Weekly Reflections: January 18th

      This week I was able to have more time with just the students and I.  My CE had to be out a lot this week for TRC testing and assessing math task.  My TA and I worked well together this week in the classroom.  All in all this week has been good in the classroom.  All of my lessons went well and the students seemed to really enjoy them.  I could tell the students enjoyed the lessons because they were all engaged in their learning by answering questions and asking questions about the content.  As far as the students behavior it was better at the beginning of the week then toward the end of the week.  We had a student who had been out for awhile come back this week and this made some of the other students act out.  We are working on checking ourselves and making sure we are making good choices because the students know they are in charge of their own actions.  I rate my experience this week as a level three.  I would say a level three because of the behavior back tracking that took place this week for some of the students.  My accomplishment this week would be taking over the roles of the teacher while she was out of the room.  I was able to teach all subjects this week successfully, I was able to keep all of the students in their routine, and I was able to get every student where they needed to be for dismissal.  The lesson my work experience taught me this week is the importance of time management during the day in the classroom.  Being in the classroom all day with the students I have seen how every minute counts and is valuable learning time for the students.  I have also seen how there is not enough time in the day.  Any minute I can use reviewing important concepts/skills with the students will benefit their learning in a positive way.   I will build upon this realization next week by making sure I have mini activities to do with the students during the transition times throughout the day.  I will also make sure to have extra educational activities for the students to do if they finish their work early that will benefit them and help the specific student with what they are struggling with.  I would say my short-term efforts for next week and the remaining of student teaching is to really focus on the blooms taxonomy and asking the higher level questions to students.  This is one of my weaknesses when I am teaching.  I forget to incorporate the higher level questions and build off of students responses.  This comes from not being taught in this way when I was in school.  Sometimes I am nervous when teaching in front of adults in the room and will forget to include the higher level questions I had planned to include while I am teaching.  This short-term goal aligns to my long-term goal of being successful in my student teaching and as a future teacher.  By including the blooms taxonomy in my teaching I will be able to push my students to take their understandings even further with the content.
     I could of spent more time with my edTPA task and my portfolio if I had been ahead with my lesson planning this week.  I am spending too much time working on my lesson plans and gathering the materials needed for the next day each afternoon.  I will focus my efforts this week on completing my lesson plans early and gathering all the materials needed for each day at the beginning of the week.  This way I will have more time to spend on my edTPA task and my portfolio.  I would say I was apprehensive this week with some of the letterland and phonics strategies.  I was scared I would not do them right.  I ended up doing well with them, I just had to get over my apprehension about them.  I went through exactly what I would say and do with my CE before I taught this aspect to the students.  This was a big help to ease my apprehension.  The first step for next week will be to have all of my materials ready for the whole week.  Also, I will begin on my lesson plans for the following week so I can get those done early.  This way I will be able to spend more time fixing my edTPA task and working on my portfolio during the week.  The data I was able to review this week was the middle of the year mclass data on each of our students.  This includes their dibles and TRC scores.  We also looked at the students understandings on the book and print concepts.  We reviewed all of the mclass data for kindegarten during our data analysis day.  We were able to take the data and determine which students need to be pulled for intervention strategies throughout our class and all of the kindegarten classes.  I was also able to see how each student in our class has grown or not grown from the beginning of the year data to the middle of the year data.  This data helped us determine our guided reading groups and helped us identify the specific needs some of our students have individually that we can work on with them.  One piece of advice I would give other student teachers is to take part in any meetings, goal teams, data analysis discussion, etc. that you can.  I have really been able to learn so much more about many aspects in teaching such as data and teaching stratgies by taking part in these meetings.  I will use all of the information and wisdom I have learned in these meetings to help guide me in my teaching as a future educator.
NC Teacher Candidate Standard  
Standard 1d- Teachers advocate for schools and students.  I was able to see during the data analysis how the teachers advocated for their students and their school.  The teachers stood up for their students and explained how far they had came from the beginning of the year with the concepts they had been focusing on.  The teachers then explained how they had not spent as much time on other concepts so the students would not have known how to do any better in those specific areas.  The teachers advocated for their school by expressing how much the school had grown in percentages each year and how they will this year as well.
Standard 2c- Teachers treat students as individuals.  I was able to observe this aspect during the data analysis meeting the teachers went through each child to determine what each child individually needed to be successful with the content and the standards.
Standard 3c- Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.  I have been able to incorporate and connect all of the subjects together when teaching a lesson.  I have been able to help students to see the relevance of the content and help strengthen their global awareness.  We were able to use google earth, maps, and experience the live of a snowflake through the lens of a snowflake, etc.  The students really respond well and stay more engaged in the lesson when global awareness is involved.  
Standard 4d- Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction.  I was able to use technology in my lessons this week.  Our technology is fixed as of this week!  The technology aspect I really liked the most this week was the life of a snowflake through the eyes of a snowflake in a video.  I was also able to use the smart board for some of my lessons this week, this allows the students to be hands on with the material.  The students really enjoy any type of technology aspect in the classroom.
Standard 5a- Teachers analyze student learning.  I was able to analyze the students learning by reviewing their data from their middle of the year mclass testing for my class and the whole grade level.  This was completed during the kindergarten data analysis day, I was able to attend.
Other
I was able to complete my educational philosophy this week.  I am working on the global awareness aspect this week and the website.  We do not need any support at this time from my university supervisor.