Student Teaching Blog

Last week was an exciting week! On Wednesday I attended an amplify curriculum science workshop at Sor Juana Elementary with my host teacher and the first-grade team. The experience was so rewarding. There were many teachers from various schools that attended the workshop. It was such a learning experience. It was fascinating being in a room full of professionals and listening to their real classroom stories. One key lesson I learned from the workshop was that it is imperative to incorporate read-aloud literature in a science lesson and that students need to engage in dialogue about the topic begin discussed. I also wanted to share a fun activity I tried during math on Friday. I used the website   Kahoot  to create a math game. The goal was for students to answer doubles and doubles plus one equations. We only have six ipads so I had the students work in groups. Ideally, the game would have worked better if everyone had an iPad, but the students still had a lot of fun being ...

     This past week we had parent-teacher conferences. Most, if not all, of the conferences went pretty well. For the first couple of conferences I observed and I took notes of how Mrs. E communicated with parents. Once I felt comfortable I started adding to the conversation. I noticed that Mrs. E started off by welcoming parents and saying something positive about the student. She then went over the report card and provided evidence of student work to justify the student's grade. If there was a concern she would then bring it up and ask parents what their input was. Then, she would ask them if there was anything else that they would like to know. I felt like I got to know the students on a more personal level and I definitely felt like I could relate to a lot of the parents since I'm a parent, myself. A lot of the parents mentioned that they really enjoy the pictures and videos we share on the application, class dojo.     On Tuesday, I also got observed by my...

    As I was typing "week 12" I realized that this journey is almost coming to an end! Time is going by so fast. There is still much to do and learn. This past week I was observed by my supervisor during ELA. The focus of the lesson was to teach students that readers think about how characters feel to better understand a story. After my lesson my cooperating teacher, supervisor, and I sat down to discuss the lesson I gave. I was given some great and helpful feedback. One highlight mentioned was that I look and sound more confident and a goal I need to work on is encouraging more discourse by asking more open-ended questions. After our conversation, I reflected and I realized I never really paid attention to how much more confident I felt, but I actually do feel more confident. I feel that there is still a lot of room for improvement, but I definitely feel like I have a sense of direction.     During our meeting, we also discussed strategies I can implement to make ...

Last week, the CTU was on strike for most of the week. As a result, I was temporarily placed at Namaste Charter School on Thursday. I was assigned to the monolingual 2nd-grade classroom. I was really happy to have been placed in that classroom because last school year I worked with that class in 1st grade. The students were really excited to see me and I was excited to see them. Upon arrival, I noticed the teacher had a greeting sign by her classroom door. The students had the option of greeting the teacher by a hug, handshake, high five, or fist pump.  I thought that was a really positive and welcoming way to start the day. I definitely will be stealing that idea. Halloween was on Thursday so it was a pretty busy and fun-filled day. The teacher planned many fun activities for the day. My favorite was the Halloween mystery boxes. The students had to put their hand in the box and write down what they taught was inside the container. The students had a great time. Thursday nigh...

      The Chicago Teacher's Union is still on strike. From what I've watched on the news, it seems as though a tentative deal will be reached soon. I hope that is the case because I miss the students and can't wait to see them. We had a field trip planned on October 29th to visit the Jonansen pumpkin patch farm. We were all looking forward to it! But, my host teacher had to cancel due to the strike. I'm sure the kiddos are probably really disappointed. Hopefully, we will return soon and possibly reschedule before it starts to get too cold.      On another note, October 28th is the edTPA submission date! I am feeling a mix of emotions. I am happy because the edTPA has been a huge stressor in my life not just for me, but for my family, especially my son because I didn't spend as much time with him as I usually do. And, I'm nervous because I obviously want to do well. After completing my edTPA I reflected and I wondered if this experience really helped me be...

       Today, marks one week since the Chicago's Teachers Union went on strike. According to the student-teacher handbook,  "when a strike occurs in a school serving as a clinical site for Trinity Education Unit teacher candidates, Trinity teacher candidates will be non-participants, siding with neither party." As a result, all I want to say about the situation is that I hope that both parties come to a fair agreement soon because I miss the kiddos. I will, however, share how this experience is affecting my personal student teaching experience.      Early on in the school year news spread about a potential strike. I wasn't too worried about it at first because I have worked for CPS in the past and every year the news of a potential strike would come up in conversations, and then nothing really escalated from thereon. However, as time went by I started to realize that the possibility of a potential strike was very REAL. Then, I began to worry...