Week 5

Hello everyone. I hope you have all had a great week. I would rate my week a 3. My biggest difficulty this week was finding the balance of engaging students without having behavior problems: students interrupting each other, blurting something out without raising their hand, or not following my directions.

Questions to End My Week

What is a good theme board for “Read Across America?”

What are some good ways to stay organized as a teacher?

Do you think a birthday hat is a great way to build up student encouragement?

Do students work better in the small group, whole group, or individual attention?

How are some ways you would handle a small group to keep them quiet, but engaged?

What are some ways you would differentiate with all students?

What are some good science activities you do for first grade in your classrooms?

Observe: On Monday, I put up labels for different pieces of furniture and objects students use frequently. It was so funny to see their reaction on Tuesday. We even played a small game for students to point to a word and then say its name. Students will be able to see these labels every day and get familiar with recognizing the word and the sound.

Reflect: To build on my experience for next week, I am working on the best way of being able to control my math groups. I have been setting expectations for the groups before we begin so students will know what they expect from me. My next goal is to have students working on the same problem at the same time. Some students do get behind and it is hard to catch them back up. My plans for next week are to put a few students who are excelling beside those students who have difficulty in catching up. These students are ones I know who will try to be helpful instead of just giving an answer. By having students strategically placed at the table those who finish first can help the struggling students.

Focus: My short-term goal is to complete my planning commentary by Friday. My long-term goal is to have a successful group who is engaged at the same time respectful of oneself.

Be Productive: For math, group time is taking to long. I want to make sure students have enough time to complete the exit ticket so I can see how well they progressed in the lesson. I will continue to work on my time management, so I am able to get all the lesson plan in my time slot.

Have Courage: I want to be one on one with every student in the group which has caused some problems. If I focus on just one student, the whole group gets behind. I am working towards doing a small group with my students, however making sure I focus on all students and not just one student. My plans are to model the problem for the students in groups but have them do the problems on their own for next week.

Begin Anew: For next week, I plan to focus on making time management skills. I am going beyond my time limit on phonics and literacy which is also getting me behind in math time.

The data for math is crucial during the exit ticket. Students do the problems in groups and then they show what they have learned by creating the exit ticket.  

Always set the expectations before starting any type of lesson. Students will know what to expect.

Standard 1: Teachers demonstrate leadership by modeling for students in the classroom. One day this week, we had some free time in between lessons so I modeled for students the proper transition. I sat criss-cross applesauce on the carpet. I had asked the TA if he would call students to line up for lunch or specials. Since I was acting as the student, I was the one who lined up while the students watched. I slowly got off the rug, I then went over and talked to a student, and then I walked slowly to where my line would usually begin. I then modeled for students the right way of how to transition. I sat criss-cross applesauce on the rug. When the TA said to get up I walked straight to one of the student’s numbers without talking. I then had all students try the transition. I am looking forward to seeing how the transitions will work.

Standard 2: Teachers work with parents. I have created a document this week to go home with the student every Friday. I will start this next week. This document will tell parents any comments about how their child has been for the week behavior wise. My plan is to put down two positives and one negative thing, so the parent and the student will be encouraged, but also they will know what to work on.

Standard 3d: Teachers make instruction relevant for students. I assisted teaching social studies this week. My CE has been discussing black history month so for today we were discussing Rosa Park and her experience on the bus. I selected six students to bring their chairs to the carpet. We situated the chairs in two rows so it would look like a bus with one seat. I selected one girl to be Rosa Parks. I demonstrated to the students how she was different because she had blue eyes. I pretended to be the white man who wanted to sit in her place. The students loved the activity and they were able to fully see how wrong it is to discriminate against someone because of what they look like from the outside.

Standard 4: Teachers use global awareness in the classroom to help students get a glance at the worldview. On Thursday, I talked about dogs. Before I started to read the dog book, I discussed different kinds of jobs showing pictures of them on the board. After I showed a dog to the students, I showed them where the dog came from using a map of the world. I then selected a student to come up and point to the spot.

Standard 5: I reflected on student work when I looked at the reading comprehension papers. Most of the students were able to answer part if not the whole questions, however, some of the students left out important details. Therefore, next time I do literacy groups, I will go over with students the importance of reading the question carefully and making sure all the details which the question ask are put on the paper.

For my portfolio, I have been working on classroom surveys. I was able to get most of my students surveyed last week, however, there are some who still need to be finished.

I do not have any questions right now for Ms. Suttle nor does my CE. I will email or text if I do.

I will see all of you at Saturday’s edTPA meeting.

Have a Happy Friday night.