Cover letter

While working as a paraprofessional in the Behavior Support Classroom from 2006 to 2008 for Plano ISD, I fell in love with the structure of the environment as well as the teaching aspect. I quickly learned how to recognize children’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the skills to implement the tools needed to help those children become successful in school, both behaviorally and scholarly. I spent much of my time working inclusion with my students where I was exposed to the general education classroom. 

As I moved into Special education I have had many opportunities to work with, not only students with special needs, but students of all abilities. I have been exposed to many situations in the classroom and do not hesitate to continue a lesson if a teacher is called out of the room. I not only help students I am monitoring, but willing step in to help any student in need. There have been times when I have had opportunities to teach the class for a short time because a substitute did not show up. I have used formal and informal assessments to monitor students’ growth and modified curriculum when needed. I have worked inclusion in all elementary grade levels.

I was in the Aid Exemption Program through Texas A&M University-Commerce. As I was preparing to enter my last semester before graduation, I was informed that Plano ISD did not accept the program. The school district’s policy stated that one could not student teach while employed with the district. TAMUC allowed me to substitute student teaching with two additional educational classes so that I could graduate on time. Although I missed out on the benefits of student teaching, I believe my seven years of experience as an educational aid has more than prepared me for the classroom.

I have always been a team player and am willing to jump in and help when needed. I am flexible and confident in my abilities. I am not afraid to ask questions and love to brain storm with teammates. I am a hard worker and dedicated to my students. I believe every student can be successful and am willing to do what it takes to help them believe and achieve that success. I am CPI trained and have spent most of my time as a teaching assistant working with students who are behaviorally challenged.

My love and passion for teaching goes beyond the special education classroom. I have a firm belief that I have the ability to run a classroom and teach students to be successful. My special education experiences, as well as my behavior modification experiences, have only strengthened my abilities to be a strong teacher. It is my goal to combine my range of experience with my ability to be a compassionate, enthusiastic, intelligent teacher who will make a positive contribution to your school district.

ELAR Content Area Presentation

The content area for Languae Arts I am covering involves Kindergarten LA TEKS:(5)  Reading/Vocabulary Development. Students understand new vocabulary and use it correctly when reading and writing. Students are expected to:

(A)  identify and use words that name actions, directions, positions, sequences, and locations;

(B)  recognize that compound words are made up of shorter words;

(C)  identify and sort pictures of objects into conceptual categories (e.g., colors, shapes, textures); and

(D)  use a picture dictionary to find words.

Babies use babble when they are playing with sound. This is when they are learning patterns of sounds as they begin learning how to apply them to words.  As they move into toddlerhood, they begin to imitate inflections and facial expressions of the adults around them. Children at this age understand spoken words much more than they can speak them. Most children are saying two word sentences by the age of two. Children's vocabulary grow from a mere 200 to 300 words at the age of two, to a whopping 2,5100 words by the age of five.

As children enter school, teachers can use conversation as an assessment tool. I have created the following as an example of what issues teachers might be looking for in a kindergarten conversation.

Teachers can make notes on students that display lack of development and continue to assess them every week for developmental improvement. Understanding of dialects of different cultures and communities is important for the understanding of some issues. Providing activities that require language, like puppet shows and dramatic play, is a great way to promote oral language in young children.

Developing vocabulary is like building a layer. 1st there is learing the letters of the alphabet, and then the meanings of the letters. Next is learning the patterns of each letter. The English alphabet represents up to 44 sounds, but it only has 26 letters. Last comes the meaning. Once children learn that groups of letters can represent meaning it makes it a bit easier for them to build their vocabulary.

Once students are familure with words, they can begin looking for patterns that make up the words. (cat, bat, sat, mat, hat, rat) Have a good dictionary avalible for students to use, like the following:

Sort games are a great way to use hands on activitis while building language. Use picture and word sorts as well as word hunts in centers. Here is a web-site that includes games that help students connect words with pictures. English Vocabulary Games with Pictures

I have to remember, I am the example my students are watching and learning from. I must exibit good language skills while teaching and encouraging those same expectations from my students.

Works Cited

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words Their Way. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

Luis A. Rosado, E. (2010). The Best Teachers' Test Preparation for the TExES 191 Generalist EC-6. Piscataway: Research & Education Association.

ABC of Learning through the Arts

So I have been working on an assignment for an ABC book that provides information I have learned on teaching through the Arts (Music/Art/Theatre). This is an on-line class so, obviously, my book is going to be technology savvy. If you have read any of my previous blogs you know how much I enjoyed putting together my last prezi (power point on steroids!) and I have been looking for a time to use it again. Well today is that day! I have worked a full 12 hours just on the prezi portion to get it just right. Enjoy, and speakers on for there are a couple of short videos!

ABC Book of the Arts

Camping - Bio Rap

Been a while since I wrote last...just enjoying catching up on lazy days. :) This, my last summer of classes for this degree, 1st semester of the summer I am taking RDG 415 (Reading & Learning in the Content Area). I have really liked it and learned a lot. I am currently finishing up my last assignment, so to waste time...I decided to update my blog. So, its updated. ;) Now I leave you with this Rap about camping I wrote for one of my assignments. Enjoy!

 

Feeling burnt out and trying not to flip.

You know what that means…

Time for a campin’ trip!

Packing the car with sleeping bags, tent, and gear.

Headed out bright and early,

Hope to catch a lot of fish this year.

Pitching the tent and spraying repellent,

Gonna need fire wood…

So the kids are sent.

Hiking the trails, swimming the lake,

Grilling hotdogs,

Is better than a steak!

Nights are too long, fish aren’t bitin’,

Got lost on the trail,

And bugs I’m fightin’.

My beds on a rock and fishing’s too slow,

After two days…

Yo, it’s time to go!

Crayon Etching Project

This is a project from my Integrated Art class. The first thing I did was to make a design of anything I wanted using the 3 primary colors; red, yellow,blue. My first thought was to make it symmetrical, but after I got started  myself to reach beyond that.

 
Next, we painted over our design with black paint. A little trick I learned is to add a drop or two of dish soap to allow the paint to stick to the wax crayon.

Last, etch a design through the black paint revealing parts of the color below. Do this by using anything with a pointed-ish end. My husband is a decorative painter, so I brought him in to supply better tools! He used drill bits to create the lines, stars, and triangle but safer tools should be used with children. Next he took 80 grit sand paper to create the scratched areas.

Wallah! A light shining through a prism. I wish the colors came out better in the picture. They really pop live! The stars appear to be falling from the light! Definitely something I'll be holding on to and using with my future class!

My History of Literacy

            I am the youngest of four children. I remember many a day watching my siblings leave for school and yearning to follow them. I also remember the first day of school. There were kids all around me crying and holding on to their parents. I remember thinking, “What’s going on? Don’t they know we're in Kindergarten?” By the end of the year we had spelling tests. Well, really it was letter tests, but they were called spelling tests and I loved taking them. I don’t remember much about learning to read during that year, but I do remember the summer between Kinder and First grade and wanting to read a book before school started back up.

            The book was Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. Every day I asked my mom to read it to me, and every day I practiced the sounds. I actually remember making connections to the rhyming words. Finally the day came when I was able to read the book on my own, without any help. Now looking back on it, I’m not sure how much I memorized versus how much I actually read, but I do remember how proud I was for finishing the book all by myself. This sprung me into wanting to be the best in every way academically. I was at the top of my first grade class, but then we moved.

            It was February, new class, new classmates. I remember being confident going in. I was a reserved child, but not afraid. This school was behind my previous school and the teacher let me sit and read a lot that first week. Apparently that made one particular child jealous. The beginning of week two, I was searching for a new book to read when I came across a book in which all of its pages had been torn out. I took it to the teacher. I returned to the book shelf, found a book and sat down at my side of a dual desk. There in my cubby were all the torn pages from that book. When I took it to the teacher, she looked at me with a very disapproving glare. She demanded I admit to tearing up the book. I insisted I hadn’t but she refused to believe me. After that, kids made fun of me, I never felt as if teachers liked me, and I could care less about being in school.

            My family had the complete Nancy Drew series, and I love mysteries. But as much as I wanted to read the books, I just never got very far. I preferred making up my own mysteries outside on our farm or in the woods. Books had become very unimportant to me. Even after I grew up and had children of my own, reading was not a big interest to me. It wasn’t until my oldest daughter began reading that I began to understand the importance of reading. I pushed past my own feelings and began reading every night to my children.

            For one year I was a Librarian Assistant for an elementary school. The librarian had to preview all of the new chapter books before they could be shelved. This became one of my jobs, too. All of the sudden I was being sucked into this wonderful world I had forgotten existed. I began promoting books to students that I loved. I was able to help student find just the book they would like and many times the students and I would stop to talk about them. This also made it easy to know just the right book to report on or read to students for some of my college class projects.

            I believe negative experiences can damper a child’s interest in learning. Therefore, being a teacher for all children not just a selected few is crucial to a positive learning environment. We must approach each child as a unique individual so as to build their confidence and lead them to find their path to the wonderful world of reading.

For now I am consumed with college work. I do, however, have a list of books I plan on reading and blogs to follow after I graduate in December. My excitement for reading has returned. As a teaching assistant, I love promoting reading to my student and I look forward to instilling a love of reading to my future students, as well.

Spring Semester, 2012

New year, new semester. Trying to keep up with my blog, but with classes starting back maybe I should keep to posting assignments I find important. This semester I am taking the following:

ECE 366 - Early Childhood Learning Environments; This class is on-line the 1st part of the semester and face to face at the A&M-Commerce metroplex location in Mesquite. 

RDG 360 - Word Analysis Skills; This class is part time on-line and part time face to face at the A&M-Commerce Navarro County campus in Midlothian.

RDG 370 - Reading & Literacy II; Again located in Midlothian, but face to face for the full semester.

ART/THE/MUS 305 - Integrated Arts for Elementary Educators; This is also a semester long face to face class but is broken into 3 parts. 5 weeks of Art, 5 weeks of Theater, & 5 weeks of Music with a integrated final exam. 

I am very excited about each class this semester, which should help it go by fairly quickly. I hope I can share some great information as I learn and expand my knowledge.