1 ECE 6575 Fall 2013

Theory-to-Practice Connections Template

Daily Connections: October Take time at the end of your day to: (a) briefly consider what happened (What?), (b) why you find the event to be important and what course readings, discussions, experiences, engagements, coaching feedback, CLASS self-studies, observable trends and patterns in your highs and lows, or understandings from the DRC or collaboration can help you understand and make meaning from these two salient events of your day (So what?), and (c) having considered those connections, what you plan to do to extend the highs and reduce the lows in the future, to act upon what you are learning about your practice, your students, and yourself (Now what?). Be sure to return to your comments at a later time to document how your next steps worked in action (Follow Up).
Date 10/1/2013 What? Students engaged in a math lesson that incorporated manipulatives and the students were excited to be able to use different manipulatives from around the room to help them learn. So What? I was really excited to see their interest in learning and will continue to provide opportunities for the students to learn interactively. Now What? I will continue to give them more opportunities to use manipulatives to help them understand concepts that we are learning. Follow Up In reading Literate Lives, I feel like using manipulatives is a great way to get students hands on with learning. I have tried to incorporate other ways to allow students to engage and apply what they are learning. I continue to work with her as much as possible and have begun having her stay for tutorials. She continues to receive support from an outside tutor as well. I am trying my best just to help her get through her work, while at the same time remain confident.

S has such a hard time with math and there has been little to no progress made. She meets with a tutor three times a week and still cannot count and, without that foundational knowledge, she is unable to progress.

I met with the parents, but they still seem oblivious to the situation and do not seem to want to hear what we have to say. They have been encouraged to apply S. out to another school that may be more fitting for her learning needs.

More than anything, this situation just breaks my heart and I feel so helpless. I work with her one on one nearly every day and have yet to see results of that additional effort. I really want to help her, but continue to not know exactly what that would look like.

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10/2/2013 I created a writing activity with individualized instruction and allowed the students to actually choose the way in which they preferred to learn. Providing multiple ways in which students could choose how to write was a great way to allow them to have choices and selfmotivate. In Literate Lives, Flint states, Teaching all students in a classroom means that a teacher is committed to providing instruction that highlights the differences that individual children exhibit and not aim for a one size fits all model and hope for the best. (Flint, p.375) With now knowing this information, I can begin to see if her learning issues were due to lack of attention or if it is still just based on the fact that she lacks a foundation that she cannot understand what we are covering. The bookmark allows students to be aware of steps that students can take to read well and get the most out of their books. I have found that students are more likely to want to do something when they feel like they had a say. I have tried to continue to refine my curriculum in order to foster that sense of freedom. My students are very capable and it was so exciting to see how they generated their own ideas to create a writing piece. They did not feel confined by the lesson and were more likely to want to engage in our activity.

Ss parents started her on medicine without telling me. After all I have been through with trying to help her, I felt a little defeated by the fact that they were not going to make me aware of this change. 10/3/2013 I gave the students a bookmark with a list that they follow as they begin reading to help them take the proper steps to be a prepared reader. I saw several partnerships use their bookmark and actually take the necessary steps into reading.

I will continue to reach out to the parents and hope to strengthen our relationship so that they may feel more comfortable sharing some of this information rather than seemingly hiding it from me. In Whats After Assessment, it states, Good readers use all three of the cueing systems, of which graphic cues are one, but what me remembered is that learning phonics is a precursor to reading. (Strickland, 37) If we can properly cue them to take the necessary steps, I feel like it will instill habits that they will

I want to continue to work as much as possible with S. even though it is very clear that she may need a different environment that could better fit her needs of learning. I have also created rubrics for writing. I think it is so helpful when the students have something to go by and something that they can us to help them take the proper steps as readers and writers.

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carry on into the future and soon they H continues to be all over the place and tends to be very physical with other students. Other students have continued to talk about how aggressive he is. He is on medicine, but frequently does not take his medicine. I have talked to H and we discussed the importance of physical space. He does not hit to be mean, but just needs help controlling his body. This is a hard concept for boys to understand at this age, but I want him to understand how his actions can affect other people. H. has been better this week. He is extremely intelligent and I think he can just get bored. It looks as though he is not paying attention, but really I think his mind is operating so much faster and he tends to get bored and loses focus. Now that I understand him a little better, I think I will be able to channel his energy into his learning. I have found ways to get the students to actively participate and I feel like it channels their energy well. I am so excited about the buzz about the classroom and this is the time I feel like they are truly learning.

10/4/2013

Our classroom was loud today- but I loved it. Everything we did, the students seemed to want to be engaged and were such active learners. I usually get frustrated when things seem noisy and disorganized, but I continue to remind myself that, that is when they are learning the most. S. continues to struggle in my class. She checks out during the lesson and then has no clue of what we are doing and I have to constantly repeat instructions. In a class with 20 students I dont feel like I can hold her hand in everything we do.

In Whats After Assessment, it states, Their enthusiasm reminded me that it is essential that these students perceive reading and writing as enjoyable activities. I can build upon students interests in this area to make connections to other reading events and experiences. (p. 113) I have tried to meet her where she is academically and provide her with all the possible resources to help her. I do not try to keep her in line with the other students and I am working on trying to differentiate activities for her.

I love the enthusiasm my students have for learning and I plan to design more of my lessons around opportunities for them to get involved in what they are learning.

I think S. will continue to struggle in my class, but I plan to do whatever it takes, not to enable her, but to help her get through this year. I arranged for her to come to tutorial with me 2x a week- during this time; I will try to help her with some foundational knowledge.

S. is coming around more and seems to be taking to the structures I have put into place a little bit more now. We are still working with her, but I feel like with a few small changes she has come a long way.

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10/7/2013 We continue to work each week with our sight words and the students take a quiz on Friday. Today we worked on alphabetizing and then used different ways to build our sight words. This time to play with words seemed to help the students understand the words in various contexts. In Whats After Assessment, Strickland stated, For young children, listening for sounds in words, recognizing letter and sounds connections, and rhyming can be fun and such language play can be helpful to developing readers, but along with such play should be real reading situations, handling books, choosing books, listening to stories being read, talking about stories, and noticing literacy in everyday. (Strickland, 37) In Literate Lives, it mentions students who are struggling readers may be able to read a few books that are below their level to help keep up their confidence and help them remember that they CAN read. I will continue to design the curriculum around ways in which the students can recognize the words I feel like the amount of practice with these words can really help develop some of my readers and their ability to recognize words in context. Students seem to have wanted to do more with their sight words now that there are more activities that they can use them with. We are into a solid routine and they have access to a lot of different resources that can help them learn their words.

10/8/2013

I got testing back for one of my sweetest students and he is dyslexic. He will need to look into a different school next year. He will be with me for the remainder of this school year, but I get concerned that he will continue to get behind and I dont want it to begin to affect his selfesteem. We went on a field trip today to a farm. It was so much fun to get out of the classroom for a day and go on a fieldtrip.

I have also tried reading to him or have used echo reading, so he can hear me say it as well as see the words. He has a reading partner, so if I am with a different student, he can do the same with his partner and they can work together.

The students loved the opportunity to go to this farm and they had the best time. It was a way that they could learn about different topics outside of the classroom. I think V is a bright student, but her inability to pay

Integrating education into something fun is always exciting for the students and I am so glad they enjoyed our day today.

V. checks out during instruction and while she is doing

V. has been observed several times and I think I must continue

I have continued to read with him daily and help him just get through the books that are on his level. I continue to work with him on figuring out different techniques he can use to help him. I also let him read a level below to help maintain his confidence. We have a few more fieldtrips this year that are both fun and educational. I am looking forward to our students having more days like this to go beyond the classroom to learn. I have begun to sit down with V. before an

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independent work. She gets this blank stare on her face and never gets anything done unless I am sitting with her and we are going through each problem together. It is hard to remain patient with V. She is being tested and it will be interesting to get those results back. Writers workshop was a success today. The students were attentive and then were excited about getting into their books and writing. It has helped to have them engaged and eager to learn. attention is hindering her learning. I do not want her to get behind, but she will needs significant redirection. . I cant always be sitting with her. to help redirect her and provide her with instructions in small amounts. She is capable of learning, but it just takes more detailed instructions. assignment and explain it to her step by step and then often check back in to make sure she knows what she is doing.

10/9/2013

In Whats after Assessment, it supports the workshop method by saying, Reader/writer workshops invite teachers and children into a different possibilityone that takes advantage of childrens excitement for learning. (P.137) We have incorporated a lot of sportsmanship lessons in our daily read a louds or discussions and will continue to reinforce these ideals into our routines.

I plan to continue with the workshop method, but will constantly be refining it to the topics that we will be covering in the future.

As I conference with the students, I have noticed that there are some major improvements over the past few months.

10/10/2013

P gets really competitive on the playground and lost his temper and began to pull on another students shirt. He is quick to be mean and blame others. His competitive spirit is hard to manage and he has to constantly sit out. We created a class poster of Roberto Clemente to teach others in the school about this famous Hispanic American. Each child contributed to it by creating a symbol to show one thing s/he learned about why he was a leader.

I will continue to help P and other boys understand the importance of being a team player and will continue to stay firm and hold them accountable to being good members of our community.

P has seemed to improve and just needs redirecting when he gets upset. I will continue to work with him on how to manage his competitive side.

For Spanish, each class was given a different leader. We spent our social studies lesson researching Roberto Clemente and I led a discussion about who he was and what made him a leader.

Beyond what we are learning in math, reading and writing, I want the students to be involved in learning about leadership and how they too can be leaders.

I have planned to continue with the leadership and recognizing leaders within and beyond our community for future Social Studies lessons.

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R has such a bad temper and loses control of his emotions when he is frustrated and often takes it out on other students. We have trued to create a safe place for him to retreat to when he gets angry and give him opportunities to share about why he is so upset. In this setting, I feel like the students are more likely to receive the help they need and have more access to me and tend to seek me out more in that setting rather than sitting at their seats. As I read in Yardsticks, I realize that we are in pivotal development years and must foster proper ways to help channel his emotions. I am constantly trying to find ways in which I can best accommodate the struggling learners and this just may be it. By pulling them together in a group, it does not leave one student feeling isolated or alone, but it still allows me to assist them as much as possible. In the future, I will add in some extra time for us to work with instead of adding more into the day than in possible. I want to be careful about overloading them with too much information. The students loved to preform and show off what they know and how well they can read. I gave the students an opportunity to R has continued to challenge me, but I have continued to seek understanding of where it may be coming from and how I can help him calm down in the moment. I have continued to pull students to a table or on the rug so that they can be in close proximity and feel comfortable asking questions and for them to feel more comfortable in asking questions.

10/11/2013

I have started to work more one on one with students at a table. I have found it to be helpful to bring 4-5 students to this table we have in our room and be more available to them as they complete their work.

There was so much to get done and I did not get it all accomplished. Everything just took longer than I had imagined.

10/17/2013

Readers theatre was a success! The students had picked out a book that they wanted to read for readers theatre. We discussed in readers workshop how to read with a storyteller voice. They practiced throughout the week individually, with partners, and at home.

It was a planning error. I thought we had more time than we did and there were a few delays in getting back into the classroom. A few instances, we lost time because I had to manage difficult behavior. I had just read in about how to incorporate readers theatre into our lessons and curriculum. As I read further I was excited by the fact that we use readers theatre in our classroom. In Walking in their shoes it states, Readers Theatre is a wonderful way to get students to hear multiple perspectives in a text. (Clarke, Whitney, p. 532)

I will work what we didnt get in today into another day, but I think I will plan a little better and maybe add in extra time so our schedule is not so packed.

We will do readers theatre a lot more in the future. I think it is a great way to celebrate them as students and help them realize just how much they know.

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I gave the students in one of my word study groups the opportunity to play a memory game while I was working with the other two groups. In this, they were out of control and were being so silly. I was constantly having to correct them and then had to ultimately separate them and make them work independently. We have begun using Ipads in our Readers Workshop. Three days a week we rotate around stations. There will be one group shopping, another working with me in a small group, and the third uses the ipad. The students work with partners and read through a book on the ipad. I feel like it is a great way to get them to see the words on the page while hearing them. My class had SO much energy today and I felt like I was managing that more than I was actually teaching. Every tactic I was trying was not working well with their amount of energy. Playing with numbers can be so much fun! I put the number 21 on the board and allowed the students to come up to the I guess I just get discouraged when I put a lot of time and effort into something and then my students dont take it seriously. Going forward, I need to be more up front about my guidelines for them and what I expect. In allowing these different stations, I must take into account that I need to let them know what I am looking for in letting them go forward with these games.

10/18/2013

It is important that the students have a variety of ways in which they can approach reading and it is exciting to show them some of the ways that reading can be fun. I think that if we kept the reading to just them working on it on their own, they would lose interest. However, with the stations, they get to experience reading in a variety of ways. I realize that I have a class of movers and shakers- they are always going to be high energy. Instead of trying to go against the current, I am going to go with it.

I love the Ipads, I think there is so much opportunity for the students to engage in reading from a different angle.

We have readers workshop for an hour each day and this just adds something different for them to engage in learning and also st brings 21 century learning into the classroom. We are becoming more and more technology friendly in our classroom and this is a great way to integrate it.

I am planning to continue to find ways in which I can engage the students and use their energy to go with teaching.

I have taken breaks to let them get their energy out with jumping jack etc. and then calm them back down to re-enter learning.

10/21/13

We have continued to play with numbers as a warm up/ mental math activity and it has been wonderful. I love to see how many

In one of our seminars, we talked about subitizing and I have found it to be particularly helpful in the beginning of

I have continued to use this tactic to get students in the mindset for math. I have an energetic class and this has

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board and write different ways in which they could form the number 21. They were all so excited to share their ideas and it was a great way for them to apply all that they have learned. No matter how many times I said the directions, E. would not listen. He was being so silly all day and I am not sure why he was acting out. hands go up when I ask about how they can think of ways to represent that particular number. lessons as a way to pull together students and transition into math. been a great way to help channel some of that energy.

I knew I needed to pull him aside and work with him individually, he was having an off day and needed some individualized attention.

I am always happy to work with students on a one on one level if it will be helpful. After I worked with E. I explained why we worked together and addressed his behavior.

10/24/13

We finally finished our social studies project! Hooray! We did a 3-D map of our school

Learning can be interactive and students can take in so much more than we think when we are doing these activities.

I plan to incorporate more class projects in the future and look forward to what they will be able to do next.

I think waiting to act is important. We must be patient enough to know anything I would have said in the moment would have been unproductive. It was better to wait and then address the situation. It took a few days and some of our time, but it was worth it! The students loved the idea and were given so many opportunities to stretch their minds to come up with various ways to build our campus. Sometimes issues like this take time to resolve and I think it is important, no matter how small the issue, that we are able to take time to discuss. I am beginning to pay more attention to them and where they may be. I do not plan on watching movies all the time, but I do plan on gaging

10/25/13 P. wants to play soccer at recess, but he is not very good. He gets upset because he sensed that the other boys did not want him on their team. 10/28/2013 We took a break in the afternoon and watched a science movie. I think all the kids were to their max and I recognized that we needed to take a few minutes to I talked to P. and we discussed how he felt and then we had a talk with the entire class about sportsmanship. Later, I read a book about how we are all a team and then we discussed the incident and how we could be better.

I am one who tends to have a full day ahead, but there are times where I think the students just need time to step back and take a few minutes of down

After watching the movie, I felt like the students were ready to learn and had some of their energy back to do so.

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unwind. time. where they are and how I can teach based on their needs. He and I have established some ground rules and I have given him some ways to cope. In Conncious Discipline, it talks a lot about relating to the students and giving them the opportunity to understand what their actions are saying to others. I will continue to invite the parents in to help with small projects.

We were putting away our folders and before I knew it, R shouted out, I hate this class and I hate my life. His temper continues to be lost quickly. I have talked to the parents about how I can help keep him calm and prevent him from having all this anxiety. 10/29/13 The parents came in today to carve pumpkins and the students loved it!

I just give him time to cool off, listen to his perspective and let him do the talking. I want him to feel like he has a voice.

Giving him the opportunity to let it all out is what he needs. He is so tight wound that he needs an outlet and I am not sure he knows what that will be yet.

We had a visitor today and the students were so disrespectful. I was so disappointed in their behavior.

Parent involvement is So important to me. I enjoy fostering those relationships as much as possible. I want parents in my classroom seeing what we are doing, so it is always great when they get to come visit. I talked to the class afterwards and they seemed to understand where I was coming from.

It always helps to have parents involved because in that, I feel like there is more of an opportunity to get to know the parents and for them to see their child in a classroom setting. There are always opportunities to go back and re-visit some of the classroom rules that we have established.

I plan on going back more often, whether we need it or not, and just remind them of how we can be good members of our classroom community.

10/31/13

Today was Halloween and our school had a Fall Festival to celebrate. The students dressed up and were excited to come in their costumes. We had a parade and then fun activities on the field.

Days like this are good for our students. I feel like they truly have a chance to be kids.

We have several days in which we take time to let the students enjoy activities and have the freedom to take a break and enjoy

Key:

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What: Instructional and/or behavioral highs and lows from your time with students and colleagues. So What? Connections to course readings, lectures, conversations, experiences, engagements, coaching feedback, trends and patterns, previous high/lows, CLASS selfstudies, etc. Now What? A plan created to extend the highs and limit the lows and act upon what you are learning about your practice, your students, and yourself. Follow Up: Discussion of how you enacted your plan (to be completed in subsequent day(s))

Blog Brainstorm: This is a space for you to step back, locate important ideas for reflection, and draft ideas for this months blog post. The content of your blog post should be a place to celebrate, share, and reflect upon your development as a teacher in response to this months highs and lows. It is also a place to gather support from your colleagues as you read each others posts (reminder: Read and respond to at least 3 colleagues blogs each month.) To assist this process, consider and respond to the following questions, as well as your own that you may be grappling with at this point in your classroom practice and coaching experiences. Analysis: What patterns emerge as you look back across the month? What can you celebrate about your experiences? What are your current areas for growth? Reflection: What are your responses to these patterns? Interconnections: How are your coach, readings, course work, and classes helping you to consider these patterns and make sense of these patterns? New Understandings: What are the larger lessons-learned from these patterns and connections? Application: How will you adjust your planning, instruction, and/or management practices in response to these lessons-learned?

Blog Links: Please, share the link to your newest blog post, sharing the link to the specific page, rather than general blog. Please, do not require your coach to search and find your newest contribution. In addition, copy and paste the links to the other three blogs that you read and responded to. Remember that we ask that you alternate the blogs that you respond to each month, avoiding reading the same three from month to month.
Your Post Response to a Colleagues Blog

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