Post-Observation Learning

Week of Reflection: Friday, January 25, 2019

This has been an exciting and busy week! The students had off Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday ended up being a 3 hour delay for students. I was observed on Thursday and Friday was the PBIS Behavior Reward for students. Even though it was a short week, I think I was more tired at the end of this week, than I was at the end of a full week. However, that tiredness could have also stemmed from the bronchitis that I have developed. Yay me! Overall, I would rate this week as a 4. It was a great week, but there is always room for improvement.

A pleasant accomplishment that happened this week was my first observation. It went very well. I was able to learn a lot after teaching and talking with my CE and I have a lot of new things that I want to try and implement into my lessons to make everything more effective.

After teaching this week, I learned that my students are getting burnt out on discussions. It came to my realization that we do a lot of class discussions in my classroom. While those are not always a bad thing, I think we do them too often and my students are getting bored with them. This was a great learning experience and I have changed my lessons so that students are doing more creative learning experiences in small group settings.

This past week I have been thinking about different ways to do class discussions and different ways to get my students doing more creative learning. This short term efforts align to my long term goal of being proficient in all areas of the NCTCS. A part of these standards includes making learning relevant to students and this is one way that I can do this.

This past week I felt that I had become too focused on preparing for my observation that I ended up not spending enough time preparing for the following week. I felt that my lessons for the following week didn’t get as much attention as they deserved due to me focusing more on my observation and stressing about it coming up.

After my observation, I realized that I went with a class discussion because I felt that it was a safe approach. My class does a lot of discussion-based learning and although I did it in a different setting this time, I felt that my class could have learned a lot more doing a different type of activity. My apprehensions led to my class not being able to learn as much as they could have.

The next step for preparing for the next week is to get my lessons finalized and to prepare and get everything ready for teaching edTPA!

During my class discussions, I realized that not all of my students participate. This could be for various reasons. Some of my students may be shy and not want to talk, some may not know what to day, etc. After realizing this, I have decided to take a few different approaches when it comes to discussions. I am going to try and use a system where I have colored sticks with each student’s name on it. I will pull one out and that student will answer. That way, the same students are not answering each time.

One piece of advice that I have for other student teachers is to make positive monthly phone calls home to parents. I have started doing this this month and I have already noticed that it is making a positive impact in my teaching because I am looking for positive things that each student is doing instead of always trying to look for the negative things to call them out on. I always try to look for positives, but sometimes you do lose sight of that. I make my first set of phone calls this week, so I will let everyone know how they go!

Standard 1:

This past week, I looked at the patterns of student learning during discussions and used those to change my lessons that involved class discussions.

Standard 2:

I have been working on finalizing my positive monthly phone call list to get ready to call my parents at the end of this upcoming week. This gives me an opportunity to collaborate with the parents/families of my students and speak about their learning and things they are doing well. This gives me the opportunity to talk with parents/families to better their student.

Standard 3:

This past week I have made plans to implement global awareness. I am going to begin a unit on the body systems. In third grade, students just need to know that bones and muscles make up our skeletal system and that skin is the largest organ of the body and it protects. I’m going to talk about what happens when someone breaks a bone and what happens to them. Then, I will discuss healthcare in other countries.

Standard 4:

Students worked together in groups to compare/contrast Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Students were able to complete this task in any way that they wanted. It was interesting to see which students got together to work and what they chose to complete this task.

Standard 5:

I did a lot of reflecting on my teaching this past week and decided to make a few changes to ensure that student learning is at its maximum when we are discussing a topic.

I have begun to gather some video for my portfolio.

As of right now, my clinical educator and myself are good!

Week 3 of Student Teaching

Week of Reflection: Friday, January, 18, 2019

This past week has been a good week in my classroom. I began teaching everything, but literacy and math. It has been exciting and challenging all at the same time. Overall, I would rate this week as a 4. I think that this has been a good week, but I know that I still have a lot to learn.

This week I finished up the unit on the solar system. My students did very well on this unit and I received great feedback from each of my students. They all worked so hard and I feel that they learned a lot. It was a huge accomplishment to be able to sit down with each of them individually and ask what they learned, what they liked the most, and what they would change. It was so great to see the end of a unit and the learning that came from it.

A lesson that I learned that I will build upon not only next week, but in my future units, and future years in teaching is that my students thoroughly enjoyed this unit on the solar system, but I think doing the same type of thing every day on a different planet became tedious. I know that personally, as the teacher, I was becoming bored with it myself and I can’t expect my students to feel any different. Every student gave me positive feedback and explained that they learned a lot, but I know that I will want to take a different approach with this the next time I do it. I have already begun changing things around because for the next unit that I will start on Wednesday, we will be doing a different activity every day and each of those will build upon each other. I’m pretty excited about it!

This week I have been focusing on my student that I am working on a behavior plan for. I have been paying extra attention to his behaviors and the things that we need to work on in order for him to become a better student and learn all that he can. These short-term efforts align with my long term goal of helping this student and getting him on a good path so that he can be the best little person he can be. It also aligns with my long term goal of completing my portfolio.

I feel that I could have spent more time focused on the lessons that I was actually teaching for this week instead of focusing a lot on planning ahead and getting ready for the next week.

When referring back to the unit that I did on the solar system and the things that I would have changed, I feel that I should have changed things around the minute that I noticed myself becoming bored with it. However, I didn’t change things and I kept things the way that they were. My students all learned something and got something from the entire unit, but I wonder if they could have learned even more if I would have done it a different way.

I have my lessons prepared for next week and I’m excited about doing a short unit on Martin Luther King Jr. with my students. The first step for next week is going in on Tuesday for the workday and ensuring that everything is printed out and copies are made so that I can be prepared for the entire week.

This week we received our STAR data which tells us the level that our students are reading on and the level of books that they should be checking out of the library and we also received our student’s fluency scores and reading comprehension scores from the middle of the year testing that we just finished up. This data was very helpful to look at and become familiar with. It showed the growth that many of our students have made and I have been able to make instructional decisions because I am seeing how much more each student is capable of now based on their growth.

My advice this week for the other student teachers is a little bit more of an

encouragement than advice persay. I did a 5-day devotional plan for teachers last week and it was so encouraging. On one day, a letter written to a teacher from a student was included. It began by the student thanking the teacher, but then it went into a part that talked about how discouraging it is for students to hear their teachers complaining about their jobs. The student went on to say that they will work hard if they fully believe that we have confidence in them and truly care about their success. We shouldn’t lump students all together because not all of them disrespect us or lie and cheat. Also, our classroom should be a safe haven for our students. The outside world is a cruel place. For many students, the hallway can be a dangerous place. However, students should also feel a sense of comfort and peace in our classroom.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

This week I was able to look at the data from the mid-year testing to see how students have grown. This relates to NCTCS Standard 1: Teachers lead in their classroom by using a variety of assessment data throughout the year to track progress.

I have a classroom full of talkers this year. They love to talk about anything and everything! Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for discussion time, but not so great when we are trying to read silently or transition. This week, I have tried to treat every student as an individual and reward those who do always follow directions and are quiet when it’s time to be quiet. It’s not fair to lump my entire classroom into a whole if some students are doing what they are being asked.

The solar system unit that I completed had the students researching and finding a lot of information in their groups. This allowed me to make instruction relevant to them and teach them 21st century skills. They were communicating and collaborating with each other and using technology to learn instead of just a place to play games.

Students working in their groups this week really helped me to see those that work well together and those that really possess leadership qualities. It was so fun to walk around and listen to their conversations.

Looking back on the unit, I did a lot of reflecting and things that I would change or do differently the next time that I complete a unit like this. This was a great practice on reflecting on my lessons and my teaching.

I have begun to develop my behavior plan. As of right now, my CE and I are good!

Teaching the Solar System

Week of Reflection: Friday, January 11, 2018

Overall, this week has been a great week so I would rate it as a 5. Some pleasant surprises/accomplishments that I had this week was that I made it through my first week of teaching science. For the assignment, students are working in groups to research each planet in our solar system. We began with Earth and then we are going through the rest of the planets in order. This is a simple research project, but most of these students have never researched on the computer before or seen a rubric. They know how to use computers of course, but a lot of them didn’t understand that you can find anything you want on the internet. They have done very well with this project and I’m excited to continue it into the next week.

This week I learned to be flexible in my lessons and I will carry that into next week. As I began the solar system lesson, the students played a scavenger hunt game to find facts around the room about the solar system. As they were completing this and I was walking around observing, I knew that this was going to take them two days to complete instead of one like I originally planned. Also, on Tuesday, the internet was out at our school all day, so I pulled an article about earth for the students who were already finished with their scavenger hunt to introduce the planet they would be researching the next day if we had internet. I also noticed that some days they have needed the whole time and other days they would finish early and I would give them another activity. It’s all about flexibility!

This past week I have been working on planning ahead and what I will be doing in the weeks to come. I like to have an idea of what I will be doing month by month and this has helped me to stay on top of things as well as prepare for edTPA which are two of my long term goals.

I felt that this week I could have spent more time on edTPA. I focused heavily on teaching science this week and making sure everything was prepared for that and I also focused on my lessons for next week. Next week I will give more time to edTPA since it is coming up fast.

I noticed that I was a little apprehensive about how much freedom I gave the groups when they were researching. I wanted to see what they could do with it though and I am glad they did. I love walking around and hearing their conversations and this project has also taught me a lot about how much work goes into preparing and grading a project. I have also been able to see how the students work together and it is interesting to see how they adapt to the groups they are placed in when they didn’t choose them themselves.

My first logical step for next week is to prepare and ensure that I have everything ready for Morning Work, WIN, and Science. I want to make sure coming into Monday that I have everything planned and I know what I am going to do each day. I will also spend next week finishing up my Task 1 for edTPA and ensuring that is ready for our next seminar.

This week I have been collecting data on how well students are doing on their projects. One part of their grading is how well they work together. At the end of each day, I grade the student on the rubric based on how they did that day with that planet. I have noticed and I have talked with my CE about how some days students will work well together and other days they will not. I have been walking around and observing the groups and collecting data on how well they have been able to find answers on the internet and work together in a group. This data collection has impacted my instructional decisions in that I know what I can do with this group again and things that I need to change.

  My piece of advice for other student teachers is to look at the little things and pay attention to them. A student that has never wanted to work with a group works well with a group and gets work done may seem small, but it’s so important.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

This past week I was able to attend a Speech IEP meeting to discuss student progress and whether or not he should continue with speech. I was able to discuss with the assistant principal, speech pathologist, and my CE about this student and his needs. I contributed to this meeting and the better of the student.

In regards to standard 2 of the NCTCS, I differentiated for my students in their solar system project. I grouped these students in a way that each student could receive peer support if needed and I also looked at the individual needs of every student while I was assigning groups. My student that is a non-reader has a student with him at all times that reads the questions to him and he has access to a scribe in his IEP so a student will write for him as well.

Knowing the content of the solar system was important this week because I would start out each lesson with having students tell me facts that they already knew about the planet we were going to study. At times, students would say incorrect facts so I would have to know these things to be able to correct them and lead them in the right direction.

I also used a variety of instructional methods this past week. Instead of just teaching about the different planets, I wanted to allow the students to have a part in their learning. This project that they are doing allows them to find out the information about the planets instead of me just telling them.

I have done a lot of analyzing student learning this week in their projects. Each day I look at what they have done as well as the notes I have taken as I walk around and listen to their conversations. It has been a great opportunity to assess their learning just from listening to their group work.

I have chosen the student that I am going to complete a behavior plan on and I am planning to meet with my CE and discuss different options for this student. As of right now, my CE and I do not have any questions or concerns.

Hello Student Teaching!

Week of Reflection: Friday, January 4, 2018

The first week back to school was good! I would give it a 5 overall. It was great seeing my students again and hearing all about their Christmas break. My accomplishments this week was that we got a new student. We met him right before we left for Christmas and was told that he had a behavior plan. I was concerned about how that would go, but everything went well and it was a huge accomplishment in that he has to keep a behavior chart and fill it out periodically throughout the day. Everything with that went smoothly and I was proud that everything went so well.

This week for the first time I had a student get angry and throw a pencil and stomp across the classroom. This was rare for this student to act in this way and I knew that the home life of this student wasn’t the greatest. My CE was out of the room at the time, so I knew that it was just me. I asked this student to step into the hallway, so I could speak with her privately because the other students were working on morning work silently and she was being a disruption. My CE and I spoke with her and she calmed down. We spoke to the principal later on about it and he spoke to me about his experiences in having students like that and other strategies that I can use if letting them calm down in the hallway doesn’t always work. It was a great lesson to learn and great to his input on the situation.

This coming week I begin teaching the science/social studies block. This aligns to my larger goal of taking everything over because I am building upon each thing.

I feel like this week I could have spent more time on my lesson plans. I feel that I could have spent less time on the EC information and school procedures, but I knew that those were just as important. I spent a while on my lesson plans, but I feel that even more time could have been contributed to those.

I feel that I second-guessed myself when dealing with the student that got upset. I wondered how I should have handled it and if I could have handled it in a different way. I knew that raising my voice at the student was NOT the answer and I made sure to stay calm with her. However, I didn’t feel confident in how to handle it. After talking with my CE and the principal, they reassured me that with this student, I took the best approach and that I will learn what works best with each student.

The next step for this coming week is to begin planning for the next week. I want to stay a week in advance this semester and always look at the next thing coming. Of course, I also want to take it a day at a time because I know that each day comes with new challenges. I am excited for the week ahead and to teach the solar system! I know my students will enjoy learning about as much as I will teaching it!

This week I gave my students a survey to fill out asking about how they learn and their feelings on math, reading, and writing. It was great insight and it gave me ideas on how to help each student learn. It was interesting to learn each student’s favorite subject and what makes them happy. This will really help in my data collecting and portfolio because I can reference different things that I completed that were differentiated for each student.

This first week I didn’t do any teaching, so I can’t reference my lesson plans regarding the standards, but I do feel that I grew in certain areas of the standards. In regards to Standard 1: Leadership, taking the time to have my students fill out that survey and learn more about them was a way to grow my leadership in the classroom and know what my students are feeling when they take tests, do math, reading, etc. I also learned some of their goals which is something that I can collect data on to show them how they are reaching those goals. Also, I feel that I grew in Standard 2 as well. Standard 2 focuses on adapting for students with needs and working with families to enhance learning. This week, our new student came to us not being able to read sight words. That was a huge learning experience for me because I can’t give this student the same work I am giving my other students. My CE did a great job at showing me how he can be exposed to things the rest of our class is doing, but we have to focus on his level and moving him forward. Also, I started a chart where I will take positive notes on each of my students. I plan on calling all of my parents at the end of each month and telling them positive things that their student took part in. I wanted to write things down throughout the month so I can reference them in the phone call. Next week I will have taught lessons, so I will be able to reference more NCTCS.

I’m ready to take on the next week!