We survived edTPA!

Well guys, we survived edTPA! Now we just have to anxiously wait for our scores, finish out student teaching strong, and put together all the little pieces of our portfolio. Thats still a lot to do, but none of it sounds as stressful as edTPA. I know this week was the half way point for many of us. Pretty soon we'll be walking across that stage wondering where the semester went.

I would rate this week a 2. It was a very stressful week, my lesson plans were not the greatest, I spent every spare moment working on edTPA, stayed up to late, didn't get enough sleep or food in my system, and had to try very hard (though failed at times) to not be irritable with the students. All that being said, I can't rate the week a 1 because I still love my placement and what I'm doing. Its a slow start getting up in the mornings (I mean, I do get up at 5:30) but, there has not been a single day where I dreaded going to teach. God has surely blessed me this semester.

I was able to demonstrate standard 1 (NCPTS) this week by taking total leadership in my classroom, which in turn helped out in other places around the building. My CE was out on Wednesday, so there was a sub in my room with me. They ended up needing to pull my sub to cover other classes throughout the day. In the midst of this, I received a wonderful compliment when our principal said "that student teacher is great, go ahead and pull that sub." It was a very rewarding feeling to know that the principal trusts me and views me as a capable leader and teacher in her school. I also had another opportunity to demonstrate leadership in my school by attending this week's faculty meeting in place of my CE.

For standard 3 this week, I started researching more ideas for integrating other subjects and 21st century skills into my lesson plans. My weakness right now is getting adequate integration of other subjects into my lesson plans. This has really been a struggle for me, so I decided to take some extra steps this week to research some integrative and engaging ways to do this.

For standard 4 this week, I took note of some things I noticed happening while students were taking their benchmark and made plans to prevent it from happening in the future. Students took their benchmark on Tuesday and Thursday this week. They had 2 days to complete their benchmark, so you would think they would take their time and check their work...wrong. The moment students found out they could play Prodigy after finishing their test, majority of them rushed through it. I purposely did not tell them this before the test started, however when they noticed other students finishing and playing Prodigy, they started to rush resulting unnecessary bad grades. On testing days, I try to give students a break and let them do something they enjoy, but still curriculum based, after finishing their test. This is something my CE does as well. But, after watching them rush through the test and seeing their benchmark scores, I have decided to give them an assignment to do after the test next time. I plan to tell them the reason for receiving the assignment instead of being allowed to play Prodigy. At the 7th grade level, middle schoolers should be starting to make steps towards taking responsibility for their own grades and learning. But, we still have to give them little nudges in that direction.

For standard 5 this week, I reflected on my teaching the past 5 weeks. I can see how much I have grown from last semester and how much I have grown in just the last 5 weeks. I know that I have a lot more growing to do, however I am proud of how far I have come. I can't wait to see what the next 5 weeks hold.

I hope everyone has a great edTPA free weekend and a great week next week! We are finally on that downhill slope towards graduation!