Blog Post #3: Week of Growth

 

Candidate Name: Caitlyn Hamrick

Week of Reflection: September 6, 2024

Rating overall experience of the week: 4

Observe: Pleasant Surprises/Accomplishments Achieved 

This week my greatest accomplishments would be taking on another core subject, Wit & Wisdom. That was alot, and though the lessons do not always go exactly how I plan and intend for them to go, I am learning alot about what would have made the lesson better and I can improve upon next time. I also completed by first observation this week. That was very nerve wracking and overwhelming. I poured over that lesson plan over and over because I wanted it to be just perfect! It did not go like I planned, but I finding that it seems more typial for lessons to not go as planned than to go as planned because no matter how much you try to plan for it and avoid it, there is always something unexpected. From the feedback I received though, the lesson went really well. I also really loved the video that I showed my students during the lesson. They found the video really exciting and engaing, and any lesson that makes them excited and full of joy, fills me with excitement and joy as well. Their smiles fuel me, and their frustrations and feelings of disappoiuntment pull me down just as much or more so. I am always trying really hard to reach a comprehensive understanding with my students by being repetitive and procedural in my instruction at first to create a pattern that the students can follow, and then getting fluid and manipulative by approaching from different angles later, to create a more critical and comprehensive understanding of the standard or objective. One of my other accomplishments this week would be giving my first math test after teaching 7 lessons, and though I still see some areas of growth that I want to continue to practice with my students on to solidify those skills, I was rather satisfied with the results because there was a 90% class average. I also conferenced with the EC specialist this week to gather additional information and consultation on what strategies are most effective for implementation with my EC students across subject areas. I also completed my very first parent-teacher conference this week, and I was nervous for how it would go down knowing the mindset of the parents and the difficult topics that needed to be addressed. The parents gave us some valuable information on the student, his history from previous grade levels, his support he is receiving at home, and we even went over class work and score reports as artifacts of the student's performance. They agreed that we must make some major steps moving forward to ensure his success in the future, short term and long term. They were open and willing to some of the suggestions made and optimistic of our desires to meet his needs. 

Reflect: Lessons I Learned From

Some of the lessons that I learned from this week would probably be the lessons that I started this week with Wit & Wisdom, designing and implementing my own math review for their test, and also conducting a teacher center. This week during my Wit & Wisdom lesson, I learned the crucialness of going over lesson plans with a fine tooth comb beforehand and thinking about the lessons from student perspectives and what I know about their capabilities. This curriculum is highly scripted, and some parts of it are at a much higher level that is far beyond their level of comprehension, and so the best thing to do when teaching this curriculum is to make some adpatations to the lessons so that the delivery is more appropriate and more engaging for the students. With my math lesson, I learned that a strong and repetitive review right before a test goes a long way. I designed the review myself, and I designed it based on the test. I designed my own questions that had the same structure as the questions on the test but different numbers and content within the questions, and this allowed for me to get a last minute assessment and a last minute practice for the students to see one last time, despite the daily assessments, if they can cumulate all of the skills and strategies learned all together and apply them. The review made me much more confident giving that test, and their scores displayed that too. My teacher center, I was really happy with this week because I picked it purely based on displayed student need from student practice during their morning work and one their last test. The students displayed a deficit with this skill, and so I made the decision to provided them guided instruction and then short assessments on this skill in the teacher center, and it allowed me to address the students' misconception and time for additional practice. I also did not try to make the lesson really complex and fluffy, but I kept it really simple, and I think that made it a stronger lesson because I did not overthink it, the objective was extremely clear, and the students had very room to overthink it. I got a glimpse of what it really feels like to let assessment drive your instruction, and it made me feel very proud of myself when I was able to do that. 

Focus: Aligning My Short-term Efforts and Long-term Goals

My short term efforts and long term goals, well I think that this week was really an attempt at accomplishing this. My long term goal is to become a structured, organized, and effective teacher. This week I spent ALOT of time organizing digitally and on paper all of my files of student work based on what is being done that week, completed student work, and upcoming assignments or possible activites. I also spent a lot of time straightening out my google drive into apropriate folders and making sure I had designed all the necesary files and documents that I will need to refer to throughout the semester and made sure they were easy to find and access. Though it is time consuming, designing a system that is well sorted and functional provides much more time for me later to accomplish my goals for myself and my students more effectively. 

Be Productive: Better Mangement of My Time

Time management, wow! This one I am still working on and have not figured out how to master yet. I am still struggling every week to get my assignments in on time despite pulling consistent late nights, sometimes staying at the school until 9 pm. I also wake up at 6 am every morning, and so sometimes I am lucky to get more than 5 hours of sleep, which can be hard for my body to run off of. I am making to-do lists everywhere, but no matter how much I try to adhere to completing my to do lists, I always have at least 2 or 3 tasks that get pushed to the next day, and on the weekend, I am drowning. I think part of this problem would be that I do not get to truly sit down and start on completing anything until after 4 pm sometimes, and then I usually try to not skip dinner, and then making sure I am maintaining proepr hygeine and taking care of mysefl at night, I am still only getting a few hours of work done after dinner. Though this seems like a lot of time to produce alot of completed work, I get caught up I perfecting the details, and I spend an exponential amount of time on one task that I could have used to complete 2 or 3 tasks and spare on the details. 

Have Courage: Impact of Apprehension and Indecision

Apprehension and indecision, is probably one of my biggest weaknesses that holds me back from being my best in the classroom. I am fearful of making the wrong choice, especially when my choices can have such a drastic impact on the future of others. I go back and forth when writing lessons on what the best approach is and what should be cut out when there are too many activities to complete in the alloted time. When I face these problems, that is when I really have to consult with my CE about the best pathway for my lesson plans to meet the objectives and stay within the students' realm of capabilities. 

Begin Anew: Clearing the Clutter & Next Steps

This is one thing that I have focused on tremendously this week. I have focused on clearing the clutter in my student work files, my lesson plan materials by creating and strategic and organized management system so that I can manage next steps easier by being able to easily find and look back at previous student data and completed work and look at upcoming lessons and the options of materials I have to work with. The mental clutter that I want to clear most would be updating all of my logs, gradebooks, and  fine tune my Task 1 assignments so that I can start fresh and complete all tasks necessary to complete Tasks 2 and 3. 

NC Professional Teaching Standards:

(Examples of Acitivites Implemented this Week to Meet Standards)

Standard One: Demonstrate Leadership (in the classroom) 

This week I addressed this standard whenver I took on another core subject, Wit and Wisdom. I am spending more time in the leadership role than my CE is now during the day, and so I am having to step into that position of leadership. The students are becoming more conditioned to come to me for their learning needs and content-related questions rather than my CE. My CE is also leaving me alone in the classroom more frequently to force me into that leadership role. This week, she has encouraged me to lead the students in packing up and transitioning out of their centers and prepping them to go to centers, and during this time, the students also need to pack up their things so that they are ready to leave at the end of the day after specials. The students are usually either rowdy or sleepy at this point in the day, so I have had to really push into that role of leadership so that the students recognize that and listen to me to ensure a smooth transition. 

Standard Two: Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Group

I establish a respectful environment for my students by establishing question and response routines for my students during whole group instruction. have establish nonverbal cues, such as thumbs up or thumbs down if they understand and are ready to move on or need additional instruction and practice. Also, I did have a problem with my students shouting out and talking over one another, but we have talked about in a couple of our different lessons, repetitively what respect looks like in the classroom. I encourage respectful behavior by handing out positive praise to the students that display these behaviors and public recognition. When the whole group fails to meet these expectations of respect, I often times will say "I am waiting to see (this behavior)", or I will ask, "What could we have done better to be more respectful?" The students usually immediately rectify their behaviors. I do not have an extremely diverse group of students, but one of the ways that I do diversify for my students is diversifying the learning tasks for my students with their assignments by either providing additional time, blocking out problems, or calling on students to answer questions that are leveled for them. 

Standard Three: Know the Content They Teach

For know the content I teach, I address this standard by studying and preparing for lessons immediately the night before and planning a week ahead. I also make adjustments to the plans for my lessons throughout the week by cutting out tasks or moving them to the next day, or assigning the task to another part of the day if there is down time. I make these calls based on the priority of the lessons. I make sure that I am meeting the objective and aligning with the standard. If the students are showing that they are struggling more with the concept, then I implement more practice time into the lesson, and I reduce their independent assessment time. Any additional activities that are addressed with another priority activity are cut out if the time does not allow. I prefer to allow my students time to apply the skills based on the goals and objectives and show true understanding than to rush them through multiple activites that do not allow for deep comprehension and application of the new skill. The best way to do this, is to know the content, focus and identify the standard and objective, and then prioritize the activities based on student need, and what is most aligned and essential to practice and then apply the objective. 

Standard Four: Facillitate Learning for their Students

For facillitating learning for my students, I try to do this by always having some type of hook or focus, and I always try to relate it back to a previous lesson to relate the objective to the students prior knowledge so that they have a starting point and somewhere to build off of. I also tend to do this my asking students to give examples from their own personal lives that relate to the content we are learning, and I will then repeptitively relate the concept to the student example to ensure understanding, and when their is a personal connection, then they pay closer attention. I know they also LOVE for their name to be a part of the lesson in some shape or form, and using a story about them always catches their attention. One of the ways I did a similar thing this week was with my Math Review that I designed. I used student names and my CE's name in the word problems. I also used circumstances that are often occurr within our classroom for the word problem. The students though it was really fun and exciting to see their names appear on the screen and hear a story about them. 

Standard Five: Reflect on their Practice

As for reflecting on my practice. I think that finding a way to reduce the time it takes me to plan my lessons would be the most beneficial for me. I also am trying to find ways during instruction to engage more of the students, and I started pulling the sticks to call on students at random rather than simply letting them raise their hand, and this made them pay closer attention and it showed on their math work. I would also say that I need to make note of the questions and mini tasks like an agenda for the lesson on a sticky note that I can see and follow during my lessons to keep me on pace, rather than trying to review my big lesson plan and keep it straight while I am teaching in an encvironment that can soemtimes be unpredictable. 

Portfolio Progress: 

Supports from University Supervisor~ Clinical Educator

My unviersty supervisor is doing a wonderful job with me. She tries to support me in anyway that she can. She reaches out to check on me regularly outside of school hours just to ensure I am hanging in there because she is aware of the stress of the expectations laying on me. I think that she does not currently have any needs that she needs met by the Univeristy Supervisor. 

Supports from University Supervisor~ Me

As for supports for myself, I think that the supports that have already been put in place are very helpful and I am thankful for them. They are a big help to ensure my success and stability this semester. Maintaining this system is what is most helpful for me. The encouragement and honest constructive  feedback is also helpful. Hearing what I am doing right helps deflect my apprehension and indecison and knowing that the feedback is still honest helps me as well. If I can improve I want to know, and I will try to priortize implementing a method to improve myself. The feedback I received this week helped to really build my confidence and ease my doubts about my capabilites to complete student teaching successfully.