Videos and Therapy

This week was a pretty good week. I would rate it a 4. I had a couple of what I consider real-life situations this week that I am grateful for. 

Observe: This week was a week that I consider real-life. I was observed, my students started a video project, I had a therapy/tutor session with a student, and I gave a test. Out of all of these, I have two accomplishments/surprises. My first one came with the excitement of my students over the projects. They worked extremely hard and wanted to make it the best they could be. The project was that they were divided into groups and assigned a government during the French Revolution. They were given a sheet to fill out with the information they would need to include in their project. The only other requirement was that they create a video. Some of the students are doing skits, some are doing newscasts, and some are doing raps and songs. I am really excited to see what they have created and how it has helped them when learning about their government. The second surprise I had this week came yesterday when a student came to me and asked if he could come to my room during electives and get some extra help with studying for his test. He has been really stressing about his grades and I noticed a change in his studiousness when it came to his assignments. I was grateful he asked for help and as I was helping him he talked to me and I really learned a lot about him that helped give me insight to his situation at home. He told me about how he was really glad I was helping him because he liked my CE but he did not know if she would help him or not because she could be mean sometimes. This meant so much to me that he thought he could come to me for help because he knew I would assist him. This made me feel like I was doing something right in terms of relating to the students. 

Reflect: This week I learned that you really learn a lot about your students when they are engaged in assignments they enjoy and that they really become engaged if it is something they are interested in. This seems like a no-brainer but there are some things that are just not fun that have to be completed. Looking ahead to next week, I am planning lessons that will not be so monotonous and will hopefully be a mix of information they need and assignments they enjoy. I want the students to really learn about Napoleon because I think it is something they will really enjoy and I want to make sure that they get everything they need to out of my lessons. 

Focus: I am still trying to make sure that I plan effective, meaningful lessons for my students. I am going to do that next week and I tried to with the video projects as well and I feel like I get better at planning engaging lessons as the time goes along. 

Be Productive: I could have spent less time explaining to them how to make the video and more time letting them work on their projects. I think I over explained to them how to make the videos and did not give them enough time to work on them. 

Have Courage: This week was my first instance becoming incredibly angry at a student. He said something smart and I was able to hold my own and make sure he knew I was in charge. My apprehension came after the fact when I wondered if maybe he was not being smart and just really did not know. Knowing the student though, he was just being a smarty pants. 

Begin Anew: The logical steps for next week are to make sure that my lessons are engaging and relatable to the students and interesting. I also need to clear the mental clutter of feeling bad after I discipline a student. 

Data: This week I was able to look at the data of a pop quiz on which the students did better than I expected them to. It showed me that they do know the answers but it may require them to study and actually learn.

Standard 1: 1e: Teacher demonstrate high ethical standards: I have been working on this one this week because I need to work on treating students equally. No matter how much we do not want to admit it, everybody has students they like better than others. This is something that I struggle with, but not on purpose. 

Standard 2: 2c: Treating students as individuals: I have been working on this by making sure I encourage students to graduate high school and go to college and work to their full potential.

 
Standard 3: 3b: Teachers know the content: This past week I have been in my element because this is a topic I enjoy. I think it is interesting and I tried to convey that to my students. 

Standard 4: 4d: Teachers integrate technology: This week my students have been working on a project making a video using the app touch cast and this is an app where they can record and use different features like a green screen to create and edit fun, unique videos. 

Standard 5: 5a: Analyze student learning: I have been trying to collect and analyze any data that I can, including conversations with students about their personal life or things they like to do outside of the classroom. 

Other: have been working on different parts of my portfolio and I am glad to have those parts almost completed.