Week 10

Learning Experiences

This week we are having a much needed EdTPA bootcamp. We are learning what EdTPA is, how to do it, and the whole kit and caboodle. We need this so much. And it is definitely very helpful. I am still worried about working with EdTPA but at least it is not as impossible as it had seemed earlier. It still seems like a whole lot of extra work but I am starting to see how it can be helpful to make us as teachers to think through everything we are doing. To justify our decisions and reasons for doing certain things in our lessons.

Outside Learning

We are back in Washington, to be honest I missed it over the break. This week, instead of spending all of Tuesday in the classroom we actually took over lunch duty for all of the teachers. I spent the day in the cafeteria and it was a great learning experience. I have not been in an elementary cafeteria during lunch since I was in Kindergarten, due to me being homeschooled. The closest I have come to that experience, where I actually remember it, was in middle school. This was definitely a lot different than that. It took a little while to get into the swing of things because I did not really know how the cafeteria at Washington did things. But as the day went on I started to get more comfortable, and I actually enjoyed it. I think if I was in their more often, to where I could get used to the kids and how things went a little more, then my experience would be even better.

Future Classroom

I have to learn how to do EdTPA as a student teacher to be able to become a full teacher. Even if it was not something that had to be learned, I can see how it will help me in my future lesson planning. It will help me really be able to focus on every little detail of my plans and connect all the parts. It also makes me really think about how to support every learning ability in my classroom. Working in the cafeteria also helped me see how it will be when I get there as a teacher, and gave me a little experience with it.