Week 4 of Student Teaching

I would rate this week a 3, this week went pretty good. Friday I was really shocked when my CE told me that she was really proud of me, that I wasn't just teaching curriculum, but I was becoming a true teacher.

• Observe: This week I have really pushed for my students to meet their AR goal. I allowed time this week for students to just read and test to meet their goal. This proved to be very beneficial 15 out of 16 students have met their goal.
• Reflect: Next week I am continuing to build upon how Abraham Lincoln conceived that slavery is not fair, and the actions that he took to fix it. This week I have connected events in his life and how it shaped his future as a lawyer and politician.
• Focus:  My short-term goal of differentiating instruction is has flowed into helping my behavior student through my long-term plans.
• Be Productive: I am continuing to work on classroom management. I am making sure to be firm yet fair. Students are continually talking over me or talking out of turn. I am continuing to give consequences for these actions.
• Have Courage:  I had apprehension on being too strict while teaching a lesson. I have really discussed with my CE about how to handle classroom management.
• Begin Anew: My next logical step is to view how students are going to transition into connecting the life of Abraham Lincoln to slavery. 

• I analyzed data from the EC teacher on my student that is EC. I have gathered information about the modifications that is needed in the classroom, and how to implement these without making the student feel like he is being treated differently.
• NC Professional Teaching Standards 
• • Standard 1: 1b, I continually incorporate my SIP goals into my lesson plans. The two biggest are number sense and vocabulary skill building. These two goals are weaved in my math and guided reading instruction time.
  • Standard 2: 2c, I have made sure to communicate high expectations to all students no matter what their development level. I normally tell my students that there is goal for our reading stations (guided reading group) for the day, before and while we are working.
  • Standard 3: 3c, I am greatly trying to improve my instruction by incorporating differentiation. This week I did a differentiated cooperative group while students were learning about why Abraham Lincoln was called Honest Abe.
  • Standard 4: 4a, This week I have contacted the specialist in my school. I have had a discussion with the EC teacher in my school on how to better meet the needs of my student.
  • Standard 5: 5a, Also from contacting my school's specialist I have been able to use the modifications established through student testing data to help improve my students learning. For example I read aloud problems to the class for my EC student.
• Other:
• • What components of your portfolio have you started to complete? I am gathering student work samples from my unit from my two students that I have chosen, and have worked on analysis.
  • What support does your clinical educator need from Mrs.Suttle? None is needed at this time.
  • What support do you need from Mrs. Suttle? None at this time.

Week 3 of Student Teaching

I would rate this week a 4, this week went really great. Mostly, because we only had a three day week. I am continually amazed how much I have to focus on continually being intentional.

• Observe: Today I switched math time because we had teachers from another county observing how Eureka math is taught. I did math at 8:00-8:50, and students seemed completely different then when we usually do our math after lunch at 12:40. Students were focused and seemed to have more engagement in the lesson.
• Reflect: Next week I am continuing to build upon main idea through the instruction of Abraham Lincoln, student have done a great job identifying the main idea in the text and using facts to support their answers.
• Focus:  My short-term goal of differentiating instruction is has flowed into helping my behavior student through my long-term plans.
• Be Productive: I am continuing to work on transitions in the classroom. I am making sure to track my time during instructional times.
• Have Courage:  I had apprehension on disciplining a student this week over a small incident. I did not punish the student because I did not see it as negative consequence worthy. My CE on the other hand viewed it as needing a consequence. I spoke with my CE after school, and discussed somethings that she would have them face consequences for that I may not see as being bad.
• Begin Anew: My next logical step is to view how students are going to transition into connecting the life of Abraham Lincoln to slavery. 

• I analyzed data from the ESL teacher on my student that is ESL. I have gathered information about the modifications that is needed in the classroom, and how to implement these without making the student feel like he is being treated differently.
• NC Professional Teaching Standards 
• • Standard 1: 1b, I continually incorporate my SIP goals into my lesson plans. The two biggest are number sense and vocabulary skill building. These two goals are weaved in my math and guided reading instruction time.
  • Standard 2: 2c, I have made sure to communicate high expectations to all students no matter what their development level. I normally tell my students that there is goal for our reading stations (guided reading group) for the day, before and while we are working.
  • Standard 3: 3c, I am greatly trying to improve my instruction by incorporating global awareness. I have had my students identify parts of the world that have different traditions about the tooth fairy, and also about government.
  • Standard 4: 4a, This week I have contacted the specialist in my school. We have discussed what modifications need to be made for the students in my class. I have an EC student, a student that is in speech, and a ESL student.
  • Standard 5: 5a, Also from contacting my school's specialist I have been able to use the modifications established through student testing data to help improve my students learning. For example I read aloud problems to the class for my EC student and I highlight important words or text on the board for my ESL student.
• Other:
• • What components of your portfolio have you started to complete? I am gathering student work samples from my unit from my two students that I have chosen, and have worked on analysis.
  • What support does your clinical educator need from Mrs.Suttle? None is needed at this time.
  • What support do you need from Mrs. Suttle? None at this time.

Week 2 of Student Teaching

I would rate this week a 5. The week went really well, I am becoming very conscience about how to differentiate my instruction for my students, as well as where to add in global awareness.

• • Observe: Common Core math, as all of you know is not what we were taught in elementary school. I can remember when we had only one way to solve an addition or subtraction problem and that was vertically. Now students have many ways to solve using place value charts, the arrow way, and totals below (addition). I am very surprised how well I have been able to pick up on these different strategies. In my math instruction I have had my students doing the different strategies, but I have allowed them to work with the one that they feel the most comfortable with.
  • Reflect: I am continuing to implement TRC during my guided reading groups. DIBELS data shows lack in TRC, when I am asking comprehension questions students can answer the question in a generalized manner from what we read from the book, but is still struggling to take the text as their ticket for success with TRC.
  • Focus:  I feel that I have been able to add global awareness into different parts of instruction. I have used it in phonics, guided reading groups, and at my end of the day read aloud. My goal for this week was to implement global awareness about countries traditions for children that have lost their teeth, since this week we have focused on dental care, and topics such as health and the tooth fairy. Who would have ever know that Spain does not have a "tooth fairy" per say but Raton Perez, who is a little mouse that gets children's teeth from underneath their pillows and leaves gifts for them.
  • Be Productive: I could spend more time on closure in my lessons. I have been able to do this for phonics, ELA, and read aloud, but I am struggling doing this with math. My goal is to research closure techniques for mathematics.
  • Have Courage:  I have had some apprehension on how to help my newest student that just moved from another county last month. Student K is struggling in almost every part of instruction. I have made it my mission after the instruction of the math lesson to move this student to the back table, so that I can work one-one with them. I did not know if this work cause the student to worked harder or not. I finally tried it Wednesday, and this helped significantly.
  • Begin Anew: Friday I attended a DIBELS workshop. My first logical step is to teach students to flip the question into their answer in their TRC questions for guided reading and IME time.

• NC Professional Teaching Standards (be sure to reference activities from your lesson plans to solidify your answer)
• • • Standard 1: This week I have been able to attend a DIBELS workshop to help me while teaching my students during guided reading and IME time. This workshop helped my on how to model for my students, the information that they need to help in DIBELS testing.
    • Standard 2: This week I have made sure that my students know that while I am having them face the consequences for negative actions that I still love them, and I care about their learning. When I have a student clip down I ensure that I explain to them why I am having them clip down. I also reward them for doing positive actions. I am working on being aware on how to provide a environment for student growth.
    • Standard 3: Ultimately, all of my lessons are linked with NCSCOS, but I want to make the standards relevant to the students. This week we learned a lot about slavery.
    • Standard 4: Based on scores of MAP testing, I am continually looking at the development of students. I have a three groups of students based upon MAP scores. I am planning my lesson based upon their development.
    • Standard 5: I am ultimately identifying data sources to improve my students learning. I am using data from DIBELS and MAP to improve my students learning during my lessons.
• Other:
• • What components of your portfolio have you started to complete?: I have been able to gain artifacts for my unit from my two students.
  • What support does your clinical educator need from Mrs.Suttle?: No support is needed at this time.
  • What support do you need from Mrs. Suttle?: No support is needed at this time.

Week 1 of Student Teaching

This week I would rate it a 5. This week went really well, and I can honestly say I feel that I was able to help my students to achieve learning. 

• • Observe: Yesterday, I was teaching a math lesson. To begin the lesson we do fluency practice. I know each of my students developmental level when it comes to math. The fluency practice had the students renaming units in tens and ones. I could tell when we were renaming units, that one of my students had a perplexed look on her face, so when the next problem came up I called on her to answer it. Normally, I wouldn't do this because I do not want to embarrass them, but I could tell she was really struggling. Her and I and the class worked out the problem together. She looked at me and had a big smile on her face she said, " Mrs.Trotter, I get it now!"
  • Reflect: I have gained from DIBELS data, that my students are struggling with TRC. I have modified my instruction especially during literacy groups where I have students answer and write questions based upon evidence in the text. Today, during groups I still see that some students are not grasping this concept, so I know that I need to continue my implementation of TRC within my literacy group lessons.
  • Focus:  It is my long-term goal it add as much global awareness as I can within my lessons, this week I feel that I failed with this implementation, and did not succeed in completing this short-term goal of this week, in comparison to my long-term goal.
  • Be Productive: I am still continuing to work on transitions. I have been able to cut down on the amount of time it takes to transition into another task.
  • Have Courage:  I'm still trying to handle behavior in the classroom. I have had some apprehension having students to face consequences for their action. My CE discussed with me that when I see some productive award students by having them clip up, and when I see something negative have them to clip down. I am now intentionally thinking about each students actions and how they are affecting their learning.
  • Begin Anew: My first logical step for next week is to make sure that my lesson contain global awareness as well as, having the lessons to be relevant and valid for student learning.

• What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help guide your decisions?
• NC Professional Teaching Standards (be sure to reference activities from your lesson plans to solidify your answer)
• • Standard 1: This week I have been able to collaborate with my team about our intervention groups. I discussed with my CE and another teacher that planned the lesson for my group, and we discussed things to help make our group time more effective, and using time wisely.
  • Standard 2: This week I have made sure that my students know that while I am having them face the consequences for next actions that I still love them, and I care about their learning. When I have a student clip down I ensure that I explain to them why I am having them clip down. I also reward them for doing positive actions. I am working on being aware on how to provide a environment for student growth.
  • Standard 3: Ultimately, all of my lessons are linked with NCSCOS, but I want to make the standards relevant to the students. This week during my read aloud I have read books about nutrition. We have focused on food groups, and how important that it is to be healthy. I explained that by learning about health and nutrition we are able to learn how to be healthy and grow strong.
  • Standard 4: Based on scores of MAP testing, I am continually looking at the development of students. I have a three groups of students based upon MAP scores. I am planning my lesson based upon their development.
  • Standard 5: I am ultimately identifying data sources to improve my students learning. I am using data from DIBELS and MAP to improve my students learning during my lessons.
• Other:
• • What components of your portfolio have you started to complete?: I have begin to teach my unit, and have started to gain artifacts from my two designated students that I have chose.
  • What support does your clinical educator need from Mrs. Suttle?: No support is needed at this time.
  • What support do you need from Mrs.Suttle? Next week, I am continuing to teach my unit, I just want to know if there is anyway that you have been able to make slavery relevant to students?