Student Teaching Blog

This week I think I have improved in my teaching of ELA, though I’m not where I want to be yet.  Looking at the week in ELA as a gradual release of responsibility to the students really helps.  We "front load" the explicit and intentional teaching on Monday and Tuesday, with the students doing more independent work as the week goes on.  In math and science the timing of the weeks is a little bit different.  We are not typically starting with something new on Monday with the expectation of the students working on it independently by Friday.  The students are still working toward mastery of the standard, but they do not necessarily follow a weekly trajectory like ELA. My CT paid me a compliment today.  She said I do a good job teaching math and science and that she wants me to gain that same confidence when I teach ELA.  I think part of the problems is that I have an affinity for teaching math and science because I enjoy the black-and-white nature of it.  There is more gra

The last two weeks have been crazy.  Last week was a short four-day week with early dismissal on Friday.  Yesterday was early dismissal for the students, and then parent-teacher conferences until 9pm.  Today was a teacher institute at the district.  We have also had a complete overhaul of the way we do math.  The change in math has been very interesting.  Since the beginning of the year, five students from my class have been going to a math intervention program, which is taught by a special ed teacher.  The school has recently been given the opportunity to extend this program to more struggling students.  With more slots available for struggling students, an additional seven students from my class also qualify, bringing our total number of students in the math intervention to twelve of our twenty.  Because so many of our students qualify for this intervention, my CT and I will each teach a small group using the math intervention in our classroom.  Our students who are working at g

This week has had some high highs and some low lows.  The good news is that I think I am doing a good job teaching math.  I have a routine down.  I know how to carve out extra time for struggling students during guided math.  I know how to use my own materials as well as the workbook.  I think I explain things well.  It is really gratifying to see students work through material and finally understand something that took some effort for them to understand.   In other good news, I think am doing fine in social studies and science.  We finished a six-week social studies unit, and have started a six-week science unit.  Without freaking out, I managed some last minute scheduling changes as well as a class period in which I expected to use my CT’s laptop to show some videos, but she was called down to a meeting (with her computer) so I had to use another approach.  The bad news is that I am struggling in language arts.  I am overwhelmed by the amount of content that has to be covere

Yesterday was the first day I actually got mad at my students.  During math, I teach guided math groups at a table while the rest of the students work independently at their desks.  I introduced subtraction with regrouping yesterday, and to do this I used base ten blocks.  When I did the whole group lesson, the students seemed engaged and seemed to be following.  I had one student volunteer hold the hundred blocks, one held the tens, and one held the ones.  Then I talked the students through how the ones had to borrow a ten-rod from the tens place.  They answered my questions and seemed to be following.  When we got to guided math at the back table, everything changed.  I take the lowest group first to ensure that they have plenty of time with personal attention and direct instruction from me.  They did not follow directions and messed around with the base ten blocks.  My aggravation peaked when one of the students laughed at another student who suggested an incorrect answer.  Laughin