Week 7 weekly reflections

Danie Hesson
ED 48400
9-28-16 Due October 5, 2016
Wahoo. Halfway there and I am still feeling great. I added
grades to make sure that I am in compliance with the progress report
for any Ds or Fs this week. I have four students that did not do well
on a few assignments that brought their grade down, so I will be doing
mini lessons with them and then they can retake the assignment to
boost their grade.
I wrote 5 lesson plans this weekend. Things that I dont teach
everyday, like, geography, science, and writing take a longer time to
formulate because I want to make sure that I am explicitly teaching the
concepts. Math and Language Arts are all aligned and laid out I just
have to make sure that I am teaching in a sequence that the students
understand. This week I am in a new theme for Reading, so, I did the
whole lay out for the week, then I sent a copy to Patty (just to make
sure I did that correctly). The only thing I needed to add was another
component with the reading composition notebooks where it is brought
to the carpet and we write down 3 predictions for the upcoming story. I
will model the first day, then we will formulate questions on the second
day to write, and by the third day I will only assist those students that
need help. By the fourth day, all should be independent at this.
I will progress monitor 4 students this week those are the
strategic group of students. This week I changed seating assignments,
DIVE started, and I am on my own (Patty is in the building coming and
going at her leisure) I believe I was well prepared for this. As I grade
papers and enter them in Zangle, I will not have any difficult
conversations with guardians at P/T conferences at time (which is week
7 of 9 before the quarter ends). There is still a lot to do. I wrote my
first newsletter, with Pattys guidance of course. Picture day is also

coming up along with Parent/Teacher Conference slip. Dividends are

coming, and the students are behaving in a way I have not seen before
(not in control of their bodies. PFD in my teacher language is
(Practicing Forgiveness Daily)!
I love Tuesday mornings! Every Tuesday has been (knock on
wood) great with transitions and just getting things organized and laid
out without being rushed into another subject like on Mondays (what a
horrible feeling). Every night before I go home, I lay out things for the
next day, place times by the agenda, and make sure that my skeleton
lesson plan is out on the teaching desk, just in case I am not there with
explicit instructions on where things are located for teaching materials.
Everything is within reaching distance on the teaching desk with the
document camera. (Math manual, HM manual, homework folder, WOW
and Writing folder, Geography Atlas, SIPPS is on the Easel, and the
Morning Meeting Gathering agenda is on the easel)
The more I do, the more I understand why I need to teach step
by step with simple directions. Keep it simple silly (KISS method)!
This week I am focusing on SEL. We need to be playful, present,
have eye contact, and make sure we connect with them through touch
(shake hands, secret hand shake, hand game (down by the river), link
arms, and sing the wish you well song). Social Emotional Learning
lessons are very powerful. One student was tattling on a student, I
replied, Did you like it? the student answered, No! I told that
student to tell the other student you did not like it! I use a phrase
when I am teaching and I get interrupted, I dont like it when students
interrupt me because I am trying to teach a new math and I want you
all to learn this concept correctly. This is from Conscious Discipline I
believe. It works.