Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 1

Journal 1 focuses on classroom setup and safety. I was placed in Mrs. Franks fourth

grade classroom. The room is laid out with the desks facing forward focusing on the smart board.

The teachers desk is in the back of the classroom, as are her storage cabinets, closet, the main

door, and the kids cubbies. There is a whiteboard off to the side, which has a lot of posters about

grammar and English. On the opposite side, there are four computers against the wall which the

kids use for reading comprehension tests. The room has informational charts, posters, and

diagrams dealing with the various types of grammar all around it. The classroom is conducive to

learning because the students are facing away from the door and main hallway, so their attention

remains on the teacher and the smart board. This eliminates common distractions from people in

the hallway or walking in and out of the back of the classroom. The desks are in rows of 4 by 5,

and they are close enough for the children to discuss questions and allow the teacher to walk

between them and practice withitness while teaching. This is an ordered, learning-centered

environment because the main focus is on the students. There is a lot of discussion mixed in with

the lecture, and each child is always encouraged to participate. Supplies are kept in the teachers

corner where her desk is, as well as in the closet behind her desk. Students are not allowed at her

desk nor in the closet. There is an empty space in front of the cubbies, and the students

frequently meet back there with the teacher to recap different sections of the story they are

reading to make sure they are all on the same page as far as the beginning, main plot, and end.

This empty spot rather than a reading rug tells me that some of the students are not able to sit

long enough on a reading rug and maintain full attention, so she adapted this idea and made it
into a few group huddles throughout the reading time. All of the components of the classroom

as far as decorations also tell me that reading, grammar, and vocabulary are the main focus of the

classroom. My inferences are valid because she has a few students who get pulled out for RTI

after 30 minutes of the time period that I am there, so the frequent movement incorporated into

her lesson plan helps keep them focused.

As far as safety is concerned, I feel that the classroom is a very safe environment. All of

the students are visible at all times, in all student areas, from every angle. The only exception

would be if the teacher goes into the supply closet to get something, but she usually waits until

she has a break and does not do that while the kids are in her classroom. The teacher usually has

students do things in a large group or two large groups, as I mentioned before, which keeps their

focus and eliminates opportunities for them to get into trouble. This helps the teacher prevent

accidents, and helps the classroom have order and flow smoothly.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 2

Journal 2 focuses on the roles of a teacher. Mrs. Frank is a reflective practitioner because

she is always thinking about the way she does things, and how she can improve it. One example

of this is that she has a very thick southern accent and uses a lot of southern slang when she

talks. Even though this is natural for her, she always makes it a point to catch herself when she

speaks improperly and asks the class whether or not the phrase she used was formal or informal.

On her side board, she also has a picture of a stick figure girl and one of a stick figure girl in

fancy clothes. Each are labeled appropriately with informal and formal, and she asks a student to

point to which option they think her phrase was. This way, the students are learning to

understand the proper way to speak when talking others. She takes a negative thing for a

grammar teacher to do, and puts a positive spin on it to make it a learning opportunity.

Mrs. Frank is also an advocate for her students. She is constantly supporting them and

reassuring them that they are smart students. When I arrive, they are coming back into the

classroom from lunch. The whole walk to the classroom from the cafeteria, she is encouraging

them and gearing them up for all the learning they are about to do. Throughout the lesson and

work that goes with it, she is moving around the room and complementing students on their hard

work. Some of the students in her class struggle with tasks that should be simple on a fourth

grade level, and even when the work they are doing is not the best, she complements them on

their handwriting or anything that will boost their self esteem.

Mrs. Frank is a facilitator of learning because she is up on all of the new methods and

trends in the classroom. She likes to play fun YouTube videos to begin her class every day
because it gives her students something fun to look forward to and enjoy before they begin

learning. One of her favorite things to do is change the inflection in her voice and have the kids

repeat after her. Repetition helps kids learn the information and retain it, and when they say it in

funny voices it just makes it fun. She even went so far as to stand on top of a desk and sing

Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball at the top of her lungs to help illustrate what a simile was. She is

always encouraging students to connect concepts to things we see around us today, to take their

best guess at a problem even if it is wrong, and ask lots of questions until something makes

sense.

Mrs. Frank is a decision maker, and she understands that a teachers decisions always

have consequences. She decided to place the students who get pulled out for RTI in the back of

her classroom where some teachers would prefer them in the front because when they leave it is

less distracting to her other students. While it is still chaotic for those going to intervention even

though they are in the back of the room, it does not result in a loss of valuable time for the entire

class. She also mentioned to me that she used to have the intervention kids work on instructional

games after lunch for their 30 minutes until they left with the special ed teacher to keep them

quiet, but she decided that was the easy way out. She now has them work on copying vocab

words because it helps them with their letters and forming sentences, even if it is more

distracting than just having them play games.

Mrs. Frank is a determiner of the classroom climate because she is always in control of

her class. She is sure to maintain a positive and energetic mood which sets up the learning

environment for success. She is constantly reminding the class of the rules, and she reinforces

that she is the teacher, even though we can all learn from each other. She redirects students
attention to get them back on track. She also does this while moving around the room a lot, and it

helps her maintain withitness.

Mrs. Frank is a developer of emotional wellness because she supports students both

mentally and emotionally. One specific example of this is that she encouraged an intervention

student to move on to the next problem when he said he felt like he could not figure it out. She

praised him for the excellent job he did on the previous problem and told him she was sure that

he was too smart to let a problem get him down.

Mrs. Frank is a developer of social skills because she encourages children to think of

others first. She reminds them to raise their hand and wait to be called on to speak, as well as not

talking when others are talking. She also tells her students to remain quiet when they are finished

with their work because others may not be done yet.

I think that being a reflective practitioner will be most difficult for me because it is often

hard to learn from our mistakes and adapt accordingly. Mrs. Frank does exceptionally well at

this, but I think that she is even better at being a facilitator of learning or a determiner of the

classroom climate. She is always using her chants to help the students with repetition, and there

is never a moment that she is not in control of her classroom. I really do not think that there is an

area that she needs improvement in as far as what I have observed. I think the most critical role

in order to be an effective teacher is being an advocate for students. Some students are only

encouraged by their teacher due to the lack of parent interest. Without this motivation, students

lack the motivation to do their best and succeed.

Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 3

Journal 3 focuses on gender issues in the classroom. I observed the class for the first 30

minutes I was there, and I recorded the girls and boys responses, behavior, and learning with

tally marks. The boys had more tallies on responses, but not by much. They had the same amount

of positive behavior tallies as the girls, but more negative behavior tally marks. The number of

learning tally marks was the same for both girls and boys. Their responses dealt with the lesson

that was being taught. Mrs. Frank would ask them what similes, idioms, and metaphors were,

and they would make their best guesses or ask questions. There were lots of phrases correcting

behavior like, stop talking, stay on track, and, are you with me? But there were also lots of

encouraging remarks telling them how she liked their good behavior. By the end of the lesson

students were explaining what similes, idioms, and metaphors were, and they were able to apply

them to many examples in an online activity or come up with their own.

Overall, the boys seemed to be more talkative in general, so they had more responses and

opportunities to get into trouble with their behavior. However, there seemed to be an equal

understanding of the concept across the board, so the girls must have gleaned a lot of information

from the boys participation. I do not know of any students in the class that would have skewed

the result because the students with learning disabilities that get pulled out for RTI were already

out of the classroom. I do not think that there is a gender bias present, and I do not think that the

results would support that there is one. All students were offered the same opportunities, but the

girls are just timid and talk less. Whenever they would respond, their answers were always good

and on track, but the boys tended to talk more openly. She did call on the girls occasionally just
to get them talking out loud. I think the results change based on the time of day because I am

usually in the classroom right after lunch when the students are full and less responsive. They

focus more on reading during this time which is less energetic. However, for this hour, I was in

the classroom right before lunch and the students were more alert and active in the discussion.

They also focus more on grammar concepts and vocabulary during this time, so it was less of

them doing popcorn reading out of their textbook and more of them interacting during and after

direct instruction. The subject is also more fun to most than math, which is more critical

thinking, so I am sure that these students are more likely to want to get involved in grammar and

vocab activities that foster creative learning environments. At this age (fourth grade) the students

enjoy making the real world connections with their lesson and are more open to sharing their

creative thinking ideas. The older students get, the more concerned with others opinions about

them they become.

Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 4

Journal 4 focuses on multiple intelligences. During my time spent in practicum this week,

I observed how the 8 multiple intelligences were addressed in the classroom. I did not observe

any areas dealing with intrapersonal, musical, or naturalist intelligences. The class centers

around literature, grammar, and sometimes spelling when I am there to observe, so there is little

to no musical performances or productions. They do not deal a lot with science, so they do not

really discriminate between living or non living things, and they usually do not focus on

understanding each individual. However, during this lesson they did cover a lot of things dealing

with logical and mathematical intelligence. Each student was given a paper with a short story on

it and they were asked to number the paragraphs. They were required to defend why each

paragraph was the number they assigned to it. This helped them understand the flow of the story

and when the authors thoughts were shifting to a new idea. They looked for common words and

patterns to help them with this as well. They used these ideas to come up with their own

interpretation of what the main idea of the story was, and they were asked to put that idea into

one complete sentence. Spatial reasoning, which helps students create an image of a concept or

act something out was touched on briefly as they discussed idioms. The teacher said the students

keep her on her toes and the children got to literally act that out with her. Later on in the lesson

they also used pictures to create short poems that rhymed. They were given an image and asked

to describe it, and then they collectively came up with rhyming words based on their list.

Interpersonal intelligence was heavily touched on as the students are required to work with

others frequently. They often brainstorm out loud and feed off of others ideas with minimal
teacher guidance. They are frequently asked to pass papers out, collect papers, and share books

or materials with one another. The activity of coming up with the rhyming poems was a good

example of teamwork as well. Moving into the next intelligence observed, which is bodily-

kinesthetic, I noticed that some children who struggle with their numbers and number sequencing

were encouraged to count out the numbers on their fingers or write them out on a piece of paper

to determine which paragraphs were which numbers. Verbal/ linguistic intelligences were

observed when the students read the passage aloud, popcorn style, and they were required to be

paying attention enough to know where the last reader left off. All of the intelligences mentioned

were covered effectively, and the only change I would try to make if I were teaching that lesson

is that I would require students to put themselves in the story and determine if they would react

the same ways the characters act, or if they would choose to react differently. This way, they can

make a deeper connection with the story and understand it on a different level.

Overall, the multiple intelligences that were addressed were addressed thoroughly

because they each were covered with multiple different Blooms verbs. The only thing I would

do differently would be to give the students a chance to think, pair, share rather than always

discussing ideas out loud. From observing the class these past few weeks, I have noticed that

there are two students in the class who do fine when called on to answer a question, but usually

do not volunteer to solve problems or share their opinion. It is not that they are always less

engaged, but they seem to lack confidence of their knowledge and comprehension in larger

group settings.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 5

Journal 5 focused on questions in the classroom. For 20 minutes, I observed the types of

questions students were asked, how many of each type were asked, and which Blooms verbs

were used when asking the questions. The class was discussing and reading Sleepy Hollow.

Knowledge based questions are used to determine if students know the story, the events that

happened, or even how to add and subtract because it draws general information out of the

student. There were 9 total in the 20-minute period. This included questions that used words and

phrases like can you identify the main characters?, can you name Ichabods horse?, what do

you remember/ recall about the last event that happened?, and can you label/ arrange the

characters in groups of main or secondary?. Identify, name, recall, label, and arrange are all

Blooms verbs that focus on knowledge based learning objectives.

Comprehension and application based questions are used to determine if students

understand what they know, or if they just know the answer without knowing how to get there

because they test reading comprehension and follow the students train of thought. For

comprehension/ application based questions, I recorded 10. These included questions like, how

would you describe the character of Ichabod Crane?, can you explain the events that took

place?, can you summarize scene one for the class?, and how would you describe Broms

character?. The words describe, explain, and summarize are all Blooms verbs that are used

when asking questions that measure comprehension and application.

Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation based questions are effective for pulling deeper

concepts from the story and character analysis because they encourage/ require higher order
thinking. For these types of questions, I counted 4. She asked the students to compare the actions

of characters to the words of the author, detect what will happen in scene three based on the last

events of scene two, and point out how the emotions of certain characters portray how they feel

about other characters. The Blooms verbs used for this section would be compare, detect, and

point out.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 6

Journal 6 focused on effective teaching practices. I observed review in the form of class

discussion, a lecture on punctuation, a demonstration/ model of the types of punctuation, group

practice problems, independent practice, and a transition into the reading portion of the class.

This was the reading out loud of the play version of Sleepy Hollow where students each had a

part and an independent practice worksheet reflecting on the play. The review at the beginning

was effective because it consisted of some problems on the board and required students to come

up to the board, place the punctuation in the sentence, and defend why they chose to do what

they did. Then, the sentences were peer edited as a large group. She chose to review because she

saw that more practice was necessary. She kept the lecture short because her afternoon class that

I was observing has some learning challenges compared to her morning class. They require more

hands on activities rather than listening to her lecture to learn. The lecture also built on the

review, which helped introduce her new concepts. Her demonstration of the concepts she had

just introduced were clear, and students seemed to understand them well. The group practice that

followed seemed to be beneficial because it helped reiterate the lecture and model, and it gave

the students that extra boost of confidence before diving into the independent practice. The

independent practice was good, but some students finished early and started to read a book at

their seats. However, this began to become a little distracting to those still working on the

worksheet because some of her students read out loud or whisper when they read. I think this

could have been avoided if she would have had a second assignment with more difficult

problems that they needed to work on until everyone was finished. This way, students who got
done early would be occupied better, and students who do not get to the second worksheet still

get the main chunk of the independent practice done. This would reach mastery level students,

challenge intermediate level students if they get to the second sheet, and still cater to the rest of

the students that are finishing up the original assignment.

As she transitioned into the reading portion of the class, she had the students reread the

story out loud with each student having a different part than they did the previous class. This

helped them gain a better understanding and remain engaged as they had new lines to read. The

independent practice worksheet that went with the story helped them review in a new way, and it

helped check individual comprehension of the events and characters in the story.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 7

Journal 7 focused on classroom management. The first thing that was recorded were the

external factors. A list of interruptions, who interrupted, and why they interrupted was made.

Then, I recorded how much instructional time was lost from each interruption. The first

interruption was by a floating teacher who asked the teacher a question for another teacher in the

grade. Less than one minute of instructional time was lost. The next interruption came from

multiple students not paying attention. The teacher repeatedly called on them individually until

they finally realized that they did not know what was going on. This happened several times.

About five minutes of teaching time was lost from this. The last interruption I observed was a

teachers assistant coming in to help. This was a distraction because rather than the assistant

slipping into the back of the class and waiting on the teacher to ask her to do something, she

came in and asked the teacher what to do when the teacher was in the middle of direct

instruction. Less than a minute was lost from this. I believe that other teachers or staff are mostly

responsible for the interruptions in the classroom. The students do disrupt the class occasionally,

however in the time I have spent observing this classroom, this amount of time that was lost

because of the students not paying attention was rare. The teacher normally has minimal or no

loss of instructional time because she usually waits until the students are working on something

to address the person that has entered the room. This minimizes distractions and allows her to

finish her thoughts before leaving them to discuss something with the other teacher or staff

member. She also has her classroom set up where the desks face away from the door. Sometimes

the students do not even realize there is someone in the room if they enter quietly enough.
Overall, I think that the teacher handled the interruptions that happened during this class period

well, and I was able to observe how she minimized distractions.

Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 8

Journal 8 focused on classroom procedures and rules. In the classroom that I observe,

there is only one rule posted, which is love one another. However, it is very evident that there

are many other rules that the teacher has set for the students to follow on a regular basis. Some of

these that I can pick out are that there is no talking in line or in the hallway, no talking during the

lesson without raising a hand, always ask before getting water or going to the bathroom, think

about if your question is relevant to what is being taught/ discussed before asking it, and respect

the teacher and other classmates. These rules are enforced by the teacher. She reminds students

not to talk in line, run down the hall, or disrupt the lunch room by talking to loudly. She also

shows positive reinforcement by only calling on students who have their had raised during the

lesson or any other part of the time spent in her class. She also calls out students who are doing

exceptionally well following directions and rules to show the rest of the class how to act. These

kids are usually rewarded with candy from her treasure box. The teacher also helps students

think about the rules by asking them to think about if their question pertains to the lesson before

they ask it. Overall, I think that these rules are appropriate for the classroom because they help

the teacher manage the classroom, teach students social skills, and further learning.

Three procedures I have observed in the classroom are to place the books not being used

under the desk to keep a clean work area, place finished work on the stool and begin working on

another assignment or reading a book, and take a hall pass when going to the bathroom or to see

another teacher. One thing that I would do differently for my classroom procedures is that I

would require students to keep their books in their cubbies when they are finished with them
rather than putting them under the desk. This way the desks are less cluttered and students are

not tempted to pull out a book to read while they are supposed to be working on something else.

If the books that they are not using at the moment are in their cubbies, then they are less

distracted since they would have to get up and get the book.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 9

Journal 9 focused on the lesson structure and flow of the lesson. Based on my

observations, this would be the general outline of the lesson. The objective was that the students

will learn and know the vocabulary words and their definitions in the unit. Some of the

vocabulary words were classify, drowsy, [levels of] difficulty, calculate, dependable, and

baggage. Some examples of the higher order thinking questions I heard were, Why do these

three words go together? What do they have in common? What is your reason for classifying

these three words as similar? For the informal assessment, the teacher would ask questions, like

the ones listed above, and the students would respond when she called on them. This was

assessing their general knowledge of the words. The teacher did not have a formal assessment

because this was the second day in this unit. The only material used was the vocabulary books.

For the bell ringer, the teacher had the students looking over the words and their definitions

while the rest of the class was coming in and getting settled. Then, her anticipatory set was that

without telling them, boys in one group and girls in the other group, the students were put into

two groups based on gender, and she asked them why they thought the groups were that way.

The students guessed and said that they were classified as either a boy or a girl. Then, the teacher

placed them into groups based on whether they were wearing short or long sleeves. The students

guessed. The teacher explained that she was classifying them according to their appearance, and

that classify was one of their new words. Then, the students had a seat to begin the lesson. The

teacher had the students read the words and definitions out loud as a group as review of the

previous days lesson. She had the students pull out a piece of paper and they completed the first
five problems in the vocab book as a class. Then, she had them finish problems six through ten

on their own. Then, the teacher called on them one at a time for the answers, and they all

discussed the answers together. This was the transition from guided to independent practice, and

she closed by going over the answers. She also closed by saying that the next day they would

introduce the next lesson in the unit, and she had them all turn to the next page and read all of the

words out loud before closing their books to move on to the next task.

This lesson provided the necessary practice and review for student comprehension. The

students developed cognitively by reasoning and classifying words in their heads. The teacher

also knew that this group of students needed a lot of review, so she did all of the problems in the

books review activity instead of handpicking a few for the class to do. However, the lesson

could have been longer. The students could have done another review exercise she had found to

give them a different perspective since they need so much review. This would have been a good

way to show differentiation for students who require the use of different learning strategies. One

student in particular struggles to focus and sit still, so breaking up the activities and adding some

movement in between would have greatly benefited her. If I were going to teach the same lesson,

I would do more instruction as review before jumping into the review activity. However, I would

probably open and close the same way. The students would have a more reinforced review so

they would be able to complete the review questions with more accuracy.
Kelly Edwards

Intro to Teaching

Practicum Journal 10

Journal 10 was a final reflection of my time in practicum this semester. I think that two of

the most important things I have learned from spending time in this classroom this semester

would be seeing how time, learning, and teaching is affected by having students coming in and

out of the classroom for RTI, and seeing how to adapt mid-lesson when it is clear that students

are not understanding the content or need more practice. I was able to observe my teachers

morning class and her afternoon class. This classroom has several students in the afternoon that

get pulled out for RTI after the first twenty minutes, which makes it difficult for the teacher to

accomplish much with them or start something with the rest of the students since it will be

interrupted. In her afternoon class, she often has to adapt and pull out an extra worksheet or an

extra review strategy because the students are sometimes not as quick to catch on. She always

has extra activities and handles the situations with such grace, even if it completely interrupts her

entire lesson.

I think that these nine journal entries connect to one another because they all cover things

that happen in one class period. Even though these were recorded over several weeks, they all

link together. I have found that the journal on the roles of a teacher was most informational

because people often forget that teachers are called to do more than just teach. This process has

shown me how much happens in a single class, and it has given me a better idea of what to

expect when I have a classroom of my own.