Practicum Project Sharing

What a wonderful experience that I had at Hillcrest Elementary School! I had the opportunity to work with the lowest guided reading group in my first grade class. Three of the four students were ELLs. During my lessons I realized that one of the students was not able to understand some of the stories because of the language barrier. So I began to informaly observe this child more often and realized that she had appropriate BICS or social vocabulary which we learned would come first with ELLs. But what she really struggled with was more the academic language CALPS. So during my mini lessons I was more careful to provide the scaffolding to help this student. We would do little lessons on the mearning and importance of words in the books that we were reading. I also tried to provide opportunities for the ELL students to collaborate with other students. I loved watching this wonderful event take place. The students were really able to help one another learn about the different stories we were reading and inturn practice both BICs and CALPs. Many of the learners in the classroom needed accomodations such as this collaboration. I felt that assessment was a key to knowing what to teach next especially with the students that were not as comfortable with the english language. Both informal and formal assessments were used to help me know where teh students were and how to readjust my teaching to better accomodate their learning styles.

In first grade it is so important to teach children about reading strategies. In the classroom I have taught multiple lessons that teach the children how to use reading strategies to help with their reading fluency and comprehension. We have read together and individually. Then to enhance their own individual learning and practice we have been able to go into the Mac computer lab four days a week for twenty minutes and the students have practiced the strategies at their own pace using the WaterFord program. In this program the students read books into the mics and listen back to themselves read. They are able to listen to their own reading and identify which strategy will be best for them to work on. This encourages self-regulation and goal making.

I love using the computer lab in my teaching. Especially in teaching children about patterns. The website www.starfall.com has great links to games that reinforce many math and reading concepts for different grade levels. I find this to be an excellent way for children to learn more about safe internet use and the core areas taught in the classroom. Also the games are fun and easy to use for the children. This would be an excellent way to provide independent practice for patterns, addition and subtraction.

I am teaching in Alpine School District at Hillcrest Elementary School in a first grade classroom. In the classroom the only computer belongs to the teacher and is a Mac. However we do have a projector in the classroom and access to smartborads and Elmos. Also the children go to computers everyday. It is a lab of 30 Macs and has great reasources for the children to learn. The computer insrtuctor provides them rich experiences that enhances their computer time expereicne. The classroom teacher also strongly supports use of teachnology such as the projector, smartboards and elmos. In order to access the other teachnologies one must schedule with the secretaries. This school is very teach savvy!

This is a tour to help students explore how the different geography in Utah and how it effects everyday life for the people in Utah.

Here is the link I hope it can give you an idea of how to use technology in the classroom. Happy Tour viewing!:)

http://sites.google.com/site/utahgeographytoursite/my-file

We are focusing on teaching the how different geography can effect peoples everyday lives. We are going to do this by having the students explore and investigate. This is provide an opportunity for students to truly be active learners and be involved in discovering an answer to this question. We are using GoogleEarth to help the students with their investigation. This give the students a wonderful vantage point to see the different geography in the land of Utah.