Winter Term - Week 8

Wow. I cannot believe it is already EdTPA week. My student teaching experience has sure flown by and is not slowing down any time soon.

First day of EdTPA Week:

I felt my lesson overall went really well and smooth. I could have used a couple extra minutes at the end of class as I didn’t quite make it back to my objectives. I did have a summary/review with my students and we got through all of the PowerPoint and activity. I think I might have scared the kids a little too much about the camera being on and how important this week is for me as they were much quieter and less chatty than normal. There were 2 students absent from class which may or may not have had an effect on the dynamics of the class. I guess we will see tomorrow. I did have good conversations and good answers throughout the lesson. Everyone seemed to be paying attention and focused. I was frustrated with my video camera though. Last week during my trial run, I had set the camera to the MP4 format, thinking this is awesome! I won’t have to convert it later! Well the video was automatically cut into 2 different segments. I thought I had it fixed before class, but unfortunately while reviewing the video, it also split into 2 different segments. And now I will have to convert that file later on. Having the two different segments is not the end of the world, however if I wanted to use that ten minute segment where it automatically broke itself up, then I wouldn’t be able to use it.

 
Fourth day of EdTPA Week:
Thursday my goal was to focus on my lesson and keeping it simple. All this week I have felt overwhelmed while teaching as I am trying to teach a full lesson with all of the components of the OSU lesson plan as well as remembering to show all of the pieces of the EdTPA rubrics. Different days throughout this week I have questioned my teaching ability and techniques. I was unsure if students were retaining the content I was teaching. Thursday was reassuring in that fact as students were putting the different pieces of content together and able to compare the differences.

At the end of EdTPA week, I have decided I will need one more day next week to wrap up my lessons and planned activities. This will be my fifth day of filming and my fifth lesson for EdTPA.  

Winter Term - Week 7

My week started out with no school on Monday as it was Presidents Day so school reconvened on Tuesday. I was honestly surprised with how well my lesson went as well as my second formal observation. I had been battling a bad cold and Tuesday it had gotten much worse which really brought down my energy level. I feel I am pretty upbeat and energetic in my classes (especially my morning classes for students that are not morning people) and being sick was a challenge. My lesson involved a lot of writing on the student’s part, but they were all up and moving around the classroom for a good portion of the class period. Every student was engaged the entire class period and worked efficiently. 

I felt my reflection with my professors went really well. They realized I was sick and still had helpful feedback and advice for me. I really appreciated this. I have since been working on implementing this feedback into my lessons and conversations with my cooperating teacher.

Wednesday we headed to EOU in La Grande for sectionals which gave me an opportunity to visit with my cooperating teacher before picking up our one student who was competing. I wanted to take advantage of this time to share about my observation reflections, components of my teaching and lesson plans to work on, as well as how to get the most out of my last few weeks of student teaching. I really appreciated and valued this time with my cooperating teacher. I think this was a huge stepping stone for me and helped me refocus on different pieces of my experience. While at sectionals, I had the opportunity to judge Extemporaneous Speaking along with a fellow student teacher and my cooperating teacher from my Early Field Experience. This was my first time judging and even listening to extemporaneous speeches so I really valued this learning experience. I feel I could adequately train students for public speaking next year.  

Thursday as well as all days after having a substitute teacher, felt like a catch up day. I needed to get all of my classes back on track and on the same page. This was a challenge as my lesson plans for the sub did not go quite as I had hoped they would. After reflecting with my cooperating teacher, I learned it’s best to keep sub plans as simple and easy to understand as possible including the student activities. I have found that I struggle with sub plans as far as deciding what students should work on while I am gone. Certain classes such as shop or greenhouse, may not be able to progress. Giving students a free day is not the answer either. I need to develop multiple ideas for student activities for future classes that are curricular yet simple.