It has been such a great week, it is the first week I am rating as a 5 and that makes me really happy! I was so afraid of being in full control this week- I had it in my mind that whatever could possibly go wrong, would. However, that was just not the case. The kids transitioned into me being in full control so much better than I ever thought that they would. I really could not ask for a better group of students and for that I am grateful. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how well this first week went with a few minor hiccups here and there. I really have ended this week feeling so happy and content with my students, my classroom, and my colleagues. Of course, there is always room for it get better! For next week, I am working on even more detailed differentiation- I am addressing specific students and their needs in my plans. This is to help them and to help me to know what I need to be doing for them everyday. I also am working on seamlessly integrating other content areas- my supervisor suggested vocabulary cards in math instruction and I think that is going to be really great for my students. They are always hearing all of these big math terms but never really seeing them so what better way to integrate both, right? 

My short-term efforts are still aligning with my long-term goals to be proficient in all areas and have a successful student teaching experience. I am really enjoying seeing the ways in which I can grow in all areas each week. It is amazing to me how actually being in charge of a classroom allows you to make such a huge amount of growth and change within yourself as a professional. I am extremely grateful for the experience- it has been so wonderful so far!

I need to spend less time overthinking what I am doing and be confident in what I am doing. Overthinking and being hesitant at times is really wasting my time and is not doing me any good- I am working hard to address them. I can’t be a quick thinker and decision maker if I am overthinking and I think those are important traits in an effective educator which is definitely my overall goal. I will not let apprehension, overthinking, or indecision affect me next week because I have realized we simply do not have time for it and it does no good. We just need to be confident in our abilities and what we are doing! 

I would advise student teachers next semester to always be planning ahead! Get a good, early start on you lesson plans because they can be time-consuming and start edTPA early so that you have time to actually enjoy the process and grow from it without feeling really stressed and strained for time!

I feel I have developed in each of the following areas this week: 

1a. Teachers lead in their classroom- I have found, this week especially, how important leadership is in a Kindergarten classroom. Without leadership, you have chaos. I have worked hard to make sure I embody the leadership skills my CE has and it is paying off. I am having little to no behavior issues so far (fingers crossed it stays this way) and they are transitioning without trouble which is huge for students this young. They are responding to my positive behavior praise and I am feeling really confident in this area of the standards!

2a. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults- I knew I need to be a strong authoritative figure in the classroom this week because they were already so established in my CE having having that role. However, I made it a priority to not do that in a negative way. I praise them and highlight the things that they do right. I have found they really want this praise and are responding well to it. I am making sure each student feels comfortable and wants to be in my classroom!

3b. Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty-  I was able to take what was laid out for me in the Math Instructional Framework and Literacy Instructional Framework this week and make it fit the needs of my students. I still followed the standards and the content was there but I worked on making it more engaging and sparking their curiosity. I am finding hands-on mathematics instruction is working really well for my students as well as making text-to-self connections as often as I could. 

4c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods- As I get more comfortable with teaching on my own, I am getting more comfortable with thinking outside of the box. I am using as many different methods as I can to reach all of my learners- I am finding modeling, partner activities, and hands-on explorations to be really beneficial for my students. 

5c. Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment-I am working every week to  continue to be flexible- you literally can never predict what will happen in a classroom full of students. It is all about making quick decisions and knowing what is best for your students! I really feel I am getting better at this week to week. 

I have been working on my PDP and attending as many professional development opportunities as I can- these are so essential and I have learned so much up to this point! My CE and I have had so much support from my supervisor already- the first visit went so well, there really is no reason to be nervous about it! It was a wonderful learning experience and I love knowing what I need to improve myself professionally. I am so thankful for a great week and so much support! 

This week was a really good week for me! I thought it would be pretty stressful considering I have a lot on my mind/plate with preparing to fully take over next week but it turned out to be a very good week, I would rate it as a 4 on the scale. I say this because, the students are adjusting to me being their leader in the classroom which REALLY helped take a lot of the stress away. I learned even more this week of exactly how to manage Kindergartners and I am learning that you have to break everything down into small steps. You cannot tell them too much at once- it overwhelms them. Transitions were a biggie for me and I finally feel like I am really mastering them this week and it is making me feel so much more confident in my classroom management skills. I am getting them from subject to subject and place to place without any chaos and most of the time with NO TALKING! This felt like a huge accomplishment for me. My CE is letting me handle the classroom management already so that next week when I fully take over, I will already have been in charge of the classroom management. It really has went much better than I had anticipate and only a few times did I have to move students down on the behavior chart (which were minor disruptions). It really has boosted my confidence to know that I can actually manage a classroom of twenty-two five to six year olds on my own with few minor problems- it felt like quite the accomplishment! So, I was pleasantly surprised by this and I hope you all are having positive experiences with behavior management too! 

Next week,  I feel I will be even better prepared to make quick decisions and judgments on small management issues in the classroom because I have spent so much time seeing how my CE handles these situations and I have had some experience making these decisions myself. My short-term efforts are still aligned with my long-term goals of beginning my ten-weeks of complete takeover next week and doing so as smoothly as possible. I am learning that even though I have planned my lessons a week ahead of time, I need to spend more time looking over them the night before so that I don’t have to spend time when I come in in the mornings puling up all of my flip charts and materials. I spent time downloading everything I need for next week and putting it all in one folder so preparing for the days ahead can be much more time-efficient. I found this week that the subjects that I was more confident teaching went so much more smoothly and I was able to see how the subjects that I was more excited about were the subjects I was able to get students much more excited and engaged in. So, I learned that my enthusiasm and confidence while teaching has a HUGE impact on student learning. This directly shapes my approach next week and shows me that even if I don’t feel completely confident about something, I cannot let it show. Kindergartners rely on enthusiasm a lot so I will bring that to the table in everything I teach. 

For next week, my first logical step is to look over the plans and make sure I have everything in place to have a successful week and there is not anything I need that I don’t have. Also, I am going to spend the workday (when I am not in professional development) lesson planning so I can go ahead and get ahead (hopefully by a week). I would share the advice with upcoming student teachers to try and be at least a week ahead in planning so that you don’t feel overwhelmed. Also, OVERPLAN! You don’t want to feel worried that you aren’t going to have anything in place for students to do if a lesson ends early!

I spent a lot of time analyzing writing benchmarks that we completed this week and it let me see the writing skills that some of my students are lacking. I built in writing workshop practice into my literacy rotations for next week and will continue to in the future because of the data I analyzed this week. I was able to make that instructional decision based on what was lacking in those benchmarks. 

I also feel I am growing in different areas of the teacher candidate standards: 

1a. Teachers lead in their classrooms- This week I felt much more like the leader in the classroom than I ever have. I can tell that the students are responding to me as the leader because I am working to ensure my classroom management skills match my CE! I feel like I really had a lot of growth in this area over the last few weeks which I am proud of. 

 2d: Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs: Differentiation was a big focus for me this week because it in an area I feel I need constant improvement in because it is a challenge to meet the needs of all students but it is so important. So, I spent more time learning about and understanding the needs of my students this week and worked to improve my differentiation strategies in my lessons to be tailored to each individual student. 

3d. Teachers make instruction relevant to students- I worked this week to make even more text-to-self connections for students because I am finding that is an essential part of comprehension. They are also so much more engaged when they can make those connections. I was intentional about having those discussions with students and giving them opportunities to connect to the characters in our stories this week and with the events in the story. 

4e. Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills- This week I was very intentional about asking students deeper-level thinking. I stayed away from the one-answer questions (especially in math) and focused more on asking why? How do you know? Explain the strategy you used? Why did you use this strategy? I found it really helps to deepen their understanding of the concept. 

5a. Teachers analyze student learning- I am becoming much more intentional about taking my student’s work and using it to guide my next instructional steps in a much more focused way. 

This week, I started to look heavily at my philosophy of education and edTPA requirements. My CE had some really good conversations about what I can do for the Task 4 in math and we are deciding for sure early next week what I will be focusing on for Tasks 1-3 in literacy and when a good time is for me to go ahead and teach my progressions (we are thing mid February). Any support I can get with edTPA from my supervisor will be very helpful to me (which everyone has been great with information on that thus far) and I know my CE would like support as well as she helps me through the edTPA process. 

Week 2 as a Student Teacher

Whew, what a week! First, the snow caused school to be closed for two days and then a delay on the third. Luckily, all both snow says were optional work days so I had the opportunity to spend some much needed time working in the classroom with my CE. Work days fly by but I enjoyed spending extra time with my CE and we organized the classroom and got ready for the week which was really nice. After the two hour delay on Wednesday, I was able to take over the Math and morning work for the week and it went so much better than I was anticipating. I was so worried that I was not going to be able to teach math as efficiently as my CE and I know how important it is that math instruction is carried out in the correct manner. Each lesson in our math curriculum builds on the lessons before so I know it is a huge responsibility to make sure the students are receiving the instruction that they need to move forward. What I have found this week is that it is so important to be prepared. Even though I had already planned out my lessons the week before, I went back to look over what I would be teaching the next day so that I could be sure I had all of my materials and I knew exactly how I was going to teach the content. I have found it is easiest to go ahead and lay out all of my materials for the next day before I left school each day. That way, I knew I had everything that I needed. Even being totally prepared, I still felt a little nervous so I cannot imagine how I would feel if I were about to start a lesson being unprepared. Hopefully, that won’t happen during my student teaching experience! 

Between the crazy snow days, delays, picture day, and MAP testing this week, I would rate this week as a 4 meaning it was a good week but there were a lot of surprises! I found that my lessons are not going to all happen exactly when I plan them throughout the day/week because things are going to come up. I am starting to accept that things are not always going to go as I plan (that one is hard for me). Math had to be moved a couple of times because of a 2-hour delay and because of makeup MAP testing which we missed because of a snow day! It was a good chance for me to adjust to sudden schedule changes and I am learning how important it is to just roll with the punches and be flexible. All of the changes and unexpected occurrences were definite surprises this week but they were important learning opportunities for me. Next week, I will build off of what I have learned and try to be more laid back and flexible. I am not going to allow the little surprises and changes in the schedule stress me out because it is always going to be a part of teaching! I know that going into the weeks ahead, it is important for me to keep an open mind and look at each surprise as an opportunity for growth. 

My short-term efforts are still aligned with my long term efforts as I continue to take over responsibilities and areas of instruction that will allow for my first full week of taking over. I am hoping to shorten my lesson planning process next week. It seems that I am just spending every afternoon until bed lesson planning which is fine but I am trying to be able to focus on other areas of what I need in my portfolio too so I am trying to become faster and more efficient at writing lesson planning. I can tell the process is already easier than it was last week but I would still like to be even faster. 

This week, I still had some apprehension that I would like to have dissipated by next week. I have to have confidence in what I am doing/saying because I don’t want my students picking up on any apprehension. The areas that I was most apprehensive about (teaching math, for instance) are the areas that turned out to go the most smoothly so I am setting a goal to go into next week with no apprehension- we all need to keep in mind that we have made it this far for a reason and have confidence in what we have learned thus far!

My first logical step for next week  is to go ahead and start planing for the newest area that I am taking over (literacy stations) because I know that is what is going to take me the longest to plan because I am not used to planning for it. So, I will start that first so I don’t feel nervous and rushed. 

This week, I analyzed the formative and summative assessments I implemented throughout my math instruction and I was able to see what the students understood and what we need to work on more. This week was able about more than, fewer than, and equal to. I found they understood equal sets the best (which is not what I expected) and had trouble identifying sets that had fewer. I used this data to build activities into my math lessons this coming week that allow them to practice making sets that have fewer than another set and practice with comparing sets to see which has fewer objects. 

A piece of advice I would share with upcoming student teachers this week is to spend time really getting to know your students. It is amazing how much easier lesson planning comes when you know the needs of your students and what they can and cannot do. It may not seem like one of the most important parts of student teaching but it really is. 

This week I also spent some time working to become more proficient in different areas of the NC Teacher Candidate Standards- 

1C. Teachers Demonstrate Leadership in the School- This week, I was able to attend a data meeting (to analyze student assessment data in the school), the grade level meeting, and planned for professional development opportunities which I can join in on with the assistant principal. It turns out I have experience with “myON” which is a digital reading program the school is implementing on the iPads. I will be able to assist in training my grade level with the program because I have used it extensively at another school I worked at. So, I am excited to be able to help in that area!

2C. Teachers Treat Students as Individuals- This week, I focused on having individual goals for my students. I was able to be a part of their math MAP testing and it really allowed me to see the range of abilities I have in my classroom. I cannot set the same goals for every student. Based on individual needs, I set different goals for my math assessments. 

3D. Teachers make instruction relevant to students- I am putting a big emphasis on 21st century skills this semester. I heard someone say this week that Kindergartners are not ready for group work. I disagree with that statement. I think the time to begin to put them in groups and with partners to work is in Kindergarten so that we can build those necessary 21st century skills. I built in opportunities to work as partners into my lessons this week and it went better than I thought. I will continue to build in even more opportunities to foster their 21st century skills. 

4E. Teachers help students to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills- This week, I was intentional about building questioning into my lessons which required thought. I want my students to have to think critically and I am working to eliminate one word answers from my lessons. In math, I am focusing on the why and the how? How did you get that answer? How do you know? Why is that the way that you solved that problem? My students are responding well so far!

5A. Teachers analyze student learning- I put an emphasis this week on letting my math data guide my next steps so I am anxious to see how it will go next week! 

Week 1 as a Student Teacher

Hi, everyone! I am so excited we are all back together and have made it to this point in our educational journey, can you believe it? It still seems unreal to me but it is so exciting! I hope everyone had a great break and is having a great start to their student teaching experience, I am so looking forward to reading everyone’s blog reflection because I know each experience is going to be so different but so rewarding! 

I have to say I have a very wide range of emotions over the break and starting in this first week of student teaching but I have learned a great deal from everything that has happened. I have realized there is something to learn from everything that happens whether it has been something about myself personally, myself as a professional, or just life in general. I feel like I have learned more than I ever had expected just in this first week so I can only imagine the great deal of learning that is to take place in the weeks to come. I am so excited to learn and grow more as an educator than I ever have before! I know we are all going to experience so much growth and I am also thrilled to get to see you all grow as well! 

When I look back and reflect on this first week, I am in awe that it has only been a week. It seems like it has been a month because so much has happened. I would rate this week as a 4 on a scale of 1-5.  To me, this means it was a good week overall. I had never spent a full day in my placement because of my job so I was excited/nervous to finally be there full-time. There was so much more to a full-day then I had imagined in my classroom. I paid attention to all of the small things that I was missing before and it was an eye-opener to see exactly what goes into each day. Things I hadn’t paid as much attention to like bathroom breaks, classroom jobs, and getting the kids through the lunchroom efficiently are all very important to me now because they are a large part of what makes the classroom run effectively day to day. There were times where I felt a little bit overwhelmed which I think was just a part of getting used to a new routine but overall- it was a really good week!

I was pleasantly surprised this week at how well the students came back after the break and got back into the routine of things. I really thought, with them being Kindergartens, that is was going to be a difficult transition back. I was pleased to see that they came back with little trouble and by the end of this week, it was like we had never been gone! My CE informed me that every class she has had has not been this way, she says this class is kind of a special group so for me to not expect every return from break to be this easy in the future! I appreciate her honestly and the fair warning! 

As I prepare to take over math instruction next week, I paid close attention to the math instruction this week so that I could build off of what they are learning in my lessons. I am following the mathematics program that the district mandates with help from my CE with what I can add and take away to meet the needs of all of my students. I am glad I had the experiences I did this week to better prepare me to take over math instruction because it is so important that I be well-prepared for it. My CE has been so great about helping me to prepare and she feels confident in my ability to begin teaching math next week so I am feeling confident and excited about it! 

My short-term efforts are aligning with my long-term efforts this week because my short-term effort included getting as much time observing everything that I could so I would be prepared for my long-term efforts which include taking over each subject until I have full control of the classroom. My short-term efforts will pay off because they will help me to be more successful in my long-term efforts. 

I am excited to spend more time teaching and I am working on making my lesson plan process faster next week. I felt like I was spending so much time doubting what I was planning this week to the point where it was driving me a little bit crazy. I want my plans to be the best that they can be but I think it is important for me to remind myself that they are not going to be perfect at first. So, I want to spend less time re-thinking, second-guessing, and doubting myself when it comes to lesson planning. That leads me to discussing how my apprehension has affected me this week. I was not apprehensive in the classroom, I was apprehensive when I was planning. It held me back because I could have gotten my plans finished a lot earlier had I not have been so apprehensive about it. So, this is something I am continuously working to improve so that I do not waste any precious time second guessing myself. 

Next week, the first logical step is to begin planning for the next week even earlier than I did this week. Looking forward to the next week and what exactly will be happening with my plans and the schedule will help me to declutter my mind. It is important to be extremely organized and always be looking forward so that I can plan. 

This week, I was able to work with my CE as she gave students mCLASS assessments which is what we use in my county to determine the reading level of each student. Watching the assessments and then participating in the analysis of the assessments gave me a much more clear depiction of what my students need as I plan for small literacy groups and Language Arts instruction overall. So, analyzing that data was very beneficial for me. 

This week I have also been working to improve in areas of the NC Teacher Candidate Standards: 

Standard One- Teachers Lead in their Classroom- This week, my CE was essentially still the leader but I prepared myself to become the leader next week. I paid close attention to the small parts that go into being an effective leader in the classroom as well as the large parts and I feel more prepared than ever to lead. 

Standard Two- Teachers Adapt their Teaching for the Benefit of Students with Special Needs- My discussions with my CE and my interview with the EC teacher in my school really benefited me in this area. It allowed me to identify the special needs in my classroom and exactly what my CE does to meet these needs and what I will be doing to meet these needs. I also learned the process of placement from the EC teacher and exactly what her role is in serving my students. That really strengthened my knowledge and understanding of exactly how to meet the needs of my special needs students. 

Standard Three- Teachers align their instruction with the NCSCOS-  I have worked closely with the NCSCOS, math in particular, to plan for instruction next week. I have worked to align my lessons directly with the NCSCOS of asked my CE to ensure my plans were aligned with exactly what my students need to know. Her input helped me tremendously in this area. 

Standard Four- Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students- This week I was able to spend a lot more time than I ever have learning about and understanding the specific needs of my students. Spending time in each subject area and participating in each lesson has helped me with seeing where each student is developmentally. I am able to keep in mind exactly what I saw and know about my students while I am planing for instruction. 

Standard Five- Teachers Link Professional Growth to their Professional Goals- I am finding myself reflecting this week on small accomplishments that are helping me to become the teacher that I want to be. I feel like I am growing especially in the area of knowing my students because I am able to spend so much time with them which is helping me to be a better teacher for them. The better I know them, the better I can plant to meet their needs. It is a professional goal of mine to really be able to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each of my students. So, growing in this area is directly correlated to my professional goals. 

This week, I also created a notebook with a tab for each requirement for my portfolio. I have worked to add things that I think would fit under each requirement that I have done thus far and it gave me a solid understanding of what I need to do in each area to meet the requirements. I am very visual so I recommend anyone else who is a visual learner to lay it out that way so you can see what you need to do, it was very beneficial for me personally! 

I have gotten more support from my CE, university supervisor, and student teaching supervisor, school staff, administration, and my peers than I ever could have asked for. It really has shown me how much support I have and I could not ask for a better support system at a time where I have needed it the most! My CE has even complimented several times how well my supervisor and just the GW program has been as a whole in communication with her and making expectations clear. I just ask for continued support as we move forward! I feel like great things are in store for all of us!