A Whole Day!

I thought in order to get the whole experience out of my middle school practicum, it would be a great idea to spend a whole day at the middle school. I e-mailed my teacher and asked her what would be the best time for me to get there, and she said they really start lessons around nine. When I got there at nine, her first class was ready for the day. The first class she has is an average class, so the lessons were a little different from the first time I observed in a gifted classroom. When the first class was over, I got to go to a meeting! I felt like a real teacher....they discussed the MAP testing, and I thought it was neat because the had a computer program that allowed them to go on-line and look at each student in each sub group and how well they did. It gave them a standard deviation so they could compare and see what they needed to work on. The other classes of the day were the gifted classes and they spent the day discussing several short stories.

Oh..the middle school

My first day to the middle school was a little nerve racking because all of my other practicums had been at an elementary school and now I am in an 8th grade classroom. When I walked in the teacher did not pay much attention and just went on with the lesson, which was full of young boys sitting on desks and girls chewing on their bubble gum which is definitely not what I am accustomed to. She seemed to be a great teacher, though. She is a language arts teacher, and Nationally Board Certified, so I knew I was watching a pro. I was very impressed with the lesson she was teaching on grammar; because I feel that is a lacking area in our public schools. Right off I observed that she used a Promethean Board and knew what she was doing with it. Right after I got there she pulled up a flip chart that she had downloaded comparing the parts of speech. Her classroom was a little cluttered, but she did have student artifacts all over the wall; I especially liked the puzzle pieces on the wall. Her students had an assignment to create a puzzle piece that represents themselves. Although the middle school was a different experience, I felt that it was a great one.