Intern Experience Week #9

This past week the majority of my teaching and content focus was on the Underground Railroad. I introduced the material using a section of the book and then had my students work through an interactive website from scholastic.com. The site was introduced to me by my mentor teacher because he has used it in the past with his students. The site was great it offered a variety of visual aids like photos and slides shows for students to gather information to answer each of the 4 sections questions. The site also in each section had students listen to the experience of a run away slave named Walter and his experience traveling on the Underground Railroad that was related to the information students were learning through the site. After the students were done going over each section by listening to the material and looking at the pictures they used the information to answer reading questions and then took those reading questions and formed informational sentences. They would then use the informational sentences to create a paragraph and picture in order to create a Underground Railroad information book.
Overall the students did really well with the activities. I had planned for them to do each section on their own using the laptop lab but the computer gave more trouble so we ended up having to go through the sections as a large class and discuss the answers for each questions together. It was nice because I knew they had no excuse to not have the correct information for their writing. I then had the students create and illustration to go along with their writing. The students also received a large piece of paper that they folded in half to create a cover and binding for their 4 different Underground Railroad information pages.
Then on Friday we went on a class field trip to Phillipi because it is the site of the first land battle in the Civil War. It was very interesting for me because I am not from West Virginia and it was cool to see the town and different important sites. I also had no idea how close it was to the community that my PDS is located in. The students did a walking tour or the town and sites and then we went to and old mansion and toured that. It was cool to be learning along side my students during the trip on Friday.

Intern Experience Week #8

Very frustrating week at my PDS, I am just having a very difficult time teaching social studies because it has been so long since I had a history/ social studies related class, and our EDUC class was not a help what so ever. Yes it was good for lower elementary students, but I have a middle school (5-9) social studies certification and I feel like I am totally no prepared and have never even been given a course to help me out at all. Because of this I am constantly looking for information online watching videos and just have 10 times more work added to the large work load with full time teaching that we already have.
I started a unit on the Civil War this past week and it was a disaster. I prepped for it did a lot for research and I still feel like it crashed and burned. I really don't know what more I could have done to make it any better. It is also very difficult because students just typically don't like history. I love it and try and be as passionate as possible but I just have students roll their eyes at me and it makes me feel like why and I even trying. My mentor teacher has been great and I have asked to go back to the I watch him teach one block then I go and teach the next. Its frustrating to have to be doing that so late in the game but I feel horrible to try and do a OK job teaching it to my students because I am totally lost. I also think that because of the 5 week SPED placement I felt totally rushed and like I had to start teaching only after watch for a few days. I know a program can't be perfect but I mean I'm trying to be as diverse as possible in my certification and I feel like it is just hurting me instead of helping.

Intern Experience Week #7

This past week was my first week of full time teaching in my new placement in the 5th grade. The week started off with a review of immigration and different immigrant ethnic groups which focused on content that was in their social studies textbook. The students had been working with the topic of immigration in their reading class and had worked a lot with Ellis Island, therefore they had a good idea of the topic and a lot of recent knowledge that went a long with our weeks activities.
On Monday I did a quick review of important concepts and key terms and then turned the class over to watch a great overall video about immigration. This video touched on a lot of the different areas that I felt were necessary for the students to know in order to understand immigration. It covered different ethnic groups, reasons for immigrating, their journey, experiences once in the America, living conditions, and jobs. The students really took to why different immigrant groups came to the United States, such as the Irish Potato Famine, or war in their home country.
After this I had them explore their text so that they could see that we can get information on the same topic from a wide variety of sources, discussion, videos, texts, and in other subject classes. I think it was extremely beneficial for the students to get to use all of these different sources in one class period. It is also nice because they are hour blocks and I feel like I am able to get a lot done in that period of time. Working with older students has also showed me that they can and like to work independently. Thats sometimes independent work is more beneficial to them instead of me sitting and lecturing about a topic. They seem to retain more when they are responsible for looking up the information and completing the assignment.
On Tuesday I was able to get the mobile computer lab and bring it into the classroom so that the students would be able to complete a research/creative writing activity that I had developed. I created 4 guiding questions to aid in their research of a specific ethnic group. The students were then given time to look up information on their specific ethnic group and that information would help them in a writing activity that I would have them do on thursday. On Wednesday we went back to working on the computers and they were given time to finish their research and then do a worksheet that went a long with an interactive tour of Ellis Island.
The on friday they were given a writing prompt where they were asked to write as if they were an immigrant, of the specific ethnic groups they research, coming to the United States. I gave them guidelines of what I was looking for in their writing and that they needed to draw a picture to go with their writing. Once the students were actually done I read a few of them and I was extremely impressed at home well they did. I thought they would have a hard time writing in the first person and being able to express their feelings while going through the experience that an immigrant did. Overall I was pretty happy with the week teaching wise and how my students were able to retain the information. I also plan on using the creative writing activity in my action research inquiry.

Intern Experience Week #6

This past week I returned to my home PDS West Milford Elementary school to start my middle school social studies placement in a 5th grade classroom. It was a more difficult transition then I would have expected, but I think that that has to do to the fact that I was very comfortable in my last placement and I felt like I really knew my students and the school. But it was nice to return to the school that I had been at the past 2 years. I have really been looking forward to this placement because I enjoy history and this will be my first opportunity to teach it, so I am anxious to see if I enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy the subject. It is also nice to get the experience working with a male teacher. I think that this placement will give me something different compared to other placements because I believe that male teachers have a little different approach, and this particular teacher likes to incorporate technology in his lessons as much as possible, which will be a great learning tool.
The week went very fast, and I spent it mostly observing so that I could get the a feel for the schedule of the classroom and the type of students I would be working with. Something that I didn't consider before was that this group would be the highest level learners I have ever worked with. In my middle school placement I had 6-8th graders that were on a lower level to the 5th graders that I am working with. I don't know why but thinking about this aspect made me very nervous to start teaching. I expressed my worries with my mentor teacher and we have worked out a schedule where I will gradually start teaching. We started this week where I watched him teach spelling and english 2 days and then I took over. I am anxious to see how things end up once I start teaching social studies full time. I planned for the week and will start a unit on immigrants and immigration tomorrow which will go with a unit they are working with in their reading class.

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.