I can’t believe that I have already completed
5 weeks of my student teaching experience. I only have 3 more weeks to finish
up my current student teaching adventure and I begin my student teaching
adventure in Kindergarten. I am looking forward to the experiences that I will
have during my second part of my student teaching.
Since I have been at my school for 5
weeks I am starting to get to know different staff members, not just the ones
that I work with on a daily basis. Each day I feel more like part of the staff
family, than just a guest. I have only attended one staff meeting and that was
at January’s staff development day. I am looking forward to my next staff
meeting at the upcoming staff development day, because the staff meetings are
more of a motivational meeting than a staff meeting. It is all about how we can
increase the success of our students, than the teachers.
The principal is a sweetheart. She
is always around the campus doing something or meeting with someone than just
sitting in her office delegating projects or things to someone else. Each time
I see her, she says, “Hey Heather, how are you?” The principal also tells me
what a fabulous job I am doing.
The school’s Special Education
facilitator is pleased with the work I am doing. In a recent email, I received
from her this week she stated that I have made an excellent impression so far
and that she has been talking me up to every admin that she works with. She
even went as far as to say that maybe I will end up at one of the schools she
services.
Staff relationships are related to
the Professional Responsibilities domain, because one of the components in is
participating in a professional community. An element of that component is
relationships with colleagues. To demonstrate a proficient level of
performance, relationships with colleagues are characterized by mutual support
and cooperation and to demonstrate a distinguished level of performance,
relationships with colleagues are characterized by mutual support and
cooperation and the teacher should take initiative in assuming leadership among
the faculty.
Once again I had some great
experiences this week. I assisted my cooperating teacher with her color guard
practices on Monday and Wednesday. The girls on the color guard team are becoming
really talented. On Monday following color guard practice I attended a
parent-teacher conference to discuss a student’s behavior at school and to
discuss the next steps so that his mother and teachers are on the same page. Valentine’s
Day was an interesting day because not only was it an exciting holiday, but it
was also a JiJi/Study Island Holiday. Students were able to spend the day
working towards 100% completion on ST Math and if they have completed JiJi they
got to work on Study Island.
I had the opportunity to teach a
math review lesson to 2nd grade on Valentine’s Day. My lesson was
the last and final academic lesson they had before they got to celebrate
Valentine’s Day at their class party. My college supervisor said that I did I great job
considering the holiday atmosphere of the classroom. I am looking forward to my
next observation coming soon. With each observation, I am gaining experience
and increase my teaching abilities.
I started working on the IEP I am
writing for that 4th grader I tested. The best place to start when
writing and IEP is with the student’s present levels, basically what can the
student do, what does the student struggle with and what can the instructional
staff do to help this student be successful.
On Friday, my cooperating teacher
was absent. She had a sub and I basically instructed the sub on what to do. I
had the opportunity to work an Autistic Kindergartener who was just found
eligible for a special kids program. I went to art with him, because he doesn’t
have the skills to be successful in the general education classroom without
assistance. His IEP kicks in this week and he will be taken out of the general
education classroom and he will attend the special kids program to get the
support and services that he needs. I
had the opportunity to collect some duration and frequency data for a student
and then add that data to the student’s data chart. I also sent that
information home and I also sent a daily email home to a student’s parents as
outlined in her BIP, to inform the parents of how the student’s day went in
terms of her focus.
I am looking forward to this coming
week. I am doing my Staff Development Day training on Tuesday. I will be
finishing up the IEP and making sure that everything is ready to go for the
student’s Annual Review IEP meeting on March 2. I will also be scheduling my
third and final Special Education observation with my college supervisor. I can’t wait to
see what experiences are in store for me in the coming weeks.
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