Practicum Plan

I am doing really well with staying on track with the Practicum Plan. I have been able to complete all my assignments on time or ahead of time. Going into this semester, I was told it would be my hardest. Because of this, I did everything I could to stay organized and on track because I knew falling behind would be the worst thing that could happen to me. While the Practicum Plan is a good idea, I did not like the layout that was provided. I made my own list (which I have every semster) of all the assignments and due dates. Making my own layout allowed me to organize it the way that best suits me. I did not like the column on the Practicum Plan that was labeled "When I want to have it completed" in addition to the "Due Date Column." I just wanted to have everything completed by the due date, so I felt that column was unnecessary.

Another thing I did not like about the Practicum Plan was how repetative it was. I felt like I was rewriting everything over and over again. I really do like the idea of the Plan, but I felt the format was inefficient and not the best thing for me to stay organized.

My learning goals of classroom management and inquiry data were definately acheived throughout this semester. I learned a lot about classroom management and have become much more confident in my capabilities. My other learning goal, getting my lessons approved ahead of time, is something I still struggled with throughout the semester. Sometimes, I didn't know what I would be teaching until the day before, so it was difficult to get everything in on time.

Characteristic 2 and 3

Characteristic 2: We believe the voice teacher should be an effective communicator.
For this characteristic,the artifact I chose is a letter from me to a parent requesting permission to test her son. The testing was done as part of my SPED 402 class. Teachers need to be able to communicate with parents, gain permissions when necessary, and give and receive important information. By opening up communication between the teacher and the parents, the child is much better off because everyone is on the same page.

Characteristic 3: We believe that the novice teacher should recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise, should understand oral issues and ethical practices in educational environments, and should have developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching.
I chose a letter of recommendation from my mentor teacher as an artifact for this. Being a moral, ethical person isn't something I can just do one day and show in a document. It is a way of life and a mindset that one must have each and every day. The only way to show this is to haVe someone who knows me well and as seen me as a teacher to judge and verify my character. This can be done through a recommendation letter.

My Progress

One of my learning goals is improving my classroom management skills. I have had a lot of opportunity to work on this this semester, and I feel I am improving and learning every day. The main thing I have done is to really pay attention to the things my mentor teacher does during class. The students in this class have various disabilities, so it is necessary to handle their behavior issues in different ways. Sometimes it feels very overwhelming to me becuase I feel like I can't control the class nearly as well as she does. I have learned to just keep changing my approach until I find something that works.

My second learning goal was to collect more inquiry data and document it better. This is still something I need to work on because I haven't been able to collect very much yet. My third goal was to get my lessons approved ahead of time. I have not written many of my own lessons thus far, so this is something I will continue to work on in the future.

I have not changed my practicum plan that much so far. I have had other assignments that were not listed on it such as journals and other random things that teachers assign. Some of the due dates were changed as well. My learning goals still remain the same and I am working on all three of them. Overall, I would rate myself as on track as far as completing the assignments go. I have turned in everything on time so far, and have managed my time enough that I could give each assignment enough attention and effort. I would like to be ahead of schedule, but at this point in time that is not the case.

Characteristic #4

Principle #4 states, "We believe The novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students." This means that the teacher needs to take into consideration the needs of each student in the class. Because all students are unique, their needs may be different. The term "facilitator" requires that the teacher help the student make discoveries in learning rather than feeding it to them.

For SPED 360, I made a differentiated instruction lesson plan. I organized the lesson according to the various needs in the classroom. During Math, students were given a choice of how they wanted to review for their test. Their choices were using flashcards alone or with a partner, playing a multiplication card game, a multiplication dice game, or Bingo. Because the students were given the choice as to which mode of review they prefered, the learning was more meaningful because it catered to their learning style.

This artifact shows that I am capable of adjusting lessons according to the learning needs of students and making sure individual preferences are met. The assessment (test the next day) showed that most students had a very good understanding of multiplication and many of them mentioned that they really liked having a choice of what they got to do.

Mentorship

Reflect on your work in your PDS this semester. How have you benefitted from the mentoring relationship you have with your mentor teacher? What actions have you taken to be sure that the mentoring relationship is beneficial to you both?

This semester, I have had an unusual experience in regards to mentorship. I started with one mentor teacher who retired part way through the semester and then I got a new mentor teacher. This experience has been very beneficial to me because I have got to see how two different people manage and run the same classroom. The thing I have found that helps the most in creating a relationship with both of these teachers is e-mail. It is so hard to find time during the school day to plan things or talk about things, so using e-mail is a great way to keep in touch. Both mentor teachers I have had have very different strategies in the classroom and personalities. I have had to adjust to find my role in the classroom after the first teacher retired, and it has made me see that different situations require different actions and attitudes. The best part of this semester was seeing that a classroom can be run very differently, but still teach the students.

Wikis

In completing the wiki assignment, I learned a lot about the process of actually completing something like this online. It was difficult to figure out how to do some of the things, but after playing around with it I was able to find some really fun things like adding a YouTube video. I realized that when doing something like this with a classroom of students, you should know all the technical aspects of it because if the teacher doesn't understand it, its going to be a mess. Another thing I learned was how many different ways you could use a wiki. For example, in science you could make a wiki with different projects, you could use it for vocab words, or you could use it in math for different projects. It gives us a whole new way to present material or assess students while using technology.

My favorite part of the wiki is the pictures. We took pictures around the school, but we also included pictures of ourselves. Two of the girls in my group went to the Buckwheat Festival and took pictures, and we also have a video of the Bruceton Dam. I think the pictures really show what the school is like and how the community is. Another thing I liked that we did was interviewing the principal and the teacher education coordinator. I think this was an original idea and I enjoyed getting to know them better. Hope you enjoy our wiki!! :)

Blog 3

What are some benefits and limitations of incorporating technology into a teachers' instructional day?


There are many benefits to using technology, but if used inappropriately or incorrectly, the limitations can outweigh the the benefits. For example, using a SmartBoard is a great way to incorporate technology. Students love to use it because it is interactive, and it gets them involved in the lessons. I have witnessed (more than once) teachers trying to use the SmartBoard and not knowing how. They took valuable class time trying to figure out how to use it and never really did. It wasted time and frustrated the students and the teacher. Some of them had no back-up plan and so the lesson was ruined. The middle school I went to had 2 SmartBoards. I never saw them being used as anything but a projection screen/ dry erase board. The teachers were given the boards and not given any training on how to use them, and so they were a pointless waste of money. It would be very beneficial to teachers to have training workshops on how to use the technology. Especially for older teachers who did not grow up with computers like we did, the task of just "figuring it out" is nearly impossible.

Another way to use technology would be for grading purposes. This is extremely useful because it can organize everything for you and give averages, etc. without ever having to use a calculator. However, teachers should always have a back-up grade book because computers are known for crashing and everything will get lost. In my high school there was an older teacher who had been teaching for many, many years. He absolutely refused to use the computers to do his grading. He would only use his gradebook and calculator to do grades. The administration would get frustrated with him, but he was not willing to change what had worked for him for years. In this situation, it really was easier to just let him use his gradebook than try to teach him to use the computer!

A good example of technology use was used by my Pre-calculus teacher in 11th grade. He had a system that allowed the notes on the board to be saved onto the computer. Then, if someone was absent or missed any of the notes, he could print them out instead of having to copy everything and re-teach it. He also had a type of clicker that we played games with kind of like the clickers here at WVU.

When used correctly technology is a great thing. Students need to know how to use it because it will be a big part of their lives. I do not think that we should be totally dependent on it, however, because technical malfunctions do occur. One of the most important things I have learned about technology is to always have a back up plan just in case!

My question to you is how much should we be reliant on technology and is there a point at which we are too reliant on it?