SCED 330: November Blog

OVERALL REFLECTION

            Reflecting over this past month of work we have finished our ecocolumns, weather forecasting projects, and submitted our final science fair projects. I am most proud of the work I was able to complete before I left for Thanksgiving break though. I was able to edit my mock edTPA science video of my teaching and wrote drafts of both planning and instruction commentaries. A struggle that I am facing is just trying to strategically plan out the end of the semester, so I can complete all assignments in a timely fashion, specifically the unit plan. Over this next week the unit is my complete focus finishing it and creating a well thought out plan that I can potentially use in my student teaching next semester even.  As we are wrapping things up this semester I plan to be there for the rest of my colleagues. After all I would not be here today if it wasn’t for their constant support and encouragement through these past four years. Below is a cute article that I found that basically sums up what our student teaching group of friends are to each other. This article lists fifty different things that teacher friends do for one another. 

https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-friends/

I plan to continue these friendships and encourage others as I continue through my teaching career because teaching should not be a lonely job you need to surround yourself with those who share your same struggle and can help build you up when you are down. 

SCIENTIFIC THINKING

            This past weekend while home for Thanksgiving we experienced some wet weather that then resulted into cold freezing temperatures causing several trees to break and fall. I could not help but think back to our weather forecasting project and relating these events to some of the weather conditions of our project. I now feel more educated about the weather around me to make better predictions and preparations for potentially bad conditions. This is just another reminder of how relevant science is to our everyday life. This also reminds me of several NCTCS: 4e. teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, 4b. teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students, and 3d. teachers make instruction relevant to students. If we as teachers can be proficient in all of these standards then student inquiry is ensured. 

I found this very interesting and immediately thought of student inquiry. What better way to spark student inquiry than by starting with their interests and what they are most familiar with in their surroundings?!

This tweet made me reflect on the expectations that I have of my students everyday in the classroom. It is so easy to make the expectations so high and wanting no mistakes and a fast pace that you eventually loose the entire class. 

This was an interesting tweet I encountered this week that highlighted "no student want to sit in a classroom with a teacher that seems miserable and hates their job!" This is very true no matter what the education world throws at us we must remember that are students are always watching how we react to things and situations.

EDUC 435: November Blog

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

            This month has been such a whirlwind. But, then again it always is at this point of the school year. I am definitely feeling the pressure of finishing everything by the end of the semester. I can also feel the stress my CE is feeling with this time of the year. Most students are done and ready for a break, so grasping their attention is very difficult for a bunch of 5-year-olds. I think the best strategy that has worked for my CE and I is threatening that Santa is watching through the school cameras! But at the same time, I love this holiday season and all the fun arts and crafts that go along with it. We have been doing some very fun activities in our literacy centers as well as during our non-fiction time at the end of the day teaching students about the Mayflower and the Pilgrims and Indians. I think the biggest learning experience that I have encountered this month is the practice of patience and integration. Without these two your classroom is a mess. You just have to go with the flow and know that with this crazy time of year lessons may not go as planned, you may not get to what you had planned and that’s okay. You put more stress on yourself if you get bent out of shape over not getting to an activity. I have learned you can’t push students, or they will push right back, and it will just result in frustration.

NCTCS

            As I have observed all of these learning experiences I can’t help but relate it to the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, 2a teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults, 4b teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students, 4h teachers use a variety of methods to assess what each student has learned. Teachers must be creative and sometimes let the students guide the instruction and see where it goes and take every moment as a teaching moment. 

FUTURE CLASSROOM

            In my future classroom and even as I progress through student teaching I want to take all of these learning experiences that I have learned thus far and really use them. As a result, it helps create a positive and fun environment for both students and the teacher. As student teaching is quickly approaching I am quickly seeing how attached I am to my students but as the same time how they are slowly seeing me as a teacher and not just their friend which is what I want. I hope I am able to portray all the qualities that my CE possesses to these students, so they are able to continue to have a successful school year. 

OUTSIDE RESEARCH 

            Below is a link to a very helpful page that I came across. I am both so excited and extremely nervous about taking over the classroom next semester so here are 30 tips and tricks to keep in mind as we begin our student teaching adventure. 

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/blogs/genia-connell/migrated-files/student_teacher_tips.pdf