking me for help over the other two more familiar teachers in the room. Now, they raise their hands and ask me to come over to help. Although I am not always sure how to do the problem immediately, I work through it with them and check to make sure I led them in the right direction. I have a lot of fun in that class and it's nice to have a mixture of students as opposed to just having all students with IEP's singled out. I also think it's interesting to see them in an inclusive setting. On the first day of this class, I after walked around the class to observe them do independent work. I could only suspect one or two students as maybe having learning difficulties. When my teacher and I discussed the other students, I was surprised at some that had IEP's. This definitely makes me lean towards full inclusion, especially when students just have mild learning difficulties. It's amazing how the social aspect of LRE's can have an affect on the students academic abilities.
For next week, my goal is to differentiate intruction for my algebra classes because the student's are so different in abilities. My only worry is that the students will have trouble staying on task while something else is going on in the same room. For example, I may briefly go over a concept to the whole group, then assign higher students independent or group work while I explain the concept more in-depth for lower students. I have already been doing this for the past few weeks on the spot, but sometimes I feel like I have students sitting with nothing to do for a few minutes, and I definitely want to avoid that.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Student Teaching Week 2 - UHS
My second week at University was very different than my first. As I have gotten to know the students as well as their ability levels, I have been able to modify my lessons for each individual student. In a school day, I teach Algebra 1, Algebra 1 Support, and Geometry. When I started to get into harder material, I noticed which students needed the extra help and which could move ahead or be challenged. I've been giving the more advanced students more challenging problems/activities to keep them on task while I work one on one with the students that are needing extra help. In geometry class, I made up my first test and the students took it on Friday. They seemed to really understand the material gone over during the review on Thursday, so I was excited to see how they did.
In all of my classes the behavior issues I dealt with last week have calmed and the students have been giving me a lot more respect as their teacher. I have gotten them on a more personal level, and can talk with them about things as they come into the room or before class ends when there are a few extra minutes. I have noticed that they all get a small boost of confidence when they get the right answer, and I have been rewarding them with small prizes, such as a jolly rancher, or just positive reinforcement.
I still have three more weeks in the high school and I am optimistic that it will keep getting better and I won't ever want to leave my students. I have learned so much from just observing other teachers, students, and administration, and I am sure that I still have much more to gain from being here.
In all of my classes the behavior issues I dealt with last week have calmed and the students have been giving me a lot more respect as their teacher. I have gotten them on a more personal level, and can talk with them about things as they come into the room or before class ends when there are a few extra minutes. I have noticed that they all get a small boost of confidence when they get the right answer, and I have been rewarding them with small prizes, such as a jolly rancher, or just positive reinforcement.
I still have three more weeks in the high school and I am optimistic that it will keep getting better and I won't ever want to leave my students. I have learned so much from just observing other teachers, students, and administration, and I am sure that I still have much more to gain from being here.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Student Teaching Week 1- University High School
This semester, I have been placed at University High School to complete my five-week special education student teaching. Before going in, I had mixed emotions about teaching at a high school level. Would they even listen to me? How am I going to get them to take me seriously? My first experience at University was the "Back to School Bash" held on the Thursday before the students started. At this event, I felt extremely overwhelmed with all of the chaos of students becoming reacquainted with each other. At the elementary level, my students have always wanted to know everything about me and all of their eyes were on me. At high school, I am practically invisible to the students, and I could probably pass as one of them. I left that evening feeling even more nervous about what I was in store for during the next five weeks.
On the first day, I was introduced to all my new students. This day was pretty relaxed because we were not doing much instruction, just getting to know the students, fixing schedules, and opening lockers. My teacher has most of her own classes, including Algebra 1, Algebra 1 Support, and Geometry. She also goes into another classroom for a period to co-teach in a collaborative setting with a former graduate of the five-year program. We discussed a plan for the weeks to come, and she requested I waste no time and start full-time teaching. At first, I was a little uneasy about planning/teaching these classes because I haven't had either of those maths since I was in high school, which was over 6 years ago. Also, a lot of my students have behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities, so I knew my work was going to be cut out for me.
I was right! On Tuesday and Wednesday, my patience as a teacher was tested. Unlike the elementary age students I am used too, these high school students talk back, curse, fight with each other, get up whenever they want and basically do whatever they want. Since I had never had the chance to observe how my teacher handles her classroom management, I felt helpless and so overwhelmed. I knew that it was not me the students were purposely disrespecting, it is just how they normally act. I can also understand that by high school, most of them have already reached and passed their frustration points and the last thing they want is to be sitting in algebra and geometry classes, especially when they can't even do basic math independently. I discussed my issues with my mentor teacher, and she reassured me that I was doing fine and once the students got into the groove of school again, they wouldn't act up as much.
I went in on Thursday and Friday with a new positive outlook and hope that it would be a better day. To my surprise, both went much better than the two previous days. I finally felt comfortable enough to stand up for myself by demanding their attention when I was talked and reprimanding them when they weren't following classroom rules. They participated in whole group discussions, and did their work independently. I let them listen to music while they worked together on assignments, and they actually finished them. They helped each other and asked for help when they were struggling. Yes, they still cursed, got into little arguments with each other, and talked out, but they listened when I talked and did the work that was assigned. Friday when the last bell finally rang, I couldn't have been more relieved. I survived my first week of high school. Here's to hoping that on Monday things will pick back up where they left off!
On the first day, I was introduced to all my new students. This day was pretty relaxed because we were not doing much instruction, just getting to know the students, fixing schedules, and opening lockers. My teacher has most of her own classes, including Algebra 1, Algebra 1 Support, and Geometry. She also goes into another classroom for a period to co-teach in a collaborative setting with a former graduate of the five-year program. We discussed a plan for the weeks to come, and she requested I waste no time and start full-time teaching. At first, I was a little uneasy about planning/teaching these classes because I haven't had either of those maths since I was in high school, which was over 6 years ago. Also, a lot of my students have behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities, so I knew my work was going to be cut out for me.
I was right! On Tuesday and Wednesday, my patience as a teacher was tested. Unlike the elementary age students I am used too, these high school students talk back, curse, fight with each other, get up whenever they want and basically do whatever they want. Since I had never had the chance to observe how my teacher handles her classroom management, I felt helpless and so overwhelmed. I knew that it was not me the students were purposely disrespecting, it is just how they normally act. I can also understand that by high school, most of them have already reached and passed their frustration points and the last thing they want is to be sitting in algebra and geometry classes, especially when they can't even do basic math independently. I discussed my issues with my mentor teacher, and she reassured me that I was doing fine and once the students got into the groove of school again, they wouldn't act up as much.
I went in on Thursday and Friday with a new positive outlook and hope that it would be a better day. To my surprise, both went much better than the two previous days. I finally felt comfortable enough to stand up for myself by demanding their attention when I was talked and reprimanding them when they weren't following classroom rules. They participated in whole group discussions, and did their work independently. I let them listen to music while they worked together on assignments, and they actually finished them. They helped each other and asked for help when they were struggling. Yes, they still cursed, got into little arguments with each other, and talked out, but they listened when I talked and did the work that was assigned. Friday when the last bell finally rang, I couldn't have been more relieved. I survived my first week of high school. Here's to hoping that on Monday things will pick back up where they left off!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #7
The artifact I chose to use for this blog involves a unit I have created for this semester. My teacher had asked me to do a novel with my students in a resource room. Although they are all fifth graders, they all have IEP's and varied levels of ability. She chose the novel, Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. This book is set during World War II and the Holocaust. It is about a young girl who is friends with a Jewish girl, and who helps her hide from the Nazi's. Since I knew the students were probably not very familiar with the Holocaust, I decided it was necessary for me to give them some background. Although I have read online that fifth grade is usually when students should be introduced to the Holocaust, I was very careful about how I approached the subject with them. I began the first day with a K-W-L chart just to see if any of them had heard of the Holocaust before, or if they knew anything about WWII. Just as a had thought, no one knew anything. I also had the students list some questions they might have about the Holocaust. They used the five "W's" for their questions (i.e. Who What When Where Why). I then began by introducing the word "tolerance" to the students, and letting them know that they will be learning about an event that occured during WWII called the Holocaust. I showed the students two short videos from the Brainpop website; one was titled The Holocaust and the other was titled Adolf Hilter. The videos are in cartoon form and created for children, so they were appropriate to show. We then discussed the video and tolerance once again. Right now, I am reading a trade book with them that is titled, A Safe Haven. This book has given the students additional background, and it is on their level. To my surprise, these students have been very interested in the content about the Holocaust. They are continuously asked questions during and after readings, and they have given me their full attention during the reading period, which can sometimes be a struggle for students with disabilities. I am very excited to start reading the novel with them, because I have many ideas planned for activities. I also received a lot of picture books and stories from Dr. Hayes that I plan to tie in while reading the novel. I believe that this artifact falls under characteristic #7, which is integrated pedagogy and content, because I had to be careful about how I introduced the Holocaust, and I had to know the history because the students had so many questions about what happened. I also had to be sure to leave some events out of our discussion about the Holocaust because they are not at an age where some of those things are appropriate and may be difficult for them to understand. So far, I have had a lot of fun with this unit, and will hopefully be able to use my plans in the future.
Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #4
My artifact for this week is my implementation of different spelling strategies in hopes to increase my students' spelling grades. The students are supposed to study their words at home, but their grades are lacking in spelling. I decided to try to go over the words for about 10 to 15 minutes daily using different hands-on strategies and activities, such as spelling words in shaving cream on their desks or playing a game to see who can spell the letters out of notecards the fastest. I also just started having the students take home a "worksheet" with several different options on how they can study their spelling words; for example, "Write this weeks spelling words alphabetically" or "Type this weeks spelling words 3 times each." So far, I have only made them pick 3 things on the list to do, and they have to turn in their work on Friday (test day). I also have the students taking pre-tests on Wednesdays so they can practice the words they are having difficulty with for Friday.
Since I am in a resource room for special education this semester, these techniques will hopefully work because it gives the students extra practice they don't receive at home. Since hands-on activities typically cause students to become active in the learning process, I think the results will increase over time. My hope is that these students find strategies that work for them and stick with them to succeed in the future.
I think that this artifact falls under characteristic number 4, which is that a novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students. Every student in this classroom has his or her own way of practicing and learning. By giving the students several choices along with extra practice in the classroom, I am hopefully building onto their spelling fundamentals. By appealing to all learning types, I am hopefully reaching each student and giving him or her a push in the right direction as far as spelling strategies.
Since I am in a resource room for special education this semester, these techniques will hopefully work because it gives the students extra practice they don't receive at home. Since hands-on activities typically cause students to become active in the learning process, I think the results will increase over time. My hope is that these students find strategies that work for them and stick with them to succeed in the future.
I think that this artifact falls under characteristic number 4, which is that a novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students. Every student in this classroom has his or her own way of practicing and learning. By giving the students several choices along with extra practice in the classroom, I am hopefully building onto their spelling fundamentals. By appealing to all learning types, I am hopefully reaching each student and giving him or her a push in the right direction as far as spelling strategies.
Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #5
This fourth artifact I chose to discuss is a remedial fraction unit I have implemented into my fifth grade math class. They have been working on fractions for quite some time now; however, they have no idea what they are doing. I think the students did not understand fractions when the concept was first taught, and then all the build up of more information added to the confusion. This unit I have implemented is called the Rational Number Project. "The Rational Number Project (RNP) advocates teaching fractions using a model that emphasizes multiple representations and connections among different representations (Cramer, K., Behr, M., Post T., & Lesh, R., 2009.)" I think this unit ties in with characteristic #5, which states that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of pedagogy. Since I am teaching this unit to students in a special education class, I have to be well aware of every step I have to explain so the students can follow along. I also had to look back at some simple fraction concepts that I have forgotten since my days in elementary school. Also, the RNP supplies various instructional models and teaching strategies to use during instruction, so the students can practice using different kinds of manipulatives and find strategies that work for them. So far, the students are responding well with the lessons, and seem to be catching on to what fractions actually represent. I am anxious to see how they will do when we get to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions, as these tend to be more difficult tasks for students.
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