Fall 2009

After doing service learning for 3 full semesters now, I know how to be comfortable in front of a class, write lesson plans and plan more than what you think you will teach, and how to talk to students at any age and use word appropriate words with them. From this semester of service learning I am expecting that I will learn how to better keep the students activly involved in the lesson and how to make learning fun for the students.

What I have learned so far.

So far I have seen that the city schools and the county schools are run totally different. The teaching styles of all the teachers have been so different too. Mrs. Cliche was full of energy and was willing to help students in anyway she could. She was a very laid back and go with the flow kind of teacher. Mrs. Porterfield, at MNP, was more structure oriented and very scheduled. She expected me to teach for the whole hour that I was in there. Mrs. Kennedy, at BES, is more laid back and go with the flow but is still very structured and schedule oriented.

Week 10

This week I just read more with my reading group. I have done some activities with them that came from a book that goes with the book. This week Mrs. Kennedy also asked me to help proctor during the TCAP tests that will take place next week. This is a great way for me to see how the testing is done from a teachers prospective and how stressful it is on the students.

Week 9

This week I started with my high reading level group again. I am doing the book Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Clearly. This group is so excited about reading this book and they all love to read as well. They are all excited about learning too.

Week 8

This week I continued to work with my on level reading group. We have almost finished the book and they will take the AR test on the book when we have finished at the end of the week. My other groups have taken the AR tests on their books and all of them have made a 100. The next week will be the students Spring Break so I will not be going to the school.

Week 7

This week I went in to read with my on level reading group. We have been reading Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. This is my second reading group that is reading on the third grade level. We have been doing some activities to go with the book. I have done plot strips in which the students had to put the different events of the plot in the order they happened in the book. This group has been great and fun to work with. When I finish this book with these students, I will have the high reading level group again.

week 6

This week I went in expecting to be able to meet with my small group, which is an on level reading group, but they were testing on Tuesday. So when i go in on Thursday I will me able to meet with my small group. There are about 6 students in this group and they are all reading at the third grade level.

Week 5

This week we are finishing up the book and Mrs. Kennedy wants me to work with a different small group in reading or maybe math. That would start next week.

Week 4

This week we just repeated the same activities and read more of the book.

Week 3

This week I had the students go back through the previous chapters that we have read and find words that they did not know the meaning. When we met back together on Thursday we went through all the words that they were unfamiliar with the defination and used context clues to figure out the meaning on their own. I have also had the students keep up with a character list and write down important facts about the characters, so we can decide major and minor characters when we are done with the book.

week 2

This week I started working with a small group. They are the upper reading level group in the class. We began reading the book Frindle and the students seem to really enjoy the book.

Week 1 at BES

The first week that i was at Blackman Elementary School, I just observed Mrs. Kennedy in teaching Reading. We discussed various books for the upper reading level students, that I would be working with, to read. We decided that Frindle would be a great book to start out with.