80 Hour Practicum - Day Seven

As you probably have figured out by now, I add onto the lesson I teach every week.  Today I helped with the following teaching items:

• Morning Routine
• Reading a Picture Book
• Spelling Test
• Grading Papers
• Distributing Papers
• Leading students to gym and back from art
• Helping students during lessons
• Spelling/Word Lesson on -in and -ip words

I am glad that my cooperating teacher lets me teach and work with the students as much as she does because I need the time and experience in order to be successful in student teaching and as a teacher.

Speaking of student teaching, I asking my cooperating teacher if she thinks I am ready for student teaching.  She was honest with me, which I really appreciated, and said that she does not think I am ready yet but hopefully will be ready by the time I am done with my work with her.  She said, and I agree, that I do not have as much experience as others in my cohort/that she has worked with, because my 40 hour practicum teacher did not have me doing much other than grading.  

She told me that I can come teach and help in her classroom even after my 80 hours to help me get prepared for student teaching.  I will most likely take her up on this offer as I feel that I need as many experiences as I can get.

Speaking of new experiences, my cooperating teacher is letting me teach a math lesson next Friday.  I am both excited and nervous.  I hope it goes well.

Thank you,

Olivia

Student Engagement

Student Engagement: What strategies are being used to engage students?

My cooperating teacher and I are in a first grade classroom.  Therefore, the student's attention span is limited to about 10 minutes (15 if you are lucky).  Due to this, my cooperating teacher needs to be excellent at classroom management and keeping students engaged.

One of the strategies that my cooperating teacher uses the most is movement.  Students are frequently moving from their tables to the carpet and back.  Additionally, the students get a brief morning recess since her classroom is close to the playground and a brief afternoon recess (not counting the one at lunch) to get their energy out and keep it at a manageable level.

Along with the movement, my cooperating has her schedule broken up into small chunks.  The morning is mainly Daily Five and Language Arts/Reading oriented on Fridays but there is a new activity roughly every 15 minutes.  The afternoon on Fridays, they work on math and Writers Workshop.  These subjects usually require more thought so she waits until after they have had lunch and lunch recess so their bodies are calm and their minds are ready.

My cooperating teacher is very energetic/animated and utilizes questions frequently in her teaching.  Her questions use higher levels of Bloom's to help students think independently and be able to use strategies independently.  Her high levels of energy keep students excited and focused.

Overall,  this skill is a particular strong suit of my cooperating teacher and I hope to learn as much as I can from her during my time in her classroom.

Differentiating Instruction

How does the teacher differentiate instruction? What do you see?

In reading, my cooperating teacher meets with students to assess their reading level.  Then, once their level is assessed, she meets with groups of students who are at the same level during Daily Five activities to teach them.  They read a book multiple times, discuss it, and move onto the next book.  From there, she periodically re-assesses their reading level.

My cooperating teacher also has different professionals around the building come take students at different times of the day to work with specific students for different reasons.

Lastly, my cooperating teacher is on many different committees and leads many differentiation of instruction classes with students before and after the school day.  Honestly, I do not know how she gets it all done each week.  

80 Hour Practicum - Day Six

This morning I realized that I am leading most of the morning activities.  I start out the morning with the morning routine, followed by the morning paragraph and reading a picture book.  Then my practicum teacher dismisses to read to self and meets with groups while I correct papers and do other tasks such as keeping students on task, etc.  Then I lead the mini reading lesson (the new activity for today) followed by them taking a recess break, snack break, etc.  Depending on time, they may do another round of Daily five.  After that, I lead the spelling test and correct them.  Finally, my cooperating teacher finishes the morning and dismisses them to recess and lunch.

Being trusted with that much of the morning has really helped boost my confidence with teaching.  My cooperating teacher and I talked about how the mini reading lesson went and agreed that the procedures and lesson went well but classroom management was a bit of a struggle today because the students are "off" because of the weather changes and the fact that it is a Friday.  Additionally, we have noticed over time that I become less stiff.  I start out each new responsibility and lesson a bit stiff but the more I do that activity/lesson section, the less stiff and more comfortable I become.

Overall, today has been a great practicum day.

Technology in the Classroom

Week 7: Technology: How is technology used in this classroom.

My cooperating teacher has technology all over her classroom.  Some examples are below:

• Smartboard: She uses this for students to take attendance by marking what lunch they would like that day.  They also read the morning paragraph from this and it doubles as an overhead for the doc cam
• Doc Cam: She displays math problems, helps brainstorm different words, etc.  This is used as an overhead
• CD Player and Tape Player: These are used for Listen to Reading during Daily Five.  Each student has a set of headphones they keep in a bag with their name on it.
• Subtle microphone:  She has a clip on microphone that she uses during mainly during tests so students have a better chance of hearing her clearly.  She stands in the front and her voice comes out of the speaker in the back so her voice can reach all students in the classroom at a louder and clearer volume
• Website:  As my technology project, I will be creating a classroom website for her to use.  We are still in the beginning planning stages. 

Those are just some of the many varieties of technology my cooperating teacher uses.  Overall, she is very technologically literate and takes full advantage of technology to make learning more engaging and easier to communicate.  I hope to have access to as much technology as she does one day.

Vocabulary Instruction

Week 5: Vocabulary Instruction.  What strategies are being used to build student vocabulary?

My cooperating teacher does most of her vocabulary teaching during the middle of the week so I haven't directly seen it.  However, I did ask her about teaching vocabulary and she said it is kind of up in the air because of the Common Core changes.  She said that there are some words that they are supposed to teach the students but much of it is left up to teacher discretion.

When she does directly teach vocabulary, she will introduce the word, usually with an accompanying visual, and talk about it with the class until they come up with a definition together.  Then they will write the word down along with the definition in their notebooks.  From there they will draw about it to add a visual near the word.  

Indirectly, some students gain more vocabulary skills during weekly spelling tests and practice and word work activities during Daily Five time.

80 Hour Practicum - Day Five

The morning routine and the spelling test went well today but what went particularly well was when I read the morning book.  It was a cold read because I had forgotten to take the book home to practice but I was able to read with few errors or awkward pauses.  I was really proud of myself because I was having fun reading, the students were engaged, and I had a wider variety of expressions in my reading.  I think this is due to being more comfortable in front of the students as well as my cooperating teacher telling me to read like myself instead of trying imitate her.  I found that very helpful and it took off a lot of the pressure I was feeling.

I was going to lead part of the reading lesson today but my practicum teacher had a busy week and was unable to send me the material to prepare.  So I had the opportunity to watch her lead the lesson with the idea in mind that I would be helping teach it, causing me to pay attention to the details.  I will be helping lead a song, highlight short i words, and brainstorm short i words for their writing booklets.  I am nervous to lead the song because I am not a particularly good singer but I think the rest will go well.

My cooperating teacher said that I did a really good job today and that she could tell I was reading the book with more expression in my voice.  This made me feel really good because I have been working on reading with more expression. :)