Day Ten

Today was my last day of my internship with the first grade classes at Newell-Fonda. At the start of my day, I helped the children practice the stories they read for their cold reads so that Mrs. DeMey will be able to do hot reads with them later.  I then helped them with their math activities on IXL.  Later, we worked on learning about timelines, by making timelines of schools.  We have continued our practice on our Reader's Theaters, as they will be performing them for multiple classes on Monday.

I have enjoyed my experience in Mrs. Hess's and Mrs. DeMey's classrooms immensely.  I have learned so much from not only the teachers, but also the students.  I am grateful for this experience as I now know what I would like to do when I graduate.

Day Nine

Today, during reading groups, I had the children read to me and practice their stories from their cold reads and also practice comprehension.  I helped them go over spelling words and had them read other books they had to me.  In math, the students learned about another 3D shape, the rectangular prism.  They then had to pull a shape out of a Feely Box and tell the features of the shape so the other kids could guess what it was.  They then worked on IXL, practicing their shapes.  Today I worked with kids on their Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress, helping them with reading, comprehension, and different learning activities.  We performed our Reader's Theaters for the rest of the class, and I am very proud of my group, as they came a long way in a week.  I have been learning so much from both Mrs. DeMey and her students, and I will be sad to leave.

Day Eight

I started my day by leading calendar time.  We worked on our numbers by counting the days of school and stating the date.  We counted to 94 as many different ways as the children could think of.  I was excited that Mrs. DeMey gave me the responsibility of leading this part of the class.  I finished my cold reads with the children today, then went back and did some comprehension and word families with each child. In Math today, we learned about a cylinder, and again made one from paper.  We then worked on IXL activities until lunch.  The kids read stories and practiced comprehension on Reading Eggspress.  We continued our work on our MLK Reader's Theaters, perfecting them so that the children can perform them for different classrooms on Monday.  Today, the class had Katie the naturalist come and speak to them.  I enjoyed observing the students ask questions about different animals.  I am working on finishing up my project.

Day Seven

Today Mrs. DeMey gave me the opportunity to do timed cold and hot readings with the students individually. The object of these readings is to see how many words each student can read in a minute.  This gave me a feel of where each student is at with their reading level.  Next we learned about more another 3D shape, the cone.  The kids make cones out of paper, and learned the properties of the shape.  They also used more CGI Math to find the total number of sides of multiple shapes.  During sharing time, each student told how she was feeling that day and why.  This gives the students a chance to express their feelings.  We have also been working on learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.  We continued practicing our Reader's Theater and also read another story about him. We also wrote summaries and finished our writings about bears.  I am enjoying my time with Mrs. Demey as it is much different from Mrs. Hess.  I am working diligently on my project and hope to have it finished by the end of the week.

Day Six

Today was my first day in Mrs. DeMey's room.  I quickly learned her way of teaching is much different from Mrs. Hess.  To start off, I observed the reading groups.  Many of the kids wanted to read to me during their silent reading or reading to a friend.  Another station was spelling.  Mrs. DeMey has different worksheets and activities for the students to practice their spelling words.  Another station is the writing station.  A prompt is given and the kids are given a chance to either use the prompt or free write.  This gives them a chance to show their creativity.  Mrs. DeMey teaches CGI Math.  She does not teach any certain strategy, but rather lets the kids decide how they will solve the problem.  I had never seen this done before, and it was really neat to see how different students' minds work.  Today we also started a Reader's Theater about Martin Luther King, Jr. I'm excited to watch the kids learn this.  I am about halfway done with my project, and as I have been working, more teachers are using Word Journeys with their students.

Day Five

This morning, things were a little different for me as Mrs. Hess gave me the opportunity to lead reading groups today.  I was able to work with each group at their different levels and listen to them read different books, depending on their level.  This taught me the employability Iowa Core Skill of demonstrating accountability.  Mrs. Hess made me responsible for leading the main group, and was dependent on me to work well with the children.  Today, we worked on odd and even numbers and number lines on IXL, a math site.  They continued their work on contractions, learning I've, would've, should've, and could've.  They were required to write sentences using them.  I enjoyed seeing their creativity in writing.  While I was at band, each student wrote me a thank you card as today was my last day in Mrs. Hess's room.  I am looking forward to being in Mrs. DeMey's room and comparing their teaching.

Day Four

To start off my day today, I evaluated each student's knowledge of coins.  I asked them what each coin was and the value of each.  I realized some students know all of it, while some don't know at all.  We again collaborated with the leadership WE Term class and worked on reading and comprehension using reading eggs.  During daily math, the students had to use their own problem solving skills, which some students struggled with.  Today, the children were able to participate in an experiment.  They have been studying the arctic and antarctic, so they did an experiment with blubber and fur.  I loved seeing their enjoyment with doing an experiment.  I am about halfway through my service project.  I am glad to be helping out the first grader teachers, and I am really enjoying my internship.

Day Three

During my internship today, I finished my work with evaluating each student's reading and comprehension abilities.  I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment, as I was able to fully understand the variety of reading levels a first grade class has.  I, again with Mr. Baron and Mr. Wilken's WE Term class, helped the students read books and answer questions on Reading Eggspress.  Today three of the kids participated in Show and Tell.  I liked this because each had a different way of expressing their thoughts.  I also helped with their math, as they were learning to add and subtract one and ten using a number chart and colored squares.  Some succeeded with this and others did not.  With the Iowa Core Skill of Employability, I am learning that different children learn different ways, and I must adapt to each student's skills.  I am continuing to work on my project on spellingcity.com.

Day Two

Today, my second day of my internship, was spent firstly continuing my work on the children's reading evaluations.  This has been very beneficial to my understanding of the reading levels of first graders.  Later, I worked with students, helping them read a story and sound out new words.  This is teaching me how to teach the students phonics.  I again helped with math problems and with daily math.  Today, the students were required to write their own story problems.  It was fun to see their creativity show through.  I have continued my work on my project, entering more spelling words onto spellingcity.com.

Day One

Today was my first day interning in Mrs. Hess's first grade classroom.  To start off the day, she had me work with the children on their reading ability.  I was given a story and an evaluation for each child, with instructions to evaluate their reading and comprehension skills.  This gave me an idea of what level and how first graders read and their ability to answer questions about a text.  Next, I helped the first graders with their math, not only checking their answers, but also asking them how they solved the problem.  Their individual problem solving skills amazed me.  We also worked on vocabulary and writing sentences. Mrs. Hess gave me the responsibility of working with the kids by myself, which is an important employability skill.  Today I also started on my project, which is making spelling lists on spellingcity.com.  I had a lot of fun today, and I am really looking forward to the rest of my internship.

Biography

I am Megan Christiansen, and I am a senior in high school at Newell-Fonda.  I enjoy cheering and dancing at school.  I also participate in band, speech, FCCLA, and National Honor Society.  I am an employee of the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center, as I work at the Fitness and Health Center in Storm Lake as a gymnastics coach.  I did gymnastics for eight years, and I love sharing my love of the sport with the children I teach.  I have been given the privilege to participate in a senior internship during Newell-Fonda's Winter Explorium Term.  When I graduate I plan on going to Morningside, Simpson, or the University of South Dakota majoring in Elementary Education.  For my internship, I will be working alongside the two first grade teachers at Newell-Fonda.  I hope to learn new skills of teaching and using technology in teaching to use late on in life as a teacher myself.  I am looking forward to this experience, and I am excited to learn from two great teachers.