Theresa's+Practicum+Blog

= = *Welcome to Theresa's Practicum Blog* = =

9/14- I currently work in the center where I will be doing my early childhood practicum, however I do not work with the preschool children. The students just moved classrooms on the fifth of September and I am expecting things to be a little "out of sorts". Both the children and the teachers are probably adjusting to each other's requirements. ‍I expect the students to still be in the transition stage where they are learning the rules of the room; I expect the teachers to be learning the needs of each individual student, this causing the day to be somewhat different from the average day in the preschool ‍ room.

9/21- On Monday I went to observe the preschool classroom for the first time. The students and teacher were wonderful to observe. I was there for two hours. When I first arrived the students were cleaning up snack and getting ready for circle time. During circle time the students were more than thrilled to show me what they do on a day to day basis. First they all sat "Chris-Cross-Applesauce", and then the teacher began. First they chose who the calendar person was and with the help of that student the class sang the days of the week song, and then talked about the day of the week, the month, and the year. Then they moved onto the weather choosing a classmate to pick what the weather was like outside that day. After deciding on the weather, the students talked about their new letter of the week, which was the letter B. The class also talked about words that begin with the letter B/showing the students pictures to go along with the words, and how many students in the class had a the letter B in their name. Then the teacher read a few short stories that were supposed to be "scary", and each student was allowed to pick a song for the group to sing before starting their project on the letter B. Some of the songs I did not know, but I'm sure that I will learn them soon! Next the students moved onto their letter B project which was creating a BLACK BIRD. The students all made birds that looked different and they were all very creative. Then it was time for outside play. All of the students got on their coats and headed outside for some fun! When the students came back in it was time for lunch to be prepared. While the assistant teacher was preparing lunch, the students were tracing the letter B on lined paper‍. I found it interesting that the teacher wrote each child's name in orange marker and then the child traced their name in black marker. I never saw this done and thought it was a great idea. ‍Overall I thought that the experience was great and I have no complaints. All of the students seemed to have a good time learning and they all caught on quite ‍quickly.  ‍

10/10- Last Thursday I taught the preschool class. The lesson I taught was based on vocabulary development. Before I read them the book //Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See//, I passed out note cards, all of which had a simple word from the book on them. We went around the circle and I read their word to them and told them to raise their hand when I said their word. Also, they were to put their hand up to their eyes when I said the word SEE, this kept those children who had already found their vocabulary word interested. They loved this activity, and they were all able to match their word to the word in the book. Then as a class we described each animal using the vocabulary word. All of the children loved talking about how red the fox was and how the skunk had stripes. One little boy in particular loved the screech owl. After talking about the new vocabulary, having them match the vocabulary to the pictures in the book and describe the pictures using the vocabulary words, I felt that they were ready to do another activity. We all went back to our seats and I gave them each a blank sheet of paper and crayons. I told them they could draw any animal they wanted, they just had to use a vocabulary word. I thought this may be too advanced, but this part of the lesson went best in my opinion. The class all drew an animal that described a vocabulary word. Many of the children drew baby bears and mama bears. However, one of the little boys in the classroom who normally has a hard time focusing was able to sit and draw a picture of a screech owl. This is the same boy who became so involved during the reading. He drew a picture of a screech owl and snakes. This was a huge accomplishment in my opinion. I loved that he was able to divert his attention away from all distractions and just draw. He was even able to explain his picture to me and tell me that he loved the book. I now know for future lesson that I need to incorporate animals and free draws. ‍This was a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to teach again this week! ‍

10/13- Today I went back to the preschool room. The class was very excited to share with me all of the things I had missed since the week before. I was just as excited to see them as they were to see me. It was refreshing to hear all about their week voluntarily. I have made it my goal for this practicum experience to learn what to do, and what NOT to do. My goal is to not get frustrated over things I do not agree with, but to take a step back and evaluate how I will or will NOT use what I see in my time at this preschool center. For example, through my time at Carlow, I have learned many different ways to implement learning, and one of the best ways for students to learn is through play. In this center play is encouraged, though the students mainly learn through circle time. As we have previously learned circle time is not beneficial for these young students and is seen as inappropriate. Students at this age cannot sit for a long period of time without loosing focus, and these students are sitting for forty-five minutes each day at the circle time carpet. I understand why the teacher does circle time, but I will not be using circle time in my future classroom. Many different aspects of this classroom I will being doing the same type of evaluation for, things I want to take with me and things that I DO NOT want to take with me. However, the good does out weigh the bad within this classroom, and I like seeing how they do things. I will continue my goal of learning what to do and what not to do from this practicum experience.

10/27- Today in the preschool classroom, I planned and taught a lesson on categorization. This center does not have a curriculum that supports the developmental stages of each child within the classroom. With my lesson I had to try to implement the lesson for all types of learners within the classroom and I had a harder time with this then I thought I was going to. I knew from observation that the students were all given the same materials at all times. This does not give the students the ability to learn on their own level or at their own pace.When it came to my lesson, I tried to make a variety of materials so that the students all had a chance to participate.For this specific lesson, I used the Halloween theme. While at the "circle-time" carpet, I gave each student two different colored and different Halloween shaped items. These shapes included: a spider, a pumpkin, a cat, a bat, and a ghost. The shapes were colored: black, orange, purple, white, and green. During the lesson I made categories on the carpet, first I made the categories of the specific shapes they had, regardless of color. I asked each student one at a time to put their shapes in the proper category and we discussed what a category was.They did wonderful with this and I made sure that specific students had specific shapes (those that were not as exposed to Halloween shapes had easier shapes such as a pumpkin or a cat). Then I re-passed out the shapes and the students categorized their items by color. The students also did a wonderful job with this and I was very excited that they appeared to catch on quick even though they had never been taught anything like this. When the lesson was finished, I let the students each pick a shape and decorate whatever shape they picked at their table. I had learned from previous observations that the students love to work with arts and crafts and I made sure to make this a priority in my lesson.

10/31- Today I was caught off guard while I was working. I work in the center in which I am observing and my director came in and asked if I could switch my observation day to today. While I knew that I had to agree, I did not have any materials ready for observing or teaching. I went into the preschool classroom unprepared and without any idea of what I was going to do. The teacher told me that it was fine and that she would love for me to teach the lesson she had prepared for today. Being that I work in the same center as her I agreed.I went into the lesson very weary... this week they were working with the letter E and she had prepared a craft for them to create an elephant. Everyone got the same materials and created elephants that all looked the same... this is not my idea of creativity and once I started the activity I immediately wanted out because this was going against every creative bone in my body. Being that the teacher is my co-worker I suggested giving the students markers to color their elephants how they wished and she agreed. This made this lesson much easier for me to follow through with, but let's just say... this was another lesson.... another lesson of how I will never be unprepared again. However, teachers have to think on their feet and this is a perfect example of that! Another lesson taught: NEVER observe where you work... even if you do not work in the same room as the room you observe in! Lessons learned!

11/7-Today in the preschool classroom I began my //Early Language and Literacy Classrroom Observation//, and discovered many different things. While I am not finished with the observations I did notice that literacy is not encouraged as much as I had once thought it was. The area that is currently suffering the most is the recognition of diversity in the classroom. The teacher does not discuss any diversity from the different kinds of homes and people a child my live with to the different types of races and languages around the world. I would definitely make a recommendation to incorporate much more diversity learning activities, maybe starting with reading a book about diversity considering she reads them a lot of books and the students really enjoy this time. While I did once hear a song about different languages, this was all that was elaborated on within the classroom. The teacher really needs to discuss diversity within the classroom. I have noticed that many of the students within this particular preschool classroom, do not live within the same type of household. These differences can be addressed within the classroom! This may make some children feel uncomfortable, though I believe that within her particular classroom the children would feel more welcomed. The students would then not feel different from their classmates! Next week, I will further observe and fill out the scale, this will give me more insight to what I believe the teacher should work on.

11/14- Today I finished the scoring for this particular preschool room. Another thing that I thought they could work on after finishing the observation was phonological awareness. The teacher does do a lot of reading, but she does not put emphasis on any words in particular at any given time. I think that she should try to implement some sort of phonological awareness activities into her readings. Though today when I read a book I did not introduce any phonological awareness. After reading a book to the students, about teachers and how much we should appreciate them, I had the students create "funky flowers" because their letter of the week is f. While we have said many times before this may or may not be appropriate, I tried to stay with the teacher's theme. Normally the teacher would do basically the entire craft activity for the students. I simply gave them a paper with three stems and different strips of paper and let them do what they wanted. While they do all look somewhat the same due to copying off one another, this was much more creative then their normal activities. Next week, I think I am going to implement more paper and cutting into my activity because the students really seemed to take a liking to ripping the paper! The more observing I take in, the more I learn!

11/21- Today was my final day in the practicum classroom. I have learned so much from my practicum experience, and I am taking a lot away from it. While I did not always agree with the way things were done in the classroom, there were many things I did enjoy in the classroom that I did not mention. For instance, I really did see and enjoy the reading time that occurred within this classroom. Today was my last day, and I decided to read a book to the students. The students LOVED the book which was entitled "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama".While I was reading I looked around and saw how intently the students were listening and how comfortable they seemed, and I learned that reading to the students is not only a time for learning, but a time for reflection and relaxation. I will be sure to incorporate the teacher's reading methods into my future classroom after experiencing this. I have also learned, which I think is most important... that even when we may not agree with something, we need to be open minded! By being open minded one may be able to see something that they may not have seen with a closed mind. For example, while in the classroom all I could see were the things that I did not like, I immediately shut out anything that was good or positive within the classroom and began to see things in a negative light. On my final day I realized that if I looked around... all that really matters is that the students were happy and they were learning from the experience. I cannot change what happens within that classroom, but I can learn from the experience and change what will happen in my future classroom. Overall, I am glad that I had the opportunity learn from this experience and observe these amazing students.