Classroom Reflection

One concept we discussed during class was the demographics of the school not aligning with the demographics of the teachers. A main point we talked about was how a lot of younger grades were taught mostly by white, female teachers. This negatively impacts students of color and their feelings surrounding school and forces an invisible tax on teachers of color working at underrepresented schools. In the school I did my field experience in, Chelsea Heights Elementary school, I noticed this point very clearly. Of all the staff I interacted with who taught at the school, five of them appeared to be white women, one was a woman of color, and two were white men. It was also interesting to note that the woman of color was a paraprofessional, and only interacted with one student at the end of the day. Both of the male teachers were specialist teachers, and taught physical education and science, which are stereotypically male subjects. In the group of homeroom teachers the class I observed interacted with, all three teachers were white and female. Compared to my field experience class, where over half of the students were students of color, this staff ratio was clearly disproportionate to the actual student population. By observing this information, I was able to actually visualize what we talked about in class, and see the population difference between teachers and students.

One of the most important aspects I want to incorporate in my classroom is making STEM-based subjects less rigid and monotonous for students by providing creative ways for students to embrace STEM-based subjects. In Memphis, teachers are doing just that by structuring lessons “that could be implemented with young children at the local museum as well as in practicum placements in assigned classrooms” (Counsell, Peat, Vaughn, & Johnson, 2015, p. 64). In addition to formatting the lessons in both museums and classrooms, the teachers are also emphasizing the fact that “the need to acknowledge and respect children’s thinking and ideas is equally paramount” (Counsell et al., 2015, p. 65). I strongly agree with Counsell et al.’s opinions on respecting children’s ideas, as I believe that it creates an environment where the children are encouraged to express themselves. After going to a museum and seeing exhibits that tie into the STEM-based lesson, which regarded wheels in this specific article, the teacher then leads several phases of learning within the classroom, beginning with the children observing different types of wheels (Counsell et al., 2015, pp. 65-6). The instructor then asks the children “productive questions [which] guide and facilitate children’s logical-mathematical and scientific thinking” (Counsell et al., 2015, p. 66). In doing this the children are more likely to form a greater understanding of the topics they are learning in class and will be able to apply them

How were students welcomed when they entered the classroom? How did the teacher generate atmosphere overall? Would you do it differently?

Question 1. How do you make work more meaningful to your students? What motivators are you currently using with your students? Examine the climate in your classroom. What would you change to make it better?

As I step into the classroom on August 21, 2017, I have one thought: “What’s going to be the difference between my nine and 10 a.m. classes?” When I signed up for the Fall semester, I was aware I would stay in the same classroom, instructed by the same professor (or in this case, doctor) and I would likely mix the two classes up. Although the first class revolved around research and theory and this course focused on emerging media, I couldn’t help but feel similarities between the classes. Each week, three students would present on a topic in the nine and 10 a.m. class. There would be a lecture or video we would take notes over in each class, or discuss an article from Pew Research. For a time, I was worried I would be sitting in class for two hours gaining only the information from my peers. I signed up for Emerging Media to compute how technology is changing society. I was motivated in discussions, but regretted to remember following class our discussion. I was worried this class would be redundant, until I focused in on “The Shallows.” This was the text the class would be based around. I was not impressed at the author’s ideas during lecture at first. Then, on September 13, 2017, I woke up from the redundancy I felt when we discussed technology determinism and the intellectual ethic.

one. Ms. Cochran starts with having all students stretch and prepare for their activity. For the most part her activities involve working collaboratively in groups. The students are allowed to interact differently with one another compared to the classroom. Students are free to yell at the top of their lungs and run around without being punished. The students seem to interact more with each other in this class. I think overall this class requires and needs student to be interactive in order to be successful.

During my first year of teaching the steps I have taken up to this point are organizing a detailed plan, from before school started, of our daily procedures and routines. Every single day I greet my students and let them know they are welcome into the classroom. Once the students enter the classroom, they know to put their things away, backpack on the back of their chair, and lunchboxes in the cubbies. They then know to open up their bell work journal and begin the bell work question or worksheet that is provided for them at their desk. My students will know that every morning they should have 3 sharpened pencils in their pencil box and one pink eraser. They have finished work in their green folder and unfinished work in their yellow folder. By being

This paper will describe on why a certain lesson should be adapted before it is delivered to different audience at the same level. This lesson was taught to university students in the USA where the majority of the students were English native speakers. At some points in this lesson, the depth of discussion is not really appropriate to be taught to foreign/second language learners because the nature of English proficiency between English native speakers and foreign/second language learners is absolutely different. The finding in this paper will be based on observation of the writer and elaborated with the reference from library research.

While not every teacher teaches the exact same, there does exist a few, fairly common similarities between those I was able to sit in on. Of these commonalities, there were positives and negatives. Typically, one of the first things I noticed during observations of a “good” class was that from the moment students entered the room they knew what to do. Out of the ten observed classes, eight used some form of bell-ringer that was displayed before and during the ringing of the first bell. Yet, of these eight, only four classes successfully engaged in the bell-ringer. Of these three, there was only one that required the teacher’s full input, which came in the form of reading the question. Even still, the four classes that successfully started off the classroom’s time with learning did so out of routine. The two classes that did not use bell-ringers while I was observing did so voluntarily. One was because the students were to be engaged in a Science project within the class, and the other was because they were expecting to leave to take student yearbook pictures. Excluding the Science outlier, classes that did not start off with a bell-ringer or some form of question/activity at the bell tended not to transition as smoothly into lecture or the next planned activity.

Starting from last year, the chemistry teaching lab at Tech has been my second home at Northwestern University. Soon, it became a place where I worked, researched, and studied. On some days, I would spend more time in the lab than in my own dorm room. This place was familiar to me, but while observing this familiar place, I found different interactions that I had not noticed before. Prior to this observational exercise, I thought that the lab was just a place where classes were held and experiments were conducted. Although I had recognized that there was an academic hierarchy, where the importance of professors, TAs, and undergraduate students were clearly divided, I had never truly noticed how socially complex this lab was. From my observations, there were three main interactions in the lab: equal interactions, unequal interactions, and resonance interactions.

This week’s reading continues to give context to what technology integration should be in the classroom. Roblyer equipped me with vocabulary for three types of web-based lessons: Interpersonal exchanges, Information collection and analysis and Problem-solving. While I may not use these phrases with teachers, I will be able to track my coaching in the types of experience I am bringing to the classroom. Currently, I am working with teachers that are collecting information. Teachers are enthusiastically, checking out computer carts for their students to do research on an historical event, a person, or a principal in science. However, reading examples given in the text such as Westward Expansion or Connecting Science Students with NASA Resources, I see that I am going to have the challenge of providing scaffolding from research to web-lessons.

My passion about teaching and my students motivated me to learn more about teaching. So, I really have to admit that I enjoyed this course a lot and I was so excited to take this course to know more about the teaching strategies used and the techniques of the classroom management.

While STEAM instruction relies on making authentic and engaging connections between the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, the implementation can look slightly different from classroom to classroom. The first video demonstrates how a STEAM unit can be incorporated in a single content: middle school science. The video shows students working collaboratively in groups to complete the assigned lab and asking questions as needed. The teacher is seen facilitating the activity, as she moves from group to group, addressing those questions, providing suggestions, and guiding students towards the completion of the activity. Although neither the problem nor the driving question of the lesson were explicitly stated or reiterated during the observed clip, the ‘lesson essential question’ and the ‘learning target’ posted on the board communicate and reinforce the objective of this lesson (e.g. students will identify minerals and explain why minerals are important). Thus, based on this and my observations of the teacher and students’ interactions, I predict that this lesson is focused on assessing how well students can identify minerals, as a way to introduce students to the characteristics needed for identifying and classifying rocks. This skill is especially important as students need to solve the problem scenario, which involves describing different types of rocks to assemble a group of “rock” musicians. As I was analyzing the video clip using the

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the vision of and values placed on inclusion of special needs students in a general education classroom by special education teachers as well as general education teachers and how they both can work together to create a shared sense of purpose. “Although scholars have long considered how leaders communicate visions and values to establish a sense of purpose, they have overlooked how these messages can be used to establish a shared sense of purpose, which is achieved when multiple employees possess the same understanding of the purpose of work” (Carton, Murphy, & Clark, 2014). Thus the workshop is recommended for special education teachers and general education teachers, however, special education supervisors and administrators are also invited to participate. “These workshops or clinics are most effective when they are in the teacher's subject area” (Professional Development for Teachers,” n.d.).

The sixth section was curriculum compacting. This allows students that already understand the material to move on to harder concepts at their own pace. I do this in my classroom using IXL. I think this how is progressive pockets can come in handy, but again, I do not think it should be a file box at the front of the room, but rather assignments from the teacher directly to the student to advance his learning.