Surprise, Surprise!

The  pleasant surprise for the week came on Tuesday morning when I got a text message from my CE saying she would not be in school today due to family reasons. Tuesday when I thought I would be teaching only morning work, morning meeting and a daily 5 center, turned into a full day of unexpected teaching. What I learned from this weeks lesson plans are, I need to move at a slower pace with my lessons early on in the year. I had planned for students to be able to write the uppercase and lowercase letters a-f Tuesday, g-l on Wednesday and work with sounds on Thursday. However, some groups only made it to letters a and b and still could not master them. Instead of moving onto the next 6 letters on Wednesday, I had to stay at the first few letters for some students in order for them to grasp the concept of writing uppercase and lowercase letters. One of my long-term goals is going to be classroom management. I got A LOT of experience with classroom management on Tuesday and Friday when my CE was out and I was in charge. When you have 22 kids asking you different questions and wanting to do something and talk at all times, it isn’t as easy as one may think. A lot of re-directing and teacher eyes were used. In the beginning of the day on Tuesday to get their attention, I used a loud voice so they could all hear. Once I started to lose my voice and my throat was hurting, I started talking quietly and told them I wasn’t going to raise my voice again. Surprisingly, when I talked quieter, the students also got quieter.

On Tuesday, I could have spent less time telling the students to “stop talking” “stop touching each other” “stop coloring on themselves” and more time praising the students around them who were being well behaved. After discussing with professionals regarding my day, I learned that a more effective way for classroom management is to praise the students around the ones who are misbehaving so they will want praises and rewards as well. I used this on Friday and the day went 10 times better. Because of apprehension that a teacher would walk in the class and the kids would be crazy, I wanted them to be calm and quiet at all times. Instead of sounding like a broken record and having to raise my voice constantly, the logical steps for next week when I take over the class will be to use positive proximity praise. I will have star stickers with me, and when I see a child is doing something they are supposed to be doing, they will get a star. I started this method on Thursday and there has already been a huge change in behavior. If a student fills up their star chart which is 25 stickers, they will get to go to the treasure box at the end of the day. I am going to clear the mental clutter of stressing out about managing the students, and I am going to use a calm voice and positive proximity praise to keep the students under control.

I analyzed the data from this weeks lessons that I taught, and found a few students were above what I expected, and there were a handful of students who were below the level I planned the lessons for. Based on my formative assessment each day, I had to alter each lesson I had planned for this week in order to meet the needs of each of my students. I also had to change daily 5 groups so students were better grouped based on ability. The advice I would share with other student teachers this week is to use positive proximity praise when they start to take over the class next week. Trying to raise your voice and constantly giving orders gets exhausting, especially in kindergartner. Save yourself a lot of effort and energy and focus on praising the students who are doing well, rather than the students who are misbehaving.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

            This week I was able to work on proficient candidate standard 1a; Draws on appropriate data to develop classroom and instructional plans. After my lesson plans from each day and formative assessment of each student, I had to go in and change what I was going to do in order to meet the needs of each of the students. There were a few students that could stay on track with the lessons, but for most students, I had to change my lessons and move at a slower pace. I have not yet reached accomplished candidate because my students are not yet learning to collaborate with one another. For standard 2e; Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students I would say I am a developing candidate. I understand the strategies for enhancing communication between home and school and for engaging parents, guardians, and community members in schools. My next step is to communicate with the parents and guardians of my students on a weekly basis when I take over the classroom next week. For standard 3c; Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines, I would be an emergent candidate. I understand the importance of global awareness for students but I have not yet been able to display it. I plan to include global awareness regularly when teaching. For standard 4b; Teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students, I would be a developing candidate. I used as much data as we have from the beginning of the year to plan my groups and instruction. I plan to collaborate with colleagues and monitor student performance when able to. For standard 5a; Teachers analyze student learning, I would be an emergent candidate. I am able to recognize multiple sources of information on students’ learning and performance, but I have not yet identified data sources to improve students’ learning. This will be my next step.

This week I started editing my classroom philosophy to go in my portfolio. My clinical educator does not need any support from my university supervisor at this time. I have already received the support I need from my university supervisor this week J