For more info. on what these journals are and to read journals 1-9, please click here http://sfraww.blogspot.com/search/label/My%20Journal%20Writings This is the last group of journals from teaching this semester. I hope this was interesting for some of you :) Week 10 (November 25, 2014) Journal I didn’t go to my practicum school on Wednesday, November 26, so this journal is based only on the previous day. I was nervous about my 2nd and final observation this week because I knew I had a lot to improve on from my last observation. I am also sick, so my throat was a constant issue (which I had to soothe by drinking a lot of water throughout my lesson). Nonetheless, I felt a little more comfortable (my wow moment) teaching then in my last observation. This could be due to the fact that I had more practice sitting in front of the students at the rug and being their (math) “teacher” by this time in the semester, I wasn’t nervous about adult eyes observing me (I asked the SPED teacher and TA to not focus on me), or because I felt my lesson was the best I could make it. Whatever the reason, I am grateful that the lesson went well and I made improvements!My CT was out at a workshop in the morning so she couldn’t see my lesson, but I am extremely appreciative that the SPED teacher gave me pointers before and after my lesson. She suggested I use songs, which made sense since the students are used to singing songs to learn, but I was concerned about doing too much in a short amount of time (I know my lesson took more time than I thought)! I think the songs actually helped the students get into math mode since they usually do ELA right after breakfast and it also helped me relax a bit and sing along with them. The Cheerios Counting book was a good choice to combine it with using actual cheerios for my lesson. Again, I hesitated to use cheerios at first because I thought it would result in a big mess, which it didn’t. I know teachers have to take risks sometimes, but I was worried this would negatively affect my observed lesson. The students looked like they enjoyed working with cheerios and when I went around helping them, I felt like many of them understood my point of having them group the cheerios. Yes some of the students might not have understood, but it will take more than one lesson for students to truly grasp an idea.I especially liked the bingo boards that I made for this lesson. Although the SPED teacher later suggested I should have made it less than 5x5 (because special students would not be able to focus with so many numbers all at once) and not put all the numbers on every board, I felt the way I did it served my purpose i.e. to see if and which students recognized the numbers 0-20. I came to the conclusion (my aha moment) that I should save my teaching materials, especially handmade ones like these bingo boards, for future use. After my lesson the SPED teacher suggested I should never keep my back to the students (my oops moment), which she noticed I did a few times. I didn’t notice I said okay so many times, but I know I said “you guys” a number of times. It felt great to get good feedback overall and getting my observation done! Coming up with ideas and writing a lesson plan takes a lot of time and effort. It is worth it if the lesson goes well or if one learns from mistakes. Knowing the students, how to manage them and one’s time, and how to assess students and adapt lessons are all part of the learning experience for (future) teachers. There is always something to learn when it comes to teaching, whether from one’s students, colleagues, teaching materials, etc. I have a few more lessons to teach in the next 2 weeks, so there is still more I can learn and experience!Week 11 (December 1-5) Journal
A full week at my practicum school was a lot of time to be with the students. I haven’t been in school from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm in almost four years, so going home with daily headaches on top of being sick wasn’t fun. On Monday and Tuesday, my CT was out sick, but there were still three adults including me in the room to help manage the students. On Monday, I was able to see the students during music for the first time. The music teacher and the students played drums and tambourines, and sang a song about the angels they drew. During a different period, the students had to draw a Christmas tree and once a student asked me and I helped them, a couple more called me over to teach them as well. The SPED teacher noticed my drawing and that the students wanted my help, so she suggested I go up and draw it on the blackboard, which I did. Now I feel like the students try to get my help for a lot of drawing assignments because they seem to like my examples and know that I will help them.
On Tuesday, during homeroom I read to a few students at their tables and while reading, I replaced the character’s name with the student’s name. They found it funny and seemed to like that which was cute. I think I should do this more often (my aha moment) so the student feels as if they are part of the story! I had the chance to start my teacher work sample (TWS) after lunch. I chose the topic community workers (CW) and started with a Guess Who game. I pointed to a picture on a chart with examples of CW and had the students name the person. Afterwards, I had the students role play CW while discussing how a specific CW helps people. I started with the example of a teacher writing on the board. For a firefighter, I pulled up a picture on the smart board of a house on fire so a student came up pretending he was the firefighter using a hose to put out the fire. We also did doctor/ nurse, police officer, garbage collector, librarian, etc. The students seemed to really get excited and enjoyed this activity. I followed the games with a read aloud of a book with questions and then had them go back to their seats to do their own illustrations of what CW they want to be when they grow up.
For the rest of the week, my CT came in. On Wednesday during ELA centers, I worked with students at the skills center. They were working on a project about nouns. A long sheet of construction paper was folded in half and then 4 cuts were made for vertical flaps. Under each flap, one word was written (person, place, thing, animal) so the students had to pick one thing for each category, draw a picture, and write the word to go along for each category. I think this project was cute and creative and would like to do something similar in the future (my aha moment).
I continued with my TWS after lunch again on Wednesday. We went over community workers/ helpers from the previous day and then I played two short interactive books on scholastic.com about librarians and firefighters. For their assignment, I modeled 4 squares on 4 different community helpers I see in my community. I had the students go back to their seats to complete the task and collected their final work. I gave them stickers when they were done because they had asked the day before and I promised I would bring them.
On Thursday, a new student joined the class. I noticed he is smart for the most part and friendly. He needs some help with writing his letters which I noticed during my lesson. I planned to finish my lesson this day, but it was my fault the students didn’t understand and complete the task (my oops moment). I wanted each student to make a thank you card for a community worker. First I had the students glue the little stamped thank you notes I made the night before. I should have glued them myself because this took them at least 10 minutes. I wrote dear and thank you on the board for them to copy along with some CW they wanted to write to. I thought they would be able to copy my example on the board and also my card I showed as an example, but it was apparently too much for at least half the class (my wow moment). I realized I should have had the complete writing I wanted them to copy on enough pieces of paper for each student. I ended my lesson, hoping I would be able to reteach my lesson the next day and that the students would have some writing for me to analyze for my TWS.
On Friday, the students had art and again I was able to see this for the first time. They learned about the three primary colors and colored in a lot of pictures for each. Thankfully, I was able to reteach my lesson after lunch. For reinforcement, I had the students go over examples of CW and what they do to help people. I explained exactly what I wanted some of the students to redo and what some of the students had to finish from the day before. I made copies of what they had to copy. For example, for students writing their cards to a teacher, they wrote, “Dear teacher, Thank you for helping me learn. From Miss F” (replace with their name). Then they were able to draw a picture of their CW and color it in.
Only four more days left for practicum. I can’t wait to see the student’s reactions when I give them the story books and coloring books I got for them. I will really miss the students and I know at least one of them will miss me too (a girl said this to me)! I wish I could do student teaching in the same classroom, but I guess Haledon PS with 3rd graders will be good for more experience and to make it a little less stressful for myself.
Week 12 (December 8-11) Journal
My days with the kindergarten students were numbered this final week of practicum. I made sure to tell the students that I won’t be coming in a few days so they know not to expect me in their classroom anymore. Of course I plan to visit and was even told by the teachers to come for their graduation which I would love to see!
On Monday, the students worked on writing their own mini books of what zoo animals went in their mitten. This project was inspired by the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. Instead of the mitten being lost in the woods and woodland animals making themselves at home inside, if they lost a mitten at the zoo, the students had to pick what animals they would find inside the mitten. I walked around to help the students of course. My CT suggested to me if I ever need lesson plan ideas for any book, to go to scholastic.com. I always knew of this website, but didn’t think it could be a first stop to lesson planning help. She used it and after I went on the site for myself, I found a section dedicated to lesson plans. I think scholastic.com will be one of my best friends next semester and as a future teacher (my aha moment)!
A few days this week, the students did projects to decorate the classroom and bulletin boards. They colored candy canes and Christmas tree lights and while I cut the student’s completed candy canes, my CT decorated them with glitter to make them more festive and stand out. The students also glued together a person’s head, opened mouth with tongue out and teeth showing as if catching snowflakes. Then they used their finger and white paint to dot snowflakes around their person’s head. Finally, they counted and wrote how many “snowflakes” they finger painted on their paper. I helped the children arrange the pieces correctly, paint, and count the snowflakes.
I had one final assignment I had to do with some students and I finally got a chance to actually do it. Our collection project using stickers was done this week with the help of five students I chose. They brought in stickers from home and I also shared a lot of mine to teach them about collections, sorting, labeling, etc. While the rest of the class watched a video for science, I had the five students at a table choose what category of stickers they wanted to work with. The five categories were winter, movies, cars, shiny stickers and stickers with letters on them. After labeling their papers with their chosen category, they sorted what stickers went in that group and picked 6 stickers each to display on their page. After picking their stickers, we went around and shared what stickers we each thought went along with our group. I really tried to emphasize the collecting aspect of this assignment. I didn’t think things completely through step by step so I took a little too long (my oops moment).
I decided to give my little gift to the students on Wednesday while everyone was present. After seeing them at the book fair and reading to most of the students individually and in small groups, I knew I wanted to give them books. I ordered different books for all the students to pick. I spread all the story books on three tables for the students to be able to see their options. It was really nice to see them go around and pick a book. The teacher’s wanted a picture for the student’s yearbook, so I was able to take a group picture with all the students holding their book.
I will miss the students and I know some feel the same because they have told me and many bombarded me with hugs on Thursday which was cute. The teachers were also nice enough to throw me a goodbye party and give me a little gift too (my wow moment). I plan to visit soon once before the next semester and will make plans to be there at their graduation!
I learned a lot during this semester in practicum. For example, I would prefer working with younger elementary school students like kindergarten. Prior to practicum, I wanted to work with 4th-6th graders. I learned a lot about the kindergarten age and grade, such as they need a lot more assistance then I thought and attention. Doing practicum helped me realize the work and dedication needed to actually be a successful teacher. I also know a little of what I can expect (coming home with headaches) next semester being in the field full time. There is good and bad to everything in life, and as for my decision to become a teacher and finish up my college degree, as long as the students are a pleasure to work with, I think I can manage the teacher lifestyle.
