LauraEvans-EndOfTheInternship

I can't believe this semester is almost over, this is week 16 and I only have three days left. I have learned so much during my time with Mrs. Costello and her kindergarten students and I know that I will use this learning experience in the future. I have learned how emotional a first day of school is on not only the students but also their parents. I have learned that communicating with the parents is very important and that the lines of communication need to be welcoming. I have also learned to be prepared for anything when dealing with such young students, there needs to be a large amount of tissues, sanitizer, and extra clothing. I have became so attached to these kids and I honestly did not see that happening just because I am not their actual teacher and I am only here for half of the year. I think about these students all of the time, I wonder about their home lives and think of new ways to reach each of them while teaching them. I have also learned to always be positive and create a positive classroom setting for my students. Teaching kindergarten was quite a challenge, I have learned that even though something may seem easy and self explanitory, it may not to them. So you have to constantly be thinking of ways to explain certain things and show them because it may not come so easy to a five year old. I have learned more things this year than I can even put into this blog, I have been taking notes and writing down ideas that I will use in the future.

LauraEvans-UtilizingTime

Often times I have found that a lesson doesn't ever go exactly as planned. Some lessons take more time than expected and some do not. When a lesson does not take as much time, I usually will review a part of the lesson that the students were struggling with or even a part that they really enjoyed. We have very busy days in kindergarten so there is always something that I can have the students work on whether it be a review or something we did not previously finish. Something easy and quick that I sometimes do is alphabet or number flash cards because this always needs to be reinforced. I have learned that I must always have some kind of a back up plan incase the lesson doesn't take as much time as planned.

LauraEvans-InvolvingInattentiveStudents

In kindergarten, we do a lot of small group work so there isn't too much time spent with everyone a whole group setting. But, during reading the students are all on the carpet for 30 minutes each day and it has been a challenge to keep their attention at this time. Each day, I have been trying new ways to catch their attention and keep it for the entire 30 minutes. There are a handful of students who always pay attention, but then there are a few who have a very hard time focusing. There is one in particular who cannot sit still and needs special attention. I have tried moving him around and away from others who distract him, I have also tried seating him directly in front of me. Sometimes, I have him sit up in a chair rather than on the carpet so that he can sit still better. On the carpet, he rolls around and lays down so sometimes using a chair is successful. We have a star system in the school that monitors behavior and although I try not to always take his stars, I usually have to end up taking them because his behavior is unacceptable. I have tried praising his good behavior and he responds well to this but only for a short time. Another method that has worked for him is to have him come up and be the helper from time to time. I will continue to think of new ways to engage him as the semester comes to an end and this has showed me that I really must always try to teach to every student.

LauraEvans-AlternativeFormsofAssessments

This semester, I have been trying out new ways of assessing the students. I have made sociograms to decide who should and should not sit by eachother on the carpet during whole group reading and math. My mentor and I have also done some informal and formal types of assessments to decide the groups for centers. Dibels is the main way that we have placed the students with their proper groups of high, middle and lower level thinkers. I have also been doing teacher made checklists and inventories to monitor reading comprehension. I have realized that there are many things to take into consideration when placing students in groups, with partners, or in their seats at the tables. Their level of thinking, social skills, behavior and many others need to be addressed before hand.

LauraEvans-MyQuestioningTechniques

Usually, when I ask the students a question I ask it several times to be sure that they all heard and understood me. Then I give the students a few seconds to think and I encourage more to think and raise theirs during that wait time. Another technique that seems to be working well with the kindergartners is to pass a bean bag around to the students who are sitting crisscross with their hands raised. They have responded to this well and seem to want to answer more questions when we do this. Another technique that I have just learned is to encourage answers even if they are wrong, this keeps the student's confidence up and encourages participation. I have also tried letting the students stand up to answer questions, this isn't the best method, but it has kept their attention on a few occasions. Finally, I always try to give praise to the students whether their answers are right or wrong and they respond well to praise.

LauraEvans-TechniqueUsed

Last week,a lady named Joyce Evans came into the kindergarten rooms to teach a math lesson. Her lesson dealt with a 100's chart and a visual story problem. She began by cutting a large piece of paper into a pumpkin and as she counted, she had the students count how many times she made a cut. I liked this because it kept the students engaged and busy while she was cutting. Next, she asked the students to think of their favorite number while looking at the 100's chart. She called on a student to pick a favorite number and that was the magic number of the day. Then, Joyce began to tell a story problem about how her mother would only allow her to have nine pumpkins on her porch. (Nine was the number that the student chose.) The next part of her story was that a friend gave her four pumpkins, and how many more does she need to make nine? The students were prompted to refer to the 100's chart to find the answer. Joyce did this several times using different numbers as she wrote the equation on the pumpkin paper. As Joyce taught this lesson, she let everyone have a chance to answer and she encouraged them whether they were right or wrong. I really liked the idea of the lesson and the techniques that she used throughout. After the lesson, my mentor teacher and I decided that we would like to try this teaching technique and that we would continue to use this in the classroom. The next day I taught a similar lesson about slices of pizza using the 100's chart and it went really well. We are going to continue these math lessons and hopefully improve the student's math skills.

LauraEvans-ActionResearch

This week will be the eighth week of my action research study. My study deals with kindergartner's reading comprehension and whether the use of props during a story improves it or not. My study will last for ten weeks and during this time I have been alternating props in and out of three stories a week. I have chosen six students to focus my study around and after each story I have the students retell the story using a checklist that I have created. I also ask them several reading comprehension questions and take anecdotal notes in my journal. At the end of each week, I have the students circle a picture of which story they preferred that week. Thus far, my research has been going according to plan. The students have been able to recall more details from stories that I read with props. The reading comprehension questions have been about the same for stories read with and without props. The students have also preferred to hear the stories that I read with props more than ones without. I am glad that I was able to conduct this study because it was a topic I felt strongly about and truly wanted to know what the outcome would be.

LauraEvans-SuccessfulLesson

This semester, I have taught more lessons than ever before since I am full time teaching in the classroom. There have been lessons that went great and lessons that I felt could have been better. I taught a unit on respect, I used several means of technology throughout it and the students always enjoy that. To discuss diversity, we read a story called Hello World where we learned how to say, "hello" in many different languages. As we did this, we located that specific country on the map. The students were fully engaged and liked to see the world map and learn about people from other parts of the world. Another lesson that went well was one that I taught on the five senses. The students explored their senses through using an apple. They were able to feel, touch, see, taste, and hear when they crunched down on it. The students were engaged and excited to discuss the senses while using the apple because they could really get a hands on approach to it. I have found that most of my lessons work best when I incorperate technology and lots of movement.

LauraEvans-QuestioningTechniques

Over the past two months, I have learned and practiced several different methods of asking my students questions. I have just recently found a couple of ways that I really think are working well, I have been using a bean bag to pass around as the students respond to questions. They have become very familiar with this techniques and they know that they must sit quiet with their hands raised in order to have the bag tossed to them. I have also just started having the students stand up as they answer a short question. They like this method a lot, they respond well to it and feel important when they get to stand up. I know that even though these methods work well with this group of students, I will constantly need to be learning and practicing new ones for others.

LauraEvans-AfterSchoolActivities

Since the beginning of this semester, I have attended a few after school activities. I went to my PDS' open house where the choir performed a flag day show. There was also a PTO meeting that I was able to take part in. Parent teacher night was a good experience for me because I was able to listen in and gain knowledge on how and what should and should not be discussed at those conferences. I enjoyed getting to see the student's parents, this gave me a better idea of where the students come from. The Boys and Girls Club hosted an event at a local mall, it was called "Lights On." There were several booths set up with tons of different activites for all ages. I volunteered at the hair coloring booth where we colored the kid's hair with crazy colors. It was surprisingly fun! Us interns and the Boys and Girls Club also hosted a Fall Festival at our school. We planned haunted hallways, fall crafts, costume contests, etc. The event went great, the decorations and activities worked out nicely. I worked with the fall crafts, the kids seemed to enjoy this a great deal! I also made mystery boxes that the students loved! There are many after school events held by my PDS and I look forward to taking part in more!

LauraEvans-Parent/TeacherConference

This week, my PDS had their Parent Teacher conferences. There were only a few students' parents who did not make it to the conferences, which is good because my mentor teacher told me that usually not many parents come. The conferences lasted for about three hours and during each of them, I sat in the back and listened as I did some homework.I was happy to meet the parents and to see what they each had to say about their children. The parents were all very friendly and seemed genuinely concerned for their children's education. The conferences prepared me for some questions that I may be asked in the future and helped me see how important these meetings truly are. There are a few students who struggle at school and my mentor teacher was able to inform their parents of this and discuss ways for improvement. The conferences went really well and I am glad that I was able to observe and get a feel for the future, in that aspect.

LauraEvans-LessonReflection

This week I started my Action Research and it went well. I read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" to the students and used props to tell the story. I brought in a big light up palm tree and sticky neon-colored alphabet letters. As I read the story, I would place each letter up on the tree as if they were really climbing it (like in the story). The students really enjoyed the light up tree and the bright letters that were placed on it. They would call out what letters came next and became even more excited towards the end of the story when the tree fell. Overall, I think this lesson went well although there are some changes that I would make if I were to do it again. I would be sure to give myself plenty of room to move around while reading the story because I found myself dropping the letters and feeling a bit flustered. I would also be sure to have some tape close by because some of the letters weren't as sticky as I had anticipated. Even though there were some minor faults to the lesson, the students comprehended it well when six of them were asked to retell the story and answer questions about it.

LauraEvans-StudentLearningStyles

This year I am student teaching in a kindergarten classroom with twenty students. The children range from ages five to six years and some have never been in a school setting; such as preschool, before. So, since this was most of their first experiences at school, it was very interesting to watch how they learn. Most of the students do not know their letters or numbers and cannot write their own names. My mentor teacher said that this is one of the lowest (learning level) group of students that she has ever had. There are several students in the classroom that seem to be ADD or ADHD and there are a couple who may be diagnosed with a mental illness in the future. There are only about eight students that I would consider are on level and where they should be, educationally and socially. For all of those reasons, there is a wide variety of learning styles that these kindergartners learn best from. Some of the students learn better if they are sitting in a chair as opposed to sitting on the carpet with the others. Most of the students need to see a teacher perform the task before they can comprehend it. There are a few students who need us (the teachers) to actually act out and motion to them what to do. I have found that group work and centers is great for this class because there are so many different styles that the children need and it is best for the students to work with those that are on the same learning level as them.

Laura Evans-Relationship With Students

I have become extremely attached to the students in my mentor teachers classroom. They are so young and have so much to learn, I am excited to get to help with that and see their education grow. I have become so attached to all of them, their home lives are very different from what I am used to. This was a big wake up call to me because I just cannot imagine how some of these children live or what their home life is like. We have one student who has been taken in and out of his home because his parents are on drugs. Sometimes, he will come to school so totally out of it and I just wondered what types of drugs he has been recently exposed to because I see those side affects. Another student has been in a foster home, but his foster mom did not want him because he was "too hard too handle." Just recently, the student was placed in a new foster home and switched to a different school. On the day that they came to take him, I was not prepared for how emotional I would be to see this little boy go. There is another student in our room who we are pretty sure is environmentally deprived. She is like a zombie, in a another world, clueless of how to communicate with people. She is a smart student, but she has no clue how to talk to anyone. At first, I thought she would need to be in a special education setting, but as we got to know her we realized that she has never been exposed to anything. I have met both parents and now I can see why this little girl is the way she is. Her parents don't talk to her, they don't show her things and teach her...she is just ignored. My mentor teacher and I have been helping her to learn to wipe her mouth after she eats and to blow her nose if she needs to because she will just leave food or whatever all over her face. I could go on and on about this particular student and how sad I am for her, I just wish I could take her out of the home that she is in because I know that is the reason that she is so out of it.

LauraEvans-My Mentor's Management Plan

Mrs. Costello has a couple of management plans, but the one used for behavior seems to work the best. In the kindergarten classroom there is a pocket chart with each of the students' names in it. There are also four color coded cards by each name to indicate their behavior for that particular day. Green is good, then yellow is for the first time the student misbehaves, red means that they lose recess time, and finally blue means that a note will be sent to their parents. The students seem to respond to this really well, they never want to be "put on yellow". I like this system because the students are given several chances and they are able to see what their behavior is like for the day. The chart is located at the front of the room so the children are constantly seeing it and being reminded to behave. I plan to keep this in mind when devising my own management plan in the future.

LauraEvans- First Day of Kindergarten

The first day of kindergarten wasn't only a challenge for us; the teachers, but also for the five year old newcomers and their parents. I was able to experience this exciting new step in our students lives and was unsure of what to expect from it. When the students arrived that morning, some parents took pictures and others cried. None of the students seemed upset, they just seemed anxious for what was to come next. My mentor teacher and I became familiar with the students and decided who we would and would not have problems with fairly quick. There were a few students who had a very hard time following direction and staying focused. My mentor teacher and I had discussed those students and issues and had decided that we need to come up with a special management plan for those particular students. Even though there were some discipline issues with a few students, the day went by fast and easy. Most of the day was spent just getting familiar with the kids and showing them around the classroom and school. We practiced fire drills and bathroom breaks; the students did well with this. The students completed an easy assignment where they were to color a picture of themselves on their first day of school. I liked this because we were able to see their abilities and at the end of the year the students will do it again to show their progress. I am excited to see the students on Monday and to see how they progress throughout the school year!