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!
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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.
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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?
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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.
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