Maggie+Downing

=**This wikispace logs Maggie Downing'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.




 * Maggie Downing's Fall 2009 Paraprofessional Placement**
 * School: || Sioux City North Middle School ||
 * Field-based supervisor: || Kristi Luxford ||
 * Content area or grade level: || 7th Grade English ||
 * FBS e-mail address: || luxfork@sioux-city.k12.ia.us ||
 * FBS phone: ||  ||
 * USD instructor || Mary Collins, Phone: 605-677-5155, e-mail: mary.collins@usd.edu ||


 * 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';"> ||
 * 10/2/09 || 2 || Just observed. Noticed all the different posters on the walls, the way Mrs. Luxford runs her class (ie discipline issues, etc) ||
 * 10/5/09 || 2 || Helped staple and pass out papers. Answered a few questions kids had. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/7/09 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 2 || Kids typed their personal narratives ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/9/09 || 2 || Kids typed their personal narratives. Answered questions about spacing and formatting. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/12/09 || 2 || Graded some narratives. Checked with Mrs. Luxford about how my grading agreed with hers. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/14/09 || 2 || Kids learned about prefixes. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/16/09 || 2 || Kids learned about suffixes. ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/19/09 || 2 || Kids had a "Drop Everything And Read" day ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 10/26/09 || <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 2 || Kids did an ITBS testing review. ||
 * 10/30/09 || 2 || Kids did a "voices from the past" worksheet. They had to observe pictures to make inferences about personalities from different people from the past. ||
 * 11/2/09 || 2 || Went through my lesson plan with Mrs. Luxford. She agreed it would be a good lesson to teach for Wednesday. ||
 * 11/4/09 || 2 || Taught my lesson. The kids did "de-" prefix usage, learned 10 new vocab words, and we went through context clues to find nouns, verbs, and adjectives to help them with their ITBS test on Monday. Homework assigned was a 3 column vocab exercise I made up. The first column has the vocabulary word; the second column has the word's definition; the third column is where the students had to draw a picture that helps them remember the definition of the word. They all said they enjoyed the homework. I think they learned the words, because most of them remembered the meanings when I asked them the next week. ||
 * 11/9/09 || 2 || Kids had ITBS vocabulary testing. After they finished, they read for the rest of the period. ||
 * 11/30/09 || 2 || I made my bulletin board today. I decided to use a December theme. The background was dark blue, and the border had snowflakes on it. I put up the December lunch menu and left up the classroom rules, as requested by Mrs. Luxford. I put up some posters with inspirational quotes, and I had each child staple a small snowflake with their name on it. The kids all told me how much they liked the bulletin board! Worked individually with students on their worksheets. ||
 * 12/2/09 || 2 ​ || Mrs. Luxford and I taught our co-op lesson. We both decided that giving a spelling quiz would be sufficient. I decided on the set of words, and we both explained their meaning, and the tricky parts in spelling each word. I then gave the quiz by orally saying the word while each student wrote it down. I believe the way we taught the lesson was very explanatory ||
 * 12/4/09 || 2 || Last day. I worked with a student named Sam, who has ADHD and has a very hard time keeping on task. I took Sam into a study lounge, where it was just the two of us. We worked on his basic grammar skills, including comma usage. He was reluctant to work with me at first, but eventually he opened up. He thanked me after, and Mrs. Luxford was extremely impressed, because she said he rarely responds at all to assistants. ||