Classroom Reflection Essay

When I completed this lesson I actually felt I should re-think my decision to become an educator. Mrs. Anderson makes this job look easy. I had prepared my science lesson plan Monday and scheduled to start a 3-day lesson on Wednesday. I tried to keep my lesson close to the basal/textbook. I feel as though the students responded positively. They were responsible in raising their hands to answer questions. I had a note to “slow down” in my notes. This helped me pace my lesson appropriately. I felt confident….and then I did not! HOWEVER, this time I did not speed up my speaking and rush through the lesson as quickly as possible. I added a few examples that were not on my plan with the hopes to explain matter to the students and I believe that helped one or two students. I felt, as a class, we stayed on topic the entire class. There were a

In December of 2013, I was told that I was not considered for the full-time temporary faculty position in political science on South Campus by Dr. Sonia Nieves because I was not able to teach international relations even though I have graduate level coursework in international relations and Political Science degrees do not specify a focus. I later found out that, this requirement was false and inconsistent with Broward College’s Faculty Credentialing Manual and that Dr. Nieves hired an adjunct faculty member from another campus who had the same degree as me. This left me in the middle of December with no classes for the upcoming spring term despite my ability and record to fill my classes and outstanding reviews by students and supervisors. Dr. Neves also mentioned to me, on several occasions, that it was always a major scheduling “hassle” to be forced to find a downstairs classroom in order to accommodate my ADA needs.

-I believe the lesson was very successful. In the beginning of the lesson, the students were engaged with the Do Now: “Who are some explores that you know? Which European nations went exploring?” I had multiple students answer with explorers from the time period we were discussing and other from American History. For example some students said, “Lewis and Clark and Buzz Aldrin.” Second, when the students were logging into Schoology and downloading the Historical Head worksheet and directions, multiple students were helping each other get on task. The students were working diligently throughout the period answering the

This year, I am taking a bigger leadership role at my school. I am one of three content leaders that replaced our instructional coach. As a science content leader, part of my focus is assist teachers in teaching science. Our goal is to make sure science is taught in all grade levels. In the past, science has been pushed to the side because science is not always a tested subject. It is a tested subject in 5th grade. Most of the responsibility falls on the 5th grade teachers. This role is supposed to help make sure science is taught in all grades, so that our 5th grade teacher is not at a disadvantage when it comes to science. Me been the 5th grade science teacher for 4 years now, I have taken this role very seriously. Another part of my role is to offer myself to observe teachers teach science and provide feedback. This is where I think this activity for this course came in very handy.

There were times were times when I questioned my decision to become a teacher. I began to doubt my abilities; however, reflecting now, I am more dedicated and passionate about teaching. I cannot think of anything that I would like to do more. I have improved greatly throughout the course of this experience in many aspects. I started the experience really nervous; and for the first few weeks after I began to take control of classes, I taught Mr. Brewer’s and Mr. Craig’s lessons verbatim word for word from their lesson plans or created lesson plans that were very similar to them. This gradually changed throughout the course of my clinical experience; and towards the end, I began to teach lessons that were uniquely mine. I started to plan and teach lessons that incorporated a lot more of my style and personality than the lessons that Mr. Brewer and Mr. Craig had; including lessons that Mr. Brewer had decided to steal for future years. At the end of the semester, I had convinced Mr. Craig to use note sheets as opposed to having the students fully write out the notes for each chapter. I have been able to teach my cooperating new things, and give them new ideas. Some of the frustrations that I had experienced were disruptive students, who I struggled to get engaged in my lessons.

It was terrifying at first, but after that I started to ask the teacher questions, and to be proud of myself when I got a new principle, no matter how long it took me, or how many times I had to have examples worked on the board. I still felt the old frustration and insecurity often, it was built up over years of my life, but I reinforced my commitment to learning every time my patience with myself resulted in deeper understanding, and especially every time I could help someone else.

By some strange coincidence, I had the same science teacher, Mr. Gosser, for three years. He taught me biology, chemistry and now advanced placement chemistry, all sciences that I thoroughly enjoy. I expressed to him before how I might be looking into the path of becoming a life science teacher, and he gave me some great advice. He told me that having just a degree in life science is one thing but he stressed that I should really strive to be more marketable which is why I am looking into getting my masters in one of the sciences. He also told me personal advice for me as I pursue learning and to my future students, ”You learn more by making a mistake then by actually getting something right.” I will take that advice by knowing that I should push my students and if they get discouraged by getting something wrong I will tell them that same advice that he gave me to help reiterate it is all part of the learning

I started my practicum today in Miscellany second grade class. Mrs. Calloway used a lot of student-centered teaching. The tables are set up into small groups of about five students. Thought out the day we have multiple students that are pulled out so Mrs. Calloway told me I would be working with those students a lot to finish the project they get pulled out during. After reading a book to the class, Mrs. Calloway post a question on the board and has the students answer this. A lot of the students just copy what she posts on the board. When the student is done, she goes around and gives them a star for completing it. This is the only feedback the students get during the day.

When i first entered this class I didn't know what to expect because our school’s english teachers are so unique in character. I knew for certain that the class was gonna be challenging just because it is an Ap class, but I never expected it to change how i see the world. I have never experienced the type of environment we had as a class in my thirteen year, pre-kinder to eleven grade, of learning. From forming a cult, to engaging in rigourous conversations, to just having moments where we go on off topic and this has brought us closer. I can't forget to mention the fact that we actually learn a few things. Well a lot of important things actually. The course has elevated my English skill in comprehension, writing, speech, and has shifted the way I interact with the world as i search for a deeper meaning because of the influence of the class’ environment.

While observing a secondary classroom for my field experience, I learned several important things that I would not have been able to learn in a classroom. The experience showed me what it is like to be a teacher at this level and the many skills that are required in order to be a successful teacher. Another thing that was insightful while observing in the classroom, was the interview with my host teacher. He showed me a lot of things that I wouldn’t of been able to know without asking him. The experience showed me how to start the class efficiently, how to execute a lesson that is engaging, and taught me several things about the profession that aren’t common knowledge.

I started off by asking the students what their names were, then I introduced myself. I had my laptop in front of my lap, I found that very difficult to read the powerpoint to the students. I had to monitor and adjust by holding the laptop up and to the side, so that I was able to read it. After I went through the powerpoint one student informed me that they had not learned about weathering and erosion yet.

A few days before I taught my lesson, Ms. Bell introduced the standard of adding and subtracting to one million. So, I taught my lesson on the fifth day of a seven-day unit. I incorporated both large group and small group to maximize my students’ learning. I focused my lesson on the goal of fluently adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm. The learning goal in simpler terms was to add and subtract to one million. This concept was selected for me based on where my lesson fell in Ms. Bell’s planning.

Nick is a high school senior who spends the majority of his time preparing for tests. He plans to attend college at Ball State University. Nick believes that he will be successful with handling money when he moves out of his parents’ house because he just received a 100% on his math test. Throughout the last few months of high school, Nick’s teacher attempts to prepare him for the transformation from high school to college. His teacher informs him that studying for tests within high school may not have prepared him to face the physical world. Specifically, she informs Nick that studying in high school may be different or more difficult to handle due to specific situations that deal with money throughout life (Handling taxes, bank accounts, work, etc.). What type of learning is Nick’s teacher emphasizing?

disciplines. Since this class was used for formal instruction, I noticed that they never had a hard time with subtle refinements. These students used appropriate levels of vocabulary while answering questions and understanding the complex syntactic structures of the teacher’s PowerPoint. Although I didn’t notice any such grammar structures or phonology, I did notice how automatic they were with recognizing common words. One of the students had noticed that in the PowerPoint the teacher had used the wrong “new”. The teacher praised the student because he was even unaware he had used “new” instead of “knew” in his instruction. This showed me the ability of how late adolescence automatically recognizes critically evaluation of texts. I wish I had observed a child where they were ELL, but I thought this helped me see the developmental trends of different age groups. I thought everything I have learned in this class thus far, abstracts the idea of a child’s cognitive process theory. These students were advanced, proving that the child’s unique experiences lead to differences in their pathways to proficiency and how they communicate. I thought it was great to hear the sarcasm the teacher used with his students to interrupt the text. For example, he had made a joke about Julius Caesar’s wife and how ugly she actually was. The students laughed and really connected to his humor. I asked the teacher why he liked teaching 10th grade and he said “because I can say and act in different

Teaching is not as easy as people say. Everything needs to be planned and sometimes not all plans works out.