week of reflection: 11/18/16

I give this week a 5! It has been a relatively easy and stress free week. I didn't have school on Friday because my CT had a previous engagement to attend to. So I took advantage of that and went and did one of my end of experience observations at a middle school in the area. What a fun experience to get out of my classroom and get to observe somewhere differently. This was awesome for me because I've been leaning towards teaching middle or elementary anyways! I typed up my observation report for that already and am knocking out pieces on my portfolio. So I'm getting very excited for graduation! It is just a month away!!!! All of my hard work is paying off and I'm close to my first degree, it is just a really awesome feeling. This week I attended the CMS (Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools) job fair. That was a different experience to go and see all of these schools. I felt like I was selling myself, but I'm glad I got the practice there so when I attend the Gaston County Job fair I won't feel as awkward.  This week at school I haven't been doing as much, for I am fading out of my responsibilities. In 4th period I have been working a lot on my concert band piece and we also have been meeting after school for flute choir. That honestly is a huge highlight for my student teaching experience. Next week is only a two day week and I have never been more ready for a break. I really miss being home with my family. Going forth I just want to finish up all of my requirements for student teaching, get my name out there more for jobs, and have a happy rest of my time as  student for now.  WE ARE SO CLOSE YOU GUYS!

week of reflection: 11/11/16

This week I was only at school one day but it definitely was a 5 week! 

The students were out of school Tuesday and Friday, then Monday I was at conference and Thursday I went home for my first big girl job interview! So that was an awesome experience!! I will find out if I got the job early next week at some point. It is at an elementary school back home and I would be the director of the after school program, I would be in charge of all activities, snack, touring, and making sure all the helpers are doing their assigned responsibility. I am very interested in this job because even though it isn't a full time teaching position, I would still be continuing being around kids and helping them after school. I am grateful to expand my teaching experience into elementary children as well! At my interview the principal and I discussed all of my music background and how he would like having another music teacher around because they only have one day a week when a music teacher comes to their school. Also funny thing, this music teacher was my elementary music teacher when I was in school! I saw her in the hall during my interview and she talked me up big to the principal so that was awesome already having a familiar face. In addition to all this great news, this same teacher reached out to me after I left the school, and she said that she might be having foot surgery and would need a long term sub for the spring semester and she had me in mind. So already having my name out their some is really helping and I'm excited knowing that there are possibilities for me after graduation. If not, I am grateful for that interview experience already! 

So really this week I didn't have much at school, but professionally for me I have taken leaps for after graduation and I've been focusing on working on the remainder of all of my assignments for student teaching. I still feel like I have so much left, but I have to keep going and do the best that I can. Next week at school I really need to focus on getting my sections for the winter concert ready, (Our concert is Tuesday December, 13th at 6:30pm if anyone can come out!) I'm very excited because this will be my debut as a conductor and also instructor for the flute choir!!

As I finish up edTPA I am noticing how much my students really did learn and that's SO awesome to see. I really am reaching some of them. It is hard having a class of 50 and tracking their learning, but I am doing the best I can and it seems like for the most part they are learning. (most part being some kids just don't care so they don't try)

NCTCS:

1c: This interview helped me extend and gain some more professional relationships. 

3b: During the interview I just have to say I was impressed with myself and how much I know no about education. I was able to hold a professional conversation about education with a principal and director of all after school activities. I just had ti pat myself on the back and be grateful for all of my professors at GWU.

5b/5c: From conference to this week, I feel like I am gaining lots of professional development and for the first time in my time this semester I don't feel terrified to graduate.

Portfolio and edTPA are working. I'll be ready when I can say I am officially finished with all of these assignments. 

Dr. Soja, I am so grateful for you!! I can't say it enough!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!

week of reflection 11/04/16

Sorry about this weeks blog being so late as well as the responses. I was at the NCMEA conference all weekend and left my laptop at home. But last week was really good as well as the conference. We had our last football game and it was also senior night for the band members. The game was really good and I would say it was the bands best run of the marching band show.  I also taught my last edTPA lesson and it went really well! Now I am just scrambling to get everything for student teaching completed. I'm counting the days until graduation! But conference WAS AMAZING. This conference fed me musically and educationally. I feel very excited to use some of the things I learned in my classroom! This past week I watched a little too much tv and I shouldn't have done that knowing that I had conference this weekend. This week I am in now is also a short week for me, but I have my first interview for a job this Thursday, so please be sending me good thoughts, vibes, and prayers. 

NCTCS

1c: This past weekend I gained a lot of professional development from the music educators conference! Loved it so much! 

2d: For my last edTPA lesson, I had a student who is EC that I accomadated by giving them a separate playing space. 

4h: After finishing up all of my edTPA, I really am finding little ways that I assess my students. One example would be asking for group responses after asking a question, I find this extremely helpful when rehearsing. 

5b,c: Conference really put me in a different environment, I wasn't used to the city, but I loved being able to talk with other educators and get to and from the sessions. 

Not much longer everyone! We all got to keep pushing forward and get through all of this!

week of reflection: 10/28/16

This week I want to give a 5. I feel like this was one of the best weeks I have had during students teaching. Most of my edTPA was this week and it all has gone surprisingly well. The kids seem to be reacting very well to what I am asking of them. Also this week was the 2nd meeting for flute choir and the first actual rehearsal. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS. I have had a couple of the flute students come up to me saying they love flute choir and wish we met more. I am so excited to be able to expose them to this chamber music so young because this will really help them develop. This is also helping me enhance my pedagogy for flute and I'm discovering a new passion in this as well. Next week we are really focusing on concert band music and preparing for 4th periods performances on Friday. So all this week I have been giving verbal feedback to lots of students about the music they are choosing for their project as well as helping some of them with their individual part. I absolutely enjoy this part of teaching!!!!! I really am digging in deep and I feel like I truly am helping them become musicians. One of my long term goals is about professional development and I have written out my schedule for conference coming up next weekend and I'm looking forward to that!! This week I spent most of my time on edTPA related things. So that is coming to an end, however I haven't touched the portfolio in weeks..... No huge apprehensions this week, except sometimes I am still hesitant with some of the seniors in my classes. Next week I need to focus on getting all things EdTPA completed and non stop work basically. During my first edTPA lesson I took up some exit slips where I asked if anyone had any questions about the project, and I actually got a few questions and I was able to take this data to help those students with their questions. I just thought this was really cool because students actually took the exit slips seriously and it gave good data for me. One thing I want to share with all you student teachers is, write everything down!!!! I have been using notecards to jot down small notes in the class of things I observe from students and some of those notes have helped me in flute choir. 

NCTCS:

1a) In my first edTPA lesson we had a learning activity called 'Throw the Ball'. This basically is a way to have an active discussion without having the students completely bored during it. So I had parameters for the students to keep the activity orderly and safe. 

2c) my edTPA lessons are providing me so many opportunities to talk with students individually and give them feedback on the progress of their final performance project.

3) I'm starting to go deep into all the concert band music on my own time. I'm beginning to write out plans for rehearsals on all the pieces. 

4d) I used team survey cahoot in my class during my edTPA lesson this past Wednesday  They got into their groups I assigned and they voted on which criteria they wanted to use to evaluate performances. 

5c) I am pretty active in the entire school now. I know the people in all the offices and the library. So they always help me if I need it and I am successfully functioning day to day. 

Only been working on edTPA really. All good.

Week of Reflection: 10/21/16

This week overall I would give a 4. The beginning of the week was kinda crappy, I had my second observation and it did not go as well as I would have liked it to. I really had a hard time getting through all that until Friday. On Friday I was tired of feeling so terrible,so I wanted to push out of the slump. So I just went into the whole day and taught all of the classes. I pushed everything out of my head and just did what naturally worked. Rather than trying to force a plan I just went with the flow and had an amazing experience. I really feel like I was reaching the kids but still being firm to have them learn. One of my goals is to gain more meaningful professional development, this week during planning we attended a literacy in our content area professional development. The whole time I thought of Dr. Clark and how I learned a lot of this in Ed 316. So it was really awesome being able to contribute to the conversations and get some info. to help in my personal conversations. The beginning of this week was one of those "should I really be a teacher?" weeks. I felt extremely defeated and I was really down on myself. But I got out of that mindset after my classes on Friday. Next week is when I am supposed to be doing my edTPA, I am really nervous about it just because I really am challenging my students. I just have to do the best that I can and hope I reach some students in the process. This week I have really been focusing on how I am going to instruct the percussionist after marching band. Most of them are extremely un-motivated and don't want to do anything in class. So if we do concert band music the whole time they will become bored and that creates no motivation as well. So I found a percussion ensemble piece and also a body percussion piece I want to try with them. No major advice this week, more of let's finish strong! 

NCTCS:

1a) Friday when teaching the freshman band I felt like a real leader. I facilitated in running the marching band show and gave opportunities for the sections to talk to each other to name their sections trouble spots. 

2b) My school that I am student teaching at is not really diverse in general. The main population is almost 80% caucasian students. So I have been struggling with how to  express more diversity in the classroom. What it came down for me is, the biggest diversity is the different social classes. There are a lot of really wealthy students and a lot of very poor students. With this being said, the band program is selling band jackets that are $83. For someone wealthy that is pocket change, but for someone not a wealthy that is saw as like a million dollars. This really struck with me and I was scared that these jackets could really divide the band and show the wealthy, "better" students having the jackets and the poor ones not being "cool" just cause they didn't have a jacket. So I came to my CT with an idea about the jackets. I wanted to see if there were some band parents/teachers/ anyone who would be willing to be a sponsor for a couple band kids who really wanted a jacket but couldn't afford it. He really liked that idea and it is in the works.

 3c) We had that professional development this past week about literacy in your content area and it really helped refresh my opinion of literacy in the classroom. It really is so important to incorporate reading/writing/analyzing texts all of those things that can help enhance literacy skills. This also is going along side with helping the school improvement plan to improve ACT and English II scores.

4a) I have been struggling with how to act with my freshmen class. They are in high school but aren't really at the maturity level for being in high yet? So I was being very harsh with them because they weren't listening and they talked all the time. So this Friday I learned to let go of some of the nonsense a little because they aren't my wind ensemble who are used to being in high school. I feel like I now have a better balance with them. 

5) This week I have done a lot of reflecting from my last observation. Just really trying to see where I can improve, I brushed some of the negative thoughts out of my head and really did well in class Friday.

Portfolio stuff I have set to the side. I'm just trying to get through edTPA. (HALP) My CT and I are doing okay. I'm looking forward to going to Dr. Soja's house on Monday evening! 

Week of Reflection: 10/14/16

I rate this week a 3. It has been kinda an 'eh' week. I have really been struggling with all of the responsibilities. I feel like I am barely hanging on and I hate that feeling. All of these things I am responsible for at school are happening because of marching band. But I am conflicted because I still am a student and have all of these assignments. Just where is the balance? because right now I don't have any. The best part of this week was me talking to all the flutes and we are going to have a flute choir. This will be a flute choir of 12 people including myself! Non of the flute students have ever played on the bigger flutes before so I am excited to be able to give them this opportunity! This week I conducted more in front of the wind ensemble and I continue to gain more confidence. My biggest issue still deals with trust, the seniors of this program have a lot of ownership because they have built this program up. They were the first freshmen of the band and have been here all 4 years, so most of the seniors don't really trust me. That is where I have apprehension because the seniors act like I do things so wrong when I come up on the podium. I am hesitant in correcting seniors specifically because I always feel tension. If anyone has suggestions for that please let me know??!?!? One of my PDP goals is to gain more instructional technique for brass instruments and I found an article discussing how to help brass players move air. Which is what really controls most issues with brass instruments. I found the article very helpful and I took some of the info into mind for my next lesson. This week I used all my time wisely in one way another. What it boils down to is, should I sacrifice basic needs, like laundry, making food, and sleep. I rarely take time for myself soI am struggling in that aspect as well. Next week I must finish EdTPA. For data this week, I have really focused in on my freshman band and how they struggle reading music. So next week I am going to have a class period dedicated to working on sight-reading. Fellow student teachers, only advice I have taking away from this week is make sure you keep your laptop charged cause I forgot to charge it and it cutout on me during class one day this week. 

NCTCS:

1) This week I really felt like I got to demonstrate leadership because I ran the entire marching band rehearsal during class on Tuesday. 

2c) We have a string bass player who often feels let out because we don't really focus on him a lot since he isn't a "typical concert band" instrument. So I really wanted to make sure he knew his worth in this band and I made an effort to get him actual bass parts to all his music (instead of baritone) and I also got him music to audition for all-district and the south-central orchestra. 

3b) I am focused on getting techniques to help brass. That is a priority for me right now. 

4e) The bands only pit player in the marching band was having trouble identifying wrong notes when he played. So I worked with him separately and asked posing questions to get him to come to his own conclusions about what was wrong.

5) I am still doing my weekly KWL charts and I love reading what I have written week to week. 

Most of my focus is still on EdTPA. My CE is doing fine. I just am looking forward to Monday when we all meet at Dr. Soja's home. 

Weekly Reflection: 10/07/16

This week I rate a 4. I had a pretty awesome week! The only reason it isn't a 5 is because Friday all day in school was just a nightmare. The hurricane caused a lot of rain predicted for Friday so they moved our homecoming game to Thursday. (Thursday games are the worst.) This week was my schools homecoming, so we had spirit week and the pep rally. I had my first observation this week and it went really well!! That made my week because I had been feeling very lost in this process. I know I still have lots to do, but at least now I know everything I have been doing is right on target. Everything from this past week has gotten me excited to teach more for sure! The kids are really starting to trust me more. They are becoming more vulnerable with me and we are making music. I have finished my professional development plan and am getting it all signed. This week I spent a lot of time focused on getting ready for my observation and EdTPA, so the portfolio has taken the back burner for sure. I'm hoping it doesn't stay there until the very end... I know one thing I could have spent less time doing is watching tv. (I had to get caught up on walking dead, having some regrets now lol) My biggest apprehension this week was giving suggestions for improvement for our guard. We don't have an instructor who comes regularly, I have gotten a few people o come in and help when they can. But I had 2 freshmen guard members come and ask me about a toss and I simply didn't know what to say. Next week I need to get the mental clutter of everything out except EdTPA. I HAVE TO FINISH THAT. In freshman band I ran over the song we were playing for homecoming, and I noticed that our mellophone player has terrible habits. So I want to take it upon myself to try and learn more about brass and how to better help him. You guys can you believe we are almost halfway done with student teaching???? I am shocked that it's October, but honestly ready to get my diploma. 

NCTS: 

1) I participated in spirit week and prepared the music for the pep rally at school this week.

2c) We have one student who is really into tv shows, and she always comes to tell us about her shows she has been watching. So this week I told her about a show I watch, (which she also watches) and I just felt like we bonded talking about that show. 

3a) While writing my EdTPA plans I have found specific standards that work for each lesson. 

4d) I have a student in my freshmen band who struggles with reading notes, so I asked my CT if we could bring the chrome book charts down and work for 20 mins or so everyone on some note identification. 

5b) I wrote a section in my PDP about strengthen this standard in particular. I don't just want to go to professional development because I half to. I want to make sure I gain something from the experience. 

As I mentioned above, I have mainly focused on this weeks observation and EdTPA. We both are fine and I am looking forward to Monday's seminar class.