Weekly Reflections: February 15th

      High ho, heigh ho, off to student teaching we go!  I can not believe how fast my student teaching weeks are going by.  I have really enjoyed this experience thus far and have learned more than I had imagined.  This week went well with my lessons and the students behavior.  I feel with each day I am becoming stronger and more confident with my classroom management techniques.  I would rate this week as a five.  Although, most of the week was good we still had a few behavioral challenges in the middle of the week.  My pleasant surprise this week would be how well the 100th day centers went.  The kindergarten teachers had never done these centers before, but wanted to try them after I had suggested it.  Each center had different activities for the students to take part in for their 100th day celebration.  This was a great way to control the chaos and the snack time.  The students really enjoyed this experience.  The lesson I learned this week would be to stay consistent with my classroom management techniques.  The students haven't felt good so I had not been as consistent as the week before.  I learned this does not work and I should stay consistent with the classroom management techniques so that the students respond well at all times.  I will build upon this next week by staying consistent with the classroom management techniques so the students behavior will not erupt. 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 have been able to add more of these questions in my lessons this week, but I would like for them to come more as second nature at some point.  I want to build more off of students responses and help them to dig deeper into their understandings.  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 to the next level.  I could of spent more time teaching if I would have been more consistent with my classroom management.  Instead, of spending more time correcting behaviors in the classroom.  I would say I was apprehensive about sharing my ideas with the PTO during the meeting.  I will feel more confident for the next meeting to share my ideas.  The next week my steps would be to make sure everything is ready for my lessons and centers.  I will then have more time to work on my edTPA task.  I was able to review the sight word data this week to determine which words we need to focus on next week for the students.  One piece of advice I would share with other student teachers is to start your own collection of resources to use for your class next year.  For example, the 100's day items I can save and use with my class next year.
NC Teacher Candidate Standards  
 Standard 1a- Teachers lead in their classrooms.  I was able to be a leader by taking control of the behavior in the class with my classroom management techniques. 
Standard 2a- Teachers treat students as individuals.  I was able to treat students as individuals by greeting each student individually each morning at the door. 
Standard 3d- Teachers make instruction relevant to students.  I related the instruction to students by having them think about a time they took part in an event the characters in our stories did.
Standard 4d- Teachers utilize technology in the classroom.  I was able to use many smart board activities for math with addition this week.  The students loved these and were fully engaged in the material by using these.
Standard 5b- Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.  I was able to see where my students are and I am able to see how I need to change my goals and teaching to help the students be successful in all subject areas.      
Other 
I was able to work on the global awareness piece of the portfolio this week.  My CE and I do not need any support at this time.