Second To Last Class

It was so weird not to go back to Summerville Elementary this week! I really enjoyed my time there and am going to miss (I already am) Mrs. Young and my students. I can only hope to have a practicum teacher liker her. I truly learned so much from her and I will take her behavior management techniques with me througout my teaching career.

I loved class this week. It was so wonderful to finally hear about everyone's family and case study child that they used for their systems model project. I loved hearing about all different kinds of families, and it seemed that with everyones presentation there was an extreme varitety of family types which made the presentations so interesting. I also found it so interesting to see how each childs family system is so distinct and individualistic. Not one of the models seemed even remotely close to another for me and it really allowed me to see as a teacher how different child is and what kind of influences each has on his or her life. It allowed me to remeber to take this information into consiteration that every child has a different background and therefore they are going to experience things in the classroom differently and learn differently as well. I truly enjoyed listening to all of the different situations that the children in our classrooms have.

Family Visit

So, I have not had a chance to post about my family visit because we have had several schedule conflicts and the mother of our case study child has cancelled a lot on us. But, finally today I was able to go to their house in Summerville with Virginia for a few hours. I was so nervous at first because I always think that it is uncomfortable to go into someone's house that you do not know very well. But the visit ended up going great! Mrs. McMann allowed for us to ask her all kinds of questions and we were able to find out so much information about Charlotet's family life and home routines.

Charlotte especially loved our book bags that we gave her. I thought this was a great idea to do this project because it was nice to not only have something special to bring the case study child and do with her, but something that could break the ice as well. We each read our books with Charlotte and played our games with her and she loved it! She also showed us around her playroom and her room and she showed us all of her collections. It really makes you understand why home visits are so important for the first year of school because you are able to tell so much about a family and how it runs just by being in their house for a few minutes. I was able to gain a lot of insight on Charlotte by going to her house and ended up really enjoying the experience even though it was not something I felt comfortable doing at first.

Final Visit

So, this week was my last week ever in Mrs. Young's class. It was so sad to leave the children, I really feel like I had become a part of their classroom community and I will be sad to not visit them on Thursdays anymore.

This was a wonderful week. I finally decided to get up to Summerville early. This was something that I have wanted to do all semester but have never done. I got to see the children during their phonics lesson, in their reading time, as well as during their special area of art. It was so wonderful to see the children in the morning when they are so fresh. Let me tell you, writing/literacy centers were COMPLETELY different from their math centers that are at the end of the day. The children were focused, clam, and well behaved. It was a totally different world. It almost makes you think about what switching up a schedule might do so that each subject gets the children when they are at this wonderful state! I loved seeing them in the morning and it made me regret not doing this more often this semester. Children are a totally different world in the morning, sometimes I just think that school days are too long for these kindergartners and that is why the behavioral problems come out so much in the afternoons because that is when the children are exhausted and can't even focus on anything for a minute. How are they supposed to learn like that?

The children were so cute about us leaving they gave us each a card with a Starbucks gift card in it and they had all signed the card. It was so sweet because you could tell they had been so excited to give it to us all morning. We also had a little gift card for Mrs. Young and some dog treats for her dogs which the children thought was hilarious. I have learned so much from Mrs. Young this semester but mostly I have learned A LOT about classroom management. This is something that she is wonderful with and some days I don't know how she does it. I also learned a lot about parent teacher relationships from Mrs. Young. She has an open door policy in her classroom and her parents love this and come and volunteer often which I know is so nice for her.

I loved being in Mrs. Young's class this semester and I hope to go back and visit next semester!

Week 10

This week was another quiet week. The children were back to normal since Mrs. Young was back and in full force. The time that I observe is a little bit different because it is always during lunch, recess, math centers, and writing. This week the children did something a little bit different in writing which was so cool. The standard was on list making and the children made lists of their favorite colors. I found myself working with one child in the class who just came to the class last month and is in foster care. I can see that he is a very bright boy, but he does not believe in himself which I am sure has come with his life situations. I sat with him almost the whole time and worked with him on his list to sound out the names of his favorite colors. With individual scaffolding and encouragement he did great! When he finished he was SOOO proud of himself and it was such a rewarding thing to see. I could see the look in his eyes was like "Maybe I can do this." It is amazing what a little bit of encouragement can do.

I am excited for next week as I am going to go in the morning for my last day. Mrs. Young has been encouraging me to do this all semester as she says the children are much more focused in the morining and that there are not as many behavioral issues. I am not surprised about this. I will let you know how it goes.

This week for class we went and saw the presentation on Three Cups of Tea. I really enjoyed it but what I got out of it the most that hit home since I am teaching at Summerville was the part about poverty. He said to understand it you must smell it, taste it, and understand it. This made so much sense to me and I think what he really means is that we need to be empathetic and understand where these children are coming from and help them overcome that in their learning and not be just sympathetic. This is how the children will get the most out of their learning experience.

Week Nine

This week was somewhat of a quiet week. My co-operating teacher has been out all week with a death in her family which is so sad, but the assistant Mrs. VonDohlen was so happy to see us. She thought that we would be teaching and provide a little bit of relief for her but we were not scheduled to teach anything this week! I was feeling so badly for her because the children were a little loud and crazy without Mrs. Young there so I offered to do the literacy lesson for her.

Overall, it went great. I was a little bit nervous to do it since I did not have a lesson plan or any prep time whatsoever, but I knew that I should push myself because it was a good skill to learn to be able to teach a lesson at the drop of a hat. I am proud of myself for doing it and it went very well considering I had not prepared at all!

Week Eight

This week went really well! I was a little bit nervous about teaching this week because it was the long lesson that I have been dreading but it went better than any of my other lessons! The classroom was a little wild and crazy because of Halloween being so close but I still managed to do a great job controlling their behavior. The writing lesson went so well and the children really seemed to understand it which is such a rewarding thing! It was a lesson on writing and saying complete sentences that include two parts the who or the what and the action. The students did a great job writing their own sentences and some even labeled which part was the who or what and which part was the action! It made me feel so good that they really understood how I had explained it because my cooperating teacher said they had neve had a lesson on this before!

My math lesson also went very well. I brought in gummie snacks and chex mix for the children to sort on plates in front of them in circle and they loved it! I think anytime that you involve food the children get so excited and into the lesson.

Week Seven

This week was a great week at Summerville. No one taught a lesson in my classroom so it was so nice to just be able to observe after teaching two lessons so that I could learn even more for my third and final lesson. The kids were great! Virginia taught her lesson earlier in the week so it was just me in the classroom which was so nice to be able to have the kids all to myself and they were so excited to see me. I got to watch Mrs. Young teach the writing lesson and the math lesson that I will be teaching this week and it was so great to be able to see everything that I will be teaching this week. Overall, it was a very relaxed and fun day and I loved being able to participate in all of the activities with the children.

I loved class this week. I though the woman that spoke for us about parent education programs was so informative and wonderful and to be honest I had no idea that these kinds of programs existed as a resource for new parents. What a wonderful thing that they do and it is definitely something that I want to be a part of later in life. I think it is such a great thing for parents to have as well as for the children. It is so difficult to be a parent and also prepare your child for school and I think this program is so wonderful in that it helps parents know what is developmentally appropriate for their children and what kind of activities and things they can work on while they are at home.

Week Six

This week I taught my second lesson and I feel like it went really well! This was a huge change from my transition lesson which was nice as this time I felt like I actually got to use a lot of the techniques that we have been talking about which are difficult to incorporate in the transition lessons. The lesson I taught was a literacy lesson and the children seemed to really enjoy it. I really felt like throughout the lesson I had some great behavior management techniques too that worked! I had them show me what active listeners look like and I counted down from five and throughout the lesson I only had a few small behavior problems. I think the children really understood the lesson and that they really enjoyed it as it related to Halloween and they got to draw pumpkins! Overall, it was great. I really love my class and enjoyed teaching the lesson.

I loved the format of class this week where we essentially taught each-other. I think that for me personally, there was not a lot of pressure like in cold call as I knew what I was going to be responsible for in the discussion and it make it much more enjoyable and I was able to focus and truly listen to the classmates in my group. I loved that it was a small group and we all lead each-other, and I felt like it allowed for more time to talk out-loud and voice your own opinion in the group. I also enjoyed our guest speaker that assistant principle as I learned a lot from him and it was great to see someone so young in administration. He was so positive about his whole experience which made me feel positive as well.

Week Five

This week went very well in the field. I know the children's rountine well and am able to help Mrs. Young in the classroom a lerge amount. This week Virginia taught her literacy lesson. It went very well. She did a great job of keeping them under control and keeping them focused. The children really understood the lesson and I think that they loved it because it had to do with Halloween and they got to draw something chasing after them. It makes me excited to teach my literacy lesson and I hope that it goes just as well. Hopefully I have learned even more about some behavioral management techniqies that it will be easier to manage the classroom because we will not be transitioning so the children will be able to be more focused.

I loved class this week as well. I thought it was so great to see all of the teach like a champion techniqies acted out, it really helped me to remember them. I also loved being a part of Summerville Elementary's Reading Day. I thought it was so great and such a great thing to do to get the parents involved. My teacher told me that when they offer them dinner they always get a large turnout than when they don't. I also got to sit in on a reading of the local children's book writer who writes the Hermie the Hermit Crab Books. It was so neat to hear her read one of her books to the children and tell us about where her inspirations come from. What a fun night!

Week Four

This week I had another great day in Mrs. Young's class. The kids are so used to us coming in now that they expect us and give us a big welcome which is so nice. Right away I began to teach my lesson which was on transitions. I knew it was going to be a little bit difficult because Mrs. Young has them tightly wrapped around her finger and I knew I would have big shoes to fill. I found that I did a great job teaching and keeping the children's behavior under control in the line, but I did realize that it became difficult because Mrs. Young was still taking charge a little bit with the children and the children did not know exactly who they should turn to and who was in charge, which made things difficult. I officially know all of the children's names and I am so proud of myself because there is so many of them! But I think it is such a good thing to know everyones names when you are doing a behavior management lesson so that you can call the children out who are not behaving well. I think that my next lesson will go a little bit better since I will actually be teaching the children a writing lesson and not just focusing on the transitions from place to place.

I am really enjoying the class so far. I feel like this week I learned so much information about title one schools and how they work like a machine. I was so impressed with Chicora and the people who work there seem so wonderful it just amazes me how happy and uplifting the whole school seems to be with these children who do not come from the best home life situations. I had no idea that Chicora was at 100% poverty level. What an amazing thing that these teachers do every day for these children, it is so inspiring!

Week Three In Mrs. Young's Class

This week in the field was great. I am learning more and more each time that I go and I truly am enjoying watching Mrs. Young. She has taught in several different schools because her husband is in the Coast Guard and because of this she is soooo knowledgeable. I have almost learned all of the names in my class which I think is so helpful for when I will teach next week because this class has a lot of behavior issues and I think that calling out the children who are not following directions is a technique that works very well and it is hard to call the children out if you don't know names! Hopefully by next week I will have them all down pat. Virginia taught her lesson this week and she did a great job. These children are a handful and one of the most difficult tasks can just be walking in a line to transition to lunch, recess, etc! She did a good job reminding them of what they should be doing and managing their behavior. I just hope I can do the same next week!

I have read the first chapter of our new book home, school, and community collaboration and so far I love this book. It is so well written and the first chapter was filled with so many interesting statistics that are helpful for teachers to know. I never realized how many single parent households there are in the US! This first chapter has really allowed me to see the benefits of forming a positive relationship with the parents of your students. I have always known how important it is to keep the parents informed and involved but I never realized the actual benefits that come from the students grades and test scores. To see the actual statistics that show how much good can come from a positive and involved relationship between the teacher and the parent was so eye opening and really gives me the motivation to make these connections strong in my own personal teaching experience.

Week Two in Mrs. Young's Class

This week I really enjoyed my field again. I really feel like I am starting to get to know the students in my class and they come from such diverse backgrounds it is so refreshing to see such a different group of children that can work so well together. I am still amazed at Mrs. Young's classroom management. These children seem to get very wild at times and she can refocus them with the snap of her fingers. It is such an amazing thing to see and I am learning so much from her. It is making me feel a little more confident about my first lesson that I will teach because it is mostly focusing on transitions and lunch time which is mainly about managing the class. I was able to observe the children during math centers again and this time we each got to choose and lead a center. It was so great to work in small groups with the children because I was able to do a little bit of assessing of my own to see where each child stands in the class. This class is on very different levels academically to say the least.

As far as class goes, I am loving the teach like a champion book. I feel like I am learning so many techniques that I will be able to use when I am teaching and I also like how we are being challenged to include the techniques into our lessons. For this week, the technique that I liked the most was the hook. I think it is so important to get the children interested in what they are learning and as teachers we get so involved in just teaching the standard and getting mastery we forget to get the children involved and interested in the topic first. Especially with early childhood education this is so important and I think can be forgotten. It reminded me to try my best to get the children interested in what you are doing even if it is something as little as a small story to hook them onto the topic.

First Day at Summerville Elementary

I had a wonderful first day at Summerville Elementary. My lead teacher has so much teaching experience and she has the most amazing classroom management skills. It is such a diverse and interesting class but so far, all of the students seem so great and eager to learn. My co-operating teacher almost immediately introduced herself and her assistant and then so perfectly explained to the class that we would be observing on Thursdays as we were learning how to be teachers just like her and the students seemed to love the explanation. I think the children are very excited to have us in the classroom and I can tell already it is nice for our co-operating teacher to have a few extra sets of hands. We were able to observe the students during a writing lesson which was very neat, as well as during their math centers. I am so excited about this semester in that we will not be teaching just a lesson, that we will be actually taking over the class for a certian amount of time. I think that this makes more sense as it is so much more realisitc of teaching, I am very excited about this.

In class this week I really enjoyed reading a lot about the cases in our book. I particularly loved the two cases that talked about parent teacher relationships as I think that this is one of the scariest parts about being a teacher, building a positive relationship with our parents. I learned a lot more about communicating with the parents, keeping them as informed as possible, and most importantly remembering that as teachers it is our job to keep the parents updated and inform them of any problems. I think it is difficult to remember that it is the teachers job to initiate the communication which I think can be difficult at times. I am excited to learn more techniques for communicating with the parents as I know how difficult this can be.

It's a New Semester!

I am so excited about this semesters field placement. My first choice was kindergarten and that is where I will be. Going into this whole graduate experience, I was dead set on wanting to teach the second grade. I have had experiences with this age group before in babysitting and I felt like it was just right for me. For my second field I was placed in was first grade. I found that I loved this age group and working with them. They are so eager to learn and are so excited about their reading and writing and are just starting to get the hang of it. It is such a rewarding age. I am so excited for this semester to do kindergarten because I think I will get even more of that excitement for literacy. I have never been in a kindergarten classroom and I currently teach for work in a pre-K classroom so I am so excited to see what happens after they leave my classroom and to become a part of that. I am even more excited about teaching at such a great title one school that seems to have so many goals set for the year.

As far as the course goes, I am truly enjoying it. I love the feeling that the two classes are really connected and that it is really just one class together. I am loving the Lemov book so far. I know we are just getting into it but I love that it is directed at teachers specifically and that instead of completely new ideas, it describes techniques to enforce what you already know about teaching. I think that because of this the techniques are so applicable, helpful, and easier to remember. Although I have not agreed with all of the details of each specific technique I have agreed with all of the techniques that I have read about and I think that each teacher can make the techniques his or her own in the classroom. I have found that I am doing a lot of the techniques already in the classroom that Lemov has described, I just have never been able to describe them as well. I look forward to reading more and learning more techniques for teaching.

FInal Day

Yesterday was my last week at Drayton Hall and I was so so sad to leave! I have absolutely loved the students, but especially working with Mrs. Fisher, she has been beyond fantastic. She is so well knowledged and I still feel like I had so much more to learn from her. She has been so welcoming and wonderful and I don't think that I will get that lucky again! This week we went and practiced the children's plays with them and it was so neat to watch them. They were great! When we came back into the room they were all hiding and yelled surprise! They had a cake for us and they gave us each a book where Mrs. Fisher had written in it with a neat quote and where the children had all signed it! It was so sweet and wonderful! I was so sad to leave but after a million hugs we finally did. This was such a great experience and I LOVED every minute of it!

Drayton Hall week 9

This was my second to last week at Drayton Hall and it is so sad to me that it is almost over. I have bonded so much with these children and especially with my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Fisher. I have learned so much from her and I am still learning from her. I feel so lucky to have been placed with a teacher that has so much experience teaching, she literally has it down to a science. 

This week Allison taught her final lesson, a social studies lesson on needs and wants and how the children can differentiate between the two. It was a really cute lesson. She explained to them about needs and wants and read them a great book called the Rag Coat. Then she gave each child a card with a picture of something on it and they had to place it under the need or want category. It was such a great idea because it started some great discussion between the children if they did not agree for it to fall under the same category so it was neat to hear all of their responses and It think that they really enjoyed the lesson. 

Also this week, I did my assessment plan. I did a spelling sort on the hard c and soft c sounds and it went so great. The children really understood what I was teaching to them and it was also a neat experience to teach an entire lesson in a one-on-one situation which I know teachers do not get to do very often. It made me see how much you can understand about the children in your class and what level they are on, and I think the children really enjoy the personal time with the teacher as well. 

Stop and Think Ch. 4

What are your earliest memories about how your family and your teachers reacted? Did anyone in your family visit school? Who? Why? What was that like for you?

I don't have a lot of memories about bow my parents and my teachers interacted but I know that it was very minimal. I do not remember my parents communicating with my parents at all unless there was a problem. I think that this has a huge effect on the student and forms a big disconnect between the home/school relationship. I don't remember my parents visiting school except for a parent teacher conference that would be required. Otherwise the parent teacher relationship was not there whatsoever. Now, as a teacher I have been able to see how important this relationship is for all that are involved. I think it does wonders for the students and can even help them improve in their academics. Because my teachers did not form relationships with my parents, I am going to do my best as a teacher to make sure that I form positive relationships with my parents because I know how important these relationships can be. 

Anti Bias Response Question Ch. 2

What overt and covert lessons might children get from their favorite TV programs? Who is visible? Who is invisible? About which groups are there positive or negative messages?

I think that there are several overt and covert lessons that the children can get from their favorite TV shows. Most of them are about doing the right thing, making the right choice, being a good child, or being a good friend. etc. I think a lot of these are hidden but most of them are open for the children to see and understand. I think that in most of the children's television shows that I have seen that african americans are greatly missing. Most of the shows have almost all white children with one or two black children. But still I believe that in most shows the white male is the most visible and black male and females are invisible. I think that almost all of the television shows that are acceptable for children have positive messages, I have not seen very many that have a negative message however I have seen some that show the negative consequences from a bad decision or a wrong choice before the help the children to understand what negative outcome could happen. 

Final Lesson

This week was my final lesson to teach and believe it or not it went the best of any of my lessons! I think I am really starting to get the idea down from watching Mrs. Fisher and Allison but mostly from learning from my mistakes from teaching in the past. I taught a lesson on frogs and the frog life cycle and the kids really understood it and I think that they enjoyed the lesson overall. I put the worksheet on the Smartboard for them to see and it was so beneficial because they were able to understand my description and my directions and I had the least amount of questions with it as I ever have in the past. I also had the most control over the classroom as I have ever had. Any time I saw a problem I asked the students to move or to please stay quiet. I felt like I had great control over the class and that the students are starting to understand me and respect me as a teacher and it was such a great feeling.

Drayton Hall Week 8

It is hard to believe that this is my eighth week at Drayton Hall. Today, Allison taught her third lesson on plants. It went great! She did such a great job of explaining to the students about what a plant needs to grow and then she related it to them and what they need to live and grow. They thought it was so exciting and they also loved that they got to go outside and plant some lettuce seeds. They got a little bit excited, but Allison did a great job with her management of their behavior and each time calmed them down and refocused them on what they were doing. 

I got to lead all of the leveled readings today and it was so neat to do. Mrs. Fisher has let us do this from the start and I love it because we get personal time with the children in small groups which lets me get to know them better but also it lets me see where they are as far as their literacy levels which in this class is very interesting because they are so different. It was so neat today because I noticed that one of the students who reads at the lowest level in the class has improved so much! He did a fantastic job today and I can see his confidence starting to emerge and because of it he seems to like reading even more. He is reading faster and louder and is trusting his instincts on the words that he is sounding out. It is such a neat thing to see a student progress in such a little amount of time! 

Drayton Hall Week 7

So, I taught my third lesson today on maps and where the students are located on the map. Overall, I do believe that the lesson went well however I had an extremely difficult time with this lesson because of the information that it covered and the amount of information as well as with behavioral issues. The lesson itself went well, but the children were very chatty as it is St. Patrick's day and they were all so excited about the leprechaun that came in the classroom as they had just done a scavenger hunt right before I taught where the leprechaun had left them a pot of gold chocolate coins. They were soooo excited that it was very difficult to calm them down and get them back on task. They knew that today was a special day and therefore they had a hard time focusing in on what we were working on. 

Mrs. Fisher had expressed to me that the children needed some work on maps and their location on the map so I put together a lesson where I showed them their city, their state, their country, their continent, and then their planet. This was a great concept for them to review and Mrs. Fisher had already gone over this concept with them yet they did not seem to fully grasp it during the lesson. They had a difficult time because each location had two names that they needed to remember for example their state is South Carolina, their country is The United States of America. Because it was so much information it seemed to be overwhelming and only a few of the students seemed to get it during the lesson. 

I found myself getting easily frustrated as the students would not stay focused and had a hard time with the information. In the future for this lesson I think that I will just focus on a little bit less information and try to present it in a way that may be easier to understand such as maybe starting with a book about maps and where they are on the map. Overall it was a great lesson learned as the lesson was quite difficult for them and they had a hard time understanding the concept. It was also a great experience as I had to control the behavior for the majority of the lesson while keeping my cool and not letting my frustrations get the best of me. I keep expecting each lesson of mine to be perfect and they never are and I have to keep reminding myself that I am a new teacher and that no lesson will ever be perfect because every class is different. 

Drayton Hall Week 6

It is hard to believe that this was my sixth trip to observe at Drayton Hall. I am still learning so much from Mrs. Fisher and I still love how great she is with the children and how she is so willing to help us learn as much as we can when we are in there. Her classroom management skills are out of this world and I feel like I am learning so much about how to manage myself. Today Allison taught her lesson which was on descriptive words. She had a powerpoint on the smart board and the children loved it! They were so chatty today and she did such a great job of bringing them back to focus and quiet down, although she did have to do it a lot. They filled out a worksheet about themselves using descriptive words and they really understood and had great and hilarious answers. I think her lesson went very well. I also got to lead all of the leveled readings for the class which is so neat. As everyone knows after out DIBELS presentation, our class is full of diverse learners as far as literacy levels go so it was amazing to be able to read with all of them and witness this first hand again. 

Drayton Hall Week 5

This week at Drayton Hall I taught my second lesson. I felt like I had learned a lot from teaching my first lesson so I felt a lot more confident going into this lesson, especially with the behavioral expectations for the students. The lesson went well overall. The students really understood the lesson that I taught (on short and long I vowel) and they loved soring the words into the correct categories on the smart board. They also loved alphabetizing their spelling words on the smart board as I wrote them on the smary board and then they put them in order from one to ten. They listened well and loved the glueing part where they glued their sorted words down in their word sort. The only negative aspect of the lesson is that is was too long and I taught it on two seperate ideas which I think confused them. If I could go back, I would only do the lesson on sorting short and long I and I would just add more words to it.

Other than the lesson being too long it went so well. I know all of their names and I can tell that they feel comfortable with me teaching now and they have gotten used to having us in the classroom. I could tell that they liked doing something different and new as they had not done a word sort in class before!

Drayton Hall Week 4

It was a good week this week because it was probably the most normal day of observation I have had so far. Right when we walked in this week several of the children came up to hug us and seemed excited that we were there which made me feel good. Allison taught her first lesson and it went really well, other than that it went a little long and the children started to loose their attention. I feel like I am really starting to get to know the children in my class and I almost have all of their names down. I tried to observe my case study child closely but I realized how quiet she is so I am going to have to work a little harder to get to know her. This week Allison and I got to do some leveled reading and lead the groups again which I love doing because I really get a good grasp of where each child is in their reading level, I am still so amazed at how different all of their reading levels are! (from kindergarden to third grade level for a first grade class). 

Drayton Hall Week 3 (First Lesson)

So, today was somewhat overwhelming. I taught my first lesson to my first grade class on centimeters. As part of my lesson, I had prepared small ziploc bags for each child that were filled with 5 pieces of long candy that they could measure in centimeters. As I began to give the lesson I could tell that they were so excited, so excited that I had a hard time managing them as they were all wanting to know if they were going to get their own bag of candy to eat. The lesson went very well, I had their full undivided attention on the rug, and I could tell that they were understanding the concept of measuring in centimeters.

After the lesson, I had them go back to their seats and I passed out a bag of candy to each child and a worksheet. What I found was that they were almost too excited about the candy to even complete the worksheet. I told them that they may have one piece of candy after they have completed the worksheet though so that they would have their focus on the worksheet and its completion and not just the candy. Overall, I feel like the lesson went very well. The students did a great job with the worksheet and seemed to really understand what we were doing. I did have to answer a lot of questions at each child's desk and give a lot of individual attention. I also had to modify the lesson quickly as I realized that their everyday math rulers only went up to 15 cm and the pencil I had given them to measure was 19cm. I had to change things up and put them in pairs to answer this question so that they could use two rulers and measure as best as they could to the nearest centimeter. I called this more of a challenge question to get them to think and they seemed to love it.

The only thing that I had some difficulty with was classroom management because they were so excited about the candy it was a little bit difficult to keep them focused on the task at hand and several times I had to raise my hand to get them to quiet down and re-focus. Other than that, I feel that the lesson went very well and I look forward to teaching more as they will get easier and easier the more that I do and the better that I know the students in my class.

Drayton Hall Week 2

Today was my second day at Drayton Hall and I had another great day. I am already starting to learn about the children and their personalities and their interests, I am still working on their names though. Today was great because we got to see more of what a real day is like for them as last week was only a half day. I got to experience the morning meeting where they did calender and did a show and tell and it was so neat just to be a part of that. Next we did some leveled reading and Mrs. Fisher let me lead two of the groups where she gets them into a small group in a circle on the floor and the children take turns reading each page this was really interesting to see as each group is a different level of reading I was also able to see Mrs. Fisher give a math lesson which was great as I will be teaching one next week. 

The only negative part of my day is that I feel that there are so many projects and assignments that each time I go in the classroom I am overwhelmed and I am overwhelming my teacher by bombarding her with so many questions and I am taking time away from her that she needs to be with her students and time that I could be observing the class. Hopefully I will get a better grip on all of these assignments and I will not feel like this all semester. 

First Day at Drayton Hall

Today was my first day at Drayton Hall and I had the best day! Immediately when I walked in I had great feelings rush back to me from when I was in elementary school and it was so neat. I had almost forgotten what public school was like and almost instantly I remembered why I love it so much. My teacher, Mrs. Fisher is amazing. She has the control over her class that other teachers would be jealous of. I enamored by her and quickly realized that I am going to learn so much from her. She is so welcoming and I can really tell that teaching is her passion because not only does she teach her class but she quickly begins to teach Allison and me as well. 

Today she was performing the Dibels testing to her students which is a one on one testing system that does a series of one minute tests that focus on literacy. The first section is on phoneme segmentation where the children are to say each individual sound of the word that the teacher states to the student. The second part focused on what they called a nonsense word fluency where the student would read nonsense words just to make sure they are understanding the sounds of the letters Ex: len, aj. The third part of the test was on reading fluency where the students would read a passage out lout and the teacher was checking on how accurately the student reads the words. This testing experience was amazing and was so pertinent to our assessment course. My co-operating teacher chose three students that were on three different literacy levels so that I could see the changes in skills and it was so fascinating!

Overall, I just had a great day. It was one of those days where everything seems to come together and make sense and just reaffirmed in my mind that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was such a great feeling because I know that experiences in the field can sometimes do the opposite. I can't wait to go back next week because I know there is so much that I can learn from Mrs. Fisher!

Drayton Hall

So, it is the night before our first field placements and I am so excited. In my first field I was lucky in that I was able to do all of my observations where I work at Ashley Hall, just in different classrooms. This time I am going to be in a completely different setting with different people in a whole new place. I grew up in a public school and I had the most wonderful experience so I am so excited to be in a public school again as I have not been back in one since I have been on the other side as a teacher. I have already heard great things about my co-operating teacher and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Goals

I am so excited to start teaching this semester because I know that I am going to learn so much. First, I am excited about having another teacher to observe. In these experiences I know that we learn so much from the students themselves, but I learn the most from watching the teacher and the little things that they have picked up from their many years of teaching. 

My major goal is to just get as much out of this field experience as I possibly can. In my past field and in my work experience I have worked in a private school, so I am so excited to have the experience of working in a public school and to be able to experience that different atmosphere because I grew up in a public school and I hope to teach in one as well in the future. I know because public and private schools are so different that I am going to learn so many different things and I can't wait to be able to take what I have learned from both experiences and take what I like from both and have my own teaching style that is a combination of the two. 

I also hope to learn about just working with another age group in general. In my past observation I did not have as much time as I would have liked working with Kindergarten and above so I am so excited to see how this age group goes and what kind of interest that they will spark for me. Overall, I just hope to learn everything that I can from this experience. I want to go in with an open mind and just take everything in that I can from the entire thing. 

First Post for 636

So, I am kind of excited to start blogging again because I honestly enjoyed doing it last semester because I think it is a good way to reflect on your teaching experiences and remember them. I know we all probably have similar reasons for wanting to be teachers, for me it is mostly because I have a great passion for children. I love working with kids and have for a long time. As a result, I have spent a lot of time babysitting, being a camp counselor and doing any kind of activities where I get to be a role model for children. I think children are so much fun to be around. I love their energy and their enthusiasm for life, and most of all how eager they are to learn about everything. 

Over the last few months, my passion for teaching has changed even more. Now that I have had a taste of it, I want even more. Just like excitement for other things in the future, I have the excitement to soon be the teacher in my own classroom and to be able to use everything that I have learned combined with my own creativity to teach children in fun and interesting ways so that they are excited about learning. 

There are several things that I worry about with teaching. First and foremost is simply not being successful. I worry that my students will not understand what I am teaching it and that I will not be able to explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them. I also fear a lot about the parents. Almost all horror stories that I have heard about children somehow incorporate parent involvement. I think that communicating with the parents and keeping them up to date with what is going on in the classroom can be one of the most difficult aspects of teaching. 

There are so many things that excite me about teaching. I get excited just about spending time with children, teaching them new things, creating sparks for passions that they may have in the future, being creative with them, being able to see things through their eyes, having them teach me new things every day, and most importantly I am excited to hopefully be that teacher that my students will remember for a lifetime.