Teaching Spelling

This week I started teaching Spelling everyday for the 5th grade class. The word list was made up of words that are frequently misspelled. For the first day, I had the students fill out sentences with the correct usage of a word from their Spelling list. I allowed them to pair up and work together. I like seeing students work together because I like to see how they choose to work. Some students take turns while others might say them together. Some students split up the work and do it on their own then come back together to share answers. On Wednesday, I had the students create stories using their Spelling words and underlining the word within the sentence. After the students were finished, I put them together to make a book. The following day i shared the stories with the students and gave them the option of reading it aloud to their peers themselves or if they wished for me to do so. I think students like sharing their work with others because they are proud of it and feel it is important. I enjoy seeing them get excited to share what they did. Thursday was the review and we had a Spelling Bee and I had it be boys vs. girls. I notice the students get competitive and really enjoy it. Next week I plan on trying different activities to switch it up and see what works effectively for the students. I'd like to use the whiteboard and get students engaged through using that which I think works well for visual learners.

First Week at Valley Elementary

I was excited to be able to see how the process of a school year starts before the students actually arrive. All of the schools in Preston County met in the gym at the high school for meetings and speakers and other issues to be discussed. It was a great experience seeing all of the schools come together and what the thought process was in getting things started for a new school year. The next few days were spent at Valley doing things such as scheduling, planning, and reviewing WesTest scores. We also met the new principals. Valley now has two. It was nice meeting and talking to Valley teachers that I never had a chance to do so with before. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I really feel like the Valley staff is a family and I love that I get to be a part of it. I also love my mentor teacher, Mrs. Newbrough. She is the 5th grade Science teacher and has been awesome to work with. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like this age group but I have found that I am really enjoying it! The students thus far for the most part have been very well behaved to my surprise. I am looking forward to this semester and being able to teach more than before. However, I have to admit that I am a little nervous to be teaching Science being that it is not my strongest content area but I know I have a great mentor teacher who will help me along the way.

Practicum Plan

I think the practicum plan as a whole was a great idea for us that had the intention of being very beneficial. However, I feel it wasn’t necessary. It just caused me more confusion in what the expectations were within the assignment. We have the checklist and syllabus that tells us due dates and what assignments we are to do and what is entailed in each one so I do not feel creating an additional assignment for us to organize it helped much.

I already have a homework agenda where I write down everything anyways so this was just extra work for me. I understand this may have benefited some students who maybe don’t write things down on their own but I feel we should have had the option then on how to complete the assignment so it is effective for our personal use. I think if we were provided with multiple options then this definitely is a great way to get us all started. For the future I would keep this assignment but make adjustments to the format. I also think it should be shown and completed within the first two weeks so right from the beginning before all the assignments start building up then we are already prepared and aware of what to expect.

Characteristics of the Novice Teacher 2nd posting

Characteristic 3: The novice teacher should recognize teaching is a professional, moral, ethical enterprise. The novice teacher must recognize what is appropriate and what reflects one being a professional in the eyes of a child by setting good example and being a good role model. Being professional is shown through your dress attire, your teaching, and your attitude. It is important a teacher knows how to be professional in such an environment because you are constantly being watched and making an impact on a child. This all goes along with understanding moral and ethical enterprise as well. It can be hard to allow personal beliefs into the classroom but the novice teacher must balance what is to be taught and not allowing too much of your own beliefs influence someone. Allow students to make up their own minds but present the information and all sides. The artifact I feel represents this characteristic is my character education lesson. This lesson was about responsibility and I taught it in a pre-school classroom. I did a read aloud and talked with the students about the different ways that you can be responsible and examples of ways that are irresponsible. I also had the students come up with new ways if they could think of any where they will try to be responsible in. This artifact really shows how the novice teacher can practice professionalism, moral, and ethical enterprise all into one lesson. Characteristic 8: The novice teacher should be a reflective practitioner. As educators, we are lifelong learners as well. The only way to learn and improve the classroom is to be reflective practitioner. The novice teacher reflects after lessons whether it is written down or just from ones memory of how a lesson went or a behavior or practice in the classroom that the teacher wants to look further into or something new. A great way to put your reflections into practice is doing research and conducting new practices in the classroom to see what works and what doesn’t. An artifact I would use for this characteristic is when I videotape a lesson. This will show exactly everything I need to see in how I teach and how my students are while I teach. From this video, I can then reflect and decide what I need to do to better myself and my teaching strategies. I will be doing this in the beginning of full time teaching and in the end to see how I have improved. This artifact is a great example of being a reflective practitioner and can be done more than once. It is something that makes reflecting a lot easier I think because we obviously cannot watch ourselves or really be observant to every detail that is taking place during a lesson whether it is with ourselves or how the students are behaving. The video allows us to see how it all plays out and you can watch it as many times as needed thus allowing the reflection process to be a lot more beneficial.

Learning Goals

One of my learning goals this semester is to improve my classroom management. Specifically what I am working on is to manage the volume in the classroom and keeping students on task. I am currently in a pre-school classroom and students at this age level aren’t use to much structure yet. They like to talk out and can get very loud. However, this can be a case in every grade level as I have had to deal with these issues in past classrooms before as well. My mentor teacher has been giving a lot of great advice and feedback after seeing me work with the kids and doing lessons. She told me what I should work on to reach my goal is to have confidence when disciplining a child and show my authority. She also said to speak louder when I do so. I have really been working on this and I can already see some improvement where a few of the students listen to me after being told once now. I used to have to repeat myself over and over or they would just totally ignore me.

I had to make some changes in my plan because I didn’t list other activities that I would do other than the assignments we were already given. Making these changes is really making me think more about how I can improve and reach my learning goals. I want to add things that I can try out in order to succeed.

I know my mentor teacher will be a great help in this process because she will give me constructive criticism. She will also do many observations that I can reflect on and make improvements where needed and give me any other suggestions. I will also be video taping a lesson that I do so I can watch myself and see how my classroom management skills play out.

Characteristics of the Novice Teacher

Characteristic # 4: The novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students.

For this characteristic, it is very essential for the novice teacher to understand and recognize that each student does not learn in the same way or one specific way for that matter. Every student learns differently and in different ways for various content areas and tasks. The novice teacher must be able to differentiate for their students’ needs and provide learning opportunities that benefit them as well as give them a chance to reach their full potential even though lessons will be challenging. The teacher must be able to differentiate and modify lessons where it is needed. Variety in the classroom is a necessity with things such as assessments and other required assignments, tasks, etc. for the students. Not every student is on the same level so tiered instruction is important as well.

An artifact that I would use to exemplify this characteristic is my Literacy Workstations project that was completed in Education 461. For this project, we had to plan a Tiered 1 Reading Instruction. The way in which the instruction was set up was I had whole group instruction, small group instruction and literacy workstations and writing instruction. The students were split up into high, high-medium, medium, and low level reading groups. I chose the book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid to be the center of my lesson plans and majority of the assignments for my whole and small group, and my writing instruction as well as a few literacy workstations. Activities were set up to give students the chance to work individually, in pairs, and in small groups and then come back as a whole. The literacy workstations were provided with much variety by providing an “I Can…” list for students to have options to choose from for the tasks they were to complete.

These two tie in together because the Literacy Workstations project is an excellent example of showing how the novice teacher can be a facilitator of learning for all students. The teacher had to come up with tier instruction and differentiate for the different levels of students. It shows the understanding the teacher has in knowing what her students’ needs are and providing activities that match those individual needs.

Characteristic # 2: The novice teacher should be an effective communicator.

In this characteristic, the novice teacher must practice and maintain good communication skills whether it is with parents, students, or other faculty members. In order for there to be success in the classroom, a teacher must be able to effectively work cooperatively with others. Nothing will ever get accomplished if a teacher cannot verbally express reflections or needs in the classroom. When it comes to communication with students, a teacher must be able to explicitly explain instruction for lessons. Also, the teacher should be able to express praise or address where improvement is needed to each student. When communicating with the parents, a strong relationship should exist. The parents should be aware of what is taking place in the classroom and know if there is anything that needs to be done at home to continue their child on the path of success. The parents and teacher need to work as a team. Finally, when working with other faculty members, a novice teacher needs to understand they part of a team at the school as well.

An artifact I chose for this characteristic is an assignment we had to complete for Education 401. We had to complete a task in which we had to reach out to the parents of the students in our PDS classroom this semester. I wrote an introduction letter that was sent home to the parents. I had to state who I was, why I will be working their child, and some of my goals and ambitions. I also assured them that they could put their full trust in me for my time being with their child and if they had any concerns or questions to feel free to address me.

I think that assignment was a great way to show how the novice teacher can be an effective communicator. It showed my skills in expressing who I was to the parents and being open with them as well as leaving the opportunity for them to get back to me if they chose to do so.

Mentorship

I have really enjoyed being in the classroom with my mentor teacher this year. This was the first semester where we had to teach a lesson every week and I couldn't have asked for a better mentor teacher to work with. She has always been so helpful and encouraging. She always gives me advice about my teaching and teaching in general. I enjoy watching her with the students because she balances a professional relationship as well as a personal relationship with them, which is something I admire and hope to be able to do when I have my own classroom. I have learned a lot from her and have always shared my reflections and thoughts with her to maintain a good relationship. If I ever have any concerns or questions, she never hesitates to help me out in whatever way she can.

I think respect for each other and flexibility benefits both the mentor teacher and the student. One has to be understanding and willing to work with them if they want to actually learn something and to be able to take something out of the experience.