March 20th-24th

Weekly Rating: 5!  EDTPA IS OVER + JUST AN AMAZING WEEK IN GENERAL!

• Observe: This week was so great. My lesson plans were solid. My activities were solid. EdTPA was turned in, and hopefully it is solid. I worked very hard on it this weekend and I AM SO RELIEVED. My abilities to get things done is surprising to me. It's a great feeling to feel responsible and capable of getting your stuff done + doing it well.
• Reflect: My kids LOVED making a craft together. My activity featuring the Japanese Star Festival and having students create wishes to put on our tree was great. I think that I learned just how much time certain tasks can take. I worked all week (literally) to get my tree completed. However I learned two very important lessons: 1) I can be very creative. I took brown lunch-bags and cut them, crinkled them, and laid them on my tree as a bark texture. 2) Students LOVE seeing their work displayed. It gave me a great focus at the beginning of our lessons (2nd grade). I could manage their behavior by reminding them the more they talked, the less time we had to create our craft. I had a GREAT time reading their wishes! Some are pretty dark: "I wish I didn't have annoying brothers and sisters"-after which I reminded students this was their one wish, so make it a good, happy one. Some where hilarious:"I wish my dog would get rid of it's fleas." My 1sts sang a song and created their own movements to demonstrate "working in a rice field." That was fun and it helped them learn the song as we went along. Correlating movements and work triggers their memories a lot faster I have found. I'm beginning to look forward and realize just how much I will miss Fallston Elementary. It has become my home.

• Focus: I am almost finished with Student Teaching. My goals are to finish up my paper/project work. I definitely need to get work on some of those things-but thankfully(!!!) Easter break is on it's way. I can definitely crank out some great work while on Vacay in the beautiful MA. ALSO: just because edTPA is over doesn't mean I am done. I must remember this. I have a lot of work to do yet.
• Be productive: Because edTPA is off my shoulders, I can breathe. I am going to create a calendar for myself with my expectations of when things must be done. This will help me gauge what to do/when. I had one created before I began full-time teaching, but that one is gone with the wind! My major tasks are the classroom management, SIP, and the EE6 work.

• Have courage: Looking back over my time at Fallston I have begun to think: have I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. Yes, I have taught music. I have become comfortable in front of my amazing students, guiding them through their exploration of music. But have I had as much fun as I could? Have I engaged them enough? Have I played games, made up dances, and laughed enough? Not in my opinion. So next week, we are PLAYING SOME GAMES! We are going to dance and sing and hopefully laugh. I'm excited!

• Begin anew: Well, I completed edTPA all weekend.. so Sunday night I wrote lesson plan after lesson plan. So I need to rest and catch up on sleep. 

• Data analysis: My 3rds are still learning about Dynamics, Tempo, and Articulation. Each week we review what we did the last. I ask them to show me the "level" for forte, pianissimo, etc. I analyze how well they demonstrate the movement and then continue the lesson from there.
• Advice: KICK edTPA's butt. 

NCTCS: 

Standard 1: Teachers demonstrate leadership

1a. Draws on appropriate data to develop classroom and instructional plans.

This goes along with what I said about assessing 3rd grades' understanding of the different levels of dynamics and the different speeds with tempo.

Standard 2: Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of

students

2b. Understands the influence of diversity and plans instruction accordingly.

This week my younger grades have been singing songs from around the globe. 1st: China; 2nd: Japan. 3rd: Alabama. We have discussed the contextual settings of these songs along with the relevance of these songs to us today.

Standard 3: Teachers know the content they teach 3a. Encourages students to investigate the content area to expand their knowledge and satisfy their natural curiosity.

It seems that each of my lower grades have TONS of questions about the composers of the week. I have begun to send a sticky note back with each class with specific questions for the teacher/students to look up! It has been a great project and my students seem thrilled to do their own "research."

Standard 4: Teachers facilitate learning for their students

4a. Organizes student learning teams for the purpose of developing cooperation, collaboration, and student leadership. To develop and demonstrate student leadership, I have begun to ask for volunteers to begin our class periods in 4th and 5th grades. These students come to the front of the classroom and lead us through the ASL music vocabulary! It has been amazing to see some students step out of their shell and give it a try! They are so inspirational to me! The courage it takes to get up in front of everyone and be a leader is great. I give all my leaders positive DoJos. After they are done leading the activity I let them write their name on the board so I can give them a +Dojo, (also so I can remember their names!). I also let a student lead us through the rhythm bone. I would like to continue this practice until I have one student leading the entire process.

Standard 5: Teachers reflect on their practice 5c. Uses a variety of research-verified approaches to improve teaching and learning. In 4th we have been comparing/contrasting the sounds of instruments in the same family. Marzano says this will boost their ability to differentiate between the instruments when seen independently.

• Management Question of the week: 
• Portfolio: EE7: Website, Technological Evidences, Professional Development Plan and Resume. I started looking at the SIP and trying to figure out how to incorporate implementing those goals into my lessons and demeanor throughout the school day + NCTCS, started looking at PBIS more in depth. 
• Support: :D 

March 6th-10th 

Weekly Rating: 4! 

• Observe: I know this isn't a huge accomplishment, but I really enjoyed creating my first bulletin board. It was exciting, though tedious. I found out it was a lot more challenging than I thought to come up with an interesting concept, gather the materials, remove the old materials, and put up the new! It was fun and my students love seeing "George Washington," I mean Mozart. I used my resources (my Art-Major apartment-mate) to paint a beautiful bust of Mozart which I outlined last Friday using the projector. 
• Reflect: I think that I should pay more attention to detail when preparing for my week. It seems that my Monday classes always get the short end of the stick when it comes to my lesson. I guess this is natural, but I wish I felt more prepared and confident in my lesson plans on Monday. I have gotten to the point that I just glance at my lesson plans on the way to pick up the class and can remember what we are doing pretty well. This is a very nice feeling! I just want to get better about giving my best to my first class-not just "testing it out" on them. 

• Focus: I am working hard on edTPA. I'm glad that it is due pretty soon: March 20. I can get it out of the way and focus on my ST portfolio and end of the semester work. 

• Be productive: Going into this coming week, I feel well prepared and less stressed than on normal weekend nights. I think I did a great job getting things started earlier last week-so I don't think I would change too much. 

• Have courage: This hasn't happened yet, but it is coming. My 5th graders were assigned partners according to who "got it" and who "is yet to get it" in regards to the Grand Staff. I knew this could potentially be lethal if students were chatting too much or what have you. So I tried my best to assign students with people who would be a good pair but not talk too much. I told the classes to walk through every step of the way. I wanted them to help one another do the problems, not just give the answers. I got a pair of students' papers back and they had answered ONE question. I gave them probably close to 20. I know these two boys are usually hard workers- their exit papers from last week showed me that they could do the concept-or at least attempt to. So I told Mrs. F last week that I may just have to let them sit out and finish their work while the rest of the class moves on to Ukuleles. I don't mean for it to be a punishment, but the rest of the class- even my very-low, EC students, worked harder than them and were able to finish at least 2 lines of the papers. So when they decide they will give an honest effort to an assignment I have asked them to complete, they may participate in the new, fun thing we are doing in class.  

• Begin anew: This week holds my last recording of edTPA! That is exciting. I will be working my tail off to get my commentaries done and all of my videos to the exactly correct link, but after this it will be over! I have really enjoyed reading the books I've borrowed about Learning processes and Music & Special Ed! 

• Data analysis: More exit tickets! I have seen great growth over the last few weeks with regards to the Grand Staff. I think now that we have made it to a certain point, I would like to start using music on the staff-maybe for recorders-so it actually has a purpose. 
• Advice: Enjoy your students. On Friday we had an assembly where a special musician, Mrs. Lawrence, came and played violin for all of our classes. I made an effort to sit with some of my students (especially if there were a gaggle of chatters). It was nice. I feel like all of my advice is the same-be present, take it in, love your kids, love your job, have fun. 

NCTCS: 

Standard 1: Teachers demonstrate leadership

1a. Draws on appropriate data to develop classroom and instructional plans. I have been collecting a great amount of data on my students. I have been taking this information that I have been collecting to create my lesson plans for each class. Some classes have students who understand the concepts greatly and we can continue working forward, but some classes need extra help with the concept and we must reteach and relearn the concepts.

Standard 2: Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of

students 2b. Incorporates different points of view in instruction. While we are listening and learning about the different instruments of the orchestra, we have been describing the various sounds instruments make-giving them adjectives and characteristics. I have been recording their responses of what they think the instrument sounds like. We have discussed how everyone may think different things, but that doesn't mean they are wrong. We all have our interpretation of the sound. 

Standard 3: Teachers know the content they teach 3a. Integrates effective literacy instruction throughout the curriculum and across content areas to enhance students’ learning. Our fifth grade classes have been learning the concept of ordering notes on lines and spaces called staves. Musical literacy contains reading the notes on a staff.

Standard 4: Teachers facilitate learning for their students

4a. Identifies developmental levels of individual students and plans instruction accordingly. We have been learning about the grand staff in 5th grade. I took the evidence from exit tickets I collected last week and paired students up with differing understanding levels of grasping the concept. This helps those who don't understand it well get the one-on-one attention that I can't supply to everyone during a class period.

Standard 5: Teachers reflect on their practice 5c. Uses a variety of research-verified approaches to improve teaching and learning. To best complete my edTPA unit, I have been reading textbooks about Special Education in Music and about different ways to approach musical learning. This has helped me learn about varying my input and output modes for students with special needs and also made me more aware about the way that I teach concepts-trying to provide multiple learning styles during the lesson to accommodate many differing learners.

• Management Question of the week: The grand question that everyone asks but not many people have the answer to: what do you do to discipline students who are (seemingly) purposefully being disruptive? It makes you want to stomp watermelons you get so angry... I just am unsure of how to handle it.. I've separated them from the group, given negative DoJos... then what? 
• Portfolio: EE7: Website, Technological Evidences, Professional Development Plan and Resume. I started looking at the SIP and trying to figure out how to incorporate implementing those goals into my lessons and demeanor throughout the school day + NCTCS, started looking at PBIS more in depth. Am getting very close to narrowing down my focus student.
• Support: 

February 27th-March 3rd

Weekly Rating: 4! 

• Observe: Where did this week go? Literally I think I winked and it was gone... I think my biggest achievement for this week was understanding and creating my own way of assessing my students. Exit tickets are tedious and time consuming... but I now know what my students know pretty well. Also, I think that sometimes if we put things down on paper we may remember it better...
• Reflect: I gave DoJos and had to back myself up on them.. my students KNOW that I HATE giving negative DoJos... I had a Kinder who wanted to repetitively get out of her seat and sit on the top row. I reminded her twice that she should be seated in her assigned seat... After the third time I gave her a negative and we went on our way. The next day at lunch I noticed on our iPad that there was a message from the Kinder's parent asking why her daughter had a negative in our class... I was unsure what her tone was (as is expected through digital communication), so I made sure to be as thorough as possible when explaining 1. who I was, 2. the situation that occurred and the decision she made that warranted a negative DoJo. I made sure Mrs.F read it before I sent it, and we didn't hear anything back from the parent so I am guessing she accepted my response..

• Focus: I need to get better about doing musical things. It seems that we have been talking a whole lot, and I want to get back to playing games and singing songs/playing instruments.. That's my new short term goal. I am also getting edTPA out of the way here soon.. so that is exciting. I need to be sure my lessons line up and are what scorers would want to see..

• Be productive: I got to Friday this week and realized that I had barely planned at all for this coming week.. Yippeee. Therefore, I will be spending the majority of my weekend creating LPs and SMARTnotebooks. Yay. I await the day that I have a stock pile of LPs created and ready to reuse. 

• Have courage: *Here come a couple of stories...

1. I am searching for jobs like crazy. It has become my nightly routine to search for job openings in NC and SC. It's terrifying to think about moving to the middle of nowhere where I know no one, just for a job. But I am more than willing to do it and kind of excited about the adventure of it. I know that my personality will help me make friends easily wherever I go.. but it can be a bit discouraging when I don't hear anything back from a school after sending in my resume and application..

2. Everyday after school I see the after-school program students playing basketball and what not in the gym. I always think- one day I am going to get out there and shoot some hoops with those kids (I am not very good at basketball, but love to hang out with kiddos). On Friday I stayed a little later at school (until 5) getting some things started for this coming week. I was walking to the copier to print out some things and one of the boys asked me if I wanted to shoot basketball with them.. I said "yes, let me go get my papers real quick.." So I came back and played around with a few of the kids. One of the kids is a new student in 1st grade. I've made it a point to make him feel welcome, greeting him in the hallway and asking him about his old school. I was glad he was there so I could make him feel cared for and accepted at Fallston. Another student told me he had a basketball game on Saturday and I got to ask him about his likes/dislikes... It was just an awesome experience. All of the girls (sitting on the side-lines talking to one another) as well as the boys went crazy when I made my first three shots that I took when I started playing. It's just awesome. I love it. 

• Begin anew: Well... I have to create everything... so I can't really clear clutter... I need to get to work...
• Data analysis: EXIT TICKETS FOR ALL! I have exit ticket assessments from 3, 4, and 5 grades! I love reading over their answers. I always tell them to do things on the back and they love being creative and silly on the back. I am using them ALL to help me move forward with this next week. Tempo words that most often get mixed up in 3rd: accelerando, andante, and allegro... I will use this to reteach next week.
• Advice: Let your students know you are a real human being. Go out of your comfort zone and be willing to look like a fool (most of my shots after the first three were air balls, but my kiddos did not care at all). 

NCTCS: 

Standard 1: Teachers demonstrate leadership

1d: Implements and adheres to policies and practices positively affecting students’ learning.

This may be a stretch, but I am assessing (a practice) my students' learning and reteaching/rethinking my methods of engagement. I think this could be applicable because it will directly support their learning in the next week.

Standard 2: Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of

students
2a: Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults

• Maintains a positive and nurturing learning environment.

I think my basketball experience covers this nicely, as well as talking to my new 1st about his interest and hobbies.

2d: Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs

• Cooperates with specialists and uses resources to support the special learning needs of all students.
  
• Uses research-verified strategies to provide effective learning activities for students with special needs.

My exit tickets had modified version which I let struggling readers and developmentally delayed students use. This helped them focus more on the content of the exit ticket and less on the procedure of reading/writing/spelling on it.

2e: Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students

• Communicates and collaborates with the home and community for the benefit of students.

My interaction with the parent of my Kinder (from above) is communicating with home for the benefit of the student. This will help her manage her decisions more wisely (hopefully).

Standard 3: Teachers know the content they teach

3c: Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content area/specialties

• Demonstrates knowledge of links between grade/subject and the NCSCS by relating content to other disciplines. In first grade we have be repetitively talking about math and music correlations.

Standard 4: Teachers facilitate learning for their students
4e: Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills

• Integrates specific instruction that helps students develop the ability to apply processes and strategies for critical thinking and problem solving.

My first edTPA lesson was full of this (in my opinion). We used strategies for remembering and identifying different instruments and how they are made. They thought critically to separate the instruments into the "family" they belong in. The whole learning segment is a "problem" that we are trying to solve!

-while I am here, my sister pointed out how nervous I seemed in my video-but I wasn't nervous at all. She said my hands in front of my chest put together made it seem that I am wringing them, and she also said it took me a while to get to the meat of the lesson... So I definitely sent her that video with hopes of happiness but rather got criticism.. but she explained that she was just trying to help--but still.. They don't seem as excited as I am that I am actually in front of a class-teaching..

Standard 5: Teachers reflect on their practice 5a: Teachers analyze student learning

• Uses data to provide ideas about what can be done to improve students’ learning.

Exit tickets, my friends.

• Management Question of the week:
• Portfolio: EE7: Website, Technological Evidences, Professional Development Plan and Resume. I started looking at the SIP and trying to figure out how to incorporate implementing those goals into my lessons and demeanor throughout the school day + NCTCS, started looking at PBIS more in depth. Am getting very close to narrowing down my focus student.
• Support: Just need to remember that a job will not come easily. Going to job fairs in the near future to market myself.. woohoo! I would also like to go home in the near future.. I miss my fam! haha!