Student Teaching Blog

      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...

This past week I've been recording and working on edTPA as much as I can before the possible strike on October 17th. I think I will be able to submit all work on time. I have two days left. This past week students were learning about character traits. They really enjoyed reading the story, Where the Wild Things Are. I think they enjoyed the story because the character was relatable. Students were able to make a lot of text to self connections. For math, students are still working on doubles and doubles plus one. Mrs. E and I noticed that during math and science time (the last subjects taught) students are very fidgety and it's difficult to get students to stay on task. Mrs. E and I decided to solve this problem by giving the students a movement and snack break before they start math. I think it definitely helped a little. Mrs. E and I also try to make math and science more engaging and hands-on so that students are more engaged. On Thursday, students used clay to create animals...

This week I wanted to talk about the lessons that my host teacher and I taught, specifically, the ELA  lessons. This week we focused on the book  Stellaluna.   The students were super engaged and the lessons built upon each other so well. On Monday, we read a non-fiction book about bats. The students were so surprised to learn that bats have fingers and thumbs! On Tuesday, we read a non-fiction book about birds, and on Wednesday we started reading Stellaluna. We then created a Venn diagram and compared and contrasted the two animals. On Thursday, the students answered a writing prompt about the book. Finally, on Friday, they painted bats and labeled parts of a bat and wrote some more. It was such a good learning week for the students and myself. The lessons built upon each other so nicely and it made the learning experience much more powerful. This week there were few incidents with parents, which I can't really get into details about. I will say though that n...