EDSE 380 Blog

 In my practicum classroom, there aren't a whole lot of quizzes or tests. One thing there is a lot of is written responses and essays. With that being said, my mentor teacher is constantly reviewing  and analyzing  the grammar mechanics and grammar mistakes in students' work. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday students are given a sentence that needs to be corrected. Ms. Lejman, my mentor teacher, creates sentences, filled with errors, based off of the most common mistakes that she sees in her student's work. This week, English 10 students are struggling with the different forms of there (their, they're, and there).  

 The class that I teach at my practicum school is English 10. The specific class that I teach is 5th period, which only has 9 students in it. These 9 students are all relatively quiet too. With that being said, a lot of the class work that students do is independent work.  Having recently reentering the field, my mentor teacher, practicum classmate, and I have all been trying to decide what  and how  we're going to teach. As we all began to discuss our different options, we decided it would be best to conduct the same unit, with the same summative assessment, but the classes and teaching would be done differently. For example, the English 10 students at my practicum location are all learning about argumentation and debate. The layout for both the English 10 students and the Engslish 10 Honors students is the exact same, but one is more fast paced than the other. As my mentor teacher and I are still in cohorts, collaborating on this unit, we often discuss whether or n...

 With being in practicum last semester and then this semester, I haven't had a whole lot of experience with classroom management. Last semester I was with 6th graders at a local middle school so that's where I ran into most of my issues with classroom management. For instance, the class and I were reading the graphic novel New Kid, and I stopped to ask the students a question and once one person answered it seemed as if everyone thought it was their turn to talk. At that point, I just had to remind the students of being respectful and not talk while someone else is talking, especially if it isn't their turn. Now, I'm placed with 10th graders and I haven't really had any issues. Since I have another classmate in the same practicum as me, we decided which class period we were going to teach. I chose 5th period(regular English 10) and she chose 6th period(English 10 honors). 5th period is made up of only 9 students, all of which are relatively quiet. The students know ...

 During my third week of being in the classroom, I was able to teach! On Monday I conducted a lesson about Essay Structure. That day I was feeling very nervous just because I hadn't taught since the end of April. I was able to engage students and I actually had a decent amount of students who wanted to participate and volunteer to make corrections when doing the bellringer. Student participation was something that I was concerned about because my mentor teacher's 5th-period class only has 9 students in it, all of which who are relatively quiet besides a boy or two. After I was finished teaching, students had independent reading time. During that independent reading time, my mentor teacher gave me feedback on my teaching. She assured me that I was doing just fine and that I was exactly where I needed to be, but there were some things that I needed to work on. I need to work on slowing down and engaging students by asking them more questions. I took those suggestions with me as I...

Now that it's been three weeks since I began my time in practicum, I've become accustomed to the school, my mentor teacher, and to the two class periods of 10th-grade English/English honors students I see every day. When students walk in and sit down, they look up to the whiteboard where a projector reflects a Google Slide with the agenda for the class that day. You'll also find Ms. Lejman, and her students, IPad in hand. Not only is technology heavily used in Ms. Lejman's classroom, but it's also heavily used throughout the whole school. For example, the main office front desk has a desktop computer with two monitors and a laptop. Also, every teacher and student has an IPad that's provided by the school. With those IPads, students are able to access their school emails, Canvas, Harmony, educational software and sites the school approves of, and the App Store.  From grades 6-12, I've always been a laptop user, and because of that, I've always preferred l...

 During my first week at practicum, I spent a lot of time talking to students about the projects they had chosen and why, learning names, and getting acclimated with my teacher, her classroom, and the school. When you first walk into my Mentor Teacher's classroom, you feel very invited. For instance, my Mentor Teacher's classroom is decorated to show her personality, and make the room more inviting. She also is sure to incorporate her students' work in the room as well. For example, on the first day of school, Ms. Lejman had the students pick out a random page from a book that she had torn out. The students were to find a word or statement that explained their past, present, and future. At the end of the day, Ms. Lejman collected all of those, strung them together, and now they're on display in her classroom on the wall for everyone to see. Something else Ms. Lejman has is fidgets. She has an area in the classroom where students can walk over to sign one in and out. Ms....