Placement+1+Wk+7+Experience


 * (*All real names are substituted for made-up names for teachers' and students' safety.)

Timber Creek High School (FULL WEEK AT INTERNSHIP I PLACEMENT I)**


 * Monday, March 1, 2010**


 * Shooting Stars-Lebron James Lesson Plan**

Wow, this is the 2nd to my last week at Timber Creek High School and it's crazy how time flies. It's been 7 weeks already. At least I can say that I've enjoyed every single moment so far in my experience. Each day, I feel more confident, more seasoned.

Last week, I asked my supervising teacher how she wanted me to help this full week at my Internship. I offered to teach another lesson and she gladly gave me a lesson to do. I was honored that she asked me to teach the cover article about Lebron James and his secret of success from their new Scholastic Scope Magazine.

So I worked diligently on the lesson over the weekend. I looked for books about basketball and checked out a couple from the CMC that I can bring in to class. I even found the very book co-written by Lebron James mentioned in the magazine article from the local library so I brought that in as well. I also bought a basketball magazine from Barnes & Noble that has a poster of Lebron James.



Monday morning, I confidently implemented my lesson plan making sure I set my expectations, wrote the order of the lesson on the board and brought in lots of realia for students. I even hooked them to the lesson by showing a //60 Minutes// video clip feature of our NBA player. Students were really into that and wanted to watch the whole 15 minutes of the video. I had to stop it at about 10 minutes so it doesn't take up our lesson time too much. I made sure the link was written on the board though, so students can access it later in their leisure.

One other thing I'm proud of is providing Guided Notes for the students. ESE students often struggle with Reading Comprehension and guided notes/cloze passages is an effective strategy from my supervising teacher that I adapted. Students get a good grasp of what the passage is about when provided with this because it teaches them on what to look for as they read.

Later today, I sat down with my supervising teacher and drew out the plan on how she wanted me to make the Teacher-Made Material I'm going to make and leave with her. She needs me to make a chart/table of the Literary Elements (Plot, Characterization, Voice, Conflict, etc) that she can display in her classroom. I told her I would love to make it, so that's my project for this week.


 * Tuesday, March 2, 2010**


 * A Show of Appreciation**

It was raining cats & dogs this morning. I've never seen it rain that hard right around the beginning of class. The traffic was crazy busy as it took almost twice as long to get to school.

On 1st period, the students were working on a sort of a webquest to find information on Mark Twain as fans and followers celebrate the 100th anniversary of his death this year. The Year of Mark Twain 2010



I had the opportunity to work with one of the students who have emotional/behavior disorder (EBD). He has been slowly opening up to me and after working closely with him today, at the end of class, he said, //**"Nice working with you today, Ms."**// to which my supervising teacher sort of gasped because for him to say that to me was big. I replied, "It's my pleasure Nathan."

Later on in 3rd Period, I took my students to the Performing Arts Center to hear a 40 minute presentation on different Tech Schools in the area. These are opportunities for students to be dual-enrolled in their Junior or Senior year and get certified in areas like auto technician, culinary, and hospitality. Since we were ESE, we got to see at the very front of the PAC which I thought was very neat!

Somehow, I felt proud to be with my ESE kids. Wheelchairs and all! I love them.

Tomorrow, I'm excited to read "Percy and the Lightning Thief" with my students to learn about Greek Mythology. I borrowed a couple of books from the Media Center to provide them with visuals.


 * Wednesday, March 3, 2010**


 * Power of Influence and Literary Elements**

Individualized student attention (eventhough very difficult to achieve) is so much of what our students need. And when you give them time, it acts as a tool to motivate them to learn more because it let's them know that someone cares! They'll keep coming back with questions!

Today, I also realized the power of influence we have on our students whether it's the simplest and smallest things we do that we think go unnoticed, to the bigger things.

Tonight, I labored on the teacher-made material I'm leaving with the teacher. My supervising teacher asked me to make her a nice chart/table of the Literary Elements so the students can have that as a visual in the classroom. I made sure the words are big and that they are colorful.


 * Thursday, March 4th, 2010**


 * Social Skills**

I think it's just as important to teach kids Social Skills as much as Academic Skills. This is especially important with ESE kids because they need to know when, where, and how to act appropriately in different situations. What good would academic knowledge do to them if they don't know how to act properly as they are growing up?


 * Friday, March 5th, 2010**

Today was sort of a relax day before FCAT week starts next week. However, I still taught a quick lesson on **"Homophones"** with my 1st period class using Guided Notes and an article in their Scholastic Magazine.


 * Homophones** are words that are [|pronounced] the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be [|spelled] the same, such as [|//rose//] (flower) and [|//rose//] (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as //[|carat]//, //[|caret]//, and //[|carrot]//, or //to//, //two// and //too//.






 * 5th Period**

I went to the TMH (Trainable Mentally-Handicapped) classroom to help out and interact with the kids again as I think about getting my Master's in Severe and Profound Disabilities.