Adventures of Week 2 of Full Teaching

 Week of Reflection: 2/5/2021

   

Rate your overall experience of the week: 1-Very difficult | 5 – Great week

This week was a good but very challenging week 3

Seven questions to end your week:

Observe: What pleasant surprises / accomplishments did I achieve this week? This week was my second full week of teaching. A pleasant surprise was winning a Starbucks gift card at our vertical planning meeting on Wednesday! Having 90% of students complete their exit tickets compared to 40% last week is an accomplishment. I changed the format from a google slide to a Padlet. Students were eager to participate. 

Reflect: What lessons did my work/experiences teach me that I will build upon next week? This week I learned to slow down and give students more leadership opportunities. During literacy, I called on students to read paragraphs from the informational text about African Americans that had an important role in the American Revolution. This allowed me to assess student reading of grade level text. During math students participated in a solve and share activity to subtract mixed numbers with like denominators. Students typed their answer in the chat. I called on a student to share how they solved their problem and used my document to give students a visual representation. 

Be Productive: What could I have spent more or less time doing? This week I could have spent more time collecting data in math. Each time a student answers a question I can document their response. This data will show what students have learned and what they still need to work on. Their exit tickets are also used as data to plan the next lesson. Taking data during class is challenging, but I believe it provides a more accurate assessment of their learning. 

Have Courage:  How did apprehension and indecision impact what I did and didn’t do? I was indecisive about making up math equations prior to the lesson for students to solve. My lessons went a lot smoother on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday  when I had the equations ready to share with students. Fractions are a challenging concept for my students. A lot of them lack basic fraction knowledge because schools were closed last spring. 

What were some data you analyzed this week and how did it help guide your decisions? Math exit tickets and chat response are data that I analyzed this week. The data shows an increase in conceptual understanding of fractions. This data also shows that students are not prepared for the test that was originally planned for tomorrow. Tomorrow students will continue to review and practice subtracting fractions with like denominators. I will reteach and reassess students next week.

NC Professional Teaching Standards :

Standard 1: I established a safe and orderly environment by redirecting students to appropriate behavior. Many students are distracted by people or things in their home environment. We reviewed our virtual classroom expectations. This week we started a BINGO incentive game. Students who actively participate in class will have their names put on our class Bingo card. One number from each column will be drawn when the bingo board is complete. The winners will select a sticker to be mailed to them.

Standard 2: I encourage an environment that is inviting, respectful, supportive, inclusive and flexible by incorporating student interest into lesson content.This week we talked about the power of yet. We come to school to learn. Before you learn to run you have to walk. We discussed things we are not able to do yet. With practice and perseverance we will accomplish our goals.

Standard 3: Develop and apply strategies to make the curriculum rigorous and relevant. I used area models to help students understand the concept of converting an improper fraction to a mixed number. Students solved and shared different ways they came up with the answer. Some students were able to solve the answer without fraction models. Students will build on this concept next week when we begin identifying equivalent fractions.

Standard 4: Collaborate with colleagues. I collaborated with the curriculum facilitator and the dean of students to come up with ways to increase student attendance and participation. Virtual instruction is challenging for several students in my class. The curriculum facilitator suggested changing the settings of virtual tools to limit activities that are connected to the content we are learning. I will continue to communicate with parents about their child’s performance during virtual instruction.

Standard 5: Participate in continued, high quality professional development. Other:

• What components of your portfolio have you started to complete? I have started to complete the Classroom and student plan portion of my portfolio. 

• What support does your clinical educator need from Mrs. Suttle? My CE would like to know if there is a specific form she needs to complete for her observations?

• What support do you need from Mrs. Suttle? Do I need to continue to record lessons for observation and portfolio purposes? 

The Power of “YET”