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.