Are we there yet?

I find myself asking this question time and time again? When will part-time student teaching end? I'm so confused. For a few hours, I'm expected to be a student teacher with tons of cute pre-teens. And a few hours later, I'm expected to be in a room full of twenty-something year old student teachers, in a classroom, and with a professor. VERY STRANGE! Yes, I am almost there.

As I journey on from week to week, I am finding it harder and harder to leave the parking lot of CCMMS and return to my classes. I just want to stay and be with my students all day long. Is that too much to ask for? Well, I get to do that in 6 days! I'm so excited that I can barely keep my composure at times. This week I got the opportunity to do some pretty interesting things that made student teaching a little bit more real to me. I participated in my first full staff meeting (with free yummy lunch!), learned how to enter PEPs on EasyPEP, played Apples to Apples with my students, assisted my students with Analogy presentations, learned how to use the media center copy machine, assisted my students with Science Fair reflections and articles, and visited West Millbrook Middle School.

Something I thought that was good was attending the full staff meeting. I was given the opportunity to see all of the faculty and staff of CCMMS. I was also introduced to the BT Coordinator, who will be contacting me to sit in on a few BT meetings. During the full staff meeting, I also received a tutorial on how to enter PEP plans into EasyPEP software. I also was given a presentation on the new Teacher Evaluation Assessment instrument. It was great for me to see it actually put into plan because I only had experience with it from class lectures.

Something that I think I need a little more clarification on is the purpose of the EasyPEP software. If teachers were just keeping track of PEP plans by manuscript, why have they moved to the software? A lot of the steps involved in using the software also seem a little time-consuming and pointless.

I believe that the learning context of the community and my classroom will affect my instruction and assessment greatly. CCMMS operates under a strong university connections and leadership magnet program. Service-learning is also a very big component of the school's culture. A majority of my students are also visual learners. I know this will become one of my daily goals to include all students' learning preferences in my classroom. I will also have to address many opportunities for leadership and service-learning within the curriculum. There are also several volunteers and tutors who stop in from time to time. I also realize that it will become my partial responsibility to plan activities for them to work on with the students to make the more effective. Planning for my students may become a little complex; but I'm up for the challenge

It's testing season!

Ok, ok. I'm really starting to get the hang of this whole student teaching experience. Waking up at 6am doesn't seem so horrible anymore. I believe that my body is actually starting to catch up with my mind. Sounds like a pretty good accomplishment, right?!

This week at Centennial has been a little more low-key than the last couple of weeks. We started ACCESS testing, so that has been my student teaching experience for the week. I also proctored and provided instruction for students who were not taking the test on a particular day. On Wednesday, I assisted a student with Easy English News. In case you are unfamiliar with it, English Easy News is a newspaper that has articles for students who need simple language for comprehension. Some of the articles were about the legal system (court cases, prosecutors, juries, etc.) and holidays that we celebrate in the U.S. We read about Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and Chinese New Year. After reading about the articles, I had the student fill out a non-fiction reading log. The purpose behind having a student fill out a reading log is for them to get a better understanding of what they are reading by stating some things that they learned and their thoughts on the article. I also proctored ACCESS testing this week. I have proctored this test before so it was a walk in the park. I also did many other things with the students like assist with animal fact and opinion articles and play PIT with the students. Overall, it was an exhausting week with all of the testing that was going on.

I thought I did a great job with assisting the students with writing their fact and opinion rough draft articles. The students were really comfortable with asking for help. I also got a chance to share some knowledge about grammar. Knowing that my students will come to me for help is the greatest feeling that I had this week. Although, I had a wonderful time helping my students with their rough draft, I am so nervous about administering ACCESS testing next week. From my observations this week, I noticed that there is a lot of planning and work that go into having the test available for the students to take. I AM TERRIFIED OF THAT TEST. I really hope that my beginning teacher mentor will be just as good as Ms. Linton next year!

I have known my students for about 7 months now, and there is great diversity within my classes. Ms. Linton and I have as little as 3 students in one class to as many as 10 in another class. My 11-15 year old students also come from many different backgrounds such as China, Korea, Brazil, United States, Jordan, Sudan, and El Salvador just to name a few. They also come from many different socioeconomic backgrounds and religions. My students also have many levels of English proficiency. I have some students who know a few English vocabulary words and I also have students who carry on conversations with difficult vocabulary. It's quite amazing. This has also impacted my interactions with them. I have to be very mindful of their cultures and backgrounds when speaking and assisting them. I also know that when I teach I will also have to be careful with my lesson plans and the things that I ask them to do because their is so much diversity. I feel that it is such a blessing in disguise because many teachers never get the opportunity to reach so many children from different parts of the world.