LIteracy Reference Project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40836723@N08/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

So I just recently started doing my Literacy Reference project for TE 301. A lot of people seemed really stressed out about it. I wasn't so worried just because I hadn't even read the rubric for it. I'm glad, though, that I didn't start sooner because my professor announced to us, just recently, that we could don't have to necessarily make a binder of references; we could make a WEBSITE.

CEP 416 is a life saver. Before taking this class, the idea of making a website would have never crossed my mind and I would probably have been deathly afraid of even attempting to make one.

Most of my peers, that I've talked to, have vigorously been working on a binder for weeks and I just sat down one day and I'm already half way done.

Anyway, what led me to write about this is a blog called Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day. For our projects we have to include references that talk about how to teach special education students as well as SLL's. On Larry's blog he shared a great resource for teaching English language learners; it's a 62-page document, but that doesn't matter if you're working with a website :) Here's the link if you don't follow his blog.

Waste of Precious Time

Educational Technology Guy posted some random thoughts and I have one of my own to add.

• Teachers shouldn't willingly waste so much time in the morning eating breakfast, taking attendance, finding out what students will be having for lunch, etc;  (lists, lists, count students, lists, more lists)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

I go to a first-grade classroom every Thursday morning for my TE 301 placement. I'm there from 8:00-11:30am; I realize it's not much time to be able to really criticize, but I feel like the mornings are routine by now. My CT usually comes in when the students do at 8:50am; she doesn't come in early to prepare anything. I feel that if she would come to the school at least twenty minutes early, she would have enough time to scavenge for the things she needs within the mess on the desk.

She actually is a pretty good teacher when the teaching finally starts, but the wasted time in the morning has been bothering me all semester. Not only is time wasted on things the principal or the lunch lady need, but lessons are always interrupted by the teacher's attempt to teach the children about manners and to improve behavior. I realize this is necessary, but constantly stopping the lesson to tell a child to stop picking his nose, sit on his bottom, get fingers out of his mouth, etc, is not. It takes away too much valuable time.

What grade levels have you had experience observing? How do the teachers handle their morning routine? How do they handle behavioral issues?