Week 2

This was my first full week of student teaching. Boy, am I exhausted. On top of teaching full time for the first time, I was helping my fiancé move into our future apartment and was painting and cleaning until 10:00 pm almost every night! Phew, I am glad that is over!

This week I took on Math and Social Studies full time and it was a blast! I learned a lot, planned a lot and then changed things up! Flexibility is something I am becoming better and better at. It seems that you can plan and plan and plan but when it comes down to it, you have to go with the student's pacing and something always seems to come up. No plans are ever really set in stone, and that is OK.

Something I learned this week was a way to teach multiplying fractions. My cooperating teacher is awesome about modeling for me and helping me in any way possible. She taught me the "brownie pan method" and how to explain in a more effective way than I was able to come up with on my own. My cooperating teacher is so experienced and I am just trying to soak up any tips and tricks she has.

This week I worked a lot more with a few of my students who are tier 3 or special education students. My favorite part of teaching is differentiation and explaining concepts and rewording things until my students "get it." I am learning more and more about them daily and how they learn best. One student in particular struggles with her attention span and staying focused. I tried chunking her work and covering up excess materials on the page and this seemed to really help her stay focused on one topic at a time. I think this is a strategy I want to explore more with her.

This week I was able to go to "Data Day." This is where the grade level team meets with the principal and specialist to go over all the special education and RTI student's scores and data. Based on the information given and teacher comments, the team decides if the student is appropriately placed or needs to be moved up or down a tier. At this meeting I learned a lot about quite a few students in my class and how I can better differentiate for them and support them in the classroom.

This week was VERY eventful. My cooperating teacher and I were informed about a situation going on at home with one of my students. The student has begun to act like a baby at home; unable to get themselves ready in the morning and laying around all day instead of playing age appropriate games. This behavior is not evident at school or if a friend is present at home. Another student was recently diagnosed with ADHD and Anxiety and put on a 504 plan. Both of these student's parents came in or are coming in for meetings in which I may get to observe. I am very curious to see how these situations play out and how I can support these students better in the classroom and show them an attitude of Christ-like servant hood.

The most exciting day of the week was Friday! On Friday we rearranged the desks because we are getting a new (highly gifted) student on Wednesday! We also had a TALENT SHOW!!! This was so much fun and I got to learn so much about my students! One student was able to say the alphabet backwards in less than 10 seconds! AMAZING! We also had a comedian, some instrument players, sports card collectors, and artists. It was so great to see all the talents and hobbies my students posses. This is definitely something I want to do in my future classroom.