Blog Post 4

For the past two weeks, my goals were to take over every classroom subject and to continue working on classroom management by keeping the easily distracted students on task. I did officially begin teaching every subject over two weeks ago. Since it was approaching the end of third quarter for the students, my cooperating teacher helped me outline the standards we needed to cover before the end of the quarter and also other things we should review before assessments. Taking over went pretty smoothly since I gradually eased into it over my student teaching experience. I was able to come up with, what I felt were a great variety of learning activities that were fun to teach and kept students engaged. One of their favorites was Generalization Jeopardy. They keep on asking if we can play it again. This leads into my second goal last week, which was to continue classroom management by keeping students engaged and on task. We have a handful of students who have trouble staying on task and like to socialize with their neighbors. This week I paid special attention to make sure they were either engaged in the lesson while I was teaching or on task with what they should be doing. I also am getting better at walking around the room to ensure students are taking good notes or working well with their partners.  Every week it seems a little more easy and natural, which feels good. 

I would say the word to describe last week was perseverance. I came down with a cold last week and partially lost my voice. I was able to carry on despite my not feeling well. I was glad I had most of my lessons planned out and was prepared. It made not feeling well a lot easier. I know weeks like this will always come up when I begin teaching. It just proved how important being prepared is, that and drinking a lot of hot tea! 

A lesson I taught last week that went really well was a review lesson in math.  Normally for review, I’ve been pulling a small group of students aside for some extra help, while giving the others an enrichment sheet to work on with a partner. This usually works out fine except I don’t always feel like I can circulate enough to help the others while working with the small group. This week I decide to mix it up and pull out the whiteboards and do a whole class review together. Since this fraction unit has been challenging for everyone, we did some review problems as a class, on the white boards. I felt it was great for the higher-level students to review the content as a whole, while the lower-level learners were able to receive the extra help they needed from their peers and myself. We were able to go back over all the steps for each type of problem and discuss common mistakes. I enjoyed it because it was a different approach than we had done before, I could easily see their work on their whiteboards, and the best part, everyone was engaged!  From this experience, I learned to try different things. My last review session was too chaotic for me to handle with me not feeling well. Using this method for review, I was able to pay attention to everyone and see their work. I think changing plans up was good for the students too. I am sure as I become more experienced, I will be able to handle small groups within the whole class more efficiently, but for this day and lesson, the change seemed to work out better for everyone.

While reading the “First Days of School” this week, I liked learning about the importance of creating effective assignments that focus on what the students need to accomplish in a lesson vs. what needs to be “covered”. This includes having specific objectives to share with the students and creating assignments based on these standards that are evidence of these objectives. I feel like students are more invested in their learning when they know exactly what they need to do to be successful. I also liked revisiting Bloom’s Taxonomy and considering how this reflects in my teaching. Now that I have some real teaching experience, I’d like to start considering ways to elevate my lessons to higher level thinking and give my students more enriching experiences.  I will definitely start considering this more as I move forward with my student teaching.

Academic language is important because it promotes academic success.  It provides a clear structure for learning and a guideline for achieving learning targets.  By modeling academic language for our students and scaffolding this support for learners, we give our students more responsibility for their own achievement and teach them to build their own independence. The vocabulary of academic language, along with the discourse in which we use to connect it, provides students a meaningful framework to build understanding and learn within. 

In one of my recent math lessons, I not only had students solve math problems, I also had some of them come up front to the whiteboard and describe how they solved it to the class. Describing their process not only helped them, but it helped their classmates see a their peer’s process for problem solving and provided them a different perspective on the practice. One of my favorite activities for students is having them work with assigned peer partners. When we can place a higher-level student with a lower level student, this places both students in a situation that benefits and enriches both learners. Lower-level students are provided a different perspective on learning the content, and by using their academic language to describe their thought process; higher-level students are reinforcing and deepening their understanding.

Professor Royster is scheduled for a visit sometime this coming week. Since it is the end of the quarter, my students have a few assessments coming at the end of this week before starting their first PARCC testing the following week, so I will be doing a lot of reviewing and other preparations for their tests before I move on to my next placement. I am excited that I am feeling a bit more comfortable with classroom management and am also eager to start my next placement, though I can’t help but feel a bit sad to leave this classroom. I have learned SO much from my cooperating teacher and these students. It will be hard to say goodbye.

Blog Post 3

For the previous two weeks, my goals were to improve my classroom instruction by slowing down my pace and expressing my instruction more descriptively to the students and to write and teach my edTPA lessons. As far as improving my instruction, I did feel an increase in my confidence this week. I prepared carefully for my lessons and was able to slow down my pace. I practiced walking around the classroom as I was teaching, partially to slow myself down, but mostly to assure that students were on task, which has been a problem recently in our classroom. I will continue this next week as I begin my first week of taking over every subject. I also wrote, taught, and video taped my edTPA lessons this week and plan to give the students my post assessment early next week. I feel the lessons went very well and the students did a great job. I look forward to getting this project pulled together in the upcoming weeks. 

My first goal for the next two weeks is to successfully take over every subject. I acquired a lesson plan book and have begun to write my lesson plans similar to my cooperating teacher. I have also developed some of my own lessons based on the district required learning standards, which have turned out to be quite fun.  My goal is to try to stay ahead of the game and do my homework on what we are learning, so I am prepared and feel confident. My other goal is this week is to continue to improve classroom management by keeping students engaged and on task. I’ve realized as we head into week 7 of our placements that the students have realized that I am, unfortunately, a bit of a push over. I have enjoyed getting to know them but this has slightly impaired my ability to keep some of them quiet and on task. Many of the students seem to like having my attention and continually ask me questions. I realize that this is not the best situation and have started in the past week to become more strict with my expectations by walking around the classroom more often and calling out those who are being disruptive. 

I would describe this past week as challenging. Preparing to take over every subject in the classroom, along with trying to work on my edTPA has been difficult. I am fortunate my cooperating teacher is supportive and helpful when I ask for her advice. I am working hard to find a balance between the required curriculum and my lesson plans so that I can feel good about what I am teaching the students. I am hopeful that the upcoming couple of weeks will find me less frazzled and that I find a comfort level as I finish up my first placement.

As I continue to work on my classroom management skills, I plan to continue the effective procedures and routines that my cooperating teacher employs. I feel fortunate that my cooperating teacher has an effective, proactive classroom management plan in place that does not require discipline. The behavior expectation was set on day one and the students are clear on what is required of them daily. I also believe that consistency is best for students, especially when a student teacher joins the class halfway through the school year. Although, I must admit, my implementation the expectation is not quite good as my cooperating teacher’s and definitely not exactly what I would like it to be, I do feel I have made progress in managing the class and will continue to strive for improvement through the last four weeks of my placement.

In reading this weeks assignment in “The First days of School”, I have been thinking a lot about classroom management and the importance of routines and procedures. Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I appreciate student teaching in an effectively run classroom.  Much of what I read this week applies to my experience. In a way, I wish I could have been there to see how these class rules and procedures were taught at the beginning of the year. I definitely plan on discussing this further with my cooperating teacher. Some of the things that have stuck with me from the reading are how having procedures in place before school even starts offers efficiency, security, reduced disruptions, less confusion, and organization to the classroom. By putting in the work on routines and procedures at the beginning of the year, you are setting yourself up for less stress and problems throughout the year. I also liked reading about how procedures are the classroom expectation and that they should not require a penalty or reward, they are in place so that achievement can happen. I definitely plan to work hard to accomplish this type of environment in my classroom.

The Principal Panel this week was very interesting. My biggest take away from it was to remember that when you are on an interview, not only are you being interviewed but that you also want to do your homework and ask your own questions. I believe the principals said to make sure that you are being set up for success at a job. It is a priority for me to find a mentor when I get my first job, as well as have the support of the administration in the school I work, so I do plan to “interview” my interviewer. I do not feel that I need to take a job that I will not be able to be successful at.

I did enjoy a visit from Prof. Royster this week. I was glad that she was able to come for a lesson I had planned that I was excited about. I only wish that we had a bit more time for the lesson, as we were not able to finish talking about what the students discussed about context clues with their partners. I had a bit of time to talk with her afterward about the students in class who require more guidance and attention and how the time constraints make helping them difficult. She mentioned that this is where my special education training will be most constructive. The frustrating part is that many of these struggling students do not qualify for special education services. I hope that eventually I am able to find a teaching environment where I can spend more time helping those students who need just a little more guidance than they can receive in a regular classroom.