Practicum Plan

     As it pertains to my Practicum Plan, there was one learning skill in particular I wanted to focus my semester on and that was interacting with my students, and I believe I have accomplished that goal outstandingly. From day one when I taught I had students write their names on paper so I could identify them, first time I ever did that. I called upon students by name, and eventually I not only learned my students' names but learned their likes, dislikes, tendencies, behaviors, things they're interested in, and so much more to make the classroom a better atmosphere for everyone.
     As for the other learning skills I had written down in my Plan, I've learned to effectively use classroom proximity and the Smart Board. I feel that I have learned the most out of this semester being inside the classroom teaching my subject than I have ever learned before. Not ready to see these last two weeks end.

Semester Review

What I have learned thus far throughout the semester is how to find the part of a whole if their is a ratio to proportion it to.

If 12 students in a class of 20 students are girls, how many girls would their be in a class of 30?

My Definition of a PDS

A PDS is a school that helps pre-service teachers not only get a running start at the teaching profession but gets pre-service teacher to become as integrated outside the classroom and the community as inside.

Critique of BLOGGER.com

As the blog pertains to my reflections of practice and  communication with my partner, seminar facilitator, and PDS faculty, the blog hasn't been a valuable tool towards my success. I reflect on practice through assignments I do for my education classes, and I communicate with my facilitator, host teacher, teacher ed coordinator, and my fellow future teachers through e-mail, MIX, Facebook, and face-to-face interactions, never through blogger. Blogger, unfortunately, is just a tool to complete educ312 assignments, but I do find good in it. Although I think this tool fails to connect us to our fellow colleagues, I believe blogger can help me in my classroom. Because it seems inappropriate to add your students to your Facebook friends list, I feel I can set my students up with blogger accounts in an effort to find out what they are thinking. This would help ENORMOUSLY with my inquiry research. If I could get all my students on blogger, I could post a topic or discussion and have my students respond and discuss the topic. So my question to anyone reading this blog entry is 'do you think that this would be an appropriate and effective way to get my students to open up and tell me what they are truly thinking'?

Learning Goals

I have shown vast improvement regarding my learning goals. The main one would have to be my role inside the classroom. At the beginning of the semester at my PDS, I no longer wanted to be an observer, I wanted to be fully incorporated into the classroom, and I have been. The format of my class is that my host teacher teaches the first class and I teach the next two. Doing this is allowing me to point out strengths and weakness in my instruction that I've never truly been able to assess before. Experiencing this now with the help and guidance of my host teacher, in my opinion, gives me an opportunity to better my teaching and instructional techniques through trial and error before I take ultimate responsibility over my, or any others, classroom.

Digital Story

     I think for this digital story I'm going to tell the experience of my students' semester long research project on the Civil War. Aside from the topic, I feel this project is going to be beneficial in my research of proving that engaging activities and lessons can promote better and active student learning. My greatest advantage this semester is that I am paired up with a mentor teacher that shares similar views. Listening to her thoughts and experiencing her lessons will only help me solidify my case.
    We live in an age of technology. Anything a person can convey through any multimedia will only enhance the audiences' interest in the matter. Using imagery, video recordings, PowerPoint, and other multimedia can only enhance my overall presentation.