Classroom Reflection Essay

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.

When I began this course and I completed the first writing assignment and the first observation, I was not sure what I was supposed to achieve and what I was supposed to observe. After the third essay and the third observation, which are linked down below, I was able to understand more what the purpose of the class was. Through the observations, I was able to take what I learned about biological, cognitive, and psychosocial development and see them in the children that I currently work with. Before this class, I believed children misbehaved because they wanted attention. After this course and through the observations and essays I was better able to understand that people, specifically children, are more complex than I

The initial attempt which I gave at clearing the WST exam was quite an exuberant experience. A confident me wrote an excellent piece which was all according to me nothing but excellent. But a drastic result of having a non-competent essay came as a shocking result. Thus, while taking this class I hoped to improve my writing skills not only to be good in general writing but also hone my skills in presenting ideas as a graduate student. The course structure defined in this class not only helped me improved my writing skills but expanded my horizon to the different aspects of writing which was initially all unknown to me. This writing class helped me improve my understanding of a thesis

Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.

On the morning of September 29th, 2017, uncertainty, anxiety, and excitement were three of the best words to portray my emotions. I was uncertain of what my role within the classroom would be and how the students would receive my presence; I was anxious to commence this new experience and put my classroom knowledge to the test to further my education; But, most of all, I was excited to meet the students that would ultimately begin my long career in making a difference in kids’ lives through education.

I chose to teach in a first grade class room for my self-observation because I have previously taught in first grade and thought that I would be familiar with the age group. Originally, I anticipated being able to use the curriculum with which I was also familiar. However, I ended up writing my own lesson plan outside of the given curriculum. This action would not be allowed on a normal basis at my school, but was allowed for a special occasion. I plan to organize this paper in a manner following the Emergent Literacy chapter in our text (Tompkins, 57-84) in order to provide structure. Under each heading, I will examine the successes and the failures.

In the classroom I observe, there are 32 students equally broken up into sixteen boys and sixteen girls. Each one of these students has their own personal chrome book. A chrome book is like a mini laptop that the teacher can assign the students assignments and assessments. A chrome book can be used for any subject. Some example programs on the chrome book are type club, math, writing, educational YouTube, and dictionaries. I see the use of chrome books as a great technology used in the classroom. Back when I was an elementary school student, I did not have chrome books in my classroom. The first lesson I observed on a chrome book was a math lesson. The teacher assigned through her computer a particular practice assessment to the students. The students then clicked to open the assignment and began. I found this technology helpful because if a student was stuck on a question, there was a video tutorial for them to view specific to the question. In fact, there was a specific video tutorial for each one of the questions. At the end, students were able to see how they did immediately. They are able to see their progress toward the actual test coming up. The teacher was also able to see the class statistics overall, and statistics to each question. This let the teacher know what the class struggled with and what should be taught again. Chrome books definitely caught my attention. Technology grows everyday and schools have to keep up with the change. It is interesting to me, to see

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?

The instructional setting I work within is set in a rural community, northeast of Indianapolis, IN. This community is made up of mostly farmers and factory workers, so the majority of the students are in the “free and reduced” system for tuition and lunches.

Form of address was another area that stood out to me as I watching my video. Within my classroom setting our students are referred to boys and girls, white sharks, friends, or by their first name. Within in my video, I address my class as "you guys" three times instead of a different form of address. There was one time where I self-corrected myself and stated boys and girls instead. I was not surprised by this because this was an area I was working on from my first lesson I taught. On a daily basis, I use the term "you guys" and unfortunately it has transferred over into teaching as well. Instead of addressing students in a formal manner, I was casually addressing them. I was using casual language instead of formal language.

In the classroom that I am observing my teacher teaches government and econ. On Friday September, 22nd I observed an econ class where the teacher said he was going to use his brother as an example for a credit card debt work sheet that he put up on the projector screen. The sheet used the highest possible interest rate (23%). The teacher than gave the students the formula to calculate how much interest would be paid on a sum of money. In this example the teacher said his brother was fifty five thousand dollars in debt. The teacher then asked the students to find how much interest his brother would have to pay. At this point in the class a few of the students moved quickly to remove their calculator from their backpacks and worked to figure the equation and give the teacher a correct answer. One student who we will name Jane gave the teacher an answer. The teacher then asked the class if they thought Jane had given the correct answer they all nodded their heads in agreement. The teacher then told Jane good job and moved to the next question. Before the teacher could explain the next question a student we will name Rick asked why the interest rate was so high. To which the teacher replied “well Rick in your case when you get you first credit card your interest rate will be close to this amount” to which Rick replied why is that. The teacher then explained how credit worked and that interest rates were based off of your credit and how likely you are to pay back a loan. The

Everyday teachers make decisions that influences student’s opportunities to enhance their learning through different content areas. Thus, it is essential as a teacher to draw upon the content knowledge you want your students to take away from your class but it is also equally important to equip your students with skills that will help them outside of the academic realm as well.

my senior year of high school, I was the FFA president at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School. As president, I tried to make sure everything was done on time, but by the end of the year I was a little worn out. Irritated with having to do everything myself I tried to delegate but still ended up doing mostly everything. My officer team had clocked out for the year and I was upset. Sitting in an officer meeting one day before school, I asked my advisor if there was any chance we could talk to some of the officers about participating more, which was mostly about the officers that never came. Instantly he snapped at me in front of everyone else, including my little sister. In summary he told me I was a bad president and that I blame others for my mistakes. I was so shocked that I didn't even respond. I sat silently crying right next to him avoiding all eye contact. This was when it all started.

“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.” - Allen Ginsberg

ENDS 101 class was drastically different from my expectation. I came from a background of great involvement in Robotics and portray great interests in Engineering. The title of Design Process misguided me into thinking about the learning of traditional design process engineers take to approach problem solving. Through each lessons, I said to myself that I am physically being in the most realistically useful and most applicable class in the University. Never did I thought I will be taking a class that provokes creativity, enhance leadership, and develop good team working skills and other aspects that affect being a collaborative member, or a leader. Several times, professor Vanegas’ and professor Billingsley’s