Placement+1+Wk+3+Experience


 * Monday Feb. 1st, 2010**

Timber Creek High School


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

Here goes the third week of my internship. There was good traffic driving to Timber Creek this morning though there was rain in the forecast later in the day. I looked forward to a great day.

Donavon came in late to 1st period and although he had a pass, the teacher did not buy it. Donavon argued with the teacher while class was going on. He did not like being called out. Mrs. Pennell later said that he has emotional behavior difficulties and that argues with his mother a lot.

High School is obviously too early for some students. They come in the mornings barely awake and unable to focus.

Mrs. Pennelle has been arranging different opportunities with different teachers and settings to expose me in as many varied learning environments. In 2nd period, I was able to visit Mrs. Amber's class with the trainable intellectually challenged students in 625A. It's a class where they practice life skills like in Home Economics. They were working on following instructions and having a class discussion/lecture on certain work skills like being on time. She was using a projector with transparency sheet. When she had the students do independent practice on identifying and writing three of their strengths and two skills they'd like to work on, I really wanted to help the kids.

I stayed another period with Mrs. Amber's class. She covered a section of the "Dare to Dream" book. It's a book on developing pre-transitional skills which is planning for their future before beyond high-school. Mrs. Amber did a mock 'planning' with them. They used planning for a 'dream vacation.' Most of the high school students did not have an idea of where they'd like to vacation. One kid knew __when__ he wanted to take the vacation. He used his computer to say 'summer.' Ms. Ambrose had one para to help her with the students with more severe disabilities. None of them knew what document is needed to get out of the country. I thought they would at least know that.

At lunch time, I was able to visit Ms. Lonni's classroom. She teaches ESE Reading and Learning Strategies. She let me look through her FLARE binder and other reading assessments for high school. Her senior intern Regis Colt practiced FCAT Reading with the 10th graders.

I also stayed another period with Ms. Lonni. She had a smaller group of five kids. She did a 'Book Pass' with the students which was very exciting for me. I think you have to show real excitement for reading so that kids will be encouraged to read. Teachers have to work hard in finding what genre's her students might be interested in. After giving students time to look through the books, Ms. Lonni told them which book they're reading for that day. Most of the students struggled deeply to read. Talon, the kid who has hearing impairment was surprisingly the best reader of them all. I really wanted to help the kids and go through the excitement of exploring the books with them but I made sure to ask for the teacher's permission to do so.

What a productive day!


 * Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010**

I started the day by going to see Ms. Biro, the school's Reading Specialist at the Media Center. She asked me what I wanted to learn. I told her that I wanted to explore FAIR (Florida Assessments for Instructions in Reading) tests so she gave me a big overview of that. I know it's something new that came out this school year (pilot in 2009-2010). It's purpose is to predict students performance on the FCAT. There are 3 parts: I. Comprehension II. Maze Test III. Word Level/Analysis (need headphones)

The students move to the next test based on their score. The lower they score on the first test, the more they have to go through the assessment. FAIR is for grades 3-12 although they have Ongoing Progress Monitoring (OPM) for grades 1 & 2. The assessment is given 3 times a year (Fall, Winter, Spring). Since its a new type of assessment which must be done on the computer, schools have been trouble with the computers freezing or crashing. I learned several other aspects of FAIR while talking to Ms. Biro.

I also explored their Teacher Resources in the media center and ended up borrowing a book on Class Management and Strategies for Multicultural Instruction.

When I got back to Mrs. Pinnell's classroom, I helped the small group with 3rd period Math. They were practicing reinforcement of skills in subtraction, word problems, telling time and rounding off.


 * The students are getting comfortable asking me for help which is nice. But when more than one student needs assistance, I wish I can multiply myself! I wanna help all of them!

After that, I went with Talon to see Ms. Coore, the Hearing and Deaf Specialist. Really nice lady! She comes to school twice a week to work with two students individually. She had Talon explain to me his hearing disability using a chart. She wants him to be able to tell and explain to people about his hearing disability. His hearing is severe to profound. He can hear low-sounding letters (v, b, d, g) but not the high-sounding letters such as f, t, s. He listened a couple of stories from the laptop which was a challenge for him because he's used to lip-reading. He had to rely solely on his hearing for the stories on the computer. He struggled to comprehend the passages read.verbally. He answered half the questions wrong because he did not hear many details in the story. He refuses to wear his hearing aids because according to his teachers, he's having a hard time dealing and accepting his hearing disability especially in the high school setting.

Ms. Coore explained that Talon's lack of family involvement and support results in Talon's poor academic performance. He struggles with confidence because of his disability.

After lunch, another exciting thing happened. I was able to go and observe Timber Creek's On-the-Job training. I went with a teacher to ride the bus with five boys to work at the neighborhood Publix. It was really interesting to see how the kids are trained on the job on how to work and act properly in public.

I'm so grateful for all the things I was able to observe and do today! (FAIR, Media Center, time with Talon and the Hearing and Deaf Specialist, On-the-Job training and everything in between! My supervising teacher rocks!


 * The Reading Specialist told me that ESE Certified Teachers will not have a problem getting a job which was a real encouragement. I've been hearing that from different colleagues and other teacher friends.