EDS 128B/139

Weekly Journal Format and Content

Note: Specific instructions for your first journal appear at the end of this section.

SECTION 1: Orienting Data

The first part of any entry must include orienting data. These include your name, the date, placement information (grade level, teacher, school), dates and times of your classroom visits and arts activities every week, and cumulative hours for the quarter. All hours must be documented in order for you to receive credit. (Note: Please round off times to the nearest quarter hour.)

Example:

Ima Student

Journal #2

3-24-08

4th grade; Ms. Salcedo; ABC Elementary

Classroom visits: Wed. 1-18, 9:00-11:10 (2.25 hours); Fri. 1-20, 8:00-12:00 (4 hours)

Arts hours: Sun. 1-22, 2:00-3.50 (1.75 hours)

Cumulative classroom hours: 9.5

Cumulative arts hours: 3.25

Total cumulative hours: 12.75

SECTION 2: Journal Partner Response

Respond to your journal partner’s previous entry. Please include your partner’s name in the header of this section.

NOTE: In lieu of section 2 for Journal #2 (due 4/15) and Journal #6 (due 5/13), you will post bulletin board ideas and questions on our class wiki.  Your postings will be read and responded to by design students from Southwestern Community College and Mira Costa Community College.

SECTION 3: Fieldwork

This section has three parts.

Part one:

Provide a brief bulleted summary or sequence of events in the classroom each day you spent at the school site.

Example:

Wed. 4-18

9:00-9:45      Math, worked with small groups

9:45-10:15     Recess

10:15-11:10     Writing Workshop, helped kids with their Gold Rush papers

11:10-12:15    Reading Workshop, read with individuals

Part Two:

Write a paragraph briefly describing each arts activity you engaged in during the week.

Part Three:

This section is the most substantial element of your fieldwork report. Pick one particular event, activity or episode from the week that had an impact on you, your teacher, or your students. Describe this incident in detail and discuss your reactions. How does this incident connect to important ideas about schools, teaching and/or learning?

SECTION 4:

Reading Response and Connections

Connect each of the week’s readings to one or more of the following:

    your field experience

    your role as a CTA and/or prospective teacher

    your cooperating teacher’s situation

    a personal experience

    another reading

    a counter-example

What in particular does the author say that connects to your experience?  How does the reading help to explain or highlight the experience? Give specific examples from the text. The goal is to analyze and reflect on the readings (not to summarize them).

Submitting journals:

Email your entire journal to your journal partner each week. Bring a hard copy of your journal to class each week. This hard copy will be submitted to your TA in section.

Instructions for your first journal:

Section 2:

Introduce yourself to your journal partner. Discuss your memories of arts activities in elementary school. How did you feel about yourself as an artist? Tell about arts activities you have seen in your previous EDS placements. What types of activities were they? What was their purpose? How did the students respond? Also share what you know about arts in San Diego. What is available in the community? What have you participated in?

Section 3:

If you have not yet visited your school site, you can use any arts activities you engage in for section 3, or you can construct an episode by discussing any previous field experiences you have had in schools and/or describing a memorable learning experience of your own. If you have visited your school site, be sure to include the orientation (it will count toward your hours and can be used as an episode).

What to do when you have no hours to report:

If you are not able to go to the classroom during a given week, you should engage in (and report on) arts activities. However, if you have no fieldwork to report, explain why in the beginning of section 3, and then create an episode by describing and discussing another event or activity in your classroom (e.g. an episode you didn’t happen to focus on in a previous journal) or a previous field experience or memorable learning experience of your own.