Ending Week 4

Week of Reflection: Friday, March 1, 2019

Overall, I would rate this past week a 3. It wasn’t a great week, but it wasn’t a terrible one either. Getting back into the swing of things after surgery has been hard. It’s not that I was having a hard time re-connecting with my students, but I just felt like I had missed so much. It was also not the most ideal time to be out for a week with everything going on with edTPA. I know though that I just have to trust that God had a plan in all of this craziness and I just have to trust Him.

A pleasant accomplishment that I achieved this week was that I finished my first novel study unit with my students. We read The BFG with a literary focus on context clues. There are of course so many changes that I would have done, but I feel it went well and I can now say that I completed my first novel study with a group of students. We are starting another on Monday and I can’t wait to use what I learned from the first one to make the next one even better.

A lesson that I learned this week from my experiences was really about being absent when you’re the teacher. I know that me being absent was out of my control, but it really made me stop and think about when I do become the teacher in my own classroom, how important it is to be there, not only for your students, but also for yourself. I had surgery Wednesday and was back in the classroom on Monday. I missed my students so much and was eager to see them all again. Also, the students suffer from you being gone as well. You can leave wonderful plans for the sub, but those don’t matter. You have a special connection with your students and in order for them to truly learn, you need to be there. Thankfully, in this situation, my CE taught since I wasn’t there, but that won’t be the case when it is my classroom!

This past week I spent a lot of time on edTPA. That was expected because of the submission date, but I feel that my lesson plans suffered because of that.

The next step for next week is to focus more on lesson plans now that edTPA will be submitted!

I noticed when grading my student’s spelling tests and looking at previous grades, that my students struggle in spelling. It could be that they are not practicing at home, but it made me integrate more spelling activities into the instructional day. We now have a spelling center where students play spelling tic-tac-toe and students practice writing sentences with their spelling words for morning work once a week.

A piece of advice I would share with other student teachers is that we are halfway

finished! We can finish strong just like we started!

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

Standard 1: I used data to impact how much time I give for spelling each day.

Standard 2: It’s the end of the month again so I am making positive phone calls again! I will also get to meet with a few of my parents at Parent/Teacher conferences this coming week.

Standard 3: We have begun an entrepreneurship unit for social studies and the students are really enjoying it! I’m enjoying watching them learn!

Standard 4: My students are creating their own business with a small group. They only have $5,000 to start their business and they are using critical thinking and problem solving skills to start their business.

Standard 5: I am collecting data on how students are working through their entrepreneurship project so I can see things that need to change about it if I were to use it in my future classroom.

End of Week 3

Week of Reflection: Friday, February 15, 2019

 

This has been a good week overall. I would rate it as a 5. An accomplishment that I had this week was that we are continuing our unit on context clues. One day students were reading a chapter with a partner. In every one of our books, there was a word that didn’t copy right so you couldn’t make out what it was. I was walking around monitoring the students, so I couldn’t sit and figure out the word right then. I told the student that asked me to just skip over it and we would look at it when we come back together whole group. About 5 minutes later, she walks up to me with a huge smile on her face and says, “Mrs. Oaks, I used context clues and figured out what the word was.” Talk about being proud!

After reflecting back on my small groups this week, I realized that I definitely need to go back and reteach the type of context clues that we were working on this week. We were working on restatement clues and I could tell that none of the groups were getting it. It could have been my lesson or it could have been the concept. Either way I’m going back to reteach it because I can’t move on and expect my students to keep going if they didn’t understand!

I worked on edTPA this week and this short term effort aligns with my long term goal of passing it!

I feel that I could have spent more time on my portfolio. I have been focused a lot on edTPA, but I want to make sure that I am developing a strong portfolio.

This week I worked on more discipline. It became aware to me that I tell students to stop doing things, but there are no consequences if they continue to do it. I have tried to work on that more this week.

This next step for next week is to work more on my portfolio and finish up edTPA!

This past week, I looked at the grades from the bar graph assessments and my students did great on it! That showed me that I could move on to our area and perimeter unit!

A piece of advice I would give to other student teachers is to keep your head held

high. Some of us are half-way through and some of us are almost there. I am starting my 4th full week this coming week. We can do this! Our students are learning so much and we are making a difference. We have to believe that and finish strong just the way we started.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

Standard 1: I analyzed student data from our graphing unit and realized that students were ready to move onto the next unit.

Standard 2: I have a student that has developed some serious behavior issues. I have chosen to implement a behavior plan on this student and I collaborated with the principal to ask his opinions on the plan and ask for any changes that needed to be made before I presented it to the student.

I also had students complete a timeline including their graduation from high school date!

Standard 3: I have been trying to include vocabulary into every lesson that I teach because that is integrating the literacy into each subject.

Standard 4: I integrate a lot of group/partner work into my instruction. In the beginning I did not because my students are very chatty, but I am learning to use that to my advantage.

Standard 5: I analyzed student learning from the math unit and realized that we were ready to move onto the next unit.

Ending Week 2

Week of Reflection: Friday, February 8, 2019

I have reached the end of week 2! It’s been a busy week and I’m super tired, but everything went well! I would rate it as a 5.

An accomplishment this week was that I started a novel study with my students and we are reading The BFG. This novel can be challenging for some students, so I was a little worried about how the students would handle it. They took their first quiz today and they all did great! I was so pleased with them and their hard work. I even have a non-reader in my classroom that always sits and listens to the novel being read aloud and he answers the daily response journal questions orally when I sit down with him one-on-one. I’m so proud of all of my students and their hard work on this novel. It makes me feel good knowing that they understand it.

I have realized this week that I do good with making sure I have things for my lower students, but I often forget about my high-fliers. Next week, I will ensure that I have things for them to either be researching or creating after they finish something early because I noticed them being bored this week especially.

I am continuing to focus on parts of the NCTCS to meet the long term goal of having

them all complete!

I feel that I could have spent more time having things for my higher students to do because I spent a lot of time on making sure that my lower level learners are getting what they needed.

I am beginning to have a few behavior issues in my classroom. I am working on implementing more discipline and having consequences. I think that is one of my biggest apprehensions. I also need to work on rewarding the positive behavior.

The steps for next week just include finalizing everything and having everything prepared for the next week!

I started a unit on bar graphs this week and the students did well with it. I gave one assignment where they were creating a bar graph and one where they were answering questions from a bar graph. I graded these and looked at the grades to see how students did and where they were on the topic. Then, on Thursday and Friday during our WIN time, I sat down with the ones who didn’t do so well and looked at the two assignments again with them to determine misconceptions and what I needed to do differently to ensure that they grasped the topic.

One piece of advice for other student teachers is to never forget to reward the positive behavior. I think we often forget about those because we never have to call them out, but they deserve to be rewarded for doing the right thing.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

Standard 1: On Monday, we participated in learning walks during our planning time where we went to 2nd grade to observe them. At the end of the day, during our faculty meeting, we sat down and talked about the experience and things we learned. It was a great experience!

Standard 2: I did a lot of adaptations for my lower level students. I just need to work on remembering my higher students!

Standard 3: Students completed an activity where they pretended they were immigrants and had to choose 5 items that they would bring with them if they were to have to leave everything.

Standard 4: I have been working hard on incorporating collaboration and group work time into my lessons. My class loves to chat, so I’m learning to use that to my advantage.

Standard 5: I looked back on my student learning from bar graphs and used that to drive what I needed to do next.

End of Week 1

Week of Reflection: Friday, February 1, 2018

This has been quite an interesting week! This was my first full week of teaching and I think it went well for the craziness that the week held! On Monday, I had to be out due to bronchitis. I hated being away from my students, so I was eager to be back in the classroom on Tuesday! On Thursday and Friday of this week, my teacher has been out of town, so I have had a substitute in my room just to be an extra set of hands in case anything was to go wrong. Therefore, I was really by myself on my first week! It was a great experience though and I know that the rest of my 10 weeks will be exciting and rewarding! Overall, I would rate this week as a 5 because despite all the obstacles that I had to face, everything went well!

A pleasant accomplishment this week would have to be just getting that first week over with of teaching everything. It was a huge milestone to get over. Only 9 more weeks to go!

A lesson that I learned this week is that even though we have a math program at my school, we aren’t required to follow it word for word. It is supposed to be used more as a guide than a script. I tried following along just as the lesson did in the book, but I found that it does not work for me. I didn’t feel like the students learned anything from it being done that way, so I know that I will definitely go back to just using it as a guide for my lessons.

This past week, I set up an observation time with the principal at my school. He asked if he could come in and observe me just like he would a teacher that worked at his school. I will be able to get feedback and a copy of everything that he felt I did good at and the things that I need to work on. This short term effort aligns with my long term goal of having my own classroom in the near future!

I feel like I could have spent more time on edTPA this week. I feel that I am prepared to teach next week, but I feel that more time could have been spent on it.

I was a little apprehensive teaching without my CE being present, but I quickly got over that and kept moving forward. I knew that if my students could see the apprehension in my eyes, then I would never get anywhere with them. I kept the routine and taught what I had prepared and everything went great!

The first step for next week is to get everything prepared to record my edTPA lessons!

We finally got all of our scores in place from middle of year testing and our new WIN groups have been formed. This gave me the opportunity to find out who would be in my group and what they needed to work on. This gave me the opportunity to plan accordingly.

I began my positive monthly phone calls this past week and will continue to finish them at the beginning of the coming week (I have such a huge class). I must say, this has been so rewarding! Hearing the parents say how much they appreciate hearing from me and keeping that communication line open is so nice to hear. I wanted to explain to them all that it was my first full week and the changes that would be happening in the next few weeks with me teaching full time. It was so nice to just speak to them about GOOD things their students are doing and how proud I am of all of them. I recommend talking with all of your parents at least once while you are teaching!

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

Standard 1: I worked with the 3rd grade team and testing coordinators to develop our new WIN groups.

Standard 2: I began making positive phone calls home to interact with the parents/families and work together with them to get their students everything that they need to be successful.

Standard 3: This past week, we worked on the skeletal system. We talked about breaking a bone and what happens if we do that around here. Then, we talked about children in other countries and what they go through if they break a bone. I showed pictures of hospitals in Africa and we compared/contrasted their hospitals to ours. We also looked at a picture of a cast that we would have here in the USA and then we looked at a picture of bamboo and a picture of palm leaves to show the students that in other countries the bamboo is used to stabilize the broken bone and the palm leaf is wrapped around for support.

Standard 4: I shied away from a lot of class discussions like we had done in the past and let my students work in teams this week to complete different fables that we were discussing. It was cool to see how everyone worked together and what they accomplished.

Standard 5: I reflected on the teaching of the math lesson straight from the book and knew that my students could have learned more, so I made the change to go back to just using it as a guide.

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.