Final Internship Blog Post #3

This week I taught Science and ELA every day and my collaborating teacher taught Math. Teaching most of the subjects this week has been facilitated by the fact that we began our LDC module on space and galaxies this week, which integrates Science and ELA. Through doing the majority of whole group instruction, I have gotten a chance to better understand how to approach these lessons with this particular group of students and also receive informal feedback from my collaborating teacher as she looks on. The LDC lessons are engaging, but they have proven to be a heavier cognitive load for this particular group of students than perhaps another. Most of the students in this class have IEPs or 504s that indicate a need for extended time or other accommodations. In a classroom full of students with exceptionalities, I am learning how to modify instruction to meet their needs, but also challenge every student in the classroom and maintain high expectations. In terms of my teacher talk, I am working on speaking slower and choosing my words carefully, while allowing more wait time for students to answer my questions. My collaborating teacher also suggested that rather than immediately rephrasing a question four different ways, I ask the question once simply, and then after an appropriate amount of wait time, ask the student if he or she would like for me to rephrase the question. Not only does this allow the students time to think, but it also helps them to learn to ask for clarification when they need it. Many of these students have trouble focusing for reasons that are biochemical and out of their control, but along with this have come many bad habits over the years that will be a hindrance in the future. If they are unclear on something or missed the directions, many of them will simply sit there or act like they understood rather than asking clarifying questions. In addition to getting the students to take more initiative and ask questions when they are unsure, I will work on taking steps to support them, such as asking another student to repeat the directions or writing them on the board. Moving forward I hope to develop a better grasp on how to balance pacing and the cognitive complexity of lessons expected at this grade level with the needs of this particular group of students.

Final Internship Blog Post #2

This week was a short one after the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I have been really enjoying getting to know the students better and can already see them beginning to grow more comfortable with me, asking me questions, both about things going on in the classroom and about myself! I also sat in on a report card meeting and had the opportunity to learn more about the process of making decisions about grades and determining if students are performing on or below level. I have worked with many of the students individually and been helping with support for those students who are struggling in particular areas. I also began conducting small groups and my collaborating teacher was able to look on and give me some bits of initial feedback. She has been extremely supportive and helpful to my learning process and her advice has all been invaluable. When I first began the MAT program and conferenced with students in my field experience placements, I found myself wanting to just give the answers to students who were struggling and falling behind in the lesson, rather than helping them to arrive at the answers themselves. But one of the things my collaborating teacher complimented me about was how I didn’t just give them the answers and I really had them think through it. This was great to hear since it was an area in the past that I knew I needed to address. She did mention that I should just be mindful about giving ample wait time, which was interesting because in my first ever observation in practicum last semester, the initial positive remark I was given was that I had excellent wait time. As I reflect on this feedback though, it’s a reminder that each of these facets is an ongoing process and just because you get something right once doesn’t mean you can forget about it and move on. Each of these skills I will need to continue developing and improving over time, and with time and practice some of these things might become more consistent.

Final Internship Blog Post #1

This is the first blog post of my final semester in the MAT program!

This week was my first week of final internship. The classroom I’m in is a fifth grade classroom that is self-contained, so I am excited at the prospect of getting to teach lessons in all of the subjects. Since this is a new school and classroom for me, I have been spending the week familiarizing myself with the school community and getting to know a bit about the students. This week there were three days in a row of testing, so the schedule was not the norm, but the collaborating teacher I have been placed with is excellent and she has been extremely helpful in trying to get me up to speed on everything.

Last semester, I feel that I was really able to practice creating lesson plans that the students in my practicum classroom found engaging. Going into this semester, I want to continue to develop this as well as focus more on my classroom management and methods of assessing student learning.

In what I have observed this week, I have already begun to learn things that will be helpful to remember in terms of classroom management as I begin to take over more responsibility in the classroom. Especially because these students do not switch to another classroom halfway through the day, frequent stretch breaks become an important part of getting the kids up and moving every so often to keep them more focused during lessons. Teacher-directed P.E. for good behavior twice each week also serves as a motivating factor for getting work done as well as an opportunity for the kids to get time outside on days they don’t have P.E. for specials. Sporadic use of positive reinforcement during lessons, be it verbal or physical (candy, tickets, etc.), proves to be an effective practice for keeping students on task and reminding them of what they are expected to do. Proportionally there is much more positive reinforcement in the classroom than anything else. High, clear expectations and specific, positive reinforcement go hand-in-hand. I’m also seeing fun attention-getters and useful teacher talk that contribute to effective classroom management. For example, with a student that is off-task, rather than scolding the student or questioning the behavior, the teacher may simply ask, “How can I help you to be successful right now?” To contextualize, this was said to a student who frequently has trouble with participating in class as expected and the phrasing here was part of a process of helping this student to make better choices while avoiding escalating the situation. During lessons, accountable talk is also important, such as having students ask each other clarifying questions if another student answers a teacher’s question with a response that is vague or unclear. Students were also asked to give a thumb-up or thumbs-down if they agreed or disagreed with something a classmate said.

In terms of assessing student learning, I have become more familiar now with running records as a method of tracking student reading progress in things such as fluency, comprehension, accuracy, and expression. In addition, the students did FAIR testing for the second time this year and I was able to see how comparing the results from last time with the current results indicated areas that the teacher would focus on more moving forward. For example, with this group there was great progress in syntactic knowledge, but not so much in vocabulary and reading comprehension. Also for individual students, the information was valuable for identifying who may need to be pulled in small groups. Of course this type of data is not the only point upon which such decisions are made, but it was nice to see how teachers could use the results of these tests to inform instruction in such a practical way.