Student Teaching Week 2

 I would rate my week about a 3. 

Questions to end my week.

1. How can I better differentiate when I have a student who already knows the material?

2. How can I challenge myself to be a better listener to my students?

3. What other kinds of manipulatives can I use which will increase student engagement and further student learning experience?

4. How can I help a student understand a math concept whenever she cannot even understand English very well?

5. How can I focus students on me and what I am telling them?

6. Some students do not listen to directions. What can I do to fix this?

7. What can I do to keep students in their seat?

I cannot believe we have already finished another successful week in the student teaching semester. I hope all of you are doing good and are having success in your classrooms. Next week is my last week in the Kindergarten classroom. After this, I will be back to my CE's classroom full of eager first graders. I am excited to be back with them at the same time I am going to miss my cute little Kindergarteners. 

Observe: This week for the first time I was a test administrator for a MAP test. Though this may seem like a little thing, I was pleased how all the students (for the most part) followed directions by sitting quietly in their desk and took the MAP reading test by using their iPad. The teacher’s assistant and I had to log in each student individually with a code, find the students name and then start the test for them. 

Reflects: Next week I will focus building student writing and vocabulary. This will be my last week teaching the Kindergarten students before I move on to first grade, so I want to do a review of some of the core material we have learned. For phonics, students have been learning about the endings of -ck, -ng, -sh, and -ch. For math, students have been learning the concepts of more and less than. For reading, the students have been learning about how to identify the characters, setting, and main points of the book in a story.

Focus: My long-term goal is to be proactive. I want to stay ahead in my work instead of getting behind. I am continuing to work on edTPA this week. My short-term goal is to have a rough draft of my planning commentary of edTPA complete by Monday.

Be Productive: This will sound rather humorous, but it was a lesson to be learned. Because of the danger of ice, Tuesday was considered an optional teacher workday. I came into the school at my usual time 7:00 to work on my school work and do some things in the Kindergarten classroom to prepare for the new substitute who will be taking my place. I decided to make copies on the copier. It took forever to make copies because I was unsure of how to operate the two-sided copier. I was printing out my copies then putting the paper back on the tray. When a teacher came into the copier room to make copies. I asked her how and she showed me the correct way. Though I wasted my time this one day, I know I will always remember from now on how to make two-sided copies on this printer.

Have Courage: My students have always done their math lesson when sitting in their chairs. I thought about having students work in groups to complete the math worksheet today, but instead, I was worried they would be to wild and out of control so I had them sit at their desk. Next time I will try grouping them or have them sit on the floor. I completely lost their focus for the most part during the math lesson. Math can be a difficult subject to teach for this class due to the time I teach it. I teach right after lunch when students are less attentive and ready to go home. 

Begin Anew: For next week, I will begin making lesson plans for the following week in my classroom. I have set my schedule to make lesson plans Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. My plan is to have them done by Thursday so my CE will be able to check them over to make sure they are suitable for the classroom. The mental clutter I will clear away is my concern about lesson plans. My worry is can I do this. I know I can, but I always feel better when I can go ahead and start working on a project to prove to myself that I can successfully accomplish the goal. I figure my lesson plans will be about eighty pages long per week. Though it seems like a startling prospect, my mindset is to take one day at a time and keep up with my work.

For data this week, my CE showed me the students MAP reading and math points and how they have increased from their BOG (beginning of the year) to the MOG (middle of the year) testing. Most of the students had increased and gone further than their goal. Only a few students were a few points below their goal. One poor student was 37 points below her goal, but she will be allowed to take the test again since was not feeling well the day of the reading test.  

One piece of advice I would share with you is never to stop thinking of ideas. You may have an inspiration in the middle of your lesson to do something which may engage the students more. I would go for it. Engagement is the key to a successful lesson. If they are engaged, that means students are paying attention and are less likely to have behavior issues.

Standard 1a: Teachers take charge of their classrooms and make decisions to further better their classrooms. One of the changes I have discussed with my CE I would like to make whenever I begin full time in the classroom is our AR testing time. Usually, students go to their AR testing after they are finished eating breakfast. However, the time students do their test overlaps the time for the phonics lesson to be taught. To make sure lessons run on an orderly schedule, I am going to start letting students do their AR time as soon as they get back from specials. This way students can test all at one time instead of many of them doing it at different times.

For Standard 2e: Teachers communicate with parents when the need arrives. I had the pleasure of talking to a parent about a student in the Kindergarten classroom on Wednesday. This student has been having behavior issues in the classroom. My goal is to always be diplomatic when I deal with parents. I used phrases such as “she has trouble staying focused” and “she sometimes can act like the class clown.” These terms were not negative, but facts. The parent accepted the information and promised something better. I was also grateful that I was able to talk with the parent in the main office so I could have witnesses to what I was telling her.   

Standard 3d Teachers can connect the content they teach and be able to engage the students in teaching according to standard. During the instance, I tried to make the math lesson relevant to the students by having candy. On Wednesday, I was able to go over the math lesson of fewer and higher than. For those of you who had read my blog last week, you may remember I was having trouble getting students to understand the lesser than the concept. I got out a bag of candy dum dums left over from our Christmas Party. I put some in one hand and some in the other and went around to every student in the class. I would say this hand has five and this has two. Which hand has the fewer amount? The class went from board to extremely attentive. If they answered incorrectly, they did not get a dum dum. If they answer correctly, they got a dum dum. Only two of my students missed the answer the first time and when I came back to them they got the answer right. Therefore, teachers need to make the content fun engaging as well as informative for students to be able to grasp the meaning.

Standard 4h For Friday, I assessed students on how they could write their numbers and letters on paper. Throughout the week, my teachers assistant and I have been assessing students with their letter recognition and sounds. Students also have to take the MAP reading and math test along with the Mclass testing. During the months of January, September, and May teachers are consistently assessing students learning needs so they can set goals based on student progress and need. 

Standard 5 Teachers reflect on their work and how they can teach for effectively. Last week I had assessed students on several types of phonics and literacy development skills one which included rhyming. Though students had been exposed to rhyming a little they were finding it very difficult to give a word which rhymes with a word I give them. On Monday, I discussed rhyming words with the students. We went over how rhyming means the end of the word sound the same even though they may not be spelled the same. Students interacted with different words spelling them different ways by changing the first letter of a word. At the end, I gave students an exit ticket by telling me if words I gave them rhymed or did not rhyme. 15 out of the 5 answered correctly. Most of the students were able to get the answer. I will still continue to go over rhyming so it will make more sense to those who are still not understanding the concept. 

For portfolio requirements, I have completed a rough draft of my resume. I have also been working on edTPA creating rough drafts on lesson plans, the context for learning, and planning commentary for the week. My goal is to have a good understanding of what I am to teach by the time Jan 20^th comes. I have also created my skeleton website by introducing myself and putting some great technology resources for parents and for my reference.

My CE does not have any questions right now, but I will let you know if she does.

Would it be alright to send you the resume for you to look over? I feel as though I do not have enough information, however, I am unsure of what to add.  
Also, I am confused about the date for next week's zoom meeting. The date is Jan. 17 Tuesday, but the 17th is on a Wednesday. Would you please clarify this. Thank you so much.

I hope all of you have a great week and I look forward to seeing you in zoom.