WEEK ONE:

This week was my first week of student teaching. I started my first day off with
observing. I was in this classroom for my first 6 weeks, so I am familiar with the daily schedule
as well as with the students. I started teaching my second day, I co-planned a lesson with the
cooperating teacher as well as the curriculum used for Everyday Math. I taught a 30-minute
Everyday Math lesson. I taught Wednesday and Thursday as well. I also jumped right into doing
read aloud. During read aloud the students do a cursive page and I walk around and read our
chapter book before they line up for lunch/recess.
In reflection, I want to be better at my time management and pacing with the math
lessons. I have about 30 minutes each day to complete the lesson. On Thursday, when I taught
the math lesson I wanted to come back after independent work time as a whole class and go
through some problems that I saw students struggling with. I did not pull the students back into
the classroom when I should have, therefore, we did not have enough time to get back together
as a whole class.
During these 10-weeks of student teaching I want to be better at looking at the positives
that I do as a learning student as well as positives in general. After meeting with my last
supervisor Bryan Matera, we both reflected and felt that something that I needed to work on was
to look for specific things that I did that I think is positive. This week, I did a good job of
teaching in a more natural way and less of a rehearsed way. I did a good job of not spending so
much time working on rehearsing and scripting everything out in the lesson. I learned to balance,
between school/work and life. This week there was a lot of positives for the
classroom/students/team in general. For one, I got to come back to the classroom, and I really
missed the students, I was excited to see them! I was able to jump right into teaching and my CT
and I discussed some things I wanted to work on in these 10-weeks and some things we were
looking forward to. I was able to join the team in a morning staff meeting. We set some goals
and a plan to achieve them, I also started to plan my edTPA and we scheduled when I was going
to start it. Week one was a great week, and I cannot wait for week two!

WEEK TWO:

This week was my second week of student teaching, it went great. On Monday, my
cooperating teacher decided to teach the morning math lesson because it was a two-day lesson
that he wanted to finish. I did read aloud, and we finished our last book, so we started a new
book called “The Hundred Dresses”. It is about bullying, and we are hoping this book will bring
awareness to our students. This week was our first staff meeting since I have started this session
of student teaching. The equity team presented a slide show and then we discussed the changes
that are in place and may be happening soon for our students and school building.
In planning, my cooperating teacher has handed Everyday Math, C.I.A and read aloud to
me. Everyday Math lessons are co-planned with curriculum. I take this curriculum home every
day and review my lesson plan before the students get to school. With these lessons, sometimes
following the curriculum exactly does the students more harm than good. For example, the
curriculum may have the lesson set up in a way where the students do all math pages
independently, but if I am teaching and the students seem like they are not understanding what is
being taught, we will stay as a whole class for parts or all the math pages.
 One of my goals is to try to do something new every week. One of the things that I
wanted to try was having the students hand me their Everyday Math journal after the lesson and I
have been recording it as data to have. In doing this, it has helped me to pinpoint some areas that
each of the students need work on. It helps give me a better idea of what struggles they may face
in the lesson I am or did teach. I have also found a small group of students that really benefit and
learn better in a small group setting.
This week there were lots of positives. The first positive that I want to focus on is that I
tried something new. Trying new things is nerve-wracking to me, but I am trying my best to try
one new thing each week. The new thing that I tried was “voting with your feet”. In our C.I.A
lesson, we had to decide whether the topic we were focusing on had a positive or negative impact
on the environment and people. The way we did it was, I read off a piece of evidence that we
had collected, and they chose a corner of the room to walk to. One corner was “negative” the
other corner was “positive”. The students walked to a corner of the room and then I chose a
couple students to share why they chose that corner. Another positive this week was that my
cooperating teacher gave me another subject to teach. It truly has been such a smooth transition
from little to more responsibilities, my cooperating teacher has been so helpful, and the students
have responded well to having me teach. The last positive that I would like to focus on is how I
have been working on being more flexible while I am teaching a lesson. I am learning that
sometimes you have a lesson all planned out and it totally goes a different way, or your students
just need something different. I am a planner so thinking of different things to do within a lesson
is very nerve-wracking for me, but I really am working on being more flexible so that I can meet
the needs of my students. Week two was a great week and I cannot wait for week three!

WEEK THREE:

This week was my third week of student teaching, it was a great week! I started Monday
by adding a new responsibility. My teacher and I felt that I was ready to start teaching writing. In
writing, they had just finished a book, so I started the final project with them. For this project,
they got to pick a planet and write a paper on it. They started by reading books about their planet,
they pulled evidence from the text, and then they wrote specific details about their planet in a
bubble chart. After they finished their bubble chart, they wrote a topic sentence and closing
sentence. They finished their writing project by putting everything together in a final paper.
This week was also our last week before our 15-day break, because break was coming up
the students were a lot more energetic and distracted this week. My cooperating teacher and I
really wanted them to have fun and enjoy their last week, but we also needed to get a lot done. It
was very important for us to keep a positive learning environment during this chaotic week. This
week we knew the students were going to be very excited and energetic so on Monday we were
very strict in keeping classroom expectations and being on top of rewarding good behavior as
well as following through with consequences from poor behavior. At the end of the week, on
Friday, the students cleaned out their desk drawers, supply tub, and locker. I helped a student
who struggles with organizing and keeping his space clean during this time. When the students
were cleaning it was a very structured time, we dismissed by table to clean out lockers. We
prepared a new seating chart for them, so after they cleaned their spaces, we moved them to their
new seat, and they got to sit there for the remainder of Friday. While the students cleaned their
space, the classroom teacher and I also cleaned up the classroom and got the materials we need
for next quarter prepared for when we come back.
 This week there were a lot of positives. My favorite day this week was Friday, we
dressed up in a festive/ugly sweater, we started off the day with a staff meeting, and then we
started our Friday fun day. We had a holiday/end of quarter party, we watched Matilda, played
games, and ate snacks. It was such a fun end to the quarter, and it was so fun to hang out with the
students! I am going to miss the students so much during break, I can’t wait to come back!

WEEK FOUR:

This week was our first week back from our 3-week break. It was a great week. I was
excited to come back, I missed the students so much. Each week I try to add on more
responsibility. After discussing with my cooperating teacher, we decided that doing small things
such as transitions from one subject to the other or taking the students from one location to
another would be a good responsibility for me to add on. In taking on transitions times and
leading the whole class in the hallways, it seems to be smoother when I am teaching lessons. For
example, I am teaching C.I.A and then right after I am leading the students into their daily math
game, it has been smoother for me to end C.I.A and then transition into the math game instead of
my cooperating teacher ending C.I.A.
On Tuesday, we started off the week with a PBIS meeting. We talked about the use of
our discipline words such as detention and how that has now been changed to a “fix-it”. The
team discussed the positives and negatives to changing the wording. We discussed when we are
having the most behaviors throughout the week and what we can do during those times to
hopefully change that, as well as how we can make sure all the staff are on the same page
discipline wise. It was a good discussion and there was a lot of good points said by all teachers
and specialists. On Wednesday, I had to leave early because we had a classroom management
seminar. The seminar went well, and I learned about a lot of new activities that I am excited to
implement into instruction. Friday staff had the option to be a part of a calendar meeting to
discuss what was happening and next steps with the discussion of Minnesota getting rid of the
45-15 calendar for our school. I can tell a lot of staff are frustrated and stressed but we seem to
have a good plan into place to make the best decision for the families of Longfellow.
In reflection, this week I have tried to work better at working during working hours and
not bringing my work home. My cooperating teacher and multiple instructors have talked about
the importance of being prepared but also having a good balance between work and home time.
Starting to do small details throughout the day such as transitions has prepared me well to
hopefully start teaching half-time in week five. Week five is coming up, I cannot believe that I
am already halfway through my 10-week placement. I am excited for what is to come!