Week Five Reflection

 

    This is a photo of the materials I prepared this past weekend for my week. For so long, I struggled with how to get organized for my lessons each week. I finally found a way! A simple bin from Dollar General and a pack of folders on Amazon did the trick! I look at this photo of these folders and can't help but think about how much time I spend with my students and how I can impact them. I love every bit of it! 

• Rate and explain your overall experience of the week 1-very difficult to 5-great week. 
• This week is a 5! It was an awesome week! This was my second full week of student teaching. Taking into account my experiences from last week and the many pieces of advice I was given from many people, I made changes and thought about things differently this week. It made for a great, smooth week. 

• Respond to these questions to end your week: 
• Observe: What pleasant surprises/accomplishments did I achieve this week?
• On Tuesday, my CE was absent. This was the first time my CE had ever been absent with me there. There was a substitute in the room with me the entire day. In last week's blog, I talked about how nervous I was for my CE to not be there considering I have a SAIL student who does not usually listen to me very well. I was pleasantly surprised on Tuesday as my SAIL student did WONDERFUL! There were no issues, tears, meltdowns... NOTHING! He did WONDERDUL! I actually think I saw him laugh more that day than ever before. I felt accomplished as he and I both made it through the day with feelings of pure happiness! My heart felt happy. 
• Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week? 
• This week, I learned how to reassign lessons on Reading Horizons which helped me build upon my lessons for next week. Previously, Reading Horizons did not have an option to reassign lessons that students did not score well on. This new feature is wonderful because it allows my students to try again. Sometimes, the student knows the content, they just click through without actually trying, reading, or listening. I try to combat this by rewarding green lessons with candy. I had one specific student this week who had never scored in the red before to score in the red. I called him over to me and asked what was going on. I fully believe he just clicked through because I KNOW that he knows the content. He is one of the most advanced students in this class. He did cry a little bit because his parents have instilled the importance of good grades into him. I hugged him tight and told him that it was okay and that it just happens sometimes. I then explained that I could let him try again since I knew he could get a green. He smiled really big when I told him he could try again and make that red go away. He promised me to try his best this time. Before he walked back to his seat, I told him that if he needed help or was the slightest bit confused, to tell me and we would work through it together. I reassigned the lesson, but he has not been able to complete the lesson yet. He will retake the skills check next week. 
• Focus: How are my short-term efforts and my long-term goals still aligned? 
• I had a huge focus on organization and preparation this week. I noticed that when my CE was teaching, she had 5 folders labeled with the days of the week. She would then print all materials for the week and place them into these folders. So, when that day came, she would just pull that folder out and be ready to go! I went to Dollar General this past weekend and bought a bucket for $5. I also purchased a pack of folders on Amazon that were on sale. On Sunday, I spent 2+ hours printing all of my materials for this week, plus some other things to keep in the bucket. I then organized all the materials into folders and placed them in the bucket. I took that bucket with me to school Monday and simply stuck it under my desk. I pulled the folder for that day out and began teaching. It was the easiest, most peaceful week because I did not have to worry about printing materials for the following day throughout the week. I decided that this would be my new organizational and preparation bucket. I take this folder home with me on Fridays to fill up over the weekend. I then bring this folder back on Mondays to use throughout the week.  This aligns my short-term efforts of learning how to prepare properly with my long-term goals of being the best teacher I can be as I am learning how to organize and prepare without all the unnecessary stress throughout the week. The picture you see at the beginning of my Blog is the picture of the bucket in my apartment on Sunday night after it had been filled. 
• Be Productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing? 
• I could have spent more time preparing lesson plans for next week. I was focused heavily on EdTPA this week. It took up a lot of my time. This was good because I got a lot of things done, but also bad because I now have a lot of planning to do with such a short amount of time. Hopefully, this issue will resolve itself once I complete EdTPA. 
• Have Courage: How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and did not do? 
• I was indecisive about whether the lessons I planned were enough this week. I did not know if I had planned enough instruction and activities to fill all of the time throughout the day. Since I was nervous about this, I printed extra activities and stuck them in an "extras" folder just in case. I am glad I did this because it definitely came in handy. This is something I will continue doing until I feel comfortable with the amount of instruction and activities that I plan. This is my plan B if something messes up throughout the week. 
• Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear? 
• Looking to next week, my first logical step is to divide my time spent on EdTPA and lesson planning equally instead of just focusing on one or the other. I need to find a healthy balance. I cannot really clear any mental clutter at this time since the stress of the semester is at an all-time high. EdTPA submission is coming up and I am really feeling the stress of it. I look forward to next week because we have parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and a work day on Friday where we will get to participate in multiple trainings! 

• What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help to inform instructional decisions? 
• Some data I analyzed this week was from Reading Horizons. Since we can reassign lessons now, we are going back through and reassigning lessons that students did not score the best on. I also talked to the one student I mentioned earlier who scored in the red. We talked about what was going on and then reassigned his lesson. I will analyze his data upon completion of the lesson next week and move along from there. 

• What is one piece of advice you can share with other student teachers? 
• I want to encourage other student teachers to find a healthy balance for everything. One of the teachers at my school who went through student teaching at Gardner-Webb last year said that there are some days when you need to leave your teacher bag at school and just go home. She told me that it is okay to have days like this because we as teachers need to take care of ourselves. Students don't need a perfect teacher, they just need one who is happy, healthy and cares for them. 

• 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 the most. This was the first time I had ever taught without my CE, so I had no choice but to step up and be fully in control. I am proud of myself! 
• 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 teachers treating students as individuals the most. When students were completing Reading Horizons reassigned lessons, I talked to them about lessons that they needed to redo and what we could do to score better this time. I made sure that they individually understood what they were doing. 
• Pick an element from Standard Three 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 aligning their instruction with the NCSCOS the most. For my lessons this week, I took a deep dive into the first-grade standards to make sure that each of my lessons perfectly matched a standard(s). 
• 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 using a variety of methods to assess what each student has learned the most. The methods of assessment we use in the classroom vary from pencil and paper to technology apps. Many of the online apps try to make learning as fun as possible so that students are engaged and try their best. 
• 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 feel that I demonstrated teachers analyzing student learning the most. Since I learned how to reassign Reading Horizons lessons this week, I looked over some student data from previous lessons and reassigned lessons that I felt students needed extra practice with or could score better in. 

• Other: 
• What components of your EdTPA and portfolio have you started to complete? 
• I am working on various parts of EdTPA. As for the portfolio, I have tried to think, plan, read, review, etc. about what to do, but I do not understand the portfolio. I do not understand what is supposed to go in there, what I need to do, what I should have already done, what I need to start doing, etc. I could really use some clarification (or something like a checklist) for the portfolio. 
• What support does my clinical educator need from your university supervisor? 
• My clinical Educator does not need anything from my university supervisor at this time. 
• What support do you need from your university supervisor/ 
• I feel that I am doing well so I do not need much support right now. I just ask for encouragement and patience at this time! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you need a good laugh, I have some cheesy jokes for you! Check back every week for a new joke! 

This week's joke: 

What do you call the world's smallest Valentine's Day card? 

Answer down below↓

A valen-teeny!