EDU450 Weekly Reflection 3

I would rate this week a 4, it was short but productive, overall. The children were out of school three days this week, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and two planning days. I feel as though I was able to use this time to look ahead and get some preparations done for the upcoming weeks. Reflecting on this, I will use what I have learned about having time to get ahead in my planning and preparations to stay ahead. Now that I have had time to make plans for the next few weeks, I can continue planning and have time to make adjustments to lessons or materials instead of planning only for what is next. My short and long-term goals are still aligned, as everything I am working on is related to my lesson plan development, edTPA artifacts, portfolio requirements and overall effectiveness as a teacher. I feel like I have been productive this week and feel more at ease being ahead in my planning. That being said, I have not taken much time to "recharge," and do feel a bit exhausted from constantly filling my time with planning and building my portfolio. I think, with as much as I have gotten done, I could have taken just a bit more time to relax. On the other hand, knowing myself, if I had done this, I would have felt like I did not use my time wisely. I did not feel apprehensive about making decisions this week, but at times felt like I could not settle my focus on a single task. I want to get it all done, so I scattered my thinking a bit to work on little bits of many things.
Next week begins my first full week of teaching, and I am very excited. I think my planning and preparing has cleared a lot of the mental clutter I would be feeling if I wasn't ready. Data I have analyzed this week includes my student's ability to recognize capital and lower case letters. I created a checklist for analyzing this data so I will easily be able to see which students are struggling with letter recognition. I also conducted my student interest surveys this week, so I can begin to review the parental input and student interviews to set behavior management goals for my students and keep track of behavioral progress.
One piece of advice I would share this week goes back to what I mentioned above. Take time to care for yourself during this time, as it can easily become overwhelming to focus on nothing but lesson plans and assignments for student teaching. Taking a hot bath, watching your favorite movie, or taking time to do anything you enjoy can help you feel refreshed and ready for the next challenge. I am going to try taking this advice myself.
I am currently focusing on element 1c of NC TCS 1, beginning to develop professional relationships and networks. I have reached out to members of my school's SIT team and intend to join them for the upcoming meeting next week. For Standard 2, I am developing my plans for global awareness, as element 2b calls for understanding the influence of diversity and planning instruction accordingly. Element 3b calls for encouraging students to investigate the content area to expand their knowledge and satisfy their natural curiosity, and I am building on this skill by allowing children to explore their natural interests in our classroom learning centers, and building on child initiated questions by expanding thinking and introducing new ideas related to their interests. For element 4d, I am working to integrate technology with my instruction to maximize student learning by using the Smart board and use of IPads in the technology center. This is somewhat difficult due to the limited about of screen time (15 minutes per day) children are allowed at this age. Finally, for element 5c, I am integrating a variety of research-verified approaches to improve teaching and learning. I am actively striving to include high order thinking questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy, Marzano's high yield strategies, and skills aligned to 21st century learning.
For my portfolio requirements, I have still been working consistently on my classroom website, which is coming along nicely. I have nearly completed my resume and am preparing to set up my appointment to have it reviewed and approved. I have begun developing my classroom management plan and have conducted my student interest surveys and parent surveys. Next week I plan to discuss these further with my students and develop specific goals for them that will improve their behaviors. I have also begun preparing my global awareness activities and artifact for my portfolio, as well as collecting documentation for my professional development artifact and reviewing my philosophy of education for my student teaching video. At this point, I do not know of any support my CE needs from my University Supervisor and I am looking forward to my first observation where I can hear her feedback and ask some questions I have pertaining to portfolio artifacts.