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: