Week 4

This week I'd like to post more about my thoughts and feelings regarding this experience. I am going to be vulnerable. I just want to clarify that this is how I feel and I don't mean any type of disrespect.  Ultimately, I understand I need to manage my time better.

At the moment I am feeling extremely overwhelmed. I have to write a detailed lesson for every lesson I teach on top of other homework activies. I understand we need the practice. However, all these other responsibilities are really taking away from valuable edTPA prepping time. I wish the class was designed where we only had to teach 1-2 lessons a day until we submit edTPA. Once,  edTPA is submitted, we would then be able to devote all our time and energy into lesson planning and other homework. It's taking me a long time to create these lessons and I still have to manage to find the time to prepare for my edTPA lessons. I have not even started on my edTPA lessons because I have 10 read-a-loud lessons to prepare for this week. I will be teaching ELA in the morning and SLA in the afternoon. As well, as 5 math lesson to prepare for the week. I might just eleminate math for this upcoming week. I've already spent most of my Saturday just working on ELA lessons and I will continue to lesson plan on Sunday. I am struggling with time management. I feel like I should have already started on edTPA material, but I'm too busy catching up with classwork.  Additionally, CPS might go on strike, as a result, I have to start on my edTPA sooner than most students just in case teachers strike. The union will be voting on a possible strike on September 24th. I'm just feeling really behing and its only my third week in.

On a more positive note, I think I have built a good rapport with the students. The first week I felt I struggled with classroom management. This week I am doing a lot better but it's still a work in progress. I've been using praise and stickers as a reward and the 1-2-3 counting method as a consequence until the PBIS system is implemented at the school. I also was in communication with my college supervisor and talking to her made me feel so much better. I felt really supported and understood. I think I just need to breath and take everything one step at a time.

I learned that it's best practice for students to do text-to-self connections. Students participation and collaboration should be encouraged and included in the read-a-loud lesson. I learned that I need to be more animated when I read to get students more interested in the book. I also learned that I have to be very strategic about the questions I ask when doing a read-a-loud.  Additionally, I learned that best practice is 20-25 minutes tops on the carpet for a read-a-loud and any time over that I am losing the interest of students. This week I will be teaching more read-a-loud I need to practice my flow.

Upcoming week goal
pick 5 students for edTPA
Work on Assessment for edTPA
Develop lesson for edTPA
Take more pictures
Practice flow of reading lessons



Classroom Confidential

1. Describe how your understanding of culture was enhanced or changed by your reading of chapter four in Schmidt.


When I read this chapter I was reminded that students ARE their family, their experiences, their culture and much -much more. Students are individuals with a complex developing identity. Students do not need to be fixed. Students don't need to fit a certain profile. Each student should be celebrated for who they are.

The follwoing quote was really inspiring

"Great teachers reject the deficit model and recognize that all kids have personal strenghts that spring directly from their families and the culture in which they were raised. It's the teachers job to prospect for those cultural strenghts, and construct an environment in which they are not viewed as oddtities or points of interest, like a theme park of the underpriviliged, but counted as assets that are critical to the success of the entire class." (p. 69)

This quote really spoke to me. Students have personal strenghts that have been learned from their families, culture, and environment. The teacher's job is NOT to change who the student is, but ot emabrace his/her uniqueness and build a community in which all cultures are celebrated and all children feel safe to express and be who they are.

I also really enjoyed reading about Rafe Esquith. He taught his students "things they are not supposed to know". He thought them politics of education, handling conflicts, evaluating ethical dilemmas, how to make mistakes and take responsibility, and how to support each other. Esquith taught his students social skills and how to be thinkers and that resonated with me because I think it's important to teach students how to be decent human beings.