Week 2 - Introduction to Teaching

My second week of student teaching was a positive experience. The 4-day week started off with a daylong Teacher Institute Day where both district and school level expectations were reviewed followed by 3 days of classroom instruction.
This week I planned and implement the morning meetings for the week. I began to monitor the bathroom breaks utilizing the timer and Class Dojo. I assisted with small group instruction, proximity control during assignments, grading, and general task instruction.  Additional information was shared with me regarding the ELL student’s English language proficiency level in listening, speaking, reading and writing which helped me further understand the setbacks a language barrier can cause.
My focus continued with an observation of Standard 4 - Learning Environment and Standard 5 – Instructional Delivery. Throughout the week my Cooperating teacher reviewed how she plans and implements instruction with diverse students (Standard 1 – Teaching Diverse Students and Standard 3 – Planning for Differentiated Instruction) Standard 6 – Reading, Writing, and Oral communication was addressed daily in all subjects as a goal in the classroom is to foster a love for reading through various assignments, silent reading and a class-wide audiobook reading of Harry Potter. Standard 7 – Assessment was addressed by both teachers as they demonstrated how they would utilize various classroom work to monitor progress, measure growth and evaluate student outcomes. I observed Standard 9 – Professionalism, through the daily professional behavior of both teachers.
My beliefs about teaching or learning continued to remain the same. Next week my cooperating teacher will give me the responsibility of the writing block.