Dana P. and I are placed at Irving school. On the first day, we met the coordinator, introduced ourselves to the librarian, and met some of the students. We were kind of on our own because we had to no Cohort 1 people to follow. I think the tech club will be a great experience. Dana and I plan on doing a traveling story with the students. This will work for any age group so we are not really concerned with having the same kids everytime.
Day two, Dana was the lesson planner for this week. We don't normally have set ages each week so we have been switching back and forth on different types of planning. Dana and I planned to do a continuous biography. This was started on day two, but unsuccessful! We never had the same group twice so we decided to reroute. I had a funeral to go to so I was in at a different time for day two.
Dana
Day three: This week we worked on ABCya.com. The 2nd graders LOVE THIS WEBSITE! However, it was really hard to keep them on track or focused. Lots of screaming and yelling to friends "hey watch this." We discussed "inside voices" numerous times. However, our focus was on math and while most of the students worked on math, some of them ventured off into other areas, for example, how to crash a car was very popular. Today I was there for two different groups because I was gone for the second day. I worked with the fourth grader first alone and that was fun. They introduced me to some of the websites they work with. Then Dana and I worked with the younger kids with ABCya.
Day four: Today we did an online scavenger hunt! What a blast! We had 4th grade and 1st grade. So for this week we pair up the older students with the younger. I think this was for the most part productive. However I was kind of surprised by how many 1st graders were leading theView blog 4th and 5th graders. I noticed how either advanced or behind some of the students were! Wow, I didn't realize how off track students can get! We were actually helped out by the practicum students. So our ratio for this project was great! We had four teachers to 11 students!!!
Day five: ABCya reexplored! I thought this week went better. We focused on Christmas (Holiday) activities. So instead of math or writing and typing, we allowed the students to build a snowman, or gingerbread house instead. I think the students can also learning from this. This encouraged them to focus and have fun! They were also having to follow directions!
Today was our last day in tech club. I have learned so much from these students. I know now what it is like to have different ages on an average day. I think the librarian has a hard job! We took the 3rd and 4th graders today and let them play around on kid pics. We decided that they should be able to enjoy doing something of their choice on the final day. We also discussed their holiday plans and their favorite things to do. It was nice spending time with older students. The tech club students really enjoy having the extra time on the computers. I really enjoyed this practicum.
My thoughts on changing the practicum....
I think the placement would be more beneficial if we had more time to plan and more time with the students. The biggest problem was having so many students leave in the middle of our plans. I am not sure how this can be solved. I think maybe having this during school hours would be really neat. Yet again, not sure how this can be accomplished. I also learned how to use the MACs more efficiently. I think I have gained more respect for ASP directors and planners. We were only required to plan for one day of the week. They have to plan for everyday after school. This definitely still makes me want to teach, however, I have a more realistic outlook on teaching.
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