Week six Reflection

 

• Rate and explain your overall experience of the week 1- very difficult to 5- great week. 
• I give this week a 2. There's a lot going on right now. 

• Respond to these questions to end your week: 
• Observe: What pleasant surprises/accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
• This week, I was able to participate in parent-teacher conferences. This was a nice experience. My CE led the first one so that I could watch and get a feel for how to do it. She let me lead all the other ones. Talking about my EC students doing so well in Reading Horizons was very fulfilling. 
• Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week? 
• I have learned that I need to stop sitting behind the desk to teach so much. I have also noticed a correlation to student engagement whenever I am not teaching from behind the desk. I have recently started using the classroom iPad to teach so that I can get up and walk around with it. This allows me to see, talk, and interact with the students more throughout core instruction. 
• Focus: How are my short-term efforts and my long-term goals still aligned? 
• My short-term goal of collaborating with the parents/guardians of my students aligns with my long-term goal of giving my students the best education possible. Whenever talking to the parents during parent-teacher conferences, my CE and I printed mClass data to go over with them. We talked about all of the wonderful things and ways to improve in certain areas. The parents were eager to help and asked for extra work to be sent home. 
• Be productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing? 
• I spent a lot of time on EdTPA this week as well as preparing for my Observation on Monday. Since my observation was in phonics, I did not pay as much attention to the Math lessons as I should have. I messed up some parts of math lessons this week. I went back and fixed things and made sure students understood, but messing up was really not a good feeling. 
• Have courage: How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and did not do? 
• Once I messed up the math lesson earlier this week, I became extremely nervous about all the other math lessons that followed. This caused me to teach from behind the desk so that I could look at the answer key to make sure I was doing the right thing. This is totally opposite of what I am trying to learn how to do though (not teach from behind the desk as often). 
• Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear? 
• The first logical step is to complete EdTPA stuff and lesson plans. It seems as if this is my entire life right now. The only mental clutter I can clear at the moment is the worry about getting started on the Portfolio. I am using some of the things from the parent-teacher conference in my portfolio. The Portfolio on top of EdTPA and weekly lesson plans is just a lot. 

• What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help to inform instructional decisions? 
• Some of the data I looked at this week came from the iReady and mClass Middle-of-Year assessments. This is the data that we shared with the parents at the parent-teacher conferences. I analyzed this data all week to ensure that when I presented it to the parents, I sounded very professional and knew exactly what was going on for each individual student. 

• What is one piece of advice you can share with other student teachers? 
• It is okay to mess up. Do not let your own mind tell you otherwise. Take care of yourself. 

• NC Teacher Candidate Standards:
• Pick an element from standard one of the evaluation tools and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element. 
• I felt that I demonstrated teachers leading in their classrooms. Even though I made a mistake in a lesson, I fixed my mistake and continued leading the classroom. The mistake did not affect the students as much as I thought it would. 
• Pick an element from standard two of the evaluation tools and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element. 
• I felt that I demonstrated teachings by treating students as individuals this week. To prepare for the conferences, I had to look at each individual student as a tiny human and their data. I also treat them as individuals throughout learning times. 
• Pick an element from standard three of the evaluation tools and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for this element. 
• I felt that I demonstrated teachers aligning their instruction to the NCSCOS. All of my lessons were connected to a standard. Even during Knight Academy where students are all working on individualized learning paths. I identified 16 different standards. 
• Pick an element from standard four of the evaluation tools and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element. 
• I felt that I demonstrated teachers planning instruction that was appropriate for their students. All the instruction I planned was aligned with the first-grade team's long-range plan. Students also had prior academic knowledge of other topics up to this point in their learning. 
• Pick an element from standard five of the evaluation tools and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element. 
• I felt that I demonstrated teachers analyzing student learning. With parent-teacher conferences this week, I had to understand and study where each student was scoring on iReady and mClass so that I could explain this to the parents at parent-teacher conferences. 

• Other: 
• What components of your EdTPA and Portfolio have you started to complete? 
• I am working on both. 
• What support does my Clinical educator need from your university supervisor? 
• No support
• What support do you need from your university supervisor? 
• Patience and encouragement.