Level Level I

Course Foundations of American Education

Semester Spring 2011

For this course, I observed in a third grade classroom in Hills-Beaver Creek Elementary School. While in the classroom, I observed regular classroom routines, student behaviors, and also teaching strategies implemented for classroom management. By observing in this classroom, it gave me some insight early on in my education career as to what goes on in a regular education classroom. Level I Educational Psychology Spring 2011

For this course, I volunteered in Sioux Falls, SD at the Multi-Cultural Centers After School Program. The program was a culturally diverse group of mostly middle school aged students. During my experience, I played games such as volleyball, assisted with homework, and various craft activities. I really enjoyed this experience because it was one of my first opportunities to work with culturally diverse students. Level II K-8 Language Arts Methods Fall 2011

During this course, I taught along side two other classmates in a 4th grade classroom in the Madison Elementary School. While we taught, our lessons were focused on the six traits of writing such as ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. This class was the first actual teaching experience that I had the opportunity do in an actual classroom. I had a great first experience teaching, and I think that Language Arts was a great first subject to teach. Level II K-8 Physical Education Methods Fall 2011

During this course, our class was actively involved with doing Physical Education lessons and activities with the Head Start program in Madison, SD. We were each paired up with a classmate and each group did two P.E. lessons with the Head Start children. My partner and I did lessons involving skills to develop fundamental movements and complex locomotor skills. I really enjoyed being able to do a P.E. lesson with younger children; they were very enthusiastic and fun to teach. Level II Intro: Literacy Assessment/Remediation Spring 2012

For this course, I worked with a small group of students in a 4th grade classroom at the Madison Elementary School. Our objective for this class was to work on comprehension and fluency by using various effective reading strategies. At the start of the lessons, I tested my students using the BADER Reading Test. This test assesses comprehension, fluency, and word recognition. After looking at the results of the tests from each student in my group, I determined which area was in the most need of improvement. I designed lessons around fluency and comprehension before, during, and after reading while using various effective graphic organizers and PowerPoints to support the book South Dakota: A Journey through Time by John E Miler. We met once a week for an hour each time. After the 10 weeks were up, I retested the students using the BADER test again and was able to see improvement in the students results.

Level II

K-8 Reading Methods

Spring 2012

For this course, I had the opportunity to work with a group of kindergarteners at St. Thomas School in Madison, SD. During this time, I created lessons focused on phonics, comprehension, and word recognition. Within my lessons, I incorporated a readers theater, shared writing, the writing process, modeled reading, silent reading, and expository and multicultural texts. This course gave me a great opportunity to see how very beginner readers learn and which techniques work best for someone their age. Level II SPED 413 Serving Students with Severe Disabilities Fall 2012

During this course, I had an amazing opportunity to work alongside a classmate with a client from ECCO in Madison, SD. ECCO is a non-profit community based facility that provides services to people with disabilities. During my experience, I had the chance to work with a young woman with Angelman Syndrome. My classmate and I created a task analysis and multiple lessons working on getting in and out of a vehicle along with the appropriate behavior that should be displayed while riding in a vehicle. I would have to say that this was by far one of the most profound experiences that I have had during my special education career. Level II SPED 410 Behavior Management of Exceptional Children Spring 2013

For this course, I had the opportunity to observe a 7th grade student in the Madison Middle School who was known to have behavioral issues. I observed the student for a total of 15 hours at various times of the day throughout the week. After observing the student, I created a behavioral plan for the student on som strategies that may help when there is a behavioral outburst. I really enjoyed observing because I was able to be in the middle school setting as well as observing various behaviors from not only the student that I was assigned to observe, but also other students in the classes. Level II K-8 Science & Math Technology Spring 2013

During this class, we had the opportunity to present a lesson orientated towards science with a technology piece integrated into it. A group of 3rd grade students came from Dell Rapids Elementary school for a technology day. The lesson was created and taught by myself and two of my classmates. For the lesson, we taught about the solar system and used the presentation tool Prezi as our piece of technology. We had the students order the planets, give a description/fun fact about the planet, and find a picture of the planet and place it in the Prezi. I think that all of the students enjoyed creating the Prezi as it was a little more fun and creative than a simple PowerPoint. It was a great opportunity for me to watch how much technology enhances the lesson for the students. Level III Methods Courses Present

Currently, I am enrolled in my Level III courses. I was placed in a fourth grade classroom at the Madison Elementary School for the class Guided Reading. I am implementing Guided Reading into the content area of Social Studies with the whole 4th grade class. I plan to work on the components of comprehension such as making connections, questioning, visualizing, determining importance, inferring, synthesizing, and monitoring comprehension. The other classes during my Level IIIs include Science Methods, Social Science Methods, Math Methods, and Serving Students with Learning Disabilities. Level III field experience start late November, and reflections of that experience will be uploaded after the completion of my courses and Level III field experience.