Week 7

    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.