This week has been so crazy, I almost forgot to write my blog! Luckily, I just remembered! It has been yet another whirlwind of a week where I am left feeling like my head has been spun around. I taught my lesson in the classroom this week and I feel like it went well. There are already a few things that I thought about on my way home though that I would change if I were to do it over. It is just minor things but I think I have become so accustomed to reflecting that I pick apart every little thing looking for ways to improve my practice. That brings to mind the Professional Teaching Standard: Teachers reflect on their practice. I know that practicing teachers reflect on their lessons all of the time and they make adjustments and refine their practice. This reflection is a skill that I am working on and I find myself reflecting more and more as we get more opportunities to actually teach.

The major focus in my mind right now is MY UNIT! Right now, I am making sure everything is age appropriate and that I have enough assessment and modification. So, that is where all of my brain power is going and I am using the NCSCOS a whole lot to make sure that my unit is grade level appropriate. I am excited to see the finished product and hopefully all of you are having a very productive and great week! The light at the end of the tunnel is SO close so hang in there!

Wow, wow, wow! The end is approaching so quickly! It seems that it was no time ago that I was writing my first blog at a complete loss of what to say for the fear of sounding silly. Now, the words just flow effortlessly and I know you all are going to not only understand what I am saying in my blog but embrace it. I have always been intimidated by blogging thinking that I didn't have anything interesting to say. I am proud to say that I have embraced blogging and I have grown to love it. I look forward to this so much more than discussion boards and so this has been one of my favorite things about this semester!

On another note, can you guys believe our units are due in TEN DAYS? AAAHHH! I am nervous but excited about the end outcome but this week ahead holds a lot of work for me. I just do not feel 100% about my performance task yet but I am getting there. I am so glad Parker is willing to go back and forth with us and answer our ridiculous questions (well at least mine are) all the time because that has literally saved me. Also, the feedback and encouragement I get from all of you has saved me as well!

I also finally have my lesson planned for my clinical experience and I am really excited about it! I approached it with much more confidence than I have ever had in lesson planning and I know that is because of what I have learned this semester. I would stop and think, how can I make this more engaging? What is going to really hook these students? How can I integrate technology in a more meaningful way? These are questions I never would I have asked myself before but that's because I simply didn't know to ask them. So, I feel particular grateful for the new skills I have acquired as a future teacher and for the new outlook in lesson planning. I have a whole new appreciation for how far student engagement can take you. That has really tied into the standard of Teacher Facilitate Learning because student engagement and the way we teach is a huge part of that.

I am looking forward to a productive week of tying up loose ends and I will let you know how my lesson goes in the classroom! Have a great week and try not to lose steam, we are SO CLOSE!

Another week down and another week wiser. Tonight, we had our traditional learning lesson presentations and I was SO NERVOUS. I haven't been that nervous in a long time but I feel that it went smoothly and everyone did such a good job. I get new ideas from you guys as you teach so I actually love hearing your lessons. As silly as it sounds, I also like to get to be a part of your lessons and watch you all do what you love. It makes me so proud of all of us and how far we have come. There are some things I need to work on but I am thankful for the constructive criticism because it makes me very aware of what I can do to be better. Once again, I find myself going back to the professional teaching standard: "Teacher reflect on their practice." What better way for us to better our teaching than to literally practice together and then reflect on it. The practice and reflection is helping us to become better professionals. I am really working on being more comfortable with being observed because in student teaching, there is going to be ALOT of observation. Even as professional teachers, we are going to be observed quite often so I know I have to just get over my nerves and be confident in what I am doing.

Now, it is officially time to get our units to where we want them to be and I am excited about that. I am fascinated by the unit planning process and I cannot wait to see it finally come together. I am hoping that my first concept-based unit will be strong and will be something I can be really proud of. I think the main thing is once again, reflecting on what I am doing and thinking of ways that I can make it even better. This week, I am working to make sure that I am strongly connected my standards in the unit with me learning experiences and performance tasks so I am working closely with the NCSCOS to tie everything together.

I cannot believe this semester is coming to a close! So, let's enjoy our last few weeks together, work hard, and like Parker said, finish the semester out strong!

Whew, what a week! I am at the point in the semester where I find myself constantly thinking, "Okay, when is this due?" or "Oh my gosh, this is coming up!" If I am not working on something, I am worrying about it so I am just about to drive myself crazy but it will be okay! We are very close to that month long break and it is going to be so gratifying to come out of this semester ALIVE. I got my placement which is exciting and one is a first grade classroom while the other is 5th ( I am most excited about the 5th). I work in 1st everyday but I actually love working with older kids too so I am grateful and excited for that opportunity. This week, I have also adjusted my PDP to better fit my needs and I am excited about that. I am focusing heavily on becoming more efficient at integrating technology and I think that is going to be SO HELPFUL to me. This class has given me a new awareness of how important it is that I be able to integrate technology. So, I am excited about my new goal for myself and how it is going to help me grow.

I also have focused heavily on my traditional learning plan which allowed me to work closely with the NCSCOS this week which is always important. I am trying to make the NCSCOS something that I am super familiar with and I feel like we are all slowly but surely doing that. I am excited to present lessons with you all again and I am actually surprised at how much I found myself thinking of my first lesson to guide me in this lesson I am working on now. I kept thinking "Okay, I didn't like how that worked and I did like how this or that worked." I imagine teachers do that all the time so it was exciting to have something to go off of when planning this lesson. That brought me back to the standard of  "Teachers reflect on their practice." I have been reflecting so much this semester as I prepare for student teaching which is so close! I think about where I started, where I am now, and where I hope to be. While I am nervous, I am also so proud of how far we have all come. I know we can do this and I am excited to see us all as student teachers! Have a wonderful week!

This week, I have been solely focused on finishing my virtual museum. I have worried about it weeks but I finally am starting to feel okay about it. It is my fist virtual museum so I have driven myself crazy worrying over it and wondering if it is as good as it could be. That's nothing new though, I tend to worry about every assignment but it always turns out fine. The virtual museum really scared me at first but as I got into it, I realized that it is actually a fun assignment. I like being able to create my own museum out of my visit and I like how accessible this makes museums to students. I mean we are creating something that we could actually use in our classrooms one day, how cool is that? I have found that students actually LOVE museums when we go on field trips, even first graders. So, the idea of creating virtual museums is genius. Think of how many more museums we could show them when we take out the cost of actually visiting. I think it's great and I feel so accomplished already knowing that I can create a virtual museum.

It has also been really great connecting the museum to the NCSCOS. This will make the museum so much for more meaningful for the students and teachers. They can make connections and know that this isn't just some random museum. It means something and pertains to what they are learning and need to know. I have been on quite a few field trips since I have been working in an elementary school and I can honestly say that I have never seen the connections being made between the field trips and the NCSCOS. Maybe I missed the connections but I don't think they were made clear to the students. So, this virtual museum assignment has made me aware of how important it is that field trips be tied to the standards. That really brings things full circle for the students and helps them to have a deeper understanding of the content. So, this week I feel like I have really been developing in the professional teaching standard: Teachers Know the Content they Teach. Without this knowledge, I wouldn't be able to tie the content to my museum. So, I can see myself growing in content knowledge even as I finish developing my museum.

I hope you all have a great week and I cannot wait to see your finished museums!

Hey, everyone! Another week down and we are SO CLOSE to finish line this semester and this both scares me and excites me. I am excited to have a break and about all that we have accomplished this semester but I am nervous about all of the upcoming assignments that are due. We can do it though, I believe in us. This week I completed my flipped lesson plan and my flipped component for the lesson plan. This was a vastly different way of planning for us all but I have to say that I like it. Think of how much more time we have for discussion and hands-on learning when the students have already watched/heard the lesson. Some are concerned that students will not have the technology to view the lesson beforehand and I can see why this would be a concern. However, I think you could always use the time in the mornings when students are settling in to have them view the lesson. I am also pretty positive that all schools are moving toward providing students with technology, or at least I hope so. I am glad to have had the opportunity to have planned a flipped lesson because this was a huge learning experience for me. It took me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to see another way to teach. I like having as many of these experiences as I can so that when I began teaching, I know the many options that I have and I can find what works for my students and I.

I also developed my peer rubric this week for my flipped lesson and that was helpful for me. I was able to think about what I need to work on before I present the lesson to you all. Developing the rubric has made me more self-aware of my weaknesses and brought to mind the standard "Teachers are always learning." I am learning every day and I am learning so much about myself as a teacher while going through these experiences and I hope you all are too. I also was able to incorporate the NCSCOS in the planning of my lesson. I knew that the lesson had to be based off of the standards that I had chosen for my unit so I explored those standards further. I am feeling more and more comfortable and more knowledgeable about the NCSCOS each week. When I first began this program, I was afraid because the NCSCOS seemed so overwhelming. But, now I know how to break it down and make sense of it.

Today, I also completed my teacher interview. What a relief! It went better than I ever expected and I know I had expressed my worry to you all so I just wanted to update you. I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow and continue this journey! I cannot wait to meet with you all to present our lessons, see you then!

What a BUSY week! This week, I am diligently working on the flipped component of my lesson plan as well as the self-assessment rubric for this component. Also, my focus is on integrating technology in my unit in a way that is going to enhance student learning. I don't want to integrate technology just for the sake of saying, "Okay, I integrated technology into my unit." I want to use technology in a way that is going to really engage my students and make their learning experience more interesting, meaningful, and fulfilling. Technology is one of the greatest tools that we have at our fingertips as teachers, we just have to know how to properly utilize it. The thing is, there are literally so many ways to do this. You just have to find the best way that fits.

That is where the SAMR and TPAK model have come in for me. The best type of technology integration takes place when the technology, content, and pedagogy all come together. When you have each component, the most effective instruction happens. Each component plays an important role and when they all combine, the magic happens. This is what the TPAK model put into perspective for me and this is a new way of looking at technology integration for me. This makes sense. Without the content being present, what good is the technology in the classroom doing? Students are not learning what they need to learn if the content is not involved. With this model, I can look at each piece and see why each piece is needed. The SAMR model opened my eyes to the different types of technology and made me see that I want to be the teacher that uses technology for modification or redefinition of my lessons. I want to do what wasn't possible before. With redefinition, I want to do what was not conceivable prior to the integration of technology. In my eyes, this can be a game changer. This can completely reshape and change your unit for the better.

I am looking forward to utilizing touchcast this week as well to summarize what I have learned from the TPAK and SAMR and learning even more by seeing what you all post. Each of you have a way of making me see what we are learning in a new perspective and I really enjoy that. I can feel myself growing as an instructor each week and I can see you all growing, which is REALLY amazing and exciting.

The NCTCS teaching standard that comes to mind for me this week while I am working, is "Teachers facilitate learning for their students." I am using technology this week as an outlet to better facilitate learning for my students and it is both challenging and exciting. I hope you all are gaining something from learning to integrate technology as well and I cannot wait to see how you all take advantage of this week's learning opportunities! Have a great week!