High Five for Week Five

Rounding out week five of student teaching is a crazy thing to think about! Only 11 more to go! This week has been great even with a few unforeseen tasks thrown into the mix. However, it is "high fives" all around!

Striving for Uniqueness
As I came into this week, wanting to be my own self as a teacher rather than coming off fake. Being here for five weeks, I have started to come out of my "shell" to be that unique teacher for my students. I'm trying to implement my own ideas into the classroom to investigate if it works better than what I have been doing for the past couple of weeks. Along with uniqueness in myself, I have been trying to pull uniqueness out of my students to show that yes we are all different but we can come together. It hasn't always gone to plan, but then again I am new to this. That's why I am striving not thriving.

Connecting = Influence
This week during the faculty meeting the administration had mentioned that teachers should try there best to connect with each student in their classes through certain strategies over time. I had taken some time during a project time to get to know a student that was ahead of the rest. I could notice that even though we only talked for a little that connection meant something to that student. Since I made that connection, influence is just around the corner to push that student in the right direction.

Motivation
My teaching cohort and I are nearly 1/3 of the way through our internships. One piece of motivation for all of us as we prepare for a full schedule is in the words of Thomas Edison, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."  As we move into our next several weeks we cannot give up. I shared this quote with my Power and Machinery Tech class this morning. Yeah, it is cheesy, but to me, quotes mean a lot. 

Questions

• When teaching a full schedule of courses, when do you find time to plan thoroughly?
• How has making connections with your students changed your career?
• What have you found works best with keeping students on track during group projects?