Blog Post 3

Goals

Prior weeks:

• My goal of having fewer talkative disruptions is underway. I stopped in both my homeroom class and my math class to have a brief discussion about this with the students. I explained to them that whether my CT is teaching or I am teaching, the rules and procedures remain the same. My CT was out of the room several times in the past two week for testing and training, so I had multiple opportunities to teach with a guest teacher present for supervision, but being, more or less, the main person in charge. The students pushed their boundaries, which played a large part in my having this conversation with the students. 
• Our writing curriculum is a very comprehensive and well prepared series. I have enjoyed undertaking this activity with the students. One of our lessons this week involved leading the students through a visualization technique to entice them to write about a specific place they would enjoying spending more time. The students were wonderful and engaged, even the guest teacher closed her eyes and followed along!

Coming Weeks:

• My first goal for these two weeks is to get the most out of the upcoming in-service and meetings we will be attending. We will have a full day in-service on assessment on Tuesday, February 17 which should be very informative. 
• My second goal for the coming weeks is to become more familiar with the student management system used for record keeping. I have used the system in the past on the administrative end while working in a school office, and have used it to take attendance the past month, but I will begin entering grades in the system tomorrow. Up to this point I have been keeping track of grades in the gradebook my CT uses as a backup to the internet service.

Word of the Week

Interrupted. Once again we have had multiple sessions in preparation for the PARCC test. Between presenting a tutorial to introduce the students to the tools and features of the test, participating in an infrastructure test in order to check our network capability, and completing a practice reading test, we had to redirect over three hours of instructional time before we have even arrived at the actual test. We still have to complete the math practice test and will have to rearrange our schedules in the next weeks to incorporate our fellow fourth grade classes' testing schedule into our schedule of switching classes for math.

Reflections

• As I discussed in my goal reflection, I have taken the time to discuss classroom behavior with my students. At the suggestion of my CT I have been extra stringent in my application of classroom consequences. We use a school-wide system with clips on a chart. All students begin the day on green. If they have an exceptional day, the student may move up to purple. Students not meeting expectations move down through yellow, orange and red. The students have an opportunity to redeem themselves and move back up if they turn their behavior around. 
  
  I have required multiple students to move their clips and used the opportunity at the end of the day to conference with them about what behaviors where not meeting expectations and whether they turned the day around and can move back up. As I have stepped up the application of consequences, I have noted fewer students requiring this step. Simply knowing that the consequences remain in place has reminded the students to strive to meet our classroom expectations.
  
• The two takeaways I have from The First Days of School involve procedures. First, the "Give me five" procedure, which is an impressive tale in the book, is quite well received in actual practice. This technique was already in place in our classroom when I joined them in January. I have used it on multiple occasions to get the class' attention. 
  
  Additionally, the use of silent signals to communicate student needs strikes a cord with me. As someone with a hearing issue, I am predisposed to noting and using nonverbal cues. I have used them in every school I have worked in to varying degrees. In our classroom, my CT had in place a system where one finger means "I need your help," two fingers means "I need to get out of my seat," and three fingers means "I need to use the restroom." This is very helpful as you don't need to speak to address some of these concerns, which means not interrupting quiet work time or the presentation of a lesson. In my own classroom, I am more likely to teach my students some ASL gestures than to use a series of fingers, but other than that, this system is well received and well implemented.
  
• I don't know that any particular moment stood out as an "aha" moment from the Principal's Panel. Having worked in several schools in the past decade, I have interviewed with several principals each of which have been great at providing feedback during my time working with them. The panel was a great reinforcement, but nothing I heard was really new information for me. 

College Supervisor Corner

• We look forward to your visit on Tuesday, February 24. If we are able to keep to our current pace, we should be beginning to study multiplying fractions by whole numbers.