practicum!

holy moly i'm going to be a teacher...

Hello fellow practicum goers and Doug!

Well the first two days were not nearly as bad as I thought. I figured out that teachers are JUST PEOPLE! My sponsor teachers are awesome - I am actually more excited now than nervous. The only bad part was going into a life skills class and being asked for math help... after the initial shock wore off I realized I can do percentages... :)

I thought I would share what I have learned so far from my ESL sponsor teacher. I only met her today, but I had a whirlwind intro to the ESL program at Palmer.

She started teaching at Palmer 15 years ago using the knowledge framework. She has now adapted her strategy to incorporate "Smart Learning". It was developed through the New West School district, and has a pretty good layout. I think it will help me develop lesson plans, as it is very well laid out. The "smart reading" section is very comprehensive. The students use their prior knowledge of the subject, they make predictions on what will happen in the text they are reading, they "chunk" things up so paragraphs/sections are easier to understand, and they respond to all of this in writing. (Sorry if that is hard to follow in text). I get copies of everything tomorrow (my sponsor teacher has so many resources in her room it is unbelievable) so I will bring some things back to class. Anyways, that's my ramble for today.

Hope you are all happy with your placements!! I haven't actually started teaching yet... I'm a bit nervous to start, but I will at latest be up in front of the class by Monday.

Marin.