First Full Week of Student Teaching!!

     This has been a very exciting and draining week. I have been crazy busy and feel like all I do is teach, plan, sleep, repeat. I started losing my voice and feeling very sick by Tuesday. I went to the doctors on Wednesday where I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and severe drainage in my sinuses. It has been a tough week, but I used a lot of rewarding for the kids who were following directions the first time, so I did not have to raise my voice as much. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the kids will behave if there is a reward or punishment on the line. If the kids are wild and talking, as soon as I brought class dojo up or the stickers out, their behaviors changed drastically. This week I found the students really enjoyed going on the scavenger hunts for the post-it notes when teaching the phonics lessons, so I will be including fun activities that get students active more often. They were very engaged in the Jack Hartmann videos in the phonics lesson as well because he interacted and asked the students to answer questions. I will be sure to include interactive and engaging lessons that keep my students involved and interested in their learning.

    My short-term efforts of using positive proximity praise and rewards, is helping in my long-term goal of classroom management. I could have spent more time setting up the classroom during planning time so I didn't have to stay at the school so late. Apprehension of students not using their white boards correctly in the whole group lesson made it so I only had students practice their letters a and b on their paper at their seat. On Thursday, I decided to let them use the boards during our phonics lesson to write their letters and slides, and they did a good job with it. The logical first steps for next week are to start planning and preparing for my edTPA lessons that will start Monday.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

    I was able to work on some NCPTS this week while teaching. For standard 1a; Teachers lead in their classrooms, I would be a developing candidate. This week on Thursday and Friday we were able to complete DIBLES and TRC testing to assess our students. With this data, I will be able to see the skills and abilities of my students even more than I already have. I will be in proficient as soon as I am able to use the data to make groups and develop instructional plans for the students needs. For standard 2a; Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults I would be proficient candidate. I have been able to form relationships and show my students that I love and care about them. I give them each a hug the first thing when they walk in and hug them as they leave each day. I would say the only thing that keeps me from being accomplished is not having a flexible learning place just yet. If I am flexible right now, students may take advantage. Also if I am flexible with one student, the rest will catch on and want the same thing. I am working on creating a consistent, but supportive and positive learning environment in my classroom. For standard 3a; Teachers align their instruction with North Carolina standard course of study, I would be a proficient candidate. I have developed all of my lessons based on North Carolina standard course of study. What I can improve on is making my lessons more rigorous. That will come as I have more and more experience lesson planning and teaching. For standard 4c; Teachers use a variety of instructional methods, I would be proficient. This week I tried to meet the needs of all of my students by using visual, audio, and kinesthetic parts to each lesson we had. My students love interactive games and learning styles. I can further this by adding in more variety and options as the year goes on and my students can handle greater responsibilities. For standard 5b; Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals, I would be a developing candidate. I was able to attend my first professional development secession today after school and was able to learn more about our phonics program.

I started videoing some lessons this week for my portfolio video. I also attended a 2 hour professional development meeting on Thursday that will go toward the hours to put in my portfolio. My clinical educator and myself are both all set right now! The advice I would give to other student teachers is to make sure to set time aside for edTPA. There is not enough time in a day, so I would say to use your time wisely!

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

And so it begins!

   This was my first week of student teaching, and it has been filled with new adventures each day. Overall, I would say I had a great week (a 5). In kindergarten, we do a staggered start and a round up which means there were 86 kids that were not assigned a teacher….Talk about crazy!

    On Monday we had 1/3 of the students come, Tuesday 1/3 of them and Wednesday 1/3 of them as well. After each day, we met together as a grade level and went through the kids who did not get along and couldn’t be together, which students should be together, and what students worked well with specific teachers. Wednesday we “made” our classes based on behavior and academic abilities. Thursday was the trial run, and Friday the notes that tell the parents who their teacher are were sent home. On Thursday the classes went well, so we did not have to change anyone from Thursday to Friday.  

     I was very surprised when I found out how this whole process was going to work, because I have never heard of anything like it. Even though it was a bit of chaos and long days, I think it will be very beneficial and will hopefully prevent a lot of behavior problems and troubles that could have went on in the classroom had we not done this. This first week consisted of the students learning about the school, rules, and what is expected of them. I was in charge of the rhyming center during the round up days, and I found that when you give a compliment to a student, the students around them want the compliments as well, so they will work even harder to answer the question. For example; one student answered the question fast so I gave him a high-five and told him he was so smart. The next question, the boy to the side of him answered it fast and said am I smart? Students will work hard when they are motivated and encouraged, so this is a tactic I will use in my lesson plans for next week to keep the students focused and engaged in the lesson.

   A long-term goal of mine is to work on my classroom management skills. Keeping 22 kindergartners focused and on task the first couple months of school is not the easiest, so a goal of mine is to work on ways to keep them under control and focused. My short-term efforts of working with smaller groups of students Monday-Wednesday helped me since we were able to give each student more attention and focus on a smaller group of students. Thursday and Friday were definitely more challenging. Trying to get 22 kindergartners to walk in a line and not talk in the halls will take a couple months. This week there isn’t anything I could have spent more or less time doing. Since it was the first week, we were on a set schedule and I did whatever my CE wanted me to do.

   Next week will be the students first actual week of school since they only came 3 days this week and their first day they were only with 6 or 7 other students. Next week we have Monday off because of Labor Day, so they only have a 4-day week. The logical steps for next week, is to keep reiterating the rules and expectations of the classroom and explaining everything we do. Next week my lessons will be testing the students to see how well they know their alphabet, uppercase and lowercase letters and letter sounds so I can get a better understanding of where each student is academically.

    The data we had from this week is just some basic assessments we gave the students. On their assigned day when they came in small groups, we tested each student on how high they could count, if they could write their numbers, if they could count out a group of objects, if they knew their colors and shapes. We did not test them on their alphabet skills, so my lessons next week will be their first assessment of their letters and letter sounds.

    The advice I would give to other student-teachers, is to take a deep breath and enjoy the moments. I know we are extremely stressed and busy, but when we are in the classroom our only focus should be loving on our babies. I would say that we should not even think about how much work we have while we are in the classroom, so we can give our undivided attention to our students.

    This week I made my portfolio outline on livebinder and put my resume in my portfolio. The support I needed from my university supervisor has already been given and my CE does not need anything currently. 

 

NC Teacher candidate standards

This week from element 1a, Teachers lead in their classroom, I was in the developing candidate category. This week I was able to describe the characteristics and importance of a safe and orderly classroom environment. I explained that it is not safe to run in the classroom because you could fall and get hurt. A few times this week, I had to tell students to stop running so I am working toward proficient in this category. This week I was also in the category of developing candidate for standard 2c, Teachers treat students as individuals. I was able to encourage and love on each student no matter what their background or ability was. I had students who did not know anything I was talking about when I was teaching them about rhyming words, but I still told them they did a great job. However, when students were guessing, I stopped them and explained again what rhyming words are and told them to listen for the same ending sounds when I read the words. I am encouraging them to continue their learning and expressing that we have high expectations for them. From standard 3d, Teachers make instruction relevant to students’ I also fell under the developing candidate category. In the three days of round up, students rotated classrooms where teachers were testing their abilities. In our classroom, we tested them on rhyming words, and for my station the students played a rocket ship rhyming game. The kids loved it and didn’t want to stop playing. They didn’t even realize they were learning because they were having so much fun playing something fun. It is important that we relate our teaching to life in the 21^st century and what interests the students. I was also on my way to proficient during this lesson by integrating students’ interests to their education. I was in the developing candidate category for element 4b, teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students. On Friday I gave a pre-assessment for the lessons I am going to teach next week. I am using this data to make short-term groups for next weeks lesson. I am moving towards proficient because I have been collaborating with my CE. For element 5a, Teachers analyze student learning, I fell under emergent candidate. I was able to get the students first week assessment scores, and a pre-assessment I made for the students to take so I can make groups for next weeks lesson. I have not yet identified sources to improve student’s learning since it is the first week of school for them and we have not given any big assessments yet. From this first week, I can already see myself improving each day. This will be a very busy semester filled with lots and lots of learning and growing!

Last Blog Before Student Teaching!!!

I cannot believe this is the last time I will blog before I am officially a student teacher! This semester has gone by so fast, but has been so beneficial and I have learned SO much!
   This month I was able to practice a lot with differentiation. During phonics and math lessons on Monday's and Wednesday's, my teacher sends a group of 5-6 students back to my desk so I can move at a slower pace and give these students more individual help. My EC student is not able to write very many letters and cannot write her numbers. Since this is the case, I would draw dots of what she needed to be writing so she could trace them. This is NCPTS 2, Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students under Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. Because my student was not able to complete the task being asked, I had to differentiate and adapt my teaching and change the instructions for her to meet her where she is at so she can still feel like she is being successful. I was also able to teach my re-engagement lesson for math to 3 students who struggled with the number bonds (adding numbers) concept. I took the three students to another classroom so they could focus with no distractions. They thought it was an awesome privilege and felt really special. When I was teaching, the female student who is my EC student was not able to write her numbers so I had to draw the dots in the form of the number so she could trace them. The two boys were able to write their numbers for the most part. One boy needed me to draw dots so he could trace them for one number. This would also be NCPTS 2, Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students under Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. My EC student could not complete the writing portion of the lesson, so I had to adjust and draw the dots for the numbers so she could trace them.
Something I learned this month from my teacher was about self-assessment. I asked her how often and how she uses self-assessment. I also asked her how she measures how well she is doing, and what she needs to change. My teacher assesses herself on a daily basis. If she sees that something isn’t working, or if the students aren’t engaged, she will have to come up with something different on the fly to keep their attention. Some things work for some kids and some don’t for others so she changes it based on kids. She said she also has to make alternate lesson for kids not on that level. Her biggest thing is she meets the students where they are, which means she has to assess and adjust her teaching on a daily basis. My teacher self-assesses herself based on how students are doing and responding. If she talks about something and they have no idea what she is talking about, she knows it is time to re-teach. Since they do not do tests, it is based off how they react and what they know. This NCPTS 5 Teachers Reflect on Their Practices under Teachers analyze student learning. My teacher reflects on her teaching and practices based off how the students are doing. This is exactly how I want to assess myself in my future classroom. Self-assessment is crucial to student learning and growth. If the teacher isn't changing the way she teaches according to students needs, then every student will not be able to grow into their full potential. 

I have again stuck to following Amy Fast on Twitter who is a school administrator that has a wealth of knowledge. This is something I feel very strongly about. I believe teachers are the leaders in the classroom, but leadership and control do not have to go together. I think it is important for the students to be involved and have a say in their education and what they are doing in their classrooms. From experience, I have learned more and felt more love when my teachers had a student based classroom, and that is exactly how I want my future classroom to be run. I do not want my students to ever feel like their opinions or voice doesn't matter.

The second tweet by Amy Fast is another very great and relevant tweet. In schools, most teachers measure students' abilities by their test scores, which in the end is how well a student can memorize information and facts that have been taught to them. In the real world, your GPA, and SAT scores are not going to matter. What's going to matter is if students have perseverance, hope, creativity, optimism, communication and social skills. These are the key concepts they need to be taught in schools. Yes students need to learn, but they can learn without having tests to measure how successful they are. These are all key concepts I will teach in my future classroom. I want my students to truly feel how much I love and care about them by showing them how to be successful in life. This is NCPTS 3 Teachers Know The Content they Teach under Teachers make instruction relevant to students.

      I have also been keeping up with the same PLN called the THC Teaching channel. You can go to the website and there is a box that says "what are you looking for." You can then type in anything you are curious about grades K-12. This time I typed in "Classroom management." Classroom management is what I am most worried about, especially in kindergarten because they do not like to listen. While reading and searching about classroom management, I watched a video of a teacher who was struggling with classroom management and his administrator said to him " You're not teaching mathematics; you're teaching kids." That is the mindset we all need to have, no matter what subject we are teaching. We are teaching kids who are eager to learn if we have a positive, safe, welcoming environment for them to do so. This is also NCPTS 2 Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students. As educators of America, it is our responsibility to get these children ready for the real word and help them become successful 21st century citizens.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teach-kids-nea

The Home Stretch

    The Month of March has been a great month. I was able to teach three phonics lessons so far, assess my students, work with a small group and work 1 on 1 with a student who is very behind. In the beginning of the month during morning centers, I pulled each student back to my desk to test them on their sight words for my teacher. Each week they get four new sight words. For the students that have not been able to complete the previous weeks words, I went back and asked them the prior words as well. I had two students today check off their whole list of sight words for the year!

I taught the letters u,q, and z in phonics this month and for the hour following my lesson, I had each student come back one by one to my desk so I could assess them. For my lowest learner in the class, I used differentiation for her assessment. This is NCPTS 4 Teachers Facilitate Learning for Their Students under Teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students. I knew that a student of mine could not complete the task I was asking the other students to do, so I changed the assessment for her to meet her needs. I still had her write the uppercase and lowercase letters, but then instead of asking her the other two questions, I got a white board and told her we were going to practice writing her name because she doesn’t know how to spell her name still. She looked at me and said “how do you know I don’t know how to write my name?” I reminded her that she told me before and she said “oh yeah, I do need a lot of practice. She said "I need to get out of school as soon as I can so I can start working and collect money because my daddy doesn’t have a lot of money.” This broke my heart. She was so excited that someone took the time to help her practice. She got out of her seat and gave me a huge hug and said “thank you so much for helping me, I wish my nannie was like you” then she said “If I can find paper at home I’ll practice writing my name at home too.” I was about in tears and I told her that I would send her home with lined paper and write a note to her grandmother and dad and ask them to help her practice her name. I told her to bring it back to me so I can see how much she learned. This relates directly to 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 work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students. During this time, the student and I were able to form a relationship that has continued to grow. I also involved her parent/guardian so they can help with the success of her as well. Every Monday and Wednesday I pull her back to my desk to work on writing her name and recognizing letters so she can grow. She begs to come work with me and asks if she can stay the whole time with me. It has been a blessing to have the privilege to work with her and to see how happy she gets just because someone cares about her. Which leads me into tweets that I have re-tweeted this month.

I follow Amy Fast on Twitter on a weekly basis because she has a lot of rich knowledge and wisdom when it comes to students. Two of my favorites are below. It is our job as teachers to invest in our children and make them feel loved and accepted. We need to follow NCPTS 4 Teachers Facilitate Learning for Their Students under Teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students. We need to recognize the students who are struggling and ask ourselves why and what we can do to ignite that passion in them so they enjoy learning. If we love our students and show them it is possible to succeed, they will have more energy and excitement for learning. This was proven to me with the student in my classroom that I have been working with. She knows she is behind the rest of the students in the class and because of that, she does not like school and does not want to be there. However, when I am working with her, she lights up and is talkative and enjoys learning. When I tell her that she will get a piece of candy if she can write her name all by herself correctly, she tries even harder and the few times she was able to, she was so excited. It only takes a little bit of effort and love to show students that we believe in them and are willing to take the time to help them succeed. 

A PLN I was able to get plugged in with is called the THC Teaching channel. This is an awesome network for teachers and soon to be teachers to be on. You can go to the website and there is a box that says "what are you looking for." You can then type in anything you are curious about grades K-12. This time I typed in "Classroom management during centers" because that is something I believe I could improve on. I think it takes a long time for my class to transition between centers and I wanted to learn ways to make it more efficient. It is hard with kindergarten because like the teacher said in the video, you can't just write directions on the board for kids to follow like you can in 5th grade, so there is a lot of talking and question asking going on. A way that he was able to improve his center transitions was he turns off the lights to get students attention to stop talking. When they stop talking, he would have them sing a song to start transition so they don’t waste time and he then directed students where to rotate to next. Another thing he does in his classroom is he has a bin labeled sharpened and broken pencils. That way if the students break a pencil, they can just put it in the broken bin and get a sharpened one so they are not wasting time sharpening them which takes away from their learning. The video I watched about center management and the Teaching channel website are below.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-management-during-centers

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/teaching-channel

With the information I have learned from working with my student, in my future classroom I will be sure to pick out the students who are struggling and don't think they can do it and find a way to make them feel special. Whether that be working with them one on one during center time, talking to them during lunch or recess, I will find a way to make them feel loved and accepted. I will also use the teachers ideas of turning the lights off to get the students attention and rotating to their next centers quietly and efficiently in my future classroom. I want to make the most of my time and believe that these types of transitions will be beneficial in doing so.

For my outside learning, I wanted to focus on creating a class culture where students learn to embrace one anothers' differences. As I was doing my research, I came across a video called "Educating Peter." It is a 30 minute video but was definitely worth the watch. Peter is a child with special needs and instead of isolating him to his own classroom, they kept him in the classroom and the children eventually learned to adapt and to help Peter with his every day tasks. Peter will never be at the academic level of his peers, but he sure did feel loved, accepted, and special which is the main reason to his success in the classroom. The video is below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rvzD4UoARU

Another source I found in my research was a website called "How to create a Welcoming Classroom Environment." This website focuses on how to include your ELL students. A lot of foreign students feel uncomfortable and have a hard time adjusting to the culture in the classroom. It is important that we invite their culture into the classroom and make them feel welcomed and important. Another idea is to assign them a partner to help assist them with work and translations if they are confused about something. There are many ideas to help your students embrace their culture and feel comfortable in the classroom. The website is also below. 

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/how-create-welcoming-classroom-environment