Intern Year

This week I began to take on some more responsibilities. I now teach from the teachers lesson plans on a few of the reading skills groups. I am also still doing written language and math with one student. We began touch math for addition which he seems to be responding to. Its interesting to watch how be begins to count or which number he begins with. I like to see if he remembers where to touch and how many times. Touch math is such a cool idea for kids who have trouble in the area of math. It gives them a visual of what each number means. This student struggles with knowing what number is which so I think next week when I write my own plans I will focus on some number recognition.
This student is also the same student I work with in written language and we have been working on our lower case ABC's. I am seeing great improvement in his ability to recognize the letters. I feel satisfied when I see him learn new letters and be able to recognize them, when before he couldn't. It makes me think I am doing something right.
With this student I am learning how important drill practice is for those basic facts that we think are so easy. Flash cards or some way to math and drill what letter or number we are working with gives them a chance to work on fluency but learn at the same time. Those daily drill practices is how I believe the students will learn a new basic fact. I plan on doing some drill practice with this student when we work on number recognition. I am excited to see how this practice will help him!

Intern Year

This past week has been more of an observation time for me. Since I just started in Mrs. Davis's class I wanted to take a little time to get to know her schedule and students. I did start participating with one student in math and written language. This student is in 2nd grade but doesn't know his lower case ABC's. I have been designing activities so we can work on these lower case letters. It has been a lot of fun working with him however he does lose attention on a task kind of easily so constant reinforcement has to be done. He seems to like working on his ABC's however when he doesn't know one he just tries to tell me a story instead of the answer. At that point I always know its a letter he doesn't know.
I also work with him in math. I am doing something with him that my host teacher is new to and that is 10 frames. I am teaching him to see hey there is 5 then two more instead of counting all seven of them. This is hard for him but with practice he is getting better at it. He also likes to play matching games with it so I think in the next week to come I am going to create a matching game where he matches the capital letter to the lower case letter. I think he will really like this and also learn at the same time. I am excited to work more with this class and eventually with time take over all the groups that come into the classroom.

Intern Year

This week I finished my time in Mrs.Nowak's MI classroom. I finished with doing pretty much all the groups during the day. I didn't do 3 groups I believe. On my last few days there I did a math assessment for the charts and graphs we had been working on. This assessment was an interview with each student where they told me what they saw in each graph and answered some questions I asked. The students did alright. I actually thought they might do a little bit better. One student in the group got all the answers correct. I did a lesson with my reading group with two 3rd graders by making a Venn Diagram of how they were the same or different from the main character in their story. He was from Porto Rico and had some differences from them being from America. It was interesting to see how they made connections. I am really going to miss Mrs. Nowak's class and hope I can make it back down there to visit and do my contract hours. They are wonderful kids!
Also this week I began my time with Mrs.Davis. It was hard to go into a new classroom and new schedule. Thursday and Friday are the only days I spent in there and it was kind of hard because there were meetings on Thursday and Friday was the Halloween party so I don't really know much about the classroom. I am hoping I can jump right into things and enjoy this time in a new classroom. Hopefully I can collect enough data and enough experience. It should be interesting!

Intern Year

This week I finished up my last full week in Mrs. Nowak's classroom. I also took over pretty much all of the day. I find that planning the whole day has began to work better. Since I began taking over most of the day I have to plan lessons for different groups through out the day. Before taking over the whole class I was scared of having to plan for a full day. I find that now that I have the chance to take it all over that its not as hard or bad as I thought it would be. I take it group by group and plan for each group ahead. It is hard however because things often come up that pushes back my lessons. I make it work and I have found that all this planning is only helping be become a more organized person. I honestly think that because there are many different groups of different levels through out the day that I have became more organized. I have to know what comes next and which group comes next. No two groups do the same thing.
I would also like to blog on the fact that I got to be part of yet another IEP meeting this week. I got to see how the IEP team has to meet quite often for just one student. This student got to come the whole day which is great but they had to meet as an IEP team before this change could occur. It was crazy for me to see this students file with so many different IEPs in it. One student could have an IEP meeting as many times as needed if things change. The whole IEP process is something that scares me for the future. All the paper work and stress that goes into an IEP makes me nervous but the more experience I get the better I will get. No teacher is perfect and I have to keep reminding myself of that!

Intern Year Blog

I started my action research this week by giving my baseline assessment test. I was interested to see that a lot of these students struggled with the reading aspect of the test. I now am excited to see how the different forms of authentic assessment, I am presenting the students with, will affect their scores. I am hoping that these different forms of assessment will help the students since reading isn't their strongest subject. I am hoping through the different forms of authentic assessment I will be able to find what works best for these students.
I am also coming to the end of my time in the MI classroom with Mrs. Nowak which makes me a little sad. I am enjoying the students so much I don't want to leave. I also have some concerns with starting my action research in a new classroom with a new teacher and new students. I am hoping everything goes well and that I am able to collect a lot of useful data! Only time will tell I guess!

Intern Year

So I am still in the MI classroom. I am beginning to like it more and more everyday. The students I work with have trouble sometimes but as the teacher I find it so much more gratifying when they actually grasp the concept. I had that happen to me this week while teaching money to a group of 3rd graders. They where looking at ways to make change and the student had a light bulb go off when he could see that replacing two nickles makes a dime. It was gratifying to be that what I was teaching was actually sinking in to the students.
I also am getting a lot more of a chance to see different behaviors while in one single room. This is really interesting to me because I get the chance to try and help figure out how to correct this wrong behavior. We are having this happen with a 2nd grade student in our class. The teachers actually want to hear what I think and how I think it could be fixed. I really feel like part of the team in this classroom and I really like it. I feel respected by not only the students but my fellow teachers. This has just begun to happen this year and it makes me feel like a real teacher. I don't want to be done with this placement which is coming up sooner than I want!!

Intern Week 6

Last week went pretty well. I got to teach both math groups. They are 2nd and 3rd graders. It is kind of hard to switch from one group to another within an hour. I have trouble planning for this because they are on such different levels. I have one boy in my 3rd grade group who is working much faster then the other two students in that group. So within 30 minutes I not only have to teach to this lower group but I have to split it up between two levels. It is differentiation of instruction to the definition. I am interested and kind of nervous still on how this is going to work when I pick up the whole class.
Also during this week I had more time to get to know the students individually and I know this will help me to instruct them better. Since I have to move again in 5 and a half weeks I am really working hard to make a connection with these students. I think our relationship as teacher and student will work better if we get to know each other better. I also feel as though some of the students who have freak outs will feel more comfortable with me as I am there more! I look forward to picking up English with the 4th graders this week! Planning is just so interesting when you change subjects and students every hour to hour and a half.....