Weekly Reflection 1

Week of 8/21
Hello,
This week I met my student teacher and went to two days of teacher institute seminars. I will be in a Language Arts class for these first seven weeks. My cooperating teacher decided that she wanted to give the students a questionnaire to fill out on the first day of class. I quickly found out that her method of teaching is a bit laid back. She allows the students to complete hands on assignments. I am really looking forward to working with her and learning her style of teaching.

Unfortunately, I was not able to learn a lot of concepts and techniques this week because the students were mostly reading the handbook, and worked on their questionnaires. I did learn that some of the perspectives I have on teaching should not be changed. Such as letting students figure out where they went wrong and how to correct their own mistakes. It appears that my cooperating teacher works with the same approach. This week was definitely about the fourth Illinois Teaching Standard: Planning for Instruction. The teachers were all planning what they were expecting for the upcoming school year, how they should challenge their students, and how they could improve based on the previous school year. The standard states, "the competent teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals." This was what I was observing most of this week and what I will be working on in the coming week as I get ready to teach.

In the week ahead I being slowly taking over roles in the classroom. I start the D.O.L activities on Monday. I am nervous and excited about this. The following week I start teaching full time. I hope that this week I can plan effectively as well as learn more about my cooperating teacher's style.

Courtney