Week 10

Week ten has been a struggle with trying to get back in the swing of things after spring break but it has been a great week! On Monday at Washington, Michaela and I’s teacher was absent, so there was a substitute teacher in the room. Before the teacher started her instruction, another teacher from Washington came in the classroom to have a “class meeting” and the students sat in the floor with her and they talked about teamwork and how they as the “fourth grade” can work together and be there for each other. I thought this was beneficial for me to see because school isn’t just about the curriculum you learn including math, science, social studies, language arts, etc. School is very important in developing social skills and character traits that the students will be able to take with them through life and in their future careers. On Tuesday at Washington, Gardner Webb’s school of education gave the teachers a duty-free lunch and it was really cool to interact with some of the students and to allow their teachers to have a break and eat some yummy tacos! After the duty-free lunch, we went to our normal classrooms and helped as usual. I was able to do some one on one time with three students for language arts instruction. I was sad we didn’t get to spend as much time as usual with our classrooms but the duty-free lunch was much needed for those teachers! In class this week, we broke off into groups and each had a different task from edTPA. Savanna and I had task 3 and we had to find the top ten most important things we need to know. I learned a lot in class today, although we only talked about task one and task two. For my outside learning and research, I have been reading over the edTPA handbook and making sure I know what everything means so that way I can be prepared when I start writing my lesson plans. The standard that connects to this weeks learning is standard four which is facilitate learning for their students. This is a direct connection to standard four because by using edTPA, I will be able to differentiate for my students, and know how each student learns so that way I can teach them effectively. I will use the “class meeting” in my future classroom because I think knowing how to treat others and work together is very important for my students to know. Also, edTPA has taught me that planning, teaching, and assessing are very important in order for my students to learn effectively, and for me as a teacher to teach and assess effectively.