Student Teaching Weekly Log

Directions: Answer these questions each week and email them to your student teaching supervisor by Sunday evening.

Name: Megan Crossett Week: 5

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?a. My responsibilities this week were identical to last week’s responsibilities. I

taught the morning meeting and the entirety of the literacy block with the exception of the core lesson. I spent a lot of time after school this week planning my lessons for the coming week, as I will be taking over the entire literacy block, as well as science and social studies. A lot of my time was consumed by learning how to plan small group lessons so that they are aligned to FAST progress monitoring. A good chunk of my time this week was also spent in international baccalaureate (IB) meetings and mock interviews as my school prepares for their review. The IB standards are tough to meet and that has added a lot of stress for staff school-wide, because they want to do well in their 5-year review. The interviewing process was conducted by a panel of IB coordinators from the area and a little intense, but I’m glad I got to sit in and hear their questions because I will be teaching bell to bell when the actual IB committee comes in to review the school and interview teachers.

2. What were your most satisfying experiences? What were your most challenging experiences?

a. My most satisfying experience this week was sitting in on P’s IEP review meeting. I got to meet his mother and was able to speak with the specialists in the school that I’m beginning to know better, such as the speech pathologist, social worker, and lead interventionist. As of late, there has been a lot of discussion and problem solving concerning P’s associate and keeping her in our classroom to assist him. I’ve learned that with each positive growth marker he reaches, P is eligible for less and less assistance from his associate. He is doing fantastically, because he has the support of his associate, and my mentor and I have noticed that he’s taken a few steps back as she’s been pulled way more. During the review, I was able to jump in and provide input on what sort of accommodations we make for P in the classroom. I hope that the accommodations I brought up will allow P to retain his minutes with his associate; otherwise I’m worried he’ll fail to be successful in the gen ed. classroom environment.

b. My most challenging experience was teaching while the smart board was being worked on. Our board has not been working interactively all year and someone from the district finally came in to repair it in the middle of my writing lesson, which required use of the ELMO and board. I was able to “roll with the punches” so to speak, but my ad-libbed lesson was not as good as what I had originally planned, which made me feel bad for the students. The next time I’m put in that situation, I need to remember that less is more and that 6 year olds can talk about writing one sentence for more than 15 minutes.

3. What are the plans for the upcoming week?a. This coming week, it is our buffer week in between units. I have gotten to plan

everything for this week, aside from math. We will be working on reviewing everything we’ve learned thus far, using Halloween and autumn themed

resources. I’m very excited to see my lessons go into play, as I haven’t really had much freedom to do so yet. It was validating to have my plans approved by my mentor and I hope that my deliveries of the lessons are also up to par. At this point, though, I’m feeling pretty good about everything.