Jack Reich

9/13 - 9/17
Weekly Reflection
The first week I met with my mentor teacher, Aaron Robertson, ended up starting
on a Wednesday and going to Friday. During this time, we traveled to all the different
schools we would be working at, and talking to the different teachers that we would be
pulling students from. We would then make sure a time slot would not interfere with their
other teaching schedules. Because of the short week, we didn’t have time to talk to all
the teachers, so on Monday of the second week, we finished checking in with the
special day class teachers to finish confirming our weekly APE schedule.
During the second week, I began teaching with my GPE teacher, Cecelia Barton
at Talbert Middle School. From day one, she has been splitting the class up in half, and
allowing me to lead and instruct the students following her lesson for the day. For Aaron
and my APE schedule, I have been assisting in setting up the classes, helping with
demonstrations, and keeping the students focused on the activities. After doing a few of
the APE classes, it became clear that some of the students’ behaviors were too
distracting for how we originally set up the schedule. So, we have made a few
adjustments to our original schedule, to better accommodate the students needs. While
we don’t even have a full week teaching the students quite yet, I feel as though I am
getting the hang of the schedule, and quickly getting to know the students I have
worked with so far. I also feel confident, that with another week under our belts, we will
have more of our scheduling kinks worked out and a better feel for our students!
 Jack Reich
9/20 - 9/24
Weekly Reflection
Although this was the third week, this was the first official full week of school with
all of our current caseload of students set in their classes. This meant I could finally get
a true feeling for how each of our different classes would go, and start to better get to
know my students. The classes ran significantly smother, and swapping the students to
the different classes greatly helped with some of the chaos we were experiencing during
our first week of classes. As I got more familiar with the lesson Aaron was teaching for
the week, I started further pushing myself to introduce a few of the activities. At this
point Aaron was still mostly leading the class, such as the intro, and transitions, but I
explained what we were doing, and lead them through several activities! All of the
students are starting to recognizing me, and quite a few of them are even choosing me
to help guide them through activities or give them hand over hand assistance. For my
GPE class with Barton, we have been continuing splitting up the class and both
teaching our half. However, towards the end of the week, I started offering to give her
more assistance in getting the class organized and started. Such as getting the students
in a straight line, so they can walk into the locker room, taking attendance, and making
sure the students are giving their attention for when our class begins. I know this is still
fairly early, but I feel good with how all of the students are reacting to me, and I am
starting to really get a grasp on taking lead in my classes.
 Jack Reich
9/27 - 10/01
Weekly Reflection
For the fourth week of class, I really started getting into the swing of things. I
taught nearly every class, and was starting to feel much more comfortable at leading
and introducing activities. Throughout this week, I was still using Aaron’s lessons, but I
started adapting more of my own style into how the activities were introduced and how
the actives were performed. One of the other things I feel I got better at, was being able
to adapt the lesson to better fit the large range of each students’ skills. I definitely know
this is a skill I will further develop over time, but I am at least noticing and seeing new
way I can become better at it with each time I teach! As for my GPE class with Barton,
we are getting along great, and our different management styles have been merging
together nicely. I am now getting the students more used to my starting routine of lining
up in a straight line before entering the locker room so we can begin with taking roll.
With the students better understanding the routine, I’ve noticed we’ve been able to get
our classes activities started quicker giving the students more activity time overall.
 Jack Reich
10/4 - 10/08
Weekly Reflection
The weekend before my fifth week of student teaching, I managed to break my
proximal phalange where it meets the metatarsal on my left fifth toe! The break resulted
in a compound/open fracture, so the bone needed to be set and stitches were needed.
Luckily the break did not affect any of the joint’s ligaments so going in for surgery has
been avoided! Throughout the week I’ve seen improvement with my mobility, so with the
aide of a knee scooter I am returning back to student teaching the coming week. During
this week I also had a chance to sit in on my first real IEP meeting, as FVSD has opted
to continue hosting them through ZOOM. Our APE part was short, but the family
seemed happy with our progress. The IEP meeting also helped clue me in on a bit more
of the student’s funds of knowledge, which I believe will be useful in helping motivate
them to participate at the best of their abilities in our future lessons.
 Jack Reich
10/11 - 10/15
Weekly Reflection
Because of the fact that I was in a boot with limited mobility due to my broken
foot, I had to kind of learn what I was capable of and figure out new ways to teach given
my situation. The first few days were a bit rough, because I was getting used to using
my knee scooter to teach. It was actually rather eye opening to encounter an accident
like this early in on my teaching. It really showed me how well the students were able to
adapt to my new teaching conditions, and it also really pushed me to be flexible in how I
teach. By Wednesday I really started getting back into the swing of things, and by
Friday I had adapted my old routine into a new one that really worked smoothly for my
current state. I was also really glad Aaron was there to help offer suggestions and help
guide me through my first week back, as I was extremely worried about how I was going
to adjust. Aaron is a great mentor teacher, and I am very glad I am lucky enough to
learn and work with him!
 Jack Reich
10/18 - 10/22
Weekly Reflection
This was the first week I taught a lesson I created, and with that there was
definitely a new learning curve. My lesson ended up being a bit too difficult for the
majority of my students. This really made me have to think on my toes, and try to
quickly adjust my lesson to better fit the needs of my students. This also caused the first
few classes on my first day teaching the lesson to be a bit less fluid and more
unorganized than I would have liked. Once I realized how I could change my lesson and
make it better suited for my students, I felt like the rest of the week went really well. This
week also really showed me how important it is as a teacher, to be able to make
modifications on the fly so that we can ensure our students are getting the most out of
our time. Overall the week went really well, and I think it was a great learning
experience.
 Jack Reich
10/25 - 10/29
Weekly Reflection
This was the second week I taught a lesson I created, and it went significantly
smoother than last week! I really planned out how it could be taught in the easiest way
for the more severe students, but also be quickly adapted to be more challenging for the
higher functioning students. I still of course had a few kinks along the way. With a lot of
my students needing constant attention, I found that if I was not able to deliver it to
them, it could be a bit of a struggle to kick start their focus again. So far, it’s been
seeming like a bit of challenge to balance keeping everyone in attention, while still
giving each of the students the hand over hand support needed to really practice the
skills being taught. I am definitely still learning, but I feel like every time I teach, I learn
new things and keep improving!
 Jack Reich
11/01 - 11/05
Weekly Reflection
Still feeling like I have a bit more to learn on how to quickly adapt my lessons
each week to really push and meet the needs of all of my students. With the students
ranging so much in their abilities from class to class, I am really starting to recognize
how important it is to be able to adjust my lessons accordingly. I feel I have a pretty
good grasp on how to make activities harder when I see the students are not being
pushed. Where I find myself struggling though, is when I need to quickly make the
lesson easier to better fit the students. I’ve been really enjoying how my mentor teacher
Aaron has been kind of giving me free range in creating my lessons/units, then giving
me tips and tricks in how to make it better. With his suggestions after each class I teach,
I am actually able to watch myself get more fluid and better at the lesson throughout the
day! I really feel like I am learning a lot and getting better with each class I teach!
 Jack Reich
11/08 - 11/12
Weekly Reflection
With every week that goes by, I feeling I am getting more and more confident in
my teaching. I feel like I am really getting to know my students’ capabilities, and am
getting better at adjusting and tailoring my lessons to meet the needs of each individual.
I have also noticed that the majority of my students are getting familiar with our routines.
When I show up to their classes to bring them to APE, they and run up to me, and seem
genuinely excited. I have also noticed most of my students are instantly going into the
class, sitting on their designated spots, and are ready to begin. This job definitely takes
a little extra work to make everything work for the wide range of students we teach, but I
also feel it is very rewarding. I’m enjoying the work, and I am still excited to continue my
journey through student teaching, and hopefully a job for the rest of my life!
 Jack Reich
11/15 - 11/19
Weekly Reflection
This week was a lot of fun! I think everyone was excited for the thanksgiving
holiday so it felt like all of my students were in an extra cheery mood. For one of my
activities, I created a relay race where the students all worked together to transfer a pile
of feathers across the room and onto a bare turkey! Seeing all the kids get so excited
when they saw their completed feathered up turkeys, was another great reminder of
why this is such an amazing job! I was also looking through all of the resource materials
I have created, and I realized my collection is getting pretty impressive! I’m feeling more
confident in my potential to land a good job, once I am finished with student teaching.
One other thing I noticed during my last week of teaching before break, was that I am
no longer overly stressing about teaching my more difficult classes. I think I am getting
better at understanding what each student is capable of, which is helping me set up
realistic expectations for how the class will go. Again, like after each week I teach, I am
getting better and better, and I’m feeling more and more secure in my choice to become
an APE teacher!
 Jack Reich
11/29 - 12/03
Weekly Reflection
It’s always enjoyable when there is a big holiday coming up! It seems like the
kids are more excited (or maybe they just really like me :D), and it makes creating a
theme that the kids are enthusiastic about just that much easier. As I you, this last week
I was doing benchmarks for the students’ progress reports. This meant I had to create a
lesson that was extra flexible, so that I could quickly switch up the activities to assess
the students’ different benchmarks, and still being enjoyable for the students. This made
planning a bit more difficult, but I think at the end the extra work paid off. The students
had a good time, and I was able to assess all of their different goals. While I have
presented at quite a few IEP’s already, this last week there was a flood of them. I ended
up writing all of their IEP’s, goals/benchmarks, and present levels through SEIS, and I
also presented at all of them. The parents all seemed to like me, and many of them told
me their child loves APE/telling them about my classes. I think that’s a good thing?
Overall, I think this last week went really well, and I’m still really enjoying teaching APE!