Week 7 Full-time Completed!

    I would say my experience in my class this week would be another 5. I love my babies and they make each day interesting and fun. I had a couple pleasant surprises this week! Two surprises came on Thursday. The first surprise was at our pumpkin carving event, when all of our students had a parent or grandparent come besides 1 student whose parents had to work.  It was a great time of parent involvement and to better get to know my students parents. The second came Thursday night, when all of the student teachers passed edTPA with an A!! The third surprise came on Friday, when I had an Indian culture center and all my students loved the Indian desert I made. There were some students who had 3-5 servings. My students have been doing awesome academically. After reflecting on lessons and students work, students need more practice writing their numbers the correct way. They know how to count and recognize the number, but 2,5,6,9 are confusing for them. The students will spend time in centers next week practicing writing their numbers. My short-term goals of implementing classroom management skills, is helping to prepare me to have a well ran and managed classroom. I think I had another productive week and would not have spent more or less time doing anything.  The first logical steps for next week is to continue working on my portfolio, and get a good chunk of lessons done on Monday during teacher work day.

      I analyzed my students’ phonics each day, and adjusted the plans for the next day for my lower groups each day in order for them to get extra practice with letter sounds. Students did well with their spelling words again. We practiced them each day in daily 5, which paid off because 13/23 students passed all of them, 8/23 got of them and only 2/23 could not say any. This weeks words were more challenging for them. The words were “no, go, up, can” I will continue to analyze data and practice sight words each day so students can master their sight words and start reading.  One piece of advice I would share with other student teachers is to finish these last 3 week of full time teaching strong by giving all that you have to your students.

NCPTS

     This week I increased in standard 1a but using my students’ data to plan and change instruction. I increased in standard 2b by planning a culture day on Friday of this week and next week. This week, I read a book to students on getepic.com on India. In centers, students got to “take a trip to India.” I made them an Indian desert to try, they got to look through a camera and see 14 different pictures from Indian culture, and completed a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting Indian culture and American culture. This kids LOVED it. I increased in standard 3a by integrating literacy in many lessons. I including graphic organizers for the culture center, science center, for comparing seasons, and literacy in math by showing students bean bags that had the number, dots, and word ex) number 7, 7 dots, and the word seven. I increased in 4f, and 4g by including multiple times throughout my lessons where students were able to talk to and collaborate with a partner to come up with answers, and checking each others boards and cubes in both phonics and math so they had someone “giving them approval” without all yelling my name at the same time to check their board. Lastly, I increased in standard 5c by modifying my lessons each day based on students needs, and what they struggled with.

    This week I continued to work on and add to my parent log, my PDP info, my resume, and personal philosophy. My CE and myself are both all set for right now!

More Than Half Way!

Overall I would rate this week a 5. I had a great week in the classroom and saw a lot of growth from my students. I was surprised that 16/23 students said all of their sight words this week! 6/23 only missed 1 or 2, and we only had 1 student who did not know any. For the first week having sight words, they did awesome! This week I believe my management has gotten a lot better. I have added different tools to make transitions smoother and to get the students quiet faster. Next week, I know I need to briefly review the letters and letter sounds with my higher groups just for practice, and spend more time with my lower groups on letters and sounds. They were able to get their sight words because I practiced with them so much, but still struggle with identifying their letters and letter sounds. My short-term efforts of adding classroom management materials, is helping my long-term goal of classroom management. Again, I feel like I used my time very well this week and there isn’t anything I would change. I had indecision about letting the students walk around the room to get themselves in groups for a math lesson. However, I decided to try it, and it worked really well and they enjoyed the activity. The first logical steps for next week is to start lesson planning, and working on my portfolio.

I analyzed my students data from phonics, daily 5, and math all this week, which helped me plan my instruction for next week. I know my higher groups are doing well with letter recognition and sounds, and my lower groups need more practice. I also know that most of my students know how to write their numbers 1-7, the main issue is writing them backwards, so I will focus on having them write their numbers correctly.  The advice  would share with my other student teachers is to make sure you are working on your portfolio as you go!

NCPTS:

This week I increased in standard 1a, by using a variety of data from the information we got during our data dives to plan our groups. I increased in standard 2d because I met with the speech teacher at our school and learned some new ways to help my student who has a speech impediment. I increased in standard 3a by integrating science into my literacy in two different lessons this week. I increased in standard 4e by including critical thinking. Students got to pick two colors of paint they wanted to mix. They then had to predict what color they would turn, and recorded the actual color it turned to. I increased in standard 5c my modifying my lessons each day based on what the students struggled with.

I worked on my parent log, PDP, and videoed this week as part of my portfolio. My CE and I are all set right now.

Half Way There!!!

I would rate this week a 5. We had a great week in the class. We had excellent behavior, and did not need to write in any planners this week, which is the first week for this to happen! The pleasant surprise this week was I taught students punctuation on Tuesday (period, exclamation mark, and question mark) and the next day when I was reading to students and when they were reading in centers, they pointed them out to me. I also had a parent/teacher conference Wednesday and the mom said her daughter came home and said “can I have a snack QUESTION MARK” Then said “when I am yelling at you, I’m going to use an exclamation mark” This made me laugh, and also happy that students learned the meaning of these different punctuations. Reflections of this weeks lesson showed me that my higher groups have almost mastered the letters they have been taught in phonics so far this year, some just need a quick review and more practice with the letter G. It showed me that my lower groups still need lots of practice with their letters because if they do not know letters and letter sounds then they will not be able to read. My short-term goals of whole class and individual positive proximity praise, is aligned with my long-term goal of classroom management. I have noticed especially this week how well this works. When you give one student a compliment, they will all do what that student is doing because they want a compliment as well. This week I was able to use my time really well and have a really productive week because there is finally no edTPA to worry about. The work day on Thursday also really helped a lot! Apprehension about passing out materials in whole group math lessons stopped me from doing so in the first whole group lesson I taught. However, the next day I passed out whiteboards so they could practice writing their numbers and it was very successful. On Monday, I will be passing out cubes for students to complete the lesson, so we will see how that goes. The first logical steps for next week is to continue videoing lessons and working on my portfolio.

I analyzed my students’ phonics, math, letter writing, sounds, and recognition this week. It helped me realize that my lower groups still need a lot of practice with their letters and my higher students are more proficient, so they will only need to review the letters before lessons. I also was made known that most of my students can write their numbers 1-5 but ¾ of the class wrote one or more letter backwards, so I will continue to show them the correct way to write their numbers. One piece of advice I would share with the other student teachers is to really enjoy the time we have left since we are halfway there.

NCPTS

This week I increased my rating in standard 1b by creating my professional development log. I increased my rating in standard 2b by including differentiation in each one of my lessons to meet each student where they are. I increased my rating in 3d by connecting all of my lessons to NCPTS, including global awareness, and making the instruction I teach relevant to students. Next week I will include literacy in global awareness by creating a thinking map so students can see a visual to increase my rating even more. Students now use the computers on a daily basis for literacy centers and math centers, which increases my rating in 4d for integrating and using technology in instruction. For standard 5a, I reflected on each one of my lessons and my students’ work each day, and adjusted my lesson plans for the next day accordingly.

I started to complete my parent log, PD log, and PDP this week for my portfolio. My CE and myself are both all set right now!

EdTPA is complete!!!

Hallelujah edTPA is done!!! This has been a very stressful week to say the least. In the class however, I would say it was a 5. There were so many awesome things that happened in the classroom this week that made up for the stress of edTPA and lesson plans. The pleasant surprise and accomplishment I achieved this week was when one of my higher students helped a lower level student with her letter writing. When the higher-level student was done with her letter-writing sheet, she was wondering around the room, as my lower level was nagging me to write the letters for her because “she can’t do it.” I then decided to ask the higher student to teach the lower student how her write the letter j. It was the most precious thing ever, and the lower level student was able to write them that day and the next morning for morning work. My lessons did not go as planned this week because my lower level students struggled with rhyming so we focused on that all week. My higher-level students struggled with last sounds so we spent more time on both of those than planned. Next week before each lesson with these students, I will review these concepts. My short-term goals of getting a bell for my classroom to ring when students are too loud, and making a whole group reward, align with my long term goal of classroom management. I could have spent more time writing lesson plans, but it wasn’t really an option because of edTPA. Apprehension of letting the students use the dry erase markers on the table (dry erase proof) during centers stopped me from letting them use the in the beginning of the week. Thursday I let them use the markers for math and it worked great.  The first logical steps for next week is to get my PD document started and complete the stuff I need to from the feedback on my first observation. I can finally clear the mental clutter of edTPA being off my shoulders.

I analyzed my students letting writing skills each day, which made me add students to the group who could complete the higher-level worksheet. One piece of advice I would share is to try and relax and finish the second half of student teaching strong as we go into week 5.

NCPTS

This week I increased my rating for standard 1a; teachers lead in their classrooms, I demonstrated leadership by drawing on appropriate data to develop classroom and instructional plans. I evaluated my students and what they needed and changed my plans throughout the week accordingly. I noticed that math centers were not working because we were not able to get to all of them in a day, so I made some adjustments with math in my schedule. I increased my rating for standard 2c; teachers treat students as individuals by noticing each of my students individual needs. I recognized that my higher level student needed something to do because she had completed her paper, and my lower-level student needed someone besides myself to keep helping her, so I paired them together so my higher student could help her as I watched. I increased my rating in standard of 3c by interconnecting my standards. I included science standards in my lesson by teaching my students about different animals this week. I increased my rating in 4d, by integrating and utilizing in instruction. This week I introduced the computers in both math and ELA centers so students can use the computers to help them learn. I increased my rating in standard 5a by analyzing all of my students learning each day and writing whether each standard was met or not each day.

This week I continued to take videos, communicate with parents, and attended hours of professional development at my school where I learned more about ELS students and the DSS process in the school. Both my CE and myself are all set for now.