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.

My responsibilities this week as continued with teaching whole class lessons and small group instruction. When teaching whole class instructions, before beginning the math material, I had to keep in mind the different level of students’ math level. When starting to teach

Entering a public school for the first time in 2002, I noticed that there were way more white faces walking the halls than any other race. I taught in a department with 14 other individuals and I was the only black and issues such as diversity and social justice were not on the agenda. Excellence was at the forefront of discussion and the expectations for students was high. I stayed in that school until I realized that the students would be fine without me. At the end of my final school year, I had acquired a position at a school that was on the news for having a gang fight in the bus parking lot, and I wondered if I was moving my career into a war zone. As I transitioned to my new job, I entered the urban school with preconceived notions. The culture made me ask the questions presented by Schramm-Pate, Lussier, and Jeffries (2008), do the people here portray this school as a place of despair or a place of tender hope? Student achievement was at an all-time low and teaching and learning was considered top notch if one could keep an administrator from managing the classroom. It was if the teachers felt that the future of the many black students in the building rested on how well the white teachers chose to manage them (Blackmon, 2008). The students in the building were experiencing several facets of oppression as examined by Young (2013). Being a high minority school, the students were powerless in the classroom and received low level experiences through direct instruction. I can remember observing a 10th grade English classroom where the teacher pulled out sentence strips to have the students put together simple and compound sentences in the hallway. Students who were one, two, and three years behind in school experienced marginalization in the classroom because the teachers and administrators felt they were of no use. One of the administrators told me in the office that there was no point in me worrying about putting students in college prep classes because the students here were not going to college. Students were not being pushed so they could see their potential and more often than not, many students saw no value in school and ended up dropping out. It was truly a place of despair and there

I found the parent panel very informative – I loved being able to hear from parents about their opinions on important school related subjects such as new teachers, multicultural education, and homework. Personally, the most interesting aspect of the panel was listening to the parents speak about their thoughts on multicultural education. All four parents expressed that they did not see the importance of multicultural education being included in their child’s school curriculum. One parent explained that her daughter’s school has a culture night where families can come dressed up in clothing specific to their culture and bring ethnic food dishes. However, this parent said that she is fine with that being the only multicultural aspect in her daughter’s school. I found these statements interesting due to another class I am currently taking – ED 525 – whose sole purpose is the implementation of multicultural education into classrooms. In the class, the professor stresses how multicultural education is one the most important aspects of a school’s climate; I was surprised to hear from parents who did not agree.

Throughout this class, I have been able to rediscover a part of myself that has been hidden away since high school. When I decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa and become a Biology BS and a Biochem BS major, I in a way decided to put to death part of the old me that I liked. I was an entertainer, and this class has helped bring that out in me again.

Here is a quote taken directly from the teacher’s webpage on the school website that can help get a better feel for the classroom setting I was in: “ I am a Special Education teacher working with students with moderate to severe disabilities in a specialized academic classroom at San Elijo Middle School. Within my program students are taught functional academic skills, communication skills, life skills, social development, vocational skills and skills that will help to enable them to become as independent as possible in their lives. Students in the class participate in a wide variety of experiences at San Elijo Middle School and are a part of the school community.”

Regarding the first observation of the classroom culture and setting, having the opportunity to volunteer for close to a year has a definite benefit. In the case of McCammon Elementary, the classroom dynamics are experiencing a time of change. As a child who myself attended McCammon Elementary, the classroom environments have generally remained the same up until this year. McCammon Elementary can be seen as a more traditional school when regarding the environments within classrooms. The walls were generally tailored to the needs and desires of the teacher, but regarding seating, not much had changed till these later years. Traditionally, the students were provided decks, which were organised in an orderly manner to encourage both focus and

My experience was informational. I was able to see how my students are inside the classroom environment with my teacher how they are in art. I was also able to observe another classroom and see how they differ from my class. All of these are completely different spaces where the children act differently. Comparing these different environments provided a unique insight into how these children act differently depending on who is around. Having been with these children a lot now, I have the ability to interact with them and get to know them individually. This helps in my classroom assessments because I am able to differentiate between how children normally behave and what the normal classroom routine is like.

When I evaluate my school year, many things come to mind. I think about friends. I think about the highs and lows.I also think about how I have grown.My 7th grade year at CMS was full of concepts learned, memorable experiences, and personal growth.

One of the most difficult things to master while teaching is classroom management. Through my experience I have noticed how easily a classroom of seventeen first graders can get off task, but also how easily a teacher can help guide their focus back on task.

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.

In the mornings between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:45, I had the opportunity to help out in Ms. Foy’s third grade class at Oak Ridge Elementary School. There is one teacher to 26 students in the class. The students, eight and nine year olds, work on Language Arts when I arrive to the classroom. Later they have snack and math. I take one student at a time to a table to read a fluency card to ask them questions about what they read. I also spend five minutes at a time with them to do subtraction flashcards. The classroom is set up so that every student has their own desk that are all in groups. There are posters on the walls and artwork that the students have made.

I previously stated a general idea of my assessment for my future classroom in a previous assignment. But in this assignment, I will breakdown the specifics and values of each assessment and go into detail about assessments that I did not address for the complete breakdown of my classroom learning. As a math teacher, I know that math is a pretty ridged subject in comparison to other subjects and the summative assessments come fast and numerous. I have had some math teachers who I feel are my mentors and plan to reflect some of the aspects of my classroom assessments off how they structure theirs. The gist is to categorize the various parts of the total makeup of the grade. A student’s grade will be broken down into the following sections in which each of them have varying point values and weight percentages for the end result: homework, participation, queries, quizzes, and tests.

Over the course of the semester, this class has uncovered a crucial, behind-the-scenes look of education from the perspective of the teacher. My opinion of teaching from the beginning of the course to end has drastically changed. In my analysis, I discovered at the end of the education 200 course that education can be seen as: frustrating, productive, and rewarding.

There are several revolutions in the classroom including: technology, flexible seating in bigger classroom settings, student lead discussions, group based testing, team lead for grades with meetings, and frequent hands on project based learning. I think a lot of these modern classroom changes have been implemented in the district. Not in every school but in most. I know in my school we have all of the above and I can see how these changes have helped in the learning process.