Reflection 1/25/09

Tuesday was really interesting in my classroom. I was subbing, and the Team had decided to do a Thursday schedule and spend the whole afternoon talking about the inauguration/ watching it on TV. We had some students that were really into that, but then a majority were completely uninterested and wanted to party since it was unstructured time. They saw the schedule and immediately thought we would be watching YouTube and playing games. I had things planned, but they wanted nothing to do with any of it. Later I found out that the students had watched the inauguration in their arts and fitness also so this was about three hours of it by the time we were winding down. When I look back at it I wish I had not been so upset about their interest level and thought more like a fifth grader. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think if we talked about it again, I would have fought strongly against the idea. It was a good experience to see what the kids were interested in and what they weren't.

Reflection 1-18-09

This week was very short in the school since we had class on Thursday and Friday. I had a very awesome subbing day on Tuesday and enjoyed teaching Lucy Caulkins writing for the first time Tuesday and Wednesday. I was very excited to be given the opportunity from my CT and I think I was able to do well with it. The book was intimidating at first because Lucy is very wordy and complex. Once I got started the kids seemed really excited about essays and that was great! My favorite activity was where the students wrote an essay using my main idea and pushing your thinking prompts that I gave them. They pulled out many big ideas about essays through this activity and were able to feel successful with the activity since I gave them the main idea and the prompt to push their thinking. They also got a chance to push their thinking once in their own way. Some of the most reluctant writers that are in my class were writing away with this activity. I would use it again.

Friday we went to the special education mini conference. I feel as though it was very beneficial because I have had many questions and concerns about special needs students being in my classroom. I have always been surprised that we do not receive more special education instruction through the elementary education program, especially since inclusion has become a reality that we all have to be prepared for. I feel like that is the part that I am the least prepared for, because I want to provide the best education for ALL students, but I don't know if I know what is best for ALL students. I got a lot of great tips and advise along with a lot of facts that I did not know. I feel like exploring this topic in our TE 803 class will be a great deal of help in my future and I am excited to have a class that is going to explore these things.

Reflection 1/9/09

This week was a great week back. I had been worried that the week would be hard because everyone was used to being on break, but it seemed like the kids had been refreshed a little bit and had more patience with sitting in class. My guided lead is over so I went back to observing a little more than I had previously been doing. It was a little sad for me because I really got into being the classroom teacher for so long. I'm really excited to watch in language arts though, because Historical Fiction is what they are doing and that is one of my favorite genres. My CT came up with an awesome unit plan for it this year and I'm really enjoying watching it executed for the first time. It's nice to see an established teacher revamp her unit and notice things within it that are good and things that needed some variation. I will be doing this a lot in these next few years, so its nice to see what goes into it from her point of view. I also got the opportunity to sit in on a PD that was going over the new science curriculum. I enjoyed this because it was another example of teachers who have been teaching for a long time doing things I will be doing a lot of. I liked listening because they chose this curriculum for specific reasons but they are noticing a lot of holes in it. This part of the job is never done, even if you have been teaching for ten years. I think it was nice to see that because I really enjoy planning and changing things up.

I had my first spur of the moment subbing moment this week. It was awesome! (not that my CT was sick, but having to sub without planning on it for over a week) Things went really smooth and when I saw a problem I dealt with it. I was extremely proud in that regard, because I was questioning what to do when a student was messing up the class. I called down to the office and sent him there because he was ruining a moment when the students were able to play a game instead of work, and he simply did not like being out. He had been doing things like that all day, and does them pretty much every day. I had told the class that if they couldn't handle it we would read instead. Instead of punishing the whole class I think I made a better choice, and looking back on it I should have dealt with him sooner in the day.