Blog two

February was a short month but this month was a month of huge growth for me personally. I am so thankful for all of the time I get to spend in my clinical placement because this is the time I can make the connections between what I am learning while doing the learning experiences, class discussions, and other assignments. We had to complete the leadership and collaboration project, as well as our rough drafts for our edTPA learning segment. Completing the leadership and collaboration project directly links to standard one of the NCTCS because to complete this learning experience I had to locate data about the school I will be student teaching at to help inform my future instruction. I was able to look at the school improvement plan (SIP) and the goals the school improvement team set for the whole school. Looking at these goals helped me to see where my class is at in terms of this goal. The first goal of the SIP is to increase 20% on iready reading and goal two was to increase 20% on iready math. During the project, I selected a goal I wanted to reach for parent involvement because I realize that parent involvement has a huge impact on my students learning. My action plan is to have a Kindergarten parent night and this will take place when I begin student teaching in the fall. The goal of the parent night is for the students and their parents to come to the school to play games with the teachers as well as learn some strategies to help their students with learning at home. This connects to standard two of the NCTCS because I am establishing a respectful environment for the students to learn in by involving the significant adults in my students lives. Writing lessons one through five was very beneficial because I know I will be writing edTPA next semester during student teaching. The goal of my learning segment is for the students to be able to correctly identify main idea and the key details within the story that support the main idea. To help my students achieve this goal, I included multiple strategies for my students to ensure I reach every type of learner within my classroom. For example, in one lesson I give the students "main idea bags" with different items in them and they have to look at the items to decide what the main idea of that bag is. Doing things like this will make the learning more concrete for the hands-on learners in my classroom. Another example from my lessons include the students coming up to the SMART board to play a game that is about main idea and key details. My students were born in 2012, which means they have never known a world without technology. Integrating technology within my lessons allows for these 21st century learners to achieve the learning goals. Catering to all of my students needs connect to standard four of the NCTCS which says that teachers facilitate learning to their students. By using technology and activities for each students learning style, I have provided an opportunity of learning to each student. In my clinical placement, I was able to attend a field trip to The Schiele Museum of Natural History with my class. While on the field trip, I was walking with students and reading some of the displays to them to help them understand some of the content within the museum. They attended a skit about the earth and how things work such as water, plants, and animals. For the students to be able to see this skit, I think it allowed them to understand what the characters were talking about. In my future classroom, I will use things such as a skit to help my students understand a topic that they may be struggling on. This month was Valentines Day as well as Presidents Day. My teacher used these holidays to help facilitate learning within her classroom. On valentines day, the class read a book about hearts, did a math activity using hearts, and created an art project using hearts. For Presidents day, the students read a magazine about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and then they had to sort the facts into a Venn diagram. Using current events to engage your students is  brilliant way to relate learning to real life for the students. This connects to standard four of facilitating learning to your students because relating the learning to real life engages the students  to make connections with the content. This month's character trait is kindness and each class was given strips of paper to write kind things that happened in the classroom for a whole week. The classroom with the longest chain won a prize and every classrooms chain was hung at the front of the school above the character trait Kindness. Ensuring kindness within the classroom directly connects to standard two of the NCTCS which is establishing a respectful learning environment. I was able to assist my CE and her TA in testing the students on their uppercase and lowercase letters, phonemes associated with the letters, numbers 1-20, and sight words. In January when I began going to my clinical placement, I was able to help with the testing as well. It was really cool to see just how far these students have come in just the short amount of time I have been in the classroom. It also helped my CE to determine her guided reading groups, what she may need to re-teach, and who needs extra assistance. Testing the students allows the teacher to reflect on her practice which is standard five so she can see what her students know and what they need assistance with. For my outside learning and research, I have been researching classroom management strategies to help my teacher limit the distractions in the classroom. One strategy that the EC department utilizes for behavior is having a "reward chart" and at the start of every day the student who is misbehaving is allowed to pick a reward for that day and all day they have to work toward their goal so they can receive the reward. The rewards are things like extra recess time, getting to go see the EC teachers Guinea Pigs, getting in the prize box, sitting in the teachers chair, etc. This system has worked wonderfully for this student and has lowered his number of outbursts drastically. In my clinical placement, there are some students who struggle with letter-sound recognition so I have been researching activities I can use at my guided reading group to help these students learn that every letter has a sound that goes with it. One activity I found was to allow the students to use play-doh to make letters and then say the letter, and the sound it makes along with a word that starts with that letter. For example, I say the letter B and they will make the letter with their play-doh, write the letter three times on the line and then I will ask them what sound the letter makes, and then they should tell me a word that starts with B such as butterfly. I like this idea for my current and future classroom because it allows every type of learner to be engaged. I can't believe we are almost halfway through the semester and before we know it we will be student teaching. For now, I am excited to be able to learn new things every week in class and be able to apply them in my clinical.