Intern Experience Week #5

This past week at SHMS it was a very short yet emotional week, because it was my last few days with my students. Besides the emotion of it being my last week I also had to deal with the experiences that come with dealing with your students when a sub is in the classroom. Overall my students were pretty good and listened to me, however I did have to raise my voice and ask them if they would treat me the way they were if their regular classroom teacher was in there and that settled them down a lot. The best part of this whole experience would be the following morning when my teacher came into the classroom she said that she had ran into the sub from yesterday and he wanted her to know what a fabulous job I did. My teacher then explained to me that this particular teacher was an 'old school' teacher and that I should feel honored that he spoke so highly of me. It made me feel really good that she said this because I have really gotten to the point where I am comfortable in the classroom and teaching. It is nice to know that it shows to other professionals.
Also on Wednesday I was able to attend an in service where we went over some online grading, writing programs, and teacher web pages. It was interesting to see these different tools being used because I am not familiar with these things seeing that I am from out of state and my other places thus far have not been so in depth to the point where my teachers informed me on these programs.

Intern Experience Week #4

This week in my classroom at SHMS we welcomed a new student to our classroom on Monday. I was able to look at our new students file before he arrived so it was nice to have an idea of the students behavior and levels, seeing that the majority of the students in my classroom have some type of a behavior problem. This student has Jacobs Syndrome, and I have never worked with an individual with this or had ever heard of it before. Because of this I spent some time looking up Jacobs Syndrome on the Internet and also in some of my Special Education textbooks. I learned a lot by looking at characteristics of the Syndrome and comparing them to this new students file and his present levels, to see which of his behaviors were related to his disability and which were not. This particular student had a history of being violent, which is something that I was extremely nervous about, seeing that his first day would be taught by me. I have taken over teaching all subjects now for the better part of 2 weeks.
This is the first time that I had had an experience with welcoming a new student into the classroom I was in. Also the dynamics of this classroom sets it apart from the regular classroom. My students were all very welcoming to the new student and tried to make him feel as welcome as they could, but this new students just had an attitude about him. I can understand the attitude seeing that he didn't want to get picked on if the other students saw that they easily could. But when it came to the actual work in our classroom this new student is way above even my highest level of learner. I tried to accommodate the student as best as I could but a lot of times it was hard because I have so many different groups going on at one time it was difficult to try and gather work for him on the spot. It was very frustrating also because this student was not very understanding about it and just rolled his eyes at me and made rude comments. I didn't want to single him out because in his IEP it stated that doing that would cause him to get violent, I also didn't want him to think that was appropriate behavior in our classroom. My mentor teacher saw some of the attitude, but not the full force of it because she is often working with a group herself, and I also think that she wants me to experience everything that goes along with being in special education, which I greatly appreciate.
Overall, this week was very eye opening in ways that I never thought because usual I tend to focus more on the academic side of the week, not the behavior and social which play a huge role as well.

Intern Experience Week #3

This past week at my PDS was actually very enjoyable. I had had a very difficult previous week and was not looking forward to going back to teaching especially after the holiday weekend. However, things seemed to run surprisingly smoothly. I had spent a great deal of time writing this past weeks lesson plans over so I think that my in depth planning may of played a part in my great week. I also think that I am getting more comfortable with the schedule, students, and content that I am teaching so everything was working in my favor. This week I also started a unit in science about hurricanes which is something that I am extremely interested in and with it being hurricane season I was able to find a lot of materials for my students to use and for me to teach and plan with.
This week I also got trained on working the newly installed smartboard in my room and this technology tool really enhances lessons and gets students involved in what we are doing. I worked with the smartboard during 4 of my 6 classes and the students never seemed to get bored with it.
Probably the most rewarding moment that I have ever had in my teaching occurred this week, and it is for sure something that I will remember for the rest of my life. In my reading class I chose to read the book Harry Potter to my students because they all seemed extremely interested in it and I also saw them picking the book up when they had free time. However, the students in my self-contained classroom have as low as a first grade reading level and as high as a fourth grade reading level and Harry Potter is on a higher 5th grade level. But knowing that they would be actively involved in the book I decided to read it aloud to them while they followed along. Each day for the past week we have been doing this where I read they follow ask questions and journal about the readings. And each day I encourage all the students to read if they would like. Well finally on Thursday this past week 5 of my 8 students asked if they could read and have not stopped asking since. They do struggle a lot with the words and content but we sound words out together and I help them feel confident while learn as they are trying to tackle the reading. I was so proud to see my students really want to try and read something that they knew was difficult. I really believe they are getting more out of trying to read something they are interested in then something they are not.

Intern Experience Week #2

This week at my PDS placement, it has been a lot more difficult then I expected. I love being in a secondary placement. I really feel like I connect more when working with older students and I enjoy being in the classroom. I have just started to feel overwhelmed and more stressed then I have been at other times during my classroom experiences. I believe that it has to do with the type of classroom that I am in, and the type of students I am working with. I think a lot of my stress comes for the fact that I am still trying to figure out what behaviors are related to my students disabilities and which are just to see how far they can push me being a new teacher.
I enjoy being in the self-contained classroom because I get the opportunity to get to know my students better then if I was in another situation. But I think that the initial shock of having to plan for all subjects and for 7 periods of the day is something new for me. I just feel overwhelmed. My mentor teacher has been amazing with helping me and giving me materials to lighten my load, however I feel like the more effort I put out the more I will get out of my experience so I am trying to plan my lessons using a variety of techniques and materials. This has made my job 10 times harder then it needs to be, but I also like the challenge of looking for materials to give my students, instead of just using worksheets and reading out of textbooks. I am just hoping that as time goes on I am able to get better organized and not feel as stressed about what I need to get done.
Something interesting that I was able to experience this week at my PDS, was being able to go to a 7th grade inclusion English class, where they pull in a special educator to assist the regular classroom teacher. Being in the self-contained classrooms means that I don't get much of an opportunity to leave so all my experiences are in that classroom with those few students. So this experiences was great because I was able to be in the regular classroom and observe a special educator and a regular classroom teacher collaborate.