School Life Learning Log

Towson University
Directions: The chart below identifies many aspects of School Life that you are
expected to experience during your professional year. Each of these provides an
opportunity to gain a richer experience during your internship. Using the table
below, you should chart your participation in each of the events and what you
learned. For the events that you attend multiple times, indicate the dates and your
overall learning experience. This log will be used as your portfolio artifact for
InTASC 10, Leadership and Collaboration.
Event
Faculty Meeting (s)

Date(s)/Hour
s
Every Monday,
30-60 minutes.
Feb/1
Feb/8
Feb/22
Feb/29
March/7

Learning
-

Professional
Development
Activity (Local
school sponsored)

Professional
Development
Activity (System-

April/2016

March/2016

How to have a successful first

week of school.
How to administer a state
assessment and the
consequences for violating
secure/confidential materials.
How to safely and effectively
deal with a situation that is
escalating into a violent
outburst.
The importance of getting to
know the students and where
they are coming from.
How to correctly give out the
school breakfast.
Discussing specific students
who need intervention.
How to request an IEP for a
specific student.
Scavenger Hunt: The principle
of Holabird had the school staff
complete a scavenger hunt on
a half day for a professional
development activity. At the
start, the staff was required to
split up into teams of 4-6
people. During the scavenger
hunt, the staff had to take
groupies, or group selfies,
around the town of Dundalk.
This activity was devised to
give us an idea of the
environment/community in
which our students live. The
hunt included some of the
students favorite places to go.
Some examples include, the
town bakery, Skate Park, and
elementary school playground.
During the second half of a half
day, Holabird Middle School
participated in a county-wide

wide sponsored)

School
Improvement
Team Meeting

March/2016

Cafeteria/Lunch
Duty

September/Oct
ober & March
May.

Bus Duty (AM)

February/2016

Bus Duty (PM)

February/2016

professional development
activity. This activity lasted
about three hours and was
similar to
During our school improvement
team meeting, we discussed
how we can keep students from
wandering the halls during
class time. We also planned
incentive days to keep the
students motivated to be on
their best behavior. These
incentive days include:
courtyard lunches, get out and
play periods, movies, etc. In
order to participate in the
incentive days, students must
pay with SOAR tickets and have
no office referrals for the
quarter.
I have been on lunch duty
almost every day during my
rotation with Mrs. Seifert.
During lunch duty I am able to
strengthen my relationship with
the students, practice authority,
and network my skills as a
teacher. I really enjoy lunch
duty because I get free time to
talk to my students and show
them my non-instructional side.
I participated in bus duty
sometime in February. My job
was to welcome the students to
school and line them up by
their appropriate grade level. I
enjoyed this job because I was
able to show the students how
to get excited for school. I
welcomed everyone with a lot
of charisma and high fives all
around. By the time my
students got to class, they
seemed more excited and
eager to learn. I love beginning
the day by putting a smile on
my students faces.
I completed my PM bus duty on
the same day that I did AM bus
duty. Here I learned that PM bus
duty is a lot more difficult than
AM bus duty. Students are
extremely excited to leave
school for the day and go
home. It is a constant struggle
to keep the students organized

Student Support
Team Meeting

March/17/2016

IEP Meeting

February 2016

Parent Conference
(teacher only)

February/2016

in their correct bus lines. None

the less, we were able to get
every student on their
appropriate bus and make a list
of the students who were to
take the late bus. We had to
assign detention to two
students who could not keep
their hands off one another.
During a student support team
meeting, we discussed two
students who needed to be
moved into a self-contained
learning environment. In
addition, we collaborated and
made a request to move a
student from one class to
another. The student has made
substantial progress since the
switch.
The IEP meeting that I attended
was for a particular student
who is extremely emotionally
disturbed and has learning
disability. During this meeting,
we discussed how we can
improve his classroom behavior
and boost his grades. The
meeting included all of his
teachers and his personal aid.
By the end of the meeting, we
agreed that his personal aid
and teachers should carry a
walkie-talkie. This will make
communication between
teachers and the school
councilors faster and more
effective. The student can often
require immediate help.
I had my first parent conference
In the middle of February. This
conference happened
immediately after school due to
a students complaint to her
mother. I met directly with the
parent while my mentor stood
close by. The reason for the
conference was because the
student complained to her
mother that she would be
unable to participate in the
paper airplane experiment. Her
mother immediately questioned
my authority and demanded to
talk to me. I opened the
conversation with allowing the

Parent Conference
(Team)

April/2016

student to state her story. After

she finished her story, I went
over how my entire fourth
grade class had issues following
directions. I did not want to
open my conversation by
singling out her daughter. I
wanted it to seem as if
everyone in the class needed to
improve on this issue. Then I
went over the parts that
required more detail. I told her
mother that she did not follow
directions when I instructed the
students to put the airplanes
away and to not throw them in
class. Directly after this, I
stated that she was not the
only student unable to
participate. Finally, I closed the
conversation with many
compliments about the student.
I said that she is normally
pretty good about following
directions and she is one of the
highest achievers in the class.
This opened her mother up to
me and made it easy to come
to an agreement. The
conference ended and I agreed
to let the student participate in
the experiment as long as she
followed directions. I told her
mother that I was going to give
every student a second chance
on the day of the experiment. I
just had to hold students
accountable for their actions
and introduce a consequence.
I sat through three parent-team
conference in April. These
conferences served as an
intervention to get the students
back on track. In the
conference, all of the team
teachers were present as well
as the student and their
parent/guardian. We discussed
motivation levels, future goals,
and expectations. Even though
we focused mainly on what the
student needed to improve
upon, we gave every student
compliments on what they were
doing right and why we enjoyed
having them in class.

Interdisciplinary
Team Meeting

April 2016

Department
Meeting

February-April
2016

After school Club

March 2016

After school
activity (dance,
basketball game,
etc.)

February 2016

Evening Activity
(choral or band
concert, play, etc.)

May 2016

Field Trip

October/2015

Interdisciplinary team meetings

were helpful in identifying
how/why students behaviors
changed from teacher to
teacher. We also discussed
incentives and motivations for
students.
I have attended four
department meetings. Two for
social studies and two for
science. During these meetings,
we discussed engagement
strategies, objectives, activities,
standards, assessment, and
alignment. Doing alignment
first hand with other teachers
was very beneficial for me.
I had the pleasure of watching
the drama club practice one
day after school. Every student
was excited to see me watch
them perform. I will be
attending their Alice and
Wonderland performance May
3rd. I learned that after school
activities are a fun and safe
place for students to meet
friends and play.
The only after school activity I
was able to watch was a
basketball practice. During this
activity I learned about how
important team sports are for
children. They teach the
students how to work together,
collaborate, and be social.
I attended the Alice and
Wonderland performance on
May 3rd. This was one of the
best teaching experiences I
have had thus far. I was able to
go backstage to meet the
student cast and I watched the
performance from prime
seating. I learned that students
are very passionate about
theatre and that you can leave
a huge impact by showing your
excitement and happiness
towards them.
I have been on two field trips
since the start of the school
year. On the first trip I went to
the Baltimore Zoo with the 7th
Grade. I received a standing

Fund Raisers

January-March
2016

School Drills (Fire,

Lock Down, Severe
Weather)

February-April
2016

ovation from the 7th grade in

the cafeteria when my mentor
announced that I was going.
This was one of my favorite
experiences and one that I will
never forget. I was
overwhelmed that every
student was eager to get to
know me and spend time with
me on the trip. While at the
zoo, I took pictures with
students next to exhibits and
taught them about the physical
geography from which specific
animals come from. On this trip
I learned about how to plan a
field trip, collect permission
slips and money, and keep the
students organized in a public
area.
The second field trip I
participated in was on April 25th
2016. I went with the eighth
grade science class to a river to
do water tests and animal
identification. On this trip I
learned how to be a positive
role model and group leader.
In my fourth grade class, we
collected money for a childrens
hospital in Baltimore. Every day
I would remind my class to
search for spare change and
dollars in their spare time. One
of my students was nice
enough to bring in close to $20
in change. I learned that
children are very willing to help
out other in need. I also learned
that in order to have a
successful fundraiser you have
to start off the donation. Lastly,
you have to give your class
multiple reminders to
participate.
Since the start of my student
teaching, I participated in 4
school drills: 2 fire drills and 2
lockdown drills. During the fire
drills I learned the importance
of practice and organization of
students. During the lockdown
drills I learned how to lock the
doors, shelter my students, and
barricade all class access
points. I believe that I now have

Community Based
Activity

April/2016

Mentoring
Students

September
2015-May
2016

Service Learning
Activity

the skills necessary to keep my

students safe in a real fire or
lockdown situation.
The community based activity
that I participated in was the
scavenger hunt. While on the
hunt we met many locals from
Dundalk. This taught me to not
judge a book by its cover. Even
though Dundalk is a relatively
low income area, the people we
met were rich in personality.
I have had the opportunity to
mentor many students at
Holabird. During my mentoring I
included personal experiences
and advice on how to stay out
of trouble. In addition I teach
girls who are tied up in drama
how to ignore people who are
mean to mean to them. I
learned that many students can
come from a poor home life. It
is our job as a teacher to create
a safe environment where
students can be themselves
and share their feelings.