Facilitating Learning 21st Century- Ms. Mitchell's Journey

         I cannot believe we are in week four of this semester.  I feel like this semester is flying by.  I am so excited for student teaching in the spring!  I was placed with kindergarten and I love it so far.  The students have been so excited to learn new things, especially letter land.  I had never heard of letter land until this semester.  I really love this program and feel like it will be very beneficial for the students.  All of the students in my class participate and are engaged during the letter land lessons.  Learning phonics is so important for students to learn to help them build a foundation for reading.  My CE is so helpful and is very open to new ideas and strategies.  We had staggered entry for the first week of school, this is where we had around 4-5 students come each day.  The next week all of the students came and we focused on classroom management.  It was very interesting trying to get the students to all walk in a line and to get their trays at lunch.  I am glad I was able to experience these first days with the students.  What I have been able to learn and observe will help me in my future classroom.  I will also be able to see how much the students grow throughout the year from the time they first started on staggered entry day to their last day of school for the year.
           In class we are working on edTPA.  I am very nervous and excited to take part in this process.  I am trying to soak all the information in now, so that I am successful with edTPA during student teaching.  While I write the edTPA task, I do not feel like I am writing them using the right language.  I look forward to receiving feedback on these task and having more practice with them.  The edTPA learning experience connects with the NCTCS standard five, "Teachers reflect on their Practice."  By the teacher analyzing data and determining the next steps and lesson they are portraying this standard.  We have also completed a few classroom management learning experiences.  I am glad to have had more practice with the classroom management aspect of teaching, before I have a class of my own.  I feel like I will understand more and have a better handle on classroom management with more time in the classroom.  The classroom management plan is connecting to the NCTCS standard two, "Teachers establish a Respectful environment for a diverse population of students."  The teacher is setting up an environment where the students will be respectful to one another and feel safe.
Outside Research
         The outside research I found is an article that talks about the importance of Welcoming Students with a Smile as they come into the classroom.  I have found this to be very important in my clinical setting.  My CE and I have made sure to great every student at the door when they come in.  We tell each individual student good morning and let them know what they are supposed to do right away.  This gives us a chance to talk to the students and to figure out if something is bothering them, if they had a rough morning, etc.  We are then able to support the student in any way we can to help them to have a good day.  I have noticed the students really light up when you meet them at the door and it helps the day to start off on a good note.  Please take a moment and look over this article when you have a chance.  I believe this will be very beneficial in our future classrooms.  Link: <https://www.edutopia.org/article/welcoming-students-smile>
        I have been able to observe many of the NCTCS standards being followed in my clinical placement.  I have also been able to model some of the NCTCS standards myself in the classroom.  My CE and I portray standard one, "Teachers Demonstrate Leadership," by determining what the students need to know, telling the students each morning what they are learning for the day and why, and by using data to plan and set goals for students.  We also lead in the classroom by assessing the students in different ways, creating a safe environment, and encouraging the students to do their best on their work.  For example, I had a student last week who did not want to draw a picture that he was asked to.  I went over and discussed what his friends and him like to do and encouraged him to draw his picture.  He started with one object and then I would go back and encourage him to draw the next object.  He and I were so excited when he had completed his drawing.  My CE and I welcome each student into the classroom and we encourage every student to participate during whole group and small group.  My CE and I have been able to work on building our relationships with each student.  We are protracting the NCTCS standard two, "Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students."  My CE uses technology, hands on activities, auditory activities, pictures for the visual learners, etc.  My CE is portraying standard four, "Teachers facilitate Learning for their Students."  I have been able to help with this in the classroom by helping the CE determine what students should work in which groups.  We have been able to see who works better together and how needs to be separated.
Future Classroom
         In my future classroom I will make sure to greet each of my students at the door every morning.  I want my future students to feel wanted and welcomed into my classroom each day.  I will make sure to focus on making relationships with each of my students.  I feel like this helps the students to trust you and open up to you about what they may not be understanding in class.  I want to encourage all of my students to do their best each and everyday.  I was so excited to be able to help that student to draw his picture.  This experience showed me that every student is capable of completing the task and learning they just might need to be instructed or shown in different ways.  I will also use the classroom management techniques I have observed in my future classroom.  I love the colors idea for the behavior chart.  I also know that not every classroom management strategy will work for every student or for every whole class.  I also will definitely use letter land in my future classroom to help my students learn phonics.  I was not taught phonics in school and had to go to a tutor to learn this skill.  This was the only way I was able to learn to read.  I am excited the schools are teaching phonics now and I look forward to teaching this in my future classroom.  I will also use the edTPA process in my future classroom.  I know when I learn how to plan, teach, analyze, and reteach will be very beneficial in my future classroom.  I believe every teacher should have practice with this before they have a classroom of their own.  I am also excited to learn how to collect data in an organized way and to observe some more testing, taking place in my classroom placement.
Resource:
Terada, Y. (2018, September). Welcoming Students With a Smile. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/welcoming-students-smile 
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf