Professional Development 2012

What an amazing experience...

I can’t begin to explain how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to student teach at Montana City School. I was lucky to have had great teachers that influenced me to become a teacher. I was even luckier to have the opportunity to work with and learn from the teachers that inspired me.  Each member of the staff went out of their way to help me feel included and make this the most beneficial experience possible. I was able to see firsthand what a Blue Ribbon School, like Montana City, is like on a daily basis. This experience exceeded my expectations. I was student teaching with Mrs. Fessenden who teacher 3 periods of science a day. Because of this schedule, I was able to rotate and work with all 3 5^th grade teachers for a part of the semester. This gave me the chance to teach different subjects and work with 3 amazing teachers.

Mrs. Fessenden provided me support, encouragement, and guidance throughout the entire semester. I learned so much from her when she was my science teacher 13 years ago, that is nothing compared to what I learned from her while she was my cooperating teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, I am so grateful for Mrs. Fessenden and for everything she has done to help me. I could have never imagined how much I would learn from this experience, I owe a large part of that to Mrs. Fessenden.

Each one of my 60 5^th grade students is so unique and special. I may have taught them a lot but it is nothing close to what they taught me. They inspired me every day and made me want to be better.

I am sad that my student teaching experience has ended, but I am excited for what comes next. Starting Monday, I will no longer be a part of Montana City School as a student teacher but as a member of the staff. I am so excited to continue learning from the incredible staff at this school and honored to be a part of it. 

 On my last day, each student presented me a rock. On one side of the rock they wrote "you rock" and on the other they each wrote a message. This is a gift that I will keep forever and remember the amazing 5th graders that I student taught.

The most popular place in Mrs. Fessendens room was a giant bear in the back of the room. Students loved to lay on the bear and read. They got me a bear to take to my future classroom for my future students to enjoy. They each signed the bears shirt and named him "Monte" in honor of The University of Montana. 

Final Reflection- Philosophy of Teaching

Midterm Reflection

Best Piece of Academic Work- Reflective Essay

Best Piece of Academic Work- Personal Memoir

Best Piece of Academic Work- Genre Assignment

Technology in A Lesson Plan - Walter The Baker Podcast and Power Doc

13 Colony Brochure - Student Work Sample

My 5th created a wide range of brochures. They were much more creative than I expected, they came up with unique folds and interesting ways to present the information. This brochure was an average brochure, this student used a good combination of color and pictures and included accurate information in their brochure. 

This student made a travel brochure for The New World, they included the required information and made it very interesting to look at. 

They did a good job of including a lot of information but not having so much text that is looses visual appeal. This brochure is a good advertisement, they made living in the new world seem like a good choice, they emphasized the positives of traveling to The New World. 

This student brochure had a good combination of graphics and text. They used pictures and text to show what the colonists would typically eat. The information they included on each panel was different from the others but relevant to the brochure and the theme of that particular panel. 

13 Colonies Brochure Assessment

Jamestown Journal - Student Work Samples

There are 3 different journal entries below that I received for the Jamestown Journal assignment. Each Journal represents the different type of work I received. Most students were able to create an entry that had both a story line and the required elements. Some students wrote a very creative story while others had several facts but there entry was not as creative as I expected. The grade for each entry reflected the work that they put into the assignment. I wrote notes one each entry that include the positives their entry had and what changes could have been made to improve the grade if necessary. 

This student created a very elaborate story. In this short writing assignment, they made you feel a connection to the characters they have developed. This student is know for her creativity and her ability to write an excellent story. Although their journal was very creative, They only had 3 facts or actual events. They were required to have 4-5 so this student received a B. If they would have found a way to included a little more factual information about Jamestown, they would have received an A.

This student did an excellent job of creating a fictional character but made it seem like this person could be real. They described real problems a Jamestown settler would face. They had several different entries in their journal and each entry related and tied into previous ones. This student flawlessly created a historical account while still establishing characters and a plot.

This Journal entry was very fun to read, they used their best cursive to make the entry look as if it were written in the 1600's. They included several factual events but they story line was lacking. They received a B on their journal. Had this student done a better job of establishing characters to go along with their facts, they would have earned an A.

Assessment of Jamestown Journals

Science Lab Pictures

Flower Dissection Lab- Final posters students created while identifying monocots and dicots, specific flower parts and the function of each part.

 Vascular Tissue Lab Part 1- Flowers were placed in a vase with water and food coloring, students created a hypothesis establishing what they expected to happen to the flowers.

Vascular Tissue Lab Part 2- Students made observations and recorded these observations in their science journals. They began to notice a change in the color of the flower, blue streaks began to show up on the white daisies. These blue streaks demonstrated how vascular tissue passes water throughout the entire plant.

Digestive System Lab- Students created representations of their digestive system. They took their measurements and used ratios to determine the actual length of their digestive system. They used different colored yarn to represent each of the 5 parts of the digestive system. They taped labels on each color to show which color represents what part of the system.  To their surprise, the small intestine, the longest part of the digestive system, was often more than 4 meters long and the entire digestive system stretched the distance of the entire classroom. 

Video Critiques