Inquiry Celebration Reflection

       This year the inquiry celebration I was very excited to see what the interns accomplished and to bounce some ideas off of theirs to start creating my focus. I felt like I understood what was going on a lot more than I did one year ago being in the tutors place because I now understand more about the research aspect of it and the reality of collecting data and what you need to make your wonderings and topic successful. I was anxious to hear the interns presentations because I am going from a seventh grade middle school English class back down to a first grade class for my intern year. So since I am not early childhood specialized I wanted to hear some ideas that I could work with. I thought about it before I went to the inquiry celebration and I knew that I should not really pick a focus on the content or assignments/testings because I am working with first graders. Instead I knew I would have to work on something involving the social aspect of the classroom and the children. I was very please with the forth session because that was about behavioral research and what they did to make the students behavior increase. After that I decided I definitely want to make my topic revolving around the behaviors in the classroom and what things I can do to help reinforce positive behaviors. I received some awesome ideas from an intern named Liz (I do not remember her last name) but she created a tool box for the preschool or kindergarten students that had tools inside with guides on how to fix their problem. So whenever they would get in trouble she would say go to the tool box and solve your problem and they would pick up a took that would have instructions on the back about sharing or being angry and how to fix it. She said the kids responded to it immediately and really enjoyed this whole concept. Also I got to watch my close friend Kristina F. Present on behavioral issues and she had cute ideas as well. The third section I went to was about older grades and vocabulary comprehension and scoring on tests which was informational too but not something I am going to use for first grade. The inquiry celebration this year was so helpful with seeing how the interns went about collecting and pulling together their data. It was so nice to see how much the interns have benefited and grown from our program and I can not wait to be in their shoes next year!

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

Characteristic 4

"We believe the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students. "

Is important no matter what type of teacher or what grade level you are working with. It is important to modify everything for your learners so they can be the most successful as possible. In seminar the Principal that spoke to us mentioned that some times homework gets forgotten to be modified which is true. I believe that all lessons, activities, assignments, worksheets, quizzes, tests and homework should be modified because not all students learn the same. Differentiation to everything is very beneficial to our students when you reach out to their learning styles and help them learn the best way they can. We have learned a lot about differentiation in our courses especially in special education classes, classroom management classes, and 460 and 461 literature. Some artifacts I would use to represent learning for all students would be differentiation projects and lessons in special education. Our work stations project required modified lessons for all levels of readers which is an artifact I am proud of and would definitely use. And any other lessons that I have made with modifications as well. I am in 7th grade English and I have an inclusion class that I make modifications for for every lesson that I could use as well.

Characteristic 10

"We believe that the novice teacher should be liberally educated."

Teacher need to be liberally educated in many ways more than just their content specialization. That is why we have had such a variety of courses here in our program. When I think of this characteristic I think of our Creative Expressions class and all of the different integrations to art, music and dance that can be included in our lessons. I am all about integrating arts because it reaches out to different learning styles as well as students and their cultures and diversity. For those artifacts I would use my creative expressions lessons that I have done that integrated the arts. I also videotaped my movement lesson and my 3rd graders had a blast! Also teachers need to be creative and educated about everything so we can properly teach our kids not just the basic material but go above and beyond. Teachers need to be prepared to be highly educated which is why I try to keep up with current events and news on educational issues. For more artifacts I would use I would say any lesson that I have made that provided my students with more than just the basics of whatever content I was teaching but covering more information and integrating other knowledge to help my students become well rounded individuals.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

Characteristic #6 We believe that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of content. 

    For the characteristics of a novice teacher I think number 6 is one of the most important characteristics for a teacher. I believe that a teacher should have strong in-depth knowledge of their content area as well as loving the subject and keeping it interesting to students. If the teacher shows great appreciation and excitement for their content area then it will help the students be more engaged and open to learning about that subject. It is so essential for a novice teacher to have an all around in-depth knowledge of all subjects and content to be a well rounded, intelligent teacher.

    In our program we get the opportunity to have a great all around in-depth knowledge on such a variety of content from our classes in the program and all of the subjects we cover. It is a good possibility that anyone could get hired and be placed somewhere that was not their first choice but they need to have strong knowledge of. For me, since I am elementary with a specialization in middle school English, this really applies to me during my preservice experience because last semester I was with a third grade classroom that covered all subjects and now I am placed in a seventh grade English classroom. It is so important to have strong knowledge of any content when you are a professional.

    An artifact that I can use for this would be from my third grade class which was an English lesson that went very well. I had to cover plural possessive nouns and did a really complex lesson that the students were able to follow and they really understood the concept by the end of the lesson. I first went over nouns and plural nouns, then possessive nouns, then made up a little dance that showed when it is singular you add apostrophe (‘s) and when it is plural you add an apostrophe. Then I went over many examples with the students saying if there was one dog and he had a leash it would be (‘s) and so on. Then I passed out pictures to the students with animals and them possessing something such as a bear with a pot of honey. I had 5 bears, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 3 pigs, 1 ant and 4 turtles. Then the groups got together and practiced on their smart board thinking that if there were more than 1 of them they were a plural group and only added and apostrophe. If there was only one of them they were singular and added (‘s). By the end of the lesson the students really understood the content of this English lesson and my teacher told me this was a very hard topic for them but the lesson was super easy for them.



Characteristic 8:  We believe that the novice teacher should be a
reflective practitioner. 

    Characteristic number eight about teachers being reflective practitioners is very essential to most importantly, our students. I believe that reflecting on any lessons, activities, classroom management, even the physical layout of a classroom should be reflected upon and constantly changing to adapt to all students. For teachers to reflect on their work is crucial because then you get to see what worked well and what did not work well and make changes. Our students and classes are constantly changing especially with new kids every year but they are also changing with their use of technology and what they are interested in. It is so important to reflect over everything so you know what will work best.

    It is okay if not everything goes smoothly as long as you learn from your mistakes. The best way from learning from your mistakes is realizing them. To write and reflect on it makes it easier to think of other strategies which is beneficial. For this artifact I would definitely want to use my researchers journal because this semester I really show what is working and not. I reflect on everything going on especially focused on this semester would be working with other people that sometimes are not so easy to work with and how to learn from it. Also our blogs would be a good artifact because I have done reflecting on my work with that as well.

Final Practicum Plan

          Well before I knew it the semester came to a quick end. I still can not believe how fast this semester has gone by but I feel like I have achieved so much in my classroom and that I have really improved and grown as a future teacher. I wanted to reflect on the practicum plan and all of my goals that I had set from the beginning of the semester. My first goal was, #1 “ To really take charge in my lessons and come up with really good effective and engaging lessons that my students will really benefit from”. And I felt like I was the most successful at this and really followed out with my goal. It started to become really natural and the lessons I would plan were very creative and well thought through. I really enjoyed having the chance to create my own lessons and my mentor teacher would only give me the topic of what they were doing and trusted me to come up with great lessons. That made me feel like a responsible teacher because I put a lot of time and effort into my lessons and out of all the assignments we had to do lesson plans were my absolute favorite! So I can definitely say that I have conquered that goal beyond my expectations and I am really proud of how easy great lessons come to my mind. The students would benefit from my lessons and they would know that if it was Thursday that I would be teaching a lesson and they would ask me every single time in the morning or I would hear them say to each other, “Yes, Miss Conway teachers us a lesson today”! That made me feel really in charge and I always had positive feedback from my teacher.
        With my second goal, “ Have good communication with my mentor teacher”. I felt like that went really well too because my mentor teacher and I really bonded and could teach together. She was comfortable with having me do big tasks for her or help the students or take over a station. We did get to talk about stuff but I quickly learned how busy she was before school and in her planning period so I did not want to bug her most of the time about questions on the rubric or anything. We still had great communication and if either of us needed something we could talk about it. For my third goal, “Get familiar with my new PDS, Johnson Elementary” I felt that I was able to accomplish that through the wiki project. I learned about my school and the faculty. I even got to interview the principal and vice principal which was great. And for my forth and fifth goal, “Work with students one on one” and “Learn more about the my mentor teachers teaching style”, those came natural and I found myself doing that every day I was there. I was constantly helping and tutoring my kids and they were always comfortable with coming to me with their questions. And I learned a lot from my mentor teacher and took little things and ideas from her all of the time! I learned so much from this semester and everything became very natural and I set more personal goals besides the practicum plan for myself and reached them every time. I feel like I conquered all of my goals and am a step closer to knowing exactly how I want to run my own classroom and actually getting the chance to!

Midterm Evaluation of my Practicum Plan

    It is already midterm and I felt like this semester has flew by! However even though it is midterm I have been following all of my goals from my practicum plan. Since we had to do this project it was helpful for me to be organized and have a set routine figured out from the first time I met with my mentor teacher. I talked to her the first day about everything I wanted to do and the goals I wanted to reach. I showed her all of my lessons and when I had to do them by so we have that all figured out. I told her how I would like to set time aside to talk with her everyday and go over everything. She she that when I get there before the students get there we can discuss or during her planning period but that in reality she won’t be able to sit and chat every time I am there. Which was perfectly fine and we came to an agreement that if I ever needed to go over anything or ask her anything that I can bring it up to her during those times. That is working out well and we get a lot of opportunities to talk. For my goal of Get familiar with my new PDS, Johnson Elementary  I am planning on participating in that for the wiki assignment and I would like to interview the Principal. Since out midterms are kind of early I have not gotten the chance to talk to her about creating things for certain students who need extra help. And for my other learning goal that is, Learn more about the my mentor teachers teaching style, I am observing everyday and can not wait to learn and see more because I really like her classroom management!

PDS Wiki Participant Members

I have made some corrections and additions to the wiki website last night. Also I added a photo gallery, I have pictures from all of your classrooms that I put up. If you both want to add some more pictures of your classroom feel free. Just go to photo gallery, under virtual tour, and hit insert, then image. Under each picture I wrote a sentence or two describing the picture. You do not need to add anything unless you want to.
-Deirdre Conway