Blog Access and First Prompt
As we are discovering, you may not all have readily available access to the blog site. Please let us know how frequently you are able to access the blog, and if you are able to access it from your schools.
For your first prompt, please share with us a bit about your base, and what you have learned from completing the Classroom and Student Characteristics.
As mentioned in the last email, please respond with your own information, and then in response to one of your peers.
If you want to ask for problem solving and input from your peers, here is the place to do it!
Warm wishes,
Chris
posted by Chris @ 3:06 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I have access to the blog from my apartment. We are paying to have internet in our apartment. I know that I can acess the blog from school but I can't leave a comment.
I am on Bamberg Army base in Bamberg Germany. At present almost 70% of the base is down range in either Iraq or Afgahnistan. In my classroom, a second grade classroom, I have about 12 students that have a parent down range, 3 that have a parent preparing to be deployed, and 4 preparing to have a parent return from down range. My classroom is very diverse and has a few students with an IEP, two that go to the ESL room, and one studnet with ADHD. I set up the classroom so that the studnets are in buddy pairs which makes it easier to complete daily chores and cooperative learning exercies and activities. The academic range of my classroom is from preschool abilities to fourth grade abilities. To accomodate for this we are setting up guided reading groups, and math groups also. I feel like this is going to be a really good experience and one that I will always remember.
I am living with Meg, Kevin and 5 other student teachers from Truman State. Because of this we are experiencing the sort of things. We all walk the same way to school and have to deal with the same people. The main difference is that I am working with a very interesting first grade class. I started with 20 students then went down to 19, back to 20 and back down to 19. This was within the first two weeks of school. There are 9 girls and 10 boys, all around the age of 6. All my students come from similar backgrounds; lower to middle class, and now that most live on post they are having similar experiences here. I am not sure how many, but I know there are about half the students with one parent deployed, witch is something that also brings the class together. In away it is nice to have so many things that bring the class together as a whole. I just wish they could have similarities that are more positive.
There are 3 ELL’s in my class who are more capable readers then some of my other students. We have 7 students who can identify 2-4 words out of the more frequently used words and 2 students who can read at a 2nd grade level. Basically we have the whole spectrum. We have 2 students currently going through the referral process for IEP’s and I think there should be more. I know it is going to be an interesting year and I am looking forward but a little scarred about what is still to come.
Laura - I am dealing with the same thing when it comes to reading. I have 60 percent of my students testing below grade level after the star testing but have some that are well above average scoring in the 4th or 5th grade levels. I am not sure how we are going to be able to deal with this without any services at our disposal. In second grade we are not going to be able to have any students tested to attend the reading room or reading 180 let alone accepted in. It is ridiculous and unfair to the students. I was so frustrated because even having two teachers in the classroom is not going to be enough to help these students. What we have decided to do so far is split the student into at least three guided reading groups and have students' parents help us out. I am still frustrated at the inefficiency of the reading program and what the administrators are NOT doing to help alleviate the problems that currently are affecting our school and our students.
-Meg (Foster)
I can access the blog from the dorm that I am at. I can also access the blog from the school, but I can't leave a comment.
The school is on Lakenheath Air Force Base in Lakenheath, England. However, I live on Feltwell Air Force Base with four other girls.
There are 25 students in my class. Eight of them are girls and 17 of them are boys. All of them have English as their first language. There is a pretty wide range of abilities. Three of them are in Comp Ed math and two of them are on an IEP.
There is also a pretty wide range of abilities in math. We use accelerated math so they can go at their own pace. They have certain objective that they need to master. They use scantron cards and take tests on these objectives. When they pass these they can move onto the next objective.
Overall I think that things are going pretty well. This will definitley be a great experience.
I live with both Meg and Laura and 5 other student teachers from Truman State in Missouri. I have acces to the internet from both school and my appartment.
I live on the military Army base in Bamberg, Germany and it is awesome. I love having the experience of living on base in a different culture setting and going outside of the base to see a whole different culture. The apartment that we live in is a little bland, but it has a single bedroom for everyone in the house, however, it only has one bathroom and another bathroom with just a shower. Everything thus far however has worked out to be great.
Currently I have 23 students in my third grade classroom. There are a mixed bunch of kids from all over. I have one girl that is ESL, two students that are TAG (which is the gifted program), five students that have IEP's, and other students that could be looked at for an IEP. Overall, I love the class that I have, some of the students are challenging, but I make them work hard and they respond well. The classroom has been moved around since we first started due to talking. The classroom originally had three rows, one on each side of the classroom and one in the back, and on pod of six students right in the middle of the classroom. The desks have now been re-arranged to having groups of two on each side of the classroom and single desks right down the middle of the classroom. The reason for this is because of the talking in the classroom.
The academic range of the classroom ranges to very bright and everything is easy, to kids that need constant care and dont really seem to comprehend anything. To accomadate students with extra needs I try to give them more assistance and keep a close eye on how they work. Students are in guided reading groups that range in different difficulties. I look forward to the upcomming days and seeing how my classroom progresses through the year and how the excell in their learning.
Laura - I am dealing with a lot of the same things when it comes to sttudents coming in and out of the classroom. We've had three students come into the class and two different students left. We have a school wide checklist of things to make sure that new students complete which is nice. Also, in our class there are a couple students who have been there for a while and are very friendly so they are able to show the new students around the school.
In my class we only teach science and math so I am not able to see much of the reading, which is kind of disappointing. I will hopefully be able to at least observe in another class. Good luck to all of you!
-Eileen
Eileen - Your class sounds like a lot of fun and that everything is under control. I like to hear what you do with math, because in my class we have problems with our students not being able to understand and comprehend the material. Some of my students really understand what we are doing, but there are deffinately others that just have no clue on whats happening no matter how much help we try to apply. I really do believe though that there is a way to really connect math with our students so they understand and can move on. When I take full control of the classroom I'll try to implement the idea of acceralted math with my students.
Hope everything is going wonderful.
-Kevin
So, I type a message to post, then go to post it and it disappears! :o( Everything is in german on the screen, hopefully it will work this time!!
I can access the blog from my apartment, we are paying for internet. At school i can't leave comments.
I am on Heidelberg Army Base, more specifically Patrick Henry Village. Most of our kids are lower to middle class. Many of them have parents currently deployed or soon to be deployed. We have four cores of science a day and they are all pretty evenly distributed with boy/girl ratios. Our first core has 14 students, but they're the bunch that feels like 50. Second core there are 20, third 19, and fourth 20. (I'm really liking the small class sizes!) We have 8 SPED students on either 504 plands or IEPs and they are spilt between our 3rd and 4th cores which is nice. We also have a number of students in the AVID program (gifted). With this there is a very wide range of ability levels although i'm seeing it mainly in reading and comprehension skills.
I am absolutely loving the students and my school so far. They have been wonderful. I am also helping coach our middle school volleyball team so that has been fun as well!
In response to Eileen’s post I also had a lot of problems with my students shouting out in the beginning of the year, but now I don’t have such a problem with it. As with any 2nd grade classroom there will be a couple of students that shout out every now and then but that is to be expected. I am not sure what will work with your classroom Eileen, but I found that if I stop the class and require the students to share with the class what they were talking about they become embarrassed and that stops them from talking with each other as much as they did in the beginning. You might try individual discipline for the students that shout out because they may not see the whole class staying in from recess as a discipline because that way everyone is missing out not just them. Do you have to go out for recess duty? If so you may try making the students that shout out “sit on the wall” and watch as the other students play at recess. I have found that individual punishment is more successful than group.
Hello everyone,
Well the first few weeks of my student teaching experience has been filled with excitement and learning. We arrived at Lakenheath American Middle School on Faltwell air force base in England about two weeks from tomorrow. The trip was great with no major hiccups. Upon meeting my two cooperating teacher Dr. Herold Mills and Mr. David Aaron I have fond that they are both real quality educators with both having more than 35 years of teaching experience. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from this caliber of professional. As far as the school itself goes it is amazing. The building is about 5 years old and brimming with technology which is great. The students are also amazingly good. Although like any school there are those kids who will undoubtedly be challenging, for the most part the classes are filled with students who are in a highly advantageous position as far as coming from good families and being in a very good school. I look forward to sharing more experiences with you all as the time goes on here. I hope that all is well with all of you in your placements and you Chris and Heiti in Pullman. I miss you all and I hope to get together when we are all done and share our great experiences. Best of luck
Colin Donovan
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