High School Chorus Adventures with Mrs. Branham

  Week of Reflection: Friday January 29, 2021 This week has been a 5/5! I have had a great week. This week I was able to teach 3/4 of my classes regularly, as well as continue teaching my edTPA unit. The knowledge that I was actually recording my lessons for Pearson was a bit intimidating at first but my students are such rockstars! They have really engaged with my learning segment and see the central focus as relevant which is everything that I could have hoped for. My low performing target student was more on task than he’s ever been, and answered several questions SPOT ON! I did a happy dance on my drive home that day. Then, I had a student tell me that my virtual assignments were his favorite. It was so nice that I thought he was joking at first, but he really liked being able to use examples from music that HE liked. YAY for student choice!! I taught an additional class this week, and will start my full takeover on Monday. I have really grown in my ability to confidently lead ...

  Week of Reflection: Friday January 22, 2021 This week has been a 5/5! I have had a great week. This week I was able to teach 2/4 of my classes regularly, as well as administer my pre-test and begin teaching my edTPA unit. I taught my edTPA unit to cohort B this week, and I look forward to teaching it to cohort A and recording it starting on Monday. I tested my video several times this week, and I had one experience where my camera didn’t record. I have learned from this and will have a backup camera running during my real edTPA recordings. I also practiced elements from my edTPA content several times and I feel that I have truly refined and prepared my unit to the best of my ability. I will build upon this next week by teaching my unit! I will also be teaching two additional classes next week. I feel that I have really been growing my confidence and clarity when teaching, and I am excited to see this grow by teaching another class in the coming week. My short term and long term g...

Week 2 Reflection: January 15, 2020 I am going to split my rating of this week into two ratings. My classroom-experience rating is a 5/5. It has been a great week learning from my CE and getting to know my students. In regard to edTPA, this week has been a 1. This week, I spent too much time second guessing my lesson content and I struggled with perfectionism beyond a healthy level as I worked to finish my planning work. This week, I finished my edTPA planning commentary and lesson plans. I created a pre-test for my students. I worked so hard!! I also had some wonderful conversations with my CE and accompanist, and learned so much about school traditions in non-COVID years. I also learned about my students. I have over a hundred students, and I am happy to have learned their names. I have also prepared lessons to take over a class period next week. Next week, I will build upon my observations to begin teaching our women’s chorus. This week, I have been able to participate in teachi...

  Madeline Bame Branham Week 1- January 8, 2021     Wow! I can't believe that my first week of student teaching is complete.  I would rate this week's difficulty as a 3. I was pleasantly surprised by my comfort level when interacting with my students. Since I am teaching in a high school setting, I do have some new students this semester. However, I have many familiar faces and I have been pleased at how many of them I remember. More than that, I have been happy with how much I have gotten to know about them in just two days. It is essential that I establish a positive relationship with each class before I take over teaching full time.       This week, our primary goals have been to meet our new students, establish procedures and review foundational music literacy concepts (ta-ka-di-mi and solfege). I also planned and taught my first lesson segment our advanced class, symphonic chorale. This was be helpful for establishing a teachin...