Saturday, November 30, 2013

Reflective Journals

10/2/2013
            Today was my first day observing in Mrs. Smiths' 4th grade classroom.  The layout of the school is really nice!  The school itself is large, but every room serves a purpose.  The 4th grade classroom I observed in was on the second floor.  The class is a mix of males and females.  About 17 students.  I soon found out that Mrs. Smith switched mid day for subjects with Mrs. Bollinger from across the hall.  Mrs. Smith taught science and math.  During math, students were learning how to round to the nearest 100th, 1000th, 10,000th, etc.  During science, students were discussing their lima bean experiments and the various attributes of growing plants.  I accompanied the students to recess and their specials.  Today was art class.  I saw quietly in the back of the art classroom while the students worked on their art projects.  Today was an interesting day, and I think I will learn around at Lord Baltimore Elementary.
10/3/2013
            Today was my second day observing in Mrs. Smith's 4th grade classroom.  Today was very similar to yesterday, my first day.  I came into the classroom and students were working on their writing/spelling activities.  Soon, math started, and students continued to work on rounding large numbers using a number line.  I walked around the classroom and observed students as they worked.  I assisted a few students that had questions about their problems.  Soon it was time for recess and specials.  Today's special was the media center.  Here, students watched a video on the upcoming book fair that was being hosted in the school.  This was a chance for me to see how the students acted outside of the classroom with another teacher.  The classes switched when we got back to the classroom, and students continued to work on their lima bean science projects.  Today was an excellent day.  I was able to work with student more than the previous day.
10/9/2013
            Today was my third time visiting Lord Baltimore.  With the assistance of Mrs. Smith, I was given a student to conduct my BRI on today.  The student's name was River.  River and I moved out to the hallway where I explained to him what I would be doing.  We worked through the BRI, going over the word lists, the reading passage, and then the corresponding questions.  I was confused at first with the BRI and how to conduct it.  With River, we worked up all the way to an 11th grade word list, but clearly he wasn't reading or comprehending at an 11th grade level.  I worked through the BRI with River and we both went back to class. 
            Today was just like the first two days - I accompanied the students to their art class and recess.  I got to work with students while I walked around and assisted during instruction.
10/14/2013
            Today was my fourth time visiting Lord Baltimore.  The moment I arrived at the school, I took River out in the hallway to work on a mini lesson with him.  I was only able to work with him for 10 minutes, for a test was being given in the other 4th grade classroom.  Working with River, we went over inflection cards, and I introduced him to our reading passage and asked him what he knew about the topic of our first reading passage.  I sent River back to class when finished.
            I accompanied my class once again to specials and recess.  Today's special was music.  It was a very loud experience.
            After we got back from lunch, I was able to work with river once more.  We read through the passage and worked through some corresponding worksheets, working on his comprehension.  I thought the mini lesson went well.
10/16/2013
            Today was my fifth time visiting Lord Baltimore.  Once again, the moment I arrived at the school, I took River out in the hallway to work on a mini lesson with him.  Working with River, we went over inflection cards again, and worked on further worksheet activities.  We reviewed the reading passage once again.  I sent River back to class when finished.
            I accompanied my class to specials and recess.  After lunch, I was able to work with the students again in the classroom.  For about 5 minutes, my teacher needed to excuse herself form the class so she had me take over the lesson.  It went well I thought!  When she came back, I worked with River once more.
            With River, we worked through another reading passage.  We went over vocabulary from that reading passage.  I will have completed my 35 required hours for this practicum three class today!
10/23/2013
            Thought I was finished my 35 hours, I was unable to complete my tutoring lessons with River.  I came back for an hour today to wrap up River's lesson and complete a post BRI.  The final lesson consisted of comparing and contrasting the two reading passages and pulling out the similarities and differences of those passages using a Venn diagram.  River also worked through so fluency cards as well.  The post BRI went well.  I think I understood how to administer is better than the first time I gave it.  There wasn't much improvement from the first BRI.  I think that more growth from the first BRI to the second one would have occurred with more practice working on comprehensions with River.

            I enjoyed my time at Lord Baltimore!  I would love to go back and visit if I could!  If the school wasn't so far from my home, I would love to volunteer and see some of the students I bonded with again! 

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