Reflection Last Week of Field

This week was our last week in field! Today was so sad leaving the kids. I felt bad because they didn't really understand why we couldn't just keep coming back! I can't wait until I start teaching my own class so I don't have to abandon them after a couple of weeks! This week went well. Everything was just kind of winding down. We were done with everything we needed to do for homework, but our teacher was having us teach science again (to three different classes), continue doing our guided reading groups, and do read alouds every day. I feel like everything went well other than the fact that our science lesson on snow was too easy, but it is kind of hard to do any pre assessment when we only work with them for a half hour on science once a week. I'm sure I will have a much better understanding of what the kids already know and don't know yet, when I am with the kids everyday. I can't really think of much to say about this week in field now that it's over other than; I don't want to go back to class at UVU! I just want to stay in the schools. Today on our last day the kids gave us each a book called, "First Day Jitters." It is a really cute little book about a teacher's first day of school. One thing I am worried about is that our cooperating teacher did not give us a copy of our evaluation. I told her we needed a copy because we are supposed to turn one in to our classroom management teacher and she was really weird about it. She went to BYU so things are run a little differently there. It makes me nervous that she was so funny about giving us a copy. I feel like maybe she didn't rate us very well! Which is odd, because I feel like she liked us and I feel like we did a really good job. I will just have to tell our Professor that she needs to get our evaluation from our college supervisor. I definitely think I did a lot better this semester than last semester, especially on classroom management. I feel like a learned a lot about trying to manage behavior, but still being able to be myself in the classroom. Our cooperating teacher was great at management, but I feel like I definitely have a different management style. Well I guess that's all there is. I feel like I am on the right track for getting all of my homework done and finishing out the semester!

Reflection Field Week 2

This week in field was a lot better than last week! On Monday we started out just working with our reading groups like normal in the morning. That day our cooperating teacher was being observed by her principal because she is still a newer teacher. After our cooperating teacher was observed she had to leave to conference with her principal. At this point Annie and I were left in charge for about an hour to an hour and a half. We were going to be doing, "Today's Number," with the kids, doing a read aloud, and working with the kids on word sorts (from Words Their Way). It actually went really well. We were so glad we were able to keep the kids on task and behaving appropriately. On Tuesday I did a read aloud in the morning (reading comprehension study). I read a picture book about a rainy day. I feel like I did a good job with this and the cooperating teacher gave me some feedback on what I did well or could improve on. Tuesday was also the first day we taught our science lesson and we were being observed by our supervisor from the college! I think the lesson went pretty well, but not perfect. What was really nice is we also taught the lesson again to other classes on Wednesday and Thursday. I feel like the lesson got progressively better each day. It was also really nice to get feedback and suggestions from our supervisor and cooperating teacher to help us improve each day. The first day I think went okay, but it was the first time so we did make some adjustments for the next day. The second day it felt like we knew more about what to expect, but we still weren't on top of the management part. Thursday was awesome! I feel like since we knew what to expect and more about how to handle it and what to do it was great. It's too bad we couldn't do it as well the first time, but what can you do? I am really grateful that our teacher allows us to work with guided reading groups everyday. I feel like if we were only doing the one guided reading lesson required by our Literacy class I wouldn't be learning nearly as much as I am. Thursday we also taught a craft lesson on writing a title. I think it went okay, but I think the concept might have been a little bit over their head. It would probably just be a lot better if we could be more explicit and explore the concept more. Overall it went well, but I don't think it's something every student has a good grasp on. Friday was pretty good. I did some running records during reading time because we don't do guided reading groups on Friday. We also taught a lesson on sensory detail and had the kids write poems using the five senses. I think it went well, but timing is so hard. There were a lot of kids who I felt needed more time, but many also who got done so fast! We found out today that we will be going to do science lessons for all of the classes next week again so we need to get planning for that. Also Annie and I will be doing all of the teacher read alouds next week too so I need to take a trip to the library to find some good books. I am really glad that our cooperating teacher is giving us so many opportunities to teach! Getting so much more experience is making me feel a lot more ready to become a teacher! I am so excited and can't wait to be in a classroom of my own!

Reflection-First Week of Field!

So this was our first week in the field! It is very exciting I love field! So far on Monday, our first day, I got there really early because I was nervous to be on time, but hey at least I was on time. I was kind of nervous the first day because I hadn't gotten a chance to meet our cooperating teacher yet. My first impression of the teacher was that she was very in control, and a little intimidating. I really think there is a lot I can learn from her, especially as far as classroom management is concerned. We mostly observed her the first two days. We were just trying to get a feel of how things are run in her classroom. We go there from 8:00 AM until 11:30 PM (ish, we usually stay a little longer). At 8:00 AM that is when the, "early birds" get there. About ten students come first thing in the morning and the teacher does a reading comprehension study. This is when she basically does a Read Aloud with a picture book and asks them a lot of questions for comprehension. Then after that the kids do silent reading as the teacher calls back groups of students one group at a time to work with guided reading books. After this the teacher does a shared reading with the students. At this time it is about 9:00 AM and it is time for the, "lator gators" to arrive. Once the lator gators get there the class gets started working on math. They usually work together on story problems, then have some time to work on the problems alone. At 11:00 on Tues, Wed, and Thurs they have science rotations. After science the kids go to lunch and we go home. Today (Friday) we, Annie and I, each took over one of the guided reading groups and we will be working with them everyday for the rest of field. That is kind of nice because we are only required to do one guided reading lesson, but we will get to practice it about ten times. Wednesday was a really hard day because our cooperating teacher was actually gone that day and we had a substitute there with us. It was hard because the kids were being a little wild, with the sub, but we knew from watching the teacher what she would have said when. It was really hard for me, since I am a natural leader not to step in and tell the kids to settle down, but I didn't want to overstep the sub. All in all it went okay with the sub. The week so far has been good. I feel like I have learned a lot from the cooperating teacher. At the beginning of the week I thought that running a classroom with kids from the younger grades would be really overwhelming, but it seems a lot more manageable after watching it in action. I am really excited for next week when we can do more teaching!

Reflection

This week in our Foundations of American Education we talked about violence in schools. When I was considering the possibility of this happening in a school I worked at it was really overwhelming. I hope that I never have to deal with anything too serious like that, but you never know. I guess all you can do is try to connect with your students and try to make them feel like a welcome and important part of your classroom community. This week in my foundations of a bilingual classroom we talked about the a lot about language. My group presentetd on two articls about English Language Learners. One of them was about students using different dialects in the classroom. The other one was about motivating and connecting with students from other cultures. I think the presentation went okay, but not exactly as planned. Then again, how often do things go exactly according to plan? I am getting very excited to go out and do our field experience next week! I am a little nervous though, because our cooperating teacher hasn't returned any of my partner and I's calls! I guess if worst comes to worst we'll just have to show up at her school on Monday morning! This week during our Science class we talked about what is expected of us for field. I feel like most of our classes this semester have been so vague and not very explicit on what the expectations are of us and then at the last minute they are just throwing all of these extra (busy work) assignments on us and it is just too much! Well, this is just my opinion. Anyway--that's not just based on science class that is with all of our classes. In our classroom management class we just went over the chapter we were currently studying in the text. We were mostly discussing communication with students while managing their behavior. In our Literacy class on Wednesday we went over the field requirements. I feel like I am more clear on everything that is expected of us now. We did finally get a hold of our cooperating teacher which is nice. At least we know what time she wants us to be there on Monday! I am feeling overwhelmed with the work, but excited to be in the field having fun and learning with and from the kids and to get everything done..

Reflection

This week in Foundations of American Education we talked about motivating students who are not motivated. I feel like a lot of people had really good ideas, but I'm not so sure how many will actually work when put into practice, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. In our Foundations of a Bilingual (multicultural) classroom class we discussed our reading assignments on the Gay and Lesbian community and their effect on our classrooms. It was interesting to hear all of the different viewpoints of people in the classroom. I guess I am pretty liberal compared to some other people. A lot of people were kind of getting defensive about teacher's bringing up Gay and Lesbian issues in Elementary classrooms, but I feel like if it comes up (one of the students brings it up, or uses inappropriate language about it) it should be discussed. I know that a lot of people in our community think that homosexuality is wrong, I won't say what my opinion is, but even if you think it's wrong those people still have rights and deserve respect as a person/individual/American Citizen. I don't think we need to teach the kids all about what it is and state my opinion or anything, but you just need to teach the students to respect all. During our classes on Tuesdays we had Science class. It was a bit of a frustrating science class because we were supposed to have a bunch of assignments due, but then he changed the assignments and told us to email them to him instead. Then we had our classroom management class. On Wednesday we had Literacy Methods. In that class we were mostly just preparing for our test that is coming up and discussing what needs to be done during field. I feel like there has been a lot of confusion on what the assignment are for field, but that we finally cleared everything up during our Language Arts Methods class. So there are some assignments that we found out about that we were not expecting, but at least everything is clear now! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I know it will all work out.

Reflection

So far I have decided my blog is really boring and I mostly complain. I will try to make it a little more interesting in case anyone ever actually reads it. This week in our Foundations of Education class we went over Distance Education. I hate to say it, but I don't feel like I learned a whole lot from class. The article we read prior to class was very thorough and going over it for almost two hours class felt like beating the dead dog. That is just my personal opinion. One beneficial thing I learned from it though is that the MIT OCW website exists. It is nice/interesting to know that the information is available to me if I ever want access to it. Our Foundations of Bilingual Education class was alright. We discussed readings that were assigned to class as always. We did also watch an interesting video about Savage Inequalites in American School systems. I found the video very interesting and informative. It also inspired me to want to teach in the district that I grew up in. We don't really have any degraded inner city schools around this area, but seeing the horrible conditions of some schools really makes me motivated to give back to the community. It is very tempting to just try to get a job in the district that pays the most money, but now that I think about it deeper I really would like to get a job in the area I grew up in. It would be sort of like paying back the wonderful teachers I had by replacing them. Nothing too exciting or inspiring happened in my Science Methods class or Classroom management class. I have learned from science though, that when I get out there as a teacher I really would like to incorporate a lot of experiments in my science curriculum. I have also learned that finding an experiment to do really isn't that hard either. I don't need to be super creative or anything I can just look up lesson plans and experiments online. I don't know how first year teachers did it back in the day before the internet. It is such an awesome resource for teachers for lesson ideas, teacher message boards, access to UEN, etc.

Reflection

So far this week is going well, but also very stressful. In our Foundations for Education class we had the guest speaker. I found the information presented to be very interesting. I liked learning more about some of the stuff we need to know to find a job. Our other class on Mondays, Foundations of the Bilingual Classroom went pretty good as far as class goes, but I am afraid I am going to get a horrible score on the reaction paper we turned in. I didn't get a chance to work on it until Sunday because my hard drive on my lap top crashed last week and it wasn't fixed until Saturday night. It is only one assignment though. On Tuesday we had Science Methods and Classroom Management. I don't really feel like I am learning a lot in those classes. I feel like the stuff we are talking about in Science, like covering making a lesson plan. We already learned that last year in Curriculum Design and Assessment. We had to do about twenty lesson plans for that class last semester. The stuff that we learn and discuss in classroom management seems to be pretty obvious to me. Wednesday the class I had was Literacy Methods. I was very glad for the class today. We went over the assignments and lesson plans we will be doing for our Field Work. I was really grateful for that because I have been really stressed lately feeling like I am not sure what to prepare for field.