Week of Reflection: January 11th

Week of Reflection: January 11th

This week was really pretty great, especially Tuesday, though I kept trying to make it Thursday the whole day. I felt like a whole week had passed by by Tuesday, yet when Wednesday came, bam, it was Friday already. Still the week went very good I thought and I would score it as a 5.

Observe: 

So an accomplishment that I felt good was the lesson that I taught Tuesday. It was a science lesson on the circulatory system and I just felt like it went so well. The kids loved it and my CE asked me to do it with the other class on Friday.

Reflect:

I am getting to know my students a little more every week. Especially the first group that I have been teaching this week. I am learning more about what they need from me in lessons and such, and I can use this when planning my future lessons to better serve them. Hopefully next week as I start to teach the other group more I will learn more about them.

Focus:

My short term goal is to complete Task 1 this weekend for edTPA so that it is ready for the seminar next weekend and I can start teaching it the week after that. This will allow me to get started on the more long term goal of completing the other tasks and give me a little more time to delve into them more.

Be Productive: 

I need to spend more time getting everything prepared for my lessons the day before rather than the morning of. 

Have Courage:

I am still working on making myself ask my CE the questions I need to when I am lost or need help. I know that is what she is there for and that she is more than willing to help me in everything, but my apprehension still makes me pause every time before I force myself to ask. This week I have been doing pretty good about it though.

Begin Anew:

First logical step is to get a good night sleep tonight and sleep in a little tomorrow so that I can get some rest. I have not been able to sleep much at night for laying awake thinking and stressing about everything. This will hopefully help me clear my head a little and give me a fresh start. Next I will be focusing on getting task 1 completed so that I can get it off my list of things to do.

Data:

After my lessons this week I gave the students their test today. I am still going through them, but as I do I am learning who got what and who didn’t. This is helping me decide what I need to do next week to help certain students get the content better.

Advice:

With things on the portfolio not being due weekly it is a good idea to break it down into chunks and make yourself your own due dates for each piece so that you don’t get behind on it or miss something that you need.

NC Teacher Candidate Standards

1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms. This week I have really seen myself start taking responsibility for the progress of these students. All I want to do is see them succeed and I am already working to do my best to get them their in any way I can.

2a. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults. There have been many times this week that I have slowed down and really worked to make sure myself and other students were respectful and supportive of each other and that I have shown flexibility with those students who have needed it.

3b. Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty. I have spent every night before a lesson to refresh myself on everything I am teaching the next day and making sure I know all of the facts I can about the content I am teaching before I get in front of the students. This way I can answer their questions and help them understand the content to a deeper extent.

4c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods. I feel like my lessons this week did well in incorporating instructional methods for many different learning styles. I am still working on my differentiation. I plan for certain students and what I think they may need but I am still finding areas in my lesson that I need to change or adapt for students as I am teaching.

5a. Teachers analyze student learning. Today, after the students’ tests, I have really been analyzing how they did to determine what they actually learned and where they need extra support. I am using this to help plan next week and see what I need to change in my lessons so that these students get a better hold of the content.

Other:

As of now I am still working on the student behavior plans for the students I have identified. I have also started thinking about things I can do for the global awareness part.