VI.+Reflective+Journals

=VI (a) MONTHLY LOGS:=

September 2009
9/3/09 I took the MAT at UAB to fulfill Samford graduate studies requirement. I was happy to know that my score was adequate and I could mark this off my “to do” list! 9/9/09 Today, I had planned for a visit from Dr. Wood to observe of Bibliotherapy lesson. I began the lesson as planned, but due to a scheduling mix-up Dr. Wood was unable to attend. I went ahead with the lesson as planned, as it was a foundational lesson for my unit on integrating Geography and Social Science in my 2nd grade room. The lesson was based on the book //If the World Were a Village//, by David J. Smith. The focus of the discussion was designed to help the students understand their relationship to the rest of the Earth’s people and to give them an understanding of how fortunate we are in our school. (See also: Making Connections Lesson Plan.) 9/11/09 I ordered transcripts from National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to fulfill a course requirement (elective) for Samford’s graduate studies program. 9/27/09 Today, I hosted my COMPS study group at my home, for a full day study/prep session. We took each of the courses/areas that we have done in the program and created notes for our responses to questions that we anticipate will be presented. We’re ready! 9/30/09 Dr. Wood visited today! I taught a second bibliotherapy lesson based on the book //Stellaluna//. The focus of the lesson was to define culture, race and diversity. The discussion was very good and I incorporated a flipchart using the Promethean Board to introduce the vocabulary. The students really enjoyed and learned a lot from the extension activity, which was making Venn Diagrams comparing themselves to a friend in the classroom, based on race, culture and diversity. This was probably the best visit/observation I’ve had in a long time, as Dr. Wood actually interacted with my students and seemed to really be engaged in what was happening in the classroom. J (See also: Culture/Diversity, //Stellaluna// lesson plan.)

Monthly Reflective Notes:
All in all, this has been a very productive month, in terms of my progress towards graduation from Samford. Unfortunately, the daily requirements of teaching in regular education have been daunting. I have realized, that in planning my unit for this class, I was thinking of last year’s second graders (and the year before that) who were much more adept academically and socially, as a group. My new class does not get along in small groups and many of them are still learning to read. Additionally, on reflection, I am realizing that when I wrote this unit, I had just //finished// a year of teaching 2nd grade; and now I am trying to implement the unit with students who are ½ a year younger, both chronologically and developmentally. This will really require me to rethink the way I teach this unit, and could //really// affect the content I am able to cover. This year’s group is larger in size (20 vs. 17) and I have an ESL cluster of 3 students, which drives much of my small group instruction. I am coming face to face with the challenges that regular ed classroom teachers often complain to the gifted resource teachers about! How in the //world// will I have time to differentiate for Will, Grace, Ryan, Jeffrey and Sophie, who I know need higher level thinking skills and extensions, when I have Sebastian running (literally) around singing “Happy Birthday To You!”, because it’s the only English he knows so far? This is going to be a wild ride! Having both of my classroom observations completed feels great!

October 2009
10/3/09 COMPS! Whew! I’m glad that is over. I felt very confident, going in, as my group really worked hard to prepare, but the “unknown” factor is always tricky. 10/7/09 Today, I met with my grade level team to discuss how we will meet the needs of all the students in 2nd grade Math. I am especially interested in enlisting their help to coordinate a system of preassesments and compacting to allow for enrichment and more weight in the curriculum for our high achievers and gifted kids. We decided that we would take a hard look at our text book in regards to the course of study and cut out unneeded lessons, to allow more time for depth of instruction. I have found that our COS is correlated to about 40 pages of the 559 page text book that 2nd grade teachers are trying to cover. This is alarming to me! The team agreed that we could afford to cut out meaningless lessons and focus on the actual COS and extend when necessary, using other resources and games. 10/13/09-10/16/09

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We are deep into the Flat Stanley portion of our unit. Many of the students have received return mail and we will begin researching and writing reports for Flat Stanley’s destinations next week. **//I have been collaborating with Ms. Pang, our media specialist and she will be teaching my class how to use Destiny to begin their search for resources.//**======

10/15-10/16/09

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The learning centers are taking shape. **//I have opened up a "Geography Center"//** with tons of resource books, real maps, various Atlases, Leap Pads with geography books in several levels of texts, a dedicated computer station for online research and games which are linked to my class website and task cards for the students to use as a guide for their learning and exploration. Additionally, **//I have conducted some "how to" lessons//** on using iPods, FlipCams and digital cameras to enhance the products they create. The students are free to go to the Writing Center where these digital tools are stored to utilize them at any time.=====

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration: **//Sebastian, Santiago and Michelle’s parents came to our room to share//** history, culture and celebrations of their native countries (Puerto Rico, Peru and Mexico, respectively). (See also: Hispanic Heritage Slideshow )

10/19/09-10/21/09 I have collaborated with our fabulous Media Specialist to plan for the students to learn how to do independent research for the unit. She has helped me create a graphic organizer and has taught a whole group lesson on using Destiny (our school’s media search engine) to find books that will support their research. I am super excited about what I am seeing with the kids. Several are struggling, as this is a very high level exercise, but I am using my parapros to help them individually, and supervising the process closely for them. 10/22/09 I got a part time student teacher today! Woo Hoo! She can help me catch up with the mountain of regular ed paperwork, so I can live in “Gifted Land” for a little while.

Monthly Reflective Notes:
This unit is not going the way I planned it at ALL! Every time I feel like I’m making good progress, regular ed comes knocking on my door again! J I have had to postpone “how to” lessons twice, in order to get progress monitoring and district Math assessments done. This stalls progress towards our final products, as I need to teach the tech tools to complete them. I have combined several lessons into “Geography Centers” in an attempt to pack it all in before the rest of the grade level moves on to other Social Studies and Science concepts. I have a twin in my room, who’s mother would like to know why her daughter has not started double digit addition or studied “plants” yet, as her other daughter seems to be “flying through second grade and learning SO much already”. (sigh)

//**When I get back into the resource room, I’ll never look at classroom teachers the same again. I am certain that this whole experience has been for the purpose of teaching me that my true role as a resource teacher is to be a RESOURCE for TEACHERS!**// This is next to impossible, but I will find a way to meet all these 2nd graders where they are, if it kills me.

November 2009
11/5/09 (See also: Team Thank You Notes .)
 * //Today, we had an all day professional development opportunity as a result of//** **//a proposal that I wrote to give the 2nd grade team a chance to plan for small groups and classroom management in Math class. I’m very excited that my team has decided to “get onboard” with my passion of differentiating in Math for our students.//**

11/9-19/09 We are really making things happen with Flat Stanley! The kids are working independently on their research folders and having me check their progress using the checklist in the folder. **//I have taught them to use Flip Cams to record their “commercials” and they are using iPods to learn more about maps and map skills with pod casts and episodes I have downloaded for them.//** Several of the students have encouraged their parents to begin downloading from the History and Discovery Channel for them to view at home! I’m excited about this. 11/20/09
 * //Today, 2nd graders worked in groups to tape their final commercials and reports (Some of them chose to be news reporters vs. commercial spokespeople.)//** The biggest challenge for them was making sure they maintained eye contact with the camera and using an appropriate voice level. We will work on this when we return from Thanksgiving break and this unit will be DONE!

11/23-24/09 Family Traditions Days: This is an annual tradition for me in my room. I invite parents/grandparents/extended family and friends to join us in the classroom and share a family tradition with us. This really is the foundation for the unit I chose to teach about making connections. We began this unit by becoming aware of what’s “out there” and moved on to celebrating our new Hispanic friends and ended up by sharing our own family traditions. Several children have made connections and said things like: “That’s just like my family, except….” Perfect!

Monthly Reflective Notes:
November has been FAST and FURIOUS! I’ve been working so hard to finish the unit, so I can do a reworking to turn in at the end of Practicum. I have had to adjust a lot for this group, but don’t think I’ll completely rewrite the unit. This is a “special” group and I maintain hope that should I teach this unit to another group of 2nd graders next year, they’ll be a little more independent and mature.

//**Over the course of this month, I have taught my students**// //**DeBono's Six Thinking Hats**////**.**// It has been slow going as much of my group has trouble conceptualizing beyond themselves. I have about 7 students, though, who can take a subject card from the writing center and discuss and resolve the ideas presented using the process. I introduced the 6T Hats using a flipchart on the concept and walked the class through the process on the first day. I felt like this was a good introduction to what I knew would be a tricky concept. The next day, I reviewed the process using the flipchart and divided the students into groups with each group drawing a subject card to work with. It took alot of guidance and about 90 minutes, but all but one group was successful! The following day, I continued to review and model for the students and encouraged them to create new subject cards to place in the writing center for later use. I plan to take at least one of these each week, until the holiday break to continue building the technique. In the Spring semester, I will introduce more problem solving strategies and critical thinking skills. This is definitely an area I will require more practice with and I will seek professional development, as well.

This is a link to my springboard for the next step in teaching this process to my 2nd graders. I am waiting until we have a full week of school days to try again.

6 Thinking Hats Information

===//Professionally, I’ve grown tremendously over the past few months.// //I’ve really had to rethink my ideals of what is really possible in a typical regular ed classroom, in terms of differentiation.// //I am more aware of the demands of the state, system and school, now that I am serving a more challenging (and larger) group of students.//===

=VI (b) PORTFOLIO REFLECTION:= =Follow this link to End of Practicum Self-Evaluation:=



October 2009

10/3/09 COMPS! Whew! I’m glad that is over. I felt very confident, going in, as my group really worked hard to prepare, but the “unknown” factor is always tricky.

10/7/09 Today, I met with my grade level team to discuss how we will meet the needs of all the students in 2nd grade Math. I am especially interested in enlisting their help to coordinate a system of preassesments and compacting to allow for enrichment and more weight in the curriculum for our high achievers and gifted kids. We decided that we would take a hard look at our text book in regards to the course of study and cut out unneeded lessons, to allow more time for depth of instruction. I have found that our COS is correlated to about 40 pages of the 559 page text book that 2nd grade teachers are trying to cover. This is alarming to me! The team agreed that we could afford to cut out meaningless lessons and focus on the actual COS and extend when necessary, using other resources and games.

10/13/09-10/16/09 We are deep into the Flat Stanley portion of our unit. Many of the students have received return mail and we will begin researching and writing reports for Flat Stanley’s destinations next week.

10/15-10/16/09 Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration: Sebastian, Santiago and Michelle’s parents came to our room to share history, culture and celebrations of their native countries (Puerto Rico, Peru and Mexico, respectively). (See also: Hispanic Heritage Videos)

10/19/09-10/21/09 I have collaborated with our fabulous Media Specialist to plan for the students to learn how to do independent research for the unit. She has helped me create a graphic organizer and has taught a whole group lesson on using Destiny (our school’s media search engine) to find books that will support their research. I am super excited about what I am seeing with the kids. Several are struggling, as this is a very high level exercise, but I am using my parapros to help them individually, and supervising the process closely for them. (See also: Research Folder pictures.)

10/22/09 I got a part time student teacher today! Woo Hoo! She can help me catch up with the mountain of regular ed paperwork, so I can live in “Gifted Land” for a little while.

Monthly Reflective Notes:

This unit is not going the way I planned it at ALL! Every time I feel like I’m making good progress, regular ed comes knocking on my door again! J I have had to postpone “how to” lessons twice, in order to get progress monitoring and district Math assessments done. This stalls progress towards our final products, as I need to teach the tech tools to complete them. I have combined several lessons into “Geography Centers” in an attempt to pack it all in before the rest of the grade level moves on to other Social Studies and Science concepts. I have a twin in my room, who’s mother would like to know why her daughter has not started double digit addition or studied “plants” yet, as her other daughter seems to be “flying through second grade and learning SO much already”. (sigh)

When I get back into the resource room, I’ll never look at classroom teachers the same again. I am certain that this whole experience has been for the purpose of teaching me that my true role as a resource teacher is to be a RESOURCE for TEACHERS! This is next to impossible, but I will find a way to meet all these 2nd graders where they are, if it kills me.

November 2009

11/5/09 Today, we had an all day professional development opportunity as a result of a proposal that I wrote to give the 2nd grade team a chance to plan for small groups and classroom management in Math class. I’m very excited that my team has decided to “get onboard” with my passion of differentiating in Math for our students. (See also: Team Thank You Notes.)

11/9-19/09 We are really making things happen with Flat Stanley! The kids are working independently on their research folders and having me check their progress using the checklist in the folder. I have taught them to use Flip Cams to record their “commercials” and they are using iPods to learn more about maps and map skills with pod casts and episodes I have downloaded for them. Several of the students have encouraged their parents to begin downloading from the History and Discovery Channel for them to view at home! I’m excited about this. (See also: Pictures of kids using tech devices.)

11/20/09 Today, 2nd graders worked in groups to tape their final commercials and reports (Some of them chose to be news reporters vs. commercial spokespeople.) The biggest challenge for them was making sure they maintained eye contact with the camera and using an appropriate voice level. We will work on this when we return from Thanksgiving break and this unit will be DONE!

11/23-24/09 Family Traditions Days: This is an annual tradition for me in my room. I invite parents/grandparents/extended family and friends to join us in the classroom and share a family tradition with us. This really is the foundation for the unit I chose to teach about making connections. We began this unit by becoming aware of what’s “out there” and moved on to celebrating our new Hispanic friends and ended up by sharing our own family traditions. Several children have made connections and said things like: “That’s just like my family, except….” Perfect!