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. 

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