Tuesday, April 5, 2011
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE ANATOMY CLASS
My partner teacher Mr Darrell Jernigan welcomed me for the first time to his anatomy class and from that time onwards that class became my favourite class in the school. The wonderful interaction of the students and the innovations the teacher used in the teaching learning process and assessment, made the class a cut above the rest. My first on hand teaching experience in the American School system was with this class and I found my students interacting with me in an excellent manner and responding positively to my methods of teaching which were really new to them. At the end of the day it was a highly satisfying and rewarding experience. The real life experience of a python feeding on rat in the animal cage in the class in front of the students and the teacher using the same for explaining anatomical features of snakes, the proceess of swallowing and digestion and about the habits and habitats of python was wonderful. My dissection class with anatomy students demonstrating the digestive system of cat was a great experience. The curiosity and interest of students and the disciplined way of doing the lab was highly commendable. The rapport the students had with me and their respect and dedication towards me was a really valuable experience. These are only a few glimpses of my internship experience at the Seneca High school.
http://worldofteaching.com/
This is a site where you can get access to free presentations for high school students.
You can use and alter these presentations freely or any power point template used in this presentations site for other teachers. It is also a great place to look when searching for diagrams to prepare your own presentations.
If you have any powerpoints, you can consider submitting them for other teachers to download too. It's all about sharing and helping others.
There are presentations for several subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics, English, History, Geography and Spanish.
Join the worldofteaching community website and also have the option to register as a 't u t o r' (a free service)
Finally, it also has links that direct you to other teacher resources. Also don’t forget to visit SitesforTeachers.com- a searchable index of hundreds of educational sites.
Visit this world to make the dissemination of teaching better for the future.
You can use and alter these presentations freely or any power point template used in this presentations site for other teachers. It is also a great place to look when searching for diagrams to prepare your own presentations.
If you have any powerpoints, you can consider submitting them for other teachers to download too. It's all about sharing and helping others.
There are presentations for several subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics, English, History, Geography and Spanish.
Join the worldofteaching community website and also have the option to register as a 't u t o r' (a free service)
Finally, it also has links that direct you to other teacher resources. Also don’t forget to visit SitesforTeachers.com- a searchable index of hundreds of educational sites.
Visit this world to make the dissemination of teaching better for the future.
My Interview
School Placement Task Inventory
1. Principal
Garry Culler is the principal at Edward middle school. The school principal is the highest-ranking administrator at school. According to him, principal typically report directly to the school superintendent, but may report to the superintendent's designee, usually an associate superintendent, in larger school districts.
His main jobs are:
a. Responsible for the overall operation of the school. Some of the duties and responsibilities are delineated in state statutes. States and school districts have also set expectations for him through his principal evaluation criteria and procedures.
b. Monitor instruction increased along with the responsibility to help teachers improve their teaching.
c. Improve the school instructional program
d. Create a shared vision within the school community and success in implementing new organizational structures that engage teachers in shared decision-making. He has discovered that engaging the entire school staff in making decisions results in more commitment to school reform initiatives.
e. Facilitating the school's interactions with parents and others in the school community. This responsibility includes working with parents when disciplinary issues arise, when students are not succeeding academically, and when parents have concerns.
f. Interact with parents who serve on school advisory boards, parent/teacher organizations, and booster clubs.
The main challenge is legislation requires the removal of principal when school is classified as low performing (students do not meet achievement expectations) for a specified period of time the fore he must make sure everything works well.
2. Assistant principal
.............. is the assistance principal. He is in charge with students’ disciplinary, be a liaison between school and parents, supervision of students with the buses, locker combination and the distribution of students’ text book. There are 780 students it means a lot of books that he should distribute and for that he got help from PTS (a parents- teacher’s organization) that will come in the beginning and at the end of the school year. They volunteer to scan the bar code of the books. The scanner really help the school to tract the books.
The main challenge is dealing with parents. From 780 students, there are 20% of them have problem with disciplinary. Some parents were very difficult to contact. They gave false numbers and sometime they already moved to a different address without telling the school.
3. Partner teacher
Sheila Martin is my partner teacher. She is one of the English teacher for 6th grade . There are three teachers for English. They are reading strategies , English literature, and writing strategies teacher.
In this semester according to the curriculum she has to teach about Capitalization, comma rules, prepositional phrases, friendly letter and business letter. She has to make sure that the students will use all of the materials in their writing. Before teaching she always writes the steps of teaching in her teacher’s daily plan book.
For writing strategies she taught the students to use different map to collect their ideas. She introduces variety kinds of map. They are tree map,circle map,flow map,bubble map, multi flow map, double bubble map, brace map, and bridge map. She always asks the students to work in group before asking the students to do their individual project. She will start the lesson by giving a topic to be discuss then ask the students to choose the map that suite with them, based on the map the students will write their draft. She will check them then give them back to the students to write the final writing. She is a good partner and for that I’m grateful to be her internship teacher.
4. A. Physical education
Roger Brown is one of Physical Education teacher in Edward middle school. According to him for P.E, they use a fix curriculum designed by the South Carolina State. The materials are basketball, volleyball, badminton, athletics, four squares, and sit up. There will also be test for the students concerning those activities. The test result then will send to the parents.
P.E is mandatory. In a day they have six period of teaching for 6, 7, and 8 for 2 semesters. Each class consists of 38 – 40 students. The activities are carrying out in the gym or athletic field. The students can also join a basketball summer camp in summer.
The biggest challenge is not every student have a good motivation to do sport. Time has chance; the students are preferred to sit in front of their computer rather than doing sport.
5. Art
Mariah Smith is an Art teacher. Art is not mandatory. Art class is divided into related art, graphic art and visual art. There are also other classes that walk side by side with art. They are music class such as string and band, carrier class such as architecture and wood shop and health. The students that chosen music class can’t join the art class. The school divided the time by 12 weeks for art, 12 weeks for carrier class, and 12 weeks for study hall.
The art class uses a specific curriculum standard by federal and state. Mariah uses technology while teaching in the classroom. She uses the promethium board, internet, power point presentation, movie and computer. For 6th grade students, the students will have basic fundamental of colors theory, 7th grade will have a chance to apply the colors theory into their drawing and 8th grade will make graffiti. They can make graffiti in a chair, cupboard or at the wall.
The biggest challenge is because there are 25 – 30 students in a period of time. The students are so diverse. Some love art and would like to develop themselves as an artist while some students just join in for fun.
6. Librarian
Valerie Boatwright is a librarian. She is a new librarian. She came to the school last August. She used to be a math teacher then she continued study and got her master degree in counseling. Being the librarian her main jobs are supplying the reading materials and collaborating with teachers and students. She is helping by a librarian clerk named Judy. She has been in the school for 17 years.
There are many books in the library. Most of them are fiction, non-fiction, bibliography and general science. There are many comfortable chairs that the teachers and students can use while reading in the library. There are fifteen computers with internet connection that can be using both teachers and students. There is a printer that the teachers can use for free and $ 15 cent a piece for students who use it and there are laminating, scanner, smart board and copy machine where teachers are free to copy the lesson and test sheets that they will distribute to the students in the classroom.
The biggest challenge is the budget cut make it difficult to add new books.
7. Computer Lab
Dr. Steve Lewis is a man who in charge and taking care for all of the computers at school. He is the literacy specialist, a technical support and a technology project skill in track. There are 238 computers at school which are used by the teachers, the school stuff office and the students.
The school has a computer lab with 40 computers in it and a portable lab with 30 laptops that can move from one classroom to another classroom.
The materials for the students are Word, Excel, Internet, PowerPoint, movie maker and wed-side design.
The biggest challenge is time. He has a limited time doing everything because there are so many things that he should handle by himself.
8. After school program
Bailey tailor is used to be a substitute teacher in Edward. Now she is incharge with the after school program. She said the target of the programs are :
a. Students of working parents who go home to an empty house
b. Students who need extra aid for homework or subject area
c. Students who need to participate in activities to enhance positive school community and help prepare their futures
The benefits of the programs are :
a. The Student: program will target all developmental domains.
b. The Parent: reassurance that their child is in a safe environment and receiving life long skills to achieve a successful future.
c. The School: Program will prepare more productive students in the classroom. The school will benefit financially.
The mission/ vision of the program is Be Your Best!!!
Mission Statement: To develop, mold, and motivate students to achieve their best through character, school success, citizenship, friendship, and to become higher esteemed individuals.
As the students grow as individuals, the program grows to meet their needs and develop the best of themselves.
It will need a lot of hard work and secretive to make the program work because the program just started on this early March. The numbers of students who participate in this program is not many but she is sure it’ll be increasing though time.
1. Principal
Garry Culler is the principal at Edward middle school. The school principal is the highest-ranking administrator at school. According to him, principal typically report directly to the school superintendent, but may report to the superintendent's designee, usually an associate superintendent, in larger school districts.
His main jobs are:
a. Responsible for the overall operation of the school. Some of the duties and responsibilities are delineated in state statutes. States and school districts have also set expectations for him through his principal evaluation criteria and procedures.
b. Monitor instruction increased along with the responsibility to help teachers improve their teaching.
c. Improve the school instructional program
d. Create a shared vision within the school community and success in implementing new organizational structures that engage teachers in shared decision-making. He has discovered that engaging the entire school staff in making decisions results in more commitment to school reform initiatives.
e. Facilitating the school's interactions with parents and others in the school community. This responsibility includes working with parents when disciplinary issues arise, when students are not succeeding academically, and when parents have concerns.
f. Interact with parents who serve on school advisory boards, parent/teacher organizations, and booster clubs.
The main challenge is legislation requires the removal of principal when school is classified as low performing (students do not meet achievement expectations) for a specified period of time the fore he must make sure everything works well.
2. Assistant principal
.............. is the assistance principal. He is in charge with students’ disciplinary, be a liaison between school and parents, supervision of students with the buses, locker combination and the distribution of students’ text book. There are 780 students it means a lot of books that he should distribute and for that he got help from PTS (a parents- teacher’s organization) that will come in the beginning and at the end of the school year. They volunteer to scan the bar code of the books. The scanner really help the school to tract the books.
The main challenge is dealing with parents. From 780 students, there are 20% of them have problem with disciplinary. Some parents were very difficult to contact. They gave false numbers and sometime they already moved to a different address without telling the school.
3. Partner teacher
Sheila Martin is my partner teacher. She is one of the English teacher for 6th grade . There are three teachers for English. They are reading strategies , English literature, and writing strategies teacher.
In this semester according to the curriculum she has to teach about Capitalization, comma rules, prepositional phrases, friendly letter and business letter. She has to make sure that the students will use all of the materials in their writing. Before teaching she always writes the steps of teaching in her teacher’s daily plan book.
For writing strategies she taught the students to use different map to collect their ideas. She introduces variety kinds of map. They are tree map,circle map,flow map,bubble map, multi flow map, double bubble map, brace map, and bridge map. She always asks the students to work in group before asking the students to do their individual project. She will start the lesson by giving a topic to be discuss then ask the students to choose the map that suite with them, based on the map the students will write their draft. She will check them then give them back to the students to write the final writing. She is a good partner and for that I’m grateful to be her internship teacher.
4. A. Physical education
Roger Brown is one of Physical Education teacher in Edward middle school. According to him for P.E, they use a fix curriculum designed by the South Carolina State. The materials are basketball, volleyball, badminton, athletics, four squares, and sit up. There will also be test for the students concerning those activities. The test result then will send to the parents.
P.E is mandatory. In a day they have six period of teaching for 6, 7, and 8 for 2 semesters. Each class consists of 38 – 40 students. The activities are carrying out in the gym or athletic field. The students can also join a basketball summer camp in summer.
The biggest challenge is not every student have a good motivation to do sport. Time has chance; the students are preferred to sit in front of their computer rather than doing sport.
5. Art
Mariah Smith is an Art teacher. Art is not mandatory. Art class is divided into related art, graphic art and visual art. There are also other classes that walk side by side with art. They are music class such as string and band, carrier class such as architecture and wood shop and health. The students that chosen music class can’t join the art class. The school divided the time by 12 weeks for art, 12 weeks for carrier class, and 12 weeks for study hall.
The art class uses a specific curriculum standard by federal and state. Mariah uses technology while teaching in the classroom. She uses the promethium board, internet, power point presentation, movie and computer. For 6th grade students, the students will have basic fundamental of colors theory, 7th grade will have a chance to apply the colors theory into their drawing and 8th grade will make graffiti. They can make graffiti in a chair, cupboard or at the wall.
The biggest challenge is because there are 25 – 30 students in a period of time. The students are so diverse. Some love art and would like to develop themselves as an artist while some students just join in for fun.
6. Librarian
Valerie Boatwright is a librarian. She is a new librarian. She came to the school last August. She used to be a math teacher then she continued study and got her master degree in counseling. Being the librarian her main jobs are supplying the reading materials and collaborating with teachers and students. She is helping by a librarian clerk named Judy. She has been in the school for 17 years.
There are many books in the library. Most of them are fiction, non-fiction, bibliography and general science. There are many comfortable chairs that the teachers and students can use while reading in the library. There are fifteen computers with internet connection that can be using both teachers and students. There is a printer that the teachers can use for free and $ 15 cent a piece for students who use it and there are laminating, scanner, smart board and copy machine where teachers are free to copy the lesson and test sheets that they will distribute to the students in the classroom.
The biggest challenge is the budget cut make it difficult to add new books.
7. Computer Lab
Dr. Steve Lewis is a man who in charge and taking care for all of the computers at school. He is the literacy specialist, a technical support and a technology project skill in track. There are 238 computers at school which are used by the teachers, the school stuff office and the students.
The school has a computer lab with 40 computers in it and a portable lab with 30 laptops that can move from one classroom to another classroom.
The materials for the students are Word, Excel, Internet, PowerPoint, movie maker and wed-side design.
The biggest challenge is time. He has a limited time doing everything because there are so many things that he should handle by himself.
8. After school program
Bailey tailor is used to be a substitute teacher in Edward. Now she is incharge with the after school program. She said the target of the programs are :
a. Students of working parents who go home to an empty house
b. Students who need extra aid for homework or subject area
c. Students who need to participate in activities to enhance positive school community and help prepare their futures
The benefits of the programs are :
a. The Student: program will target all developmental domains.
b. The Parent: reassurance that their child is in a safe environment and receiving life long skills to achieve a successful future.
c. The School: Program will prepare more productive students in the classroom. The school will benefit financially.
The mission/ vision of the program is Be Your Best!!!
Mission Statement: To develop, mold, and motivate students to achieve their best through character, school success, citizenship, friendship, and to become higher esteemed individuals.
As the students grow as individuals, the program grows to meet their needs and develop the best of themselves.
It will need a lot of hard work and secretive to make the program work because the program just started on this early March. The numbers of students who participate in this program is not many but she is sure it’ll be increasing though time.
Teaching resource website
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
This is a good website that I am using. It offers various teaching resources from lesson plans, worksheets, videos, & student- activities. It can also help teachers create different forms of puzzles in its puzzlemaker. You don't need to log in to use the different resources it provides. There are sites also for parents and students such as tutorials,virtual labs, games and interactive videos. Although it is named discovery education, this site also provides materials for English, Social Studies and Math. Hope you'll find this site useful too, you're just a click away :)
This is a good website that I am using. It offers various teaching resources from lesson plans, worksheets, videos, & student- activities. It can also help teachers create different forms of puzzles in its puzzlemaker. You don't need to log in to use the different resources it provides. There are sites also for parents and students such as tutorials,virtual labs, games and interactive videos. Although it is named discovery education, this site also provides materials for English, Social Studies and Math. Hope you'll find this site useful too, you're just a click away :)
Sites presented last class
http://www.animoto.com/ Create stunning video slideshows. Turn your photos, videoclips and music into video masterpieces to share with everyone. Fast, free and shockinly easy. http://www.wallwisher.com/ Wallwisher is an ONLINE NOTICE board maker!!! It is ideal for making announcements, wishing people, keeping notes and things you can do with post-its. Eduardo
allfolkstale.com
http://www.allfolkstale.com/
this is a good site to look for stories and folk tales. English teachers can use this for teaching narration. The stories have all the aspects of narrative writing. It would also increase the interest level of your students
this is a good site to look for stories and folk tales. English teachers can use this for teaching narration. The stories have all the aspects of narrative writing. It would also increase the interest level of your students
Monday, April 4, 2011
Personal Learning Network (PLN)
Many teachers within a school are used to asking each other for help. Teachers are usually very willing to help each other with instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, and other slices of a teacher's professional life.
But what about when a teacher goes home and has no peers to ask for help or advice? More and more teachers are turning to the WWW and creating an online, personal learning network (PLN). The PLN, as defined by the Educational Technology Guy, can extend beyond your peer teachers at school, it can encompass Web resources and teacher-based discussions in online forums.
As you can see from the graphic above (courtesy of this blog) here are many, many resources from which you can choose to focus your professional learning. One person's PLN will be very different from another's PLN. A middle school science teacher's PLN would focus on sites related to middle school instruction, classroom management, as well as lower-level science, whereas a secondary English teacher would be very different.
A few PLN sites are here:
- The Educator's PLN: http://edupln.ning.com
- Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com
- Google for Educators: http://www.google.com/educators
- Edutopia (Please view the "Community" menu at the top & consider "Liking" Edutopia on Facebook): http://www.edutopia.org
- PBS Teacher Connect: http://www.pbs.org/teachers
Lastly, here's one teacher's take on how she was able to create and thrive in an online-based PLN. She presents the 8-step system that she went through here.
Please explore the WWW for PLNs that might be of use to you. It's truly a great way to enhance your teaching! If you find something worthwhile, please comment on this Blog post and let us know what you've found!
Websites for English Language Classrooms
The following are two websites that are very helpful for English language teachers to use in their classrooms to make their classes more interactive:
www.rong-chang.com
www.manythings.com
www.rong-chang.com
www.manythings.com
My Unforgetable Day At Edwards Middle School
One of my most interesting moments within our period of internship was a day that I spent at Edwards Middle School with colleague fellows from Seneca High School. What took me away from Seneca High School to Edwards Middle School was a program organised at Edwards to assist a colleague give a presentation to the students about my wonderful country Ghana. There was however, an additional arrangement to observe some middle school lessons and this is where I met someone that I consider as simply wonderful and a blessing to the noble profession of teaching.
This teacher is one of the best examples of an excellent modern professional. Her skill in use of technology for the lesson was exemplary. She exhibited excellent creativity by incorporating games in her lesson for the day which the students just loved .She also used realia, the web, interactive teaching methods and was gifted in the way she involved all her students in the lesson. Simply put, there was a hundred percent student involvement in the lesson.
For someone who all of a sudden gets five strangers in her class to observe her teaching, she was very confident. She exhibited no signs of nervousness or shyness during her teaching. She was very patient and passionate about what she was teaching. There were indicators that she simply loved her teaching and she was good at it too. Her enthusiasm actually rubbed off on her students as they really enjoyed her lesson.
From this excellent professional, I have been exposed to the use of technology while not losing track of traditional methods of teaching to lessons effective. To ensure that all my students reach their maximum potential, I am willing to “steal” from this wonderful professional in Edwards Middle School.
This teacher is one of the best examples of an excellent modern professional. Her skill in use of technology for the lesson was exemplary. She exhibited excellent creativity by incorporating games in her lesson for the day which the students just loved .She also used realia, the web, interactive teaching methods and was gifted in the way she involved all her students in the lesson. Simply put, there was a hundred percent student involvement in the lesson.
For someone who all of a sudden gets five strangers in her class to observe her teaching, she was very confident. She exhibited no signs of nervousness or shyness during her teaching. She was very patient and passionate about what she was teaching. There were indicators that she simply loved her teaching and she was good at it too. Her enthusiasm actually rubbed off on her students as they really enjoyed her lesson.
From this excellent professional, I have been exposed to the use of technology while not losing track of traditional methods of teaching to lessons effective. To ensure that all my students reach their maximum potential, I am willing to “steal” from this wonderful professional in Edwards Middle School.
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