Blog #9

• Reflection: 
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• Hey, guys! We had two weeks off from blogs, and that was amazing! Thanks, Dr. Parker! That means, however, that I have lots to share from these two weeks. In my work this week, I was most satisfied with completing my first clinical observation at my placement school. I am satisfied with this, not because I did anything spectacular, but because of the hard work and wonderful things, I am seeing at my clinical placement. I LOVED going and observing the teacher that I am with this semester. She makes the students feel as if they are the BEST in her eyes. When she has these conversations about them being the best, she says that it is a "closed door kind of conversation." She says that because she doesn't want to 'hurt anyone's feelings.' This just made me so proud to be a teacher because the expectations she has for her students is so high, and they rise to meet her expectations. I encountered struggles this week with getting the science fair project completed. The research got a lot more complicated than we were expecting, and we do not have the equipment to test the germs on the bread. To remedy this struggle, one of my groupmates has made contact with a science teacher on campus in hopes that we will be able to borrow some equipment or have some help from her. I am most proud of my ability to work through an EdTPA lesson plan for math with minimal tears being shed and a mostly positive attitude. The action steps that I want to complete over this next week are to spend time with my family on fall break, get caught up on assignments, and get ahead on my assignments. I want to complete these things for the well being of my mental health! Spending time with my family and getting my school work checked off my to-do list are sure ways to make me smile. For class this week, I participated and was there with a smile. By the end of class, however, I did not have a smile on my face. I can contribute more in the class by making sure to keep up my positive attitude all throughout class. 

• Outside Research:

• For my outside research, I looked into what a restart school was. In my school visit this week, I learned that there was a restart school in our county. I had never heard of this before, and I wanted to know more about it. What I learned was that restart schools did not have as many strict guidelines and rules as other schools do. They don't have to test as much, and they receive more support and resources. Here is a website that I visited.   

• Top Tweets: 

As a teacher candidate at GWU, I have personally often felt like I just didn't know enough strategies to plan my lessons efficiently. I love twitter because I can find strategies for just about everything. This tweet has 50 or more teaching strategies. 

I loved @alicekeeler 's tweet because she talked about her principal personally sewing the curtains on the stage. This was something he could have easily said was not his job, but he didn't. I want to be the kind of woman, teacher, wife, friend, and coworker that doesn't worry about whose job it is. I just want to have the initiative to just do it. 

For my third and final tweet, I tweeted about being positive. I know every day in education is something new and any minute something could go wrong. That is what keeps life fun and exciting. So, put your positive pants on. 

• Scientific Thinking:

This week, I learned about the current event of data being released that showed high lead levels in school water fountains. This was very surprising to me because I thought schools would have clean and safe drinking water. This link included above is a really neat way to combine science, literacy, and math! The link has data for students to analyze and evaluate which would be a great math tool. 

Hyperdocs: We have had three hyperdocs this week to review, and they have been jam-packed with information. 

The first hyperdoc was week 5! In week 5 there was a lot of discussion about formative and summative assessments. This is something that we talk frequently about in education. It was a great refresher; it gave some great ideas for assessments, too. The second hyperdoc was week 6, and it was my groups week. I learned a lot from this week because we really dug into the material and advanced our knowledge. The chapter had a really big buzz word that we have been talking about in SCED, "inquiry." It talked about how to foster inquiry-based learning and how to engage using the 5E model. The last one for this blog discussion is week is week 7. It talked a lot about questioning effectively in order to foster inquiry. I found some wonderful strategies here about the wait time. 

NCTCS: NCTCS is always a good reminder of the standard I am being held to and my personal goals as a teacher candidate. In my school visits this week, I really learned a lot of information! At my clinical placement, I observed a team of teachers working so flawlessly together that the kids did not even miss a beat when plans were changed. This goes along with standard 2E: Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students. In the lives of their students are three other teachers because they do guided reading groups. The students are grouped by ability level, and their transitions were flawless. The teachers have only implemented this for about two weeks, and the students seem so well adjusted which speaks highly of the educators I am learning from. They work well together for the greater good of each child. This relates well to my science instruction because in the future I may be on a team in an upper grade in which I switch classes. This learning experience is a great one to have now so that I can learn how to collaborate well with my team just like they do. 

EDUC 350

This week, our class as you all know, went to a school to observe from the beginning of the day until the end of the day. This was an interesting experience, to say the least. I learned a lot about the culture of the school. When we arrived, I noticed a parent in the hallway who was not too happy about something, and a staff member was helping them, and they were very patient. Although I was only able to see this encounter for a minute as I was passing, it was a wonderful example of professionalism. This connects to  NCPTS Standard 2 E: Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students. After arriving, we gathered in the media center where we were given a lens into the school. The CTC gave us an overview of the last few years and the great things happening at the school. The report card data was not a surprise because we had already discussed it previously.  I was placed in a fourth-grade class. When my partner and I arrived, the students were in WIN groups. WIN stands for what I need. We were able to observe math, guided reading, whole group novel reading, lunch, specials, and dismissal. During the class time, the students did not always seem to be engaged. In my future classroom, I want to structure my lessons to where the students have a good chance of being engaged. During guided reading, the students all worked at their own pace and the teacher called them up by ability groups to her table. The lunchtime was great because I was able to sit with the kids and converse with them. During specials, the students were not as well behaved as they were in the classroom. One thing I thought and this day confirmed it was that kids will meet the expectations you set for them. If you have really low expectations for a child, they will only meet those low expectations. Our teacher had really high expectations for her students and they rose to the occasion. When I am a teacher, I will hold my kids to my high expectations so that they know I believe in them. Overall, I took away from the experience what one day at a low-performing school looked like. It was different than any other school I had been in previously.