I am going to give this week a 4 1/2. The week started out great and then Tuesday came. My whole schedule was off due to two visitor at separate times that morning. Wednesday was the last day I had my Cohort B students. I only had five students that day. We got through so much. I was able to work one on one with all students in literacy as well as math. Our system had a remote learning day on Thursday to allow  time for staff to get ready for the return of all students 4 days a week starting the Monday after Spring Break on April 12. That afternoon I received the great news that I along with all teachers/teacher candidates passed edTPA. Congratulations to everyone!! Today was an optional work day for staff. I opted to work because I wanted to make sure that my class room was ready for the return of students on April 12. My daughter came with me and she was a big help. She organized my class library, cleaned tables, set up Letterland and much, much more. I'm going to miss her next year when she goes off to college. We headed home around 12:30 after everything was set up for our return.

Since this was a short week, the only assessments that I gave were informal. In math, we have been working on 10 more and 10 less. This is a hard concept to learn for a lot of my students. Since I only had a small group of students this week, I was able to play a couple of math games and work one on one with my students. I was able to assess their understanding and have used this to form math groups for after Spring Break. Today, I was able to make small group lesson plans for the two instructional assistants that will working with my students. 

Looking ahead, next week is our Spring Break and I feel as though I am prepared for the return of all my students to in-person learning on April 12. My goal during next week is to clean my house, enjoy the spring weather and rest.

Standard 1a: Teachers lead in their classrooms.  Due to me having only five students on Wednesday, I feel as though I was able to have some quality time with those students. I think it means a lot to a student when you can work one on one with them.

Standard 2a: Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults. Just as above, quality one on one with a student means a lot to them. It is times like this when a nurturing relationship can really florish. 

Standard 3a: Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Each lesson that is planned aligns with the NC standard course of study.  My writing lesson continued this week. The students are learning how to write realistic fiction. My students are having a hard time keeping their selves out of the story. Again, due to the small group of students I had this week, I was able to conference with each student each day. They have all been able to start a story and I feel that they made real progress. 

Standard 4b: Teachers plan instruction that is appropriate for their students. As with above, the instruction that I have planned is appropriate for 1st grade students.

Standard 5a: Teachers analyze student learning. I used informal  math assessments this week to develop small groups for math as well as lesson plans for the instructional assistants that will be helping with these groups.