This week was a bit of a chopped week since I was only in placement on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. The days that I was in placement were spent as catch up days to equal out the 6 sections and get everyone ready for a new chapter next Monday.
On Monday we had the chance to finish up some assignments that were not finished or caught up on from the previous weeks. It was nice to have this day to get an even better idea of what it is like to be a teacher since sometimes you just don’t get to everything you need to in a given amount of time. I reflected back on this Monday realizing that it’s important to include cushion days in your planning. Not one every week, but one often enough to be able to have time to reteach lessons, meet benchmarks that were not yet met, and practice skills students need to strengthen in order to further succeed in the class.
My two days back after edTPA days were given to start a new unit for the students. We had finally wrapped up everything with my edTPA in the class it was the perfect time to lead into astronomy and begin the discussion on the Thursday and Friday. We began learning and wrapping up the early astronomers in astronomy and how astronomy has changed throughout the years. This is a completely new unit and topic for students; so many students are unaware to the new information they will soon be realizing. Honestly, this is one of the best feelings as a teacher: being able to be the person who exposes this new information to the students about our solar system and space and encouraging them to pursue careers in science and engineering. Having the students see me be excited about topics in science and being a role model teaching the information in an enthusiastic and engaging manner allows the students to become even more involved during discussions. I realize that I will make an impact on these students and be the reason they learned why telescopes are both on Earth and in space, that there are people in space, and that I will spark their interest to investigate how potentially someone can walk on or visit Mars.
Ms. P