Dana Davis

Student Teaching
Spring 2016
Statement of Standard Nine Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate
his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners,
families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each
learner. (InTASC, 2011 p. 18)
Name of Artifact: Journal/Blog Posts
Date of Artifact: Spring 2016
Course: Student Teaching EDU 465
Rationale Statement:
For Standard Nine, I created a daily journal of my student teaching experience and I also
created a weekly blog based on my journal entries in my online portfolio. This journal and blog
addressed different aspects of teaching, collaboration, and professional development during my
student teaching experience. I believe this artifact directly relates to the Danielson Framework
for Teaching in Domain 4a: Reflecting on Teaching, Domain 4e: Growing and Developing
Professionally, and Domain 4f: Showing Professionalism. Student teaching is the final piece of
my teacher preparation and the journaling/blog posts allowed for reflection and personal
assessment of this experience. Aside from the collaboration with my cooperating teacher and
other teachers at the school, the blog posts are placed on a public forum so that other colleagues
can read my thoughts and ideas and have an opportunity to provide beneficial feedback regarding
my experience. As well, colleagues can use the ideas that you have posted to help in their own
teaching practices.
While creating the journal and the blog posts, I learned how reflective practices like this
can be so helpful. Short term, it was interesting to look back to my first post and then compare it
to my most recent post. My style of writing in the blog posts seemed to change in that it
definitely became more candid as I became comfortable with the idea that this was a blog post
and not a formal paper. My journal entries became more focused on my growth and less of just

Davis 2
summarizing the lesson I was teaching that day. Long term, blogs can be used to track progress
or note changes. I believe I will be more likely to continue the blog in the future, but likely not
the journal, as I prefer the digital aspect to the traditional journal reflection practice. If a teacher
was to blog about their classroom every day or maybe even just once a week for an entire school
year, it could be very helpful in looking back and remembering what worked and what didnt
work, so that the more effective practices can be put to use in future classrooms. Its also a great
way for teachers to share ideas and practices with other people in the education profession.
I will definitely continue blogging about my pre-professional and professional
experiences as I believe it is a great way to be a reflective practitioner and an effective means of
sharing ideas, experiences, and solutions with colleagues.

References
InTASC, CCSSOs Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support
Consortium. (April 2011) Model Core Teaching Standards: A Resource for
State Dialogue. Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/Dana
%20Dwo/Downloads/intasc_model_core_teaching_standards_2011.pdf

Davis 3

Student Teaching Journal

1/25/2016 Today was supposed to be my first day of student teaching, but Mother
Nature had a different idea. School closed due to aftermath of the weekend
blizzard. Spoke to my cooperating teacher, Mrs. W, over the weekend. She is very
excited to have a student teacherIm her first ever!
1/26/2016

Another snow day! Mrs. W and I are both hoping for school tomorrow!

1/27/2016 Finally! My first day of student teaching and I had a fantastic day!
There were I&RS meetings all morning, so many teachers were involved in that
while substitutes covered for them. I learned about the roles and responsibilities of
the I&RS procedure. I learned about the general classroom procedures and observed
introductory lessons for the unit on Motion in all 5 class periods. Mrs. W has 3
general education classes, 1 enrichment class, and 1 inclusion class. I was able to
observe the same lesson differentiated for both special needs students and
advanced students. I learned about the solar car project that the enrichment
class will begin to work on over the next few weeks.
1/28/2016 Before school began, my cooperating teacher discussed fire drill and
lock down drill procedures. She discussed the On Course lesson plan program
that is used by the district teacher, Google classroom, and Smart Technologies
software. I was given the responsibility of checking homework for all students, as
my cooperating teacher thought this would be a good way to get the students to
begin looking at me as a teacher and gaining their respect. I gave myself the task
of learning all of the students names. Its a lot harder to learn the names of 130
students than it is to learn the names of 25!
1/29/2016 Today, students in all periods continued their reference point before
and after pictures. We also had a science department meeting combined with the
orchestra teacher to discuss STEAM (Science Technology Education Arts &
Mathematics). The orchestra teacher is following the STEAM initiative and was
asking for assistance from the science teachers to incorporate physics concepts into
her spring concert program. They have decided to have students display different
physics related projects that relate to the song titles, Momentum, Velocity, Into
The Sky, and Storm. I am excited to see the final product and plan to attend the
concert.
2/1/16
I attended my first faculty meeting today where PARCC was discussed.
Things that were discussed included: new procedures, new time frame, and changes
to the actual test. I taught my first lesson today entitled, Following Jack which
was an activity related to distance and intervals. I wrote my first lesson plan for this
lesson and it seemed to go very well in all 5 periods. I tried to do a simulation in 1 st
period that didnt actually go so well, so I did not repeat it for the remaining classes.
It was a great first experience!

Davis 4
2/2/16
Today, all 5 classes went outside to visit their Adopt-A-Spot trees.
Each student chose a tree in a designated area at the beginning of the year. They
visit the tree periodically and record date, time, temperature, changes in leaves, the
area around the tree, etc. They also look for evidence of wildlife in the area. The
students really enjoy this activity. This is definitely something I would like to
incorporate into my classroom in the future.
2/3/16
Todays lesson was an introduction to speed. Today was good
opportunity to witness differentiation. Students in the gen. ed. classes were given a
choice for reading the introduction in their textbook. Choices included: read silent,
popcorn read aloud, audio book, or teachers read. All 3 classes chose the audio
book. The inclusion class was not given a choice; they were automatically given the
audio book to read along with the text. The E-group (accelerated class) was only
given the option to read silently. After the reading, there was a classroom
discussion about speed and calculating speed. Students were given notes and
activities that explained the speed triangle and practiced how to use it to
calculate speed, time, and distance.
2/4/16
A good lesson learned in flexibility todaywalked into school to find
that there was a partial power outage. This turned into the power being turned off
for about an hour during 1st and 2nd periods while they fixed the problem. A lesson
planned that was supposed to be completed using the smartboard had to be
adapted by using the whiteboard instead. It all worked out. I also got to sit in on
my first team meeting today. Half of the time was allotted to I&RS (Intervention &
Referral Services) follow-ups, while the other half was used for PLC (Professional
Learning Community). For PLC, one of the teachers shared a strategy that revolved
around brain breaks. A few teachers were upset that there was not enough time
to discuss students that they have concerns about, that have not previously been
discussed during I&RS.
2/5/16
This morning I attended a Roots and Shoots committee meeting
before school. Roots and Shoots is a youth-led community action program,
comprised of thousands of young people inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall to make the
world a better place. This was an organizational meeting to discuss the upcoming
events. During periods 2 & 3, students participated in a program called SHARE,
which was presented by students from the district high school. This is a program
that revolves around drug awareness and prevention. Since periods 2 & 3 had no
regular class today, a lesson was planned for the other 3 classes that reinforced the
speed, time, and distance calculations, but did not move ahead since the other 2
classes did not have instruction. Another good example of how to adapt due to
changes. And yet another, exampleI heard from my supervisor late in the day and
he would like to observe me on Monday, so the lesson planned for Monday will now
be taught by me instead of my co-op and I need to write a lesson plan quickly.
2/8/2016
This morning I attended a 6th grade science department meeting at the
other intermediate school in the district where mostly budget and supplies were
discussed. The district runs a summer week-long science program that I may apply
to work at. I also reviewed lesson plan for the remaining week with my cooperating

Davis 5
teacher and I will be writing a lesson plan which includes an activity related to
velocity. There was another team meeting at which student concerns were
discussed. I had my first observation today. I taught a lesson that included a lab
about speed, distance, and time and was observed by my supervisor.
2/9/2016
Today, I reviewed homework (lab questions from yesterdays lesson)
with all classes. I also assisted in introducing the topic of velocity and helped
students work through practice questions. My co-op and I reviewed lesson planning
for the remainder of the week. I will be planning and teaching a lesson on Thursday
relating to speed and velocity as a final reinforcement of the concepts prior to
giving a quiz on Friday.
2/10/16
I attended a meeting with the parents of a student in one of my
classes. The parents requested this meeting because they are concerned about
how their child is doing with her new ADD medication. This student is in my E-group
class and is a pleasure to teach. My co-op advised me of how to prepare for
meetings such as these and what to bring to them. We made sure that we had
examples of student work to show the parents, as well as a print out of her grades.
The meeting went very well and it was nice to see such good communication
between teachers and parents.
2/11/16
I taught a lesson called Changing Motion today. The lesson went
very well and involved some engineering as the students were able to create their
own designs for their investigations regarding changing speed and changing
direction. I was worried about whether this may have been too advanced for 6 th
grade students but my co-op insured me that they would do fine with it and she was
right. The students far exceeded my expectations with their designs and really
enjoyed the activity as well.
2/12/16
My co-op was out sick today and the school was not able to secure a
sub, so for each of the 5 periods I teach, a different classroom teacher was in the
classroom with. This was a good opportunity to see different personalities and
teaching styles of other teachers in the school. I gave the quiz on speed and
velocity as planned and then reviewed some interesting articles in Science World
with the students that I had them read as they finished the quiz. The quiz went
much faster than I had expected, so this was a good lesson in how to use
unexpected classroom time and have the students do something that was authentic
and not just busy work. Most of the teachers that were in the classroom with me,
let me run the class as if it was my own, except for the 5 th grade teacher that joined
me for 7th period. She kind of took over and I allowed her to, not wanting to
overstep a teacher.
2/16/16
Two hour delayed opening. Found out that shortened periods dont
really feel any shorter and we had adequate time to complete the planned lesson.
Took the opportunity during lunch and planning period to learn the online grading
system that is used in the school and got to enter some grades.
2/17/16
Today we introduced the concept of acceleration to all periods. It was
a good experience to see my cooperating teacher differentiate instruction for both

Davis 6
our E-group and inclusion classes. She provided answer keys to the activity
questions for the inclusion students after they tried their best to complete and then
did small group instruction for the students that continued to struggle. We spent
time to plan lessons for the remainder of the week.
2/18/16
Today I taught the first part of a two-part lesson on acceleration. The
students were extremely engaged. It was a challenging activity that they had to
complete, so I was very glad to see them so successful. I was able to use what Ive
learned from my co-op about differentiating to modify my teaching in my inclusion
class. I was careful to group students in a way that they would support each others
learning and also have small group instruction for those that needed increased
teacher support. An assembly during 7th period caused that period to miss the
lesson, so I will modify their instructions so that they may complete the assignment
in one class period.
2/19/16
Today I taught the second part of my two-part acceleration lesson. The
students needed to complete their designs, build, and present to the class. The
ideas the students came up with were more than I could have possibly imagined.
They enjoyed the activity so much that they were talking about it and the buzz in
the hallways caused the vice principal and another content area teacher to visit my
classroom to observe the lesson. This was definitely a lesson that I will repeat in
the future if I teach motion again.
2/22/16
Today I taught a lesson on graphing acceleration that did not go very
well. My co-op assured me that sometimes this happens and to use it as a learning
experience. After 1st period, we adapted the lesson so that the students would
understand easier and have a positive learning experience. The slight modifications
seemed to be successful, however, I would likely make more modifications either to
this lesson or possibly add a lesson prior to this one to ensure the students are
better understanding the concepts of graphing acceleration. This morning there
was a faculty meeting and the special area teachers shared some good classroom
management tips.
2/23/16
Today the plan was to complete the acceleration graphing activity from
yesterday. I took a good amount of time to review the homework and also included
an online graphing display on the Smart Board to help the students understanding.
I completed the acceleration graphing in all periods. For 3 rd and 7th period, I
modified the activity and just had them create simple distance/time graphs with a
story to accompany it, which went well. I challenged 2 nd period to create a simple
model of their graphs moving object using a toy car, which they really enjoyed. 1 st
and 8th period finished the activity with the original plan and were very successful.
Tonight I will be attending the science fair. Really looking forward to that!
2/24/16
Today I did a review activity to prepare for the quiz tomorrow. The
review activity was a scavenger hunt. I gave each student a sheet of questions,
facts, vocabulary, practice problems, etc. and there were index cards scattered
around the room. The task was to work silently and individually to match the index
cards to the proper coordinate on their paper. As they finished they came up to the
front to check their answers with an answer key and were advised to use this to

Davis 7
study for tomorrows quiz. My co-op explained how this activity was a good
formative assessment to check for readiness for tomorrows quiz. ***Note: 2/25,
after grading the quizzes, we could see a definite correlation between how well
students did on the scavenger hunt and how well students did on the quiz.
2/25/16
Today the students took a quiz on acceleration and I reviewed my
lesson plan for tomorrow with my co-op. I will be introducing the topic of force (and
I will be observed by my supervisor during 8 th period. Most interesting today was
the professional development at Rider. The administrator that was assigned to my
group was extremely helpful in preparing us for interviewing. A few of the most
important pieces of advice he shared were: make sure your cover letter and resume
are grammatically correct and all words are spelled correctly, do research on the
district BEFORE the interview and include something about the district in my cover
letter, ask for students names to plan for demo lesson ahead of time.
2/26/16
Today I taught the introduction lesson for force that I have been
planning. I am very thankful that I have 5 periods to teach, because the lesson did
not go too well during first period and I was able to make some quick modifications
for the other periods. I realized that this lesson covered a lot of material in only one
class period and made a note that in the future, I will teach this lesson over the
course of two days. I also opted not to use a power point that I had created for the
lesson for first period but chose to use parts of it for the remaining class periods
because it included good visual representations that I believe helped the students
gain a better understanding. The lesson consisted of demonstrations that were
performed by student volunteers, which were helpful but in my lesson reflection, I
may offer some suggestions of how I could have incorporated more student
participation. This lesson gave me a lot of material for writing my lesson reflection!
2/29/16
This morning, in place of the usual faculty meeting, there was
professional development that involved several teachers hosting mini workshops
and teachers could sign up to attend any workshop they chose. I helped my co-op
to teach a workshop about Kahootsomething that weve been using as highly
engaging activities with our I/E classes. During team meeting today, student
concerns were discussed in preparation for the upcoming I&RS meetings. Also at
the team meeting, another teacher shared geoguessr.com for PLC, which I had
shown him during I/E last week. My co-op and I took some time to plan out the
lessons for the remainder of the motion unit, most of which I will be teaching. She
will still be taking the lead in teaching the couple of lesson that are used for her
SGOs understandably.
3/1/16
Today was part two of a create your own experimental design activity
that the students began yesterday, which was based on an investigative question.
This was something that the students have been doing since the beginning of the
year, first with many prompts and then fewer and fewer until they were designing
the entire experiment on their own. This was the 7 th or 8th one that they have done
and it was interesting to see how some students still struggled without the guidance
of the prompts. They will be doing another one of these next week and given their
struggles with this, the teacher used it as somewhat of a formative assessment and

Davis 8
will be giving them an experiment with many prompts as a refresher of how to
design an experiment.
3/2/16
This morning I went into school early to be available for students that
were coming in for extra help. My co-op offers this once a week, but today was the
first time students came in for extra help. It was nice to have the one-on-one time
with students who were reaching out for help. Although my co-op doesnt offer
extra help at lunch time, I kind of like the idea. Not all students are able to get to
school early, so offering help at lunch time may be a more convenient time for
students to take the initiative to seek help.
3/3/16
Today I took time to create a review activity to help prepare students
for their quiz on friction that I will complete with the students after they finish the
labs for this unit. I created a Quizizz & also found a relative Bill Nye video that I
think will be helpful in preparing them. Several other teachers asked me to share
the review activity with them.
3/4/16
Today I had the students complete an activity that was related to fluid
friction. The students worked in groups of two and were given one brown paper
bag. Their task was to increase the fluid friction on the paper bag as it fell to the
ground. I very much enjoyed seeing them fully engaged in this activity and coming
up with extremely creative ideas. During 4th period, I observed a special education
pull out class as part of the schools PLC program. It was very helpful to see how
this teacher broke down the science that was being taught in the general education
classrooms to teach it in more concrete, smaller lessons. This school has a great inhouse PLC!
3/7/16
Today was a day where I learned about a lot of things that come along
with being a teacher that do not deal with teaching. At the faculty meeting this
morning, we discussed PARCC and specifically, the limited technology that would be
available during PARCC because chromebooks and computer labs will be utilized for
testing. This left only the library computers and so we thought ahead and reserved
them for several days during PARCC for 2nd period E-group to work on their solar car
project and for I/E to work on their book trailer project. Also during a team meeting
there was a heated discussion about teachers not showing up regularly to their duty
posts. Another part of being a teacher that has to be considered. I had my 3 rd
observation today and was very pleased with how the lesson went!
3/8/16
Today we planned lessons for the next week. My co-op will be out for
two days next, so she wanted to make sure that I had two lessons prepared to
introduce gravity as well as a quiz that we will be giving on Thursday which will
cover force, friction, and gravity. We originally had the lessons planned for the
remainder of this unit, but decided to take advantage of the nice weather and plan
to take the students out for Adopt-A-Spot tomorrow, which completely changed the
timeline of the lessons we had originally planned. Flexibility is key!
3/9/16
Since my co-op is beginning her SGO assessment tomorrow, I made
sure that I have collected all previous materials for my case study on the 2 students
I have chosen. I have their initial SGO, RTI & I&RS paperwork, notes from parent

Davis 9
meetings, etc. and I have been analyzing what is currently being done for these
students so that I can create a plan for my suggestions of what should be done
moving forward to facilitate their success. I will use the SGO that is being
completed Thursday, Friday, and Sunday to look at their growth with current
strategies and use that to determine how well they are working and what other
strategies can be added or changed to promote further success.
3/10/16
Today students began their SGO assessment, so my voice in the
classroom will somewhat take to the back burner for the next 3 days, as my co-op
wants to make sure that the SGO is consistent with her previous SGO to ensure
accurate data. I collected Adopt-A-Spot logs from all students and will be grading
them as an assignment. This is the first assignment that I will be grading
completely on my own, so I am looking forward to the learning experience that is
involved in that. Grading seems like it would be pretty specific, but Im finding out
that it really isnt! There are no classes that specifically teach how to grade and
there really is no defined way to grade, so this is a very beneficial learning
experience!
3/11/16
Today progress reports are due for all students. There is no paper that
is sent home with the students for progress reportsall grading is done via the
online portal which parents have access to. This turned out to be a great time to
reflect on each student individually and as we input their progress, we made notes
as to which students showed concern so that we may start to contact parents, make
suggestions for I&RS, encourage extra help, etc.
3/14/16
Today was the last day of my co-ops 3 day SGO assessment. She is
going to be out of school Tuesday & Wednesday so we made sure that all of the
lesson plans I had for the next few days were complete and that I had all of the
materials I would need. I helped her complete the sub plans and I created the study
guide for Wednesday and the quiz for Thursday. Now that the SGO is complete, I
will be planning and teaching all of the lessons for the remainder of my time here.
Im quickly figuring out how important plan periods are!
3/15/16
Today I planned and taught a lesson on gravity. My co-op was out
today and I found my students to be a lot more out of control than they were the
last time she was out. Im thinking this was likely due to the fact that the last time
she was out, they were taking a quiz and this time they were doing an activity. It
was a good opportunity to pull out my bag of emergency classroom management
tricks. I also had the opportunity to use Gizmos which is a website that has
simulations for different science concepts. This specific Gizmo was a tower in which
you drop objects from the top of. The objects had different masses and had the
option to have a parachute. You could also drop the objects from different distances
and remove the air to create a vacuum environment as well. This was a great
simulation to pair with my lesson on gravity.
3/16/16
Day number 2 with the sub and it went a lot better than yesterday.
Yesterday was a good opportunity to show the students that I am an authority figure
just the same as their regular teacher and today they did not give me a hard time. I
created a game that coincided with a study guide that they completed as they

Davis 10
played the game. This was review in preparation for their quiz on force, friction,
and gravity tomorrow. The students knew that if their behavior was not appropriate,
that the game would stop immediately and they would complete the study guide
quietly at their desks. It was a successful lesson!
3/17/16
Today I gave a quiz on force, friction, and gravity. I graded the quizzes
as the students finished them because I was curious as to how well they knew the
material. Quiz grades were very good overall, which made me feel very successful,
since I had done most of the teaching for this unit and created the study guide and
the quiz. This was a great learning experience in that I was able to see the big
payoff from my teaching and my lessons.
3/18/16
We began a new unit today on Newtons Laws of Motion. I introduced
the first law by giving the students a scenario and having them make predictions
about what they thought would happen to the cargo in the back of a truck when the
cars motion was suddenly stopped. I did a demonstration using toy cars, so that
the students could see how inertia works. Another pretty successful lesson. We
also had a parent conference with one of the students that I am focusing on in my
case study, MR. This was a very successful meeting and the parents are completely
on board with finding success for their child. We discussed strategies as well as an
action plan to get MR more involved and more motivated to complete work to the
best of his ability.
3/21/16
Today I taught a lesson on Newtons 2nd Law of Motion. This lesson
included an activity, as many science lessons do. There must have been a full
moon last night, as my students were particularly out of sorts today. 7 th period
specifically was so rowdy that I had them do the planned activity quietly and
individually at their tables because they were not able to handle working in groups.
I am doing all of the teaching, all of the planning, and for the most part all of the
classroom management at this point. Ive been utilizing some classroom
management techniques that Ive learned at PLC shares here and they have been
very effective.
3/22/16
Today I did some cross curriculum activities that incorporated math
and language arts into my science lesson. Students worked in groups to complete a
challenging logic exercise that focused on F=ma. This activity was extremely
challenging and yet the students were extra engaged! I was very surprised that
they used such perseverance, as I was expecting a lot of giving up. Not only did
they persevere, almost all students were able to complete the challenge! Once
they finished this, they wrote a limerick about the relationship between force, mass,
and acceleration. This also went very well.
3/23/16
Today I introduced Newtons 3rd Law with an activity called Rocket
Reaction. This activity was based on how rockets work and also tied into the movie
October Sky which the students watched earlier in the year and is part of the 6 th
grade curriculum. This lesson was originally planned as a lab where students would
work in partners to complete, but the lesson would have been too long, so instead I
decided to do a demonstration and have the students work in groups to make
observations and inferences based on my demonstration.

Davis 11
3/24/16
The activity that I did with my students today was meant to integrate
all 3 of Newtons Laws in a fun and practical way. I created this activity completely
on my own, so I was very excited to see how engaged the students were and how
authentic of a learning experience it was for them. I had the students work in
groups and assigned each group a sport and provided them with the mass of an
object used in that sport. Their task was to describe how the sport is played and
then identify how each of Newtons 3 Laws apply to the sport. They were also asked
to used F=ma to calculate force in some way that would predict who won the game.
Today during department meeting we were trained on administering the PARCC test.
I have been given an assignment and post for duty during PARCC testing which will
run from 4/6-4/13.
4/5/16
Return from spring break and outside for Adopt-A-Spot today. It was
cold but I wanted to take the opportunity to get the students outside since we will
not be able to go out during PARCC due to shortened class periods. My co-op is
working on her SGO for a meeting with her supervisor tomorrow. It is a good
experience to see the SGO process and paperwork.
4/6/16
First day of PARCC testing. Although the testing seems to be stressful,
I am glad I am having the opportunity to experience it since it will most likely be a
part of my teaching responsibilities someday. The schedule during PARCC testing
has shortened periods (28 minutes), so I have planned each days lesson
accordingly. Today, I am having the students watch a Bill Nye video to introduce
Momentum. I thought this would be a good lesson to keep the stress level down
during PARCC.
4/7/16
Day 2 of PARCC testing. Shortened periods and no option to assign
homework is a challenge! Managed to complete a momentum activity with all
classes. I have been monitoring the hallway during PARCC testing, but signed a
confidentiality waiver and received permission to be inside my classroom during
testing tomorrow, so I can witness the process. I have been in the training and my
co-op and I thought it would be good experience to witness what takes place first
hand since I will likely have to proctor PARCC testing someday.
4/8/16
Day 3 of PARCC testing. Important lesson learned in teaching middle
school today. Middle school is such a transitional time for childrensocially,
emotionally, physically, etc. As a teacher, you have to be concerned about
curtained about maturity levels and even more important, how to effectively deal
with maturity and immaturity. I used Newtons Cradle to do a demonstration about
the Law of Conservation of Momentum today and anytime you have to use the word
balls in a middle school classroom there is bound to be some giggling. This has
been a LOOOONG unit because when you talk about motion, balls are often used.
Today the giggling went beyond simple giggling in one class and I almost completely
lost control of the classroom. I turned it around by giving in and just allowing the
students a few minutes to get the giggles and comments out & this seemed to tame
their need for attention (which was obvious by the contest of who could say the
silliest thing and get the most giggles). I really love teaching middle school!

Davis 12
4/11/16
Day 4 of PARCC. Today my co-op and I discussed some opportunities
for professional development outside of the school. We chose to sign up for one
that focuses on NGSS on 4/21/16. She & I and one other science teacher will be
attending. Im very excited about this PD opportunity. I feel like I have a bit of an
advantage when it comes to NGSS standards since so many of my classes at Rider
focused on them and to most current teachers this is all new. My co-op had to be
out of the classroom today for 7th period and I had a sub come in to cover for her.
7th period usually tests my classroom management techniques, but they were
uncharacteristically well behaved today and it was such a great teaching
experience. I feel like my classroom management increases when I do not have the
support of my co-op in the classroom.
4/12/16
Day 5 of PARCC. I was able to spend the morning inside the classroom
to observe the PARCC procedure. Its quite a different experience from proctoring
the hallway. My co-op and I both believe that this was good experience and very
helpful experience when being considered for full time teaching positions. Its
amazing how quiet and focused the students can be when they have to be. There
were also many technical issues with PARCC today, which I also thought was good to
see. I was able to see the procedure and protocol that is in place when these issues
are encountered. It is extremely important that proper protocol is follow so that
PARCC security is not breached.
4/13/16
LAST DAY OF PARCC! Today was the smoothest of all 6 testing days.
We havent had any of our regular meetings during testing due to teachers contract
parameters. My co-op and I spent our plan period mapping out the remainder of
the tasks for our E-group class as they build their solar cars. They are being judged
on April 27th to determine which two teams will enter the regional race. We need to
make sure that they are on target with their building and journaling. We reached
out to several experts to ask them to come to class and answer questions for the
students. Two are scheduled for the week of the 18 th.
4/14/16
Today we had another crazy schedule day. All 6 th grade students took
an assessment called MAP which is a math test. After this testing is done, all school
computers will be sent to other schools for use during their PARCC testing. We are
not able to plan any lessons that need computer use unless we reserve the
computer lab, which is not easy when the entire school has to share one. I have
been asked to guide homeroom students with a door decorating contest for autism
awareness. My co-op thought this would be a good experience in learning some of
the extra tasks that are involved in teaching that are not just planning and
delivering lessons. And it is. Teachers have a very large plate!
4/15/16
Finally back to the normal school schedule! The class periods seemed
super long today, which was great. Not rushed like over the past week. My co-op
was out today and my supervisor came to observe me during 7 th period. 7th
PERIOD! This is my high activity, high personality class and was a good opportunity
to show off my classroom management techniques. The lesson I had prepared was
a good lesson, but it was also a lot to fit into 43 minutes, however I managed to do
it.

Davis 13
4/18/16
Today we had team meeting during 4th period and we discussed the
I&RS student action plans. It was such a good experience to see how this process
works from beginning to end. Student issues are brought up during earlier team
meetings, then it is decided which students need I&RS. When students are
selected, I&RS paperwork is requested and there is a due date given for when it
needs to be turned in. Once the paperwork is turned in, the child study team
meets, reviews the paperwork and develops individual goals and action plans for
each student. Once the plans are approved by administration, another team
meeting is held and plans are discussed.
4/19/16
Today we continued our discussion about potential and kinetic energy,
and I introduced gravitational potential and elastic potential energy. I used an
interactive website that showed a pendulum, a basketball and included a light-up
energy meter. Students were very engaged, making predictions about where the
objects had the most potential and kinetic energy. I also had them draw a simple
roller coaster and follow directions to label greatest and least potential and kinetic
energy.
4/20/16
I had planned a lesson today that involved stations, however I realized
at the last minute that the different stations I had planned really would be best done
sequentially, so I had to make a quick last minute change. I turned it into a
challenge where the students completed each station at the tables and I gave them
5 minutes for each step all together as a class. There was a competitive aspect in
which I gave the privilege to shoot a basket with the Nerf ball to the team that
completed the task first. This turned into a very fun lesson with a lot of critical
thinking, problem solving and learning involved. The district science supervisor was
here to help with the solar car building in 2 nd period and was kind enough to stay
and observe me teach during 3rd period. He gave a lot of helpful feedback!
4/21/16
I took all classes outside for Adopt-A-Spot today in honor of Earth Day
tomorrow (I was afraid it might rain tomorrow). I added some extra investigation
questions and specific data that I wanted them to collect on their A-A-S logs. Since I
always get the questions, What kind of tree is my tree? and How old is my tree?
I had them all collect the necessary data to investigate the answer to these
questions. My supervisor was here to observe me today during 7 th period and the
students displayed their typical behavior. Two wordsclassroom management!
There was also a team meeting where we prepared for a PLC share at the faculty
meeting on MondayKahoot & Brain Breaks (I prefer to call them Brain Boosts!). I
also attended a seminar after school with some of the other teachers that focused
on writing curriculum and aligning lesson planning with the new NGSS standards.
This was a very useful professional development opportunity for which I received a
certificate.
4/22/16
Since today is Earth Day, I created a lesson that focused on the forms
of energy in nature/our environment. We played energy charades & the kids were
super engaged. This morning was a Roots & Shoots meeting & we discussed Forest
Fest on June 11th. I am planning on attending this event as well as the solar car
races with my 2nd period E-group on May 17th. I am very excited that the school is

Davis 14
allowing me to participate in these events, since I was such a part of the planning
for both of them and they take place after my time here is done.
Blog posts can be viewed at: http://danadaviseportfolio.weebly.com/