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!
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