January 4, 2019

I completed my first week of student teaching and SURVIVED! I was very anxious to begin this learning experience simply because with kindergarten you never know what to expect day to day. Overall, I would rate this week as a 5 star great week back, especially since it was a short week. 

OBSERVE

I was pleasantly surprised my first day back how well my students did coming back into the classroom. We did take the time to go back over some of the basic rules and procedures, but these students came back with smiles on their faces ready to be back at school. As the week progressed you could since that these students were getting tired, and it was going to take some time and patience to get them back into their normal school routine. This week I was able to achieve a lot of paperwork type of tasks. I got the update on our students who are awaiting accommodations and IEPs, I got to have some great conversation with my CE about the upcoming week and plans, as well as getting things organized within the classroom. 

REFLECT

The biggest lesson that I learned that I also want to carry over into the weeks to come is communication. With this being a short week and the first official week back our time was limited so I began communicating with my CE early and we planned together early as well so my due dates were attainable. This also has started a good routine practice in how the rest of the semester will need to play out with writing lessons, reviewing lessons and then submitting lessons. I am so grateful for my CE and all she has taught me thus far. I feel that the entire grade level looks up to her, so what better person for me to be placed with than the best out of the entire grade level.

FOCUS

My biggest long-term goal is to succeed in my student teaching. One of my short-term goals is to plan smarter not harder, meaning using my time wisely and meeting all due dates. As mentioned earlier by maintaining good communication with my CE this is attainable both for short-term and long-term goals. 

BE PRODUCTIVE

This week I could have spent more time working on my edTPA commentaries. I have my lessons written; but need to go ahead and begin writing my planning commentary to help me continue planning ahead for this process. 

HAVE COURAGE

Based upon these students work coming back to school and seeing that they may need some time to review some of the basics like the alphabet, and some of the first learned sight words I made a judgement call to incorporate those type of skills my lessons for next week. This was also something that my CE helped guide me in the right direction of instead of starting on something brand new. I keep forgetting how repetitive kindergarten needs to be in order for these 5 year-olds to learn. 

BEGIN ANEW 

My next logical steps for next week are to begin writing lessons NOW I feel like the more I chunk these lesson plan writings the better I will get at pacing myself, and the less overwhelming they will be. Also, the sooner I can get them written and planned the more time I have to review and perfect them, so my students get the best version of them possible. 

Some data that I observed thus far in the classroom was just simply the level of information my students retained from before Christmas break. We worked a lot this week on reviewing what we had mastered before break. We have been drilling sight words and letter to sound correspondence. So just seeing which students didn’t miss a beat versus those that lost some of that knowledge was interesting to me and really helped guide me to writing my lessons based upon their needs.  

NCTCS

1a: Teachers lead in their classroom. 

            This week even though I had an O for observation on each subject area I also helped and assisted in many ways that I found would help my CE. This was an important week seeing how these students reacted to coming back to school and analyzing their work and data to see how much information they retained from Christmas break. 

2a: Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults. 

            This week I made an effort to welcome each and every student with a warm hug or smile as they returned back to school. Coming back from break can often bring about separation anxiety and a variety of emotions. This was something simple but yet meaningful to these kindergarteners. 

3b: Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty. 

            For the process of planning lessons, I have relied on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. My CE has also helped me to plan age appropriate lessons that include the teaching content for kindergarten. 

4f: Teachers help students work in teams and develop leadership qualities.

            This week we started back our literacy centers and group work encouraging students to work well with their peers. This is a big part of the 21^stcentury skills that students must have in order to be successful in the world outside of the classroom. 

5a: Teachers analyze student learning.

            This week my CE and I analyzed student learning and student work to determine the next type of lessons and activities students need to do. A lot of these upcoming weeks is a time of review and re-teaching to fill those gaps that were lost over the break.  

            So far, I have written my edTPA lessons, began my classroom website, and done the classroom survey with my students for the behavioral management plan for my portfolio. As of right now my CE and I do not need any support from my university supervisor.