Emili Lopez

Week of 1/30-2/3

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I felt more comfortable in the classroom. My mentor teacher's child was sick
and she actually missed half of Monday, all of Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. So to say
that I was actually thrown into teaching is an understatement. During this time, we had
substitutes that did not know much of what they were supposed to teach, but I felt I was
prepared and I took over during most days. I was a little nervous because I was
supposed to teach my first math and social studies lessons Monday, but since my
mentor teacher was gone I knew I would not have feedback if needed. The math lesson
and social studies lessons went great and students were able to grasp the content. The
social studies lesson was planned with the rest of the second grade teachers, and the
content was a lot for the students to take in in such a short amount of time. We did
power through it though. I did not have my mentor teacher in the room to give feedback,
but it was a learning experience.

My responsibilities this week included: starting the morning work, leading the afternoon
meeting, taking over and beginning a new biography unit in social studies, taking over
for math, teaching our writing unit on fairytales, taking over with transition times, met
with a guided reading group for 3 days, and started learning how to take over for word
work. I also have started writing the objectives for each day and checking daily
homework in.

What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging?
My most rewarding experience this week was when I taught social studies on Tuesday
and figured out it was way too much for the students to learn, so I changed our lesson
for Wednesday and it went so much better. By Thursday's lesson, I was feeling very
confident and was asking higher-level thinking questions to help students make deeper
connections.

The most challenging experience is a student that is constantly needed reminded to get
started on his work or to keep working. Whenever I talk with him, he seems like he
wants to cry. It literally breaks my heart and I have been talking with the other teachers
about him. Since my mentor teacher has been gone, it has been hard for me to talk with
her about him. I did speak with her this weekend and she has discussed how sad he is
with his parents before, but nothing has been done. He is on a waiting list to see the
school psychologist and also the counselor is coming to speak with him this week so I
am hoping something can come from that. He seems sad and says he has no friends
and no one likes him. It is hard for me to help him, when I am not sure what to do. I am
hoping he gets the help he needs or the counselor has some answers this week.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

My goals for this week are to continue teaching social studies, math, writing, and to start
taking over with word work. I will probably be taking over with guided reading and the
reading focus lessons as we go on. I am excited that my mentor teacher will be back
and hope to learn more this week.

Emili Lopez
Week of 2/6-2/10

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?

This week I continued teaching in the afternoons. I continued with my biography unit for
social studies, and finishing our unit 5 in math. I taught students how to begin to
research a person in history of their choice, as well as supervising an end of the unit
math test. I graded math assessments, used formative assessments in my guided
reading groups, and continued with transitions and afternoon meetings.

What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging?
This week, my most rewarding experiences were when I graded my math assessments.
All the students did very well and were using the diagrams we learned and strategies I
taught them this week. This was very rewarding to watch students understand a
concept I taught.

The most challenging experiences were some classroom management issues. The
students seem to want to talk and not listen whenever my cooperating teacher leaves
the room, and this is very frustrating. I have been having students move their numbers
which is a behavior chart and my cooperating teacher even had to call three of their
mothers. This was challenging for me because it made me feel bad because they got in
trouble and some cried. I did not want that to happen, but I guess I have to have them
take me seriously. I talked with my teacher and I am going to start pointing out good
behavior and letting those students pick treats from the treat jar to help promote positive
behavior this week.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

My goals for this week are to work on my classroom management. I want transitions to
be quieter as well as strengthen my ability to manage the classroom voice level and
promote positive behavior.

Emili Lopez
Week of 2/13-2/17

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I continued managing social studies, math, and began our new Lucy Calkins
writing unit. We finished our biography unit that I started in social studies, and we
started a new math unit. My responsibilities included transitions to and from specials,
getting students in the appropriate groups for word work, getting the morning moments
put up on the board, and I also started meeting with 3 guided reading groups per day.

I am starting a health unit next week and I have also been planning out my daily lessons
for that, which has been challenging but also helpful because I have support and free
reign on how I want to teach it.

What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging?
My most rewarding and challenging experience this week were when the students
responded to my classroom management technique of being more firm and increasing
my wait times until they were quiet. My cooperating teacher had let me know that in
order to manage the class, I needed to continually stop teaching if there were students
talking in order to let them know I was in charge and I did not allow side talking while
instructing. It was hard to know when to stop teaching and when to ignore little side
conversations, but I feel like this week I practiced each day and got better and noticing
my problems with this. Students seemed to respond and were talking less by the end of
the week. My cooperating teacher had told me that she thought I was doing well and the
students were responding to my classroom management.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

My goals for next week are to continue with being firm in my instruction, but to smile
more and try to incorporate firm, but friendly instruction. I feel that it is challenging to try
to smile, but mean business so I want to work very hard at this throughout these next
few weeks. I also have been planning a health unit for the next four weeks and I plan to
have all my plans done on our teacher work day Monday.

Emili Lopez
Week of 2/20-2/24

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week I continued teaching writing, we started our new health unit that I
planned and wrote out for all teachers on our team, continued with math, 3
guided reading groups, and all transitions. Since I started with writing, the only
other subject for me to take over is the reading focus lessons. I started managing
the classroom while I am teaching my 3 guided reading groups and it has been
going well.

What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging?
My most rewarding experience this week was teaching a new math strategy of
comparison diagrams and the students choosing to use that method when
solving number problems with difference in them.
My most challenging experience was when we had a student who climbed under
her desk and would not come out. She was disrupting the class while my mentor
teacher was teaching her reading focus lesson. I tried quietly asking her to come
out of the table, but she just kept being more disruptive so I left her. After my
mentor teacher was done teaching, she tried to get her to come out from under
the table as well, but couldnt. We ended up calling down the assistant principal
to get her out and she immediately came out from under the table and took a
break in the hall. She did scream and yell and cry and cause a big disruption, but
it was a good experience for me to have.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

My goals for next week are to be more prepared with my lessons and try not to
use my lesson plans so much while teaching. I want to be able to talk with
students and know what I am supposed to do next, and not always have to have
my plans in front of me. I am working on reading my plans numerous times
before I start so that I can be the best teacher possible for my students.

Emili Lopez
Week of 2/27-3/3

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
Last week, I spent my time teaching the rest of our math unit, as we are taking
our unit test this week. My mentor teacher was gone for one afternoon and then
again on Friday, so when there was a substitute I took over the class. It was good
practice to have the classroom to myself and I really worked on my classroom
management. I continued teaching math, science (health), writing, all transitions,
morning and word work, and then took on taking attendance and lunch count
online each morning. We also had conferences and that was a great experience
and I learned a lot about how to relay strengths and concerns to parents.

What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging? My
most rewarding experience last week was taking part in conferences and being
able to inform parents how well their children are doing in class. It was great to
be able to meet the parents of our students and to let them know how much of a
joy they are in class. It was amazing to speak to most of them. My most
challenging experience was probably a conference with one of our students who
is constantly sad and depressed. It was heartbreaking to speak about how sad
that student is and how he sometimes says depressing comments about how he
has no friends. We had the counselor in our conference and we talked about how
things are better this week, but that overall his comments and behavior is not
normal for a second grader. My concern is that mom will continue to brush it off
and not seek help from a professional because he is doing well as of last week.
She seems to say, well I thought things were going better, and then she doesn't
seek help. I know that she has an appointment with the school psychologist, but
that is in a few weeks.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

My plans for this coming week are to continue taking over most of the day, as
when we come back from spring break I am going to full-time teach for four
weeks. I also want to work on managing the class during guided reading groups.
to get her out and she immediately came out from under the table and took a
break in the hall. She did scream and yell and cry and cause a big disruption, but
it was a good experience for me to have.

Emili Lopez
Weekly Log 3/6-3/9

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week, I spent my time introducing the 5 major body systems in health,
finishing up our math unit and giving our end of the unit assessment, continued
with our Lucy Calkins writing curriculum, finished workwork, and all transition
times.

During math, we have been learning about regrouping and partial sums addition-
I had planned a review day before our test and it was well needed. I formatively
assessed students with a regrouping worksheet and found out a few were getting
the concept, but most were having trouble. My mentor teacher and I decided to
teach a Nearpod on regrouping to explain this concept more. After this lesson,
they all seemed to understand the basics of regrouping and all did wonderful on
their test the following day.

In Health, we had a guest speaker from HyVee come in and talk about healthy
eating and introduced a lot of different and unusual fruits and vegetables. The
students really enjoyed this and it was a nice break from our daily routine.
What were your most rewarding experiences? What was most challenging?
My most rewarding experience this week was when I graded our math tests. I
was able to evaluate how my instruction worked or did not work with my students
and what they learned over this unit. I loved being able to see their growth and
see them practice and understand something very new to them. It was very
rewarding to see them take an idea I introduced, practiced, and assessed them
on.

The most challenging experience this week was trying to figure out how to help
my students grasp regrouping. Some of the students were forgetting to pay
attention to the correct place values, and others were forgetting to add in the
number they regrouped. When conferencing with my mentor teacher, she
suggested a Nearpod because it was technology based and allowed for students
to stay actively engaged in their learning. This really seemed to help keep
students on task and helped them practice regrouping. As I saw from their unit
tests, they all did very well.

What are your plans/goals for this coming week?

Next week, I was planning on starting full-time teaching, but due to it being right
after spring break my mentor teacher wanted us to wait one more week so we
can get things planned and solidified with the rest of the team teachers. I will
finish planning my 4 weeks of full-time teaching and start that the following
week. I am very excited to take over fully and practice everything I have learned
thus far. I also spoke with our building principal and asked her to come in and
observe me teach a reading focus lesson. I wanted to get some feedback and
also show some initiative in any opening positions next year in this district.