Brenda+Kubly

Brenda Kubly =** This wikispace logs Brenda Kubly's experiences in the classroom during the fall 2009 SEED 296 ** ** Paraprofessional Experience **=

 This is the first field experience of the teacher education program. Its purpose is to provide insight into the real world of teaching in the K-8 and 7-12 setting. It provides a “hands-on” experience in which students may ask questions and share concerns they may have regarding the teaching profession. The experience will provide an opportunity to observe, record, and assess student behavior, effective teaching practices, and characteristics of different learning environments appropriate for children. This course will provide structure and guidance for the students as they observe, gather information, and reflect on teaching as a career. John Dewey, one of the most famous American educators, wrote extensively about reflective teaching. He defined reflective teaching as avoiding the “routine” and “impulsive” behaviors in favor of taking the time to “give serious consideration” to our actions. According to Dewey, the intelligent person thinks before he or she acts, and action becomes deliberate and intentional. In order for students to secure knowledge and insight from the field experience, their observations and participation have to be made with careful, analytical, and deliberate planning. Paraprofessional students develop their leadership skills while contributing to, learning from and influencing the learning of others.


 * Brenda Kubly's Fall 2009 Paraprofessional Placement**
 *  School: || Elk Point-Jefferson High School ||
 *  Field-based supervisor: || Jane Patnaude ||
 *  Content area or grade level: || Spanish I / Spanish II ||
 *  FBS e-mail address: || Jane.Patnaude@k12.sd.us  ||
 *  FBS phone: || (605) 356-2052 ||
 *  USD instructor ||  Mary Collins, Phone: 605-677-5155, e-mail: mary.collins@usd.edu  ||

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 *  30 hours of field-based classroom participation **
 * ** Date ** || ** Hours ** || ** Description of my activities/participation in the classroom.... ** ||
 * 9/25 || 1.5 || Initial Meeting with Field-based supervisor ||
 * 9/29 || 1.5 || Observed **Spanish I / Spanish II** classes, listened to students acting out a play, observed the students reviewing material with a game. The juniors were taking a test this day so my field-based supervisor used activities to review material. FBS uses the Temporary Physical Response method for her students. In my opinion, the students seem to respond well with this method. ||
 * 10/2 || 1.5 || Today **Spanish II / Spanish I** start the day with a warm-up exercise in the form of a song. Spanish I: begin Chapter 3. Vocabulary is introduced, the students recite the forms for commands during class and culture is introduced. Spanish II: the students review the endings for the preterite, reviewed for a quiz, took quiz during class, and practiced for an oral presentation. My field-based supervisor has high expectations for her students; she knows they can meet these expectations. ||
 * 10/6 || 2.5 || Today **Spanish II:** worked on a poem in a diamond format for an Informal WAC, I observed 2 oral presentations over material learned, put up 2 flyers on the door about Handwashing and Reminders to Cover Your Mouth when Coughing or Sneezing, helped look up a word for a student, tried to answer a question for a student then passed out paper for the final copy of the poem. **Spanish I:** Warm-up was the date and tomorrow's date, introduction to a story, she used name cards to call on students to answer questions, she worked on the story with the students, telling time was the focus for the lesson, practice of the lesson was done with their partners, covered a section over the items found in a young person's room, and she assigned a paragraph and a journal assignment. **Spanish II:** warmed-up with reciting 15 infinitives from a list, covered the story from the board, the students recited daily routines, she had to review with picture cards, she assigned the poem in a diamond format, the same assignment for the other Spanish II class was assigned to them, I helped answered a couple of students' questions. This Spanish II class needs more discipline than the other two classes. This class seems to be challenging to keep them on task. ||
 * 10/9 || 1.5 || **Spanish II:** today started with the daily routine as a warm-up, she had the students practice with the speaking with their partners, she had them finish up an assignment in class, and when they were completed, they could have time to study for a test scheduled for their next period on Macbeth. I observed that the students were anxious about this test. Allowing them time to study alleviated some of this anxiety and they were able to keep on task in Spanish class. **Spanish I:** both classes had different assignments for partners since the last time I observed. Warm-up was the date, reviewing the vocabulary with story on the board, another approach she used was having the students repeat words in syllables, the students practiced in partners, an exam was handed out to the students, I observed the approach of cooperative learning during class time, also I helped my field-based supervisor with correcting a couple of sections of the exam as the students finished them at her request. I feel it was an good experience helping out. So far I have observed that my FBS is a very busy lady and she takes her job seriously. ||
 * 10/13 || 2.5 || **Spanish II:** The students watched a movie showing the Spanish culture and one specific custom of the culture called "quinceanera". First, the teacher started a small discussion with the students about events that took place so far in the movie from the day before and then she continued the video. **Spanish I:** The class started with a warm-up of reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance" and a vocabulary review using Total Physical Response method. The students reviewed telling time and they were introduced to new vocabulary that are descriptive words and some phrases that are common. During class, I helped a couple of students with the pronunciation of a couple of words during the vocabulary review. ||
 * 10/16 || 2.5 || **Spanish II:** The class started with the students singing "Happy Birthday" to a couple of students. Also, the class sang "The Cucaracha" song, which the teacher talked about the history of the song. The students were having a good time singing. Then the teacher started the video for the class to continue watching. No homework was assigned. **Spanish I:** The class started by warming-up with the date and tomorrow's date. Today, the teacher worked on the word "be" and on possession with the students. She introduced words for description, "there is.../there are...", and how to use an educated guess to figure out the meanings of new words. Also, a new story was introduced to the students. Before the end of class, the students took a quiz over material recently introduced. **Spanish II:** The class started with singing "Happy Birthday" to fellow students. The teacher gave a warning to one student about his behavior. She also waited until the students were completely quiet before starting the video. It took a little time before she could start the movie. During the video, I helped correct parts of the quiz from the Spanish I class and their workbook assignment. ||
 * 10/20 || 1.5 || **Spanish II:** The students watched a home video of a student's quinceanera that took place recently. It showed how extravagant this event is in the Spanish culture. It was very symbolic for the teenage girl. I thought it was quite interesting. **Spanish I:** The warm-up was the date and review of the story. The students were asked to practice the story with their partner. The teacher went over an assignment covering the verb "ser" which means "to be". One of her students admitted in class that he did not understand. She encouraged him to come in and get extra help after school. She praised him for admitting that he did not know the answer to the question. At the time, she was calling on individuals for the correct verb forms to fill in the blanks. Also, I was involved in the lesson by answering questions from the teacher using the correct form of the verb "ser". The students were called on by Senora to answer questions pertaining to me using "ser". This was to demonstrate to the students how to conjugate the verb correctly. ||
 * 10/20 || 1.0 || Tonight I sat with Jane Patnaude during Parent-Teacher conferences. I actually had fun. I enjoyed meeting the parents of Jane's students. I observed that Jane has a very good rapport with the parents. My perception is the parents believe in Jane and her teaching methods to help their children learn the target language. The parents were told that the Spanish II class would be more challenging for the students; they will have to work harder to maintain or improve their grade. ||
 * 10/27 || 1.5 || **Spanish II:** The teacher had the students participate in making an alter for "El dia de Los Muertos". The students were taught the history of this Spanish holiday. The decisions of this project are done by the students such as who they pick for their alter. The class was having fun with this. I had interactions with some of the students while they were making decorations. I helped the Field-Base Supervisor with cleaning her small dry-erase boards.**Spanish I:** I erased the answers off the big dry-erase board after the students corrected their workbook page. The students did a warm-up with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Spanish Allegiance. The Field-Based Supervisor introduced the vocabulary relating to the "El dia de Los Muertos". Also, she assigned a project for the students relative to the history of the holiday "El dia de Los Muertos". She introduced the vocabulary by means of skits and songs. I also sang along with the class and the teacher. ||
 * 10/30 || 2.0 || **Spanish II:** Today the students were working on skits for the holiday on Monday. They picked their committees by drawing a piece of paper. This demonstrates participation from both the teacher and students in a democracy format. She reminded them no books or computers on Monday just their party items. She wants this to be a fun experience. **Spanish I:** Started with a warm-up using a story on the board relating to "El dia de Los Muertos" which is the day of the dead in the Spanish culture. She asked the students to talk to their partner using the story. She reviewed vocabulary words related to the holiday by using flashcards. Also, the students played "Lingo Bingo". Using this game, my Field-Based supervisor was working on the students' listening skills but in a fun way. I had interaction with a couple of students who were having a little difficulty with what was going on. I tried to help them by explaining what they needed to do. **Spanish II:** This is her class that she is more challenged in keeping them on task. Today the students were working on skits for the holiday on Monday. They picked their committees by drawing a piece of paper. If their committee is "food committee", the skit needs to be a conversation involving the preparation of the food for the celebration but with a conflict in the skit that needs resolved. I was interacting with a group of students that needed some assistance with how to start writing their skit with English or Spanish, some ideas for traditional food, and possible traditional Spanish names for Grandma or Grandpa. She reminded them to leave their computers and their books in their lockers for Monday. During my observations, I took pictures of the alters the students made for "El dia de Los Muertos". All three alters were impressive. The students did a nice job! ||
 * 11/3 || 1.5 || **Spanish II:** Today the students finished up their skits. The teacher had each group read a portion of a skit relating to "El dia de Los Muertos". She listened to each group read. I made copies of their skit for each group so they could practice before acting out the skit for the teacher. I helped out by listening to a couple of groups when it was their turn to read. I also read with one group because they were short a person. The students' skits were very creative, funny, and extremely good. I enjoyed watching them. **Spanish I:** The teacher rang a bell to get the students attention. The teacher worked on the story with the students. The students worked in groups with a conversation task. The teacher asked the students to read a paragraph in their book. The discussion in class was on grading and the teacher asked the students what they thought about the grading system. The teacher talked about a past grading system that she used years ago. ||
 * 11/6 || 1.5 || **Spanish II:** Couple of students read a composition that was related to the "El dia de Los Muertos". The students started tearing down their alter for "Patrick Swayze". Then the teacher divided the students into three groups of six. They played a game using the board to write their answers to the teacher's questions. This game was used to work on their vocabulary relative to the holiday, their past tense verbs, and review their knowledge of female Spanish names. The students were timed for each category. The students did quite well with the game. The scores were very close. **Spanish I:** The teacher started the class with the story and she asked them to converse with their partner. I passed out game pieces for the students. They played a game which targets the verbs "ser" and "estar". The students worked with their partner as one group. It was a dice game where each student takes turns with presenting the question to the other student. The object was to roll the dice, the blue dice meant the sentence to use and the red dice meant the verb form to use. The student had to form the sentence correctly to receive the points. It was very useful for working on the correct grammar forms. ||
 * 11/10 || 2.0 || Arrived early to discuss my independent teaching lesson with my field-based supervisor. **Spanish II:** Warm-up was working with the verb "estar". The teacher was asking the students individually "how they are?" She is teaching the students how to form educated guesses when encountering new vocabulary without using a dictionary. The students worked on sentences that work on making suggestions/expressing feelings. They went over their workbook assignment orally in class. I wrote the answers on the board as they were stated for the students to visualize. I observed the teacher helping a student with questions about an assignment. Also, we had a fire drill while I was there. **Spanish I:** The teacher talked to a student about her workbook assignment and asked if she understood. Warm-up was asking the students questions about the missing students. The students started working on a new story today. This works on vocabulary using TPR approach. The teacher worked on "mandatos" which are command words. Today we worked together in a lesson using flashcards that tell the students which verb tense to use along with pictures of action words ending-ar. Then she used the overhead to review vocabulary and verbs. ||
 * 11/17 || 2.5 || Today when I arrived, my field-based and I discussed additional ideas for my lesson plan. So we moved back the day for my independent lesson. **Spanish II:** The class was working on a worksheet with vocabulary of the parts of the body. The teacher talked about the difference of the words "saber" and "conocer" which both mean "to know". One of the students asked me a question pertaining to the worksheet. I helped him figure out what the answer was to the question. There were a couple of students that asked me questions about certain things on the worksheet. Also, the teacher gave the students a quiz over the most recent material. **Spanish I:** The teacher worked on sentences using the word "contigo" which means "with you". My field-based supervisor introduced new vocabulary about the family using the overhead. A student from another class period needed to get a make-up quiz from the teacher. While she was explaining the quiz to this student, she had the class practice talking in the target language with his or her partner. During this class, I did cooperative teaching using flashcards to work on putting sentences into a form of an interview question. **Spanish II:** This class started with a warm-up exercise. They worked on their worksheet with vocabulary of the parts of the body. The teacher had to keep some of the students focused on the task that needed to be completed. Some wanted to converse among friends or do other things instead of the worksheet. ||
 * 11/20 || 3.0 || Today I arrived early to go over my power point lesson with my field-based supervisor. She offered some suggestions for improvement. I was able to adjust the slides prior to presenting it to the Spanish I class. **Spanish II:** The class started with a warm-up exercise. The teacher used the game "Bingo" as her lesson. The game focused on recent vocabulary. There were several students missing from class because of testing being done for juniors. I was also able to do a practice lesson for her Spanish II class. Later, she gave me some critique on my practice. This was quite helpful. **Spanish I:** Today the class starts out with a warm-up exercise. Before I give my independent lesson, the teacher has the class work on the story that is on the board. This is focusing on new vocabulary from earlier this week. The class practices orally with his or her partner. My field-based supervisor has a quiz scheduled for them to do. Right after the quiz, I present my power point lesson on Mexico. The students seemed focused on the lesson and they seemed to be interested in the subject I had chosen. I created a worksheet related to the information presented in the power point. I realized that my directions about the words in the word bank were vague. I compensated by telling the students that some words could be used more than once. The words used also need to make sense in the sentence. I went around the classroom answering any question or questions about the worksheet. Teaching the lesson was a learning experience for me and I did enjoy doing it even though I was nervous at first. ||