Hannah Lunden

Level III Journal

Day 1: April 19

Summary: Today was my first day in Mrs. Dentlinger’s MCL classroom. I spent the majority of
the day observing and asking questions about the students and the environment, along with
getting to know the students and helping individuals with questions. MCL is pretty new to me, so
I did ask Mrs. Dentlinger many questions about this. Mrs. Dentlinger and I also did a bit of
planning for the lesson I will teach this week. I am going to start off tomorrow with a read-aloud
to get my feet wet. I will be sharing some poetry with my learners.

Reflection: I did some individual instruction with many students today. I made myself available to
help with questions. There were a couple of questions that caused me some trouble. I could tell
when trying to help, I wasn’t very confident. One thing I need to be better at is to be confident in
my instruction. I was telling the student the correct answers but I think they could tell I was
hesitant. This happened a few times today. Tomorrow I will work on being confident in what I
know, along with clearly answer questions students may have. One thing I noticed right away
today was how well Mrs. Dentlinger ran her classroom. The students always knew what they
were supposed to be doing and also seemed engaged in what they were learning.

Day 2: April 20

Summary: Today went really well in Mrs. D’s classroom. This morning I did poetry read aloud
and had a discussion about the authors’ viewpoint about each poem we read. We had a quick
discussion about the poems and what we noticed. The students did some testing in the morning
so during that time I hopped over to Mrs. Shep’s room to work with some students on
subtracting 3 digit numbers. This was one-on-one instruction.

Reflection: Today I did my first lesson. I started out with a read-aloud. We read a poetry book.
Within my lesson, I had many discussion questions for students to think and share about. I
implement a lot of think-pair-share in this lesson. I could tell I was nervous. There were times
when I kind of stuttered over my words. I think this will get better as I get more comfortable.

Day 3: April 21

Summary: Today was a short day with kids. My class has also been testing. They spent about
1-1.5 hours testing today. During that time I went and observed/helped in next door classrooms.
I worked one-on-one with a few 2nd-grade students on math measurements, spelling, and
constructing arrays. With my kiddos, we did a science experience about forces using eggs. This
was a whole group discussion and the kiddos loved it!

Reflection: I did a lot of one-on-one small group work today. From the teachers, I have observed
I have noticed how well they are at asking guiding questions. I have also noticed that a lot of the
lessons are lead by discussions. The students, the majority of the time, participate right away
and are really engaged. I want to continue to work on asking guiding questions. I have seen a
lot of positives from this with the kids. They amaze me with how smart they are! I also have
mastered everyone’s name in my class! :)

Day 4: April 22

Summary: Today I taught 2 lessons to my 3rd-grade learners. I also got to spend some time with
my kindergarten friends next door, while my learners were testing. I taught a math lesson using
pizza fractions. This was a review lesson for those that needed a little extra help. I did another
poetry read-aloud today too.

Reflection: I thought my math lesson went great. I felt really good about how it went. I had a few
things that I would change next time but overall thought I deliver the contents and reached my
objective well. Next time I would print out my exit ticket. This way students could go back to their
desk and complete it, then turn it into me. I struggled again with my read-aloud. I personally just
didn't think it went that well. My cooperating teacher and I discussed this and she gave a lot of
good advice. Some things she said were 1) Don't feel like you have to ask so many questions.
2) Don't feel like you have to do it all at once (as in reading the book) 3) Don't try and teach
everything at once, keep your objective in mind. I am hoping I can improve these skills with this
type of lesson.

Day 5: April 23

Summary: Today I work mainly one-on-one with students again. I also was introduced to an
awesome tech tool called Osmos. It’s a program that can be used on Ipads where students can
do interactive activities with the iPad monitoring them. You are so many apps that you can use
with this. This would be a great tool I would love to have in my classroom.

Reflection: I continue to notice little things that my teacher does daily to manage her classroom.
Again I say that she is so great at it. The way she is able to naturally facilitate and support her
students is awesome. We also were able to work with teachers on our team and they agreed to
let our learners share their SS projects in SD symbols in their classrooms next week.

Day 6: April 26

Summary: Today I gave my 2nd observation lesson. I can a SS studies lesson on SD symbols.
Overall It went pretty well. I also did another poetry read-aloud this morning. During math today I
got to work with a handful of students one-on-one. I like do this because I was helping reteach
skills. It was a good way for me to practice learning content.
Reflection: I thought my SS lesson went pretty well. There were definitely things I would’ve like
to do better. I am trying to remind myself that things aren’t going to be perfect. I am learning a
lot about myself in the teacher role. I’m appreciating these opportunities to learn and reflect on
my lessons.

Day 7: April 27

Summary: Today I did another read-aloud with my class. We have been focusing on poetry so I
have been doing poetry read-aloud with them for the last week. I also did a small group working
on analyzing poetry. We read a poem about bullying and being kind. I am meeting with every
student in a small group setting to go over this. I didn’t meet with everyone today, so I will finish
that Thursday.

Reflection: After my poetry read aloud today I felt that my kids were a little bored. I am hoping
that I can do better with getting them engaged more on Thursday when I do my next one. For
my poetry groups, we read a poem on bullying and kindness and then had a discussion about
the theme, meaning, main idea, etc. Overall the small groups have been going well. I think
Thursday I will try to use more content wording. For example, discussing figurative and
non-figurative language. I want to try and draw in those connections that students have already
learned about.

Day 8: April 28

Summary: This last week and a half has flown by. I have learned so much and am loving every
minute here. Students did a lot of independent work. Students continued to work on their SD
symbols project. I have really enjoyed seeing them create their projects and their thinking with
this. Tomorrow they will share with younger learners. I developed a script to help them think
about what they will share with those friends.

Reflection: I didn’t work a lot with kids today. I have noticed that some students aren’t coming to
me with questions. More are starting too but some still don’t; which is ok. I can tell those building
relationships is so important. You can tell that Mrs. D has created strong relationships with her
students. I love to see this and hope to have the same relationships in my future class.

Day 9: April 29

Summary: Today was my last day with Mrs. D and her awesome kids. These last two weeks
have gone awesome. Today the students finished up their SD symbols projects and shared
them with younger learners on our team. I also did another read-aloud and poetry small group
lesson.

Reflection: My last day went great. I was so proud of the students today. I loved seeing them
share their projects. They did such a great job. I was so happy with how things turned out. I
couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids. I ended today with lots of hugs and goodbyes!