Anita's Student Teaching Blog

 During this placement my CT has been including me in all parent communication emails. He has asked my input and feedback about student performance when writing parent communication. I was also able to sit in on a disability suspected meeting with the team and a parent for our student who is hearing impaired. We have had parents stop by our classroom and I have been able to have quick conversations with them to build that connection. My CT has a facebook page that he posts pictures of the students, he has ask to post pictures of me with the students to reestablish the parent connection. I wrote positive feedback notes to all of the parents about their children to send home on my last day. 

 In the classroom that I am working in right now I have experienced working with many diverse learners. We have one very advanced student who can read words like "bucket filler” at the age of 5. We also have 4 ELL students who all have different levels of English.  We have one student who we thought speaks no English. We later discovered through a parent conference that this student has yet to start speaking in Spanish his home language either. During the first few days of school we noticed that this student does not even respond to his name. He was referred to Grantwood AEA where test results showed that this student experiences significant hearing loss. This has helped me realize the importance of teachers in communities. Without my CT being so observant, this student and his family would have dealt with this much longer. My CT gave me the go ahead to use techniques and strategies to try and make this student's classroom experience more manageable. I created signs for him to...

Topic: Comfort Zones - Where  are you naturally drawn in your  placement, where will you need t o  be more purposeful? ' What: In the classroom I am most drawn to building relationships with students. When our students ask for a hug I happily give them one and when they want to tell me about the work they've done I'll happily sit and listen. I need to be more purposeful about my timing when it comes to building connections when expectations should be followed in that moment. Instead of giving my student's hugs in the hallway when we are walking to specials, I should redirect it to a more appropriate time. As this will prevent us from being late to specials. I am also drawn to find my inner authority in a classroom to make myself and the students more comfortable as I teach. This is also something I want to keep focusing on as it is an ever-developing skill. Why: I hope to retime to this blog later on and see how I have worked to improve these skills to make my self a be...