How is it Almost Spring Break of my Senior Year??

  My clinical experience this semester has been nothing but a positive experience. I have already learned so much in my classroom about teacher leadership, classroom management, class rules and much more. I have been able to be hands on and working directly with students every single day that I have been in my classroom. I have led the writing center about five times, and I have been in charge of the word work center the rest of the days that I am not leading the writing center. In the word work center I help students with their sight words, vowel sounds, letter and word recognition and help explain what they are supposed to do. There are only four students in this center at a time so I am able to work very closely with them and build a relationship with my students. I have been able to pick up on most of my students strengths and weaknesses and I am able to work with each student on what they need individually. This is NCPTS 2, Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students under Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults and teachers treat students as individuals. Every morning I am also able to work with a group of students who are in a tier 2 group. This group of students are my case study students for 412 and I work on their sight words and phonics with them. I have been left in charge of my students multiple times when my teacher has to work with a small group of students, bring students to the book fair or go to the restroom. This is a good time for me to practice my leadership skills for my student teaching. 
Monday (February 12) was the 100th day of school, so things were done a little differently on this day. I had to put together bins of 100 objects for the students to use in centers. I had to put 100 Legos, 100 bristle blocks and 100 cubes in separate bins while my teacher was doing their morning work with them. The TA and myself then brought the class to three other classes to do activities in the other classrooms because the whole grade was doing rotations. In one classroom the students got in groups and were given 100 blocks and had to build something as a team. This is NCPTS 4, Teachers Facilitate Learning for Their Students under Teachers help students work in teams and develop leadership qualities. It was very clear which students had teamwork skills and which students did not. I had to keep reminding the students they needed to work together to build and help each other. In another class, they counted by 10s and had to make 10 groups of 10 fruit loops. When they were done they were able to eat them. The last center they got into groups again and had 100 plastic cups and had to build something as a team. Again this is NCPTS 4, working on team building skills. After the class rotations, we did centers in our own classroom. My teacher had to leave for a doctors’ appointment so the TA and I did centers. The TA had a group at the writing center and I was monitoring the other 100th day centers. I had to constantly be reminding the students to share and work together as a team because they were arguing about who gets what and how many each person had. I suggested that they work together and share so they could build something better with more blocks. When one of the groups worked together they were able to build a big tower and a big robot. I gave each of them a high five and said “I am so proud of all of you, look what happens when we all work together and share.” It took them hours to realize the benefits of sharing but once they found out they could make something better when they shared, they all had a big smile on their face. This would fall under NCPTS 3, Teachers Know the Content They Teach under Teachers make instruction relevant to students. Sharing and working with others is a life skill that students will need to use for the rest of their lives. If they cannot work with others, they will have a very hard time in life. In my future classroom, teamwork skills will be something that is highly emphasized. I know especially for kindergartners it is hard for them to share and work together, but it will be something that is practiced in my classroom on a daily basis so students can learn to love one another and work together.I have been apart of a team my whole life and it has been the best possible thing for me. I can have a conversation with anyone and everyone and have made so many connections by working with different people. I believe the root of my success has been my people skills and teamwork skills. It is very important that children learn this when they are young so they can be set up for success in the real world.
    One of the topics this month in class was "How do new teachers develop effective relationships with parents and other stakeholders?" I have been able to meet six of my students parents between them coming to lunch and dropping their kids off in the morning. I have had conversations and made connections with a few of the parents as well. One of the moms told me that it is really encouraging for the parents to see their children hugging me and getting excited when I walk in the classroom. I have made relationships with the other kindergarten teachers and principal as well. My principal and I have had a special bond since we are both from the same area so we have had a lot to talk about.
  I have been keeping up with the principal Amy Fast on twitter and two of her tweets this month really stood out to me.

This tweet says "some dropout prevention specialists spend their "extra time" writing citation letters to students and parents. Ours spends her time writing love letters." This is truly awesome because chances are very high that if a student is thinking about or has dropped out of school it is because they feel like a failure, unloved, unwanted, and lost. A citation letter is going to do nothing but drive the student away even more and make them feel even more low but an encouraging love letter showing them that someone believes in them may be the very reason they stay in school. 

This tweet Amy retweeted from a man named Denis Sheeran and it says "When we teach empathy, kindness, perseverance, and how to learn from our failures and mistakes, no one ever asks "when are we going to use this in real life." This tweet falls right under NCPTS 3, Teachers Know the Content They Teach under Teachers make instruction relevant to students. It is so important that we teach our students life skills. Our students need to see us as teachers fail and make mistakes. This is something that my CE does an awesome job at. When she makes a mistake she will admit it out loud to her class so they know it is okay to not be perfect. This is something I will also do in my future classroom. I want my student to know that they are in a safe place where they can try new things and mess up. It's what you do after you mess up that counts, you can either give up or persevere and I want to teach my kids how to persevere when it gets tough.

For my outside research, I looked into how to integrate technology into a kindergarten classroom because it is sometimes hard to come up with ideas for kindergarten. Some of the answers I found were computers, iPods, smart boards, and leap pads. I think these are great ways that students' can easily use technology. Students can play different learning games on the computes and iPods during center time, they can also play educational games on the smart board by touching the different answers. Leappads can be used during indoor recess or if there is something students are learning in class that is available on the leap pad, that would also be another great way for student learning. If iPads are available to the classroom this is also another great way to use technology. Students can even bring them outside during a science lesson and take pictures of different objects they see. I could then use inquiry and phenomena and ask my students different questions about the pictures they took. This is definitely something that I will try to do in my future classroom. It will be very interesting to see the different answers that kindergartners will come up with.

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/sharon-taylor/creating-tech-savvy-kindergarten-classroom/

https://www.weareteachers.com/6-hands-on-center-ideas-for-using-technology-in-pre-k-and-kindergarten/

First Blog of Spring Senior Year!

   When I got the email that I was going to be student teaching in a kindergarten classroom, I was definitely not thrilled. I was hoping to be in first or second grade, but wow am I glad I'm in kindergarten. Spending three days a week in my clinical classroom this past month could not have gone any better. I absolutely love my clinical teacher and all of my students. It is awesome to be able to help direct and teach these kids for their first time ever going to school. We have the responsibility to introduce them to the school rules and help them start their education career. It definitely takes a special person with a lot of patients to be a kindergarten teacher.

   The second day that I was in my classroom, my TA was out of the room covering for a teacher who was testing so it was just my clinical teacher and myself in the class. One of the boys in the class was sick and had to go home so my clinical educator brought him down to the office and waited with him until his mom got there. I stayed with the class and had them clean up from their centers. My teacher asked me to stay with the kids while she ran down to the office so I took the initiative to have the kids clean up the classroom and said "lets be sitting silently on the carpet so we can impress the teacher when she gets back." The students thought that was a great idea because they love making their teacher happy. They were quiet when she walked in and the teacher was so proud of them that she gave them a point on class dojo. It made the students really happy to earn an extra point. This is NCPTS 1 "Teachers Demonstrate Leadership" under "Teachers lead in their classroom." I took the responsibility to make it my job that the students were cleaned up and quiet when their teacher got back to the room. 

One of the topics we talked about in this months meeting was "How do teachers develop effective redirection strategies?" This was one of my SMART goals so I was able to watch this happen quite a bit this week and record when it did happen. The teacher had to ask a student to turn around on the rug and stop talking, she told her the first time with no punishment. The second time the same girl was turned around talking, the teacher made her go to her seat because she had already given her a verbal reminder. When students were getting a drink from the water fountain, she had to tell them to stay quiet, get in line, and to hurry up. Another time my teacher had to redirect her students was when they were transitioning to centers, the students started running to their centers so she told everyone to come back and sit down on the carpet. She then asked them why they had to come back and sit down, and they all knew what they did wrong. They all answered and said "because we were running." She then told them it is not appropriate to run in the classroom because someone could get hurt so they got back up and walked to their next center. I think my teacher handles her kids and redirects them really well. The kindergarteners need non-stop redirection because they are so young and love to talk. If I am a kindergartner teacher I will handle redirection the way that my clinical teacher does. She gives a verbal redirection nicely and if the kids still do not listen then she will send them to their seats or take away a class dojo point. She also tells them that her "mean momma voice" is about to come out if they don't start listening. You have to have a lot of patients in kindergarten and realize that they are only 5 and will need help with basically everything they do.

    I have already learned so much from my teacher this past month and have made many connections. This past week I was able to sit in on a "data dive" meeting. During this meeting, all grade level teachers, EC teachers, guidance counselor and the principal are in a room looking at test scores and talking about which kids need to be grouped where and what tier each students needs to be in to best meet their needs. It was a really cool experience. I also found out that the principal at my school grew up in Syracuse, New York....how crazy?? The whole four years that I have been at Gardner-Webb I have not met anyone from Syracuse and now my principal grew up where I did and knows exactly where I went to high school. She said she knew there was a reason that she liked me so much and then told me to fill out a substitute form online so I am in the system and will be able to get hired when I am done with student teaching. Making connections and building relationships are key.

   Building relationships with your co-workers and students is the path to success. It is especially important in kindergarten to build relationships with your students so they feel loved and accepted. I have been following an assistant principal named Amy Fast on twitter and read her tweets daily because she offers so much advice. One of my favorites in below. It's simple and to the point and emphasizes building relationships and connecting with your students. If your students know you love them, they will love you and want to listen to you and make you happy. 

  This past weekend I had a professional development training called Core Clarity Team Workshop through strength finders with my lacrosse team. This was an awesome experience and training camp that really emphasized how important building relationships are. Even if someone has different strengths than you do, you can still connect with them and feed off of each others ideas. As a team we had to come up with a SMART goal. There are 23 girls on my team and we all had to contribute and agree on a common goal we wanted to work towards. This is what I need to do as a teacher as well. Even if I do not have a lot in common with my co-workers, we need to work as a team and build off each other and help each other grow. I also believe that core clarity is a workshop that teachers could do. In my future school, I will suggest that to the principal in order to "take our business or organization to new heights." To learn more about Core Clarity the website and information is below.

https://www.coreclarity.net

  My first month as a soon-to-be student teacher has been successful and I look forward to the next few months I will be in my classroom. I am excited to see the growth I will continue to make over the semester!