Weekly Logs for Portfolio

Weekly Log #4 (Feb. 17-21)

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?

I continued with co-teaching math this week. With that, I was responsible for keeping track

of students who did not finish their minute math in class. They had the opportunity to complete

this is study skills. For students absent, I was responsible for filling out their notes and

monitoring assignments due. I started to teach study skills this week as well, along with grading

assignment and submitting grades via infinite campus.

On Friday I attended a professional development day on anything associated with Google

Drive. I learned about all different types of apps associated with Google. They provide many

useful apps to use in the classroom. One I really liked was Class Dojo. It is a behavior

management software. It allows you to import students as a class and provide positive behavior

management for each student in class. It can be used immediately to reinforce positive behavior

and shown to student. It is a way to engage students in monitoring of behavior.

2. What were your most satisfying and challenging experiences?

Every day is satisfying. I love the pace my mentor teacher is taking with me. I feel like I am

able to develop relationships with students, which is so helpful with classroom management.

Due to not being able to implement my own classroom plan, relationships with my students is

extra important…under these circumstances.

My most challenging experience this week was teaching study skills after early dismissal was

announced for snow. Study skills is a split class. In the middle of study skills they go to lunch.

The announcement was made before lunch, students were excited and left for lunch. The most

challenging time was with instruction was after lunch. In reflection, everything went well, other

than a small power struggle I started to have with a student. Thinking back, with the limited time

we had, I could have avoided a power struggle buy having her work alone in the hall. I did

finally come to this decision, but not before becoming somewhat frustrated.

3. What are the plans for the upcoming week?

My plans for the upcoming week are to teach reading. This is the first lesson planning I will

be doing as a solo planning. Other lessons for classes like math are more planned by the general

education teacher. I will also be learning how to run reading, math, and writing probes.

I enjoyed your log.

You said: My most challenging experience this week was teaching study skills after early dismissal was

announced for snow. Those are always challenging times! No single answer! Also, your reflection

about the interaction with the girl. Re-playing those things in our mind is how we get better. I'm

delighted that you are re-playing things, not everyone does that.

Weekly Log #5 (Feb. 24-28)


This was a GREAT, challenging week! I continued to add more to my solo teaching.

The biggest day was Thursday. My mentor teacher was gone, teaching a MANT class.

She called for a substitute she had not had before, so that, I could be “in charge”. This

was the best way to see if I could DO IT…and I DID. We survived! The one thing I

feared was how students would respond to my authority. The students were great and

responded well to me redirecting them to return to task. I believe this comes from time

spent building a positive relationship. I am thankful I had that time. I have also been

able to go quite a bit of grading this week, and it has allowed me to gather even more

insight into how students perform academically.


I had two experiences this week that I really appreciated. I appreciated being trusted

enough to have the class on my own and teach a full day, keeping up with the pace. I

enjoyed the fast pace, the successes and the “putting out fires”. I had to trust my decision

making and go with it. All went well. I also felt fortunate to be in a meeting with my

teacher and principal discussing a parent email. This parent is very knowledgeable about

the IEP and keeps close watch on every detail. The student was handed back a test with a

failing grade. His IEP states that he is not to be handed back a test with a failing grade,

but allowed to retake the test. The Sewing teacher was unaware of this IEP

accommodation and handed back a test with a failing grade. The parent notified the

principal immediately and makes notes of all the IEP “mishaps”. It was good to see the

principal communicate with my mentor teacher his expectations. I was also able to ask

some of my own questions. It was an overall valuable experience for me.


My plans for the upcoming week are to continue more of the same, but take over Social

Studies. Personally, I want to work on creating a “teaching plan” template for myself

that gives me something more explicit to work with. I plan to work on that in the reading

lessons I will be teaching.

Nice reflection. It is always great to have the teacher gone! Gives you a safe time to practice. The

failing grade parent is an excellent experience. Parents are the consumers and some aren't forgiving

when it comes to deviations from the IEP. Have a great week.

Jerry

Weekly Log #6 (Mar. 3-7)


I spent my week continuing to be more on my own. I am fully on my own working with

the math teacher. I coordinate keeping track of missing work, make up tests and

monitoring student progress during class. I administered make-up tests after school for

students needing to re-take their math tests.

In English I helped administer the required writing assessments. This involved reading

the reading passage to the students and encouraging them to stay on task. I have about 4

students who just transferred to my mentor teachers class from ESL. It was clear these

students were frustrated and confused by this assessment. I worked with the English

teacher to come up with examples of how to construct a 5 paragraph essay (the

hamburger with a bun on top-intro paragraph, the 3 middle ingredients-lettuce, cheese,

meat, and the bottom bun is the closing paragraph). I encouraged them to try their best

as some were becoming anxious. In watching the students write this, it is clear they need

more modeling in the area of parts of an essay/story.

I taught reading this week with a scripted lesson plan. The biggest thing I took away

from this was how much it helped my reflection. I was able to return to my lesson plan

and be more detailed in m reflection. I took over the bell work (daily oral geography) in

social studies and lead it daily. In Science, I assist the teacher in review and classroom

management. This is still a tough class, but better managed since I know the kids better.


My most satisfying experience was discovering how well I was able to reflect with the

scripted lesson plan. Although there were times I swayed from the script, due to

questions by students and the need to explain, I wrote those things down. This was

helpful and allowed my reflection to be more detailed, specific and organized.

I did a lot more grading, assessing this past week. I still find the line of “going back” to

teach and “moving on” to be tough. I allow my mentor to help me make those decisions,

but can see that being a future question I will always face. With standards to be met and

material to be taught, the timeline can get tricky.


My plans for this week are to prepare to be totally on my own after Spring Break. The

calendar has me starting later, but my mentor believes I am ready . I have created a

more organized system of keeping track of student papers I keep track of and then have to

return to general ed. teachers. I hope to have a full grasp on the grading this week.

Weekly Log #7 (Mar. 10-13)


I spent my week having classes solo, leading much of the Language Arts class and

continuing to teach reading and study skills. Teaching the Language Arts will be

interesting and some preparation. Using the script for teaching reading has helped

tremendously in my reflection and also see myself becoming more confident and using it

less. One thing I have reflected in this week is how I need to continue to think about how

I will set up my own classroom. Being in another teachers classroom places some limits

on what I would do completely in every situation. Since I just completed my classroom

management standard in my portfolio this week, I have thought about how important

establishing the expectations in my classroom and consistency will be. I mention the

math teacher a lot, but she is a great example of a teacher who established expectations of

the classroom and has remained consistent in those expectations all year. She remains

organized and the students know what to expect. She is very personable with the

students, yet has high expectations. They perform in her classroom and atmosphere is

engaging.


One of my most challenging BUT satisfying experiences this week came with a student

that lied to me about completing an assignment. This was a student who I have had a

really good relationship with and no problems to date, lied about completing her book

talk when I asked. She was caught in front of the class. There were three minutes left in

class. Because I have gotten to know this student and who she responds to confrontation,

I decided to wait until the end of class to confront her. I had a one-on-one private

conversation with about her breaking my trust. We talked about having an honest

conversation about her assignment would have been much better than lying. We

discussed that trust needs to be earned again due to this incident. Having this honest

conversation with her was the best method to teach about future communication. Taking

those three minutes to stop and make a decision how I responded to her was the best

thing I could have done for myself. If I responded immediately, I am not sure if would

have been the best for the student, due to my frustration. I also believe it is o.k. to tell a

student “I need a minute to think about this”. I did not have to do that in this situation,

but glad I did.


My plans for the upcoming week are to drive to Michigan to see Husband/Dad/Coach .

I also plan to work on lesson plans for teaching solo for the next 5 weeks, following

Spring Break. Upon returning for Spring Break, my mentor teacher will be hiding in the

library and I will be flying solo in all classes. I will be collaborating with all teachers,

teaching Language Arts mostly on my own, teaching reading and study skills. In Social

Studies I run the Daily oral Geography with the students. In Science I will be performing

a lot of the review.

Weekly Logs for Portfolio

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