1. I think teachers use cold calls when teaching for a variety of reasons. Cold calling helps keep students on their toes and they tend to pay attention if they know that they can be called on at any given minute to give an answer. Students who tend to be quieter aren’t usually the first to volunteer to shout out answer, so by cold calling on a student, it forces the quiet student to participate in class. Cold calling also helps students receive immediate feedback and practice their thinking
2. If I were teaching a lesson during 9th grade orientation on library skills and teaching students how to find books using destiny and specific questions pertaining to the media center, I could use cold call questions such as:“Where do you go to find a book by Suzanne Collins?” “What are the media center hours of operation?” “How many books can you check out at one time?” “What do you need (compliant with the dress code, student ID and a pass from teacher) in order to come into the media center?” Cold calling is a practice that I often use when conducting orientation with the 9th grade students. I want to make sure the students are fully aware of what is expected of them, regarding the media center, and this practice keeps them tuned into my presentation and they are actively listening. 3. Call and Response – Where do you go to find a book?: “Where do you find a by Suzanne Collings? That is correct, Neal, in the fiction section. Class, where can we find it?” “Suzanne Collins is the author of The Hunger Games series. In which section of the library is the series shelved?” What do you need in order to visit the media center? “You need 3 things in order to come into the media center. Patrick, do you remember what those three things are? Correct! Class, say it with me … you must have your student ID, a pass from your teacher, and must be in dress code.” “You only need a pass from your teacher and be in dress code to be able to visit the media center. Jenny, true or false? Correct! It’s “what class?” FALSE” 4. There wouldn’t be any reason to have wait time during the media center orientation, but I usually pair orientation with cyber safety. During cyber safety, I would want the students to pause and reflect and think about what it means to be safe on the internet.Short script: “Think about your social media habits. Give me an example of how a person could be unsafe online.” “Let’s reflect on the child predator portion of the video. How do you know a person is who he says he is when you’re online? Tell me what you do to ensure that you aren’t talking to strangers when online.”
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This week, I began visiting schools for the practicum. Georgetown K-8 is where I will conduct most of my practicum hours. This school serves students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade and is serviced by one library with a media specialist and a full time media clerk. The first day I was with Rhonda Elton, who is the media specialist, she had to leave early because her child was sick so I spent the afternoon filling in for her as the media specialist and working with her media clerk. Ms. Love gave me a tour of the media center and showed me the different stations they have, which includes a lamination/poster printer station (closet), a student computer area with 4 desktop computers, a section of books to check out for middle school (grades 6-8) and a section for the elementary school students (grades pre-k – 5). Elementary students may not check out the middle school books except for fifth grade students. They are allowed to check out middle grade books with signed permission from their parents. I worked with our self-contained students this week. I worked with the speech language pathology teacher, Cathy McIntosh, and together, we taught a “cause and effect” lesson. We handed out a worksheet to the students for them to read and not fill out. This was strictly a verbal lesson. We also showed them cards with people on them showing different emotions and had them tell us what was happening in the picture. For example, there was a picture of a child in a birthday hat with presents all around him and he was smiling. He was smiling BECAUSE it was his birthday or because he had presents, etc. The students did a great job with this lesson! I had my weekly visit with the pre-k students Thursday. This week, I read Goodnight Moon 1-2-3 to them and we practiced counting 1-10. The activity we worked on a dot-to-dot worksheet. The kids did not have practice with an activity like this, so it took a little while for them to understand the concept. I will continue giving them dot-to-dot activities for the next few weeks.
“Students, I am going to demonstrate on the Promethean board how to access Infoplease, the virtual reference desk. First, I will give you exactly 2 minutes to reflect on and write the reasons that you think you might use Infoplease, a virtual reference desk. 2 minutes “Ten seconds remaining. Four, three, two, one! Please put your pencils down and look at me.” Students will do as directed. “Please raise your hand if you think you know of a reason to use Infoplease.” Students will raise their hands to respond with such answers as the following: doing homework, writing reports, or seeking new information. 2 minutes Using Infoplease, the media specialist will then demonstrate the various uses of the dictionary, thesaurus, and atlas. 8 minutes “Students, the person next to you will become your partner to complete a worksheet that I’m distributing. You will be utilizing the reference sources within Infoplease. I am setting the time for 12 minutes to complete this assignment. One, two, three….you may begin!” 12 minutes “Two minutes remaining.” “Four, three, two, one! Put your pencils down and let’s discuss the answers!” Students will volunteer answers found in Infoplease. 6 minutes 2. To break the assignments into three separate activities, 1/3 of the student pairs will use only the dictionary to find the answers. One-third will use only the thesaurus. The remaining one-third will use only the atlas. During their search for answers, students will learn the importance of using a variety of resources to find the necessary information. When students volunteer answers to the questions, they will be able to answer only those questions that could be answered by their one source. As they answer, the teacher will ask such questions as, “Why did you use the thesaurus for your answer?” 1. Students will understand and apply the correct procedure for doing laundry in my household I: I will show students how to sort laundry – whites vs colors and separate intimates into another pile. I will demonstrate how to put laundry into the washing machine, being careful not to overload the machine. I will then show them how to choose the setting on the machine. Once they have loaded the laundry and set the machine, I will show them how to pour the detergent in and how much to use. Lastly, I will show them how to turn the machine on to run. We: Students will write down and discuss the steps on how to do laundry in my household. Individual students will be asked how to describe each task in properly doing laundry. You: The students will pair off into groups. Each group will take turns sorting and preparing the laundry to be washed while I observe them, answering questions as needed. Each group will then wash the sorted piles while I continue to observe them. 2. Each lesson can begin with us discussing how laundry is done in the individual student’s households. We can talk about whether they do laundry and if not, who is responsible for washing clothes at their house. I can teach them about the changes in how laundry was washed and is now washed. We can learn about the technology that has changed and improved doing the laundry. 3. How to make the “I” portion stickier: SPOLT (acronym) S- separate the colors and the whites P – put laundry into the washing machine O – do not overload the machine L – add laundry detergent T – turn washing machine on 4. I could bring all of my household laundry for the students to practice washing, using our gym washing machine, but that may not prove to be a good idea. What I could do instead is just have them write out the steps themselves to test their knowledge Windsor Forest High School had a visit from award winning author J.A. Jance this week. She spoke to two of our ELA classes in the media center about her life as an author and about being an elementary teacher and a school librarian in Arizona before becoming an author. She was very candid about being told that because she was a woman, she should become a nurse or teacher, and not an author who writes about mystery and crime. Despite doors being closed in her face, both academically and professionally, she continued pushing towards her goal of becoming an author and succeeded. Mrs. Jance spoke to the students about achieving goals and how important it is to work hard and not let anyone dissuade you from pursuing your dreams. This was a sad week because of the school shooting in Florida. Our students had a lot of questions and concerns regarding their safety and it was tense in the hallways. I’ve tried my best to make the media center a place where ALL students are welcome, not just the “smart kids.” Friday, it seemed students needed a place to unwind and it was a day of sitting at the game tables, unplugging (phones, devices, etc), and playing games with friends. It was neat to see 4 students, who don’t know one another, sit at the table playing the game Taboo. They laughed, joked, yelled answers at each other, and when they left the media center that day, they left with new friends. It was a good day! **Side note** I purchased a game table for the media center this year and it has been a big hit with the students AND faculty. Since it arrived, there are always people sitting at it, including my principal. It is so popular that I had to move it from the corner where I originally placed it to the front of the media center. I definitely will need to purchase another one and when I have a minute, I have several requests from students and teachers to teach them how to play backgammon. Teach Like a Champion 2.0: Chapter 4 Reflection and Practice
With all that I had going on in the media center this week, I found time to be able to add 29 new desktop computers to one of CTAE labs and process a new laptop and iPad for 2 other CTAE teachers. Since returning from our Christmas and snow break, 3 CTAE lab classes have replaced their labs with brand new computers. I have added 87 new student desktop computers to our inventory and will work on condemning the old computers in the upcoming weeks. I have offered the old computers, monitors, keyboards and mice to our teachers to use as student computers, but since the computers are no longer supported by our techs (because the computers are older than 6 years old), and teachers are hesitant to take them because when the computer dies, that’s it. No one will fix them and they won’t be replaced any time soon. In the meantime, a third of my media center is filled with condemned equipment and it will remain until our cartage department finally comes to pick it up – hopefully, that will be this school year! One of my Follett book orders arrived Tuesday. My latest order contained 70 book titles – mostly fiction. There are so many avid readers at Windsor Forest High School and they practically beat down the doors to check out the new titles. There’s a section in the media center devoted to new books and I’ve placed a big comfy green chair in the corner with a reading lamp for the students to use (1 at a time) whenever they want to relax and read in comfort and privacy. I worked with one of our math teachers this week and began collaborating with her on a budgeting unit her class will be working on for the next couple of weeks. This project is designed to assist students in considering their financial future by looking at various real world situations/decisions one may be faced with once entering the workforce. I will assist this unit by supplying the Chromebook they will use when working on a web 2.0 presentation tool that I will teach to the class. I’m leaning towards teaching them about how to make a smore presentation, but we will discuss that at a later date.
I joined the ALA – American Library Association – because this professional organization plays an important role in the career of school library media specialists. This group helps keep me in touch with important issues, enhances my professional skills, and helps develop leadership skills. With an ALA membership, I get to enjoy a sense of community and networking opportunities with fellow media specialists, who can offer support and guidance if needed. I am able to gain access to professional publications, some of which require you to join their organization, but that is not necessary with my ALA membership. An added bonus to joining this organization is that the ALA offers discounted rates to its members for conferences, continuing education workshops, webinars, and promotional materials. The ALA/AASL sets the standards for school media specialists to follow and they are our biggest supporter when it comes to fighting legislation for changes or supporting intellectual freedom.
Chapter 3
I was busier than ever this week. At this point in the school year, teachers and students are looking ahead, planning to take the Georgia Milestone Assessment System (GMAS) - end of course exams that are given in the spring. We have a lot of traffic with teachers bringing their classes to work online practicing what they’re learning in class. During the week of February 12th, students will be given make-up GMAS exams to try to raise their scores from their fall tests. Teachers and students will be in a frenzy preparing to do their best in the spring. Monday, I assisted one of our 9th grade literature classes prepare for producing an argument or develop an informative or explanatory response based on information read in a passage. I stressed the importance of slowly reading the passage, determine what the passage is about, and then formulate an argument that would express their knowledge of reasoning skills. With 9th graders, this sometimes prove to be a challenge, but I am up to the task. I will continue to meet with this class every Monday and Wednesday during 2nd block until exam time. Mr. Callanan and I use the milestones study guide as our reference tool to ensure that we are preparing them correctly for what the students will encounter on the exam. I also worked with the yearbook teacher and her class this week, trying to put final touches on the yearbook so that we can get that out to be printed. I am co-chair with the yearbook teacher this year. She has a class that specifically works on the yearbook and I am in charge of the yearbook picture process. This week, we were proofing copy. It’s fun to watch the students work so hard to make the yearbook great. The Helen Ruffin reading bowl competition for Chatham county high school students was this week at one of our alternative sites. My team has been preparing since August and while they didn’t win (4th place), they did score higher than in years past. Afterwards, we formulated a plan that may help us for next year’s book bowl. Even though they didn’t win, we still had a great day. The students who participated really display their love of reading during the reading bowl. Our new superintendent even made a surprise visit to cheer the students on. |
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April 2018
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