Spring is Finally Here

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

            Spring is here even though it still doesn’t really feel like it, but oh how the pressure is on to finish up the semester. I feel as though I am in a race to the end. Since our last visit I have been around the world as it seems. I was fortunate enough to get to travel with the SOE to Washington D.C. This was my second time to D.C but I feel as though this was a more meaningful trip than my first. We tackled every historic monument with our own personal tour guide (Dr. Parker) and got to do some pretty amazing education related adventures. Just a few of those opportunities being: getting to meet and get a picture with Senator Burr, have his personal tour guides lead us through the Capitol Building, going through the Senate and House of Representatives Galleries, and then being able to sit down and talk with a representative about some education policy. We did all of these while bonding with each other and killing our 10,000 steps every day!

            After venturing back to campus and back to our schools I have continued to grow close to my students both at Washington Elementary and Boiling Springs Elementary. I am also in the midst of preparing to teach a social studies and literacy lessons to my 1^st grade students at Boiling Springs. I have run into many bumps along the way through the process of scheduling a time that works, but luckily my teacher Mrs. Hamrick is good with communication both email and texting that we are working through it. I feel that this is the only down side to working with these elementary schools; figuring out both of our complicated schedules and breaks. I have never loved my planner more than this semester when trying to remember when GWU’s Spring Break is and when Cleveland Country School’s Easter/Spring Break is. This has been the biggest struggle with scheduling my lesson teaching and fitting in my hours.

FUTURE CLASSROOM

            While being in the three classrooms that I am in I have been taking notes of things that I have seen that I would want in my future classroom. For example, in my kindergarten classroom at Washington she has me doing pull outs for those that are struggling or are behind. She has a box with all these activities that promote fluency and help practice with sight words. She has all of it laminated and organized in envelops with the levels marked on the outside. Her activities might be: word family index cards put together on a ring, build a word puzzle pieces, sight word sentences, or matching games with pictures and words. I really like how this teacher Mrs. Shull has all the items organized and the games are all different and fun for the students to work through. A lot of teachers will just have plain flash cards for the lower leveled students to routinely go through. I like the differentiation used with these and would love to implement something similar in my future classroom. I remember at the beginning of the semester she had told me that she had a very challenging group of students with a wide range of skills. But I have seen with proper planning and time she has overcome their difficulties which has been awesome to witness.

OUTSIDE SOURCE

            On the days we meet for class we are still dissecting edTPA documents and having some good discussions about passing scores and what all it truly takes. Just last week I saw on social media where the current student teachers here at GWU got their scores back and ALL PASSED!!! Which is so exciting. As that soon will be me, I am trying to find as much help as I can through outside sources to help me really grasp how to get that passing score. Below is a great link I came across that breaks edTPA down into parts and really explains some good and bad examples that you can easily compare and see the difference that scorers are looking for. The language is understandable and there are videos and some visuals, so go check it out!

http://www.passedtpa.com

NCTCS

After reflecting on everything that has happened the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards that I can relate to all of my observation are:

2d. teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs

1d. teachers advocate for school and students

4c. teachers use a variety of instruction methods.

5a. teachers analyze student learning

I relate our trip to Washington D.C. with advocacy because that’s exactly what we did when we talked with Burr’s representative for education policy. We expressed our questions and concerns with the future of education. I have seen in my kindergarten class at Washington Elementary Mrs. Shull adapting her teaching with her lower level EC students, and using a variety of methods to do so. Which is what makes her such a great teacher. Then, as we are preparing for edTPA and practicing writing all of these commentaries we are practicing our reflecting and analyzing student learning in the process.