Week 16-December 6th-10th, 2010 and Inquiry

This was my last week at my PDS and I did not realize that I would feel so sad. It’s amazing to me how much I have learned this past semester and how much I have gotten to know my students. I am very interested in coming back to my classroom next semester and seeing how different the students have become and where they are with their Reading and Math skills. My mentor teacher says that I will definitely see a big difference. I am waiting on my feedback from my small group leader on my Inquiry. She will have this back on Friday and then I will have the weekend to work on it to submit the final copy on Tuesday. I am very pleased with the topic I chose for my Inquiry. It was truly a skill that needed worked on in the classroom and I believe that the majority of the students benefitted from my research and activities. I am looking forward to next semester and working on the contract hours that I have planned-I am very anxious to start the co-teaching and have different experiences. I am continuing my Inquiry project with all the Kindergarten classrooms at my PDS and I am anxious to see how this will go. All in all, I had a great semester and too many positive experiences to name here. I feel that I have grown as a teacher. I learned so much this semester about teaching strategies, classroom management techniques and differentiated instruction that I can continue to use in my teaching career.

Week 15- November 29th-Decemeber 3rd, 2010 and Inquiry

This week is my last full week at my PDS and my mentor teacher has taken over all responsibility of teaching. I am now observing in the classroom and I also got the opportunity to observe in the special education classroom, which was a different experience. Next week, my last day is Thursday because I started the semester on August 16^th. I am having mixed feelings about leaving my placement. I have learned so much this semester from my mentor teacher and from my experiences. I have really learned a great deal about the development of Kindergartners and I think it will be very interesting to visit this classroom in the Spring and see how these children have grown. My favorite thing to see is the invented spelling that the students use in their journal writing. It’s so interesting to me that even though the words most of the students write are not spelled correctly; I can still read and understand what the students are trying to say. The students in my PDS classroom really do a nice job of sounding out words and are constantly exposed to this in the classroom. My mentor teacher has been teaching Kindergarten for many years so she really provided me with a positive experience and showed me one of the best ways to teach Kindergarten students.

My Inquiry project is completed in the classroom. I have collected all the final data that I need for my write-up. Every student but one increased on the number of missing number sequences that they knew however, I came to the conclusion that I cannot say if this is the result of my study/activities in the classroom. I am going to continue my Inquiry project for my contract next semester. I am going to implement a “Math RTI” in Kindergarten and pull 2 students from each Kindergarten classroom. I am very excited to start this and see the effect that this has on the students learning the different classrooms. I have completed a draft of my Inquiry write-up to turn into my small group facilitator for feedback. After I get this back from her, I will be able to complete my final write-up and polish what I have.