This week has been a little crazy with the deadline for edTPA approaching so rapidly. I would give this week a rating of 2, simply because of the amount of stress and issue with getting everything done in very limited time frames. My engagement with students was not as deep as I would have liked it to be, and I have felt as though edTPA has hindered me from fully focusing on student teaching. My instruction plans still engaged students in learning, but I spent much of the time I would typically be engaging with them during free play revising tasks and completing commentaries to meet the deadline for today's seminar. I could see a difference in some of the behavior of my students when I was less engaged in center time, as they would frequently come to talk to me as I worked on developing lesson plans or revising commentaries. One pleasant outcome of the week was that I have completed all edTPA Tasks, with the exception of the final edit of Task 3! This feels like a huge relief and I feel like I will be able to concentrate better on my teaching.
I will use my experience of using my time to work, rather than engage with my students to change this drastically. Without an overwhelming amount of work to do, I feel like I will be able to be more engaged with my students without letting any of my other responsibilities get pushed aside. Engaging my students is my top priority in the classroom, and edTPA has recently been a huge roadblock for me accomplishing that as much as I would like.
Short-term efforts of completing edTPA make me feel better about my long-term goals of graduating and completing my portfolio requirements, which is another huge feat before the end of the semester. I do not really feel like I had much time to spare or delegate to different tasks with the demanding tasks of edTPA, but feel as though my time will be put to much better use in the future now that that is complete. I was not apprehensive or indecisive about anything this week, and actually made some decisions with complete confidence this week.
Mental clutter I can clear is the overwhelming amount of focus on edTPA! I am very excited to be able to focus on other important aspects of student teaching. The data I have analyzed has been the assessment data for edTPA, and Galileo data collected from a high performing student and a low performing student, demonstrating areas of mastery, what students are ready to learn, and what they will need extra time to be prepared to learn.
My focus has been a little limited in regards to NC TCS this week, however data collection has been valuable to me as I develop lesson plans aligned to student ability and readiness to gain new skills. I have also had limited time to focus on portfolio artifacts, but have plans to focus heavily on these in the upcoming weeks as I get closer to the end of the semester. To my knowledge, my CE needs no additional support from my university supervisor, and the only support I can think of that I need at this time from my supervisor, and the education department, is review of edTPA Task 3 Commentary.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
EDU 450 Weekly Reflection 7
I would give this week a rating of 4. While it was a rough week, with my children being very restless and active during my instruction, as well as having many behavioral outbursts that are not typical of this group of students, there were many reminders of why I love teaching. There were times where my students would come seek me out specifically to help them with something, times when I engaged in meaningful child-initiated discussions with my students, and times when they just "got" everything that I was teaching them. I was given a copy of my class group photo, which shows each of their little faces happy to be at school, and it is a true reminder of how much of a difference I make in each of their lives, by loving and supporting them as they learn and grow.
Reflecting on the week, I learned that I need to provide many more opportunities for my students to gain letter awareness. After a follow-up assessment to measure growth on letter recognition, I saw that many of my students are still struggling significantly with identifying letters. I will build upon what students know by integrating more opportunities for them to practice identifying letters.
My short-term efforts still feel primarily focused on edTPA, however, this aligns to my long-term goal of graduating and getting my teaching license. I feel like I could still spend more of my time preparing materials in advance, as I still am finding it a little hard to balance daily classroom responsibilities, planning time, and EDU 450 coursework, in addition to my responsibilities as a wife and mother. Things are getting done, but not really keeping me as ahead as I had hoped I would be.
I am not apprehensive about anything at the current time, and feel very comfortable in my position in the classroom. The children seem to enjoy the lessons I plan and teach, and are for the most part, very respectful of the expectations I have for them.
The first logical steps I can think of for next week, are to look over all of my edTPA Tasks and revise any areas that I may need to, having that completed. It is hard to believe that the submission date is so close, but I know it will be a huge relief to have it completed and submitted.
As mentioned before, I analysed the data from students' ability to recognize letters, and this has led me to adapt my future lessons to include more opportunities for students to practice this skill. I also had an art activity, where students wove strips of paper to recreate woven fabric, which allowed me to analyze several areas of student development. By looking at their completed works, I was able to determine their levels of fine motor skills, their motivation to continue working at challenging tasks, and their understanding of positional terms, "over," and, "under." I can now use this data to develop additional activities to build and strengthen these skills.
I am currently reviewing the notes from my last observation regarding my proficiency in the NCTCS, and am creating lists and collecting data as evidence of meeting each standard. I have completed my classroom website, and am ready to refine my PDP, SIP, and Classroom Management Plan. I do not need any additional support, and to my knowledge, my CE needs no additional support from my University Supervisor at this time.
Reflecting on the week, I learned that I need to provide many more opportunities for my students to gain letter awareness. After a follow-up assessment to measure growth on letter recognition, I saw that many of my students are still struggling significantly with identifying letters. I will build upon what students know by integrating more opportunities for them to practice identifying letters.
My short-term efforts still feel primarily focused on edTPA, however, this aligns to my long-term goal of graduating and getting my teaching license. I feel like I could still spend more of my time preparing materials in advance, as I still am finding it a little hard to balance daily classroom responsibilities, planning time, and EDU 450 coursework, in addition to my responsibilities as a wife and mother. Things are getting done, but not really keeping me as ahead as I had hoped I would be.
I am not apprehensive about anything at the current time, and feel very comfortable in my position in the classroom. The children seem to enjoy the lessons I plan and teach, and are for the most part, very respectful of the expectations I have for them.
The first logical steps I can think of for next week, are to look over all of my edTPA Tasks and revise any areas that I may need to, having that completed. It is hard to believe that the submission date is so close, but I know it will be a huge relief to have it completed and submitted.
As mentioned before, I analysed the data from students' ability to recognize letters, and this has led me to adapt my future lessons to include more opportunities for students to practice this skill. I also had an art activity, where students wove strips of paper to recreate woven fabric, which allowed me to analyze several areas of student development. By looking at their completed works, I was able to determine their levels of fine motor skills, their motivation to continue working at challenging tasks, and their understanding of positional terms, "over," and, "under." I can now use this data to develop additional activities to build and strengthen these skills.
I am currently reviewing the notes from my last observation regarding my proficiency in the NCTCS, and am creating lists and collecting data as evidence of meeting each standard. I have completed my classroom website, and am ready to refine my PDP, SIP, and Classroom Management Plan. I do not need any additional support, and to my knowledge, my CE needs no additional support from my University Supervisor at this time.
Friday, February 14, 2020
EDU 450 Weekly Reflection 6
I would give this week a rating of 5! It was a great week! I was worried I may be coming down with something contagious of my own early on in the week, but after a visit to the doctor and negative flu and strep tests, I was able to get treated for an early sinus infection. Later in the week we were very busy and excited for Valentine's Day this Friday, and my first unannounced observation was done this Thursday. All of my students were back and healthy, which was wonderful. I had some very successful lessons, with very high levels of engagement from my students, and great feedback from my CE, and my University Supervisor. I feel like I needed a good week like this, after having stressed over edTPA so much recently.
After reflecting on this week, I believe I need to focus on my collection of documentation and professional development engagement in the upcoming weeks. I also think I need to have more confidence in myself, as I have been very concerned with things I have reached out to other professionals for support on, and they have assured me that I am "doing great." It is hard to feel that way though, when I see the perfection I strive for being so far from where I am. But, it leaves me plenty of room to improve!
I will focus on putting more effort in the short term by collecting anecdotal notes and Galileo data to base my instruction around, directly aligned to the abilities of my students, effectively guiding my long term goal of helping them achieve kindergarten readiness skills. I will also continue working on my portfolio and edTPA submission documents in my long-term goal of getting my teaching license. This week, I could have spent more time focusing on my portfolio, but this was put on hold while I focused heavily on completing and reviewing edTPA tasks. I find it easier to concentrate on one or the other at certain times and feel better about the quality of my work this way.
I am not feeling much apprehension at this point, and hope that my upcoming lesson and global awareness integration goes as planned, although I am ready to make necessary adaptations based on my students' engagement and understanding as the lessons progress. My steps for next week will be focused on completing my lesson plans early, continuing to work on edTPA and completing my classroom website. As the website is completed, I will be able to shift my focus to other important portfolio artifacts that need my attention.
My main data was gathered this week through observations, and it guided how I delivered my instruction. During our group time, I was able to gauge my students interest in the learning focus, and made adaptations to my instruction to improve engagement and understanding for all students. I had some wonderful work samples created by my students, however these were done on white boards and lost when students erased their work. I will be sure to have students recreate these work samples on paper, or take a photograph the next time work samples are created this way.
I plan to focus more on NC TCS 4, facilitating learning for my students by continuing my professional development through trainings available either online or offered by the OSR, and NC TCS 5, reflecting on my practice by acquiring more documentation around which to shape my instruction based on the abilities of my students and determining what new skills they are ready to attain. As I mentioned before, my website is almost completed, which will open up my time to focus on other portfolio artifacts I have started, including my PDP and developing classroom management plan. I do not feel as though I need any extra support at this time, as I reach out to my University Supervisor regularly and receive feedback quickly. My CE does not need any additional support at the current time either, that I am aware of, although she has contact information to reach out to my US at anytime.
After reflecting on this week, I believe I need to focus on my collection of documentation and professional development engagement in the upcoming weeks. I also think I need to have more confidence in myself, as I have been very concerned with things I have reached out to other professionals for support on, and they have assured me that I am "doing great." It is hard to feel that way though, when I see the perfection I strive for being so far from where I am. But, it leaves me plenty of room to improve!
I will focus on putting more effort in the short term by collecting anecdotal notes and Galileo data to base my instruction around, directly aligned to the abilities of my students, effectively guiding my long term goal of helping them achieve kindergarten readiness skills. I will also continue working on my portfolio and edTPA submission documents in my long-term goal of getting my teaching license. This week, I could have spent more time focusing on my portfolio, but this was put on hold while I focused heavily on completing and reviewing edTPA tasks. I find it easier to concentrate on one or the other at certain times and feel better about the quality of my work this way.
I am not feeling much apprehension at this point, and hope that my upcoming lesson and global awareness integration goes as planned, although I am ready to make necessary adaptations based on my students' engagement and understanding as the lessons progress. My steps for next week will be focused on completing my lesson plans early, continuing to work on edTPA and completing my classroom website. As the website is completed, I will be able to shift my focus to other important portfolio artifacts that need my attention.
My main data was gathered this week through observations, and it guided how I delivered my instruction. During our group time, I was able to gauge my students interest in the learning focus, and made adaptations to my instruction to improve engagement and understanding for all students. I had some wonderful work samples created by my students, however these were done on white boards and lost when students erased their work. I will be sure to have students recreate these work samples on paper, or take a photograph the next time work samples are created this way.
I plan to focus more on NC TCS 4, facilitating learning for my students by continuing my professional development through trainings available either online or offered by the OSR, and NC TCS 5, reflecting on my practice by acquiring more documentation around which to shape my instruction based on the abilities of my students and determining what new skills they are ready to attain. As I mentioned before, my website is almost completed, which will open up my time to focus on other portfolio artifacts I have started, including my PDP and developing classroom management plan. I do not feel as though I need any extra support at this time, as I reach out to my University Supervisor regularly and receive feedback quickly. My CE does not need any additional support at the current time either, that I am aware of, although she has contact information to reach out to my US at anytime.
Friday, February 7, 2020
EDU 450 Weekly Reflection 5
This week, I would rate as a 4. It started out very rough, with 7 students in my room being absent with the flu or flu-like symptoms. My first edTPA lesson was also not what I had hoped it to be, with my students struggling to "get" the concept of predicting. We are in our clothing unit, and I provided a mystery bag filled with a coat, snow boots, hat, gloves, and a scarf. When I asked students to predict where we might go or something we might do wearing these clothes, many of them answered, "Disney World." I also had one who attempted to be funny, answer, "the beach." Throughout the week, however, we consistently reviewed the key vocabulary and definition of predicting, while incorporating as many opportunities for making predictions as possible. We predicted the weather, we predicted what would be served for lunch, and continued making predictions based on clothing and where we might wear specific types of clothing, connecting our unit to the learning segment planned for edTPA. Students began to show greater understanding of prediction and using information related to the topic, and to the story we were reading over the course of the week, which was relieving to me. Reflecting on the week, I believe my students were not as prepared for this concept as I had originally believed, and are not yet ready to build on this concept. I believe they would instead benefit from integration of learning domains and reinforcement of pre-reading skills and pre-writing skills related to letter recognition, an area in which they are still struggling. While the lesson was age-appropriate, I was slightly discouraged because it was not exactly developmentally appropriate for the ability of my students. They did grasp understanding as the week progressed, so it was not a total failure of a learning segment.
I feel more able to focus on my long-term goals with my edTPA lesson being completed. I feel like this week was productive in preparing me for the completion of my edTPA tasks 2 and 3. I spent most of my time this week focused on edTPA, and can now move on to focusing on other elements of my planning and teaching.
I became a little apprehensive seeing my first lesson go so poorly, however, made adaptations to the lesson and reframed my plans and instruction to make it more aligned to the developmental abilities and needs of my students. For next week, I plan to continue working ahead, as well as prepare my materials early, so I will not be putting things together the night before. Advice I would offer to other student teachers this week is, go with what your students need, more than what you have planned. I spent so much time preparing and planning my edTPA lessons, and have had to change course drastically to help my students grasp the concept. It was daunting to make such adjustments at the last minute, but it has been so beneficial to my student's learning. Most of the data I have analyzed this week was related to my edTPA segment and it significantly changed my plans for instructing my students as they learned the skill of predicting.
Continuing to build on my NCTCS proficiency, I am focusing on standard 1, element 1b, to display the ability to use appropriate data to identify areas of need to be addressed in a school improvement plan. As this is the first year PreK has been a part of the SIP, I am actively attending SIT meetings and adhering to the plan to integrate Kindergarten readiness skills and utilizing the Second Step curriculum to build social emotional maturity. For standard 2, element 2b, and plan my instruction to include the influence of diversity. I utilize many multicultural images in my lessons to integrate a respect for diversity and teach global awareness. For standard 3, element 3d, I am integrating 21st century skills in my instruction my utilizing the NC FELD, which features goals for young learners that align to 21st century learning. For standard 4, element 4d, I am hoping to be able to integrate technology back into my lessons, as I am still waiting for my Smart Board projector bulb to be replaced. For standard 5, element 5a, I am hoping to use my student data to create ways to improve student learning by reflecting on work samples and anecdotal notes to help identify the learning needs of my students.
I have continued working on various portfolio artifacts and have set my PDP goals and put my classroom management plan in place. There are no questions either me or my CE have at this point. We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks and seeing our students grow.
I feel more able to focus on my long-term goals with my edTPA lesson being completed. I feel like this week was productive in preparing me for the completion of my edTPA tasks 2 and 3. I spent most of my time this week focused on edTPA, and can now move on to focusing on other elements of my planning and teaching.
I became a little apprehensive seeing my first lesson go so poorly, however, made adaptations to the lesson and reframed my plans and instruction to make it more aligned to the developmental abilities and needs of my students. For next week, I plan to continue working ahead, as well as prepare my materials early, so I will not be putting things together the night before. Advice I would offer to other student teachers this week is, go with what your students need, more than what you have planned. I spent so much time preparing and planning my edTPA lessons, and have had to change course drastically to help my students grasp the concept. It was daunting to make such adjustments at the last minute, but it has been so beneficial to my student's learning. Most of the data I have analyzed this week was related to my edTPA segment and it significantly changed my plans for instructing my students as they learned the skill of predicting.
Continuing to build on my NCTCS proficiency, I am focusing on standard 1, element 1b, to display the ability to use appropriate data to identify areas of need to be addressed in a school improvement plan. As this is the first year PreK has been a part of the SIP, I am actively attending SIT meetings and adhering to the plan to integrate Kindergarten readiness skills and utilizing the Second Step curriculum to build social emotional maturity. For standard 2, element 2b, and plan my instruction to include the influence of diversity. I utilize many multicultural images in my lessons to integrate a respect for diversity and teach global awareness. For standard 3, element 3d, I am integrating 21st century skills in my instruction my utilizing the NC FELD, which features goals for young learners that align to 21st century learning. For standard 4, element 4d, I am hoping to be able to integrate technology back into my lessons, as I am still waiting for my Smart Board projector bulb to be replaced. For standard 5, element 5a, I am hoping to use my student data to create ways to improve student learning by reflecting on work samples and anecdotal notes to help identify the learning needs of my students.
I have continued working on various portfolio artifacts and have set my PDP goals and put my classroom management plan in place. There are no questions either me or my CE have at this point. We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks and seeing our students grow.
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