Student Teacher Weekly Log #1

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This was a very busy week at Shuler elementary. I was given more responsibilities
this week and appreciated every opportunity to help me become closer to being the bellto-bell teacher. In the mornings, I am now in charge of morning meeting where the
students get the chance to experience the community of the classroom and find out about
any important things that will be occurring that day. I also took over one of the three
Words Their Way groups and lead different spelling related activities each morning as
well as their test on Friday. On Thursday of this past week, I took on my first book club.
The discussion went so well that I added a second group on Friday and will continue to
add more groups this coming week. I have been in charge of going over and checking the
students Daily Language Review and Daily Math Practice in the mornings as a whole
class. In the afternoon, I always do teacher read aloud after lunch and recess. I also
taught the whole class math lesson on Friday and will continue teaching math every day
next week. Another responsibility I had this week was making sure the students were
doing research on a chosen explorer. I went around to each student and made sure
everyone had a set explorer. Once the research started, I made sure all the students had
appropriate websites to visit when gathering information about their explorer. I lead the
class in finding these websites and what kind of information they should be looking for
on the internet. Along with all of these responsibilities, I was always available to help
students one on one when they were struggling with any given assignments. I am
learning more every day about their schedule and taking on new tasks each day that help
me become closer to being the bell-to-bell teacher.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenge?
One of the most satisfying experiences I had this week was working with the students
on their explorer project. It was a great feeling to be able to take over some of the control
and direct the students progress. I was making sure everything was prepared in order to
give the students maximum research time. They were able to find a lot of great
information because of the organization and structure that had taken place before hand.
Another satisfying experience was the successful book club groups that I met with on
both Thursday and Friday. The discussion felt well lead and the students were engaged
throughout the whole time. I hope to take on more book clubs next week and be able to
work with all the students and promote great book discussion.
The biggest challenge I ran into this week was classroom management and behavior
issues. Being new to the students two weeks ago, they havent completely realized how
to behave appropriately around me. However, I spent one morning meeting discussing
my expectations for the students and had them actively participating in the discussion.
The students are beginning to respond and listen to me more and more every day I am
there. It is going to be something that I will be continuously work on to make sure the
students realize that I have the same expectations of them as their regular classroom
teacher. Consistent reminders and following through with my words and actions are only
going to help keep improving the students behaviors. I can already tell a difference from
the first week to the second!

3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
This week is going to be busy as well! The students are going to be taking Iowa
Assessment tests on three of the days, which will make the schedule a bit out of the
ordinary. However, we are going to start fractions in math on Monday and continue with
that throughout the week. I am also going to be starting a persuasive writing lesson on
Monday. The students are going to have until Friday to finish their persuasive opinion
papers, which will be a part of the lesson. We are going to also continue book clubs this
week, but taking a week off from Words Their Way because of the Iowa Assessment tests.
There will be further progress with the explorers project too.

Student Teacher Weekly Log #2

4. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
I was doing more of the teaching this week. I was in charge of everything that I had
done last week and added more responsibilities. I did every math lesson and activity this
week. I made decisions on when I should move on to the next math concept or when it
was necessary to spend multiple days on the same idea. I did whole group and small
group work to accommodate some of the students learning needs. I also spent four days
teaching a persuasive writing lesson and editing with the students. We read mentor texts
and then I modeled the different stages of writing to get to their persuasive essay. I also
continued to do book club groups with a two different groups. The students had Iowa
Assessment tests so I was able to experience that and see how things were run. I
collaborated and planned a lot of lessons and days with my mentor teacher in order to
make sure I as on the right track. It felt like a very successful week and I learned a lot.
5. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenge?
One of the most satisfying experiences was the better control I gained over classroom
management. The students are realizing that I am another teacher in the classroom and
they need to listen to me and respect me. I think going over my expectations and
following through with them helped the students understand my role in the classroom.
The greatest challenge was planning everything and the lack of time. This week was
incredibly busy and all over the place with Iowa Assessment testing. There were changes
that needed to be made every day to the schedule. I also had to re-evaluate lessons
according to whether or not the students were grasping concepts. I spent a lot of time
outside of school planning lessons and making sure I was covering everything I needed
to. The greatest challenge was definitely finding enough time in the day to get everything
done!
6. What are the plans for the upcoming week?
There are a lot of things coming up this next week. It is an early out on Wednesday
and no school on Friday. We are going to continue to work on persuasive writing because
there were not many students who got completely done with their essays. We are also
going to continue to work on fractions in math with a variety of lessons and activities.
There are also going to be normal Words Their Way spelling words and book clubs. The

students are also going to learn more about writing narratives so they can start writing a
narrative using the information we gathered about their different explorers.

Student Teacher Weekly Log # 3

7. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
It was another busy week in third grade! I took on even more responsibilities than
the previous weeks and was able to do a lot of teaching. I continued to teach math
every day this week. There were a variety of lessons and games that the students
played involving fractions. We finished up their persuasive writing essays and then I
was able to grade the students finished work and decide which students were
beginning, developing and secure in the elements of persuasive writing. We moved
into narrative writing with the students explorers and I worked one on one with
editing with quite a few students. I also did whole group mini reading lessons each
day about thick and thin questioning. The students learned what kinds of questions
were in each category and then we did a read aloud where they created their own
thick and thin questions. I was also in charge of a few book clubs and teacher read
aloud where we worked on writing summaries of books once we finish them. There
was a lot going on this week but everything was a great learning experience.
8. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenge?
There were a few satisfying experiences this week. I think the top two were
getting good feedback at the midterm evaluation and getting good feedback after my
interview with the principal at Shuler. The interview was great practice for my future
interviews. The questions were meaningful and the principal made sure I knew what
I did well on and what I could change up a bit for the future. I also got great feedback
from my mentor teacher on the midterm evaluation. We discussed what I still need to
work on in the next couple weeks and what I should continue to keep doing. The
greatest challenge was probably trying to decide how I wanted to do math every day.
Its incredible how many times the lessons have to change depending on what
concepts that students pick up on and what they are struggling with. There were a lot
of informal assessments that were done this week in order to understand who is
grasping what topics. Its just a challenge and quite time consuming to make sure all
the students are getting what they need to understand the different math concepts.
9. What are the plans for the upcoming week?
We are going to continue to work on fractions in math this next week. I am going
to try and do a variety of math groups in order to make sure the different students are
getting what they need. We are also going to continue to work on the students
narrative writing with their explorer. One of the things that the students enjoy the
most is the crayfish unit in science that is going to occur this coming week. There
will also be book clubs and words their way groups going on all week.

Student Teacher Weekly Log # 4

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
There was a lot going on this week, just like every other week. I was bell to bell
this week so I had a lot of responsibilities. We continued our normal morning
activities with book clubs and words their way. We did mini reading lessons on
answering questions when we are reading. We discussed the importance of being able
to answer and ask questions when we are reading. The students also continued to
work on their narrative pieces about their explorers. I met one on one with students
to edit with them and keep them progressing forward. In math, we continued working
with fractions and I implemented math rotations in the later part of the week. We also
started our crayfish unit in which the students are observing and asking questions
about different aspects of the crayfish each day. It is really interesting to see their
reactions as well as their interactions with the crayfish. They develop creative
questions and insights while they are working with them.
2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenge?
I think the most satisfying experience this week was successfully implementing
math rotations. I had been talking about doing this for the past couple weeks, but was
waiting until we had covered majority of the topics in fractions. I was nervous about
grouping the students correctly and then having the rotations run smoothly. I took the
time to explain each rotation and where they should be during what time. It went very
well and the students seemed to enjoy it. I was pleased with the time I got with the
small groups to work on certain math topics. The greatest challenge this week was
probably being sick and trying to teach and stay on top of things. You dont realize
how challenging it is going to be until you are experiencing it. It was difficult to
make sure everything was prepared and ready to go while also trying to teach when I
didnt feel good at all. However, I got through it and I learned that sometimes you
just have to deal with sickness when it comes to teaching. Its something that I am
going to encounter a lot in my future so Im glad I was able to handle it well for the
most part.
3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? Best times to observe?
Next week I am going to be doing bell to bell again. We are going to continue
doing some of the same things as this week. We will be working on book clubs,
words their way, and daily language review. I am also going to do more reading
lessons. Another thing we will be doing is finishing up the fractions portion of math
and moving on to more multiplication and division. In science, we are going to
continue our crayfish unit while the students explore and continue to learn new
things. There are also going to be conferences this upcoming week, which I will have
the opportunity to sit in on a few.