I can’t believe how fast this week has flown by, it’s been packed with excitement, nervousness and fun! After the first couple days I realized how happy I was to be in this program and to be teaching both classes at Newton Elementary. One of the best feelings is being able to work with all the kids and establish deeper connections with them. I also like the feeling of consistency, although it is all very new it is starting to feel “normal”. When I am at the school everyday I am beginning to feel like I really belong and feel connected to the staff, my SA, my fellow TCs and all the students. One of my goals for my 418 practicum was to work on collaboration with my colleague in the PL Tech cohort and thus far in the practicum we have worked well together and have supported one another whenever needed. We have also decided to do more collaborative planning with our fairy tale unit and a STEM/imagination unit. I am looking forward to the rest of the practicum and the collaboration that will occur between us, however it is definitely still a place where professional growth will happen.

This week I started teaching my SEL unit, measurement unit and my fairy tale unit. All of which started off well and after each lesson my confidence increased and my nervousness subsided. Overall my SEL unit was my favorite to teach as I taught the classes about friendship and relationships, as a class we made a friendship fruit salad. Because it was something that was visual it allowed the students to see what the various components of a healthy and happy classroom are and what happens when a “‘rotten banana” gets added to the mix. My measurement unit started off on a good note however there were some challenges that I faced throughout the week. One area I need to focus on is my transitions between the daily 3 and my timing. I also would like to work on my plans for each daily, plans that are at the correct instruction level and activities that students are able to do without support. To address some of these challenges I have decided to over plan during math with teacher and to have set spaces for each rotation, math with teacher (at the rainbow table), math my myself (pentagon table next to the rainbow table), and math with someone (on the carpet). I also plan to have a very detailed plan for when I am teaching math with teacher and have different adaptations for each of the groups. Lastly I found a lot of the blue group students completed math my myself quickly so I filled in various question starters on the math bulletin board so they can begin to create their own problems. I am all ready to go for math on Monday so I am hoping all of these changes will improve my lessons instruction and daily 3 transitions.