Yesterday I did a lot of observations, I finally have a case study student that I will be targeting for our special education lab. The student is a very low reader and is not receiving any services at the moment. Mrs. K says that she doesnt have a lot of motivation, but Mrs. K said that could have resulted from not being successful in school for so many years. Its a chicken and the egg type of situation.
In third hour, there is one student in particular I would like to focus my attention on. This student, we'll call him Mike, understands a lot of Spanish, we arent sure if he is native and just pretends to not know, or if he is not native. Mrs. K says that his parents and grandparents both are native speakers, and Mike understands them, but is literally failing the class. He sleeps a lot and doesnt turn in any work. Mrs. K has tried to ask him what's been up several times but to no avail. She is disheartened, she doesnt treat any of her students differently based on their grades/performance in class, which is something most teachers never succeed at. Although she doesnt have a bad attitude with him because of his grade, she doesnt give him extra attention either. I'm not sure what the problem is here. Mrs. K says that his other grades are good in some classes and failing grades in others. She said that it seems as if he picks which classes to do well in.
From my interaction with him, he is a bright, intelligent boy, but something deeper is going on. I still am not sure what it is, but I plan on focusing more attention on this issue.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
No school!
Last Monday I did my field teach, and on Wed I did not report because I was on a study abroad panel. The kids did not have school on Friday or tomorrow, so I plan to make it up at the end of the semester.
I have chosen my student with a learning disability, and I am working on accommodating my next field teach to help her in this particular class in which she struggles.
I have chosen my student with a learning disability, and I am working on accommodating my next field teach to help her in this particular class in which she struggles.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Field Teach 2
2/12/07-
I did my field teach yesterday and it went rather well. I had a slight problem with technology, because I could not connect to the internet to acess the radio clip that I had orginally planned them to listen to. This created an obstacle, but did not make the lesson impossible. I gave them the facts about Tortillas in English, and how important they are to the Mexican diet. Then, we read the article from the BBC out loud. This was a difficult task for them, they are only in a Spanish 2 class, and rarely see anything like this, entirely in Spanish and geared toward an Native Spanish speaking population.
The class was very hesitant to dive into this, they were uncomfortable, and you could tell this lesson pushed them beyong their comfort zone--something they are not used to.
I needed more time than orginally planned, but we got through the majority of the lesson, we didnt end up getting to the analytical processing at the end.
Something I did well: My teacher presence has improved greatly.
Something I need to work on: I need to know my kids names. I know a lot of them, but not all.
Something I learned: The kids didnt think they could do it because they were never expected to read something like this. Maybe more familiarity with this type of text would help them be less freighten of "real Spanish"
I did my field teach yesterday and it went rather well. I had a slight problem with technology, because I could not connect to the internet to acess the radio clip that I had orginally planned them to listen to. This created an obstacle, but did not make the lesson impossible. I gave them the facts about Tortillas in English, and how important they are to the Mexican diet. Then, we read the article from the BBC out loud. This was a difficult task for them, they are only in a Spanish 2 class, and rarely see anything like this, entirely in Spanish and geared toward an Native Spanish speaking population.
The class was very hesitant to dive into this, they were uncomfortable, and you could tell this lesson pushed them beyong their comfort zone--something they are not used to.
I needed more time than orginally planned, but we got through the majority of the lesson, we didnt end up getting to the analytical processing at the end.
Something I did well: My teacher presence has improved greatly.
Something I need to work on: I need to know my kids names. I know a lot of them, but not all.
Something I learned: The kids didnt think they could do it because they were never expected to read something like this. Maybe more familiarity with this type of text would help them be less freighten of "real Spanish"
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Grading Papers
2/7/07
Turns out that they did not have school this past Monday because of snow, so I am glad that I didn't miss out on a day where I could have been there if it weren't for being sick.
On Wed, I turned back the papers that the kids did for me for the subjunctive and went over the parts where I saw most kids were struggling. The work that they did for me was their introduction, and since then they had worked on it with Mrs. K, and seemed to understand their mistakes right away.
I really understand now what a chore it is to grade papers. I was only grading 30 papers, but it was a task! Last weekend, while recovering from being ill, I kept thinking to myself, be productive, and at least check those papers (because I wasn't being productive at all that weekend, I had so little energy) And every time I began to look at them, I would just set them back down, because they made my headache even worse. They just kept staring me in the face until Tuesday when I finished them. But it was hard to decide how I was going to grade, what to correct, and I wanted to make sure I tried to make an effort to really read what the kids had written because I dont spend much time with them, and I want to start building bridges and getting to know them better. Everytime I marked something wrong, I crinched, hoping that I wasnt going to be the teacher that grades harshly and isnt helpful in his/her corrections.
What I learned: Correcting papers is a daunting task.
What I want to do better: Get to know the kids, starting with their names and faces. (I know some, but not all)
What I did well: I made sure to write at least a sentence or two on each paper to provide feedback to the kids in some way. Some had questions about what they had written, others were what they did well etc.
Turns out that they did not have school this past Monday because of snow, so I am glad that I didn't miss out on a day where I could have been there if it weren't for being sick.
On Wed, I turned back the papers that the kids did for me for the subjunctive and went over the parts where I saw most kids were struggling. The work that they did for me was their introduction, and since then they had worked on it with Mrs. K, and seemed to understand their mistakes right away.
I really understand now what a chore it is to grade papers. I was only grading 30 papers, but it was a task! Last weekend, while recovering from being ill, I kept thinking to myself, be productive, and at least check those papers (because I wasn't being productive at all that weekend, I had so little energy) And every time I began to look at them, I would just set them back down, because they made my headache even worse. They just kept staring me in the face until Tuesday when I finished them. But it was hard to decide how I was going to grade, what to correct, and I wanted to make sure I tried to make an effort to really read what the kids had written because I dont spend much time with them, and I want to start building bridges and getting to know them better. Everytime I marked something wrong, I crinched, hoping that I wasnt going to be the teacher that grades harshly and isnt helpful in his/her corrections.
What I learned: Correcting papers is a daunting task.
What I want to do better: Get to know the kids, starting with their names and faces. (I know some, but not all)
What I did well: I made sure to write at least a sentence or two on each paper to provide feedback to the kids in some way. Some had questions about what they had written, others were what they did well etc.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Didnt Report
Today I didnt report to my field placement because I have been recovering from a sinus infection. I wrote my teacher and email to let her know, but I havent talked with her. I doubt that the Grand Ledge had school today, as most schools in the area were closed, but I'll find out on Wed.
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