November 2011
7 posts
Special Pals Week #10 (EDTE)
This was the final week of my placement. Monday I worked with my student and his partner on this poster about the different kinds of farming. It was heartbreaking to see that my special pal wasn’t contributing to the poster in any way because his partner wouldn’t let him. I suggested that my special pal draw the illustration to go along with the summary and his partner agreed, but made...
Special Pals Week #9 (EDTE)
So, my class went on another field trip on Monday. The class was gone the whole day, so stayed in the SDC and worked with another student. At first Melissa and I didn’t know what to do because both of our students were on field trips. One of the aids in the classroom said that she was going to put us with another student, so we sat there and waited for her to give us a responsibility. While...
Special Pals Week #8 (EDTE)
Monday was a great day with my special pals. First, I worked with both of them on a crossword puzzle that was supposed to give them extra practice on their vocabulary words. This crossword puzzle was not only frustrating for them, but for me as well, because the worksheet didn’t have enough boxes for many of the words and this confused the students. I tried to get them to skip those words,...
Special Pals Week #7 (EDTE)
Short post this week because, surprise! there was a 6th grade field trip on Monday. I wish that my teacher would have let me know because their field trip was to CSU Chico and I could’ve met up with my special pal and his class. Since my special pals weren’t there, I ended up hanging out with Melissa and her special pal. He was really sweet and gave us both pumpkins for Halloween! He...
October 2011
7 posts
Special Pals Week #6 (EDTE)
This week at my placement site, I helped my students catch up on their work from the previous week. My students do not like being pulled out of the classroom to work on their work. They feel really stressed out and overwhelmed that they are missing work in their mainstream classroom. One of my students kept talking about how concerned he was about missing his book group meeting. I felt bad because...
Special Pals Week #5 (EDTE 255)
This week Melissa and I focused on getting our students to play a different game at recess than they normally are used to. Melissa’s student likes to play this intense imaginary, fantasy game and my students like to play on the swing or walk around. On Monday we got to recess right as it started, which was perfect to get a game started with all of them. Melissa’s student wanted to play...
Special Pals Week #4
My placement went pretty smoothly this week. Melissa and I go to our placement at the same time and our pals are always at recess together. My student is always on the swings. As soon as he is excused for lunch, he goes straight towards to swings. I always ask him if wants to play a game together but he just prefers to swing for the whole duration of lunch. It’s hard to interact with him...
The First Look At Step-Up To Writing
When I first read this program, I was very overwhelmed and confused. It was a lot of information to process through my mind. There were a lot of things I liked and a lot of things I didn’t. I agree that students need to be provided with a strong foundation before they move on to more challenges. I thought a lot of the activities they provided were good ideas that I could use in my classroom....
Lots and Lots of Literacy
I didn’t realize just how many views of literacy we have looked at so far this semester. It’s all really overwhelming and I’m still trying to figure out what my beliefs are.
We started off reading James Gee, which we did work with in ENG 130 last year. Gee believes that there is more to video games then playing games. Video games encourage a different way to look at learning....
Special Pals Week #3
Monday at my placement was a little chaotic. My two students were working on this social studies chart where they had to research the information to fill in the answers. I was given no directions except to have them “google” the answers. The students were getting frustrated with google because it would take time to read the information and then process it to fill in the chart. When the...
Technology and Kindergarten: Is It Possible? | NWP... →
I was interested in reading this article because I have always wondered, when is it appropriate to introduce technology into the classroom? I think that it’s amazing that 5 and 6 year olds are using sites like VoiceThread, Blogger, and YouTube to upload their digital stories. In ENG 130 last year, we had to create digital stories about our literacy history. During the process of making my...
September 2011
11 posts
Special Pals Week #2
This week went SO much better than last week. I think the teachers were more prepared to have us working in their classrooms this week. I have unofficially been given a second Special Pal because there are 2 special needs students in the mainstream class. This week I took them outside and worked on catch up work. Since my two students leave early for the bus, their science time is cut down, so SSR...
Wonderous Words
My group chose to read chapter 2 in Katie Woodray’s, Wonderous Words. Chapter 2 focused on the craft of writing. She went explains that the two categories of writing are: “office work” and making the writing “come out” in powerful texts. The “office work” writing contains the ideas, research, and the responses to the drafts. Later in the chapter, Woodray...
Special Pals Week #1
For my Special Pals placement I am at Hooker Oak Elementary School. I was at this school last semester and really enjoyed it. This semester I am with a 6th grade student who is moderately autistic. Working with 6th graders is something that I am going to have to get used to be because I’ve only done volunteering in grades K-3. I am looking forward to this new experience. My first day...
Defining Literacy
In Scribner’s article, she talks about defining literacy. Many people have been trying to figure out for years, what is literacy? What does it mean to be literate vs. illiterate? Scribner writes about literacy in three metaphors. The first metaphor is literacy as an adaptation. She explains that we need to be literate for survival purposes, like shopping for groceries or writing documents...
Teaching Is Like...
Planting a garden. You start with the seeds (the students) and with lots of nurturing and patience your flowers will grow and blossom. Also, each flower grows at a different rate and all flowers are unique in their own special way. Each student learns at a different pace and is a different kind of learner. Flowers don’t just bloom overnight, you have to have lots of patience and take care of...
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Exploring My Literacy Practices
This week we had to keep track of our reading and writing practices for a couple of days. I kept track on Thursday and Friday. Here are the things I read and wrote:
HIST 102 PowerPoint Slides
MATH 110 math problems
Facebook statuses and comments
Tumblr blogs
Twitter updates
Then You Came
Trader Joe’s Cookbook
Looking at aisle labels at Trader Joe’s
My planner
Transcript request form
...
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What Is The Purpose of Education?
What is the purpose of education? I think that the purpose of education is to be a resource for students. School is place for students to figure out their interests and explore those interests further. When I was in first grade we would have a “Writer’s Workshop” station. I loved writing stories about random animals that could talk and then turning them into books. After school I would go home and...
August 2011
4 posts
Something I Learned to Do Well Outside the...
Growing up, one of my main passions was dancing. I first started tap dancing as a three year old. When I got older, I expanded into lyrical, jazz, and ballet. I loved ballet the best and continued on with ballet until my freshman year of high school. Ballet requires a lot of focus and determination. My teachers helped guide me to be the best dancer I could be. Even though my teachers were tough on...
Why Do I Want To Become a Teacher?
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. I thought that everything teachers did was awesome. I would always rush home to play school and imitate everything they did. I think that teaching is such a rewarding profession and I love the energy when working with children, but that’s not the only reason why I want to become a teacher. One of the main reasons why I want to become a...
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