Show What You Know!

Rate
I would rate this week a 4 out of 5.  This week has been probably one of my best weeks in the classroom!  I have had great lessons and have been able to really engage my students during my instruction.  I have felt confident when teaching the material and my students have been well behaved for the most part.   

Observe: What pleasant surprises/ accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
This week I continued with my poetry unit and my students have just embraced poetry.  This completely shocked me because I did not expect this to be one of my stronger units, but it has turned out to be my best yet!  My students loved all of the learning experiences and activities that went along with each poetic device we learned and especially got into drawing what they saw when they read a poem, imagery.  I also completed my EdTPA math learning progression this week on multiplication and tested out using Plickers to assess my students.  They LOVED it!  I will definitely be implementing this technology tool wherever I can in my future lessons.    

Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
This week, I am beginning a new science unit with matter.  This is somewhat of a difficult concept for me to grasp, so I want to familiarize myself with the material as much as possible before teaching it.  I want to make the lessons relevant for the students, so there is not that disconnect like I have had in previous social studies lessons.      

Focus: How are my short term efforts and long term goals still aligned?
My short term goals are going to be to immediately reflect on my lesson plans and rearrange them as need be when changes occur.  This week, Read to Achieve started back up and has cut my reading block in half.  I am beginning a new reading unit and novel as well next week and so I feel like I am having to rearrange some things for pacing reasons in order to fit all of my instruction in for time sake.   
  
Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do?
I have been apprehensive about making my resume.  I have been looking up some tips on how to create one, and researching some great things to put on there in order for me to stand out. I plan to make mine this week!  


Be Productive
I am going to submit my classroom website link for approval and hopefully get that checked off of my checklist.  I need to continue to work on my portfolio pieces and start putting together and brainstorming what I want my video to look like as well.  


Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear?
I am starting all new units next week and so I have put a lot of time and effort into my plans, however, with it being spirit week next week and special occasions taking place, I need to keep in mind that not everything may go as planned and that's something all teachers just have to accept.  I have given my best planning lessons and just hope for the best when teaching them.    

Data
This week I started Plickers with my students.  I love this tech tool because it gives you immediate, individualized feedback.  I used this to help motivate my students by stating, "We almost all got it right, let's see if everyone can get this next question right!"  I used this data to assess who truly comprehended the concept.    

Advice
Don't overthink your lessons or underestimate yourself.  This week, I was unsure how my poetry lessons were going to go, but I even surprised myself with how well my students performed and how they were engaged throughout the whole unit. Own it and go with it, so your students will buy into it!    

NCTCS
1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms - I have taken it upon me that all 24 of my students are relying on me to plan my instruction so they can learn and succeed in order to move onto the next level.  I use data collected from assessments to determine what kind of activities and my delivery of instruction for particular lessons during W.I.N. time. This has worked beautifully because it aligns with the standards they are learning now, or are going to learn in the upcoming weeks.  
2b. Teachers treat students as individuals- I am trying to improve my proximity praise, so often times I will find myself naming students to thank them for doing the right thing. My CE said she has noticed a difference with how I am addressing the students and that is so reassuring to hear!
3a Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.- I am becoming more and more familiar with where to find certain concepts within the Common Core and Essential Standards.I need to work on making sure that everything I am teaching is aligning with the standards.
4d. Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. I feel as if my students have earned the privilege to use technology in their center time and will use this resource to enhance their learning experience by providing them with content that is relevant to the standards they are learning.  
5a. Teachers analyze student learning.- I am continuing to assess students constantly, but whenever a student does well on something, I make sure to give them a shout out or call them aside and tell them how proud I am of them.  This ties into standard 2 as well and my students love this!  They always smile when they know how well they have done on an assignment,  The reassurance has helped motivate their performance and positive attitude.

Support from Supervisor- N/A

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue..

Rate
I would rate this week a 3 out of 5.  This week started off great, surprisingly my students were like angels on Valentine's Day and then have gradually created more and more chaos as the week has progressed.  This week I feel like I have had an even amount of lessons that have been really successful and strong, and then some that have just completely flopped.  

Observe: What pleasant surprises/ accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
This week I started a poetry unit and was quite hesitant on teaching poetry because generally this is a topic that students and teachers don't have much knowledge about.  However, my poetry lessons have gone smoothly and have been very effective.  I created a powerpoint that I am pretty proud of that lists the poetic devices that they are responsible for learning and then provided a short poetic example with that specific element on that particular slide.  The students loved the powerpoint.  At the end of the lessons, they were volunteering and begging to read the poetic examples.  They understood and were eager to answer my questions about the poems.  I was pleasantly surprised and am excited to continue this unit into next week.    

Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
This week, my CE has been out for a couple of days because she is sick.  It has been all me and although I have embraced this experience, I have had to stand my ground with the students because they are trying to still test me.  I am working on my classroom management, usually I can discuss certain situations throughout the day with her and just get her perspective and ask how she would have handled it.  Although I am more confident in my classroom management capabilities, I am trying to implement a whole class system to motivate students to show respect and give their best effort on assignments,    

Focus: How are my short term efforts and long term goals still aligned?
My short term goals are going to be to immediately reflect on my lesson plans and rearrange them as need be when changes occur.  This week, Read to Achieve started back up and has cut my reading block in half.  The third grade team decided to make poetry a two week unit, instead of one week.  This will help me reach my long term goal of reflecting on my practice on a consistent basis.  I also am continuing to familiarize myself with the content so my confidence continually is building as I am teaching the material. This week, I have been a lot better with this and have rearranged them to help me prepare and organize my plans for next week.  
  
Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do?
I have been apprehensive about making my resume.  I have been looking up some tips on how to create one, and researching some great things to put on there in order for me to stand out. I plan to make mine this week!  


Be Productive
I am finishing up my Classroom website! I am also working on my PDP goals, which I need to have completed by our seminar Tuesday.  I plan to collaborate with other student teachers to make sure my goals are SMART.  I have been better with organizing myself in a way that makes lesson planning quicker, which is always a good thing!


Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear?
I am taking on the math portion of EdTPA next week.  I am going into this learning progression with not only confidence in myself, but also in my students!  I am excited to try some new things in math and am hopeful that my students will embrace it.    

Data
This week my students took a fraction benchmark assessment and as I was grading them, I made a list of students who I will pull tomorrow during W.I.N. time that will need additional assistance on the concept of identifying, comparing, and demonstrating fractions.  This is a big standard that is on their EOG and is a concept we will continue to cover over the remainder of the year.   

Advice
A plan is just a plan.  This week I had my second observation during Social Stuides.  This was the first time my students had done a Social Studies lesson all semester and I was optimistic about all that I had planned.  I was going to tie in my literacy standard that I had taught last week and thought it would flow great.  However, my lesson totally flopped, there seemed to be a mismatch and disconnect between the content and my students.  The lesson dealt with federal government and my students, being in the third grade did not seem to understand because they did not understand the forms of local government.  I taught with the resources that were given and provided for me; however, my plan did not go as planned...  I had to go back and reevaluate in order to determine how to progress to the next lesson.  

NCTCS
1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms - I have taken it upon me that all 24 of my students are relying on me to plan my instruction so they can learn and succeed in order to move onto the next level.  I use data collected from assessments to determine what kind of activities and my delivery of instruction for particular lessons during W.I.N. time.  
2b. Teachers treat students as individuals- I am trying to improve my proximity praise, so often times I will find myself naming students to thank them for doing the right thing.
3a Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.- I am becoming more and more familiar with where to find certain concepts within the Common Core and Essential Standards.I need to work on making sure that everything I am teaching is aligning with the standards.
4d. Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. I feel as if my students have earned the privilege to use technology in their center time and will use this resource to enhance their learning experience by providing them with content that is relevant to the standards they are learning.  
5a. Teachers analyze student learning.- I am continuing to assess students constantly, but whenever a student does well on something, I make sure to give them a shout out or call them aside and tell them how proud I am of them.  This ties into standard 2 as well and my students love this!  They always smile when they know how well they have done on an assignment,  The reassurance has helped motivate their performance and positive attitude. 

Support from Supervisor- N/A

Love it or Leave it

Rate
I would rate this week a 3 out of 5.  This week has not been too bad, but it hasn't bee great either.  I have had some interesting situations happen this week and have had to figure out how to make it through the day anyway! Example: I nearly lost my voice while teaching and have sounded like a man for 2 days! (:  

Observe: What pleasant surprises/ accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
This week I did my EdTPA ELA learning progression.  For the end of my progression, I am having my students film an infomercial about Levi Strauss, which is who we read about.  I made an example video with some of my friends to show my students the expectations they need to meet when making their's.  They totally bought into it!!! They are so excited to watch the infomercials they made and really tried their best when researching and recording.  I was very impressed with their reaction to a project like this.   

Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
I had came in one morning very tired and very stressed.  It was the start of my EdTPA learning progrssion and I wanted it to be perfect.  Having this mentality hurt me more than helped me.  My lesson seemed choppy the students could sense my insecurities and took advantage of it. The students were talkative and not willing to give their attention and effort to my lesson.  I am having to learn to fake it so I make it.  Even if I don't feel all that confident, I have to present the material in a way that makes it seem like I am.  

Focus: How are my short term efforts and long term goals still aligned?
My short term goals are going to be to immediately reflect on my lesson plans and rearrange them as need be when changes occur.  This will help me reach my long term goal of reflecting on my practice on a consistent basis.  I also am continuing to familiarize myself with the content so my confidence continually is building as I am teaching the material. This week, I have been a lot better with this.  I reflect during planning and after school on Social Studies or Science after my planning.   
  
Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do?
I have been apprehensive about making my resume.  I have been looking up some tips on how to create one, and researching some great things to put on there in order for me to stand out.   


Be Productive
I am finishing up my Classroom website!!! I have revised my Philosophy of Education, but still need to send it in for approval, I plan to do that this weekend.  Also, I need to create my resume and schedule an appointment with Career Development soon!!! 


Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear?
I have completed my EdTPA ELA learning progression!  I am teaching poetry this week and am pretty excited to see how my students react to some of the activities I have planned for them.   

Data
This week I have been rotating students on Lyrics 2 Learn, which is a reading fluency program that my students are new to, but are loving it!  I have been looking to see if their comprehension scores are at mastery level each day they log on.  If the students score below an 80%, they have to retake the comprehension quiz at the end of the story that is set to a beat.  My struggling students seem to like this and their scores have been improving throughout the week!      

Advice
In the end, it will get done.  I am a kind of person that if I do not have something completed, it consumes me until I get it done.  However, my CE has been saying to me each day as I am stressing "it is okay because it will all be here tomorrow".  She understands my stress because she said she was the exact same way when she began teaching.  

NCTCS
1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms - I have taken it upon me that all 24 of my students are relying on me to plan my instruction so they can learn and succeed in order to move onto the next level.  I use data collected from assessments to determine what kind of activities and my delivery of instruction for particular lessons. 
2b. Teachers treat students as individuals- I try to seek out every student and ask questions like "how was your weekend?", or state to them "I am excited I get to see you again tomorrow" as they are leaving for dismissal.  I want them to know I care about each and every one of them outside of their performance in my classroom.
3a Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.- I am becoming more and more familiar with where to find certain concepts within the Common Core and Essential Standards.
4d. Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. I feel as if my students have earned the privilege to use technology in their center time and will use this resource to enhance their learning experience by providing them with content that is relevant to the standards they are learning.  
5a. Teachers analyze student learning.- I am continuing to assess students constantly, but whenever a student does well on something, I make sure to give them a shout out or call them aside and tell them how proud I am of them.  This ties into standard 2 as well.  

Support from Supervisor- I am having trouble coming up with differentiation for morning work.  I understand that this is needed in every lesson, but their morning work packets have cumulative concepts that ALL students are expected to know for the standardized test (EOG) at the end of the year.  This is also just mainly for routine practice which ALL students need the same practice.   

One Down, Four To Go! 1/30/2017

Rate
I would rate this week a 4 out of 5!  I feel like I have gotten what I had planned for this week accomplished and my students have really connected to the book that we are reading.  I am really excited and kind of nervous to try out some new methods of learning with them for my EdTPA ELA learning progression coming up this week.  

Observe: What pleasant surprises/ accomplishments did I achieve this week? 
This week was my first observation and to be honest it went better than I thought it would!! I had given myself a pep talk the morning of and told myself to just do "my thing" and it would be natural.  I am pleased with the outcome of how my students behaved, for the most part and how comfortable I was during my observation.  Although, I am not perfect, I am proud of the growth that I have seen in myself over this past year and also just throughout the beginning of the semester.  

Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week?
After my observation, I received some feedback, which was really helpful, I am going to use some of those strengths and weaknesses that were highlighted, to drive my future intentions and actions within the classroom.  I have always known that reflections have been tough for me.  I need to work on my lesson plan and daily reflections. My reflections need to be more specific and state whether or not I met my objectives for that particular lesson.  Also, I learned that documentation is key throughout student teaching.  

Focus: How are my short term efforts and long term goals still aligned?
My short term goals are going to be to immediately reflect on my lesson plans and rearrange them as need be when changes occur.  This will help me reach my long term goal of reflecting on my practice on a consistent basis.  I also am continuing to familiarize myself with the content so my confidence continually is building as I am teaching the material.  
  
Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do?
I have been apprehensive about making my resume.  I have been looking up some tips on how to create one, and researching some great things to put on there in order for me to stand out.   


Be Productive
I am continuing to build my Portfolio and Classroom website!!! I have revised my Philosophy of Education, but still need to send it in for approval.  Also, I need to create my resume and schedule an appointment with Career Development soon!!! 


Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? What mental clutter can I clear?
I want to go into next week having full confidence in my learning progession for EdTPA.  Now that I have clarified some things during the EdTPA seminars, I feel ready to implement my ideas in the classroom.  I feel confident my students will not only learn a lot in the unit, but will also enjoy participating in these learning experiences.  

Data
This week I have been rotating students on Lyrics 2 Learn, which is a reading fluency program that my students are new to, but are loving it!  I have been looking to see if their comprehension scores are at mastery level each day they log on.  If the students score below an 80%, they have to retake the comprehension quiz at the end of the story that is set to a beat.  My struggling students seem to like this and their scores have been improving throughout the week!      

Advice
If it isn't working, change it!  My CE and I decided to switch up centers this week because I had talked with her and noticed that the students were misbehaving because they were bored.  Routine is great and all, but sometimes students need something different to keep their attention.  We switched around the center activities and they seemed to flow a lot better!  

NCTCS
1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms - I have taken it upon me that all 24 of my students are relying on me to plan my instruction so they can learn and succeed in order to move onto the next level.  I use data collected from assessments to determine what kind of activities and my delivery of instruction for particular lessons. 
2b. Teachers treat students as individuals- I try to seek out every student and ask questions like "how was your weekend?", or state to them "I am excited I get to see you again tomorrow" as they are leaving for dismissal.  I want them to know I care about each and every one of them outside of their performance in my classroom.
3a Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.- I am becoming more and more familiar with where to find certain concepts within the Common Core and Essential Standards.
4d. Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. I feel as if my students have earned the privilege to use technology in their center time and will use this resource to enhance their learning experience by providing them with content that is relevant to the standards they are learning.  
5a. Teachers analyze student learning.- Everything that the students are turning in, I am not just looking at their grades, I am looking to see what particular questions the students are missing and see if I see a trend in the class as a whole.  This is a way for me to assess how I should address the situation.

Support from Supervisor- N/A