Early Childhood Education Program

I have never explained how the Early Childhood Education Program at my college works. The first two years of college is when you take all of your General Education classes. The last two years of college is the most important ones and during that time you really have no control over your class schedule. 

1. ECED 315 Infancy and Toddlerhood Development and Intervention
2. ECED 321 Foundations of Reading and Language Arts
3. ECED 407 Interactive Technology and Young Children 
4. ECED 422 Writing TechniquesTeachers ECE 
5. ECED 460 Teaching Dual Language Learners

Professional Program:

During semester five, we have to apply to the Early Childhood Education Program. To be accepted into the program we must have passed Praxis 1 (SAT or ACT Scores accepted) and have a Cumulative GPA of 2.75. We have to be accepted into the program in order to continue the final three semesters. This is when everyone in the program is split up into cohorts. You will be with your cohort the final three semesters. 

1. ECED 341 Preprimary Curriculum
2. ECED 360 Early Literacy
3. ECED 461 Teaching the Integrated Arts
4. ECED 343 Primary Internship (once a week)
5. ECED 417 Assessments and Early Identification of Learning Disabilities
6. SCIE  371 Teaching Science in ECE 

In semester six, we go to our placement school once a week on Thursdays. There is two students with each mentor and you are in a kindergarten or preschool classroom. 

1. ECED 342 Primary Curriculum
2. ECED 361 Teaching Reading in Primary Grades
3. ECED 429 Principles/ Practices of Reading/ Language Arts Assessment
4. ECED 344 Primary Internship (twice a week)
5. MATH 321 Teaching Mathematics in ECE

In semester seven, we go to our placement school twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday and there is only one student to a mentor. We also meet our mentors before our placement school begins and help them set up their classroom. At the end of the semester we do a Teach Week; we teach everyday that week. 

1. ECED 351 Internship: Primary Internship 3
2. ECED 352 Internship: Pre-primary Internship 3
3. ECED 421 Internship Seminar in Early Childhood 

In semester eight, we split the semester into two rotations for the full time student teaching. We also meet up on Wednesday on certain days throughout the semester with our cohort for check ins. 

Notes: 

• During the placements, you are expected to be there when the teacher arrives and leave when she leaves. 
• Take Praxis 2 between semester seven and eight in the Winter. 
• Any classes you have left to take need to be taken during the Summer before semester seven begins. 

Side Note: I don't know how everything works during semester seven and eight, but when I learn more about them then I will add the information in. 

1st Day of Summer Classes

It has been a very long day. I woke around 6:50 am to get ready for class and left for the road at 7:20 am. I got to school around 8:30, so I had about a half an hour till class. It was very creepy empty on campus and in the building.

I was worried at first that I was in the wrong place for my first class because there was nobody else around. Then the professor showed up. The professor seems really nice, but until I get something graded back is when I will make the final decision. The main focus for the class is a research paper we have to do. I have only every done one other research paper and thought I could get away with using that, but I had to get the topic approved by her first and she didn't exactly approve.

There is a lot of mini assignments that we have to do in her class, so when I got out of her class at 11:00 which was 15 minutes early I went to the lab and worked on some of the assignments that I could. I also did a lot of re-pinning on Pinterest. The break between classes was very long. I left an hour early before next class to make sure I could find it and ate my lunch when I got there.

My next professor didn't get to the class until right at 2:00 and all of the students were already in the classroom waiting for him. I really like this professor. He seems really cool and knows what he is talking about along with enjoying what he is teaching us. He has a interesting accent. He is Italian, but grew up in Germany, though to me he kind of has a mix of a British and Australian accent. Also he reminds me of Adam Sandler with his looks.

It doesn't appear that there will be a lot of work in this class like in the other one, Though I'm not sure because we didn't really discuss the syllabus besides him saying that it was half finished. So far we only have two tests. In the syllabus it's talking about an essay and doing research, but I'm not sure if we are really doing that.

I got lucky with traffic. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got out of class at right at 4:40 and got home at 5:40. I was thinking I would get home at around 6 at the earliest, so just only an hour wasn't bad at all.

Semester 6 Reflection

This semester has been a crazy one with all of the snow days in the start of the semester, with rushing to get assignments done on time, and trying to remember who is in what group for which class. Hopefully, this will be my most crazy semester because I had six classes and the next two semesters will be a little easier.

Things I wish they would change:

• Schedules- They need to arrange the classes in a more orderly manner. For example, don't have the commuter cohort have a three hour break between classes. Also realize that we are people who still need to pay bills and have to have a job in order to do that and that's impossible with a crazy schedule. 
• Communication- I felt there was communication problems of students with professors and professors with professors. The professors wouldn't explain how they exactly wanted the assignment done, so points would be taken off for something we didn't know about. The Service Learning was with two classes and the professors didn't communicate well either.
• Grades- I felt like some of the teachers didn't give grades back and only gave them back once everything was turned in towards the end of the semester. I want to know how I'm doing throughout the semester, so if there is changes I need to make then I could have made them before the semester was over. 

I have gotten my grades back and I made the Dean's List, so I'm very proud of myself. I'm a little disappointed because in one of my classes I only got a 'A-'. Which is still good, but I really wanted an 'A'. I will have to work harder next semester, though I kind of blame the professor because she wasn't very organized.

There was one professor that I really enjoyed being in her class and feel that she really taught me how to be a better teacher. I am pleased to say that I will have her again next semester for two of my classes. She is the best grader I have met. She will go through each section on your report or lesson plan and not just give you comments, but suggestions to receive the full points.


Goals for Semester 7:
For my cohort class we had to write a paper about our goals for next semester during our student teaching placement. Two of important goals I said was......

1. Differentiation - I want to do more lessons with differentiation because I didn't do that this semester and want to work more on being able to do that. 
2. Technology - Again, I didn't use any technology in my lessons and I know it's mostly because there was not much technology available in the classroom. 

Summer Classes Schedule

And I thought on Tuesday I was done with school, but no I have to take summer classes. I still have two gen-ed classes that I need to take this summer because I can't take them in the fall or spring semester or during the winter semester. The ECED Department wants us to be ready to graduate next spring with nothing holding us back.

I have to take a English class that's about mythology (that was the only one that worked with the other class) and I have to take ISTC 201. 

Here is what my schedule looks like.

Monday: ISTC 9 - 11:15 am.
              ENGL 2 - 4:40 pm.

Tuesday: Work 3 - 6:30ish pm.

Wednesday: ISTC 9 -11:15 am.
                    ENGL 2 - 4:40 pm.

Thursday:  ENGL 2 - 4:40 pm.      

Friday: Work 3 - 6:30ish pm.

It's going to be awful trying to leave after ENGL class with the traffic and also the break between the classes. I might try and go to the computer lab in the building if it's open. It might close during the summer. If that's the case then I will just bring my tablet with me and probably read from my kindle app.

If I get out around 10:30 from my first class then I might go home and then come back because I know the traffic won't be bad. I guess we will just have to wait and find out. Classes begin next week and I'm not really looking forward to them; especially the mythology class. It looks like we are going to have to read four strange books like the Odyessy. Lucky it's only for a month and the last day is on June 27.

Wish me luck with these summer classes. 

Exams Are Over

Exams are over! WHOOO!!!!

I took my last final yesterday at 5 pm. I got there early because I knew the traffic was going to be bad and it was. I also has something else I wanted to do, but the professor wasn't there. About 15 minutes before the exam, there was only four of us waiting outside when the professor shows up and says "Once you finish the exam you are good to go."

I got started right away on the final, which was not difficult like I was expecting. And I was out the door by 5:05. I have two grades in already for my classes. Both are A's. I'm hoping that I will get on the dean's list again.

Everything is checked off on my to do list for this semester!

Again I had another relaxing day besides having to go to work for a little bit. I started to clean out some of the papers and stuff from this semester that I don't need anymore. I still kept my assignments because I don't want to throw them away and find out that a grade was posted wrong. I got rid of random papers that professors handed out and odds items that I found in the drawers.

I'm thinking about selling some of my textbooks, though I want to be sure that I won't need them again next semester. I have the same professor for two of my classes and will be doing something similar that we did this semester, so I might need that textbook.

College Organization: Tip 7

Buying Textbooks

College is already expensive enough, but then you need to buy textbooks to go along with it. Don't do what I did freshmen year and that is buy new textbooks. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying used textbooks. I have received some used textbooks that were like brand new.

A really great site to use is Bigwords. This site is great because it allows you to create a book-bag with all the books you will need for that semester and then it compares different sites to show you which website is selling the book the cheapest.

This site is also really great to use when the semester is over and you want to sell your books. It does the same thing by finding the website that will give you the most money for your book. Plus most of the sites will pay for your shipping.

I've recently been using this site and it has been great at finding the sites to get the most money from selling back my textbooks. Keep in mind that you will most likely never get close to what you paid for the book.

My Relaxing Day and Other Things

Today was a free day for me because I didn't have a final today nor did I have to go into work,  though I do have to work on my portfolio and reflective paper for my conference with my cohort professor on Monday. I probably will work on them this weekend. Oh and my arts adventure paper.

Also yesterday, one of the girls in my cohort had her conference and my cohort professor told her that I wasn't going to be going back to my placement school. That makes me really sad because I did want to go back, but if not then I hope that next spring during my full time student teaching semester that I am there then.

I wonder why my cohort professor is doing that because Anne and I both talked to the principal and he said he would love to see us next year. He emphasized that he has a lot of great teachers in the other grades that would be great mentors for us.

I didn't really do much today besides relax and watch TV. I am happy that I got time to do that. Today was mostly rainy and cloudy. Tomorrow it says its going to be more sunny and I hope so. I need to get some sun on my skin. I'm looking too pale.

Oh. By the way. I'm not sure how I feel about the Prius that I bought. I'm unsure about the gas mileage that I'm getting at the moment. I'm getting about 44 miles to the gallon. For a 2007 it's suppose to get about 51 to 60. I was reading about tips to about driving the Prius and I think I need to drive it differently than I was driving before and then I should get 50 miles to the gallon. I really hope so.

Another thing is that in my old car I was able to go a little over a week before I needed to feel up for gas. I got this car Saturday and I only have a quarter of a tank left already,  though I have driven over 300 miles or close to it. Not sure what I got in my old car.

Exams in Progress

AHHH!! Exams are here already. My first exam was today and it was open notes and textbook. It was a little more work to do then I was expecting. She gave us five different scenarios to pick from and we only had to write about two of them. They were about explaining why a checklist was better then a rubric or a rating scale and then you would have to create a checklist. One of them that I picked I had to create a rubric with four different traits with four points.

Tomorrow I have my exam for my Friday class in the morning, so after that is completed I can get started on my weekend. By the way, we got an email from our Friday professor she explained what is going to happen tomorrow. We still have a quiz that we were suppose to do last week and it's only one question now. We also have an exam, but she said it nothing we can study for and we will all be working together.

On Monday, I have my Tuesday afternoon class exam, which I don't think we are really doing anything. Also before that exam, I will meet with my cohort professor for a conference to discuss my portfolio and the standards. On Tuesday, I will still have to meet with my Tuesday night class and there is an exam in there, but I don't think it will be much.

And that's it. I will be done with my first semester of internship!

My First Car

I had so much I needed to do this weekend for classes this week and I didn't even get to it all. Most of it we didn't find out about until the middle of the week. Annoying. I had to put together my student teaching binder, work on my portfolio, and write my instructional plan and report.

For the binder I only needed to print things out and put them in the binder. The weekend before I worked on my portfolio and I just had to write reflective narratives for some of the artifacts. The instructional plan and report required more work and time, though I have time since it's not due until Wednesday.

This weekend I also bought a car. I have been looking online for awhile and knew that I wanted to get a Prius because Toyota is what my family have always had and rarely have had any problems with them. I wish I had gotten a car earlier in the semester, so that I didn't spend all that money on gas during it.

I was nervous about buying my first car and trying not to spend too much money. Lucky for me I have that grant for school and have been saving my money for years, so I spend more then I wanted too. In the end I did really good because the car was a 2007 with only 23k miles on it. It had rear view camera along with navigation and smart key. Pretty well kept up.

It's taking some time to get used to how it drives. I have been driving the same car when I first learned how to drive which was 6-7 years ago. Also learning how to change gears in a different spot and pushing the button to park it. It's all very different then what I have gotten used to.

I drove it for the first time to school and everything went fine. I was an overprotective mother with the car. I felt like all of the cars on the road were getting to close to my car. Then also, I almost have two cars run into mine because 1. They don't know how to use a turn signal and 2. Don't want to wait in the line of traffic and just want to pull in front of others.

Student Teaching: Day 11 (Semester 6)

I was quite angry this morning after I drove all the way to school to find I had an email from my professor saying that class was canceled because of an family emergency. I don't mind not having class, but it's the fact that I drove all the way there, was walking to class and then I find out class was canceled. The email was sent at 9:30, 30 minutes before class begins and most of us are commuters and we get there around 9:30.

Whatever. It is what it is. This was our last class before the final exam, so hopefully she will email us before then to tell us what is going to happen on exam day and what it will be on if there is one.

The last day! I can't believe that my last student teaching day for this semester is already over. Oh. by the way, I forgot to take the pictures of the gifts. It was nothing super fancy anyways.

I got to the school at 6:50 and my mentor teacher was already there. Me and Anne wanted to go early to get all of the gifts ready before our mentor got there. She explain to meet that one of the parents wanted to have a meeting with her about the student getting yellows on their weekly behavior chart. The parent was suppose to be there at 7:10 and didn't arrive until 7:25; five minutes before school began. 

We gave everybody their gifts in the morning expect for the kindergarten teachers because two of them weren't there and we didn't see the other until planning. The one teacher we gave the gift said that none of her parents gave her any gifts for teacher appreciation week and my mentor said the same thing.

The day was a normal day like all of the other times that i had been there, though I did have trouble with one of the printers and thought I might have broke it. Then one of the secretaries was able to fix it and I went on to finish printing.

Towards the end of the day the students went to practice their songs and Anne and I stayed in the classroom trying to get photos from her camera from the field trip. We also placed the student's gifts on their desks. When the students came back we said our thank you to them and goodbye. One of the students walked over with a book for me and Anne. They all signed the book and I thought that was absolutely sweet of our mentor to do that for us.

I'm really going to miss that school and I hope that I am placed there again next semester or at least during my full time internship. I do want to experience other schools, though I worry that they want be good or compare to this one. 

The Gifts

Tomorrow is my last day at my placement school this semester already. It still feels like yesterday when I first walked into the school and met my mentor teacher and she showed us around the school. It's crazy.

Anne and I worked together to come up with the gifts. We weren't exactly sure who we were going to give gifts besides our mentor and the principal. I know most student teachers would give the secretaries something,  but we never really saw them, though we decided that we would give them a doughnut.

Here sit he break down of the gifts:

Mentor Teacher- s'mores mix, chalkboard, and doughnut
Principal- confetti popcorn, and doughnut
Kindergarten Teachers (3)- confetti popcorn
Secretaries (2)- doughnuts

Now that I have typed it down it doesn't seem like much. I was talking to one of the other girls in the cohort yesterday and she said she bought a hundred dollar gift card for her mentor. We were going to do gift cards and only were going to spend $15 on it. $50 to me is a bit much for a mentor teacher that we only spent once a week with. We are still going to have more mentor teachers that we will spend more time with.

By the way, that s'mores snack mix is so so addicting. I got the big bags and I could have ate that whole bag in one sitting by myself.

Note: I will post pictures of the gifts Thursday night.

Beach Prop Box

This post is just going to be a bunch of pictures because I just don't have time to go over everything and this was suppose to go up awhile ago, but I had forgot to take the pictures. In my offense, I was doing a lot that night if you look back to the post called Busy Night.

I wish I worked and thought about this project more then leaving it to the last week. I'm now thinking of more cooler and hands on activities, but I didn't have enough time to make them since I'm took this my placement school the next day.

Anyways.....Here is my Beach Themed Prop Box.

Outside

Outside

Inside

 The Books:

 

Art:

Language Arts:

 

Math:

 

Science:

Social Studies:

Dramatic Play:

Student Teaching: Day 10 (Semester 6)

Today we had a Substitute Teacher in the classroom. Last week my mentor told us she would be out and also said what she wanted us to do. She emailed us the night before with the final things she wanted us to do. I did the opening with the students and for some reason I was nervous and kind of forgot the pledge until the Sub had them do it. The second thing I had to do was teach a health lesson that I already new about and had discussed with my mentor. It was small lesson about respect and I just read from the book what I had to talk about with the students.

I got to the school at my normal time, 7 o'clock, and Anne was already there, but not the sub. She printed out what she sent us in the email at our spot in the room. Anne was already working on one of the items and I began working on something else that we needed to do.

Anne and I both finished those two items a few minutes after the school began. This is when the Sub came into the classroom. She said that she was happy to see us but wasn't sure if we were going to be there. She asked us if our mentor has every left us in the classroom alone with the students. Our mentor has left us with a few students, but never with the whole class. The sub needed to go and get her daughter who was in a different classroom in the school.

The students were not as good as they usually are, but for the past two days it had been raining non stop, so I'm sure that affected their behavior. They didn't do anything bad. They were just more chatty during the lessons. We also got to do our prop boxes with some of the students. They ended up breaking some things in my box which was disappointing considering how much time I worked on it.

This was our second to last day there and so me and Anne got some notes that we will give to the students and teachers next time. I will explain in the post next Wednesday with pictures what we gave to everyone. We were able to get everything done that we needed to do during the day and so when all of the students left we got to leave.