Fall+2011+Practicum

A.L. Lotts Elementary School

A.L. Lotts Elementary is a big, yet wonderful school. Full of about 1,300 students, this school is full of learning, inspiration, fantastic teachers, and tons of resources. There is a lot of parent involvement, which is great, and the teachers genuinely want what is best for each and every student.

Mission: to enable all students to achieve their personal best.

Mentor Teacher: Mrs. Sellmer Grade: 5th Grade Students: 24 Students; 15 girls, 9 boys School Website: A.L. Lotts Elementary School

Classroom Schedule
 * 8:00 || Math ||
 * 9:00 || Reading ||
 * 10:15 || Social Studies ||
 * 11:15 || Recess ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">11:45 || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Specials (Art, Music, P.E., Guidance, etc.) ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">12:40 || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Lunch ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">1:05 || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Small Groups ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">1:45 || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">CORE (Students can be pulled out for different resources.) ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">2:25 || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Wrap Up ||

media type="custom" key="11401092"

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Language Arts <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> I really enjoyed my time to be able to teach Language Arts. It was interesting to get to know the curriculum that the students were doing. I really thought that the curriculum was great and that it gave the teacher step by step instructions. Something that I thought was very neat, were the tiny books. Tiny books are little books that the students make themselves. They make a tiny book for each story that they read in their book during reading. The tiny books consist of 7 pages: title page, genre, vocabulary, reading skills (character/plot), and grammar skills (sentence/sentence fragment). All of the student's tiny books are kept in little cereal boxes. Another activity that Mrs. Sellmer showed me, that she had used at the beginning of the year, was the "Toy Writing." The students made an "old-timey" toy, which made a picture when spun, and the students were to create a story based on what they saw. Mrs. Sellmer said they were creating wonderful stories. She said that one student even created a fable based on how the fish actually got in a bowl. There are pictures of both the tiny books and the toy for the writings included in my Photopeach, along with the artifacts from my lesson on Fact/Opinion. media type="custom" key="11400948"
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Lesson Plan || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Reflection ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">[[file:LanguageArts.docx]]

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Math <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">I learned a lot in Mrs. Sellmer's math class, and I hope I can teach it as good as her someday. She taught it in a way that was on the student's level, and most of them understood what was going on. This was a very difficult class, but they seemed to be getting what Mrs. Sellmer taught them everyday. There were a few areas that Mrs. Sellmer was concerned about, but she just reviewed them with the class. I have included pictures of my artifacts from my lesson, pictures of some reteaching items, and pictures from the FACT that I used at the end of my lesson. media type="custom" key="11401254"
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Lesson Plan || <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Reflection ||
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">[[file:MATH.docx]]

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Science || <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Mrs. Sellmer doesn't teach science, but she was kind enough to let me do one of my Science in a Box activities during CORE extension one day. I was able to do the Ball on a Roll activity with a small group of students, and they absolutely loved it. I have included a picture of the group chart, that I filled out, while the students were measuring their distances. I was amazed at how much they already knew about Potential and Kinetic Energy! <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Science in a Box Wiki :Science in a Box Wiki <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Lesson Plan || <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Reflection ||
 * [[file:BOXlesson.docx]]

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Social Studies <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">I learned an incredible amount of wonderful information on how to teach Social Studies in an awesome way. Mrs. Sellmer used interactive notebooks to allow her students to take notes. She already had the flip chart made out for the activeboard, she just had to teach it to them. Each student would cut out their pictures, time lines, etc, before she would start a unit, and put them all in a bag. Then, when she would come to a slide where they needed a certain interactive piece to fill out, they would just find it and glue it in. There are pictures included in my Photopeach of the interactive notebook, along with the slides that I was able to teach for my lesson. media type="custom" key="11400728"
 * <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Lesson Plan || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Reflection ||
 * <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">[[file:SocialStudies.docx]]

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">My Last Day of Practicum in Mrs. Sellmer's 5th Grade Class: media type="custom" key="11401434"

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">During CORE, I was able to do "brain games" with the students and they absolutely loved it! The students made a "brain game" for me to complete on my last day. It was just questions that they wanted to know about me. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">