Student Teaching Weekly Log Name: Sarah Skidmore with Mindi McCoy at Perkins Elementary

Week 1: 2/17-2/21

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?

This past week I was taking almost full control of all the grades lessons – leading up to next Monday, which will be the start of my bell-to-bell. Ms. McCoy is stepping out of the classroom for almost full classes, trying to get students comfortable to coming to me with any questions or concerns, and just making herself scarcer. We spent all of Wednesday at parent teacher conferences - which was incredibly interesting to connect the parents with their children. I was able to introduce myself and discuss with parents what we have been working on, how their children have been doing, and bringing to attention projects and activities that will be coming up. In addition to taking a lead role in the parent teacher conferences, when parents were not present I was able to get all my bell-to-bell lesson planning and timing sheets written up as well as my Blood borne Pathogens and Mandatory Reporter certifications done online. I will look forward to meeting more parents next week at the second set of parent teacher conferences and to continually keep evaluating and progressing my professional learning and ethical practice in the classroom, in the community, and in my professional life as a teacher.

2. What were your most satisfying and challenging experiences?

This past week one student came up and asked me if I was going to be able to keep working at Perkins after my student teaching. This made me feel really good and like I was making great connections with the students and that they are getting used to me. It is an amazing thing to feel as if you are making a positive contribution to these individuals lives and introducing them to processes, techniques, and ways of making and thinking that could carry through their lives with them. All the students are also very interested in my upbringing, which also is a very positive feeling to have students ask questions and want to know more about you.

This past week I introduced the warping and weaving portion of the dream catchers to the first group of 5th graders. They are really enjoying it and are getting excited about this project. The knot handout that I created after the first introduction to wrapping the outside of the dream catcher and tying knots to connect threads worked wonders. Instead of having each student who was having trouble ask me for help individually, they were able to reference the handout first and try to figure it out themselves. This shows that I adapted my practice after the first introducing in order to meet the needs of each individual learner. This makes me know that creating the handout was exactly what I needed to do, and I will be able to use this knowledge in the future to help keep my time in the classroom open for real interactions, instead of just teaching the same thing over and over again to each individual student.