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.