Week Fifteen: Carl Sandburg

I just completed my fifteenth week in my student teaching clinical. At the moment I am having the bitter-sweet feeling of almost completely my four years at Trinity Christian College. One thing that really hit me this week is that I could be teaching on my own in a matter of months. My teacher gave me many different responsibilities this week and there were some days I felt like it was too much to handle. What always calms me down is that I was put into a placement that was already half way done with its school year so certain things are out of my control and I wasn’t able to be there for the beginning of the experiences.

My teacher is allowing me to write an IEP on one of my students and to be the speaker for the meeting on May 4, 2012. I am excited my teacher trusts me with something this important and that I will be able to get more experience with not only IEP’s themselves but also the program, “Easy IEP.” One thing that I am concerned with is finding the time to complete all that needs to be done. As much as I want the experience with the IEP and that one day it will be a big part of my career, I know that when I am teaching that I will have more time just to focus on my IEP’s. At this point in my college career I am winding down to the last assignments in my classes and finding it to be a challenge in order to complete it all. I just wished I could have worked on the IEP earlier so that I could focus on rather large projects on top of my planning for student teaching. I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment but if I can make it through these last two weeks I believe I can handle any type of work or deadline as a professional.

This week, I was able to create my own assessments for many of my classes. In my instructional science I was able to take what we learned from our textbook (on level for high school) and adapt it for my students in order for them to succeed. I also found ways in order to help my students study. Instead of just living my students a study guide for them to study off of, I created a matching worksheet with all the key terms that they are expected to know on the test. Once they completed this independently (were able to use their books or notes) I explained to them that they would be able to use it on the test. I was able to see how my students learned and how they reacted to my test. It was great creating this type of assessment because I was given direct feedback from my students as well as their grades and scores.

Also this week we were given the opportunity to go to Sandburg’s art show. This was such a great experience because three of my students had art work in the show. Carl Sandburg is a very large school so it was a very special honor for a student’s work to be chosen in the show and then sent into different shows in Illinois to be graded. It was wonderful to see my student’s art and figure out what their thought process might have been or what motivated them. I was very proud of them and took all my students to go see the show to help support their peer. I loved the fact that both general and special education were in the show together and that both are capable of creating something so beautiful.