Robyn Strickland

Professional Development #1
All Majors Meeting
The Education all majors meeting was held on January 21, 2015 at 10:00AM in the
Mackey Building. This meeting was very informational and helped me to prepare for the Spring
semester of 2015. At this meeting I learned the dates for advising for the Fall semester of 2015.
The dates for that are March 16-27. Another piece of information that I learned is that I have to
have all my praxis scores taken and in the Education office by November 1, 2015. If this does
not happen I will not get to student teach in the Spring of 2016. A third thing I learned is that
Student Teacher Interviews are on April 1, 2015. I am required to have a Student Teacher
Interview since I will be teaching in the Spring of 2016.
I can apply this to my teaching in many ways. One way is to understand the importance
of having a schedule to plan out the semester. One quality of a good teacher is being well
prepared and planning ahead. I can also use the knowledge I learn from classes and studying for
the praxis and use it in my future classroom. There is nothing better than a teacher that is
confident in what they are teaching. Students learning are at the center of our heart and it is our
job to be the best teacher we can be for them.
One thing I would like to investigate further would be to figure out when I will take my
praxis tests. I am currently planning on taking them this summer but I need to figure out when
they will be offered and where. A second thing to investigate further would be to make sure that I
get certified for first aid and CPR before I start teaching. I want to make sure this gets done
before I start to student teach.
My most memorable moment from the All Majors Meeting was the fact of realizing that I
am getting closer to graduating and I only have 2 and a half semesters left. I did not realize that
this semester I have to have do my Student Teacher Interview and take my praxis so soon. I was
still thinking that I still have a year to do everything but I was wrong. I am glad that I learned this
information at the meeting otherwise I would not have known the dates in advance. 2 and a half
more semester and I will hopefully start my career as the teacher God has called me to be.

Robyn Strickland

Professional Development # 2
Reading Recovery
On Wednesday February 25, 2015, Jill Sperring came and talked to us about Reading
Recovery. She explained what it is and how she has helped many people learn how to read
through this program. One of the concepts that I learned from her was how to create an
environment that is rich with Literature, Language, and Print. We should label many different
objects in our classroom to help students further their learning. I also learned that it is a good
idea to publish the students' writings on a weekly basis which gives them a reason to revise and
edit their work. Each week we can put their writings in a notebook and at the end of the year we
look back with them and see how far they have come. We can mark their accomplishments and
reward them for what they have done. Another concept I learned was to never underestimate the
childs' potential of what they can accomplish. When some children start out in the program they
have a real hard time reading. By the end of the program they accomplish so much. We are a
positive role-model for them and look forward to what they can do. Sometimes children need a
little push and encouragement to read and that is what we are for as a teacher.
After attending this workshop, I learned so much about how to teach children who have
trouble reading. As a teacher, I need to be attentive to the level of reading of my future students.
If a student in my class has trouble reading I will talk with the student's parents about Reading
Recovery and see what they would like to do in this situation. I can also make time in class to
help the class with furthering their reading skills by having them read something to me. This
would be one way to assess them and see how they are doing in this area.
One thing I would like to look into more is the Reading Recovery Program as a whole.
Before this workshop, I had never heard of Reading Recovery before. I think it is a great
program and teaches children essentials on how to further their reading levels. I would like to get
further information about this and use it in my classroom. A second thing I would like to look
more into is how I can help my students understand what this program is. Some students will be
really good readers and may not need the program but it is still good information for them to
learn. I would like someone from this Program such as Jill, to help me with this task.
My most memorable moment of the Reading Recovery Workshop was trying to read
some of the students writings and understand what they were trying to say. A lot of it looked like
scribbles and jumbled up words. In reality this was all the child knew. I will definitely keep this
in mind as I teach my future students.

Robyn Strickland

Professional Development # 3
Praxis Workshop
On April 16, 2015 I attended the Praxis workshop in the quick lecture hall in the Library.
This workshop helped us to prepare for taking the Praxis and tips on how to study for it. I was
given a packet with many helpful materials to help me study. The speaker went over the packet
with us and gave us helpful insights about the information in the packet. I learned about what to
expect when I get to the building I will be taking the exam at. I learned that there we will get a
pat down and will not be allowed to take anything with us into the exam room. They must lock
our belongings up in a locker until we have completed our test. I also learned that there will be
70 multiple choice questions and 4 constructed response questions. We only have 120 minutes to
answer these questions. If we do not finish in the allotted time we do not get extra time we will
be finished at that point.
This workshop made me realize how much information is on the Praxis. All this
information is what we will be using to teach our students in the future. We learn about many
practices and issues that we will deal with in our classroom. This test is the core for what we will
be teaching them. If we do not know this information, how can we teach our children what they
need to learn and grow? This information is very important if e want to be a very effective
classroom teacher.
My most memorable moment from this workshop was the fact that we were given an
example of a written response essay and were told we had 7 minutes to complete it. I figured out
that that is a very short amount of time to complete the essay. After we were all done, we went
over our answers and shared our responses with one another. This helped me to know how to
space out my time on the test and what type of answers I will be expected to write.