Week 15

I passed the edTPA.  I am not even excited.  I am simply tremendously relieved. 

I have a lot of substitute teaching prospects coming up, which is what I want right now.  I would like to have some flexibility in my schedule, as I have not been a very good and present mom to my own children over the past four months.  It will be nice to be able to chaperone a field trip or volunteer at their school occasionally.

I am excited to have a job interview on Tuesday for a part time teaching assistant position at a local Catholic school.  It is a pull-out/push-in, extra help kind of situation.  The details are a little fuzzy, but I will learn more at the interview. I will be working with small groups and kids from second and third grade that need extra help two full days per week.  This is perfect, as I will be available to sub on the other days at other schools.  The assistant principal said that there will a maternity leave at the end of this school year and several vacancies next school year, so this would be an excellent trial period to see how we like each other.  I think it is a good opportunity.  I hope I get it.

I hope to make the most of my last week at Whittier Primary School.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to observe some other teachers in action.  I am mostly looking forward to two things.  The first is what happens in other classrooms first thing in the morning.  My class has PE every day first thing, so things like morning work, calendar, and other beginning of the day things have not been modeled by my CT. The second is seeing how other teachers handle ELA. 

ELA has been the hardest thing for me to teach.  I truly feel that I am a better ELA teacher than I have demonstrated during student teaching.  I think in this area my CT and I have different styles.  She has stated this as well.  I think it will be good for me to get a glimpse at how other teachers handle ELA.  I believe that I will do a great job in my own classroom with my own planning, lessons, projects, activities, and assessments.  It will also help when I can see the big picture of the school’s curriculum and common assessments, not just the ELA standards and what is happening in the upcoming week.  In ELA I will strive to fulfill Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 5L, which states, “The competent teacher develops a variety of clear, accurate presentations and representations of concepts, using alternative explanations to assist students’ understanding and presenting diverse perspectives to encourage critical and creative thinking.”

Math, on the other hand, has always come more easily to me.  I will teach math until my last day, which is fine with me.  I teach a small group of seven kids and we are like a little family at our guided math table.

I can’t believe I have one week left.  I am bringing treats for the teachers tomorrow in order to thank them for welcoming me to their school.  They have treating me like one of their own.  It has been a wonderful environment to work in, make mistakes in, and learn an absolute ton in.  I am definitely going to cry on my last day.  I am going to miss these kiddos.  I am going to make them each a bookmark with the below poem on it.  They will never understand how special they are for me.  I will always remember them, and they will be in my prayers.