May 19, 2011

My last day at Westwood was one of the saddest day of my life. The students tried to beg me to stay with them longer or come back the following week but that's impossible. Over this year, I really didn't think I would have gotten attached to the children but I did and I think as a teacher, that's what you would have to deal with every year.
IPET helped me discover that I have a love for little kids. I love to work with them, I love to talk to them, and I really love to teach them. Although I do love teaching fourth graders, I would still rather be a pediatrician until I'm a bit older and I think I'll be a fourth grade math teacher later in my life. This did help me choose my career because I love little kids.

Engligh AP test

The AP Exam was very tough but I understand that it should be a difficult test since you college board wants to test if you should get a college credit for taking an AP course in high school. The only thing that I have a problem with is the timing. I really just hate timed test and the fact that I am a slow reader doesn't help at all. We also had to write three essays in 2 hours and I completed them before time was called. Last year, by the time I finished my second essay, I was brain dead but I guess I've gotten better with the AP exams.

April 21, 2011

They played jeopardy that day (I guess it can be considered an alternative assessment also) and sadly I had to leave at nine so I couldn't really watch them finish off the game. What that was really funny was that there was an answer that was wrong on the game and the teacher and I didn't even catch it until the students pointed it out to us. I guess we all learn lessons. What was really cute was that they got excited, just to play a game which is the easiest way to learn- through having fun.

An alternative assessment is something else that the students can do besides taking a test. Like, a poster, a project, a word search. Anything that is basically hands on,  like lab, etc. it just shows that they understand what they just learned and that they could demonstrate it to us.

April 14, 2011

Yesterday, the teacher checked the students homework.  I again pulled Erika out to help her with her values (one, thousands, millions) and oh my gosh, what a 360 from last week. She's been going to tutorials and praticing at home and she's really smart.I then took her back into class and checked the rest of the students homework. They've gotten very comfortable to me to tell me almost everything. They were asking me about my birthday and what was I getting.... Super cute kids. But that made me want to be a teacher all over again.

Assesments measures the achievement of their objective, what needs to be improved, and measures the effectiveness of my teaching. To asses how well your student are learning, you would have to write a test and/or do experiments to show that they understand what they are learning. The students can evaluate each other to see how much they've learned. In the test, they can answer true/false questions, mutiple choice, mathcing, fill in the blank, and labeling.

April 7, 2011

Today, I again worked with the little girl Erica to help her with her values. I couldn't seem to find a method to help her understand it. I honestly think it's because her math shills aren't that great but I'm pretty positive she'll get there. They then learned how to multiply a different way and learned how to do TREE DIAGRAMS. Of course, some students understood it after one example and some just takes a little bit more time and effort for it to process. But soon after, they all seem to really like tree diagrams. Afterwards, it was time to go to specials and this week I went to music class. Some students have an obvious short attention span, some students talked while the teacher spoke, some students couldn't sit on their buns quietly, and I don't know how the teacher deals with it. But afterwards, they learn that they were doing a 6 week project and some students were very excited and some were like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" So possibly, they may enjoy it or they may not.

April Fool's Day!

Yesterday, I got a chance to have a one on one time with this girl named Erica that had a problem with rounding and figuring her values(tenths, ones, hundredths). Mrs. Rojas taught the students about reflection and rotation. And every student were active. We the went to specials at 9:30 and I went to P.E. There were some students that actually did the warm-up while others stood there and did nothing. I never realized how much fun children have from playing tag (brings back elementary memories).

There have been some accommodations at Westwood for bilingual students. The teacher would speak in English but then if they didn't understand it, she would repeat it in Spanish. Also she would put the students that are short or students with short attention span in the front so she could keep them on track. 

March 24, 2011

Yesterday, I actually got to help teach students how to round. Although I kind of forgot how, I somehow miraculously remembered. There are some students that look at word problems and thinks that it's a multiplication problem but it is actually division. It just takes some time and skill to distinguish which is which. They were really nice to me and I think they've become accustomed to me and I've learned to love their cuteness. This just makes me wanna be a teacher even more when I grow up.