My Experience in Educational Media

Over the past 6 weeks, I have been taking a summer class called Educational Media. Throughout the class, I have been researching technology, the benefits of it, and how to incorporate it into the classroom. It really has been an eye-opening experience. I never realized how dependent our society is on technology and how much technology enhances learning.

I participated in a "power down day" where I did not use any electronic devices for 24 hours. It was very hard not being able to listen to the radio in the car, text, and go on facebook. I never realized how much I depended on technology until I had to go a day without it.

Although I use technology on an everyday basis for socialization, technology has also become very useful in the classroom. More and more teachers are using technology to improve the quality of learning for visual, spatial, kinesthetic, and auditory learners. Technology has the ability to capture the attention of students with all abilities, interests, and ages. Also, technology is interactive, colorful, captive, and entertaining for the students.

Throughout the class I learned many things:

• how to use the SmartBoard
• what an E.L.M.O. is
• what a screencast is and how to create one
• Copyright laws for teachers
• how to tweet
• what my Philosophy of Technology is and how I will integrate technology into my own classroom

I really enjoyed taking the summer class and learning about technology. The knowledge I gained will be beneficial to my career as an elementary teacher.

Screencasts!

A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output often containing audio narration. Screencasts are useful for demonstrating and teaching software features. Educators are now using screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum. Students can record video and audio as they demonstrate the proper procedure to solve a problem on an interactive whiteboard.

When I first heard about screencasts, I thought they had no significant benefit. For a school project, I had to create a screencast. I made my first screencast this week about an interesting article I found. My first experience changed my mind about screencasts! It took me awhile to figure it out, but I found it very useful. I believe screencasts are a great way to show students how to do an assignment or how to find something online. They appeal to both the visual and auditory learners. Screencasts allow students to replay the important information as many times as necessary, which helps the teachers not have to repeat themselves over and over.

I used http://screenr.com/ to create my screencast. I like Screenr because it has a 1-minute tour, which is very helpful and made the process easier. Screenr only allows each screencast to be 5 minutes, so each screencast is fairly short.

Technology in the Classroom

Many people are afraid of the possible harmful effects of using technology in the classroom. Will children lose their ability to relate to other people? Will children become dependent on technology? Although these are valid questions, educators believe technology enhances learning. Technology is recognized as a highly regarded instructional tool in the classroom. Whether a teacher requires a student to use technology or not, most students use technology for their projects. The technology tool used most often for students’ projects is the internet. Word, Powerpoint, and Excel are also student and teacher favorites. These programs allow teachers and students to present material in a captive and easily understanding way. Teachers can use multimedia technology to give more colorful, stimulating lectures. SmartBoards and the E.L.M.O. are becoming very popular and taking the place of standard projectors. Technology adds an edge to the classroom that helps students pay attention and get excited about learning.

I believe technology should play a significant role in teaching and be integrated into the classroom. I will use technology when it enhances learning and makes learning easier for the students. I will incorporate technology into mathematics, language arts, social studies, and science. Teachers today are at an advantage with all of the new technology they have at their disposal. They should take advantage of every opportunity given to them, whether it is a SmartBoard, E.L.M.O. or any other technological device.

E.L.M.O Is Popular With All Ages

When I first heard of the E.L.M.O., I immediately thought of the character from Sesame Street. I thought, how could Elmo help teach students of all ages? After doing some research, I found that the E.L.M.O. could be very valuable in the classroom.

The E.L.M.O (Electric Light Magnifying Object) is a popular document camera used in education.It is much more advanced than an overhead projector that used to be popular for classroom instruction. Document cameras are the latest electronic imaging devices which can be used to display real three dimensional objects, pages from a book, artwork, etc. They can be very useful for stimulating students and keeping them engaged in lessons. The E.L.M.O. helps teachers deliver visually enticing lessons that keep all eyes firmly fixed on learning. It is especially helpful when grouping objects or concepts into categories such as parts of speech.

One of the benefits of using a document camera is that it can effectively allow students to easily view details of two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects which would otherwise be very difficult for the students to see. The E.L.M.O. can display three-dimensional objects from any angel.

The E.L.M.O. has a portable remote referred to as "Frosty" because it is white and shaped like a snowman. The remote allows the teacher to highlight important details, shade, zoom, brighten or dim the screen from anywhere in the classroom.

I think the E.L.M.O. is a very useful instructional aid and presentation aid in education.

SmartBoards

Over the past several days, I have been exploring the functions of the SmartBoard program. I am very impressed with the variety of capabilities. The SmartBoard has much more elaborate functionality than an electronic chalkboard or white board. It provides visual and interactive techniques to teach children of all ages.

SmartBoards have many benefits in the classroom. They allow teachers to easily display information to students and save it on a computer for later use or online for the students to access. SmartBoards also accommodate different learning styles.

I found many activities in the Gallery that can be useful without plugging the computer into the SmartBoard. I am tutoring a fifth grader in math this summer and I believe the Mathematics Gallery will be beneficial even without access to a SmartBoard. It has programs that focus on number concepts and operations, patterns and relations, shapes, space and measure, and statistics and probability. I am excited to try some of these programs with the girl I am tutoring.

I am anxious to use the SmartBoards with my own students! Technology has become extremely advanced, especially in the classroom, over the last decade. I cannot wait to see the new technological advancements that will exist when I become a teacher.

The Last Day

Yesterday was my last day of observing with my cooperating teacher. I was sad to say goodbye to all of the students I helped throughout the past ten weeks. I had an extremely good experience in my field placement. My cooperating teacher was very welcoming. She taught me a lot about teaching in general and teaching a special education class. I learned many techniques that will help me in the future with my own students.

Books are great resources for teachers to use, but they could have never prepared me for teaching as much as the field experience did. Although, I have a lot more to learn, I am more prepared to be a teacher then I was ten weeks ago.

Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to become a teacher. However, I changed my mind numerous times about what I wanted to teach. I was not sure if I wanted to teach mathematics in a high school setting or every subject to the elementary students. Through my experience, I realized that teaching is the right profession for me. Also, I love working with the elementary students. Therefore, I am going to pursue a dual-license in Early Childhood Education and Intervention Specialist.

Ultimately, I hope to teach intervention mathematics. I want the opportunity to work with elementary students and enhance their mathematics skills. Basic mathematic facts are very important. Unfortunately, students who have problems learning their basic facts get farther and farther behind in mathematics. They grow to hate mathematics and usually struggle with it for the rest of their years in school. Therefore, I want to be the teacher who gets the students back on track and enjoying mathematics.

Overall, I had a very good experience and learned a lot of useful techniques for the classroom. I cannot wait to start my next observation experience!

Testing

In the class that I am observing, tests are very different than what I am used to. In kindergarten, first, and second grade, there is not a big difference between worksheets done in class, homework, and the actual tests. I like that the worksheets, homework, and tests are all virtually the same. I do not believe it is fair for a child to work diligently in class and get everything correct, but not know what to do on the test because it has a different layout.

Since the students are all doing different activities, the classroom is not quiet when a single child is taking a test. I find this very distracting. I think that it takes the students longer to complete the test because of all of the distractions in the room. I think it is especially important that tests are taken in a quiet environment when the students have learning disabilities. Students with learning disabilities struggle with school without the added stress of a loud testing area.

Also, it seems like the students do not care when they get a bad grade as much as I did as a young student. For instance, the students have spelling tests every Friday. The students work with the list of spelling words that they will be tested on all week. They write the words multiple times and write sentences using the words. However, they do not study the words at home. Therefore, when it comes time to take the test, they forget the words. Most of the students get a D or F on all of the spelling tests, but they never try harder the next week. For me, I cried if there was anything lower then a B written on the top of my tests.

I believe that it is very important for students to be tested. However, I do not believe that a student’s progress in the class should be dependent on one day. Students have bad days and bad days can really affect how well a student does on a test.

I study for tests and know all of the material before tests are administered. However, I get test anxiety and forget everything when the test is in front of me. I get very stressed out about the whole situation because I can study for hours and know everything, but since I do not know the information at the exact moment when the test is in front of me, I earn a bad grade. I know that many children suffer from the same anxiety as I do.

I honestly do not like written tests at all. I think written tests add unnecessary stress to a child’s life. Tests should show what a child knows, but not make a child nervous. Therefore, someday, I hope to come up with an efficient way to test my students without the use of paper and a pencil. I want to create a testing method that is nonthreatening to the children and shows how they have progressed.

Leveled Literacy Intervention

The teacher that I am observing uses a reading program called Leveled Literacy Intervention. This program is used by all of the Intervention and Title teachers at the school. Leveled Literacy Intervention is a small group, supplementary intervention designed for children who find reading and writing difficult. The goal of the intervention is to bring children up to grade level achievement. Leveled Literacy Intervention is based on the Fountas and Pinnell gradient of text difficulty. (The Fountas and Pinnell leveling system consists of 26 point on a gradient of reading difficulty. Each point on that gradient, from the easiest at Level A to the most challenging at Level Z, represents a small but significant increase in difficulty over the previous level.) Each level of text makes increasing demands on the reader, but the change is gradual.

Each system is a different color. In each system, there are Levels A through C and Lessons 1 through 70. All of the books have the system color on the back. The amount of words in the book and the level of the book are indicated on the color of the system. Since the teacher usually uses the same system, thus color, for all of her students, the children cannot tell the difference between the books. I believe that this is very important for students. Students who struggle with reading get discouraged when they are reading books that are in a lower level then their peers.

The teacher that I am observing really likes Leveled Literacy Intervention. She says that the students are making huge improvements in their reading and writing skills. The books are interesting for the students too. Leveled Literacy Intervention uses topics that are interesting to the age group. One of the books in the program is Goldie and the Three Bears, which is similar to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but it is at a level that the students can read.

Students in the School

There is not a diverse racial student body at the school that I am observing. The school is made up of mostly Caucasian students and Caucasian teachers. I observed the second grade play and noticed that out of the 60 children, only two of them were African American. On the other hand, the socioeconomic make up of the school is diverse. There are families in the lower class, middle class, and upper class.

There are four special education teachers in the building. One of the special education teachers instructs all of the kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders with Individualized Education Programs. On the other hand, in the older grades, there is a special education teacher for each grade. Therefore, one special education teacher cares for the third graders, another special education teacher cares for the forth graders, and the final special education teacher cares for the fifth graders.

In my opinion, the school dress code is very easy to follow. There are only three basic rules for dress:

1. The students are not allowed to wear flip-flops.

2. The students are not allowed to wear spaghetti strap shirts.

3. If a student wears shorts or a shirt, it must be fingertip length.

There are not usually any dress code violations with the kindergarteners, first graders, or second graders.

The student’s language outside of the classroom usually consists of what they did over the weekend, what cool toy they got, and what they are going to do during recess. The kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders use the same language in and out of class. However, forth and fifth graders are at the age where they start to use different words when they are away from their parents and teachers.

There are numerous extra-curricular activities available for the students. The state is concerned that students with an IEP are not given the same extra-curricular opportunities. However, teachers and administrators are required to inform the students with IEPs of activities going on in the building or community. I had the opportunity to watch play practice. It was very cute and it incorporated all of the students, even students with IEPs, in the second grade. Students went up to the microphone to say their part or give an introduction to the next song. I was shocked that the elementary students were offered so many opportunities for interaction and socialization. When I was a child, the activities I was involved in were not affiliated with the school.

I like the student recognition program that the school has. Every month, the entire student body has an assembly to recognize outstanding students. There are four awards that the students can earn. They include Behavior, Academics, Attitude, and Reading. One student from each class is chosen for the Behavior, Academics, and Attitude awards and is recognized in front of the school. The Reading award is given to any student who passes three consecutive books at 80% comprehension level. Last month, 130 students school wide earned the Reading award.

The School Environment

The environment at the school that I am observing at is very friendly and welcoming.

To get into the school, you have to press a call button, which goes to the main office. In the main office, the secretary unlocks the door to allow you to enter. A camera is set up to enable her to see whom she is letting into the building.

The lunchroom and gymnasium are right next to the main entrance. I have never seen this in any other school that I have ever been in. I believe this layout creates a few problems. First, the main entrance and office are very noisy due to the location of the lunchroom and gymnasium. Also, it is very easy for the students to run out of either of these locations and into the parking lot, which can be very dangerous. In my elementary school, the only doors in the lunchroom or gymnasium that led to the outside went to the fenced-in playground. Other then the location of the lunchroom and gymnasium, I believe the physical arrangement of the building is properly designed.

I observe in an elementary school and there are students’ artwork, poems, and activities hanging everywhere, on walls, on bulletin boards, and in showcases. As soon as you walk into the building, you can tell you are in an elementary school that is student-centered.

The building is clean and well maintained.

At first it did not seem like there were adequate restrooms for the students because there are only three girl’s toilets and three boy’s toilets for each hallway. However, the teachers take their students to the restroom at different times during the day, so there is usually only one class at the restrooms at a time. The students wait their turn for the restroom, get a drink, and get in line to go back to class.

In my opinion, the hallways are never quiet, but they are never rowdy either. There is always a student, teacher, or entire class walking in the hallway to the restroom, the their classroom, or to another activity such as gym, music, or art. In the hallway, the teachers and students are very friendly. They say “Hello” to anyone who passes them. On my first day, I felt very welcomed when I passed four teachers and they all greeted me.

I was fortunate to be placed in such a good school. The teachers, staff, students, and environment have made my teaching experience interesting and enjoyable.

IEP

I chose the IEP (Individualized Education Program) as my field artifact for multiple reasons. First, I had never seen an IEP before entering the special education class I am observing. I think it is an important document that all education majors should be familiar with, even if they are not going into special education because there will be children with special needs in almost all classes. Also, I did not realize how long IEPs are and how much information they contain. Therefore, I scanned a copy of one of the student's IEP in my classroom. The document is an initial IEP and 14 pages long.

This is the first page of the IEP. It contains general information on the student and parents of the student.

The second page of the document contains the following sections: Future Planning, Special Instructional Factors, and Profile. The Future Planning is determined by the parent and indicates what the parent would like to see in the next year. In this instance, the parent wants to see her child show the maturity of a regular third grader (the student is in second grade now, but does not show the maturity of a regular second grader). Special Instructional Factors may include limited English proficiency, behavior problems that affect the child's learning, assistive technology devices that are needed, etc. In this instance, the student does not have any Special Instructional Factors. The Profile simply gives a brief summary of the child and what she/he struggles with.

This page includes Postsecondary Transition and Postsecondary Transition Services. This page is only filled out if the student is 14 years and older.

This page contains Measurable Annual Goals. Each child has a different number of Measurable Annual Goals, depending on this/her trouble areas. This student has four Measurable Annual Goals: Reading, Reading Comprehension, Written Language, and Math. This page focuses on Reading. It explains the student's weaknesses and strengths in reading, what percent of first and second grade sight words she was able to recognize, and methods to help her achieve her annual goal.

This page focuses on the Measurable Annual Goals for Reading Comprehension.

This page focuses on the Measurable Annual Goals for Written Language.This page focuses on the Measurable Annual Goals for Math.
This page contains Descriptions of Specially Designed Services. It explains what the special education teacher will do to help the student and for what amount of time each day. For instance, the special education teacher will provide direct instruction in math in the small group instruction opportunities for 30 minutes each day.
This page focuses on Transportation as a Related Service and Nonacademic and Extracurricular Activities. Transportation as a Related Service asks if the child has a disability that requires special transportation. The state is concerned that students with IEPs do not have the same opportunities as students without special needs. Therefore, they require the school to identify the ways in which the child has the opportunity to participate in nonacademic/extracurricular activities with his/her nondisabled peers. In this instance, the child is notified through announcements and fliers. I was very shocked that the state requires this kind of information in an academic IEP. However, I think it is a good thing for the students with IEPs.
This page focuses on General Factors and Least Restrictive Environment. The General Factors include strengths of the child and concerns of the parents. The Least Restrictive Environment asks questions such as "Does this child attend the school he/she would attend if not disabled?" and "Does this child receive all special education services with nondisabled peers?"
This pages focuses on the Statewide and Districtwide Testing. It includes the accommodations the child will receive when taking statewide or districtwide assessments. Accommodations include small group, extended time, read aloud, breaks during tests, and taking the tests in the resource room.
This page focuses on Meeting Participants (whether the IEP meeting was face-to-face, video conference, or telephone conference). The IEP meeting participants must sign the document.
This page indicates whether it is an Initial IEP or Annual Review.

Students in the Classroom

I work with all of the special education students in kindergarten, first, and second grade at the elementary school in which I am observing. The students in the classroom are each very unique in personality, interests, ability, strengths, weaknesses, talents, home life, and ways in which they learn best.

The class is male dominated. There are only three girls in the class. However, the girls do not seem to mind the girl to boy ratio.

The students are afraid of raising their hands and getting the answer wrong. Therefore, the students do not raise their hand in class. If they have a question, they usually go up to the teacher and whisper the question into her ear. In class discussions, the teacher usually asks questions that have multiple responses with no right or wrong answer. However, the students still do not raise their hands. Therefore, she calls on the students who do not look like they are paying attention first. Then, she goes through and asks the rest of the students so that everyone has a chance to give their response.

The majority of the students do not have a long attention span. They get distracted and off track very easily. I have noticed that it takes some of the students double the time to complete an activity because they look around at all of the posters and everything happening in the room.

There are only two kindergarteners in the class and they are encouraged to work together. They complete activities together and help each other out. A few of these activities that I have observed include rhyme and sound puzzles. The kindergarteners do not rely on the teacher as much the first and second graders. The first and second graders mostly work independently on assignments. They usually do make up work for their regular teachers. Therefore, not all of the first graders have the same assignments and not all of the second graders have the same assignments.

Two of the students consume a lot of the teacher’s time. One student has severe behavioral issues and I believe she acts out for attention. She likes when someone sits next to her and helps her all of the time, but when there is not someone there, she acts out. The other student asks many questions and will not sit down to work until all of the questions are answered.

Behavior Problems

Students with behavior problems are sent to my cooperating teacher’s room. They have to sit in the corner with their head down. They are not allowed to do anything, not even schoolwork. Part of their punishment is that they will have to do schoolwork at home instead of in the classroom with the other students.

On one of my observing days, a student sat in the corner the entire time I was there. At first I thought he was a shy new student, but I was definitely wrong. On top of sitting in an unfamiliar room and not being able to do anything, he had to eat lunch in the office, and his mother was called. Since this student had previous offenses, the mom was required to come into the office for a talk with her son and the principal; it was more serious then a phone call home. He pushed students who did not want to play with him and previously, he hit another student and felt no remorse at all. Obviously the calls home did not work so intervention was needed.

I do not like that all of the students with behavior problems are sent to my cooperating teacher's room. She has enough to worry about with her own students. Her students have learning and behavior problems and she does not have time to take on additional students. I do not think it is fair for her to have to do that. I think the students with behavior problems should be taken out of the classroom and into the office.

Same Assignment, Different Grade Levels

Since I am in a special education classroom and there are three grade levels in the class, it is difficult to plan lessons that every student can participate in. However, I really liked the idea that my cooperating teacher developed. She first read a story to the entire class. Although the story was too difficult for the kindergarten and first graders to read themselves, my cooperating teacher reviewed details that were important and possibly confusing for them so they could understand the story. After she finished reading the story, she assigned each grade level a different assignment based on their capability. The kindergarteners had to draw a picture showing what happened in the story. The first graders had to draw a picture of the story and write at least a sentence about what they drew from the book. The second graders were not allowed to draw; they had to write a paragraph about the story. All of the students had to show their comprehension of the story whether it was written, drawn, or a combination. I really liked this assignment because it enabled all of the students to work on the same thing at the same time. If the teacher had assigned all of the students to draw a picture, then it would have been efficient for the kindergartners but too easy for the first and second graders. At the same time, writing a paragraph is a good assignment for the second graders, but too difficult for the kindergarteners and first graders. I like the way my cooperating teacher was able to take one story and make assignments that each grade level is capable of completing. This teaching tool can even be used in an inclusion setting; the teacher can assign work based on learning ability (high, medium, and low) that correlates with each other. I believe this teaching tool is effective and will be a good thing to remember for my classroom.

Differences Between Inclusion First Grade and Special Education

I have had the opportunity to help in both an inclusion first grade class and a special education class. I can see huge differences in these two types of classes. First, the special education class that I am working in has kindergarten, first, and second graders. The wide range of grades makes it difficult for the teacher to teach. While in the special education class, the students do homework and class work that they did not have time to finish in their regular classroom. Every student works on something different. For instance, the kindergarteners might be on the carpet working on a puzzle that focuses on the alphabet, the first graders might be working on handwriting, and the second graders might be working on vocabulary. After the students are done with their assignments, they can read a book, draw a picture, or play educational games on the computer. Therefore, the entire classroom is utilized because each student is doing something different in a different part of the room. In my opinion, the special education class is more of a catch-up class then actual learning. The special education classroom is more hectic then the first grade classroom. Students continuously come and go. They start in their regular classrooms then go to the special education classroom for an hour. Next, they go to other specialties such as Speech and return to the special education classroom an hour later. Each student has a different schedule based on his/her needs. It is difficult to keep track of all of the students and know exactly where they are at all times.

Effective Spelling Tool

Over Spring Break, I visited the first grade teacher that I helped during my senior year of high school. I was excited to visit her and meet the students. During journal time, I helped the students spell out words. Each student had a spelling book, which provided about twenty commonly used words for each letter of the alphabet. This book was designed for first graders. Therefore, it had words such as family, friends, there, and their. On each page, there were additional lines to write other words that start with that particular letter. Whenever a child asked for a word that wasn’t in the spelling book, he/she had to turn to the page/alphabet letter in which the word started. Then, the teacher writes the word on that page. I really like this concept that the students have a list of words that they should know, but they can also add to their vocabulary and have the word spelled correctly the next time they need it. I could tell that the students who used the spelling book the most were able to write their journals fast and correctly. On the other hand, the students who did not have additional words written in their spelling book had a more difficult time writing the journal. I think the spelling book is an effective tool.

The Classroom

My cooperating teacher’s classroom is different from all of the other classrooms I have ever seen. I am not sure whether the differences are due to the teacher’s style or that it is a special education classroom and this is my first experience in a special education classroom.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the classroom was that the calendar was still on the month of January even though it was halfway through February. As a student, I know this would have bothered me because I would not know the date. I think this would be especially confusing to the special education students.

Since the school was afforded additional funding, they were able to hire two additional special education teachers. However, they had a classroom shortage. Therefore, approximately 1/4 of my cooperating teacher’s classroom was taken for one of the new teachers. The other side of the classroom contains the only chalkboard in the room. Therefore, my cooperating teacher does not even have a chalkboard. I believe chalkboards are critical for a teacher to properly teach the students. Without a chalkboard, a teacher cannot visually teach something to the entire class. She has to rely on other resources. In lieu of a chalkboard, my cooperating teacher has a small mobile white board where she writes the words of the week.

I believe technology is important in the classroom. Equipment such as overheads, SmartBoards, and document cameras allow an entire class to visualize and grasp material. Although none of these technological features are available in the classroom I am observing, I do not think they would be used effectively in a special education classroom. My cooperating teacher generally teaches only one student at a time. Therefore, she can show each student individually what she needs to show him or her instead of distracting the rest of the class with an overhead projection. On the other hand, there are three Apple computers in the classroom, which are used by the students to play reading and math games. The computers are used for a reward, but they also help the students with reading and math skills.

Given that there is less room in the classroom, I feel like everything is shoved together. In my opinion, the room is not organized because there are stakes of papers lying all over the room. Also, most of the books are in boxes instead of on bookshelves. There is not sufficient storage in the classroom.

There is not a direct access to the outside, but I think that is a good thing. There are a few of the students I can see running outside to either get away from the teachers or simply play outside.

Overall, I believe there are features in the classroom that are an asset, but there are also things in the classroom that I do not like and would not have in my own classroom. My cooperating teacher had an entire classroom to herself in past years then she had to consolidate into 3/4 of the space, which could have contributed to the lack of organization and adequate space.

Word Cards

These are the word cards that I talked about in my last post. As a refresher, a word card is a flash card with a single word on it that is used to help the students.

Every child in the class has his/her own set of word cards. The words in each student’s stack are different based on his/her reading ability and grade level. Since I am working in a special education classroom, the students are not reading at grade level. Therefore, their words are either a year or two behind their actual grade level. For instance, a second grader is most likely learning the words a first grader should know.

The teacher took the time to make unique sets of word cards for each student, but I think they are a great investment of time. The word cards can be used as a testing method like I did the other day or they can be used by the student to spell words correctly. Instead of asking the teacher how to spell a word, the student can look in the word cards. Also, the student can test himself/herself.

I think this is a great idea because the students each have a list of words that they should know, be familiar with, and know how to use, sitting in front of them while they are doing work. This is a useful tool that I will consider using in my future classroom.

Working with Word Cards

Today I worked individually with kindergarten students in the hallway on word cards. A word card is a flash card with a single word on it. The student must read the word correctly before I can turn to the next card.

The first student I worked with said that every word was “have” except for the colors. However, once we got to the word “have”, he had trouble recognizing it. He was guessing and became very frustrated because his guesses were not correct. It was a challenge to find different ways to help him read the word cards. I used a combination of techniques. First, I asked him to say all of the letters in the word and the sounds associated with each letter. That is where I realized that he does not know all of his letters or sounds. Therefore, we did a quick review of letters and sounds, but he continued to say each word was “have” even if there were no similar letters. Consequently, I took the “have” flash card out of the pile. Every time he said the word was “have” I showed him the “have” card. Then I asked, does this look like the word have? That seemed to work the best because once he realized the word wasn’t “have”, we sounded out the word together and he was able to identify it.

The other student I worked with mixed up his b’s and d’s. When I asked him to sound out the words, he had difficulty. However, once I asked him to sound out the words out loud to me, he was able to identify the words. This confirmed my theory that a person understands what he/she is reading when he/she reads it out loud.

My First Day!

I was nervous and excited for my first day in a special education classroom. I was nervous because I did not know what to expect, but I was excited to be working with young children. I can see that special education is very different from regular classrooms especially with the teacher to student ratio. In my class, there are kindergarten, first, and second graders. At any given time, there are between eight students and only one student in the classroom. Also, there are between three to five teachers/aides in the classroom at once. On the first day I helped the students illustrate and write a sentence about the story the teacher read aloud to them. I also helped students individually in the hallway with reading their word cards.

At the carpet, the students practiced counting together to 100 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. One of the girls was misbehaving all throughout counting by 1s. Therefore before the 2s started, the teacher gave her an ultimatum. She had the choice to either participate in the activity or do it at recess. The girl decided to participate. I think this ultimatum will be effective for many students because most children enjoy recess and are upset if it is taken away from them.

Overall, my first day was a success and I am already learning tools that will help me when I become a teacher!

My First Blog

I am currently a freshman at Mount Union College. I am double majoring in Early Childhood Education and Intervention Specialist with a minor in Mathematics. I play golf for the Mount Union Raiders women team and I am in the First Year Experience program. In my free time, I enjoy playing golf, scrapbooking, volunteering, watching movies, and shopping.

I created this blog to document my educational experiences in the classroom as a preservice teacher. I love working with children and I am excited to start my field experience to learn more about teaching and teaching techniques.