The End that Leads to New Beginnings...

Wow, just like that student teaching is over. Is this real life? This week finished up my "leaning out" phase of student teaching and now its time to observe and prepare for portfolio presentations. I expected this week to feel so different from the past 10 weeks because I was only scheduled to teach math. However, I ended up still keeping my ELA rotation and kept routines of taking students to the bathroom, to lunch, and to BEPs. It was nice to stay in routine for just a tad longer.

One of my biggest accomplishments this week was being offered an Early Contract in the county I've been student teaching. This was such a huge relief and so satisfying to know that all of the hard work I've put in over the past 10 weeks has truly been noticed and has paid off.

My experiences over the past 10 weeks has taught me more than I could have ever imagined. I entered student teaching thinking I would learn lessons about how to teach an effective lesson or how to differentiate better. While both of those things were definitely lessons learned along the way, there were also lessons I never expected. Such as, how to be a good coworker, how to collaborate with coworkers, how to comfort the child who loves school more than home, how to attempt to balance a social life and teaching, along with a long list of many more.

This week I spent a lot of time analyzing the differences in mine and my CEs teaching, now that I have a more developed teaching style than I did prior to student teaching. This coming week I will observing 5 other teacher at my school and I will get to learn from their teaching styles as well.

This week I exhibited 1A, teachers lead in their classroom. I did this by planning small group math rotations based on observations from the previous days math lesson.

I exhibited 2D, teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. I did this by adjusting my lessons based on student's reading levels for guided reading rotations.

I exhibited 3A, teachers align their instruction to NCSCOS. As I aligned my plans to the NCSCOS.

I exhibited 4A, 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. I did this by readjusting my plans to engage students during math rotations.

I exhibited 5A, teachers analyze student learning. I did this by remediating and allowing students to retake their measurement test.

The countdown to graduation begins!

Hallelujah for Week 10

Is it really the last week of full time student teaching?? Wow. I’ve loved every minute of learning and growing as a student teacher, however, I’m quite ready for graduation! I would rate this week as a 5, students were great and everything went very smoothly.

This week one of my pleasant surprises was taking the students on a field trip to the symphony without my CE. I was very nervous because there are so many little ends to cover when on a field trip. Thankfully everything went great!!

This week my guided reading lessons included reading an article on the titanic. This article was very detailed and lengthy. Day 2 came of reading the article and the kids were dreading it. So we took a different approach, I read the article with them one page at a time. I knew after day one I was going to have to ask intriguing questions and keep them interested. By the end of the week students couldn't wait to read more and found out what happened.

My goal for next week is to start the phase of switching back roles in the classroom. I will also be reaching out to other teachers to begin my observations.

This week I analyzed the students unit test on measurement. I was very happy that all but 5 students showed growth. Measurement is a difficult unit because there is so much for students to remember.

This week I exhibited 1B, teachers demonstrate leadership in the school. I did this by meeting with the principal at my school for my post observation meeting.

I exhibited 2D, teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. I did this by adjusting my lessons based on student's reading levels for guided reading rotations.

I exhibited 3A, teachers align their instruction to NCSCOS. As I planned for the coming week I aligned my plans to the NCSCOS.

I exhibited 4A, 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. I did this by readjusting my plans to engage students during guided reading rotations.

I exhibited 5A, teachers analyze student learning. I did this by adjusting my plans daily and during the lesson, based on the progress of the students.