Field Experience Questions

1. How many hours did you complete?

·   5 hours

2. In a short paragraph or bulleted list, how did you spend your time?

·   Observing lessons

·   Teaching a lesson

·   Helping students

·   Helping a small reading group

3. How did the experience help you to strengthen at least one Kentucky Teacher Standard? (be sure to name the standard)

·   The experience helped me strengthen Standard 7: The teacher reflects on and evaluates teaching and learning.  I am used to reflecting on lessons to see how they go or what I would do differently, but by using the KTIP format I was able to really reflect in-depth on what I taught.  It required me to go back and see how many students were able to meet, go above, or fell below criteria.  I was able to give the teacher exactly which students did not master the content based on my teach.

4. Talk a little about one thing you learned because of this field experience.

·         I learned that there are many different ways to teach something. I noticed the teacher I was with taught time in a different way than I ever have.  She used a number line and was able to show the students how to do elapsed time. I have never seen that before and I was amazed how she did it. I have already showed my team and we are planning on using the strategy next year with our students.

Reading Log

Reading Log for 25 books (to paste into your blog in at the end of the term)

Genre / Titles you read (Hit enter after each one and a new number should pop up)

             I.      Non-fiction/Informational (1 chapter book or photo essay book reflection required on blog)

1)      Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo (blog)

2)      The Planets in our Solar System by Franklyn Branley (not on blog)

3)      The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole (not on blog)

4)      The Magic School Bus Chapter Book #4: Space Explorers by Joanna Cole (not on blog)

 

 

          II.      Poetry (1 chapter or picture book reflection required on blog)

1)      Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech. (blog)

2)      Dogku by Andrew Clements (wiki)

3)      My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy (not on blog)

 

 

       III.      Modern Fantasy (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)          

1)      I, Jack  by Patricia Finney. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (blog)

 

 

       IV.      Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)     

1)      The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki (blog)

 

          V.      Multicultural/Traditional (2 reflections required on blog – one can be a picture book)         

1)      Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      In the Beginning told by Virginia Hamilton (blog)

3)      Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill (blog)

 

       VI.      Realistic Fiction (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)

1)      Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Holes by Louis Sachar (blog)

 

    VII.      Picture Books (5 reflections required on blog during the first two weeks of class. There should be a total here of at least six.)

1)      The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Unspoken by Henry Cole (blog)

3)      The Rainbow Club by Annette Aubrey (blog)

4)      Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin  (blog)

5)      Born Yesterday: The Diary of a Young Journalist by James Solheim  (blog)

6)      Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting  (blog)

7)      The Wall by Eve Bunting (not on blog)

8)      Breakout at the Bug Lab by Ruth Horowitz (not on blog)

9)      Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (not on blog)

 

 

Wiki Checklist

Instructions: Write the number of entries for each category you posted into on the Course Wiki

 

_1__ Social Studies

____ Science

____ Math

____ Music

____ Art

_1__ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

Burpo, T., & Vincent, L. (2010). Heaven is for real: A little boy's astounding story of his trip to heaven and back. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson.

Todd Burpo tells the story in first-person point of view. He is telling the story from his point of view, but telling the readers using Colton's words.

Colton Burpo was three years old when he told his parents he had a stomach ache.  They went to the doctor and his stomach ache was misdiagnosed as the flu. He ends up having to be rushed to the hospital because of his stomach and they realize that his appendix has burst causing it to poison his body.

 Colton's dad is the author of the book and he goes into details of what Colton tells them about his near death experience, except that he never died.  They have no records of Colton's heart stopping, but he was able to tell about his experience in Heaven.  This book goes through what he says about Heaven and compares it to the Bible.

I believe this book would be for older children at the high school level.  It conveys truths that younger students might not understand. For instance, he talks about an upcoming battle with Satan.

This is a great book that I would recommend to anyone!

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki

Mochizuki, K., & Lee, D. (2004). Baseball saved us. Pine Plains, N.Y.: Lee & Low Books Inc.

Have you ever felt left out or different?  I bet you have at one point.

This book Baseball Saved Us is about a little boy that feels left out because he was different.  During World War II his family and other Japanese families were sent to a camp in the middle of a desert. They had to stay behind wire fences and couldn't get out until the war ended. 

This is a great story about a boy that goes through things that many kids your age never go through.  If you would like to see what happens to him when he goes back home you should check this book out at the library.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake." Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

Have you ever been accused of something you haven't done?  I bet that's most of you! I have a story for you!

Stanley Yelnats is a boy that was accused of taking something that wasn't his.  He didn't really take them though.  Through these unfortunate events, he got in trouble and had to decide whether he wanted to go to jail or to camp.  He didn't really blame the judge or anyone blaming him.  He is used to being blamed for things and having misfortune because of his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Stanley didn't know what he was getting himself into when he decided to go to camp, because this wasn't just any camp!  This was Camp Green Lake. 

At Camp Green Lake the boys were supposed to be "building character" by digging holes-five foot deep and five foot wide-everyday!  It doesn't take long for Stanley to make some friends.  After a few days of camp Stanley starts to figure out that there are other things going on at Camp Green Lake, that involve the warden.  Stanley goes out on an adventure to find out why the boys are really digging holes.

This is a book that I really enjoy reading and I recommend it to my students every year.  Our librarian has it in stock if any of you would like to go and check it out to see if Stanley ever uncovers the truth about Camp Green Lake.

Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech

Creech, S. (2008). Hate that cat. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Hate that Cat is written from the point of view of Jack, a boy in Miss Stretchberry's class.  The novel is written in poetry from Jack's point of view. He is writing in his journal.  There are no chapters in this novel, only dates, for entries that Jack has written.

The novel starts off with Jack hating a black mean cat.  He goes through many similes and metaphors that show just how much he hates cats. I hate that cat, like a dog hates a rat.

Jack moves on throughout the year continuing to write entries in his journal.  He talks about how his teacher makes him use alliteration and onomatopoeia in his poetry and how he just doesn't like it very much. He uses examples of alliteration in his poetry to please his teacher, such as: purple pick, polished pencil, and chocolate chalk. Jack also states that onomatopoeia cause him to have frizzling ears, but he uses them to make his teacher happy. pop, buzz, drip, tinkle, trickle.

Throughout the story, Jack is struggling with hating cats in general.  He then gets a surprise for Christmas that year! A kitten! He starts to like the kitten even though he hates that big black fat cat that clawed him.  He has a couple of more battles with the big black fat cat and turns out to have a different perspective of him at the end of the book.

I read this to my students as I was reading it and they loved it! They immediately wanted to go to the library to check it out! (That's what happens when my students like books that I read. They like to go check it out and reread it themselves.) I told them about Creech's other book Love that Dog and they make the connection that it must be about Sky, Jack's dog that he mentions throughout the book.  We are waiting for it to be returned now so we can read it.

Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill

Hill, L. C., & Collier, B. (2010). Dave the potter: Artist, poet, slave. New York: Little, Brown.

Dave the Potter is about a slave growing up two-hundred years ago.  He was a great artist, poet, and potter.   The book tells about the life that Dave lives as a slave, which is very different compared to other slaves.

Dave makes pots for his owners. The book goes through the steps of him making a pot. It mentions in the book that it is a mystery where he has learned to be a potter.    He would often leave the pots blank because he feared he would get in trouble if they caught him writing on them.

But sometimes, he would write a poem or the date on a pot he made.  At the end of the book, it shows Dave using a stick to write a poem on his pot.

I wonder where is all my relation

friendship to all- and, every nation

-August 16, 1857

 

The words in this book flow without having to be re-read, and are written in poem form in the middle of the page.

 

"The jar grew so large

Dave could no longer

wrap his strong arms around it.

If he climbed into the jar

and curled into a ball,

he would have been embraced."

 

This is one of the lines from a page in the book.  The author uses simple sentences so that the reader can understand how he makes his pots.

 

 

The author also uses a lot of similes so that the reader can understand exactly what Dave does and how it works.  My favorite simile in this book is where the author is comparing him shaping the pot to a magician.

 

"Like a magician

pulling a rabbit out of a hat,

Dave's hands, buried

in the mound mud,

pulled out the shape of a jar."

 

This book will help readers understand that slaves did more than just work out in the fields for their owners and that they were actual people.  This book is written with a lot of emotion and makes the reader relate to Dave, even though he lived in a different time and under different circumstances.