#1 Introductory

•   Write a brief paragraph introducing yourself to the blogging world

My name is Laura Carver. I am a senior at Illinois State University. My major is Early Childhood Education. I transferred to ISU my sophomore year from Columbia College Chicago, majoring in photography and music management. I explored my artistic side and passion for photography and music, but found it more as a hobby. I still have always wanted to become a teacher when I was little and have a passion for teaching young children. I remember my elementary school teachers and how much I loved them, especially my 1^st and 2^nd grade teachers. I want to be able to be that positive influence in a child’s life, and am looking forward towards student teaching, graduation and becoming a teacher in the future.

•   Review the course learning objectives in the syllabus, the COE professional teacher dispositions, and your own reflections from past clinical and course experiences and map out at least four goals that you carry for yourself for this semester. What do you want to focus on? Improve in? Learn about? Think deeply as this will guide your work in this final clinical experience.

For this spring semester, there are goals I’d like to improve and focus on to help me become better prepared and confident in moving forward to student teaching. In my last clinical I had communication issues with my CT with attendance and other expectations. This has helped me to realize how important this is and how I can improve on this. I want to build a closer relationship with my CT and colleagues and be able to improve on communication.

Another goal I have is to continue working on my confidence and teacher voice. My past teachers have told me to be more firm and enthusiastic while speaking to the kids. I generally have a softer voice and sometimes don’t realize how soft spoken I may be. I feel with gaining more experience and practice will help me to step out of my comfort zones and become more confident with my teaching and my voice.

Another goal I have is to continue practicing classroom management skills. From what I learned, I see how this plays a big role with keeping the flow and structure of the class, which in turn will help with the learning. I want to feel more comfortable with addressing behavior issues and implementing strategies to negate these issues.

I also have a goal to learn more about how to accommodate for students with special needs. I think it is always important to continue learning about the different needs of students and how to accommodate for them, as you never know whom you may have in your classroom. I’ve had some experience with special needs students, but am still yearning for more.

Lastly, I have a goal to improve on my time management skills. I am able to get things done, but sometimes can take longer than expected to do them, whether it is test taking, homework, doing a lesson, etc. I have been working on using my time wisely and making quicker decisions of what I need to do. Especially in lesson planning, (as I learned from my last clinical when I didn’t notice my time was up while implementing a lesson) I need to plan out specifically what the time frames are for each part of the lesson and have a watch with me or keep an eye on the clock to know if I have enough time or if I should move along to the next thing. I will continue to practice these skills to manage my time more efficiently and effectively.

Bringing It All Together!

I feel throughout this semester in my clinical, I have progressed on my course goals I made, but still have areas of improvement. I was able to communicate well with my CT, although there were some misunderstandings of what was expected of her and me that went unnoticed until we were both able to speak about it and fix it. I was able to get involved in several activities and discussion with my CT throughout the day and learn more about some assessments, lesson content, behavior plans, etc. This helped me learn more about how to accommodate and assess the children. I got more insight of a student in my clinical who has Autism, is developmentally delayed, and has sensory issues. I learned how he was able to be integrated into the class, and work on the same things others in the class were doing but with help from his aide and also being able to something different that fit his interests (he loved birds!). He would be out of the room most of the day, and would also get breaks and play a train game when he was feeling dizzy or needed a break. Other students in the class knew he would need his neck lightly scratched to keep him calm. I also learned more about how to address behavior issues, but still need to improve on addressing them and building more classroom management and teacher voice! I feel throughout these last weeks, I have been improving more. I also have learned more about lesson content in social studies and science. Even though there was not much of it in my clinical, I was able to see some content being taught. Also, what I have learned in my classes at ISU has been very helpful. I feel more comfortable in teaching in these areas than I did before.

This helps to inform what I will be practicing in student teaching, in that I can better understand myself as a teacher and how to teach. It helps to know what I do, so that I can keep improving. It also helps to have learned more about accommodations, assessments, behavior management, and more content in

social studies and science and even literacy and math. I can better understand 3^rd grade content, and also how it is accommodated or differentiated for other students at lower or higher levels. I especially think gaining more knowledge and insight of a student with Autism was helpful. I still have goals moving forward to continue improving on my behavior/classroom management skills and teacher voice. I also still have goals to communicate with my CT effectively and to make sure all guidelines are clearly established. Lastly, I have goals to continue learning about lesson contents/activities and assessments and to be the best teacher I can be for my future students. Overall, I had a great experience at Fairview with my CT and the 3^rd graders! My CT was helpful and provided me with different ideas and strategies to use in the classroom, and I feel stronger in moving forward!

Science Focus

My CT occasionally teaches science as with social studies in her 3rd grade classroom. There are times scheduled on the weekly schedule for science or social studies (alternating days) at the end of the day after P.E. I have seen science about 3 times so far, and I actually got to implement a mini lesson in science that my CT wanted me to do. The students were seated in the "book nook" with their science textbooks and worksheets, as my CT usually has them do. I read out of the book about adaptations, traits, and vertebrates and invertebrates and had the students engaged in discussion and talking about examples. Although few were not listening at times, the students liked it and one student said, "That was fun!" after reading and discussion. Then the students had to fill out their worksheets, using the word bank of the vocabulary learned. Another time, my CT had the students filling out a worksheet of the life cycle of a butterfly, and drawing and labeling the steps using the pictures and diagram in their science textbooks. I worked with two students on this, and they were specific in drawing and coloring their pictures like the real life pictures of the butterfly cycle in the book. Then the next week, my CT had an open book science test for the students to do that some had not completed yet, and she had me pull aside and work with two students who were struggling with it. This was on the content they were learning as described above, and also including migration, hibernation, and other topics. Other than this,  I have not seen other science content being taught. My CT has been focusing on more social studies content lately.

I think that the science textbooks and content in the books are appropriate and can be helpful with topics to discuss, new vocabulary to learn, and seeing real life pictures in the book. But I don't think relying on worksheets and test packets is super beneficial to the students, as we have discussed and learned at ISU. I think that an engaging activity could be used along with the worksheet, and even the drawing of the life cycle of the butterfly was more interactive. This kind of goes along with what we have learned in our science class about using drawings/labels/diagrams in science notebooks. I think science notebooks would be a great tool to use for students, and can help the students to think more critically.

Knowing this helps me to realize the science content I can teach derived from the science textbooks, but to use the content in more interactive and engaging ways. Science notebooks is definitely something I would like to use in my future teaching and classroom, after learning about it in my science class. I think it is very useful and helpful to students, and also to me as it can be a tool to assess their learning.

Social Studies Focus

I have not seen much Social Studies in my 3^rd grade class at Fairview.  Social Studies and Science are rotated in the weekly schedule. It takes place at the end of the day after P.E. I have seen Social Studies twice so far. The content was mostly on communities incorporating culture, citizens, and government. My CT tells the students to get out their Social Studies books and bring it with them to the book nook. All the students sit on the floor and have their books open, while My CT reads to them out of the book and asks questions as going along. Students engage in discussion and asking and answering questions. My CT also pulled out the globe to discuss what community they live in. One student discussed and pointed out on the globe that she came from Togo, a country in West Africa and how the community/climate/culture is different there. Then they have a worksheet to do after at their desks. Another time I saw them working on content of geography and maps.  Each student had a page to read and right down facts they found, then they discussed as a class.  Then my CT introduced a Social Studies project called, “Where I live.” Students have 6 different places to cut out and color of where they live. Then they write a sentence of the location they live in: planet Earth, the continent of North America, the country of United States of America, the state of Illinois, McLean County, and the town of Normal. My CT put the directions on the board and examples of maps to show the different colors used to separate the countries and states.

I think that more Social Studies can be integrated into the curriculum. I also think that it should not always just be taught straight out of the textbook and using worksheets. I do think that it does help to spark discussions. The students are more engaged when discussing topics than just reading out of the book. But I think more learning can be done with hands-on activities, than discussions and worksheets. I do like that my CT brings out the globe for the students to interact with. I also like the “Where I live” project so that students can break down all the locations that they live in from largest to smallest.

This connects to what I’ve learned about social learning, and how helpful it is for students to engage in discussion. It also connects to what I’ve learned about the Social Studies content and how it relates to “part of my country and world.” This helps me to know that students understand parts of their world and where they live. I do think it is important though to do more hands-on activities, than worksheets. Some students at lower levels can have a hard time finding answers to the worksheets out of the textbook. I think working in small groups and working on social studies content in a more interactive way would be more helpful.

Literacy Focus

Literacy instruction in the 3rd grade class at Fairview takes place in the morning and afternoon. Students do word work individually at their desks right when they start class, while my CT is working on students individually or in a small group for assessments. Then reading is in the morning after they go to a special. My CT tells them to grab their reading binders and to go to the book nook, which is in a corner of the class by the bookshelves (with a poster board and teacher chair). The bookshelves have several crates of books that are organized and labeled in different categories. Students sit on the floor, while my CT stands or sits by the poster board. My CT does a mini-lesson on finding the “just right” book, and another time did a mini-lesson on types of books (science fiction, fairytales, biography, autobiography, etc.). Then the teacher tells the students to go read (using comprehension techniques, like rereading, using pictures to understand, questioning, etc. to help see if understood text if it is a “just right” book, and encouraging students to read a biography or non-fiction text). Students go to their cubbies, and get their crate full of books they are interested in, and bring it with them to wherever they would like to read in the room (in their “nest” or “nook”). They pick a book they want to read, or go to the bookshelf and find another book they want to read. After they read the book, they write the title of the book and log it in their reading binder as easy, just right, or challenging. They can go on to read another book if there is more time. Once time is up, the teacher tells them to go back to their seats and to open up to their reading response page, and right why the book was just right or not, and/or what they liked from the book.

RTI is between math and writing in the afternoon. Students are pulled aside to work individually or in a small group. My CT had me watch one time when she was doing a running record with a child. She explained how it works and how she calculates it to show if the child is reading limited, instructional, or challenging. For writing, my CT usually gives them a prompt, and they write and draw a picture. They write in their journals at their desks, or they are provided a sheet of paper with a box for their picture and lines for writing a description. They did this for why they like or dislike writing. Another time, they wrote about what their favorite wild animal is and had to draw a picture.

This connects to what we have learned at ISU. We have learned about mini-lessons, assessments like running records, grouping strategies (individual, small group, and large group), Vygotsky's theory of social learning, using children’s interests, comprehension strategies, journaling, etc. My CT incorporates all of these things in her classroom. I think that these things work well in the classroom, and I would like to use in my own classroom. The students are engaged with what they are reading and writing. But I have seen some students be off topic and not really reading or writing when they should. They talk to their peers next to them about different things. But sometimes they do talk to each other about the book they are reading.

This helps inform my future teaching in literacy. I see how these strategies work, and may not work sometimes. I would like to have a book nook, but have it be more inviting and comfortable with couches, chairs, bean bags, etc. I also would organize by books by categories, and have a wide variety. I think that it is a good idea to have my students have their own crate of books that they are interested in. But I would make sure they are expanding their reading and don’t keep reading the same type of books. This also helps to know that letting the students find their own nook, can help them be more interested in reading if they want to read quietly to themselves or with someone else. Small groups also help in social learning, but I would need to watch the behavior issues when students aren’t doing what they are supposed to. Also, the writing time and prompts can be limited, I would want to make sure students have opportunities to expand on their writing and what they write about using different activities.

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Course Goals

1. I would like to be more communicative with my CT. It was easy to communicate with my CT last semester because she was more open, welcoming, helpful, and asked me questions. Other CTs have been more closed off, but I also wasn't very provoking of them either. I want to be able to actively communicate with my CT and ask questions in the correct way and manner that will engage in discussion and help learn more of what I need and want to know.

2. I want to improve on my classroom management skills. Last semester, there were some behavioral issues that I needed to address to keep the students under control and structured so that they can better follow with the lesson. I want to be able to better address these issues. I also have a more quiet voice and need to speak up with more enthusiasm.

3. I want to learn to effectively use accommodations and assessments for the children. I have had students with IEPs and physical disabilities in my last clinical, and I accommodated pretty well, but I hope to have better understanding of how to accommodate and assess these children.

3. I hope to be able to learn more about lesson contents and ways to teach Science and Social Studies, than just Literacy and Math. I would like to gain more knowledge on teaching Literacy and Math, but I also would like to especially gain more in Science and Social Studies, as these are important subjects to integrate.