{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"53141928","dateCreated":"1334955404","smartDate":"Apr 20, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"ToshaHumphrey","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/ToshaHumphrey","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1326569384\/ToshaHumphrey-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/tmcook22.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/53141928"},"dateDigested":1532128092,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Final Reflection","description":"My experience seems to have been quite different compared to my peers\u2019, based on their reflections. I simply have not had the interaction with students or opportunities like many have written about or shared with me personally. I truly wish I had the opportunities that I have previously been given in past placements and those mentioned through discussions. Students seemed to be thrilled to work with me during the limited opportunities I did have. This made me feel so great and I wish I would of had more time to do so.
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\nI did have the opportunity to see the sentence strips, I made, used in a center. I actually was given the opportunity to lead this center. I placed only four out of the five paragraphs I made using sentence strips in different locations of the classroom. I was given two different groups of students, one consisting of six and the other with seven. I paired up the students and had them alternate paragraphs until they had completed all four stations. They had to decide which sentence was unnecessary in the paragraph and tell me why they thought so, before moving to the next paragraph. After all six, and seven, students completed this task I gave them a probe about unnecessary sentences and topic sentences, to complete on their own. We conversed about the questions and their answers to check their understanding in whole group discussion.
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\nI also was granted the opportunity to conduct a small group activity from my mini unit to complete the requirement for placement. I did not know which six students I would be working with until approximately ten minutes before the lesson began. I was very excited to conduct my lesson and at the same time a little nervous to be observed during the fact. I am glad that I can see my strengths and weaknesses after reflecting on this lesson. I have found that it is very easy for me to find fault in myself and extremely difficult for me to admit my positive traits and ability. I really had to dig deep, but after I stopped being too hard on myself, I saw that I did much better than I had given myself credit for.
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\nI did get to walk around and observe during lessons when I wasn\u2019t working on a project or making copies. I honestly didn\u2019t do this much, but enjoyed the opportunity to see the lessons, the students\u2019 interaction, and their answers. My mentor has awesome ways of differentiating strategies with her class and does well with motivating students in the learning process. She continuously makes a point to reward her students and often gives Smarties out for correct answers when students are actively participating. She has done an exceptional job of keeping the TCAP review and preparation fun and engaging.
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\nI am happy that I was able to help my mentor out during the stressful weeks leading up to TCAP testing. My experience may not be comparable to other practicum students, but I know I helped the students even if it was in an indirect way. Hopefully my mentor is less stressed than she might have been without me there to help. Also, she was able to tend to her students in the way she felt best. They are very happy and smart students! I hope they take their time and record their answers correctly onto the test sheet so their true knowledge will shine through their test score.
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\nAfter sharpening forty-eight new number two pencils for them to use on the TCAP, I decided to get them good luck pencils and erasers to use next week. I also am giving the class a large container of colorful Goldfish and fruit snacks. My mentor is very worried about having snacks to provide the students during the testing week. I\u2019m sure a parent will donate some, but I wanted to help contribute. I am hoping to get pictures with students on my last day of this placement. I have eleven signed permission forms, but have not had a chance to get any photos. I really will miss seeing and hearing these beautiful, intelligent students.
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\nLast Day:
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\nThe students continued to participate during fun review games. My mentor used a Jeopardy TCAP review today, which she had not previously used with the students during my placement. The students loved the animation this interactive review game had to offer. They have used their interactive clickers the past couple of days. This really helps to indicate what students are having difficulties with and differentiate instruction immediately. Even though these were used for review, the teacher is able to see what topics need to be readdressed and is then able to use this as a teachable moment.
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\nToday, I was able to work with the last seven students of the class that were unable to manipulate my sentence strip paragraph station and probe. My mentor wanted to be sure to have every student complete this center with me. She had one-on-one conferences with students about their missed questions and corrections on the last Language Arts and Reading review test, while I worked with the center. Meanwhile, the rest of the class worked in groups in what looked to be a math center.
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\nMy mentor used a PowerPoint during her pep talk to encourage and prepare the students for the upcoming week of testing. It was absolutely amazing! She wants her students to be confident in their ability and conscious of the routine and procedures that will be in effect during the TCAP. So precious! She really is an animated and caring teacher.
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\nI helped cover up and take down the final things in the classroom that are not aloud to be visible during the test. The covering up of hallway art, signs, clocks, etc. has been quiet depressing, since yesterday. I am glad that my mentor slowly started taking away visuals that are not permitted during the TCAP. The classroom continued to stay fairly normal during my time in the school. She did not use the butcher paper to cover up anything that will not be removed but cannot be seen by tester, until the end of the day when students were dismissed from school. I really think this is beneficial to the learners. She also thanked me for all my hard work and wished me luck in my continuation of education and path to becoming a teacher. She thanked me for the card; I had hand written, to thank her for my practicum placement time in her classroom. She thought it was very sweet and I could tell she was genuinely grateful. She told me she wished she had had more time to talk to me about things and allow me more opportunities to work with the students. She said she knows she is controlling, but she had to make sure her students got all the material they needed and were fully prepared. I cannot blame her one bit and extremely understand. I would probably be very similar in this particular situation. The test score will be on her and her only. This is why I did as much as I could do to help were help was needed and opportunity was given.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52884560","dateCreated":"1334427585","smartDate":"Apr 14, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"ToshaHumphrey","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/ToshaHumphrey","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1326569384\/ToshaHumphrey-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/tmcook22.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52884560"},"dateDigested":1532128093,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Reflection 2","description":"I am glad that I can help my teacher out during this very stressful time of the year. I have made a TCAP Practice Test answer key, bubbled in the correct answers on an answer sheet, and have grade all four practice tests completed by every student. I have also gone back through students' answer forms and made a tally of the missed questions, individually for each test (Reading\/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies). This was to help my mentor physically see what she needed needed to reteach and\/or review with the students.
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\nI also researched (Googled) websites for her students to practice their skill of locating and\/or distinguishing topic sentences in\/for a paragraph or short story. I added these websites onto the student classroom computers under favorites.
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\nShe also had me find paragraphs containing an unnecessary sentence. This was not as easy to find through Google! On the second day, of having no luck finding what she was requesting, she let me go through practice books. I did find a passage about otters, I simply added a sentence that could be omitted from the paragraph. The otter paragraph actually contained factual information to help the students learn about otters. This gave me a great idea to use other facts and skills third graders should learn, according to the standards. I asked my mentor if there were content topics she would like me to use, and she told me that was a great idea and handed me the social studies book! I used the social studies content to cross integrate content. I was sure to still include factual information with the additional\/unnecessary sentence I added. I did not want to chance misleading student to believe that unnecessary sentences were necessarily false information or lead them to believe false information was true. After finding a total of five paragraphs, each containing an unnecessary sentence, I transferred my findings onto sentence strips. These will be used for centers to help students master this TN State Standard she plans to teach.
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\nI am so happy that I have the experience of knowing how to fully operate the copy machine. I have been making all sorts of copies for multiple purposes.
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\nI was also given the opportunity to read about seven TCAP Practice Test questions to one student. Then my mentor decided for him to continue reading the questions on his own. The only other interaction I really have with the students is walking around and making sure students are staying on task during review and practice.
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\nMy mentor is pretty "boom, boom, boom" right now with reviewing for the TCAPs and is all about business. She does have fun while teaching, but tasks have to be completed.
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\nI am grateful that I am able to help my mentor in any way she needs. She was going to have me do a small group TCAP review to be observed, because she knows this would meet the requirements. Luckily, one of my classmates informed me if we didn't use one of our mini unit lessons we would have to create a new one. I shared this information with my mentor and she is very understand and allowing me to use one of the lessons with a small group. My unit was created around a standard for third graders and adjectives. I am so fortunate not to have to make up another lesson plan during this extremely busy time. Now, I need to review my unit to pick out an activity from on of the lessons I included and show it to her on Monday. I will be observed on Tuesday morning and am hoping everything will go smoothly.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"52639426","dateCreated":"1333782561","smartDate":"Apr 7, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"ToshaHumphrey","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/ToshaHumphrey","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1326569384\/ToshaHumphrey-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/tmcook22.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52639426"},"dateDigested":1532128093,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Reflection 1","description":"I am an active substitute teacher in the Loudon County school system and frequently work at Eatons Elementary School. With my many experiences working at the school, I have actually met and subbed for my mentor teacher and her class. Because of this, I do not have a common first impression to reflect on about my first day of practicum placement. Both my mentor, Julie Russell, and several of her students actually remembered me.
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\nMs. Russell is an experienced and awesome teacher with an amazing class of 19 third graders. She does a phenomenal job with promoting literacy by providing students with a substantial amount of reading material with couches and chairs (other than their desks) in which to read. She is very fortunate to have a class that can handle freedom within their responsibilities. Students can get up to grab a tissue, throw something away, etc. as they still are participating, listening, and not disturbing others. The students work very well together and are able to pick a partner, of their choosing, and work efficiently together.
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\nMy first day, as a practicum student, was spent making copies, grading papers, and helping set up activities. My day, for the most part, was spent observing. Ms. Russell was on a roll with prepping her students for the TCAPs. I also believe the day felt so rushed because of the four day school week. The class stays with Ms. Russell all day before lunch and then an hour after lunch. The students then have recess and specials, only returning to the classroom to prepare for dismissal.
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\nMs. Russell does an excellent job with formative assessment. She consistently has students use their dry erase boards to show answers during lessons, which work extremely well. She is very lucky to have such eager and active learners. I enjoy how enthusiastic both the teacher and students are during the learning process.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]}],"more":false},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}