November 15, 2008

English 2
Frankenstein Questions Ch 9
JW 100

English 4
Scarlet Letter Questions 8-10
AD 90
GW 90
KL 84

World Geography
Warm Up
JM 100
JW N/A

Post assessment
JM 30
JW 100

In my English 4 class we are completing the Scarlet Letter together. They answered in depth questions from Ch 8-10. They were assigned one chapter of questions each night, and we would discuss the answers in class each day. This gave them a chance to think on their own and then be correct or affirmed when necessary.

English 2 The student answered the same questions from Chapter 9. I have seen alot of success come from this student as we read through the book together.

The lesson in world geography was sucessful today. As we discussed, using a power point is more successful for students on varying levels of knowledge because you can bank off of what they already know and continue to build the lesson as students share information they do know. The students post assessment scores only resemble half of what was learned because the student who made a 30 chooses not to do work independently and struggles to read- so answering questions without prompting is a difficult task for him.

Room for improvements- balancing my time better and staying more organized with the students work. This job is overwhelming and I have yet to master the art of keeping it moving.

Suggestions from the teacher: Using more ASL, SEE, and TC with the students who use each of these. Its difficult to teach an English class with students who use ASL and the other 2 are oral. It requires more individualized instruction.

Ideas for the future: ...

November 13, 2008

Economics
Post Assessment
KL 100
AD 60
GW 40

English 2
Frankenstein Questions Chapter 10 and 11
YR 85/87

English 3 (1)
Vocabulary Test 3
KL 85
JM 45

Vocabulary Test 4
KL 87
JM 20

What was successful: My power point presentation in Economics. I focused on key vocabulary and taught the students using real life experiences. I used graphic organizers to solidify what they learned. In my 3rd period English class my student is beginning to read for meaning and answers questions well.

Things to improve: My signing skills. I struggle having learned only ASL and now trying to communicate with those students who use English. Also, I've noticed that the students do not retain the information from their weekly vocabulary lists. The words are too high level for them to remember, even when I explain them. I need to do a better job of guiding them to learn the information.

Suggestions from my teacher: N/A

Ideas for the future: Having the students practice signing the words as I teach them- more than I have before.

November 12, 2008

All the grades I gave today were daily grades other than the following:

Frankenstein Character Test
MD 86

Scarlet Letter Homework Check Ch 8
GW 100
AD 100
KL 100

Frankenstein Questions Ch 9
JW 100

The lessons that were successful today was in my first period English class with three senior girls. I have been working with them on hierarchical thinking questions and the ones I have given them for the last three chapters in the book seem to be working so far. I give it to them for homework and they try it themselves, then we discuss it during class and they correct their answers as they understand new things. Also, my world geography class was a success today because I created power point with pictures and short phrases describing South America for them to understand. I had them write out the new vocabulary as they learned it.

Room for improvements: Providing more post assessment material at the end of the class day to solidify what they learned that day.

Suggestions from the teacher: Today my teacher gave me a stack of work books with World Geography material to find to creating a layered curriculum assignment of the students to work through during the unit on Latin America.

Ideas for future assignments is creating a bubble map on the infrastructure of South America and using pictures and words to fill it out.

November 11, 2008

B2 Economics
Preassessment
GW completion grade (0/5)
KL completion grade (1/5)

3 Things You Learned (Exit Ticket)
GW 100
KL 100

B3 English 2
Frankenstein Ch 9 Questions
YR 71

Frankenfolio Layer B (student did not complete work to be turned in)
YR
0
0

What was successful: My economics class this morning was successful because of the grace of God. :) I gave them a preassessment which was a good refresher of prior knowledge. It created a good platform to scaffold vocabulary for today's lesson. I lectured from power point and gave great examples during the lecture for the students to understand. At the end of the lesson, I had them write an "Exit Ticket"- 3 things they learned today in class. I get really excited when I'm teaching and I don't think these kids take me serious. ;)

What can I improve: At the beginning of my time here I had no idea how to plan material for these students because I did not know what level they are functioning at. SO, the work I assigned at that point is far above what they are capable of. So I need to make repairs and give assignments that are more suitable for their abilities at this point.

Suggestions from my mentor teacher: My teacher suggested that I make a folder of all the work I have assigned for the students for Economics to complete so that they can keep it all together.

Ideas for future lessons: For the future I would like to add more pictures to the power point and give more examples that are applicable to their lives.

November 10, 2008

Include the following:

A2 English 4
Grades

Vocabulary cards List 5
KL 100
AD 100
GW 100

Read Ch 8-10
KL 100
AD 100
GW 100

A3 English 2
Vocabulary Cards List 5
JM 40

A4 World Geography
Warm Up
JM 75
MD 100

What was successful today?
The things that were successful today was because I took the time to prepare for them yesterday. I gave the girls in my first English class instructions on what to do for their homework assignment, so that this week they will be able to complete it. I gave them a list of questions from the book we are reading to do for homework and we will discuss it on Wednesday.

In World Geography I gave my two students a preassessment for this weeks material it bombed. These students are two low to fully comprehend the objectives and content for which I am required to teaching. I'm doing a lesson on South America this week and these students could not tell me what a volcano is, what rainforest is, global warming, and other things of that matter. I do not know how I am expected to modify this material in such a way that they will understand it because in reality it will not meet the goals and requirements with their grades.

My goal for this week is to figure out how to modify that information to suit the students and this class.

Suggestions from my teacher: focus on the key concepts that are important in the unit.

Updated...

October 27
SL Vocab Sentences
AD 69
KL 64
GW 90

No lesson given. Made vcb sentences as a pre lesson for reading. Some students did better than others based on their own efforts on the assignment.

October 29 Scarlet Letter Story Maps
Ch 1
AD 72
KL 74
GW 70

Ch 2
AD 55
KL 65
GW 55

Ch 3
AD 30
KL 85
GW 100

I could have done a better job explaining how to find the answers in the book. They were to locate the characters, settings, problem, solution, and ending of the story. I had to push for them not to give me surface answers, but to really dig and think analytically. Quite a challenge! Still learning how to teach Deaf students how to think deeper.

Oct 29 SL Quiz Ch 1-3
AD 14
KL 43
GW 29
Pop quiz resulted in bad grades. I gave them a topical assessment on the foundations of the book, who are the main characters, what is the setting, the kind of questions that should be totally obvious after reading half way through the book. This was a good lesson for me in how some Deaf students do not catch the obvious things in a story, and how I can teach to them better.

Oct 31 SL Quiz Ch 5-6
AD 90
KL 90
GW 95

Second go round I allowed them to use the book. One of my students acts rather lazy and does not read to find the answers. She doesn't read to comprehend and analyze to find the answer. She just looks for the answers in the book.

Oct 27
Frankenstein Quiz Ch 1-2
YR 55
Pop quiz, this student struggles to read analytically as well. What I am learning through my guided reading lessons with her is how to make her go back and read deeper to find the answers. Again she is one student who also looks for the answers right there in the book.

Oct 28
Frankenstein QAR Ch 4
YR 100

Because I had an issue with her only reading surface level I did a QAR which asks students to find the answers in the book and thinking deeper. This was a great graphic organizer that leads students through higher level of thinking questions.

Oct 31 QAR Ch 5
YR 100
JW 100

Oct 21
Frankenstein Sequence of events
JM 33
MD 100
I really struggle to find activities for these students. Most of the time I have these two students in the class at the same time with other higher level students. I have to sit with them one on one to get work from them. I am looking for more ways to find activities they can do on their own and still learn.

Oct 21 Frankenstein Word Chart
JM 100
MD 100
This was a great lesson on the concept of science. In the book Frankenstein we talk alot about science and so doing this worksheet was very helpful to develop this concept.

Oct 31 World Geography Quiz
JW 75
JM 100
MD 83
After lecturing these concepts all week long I gave an assessment at the end of the week to see how the students had progressed. After reviewing the things on the test with them before I handed out the test, they got these results. Not my way of giving a test, but it was a suggestion by my teacher. She said its best to review the information and hand out the test. Sometimes the students still do not perform well.

Nov 3
Oral Quiz Ch 4 Frankenstein
YR 73
JW 40
I gave an oral quiz with the students to dialogue through the chapter to check for comprehension. The first time I did this assessment it made the student nervous because I brought her over to my computer so I could read the questions as we dialogued. The next time I gave the assessment I printed out the paper and stayed in more communication with the student instead of her watching me mark right or wrong.

Nov 4
Frankenstein Sequence of Events
JM 100
MD 83
I worked with the students order of events. I pre taught vocabulary before hand and it came out really well as they wrote sentences for the order of events within the plot.

Nov 6 World Geography Review
JM 61
MD 92
Students were given an open book review to study for the test. Kind of a pointless assignment because they just copy from the book and cannot really comprehend the information without it being signed to them. However a paper review was still a necessity before the test.

Nov 6 World Geography Exam
JM 75
MD 40
The students did not really study the review given to them. Both of them would have performed better if I gave them a “oral” review before the exam.

Nov 6 World Geography Warm Up #19
JM 100
MD 50
The students are given a warm up at the beginning of class everyday. I think this assignment lacks drive because they are handed the paper and told to find the answer somewhere in their book. It is not always directly related with what we are studying and we wind up spending the first chunk of class looking for the answer. This is the teacher’s plan for the first part of the class so she can get everything in order. I am just following suit. :)

I don't get alot of suggestions from my mentor teacher. She leaves the majority of decisions up to me. I'm kind of flying on my own at this point. Ideas for the future include finishing everything I need to and trying get it all done so as to not disrupt the flow of work or the students progress.

4 Weeks left...

Summary of grades for the week:

YR 65
JW 80
MD 100
JM 67
KL 99
GW 100
AD 100

Lessons were probably 50/50. Half of the lessons were productive and successful for the objectives targeted. The other half were unsuccessful due to lack of time, interuptions during class, or student behavior.

I can improve my classroom management skills and implementing discipline in the classroom since there isn't any already set up.

My mentor teacher gives me suggestions on what kind of work to give and how to have the student complete it.

Ideas for the future: group discussion in World Geography and more time spent on graphic organizers in Literature.

Week 2 done at the high school

I began instruction after a week of observation last week. High school is totally different and overwhelming in alot of ways. My teacher has so much on her hands at this school. The schedule is difficult for me to get used to because its block scheduling and in the two literature classes I'm teaching, alot of the students are in different grades and working from different books all at one time. I have to plan my week class by class, student by student. Insane! :) But its good at the same time. Doing pre and post assessment work is a joke at this point because my students are not good with turning in homework and I only have 30 minutes (thats right 30) to teach from two completely different books (Frankenstein and Scarlet Letter). Here are the grades I have so far.

YR 67/60
JW 84/0
KL 60/100

I have alot to learn as it is for teaching high schoool an juggling these students schedules. The things that were successful was a guided reading lesson introduction for each of the books. To improve, I would... I have no idea, its just going to take time to figure out what I'm doing. I need to be even more prepared than I thought. This takes up alot of time, planning lessons for individuals! I haven't received too many suggestions for what to do on the whole from my mentor teacher. More I less I have received specific suggestions for what to do with each student in planning their lesson. I work with 7 students total.

High school!

Just finished my first week at the high school. We use alot more ASL here than at the other school. Thats great! I have 7 students, most are Deaf. I teach all 4 grades and different levels, sometimes even in the same class period.

Block scheduling is really long and takes some getting used to. I'm learning a true definition of "differentiated learning" as I am making lesson plans for each student each day.

Well see how next week goes when I begin teaching!

Last week at the middle school

A summary of grades for the day. This can be the grade book you use with names omitted or with aliases instead of actual names.
A discussion of how the lessons went. What was successful? What could you improve? What suggestions did your mentor teacher have?
Ideas/brainstorming for future lessons.

Ronald 55/54
Angela 70/85
Michael 67/69
Robert 92/54

These are pre and post assessment grades. The lesson went okay. Understanding the meaning of an action verbs was difficult for the students. The power point I used in class was successful. The difference between their pre and post assessments was really what kind of mood they were in when they took the test. I would instruct the lesson and then pass out the assessment. For some reason they felt the need to mark a linking verb and action verb in every sentence, even if there wasn't one. It was a paradox to me as to why they could answer the verb label in class but on the assessment they were making things up and labeling nouns as verbs. ??? The student Robert who scored so high at first had aid on both assessments. He is one of my most difficult students to work with- has great potential and ability but has major attention issues.

My mentor teacher helped me put together a power point and gave alot of great suggestions. It was a good final lesson to end on.

I really enjoyed my time at this school. My mentor teacher was really flexible and helpful to me. Ill be interested to see how my time at the high school compares with this. Teaching middle school is the awkward in between of the dependence found in elementary and the independence of high school. :)

One week left...

This week I taught a lesson in English on action and linking verbs. I used laminated cards with different examples of each for students to identify them in the sentence. At the end of the week the students were assessed on their ability to locate the prepositional phrase in a sentence and label the action and linking verb. First the students identified the prep. phrase marked and it out to show the point of the sentence. Then they labeled the action and linking verbs. In the back of their English journals they have a list of linking and helping verbs. As simple as this subject was, they understood and performed well during class, but their test at the end of the week submitted unsatisfactory results. I believe their final results had alot to do with the fact that it was Friday and that they rushed through their work. The scores resulted as follows:

Ronald 55
Angela 35
Michael 80
Robert 56

After discussing further with my mentor teacher we have decided not to move on until their performance has improved. This week will be a reinforcement of last weeks skill along with further instruction on the subject of the sentence.

Only two weeks left!

Micheal 80
Robert 100
Ronald 70
Angela 70

These are the post assessment scores for the students.

The lessons were great. I had alot of fun and the students did too. A highlight of the week was teaching the students about basketball and words like: shoot, shot, shooter, and shooting- the ball. We focused on vocabulary and character development and did a lesson on conflict resolution in the story. Room for improvement would involve creating more ideas for a better way for the students to understand the story. I feel like I do alot of the signing and the students only respond. My mentor teacher had no suggestions- she said I did great and did not miss my calling as a teacher. :)

Ideas for next week include a story board creation where students will draw the events that happen in the story and describe them as they learn and the characters unfold. I have also considered the students writing a summary at the completition of their story board to show that they understand pictorially and in writing.

Helen Keller Reading Assignment

Ronald 80
Micheal 70
Robert 90
Angela 80

Test modifications: Robert's test was read orally. Ronald and he both had ample chance to correct their quizzes before grading. In reality they failed, but trough facilitation by the teacher they passed.

Micheal also had teacher facilitation during the test but was mainly the one responsible for his answers.

The lessons this week were strenuous and mostly successful. We covered Helen Keller in reading class. The reasons for the lessons struggling to be successful was student attention span and needing more creativity in doing the monotonous parts of the lesson. I tried to squeeze too much material into each day and cover as many bases as possible. To do it differently I would plan to focus more on one part of the content and stretch it out over the week. Which is what I plan to do this week.

In the lessons I introduced the students to Helen Keller through reading a story, introducing them to vocabulary, and journaling. To engage the student I had one student put his hand in water while I fingerspelled water like Helen Keller's teacher. I blind folded them and fingerspelled in their hands to simulate how Keller lived. I showed them a video online that showed Keller using braille, tactile speech, and tactile sign. I also printed braille for them and had them write their own names using braille.

My teacher suggested that I cover less concepts and focus more one or two general concepts in reading.

The ideas for this next week is to read a chapter from a book on basketball. The students will develop the characters, create a vocabulary log, and read their assignment. I will introduce the game of basketball and use videos and overheads to explain- along with vocabulary practice using a basketball.

Week 2

This week I administered a pre and post assessment with our reading assignment. The following are the students grades (pre/post):

Ronald: 75/25
Micheal:88/13
Robert:88/50
Angela:100/88

I feel in this lesson I learned more than the students, which sounds negative but it was still a positive learning experience for all. What I learned is that the students who succeeded more were students from the mainstream class room. My teacher referred to them as plain vanilla deaf students meaning all that the main issue is a hearing loss and no other problems. The other students who did not succeed as highly are students who are self-contained and have other issues besides hearing loss. It was a wake up call for me as far as expectations go. I still expect the same amount of effort from each, but now realize more their present level of performance in reading.

The one thing that was successful is the introduction to new vocabulary as I had the students explain the word as we learned the new word/sign. As far as improvements for the next lesson, I would make the format of the paper more clear and include directions to bring clarity for their assignment. I would require less questions on the preassessment for lack of time. My mentor teacher suggested that I use a small amount of reading material, basically to minimize the amount of content covered through questions and reading.

Ideas for the next lesson would be a 3 paragraph passage on Helen Keller from a lower level reading book than the one I used, which was only 1st grade according to TEKS objectives.

I had a great week observing in the gen. ed math class and at a speech therapy session. I did one-on-one work with a low functioning student in math and saw progress throughout the week. I attended my first ARD and saw the logistics that go along with the formality of that meeting. I learned classroom management skills and have begun to focus more on reinforcing good behavior than punishing wrong behavior.

Praise the Lord for a great second week!

Week 1

A summary of grades for the day. This can be the grade book you use with names omitted or with aliases instead of actual names.
A discussion of how the lessons went. What was successful? What could you improve? What suggestions did your mentor teacher have?
Ideas/brainstorming for future lessons.

Week one went really well. We spent alot of time organizing their classroom materials and doing some "house cleaning." The teacher passed out student profiles to send home to all the parents for them to fill out. This was a great way to know the background information of your students. She explained classroom rules and expectations. Student were quized on their personal information such as address, telephone number, and they learned how to work their locker.

One thing I like about my teacher is how she explains the extra details that deaf/HH students would miss out on most often. For example, who it is over the loud speaker that makes annoucements and why what they say is important.

I observed my teacher create a lesson plan on Eduphoria and realized the difference between what I learned in college and how it actually works in the modern classroom. I also observed a conversation between the deaf ed. teacher and the general ed. teacher about inclusion for a student with a cochlear.

The teacher did some in depth explanation with one student about the first school dance and how to ask his mom for permission, buy a ticket, and get to where he needed to be. It was a very indepth conversation and very instructive for the student. His mother only speaks Spanish to him, so it needed some extra attention.

I instructed a math lesson one morning on multiplication. The work sheet was a table where students had to multiply numbers from one row to one column and write the answer in an adjacent boxes. If I had to do it over again I would have done a refresher lesson on the difference between adding and mutliplication. I would have had dry erase boards and markers with erasers for each of the students to work with. I spent a great majority of my time running between their desks and the dry erase board.

One important piece of business I learned from my teacher this week is to write down a hard copy of everything that takes place in accordance with official business which could be used in an ARD meeting.