Week 4

Hi everyone, I hope you have had a great week. I would rank my week a 4. Monday was crazy for the students as they had had a mini vacation with all of the snow but it was so nice to get back to a regular schedule and begin working on everything we need to do to successfully complete the semester. Every day besides Monday went smoothly. I love being back in the first-grade classroom though fortunately I still see my kindergarteners in the hallway. 

Classroom Questions for the week. 

What would be the first things you would put on your classroom wall?

How would you arrange your classroom tables?

How will you communicate with parents?

Will you have a class pet in the classroom?

How is the best way to utilize your assistant? (My CE has told me having the CE monitor students while teaching is great.)

What are some ways to teach students measuring skills?

What would you do if a student was kicking and screaming on the floor?

On Monday, I started back with my first-grade classroom. It is so good to be back in the first-grade classroom. Though I love the students in Kindergarten, I still have so much to learn before I take over a classroom by myself.

Observe: I was happy with the classroom management plan mentioned in my portfolio documentation. I created cards to promote positive reinforcement.

Reflect: Something I want to carry into next week is grouping. I am trying something new in the classroom by having groups for math. First, I will go over the content, then I will split the students into two groups. One group goes to the TA and the other group is the one I control. I give my TA the students who have less difficulty with math and my group struggles with math. I did group work on Thursday and it went smoothly. I also want to utilize my TA in the classroom. 

Focus: My short-term goal is to complete my edTPA math lessons soon. My long-term goal is to finish my edTPA planning commentary and lesson plans before the next conference for edTPA.

Be Productive: I have found I need to grab every opportunity I have to work on lesson plans. I have found I can still work on school lesson plans and listen to someone talk at the same time. Teachers multi-task several different times a day. It is the only time to get things done.

Have Courage: I am nervous about the upcoming observations throughout the year. I am trying to come to the resolution that teachers are watched all the time. Even when student teaching ends, we will still be watched by administrators and whoever comes in the building. I take courage in trying to do the best, and accept constructive criticism gratefully because I know it will improve my growth, and to keep my focus on the children. I have found out if my focus is on the children, I am not as nervous. 

Begin Anew: Next week I will begin phonics and literacy lessons. I will continue working on math and literacy groups.

I looked at TRC scores reading scores for the month of January. The TRC is a special test which challenges students on their reading. Students must answer a comprehension question after they have read a book and then use the book to explain their answer. My CE will test students on several books until she finds the book of the level students is on. Each book the teacher has the student test on is for a different level. I was pleased to see some of the progress my students have made as compared to the beginning of the year. However, my CE is watching students who are below progress for possible retention. Students will work during literacy and IME groups to build up skills students are struggling.

Teacher Input: Never allow a teacher’s assistant to do clerical work during lessons. He or she is best utilized to be a group teacher or to monitor the students who are misbehaving.

Standard 1d: Teachers on February 8th are going to a Kindergarten Palooza event. Sign up for Kindergarten is in February and what a great way for teachers and administrators to encourage early sign-up. My CE and I are going. Everyone is dressing up as letters and characters for phonics. Since I am a representative of Gardner-Webb and cannot dress up, I will still go with my CE to the Palooza and help with whatever I can. I look forward to the event and being apart of the sign-up process. 

Standard 2d: Teachers help students with special needs. In my CE's classroom, we only have one EC student. He is a precious little boy who needs one on one help. I tried putting him in a group with me in math. I had him sit right beside of me so I could explain everything to him. My concern is I am taking away instruction from the others students. I am trying to find the right balance for everyone to be on task and learning instead of playing around in a group. 

Standard 3c: I have been working on perfecting my lesson plans to be more beneficial and helpful next week. I know when I am in the classroom for a while a routine will be more established. This week I have been aligning all content areas back to the standards for teaching. As for individual lessons, I have tried to make sure all of my areas are aligned with each other. Standards are aligned to the hook, focus, modeling, application, practice, and closure.

Standard 4c: Students have been learning about measurements in the classroom. To make instruction relevant. They are using different kinds of measurement to help them understand how different things can be measured different ways. For example, we are measuring with centimeter cubes at the end of this week, and the next week we will measure things with small and big paper clips. 

Standard 5: In the reflection of the practices every time I teach a lesson I will ask my CE what I need improvement on. I was really nervous about doing a lesson on Monday because it was the first time I had been watched in teaching a lesson in a while. However, after teaching the students I soon was over being nervous and she was able to give some positive as well as negative feedback. Most feedback is to watch the students.

For my portfolio, I have been working on classroom management card and interest survey. For student interest, I have created a document asking students several different questions which would help me know what they like at school. Questions varied from what is your favorite color to what is your favorite thing to do in math. I gave the survey to every student along with my student for the classroom management plan to see what their responses would be and to see how I as their teacher can better engage them and help make learning more enjoyable. I would like to thank Gabrielle very much for helping me come up with the idea about classroom management cards. I created my own homemade version. I give these cards out to students only when they are doing a lesson on the rug. The cards vary. An apple picture means to criss cross applesauce. A hand raised means to raise the hand instead of blurting out the answer. I also made up a card which says Shh (stop talking). A smiley face means good job keep up the good work. Tuesday was the first day we tried the behavior plan. If they do a good job on the rug and get a smiley face they can clip up after the lesson. If students get a bad card, they must clip down. Even if students get a bad card they may still get a chance to have it taken away if they are on good behavior. Students loved the cards. It also was a great job of keeping track of who was being naughty and who was good. I gave half to the TA and kept half for myself. I find that students want me to use the cards so they can have a chance to clip up. 

Right now, my CE nor I have no questions for Ms. Suttle, I will email or text if I do. Thank you.