80 Hours Practicum - Day Eleven

Today is my official last day of my 80 hour practicum.  It is going to be strange not seeing their 1st grade faces every Friday anymore.  They are a bit rowdy sometimes but I have grown to care about them and will miss them.

Today, my cooperating teacher and I are doing more lessons on the fly than normal due to it being conference week and students being a bit rowdier.  It is a nice confidence boost that my cooperating teacher trusts me enough to plan parts of the lesson on the fly.  I also will learn how to complete this skill through practicing it in the classroom.  It is a great skill to have because your day does not always go as planned and the ability to think and teach on the fly is crucial in those moments.

The book I read today was called Yoko writes her name by Rosemary Wells.  I had never heard of this book before but it was fun to read to the class because it is about an ELL student who speaks and writes Japanese.  The students were very interested in how they write right to left instead of left to right and how their number representation symbols are different.  The reason I found this particular book fun to read is because I can speak a decent amount of Japanese, as I took four years of it in high school.  I wish I had more time to teach a lesson on Japanese numbers and using those numbers to do math problems.  I think that would be really fun.

My cooperating teacher gave me her evaluations today and I am pleased to say that I scored well.  She mentioned all the reflecting, practicing, and growth I have made in my time inside and outside of her classroom.  She also mentioned that I did everything she asked of me and more and took initiative in many things.  This feedback makes me feel confident and good about my time in the classroom.  I am very grateful to her, her students, and the school for being willing to take me in for this 80 hour practicum.  I learned more than I can say in a post and will transfer these skills into my student teaching next semester and teaching overall.

Thank you,

Olivia

80 Hour Practicum - Day Ten

        Today was a think on your feet day for both myself and my cooperating teacher.  She has had such a hectic week with students who have been a bit over the top while also trying to get ready for conferences.  On my end, my week got a bit out of control and I was not as prepared for my lessons as I wanted to be.  I ended up being later than normal to the school but my cooperating teacher was super understanding because she was having a similar type of week.
        Due to both of our weeks being hectic, we ended up tweaking the math lesson a half hour before I taught it as well as completely changing the writer's workshop lesson we had originally planned.  I was grateful for both of these changes because it helped my cooperating teacher be on the same page and helped me fine tune skills of thinking on the fly and last minute planning.  Plus, I was able to see how a veteran teacher handles last minute planning and hectic week stress.
        Overall, my cooperating teacher said that I did well at handling hectic classroom management and at teaching last minute lessons.  She even suggested that we play the day by ear next Friday, which I think demonstrates the trust she has in my skills.  The one work-on piece of feedback she gave me was to try not to say, "so" so much because I often use it at the beginning of sentences when teaching.  I was not aware that I did that so it was nice to receive the feedback and know what to work on.
She also said that she can tell I am starting to have more fun reading books to the students and that I am a hard worker.  I really appreciate that my actions convey how much of a hard worker I am.  She said that she knows I will succeed at whatever I do because I will do what I need to and work hard to succeed at it.  This was wonderful feedback to hear.
        Overall, today was a hectic but good day.  I will have my last day next Friday but I am also going in next Thursday night to get a feel and understanding of conferences and an overview of communication with parents.

80 Hour Practicum - Day Nine

Today I got to teach all but writer's workshop and small group guided reading/daily 5 time.  Next week, I get to teach the entire day.  I am really excited that my teacher trusts me enough and that I have built enough confidence to be able to teach the entire school day.

One of the items we added today was leading a reading assessment on a big book called, Luisa's Lab.  The book was about the physical changes of water between a solid, liquid, and a gas.  I read the book to the class again right before we took the assessment as a nice review of the material.  Then students were dismissed and got privacy folders, pencils, and a test packet to get ready to take the assessment. 

Overall, I think leading the assessment went well.  The assessment was a bit longer than the normal assessments the students are used to so they began a little antsy towards the end.  (once the test was over, we took a playground break to get out the extra energy).  The assessment had a number of different question formats and I think I did a fairly good job at explaining the directions so students would understand them. 

In addition to the normal routine, today was also the first student birthday of the school year (later than usual, my cooperating teacher said).  He turned 7 today and brought in cupcakes to share during snack time.  He also got to share one present he got at home and my cooperating teacher gave him a birthday hat, bracelet, card, and pencil.  

I also got to read a 1st grade version of a national geographic magazine with the students.  We would take turns volunteering to read.  This particular time was challenging because students were hardly pay attention and even through I tried many different strategies to classroom manage, they would not focus for more than 30 seconds.  It was both frustrating and a large learning moment for me.  

Overall, student behavior was really challenging today.  My cooperating teacher mentioned that even the students who do not usually misbehave have been misbehaving this week.  She made that comment that she almost thinks a storm is coming because of the way they are behaving.  

80 Hour Practicum - Day Eight

            This was my first time teaching a math lesson in an actual classroom.  This lesson had some good points and some improvement points.  The biggest improvement that could be made is that time management got away from me today.   Usually, I do really well with time management but the content that I thought would be quick took a while and the content I thought would be longer, went quick so my aspect of time was a bit backwards during the lesson.  The students were also a bit rowdy (the day after Halloween, they always are) so classroom management was a bit of a challenge. 

            My cooperating teacher gave me some really great feedback.   She said to remember to quiet students down before giving directions, which I picked up on and started doing partway through the lesson.  I specifically waited for students to be quiet before I started reading the book.  She said that my discussion helping students come up with different ways to make sets of ten was good and she appreciated that I was listening to students to see if they were understanding the topics.  At one point, I was helping one student as others were moving to the carpet and my cooperating teacher raised the question, “When helping the one. What about the rest on the carpet?”  I thought that was a really valid question and I will be mulling it over in the next couple of days. 

            In addition, my cooperating teacher said that I had a lot of expression while reading the story with good interaction and questions with and for the students.  This comment especially means a lot to me because when I stared this practicum, I was monotone when reading stories and had a really hard time with expression.  Through reading a story every week in her class and her weekly feedback, I have become significantly more comfortable and can read with more expression and interaction.  I now feel like I have m own style of reading and that makes me feel great.

            Lastly, feedback I got was that I was aware of students not listening but was unsure of what to do about it and my teacher said to keep practicing and have them reset so I do not have to put up with it.  Also, during one of the hands-on activities with popsicle sticks, my cooperating teacher said that I gave directions for the sticks, had the students give a thumbs up with what makes sense and she really appreciated that I checked for understand frequently.  The last thing that she really liked was that in order for the students to get their popsicle sticks, they had to tell me about a pattern they saw in the room, giving them variety to keep them interested.

            Overall, many things could be improved but I was very proud of myself and happy with how everything turned out.  Next week, I am getting some more responsibilities, and the week after I get to be the teacher for the whole day.  J

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.