December 13, 2010

Mr. Finley was gone today, so I was unable to make an appointment with him. I will hopefully meet with him sometime this week to go over my daily blog and my COS paper. Working with Shari was an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to work with many different aspects of teaching. I was exposed to a side of the teaching career that many people are not aware of. This COS also allowed me to interact with the students as well, which was my goal from day one.

Today, I wrote my final COS summary for Mr. Finley. I will make my appointment to meet with him tomorrow.

December 13, 2010

Since Mr. Finley has been working on his project, I have been tutoring Mia and Macy daily, and working with the "groups" for Shari. We look at test scores from elementary and middle school and we group students depending on how well they are performing. This way, it is easier to see which students need more help and what areas they are weakest in.

December 13, 2010

The project I was working on for Mr. Finley had many problems. At first, we had to figure out how to transfer the charts from his computer, to Shari's so that I had access to work on them. There was a crucial deadline for the charts to be completed, so Mr. Finley decided he would do them by himself. I felt bad that I couldn't be a part of that project because I know it was a very important project.

December 8, 2010

Today, I did site-words with Macy and Mia as well as working on the data sheets for Mr. Finley. I also sat in on the middle school MAPS testing that Shari is in charge of.

December 7, 2010

Today, I sent the article about the food drive into the paper, and got all of that taken care of. I then did site-words with the two girls. After they were finished, I retaped thier folders and reorganized all of the site-word cards. Over time they had gotten mixed up, flipped upside down, etc. So I just reorganized them for Shari. Meanwhile, she was testing middle schoolers in the middle school computer lab. After I reorganzed the cards, I worked on Mr. Finley's project.

I'm starting to learn the importance of the data I'm working with. I sat in on a conversation that Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Hussey had about some of thier children's scores, and how shocked they were with the outcome. It really showed me that these teachers do depend on the averages and the RITS and the data that I am working with to see the development of the kids they are working with.

December 6, 2010

Today in fourth hour Shari asked me to write up an article for the local newspaper about the food drive we did at our school. Last week I took a picture of everyone that was involved and I will include the picture with the article. When I completed that, I went and got Macy and Mia and we worked on site words. I then continued working on Mr. Finley's project.

December 2, 2010

Today, I continued with the daily site-word tutoring, and then continued working on the data charts for Mr. Finley. I'm learning that the charts are very crucial. Our school looks at these charts to determine how well the students are progressing, and where they are struggling.

November 29, 2010

We have recently began working the the data charts and formatting those to get them ready. I have to go back in and format all the formulas so that the cells change colors and numbres automatically. The information that I am working with is confedential so I cannot give any information out about any of the numbers and data I see.

November 22, 2010

Instead of tutoring with the site-words, Shari gave me today to work on formatting and spell checking my blog. I changed the format and reorganized my entire blog online.

November 18, 2010

Once again, I did the site-word activity, then I began working on the "groups" that I had left off on a few weeks ago. We take the RIT scores and the other averages and group the kids by thier scores. That way, we know who needs to work on what.

November 17, 2010

Instead of continuing the "site-words" the way we have been, today, I did some reorganizing. The "green" folder was getting pretty packed with cards, so I decided to group the cards according to how many times the girl's have completed them. This way, we have groups named "one time", "two times", "three times", etc. This way, it will be easier to keep the cards organized and we know when they are worthy of moving to the blue, final folder.

November 15, 2010

Today, I continued working with Mia and Macy, (the two girls I tutor with the site-words.) I could not find Shari all hour, so I went and got the girls out of class, and I did the activity by myself. When I saw Shari, she said she was very proud of me for taking it into my own hands, and she was happy I did the site-words by myself. These two little girls have become good friends of mine. They smile, scream, and wave to get my attention everytime they see me throughout the school :) This site-word activity is very fun for me.

November 9, 2010

Today, I Shari and I decided an easier way to organize the site-words. Instead of tallying like we have in the past, we decided to bundle the cards and keep them in different piles. This way, it would be much easier to move from folder to folder without erasing old marks.

November 8, 2010

For the past week, I have been watching Shari pull kids out of class to do the "site words" activities. I absolutely LOVE this. I am still watching and observing but I am learing how to do it by myself and hopefully I will get to take over next week. I love watching the kids read the word numerous times and actually sound out the word to put all the pieces together. Not only am I working with data, but I am also getting the experience of working with kids first hand which is something I wanted to experience because I want to go into Elementary Education.

November 3, 2010

Doing this COS with Shari has opened my eyes to many things. I am helping Mr. Finley with the data sheets for MAPS scores, so that he can turn them into the board. We must have those completed by Dec. Knowing that I have so much responsability and a deadline to make this happen is very exciting to me:)

October 28, 2010

Today Shari and I went to pull two of the kids out of class to start the site-word project, but they were in the middle of a presention, so we will put it off until tomorrow. Mr. Finley also contacted me about getting the MAPS charts and data completed by December 1st, so we will begin working on those next week.

October 26, 2010

Today Shari was at home because her daughter was sick, so I just used the hour to catch up on homework. Hopefully she will be back tomorrow!

October 25, 2010

As we continue working with the site-word folders and cards, I learn more and more. It has most definitely opened my eyes to how much extra help some students really need. It is amazing to see how much SPECIAL help goes into the special needs/slower learning students, but it really shocked me to see how well our facultiy handles it. Using these site-word techniques is only one of the many extra things Shari does to ensure that every child is getting the help they need. This COS is opening my eyes in more areas than I expected. At first, my expectations were slim. I thought we were only going to be working with numbers, scores, and data spread sheets. We have done alot of work in this field but in addition, Shari is actually letting me interact with the kids. I am really enjoying it.

October 21, 2010

Today we worked with our site words some more. Shari's daughter has been sick so I didn't know if Shari would be in class for the whole hour. We worked on organizing the site-words and putting them in each individual folder so that it will be easier to keep track of each child. When the child masters a word, we tally-mark how many times it took, and then we move the card to the next folder. They then begin on a new, more advanced word.

October 20, 2010

Today we organsized more site words. We went through all the old cards and erased all the tally-marks on the back of the cards so that we can start making new ones. When a student masters a word, they get a tally-mark, and the card moves to the next file; it is just an organization technique. We then went through a list of the words that we need to have and made sure that we had each of those cards.

October 19, 2010

Today we began working with site-words. I got to watch Shari pull kids out of class and help them study thier site words. Hopefully after a few sessions of observing, I will be able to take it over and help the kids on my own.

October 13, 2010

Shari and I continued working on the site-word cards today, as well as vistiting about some things going on with our students and testing. She informed me that the teachers are still trying to come up with a way for our kids to better absorb the information; they can teach it all they want, but if we don't grasp onto the concepts, then teaching the material was a waste of time. Mid-semester is approaching and CSAPS will be here sooner than we know.

October 11, 2010

I began helping Shari with the "site word" cards so that we will be prepared to start working with them next week. I am very excited to start actually interacting with kids who need extra help so I can help them advance. In addition, we completed downloading all of the MAPS tests that we were having difficulties with yesterday.

October 11, 2010

Unfortunately, I have been sick for the past week, so I was not here last week at all. Today shari was filling in with the middle school but when she was finished we began looking at the MAPS scores. For some reason, they do not seem to want to download. We also discussed a new thing that I am going to be starting next monday. I will be pulling kids out of class once a day to help them practice thier "site" words. I will record thier success with the words in a file and each day they succeed we will add a new word to the folder. I will begin doing this and actually interacting with the kids next monday.

September 30, 2010

Finally! I begin working with data sheets! Shari got me started, and I spent all hour working on the data sheets for the middle school MAPS testing results. I had to create a spreadsheet for all the data to go into, and then copy and paste each middle school kid's range from the originial results sheet into the data sheet I created. This way, we can use the spreadsheet I created to group the middle school students into their flooding groups based on their ranges.

September 29, 2010

Today we finished up testing the kids who had not completed all of thier MAPS test, as well as myself. I had been absent and missed my science test, so I completed that today during my COS. This way, we can finally get all the scores in.

September 28, 2010

Today I helped Shari go through the students who have missing MAPS tests. We had a list of names of students who have not completed all four tests, and started them on the tests that they have missed. This is very crucial because without all four tests completed, it is hard to see where the students fall. We use each and every one of these tests to see what range the student falls in and what they need to work on.

September 21, 2010

Today, Shari allowed to me listen in on a phone call that she made to a family here in Hugo whom homeschool thier children. They are planning to start school next week. She called to see if the kids had any time to come in during the afternoon sometime this week to begin MAPS testing, this way, they do not have to miss as much class when they begin school here. We also looked at middle school test scores and determined the strong and weak points of certain students.

September 20, 2010

Once again, today I worked with test scores. I filed the scores according to range and average, sorted them by groups, and then grouped them together. Then I distributed the score groups out to the teachers according to the range of thier students. Shari informed me that once the teachers get thier scores, they use this information to see the strong and weak points of thier students. This way, they know what to focus strongly on, and what to teach breifly.

September 15, 2010

Today I got to work with the elementary test scores. I got to work with ranging the students, and organzing each test by that range. Then, I printed out the test charts, made copies of each, and distributed one out to each student, depending on their range of students.

September 13, 2010

We finally got MAPS completely downloaded, and started testing again today. So far the tests seem to be going well. Students can pause and restart tests without any results being terminated. The new tests start and close more efficiently. There is now a huge weight lifted off many of our shoulders. Hopefully everyone will finish up MAPS this week, and we can FINALLY start working with data next week.

September 8, 2010

Today Shari was busy downloading MAPS and dealing with some problems concerning that, so I helped Mary Jo look at some data, and we planned out the bulliten board in the elementary hall way. I helped design and plan the layout. Tomorrow we begin working on data from the CSAPS and ACTs. hopefully, we can finally get started working with some data and information!

September 7, 2010

Today Shari and I continued working on downloading MAPS. We worked with Mr. Gaskins on downloading one of the MATH tests and by the end of the class, it was only 25% completed. We are expecting it to take a few more hours to complete. Then we should be caught up!

September 2, 2010

My COS this week as been somewhat slow due to the fact that we are still finishing up on our MAPS testing. We had to REdownload all of the tests due to a malfucnction, and the tests have been put off for a few days. I still haven't taken my science or math test. Alot of time and effort was put into restarting the tests, and we hope that all goes well this time. The downloading process took much longer than expected which also threw us behind even more. This has really taught me how systems can crash, and how we are expected to restart and refresh them as soon as possible!

August 30, 2010

Today I continued looking through the website, comparing charts and seeing if the two are match up. Most of the charts' data did not match, so we had to reprint charts, and look at the new data instead. Shari contacted a man about the unmatching information, and tried to straighten things out.

August 27, 2010

Today I worked with Shari again. We went over test scores and finished putting the packets together. These packets are "help" packets that have intentions of helping students study for the required tests in high school. She also showed me how to set up and shut down all of the "MAPS" testing programs so that I am capable to do it alone.

August 26, 2010

I started my COS in the elementary, hoping to get interactions with the kids, and learning techniques. Unfortunately, it turned into more of an aid hour; which is what I wanted to avoid. We have decided to move my COS to be done with Shari Humphrey. I will be working with data, charts, numbers, test scores, and many other things that teachers are required to do BEHIND the classroom teaching. Yesterday was my first day, and I am already very interested in pursuing it. I worked with test scores and extra papers that help kids improve in thier weaknesses. I am looking forward to this year, and I will continue blogging about my experiences.