Week Six

This has been a crazy week for sure! At my school, my CE took a half day on Wednesday. This was an interesting experience because I got to see from her point of view how she planned for the substitute, and from the substitute's point of view and how she carried out those plans. I was also able to co-teach a math lesson with the substitute which was really fun because I hadn't gotten a chance to teach these students yet, and it was also my first experience co-teaching. This connects to standard 1: Teachers lead in their classroom and demonstrate leadership in the school. The substitute and I had to work collaboratively in order to manage the classroom, as well teach the students the content that they needed to learn. I am proud of how we were able to do that with little preparation and how well the students responded.

Like I said, this week has been crazy and I have really struggled to stay focused and on top of things. No matter what may happen, school must take priority so I am working to get caught up on assignments that I have been putting off and am behind on.

In science methods, we had an experiment on air resistance. With our classmates, we created different kinds of parachutes to see how the shape impacted the way it fell. The experiments that we have been doing in class have been a really great example of inquiry based learning which was what our hyperdoc was on this week. We begin by asking questions about our learning, then complete projects and experiments to help assist with out learning. I think this is a great way to help our students understand science concepts instead of just reading out of a book. Next week, I would like to continue working with my classmates on our assignments that are collaborative.

One current event that has been in the news recently is the release of the new iPhone. This is something that is very relevant to our students because they are growing up in a time where technology is everywhere and that largely impacts their learning. My outside learning this week comes from Huffington Post and it talks about the importance of having technology in our classrooms.

Top Tweets

My first tweet this week is how to respond when students say they can't do something. It is important that students never give up with their learning and that they know their teacher never gives up on them either.

My second tweet is about creating team building games for the classroom. My class this semester is very social so incorporating games that allow them to talk freely will be great for them.

My final tweet is directed towards a younger classroom but I think it could apply to K-12 classes. Every classroom needs to be a safe and respectful environment for all students and teaching students empathy and kindness will go a long way.

Week Five

It's hard to believe that we are more than a quarter of the way through with the semester! While we have really hit the ground running with our classes, my students are still getting in the hang of things in third grade. We are finally stepping away from reviewing second grade standards and have moved on to third grade standards. One thing I have noticed about my CE is that she seems to have song for everything! So far, we have a song for even numbers, odd numbers, and rounding. Here is the link to the song that she uses for rounding: We will round you. I really like this method that she is using because it gets the students moving around and it gives them a catchy way to remember the order in which they solve the problems. It is definitely something I will plan to be doing in my future classroom.

One thing I have really struggled with this week is coming to terms with just how much testing these little third graders have. They just completed their BOGs, this week they are doing AIG testing, for the past few weeks they have doing TRC/DIBLES, on top of their regular assessments such as spelling tests! It is a lot for a student who is just coming out of 2nd grade. Since I am still fairly unfamiliar with how much testing goes on in school, my research this week has been focused on how I can better prepare myself for helping my students. There are so many test taking strategies for students, but where are the strategies for teachers in the classroom with these anxious and tired students? How can I make sure I am not just simply teaching for the test, but instead instilling knowledge in my students? Concordia University and Fishtree.com have some really good tips for helping teachers with all of the stress that can come with testing. Since teachers must reflect on their practice and analyze student learning, these tips can really help me in my future classroom.

For science this week, my group completed the experiment part of our science project. I am really proud of the way we have all collaborated so well with each other. It was really interesting to see how our experiment turned out. It was definitely not what we had predicted on our hypothesis but that's all part of the learning process.

For the hyperdoc this week, it was all about knowing vs. understanding and how we can get our students to better understand through scaffolding. I thought about the questions that we have been asked in class about hurricanes forming and the sky being blue. We all know what a hurricane is, but do we really understand how it works? To some extent, we know why the sky appears blue, but could we say we understand enough about wavelengths and light to explain it to our students? Knowing is very different from understanding and I have never really thought about that before.

The current event that I would like to talk about this week is the major earthquake that hit in Mexico. Much like the hurricanes that have coming into the US, this has been a major tragedy. I read one article about a school collapsing with many students inside and it was absolutely heartbreaking to read. Our students are going to hear about these current events and they may get scared and feel uneasy coming to school thinking that it will happen in their school. As teachers, we should be able to educate students so that they do not feel scared or unprepared in the event of a natural disaster.

Twitter:
My first tweet this week comes from scholastic. It is talking about creating a strong culture of reading. In my classroom I want my students to be reading all the time and I want them to be able to enjoy reading. It doesn't just help their literacy skills get better. When students read they are learning more about the world around them and are integrating science and social studies without even knowing it.

My second tweet is all about establishing a growth mindset as a teacher. This infographic gave some very simple ways to change the way we think as teachers and become better at encouraging our students.

My last tweet this week is a simple checklist of things we ought to be doing everything. These things help us to make our classroom environment more inviting and welcoming for our students.

Week 4

This week hasn't been very eventful for me in my school. My students have had BOG testing which is similar to the EOG, only it is taken at the beginning of the year. I have also been talking with my CE this week about classroom management. One thing that they use in their classroom is Class Dojo. This is the first time I have really worked with Class Dojo and it is a big hit with my students. They respond really well to earning Dojo points and has really helped my CE with classroom management. Since I have been looking at my CE's classroom management style, I have done some outside research on this as well. I found a great website on classroom management strategies.  Teachervision.com has lots of different videos and tips based on scenarios and common occurrences. Like standard 5 states of the NCTCS, teachers must function effectively in a dynamic and complex environment. Being a pro at classroom management is one way to help make that happen!

The thing that brought me the most satisfaction this week was going in the ECLC on Tuesday and Thursday and seeing our ecocolums finally growing. I will admit that I was doubtful about the goldfish at first since I've never been very good at keeping them alive, but seeing them along with my plants sprouting up was a really neat thing to witness and very satisfying.

This week, I have really struggled with trying to stay on top of all of my schoolwork, as well as keep up with things outside of school. It has been difficult to not get overwhelmed, but I am proud of myself for not stressing out too much and actively trying to get back ahead. I know that the steps I need to take next week are to start sooner and work harder at staying on track.

It was hard to contribute to the overall class this week since we only met once, but I do feel that I contributed by working well with my partner on our collaborative math lesson. I hope that in the future we can work together again because we worked really well together!

This week, my current event was 9/11. It is so strange to me that something I am still so familiar with is such a foreign concept to my students. It reminds me of what Dr. Parker says to us all the time. Today's kindergartners were born in 2012. We normally think of that and only think of the technology that they are used to, but this week I was reminded that there are other reasons why it is so important to remember the year they were born. My CE has said that she sometimes struggles talking to her students about 9/11 because it is something that just happened in the history books for them. I know it is something I will definitely have to think about with my future students as well.

Top Tweets:

My first tweet this week talks about how students don't learn anything from teachers they do not like. I couldn't agree more with this statement because I know from personal experience. Students learn better when they have a good connection with their teacher. As teachers, we should strive to build a good relationship with all of our students.

This tweet reminded me of what we have been discussing in math methods. We have all kinds of learners in our classrooms and this link created a good way to help the visual learners in our class.

My last tweet was a great idea that a teacher posted. She asked students what they loved about science and what they hated about science and gave students the ability to be completely honest. I feel that if we did this with our students for all different subjects, we could gain a really good insight into how our students think, and possibly make them more excited about learning.

The Third Week

While we are on our third week of classes, my students at Washington are completing their second week of school. In the school this week, I got the chance to meet with the guidance counselor and talk about my students and their needs. I really enjoyed having this meeting because it allowed me to get a closer look into my students' lives. I have such a diverse group of students so to be able to talk with the guidance counselor and plan my instruction based on their individual needs was very neat. This also aligns with standard 2 of the NCTCS in several different ways. Teachers embrace diversity in the school community and the world, and teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. I feel that I am really getting to embrace having a diverse group this year, while also trying to mend my lessons to each individual student's needs. It was very satisfying to get to be involved in a meeting such as that with my CE.

This past week in 435, we wrote our first edTPA lesson plans of the semester. This was the largest thing I have struggled with because I still feel like edTPA is a foreign language at times. To deal with this struggle, I found a website that I think will be a wonderful resource for all of us as we continue to use edTPA. http://www.edtpatips.com/ is a website that provides so much helpful information regarding edTPA. It has definitions, tips, and easy to understand explanations. I know it greatly helped me this past week!

I think I have FINALLY gotten on top of all of my work for my courses and this has definitely brought me the most satisfaction this week. It is a feeling like no other to be organized! It has also helped me feel like I have contributed to the class more since I am not overwhelmed with what I have to do. In science, we went down the river to build our ecocolums. This was a fun field trip, especially when Grace brought back a baby snake! As a group, we have all worked together to try (mostly unsuccessfully) to catch critters for each other's projects.

In current events this week, astronomers in Japan think they have found the second largest black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy. Since I am in third grade, the solar system is a big part of science education standards. Like we have discussed in science methods, it is fairly easy to connect everything around us to science in some way.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/04/supermassive-black-hole-discovered-near-heart-of-the-milky-way

Top Tweets:
My first tweet this week is a quote that I took from an article that Dr. Parker shared with us talking about inquiry. I liked this quote because I think too often we get too caught up on the standards we must address and forget that we aren't supposed to be teaching to the standards. We are supposed to be teaching to our students.

My second tweet is from NASA and is a gif I found of some up close pictures of the solar system. I thought this was neat because we are working on science through our lens this week and these pictures are the true definition of science through a lens!

My final tweet this week is a goal that one educator set for herself. I like the idea of this because by setting this goal, you are going out of your way to insure that you make your students feel more confident and comfortable.