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.

LP 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 are evident in this teaching session.

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

This learning experience supported the science content area physics. It provided the children with opportunity to collaborate as a group to work together to problem-solve. My focus for this lab was to build and construct ramps and pathways in the outside play yard. I implemented technology by letting the children watch a YouTube video about constructing ramps and pathways to generate new knowledge about the activity. They used marbles to travel down the ramps, while recycled bottles and PVC piping were used to make bridges and underpasses. I planned this lesson to connect to some of the children’s prior knowledge about using this type of track. When the children began using the tracks in the outside play yard they chose to put their ramps off landscaping rocks. This gave them the ability to secure the ramp at the top as well as the ability to build bridges and underpasses on the ground. This activity immediately ignited their language such as, “let me try this, I have an idea, what about this, how about if we do this” which demonstrated that the children were engaged in the inquiry process. The learning standards this activity supported was; 3.2 PK.B.1 Explore and describe the motion of toys and objects. AL.1 PK.A Explore and ask questions to seek meaningful information about a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

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

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.

The changes that I would have made during this unit would include not always assessing with worksheets and varying my instruction. I would have still used some of the worksheets that came with the book, but not after each lesson like I did. I would have liked to use various instructional strategies that would have got the students up and moving during the lesson and not just having to sit there for a majority of them. My student’s performance told me that I taught the material very well and in a way that they could understand. I say this because all of the students improved by at least 15 percent from their pre-test. Yes, my students achieved the level of growth that I expected them to after looking at the pre-test and then looking at their post-test after the unit. The explanation for this is take the students knew what was expected on them each day in class regardless of how the lesson was being taught. When I began teaching and the students were sitting up front on the floor I set expectations for them. If they didn’t follow these expectations I would ask them to move a magnet. In the beginning I would remind the students of the expectations and then after a while I would just say remember the expectations. By setting these right away it showed the student what I expected and left no room to say that they didn’t know what I expected of them. My strengths were presenting the material at a level that the students could understand and being able to be flexible with my

In my position as a vice president of curriculum programs, I visit many diverse educational settings in public and charter schools, both large urban and small rural districts. Daily, I face issues of race, gender, culture, socioeconomic class, and disability. Because I work with diverse students and a multicultural workforce, my reflection regarding powerful social and cultural influences leads me to two different conclusions. The first is that many children in the schools I visit are disadvantaged. They are born into immigrant and transient families and live in communities that rank in the lowest socio-economic strata in the country.

First, when this class began I knew I would learn a lot of beneficial information throughout my career as well as my home life. As the class progressed it helped me see things about myself that I did not think was there. The book has helped me see things about my personality I did not think was there, but as the book ended it seems they were there all along. The class puts things in a perspective where you can hypothetically see yourself in at the workplace. It makes you think about different types of issues people experience daily and helps you learn how to handle them in a professional manner that is best for you, the customer, and the business. Sometimes we must go an extra mile to please people, but it is all about doing the right thing the first time and making people happy at the end of the day.

One major drawback that Blatchford (2015) has with the idea of differentiation is ‘the fact that teachers have to do this for 30 students at once’ making ‘it even more difficult’. He further continues to express how you can have great experience in this field which reflects ‘purposeful practice’ but you still would not be able to ‘quite crack’ differentiation. In some ways, I agree with Blatchford as from my first placement, I too have felt the pressure of differentiating for the whole class. I always found myself altering my plans as just when I think I have the best plan for that teaching, another need will crop up, thus starting back at stage one. Additionally, I feel it gives the teachers the impression of feeling intimidated by the number of needs that they would need to measure for when planning.

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.

On September 25, 2017, I was unable to participate in class due to an infection. However, I was able to observe and evaluate the others in class. This opportunity allowed myself to view the students’ body alignment, challenges, and the ability of picking up phrases. Not only did I observe the students, but I tried to imagine myself in the space and wonder what would have been difficult for me.

When starting this class, I was a little concerned as I only have one class of my own this year and thought maybe I was taking the class at the wrong time. The more in depth we go in this class it is helping me more and more at my school because of the types of differentiation we are doing this year. I always thought I differentiated my lessons but through this class and my co-teaching experiences this year I’m learning that I have not differentiated enough. I have felt a pride in knowing that the music that I incorporate into student work time is beneficial. I also am glad to see that the use of pre and post assessments is important.

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.

Dr. Karen Lea (2016) stated that aggressive behavior has been shown to grow from overly severe and punitive parenting, association with highly aggressive peers, and heavy viewing of television and film violence. Several of my students have clearly experienced such environmental influences which have led to the development of attention seeking behaviors, violent behaviors, poor attitudes towards school and learning, truancy, and below average academic progress. My students have also faced poverty, close family ties to gang activity, death or incarceration of a parent, lack of parental supervision, abuse, hunger, online bullying, inconsistent friendships, and rape.