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Showing posts from February, 2018

Week 7: Last Day of School

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Wow, the time flew by so quickly!  I can't believe that my time in Indonesia has come to an end.  Now, I'm back in the states reflecting on how amazing and thrilling my time has been there.  I've learned so much from my experience.  This past week was a bit of a weird one.  I went to school on Monday, and at this point, all of my students were very aware that I would be leaving the following day.  I did not teach any more lessons and just spent some time taking everything in.  Later that night, I went out to a nice dinner with some of the teachers.  It was a nice send off to be able to spend time with some of the people that made my experience unforgettable.  The next day was full of emotions and excitement.  Not only was it my last day with my 6th graders, but we also celebrated Chinese New Year as a school.  Classes went as scheduled in the morning, but in the middle of the morning, we had a Chinese New Year Assembly.  The majority of the students at the school are Ch

Week 6

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After 6 weeks of waking up at 5AM, going to class from 7:15-3:15, eating all kinds of Asian food, enjoying 80 degree weather every single day, and motorbiking to different places, my time here in Indonesia is almost over.  Has it really been six weeks?  I can't wrap my head around that.  Next week, I will only have two days of school before I leave for the states on Tuesday night.  But, my experience here is not over yet! Here's where I am in meeting my goals. My first goal was to finish all of my edTPA responsibilities.  While I've only taught a couple of lessons this week, it's been really busy trying to spend time working on the edTPA and trying to enjoy as much as I can of this beautiful country.  I need to work on revising my planning commentary, clipping my videos for Task 2, and filming my giving of feedback to my focus students.  Some of this can definitely be done next week.  Because of our shortened week, things can get a little crazy.  This weekend, w

Week 5

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This week was a really fun week for me!  I got to teach a few more lessons, we had a couple more dress up days, and the students performed in a school musical this past weekend!  Before I get into all of that, I want to talk a little bit about where I am in meeting my goals! My first goal was to work on being more assertive.  I think I've started to establish myself as a more professional and assertive teacher.  To do this, I've had to be more aware of how I'm communicating to my students.   Whenever the students are off task, usually it takes a simple look, a louder voice (than my typically loud voice), or a few times of saying "Eyes up, mouths closed," to get them to settle down and listen to me.  While sometimes the students don't enjoy the decisions that I make as a teacher, they respect me enough to strive to improve.  Generally, these students are really good kids.  The only issues that I can truly think of are not following directions and not listeni

Week 4

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It's crazy to think that just a month ago, I was getting on a plan to move to Indonesia for 7 weeks, and now that my time here is more than halfway over.  Last week was edTPA week, so I'll definitely be sharing my experiences about that, but I'm also about to start my second week of full time teaching.  Although it feels like I've been here much longer, time is going by way too quickly. The last time I posted an entry, I set some goals for myself and here is where I am in meeting them.  My first goal was to successfully do the edTPA.  Although this was thus far the most stressful week of my student teaching so far, I filmed all of the videos successfully and felt really confident about my teaching.  Before teaching some of my lessons, I realized that some of the elements of my lesson plans did not have requirements for the edTPA like I had thought.  In order to receive a 5 on the rubrics, it would be necessary to show myself engaging with groups of students and show