I am placed at Centerra Mirage STEM Academy, which is in the Avondale Elementary School District. Centerra Mirage is a public school that focuses primarily on providing the best education in STEM topics. The school is quite small, with a total of about 500-1000 students spread throughout the K-8 grades.
I am placed in a 6th-grade math class under Ms. Haley Genord. The class is jam-packed, as there are around 30-33 students in both of her classes. Ms. Genord teaches math in the morning, and all of her students return for science classes later in the day, since she is their science teacher as well. The schedule goes Block 1 Math->Block 2 Math->Block 2 Science->Block 1 Science
Throughout my internship hours this semester, I would like to learn more about planning lessons and scaffolding materials so that students' new learning builds upon previous knowledge. I also hope to learn more about classroom management, especially at the middle school level. Additionally, I would like to gain feedback on my instructional abilities so that I can learn what I need to work on going forward.
For my first instructional activity, I chose to "Participate in an Event-Community/On Campus." The event that I attended was the school Curriculum Night. During Curriculum Night, students and their parents/caregivers were encouraged to come and meet their students' teachers(if they hadn't already) and get an overview of what material the students would be covering over the course of the school year. The event was very nice; I mostly observed the presentations-done in 30-minute increments- along with the parents. Afterwards, I interacted with some of the parents and even teachers I hadn't had the opportunity to formally meet yet. The whole event gave me a true sense of the school community and culture. Although not a lot of parents showed up, those that did seemed pretty close with each other and with the teachers. Centerra being such a small school, it made sense that they would be familiar with each other.
For Instructional Activity #3, I observed my mentor teacher's implementation of an SEL lesson. The Avondale Elementary School District uses the Second Step program for SEL. My mentor teacher pretty much followed along with the worksheet and handout provided. However, she said some important things as we went through the lesson. In the first task, students had to write an example of when they experienced a conflict with someone. My mentor teacher emphasized that since they would be sharing personal experiences, she would never ask anyone to share if they didn't feel comfortable sharing out. Additionally, she would not tell anyone unless the situation that she read indicated one of the students was experiencing something that would be harmful to their health or wellbeing, in which case she would speak with the school counselors about the matter to figure out next steps. During the lesson, my mentor teacher also let students know that the skills they learn during SEL with Second Step lessons are skills that they can use throughout their lives, and she emphasized the importance of learning those skills. After the lesson, I asked my mentor teacher about Second Step and how it works. I think if I am able to, next time I would probably facilitate the SEL lesson.
For this instructional activity, I worked on observing three teachers on campus. The first teacher I observed was the 8th-grade ELA teacher. Her classroom atmosphere was very calming and inviting. She uses music for transitions and plays low music while students are working independently. I also observed a 5th-Grade Math teacher. Details are in the doc below.
For this instructional activity, I participated in Spirit Week(specifically Red Ribbon Week) on campus. A fair amount of students and my mentor teacher also participated in Spirit Week. The day of Spirit Week that I participated in was Crazy Hair Day. My mentor teacher had her hair up in a messy bun, quite a few students had their hair separated into one loose ponytail and one ponytail that was braided or had some other style, and about 3 or 4 students had woven pencils and markers into their hair. One student made her hair a puppy by putting a dog nose and tongue on her bun and having a scrunchie around her bun that had "eyes" glued on top. It was really fun to see students' creativity come out during this day of Spirit Week, and to see how the whole school community came together during all of the Spirit Week days. Since I don't show my hair, I simply did a hijab style that was a bit crazy. The students appreciated my participation.
This is a lesson plan I previously created but updated to turn in for the Lesson Plan/Reflection assignment. I have yet to teach this lesson. However, I will be teaching Algebra 1 next semester, so I might have a chance to finally teach this lesson and see how it goes. I prefer inquiry-based lessons, but direct instruction is useful sometimes. Additionally, the students are being exposed to some inquiry during this lesson through their Discovery Activity Packet used for the "You Do" portion.
This is an inquiry-based BDA lesson plan that I created specifically for my internship. Overall, the lesson went very well, though I had a few issues with pacing and classroom management.