Dana's+Practicum+Blog

Dana's Blog #1 September 14, 2011 The classroom that I am in has mostley boys and only four girls. The children in the room are all about five years of age. The first day I was there it was in the afternoon. I arrived at the end of nap time. Only about four of the kids took a nap that day, and the rest of them were looking at a book on their mat. I observed them for a little and then latter helped out with getting snack ready. One of the teachers tried reading them a book before they sat down for snack. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍She had to stop a few times to quiet them down. The boys couldn't keep thier hands to themselves and they were hitting each other during the reading of the story. Eventually the teacher got through the story and was able to ask them questions about it. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ At the snack table the children did really well. They had gold fish and mixed fruit. They were loud at some points but they got through snack with out any problems. After they had snack they went to sit in the cirlce area and were allowed to look at a book for a few minutes. During that time one of the boys kicked another boy. The one teacher seperated them and had them sit a different tables. The other teacher and I took the other children outside while the one teacher stayed inside for a short time with the two boys.

‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍The teachers told me that with all of these boys in the classroom they have had some behavioral problems. They have tried many things to help them calm themselves down but are having a hard time. They are trying five star listner, and are giving out stickers to those who follow. Five star listner is: eyes, ears, lips, hands, and feet. You are watching with your eyes, listening with your ears, lips are closed, hands are still, and feet are quiet. Some of the children listened when the teacher told them to be a five star listner. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Dana's Blog #2 September 21, 2011

I am doing my practicum at TCCP. I work there so I know some of the children in the room. A few I know from when I worked in the infant room and they were babies. Its nice to see how they have grown over the past 4 years. I have sat down and asked them questions about what they like to do and so on. I have had a few chances to go outside with them and they love to play different games. The room is made up of 12 boys, and five girls. They love playing with cars, trains and pretend to be super heros. The girls like to draw and build with blocks. The girls in the room are not girly girls so they fit right in with the boys.

I was there one early morning and a couple of the boys were building with teh train tracks. I sat down and one of the boys asked me to help him build a second train circle. This child was suppose to go to Kindergarden this fall but his parents felt he wasn't ready yet. This is his second year in this room. He doesn't listen to his teachers and sometimes he does whatever he wants to do. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍That morning when I was helping him with the train tracks he was behaving very well. He talked to me about what his train was doing and where it was going. When a few other boys eventually came over is when he started acting up and not wanting to share the trains and train tracks ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍. I feel that he plays much better when he is by himself. I eventually told him he needed to share some of the trains. I also pointed out that we had built two tracks so his train could be on its own track. He eventually played along side the other boys.



Dana's Blog # 3 October 5, 2011 My goal for this practicum is working with one of the boys in the classroom. S.H. should be in Kindergarden. He turned five in early July, but his mom decided to keep him in the same room for another year.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ I observed him one morining last week and found that when he plays he is all over the place. He starts something and then doesn't finish what he was playing with. Then he will come back and play with something else. I talked to one of his teachers and they said he has always been like this. They said that S.H. is easily distracted and is one of the reasons why he didn't go to Kindergarden in the Fall. He is Chinese and he does speak English. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

<span style="color: #ed6a26; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">I watched him for about fifteen minutes and he was playing with legos. He got out a container of the legos and put it down on the ground. He pulled out a small truck that legos can be attached to it. I ask him what he was doing and he said he says "a cool house". S.H. then tells me and shows me a certain lego and says "I have this at my house". S.H. starts to buld wht the legos. He puts two bigger legos on a flat piece of lego. He is making a squeaking sound and laughing as he does this. He gets up and goes over to find another bin of different type of blocks. He dumps most of them out of the container. He gets up again and goes back to the legos he got out first and picks up two othe legos and puts them together. He puts them down as well. He is singing a song in Chinese and English. S.H. pulls out more legos and people out of a bin and throws them to the ground. He then goes back and picks up the flat bead truck that he was orginally playing with and sticks a little lego person in the drivers seat. He also places a small truck on the back of the flat bed truck. S.H. looks into the lego bin and finds a girl lego. He places her on the truck behind the guy lego. He starts pushing it around the room and make vrooming sounds.

<span style="color: #ed6a26; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">I fell like a bonded with him a little. He comes up to me with a book to read to him. He does well when he is by himself. He acts up when he is with the other boys. He is a sweet boy and I hope this year he will do better and be able to go to Kindergarden next year<range type="comment" id="825862">‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍. I want to work with him as much as I can when I am there. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍



<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">//<range type="comment" id="830732">‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍"//Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." //-- Benjamin Franklin//

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">"It is not what is poured into a student that counts but what is planted." //-Linda Conway ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍//

<span style="color: #f72243; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Dana's Blog #4 <span style="color: #f72243; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">October 19, 2011 <span style="color: #f72243; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I work around my work schedule to do my practicum. Sometimes I am there for an hour or two three days a week. I see the children outside because they sometimes combine with my class. S.H who I have been working with says hi to me all the time and wants me to read him a story. When I am in the room he always comes up and hands me a book for me to read to him. The teachers say that he loves to be read to. He also loves to do puzzles and put things together. <range type="comment" id="459397">‍‍‍‍‍One day last week when I was there he was building with Magna tiles. ‍‍‍‍‍ They are plastic tiles that are different colors. They have magnets on them so you can connnect and build with them. He looked at the lid of the box and started bulding what he saw. He got the through a few of them and actually completed the different structures. This was great because S.H. doesn't finish tasks. He started building the big one that was on the box and got distracted by a girl accross the table from him. She had got out a coloring book and markers. She was coloring and he wanted to color with her. He moved onto coloring, and left his magna tiles on the table. S.H. eventually went back and tried to finish it. He couldn't finish it but at least he tried.



<span style="color: #f72243; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">When he saw me this week he wanted to get out the magna tiles and work on the big structure. I was there today and ate lunch with the children. I sat by S.H. and we talked a little. It's hard to understand him because of his accent. After lunch I sat down with the kids on the floor. S.H. came over and sat on my lap. He gave me a book to read. I started to read it and six other children came over and sat around us on the floor. They all listened to the story and then it was time for nap. Six out of the 14 kids that were there today took a nap. They are allowed a book or two to look at if they don't nap.



Dana's Blog #5 November 2, 2011

We are down to the last month of going to the classroom's and working with the children. These past two months have gone by fast. Since I am doing my practicum where I work I am able to see these kids all the time. My budy in the room S.H. likes to call my name every time he sees me. It can be in the hallway or even outside. I took my daughter to zoo boo and three of the kids in my practicum class where there. S.H. was one of them, and they just stared at me. They probably thought what is she doing here = ).

My practicum site uses Creative Curriculum. The lead teacher takes down observations and puts it in the child's portfolio. The curriculum checks to make sure the children are on the right track since this class will be moving on to Kindergarden next fall.

Here are some pictures of the classroom:

<range type="comment" id="272205">‍‍ ‍‍ <span style="color: #793790; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Some art hanging up in the room <range type="comment" id="896267">‍‍ ‍‍ <span style="color: #673ea8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Writting Area <span style="color: #2659d9; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The room is a little small and they have to move some furniture around to fit 17 sleep mats on the ground. Everything is open up to the children in the room. The class is called the Peacfull Panda's. You can see diffrent pictues of Panda's around the room.
 * <span style="color: #673ea8; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Circle time area **** Cozy Area **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeates
 * <span style="color: #ff00e6; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[[image:ececurriculumpracticum/pinkalicious.jpg width="509" height="514"]]Here is a picture of my daughter and her Pinkalicious pumpkin she painted. Happy Halloween!!! **

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dana Blog #6 <span style="color: #920792; font-family: Georgia,serif;">November 16 2011

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: Georgia,serif;">If this was your classroom what might you change? <span style="color: #920792; font-family: Georgia,serif;">If this was my classroom I would change a few things. <range type="comment" id="757009">‍‍First I would hope my room would be bigger. My cozy area will have more pillows and wouldn't have hard shelfs around it. I would have a bigger space for the block area. That way they could build bigger. I would also have a easle in the room that way the children could paint whenever they wanted too. ‍‍

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This week I taught my Math and Intergrating the Arts lesson. Last week the class was talking about familes. My math lesson was on how many people lived in your house. We made a picture chart and then I had them count how many people and animal cut out were on there. Here is a picture of the final project.

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: georgia,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: georgia,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">My second lesson was an Arts lesson. I gave them a tree to color and apples to color as well. The apples represent the number of family members. After

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: georgia,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">they colored the tree and apples I had the cut them out and paste them on a piece of construcion paper. I only got six of them to do it so far and I plan on

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: georgia,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">making a book out of it for the room. Here is a picture of them working on it.

<span style="color: #920792; font-family: georgia,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"><range type="comment" id="318024">‍‍ ‍‍

<span style="color: #0c920c; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Blog #7 Final Blog <span style="color: #0c920c; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">November 30, 2011 __**How has your own professional teaching practice changed as a result from this practicum experience?**__ <span style="color: #0c920c; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I feel it has changed a little over the last three months. I have been working with chilldren for almost five years and two of those years I was a lead teacher in an infant/toddler room. This practicum I was working with much older children and it was nice. I could talk to them and they could answer me with words. It was fun doing lessons with them and watching them play and interact with each other. They were a nice bunch of children and each one brought something different to the room. <span style="color: #0c920c; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have a better understanding what they need to be working on because they all are going to Kindergarden next year. I saw what the lead teacher needs to do to get them prepared. It was a challenge being in this room because of behavior issues but in the end I enjoyed my time with these children. I feel that most of them will be ready to move on come August.

<span style="color: #b01111; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth." ~Dan Rather**

<span style="color: #0c920c; font-family: Georgia,serif;">*END*