About

This blog belongs to Joseph VanWagner, a 26-year-old student at Grand Valley State University’s College of Education in Grand Rapids and Allendale, Michigan.

He is currently attending the Grand Valley State University College of Education; this blog is a record of his experiences while Teacher Assisting in the Fall of 2010.

All of the events recorded here are true; this stuff actually happened. Much (but far from all) of the dialogue used in these entries are direct quotes, though many have been altered for the purpose of clarity and relevance.

Nearly all of the names have been changed to protect the identities and privacy of those concerned.

Responses

One requirement for this blog is that I use my experiences and observations to respond to class readings. These entries will include some thoughts as well as excerpts from some of my entries that address these topics.

Greatest Hits

“Greatest Hits” entries fulfill another requirement of this blog, recording various behavioural issues encountered during my teacher assisting. These will mostly be snippets from earlier entries, however, many entries will need to be revisited as I discover more about the measures that were taken for a particular problem; if you see an excerpt from a specific entry under one of these “Greatest Hits” posts, chances are, I’ve also revised the original entry to include additional information.

Reflections

Every weekend, I will be posting a short reflection of the previous week’s experiences. Some of these will include similar material to the “Response” entries, but will refer more directly to the events that have been written about that week (or, in some cases, things that haven’t yet been written about). Think of it as a sort of “weekly review”.