Week+10+Experience


 * Nov. 1st, 2010 - Nov. 5th, 2010**

Sitting here mulling the week over, munching on my Pop tart and enjoying my coffee, I am honestly amazed by all that I've learned over the course of this whole internship experience. It hasn't always been easy and some parts were even scary, but every moment has made me a stronger, more capable, waaaay more confident teacher.

One of the funniest things that I realized this week is how teaching changes your "eyesight". Now, you might think I mean because of all the late nights spent grading papers or trying to decipher beginning writers' scrawls. True as that may be, what I really mean is how, once your are a practicing teacher, you look for inspirational and exciting activities for your students in everything you see. Never before have I dove after a cereal box, a peanut butter jar, or an old pair of blue jeans about to be thrown away because they had the potential to add interest and intrigue to my lessons on shape discrimination, phoneme segmentation, or social skills. A good teacher is always on the lookout for a new way to teach a lesson, making it fun and memorable. Teaching really does make you look at the world in a whole new way!

On another note, I'm very excited to be participating my supervising teacher's Stretch Goal presentation very soon. As an exceptional educator, I've made it my mantra that ** Disability DOES NOT mean incapability! ** Unfortunately, other teachers don't always understand students or view their potential in the same way. In order to help change negative stereotypes and share with our fellow teachers ways that they can help students with disabilities reach their educational potential, Mandy, Jessica, and I are planning to deliver a short seminar one afternoon about accommodations and and how to incorporate them seamlessly into lessons so that all students have the opportunity to learn. ** I'm really excited to share these skills I've learned both as a student and interning teacher, challenging my fellow colleagues to keep their expectations high! **

Every week, it seems that I learn more and more about how to be an effective classroom manager. Watching one of the paraprofessionals interact with several students during a reading lesson I taught, I noticed how incredibly important it is to have foresight in this profession. More than just planning lessons, anticipating necessary materials, or deciding who to provide with what sorts of accommodations, a good teacher must also be concerned with how to handle behaviors. The tricky part is acknowledging and addressing the cute behaviors of today that could become tomorrow's distracting problems. ** It's important to set your expectations right up front and stick to them. **

If a student is allowed to call out answers in excitement, to leave his seat as he pleases, or to spend excessive amounts of time getting drinks of water (just a few first-hand examples), an effective teacher knows to address those issues immediately so that the student can begin to learn the more acceptable replacement behaviors right away.To let those sorts of behaviors go unchecked is to leave yourself open for classroom chaos later on...something no teacher wants!!!