Week Fifteen

This week concluded my time full time teaching. I enjoyed teaching full time so much that I don’t want to stop. I wish I could continue to teach my transitioning adults.

During my time as full time teaching I learned so much about teach special education. The biggest lesson I learned was to be flexible. Something that I pride myself in is my careful planning. While teaching my transitioning adults I learned that what I plan is not always what will happen. There were many lesson when I had to think on my toes and adjust my lessons according to the answers the students gave. For example, I taught a lesson about word problems with time. The lesson was all about adding time. For example:

If Jonny started his homework at 7:00 and spent 1:00 on his homework, what time did he finish his work?

My morning class caught on right away and was able to answer the questions without a problem. My afternoon class struggled with adding without a manipulative or something tangible. So, I had to think on my feet. I used the practice clock in the classroom to teach the students that when the big hand makes an entire rotation around the clock that one hour has passed. From there, I had to practice with the students to make sure they understood that rotating the big hand around the clock will help them answer the questions. I had to step away from my planning to help my students understand how to find an hour first.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 5 states, “The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.” Performance Indicator 5J states that the competent teacher, “monitors and adjusts strategies in response to feedback from the student.” I have learned that my job is not plan excellent lessons, but to teach excellent lessons. The only way I can actually teach an excellent lesson is when my students are growing and learning meaningful content in a relevant and engaging way. My lessons may be planned perfectly, but if I am not flexible enough to adjust my lessons according to my student’s understanding then I am not teaching well at all.

I look forward to my last week of student teaching. I will spend a lot of time this week getting to observe other classroom with students that are lower functioning then my students. I also get to bring my students to my campus on a field trip this Tuesday. My students will be practicing their social and vocational skills by serving the students at my college cookies and hot chocolate.

Week Thirteen

I began full time teaching this week. On Monday, I was so nervous about teaching my students full time. I knew that I had carefully planned the entire week, however, I was terrified that my preparations weren’t going to be enough.

While I did carefully plan, I learned this week that student responses to the lesson will determine its appropriateness. For example, I planned a Thanksgiving budgeting lesson for Wednesday. This lesson was supposed to take only 45 minutes. It took one group two 45 minutes sessions spread over two days, and the other group still has not completed the lesson. Because of this, several of the lessons planned for Thursday did not get taught. My perfectionist mind struggles with falling behind. Naturally, I want to run on schedule and complete the planned lessons, however, this week I had to remind myself that if I rush through the lesson just to get to the next material then I am taking away from my students. Excellent teaching needs to be student led. If my student’s understanding of the content doesn’t drive what I teach then I am not doing a good job at teaching them.

Along with being stretched and challenged in my actual teaching, my classroom management has also been challenged. In my Transitional classroom, I have a wide variety of students. With that variety of students comes a vast number of diverse behaviors. Some of my behaviors range from defiant/task avoidance to anxiety driven. I can’t say that I’ve figured their behaviors out because I haven’t. Each individual is so unique. There were a lot of times this week when I had no idea what to say or do in response to a student behavior, however, I am fervently taking notes and observations. Research has aided me in giving ideas with how to respond to behaviors. More than anything, I am so thankful for the support of my cooperating teacher. She never lets me sink even when I feel as though I am. Between my observations, research, and the aide of cooperating teacher I know that I will learn how best to manage behaviors in my classroom.

A large part of special education is the related services that my students receive. Although all of my students are ambulatory some of them has Occupational and Physical Therapy every week. Many of students see the Speech and Language Pathologist for therapy as well. This past Friday, I took my students out into the community. We went to the library to complete a library assignment that required the students to utilize the resources found at the library. While there, the SLP tagged along to get some minutes in. All week prior to our visit the SLP and I were in contact about student goals and ways that they can be assessed at the library. The assignment the students worked on while there was essentially crafted by myself and the SLP in order to make sure my objectives for the lesson and her speech and language goals were being assessed. This level of collaboration is crucial in teaching Special Education.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 8 says, “The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.” This week, I got to work along side the SLP to aide in the linguistic development of my students. Performance indicator 8K says that the competent teacher, “participates in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with colleagues and other professionals to achieve success for all students” Together we created an assignment that met both of our goals and objectives and was meaningful and formative to the development of our students as adults.

Classroom Confidential

My transition classroom is all about teaching students meaningful, functional skills to aide them in living outside of transition. Students go out into the community every single Friday and go out on service learning trips every other Tuesday. While reading Schmidt chapter seven I found myself, “Amening” to a lot of the things she said. Connecting content the is taught within the classroom to the community make content authentic and gives it a purpose. While this concept is exceptionally true for the transition classroom I am currently in it is also true for all classrooms. In my transition classroom, going out into the community is an authentic way that we connect what the students learn in the classroom with reality, however, in the general education classroom, it is difficult to go out into the community. Schmidt talks about how connecting to the community can be as simple as showing students pictures to help them relate the content outside of the classroom. In my fifth grade placement, my cooperating teacher stressed using pictures to teach new vocabulary. She always told me that aides in giving the students a visual representation but it also created connections. In a small, simple way we were bringing the community into our classroom rather than taking our classroom into the community. Regardless of where one teaches the community is our greatest asset to accessing and building knowledge.

Week Twelve

Week 12:

I officially started teaching this week! While not every lesson went as smoothly as hoped I was so pleased with the way it turned out. It has been quite the transition from fifth grade to transition. In fifth grade my lesson were fast paced, dynamic, and filled with “Why?” questions. In transition, my lessons are simple yet so important, slow paced, and filled with straight forward, “What?” questions. My transitioning adults are taught life skills, daily living skills, vocational skills, and social skills. The lessons, while still being academic, are geared to teach the students skills appropriate for transition.

My teacher and I taught a cooking lesson to the students. We made chocolate croissants. The students practiced making an easy snack individually. Teaching the students to make chocolate croissants is teaching them daily living skills. It’s a basic skill that the students can use in their daily lives. After making the croissants, students completed a comprehension check. This lesson partnered daily living with basic reading and comprehension. Teaching transition is all about preparing our students for life outside of school while still teaching them academic skills.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 2 says, “The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.” Performance indicator 2N states that the competent teacher, “facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life experiences.” The most important thing that a Special Education Transition teacher needs to have is a knowledge of how to connect content area and academic content to daily living, social, and vocational skills. In my lesson planning, I have become better and better at making content appropriate for transitioning adults. For example, I taught a consumer math lesson about counting bills and buying items. The activity in the lesson was called, “What’s in my wallet?” Students were given a price for an item and had to count the amount of money in their wallet to determine if they had enough money to buy the item. This lesson used the basic skill of counting money and comparing quantities partnered with the life skill of purchasing items.

I begin full time teaching Monday! This coming week is jammed packed with valuable life skills and appropriate academic content. I am so excited to continue my growth and learning in Transition.

Classroom Confidential

Teaching requires teachers that are lifelong learners. Teaching is a profession that is constantly changing and evolving. Teachers need to be lifelong learners that are willing to change and evolve with its profession. There are dozens of reasons for a teacher to be a lifelong learner. Teachers touch so many generations during their time as a teacher. As we touch different generations we need to have the necessary skills and resources to teach each generation. Technology is always expanding. Teachers need to understand the technology students are interacting with daily to best connect with their students. Professional Development helps teachers stay current with practices and tools that they can utilize in their classrooms.

Week Eleven

As I continue my journey of adjusting to my new, but wonderful classroom I am learning more and more each day. In the past week, I have developed relationships with my students and coworkers. My classroom has two paraprofessionals and one classroom aide. They are all absolutely wonderful! I have appreciated how much support I receive from the support staff and my cooperating teacher. They are always willing to listen to my questions and offer guidance where they see needed.

This week, I observed a lot of behaviors. Several of my students have a primary diagnosis of Autism. With autism comes a lot of anxiety due to schedule changes. As a result, I’ve had the opportunity of watching my teacher work magic in deescalating student’s anxieties and behaviors. I have learned so much about the kinds of redirections that my students respond best to. Most of the class responds well to being prompted to remain flexible. Student will often finish a sentence such as, “We are going to be,” with the word, “flexible.” Praising the students by saying things like, “Great job being flexible.” Also reinforces their flexibility and is an excellent to remind students to be flexible.

I also found myself teaching a lot of impromptu lessons. Because we have two classes, our AM class and our PM class, my teacher modelled teaching the lessons to the AM group and gave the opportunity to teach the same content to the PM group. On Thursday, I got to teach a lesson where students practiced reading schedules. Together, we practiced reading a family weekend schedule. We answered questions that required us to read the schedule and tell time. I was also given the opportunity to introduce a lesson involving a job description to work at the Clothes Barn as a dressing room assistant. I got to talk about the skills needed for the job and the kind of work students would do as a dressing room assistant.

Fridays we go out into the community for community education. This Friday I got to go with my students to the store. The AM class went to the dollar store. We were split into two groups. Each group was given $25 dollars to spend. One group was assigned a little boy between the ages of 5 and 9. The other group was assigned a little girl between the ages of 5 and 9. Each group picked items for their assigned child. We bought items like toys, hygiene products, puzzles, books, or crayons. The items that students bought are going to be put into shoeboxes and sent to Operation Christmas Child. The shoeboxes will be given to children around the world in need.

The PM class went to Wal-Mart to buy the necessary supplies for our cooking class. On Monday, we picked three dishes to make for cooking class. We picked one breakfast, one lunch, and one snack. The students chose to make cinnamon toast for breakfast, macaroni and cheese for lunch, and chocolate croissants for snack. The PM class was divided into two groups each group was given a list of ingredients for our chosen dishes. I learned so much from getting to go shopping with the students.

Classroom Confidential

1.       Social justice is something that all teachers, especially Christian teachers, need to be well educated on. Because we live in a broken world tainted by sin we often encounter issues in the way that people are being treated. As Christians we are called to love and serve everyone. Understanding social justice and social justice reforms as a Christian educator helps me to love my students and serve them. Schmidt argues that students want to discuss social injustices but don’t know how to. They need educated adults to help them learn to talk about social injustices. Teachers are examples love and equality to our students. Students also gain many skills from social justice projects such as: problem solving, critical thinking, persuasive speaking and writing, risk taking, awareness of community needs, and personal convictions. It’s crucial for teachers to know how to facilitate social justice discussions.

Week Ten

This week I began my seven week placement in a Transition classroom working with adults with disabilities. I spent my first days of the week in training learning all about the history of the school, how to transport students in wheelchairs, how to aide students that use communication devices, and so much. It was so exciting to learn all about how this incredible school services their diverse students.

On Wednesday, I got to meet my classroom. My class consists of 17 students all with a variety of disabilities. Students in the transition program have jobs that they spend half of the day at. Some students work in the community and some work at the school. Half of the students in my classroom work in the morning and the other half work in the afternoon. All seventeen students are together for morning meetings, lunch, and dismissal. Many of my students can read, write, and compute basic math. The majority of the class falls between the third and fourth grade range of academic ability. All of my students self-feed and dress. My students do not need assistance in the bathroom, but they need to be monitored for safety. All seventeen of my students have communication deficits but are verbal. At the beginning of every school day one student is picked to pray over the upcoming day. Students pray again prior to lunch and before dismissal. It has been beautiful hearing my student’s voices as they pray.

My students are not necessarily aggressive, however, many of them have defiant or aggressive behaviors. Many of the student’s behaviors are far worse at home then at school. One student threatens to become aggressive often throughout the day and tell his parents he wants to hurt his 

teacher.

In this transition classroom, students are taught social skills, problem solving, vocational skills, daily living skills, and other essential life skills. Every Friday, students are taken out into the community to practice a variety of social skills. Students participate in adaptive Physical Education once a week. All of my students are ambulatory, however, some of them have physical needs. Along with Physical Education, students also swim in the school’s swimming pool every other week.

I have learned so much about teaching special education in the three days I’ve been in the classroom. Because it is only my first week, I only observed and read through the paperwork of my students. I’ve gotten to know each of my students.

The school I am in now is a whole different world than that of my fifth grade classroom. Even though I have not begun to teach my adults, I can already see that I will have a lot of valuable experience working with diverse students. Illinois Professional Teaching standard number 1 states, “The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.” My previous placement taught me all about teaching students with diverse social, economic, and academic experiences. Knowledge indicator 1A states that the competent teacher, “understands the spectrum of student diversity (e.g., race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, gifted, English language learners (ELL), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity) and the assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum.” I’m excited to learn more about special education, how to teach students with disabilities in a self-contained classroom, and what my students have to offer the classroom.

Classroom Confidential

In my previous placement students wrote in their journals every day after lunch. The students had 15 minutes to write in their journals. Once a week, they had free journal writing where they could write about whatever they want. Every other day, they were given a simple prompt that they could do whatever they want with. Grammar and spelling don’t count. As long as the students are writing they receive full credit for their writing. In chapter six, Schmidt writes about warm ups as an effective strategy for writing instruction. When I was reading this I was reminded of my fifth grade class and their journal time. I think warm ups are a great way for students to get their brains churning whether they are preparing for more writing or other instructional time. Warm ups, I think, is a great strategy that all teachers can use with their students.

Week Nine

This week came like a flood of emotions as I concluded my time at my fifth grade placement. It’s unbelievable how fast the time flew and how much I have grown in that time. While learning and growing with my fifth graders, my philosophy was put to the test along with my classroom management and my patience.

Teaching in a Title 1 school has taught me so much more about teaching than I think I could’ve learned at any other school. Each of my students were incredibly different. Each had different interests, families, income, cultures, and abilities. Every day I had to seek out ways to connect the content to each student and make it meaningful. Although it was a lot of planning and intentional inclusion of culture, interests, and content, I loved every minute because every day I saw a light bulb go off or a spark be ignited. My students are so unique and deserved to be taught in a way that serviced each of them individually.

In the process of differentiating on many levels I learned about teaching styles. Coming into this placement I knew that group work was important, however, I didn’t see how important it really is. I knew that research supports cooperative learning, but I hadn’t seen its benefits until teaching my fifth graders. Allowing students to work in groups help them gain independence and enhances their learning because they get to take charge. I am convinced that teaching using a stations model where students rotate between several stations is a very effective way for students practice and apply skills while also learning crucial independence skills. This method of teaching also allows for small group teaching where a teacher can work with a small group of 3 or 4 students. Research shows that many students learn best in a small group setting.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 4 Performance Indicator K states that the competent teacher, “uses strategies to create a smoothly functioning learning community in which students assume responsibility for themselves and one another, participate in decision-making, work collaboratively and independently, use appropriate technology, and engage in purposeful learning activities.” Using station teaching allows for students to be independent and take control of their own learning and be a apart of a team. I have learned how to implement stations in a meaningful and engaging way.

I continue this wonderful journey of becoming a teacher by beginning my placement in a Special Education classroom with students ages 18-21. While I am aware that the students I will be teaching are vastly different from my fifth graders, I am ready to learn and grow in a new environment with my new students.

Week Eight

This week felt a bit chaotic to me. I’m learning more and more each day about how demanding and overwhelming teaching can be. There were several times where it seemed that what I had planned either went half right or didn’t happen. Although it was overwhelming I simply improvised and went with what happened. All in all the students and I had a great week. I just had to practice my improvising skills.

This week, I wrapped up my EdTPA lessons. I was really unsure about what I had chosen to teach for the learning segment. The comprehension skill for the story the students were working on was inferencing so that is what I chose to teach. I was concerned about whether I would teach it well enough to the students, however, I knew that I loved doing it so I gave it my best shot. In the end, I was very proud of my students. They were superstars at inferences and they really enjoyed it! I loved getting to see that strategies they created for themselves to help them. Many of my students used highlighters to highlight clues in the text or listed clues as they read them. I was so proud of them.

I am feeling confident about my EdTPA. I am excited to see how it turns out.

~*~  ~*~  ~*~ 

During one of my math lessons, this week, the district’s Math Instructional Coach came to observe. I definitely was not expecting her to walk in. I don’t think my cooperating teacher knew she was coming in either. What made it worse was that she came in while I was teaching prime factorization which I was not one hundred percent sure on. While I’m not bad at it, I get nervous whenever I teach it because it is my weakest subject.

Thankfully, although I wasn’t doing poorly, the instructional coach was willing to give me pointers on ways that I can improve. I learned about how helpful content area coaches are. While she made me so nervous when she got there I was so thankful for her help in the end!

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 8 says, “The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.”

Performance indicator 8L says that the competent teacher, “initiates collaboration with others to create opportunities that enhance student learning.”

This week, I began to learn about the importance of collaboration. It’s unbelievable how much support I received from the instructional coach. She didn’t judge me or make me feel like I wasn’t a good teacher. She built me up and gave me some really good pointers.

While this week felt so chaotic and wonderful at the same time, I am quickly approaching the end of my time at my fifth grade placement. My next blog will be my final blog about my fifth grade classroom. I will beginning my seven week placement in a Special Education Transition classroom with adults ages 18-21.

Week Seven

I am learning more and more every day as I teach. This week, as I do every week, I found myself putting my philosophy of education into practice.

This week, I gave my very first after school detention. During the week, I had a student that requested help from the LDR teacher while she was in the room. Our LDR teacher has push in minutes every morning and afternoon for about an hour each time. In our classroom we have four students that receive LDR minutes. The student that received a detention from me is not one of them, however, our LDR teacher is always willing to help all of our students. This student was struggling with some independent work. The LDR teacher told him that she would be right with him after working with a student on her caseload. Her time with her student took up the remainder of her minutes in our classroom and she had to go to her next classroom. On her way out, she forgot to let myself or my cooperating teacher know that there was a student waiting for her.

I noticed that the student was moping in his desk shortly after the LDR teacher left the room. I didn’t that he had asked her for help. I approached the student and simply asked what he was doing. The student mumbled under his breath so I bent down to his level and asked him again. This time I could hear him saying something about the LDR teacher. After I figured out that he was upset because she hadn’t helped I brightened up and reminded that he has myself and cooperating teacher to help him as well. Next time, the LDR leaves the room he can simply just ask one of us instead. While I had hoped that this would alieve some of the student’s anger, the student simply rolled his eyes at me and told me he wanted the LDR teacher’s help not mine. I calmly explained to him that she had to be in another classroom and couldn’t stay but that I was happy to help him with his question. Before I could even finish my sentence the student yelled at me saying that he didn’t want my help and he wasn’t going to work unless the LDR teacher came back to answer his question. I was embarrassed. A student had just yelled at me in front of the entire class. Because I knew that I had to make sure I was calm before I addressed the situation I simply asked the student to wait in the hallway for me. After a few deep breaths, I met the student in the hallway to discuss the situation.

I tried to approach the topic gently. I started by asking the student if he knew why I asked him to meet in the hallway. I explained that I did not think it would be appropriate or fair to discuss his behavior in front of his peers. I asked him if he thought that he did that for me when he chose to respond to me the way he did. The student continued to be defiant and defended his behavior by saying that all he wanted the LDR teacher. I knew that I could not indulge the student by arguing so I simply stated that the way the student reacted to me was disrespectful and inappropriate. I asked him how he thought I should handle the situation. The student said he didn’t know. He didn’t think he did anything punishable. So I sent him back to his seat and was stuck with a hard decision to make. The student had disrespected me in front of all of the students and refused to cooperate with me when I tried to diffuse the situation. I chose to give him an after school detention. I didn’t want to, but I knew that I had to do something.

I stayed after school with the student while he served his detention the following day. I got a chance to discuss with him what had happened during that time and he understood that his behavior was inappropriate. Together we developed a better way to respond when we are angry. We decided that when we are angry and a teacher approaches us to help us we may simply say, “I am upset and need a minute to calm down. May I please get a drink of water?” He hasn’t needed to try this strategy out, yet.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard Number 2: The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.

2N) The competent teacher facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life experiences;

This week, I was more intentional about building connections between lessons and subject areas. I started out simply by incorporating vocabulary and spelling words into other subjects and allowing opportunity for students to practice using them. For example, we were practicing inferencing in reading this past week. The student read a passage about a boy at a funeral. When I asked the students what they could inference about what the student was feeling many students decribed him as mournful which is one of their vocabulary words. I led the students to say the word mournful when one student described the boy as being sad. I responded with saying, “Yes, he is sad, but he may be more than that; he may be full of sadness.” Which is the definition to mournful.  

Classroom Confidential: 

1. Too many social studies classrooms use a lecture and note taking model of teaching. Schmidt urges teacher to break away from the textbooks and PowerPoints and give students more tangible ways to study to history. She gives suggestions like primary source documents, visual images, artifacts, literature, and architecture. Using these kinds of artifacts to teach give the students a more authentic learning experience with social studies. 

2. I believe that authentic assessment comes in many different forms. Teacher can authentically assess their students is many different ways. Students can be assessed through application of their skills in a real world environment. I believe that students can also be assessed authentically by giving students options to demonstrate their skills.

Week Six

As I continued to take on responsibility as the full-time teacher, I found myself feeling the weight of handling all the subjects, behaviors, schedules, conflicts, and various tough decisions. While it’s very challenging, every day I love teaching more and more.

This week, I had a student transfer out of our school. I was so sad to see her go. It was very disappointing because we had no warning she was going to go. On Tuesday, she came to school to pick up her stuff and leave. I wish I could’ve given her something or done something to honor her before she left. Her leaving made me realize how attached to my students I have really become. They are my students and each one them hold a piece of heart.

In science, we have spent the past several weeks learning about the Scientific Method. On Monday, I modelled collecting data for the students. I wrote four different chocolates on the board: Hershey, Twix, Snickers, and M&Ms. I had the students pick which of the four they preferred. I placed a tally under each chocolate as the students voted. Once I collected all of the votes I wrote the frequency of each set of tallies beneath it. After modelling collecting data for the students, I split them into four groups. I sent each group to one of the other fifth grade classes to collect data the exact same way I had. We spent Monday collecting data and documenting it on a shared table.

On Wednesday, after reviewing how to read a graph, we started graphing our data. Once again, I modeled how to graph the data I had collected using bar graph. After modelling, I split the students into groups to work on graphing their data. The students did very well working collaboratively on their graphs. They received a guide sheet that had discussion questions for the groups to talk about before working such as: How will the work be divided? What will you name your graph? The guide sheet also had a list of qualities that their graphs needed to have. I was very intentional about walking around the room and checking in on the groups.

One group was working very well together. They spent most of the time hunched over their poster working on their graph. The few times I had walked past they seemed to be doing great. By the end of class they were the furthest group. While most group had only just made their graphs but had not graphed their data yet, this group had already begun graphing their data. 

When the students left for specials I decided to take pictures of their graphs to document to progress. As I was taking the photo of the furthest along group’s poster, I realized they did not understand the directions I had given them. They started graphing favorite shoes using the data they collected about chocolates.

I felt so bad. I had let them create their graph all wrong. I didn’t even notice that they had written shoes instead of chocolates, and because they used markers to trace their work already they had to start all over again. Thankfully, the group worked hard to make sure their graph was perfect before turning it in. Their graphs turned out very beautiful even with the set back.











Goal four in the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards talks about a healthy learning environment. I was upset when I saw that the students had used data about chocolates to graph about shoes. I was disappointed in myself and in my students. However, although the lesson took an extra day because they had to start all over again, I knew that I couldn’t treat my students differently because they had made a mistakes. I approached the topic with sensitivity and encouragement. Performance Indicator 4I says that the competent teacher, “creates a safe and healthy environment that maximizes student learning.” I worked hard to remind the students that it was okay and reminded them that the classroom is a safe place to make mistakes.

Classroom Confidential

1.  Chapter 11 in Classroom Confidential dealt with communication particularly with parents. The book claims that there are ten qualities our communication with parents should have:  proactive, positive, frequent, clear, basic, attention grabbing, appealing, inclusive, timely and error-free. This chapter reminded me how important it is for us to communicate with parents regularly. If we only communicate with parents over negative things it does not build a positive collaborative relationship with that parents.
2.  When I read what Schmidt wrote about inviting students to be active members of a parent teacher conference, I started cheering. The conference is all about the students so of course they should be present. Classroom Confidential never ceases to remind me of my philosophy of teaching. Parent teacher conferences should not be the first time a parent hears from me. I should enter every conference with data I’ve collected and an agenda for that conference. 

Week Five

I felt amazing this week! While I faced the same struggles, I am learning more and more about how to teach my students. I’m learning more about how to engage and connect the content in an authentic way with the students.

My students are each so very different, but as I spend more time with them and learn from my mistakes, I am beginning to learn the ways in which each student learns best. One top of that, I have been challenging myself to be more observant of each student during my lessons. I am learning to gauge their understanding not only through formative assessments, but also through their non-verbal communication. I am finding myself practicing Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 1. This standard says that the competent teacher, “understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.” As I grow to understand my students as individuals I am learning how to connect the content to them.

For instance, I gave a lesson on how to write an excellent hypothesis prior to conducting an experiment. For this lesson I had a voting activity where I showed the students a hypothesis and they had to use their notes from the lesson to check if it was a good hypothesis. Rather than showing several hypothesis that meant nothing to the students I chose to tap into their favorite things. One of my hypothesis said, “If I took a poll then I would find that most students in my class love YouTube.” The students were engaged just because I mentioned one of their favorite things during the lesson. Performance indicator 1L states that the competent teacher, “uses information about students’ individual experiences, families, cultures, and communities to create meaningful learning opportunities and enrich instruction for all students.” I know my students and use that knowledge to engage and connect with them.

This week I was also stretched and challenged in a different way. My cooperating teacher was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. While there was a substitute in the room, my cooperating teacher left me to run the classroom for two days.

I loved it.

While it was challenging, I loved getting to put my philosophy to practice. The students responded well to me being in charge for two days.

I also learned about how exhausting it is to be the classroom teacher. Between checking in and grading homework, teaching, dealing with behaviors, and scheduling I was beat every single day. But I was so happy. It was a joyous exhaustion. I could do it for the rest of my life.

Classroom Confidential

1.  According to Schmidt, eptness is when teachers allow students to play an active role in the classroom culture and environment. For example, the reading says that a culture of eptness would make students feeling like thei have a responsibility to the welfare of the community. A teacher that practices eptness in their classroom makes students feel like valuable, active members of a community not soldiers.
2.  This chapter hit me hard. I felt as though Schmidt was talking directly to me. I have learned so much about myself that this chapter helped me recognize the areas in which I am not practicing eptness. Three behaviors I will work very hard to use are expectations, encouragement, and never too late.
1. My placement is incredibly diverse. Our students come from all different kinds of homes, cultures, and families. I chose expectations because it is so easy for me to find myself assuming that I know my students just by their surface level. The last kind of classroom I want to run is one where students conform to my presumptions of them.
2. My philosophy of teaching revolves hugely around a positive environment. I believe that part of what makes an environment positive is when everyone feels valuable and like they have something to contribute. When a teacher offers encouragement to his students are reminded that they are valuable and have something to contribute.
3. It’s difficult to hand out second chances to students that choose to pass up first chances. This chapter convicted me as I read about the never too late behavior. Even though my students aggravate me when they don’t put their effort in the first time I need to practice giving second chances to my students.

Week Four

I faced a lot of discouragement this week. While I have a very supportive cooperating teacher I struggled with the students. Some days are really good and the students are ready to learn and other days I cannot engage them.

On Monday, we reviewed complete and incomplete sentences. While this may sound like something that need not be reviewed in fifth grade, my cooperating teacher and I noticed that the students were not writing in complete sentences. We both figured that maybe they just needed a reminder that they were expected to write in complete sentences so we decided to have a short, fun lesson just to remind the students what a complete sentence looked like.

What I decided to do was quickly review what made a sentence a complete sentence. After that each student received a sticky note with either a complete or incomplete sentence. I drew a horizontal line down the middle of the board and labeled one side complete and the other incomplete. Their job was to read their sticky note and determine whether they thought it was a complete or incomplete sentence. One at a time, the students placed their sticky note on the side of the board they thought it belonged on. I thought this was a fun way to informally assess how well the students could differentiate between complete or incomplete sentences.

I was at a loss for words by the end of the lesson. Not only did I receive blank stares during our activity, many of the students didn’t put their sentences in the right column. At the end of the sentence, I reviewed the difference between a complete and incomplete sentence. It seemed like the students understood it but when I looked back at the board the sentences were all in the wrong place. I couldn’t figure out if the problem was the lesson or the content. It was incredibly discouraging. I felt like the students didn’t care to pay attention. During the activity I could tell that many of the students were spacing out.

On Friday, progress reports went out. The majority of our class had failing grades in more than one subject. When we looked back at our data, it was discouraging to see that the students completed class work fine, but were failing their homework assignments. I addressed this concern by returning a homework assignment that most of the class failed. I asked the students to explain why they thought their score was low. Many of the students admitted to rushing through the assignment, not listening during class, or choosing not to complete the assigned reading that came with the assignment. I gently, but firmly explained to the students that the grade they see before them will go in the gradebook and their parents will see it. I asked the students how they think they could make sure they get higher scores next time. I was glad to hear them say that they should take their time, complete the reading, listen in class, stay on task, and other really good work habits to practice. Since then, there scores have been a little bit better. I am hopeful that I will see improvements from my students.

I really care about my students. I believe in them. I want to see them grow and I will them my very best every single day.

Classroom Confidential

Establishing a classroom culture is critical in having a healthy, positive classroom. I’ve encountered the importance of classroom culture several times during my studies at Trinity; I’ve also dealt strongly with this at my school. My school is in a very diverse neighborhood. My students are global and come from all over the world. My classroom represents dozens of cultures and ethnicities. Being at this school has shown me how important establishing a strong classroom culture. This chapter was so relevant to me because of my placement. I needed this chapter to remind of how important it is to be intentional about how I am representing my students. I serve and teach a diverse group of students and it’s my job to be sensitive and accepting of each religion and culture represented.

Week Three

This week was a roller coaster of emotions for me. Between preparing for the edTPA, lessons, failures, and successes, I found myself feeling a variety of emotions every day. I’m learning more and more everyday about my students, their level, their personalities, and how to teach them. Many of the students in the class are very low and require more intensive lessons and extended time on content.

Because we are still early in the year the majority of our lessons consist of reviews from the fourth grade. This week, I struggled to review with the students how to use quotations. Although my students should’ve already known how to use quotation marks they struggled with how to use them in direct quotations.

I approached the content in several ways to try to help the students understand where quotation marks went. We talked about scripts and how they are written. We talked about comic strips and quote bubbles. While the students understood what a direct quote was they struggled with the placement of the quotation marks. I, then, instructed them to underline the direct quote. I told them to pretend they were putting the speaker in a comic. What would the quote bubble say? I explained that the quotation marks go at the beginning of what they underline and at the end. While some of the students understood it after I asked them to underline the quote, some of the students still did not. I found myself at a loss. I had worked so hard and tried to teach them in so many different ways and some of the students were still lost. I had spent three days reviewing with the students and several of them were still lost.

After three days of being discouraged and feeling completely helpless I had to come to the realization that I could not take the blame. I gave the students my absolute best. This week I learned a very valuable lesson. No lesson will ever go perfectly. I cannot expect my students to understand everything I teach. When my students don’t understand how to use a new skill that I have taught them it is not my fault nor is it theirs. I simply must gather data, give second chances, and reteach.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to call six parents regarding permission slips I had sent home. While I was nervous to contact parents for the very first time I felt confident because I contacted parents daily during my time as an Administrative Coordinator at a daycare in Berwyn, Illinois. I had to leave one voicemail where I stumbled on my words a little bit. Many of the parents I did speak to were very kind and were happy to talk to me and treat me like their student’s teacher. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to contact parents.

My best lesson this week was the review of common and proper nouns on Friday. Because I was pretty confident that my students knew what common and proper nouns are I decided to play Proper Noun BINGO. I used myfreebingocards.com to create our BINGO cards.

I had a list of common nouns in a baggy. When I called out a common noun, the students had to check their BINGO card to see if they had that common noun. If they did, they had to write a corresponding proper noun for that common noun. For example, if I called out, “website” they had to write a proper noun for “website.” The students could’ve written anything like, “Google,” “Facebook,” “YouTube,” or other websites. The kids played to win Panther Paws, which are a currency for the whole school. The students loved it! They were really excited to play and win Panther Paws. My favorite part was when one person would win a BINGO the whole class would clap for them.

After a long, discouraging week, Friday reminded me that my job isn’t to just give students knowledge, but to give them hope, love, and most importantly an appreciation for learning. 

Week Two

           

As I began to ease my way into my role as student teacher I began teaching this week. In one week, I have learned so much about myself and teaching. Along with learning so much about myself, I’ve also been affirmed of my love for teaching. This week has come with lots of bumps, but all the hurdles have taught me that this is where I belong.

            

Starting Monday, I took over morning work. The students start file in one by one at 8:15. Before walking into the classroom, the students are greeted by a teacher (myself) and asked about their breakfast and where lunch is coming from. My school offers breakfast and lunch to all of their students. Every morning, I have to ask each student if they ate a school breakfast and are planning to eat a school lunch.

           

Once the students come in the classroom they put away their supplies and begin their morning work which is on their desks. Every morning they do about five math problems, two or three geography questions, a Daily Language Review, and a cursive worksheet. The students have until 9:00 AM to complete all of the problems except the cursive sheet. At 9:00, we correct the work together.

            

As I worked with the students everyday correcting their morning work, I learned that I do well on my feet. When reviewing the answers, all I have is an answer key. Several times this week, the student didn’t understand one of the answers and I had to explain it. While it is small, I learned that teaching is made up of a lot of teachable moments and answer keys aren’t enough.

           

I also began teaching on Monday. I started by teaching a review on commas. Many of my students, in my fifth grade class, are very behind academically. A lesson that was supposed to last for three days lasted all week. Between confused students and behaviors we spent a lot of time reviewing commas. It was stressful. I found it very discouraging that my students were not understanding what I was teaching and were often off task. Thankfully, my teacher was very encouraging and supported me through it. She was always willing to jump in and save me when I made mistakes.

            

While the week may have had some bumps, I am incredibly thankful for my teacher, my school, and my students. I feel very supported.

Week One

On Monday, I met 23 amazing fifth graders and one awesome cooperating teacher. I knew immediately that my cooperating teacher would be excellent. She was very inviting and welcomed me into her classroom right away. She is very open to my ideas and respects as a co-educator. She introduced to the classroom as a teacher in training. She has said refers to me as the second teacher in the room. I’m so glad to know that I am working with a cooperating teacher that values me.

My cooperating teacher has been teaching for ten years and does an excellent job at controlling the classroom. In the past week, I've seen her transition between subjects and classes with ease. On Tuesday, I witnessed her lining up all 23 students for a bathroom break. She lined them up, brought them to the bathroom, and returned to the classroom without any of the students having said a word. She does this by setting clear expectations before cueing them to line up. She also tells the students to either bring their library book or homework to work on while they wait for their turn. This method of taking a bathroom break eliminates idle time which leads to chatter and makes for a quick, easy bathroom break.

I have a lot of respect for my cooperating teacher. Her classroom management is exceptional. She and I do differ, however, on our teaching styles. She uses a lot of worksheets and presents information in lecture format. While I do not think that her way of teaching is wrong it is very different than the way I prefer to teach. I love to used hands on activities and small group work in my lessons.

While I plan to teach my students with diverse hands on activities it may be hard to execute small group work in my classroom. My students can be very chatty. While many of them are extremely bright sometimes their behavior gets in the way of their academic performance. My teacher and I are concerned that they may not know how to work in groups and that their behavior may get in the way of effective group collaboration. We plan to ease them into group work by incorporating it into lessons just a little bit at a time.

This week my teachers introduced a new strategy to the students the strategy is called “Word Squares.” The students draw a line horizontally across the middle of the page and vertically down the middle of the page. In the first box students write the word they are learning about. In the second box, students write the definition (in their own words.) In the third box they use it in a sentence or find the synonym and antonym. In the fourth box, they draw a picture. The “Word Square” would like this:

Word: Homework	Definition: The act of practicing skills learned at school at home.
Sentence/Synonym or Antonym: In fifth grade, students are assigned homework every night.	Picture:

I like this strategy a lot because it teaches the word but also requires the students to understand it. It uses the word three different ways so that students can visualize it, use it, and learn its meaning.

I have learned so much during my first week at in my fifth grade classroom. I can’t wait to start teaching and further develop as an educator.

Two Goals:

1.      To collect data on student behavior and overall attention.

2.      To further understand each learner as individuals with preferences, abilities, and unique personalities.

Classroom Confidential:

1.      I have studied Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences many times during my time in college. The more I read and learn about the theory the more I see where it fits into education. In my classroom, we have many students that respond well to visual representations. Because of this, many of my lessons will consist of visual representations and examples before practice or application of a skill. Personally, I like to use hands on activities that get students moving. I believe movement and activity are strong motivators to young learners. I will most likely use both the Visual/Spatial Intelligence and the Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence in my lessons.

2.      Absolutely! As I read this first chapter of Classroom Confidential I kept “Amening” to many of the things Schmidt said. As I stated in the previous question I believe that activity is a motivator. I also believe that application is the best way for students to learn and retain skills, concepts, and knowledge. However, stacking hands on activities into a lesson without any background knowledge or understanding of the skill the students are being taught doesn’t really allow for much growth at all.