After spending 5 wonderful weeks in my high school placement at Fairmont Senior, it was time to adventure back to my home-based placement at East Park Elementary School. At my East Park placement, I am in a self-contained special education class. Within this classroom, I work with 4 students for the majority of the day; two students with Autism (one in which is non-verbal), one student with a learning disability, and another student that is mildly impaired. I also have 5 students who come into my classroom for 45 minutes of each day who get extra help in language arts.
I have only been at this placement for 4 days, but already feel very comfortable with my students. I am also very lucky to be placed with a great mentor teacher. Thus far, she has offered a lot of suggestions and good ideas in which I plan to use. She also is very helpful in the aspect that she is always sharing information about teaching strategies or lesson ideas that she newly learns about. I am very excited to spend the rest of the semester here and to work with my new students!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
New Placement, New Faces
After spending 5 wonderful weeks in my high school placement at Fairmont Senior, it was time to adventure back to my home-based placement at East Park Elementary School. At my East Park placement, I am in a self-contained special education class. Within this classroom, I work with 4 students for the majority of the day; two students with Autism (one in which is non-verbal), one student with a learning disability, and another student that is mildly impaired. I also have 5 students who come into my classroom for 45 minutes of each day who get extra help in language arts.
I have only been at this placement for 4 days, but already feel very comfortable with my students. I am also very lucky to be placed with a great mentor teacher. Thus far, she has offered a lot of suggestions and good ideas in which I plan to use. She also is very helpful in the aspect that she is always sharing information about teaching strategies or lesson ideas that she newly learns about. I am very excited to spend the rest of the semester here and to work with my new students!
I have only been at this placement for 4 days, but already feel very comfortable with my students. I am also very lucky to be placed with a great mentor teacher. Thus far, she has offered a lot of suggestions and good ideas in which I plan to use. She also is very helpful in the aspect that she is always sharing information about teaching strategies or lesson ideas that she newly learns about. I am very excited to spend the rest of the semester here and to work with my new students!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Intern Rubric Reflecting in My Classroom
At the end of last week, my algebra class was learning about solving problems using the order of operations (P.E.M.D.A.S). To get the students motivated about this topic, I put the letters P.E.M.D.A.S really big on the front board. I began by asking the students if they had ever heard of this before. Immediately, the hands went up because their minds had reverted them to their “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” days otherwise known as P.E.M.D.A.S (otherwise, otherwise known as the order of operations). I chose to motivate the students to get excited about the order of operations by allowing them to think of their own mnemonic device other than Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The students had a lot of fun with it and came up with really creative sayings! This was an example of element 5.3: uses an understanding of motivation and group motivation. This activity allowed the students to become intrinsically motivated because they enjoyed saying their self created mnemonic device while solving the problems.
For the next few days in my algebra class, we are learning about basic graphing and functions. Due to the fact that this is the first time the students are being introduced to functions, the students had to participate in note taking. Due to the fact that most of the students in the classroom rely heavily on their notes, I decided that I would make a flap book graphic organizer to highlight some of the important vocabulary and concepts. Also keeping in mind my students, I filled in the titles of each flap so that the students could easily navigate through while taking notes. I feel that this was a good example of element 4.2: creates appropriate instructional opportunities for diverse learners because I considered each of my students’ learning styles and strengths when planning this lesson.
Of course to effectively teach these lessons, I had to come up with thought out lesson plans prior to teaching. This represents 5.5: develops and implements well defined lessons. In my opinion, I feel that both writing out the lesson plans and also writing a list of bulleted points to use when actually teaching is very helpful for me. This allows me to remember the big events that I wanted to touch in my lessons without skipping over anything.
For the next few days in my algebra class, we are learning about basic graphing and functions. Due to the fact that this is the first time the students are being introduced to functions, the students had to participate in note taking. Due to the fact that most of the students in the classroom rely heavily on their notes, I decided that I would make a flap book graphic organizer to highlight some of the important vocabulary and concepts. Also keeping in mind my students, I filled in the titles of each flap so that the students could easily navigate through while taking notes. I feel that this was a good example of element 4.2: creates appropriate instructional opportunities for diverse learners because I considered each of my students’ learning styles and strengths when planning this lesson.
Of course to effectively teach these lessons, I had to come up with thought out lesson plans prior to teaching. This represents 5.5: develops and implements well defined lessons. In my opinion, I feel that both writing out the lesson plans and also writing a list of bulleted points to use when actually teaching is very helpful for me. This allows me to remember the big events that I wanted to touch in my lessons without skipping over anything.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Bittersweet Ending
In three days, my 5 week placement at Fairmont Senior High School will come to an end. To be honest, BEFORE I began this placement I was terrified and had myself convinced that High School was not the place for me. I did not think that I would enjoy teaching students that were so close to me in age and was very apprehensive about the material that I would have to be teaching (because the content was so specific). Now, as the final day approaches I find myself wanting to stay at the High School.
Over these past couple weeks, I feel that I have learned so much about what a special education teacher's job entails. Although I have been educated of this through my SPED classes at the university, it wasn't until I was at Fairmont Senior and learned/saw firsthand that I actually had any clue. I truly admire my mentor teacher. She is a very hard worker who has a true passion for teaching these students and helping them to become young adults. Not only does she care about their academics, but she does all that she can to ensure that all of her students are comfortable and on the right track to become a young adult (even if it means putting in extra time and work for her students).
Not only do I hope to be the kind of teacher that she is in the future, but I also hope to have her organizational skills. I came here knowing that special education meant paperwork but I had no idea the amount of time and work that went into all of these different forms. Obviously, with all of that paperwork (especially with the majority of it being confidential) you have to have a fantastic organization system or else your job will be impossible. My mentor teacher has her organization system in full swing and I feel that it is very beneficial for both her job and mental health.
Although I was scared of these High School students at first, I developed a great relationship with all of my students and have finally figured out their interests, personalities and learning styles. I have finally come to a point in my teaching here where I feel completely comfortable in front of these kids and in this atmosphere. High School is not a scary place like I had originally thought and I cannot wait to come back here next semester to complete some of my contract hours. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement or a better experience. So, until next time…
Over these past couple weeks, I feel that I have learned so much about what a special education teacher's job entails. Although I have been educated of this through my SPED classes at the university, it wasn't until I was at Fairmont Senior and learned/saw firsthand that I actually had any clue. I truly admire my mentor teacher. She is a very hard worker who has a true passion for teaching these students and helping them to become young adults. Not only does she care about their academics, but she does all that she can to ensure that all of her students are comfortable and on the right track to become a young adult (even if it means putting in extra time and work for her students).
Not only do I hope to be the kind of teacher that she is in the future, but I also hope to have her organizational skills. I came here knowing that special education meant paperwork but I had no idea the amount of time and work that went into all of these different forms. Obviously, with all of that paperwork (especially with the majority of it being confidential) you have to have a fantastic organization system or else your job will be impossible. My mentor teacher has her organization system in full swing and I feel that it is very beneficial for both her job and mental health.
Although I was scared of these High School students at first, I developed a great relationship with all of my students and have finally figured out their interests, personalities and learning styles. I have finally come to a point in my teaching here where I feel completely comfortable in front of these kids and in this atmosphere. High School is not a scary place like I had originally thought and I cannot wait to come back here next semester to complete some of my contract hours. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement or a better experience. So, until next time…
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Roll The Dice!
This week in my Algebra 1 class (with freshman), I was teaching powers and exponents. On the first day, I introduced the topic and we went through the main concepts and important information dealing with the topic. On the next day, we practiced problems as a class based on powers and exponents followed by independent practice. The following day, I decided to change it up a bit. Since the students had been working with pencil and paper all week, I decided to add a little fun into the way they were practicing completing powers and exponents problems.
In order to do so, I began by putting the students into 2 groups (one of 2 people and one with 3). Next, I handed out a chart to each student and 2 di to each group. As the chart explained, the students were to roll the first di once to determine the base number and record it. Next, they were to roll 2 di to determine the exponent and record it. In the next two columns, the students had to write out the complete number formed and the multiplication represented by the exponent. It is also important to note that the students were not rolling for themselves. To keep each of the group members actively involved and enforce cooperative learning, I had the students take turns rolling the numbers for one another.
I was apprehensive at first because I did not know how the students would react to an activity like this, but was happily surprised when each student was actively involved. I was happy to see this because the students often get restless when they are constantly doing practice work with pencil and paper. I plan to use this lesson for multiple concepts in the future!
In order to do so, I began by putting the students into 2 groups (one of 2 people and one with 3). Next, I handed out a chart to each student and 2 di to each group. As the chart explained, the students were to roll the first di once to determine the base number and record it. Next, they were to roll 2 di to determine the exponent and record it. In the next two columns, the students had to write out the complete number formed and the multiplication represented by the exponent. It is also important to note that the students were not rolling for themselves. To keep each of the group members actively involved and enforce cooperative learning, I had the students take turns rolling the numbers for one another.
I was apprehensive at first because I did not know how the students would react to an activity like this, but was happily surprised when each student was actively involved. I was happy to see this because the students often get restless when they are constantly doing practice work with pencil and paper. I plan to use this lesson for multiple concepts in the future!
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