Adam+McDermaid

=**This wikispace logs Adam McDermaid'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.




 * Adam McDermaid's Fall 2009 Paraprofessional Placement**
 * School: || Vermillion High School ||
 * Field-based supervisor: || Gary Culver ||
 * Content area or grade level: || High School Math ||
 * FBS e-mail address: ||  ||
 * FBS phone: ||  ||
 * USD instructor || Mary Collins, Phone: 605-677-5155, e-mail: mary.collins@usd.edu ||

Following that, I viewed his LIFE advisory group which consists of all seniors as they discussed short term goals. After that, I observed his Algebra I course of all freshmen as they corrected a book review and worked on a practice test. || The next class was Integrated Algebra II which is a sophomore class that studies the second half of the Algebra I book. Their main objective that day was dealing with greatest common factors and prime factorization. The last class i viewed that day was Algebra I again and they worked on all the same things as the first Algebra I class. || The following period was LIFE advisory in which the entire school participated in DEAR (drop everything and read). Every student is required to read a book the entire time and the total pages the class reads are then reported to the main office for a prize. || After that, I observed the Algebra I course in which they were learning about scatter plots and positive and negative correlations. || In the second Algebra I course, everything was the same, except I answered questions over the homework assignment and worked them out on the board. Then, I corrected the assignments with them in class, gave them the review problems and the quiz. || The second Algebra I did the same things except I did the instructing with Gary. I answered any questions they had on their homework and corrected their homework with them. Then, Gary and I introduced the new topic cooperatively. || The next class that i observed was an Algebra I class. They were again looking at working through parallel and perpendicular lines. They worked through many different problems with slope-intercept form and point-slope form and how to sue them to find the slope. || The next class was again an Algebra I class. During this class, I independently taught a lesson on solving systems of equations. I first showed the students graphs of systems of equations and where the solution to the system was on the graph. This allowed the students to get an idea of what exactly a system of equations is. Then, I introduced the concept of solving systems by substitution by giving real life examples of substituting for something of equal value in sports and at restaurants. After that, I worked through examples on the board and gave some students the opportunity to do some choice problems from the book on the board. After resolving any questions the students had, the students took a test over the last chapter. ||
 * 30 hours of field-based classroom participation **
 * **Date ** || **Hours **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> || **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Description of my activities/participation in the classroom.... **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> ||
 * 10-27 || 3 || I gave one student a make up test in the library and observed Mr. Culver's Principles of Technology class which is a basic physics course.
 * 10-29 || 3 || I started the day by viewing another Algebra I course as they worked on reivew problems dealing with inequalities.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 11-3 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 3.5 || To begin with, I observed Mr. Culver's Principles of Technology as they learning about vectors, impulse, and momentum. They then watched a short video detailing how impulse and momentum are related on the TV and projector.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 11-5 || 2.5 || In the Principles of Technology class, I observed them reviewing with their Ch. 8 review packets and then spend the remainder of the period taking the Ch. 8 test.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 11-10 || 3 || In the first Algebra I course, the students corrected their homework in class, worked on some review problems, took a short quiz, and then worked on their review assignment for the test the next day.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 11-17 || 4 || This day, all I observed was two Algebra I classes that covered the same material. The first class went over any questions they had on their homework from the previous day and then they corrected that assignment and turned it in. Gary then introduced the topic of slopes on graphs and explained the four types of slopes to them: positive, negative, 0 and undefined. Then, he covered how to find the slope when given two point on a line.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 12-1 || 4 || Again, I only observed two Algebra I classes that covered the same things. In the first class, I helped one of Gary's Algebra II students with conjugates in the library. After returning to the classroom, I observed as Gary reviewed point-slope form and work out some of their homework problems. After that, he graded the homework and collected it. The next topic that Gary covered for the students was dealing with parallel and perpendicular lines and how to determine if two lines are perpendicular or parallel based on their slopes. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 12-3 || 4 || First, I observed Gary's Principles of Technology class. They began by covering the concepts of torque, lever arm, center of mass, and center of gravity. After that, they watched a video on torque and how it is applied and affected. After that, they were given a study guide and given time to complete it before they went over it at the end of class.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 12-10 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4 || The final day that I observed started with the Principles of Technology class. First, Gary went over the study guides with the students. Next, after the students were given some time to study, they turned in their study guides and were given the test. After completing the test, the students were allowed to work on their study guide for the semester test that they were going to be taking the next week.
 * Total Hours || 31 ||  ||