Week 4

My fourth week of student teaching went wonderfully. I really enjoyed it. I was really proud of the progress I saw my students making this week. I gave assessments in Math and Literacy this week and I was so pleased with the scores. My three lowest performing students received meets with minimal accommodations. There was only one approaching for each test and they were both because of a lot of simple mistakes. We did a lot of work with multiplying fractions and I was happy to see some of my students choosing methods that I taught that worked best for them. I think they are really starting to understand their learning styles and that you can do something in more than one way and still get a correct answer.

This week I was able to sit down with the 2 5th grade teachers and the math specialist to start planning out the next unit- dividing fractions. I really like the way that this school schedules a time each week for math planning with the specialist. I think that she is a wonderful resource and that it is great that everyone is on the same page. I am really looking forward to starting a new project with my students that the other 5th grade teacher planned as part of her masters class. She made a webquest in which the students become experts on a colony in one of the three regions of the 13 original colonies. I worked really hard this week to set up their groups and organize them so that I have fairly mixed ability groups. I also planned so that the people in the groups will mesh well as well as assigning the individuals a role that suits them best. I am really looking forward to seeing how this webquest plays out and how using game based learning effects their retention of the materials.

This week was filled with 5th grade drama. From rumors, to cheating on assignments, to anxiety, to inappropriate language, and name calling...it is easy to say we had a student in tears every day this week. I really learned a lot about how to handle certain situations and how to respond to parents as well as students and administration when sticky and uncomfortable situations arise. Even though it was a stressful week, it was a great one. I learned a lot about standard 4L which states: the competent classroom teacher analyzes the classroom environment and makes decision to enhance mutual respect and positive social relationships.
 
The highlight of my week was intervention time on Thursday during afternoon literacy. I take two tier 2 and one special education student aside and do some extra minutes with them. In these minutes, I monitor the rest of the class to make sure they are working on their reading contracts and then I read an additional story, review vocab, and prompt the students with comprehension questions. During this particular intervention time, I realized that the 3 students could not remember any of their vocabulary words for the test on Friday. I decided to spend most of the intervention time on a study strategy for vocab. I had them each make a flip chart with notebook paper and they wrote the word on one side and drew a picture, wrote a short definition, and a "memory" word on the other to help them study. Each of those students aced their vocab test the next day! WOOHOO! They also were able to draw many connections between the stories we read in class this week. I see these students making leaps and bounds of progress.

Next week, I start teaching the full load!

Schmidt Chapter 2

1. From Schmidt chapter 2 I have learned that eptness means combining capacities and meaningful activity (pg. 24). A classroom with a community of eptness would involve students and teachers working together by learning together. Everyone in the classroom has value and it is important to share ideas with one another and challenge one another to go beyond their current level. Everyone in the class is both a teacher and learner. The teacher is not the only one who brings learning to the table, the students are also more than capable of teaching one another.

Schmidt also refers to behaviors in this chapter. The three behaviors that I can use in my placement are: model being a learner, never too late, and feedback. I would say that modeling is one of my strengths. Sometimes I plan to model in a lesson, but more than not it just happens. I naturally model everything I teach. Something I wish I saw more of is my students modeling learning to one another. I want to see them helping each other out more and much more less of students just copying down something during group times. I want each and every student to understand, not just copy. I understand that sometimes students might learn more and better from a peer than they would from me and I encourage that. I know that I do not know everything and if a peer can explain something better than I can, I am all for it.

Secondly, the behavior "never too late" is a behavior I want to utilize more in my classroom. It is never too late to learn something new or to master a standard. I am so proud of my students when they persevere and rise above a challenge. Lastly, feedback. You can never give too much feedback.  Although, you can give too much vague feedback or useless feedback. This semester I learned that I am queen of "good work" and "great job" feedback on journal responses. I have been pushing myself much harder to have more meaningful and specific feedback in order to help my students continue to learn.