Michelle Belanger

SEI 513
Reflection Journals

Week 1: January 12, 2014
After class I am excited to get going on this. I really feel that I can incorporate
some work that I currently do into the practicum plan. My boss was just asking
about a staff person to be the liaison between families and staff. This is because
when we got the results of the NAEYC family survey, family involvement was
something that came up on several surveys.
Also I have to give assessments to my children all the time and it would be
nice to reflect on the process and see how I can use the results to frame my work
with the children. It will be hard to find one assessment out of the 3 or 4 that I
administer each year.
Something I am kind of a little nervous about is the Child Case Study. It just
seems like there is already a lot of work for me to focus on and to add a case study is
a bit overwhelming. A couple of children pop into mind to work with on this but the
time for me to do it escapes me right now.
I also really like the idea of a student directed seminars for this class. I learn
a lot through the seminars but the learning is much deeper when I have a vested
interest in the topic. Not to mention all I can learn from my colleagues and co-
learners in the class. My experience is they will be able to provide first hand
experiences and answers to situations I may encounter.









Week 2: January 19,2014
I really put a lot of thought into my practicum plan this week. I looked at
things that I need to do for work and how to tie it together with the 5 different
competency areas. I was really excited to find that most of the things that I do fit
into the different competency areas.
One thing that I spoke to my director about is filling the role of the staffer
who acts as a point person between staff and families. Im not sure what this will
look like exactly, but my boss is hoping that I can find ways that parents want to be
involved and help think of ways that staff can reach out to families in different ways,
creative ways. I am pretty excited to take on this role at work and really feel it is a
great way to connect with all the families, not just the ones in my class. As the
assistant director I feel that it is important to make myself known to all the families.
I feel really good after the phone call with my teacher. I feel she really helped
me formalize a plan of attack for this semester. Some of the activities that I was
unsure how I would fit them in on implement them she asked me great questions to
really put my ideas into actions. We even scheduled a visit. I am even more excited
to work on my Practicum Plan to get it approved so I can start on it.
I finally feel that I am able to put my work and education to use together.
This really helps me put what I have learned into practice. I just feel more
professional when I can do show off what I learned.


Week 3: January 26, 2014
Been busy getting things ready for implementation of the practicum plan.
Trying to organize everything and come up with a plan of attack so I dont feel so
overwhelmed with all the different components for the class.





Week 4: February 2, 2014
This week has been a great week and has got me very excited for my
upcoming assignments. On Monday I met with my director and the head of the
Parent Advisory Committee. We had a meeting in which my director introduced me
as the staff liaison to the committee. We also talked about coming up with a
schedule for family fun nights and committee meetings for the rest of the year. We
did this in hopes if parents knew about them in advance; they would be more apt to
participate. We talked about holding the meetings the first Monday of each quarter,
followed by a family fun night. Each meeting and family fun night will have a
different theme. Something that Amy (the head of the committee) brought up was
the parents lack of knowledge about NAEYC accreditation. This is something that
my center is going through right now (reaccreditation), so we seemed the initial
meeting should be around that topic. My director offered to contact someone from
Maine Roads to Quality to come in and talk to the committee; I asked my director if I
could put together a presentation instead. My director agreed that I could do it. I
was so excited to have a finite task to do. The next day I emailed a few places about
fundraising and our first family fun night. I spoke with someone at Bayside Bowl
and they do a non-profit night on Mondays where they give 5% back to a local non-
profit from food and drink sales. I spent Tuesday emailing back and forth with
Bayside bowl, my director and Amy to come up with a date and time. We settled on
March 17
th
for a family fun night bowling and fundraising for the center. Now that
we have a time and place for the meetings and Family fun night, the hard part is
getting families and parents there.
After the progress that was made at the beginning of the week with the
Parent Advisory Committee I dove right into the assessment portion. I looked over
the math assessment and pulled together the materials that I will need to administer
the assessment to the kids. It seems pretty easy and straight forward, asking
questions as far as how old they are and how high they can count. It asks about
shapes and sorting as well as sizes. I think it will take about 20 minutes per child
and is fairly simple enough that I can probably administer the assessment at a small
table in the class during the day and wont need to pull the kids from the class, which
means I wont need to find coverage for me when I am out of the classroom.
To round out this productive week, I wrote up my Individual Practicum Plan.
It feels so good to have it all typed up and written out. I feel relived to have it all
spelled out for me. Now just to get going on it all!!



























Week 5: February 9, 2014
I spent a large amount of time coming up with the materials for the Parent
Advisory Committee meeting on March 3. I had told my director and the head of the
committee that I would have the power point for review in the next 2 weeks and I
intended to do that. This way I can get their feedback and suggestions. We
discussed that the focus should be what NAEYC accreditation looks like and what it
takes to go through the process. I started by looking through a lot of the self-study
stuff we have at the center and then found myself on the NAEYC website. I was able
to put together a great power point that focused on what parents would see in each
individual classroom and about the 10 standards that a center needs to meet in
order to become accredited. Im very happy with the final result. I have emailed it
to both my director and the head of the parent advisory committee. The hope is to
take about 30 minutes for the presentation, then open it up to questions and
answers for my director and myself. I am kind of nervous to stand up and present in
front of everyone. This is another reason I want to get everything done well in
advance.
I also had a great visit from Sandy this week. I have learned a long time ago
that when people come in that it is what it is. I used to get really nervous with
people coming in but realized that when people come in they offer a unique
perspective and advice that I wouldnt otherwise know. The discussion after the
observation was especially helpful in that it gave me ideas on how to incorporate
more chances for conversation in my dramatic play area with a few simple
suggestions. It was nice to get my teacher in the class to put a vision with what I
have been talking about.







Week 6: February 16, 2014
This is school vacation week and that means most of my students are off for
the week. It means that the most I will have in my room is 7 or 8 a day. It also
means that it is a great chance to start my Everyday Math assessments with the
children who are here so I can test drive how long it is going to take and if in fact I
have all the materials I need in place.
I was able to administer 7 of the assessments and overall I feel they went
very well. There were some concerns and problems that popped up and I will
discuss this in my reflection paper. It didnt take a lot of time once I got in the
groove. However I feel that there is a better way to administer these assessments.
My plan is to finish the assessments next week and start planning small
group activities around the results of this math assessment.
In the class MW still has some pretty tough behaviors and although he has
gotten better, it is exhausting having him in class. I feel that while a teacher needs to
shadow him that leaves one teacher with the rest of the children, which is equally
exhausting.














Week #7 February 23, 2014
Speaking of exhausting, I completed 10 assessments in 2 days. Phew!! The
results are quite telling and I noticed some definite patterns and was able to confirm
what I had a pretty good idea about. My plan is to immediately start implementing
some math activities at small group based on the areas I see the children need the
most help in. It feels good to have a plan to scaffold their development.
I was also able to analyze my checklists that I had made for the Intervention
piece of my practicum plan. I was able to see that progress was made and with MW.
Not that it was easy but goes to show that children need consistency and they thrive
off it. Mom has told me of an appointment they have with the school psychologist to
do some assessments, Im afraid that mom is not going to understand what is going
on with all this. I have committed myself to helping her understand the CDS process
and answer any questions she might have. Mom really wants to extend MW
schedule to full day pre-k, which is 8:30-1pm. Currently we do not have the
supports for him to stay all day and did I mention exhausting.
I also just found out that my director is taking some time off due to a medical
issue and this means she will not be there for the Parent/Advisory Committee and I
will be the sole point person for the entire day. This is kind of nerve-racking
because I will not have my director to refer too. YIKES!












Week #8 March 2 2014
Wow!! I feel so awesome that I was able to not only host the meeting but I rocked it
if I do say so myself. The parents were great, they asked questions, understood
answers and was just very supportive of me and my presentation. I also feel that the
ideas they had for parent involvement were amazing and I cant wait to report back
to the teachers.
One of the great ideas they had was that each classroom come up with a list
and sign up sheet for parents to come in and do whatever activity they signed up for.
This was such a great, no brainer idea.
This week the budget talks have started in the district and all the teachers
wonder if they will have a job in September. I feel that same way, if not more so
because out of the 5 teachers I am a contracted teacher with them, not a full time
teacher so if a classroom were to go, I feel that it would be mine. Not a great feeling.
I have grown so much as a teacher and professional and would hate to not be able to
continue on with the district. We will see, all we re being told right now is that 5
Pre-K classrooms are written to the Budget for the 2015 school year. This happened
last year as well and nothing changed, so I guess we will see next year.














Week #9 March 9 2014
This week I had the staff meeting where I presented at the ideas for family
involvement to the staff. I told the staff the ideas the parents had and the staff just
took off with it. It was such a great thing to be a part of, to see it take hold and the
teachers get excited about it. We talked about the fact that the Week of the Young
Child was coming up in the next coupe of weeks and we knew that we wanted to
start our classroom gardens, so logically we started talking about having families
into help us plant seeds for the garden. We also talked about the parents who
couldnt take time off and come in. The ideas we got to engage those parents were
open invitations to come by afterhours or weekends to water the garden and to
have things for parents to bring in or things to cut out at home and bring in for the
classroom to use.
I also fee that the math activities I have introduced have been pretty
successful. The children seem to enjoy the activities and I can observe them using
the math terms we used while they are engaging in the activities. Yay! I look
forward to the final assessment to see how far they have come.















Week #10 March 16, 2014
Sandys visit went really great again. I always get nervous when people come
into my classroom because I know that things are not perfect, but I love to learn and
love to be coached. Having Sandy (or anyone) in my room gives me a great chance
to have a fresh set of eyes and learn new things. Sandy was very helpful in giving me
ideas on incorporating more sensory aspects into my classroom especially for MW. I
cant wait to try the new ideas, I love being intentional and any suggestions for MW
is more than welcome. I think I am going to have shaving cream and playdough and
even music available to help set a sensory tone, what the tricky part is, sometime
MW is sensory seeking and sometimes he is sensory avoiding. I want to work on my
alone space in the classroom and make it so it is a place where MW could go to get
away from the over stimulating things in the class if he needs. Now to just figure out
when he needs seeks and when he avoids sensory.

Week #11 March 23 2014
So all my activities have just about been implemented, I decided for the final
math assessment I am going to take the observations I have made and apply them to
the math assessment instead of pulling the children one by one.
I feel so behind in my write ups, I wish I would have done them as I went
along but now I have them to do now. I am very happy with the way I have planned
my activities and they all gave me a chance to try things I have wanted to do. My
Intervention gave me a chance to use what I have learned over the past 2 years. The
family partnerships helped with the ever so important relationship between teacher
and families. The curriculum really gave me a chance to use an assessment to guide
my curriculum for the children who need practice in certain skills. The
collaboration gave me a chance to teach teachers, which is a big interest I have. And
finally the assessment really opened my eyes and brain to the fact that there are
different ways to administer assessments and pulling kids from the classroom is not
the only way to go.


Week #12 March 30, 2014
With all my activities done, I am going to spend the final weeks revisiting the
activities I set in place and see how they work. I really want MW to be able to come
all day and give him some strategies and supports because I am afraid that CDS is
not going to come through in time for him.
I also am going to continue on with math activities at small group and in
center time. I think that I have a much better idea on how to implement the math
curriculum next year. I feel more prepared that I understand the scope and
sequence of the curriculum and am able to scaffold on what the children know and
need to know earlier in the year.
We found out at our Pre-K meeting this week that the district wants to move
two of the classrooms, not mine, but still its a scary thing. I feel that things dont get
thought all the way through in the district. The idea is to put pre-k classrooms in the
neediest neighborhoods in the neediest schools. I understand that but the problem
is that those schools dont necessary have the room for the classrooms. For
example, one of the schools only have room for a pre-k classroom in a modular
classroom, with no bathroom and no running water. I could not imagine having to
have 18, 5 year olds running outside in the middle of winter to use the bathroom or
wash their hands. I know that people resist change but I feel that resist and being
prepared for change are two different things. We will see how things play out. The
Pre-K team in Portland has decided to write a letter about our ideas of what we
would like to see for next year, including our professional development and a leader
to act as a liaison between the district leaders and the pre-k teachers.