Weekly Summary #13

Weekly Summary #13

April 16th- 18th

Meghan Taylor

The last week of interning at Bayview for this semester has come to an end. I did not have any lesson plans this week, but I post-assessed my students in my first-grade class both days this week. On Tuesday, I post-assessed them on their Phonics Survey. Both of my students either remained constant in their testing (for areas of letter names and sounds, which was 100% both times) or they improved in areas. In the areas of CVC words and blends, both students improved more-so here than in any other areas. I wish I had more time with them so we could have worked on different aspects of beginning reading skills in a more in-depth analysis.  
On Thursday, we re-assessed their Fry words. Both students once again increased in the number of words that they knew over the course of this semester. One student made a gain of thirty-five new words, while the other made a gain of thirty-eight new words. I believe this is a great success for both students and they were enthused to hear how many new words that could recognize. I was thoroughly impressed with both of them, as some days it felt as though they had never seen any of the words before when we concluded each lesson plan.
In my fourth and fifth grade CSS classroom, we once again just worked one-on-one with students who needed extra help or had to make up assignments from when they were absent. Tuesday went a lot more smoothly than Thursday. On Thursday, when we entered the classroom, it was the calmest day ever. I thought it was going to be a great end to interning in that classroom, but soon enough that calmness came to an end.
One student began to grow frustrated with his Achieve articles, as he claimed they were too difficult for him to do on his own. Meanwhile, we were trying to help him so he would not become too angry. However, he quickly shut the computer and began beating it, which resulted in it being shattered with glass falling out of it. He then threw a chair and began to beat on the smart board, making threats to Ms. Price. He began to calm down and hugged her, but then ran and began to beat on a student. Thankfully, he was removed from the classroom before he could damage anything else or worse, harm another student.
Overall, interning at Bayview was definitely an experience. There were days that were completely hectic and crazy, but then there were also good days. I know this is how teaching will be like in the future, as I experience this with the eight students I home-school, but it was fun to be in a classroom again. Last year, I was an "un-official" kindergarten teacher to a private school. I did not have any of my certificates and I was only part-time, but I was more than the general classroom aide. It was a lot of fun to once again be in the classroom environment and working with the students there. This internship has only shown me further that teaching is the correct path for me.