Week 13

The past several weeks have been very busy. I began my full time student teaching and wrapped up my Action Research Project. I also constructed my contract hours for next semester, which will consist of one- hundred thirty-five hours of professional development. I am enjoying my experience as a full time teacher and am thankful for Mrs. Tucker who has been more than a blessing to me. We have been working together as a team for several weeks and I have learned more in this semester than I had ever hoped. I am learning how important it is to be a stern but fair teacher. The classroom needs to be an ordered, functional learning environment and the teacher’s demeanor will set the tone for the entire day. I am also trying my best to acquire Mrs. Tuckers “gift” of knowing when a child is NOT paying attention. I am getting better, but know that it will take several years of experience before I will be a master!
As this semester is quickly approaching its end I am taking time to reflect on all that I have learned over the past two and a half years. One of the most important factors in teaching that I have learned is that a lesson is never failed. When a lesson does not go as planned it only opens up an opportunity to reflect on what you can do to fix for the next time you teach. I have had many lessons not go according to plan, but I am grateful for the learning opportunities that they have provided me. I look forward to my final weeks in the fourth grade and will be ready to begin my last semester at East Dale!

Week 9

My first week of teaching 75% went well. I picked up Reading which is the first ninety minutes of the day. I was nervous at first because I was beginning to gain a great deal of responsibility in the classroom. The lesson plans are very detailed for this subject, but Mrs. Tucker helps me a great deal with the differentiation.
I will be giving my first Math unit test on Monday. I feel that I have prepared my students well. I hope that their test scores display all the hard work that they have put in over the last several weeks.
Action Research is still going well. The students are still enjoying it and look forward to it each and every day. I'm glad that I choose this particular strategy for my research.

Week 8 Action Research

Week eight of this semester has quickly approached us. I can't believe that this semester is already half over. I am learning something new every single day in my placement, and am becoming excited about my full time student teaching. Mrs. Tucker keeps me on my toes when it comes to reflecting on my lesson plans and helps me in any way that I need her to.
My Action Research is going well, thus far. I am getting a great deal of data from my children and they seem to really be enjoying it. I plan on gathering data over the next few weeks and begin thinking of ways to organize it.

Week Six

This week I learned about adapting to unexpected dilemmas. School was canceled on Monday morning due to a gas leak. The students were held in the multi-purpose room and all teachers made emergency phone calls to the parents. I am glad that I was able to take an active part in the situation. I feel that I learned a great deal by observing how the staff handled the confusion.
I also continued my action research this week. I will DIBEL on Monday to add to my data.

ACTION RESEARCH

Week Five: September 24, 2009
-Week one of my Action Research went really well! We started reading "Stories For A Starry Night" By: Peter Grahame . I assigned each student a part and had them highlight where they would be reading. The first day went well and the play took us a whole forty minutes to read through. The next few days we talked about tone of voice and reading with more personality. Fortunately, the more we read the play, the quicker we were getting finished reading through it. Friday, I will DIBEL the six students that I chose to observe for my research. I will be keeping my test scores for each student in separate folders labeled with their name. The kids seem to really enjoy Readers Theater. I am excited to begin gathering my data and monitoring their progress.

Week Four

On Tuesday I taught a Grammar lesson on Subjects and Predicates. To prepare for the lesson I cut out twenty-six sentence strips, each one containing either the subject or predicate of a sentence. For the lesson I mixed up all the strips and randomly handed one to each student. I reviewed what a subject and predicate was and explained that each strip contained one or the other. They were to go around to each student until they found someone who they could make a complete sentence with. I am happy to say that this lesson was a great success. The children enjoyed the activity and were able to pair up to make complete sentences. They were even creative with their sentences, joining subjects and predicates that read, "Ms. Nicholas has six legs." :) I would definitely use this lesson again in the future!

Week 3

Due to Labor Day, week three went by very quickly. I started teaching grammar and I felt that all of my lessons went well. The students were attentive and responsive during my teaching time and I was able to get a feel for how they will respond to me as teacher. I also began giving pre-tests for my Action Research this week. I chose six students, two from each strategic reading group. I will begin the Reader's Theater on Monday.
This week I attended the fourth grades open house. This was an event where fourth grade teachers were given an opportunity to show parents what goes on during the school day. The evening went well and I look forward to parent teacher conferences!

Week 2

The second week of school jumped off to a great start. The students came back Monday morning ready to work and begin the new school year. Mrs. Tucker wasted no time getting the children on the fast track to learning. They began reading and math units along with their science, social studies and language. During the ninety minute reading block the fourth grade was split into three groups. I was able to work closely with one of these groups. This was a great way for me to ease into teaching and it also provided me with a chance to get to know the children better.
During this week I was also able to confirm the rumors of the East Dale faculty being like a family. It is evident in every way that the faculty love and respect one another. I feel lucky to say that I am a part of this family and also a team player in cluster 300. Next week, I will begin teaching 25%. I am excited to slowly begin taking full responsibility of the class!

Week One

The first week back to school was a great experience. I was able to see how my host teacher, Mrs. Tucker, managed her class on the first few days. I feel that this was a valuable experience for me as an Intern. I took notes on how she managed her space, greeted her children and explained classroom procedures. Mrs. Tucker took the first few days to get to know her children. She spent time on activities that allowed her to know how her students learn and what they like to learn about. One of Mrs. Tuckers organizational strategies that I liked in particular were the use of labels.. on everything! I feel that this is a great way to keep not only the teacher and students organized, but also cut down on clutter and confusion in the classroom.
Mrs. Tucker uses her classroom space wisely. Most of her available space is used for signs that contain information that the students need to be successful with their studies. For example, a sign that has the "Authors Purpose", transition words for writing and motivational quotes. I greatly enjoyed my first week as an Intern and look forward to semester ahead.