Blog Post 3

“word of the week”  - ENCOURAGING.

 

             So my goals for the past two weeks were to get observed by my college supervisor, and to film my lessons for EdTPA. I partially accomplished my goals. I did get observed my Mr. Wolff on Thursday Feb. 12^th, and I believe it went well. I had a very positive conference with him afterwards. Unfortunately I was unable to meet my second goal because I’m not allowed to film my lessons; per superintendents’ orders. I guess this is one goal I will not be able to complete at all.  “Such is life.”

My two new goals for the two weeks (for the weeks of February 16^th and February 23^rd) are both EdTPA related. First, I plan to finish TASK 1 and TASK 2 of my EdTPA. I find them a bit daunting, but I have no doubt I’ll get it done. Second, I will get observed again by Mr. Wolff.

My classroom management plan for the class remains the same as the one my cooperating teacher has put in place in the beginning of the school year. She was reluctant to let me change the way things run in her class, because it would be to hard for her to get things back to the way she had them before I took over. She is worried that the changes would eliminate consistency for the students, thus making it hard to keep order towards the end of the year.

            I did however work on making an effort to get to know my students a bit more, and to show them that they can trust me, but that I will also be firm when I have to be. I believe that it is working, because they have been behaving somewhat better.  

My two “takeaways” form reading “The First Days of School” this week are that record keeping is paramount to being a good teacher and the other is that being consistent with procedures will develop lasting results that will make classroom management, and teaching easier.

Last week, I enjoyed the Principal Panel very much. It was very helpful to hear about all the do’s and don’ts of interviewing. I will make sure to keep all of those pieces of “Principal Wisdom,” in my mind for when I go to interview for a teaching position. But more importantly, what I found most helpful from this Panel, is that it’s more important to be yourself, because in the end you want to be a good fit for the school and vice versa. After all, who wants to work in an environment that will make you miserable because your “philosophies” don’t work well together? My one “aha” moment from the panel was “Hey, principals are human too, after all. This interview thing doesn’t have to be as scary, and as stressful as I thought.”