Final Practicum Plan Reflection

Now that the semester is coming to and end, I am reflecting on my achievements of my three learning goals and the semester as a whole. I found that I was most successful in reaching my first learning goal of taking daily observation notes. Every day at my PDS I took detailed notes, including my ideas, my wonderings, my questions and my concerns. I found this learning goal to be very beneficial as it helped me complete my assignment for a teacher researcher notebook in EDUC 600 and a teacher notebook in EDUC 414, as I was able to compile and organize all of my observation notes, data, artifacts, pictures, and resources into a notebook. I found this notebook to be very useful in developing my inquiry of context and in completing my wiki assignment. Through reading all of my notes and looking at the artifacts and pictures of student work, I noticed I had a reoccuring theme over the concern that the writing station was not differentiated while the reading station was. Since this theme reoccured and became a strong wondering, I decided to use this topic for my inquiry of context. When developing my presentation for my inquiry, I realized having all of my observations and artifacts organized in the notebook, made creating the presentation very easy and efficient. I did not have to "dig" through a stack of papers or through files on my computer, I had everything in one central location.

While I was not as successful in reaching my second and third goals of implementing number talks and using the smartboard, I feel I did take steps towards meeting those goals. Like I mentioned in my last post, I was able to implement a number talk, you can view a clip of that here. Since my last post, I did take a great stride toward meeting my goal of using/becoming comfortable with the SMARTBOARD. I actually downloaded the software onto my home computer and created my own SMARTBOARD slides to use during my EDUC 430 whole group math lesson. In my reflection on the lesson, I talked about how beneficial incorporating the smartboard was. It prevented me from wasting instruction time writing/erasing on the reqular board, as the pre-needed materials were already on the slides. It also allowed me to model the exact behavior the students would be engaged in during the activity part of the lesson. Even if my first attempt/use of creating my own smartboard activity to be used during the lesson was not high-tech or flashy, it was successful and my host teacher even mentioned on the observation form that I appear very comfortable and confident while using the smartboard!

Overall, I am very pleased with how this semester went. I not only feel more comfortable in my own PDS, but I feel even more comfortable teaching a whole group lesson and sharing a classroom with a host teacher. I feel the 7 hours spent a week in a PDS were very beneficial, and I cannot wait to increase that number to 12 hours. I am also very satisfied with my time management skills this semester. I was able to complete all of my assignments without having any freak-outs like I did last year. I believe I owe much of my success to my pre-planning and organization (such as the Practicum Plan). I am looking forward to next semester!

Practicum Plan Reflection 1

This semester is quickly coming to an end. As I look back over this semester, I feel I have made progress meeting the goals I outlined for myself in my practicum plan.

My first goal was to take thorough observation notes daily. At times this goal was tedious and time consuming, but overall I feel I have made adequate progress and have found the notes to be beneficial. I have taken detailed observations every day in my placement and have compiled into an organized notebook. The notes range from general observations about classroom set-up/schedule/etc. to detailed, exact recording of teacher/student dialogue. After each day, I type up my observation notes and expand on what I observed. As I reflect on that day and what I observed, I find myself developing wonderings, asking questions, establishing beliefs,and gaining ideas, all of which I include within the typed up notes. These observation notes have been very helpful in developing my EDUC 600 teacher researcher notebook and in developing my EDUC 414 teacher notebook. For both of those classes, I have used the notebook that was created as a result of my observation notes. Within this notebook are the daily observation notes that include my wonderings, ideas, and reflections along with pictures and student work. I also have a section with text connections, where I list connections I'm making in my PDS to text I am reading for classes and pulling out information from texts that I find the most beneficial/had an impact on myself as a teacher. The last two sections include a quotes section containing inspirational/motivational quotes from my professors and funny quotes from students and then a lesson plan section that holds lesson plans that I worked hard on, taught, reflected, and received feedback on.

My second goal was to gain more experience using a smartboard. I have not made as much progress towards this goal as I had hoped, but I have still gained some experience. I was able to incorporate the use of a smartboard into my differentiated lesson for SPED 360. I used the smartboard to read the students a book that was found online. They all seemed to enjoy this with many students commenting on how cool it was. I also used the smartboard as a "filler" activity while waiting for lunch. There is a website, www.spellingcity.com that allows any user to type in spelling words and creates a learning game in return. The students really enjoyed this, asking to repeat the activity on following days. Although I have not used the smartboard as much as I hoped, I have been successful in learning more about the smartboard. Since I am in the classroom 30 minutes before the school day begins, I have had the opportunity to sit down and "play with it." I have googled smartboard lessons and found an excellent site with pre-made smartboard activities/resources www.teacherled.com. I was also able to play around with the smartboard software that allows you to create your own game/activity. After break I will be teaching a math lesson on place value. I have been looking for a smartboard activity to accompany this lesson and hopefully I will be able to incorporate and use the smartboard again. You can read the lesson/reflection here.

The third and last goal that I set for myself was to implement number talks into my classroom. I had hoped to complete a number talk every day, but I was unable to do so due to scheduling and time issues. I was however, able to use a number talk as a math discussion for my EDUC 430 class. This was my first time doing a number talk in a classroom and I feel it went very well. I had mentioned in my practicum plan that I thought about incorporating number talks into my inquiry for this semester. Since I was unable to complete a number talk daily like I originally had hoped/planned, I am not able to use this for my inquiry. I am in a pre-k classroom next semester so I will not be able to use it for inquiry then either. However, for my intern placement, I am in a third grade classroom. I am hoping that I will be able to incorporate number talks into my daily teaching with the third graders and maybe use it as part of my action research at that time.
You can read the number discussion here. I also have this video taped, but it was to long to post in the blog!

Revisiting Blogging Possibilities

When looking back at my original post regarding blogging possibilities, I still agree with everything I wrote. I envisioned using a blog to gain feedback from others, as a place to documents my thoughts and reflections, to share ideas and knowledge learned in my classes, and to share all the successes and challenges I face. Now that I’ve been using the blog for a year, I do see benefits in using it as a place for reflection. I was able to go back and read about my experiences in the pre-k classroom as well as see the growth/patter from developing digital stories ideas to actually creating my digital story. As I refresh my memory on my initial beliefs on the benefits of blogging, I want to try harder to use this blog as a place to document my ideas to have as a source of reference. I also want to utilize the blog more often and post whenever I receive new ideas/thoughts, just not when required so.

As well as becoming a great resource to reflect on my practice, the blog has allowed for greater communication between my partner and my seminar facilitator. Posting my wonderings and observations in classrooms, allowed my seminar facilitator an opportunity to help provide me with ideas as to which wondering to focus more on, as well as providing me with the idea to use the blog as part of my inquiry project; to help keep track and gather more data from observations and reflections. I receive a lot of great feedback and value the communication I have with my partner. Deirdre has provided me with input about some of my wonderings. She was able to provide me with input regarding the level of teacher enthusiasm and student engagement that she has observed in her own placement in regards to what I had observed in my particular placement. While, I do believe I have invited my coordinator and mentor teacher, I have not received any feedback or input on my blog from them. Due to this, I will be checking to make sure they are invited/know they have been invited and how to access my blog as their feedback would be very beneficial as well.

As I continue to reflect on the possibilities of this blog, some topics that come to mind that would be beneficial for us as participants to write about include: lesson plans and reflection, and the funny/unexpected moments in the classroom. I feel by sharing lessons and activities implemented by us in the classroom and a reflection on how they went could be beneficial as we can gain a large variety of ideas from others as to possible lessons and revisions we could make to our own. I also think sharing the funny moments with others, could allow us to relieve stress and always be reminded of why we entered the profession, as we can become overwhelmed and lose track because of school work and stress.

Deidre my question to you:

-       Have there been any particular postings/comments made by me that you have found to be more beneficial … or how can my blog help you more?

Practicum Plan Updates

One of my learning goals that I really wanted to focus on this semester was becoming familiar with and using the SmartBoard during my lessons. At Suncrest, all classrooms except for pre-school has a SmartBoard. Last semester I was in a pre-school setting so I did not have the opportunity to experiment and play with a SmartBoard. Now that I am in a classroom that has one, I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to familarize myself with the SmartBoard. So far, I have been able to observe my teacher use the SmartBoard every week. From these observations, I have gained ideas as to the variety of uses it has to offer. She used the SmartBoard to work on writing letters, to work on vowel patterns and sounds, and to show videos to the students during class. I have also spent time outside of my placement researching and reading about lesson plans and uses of SmartBoards in the classroom and how if used properly can be highly motivating for students. I have been able to incorporate the SmartBoard into two of my small group lessons. One week, I was doing a station about groundhogs (it was groundhog day) and the students after completing a short activity at the table of making a pop-up groundhound were able to use the SmartBoard to make shadow puppets and then I had them use the pen to practice sounding out and spelling groundhog along with writing the word. The next lesson I did where I used the SmartBoard was when I did my read aloud with the class. I read the Grouchy Ladybug and during the read aloud I had an interactive analog clock pulled up on the SmartBoard. Throughout the story when a new time was read, I would make the clock show that time and ask the students to make the time on their handheld clocks as well. This lesson went very well and the students loved the interactive clock. In fact, they were so interested in the clock, my mentor teacher changed one of the stations she had planned that day so the students could come to my station at the board and use the clock themselves.

Some of the changes I have made to my plan include adding the goal of attending as many seminars, meetings, extracurricular activties and professional development opportunities offered at Suncrest as possible. So far I have been able to attend the majority, only missing some due to class schedule conflicts. I was able to attend my classroom Valentine's Day party, a workshop on fluency, a Student Achievement Team (SAT) seminar, and I plan on attending a kindergarten field trip, the interns' presentations to the faculty, the book fair and art show, the talent show, as well as volunteering to help with the afterschool math and reading tutoring.  I have also had to change a few tentative dates along with my wondering topic which I will explain in detail later.

I feel as of now that I am making good progress toward the activities listed on the due dates. So far I have been able to complete all of the activities on the sheet by my target date and due date. I did have to change my tentative scheduled dates for the small group and whole group lesson because I still have not received further information or instruction in order to complete these two activities. I still need to complete my inquiry research brief and begin collecting data. I had a minor setback with my inquiry brief because after meeting with my mentor teacher last week, we decided it would be in my benefit, as well as hers, to change my wondering topic. I have already completed my read aloud and I am finishing the reflection piece this week. I have a topic for my digital story and have already been collecting pictures and artifacts to use in the story. I still need to complete the literacy assessment piece that I added to my plan in order to receive Honors Credit for Education 460. I plan to start working on that assignment  next week and finishing it the two weeks following Spring Break.

Even though looking at all the assignments that must be completed throughout the semester makes me feel a little overwhelemed, reflecting on the assignments that I have completed and evaluating the plan I have in place to manage my  time makes me feel more confident going into the second half of the semester.

Digital Storytelling

A good story is one that is entertaining and interesting. Whether it is funny, sad, informative, or all three, on an interesting topic. A good story begins by hooking the listener, grabbing their attention and making them interested. Along with grabbing the listener, a good story must also maintain that level of attention within the listener through the entire duration. With digital storytelling, I feel it would be beneficial and almost crucial to use a variety of multimedia to hold the listener’s attention. Recorded audio and text could be great for emphasizing important points, while videos and images would be captivating and entertaining.

Some ideas from my PDS experiences that I may consider using for my digital story include the value of routine in a kindergarten classroom, the use of movement and physical activity integrated into the curriculum, and the benefits of child storytelling during circle time.  Every day the students are engaged in a similar routine. While they do have certain choices and variation within the routine, it still follows the same schedule. I find the value of this routine on the students’ sense of safety and independence to be interesting. I also find the incorporation of physical activity and movement, such as the sing-along songs, to be interesting. Not only do the students get a chance to expel some of their pent up energy, but through the song/dance they are enhancing specific skills, such as sounds of the alphabet. I believe the physical movement positively impacts the students’ attention span and focus, and it’s also satisfying to watch them enjoy themselves while they sing and dance. The benefits of child storytelling could be the most interesting/entertaining to turn into a digital story, as I could video some of the different stories and as most of us know; children really do say the “darndest things.”

In my PDS each week, I continue to observe the students, the teacher, and their interactions. I also continue to reflect on these observations and brainstorm on possible wonderings and topics for the digital story. As I continue to make observations and receive more information on the digital story assignment I believe it will be easier to narrow down my topics and pick an interesting, entertaining, and informative story to be told digitally.