Blog Entry #9

I have decided to become a teacher! I think that this is the career path for me. I am very excited to become a teacher and start my career. I think that it is an excellent career choice and will be a good fit for my life. The service learning placement really helped and influenced my decision.

The service learning placement was really what helped me make a decision. I have been on the fence with this decision for a while and I have been trying to decide on what to do. The service learning placement helped me make a good decision, to become a teacher. My experience was  really great and enjoyable and I learned a lot of new and useful information from my service-learning teacher. I think that if I would not have taken this class and not of done my service learning I wouldn't have decided this so soon. It is a great way to help students like me to make a decision and really decide  what is best for you and what the best career path is. It was just a great experience and really helps show you what teaching can be like.

My next steps are to get into the elementary education program. I am taking the praxis exams in December. I an finishing up all of my prerequisites next semester and in the summer. I will then apply for the program and take all of the steps necessary to get into the program. Then I will hopefully get into the program by Fall 2017. Then finish the program by spring of 2019. Hopefully all goes as planned and works out very well. I am very excited for this next chapter in my life and my career!

Blog Entry #8

I feel that I am making connections between the topics and my service learning. I think that there are many connections to be made and I am making those connections within each of the modules and the blog posts. I think that the blog posts help me to put everything I learn in the module into context. It helps me to see that the information in the modules is actually being used inside the classroom. It shows that there are many ways that you can connect what we are learning and what we will have to teach in our classrooms.
I think that in the process of blogging is helping me to notice different things in my service learning placement. It helps me get different ideas. It also helps me notice different ways of things. It helps you notice and think of all of the small things. There is so much that goes into teaching I think that the blog post help you to see how everything connects. I see growth in that at first my ideas were not as clear and concise and later on I got more into detail and more in depth.

Blog Entry #7

When I was doing my service learning placement the students were doing their benchmark tests for math and science. The standard was a benchmark test to see how the students are doing. If the students weren't doing to well it would help the teacher know what she needs to reteach and go over again. Once the whole grade had taken the test all of the teachers had a meeting. The meeting was to compare classes and see which classes were missing what and why. If a class had a particular  question the class did very well on that teacher would explain how she taught that idea to the rest of the teachers; if perhaps the other classes didn't do so well on a particular question. I thought that this was a very good idea, it helps the teachers to improve and try a new way of doing a subject if they need to.
I think that there was an emphasis on math, science, social studies, and reading/ language arts. She really teaches those subjects well and spends a tremendous more amount of time on those subjects. Some subjects I didn't see addressed, were art or health. I think that I didn't see those addressed maybe because I wasn't there on the day they did it. Also because they are not as vital subjects. They are subjects that will not be on end of year testing and are not subjects that have benchmark testing. I'm not quite sure how the teacher felt about standards or standardized testing, we didn't talk about.

Blog Entry #6

There was a lot of diversity in my service-learning placement. I was in a school where it was a lower income area, and there was a lot of different ethnic diversity in the school. There was a student who was from Iraq and he doesn't speak very well English. He is still learning and trying to get to know the language. His first language was Arabic. He would act out a lot in class and would be loud, or not follow directions or instructions. The teacher wasn't really quite sure why we was doing this. She finally traced it back to English not being his first language. He wasn't quite understanding everything and he wasn't following directions or anything because he didn't know he was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing. He didn't understand so he was doing these things. So she started working one on one with him a lot more. She would help him and explain different things to him so that he could better understand.
The teacher does a lot of things to differentiate learning styles for the students. She will do visuals,  kinesthetic, and auditory. She also does a lot of different motions sort of like sign language. When she is teaching them science she does a lot of different motions for the different types of animals, or for different big words to remember. For cold-blooded animals the motion is the kids rub their arms like they are really cold. She has a lot of different ways to help the students with different learning styles.

Blog Entry #5

For an example of educating children with disabilities, there is a student in the class of my service learning placement who has disabilities. He will participate with the class and learn with the class for about half of the day. Part way through the day he will go to resource. He has learning disabilities but has the individual plan to help him best learn. Resource helps him to learn on his own and he gets one on one help from those teachers. But also being with his peers helps him to learn social skills, and make friends. IDEA has made it possible for him to get individual help but also to learn and interact with his peers.
I also saw the rehabilitation act of 1973 in my service learning placement. There is a student who has diabetes. The school and teacher accommodate to him with his disability. The teacher keeps treats and different things for him in the class room. He is allowed to go and get it whenever he needs it. He also has special permission and accommodations he is allowed to get up out of his seat whenever he needs to, to go to the hall and check everything he needs to. All of the other students have to ask for permission to get up and go and do different things, or even to go out in the hall. He has the accommodations he can just go as he pleases. Because of the rehabilitation act of 1973 he can go and do what he needs to do.

Blog Entry #4

The teacher in my service learning engages the learners a lot. When Ms. McPartland is describing an assignment or is giving the students directions she will have the students read along with her. When she was doing the reading section for the day she will have the students fill in the blanks. She will read a sentence and leave certain words out that the students have to fill in by saying.  This really helps to engage them and help them to really understand what they are doing. Ms. McPartland also has clothes pins that have names of each of the students. When they were doing math she would pull names out and have the students answer her questions. When she wants to hear from everyone she will just pull the names from the jar with their names on them, and then have them answer the questions. She will have the students work with their table partners at certain times. When she wants to have the students engaging or trying to understand the concept she will have them work together.
I feel like the teacher in my service learning always tries to engage the students. She is good about making sure they are all paying attention, no one has their heads down, and that everyone is understanding what they are doing. A time I think wasn't really engaging for the students is some of the math lessons I have been there for. Sometimes she just gets up there and isn't really engaging them. She just gets up there and starts talking, which I don't think will help them a ton because they are wanting to talk and engage with other students and the teacher too. I think to engage them more she could have them work together more, help each other, and come up with activities that will help them remember the math.

Blog Entry #3

The teacher in my service learning placement has a lot of ways she encourages a positive classroom community. She really tries to get to know the students and tries to learn new things about each of them. She has very clear classroom rules and expectations that help the class stay in order. When the class is in order I feel that it helps create that positive class room environment. She also just keeps a positive attitude through out the day. She is always nice and patient with each student. She tries to stay happy and smile even if she gets frustrated or is stressed out.
The teacher in my service learning has a lot of ways she rewards and recognizes the students skills. If a student answers a question correctly she will praise them. She also has a money system, she will give the kids fake money. They will have stores with little prizes every so often so that they can spend their money that they make. Even if they just participate in the conversation they can get the money. She also has a student of the week, where she recognizes a different student each week.

Blog Entry #2

I think the theory the teacher in my service-learning placement uses is mostly visual. She gets up in front of the class and goes through everything. On the white board she has what is going to happen through out the day. She has the subjects and the exact timing for everything all up for the students to see. She also has a very organized clean class room. I think this helps the students to stay focused and concentrate on the her rather than the class room. The class room is a very great environment for the students to focus and study in. She also writes up all of the spelling words for the week on the white board so that the kids can see the words everyday. When I was there she did a math activity with cereal. She gave each of the students a cup of cereal, and a worksheet. She had the kids use the cereal to help them figure out the math problems she gave them.
The teacher addresses developmental levels in a few different ways. She really goes one on one with each of the students. She goes around the class room and helps each of the students individually. She'll ask each of them what their individual questions are and she helps them. She also gives the kids activities to do and then she will pull each of them out and have them read to her. She said when she pulls them out it is to assess their reading levels. Once she assesses them she can figure out how to help that individual student.

Blog Entry #1

The School where I have decided to do my service learning is in a nice part of town. The school is a newly opened school it opened just a few years ago. The houses surrounding the school seem to be nice homes. There are a lot of newer houses in the area. I've learned that the students who will be attending this school are mostly from well off homes. The students seem to come from educated parents. Doesn't seem like most families come from very diverse cultures. Seems that in most of the homes the first language is English.
My understanding of service learning is that you first have to choose a school that you would like to complete 20 hours of service at. Then you have to contact the school and see if they are interested in having you come and help out and observe. You must also get the principals approval. When you get the school where you will be doing your service learning, you have a few different things that you will be doing. At the service learning I will be observing the teacher and helping the teacher with various tasks throughout the class room. This will help me see what a teacher does and what it is like in the classroom setting. Doing this will help me know if teaching is the right career path for me.