Week 9

Week of Reflection: Friday, April 5, 2019

Overall, I would rate this week as a 3. It’s been a tough week on me emotionally. Everything went good teaching, but my father-in-law has been in the hospital, and I found out I have to have kidney stone surgery again, so it’s just been a tough week.

A pleasant accomplishment this week was getting edTPA scores back. I didn’t score as high as I would have liked to, but I did well and I need to be proud of myself considering all the personal hurdles that have been thrown at me this semester. I hope things slow down soon and get back to somewhat normal.

This past week we began a review fraction unit because after talking with my CE, we decided that fractions was one thing that we needed to review with our class to make sure they understand them before the EOG in a month. The unit I am using is very hands on with the students and they love it. I will continue to use this throughout my last week of teaching this coming week and will include even more hands-on activities because it really seems like the students are understanding it!

My short-term efforts of working on my portfolio and getting everything finished aligns with my long-term goal of getting everything finished and graduating!

I did a lot of worrying this week based on personal issues. Like I said before, my father-in-law is very sick and has been in the hospital. Also, at my last kidney check-up they found another big stone in my right kidney and they will have to do surgery again after graduation, as long as the stone stays where it is. I’ve just done a lot of worrying, which I know I shouldn’t have and I could have spent that energy doing more productive things. I just need to trust God and realize that there is a reason for everything.

I don’t feel that I had any apprehension or indecision this week that impacted what I did and didn’t do.

My first logical step for next week is to start the week off strong because it is my last full week of student teaching and my CE won’t be there on Monday so I will be by myself all day on Monday.

Like I said earlier, we began a review unit on fractions. I gave a quiz on the third day to analyze student learning. I wanted the students to make at least an 80% to be proficient and I was going to use this data to determine whether or not we were ready to move on in the unit. My students did great on the quiz and it was clear that they were ready to move on!

A piece of advice I would share with other student teachers is to try and leave personal issues at the door. I had a breakdown with my CE Wednesday morning after I got to school before the students got there because I felt like everything was happening at once. I knew though that as soon as my students got there, I had to act brave and leave my issues behind because they needed me to be strong. I dried my tears and stood in front of them with a smile because that’s what they needed and it helped me to forget about everything for a little bit.

This week I analyzed student data which relates to NCTCS Standard 5. I also taught the fraction lessons in many different ways so I used a variety of instructional methods. This relates to NCTCS Standard 4.