Big Shoes to Fill.

I would have to rate this week at an 8 out of 10. Simplified, that would be a four out of five. We're obviously doing simplest form in math right now. I have felt very confident in my abilities to teach and with my preparations this week. Although I was definitely caught off guard when I was observed this week, I still feel like the situation and lesson that didn't go as planned, was still educational. For the students and definitely me. 

Observe: I always thought that Valentine's day was a skip in the park for elementary school teachers. I mean what is so hard about getting free presents and eating some candy with kids while parents send pizza and cookies and the like to school? THAT is exactly what is hard about it. I hardly ate any lunch today because I was passing out pizza that was brought (despite the fact that it was pizza day in the cafeteria...) and I then proceeded to watch the students as they continue their sugar highs from the purchase of cookies and candies from the line. Then their minds were blown with FREE pizza. One girl ate 4 slices... And then complained of a stomach ache.. No, really. It was bizarre to be apart of...

Reflection: The whole phrase "you never know until you walk a mile in their shoes" is one of the phrases I will forever stick by after student teaching.

I attended two data meetings, one yesterday and one today during planning period and it was terrible. Very informative, but wow was I confused. Our data is low. Like our students that are not on grade level aren't just not meeting benchmark. They are light years away from benchmark. This is hard because even though we may get growth, our goal is that 60% of our students meet DAZE level (including EC, Tier 3, Tier 2. and Tier 1). That's 14 out of my 23 students that will be passing.. But 9 students will. not. pass...

I learned a lot about leadership (ncpts). I need to learn how to be active in my learning and better attentive in meetings. This stuff will definitely come in handy for the future and I look forward to learning more about the inner working of elementary schools. 

Although, I do miss planning periods :(

Here's to no complaints!
Happy attitudes await!
Brittany Kertesz

Whirlwind of.. What exactly?

I accomplished a full week without breaking down! But actually... This week was really tough and on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the worst and 5 being the best), I would probably give it a 4. I just surprised myself by putting a 4 there and not a 2 because I think the week was tough, but at the same time... I love it. I really do. And I thought I wouldn't like it this much, but wow, it's a whirlwind of fun and super crazy. 

I lead the students in all their subjects and we made it through two tests. We also made it through a CRAZY pj day and an even more insane book character day. We survived and I actually want to come back next week...

I have realized that I need more classroom management strategies. I can for the most part refocus them but I have had to single out 3 students more in the past week than I have in the past month! I don't know what it is about pj day, but when it comes to your school, WATCH OUT. The kids LOSE IT. I mean, I gave my first negative dojo and then I got some sob story about how now a puppy will die because of him because he now won't be able to get a puppy from the pound.. I mean... REALLLY?? It was already tough, dude. Much less you guilt tripping me to try and take it away (I didn't by the way).

Either way, all that is behind me. He wore a Harry Potter outfit for book character day and won my heart again, so this coming week, I am planning for better attitudes and better compliance. And I plan on trying a new tactic. We'll see how it goes. 


Standards.
I have related to standard one by acting as a role model for the students to follow. There have been many arguments and disagreements between a few students in the class this week and I was able to be the mediator and the one to direct them to better thinking process of getting long.

I have related to standard to because I have allowed and engage my students in learning activities that will challenge them. Even for my EC students, I think they are capable of completing work that is made appropriately for them and so I differentiate where I can. I challenge my AIG students to do more than what they can just get away with. I was working with one AIG boy and he was trying to get away with writing a paragraph that had only two sentences. I refocused him and I said "I know you're much better than this work you're turning in. I have higher standards than that for you because I know you're capable of reaching them and growing. You're in the fourth grade and have a reading level of 12.5. Use it or lose it, dude. Try again." And I gave his work back to him and he completed a piece that blew my mind away. I was SO proud.

I have been studying my content in order to be able to teach it at the best level (NCPTS 3). Going into this some of this work confused me, but I honestly didn't know the difference between unit fraction and any other fractions. It's been a lot of changing my vocabulary and working to think about every word that I share with the class before I teach. 

For standard 4, I have been working with students to keep them on track and pushing for student discussion. I don't want to lead all of my student teaching because I believe a lot of students and they are capable of learning at a fast pace and even then they would be able to teach the class. I'm working up my trust with some students to get to that point.

Upon reflection, I lead a math lesson on Tuesday that I was a little embarrassed about. I thought it was going well but when I came time for them to complete some of their group work, I realized that I hadn't prepared them in the best way that I should've. We continued with the test the next day because we believed that most students would score well on the test and we had to move on. We had a few 100s which encourage me that I didn't do as poorly as I was thinking. Actually, the students did quite well on the test and I am very proud of them!

I actually stayed up late Wednesday night sick, because I thought the students did poorly... I told my friend that and he just looked at me and said, "my God you need to be a teacher." Confused I looked at him and asked why and he simply responded by saying "because you care that much about them to be sick over this..." This kept me focused and really made me look differently at the situation. 

"Don't stop, don't give up, keep trying!
(Watch it. It's totally worth your time, she's adorable.)

You're welcome.
Brittany Kertesz

Snow Daysss.

This was my first week of student teaching with full control over the class… And although it was great I don't think it's an accurate representation of what it will look like for the next nine weeks. The first two days were snow days and while I loved getting to know my teacher and working through plans with her during these days, I realized the toll that it took on our schedule and pacing. It pushed us back 3 whole days of instruction and started to stress me out. It was nice because I was able to simply push back my original plans three days back, but also threw me off because we had planned to do things such as check out iPads, or align a day with a certain activity and it simply didn't work out that way. 

I learned so much this week about the flexibility of teachers and how you truly have to reflect on what's best for your students even if that means scratching an entire days worth of plans (NCPTS 5). And let me tell you this wasn't an easy decision because I make many of my lessons from scratch. I create PowerPoint's and smart board slides and I play games with them that I create through SmartBoard and when I have to rework the way these are, I get a little irritated as you can imagine. 

I was very impressed however with my students. I was expecting them to terrorize the room because not only was it the "transfer of power" over to me, but they only had 1 day of school last week... My students acted responsibly and they participated in activities as instructed and they were excited to be back.

For the most part...

I did recognize that one student had no interest in being at school that day. I would catch him in math class and social studies class zoning off into space and looking the complete opposite direction of the board. I had to redirect him many times in class and this became a problem. I noticed that he was missing much of the math lesson because of his daydreaming, so I reworked my lesson the next day to review a little bit more.

I'm so excited to see what a full week looks like for me even if this does mean I need to plan for more naps as well. 

To teaching and beyond,
Brittany Kertesz

Teachers are Heroes.

I could write books about last Friday's awful car duty in the torrential downpour. Seriously. I thought I was prepared because I had a thick coat on, gloves and a ginormous umbrella. BUT NO. The rain came in sideways and hit me in the face, completely drenching every article of clothing I was wearing and getting the students wet too. We ran back and forth to try and save the students from getting soaked in the (oh did I mention?) FREEZING cold rain and kept at the efforts or a solid 30 minutes.

I have never had so much fun.

Okay, that was somewhat sarcastic, but also very true. I laughed with the students as we splashed our way through puddles to their warm, dry cars, and all the while, the teachers and I made jokes and smiled through it all, even though our teeth were chattering.

Furthering my relationships with these very influential people was so easy in this moment. We laughed together and served people in a very real way. Giving up our warmth and dry clothes for theirs.

One thing I did realize through this was the importance of administration and leadership through this time. So many of the teachers rallied their efforts to pull this thing off in the best possible way, but not a single person from the leadership of our school was out there with us. Some of the teachers were a little (okay a good bit) bitter at this. Usually at least one person from administration is out there with us, but this time, no one.

It hit them hard.

These teachers were cold, wet, and tired from a really long week, and they felt a little betrayed. They felt that it was unfair. Maybe it was? I don't think it's my place to say, but I do know the importance of being a teacher leader now (NCPTS 1). In this moment, you can choose to take the road that is easy where you just say what you're thinking aloud and everyone agrees with you. Or you can choose to keep your lips tightly shut and when its your turn to speak, they wait for your input, but there is none. I think that's a first step. The next would be to change the subject or give positive input about, "well that's a great story for the books one day!"

It's hard being the new kid. It's hard not really having a permanent place with the staff or with the students. But I am glad they're making an effort to include me; all of them. On one of the planning days, my CE, another 4th grade teacher, one of the EC teachers and me went to a cute local diner for lunch and just sat together. We enjoyed each other's presence and I felt like I belonged. They didn't have to invite me, but they did. They didn't have to tell me funny stories and the perks of being a teacher, but they did.

And even if you think all of these reasons are small...
I believe that teachers are heroes.

The First Two Weeks.

Whoa.

Preparing your heart for EVERY single day is highly important. One cannot simply go into a day and hope for the best, but you have to mentally and physically prepare yourself. Last week, I would answer the typical "how are you statement," with a "this has been the longest and shortest week of my life." And the only exception to that statement is this week; this week is actually the longest and shortest week of my life.

I have learned more about the classroom in the past 2 weeks than I have in the past 3 years. That's not to say the classes I have taken during my college experience have not engaged me; they've been wonderful! It's just that nothing can prepare you for the real thing until you are IN the real thing. And I fully believe that I will not be prepared for an actual teaching job, until I am in the teaching job.

This job requires practice. You WILL make mistakes. You WILL have a lesson fail.

Luckily, many of us that come into the teaching profession are not very used to failure. We were typically good in school. I mean, why would you want to go to school for the rest of your life if you had terrible experiences?

So, with that said, I have experienced a lesson bust. And it was embarrassing. Honestly, I was really upset about it. I taught what I thought was a really interesting lesson and the students seemed to be excited about it too. I even had an exit ticket for them to complete which told me they had least got something from the lesson.

But my very next lesson for social studies came two days after the original lesson. I asked them to create a poster which would be a fun activity and informative. I thought my instructions were clear. Turns out they were clear...  As mud. I fumbled over my words, my directions didn't provide clarity and apparently I did not articulate exactly what I wanted. Thankfully it was the end of the day so I was able to reflect and revel in the disappointment of it. I was walking with my CE to do car duty and I just looked at her and said "that was a train wreck." She was graceful and said "well at least you recognize that, and trust me it will happen again."

So much hope in this statement.

I didn't let my reflection stop there. I talked with my CE and I discussed my next course of action. What steps did I need to take in order for my students to understand this material? What exactly did I do wrong (NCPTS 5)? I learned that students need far more clarity than I would have thought necessary. They want you to exactly tell them what is expected and walk them through it. To a certain extent, this is what I should be doing for my students. But, if I were to baby step them through every problem, I would be doing them a disservice. I understand the differences in learners and I prepare for them. For example, 4 of my students have already finished their assignment I gave, so I have a furthering project for them to complete that helps them develop a deeper understanding (NCPTS 2).

I plan to move forward with this lesson, but after revisiting the important information. My students tend to struggle with sequencing, so I arranged a timeline lesson for them to complete. They will be working as a group in order to correctly solve this sequence and honing their sequencing skills as well as growing their knowledge of this information. After sequencing these events, then they will be able to continue work on their poster with the attached rubric. This rubric will show them what I am looking for and will be a way to direct their efforts correctly (NCPTS 4).

It was embarrassing to have a lesson already fall through. But, I plan to move past that frame of mind and improve myself. If need be, I can write out a script for the instructions I give to fulfill an activity (NCPTS 5). Upon reflection with my CE, I know clarity and that articulation takes time, but it also takes planning. There are many areas of growth, and I am excited to see those changes soon!