Practicum Plan

At the beginning of the semester when we were assigned the practicum plan, I admit that I felt a little overwhelmed. The four sheets of paper that showed the outline of the practicum plan were slightly confusing because of all the different columns and also because some of the columns had the same title. After meeting with our small group facilitator, I was able to understand what was expected of us and the practicum plan seemed like a great planning tool. Working on the practicum plan forced me to look at some of my strengths and weaknesses as an educator and to determine what I need to do to improve as a teacher. I love the practicum plan because of this. I was able to make learning goals for myself that were always in the back of my mind. A few times throughout the semester I did view my learning goals to make sure I was on track. I am very glad I had the practicum plan for this reason. The practicum plan also allowed us to identify and organize all assignments that were due for all of our courses this semester. I do think it is a must for students to view their syllabi and to make notes on when assignments are due. For the type of person I am, I would rather make notes in my planner as opposed to having assignments in chart form, but I can see how this is beneficial for some. In fact, I did write when assignments were due in my planner and don't believe I viewed the practicum plan assignment sheet once. Also, completing this assignment during the first few weeks of classes is stressful because some teachers haven't gone into discussion about the assignments yet. I think it might be a good idea to wait until we have had time to work with our professors.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher 2

Characteristic three of a novice teacher recognizes that teaching is a moral, professional, and ethical enterprise. Moral and ethical are terms that refer to those value choices concerning actions and attitudes that affect more than one person. I believe that being an ethical teacher is one who demonstrates a professional demeanor and cares to take responsibility for everyone involved in the classroom. An artifact I could use to portray my own professional and ethical enterprise would be my educational philosophy that I wrote in EDUC 400. This paper emphasized my beliefs on what teaching is, along with the responsibilities of teachers for their actions. This paper shows my understanding of the teachers' role and responsibilities in and out of the classroom.
Characteristic five of a novice teacher recognizes that teachers should have in-depth knowledge of pedagogy. In-depth knowledge of pedagogy includes and understanding of human development and learning theories along with an awareness of various educational philosophies. A great artifact that I could use to represent this characteristic would be my math 430 whole group lesson that I wrote on double-digit multplication. This lesson had a differentiated assessment for all learners and the students were able to do a variety of different activities throughout the entire lesson. Therefore, the activities planned for this lesson were developmentally appropriate for students.

Practica Plans

One of my learning goals for this semester was to become better, or more detailed, at writing my lesson plans. I chose to focus on this learning goal because last semester my mentor teacher had a lot of input for my previously written lesson plans. She provided me with great ideas and guidance when writing lesson plans and I wanted to take her suggestions and make them my own. So far this semester, I believe I have made significant progress. I spend a lot more time with the writing of my lesson plans and my new mentor teacher seems to be pleased. I also take more time when revising my lesson plans, which I find to be very beneficial!
Reviewing my practica plan allows me to stay focused and achieve goals that I have set for myself. I have actually already accomplished a few of my learning goals and several of my activities. Now that I am spending more time in the classroom actually teaching, I have thought of a couple more learning goals to add to my list. For example, I want to be more comfortable with implementing sponge activities for the students. This classroom has a lot of independent work time and I would love to allow my students to participate in some fun learning activities.
To evaluate my own progress in completing activities on my pratica plan, I would have to say that I am doing very well. This practica plan allows me to be organized and to know when assignments are due. I can implement my learning goals into my teaching at my own pace, which I find to be very stress relieving. I am very glad the practica plan was assigned to us this semester because I believe it is beneficial to us, as students, and our mentor teachers.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

An effective communicator is one in who communicates and recieves ideas, messages, or information through appropriate spoken, written, and non-verbal forms. So far this semester, I have portrayed two different effective communication strategies with my students' parents. I have attended one parent-teacher conference in which I interacted with several parents, took notes, and made a few different comments to the parents. I have also written a welcoming letter to the families of my students explaining who I am and my hopes for the classroom this semester. I proved that I was an effective communicator through both of these artifacts because during the parent-teacher conference I was communicating one-on-one with the parents and recieving their messages. With the welcoming letter I was displaying effective communication by relaying my ideas to the families through written material.
A reflective practitioner is one who attempts to make sense of events in the educational environment and who critically examines choices to inform practice. I believe I have several artifacts of being a reflective practitioner, particulary my reflections at the end of every lesson plan. These reflections for each lesson plan provide evidence of my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher and what went well and didn't go well during the lesson. Also speaking with my mentor teacher about my lessons and taking notes on what she says is also a way to reflect as a practitioner. I can learn from my mentor teacher while reflecting on her suggestions and become a better teacher, myself. The reflections at the end of my lessons are excellent ways to be a reflective practitoner because that helps me to make sense of the choices I made while teaching. My mentor teacher's experience as an educator and her reflection's toward my lesson also help me to understand to a greater degree and influence my teaching each and every day.

Mentoring

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?

From the beginning of the semester until now, I can tell that I have grown a lot as a teacher and am on my way to becoming an even better teacher. My mentor teacher definitely has a lot to do with my progress so far. I have been able to create and teach lessons that I know I wouldn't have been ready to teach last year and I have better classroom management skills than I ever have. Although a lot of my lessons don't always go as planned, I am able to learn new skills from the mistakes that I sometimes make.
My mentor teacher is very friendly and helpful. She gives me confidence prior to each lesson and provides very nice feedback at the end of each lesson. If I seem to be struggling during a lesson, she always steps in or makes a comment which is beneficial to me and the students. I always know that she is going to be there to help me and I believe that helps me relax and teach a great lesson, along with it benefiting the students. She really has taught me how important it is to be a caring teacher, and that is something I hope to always carry with me.
Although my mentor teacher is very helpful and prepares me in a lot of ways, I do believe that I make great contributions to the class and provide opportunities to make our mentoring relationship beneficial to us both. Mrs. McQuain and I have about 40 minutes of planning each day with one another. She often talks to me about children in her classroom and, because of the knowledge that I have gained from my studies, I am able to provide educational feedback to her. I often help her with certain situations with children and often find other means of solving those situations. I believe our relationship is very beneficial to us both and hope that we can continue to help each other in future semesters.

Wiki Assignment

In your blog posting, describe 2 things you've learned in completing this assignment about using a wiki as a collaborative tool for building a PDS web site.
In your blog posting, direct your partner to view the parts of your wiki you're particularly proud of and talk about why.

I've never used a wiki before so I had no idea what to expect with this assignment. I've learned that it is such a great collaboration tool for building a PDS web site because everyone that is involved with the PDS can make their own comments on the web site or add information to others' comments. I've also learned that it is a great collaboration tool because of the several different pages that can be connected to the initial homepage of the wiki. Schools have a lot of things going on that viewers are interested in. Viewers may want to know extra curricular activities, the school calendar, information on staff and students, or statistics of the school. All of the pages that can be hyper linked to the homepage provide great space and access to important information. Staff members can collaborate to form some of the different pages, or they may just need to view information on other pages that peers have created.
My PDS group divided different pages of the wiki and gave a particular job to each member. Once we individually created our pages, we got together and created our entire wiki. My job was to find information on the community of East Dale Elementary. I found information about the history and geography of the school, along with the history and geography of Fairmont, West Virginia, the town in which East Dale is located. I'm proud of the community page because I was able to find so much information. I found a lot of great pictures and learned so much about Fairmont and East Dale Elementary. I think the community page is very descriptive and will give you a sense of exactly where East Dale is located. I would love for you to view it!

Incorporating Technology

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

Technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in schools and it is a large part of the world today. Technology seemingly makes activities easier for people, and in school it's role is the same. Teachers can use a variety of technology, from CD players and televisions to Smart Boards and lap-tops. It is important for students today to acknowledge these technological tools and learn how to use them properly.
Technology in schools has many benefits. As previously said, it is important for students to learn how to use the new technological tools in order to have an understanding of the world around them and to better their future. Technology also provides teachers with different strategies of teaching. If the students in the early grades become restless, the teachers may need to turn on song and dance music for a brief moment. In some of the older grades, students gain much information from watching documentaries and movies on historical events. By using a Smart Board, teachers can provide students with thousands of different ways of learning, such as with games, word puzzles, concept maps, and any activities on the web. Technology can also be more time efficient. Today, assessments can be completed by the students and graded by the teachers by the use of computers. This provides organization for the teachers and fast feedback for the students.
Along with benefits, technology also has limitations. Technology is fast and provides students with easy access to all sorts of information, but students should not be taught to rely on the use of computers. If students become accustomed to looking up information on the computer because it is the easiest way, the students may not have the proper education to look up information in an encyclopedia. It is the same way for calculators. If students learn to do math on calculators, they may never properly learn how to do math on paper or in their minds. Technology can also be a distraction in the classroom. In my Kindergarten classroom at my PDS when the students are at different stations, the students not at the computers are always interested in what is going on at the computers. Although computers are fun and interesting for the students, they often distract the students from other learning activities.

Peer Question:
What types of technological tools are present in your PDS and do you think the benefits of technology are greater than the limitations?