Teacher Camp- Day Four
Another full day of information. What a long day. Not that I didn't enjoy everything, I did. Just after 3 days already of learning, my brain seriously hurts.
I was a little dissapointed that I didn't have a content director to speak with, while most of the other studies went to content specific meetings. I sat in on the ESL/ELL discussion which I knew was going to be useful to me, seeing as that a good majority of my students might be on an ELL program. The woman who ran it was very helpful in understanding the different ways to encorporate my ELL students into my lessons so that everyone is able to understand. I'm sure though it will still be a challenge.
The Learning Center segment in the morning was terrific! I honestly can't wait to get back to Springfield and get copies of the unit plans/lesson plan makeups from them so I can start working on my curriculum. I have been going over my text for days now and still haven't been able to figure out a way to fit 180 lessons into a 90 day period. Even the frameworks haven't been the best help as they aren't made to cover semester blocking. Knowing that there is SO much information out there has made all the difference. It feels like a great weight off my back has been lifted off. Not that I'm goign to rely solely on that, of course I will tweak things to fit my teaching style but to know that the foundation is complete makes my nervousness and stress over the first days a lot less.
I enjoyed the Routine/Procedure segment as well, even though a lot of the things they talked about time managment and instructional time were things that Ms Boscacci got drilled into me. Especially the idea of having an opening activity that they know to work on when they enter the classroom. Of course, how the classroom setting will affect me will be greatly different than those of my peers who know they will have a physical classroom. I'm still pretty sure I'm a floater. Hopefully if I'm NOT a floater, they will tell me soon enough to begin setting up a classroom. If I am a floater, I have to find out exactly how that works. It seems so very tedious carting around everything you own. I almost feel like a baglady with her grocery cart, and school hasn't even begun yet.
The Assessment segment was informative to me but the only point that was of interesting, in my opinion was the knowledge that history is on the MCAS. I went and pulled the 'practice' test from the internet to get a better sense of what I might have to prepare my students far. As I suspected, it's only US history, nothing World.
The SPED information was useful, but there was something about the presenter that made me feel a bit at ease. It was almost as if she were yelling at us. We are all adults, I know that we all realize the gravity and the toes that can be stepped on when recommending a student for SPED. Maybe it was just me, but it was hard to concentrate last night with that tension hanging overhead.
I have to remember to ask Mike tomorrow about the writeup of the course description for these 3 credits for APUS. If they won't accept them as electives, then I'll just withdraw my application for the credits.
This computer lab is like an icebox, my fingers wont stop stuttering.
I was a little dissapointed that I didn't have a content director to speak with, while most of the other studies went to content specific meetings. I sat in on the ESL/ELL discussion which I knew was going to be useful to me, seeing as that a good majority of my students might be on an ELL program. The woman who ran it was very helpful in understanding the different ways to encorporate my ELL students into my lessons so that everyone is able to understand. I'm sure though it will still be a challenge.
The Learning Center segment in the morning was terrific! I honestly can't wait to get back to Springfield and get copies of the unit plans/lesson plan makeups from them so I can start working on my curriculum. I have been going over my text for days now and still haven't been able to figure out a way to fit 180 lessons into a 90 day period. Even the frameworks haven't been the best help as they aren't made to cover semester blocking. Knowing that there is SO much information out there has made all the difference. It feels like a great weight off my back has been lifted off. Not that I'm goign to rely solely on that, of course I will tweak things to fit my teaching style but to know that the foundation is complete makes my nervousness and stress over the first days a lot less.
I enjoyed the Routine/Procedure segment as well, even though a lot of the things they talked about time managment and instructional time were things that Ms Boscacci got drilled into me. Especially the idea of having an opening activity that they know to work on when they enter the classroom. Of course, how the classroom setting will affect me will be greatly different than those of my peers who know they will have a physical classroom. I'm still pretty sure I'm a floater. Hopefully if I'm NOT a floater, they will tell me soon enough to begin setting up a classroom. If I am a floater, I have to find out exactly how that works. It seems so very tedious carting around everything you own. I almost feel like a baglady with her grocery cart, and school hasn't even begun yet.
The Assessment segment was informative to me but the only point that was of interesting, in my opinion was the knowledge that history is on the MCAS. I went and pulled the 'practice' test from the internet to get a better sense of what I might have to prepare my students far. As I suspected, it's only US history, nothing World.
The SPED information was useful, but there was something about the presenter that made me feel a bit at ease. It was almost as if she were yelling at us. We are all adults, I know that we all realize the gravity and the toes that can be stepped on when recommending a student for SPED. Maybe it was just me, but it was hard to concentrate last night with that tension hanging overhead.
I have to remember to ask Mike tomorrow about the writeup of the course description for these 3 credits for APUS. If they won't accept them as electives, then I'll just withdraw my application for the credits.
This computer lab is like an icebox, my fingers wont stop stuttering.