June 29 (Sat) - Messaged mentor + school staff (“mentor help team” which works on days mentors are on vacation or not working) asking for next course to be unlocked. Help team supposedly only unlocks next course when the student has finished AND PASSED all assignments of all open courses, but the mentors will unlock courses if all assignments are turned in even if still pending on passing status. School district sent me letter renewing my substitute teacher & substitute paraeducator employee contract for the next school year. You have to sign it and mail it back within 2 weeks otherwise they consider you terminated.
June 30 (Sun) - Previous 2 courses marked as complete - degree is now officially 33% complete. Help Team unlocked “Elementary Reading Methods and Interventions” (2 CU) but it used an entirely different layout than all previous courses, no class chatbox etc, so I got confused and booked time with mentor for next day.
July 1 (Mon) - WGU campus broken until 4pm due to huge influx of new students starting their terms. I killed time by 1) asking ChatGPT to give me lists of words and concepts taught in the subject, which I then turned into Anki cards, 2) finding more cards from Quizlet to add to my Education Anki deck. After 4pm did all reading for “Elementary Reading Methods and Interventions”. Chat with mentor in evening: said all “Elementary…Methods” courses are on old WGU layout & that help Team messed up, I needed to switch to “Assessing Student Learning” (2 CU) instead - its assignments require you analyze videos & assignment result data and figure out how to respond by creating or critiquing lesson plans.
July 2 - Did all reading for “Assessing Student Learning”. 90% of the info is covered in the various previous courses, what’s new is a few more pieces of modern American teacher jargon (“dipsticks” means “have the kids answer in 1min or less”), and a few basic math terms (standard deviation, mode, etc) required to analyze student data.
July 3 - Submitted 1/4 assignments for Assessing Student Learning. Took & passed Pre-Assessment for Elementary Reading.
July 4 - Reviewed all Anki cards for Elementary Reading, then took & passed exam for it. Submitted 1 of 3 remaining assignments for Assessing, then went to work. The bendy webcam stand I bought specifically because WGU's proctoring service basically requires it, broke, so I had to attempt to balance the webcam on the back of a chair to take the assessment. The proctors make you do a full 360 degree view of the room plus show your wrists and under the desk, then maneuver the webcam so it shows both your face and your computer screen at once.
July 5 - Slept all day due to working a day & night shift the previous day. Finished 2 of 4 questions for 1 Assessing assignment. Previously submitted 2 assignments marked as passed.
July 6 (Sat) - WGU Student ID arrived (=took 9 days). Submitted 2/2 remaining assignments for Assessing Student Learning, and 1/1 for Elementary Reading. Emailed Help Staff and Mentor asking for next course to get unlocked over weekend. This time I used the WGU help videos hosted on "Panopto" to help me answer the assignments regarding creating lesson plans.
Got more internship details:
- After finishing “Assessment & Student Learning” I can send in the application to APPLY for my student teaching internship and the team will start working on finding me a placement
- After finishing the 3 courses Elementary Reading Methods, Elementary Language Arts Methods and Elementary Math Methods I will get permission from the school to actually START the internship.
- Your teacher’s liability insurance must be valid for at least 6 months 1 day from the time you APPLY for the internship. There are only 2 insurance places to choose from:
1) NEA (National Education Association) - around $20 for students - has a set insurance valid year, no matter when you buy it your insurance expires at the end of August and the new year starts September 1st. It’s July now so that means if I pick NEA I would have to wait to APPLY for internship until September 1st only due to my insurance.
2) AAE (Association of American Educators) - around $50 for students - insurance expires 1 year from the date of purchase.
WGU said you may be asked to list your insurance on your resume and some employers will actually judge you based on the ideals / morals of which of the 2 you picked.
Other:
- When there is a WGU course like “Blah 171” then “Blah 172”, the first is about the terms, theories and history of the subject, the second is about putting that theory and those terms into practice by doing stuff like creating or analyzing lesson plans or videotaped lessons.
- Mentor said to make sure to watch all the videos in the "Elementary... Methods" courses because those are the best preparation for the NES Elementary Education / Early Childhood Education content exams 101, 102 and 103(?) for endorsement, licensure or graduation: https://www.west.nesinc.com/TestView.asp...tPage.html - I completely forgot we have to take these exams too.
What I learned this section:
- Save all sample lesson plans WGU gives you, and all lists of videos. These are the 2 biggest helps in the entire degree.
- Google image search all concepts. 4 pictures normally does a better job for comprehension than reading the course articles.
June 30 (Sun) - Previous 2 courses marked as complete - degree is now officially 33% complete. Help Team unlocked “Elementary Reading Methods and Interventions” (2 CU) but it used an entirely different layout than all previous courses, no class chatbox etc, so I got confused and booked time with mentor for next day.
July 1 (Mon) - WGU campus broken until 4pm due to huge influx of new students starting their terms. I killed time by 1) asking ChatGPT to give me lists of words and concepts taught in the subject, which I then turned into Anki cards, 2) finding more cards from Quizlet to add to my Education Anki deck. After 4pm did all reading for “Elementary Reading Methods and Interventions”. Chat with mentor in evening: said all “Elementary…Methods” courses are on old WGU layout & that help Team messed up, I needed to switch to “Assessing Student Learning” (2 CU) instead - its assignments require you analyze videos & assignment result data and figure out how to respond by creating or critiquing lesson plans.
July 2 - Did all reading for “Assessing Student Learning”. 90% of the info is covered in the various previous courses, what’s new is a few more pieces of modern American teacher jargon (“dipsticks” means “have the kids answer in 1min or less”), and a few basic math terms (standard deviation, mode, etc) required to analyze student data.
July 3 - Submitted 1/4 assignments for Assessing Student Learning. Took & passed Pre-Assessment for Elementary Reading.
July 4 - Reviewed all Anki cards for Elementary Reading, then took & passed exam for it. Submitted 1 of 3 remaining assignments for Assessing, then went to work. The bendy webcam stand I bought specifically because WGU's proctoring service basically requires it, broke, so I had to attempt to balance the webcam on the back of a chair to take the assessment. The proctors make you do a full 360 degree view of the room plus show your wrists and under the desk, then maneuver the webcam so it shows both your face and your computer screen at once.
July 5 - Slept all day due to working a day & night shift the previous day. Finished 2 of 4 questions for 1 Assessing assignment. Previously submitted 2 assignments marked as passed.
July 6 (Sat) - WGU Student ID arrived (=took 9 days). Submitted 2/2 remaining assignments for Assessing Student Learning, and 1/1 for Elementary Reading. Emailed Help Staff and Mentor asking for next course to get unlocked over weekend. This time I used the WGU help videos hosted on "Panopto" to help me answer the assignments regarding creating lesson plans.
Got more internship details:
- After finishing “Assessment & Student Learning” I can send in the application to APPLY for my student teaching internship and the team will start working on finding me a placement
- After finishing the 3 courses Elementary Reading Methods, Elementary Language Arts Methods and Elementary Math Methods I will get permission from the school to actually START the internship.
- Your teacher’s liability insurance must be valid for at least 6 months 1 day from the time you APPLY for the internship. There are only 2 insurance places to choose from:
1) NEA (National Education Association) - around $20 for students - has a set insurance valid year, no matter when you buy it your insurance expires at the end of August and the new year starts September 1st. It’s July now so that means if I pick NEA I would have to wait to APPLY for internship until September 1st only due to my insurance.
2) AAE (Association of American Educators) - around $50 for students - insurance expires 1 year from the date of purchase.
WGU said you may be asked to list your insurance on your resume and some employers will actually judge you based on the ideals / morals of which of the 2 you picked.
Other:
- When there is a WGU course like “Blah 171” then “Blah 172”, the first is about the terms, theories and history of the subject, the second is about putting that theory and those terms into practice by doing stuff like creating or analyzing lesson plans or videotaped lessons.
- Mentor said to make sure to watch all the videos in the "Elementary... Methods" courses because those are the best preparation for the NES Elementary Education / Early Childhood Education content exams 101, 102 and 103(?) for endorsement, licensure or graduation: https://www.west.nesinc.com/TestView.asp...tPage.html - I completely forgot we have to take these exams too.
What I learned this section:
- Save all sample lesson plans WGU gives you, and all lists of videos. These are the 2 biggest helps in the entire degree.
- Google image search all concepts. 4 pictures normally does a better job for comprehension than reading the course articles.
Finished: 2 AAs, 1 BA, 2 trade schools, 3 ENEB MAs, JLPT N1.
In Progress: 1 WGU MA, 2 Mastercurssos, 3 more ENEB MAs, teacher license.
In Progress: 1 WGU MA, 2 Mastercurssos, 3 more ENEB MAs, teacher license.
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