1 Down, 9 To Go

Well, I made it through my first full week of teaching! It was definitely one for the books and one I'm sure I will never forget. This week had some highs and it had some lows, but the one constant throughout the whole week was that I loved every single minute. 

I would rate this week a 4 out of 5. The only reason I wouldn't give it a 5 is because some unfortunate situations arose at the end of the week. On Thursday, on their way out of my class, a student made a very serious threat against the school. With everything recently going on in schools across the country, threats like these are dealt with immediately and strictly and the student was suspended indefinitely. This was a student who we just had a team-principal-parent meeting on to come up with a plan on how we could get his grades up before the end of the semester. His grades were not down because of a lack of understanding, but because of a lack of simply doing the work. In the meeting, an incentive was given that the student would be able to wrestle next year if he worked hard and brought his grades up. Everyone was on board with this plan including him, so I was saddened that he threw this chance away. All of the teachers on the team, including myself, had high hopes for him and were willing to do their part if he would do his. 

Later on Thursday, one of the teachers on my team went home to a horrible tragedy and in turn will be out for a little while. This made its way on the news, so Friday was a long and difficult day as we did our best to divert the students from talking about the situation and tried to keep them focused on school. I had to step up a little bit on Friday as I was left in the classroom completely alone for about half of the day. The substitute for my teammate never showed and we also had several other teachers in the school out. My CE was pulled to cover my teammate's room for awhile until someone could get there. Friday was a difficult day for teachers and students who sympathized greatly for their colleague/teacher. 

Despite the hard ending to the week, I still enjoyed my first full week of teaching in the classroom. I surprised myself with how "not nervous" I was about taking over the classroom. From the very beginning I have felt completely comfortable and "at home" in my placement. It was very easy for me to step in a fill the teacher role, something I am extremely grateful for in my reflection of the week. 

To prepare for next week, I spent Friday after school getting all of my materials printed and ready for next week's lessons. Before leaving, I also changed the desks around in the room and created a new seating chart for each class. Earlier this week, I gave my students an interest survey and many of the students said that math class would be better if we did more group work. I am a big fan of group work and students working collaboratively, so I moved the desks out of their rows and put them in groups of 5. When planning my seating charts, I purposefully placed at least one higher student and one lower student in each group. I then distributed the rest of the students evenly over the groups. My goal here is that the students will gain some insight from working with each other, and that the higher student can assist the lower student and/or other groups members when something is not clear. Typically, when working in groups, I will tell my students that if they have a question they must collaborate with their group before they can ask me. I am excited to see how the new grouped setting works out next week. 

For standard 1 and 3 (NCPTS) this week, I had the opportunity to work collaboratively with the other math teachers in the school. Twice a year the principal organizes a "content day" for each core subject area. Content day for the math teachers was on Thursday this week, and we had half of the day to plan in the library while a substitute was in our room. I was able to plan with the other 7th grade math teacher, but also discuss with the 6th grade math teachers about what the students learned last year and how my lessons could build on theirs. 

For standard 2, I gave each of my students (roughly 100 students) an interest survey to help me get to know them a little better as people and as learners. I asked some questions about themselves, but I also asked some questions about their ideal academic learning environment. For example, "math class would be better if..." "I like it when teachers..." "I don't like it when teachers..." "A good reward for working hard would be..." I took time to read through each one and took note of some of the more common responses I got. They also had an opportunity to tell me anything else they wanted me to know. I was surprised at the number of students who took advantage of this. They took the time to clearly describe themselves and their ideas for a learning environment, so in return I will take the time to create the best environment I can for each of them. 

For standard 4, I spent a good amount of time looking for engaging activities, handouts, note taking resources, etc... My CE has given me access to her vast amount of materials and resources and even offered to share anything from her teacherspayteachers account. (If you don't have a teacherspayteachers account, I suggest getting one!) My students use an interactive notebook to keep all of their notes and assignments in, so I am continuously looking for new, cool, engaging things to use. For example, one day next week students will be using a "doodle notes" for their note taking on perimeter and area. Here are a few links to some things my students will be doing next week: Perimeter and Area Doodle Notes Area of Circles Notes Area of Circles Riddle 

Finally, for standard 5, I have been some time reflecting on my first observation. It went extremely well, but of course there are always areas for improvement. For me, those immediate areas are time management and classroom management - I will say something but not always follow through. Next week, I plan to jump on these head first and have them mastered before my next observation. 

I hope everyone has a long and restful weekend and a great week next week!