16th and Final week of my Internship

The start of my final week began with a two hour delay. While growing up I always hoped for delays and cancelations, I found today to be crazy, and chaotic as a teacher. I was constantly having to redirect students, and had a difficult time accomplishing my plans. Some students did not even come for their scheduled pull out due to the change in schedule. I felt completely opposite about the delay than I would have if I were a student. I strongly disliked the change in schedule!

However, I am super excited for the upcoming week. I have been able to sit in on many IEP meetings as an active participator. I even will be given the chance to run my first meeting on Wednesday. Today, I witnessed an IEP meeting where the parent spoke up and voiced his concern for the change. The team responded well and worked together with the parent to satisfy the concerns and needs. I thought it was interesting that the parent didn't want the team to be upset, and voiced his opinion in a concerned way, instead of a stern way. The team worked together to come up with a new plan of keeping the times that were followed before, and to have an additional meeting in the spring to discuss how things are going in the regular education classroom with the students new assistive technology. I was very impressed with the overall outcome of the meeting, and was pleased that there was no hostile environment mood when a concern was voiced. I hope to conduct my meetings in a similar fashion if I ever was put in this same situation.

week 15 of Intern year

This week during an IEP meeting for one of my students, the parent began explaining during the math portion of the goals how much more fluent the student had become in math fact fluency. I was very excited because I had been working on this every day to help build his understanding. I felt so excited that I was making a difference. I explained to the parent that the main thing to help build this fluency is using hands on games, such as "I have..Who has..." The student loves participating in this game and even higher leveled students enjoy the game as well because they get to work together and build teamwork. I also told the parent I feel this was occurring because the students were participating in number talks. I try to have the student build the relationships of addition and subtraction by talking about how to get to the answer in a variety of ways. I knew the student was learning this more fluently through timed addition tests, as well as the student's quote during the meeting. Someone on the team had said, "For example, what is 5 + 4," to which the student jumped up and said,
9!" Everyone was tickled with how well he knew the fact, and the parent said this was a huge improvement from just the beginning of the year. It was an amazing feeling to hear that the student made a huge jump in just a small skill that will build the rest of the skills. I also feel that he has learned most effectively through authentic assessments using the Interactive Notebook. I thoroughly enjoy using this assessment in the class because the students don't view the assessment as a test! This was a very exciting meeting for me!

Week 14

The week before Thanksgiving is quite the opposite as a teacher vs. a student. I, for once, do not enjoy this week because I am rushing to get everything done and can't just push it back to Monday. The students have also been crazy with behaviors. They are excited for a week off, and to top it all off, they know my time with them is limited. They have all of a sudden taken an interest in everything about me. I am just not being bombarded with questions from my older students, and having them attempt to distract me in every which way. As much as I want to spend that personal time with each student, it is difficult because I have helped them learn so much that I want to keep that going. I am definitely starting to become sad that if I want to see their learning, I have to visit, and not just come in for another day at school. I had one student become sad and full of tears when I said I had two weeks after break left. As much as it hurt me to see the tears, I also felt happiness for seeing that I made such an impact on the student that he was sad to see me go.

The good news is (and they have yet to realize this) I will still be around and I will still be able to see them grow! My group of students and faculty members have become my family these past few weeks. They have been there for me through a family death, happy times, sad times, sleepy times, and many more. I never imagined my semester ending with a bond for people I grew so fond of. The students not only learned from me, but I learned from them. I learned to listen to what they have to say, even if it might be irrelevant because that may spark an idea to motivate a student to master a skill. I actually did this listening technique this week. I listened to my student week after week talk about this game, Minecraft. Well, I took this into effect this week by implementing a coloring exercise and math facts on a numbers chart. The numbers chart will eventually form into a character from the game. I also am using his passion for the game to teach him repeated addition/multiplication skills. When I said the word mine craft, I had him jump into a seat so fast, I wasn't sure how to react. It was so exciting to see that taking the time to listen ended up being successful for both of us. The student was engaged and I was teaching the student a skill that he is slowly beginning to master. It was a great week in the classroom, and I'm becoming more sad as I realize my time is slowly coming to an end with these amazing students.

Week 13 of Intern Year

The thirteenth week of my Internship has completed, and I have become more sad with the realization that I won't be with these students after a few more short weeks. This past week I had a few "teacher" moments. My one student became sad with tears when he was told that I was leaving soon. I wasn't sure what to do because at the time I didn't know why he was so upset. I had been able to have the student write to me on the board that he was sad that his sister was sick. I thought quick on my feet and had the student make a "get better soon" card for his sister, and I thought for sure that would do the trick.

Wrong.

Still more tears came as the student finished up. Confused, I began having the student open up to me which then made me realize he was sad I was leaving soon. I had to explain to him that I would be back and I am touched that he enjoyed spending as much time as he had learning how to read. I found myself giving him the opportunity to let him eat in the classroom during our lunches. He loved this opportunity, and I think I will do this again before I leave.

In addition to this touching moment, I have finished my Inquiry! I have found that the iPad engages students more than I ever expected, and even if the apps are used only for reinforcement of skills, the iPad is a way to keep the students engaged throughout a lesson at the stations. I am excited to reflect on this with my paper.

Week 12

Friday afternoon, I had encountered students being dismissed from school, and being welcomed back into the classroom. Those two students were excited to be in the room to learn again, but also wanted to share their stories. On the spot, I thought of a brilliant idea. Writing is something the entire class needs work on, and they are constantly interrupting to tell me something about their days after school. I came up with the idea of allowing the students to write their stories to me in journals, and I would write back.

That being said, I can kill two birds with one stone by assessing their writing mechanics and making sure they are reminded how to write correct sentences. I hope to see this method through Tuesday and hope this helps increase my time of teaching. I look forward to reading and writing back to gain even more of a relationship with my students. I'm excited to see how this idea plays out.

Overall, I am sad to see my semester coming to an end. I love doing hands-on activities with my students, and seeing them learn at such great speeds. The students I met in August are taller plants that will just keep on growing!

Intern week 11

As my inquiry comes to an end, I have found that the iPad is much more than I anticipated. Upon analyzing pieces of my data, I found that while the iPad is a great reinforcer for skills, the engagement level is high thus making the learning more effective. Students enjoy working on the iPad and if they don't receive a chance during stations, I am constantly being asked if they can go next. I feel that having a set of iPads in the school would be great, similar to the computers. Teachers can find apps that correspond to the common core (I have found many free and paid apps). My favorite and most successful app so far is called Screenchomp. I use this app in the second grade to practice spelling. The students are able to choose a color of their choice, and use their fingers to write out the words. The students seem to enjoy this the most, since typically the spelling station is rewriting their words. I noticed one day that the students would even write the word a few times after discovering their mistakes.

Last week, I used a comprehension app. I feel that there could be an App out in the iWorld to use for tests on weekly stories yet, but I haven't found it yet. I like this app for my inquiry because there is different levels and genres of books for a second grader. However, I sometimes feel they are more interested in tapping the answers because it is fun instead of finding the correct answer.

The only negative I have found using this technology is that the teacher must constantly be checking for dead batteries, or app updates. I also had one iPad die completely, i.e. won't even turn on, and that made my four iPads for small group decrease to three. Therefore, I have two students sharing, which is not as effective as individually having iPads. I would recommend using the iPad to any teacher, as it is easy to find an app that enhances the skills being taught, and a majority of the apps are common core aligned!

Intern week 10

As the weeks fly by, I have overcome many obstacles. One obstacle I have had a rough time jumping over was how to have my one student learn the information consistently, and show that he understands it. I did some research on pinterest and other resources on the internet, and found a great alternative form of assessment. I found an interactive notebook for mathematics that is common core aligned. I was hesitant at first, since I don't have much materials for the student and develop almost everything on my own. However, I decided I would give it a try. All last week, I used the portfolio as a reinforcer to the skills that were taught. Typically, in a regular setting the student could cut and paste the individual pieces to the paper on their own. Due to limitations, I did that already, but the student was able to color and show the work on his own.

The next problem we will try is moving and glueing different pieces of money down to show his understanding of coin value. This was a great form of assessment because he was able to show that he understood it and didn't get nervous about having a "test." I was so excited to have started such a successful way of assessment. My one concern is that after I finish full time teaching, the student won't continue this form of assessment and not necessarily show how well he is doing at the skills on grade-level. For now, I plan to keep this accumulating and even see if regular education teachers would want to place it in their lessons as a reinforcer. It's a fun, engaging hands-on set of activities, and if the student finishes early, they can color the whole page. Ideally, students won't just be sitting waiting on other students to finish.