Senior Seminar Weeks 11&12

I say it every week, but how now that it is almost December it seems like time has flown by so quickly!! As the last two weeks were not very long, I decided to combine the two. I am lead teaching now, so it seemed best to be conscise and make it easier on everyone and put two posts in one.

Week Eleven there were parent teacher conferences on Wednesday, so we didn't have the students in the classroom that day. It was really interesting to experience that side of the teaching profession! Once again, my CT really gave me a great learning opportunity and I feel like I have a much better idea of how to best interact with the parents, and on occasion with the students and their parents together, as some parents brought their children with them. At first I was worried that the parents wouldn't be happy that I was "sitting in" on their conferences, but to my surprise quite a few parents said that their children had told them about me and really liked me! Needless to say, I was quite flattered. In contrast to my last school, it seems like on average almost 100% of the parents at this school are very involved in the schooling of their children. 

Other than conferences, the week mostly went smoothly. There were some behavioral issues that we encountered, and (again) my wonderful CT really have good ideas and feedback with how best to deal with these situations and I feel like while in the moment the situations may have been difficult, it was overall a great learning experience.

I also had my first (and second to the last! 😮) observation. It was really nice for me to show how different this school and classroom is from my last placement, and I felt more relaxed being observed here. It is always nerve wracking to be observed, but it felt better this time. Even though I am not as familiar with the content of this grade or with the curriculum for this age range, it has really been such a positive experience at this school and with this CT that I am feeling more confident and better prepared. 

Week Twelve was a very short week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We are wrapping up several projects, such as the cornucopia I designed for the students, and are doing kind of a "soft opening" for science and social studies to get students thinking about some of the projects they'll be working on in the next week or so. Tuesday especially after lunch was hard to keep the kids on task, as they knew they soon would be having three days off, and I was really grateful when my CT stepped in the help bring the students back on task. Before I would have felt very defeated, but she explained her strategy to me later, and offered suggestions in a neutral and helpful way that I really appreciated and helped me learn. As it was Thanksgiving, I am reflecting on all of the many things that I have to be grateful for, and being placed with this CT and in this school is definitely on my Thankful List this year!

In the last two weeks I am in this schoo (!!!) I am lead teaching a few more days before phasing out. I feel like my CT is excited to get back to teaching her kiddos, and I'm looking forward to learning more about her best practices and her learning style. I am going to make it a goal to keep learning different techniques for discipline, as well as how best to motivate students. 

Senior Seminar Week Ten

I can't believe I've been student teaching for ten weeks already!  Time has flown by so quickly.  This week was a very short and odd week.  There was no school on Wednesday due to Veteran's Day, and on Friday it was a school improvement day so the kids weren't there.  On Friday, I attended three different learning sessions that I thought were really helpful.  The first session was about how to promote literacy and encourage young readers to want to read on their own. Secondly, the session was about how to integrate collaboration in the classroom, and the final session was on promoting reading strategies for the younger grades.  I feel like I learned a lot and it was really helpful to have gone through these sessions. The second half of the day was dedicated to prepping for the next week and getting things organized.
As I am interacting with the students a lot more, I'm learning that teaching the younger grades is a lot more work!  It is one thing to know how to do something that seems like second nature as an adult, but it is quite another to explain why you do something and exactly how to do it.  I'm really lucky that my cooperating teacher has had a lot of experience with this age and grade so that I can learn different techniques from her to help me.
This upcoming week I am going to be taking the reins in the classroom, and I am both excited and nervous.  In my previous placement, I was teaching content that I am really well-versed on, whereas in this placement I am kind of jumping in head first.  The school I am at has everything planned out really well, so it is helpful for me to be able to look at the coming weeks and know "oh, that's what is coming up, that's what I am supposed to teach," but it is nerve-wracking to be able to see that and know that I have never taught these lessons.
A goal of mine for this next week is to become better versed in more techniques for teaching this age group, and to work on my confidence.

Senior Seminar Week 9

The second week of my second placement went well. Unlike the first week, this week was relatively "normal" in that there were no holidays.  Monday I left halfway through to submit my edTPA (!!) and Friday my CT had a personal day, but a pretty normal week. I have quickly learned the name sof the students (even though I occasionally confuse the names) and am now pretty used to the routine that is in place.  I started to be more involved in lessons this week, and am going to be focusing on mostly lead teaching language arts and mathematics starting this upcoming week.  I am trying very hard not to compare my two placements, but I feel like I have adapted to the students and the schedule of this placement more quickly than the last, although this could be because I now have some experience and know what to expect more than I did when I first got to know the students from my last placement.
On Friday when my CT had a personal day, I had the "command" of the classroom.  Overall I thought that it went well, although it was a learning experience as well.  Some of the students were much rowdier than usual (no doubt thanks to having a sub) and some of the students chose to act out more because of this.  The sub didn't interact with the students very much, other than to aid me in going around the room to check that students were on task when they were supposed to be working independently and/or with their groups.  She told me at the end of the day that based on her experience and seeing how I worked with the students that were rowdy she thought I would "make for an excellent teacher, even though [I] already am one, it would seem.  Just need that piece of paper!"  That was very refreshing to hear after a bit of a stressful day!
So for this week, I am going to make it my goal that I work with my CT to learn how to be the most effective when disciplining students (I still worry I will make them cry!) and to work on using higher questioning and be efficient when teaching lessons with the students. I think I am still trying how to best teach this age level, and I am bouncing back and forth between the fifth/sixth and preschool ages that I am most familiar with.

Senior Seminar Week 8

This week was my first week at my new school!  First grade is very different from the fifth and sixth grades, but the students are so sweet and it has been great getting to know them.  My CT seems really knowledgeable and I am excited to work with her and learn from her.  To be honest I am a little intimidated because she is so knowledgeable, and I don't want to disappoint her.  In my last placement I felt more confident in my teaching as I was more comfortable and experienced with the content, whereas I don't have experience with the first grade really.  At this placement the school and the other grade level teachers all seem very organized and comfortable with how they have things, which is very refreshing, however I do feel like I'm going to need to hit the ground running which is a little daunting.  My CT appears to be very open to communication and questions, and has been very helpful when I have asked for advice and/or clarification on something.  This upcoming week I will be starting to take on teaching the language arts class, and at intimidating as it feels, I am excited to help these darling kids continue to learn.