TLED Student Internship

Week 1
September 6 - 9

This week was very hectic, but I learned a lot. I came to school this week every day by 7 and
didn't get to leave till 3 sometimes 3:30. School got out at 2, I had to call parents and ask what
bus their students needed to be on AND I had to verify the parents knew their student said they
were car riders. I was so nervous the kids wouldn't like me or understand why they had 2
teachers. I met some already at the meet and greet but I think that was mostly for the parents to
meet us because parents were more involved than the kids. First day I got there early to fix a
desk that was uneven and I learned what body spelling is. There was no time to yourself, not
even lunch. I was always planning or preparing or thinking ahead of what to say. I learned that
week 1 is all about procedures and drills and should be very structured. It is also a time to get to
know the students. By the time I got home I was way too tired for much else but boy was it fun.

Week 2
September 12 - 16

I started to take over a little more this week, giving directions and stepping in when the teacher
steps away or is on the phone. I walked around and checked on each student in their progress, I
helped take over math talk, read aloud, I took over power ups, and even mid morning meetings.
I even sat in on meetings. I had to rearrange seating charts for lunch and the classroom. (which
personally, was a lot harder than i thought it would be) I wanted students to be near their friends
but not too close to talk all day. And I also had to seat them based on ability. (one strong student
next to a not so strong student) students needed to memorize their lunch number so they can
use it for other things like their computer log in. I turned it into a game and helped them
memorize it through songs. I've grown closer with the kiddos and they respect me as well as like
me so it's a good balance. I was nervous to teach my first lesson even though I've seen it done
at least 5 times. It went very well, I might have stumbled over what to say next but I think I did
well. I need to work on keeping time.
I love hearing your insights and am reminded of the beginning of every school year I had as a
classroom teacher. The beginning of the year can be quite overwhelming and that never
changes. It’s emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting. Every class of students brings
new challenges and new rewards, which can be one of the best things about teaching. It
sounds as though you are really taking ownership of the students in your care, which can be a
real benefit from starting the school year with them…they can be more likely to see you as just
another one of their teachers, which can really help in gaining their respect, as you have already
seen. I am eager to see you in action. :-)
 TLED Student Internship

Week 3
September 19 - 23

This week my students and I focused the majority of our time learning about push and pull. I
engaged them by playing with cars and having them push cars up a bridge that they built
themselves. The bridge was 100% made out of things found in the classroom. We used paper
and tape and made a standing bridge that goes over three books. The students had an
opportunity to be Engineers when they were building the bridge and we used NASA's planning
guide to walk us through the steps of creating the bridge. I was effective in meeting the purpose
of the lesson when students understood the difference between a hard push and a soft push
and how to create something and fix it, try again and fix it again. I had one hundred percent
participation in this lesson and I was effective in meeting the purpose So I'm proud of that. And
the students had great teamwork skills during my lesson. I think next time I will Not have team
leaders because the leaders got bossy and everyone else didn't want to listen to that leader. At
least in one group. So I think next time I do this I will not assign that position. I conference with
my clinical facility multiple times this week in order to get materials and to plan out what we can
do and how to present this idea to the students. I'm very proud of my students for creating this
hard task and doing it well. We've already discussed a good time for you to stop by would be
during our magnetism lesson next week

Week 4
September 25 - 30

The purpose of my lesson this week was to teach the different forces what they are and what
they do. I engaged my learner's with materials that I found at home like spoons Nails screws
and coins to teach them about magnetism. I used balloons to teach them about gravity. Toy cars
to teach about push and a game of tug-of-war to teach about pull. I was effective in meeting the
purpose of the lessons when I realized not only did I get their attention but I got them excited
about the lesson. I remember hearing a couple students in the lunchroom talking about the
tug-of-war activity and wanting to replicate it. Probably because the boys lost to the girls but I
took that as they wanted to practice pulling again. I guess you can say I'm measuring their
comprehension by observation and verbally listening to them. When I taught my lesson About
magnetism, I ran out of time. Two strengths from this lesson was student engagement, and
engaging all the students while also using all of the eight effective practices. I did make a couple
changes in my plans after teaching the lesson because I had two sides of a worksheet that
needed to be completed at each station. I believe they should have just had one side to be
completed. I had two sides of the worksheet ready for them because I knew I had gifted
students in my class that finished early. I wanted to be sure those students weren't walking
around idly with magnets Nails screws and other things during my lesson. But by doing that I
think I overwhelmed the rest of my students. My most important personal learning experience
during this week was even what seems like the simplest activities can really engage the
students. And what I mean by that is the plan to play tug-of-war or play with toy cars and
 TLED Student Internship

explore Gravity by using balloons we're not in the original lesson plans that the teachers
provided they had worksheets for all of those lessons and once I introduced my idea which was
simple and very cheap or completely free the teacher started to replicate it last minute. Which
was a great honor to me. I did a conference this week with My clinical faculty a couple of times
throughout the week just to confirm what we're doing each day and get feedback from her on
progress with the students. This week I had the opportunity to leave the class for the majority of
the day and I felt like a real teacher oh, so that made me proud. We've discussed a good time
for you to visit again during our math lesson next week.

Week 5
October 3 - 7
This week was harder to have lessons that really held the students' attention because they
skipped a day on monday and wednesday was a teacher work day. Students were very active
an excited. I didn't really get a chance to teach a lesson because it was so fast this week. I have
no idea what I could have done differently. I tried to teach a lesson this week about ordinal
numbers but there was a level 3 lock down drill RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE!!! I tried to speed the
lesson up but still help them understand. I didn't have time for a closure exit ticket. I think the
students really enjoyed the ordinal number race though. I was proud that I had the students
follow specific instructions so no animals were lost. But I do regret not tying my lesson with a
pretty bow to close it. But I did get to collect the papers on Wednesday to assess which students
understood and which ones did not.

Week 6
October 10 - 14

This week was the first week I actually took over a whole day. I was out on Monday and
Tuesday. I spent Wednesday asking final questions before teaching for a full day on Thursday
and friday!! Super fun!! It was hard to keep students under control while I was speaking and
getting ready to speak. I learned that the transitions need to be very smooth on my part and
theirs because if not….. Chaos happens. Idle time is the quickest way to lose a classroom.

Week 7
October 17-21

I am teaching a full week starting this week!! I am 100% on my own and I believe I can do it!!! I
can't believe it's already the halfway mark. I feel like I just got here! I did apply to Chesapeake
public schools last week to inform WBP I am interested in taking over the available 2nd grade
classroom in december. We will see how that goes! I taught my first full week of school without
assistance and it went great! I think I need to work on implementing a good hook to my lessons.
We have gotten into a routine and flow from one subject to another But I don't capture their
attention and eagerness to learn. I’m getting better at keeping to schedule but also stopping and
taking more time when students need it.
 TLED Student Internship

Week 8
October 24-28

I taught the class all week as a sub watched me. Mrs Denuis is on a mini vacation so I had all
the responsibilities for the week. Printing the lesson worksheets, Pulling up slides as needed,
attendance, dismissal and so much more. My students were very talkative and rude this week
so I had to work on classroom management a lot. My sub was a warm body in the room that
collected papers when the kids were finished. She didn't help me at all so It was like I was alone
but not physically alone. Friday we had a field trip to a pumpkin patch and I 100% did that
perfectly. No student was lost, the student who wasn't allowed to go, I had a day's worth of work
for them to do while We were gone. I administered meds to my student that needed it at a
specific time (after the nurse gave me a crash course) . I'm not sure if I was supposed to be in
charge of that but I did it. I had lots of parent help corralling the students where we needed to be
and MY OWN PARENTS ALSO CAME!! It was a blast. One thing I need to work on is
transitioning with no idle time for students. It was only a couple seconds to a minute but that's
enough time for students to go from 0 to 100.

Week 9
October 31- November 4
Mrs Denuis came back this week. One lesson that stood out to me that I taught this week was in
science. We were learning about solids, gasses, and liquids. I taught a lesson about A liquid
being changed into a solid. My students made butter using heavy whipping cream. Half of the
class used salt and the other half used honey. I did not tell them what the liquid was, I had them
observe and draw conclusions based on what they know. Half of the class swore up and down
we were making ice cream. and the other half of the class. Nothing was going to happen. I think
something that went well during this lesson was having enough materials for each table to
shake their own container. And while one student at the table was shaking the container, the
others were working on a worksheet identifying the differences and characteristics of solids,
liquids and gasses. One thing I think I could have done better is have a back-up plan if someone
at the table was shaking too aggressively and broke it and waited for a huge mess. One of my
students punched the container and broke it causing exactly that to happen. Thank goodness
the sub was in there and she was able to clean the mess as I attended two other students and
tried to salvage what was left of that table's container. Last week I talked about wanting to work
on my transition time and this week I think I did a lot better. I was able to have the materials
printed out ahead of time and line them up each day in order of what I needed so I was sure not
to miss a step.

Week 10
November 7-11
This week my students only had 3 days of school due to a holiday and a teacher work day.
during the teacher work day I attended a training on how to deal with students with behavioral
problems that is caused by trauma. And I learned a lot. this week was very hectic because we
were trying to fit in our lessons that were designed for a full school week into only three days. I
learned that just because we don't have school does not mean the pacing of the learning
 TLED Student Internship

changes. we have had a lot of issues this week with one particular student. he is incredibly
defiant and we are working on teaching him to be accountable for his own behavior and giving
him the option to make a good decision each day but it is very hard to do that when you are not
supposed to discipline unwanted Behavior.

Week 11
November 14-18
Since the beginning of the school year students have been learning phonics using slides
provided by Chesapeake Public Schools. This has become a routine part of our day and we
have implemented stations after the slides are completed. One group of students will get on
East Park reading and learn to be independent. Another group will be doing silent reading and
building their stamina as it pertains to reading. And the third group is usually working on a
worksheet that helps enforce the new slides we learned about and end that phonics lesson
during that day. All groups are working independently. Sometimes the word work group is
allowed to work with a partner. But during this time Miss Dennis and Ice Paul students go to our
tables and we provide one-on-one instruction or remediation. This week I have been really
working on managing small groups and helping my students one on one. this week I also got to
teach about Christopher Columbus who he was as a person and next week I get to talk about
why we celebrate indigenous people's day instead of Columbus Day

Week 12
November 21-25
This week was all so hectic because Thanksgiving is at the end of it and our students have an
early release on Wednesday. I got to witness my very first early release and it went by so
quickly. I feel like I didn't get a chance to fully explain everything to my students because the
lessons were cut short. I think if I had control of a day in my classroom that we had early release
I would only do the subjects we would normally do during that time to their full a lot of time.
Because at least they would have understood and fully grasped at least two or three subjects
during that half a day. We had to learn about Christopher Columbus and we touched on holidays
that we spoke about and introduced last week. I had a moral dilemma when I had to teach about
Thanksgiving and it being a celebration of harvest instead of actually explaining what happened
on Thanksgiving to the Native Americans by the pilgrims. This week I got to teach about
indigenous people's day and I got to explain why Christopher Columbus was a bully and why we
don't celebrate this holiday anymore. I learned I had to watch my words wisely and I learned it
is okay to say I don't know I will get back to you. Even if I know the answer, it will cause a moral
dilemma in the classroom.