I know it has been a while since we were together last, but I do have so much to share with you. Over at The Education Station, I have been learning so much. I have been fortunate enough to be able to take a two-week subbing job for one of the fourth-grade teachers. I have already learned more in the few days that I have been subbing than I have learned previously. Classroom management is the biggest take away I have learned in this short time. I wanted to be able to go into this sub position as a strong candidate for student teaching in the fall. I knew that I wanted to be strict, fair, and consistent with my classroom management. This has worked so far. There are some things that I have not quite figured out just yet. I need to make a system for organizing papers, checking homework, and being able to track missing work. As I have been teaching all day I have realized just how many papers I hand out to students. In my future classroom, I plan to utilize google docs and paperless ways to create assignments so that I do not have to deal with so much paperwork. Another system that I want to research is the best way to check homework. Is there an app for that? I am sure there is, but I just don't know about it yet. Another thing that I would like to focus on learning more about is how to keep track of missing work from absences and from students leaving class to go to tutoring, EC, speech, etc. If a student misses the instruction for that assignment, it doesn't seem quite fair to hold them responsible for it, but it is quite difficult to take grades when several students are consistently out of the room for large portions of the day.
For my outside learning and research, I have decided to look into one of my three reflective questions: what is the best way to check homework? After I have checked the homework, how much time should I spend dedicating to reviewing it?
Here is what I found:
Each teacher must find what works for both their students and themselves, but here is an idea I really like. DELEGATE! In my future classroom, I want to implement classroom economy and one of the jobs for the clerk to be to check to see if their table-mates have completed their homework or not. This way, I am not worried about it and students are able to have an interest in helping out in class.
Another thing that I struggled with this week is dedicating too much time to just going over homework and never having time for math small groups. This article suggested 5-8 minutes of going over homework as a whole group. I would like to try to implement group time to allow students to learn from their peers about their questions that they had.
Overall this month, I have conferenced with the guidance counselor about one of my students, connected with parents via email, and taught several times including several full days. Being able to step into another teachers role full time for two weeks speaks to my ability to fulfill NCTCS 1A: Teachers lead in their classrooms. Being able to communicate and step into the role of partnering with parents speaks to the NCTCS 2E: Teachers work collaboratively with the families.
Over this month, I have grown more as an educator than I could've ever believed. I can't believe where I will be when I am student teaching. I look forward to growing and strengthening myself as an educator. In my future classroom, I want to make every student feel valued and loved, but I cannot pour out love from an empty heart. I have realized over this month that sometimes you just have to shut the computer down, have dinner with your family, and take a brain break. In my future classroom, I also want to implement the art of reflecting. As an educator, I realize them importance of reflecting now more than ever. I want my students to experience this too.
I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of your semester. Hopefully my life will be less crazy soon, and I can be more focused on growing myself as a Daughter in Christ, soon to be wife, educator, and friend.
Much love and encouragement,
Mallory.
