Classroom Reflection

My time spent in the Clinical setting, so far, has been extremely inciteful as to how to become a better educator in a classroom setting. Through the data I collected I was able to connect Borich’s Seven Variables of learning to the students. By being in the clinical setting for nearly two months, I have been exposed to new ways of thinking when it comes to structuring a classroom and instructing a classroom. Within this reflection you will find out how I would better plan an effective lesson for the pupils in my future classroom. You will also discover what I will do about certain issues in the classroom and how I will address/fix them.

While all my courses at the University of Northern Iowa are important and have taught me a great deal, there are three classes I feel prepared me the most for student teaching and as a future teacher. One of these classes is Classroom Assessment. This course taught me how to create assessments that are as fair as possible and to relate them to the exact content that is being taught. I also learned to incorporate the eight multiple intelligences into assessment. Not all assessments have to be pencil and paper and they should not because some students cannot show their learned knowledge this way. One idea that was stressed in this course is that fair isn't always equal; this is something that has stuck with me ever since.

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

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.

There were many ways to monitor students' understanding and achievement of the mastery objectives during my lesson. Students were continuously informed me about their learning and interpreting information through discussions, explanations, ans written work. These informal observations provided me with opportunities for instruction to be adjusted according to students' needs.

When I arrived to my classroom today, Mrs. Beach’s students were still at their special. This gave us about ten minutes to talk about my upcoming less. Mrs. Beach would like me to teach my lesson on October 24. I am not certain which standard I will be teaching, but I do know that I will be teaching students how to solve story problems using the standard subtraction algorithm. I am excited to teach this lesson, but I am also very nervous because I don’t know exactly how to introduce this topic to the students. At 10:10 A.M., the students returned to the classroom, grabbed their math baskets and sat down at their desks. I am constantly amazed at how well behaved these students are. I cannot to learn more about the management strategies that Mrs. Beach implements in her class.

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

Being a teacher, I want to ensure that my students know that even though we may have different back grounds and be different from others that we will all love and respect one another. I worked at a school once and they had things labeled throughout the whole school. Like for Bathroom they school had it labeled bathroom and Bano. Taking this Idea, I will use it for my classroom and label everything in both the English language and whatever language the child speaks.

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.).

On December 5, 2017, I spent my fifth session with class 3-213. As a prospective student teacher, this day provided me with a plethora of information regarding questioning. For my first few weeks of observation, I focused on the differing forms of instructional planning, assessment, and interdisciplinary instruction. However, this week I listened carefully to the types of questions the teacher asked the students. Mrs. Diaz is truly a remarkable teacher, who carefully plans her questions to execute informal assessments. She uses these questions to measure student performance, while simultaneously stimulating collaborative and encouragement in the classroom. Based on this idea, Mrs. Diaz continuously asks questions throughout the duration

On November 11, 2017 I attended the Victoria Crossroads Council for Math Educators from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This event is hosted twice a year, once during the Fall semester and once during the Spring semester. The conference is hosted by Dr. Barba Patton and Dr. Teresa LeSage Clements. Students in the education program at UHV in Victoria and Katy, come together to present and teach lessons on Science and Math. There is a morning keynote speaker, a lunch speaker, and a closing ceremony speaker the speakers are individuals involved in the field of education that present on topics regarding education.

When confronted with learning new and challenging concepts in the field of science, I rely on a variety of strategies to help me make sense of the content material. To begin, during my early educational experience (K-12), I quickly realized that I am a visual and verbal learner, meaning that if I was to truly learn and remember the concepts of a class (and succeed on assessments), I needed to 1) pay attention when the teacher was explaining the content, 2) write down my own notes—both in the form of words and charts/diagrams—and 3) review my notes and other class material frequently.

This term, Nina has made noticeable improvements to stay focused during classroom discussions. Despite her best efforts, Nina still finds it difficult to follow instructions, learn specialist vocabulary, locate and join words together to form meaningful utterances. Furthermore, her language and communication difficulty extend to interactions in collaborative tasks, group work and social situations where she struggles to use social language, such as ‘turn-taking’ and to consider what others say. Due to such communication and interaction difficulties, she requires a lot of support and structured activities to help with her learning.

The desire to ascertain how the strategies, interventions and pedagogical that we learn in class are implemented by teachers in the course of teaching prekindergarten classes made me visit Mrs. Smith’s PreK 12 class. Before my visit, I had informed her of my intention to avoid ambushing her at the last minute. My visit to her class lasted for two hours, during which I remained nonpartisan regarding the activities that were taking place in the classroom. Before the class started, however, she introduced me to the class for the sake of making the children comfortable with my presence around them.