Fall Semester is over!!

I can't believe it but the Fall semester of TEI is over! It was grueling, but I'm glad it's over and now I have 5 weeks of vacation. The first week was a bummer, because I caught a viscious cold. I have been holed up at home, playing computer chess all of these days. Soon, I will find out my Spring placement. Hopefully it will be a good one. Fingers crossed.

Image from: Stock Xchange

Halloween 2009

Well, it's halloween night, and I am writing this blog as I pass out candy to the little trick-or-treaters that are slowly coming by. The first batch of kids looked way past their prime, but I humored them anyway and gave them handfuls of yummy chocolates. I remember when my brother and I used to go trick-or-treating when we were kids, and we always ended up going in tatters trying to be a haggered old couple. In terms of school, this past week was the last week before the 5th graders in A track went off track for a month. This means starting Monday, I will be going back to 6th grade. I am happy that time is passing quickly, but this also means that finals are around the corner. Some of the assignments I have found to be difficult, but I am sure I will get through. On my reading test I shocked myself and scored a 96% !! I was sure I was going to be in the low Cs. A couple of weeks ago, I had an incident with a parent. I was subbing for a half day on a Thursday, and full day on the Friday. The child's parent called me at school Friday morning, and chewed me out! The reason: I had her child turn a card for not reading, and didn't let her go to the bathroom when she wanted. Pheweee! I met with the principal, and I prepared a written statement about the events. There was some closure. The parent has had a history of problems with my master teacher and the principal and vice-principal. She finally realized that she needs to let her daughter deal with her problems on her own. It was a learning experience. I learned that dealing with parents is probably the most difficult part of all! Well, happy halloween to all of you out there! Image from: Stock Xchange

Hello! Well it's well into September and I am still going to a classroom in Elk Grove, where I help a 5th grade teacher. The more I do, the more I feel like being a teacher is really demanding. It's really intimidating. Hopefully I will be ready by the time the year is over. Everyday, I tackle atleast one subject. My master teacher always has some written and verbal feedback for me. I feel that she cares and is really in tune with my teaching goals. Classwork and homework is the same. There are a lot of assignments, and reading. I usually have to prepare one lesson a week. Which may sound like little, compared to what a teacher has to do. However, I find it extremely challenging because it's in reading. This week we are learning about teaching multisyllabic word reading. I need to get a move on writing the assignment! Yikes! All else is the same... Until next time!
Image from: Stock Xchange

Science Lesson on Cells

Today I got to sub for my Master Teacher. It was a lot harder than my sub jobs in the past. I have higher expectations for myself, and teaching was exhausting! One of the lessons I taught was a science lesson on cells. It is the first lesson of the year, and hopefully I generated some interest. There were really no interactives :( But we managed. I started the lesson by asking students what they have learned in the past in their science class. Then I began to introduce the idea of cells and how we are all made up of cells. Also I gave the example of a piece of hair cut into it's smallest unit, that is called a cell. Somehow we got off topic, and I mentioned that muscles are cells, but we eat muscles. I asked the lone vegetarian in the class to close her ears, while we discussed this. When introducing DNA we talked about the various applications of DNA in the real world: solving crimes, determing biological parents, learning about diseases. It was a full day, and hopefully the kids learned something. I will get feedback from my Master Teacher on Monday. As far as management goes, there were no behavioral problems. Some students became fidgety, but they were quickly and gently reminded to stay focused. All of the students showed me respect and kindness throughout the day. Image from: Stock Xchange

High-Low - a math game

Last week, Wednesday, I got to teach a math game to the students in class. I learned it from my math course the previous night. I passed out half-sheets of paper with place value slots upto 100 million. Each student received a dice. Each student was to roll his/her dice and place the value in a slot to create a nine digit number. The goal was to see who could come up with the highest number. Then we did the same with the lowest number. The students were engaged, and read out their numbers accurately. It went quite well. Although, it fizzled at the end. I didn't have much of a closure. My master teacher gave me some feedback. She said that I needed to set the standard that they were to keep their dice on their desk after they were done, and not keep playing with it. Also, for closure, it would have been a good idea to ask the class what strategies they used when they were forming their numbers. I get to do the same game next Tuesday, so hopefully, it will be better the second time around. It was a fun learning game that my master teacher allowed me to do.
Image from: Stock Xchange

Student Teaching - A track

This week was the first day of school (again). I started A track with my on-track Master Teacher. It was neat to see the first day of school, and all of the getting-to-know-you activities the kids did. Also, my Master Teacher was amazing; she knew all of the students' names by lunch time. I am about 95% there. Tomorrow, I start the day off by playing a place-value game to start off the math lesson. My Master Teacher loves to teach math. I hope some of her enthusiasm will rub off onto me. Besides student teaching, this was the first week of Fall classes. It's been really hectic so far, because we go to 3 different school sites. There is a ton of reading and homework already. I hope I can survive! What intimidates me the most is the lesson planning. I feel like my brain is empty when it should be brimming with innovative and creative ideas. My Master Teacher introduced me to two sites that will be helpful in lesson planning. I have posted them on this blog for anyone who is interested. Check "Power Points" and "Open Court Resources." Until next time!
Image from: Stock Xchange

Summer Session Is Over!

Today was the last day of class in our EED 749. Yesterday marked our last day in EED 701. It's been a tough summer session. Lots of papers and projects. The last assignment I completed was in EED 749 where we we had to complete a full lesson plan using the template that was provided, and using all of the elements of SIOP. I worked with one of my classmates, and we presented a 6th grade lesson on the topic of the Indian Caste System in Ancient Indian Civilization. We used many scaffolding techniques, and interactives. For a final grade we received an A! So I'm excited about the grades that we will be receiving as a result of our hard work. Classes restart on August 17, 2009. There are several books that I have ordered successfully from Amazon.com. I'm hanging in there! Image from: Stock Xchange

Student Teaching

It's been a full week since I started student-teaching at Maeola Beitzel Elementary School. I am learning so much from my master teacher. She is so dynamic, fun, but strict at the same time. I can tell, all of her students love her, and more importantly, respect her. The assignments have been flooding in, and I am working on them as fast as I can. One of the most daunting tasks I am faced with is to create a lesson plan for the English learners in the class. They are usually students who come in with another primary language. They take what's called the CELDT (California English Language Development Test), which assigns them a level 1-5. I will be teaching a lesson from the Open Court curriculum. My master teacher has been extremely supportive and reliable. I believe I know all of the students by first name. I have worked with them individually when we did their fluencies. Everyday, I take roll and lunch count. Today I gave them their spelling pre-test, and graded their end of chapter assessments. It's been a hectic and tiring day today, with class starting at 2:30 p.m. going all the way to 8:00 p.m. I am hanging in there!
Image from: Stock Xchange

Drowning in Homework!

Well, it's been several weeks since our technology course, and I miss it! With EED 701 and EED 749 we have had tons of reading and many homework assignments. One of the most difficult assignments for me had to do with case law and bilingual education. Sifting through those cases was wrenching. I got through, and thankfully, I have completed the assignment associated with them. I was to compose an email to a school board with regards to the legal rights of the English Language Learners. Another assignment, which was a little more fun, was a field assignment where we visit a place that is non-mainstream. I chose the Hindu temple in Yuba City. Writing this assignment was easier and lot more fun. We start our student teaching assignments next week, and pre-service begins on the 15th. I am looking forward to it, but am a little nervous too. It's a huge time commitment. Overall, I feel I am learning a lot and gaining more insight into teaching.
Image from: Stock Xchange

Lucky Penny

Everyday, well, 6 days a week, I walk in the mornings around my neighborhood-- 3 miles a day. It's so interesting what type of trash I come across-- empty fast food containers, cans, cigarette butts (lot of those), pair of shoes, candy wrappers, empty cigarette boxes, clothing, plastic and metal pieces, broken zipper handles, dinner knives, broken cds, the list goes on. What do people do? Do they just fling these items out of their car windows as they pass by? I guess the logical answer is - yes. Among these unsavory items, I have come across pennies. I have collected close to about a dollar worth of pennies, even an occasional dime or nickel. I wonder how they end up on the sidewalk or curb? Do people just get tired of hanging onto their pennies, and just fling them out of the windows too? I wonder how each time I go out there, I find a penny or two (once I found 8 pennies all scattered on the sidewalk.) Of course I pick them up. Then, the other day I found a crisp twenty dollar bill. I quickly snatched it up, put it in my pocket. When I got home, I looked at it closely, and it was very authentic looking, but for a few noticable details. There was a watermark picture of Andrew Jackson, and the number 20 was not at shiny as the original. I compared it to a real 20 and it was definitely a counterfeit. I remember seeing a report on the news about the very same type of fake bills. Of course it went into the trash.
For the most part people are polite and usually will let me pass while they wait at intersections. Not always, there are those who are just in too much of a hurry that waiting for a pedestrian for a couple of minutes is just unbearable. Also, others who walk by me will occasionally give me a "good morning". It's usually the younger kids who don't bother even looking at me. Then of course, there's John, who walks too. He is an older gentleman, usually in jeans and a t-shirt, with a pretty fast pace. He will usually stop and talk to me about the weather, or what he is planning to do that day. Such a friendly man. I wonder how many pennies he has found?
Image from: Stock Xchange

Chapter 1

We just received our first reading assignment, required before the first day of class EED749. I read the first Chapter and it has a lot of general information introducing us to the SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol.) The focus is English Learners - ELs. Here are a few highlights from Vogt/Short - Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners - the SIOP Model...
The goal of the book is stated to "prepare teachers to teach content effectively to English learners while developing the students' language ability." English learners have some of the highest drop-out rates, and 89 percent of Hispanic students and 86 percent of African American middle and high school students read below grade level. (Page 4)
English Learners (ELs) are very diverse within themselves. The first group are those who have strong academic backgrounds before coming to the US. They primarily need English language development to solidify their content learning. The second group are those immigrants who have very limited formal schooling. They have weak literacy in their native language and are not socialized to the school environment. They are most at risk for failure. And finally the third group are students who have grown up in the US but speak a language other than English in their home-- usually 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants. On to the topic of academic literacy: there are 3 knowledge bases -- knowledge of English, knowledge of content topic and knowledge of how tasks are to be accomplished. (Page 11) What is an effective SIOP lesson? Students are engaged, interact with the teacher, with other students, with the text - which then ultimately leads to discourse and critical thinking. Student language learning is promoted through social interaction and understanding of complex concepts. More on the SIOP after our discussion in class.

What's new?

Well, we are done with our technology course. What a great learning experience it was, so much information, many aha moments. Denise Phillips is an excellent instructor, and such a great role model. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be a student in her class. We are in a lull this week, no school for a week and then back to it on the 29th. I have been watching the news on Iran lately. It is such a volatile situation in that the militia are being very agressive, and the public is still adamant about protesting and voicing their opinions on the election. President Obama spoke out about the situation today. Hopefully the violence will stop.
Image from: Stock Xchange

Recipe for Samosas

We had a wonderful potluck for our last day in our technology course, and I brought Indian samosas. Many wanted the recipe so here it is (40 samosas):

Ingredients: 20 flour tortillas, 10-12 potatoes, 2 medium onions, small packet frozen sweet peas, ketchup, tabasco sauce, masala (all-spice), salt, flour paste made with water, vegetable oil.

Boil the potatoes until they are soft. While boiling, sautee onions in a flat frying pan in about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. When soft, add about 3-4 teaspoons of salt, 2 cups of peas, mix. Add 2 cups of ketchup, and tabasco sauce (add a little or a lot), add the masala (about 1 teaspoon.) Peel the boiled potatoes, mash, and mix in the onion mix. Mix well.

Take flour tortillas and cut in half. Heat the flour tortilla on a flat non-stick pan until it's nice and soft, take the flour paste (mix white flour with water, so it has a glue consistency) and put it around the edges. Fold the half tortilla shell into a cone. Put the potato mixture in the cone, and seal the top. When all of the samosas are filled, heat a pot of vegetable oil, deep fry until light brown, and serve.

The recipe may seem a bit complicated, but there are only a few major steps: preparing the potatoes, the sautee mix, filling the tortillas, and deep frying. You may use any other filling to your liking.

Image from: Stock Xchange

TEI Adventures

Well, the class has been very interesting and I have learned quite a lot about some of the areas we have discussed. There's this really great website Thinkfinity.com which I have also added to the list of websites to this blog. It is a wonderful resource for teachers to get lesson plans and interactives on various topics for the classroom. You can tailor your search to grade level, and find an abundance of valuable information.
Image from: Stock Xchange

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is creating a hostile and embarrassing environment online, directed towards a person. Cyberbullying is very common amongst our youth, and needs to be addressed in the classroom. Students should remember that what they say online is equivalent to what they would say in person. Anything that the student would not want to be heard should not be shared online.

Internet Safety for Elementary School Students

There are several different points to consider when guiding young students on the internet. With the advent of advanced technology, there is a higher threat to the safety and well-being of students. It is important that they understand not to share personal information on the internet. Students must be warned against posting name, address and phone number on the internet or sharing this information with anyone. Posting photos should be monitored by parents and teachers so that no inappropriate pictures of students are displayed on the internet.
Image from: Stock Xchange

Teacher Education Institute

This is my first post as a TEI student class of 2010. The first week has gone by so quickly. I feel like there has been a lot of information shared, and at a reasonable pace. I hear that this is the easiest class, so I am a little apprehensive about what is yet to come. However, I am confident that as time goes on that I will be able to adjust to the rigorous schedule. The teachers are all really wonderful and helpful.

Image from: Jay Thompson Elementary School