Parkway E.S. Practicum Hours: Sept. 11-15

So these posts are a huge compilation of the work I'm currently in the mist of.  Besides doing my required practicum hours, I am also working on my initial teacher certification.  New York state goes by the edTPA, a teacher preparation assessment created through Standford University.  I am thrilled to be at this point in my educational career and I'm looking forward to getting it over with!

Mrs. Friedrich and my daughter Kaydence

I have been working closely with Mrs. Leigh Anne Friedrich, a 3rd grade teacher at my daughter's school.  Mrs. Friedrich has seen my potential and taken me under her wing (something for which I will be eternally grateful for).  Through many meetings, we decided to collaborate on a research unit with her class on countries.  Although this is a more guided research unit, I'm hoping by the next unit we can both begin to let go of some control and let students do a more fluid approach to their research and the required research product.  Perhaps giving them options on what they can choose to produce then creating a rubric to make sure all standards are met.  We will see where it takes us.  She will even let me work with her class even after my edTPA is completed!  

IST 972 Journal:  Parkway Elementary

September 14, 2017 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (6.5)

Total hours to date: 19.5

Summary of Daily Activities/Experiences: 

-Helped with introducing 1^st graders to the library and their library routine.

-Helped with introducing 3^rd graders to the Accelerated Reader system and finding books that fit within their reading levels.

-Entered newly purchased books into the library catalog and processed them to be placed on the shelf.
-Observed the SLMS teaching a class.

-Met with Mrs. Friedrich to begin planning a unit on culture.  We worked on filling out the Context for learning sheet for edTPA and began hashing out a central focus for the unit.  We plan to meet next week to start working on lessons for the unit and how we plan to co-teach.

-Began talking with Mrs. Travis about setting up a time to interview her and a special education teacher about interviewing them for an assignment in IST 564.

Personal Reflections:

This week was exciting because I got to see more of the students settle into their regular library schedules.  The students seemed to understand their role in choosing AR books for their reading and we only had problems with a couple of students not understanding how the system fully works.  Overall, a bulk of the work came from trying to enter new books into the system.  The Follett Destiny system is different from the LS2 system and I feel I need to brush up on it a little more to learn more of the shortcuts I could use to get the work done quicker.  In addition, a large portion of the books that needed to be entered into the system needed original cataloging because they could not be found in the district system at all.

The best part of the week was working with Mrs. Friedrich on her classes countries unit.  We were only able to meet for 30 minutes, but it was very productive.  We filled out the context for learning sheet, which was great.  I feel more confident about turning in my work for the edTPA after going over it with a teacher who has had to do a similar portfolio.  We also came up with a central focus and pulled some standards that will drive our unit and be reflected in our lessons.  Once again, the overall concern was time.  I’m hoping to have an hour with her class and that we can get everything done that we need to.  I must make sure that the lessons are simplified and broken down.  Perhaps splitting the lessons into a classroom lesson then a library lesson would help us to double tap the information, make it more manageable, and solve the issue with time.

 edTPA central focus stated!  I'm so happy this part is coming along smoothly.  In addition to the central focus being completed, I was also able to finish my context for learning.  Basically, it is a run down of the make up of the class.  It requires that I document and comment on the statistics of the class, and if there are any students who require an IEP, 504 plan, English Language Learners, and Gifted and Talented students.  

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 9 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored.

1.   Central Focus

a.   Describe the central focus and purpose of the content you will teach in the learning segment.

[The purpose of this unit is to teach students about the different countries and cultures found around the world through research of both print resources and electronic resources, i.e. databases.  Student’s will learn how to properly identify, analyze, and summarize the information found in print and electronic resources.  Student’s will use the information found to create a poster that depicts their country and various topics of the country’s culture, i.e. holiday’s, economics, food, dress, heritage, language, etc.  This unit will be used to teach student’s empathy and tolerance towards other cultures as well as showing student’s similarities and differences among themselves and others.]