Internship Week 6

          I attended another Common Core training today and once again learned a lot of strategies and ways to allow students to represent their knowledge through multiple means of representation.  This particular training was geared for fourth grade and I learned so many new strategies of how to teach the new standards for fourth grade.  I also learned a lot of things about my own teaching in a resource room classroom.  Just because the students I am teaching may be on a level other than fourth grade, I should still cover the standards that are set for their grade level, but accommodate and modify where needed.  For example, one standard was talking about comparing informational texts.  Well, I could do that easily with a book that is at each student's individual instructional level.  This might sound like something that should have come to me automatically, but I have always been searching for Standards in the students developmental stage rather than adjusting to their own grade level where need be.  I feel like I am learning so much in my field experience that can’t be taught in a classroom, and I am lucky to be able to attend trainings as an intern that have already impacted my teaching in the few weeks I have been there.  

Although the standards seem to be an adjustment, I am happy to be student teaching with them.  This is a great way for me to really become acquainted with them, as I make my lessons extremely detailed.  I feel that if I were to do this as a first year teacher, I would be so overwhelmed with everything else I would have to establish that I wouldn't understand the Standards as well as I am learning to understand them now.  This internship has given me the opportunity to take things one step at a time.  It is so nice to be able to slowly immerse myself into teaching full time.  

Internship Week 5

Although our discussions are intended to focus on our time in the school, I would rather make this blogpost about what I learned at training this week.  On Wednesday,  I went with my mentor teacher to a training on Common Core and how it coincides with IEPs.  Going into this training, I really did wonder if it would be a review of what I have learned in class about the Common Core standards, or if I would gain new information from it.  I can honestly say it was one of the most effective trainings I have been to in regards of incorporating the new standards into IEPS as well as how to write IEPs.
We first started out by talking about the new standards and how we want to show growth as a school.  I thought this was a great way to connect the school to the new standards.  Instead of our content taught being a mile wide and an inch deep, it is an inch deep and a mile wide.  I feel that the new standards will certainly help our school growth rate, as we are really unpacking topics and digging deeper to understand what it's all about.  I feel that my classroom I am in really unpacks what the students are learning.  My teacher does not move on until the students really understand the topic.  I have already seen growth in my students in this aspect.
Moving onto the special education aspect of the training, I learned many things.  For example, I did not know that once a student was identified as having a disability, that 'label' is with them the rest of their life.  No matter how much they have improved, if you are categorized as having a learning disability, you will always have that learning disability, even if you do not possess those qualities of the disability. In a way, the term that was used, "labeling", rang through my head.  It makes me sad to think that students are considered as 'labeled' because that is exactly how I feel some people view them.  There are many close-minded people that view them as their disability, but not as the person they are.  This is what I would like to comment on.  I would like everyone to have the experience I am having in my classroom this semester.  I have seen 15 students work their hardest to complete tasks that we take for granted daily.  I have seen them frustrated because they couldn't quite 'get it' and I have seem them triumph for working through their frustration and confusion.  I do not feel that students get the respect and POSITIVE recognition they deserve.  For me, I will make it a personal goal to show my students just how proud I am of them each day and I want them to feel proud of themselves, as well.

Internship Week 4

This week, I have incorporated a big goal of mine, not only this year, but the past two years.  In our practicum plan our tutor and participant year, I always wanted to include more hands-on activities.  I have found that most students seem to enjoy these, though not all.  This week I took over Science/SS/Health with one student.  This is a designated time for 40 minutes where I have only one student in the room.  This is the only time I only have one student, so I thought this is a great time to slowly incorporate hands-on activities.  I have noticed this student use a lot of manipulatives to aide her in computation and it really seems to help.  I thought to myself, if this student seems to learn kinesthetically, then why not incorporate more hands-on activities for her so she is able to learn and enjoy through movement in other subjects, just as she does in Math.  This week, I did a personal hygiene/health unit with the student and had a hands-on activity almost every day (it was a short week due to a holiday and a field trip).  I was very pleased with how well the lessons went.  The student seemed to absorb so much. I had nothing to compare her learning with (for example, did she learn better kinesthetically than she would have visually or auditory), but nonetheless she really enjoyed the lesson and gained the main point of what I was teaching.  She even applied what she had learned in conversation the next day and it made me feel very accomplished.  I felt that this will be a great approach to extend throughout the year.  In conclusion, this was a great first week of teaching.  The first couple weeks were observe and assist, but actually taking over one subject allowed me to see the prep work that goes into making lessons valuable and effective.

Internship Week 3

Once again, a week has passed and I don't know where it went! This placement is so fast-paced and I really love it.  I feel like I am at the school for maybe 30 minutes a day.  I like the fact that in a resource room you are constantly discussing different areas of a subject with different students.  It is never the same thing.  For example, during reading, one student was working on ending sounds, another on writing a paragraph, another on sounding out/spelling words, another on rhyming, etc.  

It was from this that I discovered the topic I wanted to research for my Action Research project.  This was not something I was particularly looking for.  I sort of stumbled across it.  I saw a student struggling with reading words in isolation.  I thought to myself, "if words in isolation are a struggle, I wonder how this student does with reading fluency and comprehension?" Immediately, I realized that this is certainly an interest of mine.  How can I improve fluency for my students? This is a skill they are going to need in life, especially for their future schooling.  From there, I began researching different strategies to improve reading fluency for students.  I am still narrowing my subject down, however.  Do I want to see how one particular strategy influences reader fluency? Or do I want to try different strategies each day throughout the week to see if it improves reader fluency? There is a lot to be done, but I certainly feel up for the challenge! 

I always liked reading time as an elementary student, and I feel that I developed positive feelings toward reading because of that.  I want to help my students so they do not have a negative connotation with reading.  Perhaps focusing a lot of my time with this area will give my students the confidence and tools they need to take chances with reading and conquer it.  I am very excited to do so and I can't wait to see what this study produces.  

Internship Week 2

This week was our first week with students and all I can say is what a fun, different environment.  This is unlike anything I have experienced in the past two years at my PDS.  In fact, I feel that this is exactly where I want to be and where I want to take my future career.
The structure of the classroom is wonderful and the students are very well adapted to it at this point.  All but two were in this room last year, so they know "the drill" and what to do as soon as they walk in the room.  This week, however, was a bit different from the norm as ESY testing (Extended School Year) took place.  I found out that this is a test that the students take right before summer break to see where they stand in that particular area.  They then take the same test as soon as they get back from summer break to see if they regressed or progressed over the three month break.  I was extremely excited to see this all take place because the Reading ESY that my mentor teacher used to assess the students was the BRI assessment, which we learned how to use last fall.  It is always exciting to see work that I recognize put to use.
The other ESY testing that took place was the Math ESY.  This consisted of evaluations of addition and subtraction.  Some of the students were borrowing and regrouping, others were completing basic addition or subtraction.  It was very interesting to see the different levels in the room and it made me immediately realize that there will be much planning involved in my future lesson plans.  One thing that came to my mind while observing this is the fact that there are no two children that learn alike.
Along with academic levels, I was able to get a glimpse of the personalities of each of my students.  I saw that some became frustrated quite easily, and some would sit there and smile if they were not understanding their work, rather than expressing their confusion in an angry way.  However, noticing how my mentor teacher responded made a light bulb go off in my head.  She always remained calm, understanding, and supportive to each of the students.  So often we are quick to judge why a student would yell, and make assumptions and become frustrated with them.  What we don't know is what is going on inside their head, at home, or even what happened in the class before they came to ours.  As I watched my teacher reply calmly to each student, I noticed that the ones that were frustrated began to calm down .  It looked as if her voice and reaction came as a sense of peace to them.  It is apparent they trust and love her.  So often you see teachers yell at their students... I have yet to see a positive reaction come out of this.  This week, I have found the best way to help out a frustrated student is to remain calm, let them know you are always there to help, and relay this information with a smile.  We have to remember, this could possibly be the warmest part of their day.  It is not only our job to teach them, but our job to comfort and support them.  This was my biggest lesson of the week.

Internship Reflection 1

The first week of my internship, I saw what it takes to plan for the upcoming school year.  The students came back on Thursday, but since I am in a Special Education resource room, we did not pull students the first two days.  This gave me an opportunity to become familiar with my room, as well as my mentor teacher.
The first day I was there, we cleaned the room.  As I cleaned, I looked through the resources that my teacher provided for her students.  It was evident that she had everything she possibly could to aide her students in Math and Reading, the two subjects I will be teaching primarily this semester.  This was so encouraging to see how many manipulatives she provided for her students.
The second and third day were group meetings with the entire county, known as the Academy.  Here, we discussed how to reach the Common Core Standards during this school year, as well as what we could do to provide a wonderful, goal-seeking year for each and every one of our students.  The Common Core made me think of what I could do this year to reach the sacred guidelines the standards provide, as well as the secret stories I could develop to reach the guidelines to their full potential, but in my own way.
Another thing I also realized was how much documentation a special needs classroom requires.  The amount of copies I made goes to show exactly how many recordings I will keep up on to keep records on each student.  I was able to become acquainted with each child's schedule as well as their strengths, what they need, etc.  This time was much needed in order to give me a bit of preparation to accommodate my students when the time came for them to come into the classroom.  Individualizing plans for 15 individual students will be challenging, yet rewarding.  I can't wait to take on this journey and prepare myself for my future career.  I can already tell my mentor is going to be one that I learn a lot from.  I'm really looking forward to this year.

Inquiry Celebration Reflection

This year, at the Inquiry Celebration, I attended four presentations.  I would first like to start by saying how much I appreciated the Interns and other presenters' hard work this year.  I think that by doing my own mini-inquiry research project, I have more respect and understanding of everything they went through in order to obtain data and present their findings.  I have talked to the Interns at my home PDS and I saw all of the dedication they put towards their inquiry, and it truly made me realize what it takes to be an effective, life-long learner and teacher.

The life long learner aspect of a teacher brings me to the first point I would like to make about the celebration.  Two teachers, former Benedum Collaborative students, presented their findings at the first session I attended.  They were teachers from North Elementary School and explained that they were asked to incorporate their own inquiry into their classrooms.  The teachers focused solely on Vocabulary and different strategies they used to get students associated with new words.  Their presentation showed me the importance of reflection during research as well as consistency.  They used a 4-Square vocabulary worksheet for students to write the word, the meaning of the word, write a sentence using the word, and draw a picture of the word.  They also wore name tags that said "Ask me about this word..." with a vocabulary word in the name tag.  Students soon became experts on their vocabulary words.  I plan on using this strategy in my future classroom, as their results proved it to be effective and exciting for the students.  I believe that constant exposure allows students to familiarize themselves with the new words and gives them reinforcement each time they see the word.  The ladies did a wonderful job with their presentation and they showed valuable information in their findings.  Their presentation showed me that when it is my time to present, explaining it in enough detail so that the viewers could implement it makes the presentation worth while and interesting.

The second presentation I attended included three interns that focused on vocabulary.  One focused on vocabulary through art, the other through Word Wall words, and the other through graphic organizers.  Their presentations alone gave me three new strategies to teach vocabulary that I never thought of before.  I enjoyed the presentations because the Interns showed flaws as well as positive findings.  This allowed me to relax and remember that just because something did not turn out exactly as I would want it to, does not mean that it's a failure.  I learned through their presentations to think of my inquiry as a learning process.  If something does not turn out exactly as you wanted it, think of it as a challenge to change it for future implementations.  Most of the information they presented showed effective implementations and positive findings.  The presentations showed me to look to see why something was working for some students and not others.  I believe each of the interns' presentations showed great ways to present vocabulary to students.  It gave me the idea of introducing different strategies of vocabulary comprehension to students and allowing them to choose which is most appealing to them so they can implement it in their own, individualized learning.  This also gives them a sense of accountability for their own learning.

All in all, the presentations were all very beneficial.  They each provided me with a sense of direction and guidelines for my intern year inquiry.  I found as a participant, the inquiry celebration was more relatable and understandable.