Week #4

Week 4

This week I started settling into teaching an entire day. Initially, the workload was a bit overwhelming but as the week went on I found it rewarding. I discovered it to be rewarding because I could observe my students enjoying the lessons and my ideas coming to life. Additionally, I have been leaning on my senior leaders in each of my physical education classes to assist in the set-up and takedown of the activities. These are the things I like to highlight this week.

I settled into a full week of teaching and felt completely comfortable this whole week. Now possessing all of these tasks opened my eyes to the jobs that teachers complete besides teaching. My cooperating teacher was gone on Tuesday due to attendance at a conference; so, most of my classes had a substitute. I felt very comfortable because I already have been teaching the class and did not have to rely on the substitute. Additionally, this week was the week where I conducting my edTPA. Before conducting my edTPA, I sat down with both of my cooperating teachers to discuss what I desired to accomplish for my three-day learning cycle. This was very helpful because it allowed me to determine what would work best based on the material, time, and equipment needed for the lesson. We came to the conclusion that my fourth-period physical education class would work the best. After determining my class, I started to plan each of my lessons and gather the necessary materials such as heart rate monitors, worksheets, station cards, reserve the spin center. After my edTPA lesson was completed, I felt relieved that I finished it and can now focus on writing the commentary portion. At the beginning of the week, I explained to my students what the end of the week would entail for the edTPA. My students were very understanding and really enjoyed the change of unit for a few days.

This week, I did face a bit of a challenge. I had originally, planned a lesson for my fifth-period class called  “sideline soccer”. During the lesson, I could see that the students were not actively participating in the activity, so I decided to change the number of soccer balls in play. After changing the activity, more of the students became active, but some of the girls in my class were just standing around because they do not like playing with the boys. This caused me to spilt up the group to boys vs boys and girls vs girls in regular soccer. Additionally, there have been some behavioral problems with a group of boys in this class period. I had a conversation with the group about following directions and not interrupting others from learning. This seemed to work, but one student was still having behavioral issues, so I decided to ask my cooperating teacher for some advice. We decided to call home and to see if mom could have a conversation with this student. Thankfully, this has worked, and the student has since apologized for his behavior and been acting appropriately in class. I did have a follow-up conversation with this student to inform in him, that I will not be tolerating him disrupting other students learning.

Next, I have become more comfortable with asking other staff members for assistance in developing ideas for my classes. It took me some time to ask for assistance from other staff members besides my cooperating teachers, but I have found that they all are willing to help me and are wanting me to succeed in my placement. By doing this I have found that I can many different ideas for my lessons and my instruction delivery. At the end of the day, I realized that we are one big team and want to see all students succeed. 

Classroom Confidential     

The first point Schmidt covers in this chapter is the ability to teach a class with various backgrounds. I believe being able to recognize that your classroom is full of completely different students can make for an exciting classroom. Recognizing the various cultures can present the opportunity to educate all the students in your classroom about the cultures. This allows your students to gain an understanding that not everyone is the same and you can enjoy other cultures. The example provided in the text highlights a teacher that teaches his class in a very extraordinary way. He believes that it is important to highlight the areas where students may not learn in school; this keeps his students engaged in their learning and excited with the anticipation as to what may come next. I believe being able to connect with students on a personal level such as cultures will assist me as a teacher by promoting a welcoming and positive learning environment.

The next point highlighted in the text was stealth curriculum. I found this particular topic to be very interesting. Being able to include various cultures into daily lessons can assist students in becoming more aware of who their classmates are and what they believe in. Some textbooks may not go in great depth or may present information wrong; so being aware of various cultures can allow the teacher to add on to the textbook and spark various discussions with the class.