Week Four Reflection

 

    Through middle and high school, there was a substitute teacher that everyone knew- Mrs. Tweety Stewart. Mrs. Stewart has high expectations and no time for funny business. Mrs. Stewart is a well-known and loved woman in my town who still substitutes in the classroom today! The quote above is what she told every class she ever subbed in. I am a senior in college now and I still say this to myself daily. As we are all picking up full-time teaching, we should be reminded to work until our good is better and our better is our best! 

• Rate and explain your overall experience of the week 1-very difficult to 5-great week. 
• I would rate this week as a 4! It has been an awesome week and I have learned a lot. This week, I picked up full-time teaching. It was tough at first because I felt like I was constantly running around trying to manage a circus. I have really buckled down on classroom management this week. My CE gave me some good advice that helped me. My CE explained that it was easier to be tough with extremely high (but appropriate) expectations in the beginning, and then lighten up towards the end. I was also able to participate in a PLC meeting as well as a professional development day full of trainings from various people. 

• Respond to these questions to end your week: 
• Observe: What pleasant surprises/accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
• This week, one of my EC students scored 100% on one of their Reading Horizons lessons! I was thrilled! I was also pleasantly surprised at how well I did with this being my first full week of student teaching. I did have some bumps in the road, and I am still working on finding a good organizational system for materials and lessons each week, but I am making progress! I have found that with planning, planning isn't the difficult part. Organizing, filing, and preparing is the difficult part. This may just be because of EdTPA lesson plans though. I am curious to see if it will be easier to sort and organize lessons and materials once we are granted permission to stop using the EdTPA Lesson Plan Format. 
• Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
• This week, I learned that it is okay to be stern and firm and still love your students. For so long, I have worried about discipline and management because I thought my students would hate me. A few weeks ago, Dr. Hamilton gave me some advice. She said, "If you are unsure of how many warnings to give, they are unsure of how many you will give, then you have a problem. Clearly set the expectations, and then do it, in a kind, consistent, and empathetic manner. Consistency and kindness is the key". To be very honest, I have this exact quote saved on a sticky note on my MacBook home screen and I read it every day. When my students figured out that I was not playing around anymore about classroom management aspects, I noticed an upward trend in their grades. Since they are not playing around anymore, I think they are focusing and learning. This is obvious in their grades. 
• Focus: How are my short-term efforts and my long-term goals still aligned? 
• My short-term efforts of learning, understanding, and somewhat using EVAAS are aligned with my long-term goals of being the best teacher I can possible be. On Tuesday, I was able to sit in on the First-Grade PLC Meeting with the Assistant Principal regarding EVAAS. At this meeting, the AP trained students on how to look at their personal data and what it means. Then, on Friday we had a workday that involved a lot of trainings. One of the trainings came from a man in the county office. This man was an EVAAS expert (in my opinion)! I took plenty of notes during this training! EVAAS is...
• what the data tells us and how we can use that to inform instruction. 
• EVAAS is not an evaluation piece 
• EVAAS is a tool to improve student learning and to help teachers reflect on their effectiveness. 
• EVAAS helps to look at which group(s) of students grew (high kids, low kids, AIG kids, etc.). 
• EVAAS helps to predict student success 
• Fact or Fiction activity we completed as a grade level: 
• It is more difficult to grow high-achieving students (Fiction) 
• It is more difficult to grow low-achieving students (Fiction) 
• Our school exceeded growth last year which makes it harder this year (Fiction)
• My rating is a standard on my evaluation (Fiction)
• I did not meet growth last year therefore I cannot exceed this year (Fiction) 
• I can calculate my own growth (Fiction) 
• My EVAAS data defines me as a teacher (Fiction) 
• EVAAS data is designed to rate schools (Fiction)
• EVAAS is formative data 
• EVAAS has no answers, it helps teachers ask better questions 
• This data is not about the kids, it is about the impact adults have on a group of students
• Growth vs Proficiency: 
• Any school has the potential to grow students 
• Do not focus on growth alone- focus on the kid and their learning. Growth will come. 
• Proficiency: Whether the students crossed the finish line or not by the end of the school year. 
• Growth: A student's progress versus the average progress of the other students 
• Achievement is highly correlated with demographic factors 
• Important Vocabulary: 
• Growth Index: an indicator of certainty that the group of students met, exceeded, or fell short of expected growth. 
• Growth Measure: Conservative estimate of the growth that students made on average. 
• Standard error: the measure of the quantity and quality of student-level data.
• Value added: Enables you to select data of interest 
• Gain Model: 
• How achievement changes from one year to the next relative to other students in the state 
• Scale scores convert to NCEs because: 
• Equal intervals 
• Can measure growth fairly
• Calculates average achievement based on NCEs
• Compare this group's previous year to the current year
• Divide by the standard error to obtain the growth index/color 
• Cannot do this at home because we do not know what the state distribution of percentiles and NCEs will look like 
• Growth Index: 
• A useful way to find areas of expertise and areas that need improvement 
• Red= Does not meet growth 
• Green= Meets growth 
• Black/blueish= Exceeds growth 
• Teacher level data: 
• The guiding and reflection piece is the most powerful from EVAAS. Some questions to ask yourself: 
• What trends do I notice? 
• What changed between the years? Same grade? Strategies? 
• What resources do I need to be more successful? 
• "If I'm red 3 years in a row, what do I need to do/change?"
• The teacher diagnostic is the MVR (most valuable report) 
• Teacher Custom Diagnostic: 
• Review groups of students 
• Review intervention groups 
• Review students with attendance and behavior issues 
• Specific program reviews 
• Teacher subgroups: 
• Look at students with disabilities 
• Look at students who are AIG 
• Look at students who are of specific ethnicities (can filter very detailed things) 
• School level data: Beneficial for a school improvement team to discuss! 
• Beneficial for a school improvement team to discuss 
• Student projections: 
• A singular piece of data built on testing history 
• DO NOT allow projections to be self-fulfilling prophecies 
• All students can grow 
• Do not attempt to use projections to calculate growth 
• Data provided: 
• Projected state percentile 
• Probability of scoring the indicated performance level or above 
• Projection use: 
• Data triangulation 
• Align your strenghts/areas for growth with students you serve. 
• Be Productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing? 
• I personally don't think I spent too much or too little of time working on things this week! I worked on lesson plans and was able to gather materials really early in the week which made it easier to write and plan! I would like to keep this trend going because I do not feel nearly as stressed as I have in the previous weeks. 
• Have courage: How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and did not do? 
• I have a SAIL student. SAIL stands for "social and academic instruction for life". This student comes into the classroom throughout certain parts of the day. This student is not with me for academic purposes, the student is with me for social interaction amongst other students. This specific student is incredibly smart and can keep up with the work we do in the general education classroom. I have buckled down and gotten comfortable with classroom management and discipline for my general education students. However, my SAIL student is a bit different. My SAIL student is very quick to cry over very minor things. My SAIL student listens to my Clinical Educator 100% of the time. My Clinical Educator has a firmer tone (not yelling, just the way she speaks). On the other hand, my SAIL student only listens to me about 50% of the time. When he does not listen and I have to try to encourage him to do what I am asking (within reason), he cries and/or has a melt down. I have been very apprehensive when it comes to discipline and redirection with my SAIL student. I do not know how to handle this. I did talk to my Clinical Educator about it this week because my Clinical Educator will be absent next Tuesday therefore it will be me and a substitute teacher in the room. I have tried taking every approach with my SAIL student that I could possibly think of. I have tried the sweet, kind, and gentle approach. I have tried the firm and authoritative approach. I have tried a mix of the two approaches. For some reason, he just doesn't listen to me. I have tried building that relationship but it is a bit difficult because he is not in the room all day long. I am trying to do positive reinforcement strategies and that does seem to work sometimes. My Clinical Educator advised me to make him listen to me even if he does start crying and having a melt down. For instance, if he is drawing on the whiteboard instead of writing spelling words or playing the eraser game, kindly remind him that markers are not for coloring right now, they are for writing. If the SAIL student continues after multiple warnings, I would tell him to put the whiteboard and marker away and grab a pencil and paper instead. If this sends him into a melt down, I would still make sure he uses a pencil and paper that day. He would have the opportunity to get the whiteboard and marker back the following day. This will be hard because tears and crying do make me nervous, but I know that I need to step up. 
• Begin Anew: What is the first social step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear? 
• Looking to next week, my first logical step is to complete lesson plans. My next logical step will be to really make sure I am prepared for when my Clinical educator is absent. I also need to prepare myself for to teach and manage my SAIL student when my Clinical Educator is absent. I am nervous, but I am working on getting my nervousness out now. 

• What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help to inform instructional decisions?
• Some of the data I analyzed this week came from iReady.com. I have access to each individual students learning path, which is basically a method of differentiation. This week, I had to go through and look at all 16 of my students learning paths while lesson planning for next week. I have some students working on Kindergarten and other in second grade. Then there are some who fall in the early, mid, and late Grade 1 category. This was a lot. 

• What is one piece of advice you can share with other student teachers? 
• One piece of advice I can give to other student teachers is to attend and listen to trainings on workdays. I feel as if I learned so much during the trainings! The staff and experts were eager to help me in any way they could and answered all of my questions! 

• 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. 
• From standard one, I felt that I demonstrated teachers leading in their classrooms the most. This was my first full week of teaching and it was definitely an adventure! But, I did lead the classroom! 
• 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. 
• From standard two, I felt that I demonstrated teachers treating students as individuals the most. When students complete assignments and they need a little extra help, I always make sure that I am treating and teaching that student as the individual that they are. I am not trying to change anything about them, I am trying to teach them while letting them remain the person that they are. 
• 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. 
• From standard three, I feel that I demonstrated teachers aligning their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study the most. Last week, I submitted lesson plans that did not have a standard because all 16 of my students were working on an individualized learning path via their computer. Last week, I thought that there was no way that I could connect all of their paths into one standard for a lesson, or that I could list 16 different standards on a lesson plan template. However, this week, I did it. The lesson plan wasn't pretty, but it was there and all of my students were working on standards from the NCSCOS. 
• 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. 
• From standard four, I feel that I demonstrated teachers integrating and utilizing technology into instruction the most. I have had to learn how to utilize technology and computerized assessments this a lot this week. iReady was incredibly difficult to figure out considering I only have access to the Math potion of it. I do not believe there is a way for me to be able to access iReady Reading. However, things are going really well with the use of technology. A lot of the struggle is figuring out how to navigate these new websites. 
• 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. 
• From standard five, I feel that I demonstrated teachers linking professional growth to their professional goals the most. I had the opportunity to participate in a lot of trainings and PLCs this week. I feel that I have the knowledge to set goals involving new things now that will enhance my professional outlook and actions moving forward! 

• Other: 
• What components of your EdTPA and portfolio have you started to complete? 
• I am working on Task 2 of EdTPA. 
• What support does your clinical educator need from your university supervisor? 
• My Clinical Educator does not need anything from my university supervisor right now. 
• What support do you need from your university supervisor? 
• I feel that I am doing well so I do not need much support from my university supervisor right now. I would like feedback on my math remediation lesson plans in regards to how I did them last week to how I did them this week. I would like to know if it is right, wrong, better, worse, etc. I also just ask for encouragement and patience at this time! 

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

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

This week's joke: 

Why did the kid bring a ladder to school? 

Answer down below↓

Because she wanted to go to high school!