Hey everyone! I hope y'all have all had a great week! This week has been great for me. It was great to have a short winter break (Monday and Tuesday) to catch up on sleep. Also, my students are about to go to Disney World for a class trip so they have all been very excited.
Unfortunately I had to write my first injury report the other day. A couple of students were messing around with each other (in a friendly way) and one student ended up falling and dislocating her knee cap. I was not in the room because it occurred in between class periods but I still was asked to fill out a report. The principle told me that I handled the situation well and that it would be the first of many injury reports. Due to this incident I decided to talk to all my classes about how "rough play" can be dangerous and how it was absolutely not allowed in my classroom. Hopefully it will be a long time before I have to write another incident report. Hope y'all have a great weekend!
Is she okay? I've dislocated my shoulder and it hurt like crazy! I had a break too but it didn't feel like it...I'm already counting down the days to Spring Break!
AS I'm typing this I'm going through the ever-so entertaining pastime of collecting assessment data and putting it into a table for EdTPA. This week was short due to a break Putnam Co. had but I spent my "break" cleaning and grading (such is the life of an educator). Outside of that the week has been pretty typical; my kids were, for the most part, very happy with their post-assessments and I was extremely proud of them. I am also very happy (also very jealous) that my wife has been called for an interview at Jackson Elementary School in Jackson! Her interview isn't until March 10, but it's motivated me enough to keep applying for any open gigs I see!
It definitely was good to get a much needed break this week. I'm happy to hear that you're proud of your students. It is always important to hope for and work for our students' success. You've got plenty of time for interviews so I wouldn't be too jealous.
Sounds like things are moving right along--and good luck to your wife! And as always, good luck to you too! I know there's still plenty of time to apply and interview, but the actual "find a job" part is that I am the most anxious about.
Goodness I'm having trouble finding time to apply to jobs! It sounds like things are going well for you at your placement! I also keep a countdown in my planner.
I can definitely sympathize with you as far as time management goes. Placement already feels like a job and I am also having difficulty getting the time to apply. However, I feel once EDTPA is over, I can focus more on applying myself to finding the right career for me.
This week has been pretty great--but a little hectic. Some of my students have finished their college courses and are starting new ones, so they're being reshuffled in terms of their GCEC course schedule. This reduces my first period to six students. I have to say, I'm really glad--I love small classes and I feel like I can give each students more attention, and the students that were moved from first period are now in my fourth period, so now I get to teach another small class. We started today and I loved it. Other than that, I'm just doing the edTPA song and dance. But I'm feeling more confident in my teaching each week. And as always, I am so proud of my kids--I am nothing without them.
A few of my students are in between college classes right now also. I really like small classes too. Large classes can be very overwhelming and difficult to manage but small classes allow for some great discussions.
I wish I could teach small classes! There is so much I would like to do that just seems daunting in a group of 30 kids! :) I'm glad things are going well and good luck with your edTPA stuff.
I think having small classes would be incredible. It definitely opens the door being able to try out more games, simulations, etc. Just being able to frequently have a whole-class discussion would be great. You're able to better connect with students as well as being able to easily assess their knowledge and understanding.
I did not have placement this week and got to spend some much needed time with my family. I did not get caught up on edTPA as planned but it will get done eventually! I was excited to get a week off for winter break but I know I'll be hating it when I have to stick around after Spring Break to make up days especially since that week is Milestones testing! Yuck!
Sometimes you've got to just kick back and relax with the family. So happy you got to do that after all the stuff you've had to deal with with your host teacher this semester!
I'm sure you absolutely loved having a placement-free week. I can only imagine how tough it is being married and having kids while juggling the craziness that is the MAT program. I feel like I can barely take care of my poor dog. All of you guys push me to do better,but I have tremendous respect for those who are parents as well.
Lucky! I only had one day off and added more to plate for feedback and grading -_- I haven't gotten as much done on EdTPA as I wished either but I hope to have more done by the end of the week!
I had Monday and Tuesday off for Winter Break as well. It was nice to have an extra break since I started my 10 day unit and edTPA. I officially took over all 5 classes that I teach. All of that being said, I feel like these past few days alone have been some of the most challenging. In my mind, I don't feel extremely stressed. However, I can tell that I am stressed due to the pure physical exhaustion that has come as a result not being able to sleep,having nightmares...and a stomach bug that has me stuck at home today. I don't often get sick but I can tell stress is lowering my immune system (that along with the germ pools known as schools). It really sucks but I am hoping that the weekend will give me a chance to recharge for next week. As much as I absolutely love teaching, I am looking forward to scaling down the classes. My grad school work has been on the back burner and I can tell I'll be in over my head if I don't get on top of things now. This post is much more negative than my usual ones, but I'm glad to have had a somewhat tougher week than normal. It will make me appreciate the good ones. 2 months and we will essentially be done with school...and graduating!
I'm so sorry to hear that you've been sick and having a tough time this week. It's so hard to keep up with school work when you feel physically awful. Take the weekend to do something that's relaxing!!
Being sick is the worst because you are stuck at home, but not able to take advantage of the time doing work. Hope you feel better soon and can catch back up!
Well this week was super short for me. I attended placement for approximately 1.5 days. I've definitely gotten into the groove of teaching all class periods. It feels so natural to me now. Ever since I took over teaching all classes my host teacher seems to be distracted by her personal life. I do wish she would provide me with more feedback on how I'm doing and tips to better my classroom management skills.
On Monday I'm supposed to film for edTPA. I am SUPER nervous and to top it all off, my host teacher won't be at school all day... so I'll be filming with a substitute there. So that sucks.
On a side note, my medical procedure I had on Friday went ok. The doctor officially diagnosed me and gave me 3 different medications to start taking immediately!! Hopefully I won't miss any more days of school and I'll finally be able to catch up!!
I hope you'll get to feeling better soon! I don't know how you're doing it but I know you'll be thrilled to have it over with! You're going to do great filming Monday, remember you only need a good ten minutes. ;)
Good luck with everything. I know you have been through a lot, but you are probably one of the most organized and prepared person in the program, so I am sure you can catch back up!
So glad everything is getting better :) I'm right there with you on EdTPA. My teacher and 1/3 of my class will be in Alabama for 3 days (during my edtpa) so I will also be filming/implementing with a sub and not the whole group. But in a way it's a good thing cause there should be less performance pressure (I hope).
This week was so short and fast. I am mostly collaborating with my teacher right now, because of needing to catch up on the work load and having being sick last week. I am glad we had the winter break, because it lined up with my days off. While I missed two professional developement days, I didn't miss any teaching days. This week we flew through WW2 to catch up to the planning guide. I took two weeks on the Great Depression and the New Deal for EdTPA and the 10 day unit plan, and I thought we had plenty of time to do so, but turns out that put us a little behind. I feel bad because so many of my students are interested in WW2 and we spent three days on it. Three! But I was able to take most of a class to talk about the Holocaust. It was a difficult topic to talk about all day, but almost all of my students were engaged. I used ID cards I got from the Georiga social studies conference to give faces to the numbers, then I showed interviews with survivors and liberators from Georgia. The lesson was not about facts and notes, but making the holocaust real for them. I am sad to say I had a couple people fall asleep during this, but out of about 90 students, only four didn't show much interest, and many were wide eyed and engaged. I had a link to video evidence used in the Nuremberg Trials, but decided it was too graphic for the class. I mentioned it, and a bunch of students wrote it down to watch on their own. I made sure to make it clear I was not telling them to watch it and that it is hard to handle, but I think that just made them more interested. I hope it doesn't scar anyone. I think the discussion went well overall, but I hope to do the topic more justice in the future. More primary documents, maybe even next year try to have a holocaust survivor or War vet come and speak to the class. As for school work, I have been done filming EdTPA since Febuary 7TH and am just getting into the task write ups. I am with everyone else and have been putting class work off in favor or planning lessons. Now it is catching up to me, on top of job hunting. We just have to make it through to May!
It's sounds like you're putting a lot of work into keeping students engaged, which is awesome! Of course there will always be a few that don't pay attention. I really like that you're bringing the stories of history to life. Personally I never liked history, but when my teachers taught by telling stories I understood the content better.
This week was short. Putnam Co. had winter break and we came back on Wednesday. My host teacher decided to just do some project stuff (busy work honestly) and we will begin new material on Monday. It has been a super frustrating week. My fiber & spirit were tested and it has left me questioning A LOT of things, but I'm here. After much delay and rearranging, I will be starting my EdTPA this week. My host teacher and some of my kids are going to Alabama this coming week to represent at a conference and present their slave database project. I was actually going to go with them, but thought it best to stay and get back on track with program stuff :/ On the bright side (I guess) I get the classes all to myself for 3 days. Other than that, I'm just taking one thing at a time and counting down the days til Mar. 15th, Apr. 7th, then MAY 5TH.
I think it's awesome that you get to have the class to yourself this week. It will be really cool to see how it goes without your host teacher there. I know you have been so stressed, and I hope things get better.
My week went pretty well. They came back from winter break on Wednesday, so we had to do a little review. On Thursday, I decided I wanted to do an activity where the students would have to show connections between the events we had studied, so I got some long string, and handed out random words and events from the unit. Then I had them find connections between the words, and used the string to connect them. It was going pretty well, until a HUGE knot got into the string, and the whole thing got derailed. It was actually pretty funny, and the students learned from it, but it was a little embarrassing.
Our winter break was much needed. It was so nice having off and being able to catch up on some stuff.
I think this week went pretty well overall. 6th period is as disrespectful as ever, but I feel like I am slowly pulling them out of the abyss. I basically just have to kill the really obnoxious students with kindness. It's proven to be somewhat effective.
I got a little bit of filming done this week as well. I'm still not sure if I will use this footage, but it feels nice to be "ready" for EdTPA.
I think we should vote to have more three day weeks.
Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week six! I have recently realized that I am horribly behind grading and giving feedback as I try to get lesson plans completed and work on EdTPA. I don't think I've quite figured out the balancing act yet. My sixth week was mostly good with a few ups and downs. It was short (we were off Monday) but somehow it still felt like a full week. On Thursday, the school held a Black History Month assembly that took up two class periods. The assembly caused a few of my students to feel uncomfortable, as the message the program had was more of a divisive one rather than one that brings people together. I'm not sure how to handle this though, and answered questions about how I felt as diplomatically as possible. Next week, I'm taking on all of the classes and I'm nervous about how the heck I'm going to get everything I need done! I keep telling my self we have six more weeks, that we're on the other side of the hill now!
Had a solid week of filming, however I still have two days left and would like to get footage from these days as well. Much of my footage does not have much of me on it, so I need to make more footage so that I am filmed interacting with my students.
Sorry this post is so late! I knew I was forgetting something this week...
Last week was good. It was an interesting week, there's a lot going on at GMC. We had Monday and Tuesday off, which was nice, but when the students came back on Wednesday everyone was acting crazy. It was hard to get any of the classes to settle down and focus on the discussions. I gave the classes an entire week to read chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, which in my mind made me believe that every single student would have read the chapter. I quickly realized on Thursday that many students had not read at all. It was really a discouraging moment.
However, I was encouraged the next day when I had an amazing discussion about symbolism in The Great Gatsby. I did an activity where I put a picture of a symbol on the board (for example, the 'green light') and had students work in pairs to come up with ideas for what the symbol could represent. For almost every symbol the students were able to eventually come close to the right answer on their own, and once they did I shared what my interpretation of the symbols were. The students actually really enjoyed the lesson and I can tell it made them more interested in the book. They had never considered the deeper meaning behind a lot of the symbols in the book and I could see light bulbs going off in their brains as they made connections (some connections I'd never even considered). I really think I'll have more students moving forward who have read.
Not sure what else to write about. I don't have the time I need to finish EdTPA. I'm trying to balance school, placement, EdTPA, and job hunting and so far EdTPA has taken a back seat. That's going to have to change soon, but there's literally not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do. I feel as if no matter what I focus on, someone isn't going to get what they need, and I really need to start focusing on EdTPA or else I'll be the first in the program's history to fail.
I am late posting on here. Last week was way too busy. I tried filming my EdTPA. That thing which I feared seems to have hit me. Day 1 was so so. Day 2 did not record. Day 3 the students could not go a full 10 minutes without me having to correct behavior. Day 4 I found out that there is a time lapse function on the IPad. Guess how I found out! Day 5 was going great until I realized 15 minutes into class that I had forgotten all about setting up the camera and recording. I went ahead and set it up and attempted a redo. The kids were great for the first part, but I had misses the back and forth between the students and I for the video. Stressed just does not begin to cover it!
Hey everyone! I hope y'all have all had a great week! This week has been great for me. It was great to have a short winter break (Monday and Tuesday) to catch up on sleep. Also, my students are about to go to Disney World for a class trip so they have all been very excited.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I had to write my first injury report the other day. A couple of students were messing around with each other (in a friendly way) and one student ended up falling and dislocating her knee cap. I was not in the room because it occurred in between class periods but I still was asked to fill out a report. The principle told me that I handled the situation well and that it would be the first of many injury reports. Due to this incident I decided to talk to all my classes about how "rough play" can be dangerous and how it was absolutely not allowed in my classroom. Hopefully it will be a long time before I have to write another incident report. Hope y'all have a great weekend!
Is she okay? I've dislocated my shoulder and it hurt like crazy! I had a break too but it didn't feel like it...I'm already counting down the days to Spring Break!
DeleteShe got an X-ray which didn't show any major problems but she is going to see a physical therapist next week.
DeleteI'm glad she's not showing any major problems--because a dislocated knee cap sounds terrifying.
DeleteWhoa! I bet you'll always remember your first injury report! LOL
DeleteI'm lucky to say I haven't had an experience like that yet and I'm glad you handled it well.
DeleteAS I'm typing this I'm going through the ever-so entertaining pastime of collecting assessment data and putting it into a table for EdTPA. This week was short due to a break Putnam Co. had but I spent my "break" cleaning and grading (such is the life of an educator). Outside of that the week has been pretty typical; my kids were, for the most part, very happy with their post-assessments and I was extremely proud of them. I am also very happy (also very jealous) that my wife has been called for an interview at Jackson Elementary School in Jackson! Her interview isn't until March 10, but it's motivated me enough to keep applying for any open gigs I see!
ReplyDeleteSEVENTY DAYS TIL GRADUATION COMRADES!
It definitely was good to get a much needed break this week. I'm happy to hear that you're proud of your students. It is always important to hope for and work for our students' success. You've got plenty of time for interviews so I wouldn't be too jealous.
DeleteSounds like things are moving right along--and good luck to your wife! And as always, good luck to you too! I know there's still plenty of time to apply and interview, but the actual "find a job" part is that I am the most anxious about.
DeleteYeah, the break wasn't really a break, but still needed. Glad things are going well :)
DeleteWe are SOOO CLOSE!
Goodness I'm having trouble finding time to apply to jobs! It sounds like things are going well for you at your placement! I also keep a countdown in my planner.
DeleteI can definitely sympathize with you as far as time management goes. Placement already feels like a job and I am also having difficulty getting the time to apply. However, I feel once EDTPA is over, I can focus more on applying myself to finding the right career for me.
DeleteThis week has been pretty great--but a little hectic. Some of my students have finished their college courses and are starting new ones, so they're being reshuffled in terms of their GCEC course schedule. This reduces my first period to six students. I have to say, I'm really glad--I love small classes and I feel like I can give each students more attention, and the students that were moved from first period are now in my fourth period, so now I get to teach another small class. We started today and I loved it. Other than that, I'm just doing the edTPA song and dance. But I'm feeling more confident in my teaching each week. And as always, I am so proud of my kids--I am nothing without them.
ReplyDeleteA few of my students are in between college classes right now also. I really like small classes too. Large classes can be very overwhelming and difficult to manage but small classes allow for some great discussions.
DeleteI wish I could teach small classes! There is so much I would like to do that just seems daunting in a group of 30 kids! :)
DeleteI'm glad things are going well and good luck with your edTPA stuff.
I will say that I do love small classes, but they can be so efficient you run out of things to do for the day...that's when you break out the pokemon!
DeleteI think having small classes would be incredible. It definitely opens the door being able to try out more games, simulations, etc. Just being able to frequently have a whole-class discussion would be great. You're able to better connect with students as well as being able to easily assess their knowledge and understanding.
DeleteI did not have placement this week and got to spend some much needed time with my family. I did not get caught up on edTPA as planned but it will get done eventually! I was excited to get a week off for winter break but I know I'll be hating it when I have to stick around after Spring Break to make up days especially since that week is Milestones testing! Yuck!
ReplyDeleteSometimes you've got to just kick back and relax with the family. So happy you got to do that after all the stuff you've had to deal with with your host teacher this semester!
DeleteI'm sure you absolutely loved having a placement-free week. I can only imagine how tough it is being married and having kids while juggling the craziness that is the MAT program. I feel like I can barely take care of my poor dog. All of you guys push me to do better,but I have tremendous respect for those who are parents as well.
DeleteI'm so glad you got to spend some time with family. I know how you feel about the edTPA though.
DeleteVery jealous. I am in much need of a week off.
DeleteLucky! I only had one day off and added more to plate for feedback and grading -_- I haven't gotten as much done on EdTPA as I wished either but I hope to have more done by the end of the week!
DeleteI had Monday and Tuesday off for Winter Break as well. It was nice to have an extra break since I started my 10 day unit and edTPA. I officially took over all 5 classes that I teach. All of that being said, I feel like these past few days alone have been some of the most challenging. In my mind, I don't feel extremely stressed. However, I can tell that I am stressed due to the pure physical exhaustion that has come as a result not being able to sleep,having nightmares...and a stomach bug that has me stuck at home today. I don't often get sick but I can tell stress is lowering my immune system (that along with the germ pools known as schools). It really sucks but I am hoping that the weekend will give me a chance to recharge for next week. As much as I absolutely love teaching, I am looking forward to scaling down the classes. My grad school work has been on the back burner and I can tell I'll be in over my head if I don't get on top of things now. This post is much more negative than my usual ones, but I'm glad to have had a somewhat tougher week than normal. It will make me appreciate the good ones. 2 months and we will essentially be done with school...and graduating!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear that you've been sick and having a tough time this week. It's so hard to keep up with school work when you feel physically awful. Take the weekend to do something that's relaxing!!
DeleteBeing sick is the worst because you are stuck at home, but not able to take advantage of the time doing work. Hope you feel better soon and can catch back up!
DeleteWell this week was super short for me. I attended placement for approximately 1.5 days. I've definitely gotten into the groove of teaching all class periods. It feels so natural to me now. Ever since I took over teaching all classes my host teacher seems to be distracted by her personal life. I do wish she would provide me with more feedback on how I'm doing and tips to better my classroom management skills.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday I'm supposed to film for edTPA. I am SUPER nervous and to top it all off, my host teacher won't be at school all day... so I'll be filming with a substitute there. So that sucks.
On a side note, my medical procedure I had on Friday went ok. The doctor officially diagnosed me and gave me 3 different medications to start taking immediately!! Hopefully I won't miss any more days of school and I'll finally be able to catch up!!
I hope you'll get to feeling better soon! I don't know how you're doing it but I know you'll be thrilled to have it over with!
DeleteYou're going to do great filming Monday, remember you only need a good ten minutes. ;)
Good luck with everything. I know you have been through a lot, but you are probably one of the most organized and prepared person in the program, so I am sure you can catch back up!
DeleteSo glad everything is getting better :) I'm right there with you on EdTPA. My teacher and 1/3 of my class will be in Alabama for 3 days (during my edtpa) so I will also be filming/implementing with a sub and not the whole group. But in a way it's a good thing cause there should be less performance pressure (I hope).
DeleteI'm glad things are looking up for you. I am sorry that your host teacher is not giving you much feedback, but I know you are probably doing awesome!
DeleteGlad that things are better. The filming will probably be much smoother with fewer students.
DeleteThis week was so short and fast. I am mostly collaborating with my teacher right now, because of needing to catch up on the work load and having being sick last week. I am glad we had the winter break, because it lined up with my days off. While I missed two professional developement days, I didn't miss any teaching days. This week we flew through WW2 to catch up to the planning guide. I took two weeks on the Great Depression and the New Deal for EdTPA and the 10 day unit plan, and I thought we had plenty of time to do so, but turns out that put us a little behind. I feel bad because so many of my students are interested in WW2 and we spent three days on it. Three! But I was able to take most of a class to talk about the Holocaust. It was a difficult topic to talk about all day, but almost all of my students were engaged. I used ID cards I got from the Georiga social studies conference to give faces to the numbers, then I showed interviews with survivors and liberators from Georgia. The lesson was not about facts and notes, but making the holocaust real for them. I am sad to say I had a couple people fall asleep during this, but out of about 90 students, only four didn't show much interest, and many were wide eyed and engaged. I had a link to video evidence used in the Nuremberg Trials, but decided it was too graphic for the class. I mentioned it, and a bunch of students wrote it down to watch on their own. I made sure to make it clear I was not telling them to watch it and that it is hard to handle, but I think that just made them more interested. I hope it doesn't scar anyone. I think the discussion went well overall, but I hope to do the topic more justice in the future. More primary documents, maybe even next year try to have a holocaust survivor or War vet come and speak to the class. As for school work, I have been done filming EdTPA since Febuary 7TH and am just getting into the task write ups. I am with everyone else and have been putting class work off in favor or planning lessons. Now it is catching up to me, on top of job hunting. We just have to make it through to May!
ReplyDeleteIt's sounds like you're putting a lot of work into keeping students engaged, which is awesome! Of course there will always be a few that don't pay attention. I really like that you're bringing the stories of history to life. Personally I never liked history, but when my teachers taught by telling stories I understood the content better.
DeleteThis week was short. Putnam Co. had winter break and we came back on Wednesday. My host teacher decided to just do some project stuff (busy work honestly) and we will begin new material on Monday.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a super frustrating week. My fiber & spirit were tested and it has left me questioning A LOT of things, but I'm here. After much delay and rearranging, I will be starting my EdTPA this week. My host teacher and some of my kids are going to Alabama this coming week to represent at a conference and present their slave database project. I was actually going to go with them, but thought it best to stay and get back on track with program stuff :/ On the bright side (I guess) I get the classes all to myself for 3 days.
Other than that, I'm just taking one thing at a time and counting down the days til Mar. 15th, Apr. 7th, then MAY 5TH.
I think it's awesome that you get to have the class to yourself this week. It will be really cool to see how it goes without your host teacher there. I know you have been so stressed, and I hope things get better.
DeleteMy week went pretty well. They came back from winter break on Wednesday, so we had to do a little review. On Thursday, I decided I wanted to do an activity where the students would have to show connections between the events we had studied, so I got some long string, and handed out random words and events from the unit. Then I had them find connections between the words, and used the string to connect them. It was going pretty well, until a HUGE knot got into the string, and the whole thing got derailed. It was actually pretty funny, and the students learned from it, but it was a little embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteYou are so brave to try that string thing! I'm glad they learned from it!
DeleteNice. Stealing this.
DeleteOur winter break was much needed. It was so nice having off and being able to catch up on some stuff.
ReplyDeleteI think this week went pretty well overall. 6th period is as disrespectful as ever, but I feel like I am slowly pulling them out of the abyss. I basically just have to kill the really obnoxious students with kindness. It's proven to be somewhat effective.
I got a little bit of filming done this week as well. I'm still not sure if I will use this footage, but it feels nice to be "ready" for EdTPA.
I think we should vote to have more three day weeks.
Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week six! I have recently realized that I am horribly behind grading and giving feedback as I try to get lesson plans completed and work on EdTPA. I don't think I've quite figured out the balancing act yet.
ReplyDeleteMy sixth week was mostly good with a few ups and downs. It was short (we were off Monday) but somehow it still felt like a full week. On Thursday, the school held a Black History Month assembly that took up two class periods. The assembly caused a few of my students to feel uncomfortable, as the message the program had was more of a divisive one rather than one that brings people together. I'm not sure how to handle this though, and answered questions about how I felt as diplomatically as possible.
Next week, I'm taking on all of the classes and I'm nervous about how the heck I'm going to get everything I need done! I keep telling my self we have six more weeks, that we're on the other side of the hill now!
Had a solid week of filming, however I still have two days left and would like to get footage from these days as well. Much of my footage does not have much of me on it, so I need to make more footage so that I am filmed interacting with my students.
ReplyDeleteSorry this post is so late! I knew I was forgetting something this week...
ReplyDeleteLast week was good. It was an interesting week, there's a lot going on at GMC. We had Monday and Tuesday off, which was nice, but when the students came back on Wednesday everyone was acting crazy. It was hard to get any of the classes to settle down and focus on the discussions. I gave the classes an entire week to read chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, which in my mind made me believe that every single student would have read the chapter. I quickly realized on Thursday that many students had not read at all. It was really a discouraging moment.
However, I was encouraged the next day when I had an amazing discussion about symbolism in The Great Gatsby. I did an activity where I put a picture of a symbol on the board (for example, the 'green light') and had students work in pairs to come up with ideas for what the symbol could represent. For almost every symbol the students were able to eventually come close to the right answer on their own, and once they did I shared what my interpretation of the symbols were. The students actually really enjoyed the lesson and I can tell it made them more interested in the book. They had never considered the deeper meaning behind a lot of the symbols in the book and I could see light bulbs going off in their brains as they made connections (some connections I'd never even considered). I really think I'll have more students moving forward who have read.
Not sure what else to write about. I don't have the time I need to finish EdTPA. I'm trying to balance school, placement, EdTPA, and job hunting and so far EdTPA has taken a back seat. That's going to have to change soon, but there's literally not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do. I feel as if no matter what I focus on, someone isn't going to get what they need, and I really need to start focusing on EdTPA or else I'll be the first in the program's history to fail.
I am feeling your pain! Time!Time!Time! There just is not enough time. I am late on this post too!
DeleteI am late posting on here. Last week was way too busy. I tried filming my EdTPA. That thing which I feared seems to have hit me. Day 1 was so so. Day 2 did not record. Day 3 the students could not go a full 10 minutes without me having to correct behavior. Day 4 I found out that there is a time lapse function on the IPad. Guess how I found out! Day 5 was going great until I realized 15 minutes into class that I had forgotten all about setting up the camera and recording. I went ahead and set it up and attempted a redo. The kids were great for the first part, but I had misses the back and forth between the students and I for the video. Stressed just does not begin to cover it!
ReplyDelete