Master Multitaskers
Hello!
I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I know many of you started your full-time of teaching this week!! Hopefully that went well! For me, it was probably one of the hardest weeks I've experienced. Being on guard for 6 lessons a day, 5 days a week is exhausting!!! However, on the other hand, the days went by quickly and it's Friday, yet again. Teaching full-time, dealing with testing, struggling to keep students in line caused my week to be rated with a 2.
The week prior, I was able to stay on top of my lessons and managing my time. This week, due to a death and funeral, it caused me to get behind from the beginning and I feel like I still haven't caught up yet. Despite wacky schedules, I was able to accomplish many things this week. My global awareness lessons went great and I could tell students were floored by the fact weather can change from location to location. We had so much fun searching places and finding out the weather in those locations. Every day, I'm amazed at what Kindergarteners can do! I was also able to begin implementing the student management plan with my focus student.
As a apart of my PDP, I want to search for and implement strategies to help the student in my classroom with autism. This week, I worked with the school's occupational therapist and acquired a 'weighted vest.' On Monday, we will begin using this tool and documenting it's effectiveness. My overall goal is for this child to work consistently for 5 minutes. Right now, he works for 2 minutes and then plays for 2 minutes. Hopefully these strategies will help.
One aspect of teaching this week that bothered me was pacing! I was amazed at how some lessons would be shorter than anticipated, but most lessons were longer. Many days, I would run out of time to get everything in that I had planned. Next week, my goal is to be more conscientious of this so I can teach more efficiently.
During math workshop, I took notes of how students mastered 3-D shapes-related skills. I used this data to drive my lessons over the past two days. Many students would confuse the terms: cylinder and sphere. This is natural, since both begin with hard /s/ sounds. I used my assessment data to pull these students aside and focus on the differences between these two 3-D shapes. On Monday, I plan to pull them aside and see if this intervention worked.
NCPTS Connections:
During full-time instruction, I felt that my ability to follow Standard I.a severely increased. There were many times I had to make decisions, like call on a student, adjust instruction, choose whether or not to go on the playground, etc. Making these immediate decisions helps strengthen my ability to lead in the classroom. Being a student teacher makes those situations uncomfortable, because it is not technically our classrooms, but every day I become more confident in my decisions.
Collaborating with the occupational therapist and discussing ideas with my CE allows me to strengthen my proficiency with Standard II.d. I want this child to success and have an environment where he feels comfortable and focused. I'm excited to see how this new implementation affects his behavior.
Standard III.c was addressed when I taught Guided Reading on Monday. I had the AIG students in a small group, and they were reading Butterflies in My Garden. Going through this book, I found a wonderful opportunity to integrate Science and we focused on the life cycle of a butterfly. This easily tied in the animal life cycle standard, as well as an ELA standard on comprehensive skills. Now that the students are moving to an 'Informational Book' unit, integrating Science will come easier and more frequent.
Currently, Math Workshop is my favorite subject to teach. Students love the small group / station implementation that this curriculum calls for. They are able to practice concepts in various forms, so differentiation is more accessible. I tried to use multiple forms of 'hooks' in these lessons by using technology, stories, quick games, challenges, etc. I felt that the students were more excited about 3-D shapes because of this. Finding different ways to teach and utilizing various tools follows right along with Standard IV.c and d. I hope to find more technology resources to integrate so students are more engaged and skilled with these devices.
Finally, I met my goal of taking anecdotal notes after every lesson this week! This was definitely challenging at first, but became more habitual towards the end of the week. Doing this after every lesson achieves Standard V.a. I want to keep up this trend to further analyze and reflect on my teaching, as well as how well students understood the lesson.
Focusing on lesson planning and teaching has caused me to lose track of my edTPA timeline. It's incredibly hard to focus on all the different aspects of Student Teaching! I feel like we are all becoming master multitask-ers! I am unashamedly ready to get edTPA behind me, as I'm sure you all are, too. We can do it, thought!!
See you all tomorrow,
Gabrielle :)
I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I know many of you started your full-time of teaching this week!! Hopefully that went well! For me, it was probably one of the hardest weeks I've experienced. Being on guard for 6 lessons a day, 5 days a week is exhausting!!! However, on the other hand, the days went by quickly and it's Friday, yet again. Teaching full-time, dealing with testing, struggling to keep students in line caused my week to be rated with a 2.
The week prior, I was able to stay on top of my lessons and managing my time. This week, due to a death and funeral, it caused me to get behind from the beginning and I feel like I still haven't caught up yet. Despite wacky schedules, I was able to accomplish many things this week. My global awareness lessons went great and I could tell students were floored by the fact weather can change from location to location. We had so much fun searching places and finding out the weather in those locations. Every day, I'm amazed at what Kindergarteners can do! I was also able to begin implementing the student management plan with my focus student.
As a apart of my PDP, I want to search for and implement strategies to help the student in my classroom with autism. This week, I worked with the school's occupational therapist and acquired a 'weighted vest.' On Monday, we will begin using this tool and documenting it's effectiveness. My overall goal is for this child to work consistently for 5 minutes. Right now, he works for 2 minutes and then plays for 2 minutes. Hopefully these strategies will help.
One aspect of teaching this week that bothered me was pacing! I was amazed at how some lessons would be shorter than anticipated, but most lessons were longer. Many days, I would run out of time to get everything in that I had planned. Next week, my goal is to be more conscientious of this so I can teach more efficiently.
During math workshop, I took notes of how students mastered 3-D shapes-related skills. I used this data to drive my lessons over the past two days. Many students would confuse the terms: cylinder and sphere. This is natural, since both begin with hard /s/ sounds. I used my assessment data to pull these students aside and focus on the differences between these two 3-D shapes. On Monday, I plan to pull them aside and see if this intervention worked.
NCPTS Connections:
During full-time instruction, I felt that my ability to follow Standard I.a severely increased. There were many times I had to make decisions, like call on a student, adjust instruction, choose whether or not to go on the playground, etc. Making these immediate decisions helps strengthen my ability to lead in the classroom. Being a student teacher makes those situations uncomfortable, because it is not technically our classrooms, but every day I become more confident in my decisions.
Collaborating with the occupational therapist and discussing ideas with my CE allows me to strengthen my proficiency with Standard II.d. I want this child to success and have an environment where he feels comfortable and focused. I'm excited to see how this new implementation affects his behavior.
Standard III.c was addressed when I taught Guided Reading on Monday. I had the AIG students in a small group, and they were reading Butterflies in My Garden. Going through this book, I found a wonderful opportunity to integrate Science and we focused on the life cycle of a butterfly. This easily tied in the animal life cycle standard, as well as an ELA standard on comprehensive skills. Now that the students are moving to an 'Informational Book' unit, integrating Science will come easier and more frequent.
Currently, Math Workshop is my favorite subject to teach. Students love the small group / station implementation that this curriculum calls for. They are able to practice concepts in various forms, so differentiation is more accessible. I tried to use multiple forms of 'hooks' in these lessons by using technology, stories, quick games, challenges, etc. I felt that the students were more excited about 3-D shapes because of this. Finding different ways to teach and utilizing various tools follows right along with Standard IV.c and d. I hope to find more technology resources to integrate so students are more engaged and skilled with these devices.
Finally, I met my goal of taking anecdotal notes after every lesson this week! This was definitely challenging at first, but became more habitual towards the end of the week. Doing this after every lesson achieves Standard V.a. I want to keep up this trend to further analyze and reflect on my teaching, as well as how well students understood the lesson.
Focusing on lesson planning and teaching has caused me to lose track of my edTPA timeline. It's incredibly hard to focus on all the different aspects of Student Teaching! I feel like we are all becoming master multitask-ers! I am unashamedly ready to get edTPA behind me, as I'm sure you all are, too. We can do it, thought!!
See you all tomorrow,
Gabrielle :)
Hi Gabrielle,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear your week was a 2. It is so easy to get behind when somthing happens. Doing lesson plans every week for everyday is difficult, but I have been working on making sure all lessons are with me during my teaching so I can reference them to make sure I cover all of the information I have planned for. Lesson plans are bennificial even though they are time consuming to do.
I like your global awareness lesson about weather. I bet the students loved the lesson on weather since it is a engaging subject area especially when snow is involved. I did my global awareness on where different dog breeds are found around the world and weather around the world. My students do not have a large conception of the world, but I hope if we talk about the global world enough they will understand more about what is outside of the county.
I hope you have a better week next week.
Gabby,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to know that I am not the only one behind! I am also so sorry to hear about the death you had to experience this week. I can't imagine dealing with that and trying to stay on top of lesson planning and teaching. I have been so exhausted too and very overwhelmed. Somehow, we will make it through though! 9 more weeks! It absolutely blows my mind that your kindergartners are learning about 3-D shapes already! I do not remember learning about those until upper Elementary grades. I am sure you are amazed at what they can do everyday. That is great that you are getting the experience of teaching an autistic child and are working toward strategies to help him in his learning. I know that can be tough but I know you can do it of all people! You are great Gabby!
Gabrielle, I think we are experiencing the same thing. I find that being on guard or what I call on all day, exhausting as well. As a teacher it seems like you need to present your lesson, watch for behavioral issues, assess understanding and everything else all at once. I have also planned lessons that finish on time or just fall short. It's important to have an extension planned or something for them to do if they finish early. This is our first time teaching. I believe this is all part of learning. Your already done with your first full week and survived. I think 9 more weeks will go by before you know it. Sounds like your doing a great job.
ReplyDeleteHi Gabrielle, I'm sorry to hear about your tough week and a death. I certainly hope next week will be better for you. I completely agree about feeling like you can't catch up. It was my first full week of teaching and I felt like I just didn't have enough time in the week to get everything I needed done. I hope to get better at time managing in the next few weeks to come. I know that I can't stay on top of everything and get enough rest, so I have decided to set most of my portfolio work on a back burner until edTPA is submitted. I really enjoy reading about your kindergartners each week. It's such a different world from mine! I hope you have a better week!
ReplyDelete