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.