Over Halfway There!

As we are nearing the end of week 9 of classes, this semester is getting more hectic as the beginning of the end is here! In my class at WES, we are in the hang of things and making learning happen. One thing that has happened recently is the start of WIN. WIN stands for What I need and is a specific time every day for students to get in ability groups and work on their reading and math at the level of their learning. Students are in small groups and work with different teachers to help them in the areas they are struggling in. This is a great way to reach Standard 2 of the NCTCS. All students are different and have different learning needs so by being able to work with students on specific needs, we are helping all students, not just the high students or the low students. It is a great differentiation strategy! One thing that I am really proud of is something that happened in WIN time this past week. I was working one on one with a student who is having a hard time keeping up in math. We were doing a scavenger hunt where the students had to find different problems around the room and solve them. This student was having a hard time understanding borrowing and regrouping in addition so I sat down with him and we worked it out together. I first reminded him of the steps that we take to solve these problems (we have a rhyme that helps them remember) and then let him try to help me solve one. Then, we worked on another problem, and I told him to teach me how to solve it. As he was explaining the steps, I saw the AHA moment on his face when he finally understood and remembered the steps. It was something that I was really proud of since I was able to help him get it and it was a very satisfying teacher moment!

It's been a busy week in classes at GWU as well. In science, we completed our water cycle project and it was fun to be able to build a website with my classmates and create a learning experience that we can use in our future classrooms. I also helped with the textbook facilitation this week. We gave research and resources for asking inquiry based questions. This is something that we have talked about a lot in science methods over the course of the semester and is very relevant to our classrooms. Our hyperdoc this week went off of the previous one about planning and managing inquiry instruction. In our classrooms, we want our students to have an inquiry based education because it helps them become active scientists. In our future classrooms, we want quality assessments that help our students learn and start questioning the scientific world around them.

A current event that has been happening in the recent weeks are the wildfires in California. This event has science written all over it! As a teacher, we can connect this to weather and how the weather has played an active role in helping the fires. We can connect the environment and talk about how wildfires impact the humans and animals near them. We can even bring in social studies and talk about the economical impact of fires and how they destroy businesses and homes. We can make this relevant to our students by relating what is happening in California to what happened in our area around this time last year with the wildfires. As terrible as these wildfires have been, they make a great teaching opportunity for us!

Top Tweets:

My first tweet is an infographic that shows the importance of reading. I believe that reading is essential for academic success and I hope that by giving my students the chance to read whatever they want at home, they will see that reading can be fun.

My second tweet is a quote from a teacher that talks about how what we do always matters. As teachers, we are in a position where we are being observed all the time. We must remember that every day is a chance for us to help a student change their life.

My final tweet goes hand in hand with my classroom management plan from 435. After doing outside research about homework, and whether it is helpful or not, I found this article talking about a teacher that completely stopped assigning homework. In my future classroom, I want my students to have time for sports, hobbies, and family. I want to encourage them to learn outside the school doors even if they don't have a worksheet to complete. It is my goal to continue looking into the best way to assign homework to my students.