Week of October 13, 2014 Journal

Monday
October 13
Today was my first day in my new placement. It was an in-service day.
Teachers had to be at Stanwood Elementary, one of Hempfields elementary schools,
from 8:00-3:30 to collaborate with grade levels. Being at this in-service day
benefited me. I had a chance to meet all of the Fort Allen kindergarten teachers as
well as their principal. I also had a chance to sit in on some important meetings and
retain a lot of useful information. For example, today I had a chance to practice
doing a running record. We talked about benchmark assessments and how they are
given one on one. Teachers from the same schools then collaborated and did a
leveled book sorting. It was a lot of group work and actually kind of fun. Placement
levels were then discussed. The levels are as follows: independent strong accuracy,
instructional few errors, hard below average. The teachers also sent around a list
of what they might need or what might be broken in their classroom that they need
fixed. The kindergarten teachers also had to figure out what percentage of their
students in their class went to preschool and which ones they attended. My new
cooperating teacher was also filling me in on her students and continued to tell me
that she has an ESL student in her classroom that doesnt speak English, but hes
very bright. Hes from Syria and speaks Arabic. She said we have to adapt all of the
lessons for him. I also found out today that Mrs. Duvall is leaving to go to Disney
World on Thursday and will be gone until next Wednesday, which means there will
be three different substitutes in the room. This will be an interesting start to my
week. The principal talked to the teachers today and I am going to finish this entry
with something she said that stuck out to me dont forget, always celebrate each
students positives.