Post here your last internship reports. It's almost over!;-)

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2000

Answers

11-16-00 Mrs. Fobbs, soft jazz playing in the backround,5 students today two of the students were on the computer. They were working on there search paper for their book. One of the others was working on some work that was in his folder. The teacher sat with the students and discussed what was missing from his folder.The young man was upset because, there were some papers misssing. The teacher told him that nobody went into his folder and took anything out.The student left the classroom and return about 15 mintues later and just sat there in the room quitly. Meanwhile,the last student was playing games on the kid- pix program on the comptuer while rapping to himself.

11-17-00 Soft jazz was playing in the backround.6 students were present today . Today was what Mrs. Fobbs calls cool down day. The students were able to do as they wanted as long as they were quite. She played trouble with a few kids. Some sat with their head on the desk, while othe others sat and talked. Therer were students who sat at the comptuer but didn't use it. The room was peaceful and calm. This is one of her better behaved classes.

11-20-00 Mrs.Fobbs and her class was a great help to me and my internship. They were willing to have me in the room and waited for me to present certain parts of their lessons. They also were very willing to speak to me about their projects they were working on. The class promised to invite me back when the whole project is finished. Even though this is a special education school for the most part Mrs. Fobb's was able to handle her class and do some real work. The same for the SIE I program that I observed when they did the rainforest lesson. Watching and interacting with the different class taught me to have patience a little more.Because, at first I felt that the SIE I teacher did a lot of babysitting because, I never saw them really doing any work when I passed by their classroom. Usually I would see them yelling at one of them to stop hitting or playing with himself in the class or taking someone to the bathroom. I was glad to see that Ms, Jimenez was teaching her students to read and write and communicate to on another in the classroom.I was also invited back to visit her classroom to work with the students on another project when I can.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2000

Name of School: Edward R. Murrow H.S. Name of Teacher: Dorritt Gerstle Time-Date of Visit: 9:30-12:30-November 21-22 Description of activities:

My observation took place in the high school Vision Program where I work. The setting is a SIS III (Supplemental Instructional Services) program with a teacher, Dorritt Gerstle, eight students and myself a paraprofessional). It has been my experience that when helping children with visual impairments they must learn to use their residual vision as much and as well as possible. A number of low vision aids exist which can be extremely helpful. I assisted the students today with aids as simple as a magnifying glass to as technologically advanced as a talking computer. The first students that entered our resource room were Cindy and John. Cindy and John informed Mrs. Gerstle and myself that they have a book report due for English class on the book "Hatchet". They showed me the "Hatchet" paperback book they received from their English teacher. Although the print in this book was larger than most paperbacks I have seen, our students were unable to read it. This is where I stepped into action. I assisted them in using an electronic magnifying system. This is called a closed circuit television or CCTV. We have three CCTV's in our room. The CCTV requires a camera and a television screen. It allows an enlargement of the print up to 60 times and displays the image on a screen. Mrs. Gerstle and I gave the students the choice of either reading "Hatchet" together or independently. They chose to work together. Both of these students were visually impaired. The next student I assisted was Giancarlo. John is a blind student that has been in our program for two years. John needed my assistance on a social studies assignment due next week. Again, I was able to use the CCTV. The information obtained from his social studies sheet was now placed on the CCTV computer screen which could be read out to John through an installed speech synthesizer. I also used this computer because it can interface with a device for printing braille (an embosser) so that John may have a tactile display of his social studies sheet to follow up on his assignment at home. Therefore, technological assistance for reading can be divided into two categories. First, print can be magnified to a level that allows the reader to see the material. Second, print can be transformed into a different medium, such as sound or touch.

Since entering this program I have also observed that computer technology also allows people with visual impairments to become more efficient in their writing. Most of the computer programs in our room translate from braille to print and print to braille, permitting the students to share information with each other.

One area of considerable importance to these students is notetaking. Students who are blind are given a machine called a braille lite or braille n' speak so they can take notes in class. There are two students who use laptop computers. I assist these students daily in transforming their stored notes into sound, visual or tactual output. For example, some students use printouts with large fonts on special paper, often pink or blue, that reduce glare. Other students,print their notes in braille or use a speech synthesizer. With both the teacher and my assistance, students use computer setups to explore many different kinds of software and these experiences familiarize students with the use of the computer. It is a definite advantage for a visually impaired/blind student to be able to use a computer which may later be applied to the workplace.

Since I consider this population of students my extended family, I enjoyed being able to share this experience with everyone.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2000

VIORICA CHELSEA VOCATIONAL H. S. MR. K. MATH TEACHER 10TH GRADE MATH LESSON AT 9:42am to 11:12am

The last four observation visits of my fieldwork experience were again at Mr. K ‘s math lessons. I can say as a conclusion that this internship experience was valuable in developing my teaching skills. I observed other four math lessons on the last two weeks, when I tried to notice how the student-teacher relations are continuing to develop in time, because at this time twelve weeks of school passed already. They know each other much better now, because the midterm exam passed and the teacher and students were able to evaluate their work so far. At this time they know what are the weak points and how to work for improvement. At this time the teacher’s lessons are concentrated on preparing the students for the regent examination. The teacher continues to review the needed prior learning material, making them to understand, by stimulating their reasoning skills. The class is motivated on this effort, because all the students want to pass the regent exam. The teacher continuously reminds the students about his after class available time for tutoring math when also the volunteer peer students are there. Constantly, Mr. K. encourages his students’ efforts and appreciates their progress. I still participate at these lessons helping students to do the work individually when they ask for help, or I work with a group when they have difficulties to understand the problem or to find the solution. In addition, I check their work and I point to them what is incorrect and guide them to fix the mistake. I noticed that the students after receiving the midterm exam results were not surprised at all because they were familiar with their teacher grading system and they were able to evaluate their own work. Next, I noticed that the students’ math performances are improved and they are more confident when compared with their level at the beginning of this math class. I am still disappointed that there is not computer access for this math class because that is very important for the students’ academic performance progress. I noticed that the students were interested when for solving some equations problem they used graph calculator to view the solutions.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2000

Elizabeth Connors PS 140 9:00-10:45 Ms. Cowhey today was doing a science lesson when I arrived for my observation. The topic was nutrition. She spoke to them for about an half hour about what they thought nutriton was. She was evidentally trying to tap into their prior knowledge and asses what they knew already. Many of the students had good answers to Ms. Cowhey's questions. The students referred to the food pyramid that teh teacher had on the wall The students added nutriton was about vitamins a and knew it was important to eat a good diet.Although when Ms. Cowhey pressed them furtur on what vitamins were and what they did the students were unclear. Ms.Cowhey proceeded to ask them to name some vitamins that they know. The first responce was vitamin c. She praised the good answer, then asked what vit c does in the body. They knew it had something to do with colds but could not give a correct answer. The teacher then asked them if they would like to know more about what vitamins do and what foods you can find them in. About 65% responded positivly. The teacher then assigned them groups and gave them a vitamin to research and present to the class. The teacher allowed them to go about this task any way they wanted. The students proceeded to meet in theri groups to decide how to find information. I like that the teacher gave then this freedom. It allows the students to have ownership and allows the student to probelem solve. One group immediatly went to the food pyramid the teacher had on the wall and found it really did not discuss specific vitamins. Another group went directly to the computers and others to dictionaries and encyclopedias. I was surprised that more students go directly to the computers. Perhaps this is not a bad thing. The students may be viewing the computers as one of the many because tools that can be used to acquire information. Or on the other hand the students may not be acustomed enough on the computer and need more skills.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000