Student Teaching Week 1

I would rate this week as a 3. On January 4th, all of my hard work these past four years seemed minuscule compared to this task that was put in front of me. My first week went really well, and I began to notice that my CE started letting me have control of tasks during the day in dealing with the children. Can you believe that last week and this week was filled with MAP testing, mClass, and DIBELS. From 10:50 to 11:50 I had the students all to myself while my CE was pulling students out to test. Can I just say I was excited and scared out of my mind all the same time. My CE didn't just want them playing uneducational games, and neither did I, so we made a plan of things that I and the students would do in that hour.

Observe: I really got a taste of classroom management the first two days that I had full control of that hour. I had students having bad attitudes, being disruptive, talking out of turn, and I could go on and on, but I won't. I try to be stern but not overbearing, I want a student-centered classroom, and this requires students to become responsible for their learning, so I had to resort to having students "clip-down" for not behaving appropriately while there was instruction going on. I noticed that once I began to show that I was serious about their learning, while also having fun with them that the students began to look at me as a "real" teacher.

Reflect: This week I picked up two subjects in the classroom, math and teacher read aloud. Monday when I came in I was so ready to teach math, and I do not even like math. My students were great and the lesson flowed so smoothly, I thought that I had died and went to heaven. This week was filled with many outside disruptions with assemblies and heart health programs, so of course I had to modify my mathematical instruction to fit these things. I did find that in second grade that is a great push for mental strategies when solving problems. From this week I have found that I will continually build on helping students develop ways that will help them eventually solve problems mentally.

Be Productive: I feel that I can should spend less time on transitions in the classroom. My CE has not enforced a smooth transition especially when students are physically having to go somewhere and I am following that same path. I have to find a more effective way to have students transition to other places.

Have Courage: Behavior management was put into play this week, and the first few times I did not have students face consequences because I did not feel that I was in the position to do so until I talked with my CE, and she told me she trusted my judgment and if I feel that students are not on task or behaving appropriately that I am to do what I feel is fair in giving consequences.

Begin Anew: Next week it is my goal to specifically focus on how to make my teaching practice even more valuable for students and their learning. I want the students to make connections with content that is being taught.

I was able to view a great amount of data from the testing this week. I have gained knowledge of students who need development in mathematics and language arts as well as what students just need continual enrichment.

Standard 1: 1a, This week I was able to gain data about the development of students in my class from MAP, mClass, and DIBELS. This data showed me which of my students seem to be demonstrating understand of content, and those that are not. This week I learned that based on scores from testing that I will have a student that will be considered EC. This truly affects this students development that will carry on with him into high school.
Standard 2: 2a, I have really worked hard to maintain a positive and nurturing in environment for my students this week. There was once instance where a student said that he was not smart in math. I explained that while we may not be the best in something does not mean that we can't at least try our best in whatever we feel we are not good in.
Standard 3: 3a, All of my lessons for math and teacher read aloud have focused on NCSCS, in mathematics it was the development of mental strategies to solve math.
Standard 4: 4c, I have continually applied different teaching strategies to ensure that the needs of all my students are being met. I am constantly thinking to myself how will this lesson fit my visual, auditory, and tactile. kinesthetic learners.
Standard 5: 5a, since I know that I have a student that is struggling to read I make sure to read all direction, and text on the board just to make sure that he knows what we are doing during a lesson or what he needs to do for the assessment.

I want to leave you with a quote that inspired me this week by Ever Garrison:
"A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils."