Week 3
Week of Reflection: 1/22/2021
Rate your overall experience of the week: 1-Very difficult | 5 – Great week
This week was a very good week! (4)
Seven questions to end your week:
Observe: What pleasant surprises / accomplishments did I achieve this week? This week picked up literacy and recorded my learning segment. I learned how to take attendance in powerschool. I am starting to feel more comfortable navigating canvas and other digital platforms.
Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week? My CE gave me some great feedback that I will apply to my future lessons. She suggested showing students real world examples of different text to help understand the author’s purpose. Showing students real world examples really helped them to make connections with the content.
Focus: How are my short-term efforts and my long-term goals still aligned? Short term goals are small steps that will allow me to meet my long term goals. Next week will be my first full week of teaching. I will schedule time each day to prepare for the next lesson. Knowing the content I teach is very important. Meeting with my CE at the end of each day helps me to focus on tasks that I can improve the next day.
Be Productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing? I could have spent more time asking higher order thinking questions during guided practice. This would increase comprehension and help students make connections to the text. This week I spent more time implementing strategies to increase student engagement. My CE suggested writing students names on popsicle sticks and pulling a name from the jar to answer questions. This method was really effective. Students were more engaged and answered questions when their name was pulled.
Have Courage: How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do? There was no apprehension or indecision. There are two pieces of advice that my CE shared with me that has given me courage especially when I am trying something new or different. 1: Relax, the students don’t know what the lesson is about, don’t overthink, you know the content and planned the lesson, just let it flow. 2: When it comes to learning how to use technology, click around, push the buttons, I promise you won’t break anything. Her advice has helped me not be so hard on myself.
Begin Anew: What is the first logical step(s) for next week? The first step is to review my lesson plans for my first full week of student teaching. What mental clutter can I clear? Sticky notes have been helpful. I write down notes and reminders throughout the day. I will continue to take notes and ask questions. Schedule a time each night to review and prepare for the next lesson. Communicating and collaborating with my CE and teachers on the 4th grade team will enhance my student teaching experience.
What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help guide your decisions? I analyzed math data and noticed some common mistakes that students made when converting an improper fraction to a mixed number. Next week I will be teaching math. I will start by decomposing numbers and reviewing adding fractions with like denominators. I will use pictures to help students identify fractions. I will model drawing an improper fraction and show students how to create mixed numbers. The visual representation will deepen student understanding.
NC Professional Teaching Standards :
Standard 1: I established a safe and orderly environment this week by putting students' names in a jar and pulling names out of the jar for participation. This established an orderly environment because students have to pay attention and be prepared to answer when their name is called.
Standard 2: I encourage an environment that is inviting, respectful, supportive, inclusive and flexible. This week I conference with students during small groups and asked guided questions to increase their understanding of the content. I call each student by their preferred name. I had one new student this week. I asked her for the correct pronunciation of her name.
Standard 3: Develop and apply strategies to make the curriculum rigorous and relevant. This week during ELA we read informational texts about animal defense mechanisms. I read aloud the text and modeled how to complete a graphic organizer. During guided practice students were able to identify key details, the author's purpose and the main idea of the text.
Standard 4: Collaborate with colleagues. The fourth grade team collaborates to create a similar plan to enhance students' learning experience and increase participation during remote learning. Diversity is celebrated throughout the year. This week I created a google slide presentation for us to introduce 4th grade students to the country Greece.
Standard 5: Participate in continued, high quality professional development. This week I began the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge that was suggested by the school principal. It is my hope to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community, and help change that narrative.
Hello, Xiomara! First, I am excited to read that you had a very good week. That is so great that you have been able to learn some of the extra details like powerschool, canvas, and all the other digital platforms. Those are important background details that we will need to know for this upcoming weeks. I love the idea your CE suggested about making real world connections. This way students can find connects to make things relatable to them so they can understand the importance of what you are teaching. Asking higher order thinking question is a wonderful goal that we should be striving for each week with our lessons. It sounds to me like you are doing a great job of preparing all the ways you can for starting taking over next week full time teaching. I am sure you will do an awesome job. I look forward to reading your blog next week.
ReplyDeleteHi Xiomara! It sounds like you had a great week. I'm glad you had an opportunity to learn how to take attendance in Powerschool and navigate digital platforms. When I started my teaching position in September, I had to learn how to do a lot of this type of stuff on my own. I'll never forget trying to figure out to set up my gradebook on my own...let's just say that it was very frustrating and time consuming, so I'm glad you are getting this experience and support now. I also love that you use popsicle sticks as a way to engage and encourage all students to participate. This is something that I have planned to do myself and it is a very effective student engagement strategy. Reading about your success with it motivates me to move this to the top of my to do list. Lastly, models and pictures are an excellent way to teach math, especially fractions, to students. I teach 5th grade math and I have had a lot of success with using models for fractions. Last week we learned how to divide whole numbers by unit fractions using models and real life situations. Keep up the great work and I look forward to continuing to read about your adventures.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Amber
Xiomara I am glad that you had such a good week. Navigating Powerschool is a great accomplishment. You should be proud. I am still learning new things all the time about Powerschool. I am in the first grade and I use names on Popsicle sticks, too. Now that we are virtual, I still bring out the sticks to insure that all my students get a chance to contribute. I liked how you said you write down notes during the day. My team laughs at me when we meet to plan and I pull out my small notebook. It's a good way to remember what you need to do or questions you need to ask. It sounds as if you know exactly what you need to do and that you have a plan. Good luck this coming week!
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