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How did I spend my time this week? What responsibilities did I have? This week was probably one of my favorites at Stilwell thus far. I will first focus on some of the opportunities that I was able to engage in outside of the classroom. On Tuesday, I had the great opportunity of accompanying Mrs. Smith to the LRC Learning Resource Center in West Des Moines. It was here that we were able to score the I-ELDA tests. I was able to reconnect with a previous Drake professor, Lynda Brown, who teaches ESL in WDMCS, along with collaborating with another previous ESL practicum teacher, Natalie French, and another Drake student teacher, Sam. It was an awesome experience because I could be quickly trained on the rubric format of how we assessed the I-ELDA writing assessments. It was a quick and efficient experience that was a great professional learning experience. On top of that, Cesia and I actually helped out some of the elementary assessors, and I found it be interesting to see the differences between 4-6 writing and 7-8 writing. Another great experience that I had on Thursday was training at the LRC regarding the implementation of Cracking the Code. It was really interesting because I was able to see how the exactly instruct the students, and how to best utilize the curriculum with assessment. Cracking the Code is being used by other Special Education teachers at Stilwell, and at a few others of the Elementary schools. It was really neat because we were also able to meet with the director of Special Education for WDMCS, other teachers so that we could engage in a phone conference with the actual creator and author of Cracking the Code. I feel so much more prepared in teaching this in bell-to-bell this next week after this training. Lastly, my last experience outside of the classroom was participating with the Stilwell staff on Friday for professional development day. I found it to be really beneficial because we were able to work with our teams extensively, Team E, and assess all plethora of data. I really enjoyed looking at the differences across national, district, Stilwell, subject area, and team data across the board. It helped informed me about how the teachers are doing, how the students are doing, and what the students perceptions of their school experience at Stilwell.

What were my most satisfying and challenging experiences? Thursday of this week is probably one of the most standout experiences thus far. Cesia and I had just come back from our training at the LRC on Cracking the Code and we came back invigorated with ideas. We collaboratively decided that we really wanted to gauge our students learning thus far before we move forward with a new content area. We came up with a quick written assessment, so that we could see what their skills and recall of consonants truly were. The major reason why I liked this so much was because it was the first authentic time that I felt that I was able to truly coteach side by side with Cesia. It was an amazing activity, because we followed it up with a total physical response and interactive activity for the students. The students each timed us for 1 minute, and Cesia and I had to come up with as many environmental words as possible. We each created 5 lists so that each student would have their own large poster board of words. After that, students were assigned a poster board and had a minute and a half to identify the consonants that go together. Both Cesia and I had the chance to assess students work with a highlighter, and then the students had the chance to correct their mistakes. This really helped us gauge where the students are currently at, and some of the areas that we definitely need to begin re-teaching next week. The second component of the activity included students working on consonants part 2. This time we reversed the roles and the students had a minute to write 10 words in 1 minute. They could use words that were seen throughout the room, science words, and English vocabulary. It was found to be quite effective. Next, students rotated to the right and identified the consonants of their friends written words. They also had a minute and a half to complete this task. The third step, the students rotated to the right once again and corrected each others work. Students had the chance to then correct their mistakes. The activity was extremely successful and it was great to see the students engaged for the full 45 minutes. I was able to get feedback from them and they LOVED it! Because of this success, I plan on creating a similar activity again in the future. Another really satisfying moment included some of my interactions with a student named Rolando. I really liked engaging in meaningful conversation

with him around academics. He has really engaged in some of his English course work and it was really satisfying to work with him and see how much progress he has made, despite being an English Language Learner. There really werent any specific challenging experiences this week that stand out, more of just the typical tests of patience and classroom management. Overall, I was very pleased with this week and the plethora of learning experiences.

What are my plans for the upcoming week? This upcoming week I will be engaging in my first official bell-to-bell teaching week. I have plans to completely take over third hour, implementing our Cracking the Code grammar curriculum, while also planning and supplementary lessons that will help assist the students. On 4/17 we created a quick assessment and activity to see where the students currently were at with consonants that stand on their own and consonants that go together. I plan on creating a similar assessment surrounding students knowledge of vowels that stand alone, and vowels that go together. I plan on continuing my role in the co-taught Social Studies classes. My two major goals for these classes are modifying the 7th grade social studies test, as well as modifying a few of the homework assignments for my students. Because the students are just now beginning some of the anatomy and body systems, I will be providing my 8th grade students with pre-teaching and re-teaching of the body systems. Next week we will be focusing on the skeletal and muscle systems. To facilitate this, I will be utilizing resource time, such as during 4th hour daily to provide this additional support for my students.

4/20/14 4:58 PM

4/20/14 4:58 PM