Success Journal

This past week was filled with lots of small successes. Every day presents its own set of challenges. It feels good to reflect on some of the positive things I encountered throughout the week. I have taken on more and more each day. I feel myself developing as an educator and finding my footing. By Friday, I felt proud. I was proud of myself for reaching certain students, for improvising when necessary, for creating lessons that had much higher-level thinking questions that aligned with specific TEKS, and for making another week of progress.

 I would like to focus on improving my classroom management skills especially in the classes that have to most off-task behavior and reluctant readers. I also want to improve my sense of enthusiasm in front of the classes about the material. My cooperating teacher is helping me learn how being loud and enthusiastic about my lessons and about the book will influence the students to feel the same. I would also like to improve my ability to create innovative lessons that engage students to their fullest potential. I want to be able to get them to see the relevance the material is to their future. Classroom management and motivation are key at this point.

My tweets this past week:

“This morning, I engaged some usually reluctant students in reading To Kill a Mockingbird”

“yesterday, plans changed and I was able to think quick and improvise”

“Improved my ability to create higher-level thinking questions with the help of my co-operating teacher”

“Witnessed an a-ha moment in a student today”

“Took over two more class periods and made a six-weeks calendar”