January 29, 2021

I have had a very busy yet productive week and therefore I am giving it a rating of 4. I accomplished several tasks this week one of which was finishing my mid year PDPs. It felt wonderful to have that off my plate. I also had PD today to learn how to use a new tool that our district has purchased to help with evaluating reading and math skills of our Tier II students. FastBridge is an assessment tool that helps to track the progress of students. I believe that this is going to be a great help and it can be done virtually one on one giving us better data. I can not wait to begin using FastBridge and as I do I'll give updates on the results. On Thursday, members of our central office visited our school to see how virtual learning was going. One of which came into my class. I had just finished with my Zoom for the day and so we had a chance to talk. She asked me my thoughts on virtual learning and how I felt last fall when we had all students back in the classroom 5 days a week. I told her my thoughts in a very professional way. Some of my younger colleagues could not believe how I replied. I think that is just a difference in age. My philosophy is that if you don't really want to hear the answer then don't ask.  I do feel that this time our district is really listening to us and our concerns.

This was also a fun week with my students. On Thursday, we celebrated our 100 day of school. Even though we are virtual, my kiddos had a fun time celebrating being 100 days smarter. Through reading, math, writing, and social studies, they stayed busy all day with fun lessons and activities. I have never wanted to laugh so hard as when I was watching my students see how many claps, hops, and eye blinking they could do in 100 seconds. We first estimated how many they thought they could do and then one by one they did each one. During the eye blinking, they were concentrating so hard, that you could have heard a pin drop. Plus, they were blinking so fast. When they had finished, one of my little girls said her eyes hurt. Bless! Today, I took my students on a virtual field trip to the National Botanical Garden in Washington, DC. This tied into the our science lesson from the week about what plants need to grow. My students really enjoyed "walking" around and seeing all the plants both inside and out.

This week in science, we began learning what plants need to grow. I plan to build upon that lesson next week as we begin to learn what are living things and what animals need to grow. I am excited about this lesson. I have found a lot of good videos and activities for the students to complete. We are also going on another virtual field trip to a zoo to see the animals and talk about what they need. During science, I collected data on the students understanding of what plants need. I am using this to help guide the lessons for next week.

As I worked on my mid year PDP, I determined that my goals both short term efforts and long term goals are still much aligned. One of my short term efforts was to learn to use and make more meaningful virtual lessons. As I looked at my PDP, I realized that I have come a long way from the beginning of the school year. It is still a work in progress as I find more and more ways to implement quality virtual lessons. 

I could have spent more time this week working on my edTPA and yet I feel that I am in a good spot. I have my Task 1 written and lesson plans for what I plan to teach. I have plans to teach my lessons next week while we are still in virtual learning. I am not sure when we will go back to in person learning. The plan is to go back on February 16th, however that may be extended by a few weeks. I would prefer to teach my lessons in person but I do not want to push it to much into February. This has lead to some apprehension this week as I made the decision to go ahead and record my edTPA lessons next week. The next logical step going into next week is to just make sure that I have all that I need for my lessons and not stress about them being taught via Zoom.

The one piece of advice I would have for student teachers is to not be afraid to try something else if you see what you are doing is not working. I have done this in mid lesson when I have seen confusion in my students' faces. It's OK to stop and readjust.

Standard 1a: Teachers lead in their classrooms. This week I have worked through my PDP and analyzed my goals as they affect my students learning. I made some adjustments to these goals in order to be better prepared to help my students during this virtual learning. 

Standard 2a: Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults. Even though, my class is all virtual, I have really strived to ensure that they are working in an environment  that is both positive and nurturing. I have done this by making it a point to "hear" all my students. I take the first 15 minutes each morning to just let them talk and "interact" with me and their follow students. I do not have to meet with them on Fridays, however I do for at least an hour. During this time, we do fun activities. Today we went on a virtual field trip, which they loved. I have also done mediation and relaxation techniques with them. My students ask for more of these.

Standard 3a: Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Yesterday, I used the book "Jake's 100th Day of School" to celebrate our 100th day. As we read through the book, we talked about who the characters were and what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the text. Afterwards, I had the students write if they had a 100 of something what would it be and why. My students really enjoyed writing. I had several students who wanted to share with the others.

Standard 4c: Teachers use a variety of instructional methods. This week I have used  a lot of different technology techniques to ensure that all my students understand the concepts that they are learning. This was especially true this week in math as we begin to learn about time. I had to get creative to ensure that my students were understanding the differences in the hands of the clock. I found several interactive clocks for the students to practice with. By the end of the week they were really beginning to understand. 

Standard 5b: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals. Today I attended a virtual PD on the use of FastBridge.  This is a way to assess and track students in both reading and math. I am very excited to use this new tool. I am finding it hard to assess students when they are virtual and get reliable results. This new assessment tool appears to be able to produce more accurate assessments since they can be conducted one on one and target specific goals.