Student Teacher Weekly Log

Jacey Gustafson

Week 1Feb. 1-5

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I started to take on more responsibilities in the classroom. I have been
introducing new morning greetings and warm-up activities that the whole class does
during the morning meeting. After the whole group math lesson my mentor teacher
conducts small group math lessons for varying abilities. I have started co-teaching with
my mentor teacher during these small math groups. I have also started to teach the small
reading group lessons. There are four groups that are different reading levels and they
range from 3 to 7 students at a time. In the afternoons I have been reading various books
about famous Americans for part of the Social Studies lessons.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenges?
The most satisfying experiences so far have been the moments where the students show
me that they are investing their love, trust, and belief in me as a teacher. I have built
relationships with all of the students so far, but there are a few who stand out. These are
the students who need a little extra attention and care from a trusted adult and these
relationships have helped immensely with classroom management and my expectations
of the students.
The greatest challenge from this week was working with a substitute teacher. My mentor
teacher has been great about involving me in making lesson plans for each day so I am
very aware of what is going on in the classroom each day. However, my mentor teacher
has pneumonia and she had a substitute teacher for Friday. I walked through the days
lessons with the substitute, gave her the substitute folder, and informed her of my
involvement in the daily classroom lessons. She was defensive when I wanted to teach
throughout the day, she told me that she is the DMPS employee and I am just an intern.
She was not interested in collaborating with me; she either did what she wanted without
listening to what I had to say or did nothing at all. She made me extremely uncomfortable
and unsure of my role in the classroom. The reading interventionist, who is in our
classroom everyday, saw the tension and alerted my mentor teacher of the substitute
teachers hostility and abrasiveness of towards me.
3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
Over the next week we will be starting a new math chapter on adding and subtracting
within 100, working with vowel pairs ai and ay, continuing with famous Americans,
and deciphering the authors purpose of a text. The best times to observe would be during
the math or reading small group times that I have taken on the most responsibility for
teaching content. Math groups take place between 9:25-10:10 each day, and reading
groups take place between 10:55-12:15 each day. Since my mentor teacher was absent on
Friday we do not have all of next weeks lessons ironed out completely.

Student Teacher Weekly Log

Jacey Gustafson

Week 2Feb. 8-12

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week started off with another substitute teacher on Monday. I took on the bulk of the
responsibilities for the entire day on Monday. The rest of the week I was responsible for
the majority of the morning and social studies in the afternoon. I have been the teacher in
charge for those times and my mentor teacher was there to periodically step in as need be
throughout the lessons. I feel like I am getting more comfortable with teaching the
majority of the days lessons, however, I am extremely glad to have my mentor teacher
right by my side helping me out when necessary.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenges?
The most satisfying part of this week was Monday since there was a substitute in the
classroom with me again. After my substitute experience last week, I was anxious for the
experience I was going to have on Monday. The substitute was a retired teacher who used
to work at Madison Elementary School, so she was well known throughout the school
and she was familiar with the school routines. She was extremely encouraging, helpful,
and confident in my abilities as a teacher. She started the day off by telling me the day
was my show and she was there to help me when I needed it. She told me numerous
times that I was doing a fantastic job with the kids and helped out when I needed it the
most. I was happy to have this experience with a great substitute because last week left
me feeling uncertain about my role in the classroom as a student teacher. This substitute
helped me build my confidence, classroom management skills, and gave me hope and
inspiration. The day went flawlessly and I was proud to have persevered with another
substitute teacher.
This week my greatest challenge was time management in the classroom. I dont know
how Miss Walker does it, but she is able to zip through lessons during the allotted time
and she always knows when it is time to move on to the next lesson. Since I was taking
on more of the teaching, I found it difficult to keep an eye on the clock while trying to get
through the lessons we had planned while also keeping the class engaged and on track. I
think it will just take time for me to adjust to the upbeat pace of the schedule for our
classroom. It is amazing how much material we go through on a daily basis and in such
short blocks of time.
3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
This upcoming week we will be working with long o sounds versus short o sounds in
phonics. In our comprehension lessons this week we are focusing on text features, main
idea, and supporting details. In writers workshop we are working on making How to
books. We are continuing social studies with famous Americans. This would be a good
time to observe because I am doing a lot of the teaching with this subject. We will be
learning about Colin Powell, Susan McKinney Steward, George Washington Carver, and
Betsy Ross this week. Social studies is from 1:15-1:50 every day except for Wednesday.

Student Teacher Weekly Log

Jacey Gustafson

Week 3Feb. 15-19, 2016

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I was predominantly teaching all day. There were times when my mentor
teacher would jump in to provide guidance and support, redirect students, help manage
disruptive behavior, and help with time management. I was in charge of the morning
meeting, Go Math, math small groups, comprehension, phonics, reading small groups,
social studies, writing workshop, planning for upcoming lessons, curriculum meetings,
and helping with conference preparations. This week seemed to fly by because I took
charge of the full school days.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenges?
The most satisfying experience this week took place while I was talking to my mentor
teacher and another grade level teacher. Both teachers were complimenting my
competence and success in the classroom and they told me they would both really like to
work with me in the future. The teachers then told me that there is a second grade
teaching position that is opening up in the building for next year, and that they would
love it if I were the person who got hired for the position. I was overjoyed when I heard
both of them saying this to me because I think that is the biggest compliment that you can
get from your mentor teacher and coworkers. My mentor teacher even went to talk to the
principal to let him know that she thinks I would be a great fit for the position.
My greatest challenge during student teaching this week was dealing with undesired
behaviors in the classroom. I am not sure why, but the students have been having
difficulties getting along this past week. There were several bullying instances that
occurred and I wasnt exactly sure how to handle each situation. My mentor teacher told
me that there are usually behavior issues every year in February because it has been
awhile since they had a break from school. Another tough experience was when a child
got left at school. His siblings forgot to pick him up on their way home, so my little
friend was really sad that he had been forgotten. So, we went to the office to call his
parents; this student had his parents contact phone number memorizedbut the number
had been disconnected. The office did not have any other contact numbers for this child,
so my mentor teacher walked the student home. This was really eye opening to me
because it showed me just how far above and beyond my mentor teacher is willing to go
for her students. I thought that was amazing that she cared so much to go to those lengths
for her student. This is yet another reason why my mentor teacher is, indeed, my mentor.
3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
This coming week I will be teaching my first week of bell-to-bell. The best time to
observe would be during a comprehension lesson or a phonics lesson. Monday and
Tuesday these lessons will take place between 10:15am-10:55am; either day would be
ideal. Or, Monday afternoon from 1:15-1:50pm is when I will be finishing up the lesson
about character traits about a friend in class. Also happening this week, I have my mock
interview scheduled with the principal for Monday after school.

Student Teacher Weekly Log

Jacey Gustafson

Week 4Feb. 22-26, 2016

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I spent my time teaching bell-to-bell. While I was teaching this week my
mentor teacher tried to spend most of her time working in the hallway just outside of the
classroom. She decided to do this so that the students would realize I was the teacher in
charge and they would direct all of the questions and attention to me instead of going to
her for extra help. This helped to put all of the daily classroom responsibilities on me
instead of my mentor teacher. I have been planning all of the components for each day,
too. We also had conferences this week. I was at conferences all of Wednesday night and
part of Thursday night. My role at conferences was to pretty much just observing how
conferences work and how the roles of ELL teachers, interventionists, special education
teachers, principal, and classroom teacher all work together to communicate the progress
of each student to his/her parents, guardians, and families.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenges?
The most satisfying experience for me this week was watching my mentor teacher deliver
great news to parents about their childs progress. There were a few conferences where
the student has made significant progress in reading, math, speaking, and responsibility.
Seeing my mentor teacher deliver this great news to the family was extremely touching.
The family was very supportive of the teacher and wanted the best for their child, so they
worked hard with their child to help him progress in school. I could tell that the family
was overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness due to the hard work the teacher, student,
and family had put forth in order to see these results. The family was nearly in tears of
happiness because of the positive progression of their child. This experience made me
realize that one day I will be the teacher who is giving a family a raving review of a
childs progress in school; that is a really good feeling to look forward to.
One of the greatest challenges this week was realizing that some parents dont have the
time, interest, or investment in their child that should be there. There were a few
instances where the parents did not show up to conferences, for various reasons, and it
made me realize that this will be a very challenging part of the teaching profession. The
kids want to do their best and be in school, but the parents are a whole different deck of
cards. As a teacher, you cannot make a parent attend a conference or do something they
are not interested in doing. It was sad to realize that some parents do not value the
conferences and are not willing to help their child grow educationally. Also, there was
some blatant disrespect shown towards my mentor teacher by parents, which was difficult
to acknowledge because I assumed all parents would be on board with the teacher and
want to support their childrens education and growth.
3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
Again this week I am teaching full-time. The best times to observe would be Tuesday or
Wednesday during our math lesson from 9:15am-10:00am. My mentor teacher will not
be at school on Tuesday, however.