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.....

Intern Week 5

This was my first week back at Skyveiw Elementary School. It was a nice change being back in an elementary school after spending 5 weeks at a middle school. I am in the MI room which I think will be a difference and a learning experience for me. This is my first placement in special education in the elementary school. It is something I am hoping I will really enjoy being that it is my specialization. Starting out this week I am really focusing on getting to know my students and my host teacher. She has a very interesting schedule so I am also trying to get familiar with that. The reason I say interesting is because she gets student throughout the day at different levels for different subjects. I have never been in a class like this so its something different for me. It is also something that makes me a little nervous when it comes the time where I am full time teaching and making the plans for each subject. I have discussed this with my host teacher and she insures me that she will help me which makes me a little less nervous. This Monday I started teaching the math for a group of four boys. This will be my first step in teaching the whole class. These boys are working on addition and they are in 3rd grade. My teacher told me these students are on about a 1-2nd grade level. Its interesting to see all the different levels of learning throughout the day. So far I am really getting to know and like these students. I'm honestly excited and a little nervous to see what happens while I am placed in the MI room!

Intern Week 4

Well this week was my last week at South Harrison Middle School. I honestly didn't think I would like middle school but now I am sad I wont be there Monday! I feel like I have learned so much in not only the special education world but in the how to teach students this age. With special education I got to see how you make certain modifications in the general education classroom. I got to see and participate in an full inclusion classroom which was my favorite part of these 5 weeks. The reason being, that I got to get to know not only kids with special needs but the general education kids as well. The other reason I liked being in inclusion classrooms was because I got to see how when teaching the lower level students this have to be taught almost completely different then the higher level classrooms. I also got to see how meeting in the special education world take place and whole everyone works together to make it the best learning environment for the child with special needs.
Going into this next chapter of this program I am looking forward to seeing how the special education process works in the elementary school. I want to see how meeting take place and how they work to make it the best learning community as possible. I want to know the process they take to create their lessons each day and each week. I am also looking so forward to getting to know the elementary school aged kids again. As much as I enjoyed the middle school aged students I really love the younger ones!!

Week 3 Blog

This week went by smoothly. I was able to sit in on a re-evaluation meeting and evaluation meeting. It was interesting to watch the teachers and psychologist work together to discuss these students. The psychologist was very welcome to my questions. He gave me some of the sheets that they fill out together. It was very interesting and cool for me because they made me feel like part of the team. I work with the two students who where being discussed so I was able to give my two cents about the situation. The meeting was very informative for me. I would like to in the future to sit in on a full IEP meeting, which I am hoping to do soon! I feel like a lot of good information would be given if I was given the chance to sit in on an IEP meeting.
The other interesting fact of this week was an English lesson I got to do in my full inclusion English class. The reason it was interesting was because I learned that down time in a full inclusion class equals loss of attention. I say this because when I was trying to get the computer up and running for the adverb interactive lesson the students loss attention because it took longer then I thought. I now know that I should always have things like that up and running ahead of time so to slim down the about of down time. It was a good lesson I learned by doing. I would also like to state I am getting a little sad I am coming up on my last week of Middle School......