Deanna+Johnson

=**This wikispace logs Deanna'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.




 * Deanna's Fall 2009 Paraprofessional Placement**
 * School: || Vermillion High School ||
 * Field-based supervisor: || Carla Kozack ||
 * Content area or grade level: || High School English ||
 * FBS e-mail address: || cmcmurry@usd.edu ||
 * FBS phone: || (712) 251-5251 ||
 * USD instructor || Mary Collins, Phone: 605-677-5155, e-mail: mary.collins@usd.edu ||

31 hr. 45 min. || Type in the content of your page here.
 * 30 hours of field-based classroom participation **
 * **Date ** || **Hours **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> || **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Description of my activities/participation in the classroom.... **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> ||
 * 9/25 || 1 || Met with FBS and went over Paraprof requirements. Mrs. Carla Kozack has a fairly large room in the Vermillion High School. The room is very stimulating with student artwork on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. One wall is painted bright red and posters, motivational, educational, or just for fun, decorate every space. She also has books stacked everywhere for the students and large "reading pillows" for the students to use during reading time. (EXAMPLE OF CLASSROOM CLIMATE) ||
 * 10/1 || 1 || Stood in on a sophomore composition class and helped the students as they made presentations for their persuasive essays. I mostly asked some students what they were working on and talked to them about the presentations. While the students are doing their work, they had a DOL assignment to do that usually is due the next day. That way, if someone gets done earlier than the rest, they can work on their DOL and they are never sitting around with nothing to occupy them. (EXAMPLE OF FOCUS) ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/3 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 1 || Went into the senior novel class and looked at Mrs. Kozack's lesson plans while the students watched a movie. Then watched the sophomore composition class give the presentations they had been working on. In every unit Mrs. Kozack teaches, she has a few days for instruction and lecture but then always has some kind of project, paper, or hands-on activity for the students to practice what they have been taught, which is extremely important in a class that teaches writing and comprehension skills. (EXAMPLE OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENT) ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/8 || 1 || In the sophomore composition class, the students were making cause - effect posters for one of three stories they read. The students were allowed to work in groups or individually. They were also able to be creative and several groups laughed and were enjoying themselves while doing the project without being disruptive. (EXAMPLE OF STUDENT INTEREST/MOTIVATION) ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/9 || 1 || I was in the senior novel class today. They watched the movie, The Princess Bride and then had to answer questions about the characters, plot, and exposition of the movie. They didn't need much help from me, so I researched graphic novels on Mrs. Kozack's computer. I will be teaching a lesson on graphic novels in early November. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/11 || 2 hr. 30 min. || I helped Mrs. Kozack take tickets for the High School play. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/15 || 45 min. || I observed the sophomore class. The students were working on their cause/effect papers and looked over their graded persuasion papers. Mrs. Kozack calls the students back to her desk so they can see their final-graded paper and she explains why they got the grade they did. Though she does point out what they did that lost them points, she also focuses on what they did well, what was unique or appealing, and she writes encouraging comments on those sections of their papers. (EXAMPLE OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM) ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/16 || 1 hr. || The students were reading their books for class, so I caught up on the material I will be teaching the class about in a couple weeks. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/22 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 45 min. || I helped a freshman student finish a packet he was working on for the book Sounder. The questions were difficult, so I had to help him and kind of push him in the right direction. ||
 * 10/23 || 1 hr. || I prepared a Power Point presentation and a hand out for the unit I will be teaching and Mrs. Kozack and I looked it over today and made sure we had our lesson in order. ||
 * 10/30 || 2 hr. || The classes got out early today for parent/teacher conferences so I wasn't with my usual class. The classes were all watching movies that had to relate to their lessons. Though they are watching movies, Mrs. Kozack talks during the movie, sometimes calling on random students and asking them how the movie applies to the lesson their learning. She'll say things like, "Oh, what's that guy a good example of Michael? Maybe the protagonist?" ||
 * 10/31 || 3 hr. || I sat in on Mrs. Kozack's Saturday School session. I helped students finish papers and assignments they were behind on and helped them make outlines, then write rough drafts. Some of the students needed motivating and had bad attitudes, so I had to be patient but also motivate them to do their work. ||
 * 11/5 || 45 min. || I helped two students that were trying to complete a worksheet packet relating to a book they just finished. I have never read the book, so I had them tell me what was going on, or who the characters were, what some ironic moments were, and through that process they found a lot of their answers. ||
 * 11/6 || 1 hr. 30 min. || I taught my independent lesson today with a PowerPoint that I had made about graphic novels. Next week I will be grading the assignments the students did over this lesson. ||
 * 11/12 || 45 min. || There was a substitute today, so I made sure the students handed in their DOL and kept on task with their reading anaylis and research papers. ||
 * 11/13 || 1 hr. || I sat in the classroom and looked over "The Time Machine," because the senior novel class will be reading that next. ||
 * 11/18 || 1 hr. || I got the students' graphic novel projects collected and started to look through them and grade them. ||
 * 11/19 || 45 min. || I finished grading the graphic novel projects and Mrs. Kozack showed me how to enter them into the computer. ||
 * 11/24 || 1 hr. || The students were completing the research portion of their papers on a famous person in history. Mrs. Kozack makes sure the students keep track of everything they need to complete on a salmon-colored piece of paper. She calls them up periodically to check off the things they need to do on that paper. (EXAMPLE OF GUIDED PRACTICE) It is helpful for the students to be able to see what they are expected to do and to make sure they don't forget something that is required. ||
 * 11/30 || 45 min. || The students worked independently on their laptops completing their research papers about a famous person in history (EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT PRACTICE). I mostly walked around the classroom and made sure the students knew what they were doing and stayed on task. ||
 * 12/1 || 2 hr. 30 min. || I checked the student DOL today as they finished it, and stood in the class while they worked on their papers. I also ran the computer for Mrs. Kozack while she taught a lesson on research papers and using sources within the paper. Though she has taught this lesson to this class before, the last paper they turned in showed that they did not understand it fully. So, Mrs. Kozack created another lesson for them and talked them through it asking for examples of how they would use what she was teaching in their upcoming papers and asking if they had any questions since so many of them did it wrong on the last paper. (EXAMPLE OF MONITORING/ADJUSTING) ||
 * 12/3 || 1 hr. || I helped a student today who has fallen far behin on his research paper. He is very reluctant to work, but he makes slow progress when he's separated from the other students and when someone is looking over his shoulder. I just prodded him along, finding another source for him and highlighting areas he needed to focus on. It was a good experience for me; giving me experience working with students that don't want to work, or have a hard time working. ||
 * 12/4 || 1 hr. || Mrs. Kozack read a chapter of "Lord of the Flies" to the senior novel class today and I followed along in the book. When she was finished reading the chapter, she went through the study guide questions the students had to complete for that chapter, allowing volunteers to give the answer or calling on students at random if no one answered. She wouldn't put them on the spot, but gave them a minute to answer and if they didn't, she would talk it out until they got to the answer. (EXAMPLE OF PROMPTS) ||
 * 12/5 || 3 hr. 45 min. || The students that needed to make up time for tardies or who were behind in their work in any of their classes came in for Saturday School today starting at 8 a.m. The students all worked quietly on their laptops, or out of thier books and we didn't really have any discipline problems. I editted drafts of research papers for some students, graded a vocabulary assignment, and looked over Mrs. Kozack's semester test answer key to check for errors. I thought it was interesting that at the end of the semester test, Mrs. Kozack added a paragraph that tells the student that even if they didn't do well on the test itself, the object of the class was to make them into better writers so they could apply those writing skills to the rest of their lives. (EXAMPLE OF OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE)