Removing the Weight of a 1,000 Pounds
Hello and congratulations to you all!!
We did it! We finished edTPA. I am SURE I'm not the only one who feels like 1,000 pounds have been removed from my shoulders. It has been a r o u g h week, from fighting off sickness to finishing this project to mustering up enough energy to get through a day of teaching. I would definitely rate this week as a 1, but I'm hopeful that next week will be better!
With it being 'Read Across America' week, I was amazed and surprised at the number of students, teachers, parents, and community members who banned together to achieve our reading 'minutes' goal of 500,000 minutes read this week, along with our money goal of $8,500! It was inspiring to see a love for both reading and for furthering the education of students in the community of my placement. Reading has always been a passion of mine and I want to instill this type of love in my students currently and in future classrooms. By being involved in this celebration week, I not only worked with other colleagues to promote and achieve our goals, but also with the parents of children in my classroom (NCPTS 1.c & NCPTS II.e). It is incredibly encouraging to be placed at such a supportive school!
Like I said, this week was crazy and exhausting. So, I was pretty disappointed in myself for not being 'on top of things' and teaching every lesson I had planned. I know the week was crazy and my mind was distracted and exhausted. Regardless, I wish I could have been more productive in and out of the classroom. By resting and getting caught up on tasks this weekend, I plan to start fresh on Monday and tackle next week!
Speaking of next week, we have parent-teacher conferences on Thursday! This will allow me to get experience with parent communication and learn more about the lives of my students and their parents. I'm super excited about the plan for these conferences. We are going to do 'Student-Let Conferences.' This involves having the student run the entire conference. Within the room will be various stations for the child and his/her parent to go to. For example, one station will be 'Reader's Workshop.' The student will pick their favorite book, talk about it and read it to the parent. Another station will be dedicated to talking about what we're doing in Math Workshop. I will also have a STEM booth set up for the student to explain a concept. With these types of conferences, you can have guiding questions for the parents to ask their child, like 'What do you enjoy about school?' or 'What is difficult about school?' The teacher is there the whole time, in case the parents would like to discuss a particular issue. I really hope it works out and if so, I plan to utilize this in my future classroom!
For one of my Social Studies lessons this week, I tied in diversity by showing students different types of schools / unique facts about schools around the world. They were especially impressed by children in Colombia riding zip lines in order to get to school. Also, they were amazed that in Bangladesh, children go to school on boats! I specifically asked the children how they thought other children felt about going to school is some of these countries. They participated in a writing assignment where they had to locate the country and talk about how the children feel about their education. This went over really well, and allowed me to address NCPTS II.b and III.c by integrating ELA and Social Studies!
Another lesson that I LOVED teaching this week was for Reader's Workshop. I read the story Pigsty which was one of my favorite stories growing up. They participated in answering HOT questions and then discussed their favorite part, at the end. Next, I had the students complete a 'directed drawing' activity, where they followed my lead, step-by-step to draw a pig. At the end, the students used an app called 'Chatterpix,' which was used to take a picture of their drawing. The app records your voice (they explained their favorite part of Pigsty) and adds a mouth to the picture, moving along to the voice recording. The students loved this lesson and enjoyed using the technology aspect, too (NCPTS IV.d). Here is a link to an example of where I got the idea in case you'd like to use this in your classroom!!
When thinking about how I addressed NCPTS V.a, I believe completing Task 3 of edTPA pretty much has this standard in the bag! I don't know if I have every thought so deeply about analyzing student learning. However, this is a great practice to do!! When finishing Task3, I felt like I had a deeper understanding of that child and how to progress from there. Even though edPTA was definitely difficult, frustrating, and a little defeating at times, it did teach me a lot about myself, my teaching, and my classroom. I hope you found some positive thing from this experience, and I hope we all pass and don't have to think about it again, haha!
Anyways, have a restful and relaxing weekend!
Gabrielle :)
We did it! We finished edTPA. I am SURE I'm not the only one who feels like 1,000 pounds have been removed from my shoulders. It has been a r o u g h week, from fighting off sickness to finishing this project to mustering up enough energy to get through a day of teaching. I would definitely rate this week as a 1, but I'm hopeful that next week will be better!
With it being 'Read Across America' week, I was amazed and surprised at the number of students, teachers, parents, and community members who banned together to achieve our reading 'minutes' goal of 500,000 minutes read this week, along with our money goal of $8,500! It was inspiring to see a love for both reading and for furthering the education of students in the community of my placement. Reading has always been a passion of mine and I want to instill this type of love in my students currently and in future classrooms. By being involved in this celebration week, I not only worked with other colleagues to promote and achieve our goals, but also with the parents of children in my classroom (NCPTS 1.c & NCPTS II.e). It is incredibly encouraging to be placed at such a supportive school!
Like I said, this week was crazy and exhausting. So, I was pretty disappointed in myself for not being 'on top of things' and teaching every lesson I had planned. I know the week was crazy and my mind was distracted and exhausted. Regardless, I wish I could have been more productive in and out of the classroom. By resting and getting caught up on tasks this weekend, I plan to start fresh on Monday and tackle next week!
Speaking of next week, we have parent-teacher conferences on Thursday! This will allow me to get experience with parent communication and learn more about the lives of my students and their parents. I'm super excited about the plan for these conferences. We are going to do 'Student-Let Conferences.' This involves having the student run the entire conference. Within the room will be various stations for the child and his/her parent to go to. For example, one station will be 'Reader's Workshop.' The student will pick their favorite book, talk about it and read it to the parent. Another station will be dedicated to talking about what we're doing in Math Workshop. I will also have a STEM booth set up for the student to explain a concept. With these types of conferences, you can have guiding questions for the parents to ask their child, like 'What do you enjoy about school?' or 'What is difficult about school?' The teacher is there the whole time, in case the parents would like to discuss a particular issue. I really hope it works out and if so, I plan to utilize this in my future classroom!
For one of my Social Studies lessons this week, I tied in diversity by showing students different types of schools / unique facts about schools around the world. They were especially impressed by children in Colombia riding zip lines in order to get to school. Also, they were amazed that in Bangladesh, children go to school on boats! I specifically asked the children how they thought other children felt about going to school is some of these countries. They participated in a writing assignment where they had to locate the country and talk about how the children feel about their education. This went over really well, and allowed me to address NCPTS II.b and III.c by integrating ELA and Social Studies!
Another lesson that I LOVED teaching this week was for Reader's Workshop. I read the story Pigsty which was one of my favorite stories growing up. They participated in answering HOT questions and then discussed their favorite part, at the end. Next, I had the students complete a 'directed drawing' activity, where they followed my lead, step-by-step to draw a pig. At the end, the students used an app called 'Chatterpix,' which was used to take a picture of their drawing. The app records your voice (they explained their favorite part of Pigsty) and adds a mouth to the picture, moving along to the voice recording. The students loved this lesson and enjoyed using the technology aspect, too (NCPTS IV.d). Here is a link to an example of where I got the idea in case you'd like to use this in your classroom!!
When thinking about how I addressed NCPTS V.a, I believe completing Task 3 of edTPA pretty much has this standard in the bag! I don't know if I have every thought so deeply about analyzing student learning. However, this is a great practice to do!! When finishing Task3, I felt like I had a deeper understanding of that child and how to progress from there. Even though edPTA was definitely difficult, frustrating, and a little defeating at times, it did teach me a lot about myself, my teaching, and my classroom. I hope you found some positive thing from this experience, and I hope we all pass and don't have to think about it again, haha!
Anyways, have a restful and relaxing weekend!
Gabrielle :)
Gabby,
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to this week being rated a 1 because it was definitely the most stressful week to date. I love that your school participated in Read Across America and that they were able to meet their reading goal. That is such a neat idea and I am sure the students got really excited about reading! I absolutely love the idea of a student-led conference with parents. I think other schools should implement this because it allows parents and students to feel more connected and gives the students a leadership role where they can feel excited about sharing their work with their parents. I love your social studies lesson about different schools across the world. What a neat idea and way to teach global awareness and culture that is relatable to your students. You are doing a great job, Gabby, I cannot wait to hear about more that you will be doing in your student teaching!
I can't wait to hear about the student-led conferences that will take place on Thursday!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Gabrielle, I think that 500,000 minutes and 8,500 dollars is an amazing feat. I wish more schools would have kind of support. I think you shouldn't be so hard on yourself this week. It appears to me that you did a great job this week and were very busy. I'm glad you are getting a much needed break.
Delete