Destiny Warner Student Teaching Reflections Week 02-11-13 Classes taught or assisted in this week: Opening, Daily Math

Review, math fact fluency, read aloud, essential question, guided reading groups, CGI math. Most satisfying experience: I really enjoy teaching reading and feel an immediate reward when teaching students in small groups or simply reading aloud. I also had two good small math groups where I could see a noticeable difference in student understanding before and after the group. It bolstered my confidence somewhat to know that I could teach math in an effective way even though I havent always been the best of math students. Teaching techniques that worked (Why?): Continuing to be explicit and using lots of non-verbal cues. Using the poem that ___________ provided to help students remember how to round. Teaching techniques that didnt work as expected (Why not?): While its fine to allow students to suggest multiple ways to solve problems during CGI and other math activities, it didnt work to try and show multiple ways to solve in a small group with students who were struggling. I ended up focusing on two, or even one, way to solve so that the students could really focus and get good at a particular method before moving on. Dont know that it would be appropriate for other groups, but this group needed less options. Targeted areas of improvement: Time management - need to keep track of time and make sure that the class is on schedule. Continuing to work on communication with _____________ and being more open with my emotions/thoughts. % of time spent in classroom: Observing - 30 Teaching - 30 Supervising - 30 Planning -5 Misc -5

Week 02-18-13 Classes taught or assisted in this week: Opening, Daily Math Review, math fact fluency, read aloud, essential question, guided reading groups, CGI math. Most satisfying experience:

I greatly enjoyed working with small groups on math this week. While it was frustrating at times, I liked knowing that I could help struggling students and make an improvement in their understanding of problem solving skills. I also loved reading the childrens reflections on their experiences seeing Kodo of Japan at the Civic Center. It was very rewarding to know that some of them had a moving cultural experience that they may not have had outside of school. Teaching techniques that worked (Why?): Continuing to be explicit in my questions and forming questions in a way that allowed them to think deeply about a specific literature question. Also, allowing students to be the teachers during CGI math. Some of the students payed more attention to their peers and seemed to get it after their friends taught the skill. Teaching techniques that didnt work as expected (Why not?): I wasnt sure that rewriting over my previous days pen pal letter would be a good example since there werent any mistakes in it, but the students ended up appreciating the editing of a good letter and it showed them that they needed to edit their work as well. Also, during a small group that focused on math I got frustrated because one of the students was not focusing and writing down random answers. I had to pull back for a moment and talk to the student to refocus the student and myself before going back to the material. Targeted areas of improvement: Time management - need to keep track of time and make sure that the class is on schedule. Continuing to work on communication with ________ being more open with my emotions/thoughts. % of time spent in classroom: Observing - 10 Teaching - 40 Supervising - 40 Planning -5 Misc -5

Week 02-25-13 Classes taught or assisted in this week: All in-class lessons other than specials. Most satisfying experience: This was my first week of bell-to-bell teaching. It was satisfying to know that I could do it effectively, especially in areas of reading. My favorite experience was large group reading because it is something that the students obviously enjoy and it makes me feel good to know that they are learning comprehension skills while being actively interested in something. I also enjoyed taking the children on a field trip to see a modern version of The Ugly Duckling at the

Civic Center. It was a unique cultural experience for the children that they greatly enjoyed and provided good material for them to write about. Teaching techniques that worked (Why?): Continuing to teach reading explicitly in small and large groups. Reading in these groups was a way of keeping them engaged and ensuring that the students were on progress to meeting standards. With math, providing problems and modeling but pushing peer-to-peer teaching during large group because this group seems especially inclined to learn from friends. Also, students seemed to greatly appreciate a word bank written on the board that includes words related to the topic of writing that they might want to use. Spent a lot less time focused on simple spelling questions and more time getting their thoughts down. Teaching techniques that didnt work as expected (Why not?): Sometimes modeling isnt the appropriate activity in writing. One of the times there was a writing assignment I modeled using my own thoughts on a topic and several of the students wrote down very similar thoughts even though I know they felt differently originally. Targeted areas of improvement: Continuing to work on communication with ________ and being more open with my emotions/thoughts. I am focusing on doing things how I feel that __________would like things done and using up as much time as possible for direct teaching. I am also focusing on managing students with special behavior needs and refocusing their behavior in a way that goes along with my philosophy of teaching as well as the schools. % of time spent in classroom: Observing -0 Teaching - 85 Supervising - 10 Planning -5 Misc -0

Week 03-04-13 Classes taught or assisted in this week: All in-class lessons other than specials. Most satisfying experience: This was my second week of bell-to-bell teaching. Reading and writing continues to be the most satisfying part of my teaching experience and shows me that I chose the correct career and endorsement area. I greatly enjoy seeing children love literature and develop interest in subject matter because of something we read in class. I also greatly enjoyed spending time with students at their conferences. Even if we didnt speak much during them, it was gratifying to see them feel good about the hard work they put into their education.

Teaching techniques that worked (Why?): Continuing to teach reading explicitly in small and large groups. In math, students seemed to appreciate coming up with their own problems for peers to solve when trying to memorize basic doubles problems within 20. Coming up with an appropriate problem as well as solving a peers problem enabled a bit of higher-order thinking instead of simple memorization. Teaching techniques that didnt work as expected (Why not?): There was an instance where a teacher within the school and I disagreed about my method of classroom management. I felt that the students were being quiet and appropriate but she felt that one of the students should not have been allowed up from his desk while she was holding a small group in one part of the classroom. At the time, I was not aware that she found this distracting. She came to me later and we talked. Even though we did not end up agreeing with one-another we did discuss it honestly and made amends to how we handled that group time later in the week. While stressful, it was a good for me to experience a professional disagreement and work with a fellow teacher to better work together. Targeted areas of improvement: Continuing to work on communication with _______ and being more open with my emotions/thoughts. I am focusing on doing things how I feel that _________would like things done and using up as much time as possible for direct teaching. I am also focusing on managing students with special behavior needs and refocusing their behavior in a way that goes along with my philosophy of teaching as well as the schools. Each of these are things that will be important to work on throughout my career and are things that I always need to be reflecting upon. % of time spent in classroom: Observing -0 Teaching - 85 Supervising - 10 Planning -5