This last week was my mini residency, and I feel it went well.
On Monday, while Mr. Foster lead the class, I integrated myself into the work and did a lot of the leading. We started this week and for the next 2 1/2 weeks on seeing how different cultures celebrate the holidays. Monday was the United States.
Tuesday I took the class and things went well. At the end of the day, Mr. Foster said he was I did well and the one thing I needed to work on was my transitions. The day we studied Germany where many of our traditions for Christmas comes from. Mr. Foster was in and out of the class all day dealing with issues around the school. He has decided to go for his principal's certification, so the principal has decided to utilize him in such a capacity.
Wednesday was my best day. Things went so smoothly it was almost scary. I worked on my transitions and helped the children understand when they were to happen. Almost every child got all their work done we had planned for the day. Mr. Foster was out of the class most of the day.
Thursday was a little rougher and longer since I did not have any pullouts for the day. We still got everything done, but all the kids seemed to be in a strange mood; not just in my class either, but all around the school. My children were well enough behaved, but very whiny and we did not get through the art project since it was a bit complicated and was something Mr. Foster had planned to do, but he was not in the class hardly at all, so I had to attempt it since the kids were excited to do it. If I were to go back and do it, I would have done a different art activity for Denmark.
Friday, Mr. Foster took back over the class and I spent the morning setting up a new technology tool for projecting the images on the board while I assisted the children in doing their work. In the afternoon, I assisted Mr. Foster again, though I did take the class for a bit when he had to leave the class for a while.
All in all, it went well. I worked on what I felt was my weaknesses and discovered what I needed to change or adjust for my work in the class. I think I am close to being ready for my residency. This many residency was a good tuneup for what is to come.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 8-12
This last week at Muldoon was a quiet one. I am preparing myself for the upcoming mini residency but am having some difficulties with it as we are shifting our reading and social studies to a program call "Christmas around the world", but it is not a curriculum but something the teachers do together. I hope that soon they will get together what they are doing so I can know what I am doing.
I did have one incident that I found troubling. When Mr. Foster was out of the class for training, I had some difficulties with the a child. Mr. Foster told me if the children are disrespectful and the parents need to be notified, he had slips for notes home to parents. I sent home one of these notes because of the child's behavior to let his father know what had happened. Mr. Foster told me that I should not have done this and should have left it to him as the parent was upset with me because his son said that it did not happen.
When I was told that I had done something wrong and that I put myself in a compromising position, I was confused since I only did what he told me to do. I guess I will need to ask for some clarification. This makes me wonder about everything I do now since I have been told my role and what I can do, then told I can't.
I did have one incident that I found troubling. When Mr. Foster was out of the class for training, I had some difficulties with the a child. Mr. Foster told me if the children are disrespectful and the parents need to be notified, he had slips for notes home to parents. I sent home one of these notes because of the child's behavior to let his father know what had happened. Mr. Foster told me that I should not have done this and should have left it to him as the parent was upset with me because his son said that it did not happen.
When I was told that I had done something wrong and that I put myself in a compromising position, I was confused since I only did what he told me to do. I guess I will need to ask for some clarification. This makes me wonder about everything I do now since I have been told my role and what I can do, then told I can't.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Okay, I have been really bad
I have not posted in a while.
School is going fairly well. The Walk into Reading we are doing has proven more difficult than I thought it would be. The children seem to be taking to the work, but I am not sure if they come out more confused sometimes because of examples they give which are vague or culturally irrelevant.
We did an assessment on the students in my WIR group and their reading ability has jumped to above their progress line for all but one. They use DIBELS which is supposed to rate children by their grade level in phonetic reading and determine where they are now and the goal of reading at the end of the year. All of my students in my WIR group were below the mark for the beginning of the year (otherwise at a third grade level), most being at a high first grade or low second grade level. The assessment showed that almost all of the kids are now at or above the beginning of the year third grade level.
While I find this exciting and knowing I am doing my job, I am also concerned because the children now have the ability to read, but lack the comprehension. The worksheets do not seem to bolster this. One example was the word "lamp" in which the example sentence for it was 'Mom lit the gas________.' They use other words like "sash" which only one child knew what it was.
When I brought this up, I was shown the scores and told that it was working. All that went through my head was the story of the two men who built their houses, one on a strong foundation and one on sand. We are building them a house, but I don't see a strong foundation for it to sustain itself.
After getting back from visiting my dad, Mr. Foster was in training so I was in the class with a substitute. Thursday and Friday was a difficult couple of days. The children were unruly and disruptive. We had a smaller class, but in reality, they were mostly the children who were "problem" children. They are "bad" children, but they are the ones that typically cause the problems in the class and did not qualify for Mediator training with Mr. Foster.
School is going fairly well. The Walk into Reading we are doing has proven more difficult than I thought it would be. The children seem to be taking to the work, but I am not sure if they come out more confused sometimes because of examples they give which are vague or culturally irrelevant.
We did an assessment on the students in my WIR group and their reading ability has jumped to above their progress line for all but one. They use DIBELS which is supposed to rate children by their grade level in phonetic reading and determine where they are now and the goal of reading at the end of the year. All of my students in my WIR group were below the mark for the beginning of the year (otherwise at a third grade level), most being at a high first grade or low second grade level. The assessment showed that almost all of the kids are now at or above the beginning of the year third grade level.
While I find this exciting and knowing I am doing my job, I am also concerned because the children now have the ability to read, but lack the comprehension. The worksheets do not seem to bolster this. One example was the word "lamp" in which the example sentence for it was 'Mom lit the gas________.' They use other words like "sash" which only one child knew what it was.
When I brought this up, I was shown the scores and told that it was working. All that went through my head was the story of the two men who built their houses, one on a strong foundation and one on sand. We are building them a house, but I don't see a strong foundation for it to sustain itself.
After getting back from visiting my dad, Mr. Foster was in training so I was in the class with a substitute. Thursday and Friday was a difficult couple of days. The children were unruly and disruptive. We had a smaller class, but in reality, they were mostly the children who were "problem" children. They are "bad" children, but they are the ones that typically cause the problems in the class and did not qualify for Mediator training with Mr. Foster.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Lesson plans
My host teacher looks ahead and sets a goal keeping in mind what is happening and the goals of the team of 3rd grade teachers. Most of the planning is done by the week and sometimes we plan out two weeks ahead.
As for observations, most are done mentally, but he does perform written and verbal assessments of the children (DRA, Dibels, etc.)
The lesson plans themselves are set up in a weekly format with block of times and pullouts blocked out so that we can visually see what we are supposed to do.Inside those blocks are written out the lesson map.
I am also involved highly in using Taskstream to make up our lesson plans to add the GLEs and have a typed format. We use this as a team as well as turning them into the office to meet our Title One Chapter Three expectations.
As for observations, most are done mentally, but he does perform written and verbal assessments of the children (DRA, Dibels, etc.)
The lesson plans themselves are set up in a weekly format with block of times and pullouts blocked out so that we can visually see what we are supposed to do.Inside those blocks are written out the lesson map.
I am also involved highly in using Taskstream to make up our lesson plans to add the GLEs and have a typed format. We use this as a team as well as turning them into the office to meet our Title One Chapter Three expectations.
Transition periods in class
Most of the transitional periods I feel are rough. Most go like this, "Okay, put away 'this work' and get out this work." The noise goes up, and usually half of the children don't do the transition.
This is one of the areas I am looking to work on as we start work on my taking over the class. This is the most frustrating time. Mr. Foster uses the "5 count down method" in which he says, "Mr. Foster's class, put your hands on your head. One hand in the air. 5..4..3..eyes on me..2..voices off..1..okay you should be sitting quietly and looking at me."
I have noticed that there are usually 3-5 children who are not on task or transitioning. He told me at the beginning of the school year that this method will work once the children become used to the routine. It is more effective for him than for substitutes or myself when we are alone.
I am not sure what transition I would use, but it is something I need to work on soon.
This is one of the areas I am looking to work on as we start work on my taking over the class. This is the most frustrating time. Mr. Foster uses the "5 count down method" in which he says, "Mr. Foster's class, put your hands on your head. One hand in the air. 5..4..3..eyes on me..2..voices off..1..okay you should be sitting quietly and looking at me."
I have noticed that there are usually 3-5 children who are not on task or transitioning. He told me at the beginning of the school year that this method will work once the children become used to the routine. It is more effective for him than for substitutes or myself when we are alone.
I am not sure what transition I would use, but it is something I need to work on soon.
Monday, September 27, 2010
September 27- Phonics to Read
I missed class today to go to a training entitled "Phonics to Read" which Muldoon will be implementing starting Monday. Since we have a large body of children in the third grade that barely read at or below a first grade level, the school is going to be adding a 40 minute segment of literacy at the end of the afternoon everyday to help bring up those children.
I am not sure why it is called "Phonics to Read" since phonics itself is a small part of the overall program which is really an offshoot of Ashlock that focuses on phonemic awareness, vowel blends and breaking down multi-syllabic words.
I am excited to start this program and see how much of a difference it really makes. I will be in charge of 8-9 upper middle children who are just off benchmark and using our training and the curriculum to try to fill in those gaps and bring those children up.
If all goes well, in six weeks the children will be retested and if enough children advance, I might split with the kids on or above benchmark and work on some of those lower ones to solidify their reading skills and strategies.
This is going to be a lot of work to start off, but once we get in the swing of it it should flow very well.
I am not sure why it is called "Phonics to Read" since phonics itself is a small part of the overall program which is really an offshoot of Ashlock that focuses on phonemic awareness, vowel blends and breaking down multi-syllabic words.
I am excited to start this program and see how much of a difference it really makes. I will be in charge of 8-9 upper middle children who are just off benchmark and using our training and the curriculum to try to fill in those gaps and bring those children up.
If all goes well, in six weeks the children will be retested and if enough children advance, I might split with the kids on or above benchmark and work on some of those lower ones to solidify their reading skills and strategies.
This is going to be a lot of work to start off, but once we get in the swing of it it should flow very well.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
September 21- "My class"
Mr. Foster did DRAs today so he called in a sub to work since I am not on the sub list. I volunteered to come all day to help out the sub, and Mr. Foster thought it would be good experience for me to lead the class. When the sub showed up (late at 8:50), Mr. Foster explained to the sub the plan and left me "My class."
The day went fairly well. I knew many of the kids were going to push the boundaries to test the waters. The morning was a bit rough, but I managed to work through it. It was mainly one child that disrupted the flow of the class and I expelled to much energy to keep her in line, which really failed to be honest. Though I felt better when the VP couldn't control her any better. (Is that wrong?)
The afternoon went smoother when that one child was pulled out for her out of class tutoring anyways. We got through the day, I kept on task and we finished 98% of the work. I was pleased with my first real "solo" outing. I know there was a sub in there, but he did not do much, the easiest $120 he ever made I am sure.
I did ask his feedback since he was a former teacher and he gave me a couple of criticisms that I now realize I need to work on. The primary of which is using the same language that the children are being presented in their work so as to eliminate any confusion.
Overall a good day though Mr. Foster said I looked a bit frazzled by days end when he came back. I don't feel frazzled, but I know I am concerned if I was able to complete all the work and keep everything in line.
The day went fairly well. I knew many of the kids were going to push the boundaries to test the waters. The morning was a bit rough, but I managed to work through it. It was mainly one child that disrupted the flow of the class and I expelled to much energy to keep her in line, which really failed to be honest. Though I felt better when the VP couldn't control her any better. (Is that wrong?)
The afternoon went smoother when that one child was pulled out for her out of class tutoring anyways. We got through the day, I kept on task and we finished 98% of the work. I was pleased with my first real "solo" outing. I know there was a sub in there, but he did not do much, the easiest $120 he ever made I am sure.
I did ask his feedback since he was a former teacher and he gave me a couple of criticisms that I now realize I need to work on. The primary of which is using the same language that the children are being presented in their work so as to eliminate any confusion.
Overall a good day though Mr. Foster said I looked a bit frazzled by days end when he came back. I don't feel frazzled, but I know I am concerned if I was able to complete all the work and keep everything in line.
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