Student Teaching :)

The past few weeks have been b-u-s-y. I had the opportunity to participate in a PTO event at my school last week! It was a volleyball tournament, and I got to cheer on my awesome students! It was a great opportunity to talk to my students outside of the classroom and get to see who they’re friends with and actually have a conversation that wasn’t always related to math 🙂

The past few weeks have also been very b-u-s-y because I was focusing on the dreadful edTPA. I was busy planning my lessons, assessments, and stressing about filming myself (I think everyone can agree that they hate watching themselves teach). Although I cringed while watching the videos, it really helped me reflect on my teaching, while looking at my habits, and what I could’ve improved myself on… which is what the edTPA is all about, right?

The next journal’s focus will be about Parent-teacher conferences… stay tuned!

The first two weeks of placement, I was mainly observing my teacher, getting used to my classroom/school, and getting to know my students. While observing, I noticed which students were chatty-cats, which were more reserved/shy, and which ones needed extra instruction.

I had finished my first two weeks of placement. I finally understood their block schedule, which students were in each class, and the names of every student. As I was preparing for my third week of placement, my co-op sent me the Notebook slides for the week. I thought this was her telling me to get in there and start teaching… (Little did I know she just wanted me to have the notes as well haha). I made the decision to start taking over one class everyday. I would watch her teach the first core class, then I would teach the second one. This little push has helped me learn more that first day of teaching than I could’ve learned by observing for another week. It was very nice to see how she taught the class, simply because it gave me a clearer sense of direction on how the lesson was supposed to go.

 

 

[August, 2016]

I met my co-operating teacher over the summer when I attended two Institute Day meetings. I was nervous and excited sitting in the school cafeteria with +40 people. Looking around, I was waiting for a teacher to come up to me and introduce herself as my co-operating teacher. Luckily, not long after, my co-op comes up and introduces herself. Ten seconds in, and I already know she’s going to be great. She talks to me about the classroom, procedures, lessons, and even gives me a copy of the teacher edition textbook to review for the semester. I learned a lot about the school, the schedule, and the people who would soon be my co-workers. I left feeling excited and nervous all at the same time.

[December, 2016]

Today, I met my students for the first time! I didn’t know what to expect since I had never been in a middle school placement. My co-op emailed me and thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself to the classroom before the upcoming semester. I made a PowerPoint about myself and told each class a little bit about me. I told them about my family, my education, my previous classrooms, and some of my favorite hobbies. I think this was important because building a relationship with your students is key! One thing I learned after the “About Me” presentation, was that much like myself, many of my students enjoy Chipotle.