3: Week of Sept. 5

This week I was thinking a lot of September 11th and I wanted to somehow incorporate it into the lessons. I got to thinking, and realized my 6th graders were only 1 or 2 years old when the attacks happened! It seemed strange to me, but I guess it makes sense considering I was only in middle school myself. Ten years has passed so quickly! But anyways, I found a movie online that showed the attacks and had some different reactions and really gave a good idea as to what really happened. I asked questions ahead of time like "What city did it happen in?" and mostly no one knew. During the video, the kids had a lot of questions so I would pause it and answer everything. By the end of the movie, the students were all very quiet and you could tell it had made them think a lot. They said they were so thankful that nothing happened to their families. I saw a completely different side of the kids! (Normally they are all very goofy!) We talked a lot about what the attacks meant for us here, and how even though it was 10 years ago, we are still affected by it. Later, one of the kids came back to the classroom and asked me if i thought we would be attacked on Sunday since it was the 10 year anniversary. I told him I couldn't promise him that nothing would happen, but I was pretty sure they wouldn't target Bruceton Mills, WV! This experience made me think about how impressionable students are. I wanted them to know the truth and understand what happened, but I didn't want them to be scared. It is a hard thing to teach something that is so scary without scaring them! I came to the conclusion that it is okay for them to be a little scared, because after all, it was an extremely traumatic event. In the future, if I were to teach this again, I might spread it out over a few days.

2: Week of Aug. 29

This week I had the opportunity to do a lot of teaching. Since I am used to being in elementary school and am now in middle school, I had to change my strategies a little. Many of the activities that the younger students love, I am sure these students would think are stupid. During math, I noticed the students really did not have a good grasp on multiplication. It wasn't just that they didn't know their facts, they didn't understand the entire concept of what multiplication actually is. I went back to my notes from my Math Methods course and found lots of useful things to help them. (Thank you Sarah Selmer :)) Ive taught it in a few different ways now, and I am pleasantly surprised at the gains they have made in such a short time. The thing I am frustrated with the most is that I have yet to see a grade level math book! I have asked for one (not even the teacher's edition, just the student's) and keep being told that they are being ordered. All the other 6th graders have books, but my students do not. It is frustrating to see Special Education students not receiving the same materials as everyone else. My plan after the books come is to see what they are supposed to be able to do, try to work up to it, or "water it down" enough that we can still be doing the same things as the rest of the 6th grade.

1: Week of Aug. 22

This week was my first week back at Bruceton. It is different being there every day, all day, as opposed to what we have done in the past. I like it though, because now I get the real feeling as to what a teacher's day is really like, not just the 4 hours I used to see a few times a week. The first week was a little overwhelming starting all my classes, so it has made me realize that I need to be extremely organized this semester if I want to keep up. Falling behind is my worst fear because the catching up process is very difficult.

There are a few things I would like to accomplish this semester. First, I am excited to teach full-time because it will be a challenge, but I think it will give me a lot of confidence. Second, I want to learn more strategies for ways to teach older students (I am placed in middle school special education for the first five weeks). This has been a little difficult to get used to because I am more accustomed to younger students, however, I think it will be a great experience for me and I will learn a lot. The third thing I want to accomplish is efficient time management. Since I decided to get my autism certificate as well, my schedule is very, very full so I will have to work hard to get everything done. Last semester my goal was to gain confidence, and I really did accomplish that. Now, instead of being mostly nervous, I am just excited about teaching and trying new things. Overall, I am looking forward to this semester and hoping everything goes smoothly!

Practicum Plan

I am doing really well with staying on track with the Practicum Plan. I have been able to complete all my assignments on time or ahead of time. Going into this semester, I was told it would be my hardest. Because of this, I did everything I could to stay organized and on track because I knew falling behind would be the worst thing that could happen to me. While the Practicum Plan is a good idea, I did not like the layout that was provided. I made my own list (which I have every semster) of all the assignments and due dates. Making my own layout allowed me to organize it the way that best suits me. I did not like the column on the Practicum Plan that was labeled "When I want to have it completed" in addition to the "Due Date Column." I just wanted to have everything completed by the due date, so I felt that column was unnecessary.

Another thing I did not like about the Practicum Plan was how repetative it was. I felt like I was rewriting everything over and over again. I really do like the idea of the Plan, but I felt the format was inefficient and not the best thing for me to stay organized.

My learning goals of classroom management and inquiry data were definately acheived throughout this semester. I learned a lot about classroom management and have become much more confident in my capabilities. My other learning goal, getting my lessons approved ahead of time, is something I still struggled with throughout the semester. Sometimes, I didn't know what I would be teaching until the day before, so it was difficult to get everything in on time.

My Progress

One of my learning goals is improving my classroom management skills. I have had a lot of opportunity to work on this this semester, and I feel I am improving and learning every day. The main thing I have done is to really pay attention to the things my mentor teacher does during class. The students in this class have various disabilities, so it is necessary to handle their behavior issues in different ways. Sometimes it feels very overwhelming to me becuase I feel like I can't control the class nearly as well as she does. I have learned to just keep changing my approach until I find something that works.

My second learning goal was to collect more inquiry data and document it better. This is still something I need to work on because I haven't been able to collect very much yet. My third goal was to get my lessons approved ahead of time. I have not written many of my own lessons thus far, so this is something I will continue to work on in the future.

I have not changed my practicum plan that much so far. I have had other assignments that were not listed on it such as journals and other random things that teachers assign. Some of the due dates were changed as well. My learning goals still remain the same and I am working on all three of them. Overall, I would rate myself as on track as far as completing the assignments go. I have turned in everything on time so far, and have managed my time enough that I could give each assignment enough attention and effort. I would like to be ahead of schedule, but at this point in time that is not the case.

Mentorship

Reflect on your work in your PDS this semester. How have you benefitted from the mentoring relationship you have with your mentor teacher? What actions have you taken to be sure that the mentoring relationship is beneficial to you both?

This semester, I have had an unusual experience in regards to mentorship. I started with one mentor teacher who retired part way through the semester and then I got a new mentor teacher. This experience has been very beneficial to me because I have got to see how two different people manage and run the same classroom. The thing I have found that helps the most in creating a relationship with both of these teachers is e-mail. It is so hard to find time during the school day to plan things or talk about things, so using e-mail is a great way to keep in touch. Both mentor teachers I have had have very different strategies in the classroom and personalities. I have had to adjust to find my role in the classroom after the first teacher retired, and it has made me see that different situations require different actions and attitudes. The best part of this semester was seeing that a classroom can be run very differently, but still teach the students.

Wikis

In completing the wiki assignment, I learned a lot about the process of actually completing something like this online. It was difficult to figure out how to do some of the things, but after playing around with it I was able to find some really fun things like adding a YouTube video. I realized that when doing something like this with a classroom of students, you should know all the technical aspects of it because if the teacher doesn't understand it, its going to be a mess. Another thing I learned was how many different ways you could use a wiki. For example, in science you could make a wiki with different projects, you could use it for vocab words, or you could use it in math for different projects. It gives us a whole new way to present material or assess students while using technology.

My favorite part of the wiki is the pictures. We took pictures around the school, but we also included pictures of ourselves. Two of the girls in my group went to the Buckwheat Festival and took pictures, and we also have a video of the Bruceton Dam. I think the pictures really show what the school is like and how the community is. Another thing I liked that we did was interviewing the principal and the teacher education coordinator. I think this was an original idea and I enjoyed getting to know them better. Hope you enjoy our wiki!! :)