Giving and Receiving...The Stress of conferences

     This week was extremely interesting.  I attended Parent-Teacher conferences for the school that I am currently student teaching.  I have attended conferences as a parent, as an assistant in the classroom, but this was my first time purely observing.  I noticed that it was not only a stressful experience for the parent and student, but also for the teacher.  I noticed that at times there was a struggle to balance the negative with the positive.  I do not think that any teacher wants to deliver all bad news to a parent.  We do not want to tell parents that their child is struggling academically as well as socially in the classroom.  Somehow, teachers do this without making parents feel like all hope is lost.  They balance the positive with the negative, they highlight all of the wonderful attributes of a student, while still instilling in a parent the needs of the student.
      It was equally as stressful, if not more so, for the parent.  You can see the built up stress in parents' faces as they walk into the conference, praying that their child is ahead of the class. They pray that all that they have worked on at home, has translated well into the classroom.  For most parents, this seems to be the case, but for some you can see the devastation in their eyes we you deliver the message that their child is struggling.
     As a teacher, I hope to impart in my parents that we are a team.  They are not walking into a conference of judgement or disappointment.  Rather, we are always working together to make their child is the best student and thinker that they can be.

Teacher Toolbox

     Lately I have been thinking about how my time as a student teacher is coming to an end, and how I have been filling my Teacher Toolkit with tidbits that I have learned along the way.  I think more than anything, I have learned the importance in giving students instructions and directions in a way that will help them understand objectives.  The instructions that I give my students have been the ‘make’ or the ‘break’ of every lesson that I have taught.  Each time I teach something that I feel that the students have not quite grasped, I think back on the instructions that I have given my students and how they could have been more clear or said in different ways to help my students.  I think that learning how to give clear and concise directions to students will be something that will help any grade level that I teach.  Whether they are kindergartners or eighth graders students need to be able to understand what their objectives are, this also decreases the amount of misbehavior that comes with students who are confused by what their task is.  

This week in Kindergarten

    This has been a great week in Kindergarten!  After being sick for a few days the week before, I really missed being in the classroom with my students.  Since taking over the classroom, I have been planning and preparing for my lessons on a nightly basis.  Teaching goes far beyond the classroom.  What happens outside of the classroom is as important as what happens within.  Making yourself well versed in the academic language for your teaching and being prepared for the downtime and transitioning in my classroom makes our days run smoothly and helps me to ensure that my students are learning.
     In two weeks, I will experience my first parent-teacher conference as a student teacher.  I have been making notes about the students, and preparing portfolios to help my cooperating teacher speak with the parents about.  As a parent and as a instructional assistant parent-teacher conferences can be daunting.  As a parent, you pray that your children are not only doing well academically, but are also doing well socially and behaviorally.  As an assistant, I was always the 'back-up' of the opinions that the teacher has about the students.  As a teacher, you want parents to know their child's successes, challenges and next steps.  The students in my classroom are great, and I hope that each parent comes away with that.

First Classroom Field Trip

     This week we took our very first classroom trip.  We visited Bengston's pumpkin patch and together the cooperating teacher and myself wrangled twenty students.  The students had built up so much anxiety and excitement surrounding the visit.  We had one student that cried daily for two weeks because he was so afraid to go on a field trip without a parent, while another student cried daily because her parent would not allow her to go.  I think that field trips are a great way for students not only to build social skills but also to be able to assert some interdependence outside of the classroom.  As teachers, we many times strive to plan each minute of each day.  This, in fact, is a sign of a great teacher.  Field trips give students the chance to show their personalities, to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations.  I noticed how students asked thoughtful questions about animals, they made connections to some of the processes of apple picking and preparing.  I was so proud of my students, and excited to see them in action on future field trips.

PERA

This week I attended a professional development on ways to use formative assessment.  PERA, which stands for performance evaluation reform act, is the new evaluation system that Illinois uses to evaluate teacher and principal performance.  On Thursday, the teachers came together to discuss what assessments would be used to gauge student growth.  As they gauged which assessment tools would most effectively determine student success, they also determined which tool would best determine the effectiveness of their teaching practices.  We talked about how subjective student success can be. They worried that their teaching would be unfairly judged.  Assessing student growth is imperative, but as I watched this group of excellent teachers second guess whether their teaching would be 'enough' to satisfy the evaluation, I realized that teaching is a lifelong commitment to self reflection.  There will be times that our best, may not be good enough.  There will be days where the failures may outgrow the successes.  I believe in my future students, and I will be committed to reflect on my teaching consistently and in a way that will help my students learn.

Kindergarten Pumpkin

     This week I chose and decorated the theme for our classroom pumpkin. My class has been reading the book, Fly Guy for a few weeks, so I decided that we should make a Fly Guy themed pumpkin.  The students absolutely loved planning for, decorating, and talking about the classroom pumpkin.  I think that it is really important to include activities that help build community in the classroom.  I really saw how this activity helped students talk to each other about their likes and dislikes, and engage in discourse about the things that are going on in our classroom.
     Last Thursday, I began teaching for almost the whole day.  I think the hardest part has been gauging the student learning.  I have been really utilizing formative assessments constantly to make sure that my students are learning content.  It is also amazing how quickly the day goes by when you are teaching for the entire day.  It is extremely difficult to fit in all of the activities that we've planned, but we try to get to everything  before the week ends.  

Teaching my way into a new season

It is amazing to see that we have already made it to October!  The amount of time that I spend teaching has increased, as well as my responsibilities in the classroom.  The transition has been great, but at times I can tell that it is hard for students  to adjust to the change.  I think that because of this, it forces me to find a style of teaching that feels most comfortable for me and not mimic the style of my cooperating teacher.  When I teach lessons that include elements that I have created, it always seems to be more successful than those that I am teaching solely from the lesson plan.  

     It has been challenging to work on my EDTpa, lesson plans, and keeping up with all of the responsibilities of being a teacher.  As I go through each task for EDTpa, I have tried to not only be reflective on the mini-unit that I filmed, but also on my teaching as a whole. I thought about how the strategies and philosophies of teaching can be implemented in an effective way in the way that I teach every day.  I think that it will be most important to remember that these strategies are not just vague concepts that we have learned about in books, but best teaching practices that we use to help our students learn.  

School Culture

     Last Friday our school had their first school improvement day of the year.  The students were released at noon, and the principal held a meeting for the entire staff.  It was interesting to see the camaraderie amongst the staff.  Each month three teachers take on the task of hosting lunch for the day.  As the teachers ate and talked they discussed the needs of their students, the challenges that they faced in class and problem solved solutions.  I have attended many schools in service days, but it was interesting to see the dynamics in a different school.  I found the teachers here at Kimberley Heights very supportive of each other.  I also think the Principal does a great job of maintaining the needs of the school, while still encouraging each teacher’s style of teaching.  I also enjoy how the school incorporates the community in school activities.  The neighborhood fire chief is retiring and the school rallied together to have all of the students sign a huge banner and surprised the chief with cake and ice cream.  It was a great way to show students how to have respect for authority figures, instill pride for community, and rally around an important community figure.

Routines, Routines, Routines

      The most important thing that my kindergarten friends learn this year, I believe, is learning how we learn.  They learn how to investigate, how to question and how to manipulate to find answers.  The beginning of the the school year has been almost completely dedicated to routines and norms.  We are teaching kids how to navigate in this new environment.  Learning how to navigate, for me means that as a teacher I need to give as many details as possible when instructing my students.  I can not just tell my students to cut out a picture, I need to tell them in exactly what way and how to cut the picture out.  This can be challenging, but so rewarding as you see the children start to learn how to do things independently.  We have been in school for sixteen days, it is amazing to see how they have gone from needing to be told how to open their folders and empty papers in the morning, to now watching them come in, take homework to the homework bucket and check in for the day.
     As I enter into this coming week feeling hopeful about my edTPA taping, I wonder how graders will take into consideration that most of what we are currently teaching are the important routines that it takes for a five year old to navigate kindergarten.  Our students are still learning to sit appropriately on the carper and to transition from one station to another.  These things take time to learn, and I hope that our graders will be gracious in knowing that this is still extremely early in the year.  I hope that they know that our students are learning so much everyday, and on top of these things those very important social behaviors that are necessary for kindergarten.

Little People with Big Stories

          This week in Kindergarten was extremely eye opening!  I started each day by asking for God to grant me wisdom and help take away my fear and nervousness because I knew that it was not of Him. Each day I found myself growing more confident in my abilities. I am blessed to have an extremely talented cooperating teacher and a great class of students.
     One issue that I encountered this week was my class of students being told that I was not a teacher.  My cooperating teacher wanted to explain the appearance of the camera in the classroom, so she explained to the students that I was a student learning to be a teacher.  I'd planned to explain to the students that the camera was there to take pictures of how we learn.  I worried that this would lessen my influence and authority in the classroom.  Since learning that I am a student, the children ask, multiple times a day, "Are you a teacher yet?"  I realized that the beauty of kindergarten is that they respond more openly to how you make them feel, than the words that you say.  They can not understand why I am not a teacher, because I feel like their teacher.  
     I am enjoying my experience in the classroom.  The students are bubbling with ideas that they want to share.  I have been trying different techniques to encourage students to share and also know when it is appropriate to listen.  We spent the entire week working on appropriate speaking and listening rules during literacy.  I also, as a teacher, know that their attention span can only be maintained for so long, before we need to move into activities that are interactive.  So this week I am working on engaging the students, limiting the amount of time that I am talking, and encouraging more student involvement.

Student Teaching: First Week in Review

     Entering student teaching has been one of the most fulfilling and gratifying milestones that I have accomplished in my educational career.  I have dreamed about this time and imagined the experience. While I am enjoying getting to know my cooperating teacher and the students, the experience has not been what I've imagined.  Being in the classroom for years as an assistant, I assumed that the transition into being a lead classroom teacher would be seamless.  It has been difficult leaving the mindset of  an assistant and crossing over into the more authoritarian role of teacher. I have always been confident and knowledgeable in the classroom.  I have always been able to be a great resource to my classroom teacher.  I am not comfortable with making decisions in the classroom currently, and I do not feel like I have the right to make decisions.
     I have so many new ideas and I am completely capable of taking control of the classroom, but I definitely do not feel as comfortable as I initially hoped.  The approach that my cooperating teacher and I have taken, is taking on one subject area and perfecting my teaching skills in that area before moving on to other responsibilities.  Right now, I am teaching reader's workshop.  This twenty minute time period allows me to try classroom management techniques and build relationships with the students while also working on the craft of teaching.  I am becoming more comfortable with teaching this segment as each day goes by and I am looking forward to reaching this level of comfort in all areas of the classroom.
     I feel extremely blessed to be working with such an experienced and gifted teacher.  I feel like there is so much that I can learn from her.  I think that there are times when I feel discouraged because I am not as amazing as my cooperating teacher.  She has given me a very high bar to reach, and I work daily to reach that bar.