These past few weeks have looked very different than normal for everyone. Although the COVID-19 quarantine has provided me with productivity and growth in family relationships, not every student has a safe place at home. By being mandated to stay at home, the risk for child abuse has increased significantly because children are stuck at home with a perpetrator. So, what is the role of the teacher in situations like this? How do teachers document and report child welfare concerns at the state and county levels?

In general, it is important to know the signs of child abuse. The first step to getting the child the help they need is to notice the details and pick up on the signs. Teachers spend hours with their students and should be aware of any physical or emotional changes.

Tennessee has a mandatory reporting law that requires anyone who has reasonable cause to believe a child is being abuses/neglected must immediately report it to the Department of Children’s Services. Reports of these activities can be made via phone at 1-877-54ABUSE or online at https://apps.tn.gov/carat/referral/emergency.html. In order to fully report the situation, the teacher must give the name, address, phone number, and age of the child being affected and the person responsible for the child.

Putnam County has their own set of procedures and rules that align with the TN regulations and go into more detail. Both require immediately reporting the issue and giving the name, address, age, and phone number of the child and guardian. In Putnam County you must also provide the extent of the abuse and any evidence or reasoning for the cause of the injury. The county guidelines state that the person reporting MUST be confidential about the information until a court case for the issue. It also says that the report should be verbally communicated with the guardians of the effected child within 24 hours of the claim. Each individual school should have their own set of procedures on how to report the case and what the main indicators of abuse would look like.

As a future teacher, I know that I will have all kinds of students in my classroom and that could include a child who is being abused. Even as a teenager, it makes me sad to know that such things happen, but I am sure that I will be adequately prepared for the situation when it comes. Assuming I teach at a school within TN, I must follow the law about reporting child abuse cases and be trained and ready for any circumstance. It is my hope that my future classroom will be a safe space for students even when their home life might be tough. I will try my hardest to make every student feel loved, appreciated, and valued no matter their backgrounds.

One of our recent TAP 3 assignments was to create a lesson plan and present it to the class. This took place over the course of a few weeks so that we could each develop a great lesson. I chose to do mine on a first grade science standard for telescopes. This standard wanted students to know the difference between using the naked eye and using a telescope to see things in the sky. I knew that I could have lots of fun activities within this lesson and I was excited to be creative!

Highs of my presentation:

1. The telescope craft went phenominally! The students loved it and had fun making a tool.
2. I designated spots to put the completed craft to minimize distrations and it worked well.
3. My quick formative assessment of thumbs up/down helped guide me and allowed me to see where each student was in the understanding/comprehension process.

Lows of my presentation:

1. The powerpoint I created in order to teach the lesson had a dark background color (for the night sky) and was difficult to see in the back of the class.
2. I read an article about what telescopes do, but that wasn’t the best method of presenting new material. I needed to follow through with the article as well, but did not.
3. There were a couple of opportunities that students could’ve taken the lead and been more vocal with responses instead of me.

I believe that my creative ideas of the craft, drawing, and review of previous material worked well and that the kids enjoyed being able to work with their hands. I have room to improve on several aspects of presenting my lesson, specifically teaching what the telescope is actually used for and making that part a bit more engaging.

Overall, being able to write and implement a lesson plan was incredible experience and prepared me abundantly for what I expect to do in college this fall!

Student motivation is crucial when planning and implementing instructional strategies. In the classroom, student motivation is defined as the focus and attention that influences and drives the desire to learn. This topic can be a bit of a controversy because it asks the question of is the parent, teacher, or student responsible for developing that motivation. To me, motivation can’t be left in the hands of students, especially when teaching elementary aged children. Taking into consideration that younger kids have a low attention span, teachers would be responsible for designing lessons that are engaging and finding ways to help students become motivated and passionate about learning. With that being said, some students love learning and are excited to go to school, while others dread it. Every student is different and that is where the teacher comes in. By planning crafts and activities to go along with lessons, teachers create a fun atmosphere for the kids to enjoy. Along with that, there are simple ways to teach with motivation. In an article that provided tips and tricks for teaching motivation, my favorite suggestion was promoting a growth mindset. This means making sure that students know that growth will happen and that their abilities/skills will improve with practice. When fostering this mindset, it is important to be positive and encouraging about the potential for their future- something I am very passionate about! I will definitely utilize this strategy in my own classroom. Secondly, I plan to offer incentives and rewards for certain things in order to motivate students. In my practicum experience, my mentor teacher gives a jellybean for each page of homework turned in. This motivates the students to complete assignments because they know there is candy waiting for them. I also love the idea of a treasure box for students to pick a prize from when they complete a sticker chart or achieve something amazing. Lastly, and probably the most simple way, I will always make learning fun. Even now, as a high school student, I create and develop lessons that have fun things to make or silly pictures to engage students in participating. I tend to be a very creative person and designing fun lessons is a good creative outlet for me.

There are tons of ways to motivate students for learning! In researching, I have found that most have to do with being positive and fun in the classroom. Luckily, I am passionate about both of those things and I cannot wait to put them into action when I become a teacher!

Engaging students in learning is sometimes a difficult task. With elementary aged children, it is often easier to develop a theme for a lesson or unit in order to help students make a connection to the material that will help them remember it. Here are some themes I have created for specific standards in 1st grade:

1.OA.A.1- Add and subtract within 20 to solve contextual problems, with unknowns
in all positions, involving situations of add to, take from, put together/take apart, and
compare. Use objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown
number to represent the problem.

For this standard, I have developed a pirate themed lesson with activities, songs, and games. The title of the unit would be “Pirate Subtraction.” In order to carry out this theme, the teacher could dress up as a pirate, play the Pirate Subtraction song on Youtube, utilize worksheets from Teachers Pay Teachers to act as independent practice, and make a craft/visual to allow a time for creativity.

In researching things that have already been created for this theme, I found an adorable hands-on activity that has treasure boxes on cut up papers and behind the chest is a subtraction problem. If the students get the problem right, they get a reward (stickers, candy, etc). Another idea is using either real or chocolate coins to demonstrate problems visually. Tactile learners would love the activity of having a box of sand and tracing problems into the sand.

There are TONS of other options and games to implement for this theme! Overall, I believe that students, especially younger children, would LOVE this lesson and the fun activities to go along with it.

1.FL.PWR.3 d- Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the
number of syllables in a printed word.

This standard can be so much fun for first graders! It can fit multiple themes, but I believe that a popcorn theme would engage students immensely. For this lesson, the main activities surround the idea of multi-syllable words. As shown in the picture, there are visuals for different words and based on how many syllables are in that word, each popcorn piece is placed in the corresponding bag. Along with that activity, the teacher could give students actual popcorn as a snack. There is definitely a cross-curricular activity of counting each bag of sorted pieces and seeing which has more/less. I believe there are several different ways that the popcorn theme can be used with this standard and in the classroom!

1.ETS1.1- Solve scientific problems by asking testable questions, making short-term and long-term
observations, and gathering information

Hear me out when I suggest this theme… I researched some ideas on how to teach the scientific method (the questions, observations, and information part of the standard) and my favorite activity was about pickles. Now I know, that isn’t a great theme but the activities are FANTASTIC! With the scientific method, first graders adore working hands-on. With that being said, the students would answer many questions about pickles. Things like how it tastes, smells, looks and if it would last a long or short time are types of observations students would make. This is an easy lesson because all you need in preparation is a pickle for every student and worksheets to go along with it.

I truly believe that students would be extremely engaged and interested in this lesson, especially because it involves food and a snack for them.

These themes are only a small fraction of the ideas that could be developed for first grade standards. Honestly, seeing other teachers develop ideas is very inspiring to me and I cannot wait to implement fun themes to teach my kids with!

Engaging students in learning is sometimes a difficult task. With elementary aged children, it is often easier to develop a theme for a lesson or unit in order to help students make a connection to the material that will help them remember it. Here are some themes I have created for specific standards in 1st grade:

1.OA.A.1- Add and subtract within 20 to solve contextual problems, with unknowns
in all positions, involving situations of add to, take from, put together/take apart, and
compare. Use objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown
number to represent the problem.

For this standard, I have developed a pirate themed lesson with activities, songs, and games. The title of the unit would be “Pirate Subtraction.” In order to carry out this theme, the teacher could dress up as a pirate, play the Pirate Subtraction song on Youtube, utilize worksheets from Teachers Pay Teachers to act as independent practice, and make a craft/visual to allow a time for creativity.

In researching things that have already been created for this theme, I found an adorable hands-on activity that has treasure boxes on cut up papers and behind the chest is a subtraction problem. If the students get the problem right, they get a reward (stickers, candy, etc). Another idea is using either real or chocolate coins to demonstrate problems visually. Tactile learners would love the activity of having a box of sand and tracing problems into the sand.

There are TONS of other options and games to implement for this theme! Overall, I believe that students, especially younger children, would LOVE this lesson and the fun activities to go along with it.

1.FL.PWR.3 d- Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the
number of syllables in a printed word.

This standard can be so much fun for first graders! It can fit multiple themes, but I believe that a popcorn theme would engage students immensely. For this lesson, the main activities surround the idea of multi-syllable words. As shown in the picture, there are visuals for different words and based on how many syllables are in that word, each popcorn piece is placed in the corresponding bag. Along with that activity, the teacher could give students actual popcorn as a snack. There is definitely a cross-curricular activity of counting each bag of sorted pieces and seeing which has more/less. I believe there are several different ways that the popcorn theme can be used with this standard and in the classroom!

1.ETS1.1- Solve scientific problems by asking testable questions, making short-term and long-term
observations, and gathering information

Hear me out when I suggest this theme… I researched some ideas on how to teach the scientific method (the questions, observations, and information part of the standard) and my favorite activity was about pickles. Now I know, that isn’t a great theme but the activities are FANTASTIC! With the scientific method, first graders adore working hands-on. With that being said, the students would answer many questions about pickles. Things like how it tastes, smells, looks and if it would last a long or short time are types of observations students would make. This is an easy lesson because all you need in preparation is a pickle for every student and worksheets to go along with it.

I truly believe that students would be extremely engaged and interested in this lesson, especially because it involves food and a snack for them.

These themes are only a small fraction of the ideas that could be developed for first grade standards. Honestly, seeing other teachers develop ideas is very inspiring to me and I cannot wait to implement fun themes to teach my kids with!

WOW! It has been a long time since I last posted about practicum! We have had some crazy weeks here in Tennessee. After winter break, most of the population in my city either had the flu or strep. On top of that, I am pretty sure I haven’t seen the sun since December! It has been raining every day! I say all of this because I have not been to a full week (both Monday and Wednesday) of practicum in almost a month due to school being out for sickness, rain, and other things. I am so excited to share what has taken place this week!

Monday was a typical day for my practicum experience. I helped multiple students with morning work which was making a sentence with given words. That is a specific skill that most students in the classroom are still struggling with, therefore, the morning work for the past few weeks has been revolving around sentence cohesiveness. At this point in the school year, the skills group is learning about the writing process. Last week, they wrote a descriptive paragraph about grapes to work on planning, drafting, editing, etc. This week, each student is selecting to do a research project on either Great White Sharks or Mandrills. To introduce this project, I read a picture book to the class that gave basic information about Great White Sharks and their 6 (yes, six!) senses.

Wednesday, the students were SO excited to see me. I attribute that to the fact that I have become more comfortable in the classroom and I am interacting with the kids a lot more than I used to. I was working one-on-one with a student this morning who didn’t really need my help, but she insisted that I help her. While we worked on making sentences, she asked me if I would be there on Thursday. I explained that I am only at Jere Whitson on Monday and Wednesday. All of the sudden, she got a little sad and said, “We don’t have school Monday, so I have to wait till Wednesday to see you?” and oh my gosh, it melted my heart. Similarly, my teacher asked me to work with the group of girls in Skills and practice tricky words that don’t follow the rules. When the girls heard that they were getting to work with me, they cheered and ran up to hug me as I was walking over. I had planned on writing the words on the whiteboard and having them spell it with stickers but all of the girls insisted that I sit with them on the rug so that we could all be a group.

Thinking about the purpose of this practicum, it is definitely to gain hands-on experience in a real classroom setting. It is supposed to give me days where the whole class is wild and other days when the schedule is messed up and everything is chaotic. Not only am I getting to see real life situations and how to handle them, but I am forming incredible relationships with these kids. They respect me as a teacher figure in the classroom and, at the same time, they all have so much excitement and love for me. I love interacting with the students and being able to teach as a senior in high school! It is my favorite part of every week.

Big apologies for the long post!! I have so much passion for teaching that I could seriously talk about it all day!! It is experiences like this that assure me that I am positively primary!

This week my Teaching as a Profession class has focused heavily on the TEAM model of evaluation/assessment. TEAM stands for Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model and is a observatory tool used to evaluate teachers and their instructional planning. This tool rates teachers from a 1-5 based on the quality of their instruction and content. The incentive attached with getting good scores is that the higher the number, the higher the salary. Utilizing grant money, Tennessee pays teachers a significantly higher amount per year if they score a 3-5. There are three parts to this model: Planning, Environment, and Instruction. After interviewing assistant principals at CHS, I learned that the easiest to complete and succeed at is environment with planning as a close second. Those two aspects are only one page long whereas the instructional portion is three pages front and back. Each observer is different, but typically, observation is 50%, student growth is 35%, and student achievement is 15%. During the interview, I learned several different things about the rubrics and challenges that teachers face when tasked with this model. First, most teachers under-plan their lesson when being evaluated which leads to a lower score because it seems like they are unprepared. Another thing that was stressed to our TAP class was that this is a tool for both administrators and teachers to learn and grow from. It provides constructive criticism and areas for professional development/improvement.

After reviewing the rubric in depth, the most challenging part is definitely the instruction portion. I believe that lesson pacing, academic feedback, questioning, and problem-solving are the hardest categories to score high in. All of those things seem difficult to accomplish in the short amount of time given to present a lesson.

Overall, I believe the TEAM rubric is beneficial to those who are willing to improve and grow in their classroom. I can see where it would be challenging to complete and frustrating if the teacher doesn’t get the score they desire, but it provides crucial feedback that is necessary in order to become better. I think it is fairly created but there are definitely are ways that it could be more inclusive and specific.

WOW it has been a while!! I am so excited to finally be able to write a blog post about all the amazing things I am now getting to do in my practicum! Let’s start with some background information. The last week I went to Jere Whitson before Christmas break, my cooperating teacher and I had a conversation about what the spring semester would look like for me. She said that she wants to take advantage of the time that I have and therefore asked me to teach every Monday and Wednesday that she doesn’t have something for me to do. She said that it doesn’t need to be a prepared lesson every single day because I am still in high school, but that I can work with small groups and/or the whole class and do activities to strengthen their current struggles. My first topic was sentence fluency/comprehension. The students are having difficulty with reading a complete sentence and understanding it. Luckily, there are numerous activities, worksheets, and crafts that have to do with sentences. Here’s how this week of teaching went:

Monday I asked to be placed in a small group during RTI to work closely with a few students. Prior to class, I created a simple foldable from blank paper. I folded it into five sections horizontally so that each student could write a sentence in the space provided. I passed out the folded papers (which the kids thought was SO cool) and instructed the students that I would write words in a random order on my whiteboard and they had to unscramble the sentences. Another thing that the first graders are currently mastering is recognizing capital letters and punctuation marks and where they go in the sentence. With that being said, I put one word with a capital letter and one with a period at the end along with a couple other words for the students to choose from. I worked through the first one with them and for the next four, they figured it out as a group. Not only did this activity help in understanding the order of sentences, but it also strengthened their ability to write a comprehensive sentence with a capital letter and punctuation mark. My favorite part of the time I spent there was when a girl from my small group ran over to her teacher and said “Mrs. Whitney! That was so much fun with Miss Megan!!”

Wednesday I came in prepared to do a fun worksheet about sentences (it was a dog themed activity) but I was asked to work one on one with a student who wasn’t receiving help at home. Normally at the beginning of class, I help with morning work but today I got Play Dough and letter cutters and worked with a student to practice the spelling words for this week. After that, my mentor teacher wanted to jump ahead to the read-aloud portion of Skills because I was available to help. In my small group, I read the page for the students and then we reread it together by letting each person read two or three sentences by themselves. I typically have to leave before they get to the read-aloud section of Skills so being able to work with students on reading and understanding was a very cool experience.

This week was so much fun and I truly look forward to Jere Whitson every week. It is little things like teaching a small group that make me confident that I am positively a future primary educator!

Recently in my Teaching as a Profession class, I had the opportunity to gain more hands on experience. As part of the course, I get to go to elementary schools for a few consecutive days during both semesters of school. This semester, I was fortunate enough to get placed at Parkview Elementary School which is very similar to Jere Whitson. Upon my arrival, I was shocked at the amount of order and routine that each student, not just those in first grade, had. For the specific classroom I was in, part of their morning routine was lining up outside the door and choosing between a hug, a high five, a fist bump, or a word of encouragement from the teacher. This really made me excited because I have wanted to implement this in my future classroom forever! After that start to the day, the students completed morning work and skills quickly. I was able to jump in and help students with both of those tasks as it was needed. One of my most favorite things I got to witness was the “must do-can do” activities. After each subject, the teacher had a list of things each student must do (independent practice) and then once those were completed, the students had several enrichment activities for fun. Things like improving math skills with cross-curricular art assignments and bettering spelling with word magnets were options for students to choose from. During that time, the teacher asked me to take individual students into the hallway and give them a formal assessment about their reading fluency and sight words. Each kid had to read aloud 50 words. If they said it right, I put a check and if not, I left it blank. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because we got out of school for snow!! Even though the day was cut short, I loved my time there. Luckily, I was able to go again the next day after the morning delay. This time, I helped a lot more kids and got to know them on a deeper level. With spending more time, I also got to talk about various teacher-related things with all of the first grade teachers. This experience was unlike any that I have had before for many different reasons. The classroom environment and atmosphere was very bright and energetic. There were posters, learning charts, and other decorations scattered throughout the room which made it lively and bright. I appreciated the room layout and it proved to be functional for the class. Even the teacher’s style of engaging students and keeping them on task was a new perspective that I was very interested in. Overall, it was a good experience and it definitely furthered my passion for teaching first grade. Each time I am put in a classroom to get hands-on experience, I become more excited about pursuing a career in education. Field experiences are one of my most favorite aspects of Teaching as a Profession courses. I look forward to the spring semester and seeing what else I can do!!

I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about all the things that I am thankful for. I strive to be grateful throughout every season, but with the Thanksgiving holiday arriving, it becomes a more prominent thought. I could definitely make this post the longest one yet due to the completely endless list of people, events, opportunities, and other things I appreciate. But for the sake of the audience, I will keep it as short as possible. Here are some of the many things I am thankful for this year:

Firstly, I am thankful for my ever-present and growing relationship with God. This year has been tough for me. I lost a close friend in a tragic accident in the early months and I have taken a lot from that experience alone. After that, I focused more on God and doing what I can to show more love and kindness in every day life. I learned not to take anything for granted, say I love you more, devote more time to my friends and family, and to never expect another day. Along with the many things I have learned and grown from that experience, I have had the ability to take part in many opportunities within the church this year. My church created another campus for Cookeville and some friends and I decided that would be a good time to get involved. We started helping in the elementary school kid’s ministry. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Since then, we have been recognized for our outstanding dedication and love for the children and teaching them. That alone has encouraged me to become stronger in my faith and even further develop my teaching skills to give them the best lesson possible. It is a joy to serve in such an awesome place with my favorite people and I continually thank God for allowing me to be a part of something so special.

Next up on my list is my friends and family. Another thing I struggled with this year was breaking away from my very best friend. There were a lot of reasons behind that decision that I will not discuss, but I truly believe it was for the better. With that being said, I still have moments of sadness and regret because she was a huge part of who I am. The positive side of the whole situation is that I found my true friends and my family developed a deeper respect and support for me. I now have best friends that I love with my whole heart. They inspire me every day, push me in the right direction, and give me a shoulder to lean on when I need it. Along with that, I am always thankful for my family and how they provide for me. I have been abundantly blessed in this area of life and I could not ask for better people to surround me as I travel through life.

Last, bu certainly not least, I am overwhelmingly thankful for my Teaching as a Profession class and all the experiences that come along with it. The practicum opportunity I get to take part in has dramatically increased my love for education. Getting to work with and teach individual students makes me smile so big. I always leave Jere Whitson grinning from ear to ear and ready to take on the rest of the day. Children are a crucial part of my life and future career so I adore spending time with them when I can. Along with that, my TAP teacher has become one of the most important people in my life. She is my second mom, coach, and friend all in one. I would not be who I am today or have achieved all that I have without her. Mrs. Rawls pushes me to do more than my best in everything. She provides guidance and love in all she does for me and I know that I am prepared for my career because of her. Mrs. Rawls is my role model for what I want to embody when I teach a class. I love her like my own mother and I will definitely never forget what I’ve learned, experienced, and accomplished in her classroom. I think I could go on and on about how truly wonderful she is and how much she has impacted my life, but that would take a long time and make me cry. Teaching as a Profession has been extremely beneficial throughout my time in high school and I look forward to finishing out the program this spring.

Like I said in my introduction, I have so much to be thankful for. This post hardly does it justice! I encourage all of you to find something to be grateful for this holiday season- even if it’s just the good food! A little gratitude goes a long way!!