Thinking back on my last week of my first placement, I think that it was a very full week, but definitely a good week as well. This week I was able to teach my edTPA lessons during reading throughout the week, so that led to large amounts of preparation and planning for these specific events and the lessons that went along with reading during this week.
One event that really made me re-think about the medical fragility of some of my students this week was the fact that one of my students, who has spina bifida, had his first seizure of his life last week. This led to a stay in the Children's Hospital, but also the fact that he did not return to school at all this week. This was sad for me as I was not able to see one of my students for my entire last week, but also just a reminder about how medically some things can change very quickly with these students.
One positive this week was in my interactions with the student who has been very defiant this placement. This week he has been so much more respectful and willing to talk to me, which has been really enjoyable and nice in the classroom, he has also just been much more compliant overall and has just been much more eager to work hard and do his work in the classroom. Part of this is that my cooperating teacher called his mother on Monday after he had a very bad day during Valentines Day with being defiant, but also I think he has grown a bit to respect me and get used to me teaching him in the classroom, too bad that this is happening in the last week, but still something that I was glad to see. Of course there were still moments where his behavior was not good, but I was so pleased to see improvements at least.
I was pleased with my teaching this week overall, I think that I have seen my classroom management skills improve and some of the fruits of this labor come to bear this week, finally. I think that my style of management may take awhile to implement and to make work, especially when I am coming into a new placement where the kids need to adjust to me. I think that classroom management is still an area I really need to improve on and do well in. I think that this is such a hard area to be proficient in as well so it's just something that I want to do better in and get better at. But going back to my teaching at large, I think that my lessons were very engaging for the class and that they enjoyed learning. I think looking at this week once again that I really enjoyed teaching full time once again and having the full control of my class. I have noticed as well though, just how beneficial it is to have good aides in the classroom. My aides were so helpful this week in a number of ways so that was just a thing that I thought about.
On Friday I had to say goodbye to my class, which is always a sad experience, but something interesting that I have noticed is that goodbyes never go the way you think they are going to go. In this case, the goodbyes were quite anti-climatic. I brought snacks and little gifts for my students as well as gift cards and cards for my teacher and aides. My teacher had to leave early because her daughter was throwing up at school, so my goodbye with her was last minute, only two of my students said goodbye/really noticed I was leaving, and there wasn't really anything to commemorate me leaving. I may be sounding selfish with this, but I was definitely hoping for a bit of a different goodbye with a note or something from my teacher, but I guess that it's not good to dwell on these things either. So it was a bit of a disappointing day to say goodbye to my class but I'm still really glad about this placement overall and the last seven weeks I was able to spend at my school. I feel that I was very affirmed in my decision to be a teacher and that is something that is very worthwhile to me and very valuable as well. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to my first seven weeks at student teaching and this first placement, I have greatly enjoyed your input and your help in this placement.
Classroom Confidential
1. Reading through the sections on history and art are very beneficial, just for the amount of strategies and ideas they give both for those specific discipline areas but also just for teaching in general. A number of the activities that are given would be useful in any discipline area and can be used across a wide variety of subject areas. For example, one section talks about the importance of independent investigation. This strategy is being talked about in the book specifically for history, but could also be used for really any subject area as I believe that it is important for students to work independently but also to use investigative skills as much as possible. I think that besides the specific activities, there area just a number of solid topics and underlying ideas that are important as they just make it so that the teacher is viewing student learning in the right light and in the right way.
2. I think authentic assessments that I have seen are related to group work usually where students are asked to create something real or work to make something new that they are not used to working towards or creating. I think that these type of assessments are easiest to to do in social studies or english classes, but overall I really enjoy teaching these type of assessments as well because I think that they are extremely helpful to the students, but also enjoyable to teach. Other example may be students working on assessments that relate to the real world or use real information from the world, or also assessments in which students can create something that can also be use in real life or for it's really purpose, which I think is often very beneficial to them.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Week 6
Week 6 started my first of two weeks in complete control at my placement. This was the part of my placement that I was really worried about before I started student teaching, just because I was quite sure that having that much responsibility would be a lot to handle and would be really tough to deal with overall. But, after going through my first week I can say with confidence that it went well and that I really enjoyed having a lot of control in the classroom, it actually was really nice and enjoyable for me and it affirmed in me my desire to be a teacher.
The week started out well, with starting another new story for Reading, but staying in the same unit in Math for the most part since our students are still at the same point that they were at. Mrs. Greene was able to come observe my reading lesson on Monday and I think that it went really well. I was pleased with the students work as well as my teaching and I was happy that she could come visit and see me work on a real lesson. She also gave some helpful ideas about teaching phonics to students and teaching reading in general. The rest of Monday went normally, which is a good thing in my placement. I have noticed that the other teachers in our building definitely trust me with more responsibility if they need something from the classroom or need something from one of my students. The students in my class also have continued to respect me more and come to me with their concerns instead of my cooperating teacher. Part of that is my cooperating teacher telling them to come to me with everything, but I think that I have also done a good job of supporting them where needed and also answering questions they may have.
Wednesday, Professor Harkema was able to come and observe my reading lesson. We were reading a story about pancakes so our class was able to make pancakes, which the students really enjoyed and I would like to think was helpful for them in the life skills department. Even though they are only in middle school, or younger, life skills are also helpful to be learned and can never be learned early enough in my opinion. I really liked how the lesson went and it was enjoyable to teach this lesson for me and I know that the students enjoyed themselves as well, I mean who doesn't love pancakes in the classroom?
On Friday, we had our Valentines Day Party in the afternoon, which was a blast. A few of our students who are very quiet really came out of their shells and were so excited to be taking part in the party. The party did get a little crazy at the end, with one student becoming quite defiant. I talked to him the hallway, he was also talked to by another teacher (my teacher was at parent/teacher conferences for her children in the afternoon, and by his paraprofessional but he was just really defiant. He comes from a pretty difficult home situation so he usually struggles with transition at the end of the day and leaving school because he doesn't want to go home. But overall the party was really fun and it was great to see the children enjoying themselves so much. We also finished our chapter book, Runaway Ralph on Friday which we had read for almost the entire time I was at our placement, so that was a big achievement for all of us.
This week was a busy week in which I taught all day everyday and saw a little taste of what is going to be like to be a real teacher, but I definitely enjoyed it, even though it was very tiring. Being responsible for every period of the day seemed to be quite the process, but it still went well and I was happy with the week overall. I was able to make some cool lessons throughout the week relating to the Olympics which I think the kids enjoyed and which were something that was definitely different for them. Next week I am teaching my edTPA lessons so hopefully those and my last week of student teaching at my first placement go well!
-Nate
The week started out well, with starting another new story for Reading, but staying in the same unit in Math for the most part since our students are still at the same point that they were at. Mrs. Greene was able to come observe my reading lesson on Monday and I think that it went really well. I was pleased with the students work as well as my teaching and I was happy that she could come visit and see me work on a real lesson. She also gave some helpful ideas about teaching phonics to students and teaching reading in general. The rest of Monday went normally, which is a good thing in my placement. I have noticed that the other teachers in our building definitely trust me with more responsibility if they need something from the classroom or need something from one of my students. The students in my class also have continued to respect me more and come to me with their concerns instead of my cooperating teacher. Part of that is my cooperating teacher telling them to come to me with everything, but I think that I have also done a good job of supporting them where needed and also answering questions they may have.
Wednesday, Professor Harkema was able to come and observe my reading lesson. We were reading a story about pancakes so our class was able to make pancakes, which the students really enjoyed and I would like to think was helpful for them in the life skills department. Even though they are only in middle school, or younger, life skills are also helpful to be learned and can never be learned early enough in my opinion. I really liked how the lesson went and it was enjoyable to teach this lesson for me and I know that the students enjoyed themselves as well, I mean who doesn't love pancakes in the classroom?
On Friday, we had our Valentines Day Party in the afternoon, which was a blast. A few of our students who are very quiet really came out of their shells and were so excited to be taking part in the party. The party did get a little crazy at the end, with one student becoming quite defiant. I talked to him the hallway, he was also talked to by another teacher (my teacher was at parent/teacher conferences for her children in the afternoon, and by his paraprofessional but he was just really defiant. He comes from a pretty difficult home situation so he usually struggles with transition at the end of the day and leaving school because he doesn't want to go home. But overall the party was really fun and it was great to see the children enjoying themselves so much. We also finished our chapter book, Runaway Ralph on Friday which we had read for almost the entire time I was at our placement, so that was a big achievement for all of us.
This week was a busy week in which I taught all day everyday and saw a little taste of what is going to be like to be a real teacher, but I definitely enjoyed it, even though it was very tiring. Being responsible for every period of the day seemed to be quite the process, but it still went well and I was happy with the week overall. I was able to make some cool lessons throughout the week relating to the Olympics which I think the kids enjoyed and which were something that was definitely different for them. Next week I am teaching my edTPA lessons so hopefully those and my last week of student teaching at my first placement go well!
-Nate
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Week 5
If I was to give this week of school a title, it would be the week of meetings. Both Monday and Tuesday I attended IEP meetings for two of the students in my class and on Tuesday I was even able to actually participate in the IEP meeting and read about the Present Level of Performance (PLOP) for our student. These experiences were very interesting for me and helpful to my development as a teacher. The meeting Monday was very interesting as one of the parents became very angry with some of the staff at the IEP meeting even though they had done everything right in their work with this student. So it was beneficial to see both what parents look like when they are angry with the teachers and when they are happy with the work that the parents are doing.
This week I taught all of our subjects except for Math. This meant that I was able to take more and more control of the class which I enjoyed. I think that my Reading lessons especially went really well. For the initial reading lesson I was able to incorporate some learning activities that I did not at first intend to include, but that I feel really were beneficial to the students so this was a time that I was able to adapt and it worked well, though I wish that I always could come up with ideas to add to my lessons in a snap like I did for that lesson, but hopefully that will grow with more practice as well.
Last week I talked about how I was struggling a bit with having one of my students, who is very defiant, respect me. This week I have really been working on doing what I can so that the student is respectful and follows my instructions. It's been a bit of ups and downs which is to be expected I think. At some points the student will follow my instructions, though grudgingly, while at other points the student will blatantly disregard what I say, or just not follow my instructions and instead just laugh. So this part has definitely been an exercise in patience, but probably a good exercise because I am sure that I will have similar students in the future.
I think that I have definitely grown in my relationships with my paraprofessionals and my students this week as well. Students are much more apt to come to me with their problems and questions instead of my cooperating teacher so that is really great when it happens. I also have established a bit more repertoire with other teachers in the building as well so that is something that I have enjoyed doing and something that I am happy to see as well. My teaching has been pretty successful. One thing that I have noticed that I struggle with again is how long lessons are and making sure to have enough content to fill a time slot. Over planning is important to this as well, but sometimes that may difficult as my students' attention spans may not be the longest. One thing that my teacher does is just give the students free time for the last 10-15 minutes of class or have them read or something like that, she says it is because it is important that they have breaks, so it really is just a matter of whether I want to do that or just have them do other activities. I think I would prefer to do other activities instead of giving them free time, but I do agree that sometimes their attention spans are not the longest.
Classroom Confidential
1. I think that after reading this chapter on communication I thought about how important it is to be aware of cultural differences related to communication. I think this is an aspect of communication that is often overlooked. If I was supposed to meet with parents, I would be more worried about the content of what I had to say instead of thinking about what I was saying and what I was saying meant to those around me. I think that this is an area of communication that many people think will not really apply to them but so many schools are very diverse in the modern educational setting, that this is just not true. Teachers need to be aware of cultural customs and what customs they may need to follow in their communication with parents!
2. I think this chapter really gave a lot of really helpful information related to parent-teacher conferences. One piece of information that I found helpful was to have students' evaluate themselves on their work in the class and how they think that they are doing. In my novice placement, my teacher did this even more so. He would have conferences with students first and plan goals with them so that when the conference came around the students would basically run the conference, telling the parents what their various scores and grades meant as well as where they hoped to be and why they set goals where they did. I really like this format and I think that this chapter also aligns with this practice so I think this is something that I will work towards in the future.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Week 4
Wow week four already, this has gone quite quickly and I'm sure it will continue to! This week was a week that started off with two snow days so it was quite a short week, but definitely still a fruitful week. The interesting thing about snow days at my placement is that it seems whenever students are out of school for any period of time, even two snow days they seem to forget a lot about how they are supposed to act in the classroom and what is expected of them. Some students especially will just lose some of the independence that they had previously in the classroom when they are at home for extended periods of time. At first when my teacher mentioned this, I really didn't believe her that it happened, but after seeing this firsthand I can say that this happens for sure. Some is for sure related to these students just not being very independent at home and their parents doing too much for them so that when they get back to school, they just do not know how to act independently any longer.
As far as teaching this week, I had quite a few opportunities to teach especially later in the week. This week I continued teaching the RAP period, but I also added on our Reading period which lasts for over an hour so that's a pretty lengthy class period to teach. But Wednesday, I was not able to teach my Reading lesson as two of the teachers in our building were out. Meaning that we did not have enough subs to cover those rooms, meaning that our class also took on another class. So all day we had a double class in our room, plus double the amount of paraprofessionals, which leads to chaos! So for a lot of the events on Wednesday, my teacher decided that we would do more craft and group related activities just because of the sheer amount of students in our room. The principal also decided that we were not going to have math and reading on Wednesday because the teachers were gone and switching for these classes just would not work. So we did not teach those subjects on Wednesday. So finally on Thursday I was able to teach my first reading lesson, it really went well. I made sure to ask quite a few comprehension questions of the students during our reading and I also had the students act out the story after they read it, which they loved and had never done before. The only problem I had was that the class period goes for over an hour, so it was tough to teach about a short story for an entire hour. I feel that stretching content to fit into time frames is a very difficult aspect of teaching and something that I need to work at and practice more at.
Thursday I was also to work on some discipline problems in our classroom. One of our students can be quite disruptive at times in that he doesn't really care what teachers say or listen to them at all depending on how he is doing that day. Thursday was a day where he was very defiant. The student did not listen to my instructions a few times, said very mean things to a couple of other students, and then clearly defied a paraprofessional and called her a name. My teacher was not really in the same part of the room and really did not witness what was happening so I was able to step in and I talked to the student very sternly about respecting his teachers and his peers. I think that it went well, but there is still a ways to go in making sure that the student respects me and follows my instructions. This student really takes quite a while before he respects people in authority over him so I'm hoping that we can work together on this in the future. It was also interesting because my teacher usually yells at students when they are not listening or doing something wrong, but that's not really how I deal with misbehavior, I'm not really a yeller. So instead I just basically sat down the student and got down to his eye level and talked to him sternly about what he was doing, I think it was effective but I guess to see that for sure it'll just take time. To my readers: Any other ideas as to how best work with this student in his behaviors and in this area of classroom management? I think that this can be linked back to standard 4A of the IPTS standards. This is that "The competent teacher understands principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management." This relates back to my discipline decisions with my specific student. I think it is very important that I realize how to use behavior management effectively, but also how to vary it from student to student so that I can be the most effective teacher possible for all of my students, but also keep the classroom running smoothly.
Friday my teacher was gone for the entire day so we had a substitute, but I really was able to take over the class and I taught the entire day which was really a great experience, I loved it, which speaks well to becoming a teacher I think. It was really great to finally be in charge and not have my cooperating teacher around, just because I felt more in control of the classroom and the proceedings inside the classroom. My teaching for the day went well, in reading we finished a packet of worksheets that the students had been working on and in math we worked on putting together a craft that dealt with counting the numbers 1-5. Another question I have for readers is this: What is a way to still teach and follow my teacher's guidelines in reading, but not use worksheets? Worksheets are an integral part of the weekly reading program and I don't know if I would even be allowed to get rid of them necessarily, but I kind of think it would be a good idea, any thoughts would be great. Anyways, teaching went well on Friday, I was able to take charge of the discipline and the proceedings in the classroom with newfound freedom now that my teacher was not in the classroom so that was really a great step for me. I think that my classroom management is also going well for the most part, I still need to work on my repertoire with my students to make sure that they know where I'm coming from in my discipline and know kind of how I would like to run the classroom as well.
Classroom Confidential
1. Through this chapter I learned about eptness and what this concept really means, it basically refers to a classroom environment in which student learning happens in a number of ways and that students feel comfortable to learn and also that they are able to learn in a number of ways and in a number of roles as well. Eptness also is related to students learning in a number of ways and taking upon a number of roles in the classroom so that they are able to learn in a number of ways and are able to take upon a number of jobs for themselves in the classroom so that learning can happen in multiple ways.
2. One teacher behavior that I hope to use is encouragement. I think that encouragement is something that comes relatively naturally to me but also something that many of the students in my class really need and would really grow from in the classroom. I think that many of the students in my class do not receive too much encouragement in their home lives and even sometimes in their school lives, they may just be told over and over again that they cannot do something or they are not doing something correctly, so it is very important to be encouraging students and empower them to do well in their schoolwork and their lives. Another behavior is that of challenging old habits. I think that this is important especially for some of the students in my class to challenge their old habits because many of them have been very dependent on others for a lot of their lives. I think that helping students challenge these old habits and work towards doing new things and doing better habits that are based around independence would be very helpful to these students and beneficial to them. Finally in special education I think that the behavior of never doing anything for students that the can do for themselves is ESSENTIAL. This is because many of these students, as I have said, have become so prompt and assistance dependent through their lives and their educational careers. Because of this, these students need to work on their independence in order to be ready for higher education and for the higher world. I think that I will use this by just doing the hard thing for students sometimes and making them do a task that may be very difficult for them, but would be very helpful in the long run for them as well.
As far as teaching this week, I had quite a few opportunities to teach especially later in the week. This week I continued teaching the RAP period, but I also added on our Reading period which lasts for over an hour so that's a pretty lengthy class period to teach. But Wednesday, I was not able to teach my Reading lesson as two of the teachers in our building were out. Meaning that we did not have enough subs to cover those rooms, meaning that our class also took on another class. So all day we had a double class in our room, plus double the amount of paraprofessionals, which leads to chaos! So for a lot of the events on Wednesday, my teacher decided that we would do more craft and group related activities just because of the sheer amount of students in our room. The principal also decided that we were not going to have math and reading on Wednesday because the teachers were gone and switching for these classes just would not work. So we did not teach those subjects on Wednesday. So finally on Thursday I was able to teach my first reading lesson, it really went well. I made sure to ask quite a few comprehension questions of the students during our reading and I also had the students act out the story after they read it, which they loved and had never done before. The only problem I had was that the class period goes for over an hour, so it was tough to teach about a short story for an entire hour. I feel that stretching content to fit into time frames is a very difficult aspect of teaching and something that I need to work at and practice more at.
Thursday I was also to work on some discipline problems in our classroom. One of our students can be quite disruptive at times in that he doesn't really care what teachers say or listen to them at all depending on how he is doing that day. Thursday was a day where he was very defiant. The student did not listen to my instructions a few times, said very mean things to a couple of other students, and then clearly defied a paraprofessional and called her a name. My teacher was not really in the same part of the room and really did not witness what was happening so I was able to step in and I talked to the student very sternly about respecting his teachers and his peers. I think that it went well, but there is still a ways to go in making sure that the student respects me and follows my instructions. This student really takes quite a while before he respects people in authority over him so I'm hoping that we can work together on this in the future. It was also interesting because my teacher usually yells at students when they are not listening or doing something wrong, but that's not really how I deal with misbehavior, I'm not really a yeller. So instead I just basically sat down the student and got down to his eye level and talked to him sternly about what he was doing, I think it was effective but I guess to see that for sure it'll just take time. To my readers: Any other ideas as to how best work with this student in his behaviors and in this area of classroom management? I think that this can be linked back to standard 4A of the IPTS standards. This is that "The competent teacher understands principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management." This relates back to my discipline decisions with my specific student. I think it is very important that I realize how to use behavior management effectively, but also how to vary it from student to student so that I can be the most effective teacher possible for all of my students, but also keep the classroom running smoothly.
Friday my teacher was gone for the entire day so we had a substitute, but I really was able to take over the class and I taught the entire day which was really a great experience, I loved it, which speaks well to becoming a teacher I think. It was really great to finally be in charge and not have my cooperating teacher around, just because I felt more in control of the classroom and the proceedings inside the classroom. My teaching for the day went well, in reading we finished a packet of worksheets that the students had been working on and in math we worked on putting together a craft that dealt with counting the numbers 1-5. Another question I have for readers is this: What is a way to still teach and follow my teacher's guidelines in reading, but not use worksheets? Worksheets are an integral part of the weekly reading program and I don't know if I would even be allowed to get rid of them necessarily, but I kind of think it would be a good idea, any thoughts would be great. Anyways, teaching went well on Friday, I was able to take charge of the discipline and the proceedings in the classroom with newfound freedom now that my teacher was not in the classroom so that was really a great step for me. I think that my classroom management is also going well for the most part, I still need to work on my repertoire with my students to make sure that they know where I'm coming from in my discipline and know kind of how I would like to run the classroom as well.
Classroom Confidential
1. Through this chapter I learned about eptness and what this concept really means, it basically refers to a classroom environment in which student learning happens in a number of ways and that students feel comfortable to learn and also that they are able to learn in a number of ways and in a number of roles as well. Eptness also is related to students learning in a number of ways and taking upon a number of roles in the classroom so that they are able to learn in a number of ways and are able to take upon a number of jobs for themselves in the classroom so that learning can happen in multiple ways.
2. One teacher behavior that I hope to use is encouragement. I think that encouragement is something that comes relatively naturally to me but also something that many of the students in my class really need and would really grow from in the classroom. I think that many of the students in my class do not receive too much encouragement in their home lives and even sometimes in their school lives, they may just be told over and over again that they cannot do something or they are not doing something correctly, so it is very important to be encouraging students and empower them to do well in their schoolwork and their lives. Another behavior is that of challenging old habits. I think that this is important especially for some of the students in my class to challenge their old habits because many of them have been very dependent on others for a lot of their lives. I think that helping students challenge these old habits and work towards doing new things and doing better habits that are based around independence would be very helpful to these students and beneficial to them. Finally in special education I think that the behavior of never doing anything for students that the can do for themselves is ESSENTIAL. This is because many of these students, as I have said, have become so prompt and assistance dependent through their lives and their educational careers. Because of this, these students need to work on their independence in order to be ready for higher education and for the higher world. I think that I will use this by just doing the hard thing for students sometimes and making them do a task that may be very difficult for them, but would be very helpful in the long run for them as well.
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