2.17.17

Week of Reflection: 2-13-17

  

• Rate your overall experience of the week: 3
• Seven questions to end your week:
• • Observe: What pleasant surprises / accomplishments did I achieve this week?
    I have been pleased at my class' scores on their Partial Quotients Quiz. Not that the other classes performed poorly, but my class had some of the highest scores in the grade level. Division was something that I was particularly apprehensive about, but I also have enjoyed getting to teach.
    
    
  • Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
    I have learned this week that your hooks can make or break your lesson, especially in subjects that are not so much fun to teach. If you hook your students correctly, you will see behavior issues go away. Of course, I've learned a lot this week about how untrue that can be if your students are facing issues that may cause them to deem their education less important.
    
    
  • Focus:  How are my short-term efforts and my long-term goals still aligned?
    I think that this far into the experience, I want to add a new long-term goal of just being an effective AND affective teacher. That can be done in many ways, but one way in particular that I am working on it is to not try to micromanage my class/lesson. I feel that they might hear too much of me, so I'm going to make it a short term effort to be more meaningful in the things I direct my students to do.
    
    
  • Be Productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing?
    I could have spent more time working on hooks and transitions and less time on classroom management. While I'm excited about Class Madness, I want students to be able to be self-sustained by using it. That is a goal for next week.
    
    
  • Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do?
    This week, I was very unsure of how to approach being slightly behind in regards to our division unit. This is partly because the master plan for 4th grade had us teaching a normal on the 4th grade planning day, and I planned for what the sub plan had to offer. This was to keep the grade level on a consistent level. Well, now we are all in similar but different places. I knew that that would present challenges coming into this week, so it has been somewhat of a snarl trying to play catch up while teaching a division, which is somewhat foreign to students. So having that experience has been nice but I was definitely apprehensive about how it would all get done.
    
    
  • Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear?
    Next week, I want to start on a refreshed note. I am going into week five and have been working really hard on planning lessons and edTPA. As I begin the process of edTPA, I feel like it would be really beneficial to take the weekend to get ahead, but I also want to take this weekend and use it to relax in order to prevent getting burned out. Either way, I want to use my time this weekend strategically.

What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help inform your instructional decisions?

This week, I decided to revisit our school improvement plan and take a look at what I wrote about last semester in EDUC 435. Math was a need that was to be addressed, and I'm glad to say that I'm honing in on that as an educator. I have learned so much about teaching, and specifically about teaching what needed to be addressed on the SIP. Looking at that SIP reiterated the importance of getting NCSCOS Math concepts through to my students.

• What is one piece of advice you can share with other student teachers?
• It's never too early to start working ahead. Life happens, and you want to make sure you give yourself enough leeway to do what you need to do. That is what you should expect from your students, is to be human. The best way to do that is to allow plenty of time to complete tasks.

• NC Teacher Candidate Standards (be sure to reference activities from your lesson plans to solidify your answer)
• • Pick an element from standard one of the evaluation tool and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element.
    This week, I used a lot of "real world examples" for students because I feel that it is really important for them to understand the importance of getting the education they are getting.
    
    
  • Pick an element from standard two of the evaluation tool and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element.
    We had a particular incident occur in our classroom that was totally unrelated to instruction. This incident was related to the health of a student, and I had to think quickly on my feet to make accommodations for the student because it impacted her learning (environment), so I wanted to make the best choice possible for her. If I have learned anything from being in the school for over half a year now, I have learned that diversity is much more than race or gender.
    
    
  • Pick an element from standard three of the evaluation tool and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element.
    I feel that I've gotten really comfortable with the content that I am teaching, and I actually have grown more fond of teaching mathematics. That may be because there are definitive answers, reasoning and logic involved in mathematics, but I also enjoy the challenge that teaching mathematics presents to me. I feel that this initial uncertainty in mathematics has definitely been an experience.
    
    
  • Pick an element from standard four of the evaluation tool and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element.
    I've definitely learned how to gauge a students understanding by visual cues this week. This week has been pretty hectic as Valentine's Day was on Tuesday. For some reason, they all got very excited, we shall put it, and we also had "Books and Blankets" on Thursday. So I've had to pick up some strategies to ensure they are focused on learning, not just the fun things.
    
    
  • Pick an element from standard five of the evaluation tool and explain some activities/strategies you implemented this week to increase your rating for the element.
    I have learned to be more meaningful in my reflections, and begun to even do revisions or "pre-reflections" as plans change. I've learned that there is nothing wrong with a plan being changed, but rather the importance to document it.
• Other:
• • What components of your portfolio have you started to complete?
    Continued to collect data on focus student(s), outline what my portfolio is going to look like, align edTPA with portfolio requirements
    
    
  • What support does your clinical educator need from your university supervisor?
    None at the moment
    
    
  • What support do you need from your university supervisor?
  • We can discuss it at the seminar, but I would love to talk more about hook strategies.