McConnell-Doidge Week 9

              Wow! These past 9 weeks really flew by. I can't believe my time at my first placement has already come to an end. I truly could have not asked for a better experience. I was extremely lucky to be surrounded by what I consider the best of the best in terms of educators. I take so much value in being able to work alongside such amazing teachers and I will take what I learned in this experience on my next journey and through my teaching career. I wasn't expecting to make lifelong friends from this experience and to have gained that I am truly grateful. Standard 8 - Collaborative Relationships – The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.
               Something that I wasn't expecting was such an outpouring of appreciation from my students when they realized today was my last day. I had students from each class tell me "thank you for being their teacher". And at that moment this whole journey came full circle for me, and that right there is what this is all about. Knowing that I at least made a difference in one student, let alone several and that my time spent there was impactful means so much to me. 
                The unit that I left on was Badminton for my freshman classes and we spent four weeks in the unit. Badminton was different than our basketball unit in that most students are a lot less familiar with Badminton than they are basketball. With that being said most students hadn't possessed previous knowledge of the game or had the skills to play. Watching the students progress through this unit, gain knowledge and perform the skills with accuracy and consistency has been a great thing to see. I have been able to experience learning take place and to know I facilitated that has been such an awesome feeling. I have watched students who really struggled to even hit the birdie at first be able to play and sometimes even beat other students in games. Seeing their growth and progression was such a cool thing. This applies to the standard below.
Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.
                For my strength and conditioning classes which are Juniors and Seniors, I received so much gratitude from my students who felt that I truly helped them be able to progress through their lifts and I can say with certainty that in many of the students who really struggled on form at first they have majorly improved. In my time there I got IHSPLA (Illinois High School Powerlifting Association) certified as a referee and reffed the school's powerlifting meet which was an amazing experience. The amount of support that not only the teams showed to their teammates but to other teams on their final lifts was overwhelming. This applies to the standard above. 
                  This upcoming week I have my first teaching interview. I can say I am nervous, however, I have a feeling of calmness about it. I feel like this program and my first student teaching experience has afforded me the knowledge necessary to take on this next step on the journey. Again, I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason so we will see.
                   Overall I had an incredible experience that I am so grateful for. I look forward to the next upcoming weeks, and I walk into my second placement with an open mind and hope to have another great experience!