EDU 450 Weekly Reflection 4

I would rate this week a 3. It has been a good week, but there is so much sickness going on in the PreK classrooms, it has been a very challenging week. Children are either leaving school early with very high fevers or missing many days after being diagnosed with the flu. In spite of this, the week has been productive as I began my first full week of instruction. I could tell that although we have been transitioning little by little classroom responsibilities, the children still were a little out of sorts when I took over instruction. They were restless and very excited during our first group activity on Monday, but by Tuesday, they were much more settled and ready to engage. I honestly don't feel like I have any brag-worthy accomplishments this week, except that, I made it. I made it through the first of the next ten weeks of student teaching, and have learned that I should try and be more firm in my expectations of students. I have noticed a tendency to let small behaviors go until there are several children doing something that becomes a disruption and it takes more time than it should to get them settled back down again. Especially during transitional times. I hope to incorporate more transitional activities in the next few weeks, as the activities that we use for transitional times like GoNoodle videos are unavailable until the light in our Smart Board projector is replaced. I was also able to attend a SIT meeting on Monday which I enjoyed very much. It was very brief, but covered some important information and helped me get to know my school a little better.

Next week, I will be teaching my edTPA lessons and I am still anxious about that. I feel right now that my short-term goals are getting in the way of my long-term goals and vice versa. When I think about the things I need to finish by the end of the week, I feel like there are so many small details I have to work out and submissions to keep up with, that the finish line gets fuzzy. When I think about long-term things like graduation, I feel stuck on what to do next in the short-term. I am hoping I will feel more focused after  my edTPA teaching week is over, and some of that stress is gone.

I think I could have spent more time preparing my materials for my lessons. I think it will be better for me to plan and gather my materials a week in advance and keep them organized by day so they are ready when I need them, instead of doing this the morning of the activity. As I already have my materials for next week ready, if I begin planning for week 3 now, I will hopefully stay ahead in my planning.

I did feel some apprehension this week, as I still feel a bit strange taking over someone else's classroom. It did not stop me from taking on classroom responsibility or inhibit my instruction, but it stays in my mind every day. I can't help but remember I am a guest in my CE's classroom, and even though she has been so welcoming, supportive, and encouraging to me, it still feels a little weird to "be in charge" of her classroom. I know it's only temporary and that I will feel better about it as I go on. Next week, I plan to continue working on lesson plans to stay ahead and portfolio artifacts to get those completed as soon as possible. I am currently looking at data on my students' ability to recall the names of various buildings, as well as each buildings purpose. The data collected from the lesson this week will allow me to determine students' readiness to move on to the next unit, or if we need to revisit some of the information and skill building activities before students are ready to move on. I think my advice for other student teachers this week would be to take your vitamins and do everything you can to stay healthy! The flu is so scary right now, we had a minimum of 7 confirmed cases by only Tuesday of this week.

In terms of strengthening my proficiency in the NC TCS, I am focusing on facilitating learning for my students by integrating more opportunities to engage in multiple learning domains related to the lesson content, and collecting data to inform my instructional plans so that I may reflect on my practice and better meet the needs of my students.

I have started to focus more on my student teaching video plans, recording every lesson so I have plenty of clips to use and rewriting my philosophy. I have also begun integrating my global awareness plans for the month of January into this weeks lesson, and am creating February global awareness plans. I think it will be good for me to narrow my focus and be more productive on specific tasks instead of doing a little all over the place. I met with my University Supervisor this Thursday, and she answered all of my questions, so I can not think of any additional support needed at this time.