Weekly Reflection - February 22nd

Seven Questions to End the Week:

  This week has been very stressful, mostly because of edTPA coming up! Due to this, I would rate my week as a 3. This week, i was pleasantly surprised by my students' ability to work together to create a map! My students worked together in collaborative teams to create a map of Kings Mountain. This was done as an assessment of what they've learned about maps (including symbols and directions) throughout the week. I was a slightly nervous about this project, but my students proved to be capable of working together to create symbols, a key, and even questions for other groups to answer about the directions of different places on their maps. This taught me that seven year olds are often capable of much more than I tend to realize. My short term goal this coming week is to continue to push my students to make sure I am challenging them. This aligns with my long term goal of helping my students learn to their highest potential. This week, I could've spent more time working on edTPA. I am hoping to use this weekend to finish everything so that I can just polish my writing next week. The due date is coming up fast! Apprehension almost caused me to not plan for the students to create a map for social studies, and I am so glad that I decided to try this activity anyway. My students absolutely loved getting to create maps in teams, and it was a great activity. The first logical step for next week is to continue working and perfecting my edTPA!

This week, I analyzed my students' progress monitoring data in order to regroup my guided reading groups. 

One piece of advice I would share this week is to keep pushing through and always remember why you're doing this! We are so close to becoming teachers and gaining our own classrooms!

NCTCS Standards:

Standard 1d: Teachers advocate for schools and students.

This week I have advocated for my students by recommending my students who need extra support for tier two and tier three during MTSS meetings for our grade level.

Standard 2d. Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs.

This week I have adapted my teaching for one of my students in EC so that he was able to join the whole group but was also able to complete work on his level.

Standard 3d. Teachers make instruction relevant to students.

I connected learning to students by showing them maps of Kings Mountain while we learned about maps and symbols during social studies. 

Standard 4a. Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional

development of their students.

This week I was able to use multiple ways of learning through small math group centers. The students used technology, hands on activities, and manipulatives.

Standard 5a. Teachers analyze student learning.

This week I have analyzed the progress monitoring data in order to inform my guided reading groups. 

This week I have worked on the videos/pictures I need for my portfolio. My clinical educator and I do not need any extra support from my university supervisor at the moment. 

Weekly Reflection - February 15th

Seven questions to end your week:

This week went very well, and I would rate it as a 5! I am getting better at writing my lessons, which means it is not taking me nearly as much time. I am also very comfortable in my classroom, so teaching every day has become easier as well! This week, I accomplished getting through a week with two celebration days! I was very worried since this week we celebrated both the 100th day of school and Valentine's Day. Any adjustment to my class's schedule throws my students off for the week. Although it was a difficult week for behavior, I was able to get through it without too many bumps in the road. This week, I learned that it is extremely important to engage the students, especially on days that their mind is other places. On Valentine's Day, I had to work a lot harder to engage my students, and I believe that having more effective hooks in my lessons could've helped with this. I will implement more engaging activities and hooks in the future. My short term efforts this week have been to complete task two for edTPA. This aligns with my long term goal of completing and passing edTPA to become licensed. This week I could've spent less time worrying and stressing about the students not listening or behaving this week! I was very worried since this was a crazy week, but I was more capable of handling it than I realized. The first logical steps for next week are to begin working on task three of my edTPA commentary.

This week, I analyzed my students' work on shapes based on their independent work and their quizzes in order to form intervention groups for next week. 

NCTCS

1c. Teachers lead the teaching profession.

This week I have worked on standard 1c by sharing tech tools with my grade level. My students have been using storyjumper.com to create a book the past few weeks, and I was able to share that with my grade level. 

2d. Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs.

This week I have adapted my math instruction for a student with special needs by providing him work on the same topic, but on a first grade level.

3a. Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

This week I have aligned all of my lesson plans with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

4c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods.

 This week, almost all of our work has been connected to Valentine's Day or the 100th day of school. This helped me to be creative and use a variety of instructional methods to make learning both fun and productive throughout the week. 

5a. Teachers analyze student learning.

This week I have analyzed my students' work on shapes to determine who needs to be put in my intervention group next week. 

Other:This week I have been working on rewriting my philosophy and editing it to reflect what I have learned as a teacher. I do not believe my CE or I need any extra support from my university supervisor at this time.

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Weekly Reflection -February 8th

Seven Questions:

This week, I would rate my week as a 3. This week has been very difficult as far as my work load goes due to the fact that my grandfather has passed away. Although this week has been extremely difficult, I am incredibly thankful for my university supervisor and clinical educator for the support they have given me. I am also incredibly thankful for the sweet class of students I am privileged to teach. The smiles, hugs, and sweet personalities of my students were something I needed this week, and they definitely made this week a little brighter.

This week, I was pleasantly surprised by my students having the ability to complete their science projects! Although I had confidence that my students would be able to complete the project, I had no idea the amount of creativity each group of students would bring to their projects. They came up with ideas I had never even thought of, and I was very proud of them. Throughout this science unit, I definitely learned not to underestimate the ability of a seven year old. They are capable of creating and using the creativity they have to do amazing things. I need to incorporate these skills more in the future. This week, my short term efforts were to complete my edTPA lessons successfully! This is aligned to my long term goal of passing edTPA to gain my teaching license. This week, I could have spent more time preparing to teach each of my lessons. This would have helped me not be as stressed. This week I have been much more confident and have had much more courage in my teaching. Now that I have gotten used to being in charge of the entire school day, I have finally began to fall into a routine. The first logical step for next week is to complete task two of edTPA.

This week, I analyzed the author's purpose tests that I gave my students in order to inform my WIN intervention groups. This helped me to see who needed to be re-engaged.

One piece of advice I could share with other student teachers this week is to utilize the resources around you. My CE, as well as the other second grade teachers, have been extremely helpful each week as I have questions about planning.

NCTCS:

1c. Teachers lead the teaching profession.

This week, I have participated in data dives with my grade level. This has been extremely beneficial for me in order to help me learn more about dibels and TRC testing.

2a. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults.

This week I have had the opportunity to speak with one of my students who comes from a less than ideal home situation. This helped me to understand this student in a better way, and also helped me to have the opportunity to encourage this child as well.

3c. Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.

This week I was able to integrate the literacy idea of cause and effect with the idea of sound for science. 

4e. Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

This week, during my WIN lessons, I was able to help students think critically by helping them to compare and contrast author's purpose. We talked about the three purposes, inform, entertain, and persuade, and I helped students think critically about the difference between the three.

5c. Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment.

This week, we have had awards day and picture day. Awards day was scheduled, but picture day was just an all day event where we waited to be called. These events forced me to be flexible and still complete my lessons in a complex environment. 

Other:

This week, I have worked on my resume that will be included in my portfolio. 

My CE and I do not need any support at this time. 

Weekly Reflection - February 1st

Seven questions to end your week:

This week was a much better week! Having a normal schedule and normal week made things run so much more smoothly. I would rate this week as a 5. This week, I was pleasantly surprised by my students being so excited about what they were learning about in science. We learned about sound, and the students absolutely loved getting to interact with different sound making items. This week, I worked a lot on my pacing. I looked over my lesson plans and I feel as if I have a much better grasp of how many assignments to plan for my students in each lesson, and how long the assignments will take them. Since I was learning that this week, many of the things I had planned in my lessons got taken out and adjusted. I feel this helped me plan much better for next week. My short-term efforts have been to understand how to pace my lessons and gain a better idea of how long my students need to complete assignments. This has been aligned to my long-term goal of becoming the best teacher I can for my students because I need to be able to plan appropriately timed lessons in order to ensure that I am helping my students learn as much as possible. This week, I could have spent less time getting my materials together. I found myself staying after school many days this week just printing and making copies. I need to work on having my materials ready for the entire week before the weekend is over. This week I felt as if I had much more courage when disciplining the students. I have begun to feel much more comfortable taking the lead in the classroom, and the students are beginning to understand that they have to listen to me and follow my direction. The first logical step for next week is to begin looking at the edTPA videos I have taken so far and find out what questions I feel like I cannot answer in my task two commentary. That way I can make sure to include these things in next weeks edTPA video.

This week, I analyzed my students data using the vertical way to solve subtraction problems in order to inform my reteach lesson for task four. This helped me to see the errors in procedural fluency that I was able to address during WIN time with my math intervention group.

One piece of advice I would share with other student teachers is just to rely on God to find strength and peace, and remember that He is the one that led you to be a teacher. Always remember why you are here and why you want to be an educator.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

1a: Teachers lead in their classrooms.

I have taken responsibility for my students' learning this week by constantly analyzing their everyday work and adjusting my lessons accordingly. This week, I analyzed data from Wednesday's math lesson and realized the entire class needed more help on parallel lines. Therefore, I have pushed my lessons back one day to accommodate their needs.

2c: Teachers treat students as individuals.

This week, I have implemented one of my behavior plans for a student that struggles to provide work that is his best. This has helped me treat him as an individual and maintain high expectations for him.

3d. Teachers make instruction relevant to students.

This week, I have made learning relevant to my students during science. Sound is something that my students experience every day, but they had no idea how sound occurred. Teaching them about something that they had curiosities about made the teaching relevant to them.

4c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods.

This week in math, we have learned about shapes. The students had the opportunity to look at shapes, draw shapes, create shapes with raw spaghetti noodles, and use pattern blocks. This helped provide a variety of instructional methods to help all students learn.

5a. Teachers analyze student learning.

This week I was able to analyze multiple assignments that students turned in in order to help inform my decisions for math instruction.

Other:

This week I have been working more on my class website for my portfolio.

My clinical educator and I do not need any extra support at this moment.