Fitzpatrick Student Teaching Blog Week #2

Let the fun begin! I can tell the students getting comfortable with me leading the classroom, as they are beginning to let their true personalities come out. While I am loving the opportunity to get to know the students on a more personal basis, I am also beginning to notice the cracks in my teaching style when it comes to attitude management. My cooperating teacher has said multiple times that I am fantastic with my first and second-grade classes. I know when to get them excited and let them be fun and silly, and I know how to get them to relax and calm them down when necessary. For example, on Thursday we held a Summative Assessment of basketball. However, doe differentiated instruction, as mentioned in Standard 3, the cooperating teacher and I collaborated together to create an assessment more compatible for 1^st and 2^nd graders than the older groups. This resulted in an assessment with fewer questions and less needed class time to complete. As a result, I accidentally ended class 10 minutes earlier than necessary and had to improvise with an extra instant activity to pass the time. Because I had already calmed them through reflection, then revamped them through the instant activity, I needed to calm them another way. My cooperating teacher commended how I took it upon myself to have them sit in their lineup spot and sat with them as I had them take deep breaths to relax them. However, the teacher says I need to learn to be more stern with the older kids. I have noticed this week, as my cooperating teacher has pointed out, that I allow too many warnings to multiple offenders, and I need to get more strict. This is interesting to me because, throughout my classroom experience at Trinity, I feel I was always taught to be more positive toward the students. However, watching my cooperating teacher act in a more authoritative manner earlier today (Friday) to aid in settling a rowdy 4th-grade class, I was able to acknowledge that there is a fine line between being positive, and letting the students control the situation. It is possible to be strict without being condemning. She also pointed out that some students, as in the one she was stern to, needs that type of personality to get him to obey.

I was thinking about this fact the other night and I realized something: I have been a substitute so long in the district that the students do not know me as a teacher, but rather as a sub. My goal to aid my teaching ability and ability to manage my classroom are to do something I have ceased to do thus far – express MY classroom expectations to the students, not just adhere to my cooperating teacher’s expectations.

In the classroom this week I succeeded in my goal of incorporating more personalized lesson plans in the curriculum. On Monday I introduced the basketball layup, set shot and jump shot. I incorporated my own game in which the students did not seem to enjoy. As much as it stunk thinking I cannot relate to the kids, my cooperating teacher acknowledged the fact that there will be many times in my professional career that I will create plans that will just BOMB in the classroom. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I assessed the students on their shooting ability by playing a game of mine called “Make it, Take it” which the students absolutely loved! This positivity really opened up my students, as they were open to talk and express their enjoyment verbally to me. On top of that game, I also incorporated two instant activity games to get my classes moving within the first two minutes of class. Both of which were very accepted by the kids.

Outside of the classroom, I have begun tutoring 3rd-grade students in Math and Language Arts during my PLAN time through the school’s WIN (What I Need) program every Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday. This is providing me with a great opportunity to get to know these students on a more personal basis with the ability to talk to them without having to keep them active in the classroom. I also encountered my first teacher institute on Friday in which the district’s K-4 PE teachers discussed what the District’s PE Power Standards should be/are, and to what the depth of knowledge of each power standard holds. It was a fantastic experience to interact with other physical educators from around the district, and adapt their insight into my educational philosophy, and what to stay FAR away from! I also have come to notice that, while I have learned a lot through school about standards and content area learning objectives, there is still a plethora of information left to learn before I can consider myself a truly competent teacher. However, at the institute, I was humbled and gratified when my cooperating teacher thanked me in front of the other teachers for being willing and able to hold my own ground in her classroom that she feels comfortable enough to let me run it and allow her to get her own work completed. Apparently, this is quite an accomplishment as I have been told by the other district teachers.

On Thursday, as noted before, in relation to Standard 7 – Assessment – The cooperating teacher and I distributed our basketball Summative assessment to the students, then graded them and compared them to the pre-assessment completed prior to the 1^st unit lesson to gauge the students’ level of content knowledge in the subject achieved throughout the unit. We are pleased to acknowledge that the students have achieved and surpassed our goal of increasing 28 percentage points to an average of 75%, reaching an overall average of approximately 85% thus far, with a handful of assessments left to incorporate.

Overall, this week was more challenging than last week, but I feel that through experience and observation, I have gained a stronger understanding of my own teaching ability, and what I need to do to continue improving.

Along with my goal of incorporating my expectations, I also help to include more technology in the form of GIFs and downloadable games for warm-ups and instant activities