Classroom Reflection Paper

Depending on where we stand, the view of our environment and the effect of other individuals can shape the way we identify the world. Often we are afraid that seeing different perspectives then could lead to the loss of our very own, but the real value of another standpoint lies within seeing more of a situation and therefore being able to make a better evaluation for ourselves. By valuing new perspectives, we are initially introducing new elements of life to improve our way of thinking thus providing us with various of aspects that can help us grow in school, work and personal lives.

It is really amazing how excited students get with the possiblity of using the computer in the classroom to assist them with their lesson. The teacher added that she uses it as a reward system, stating how affective it is in maintaining order and control in the classroom. Students knew how to navigate, go to various websites that were related to the lesson and create a folder in which to put their assignments in.

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.

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.

During field, I am in a third grade classroom at Primos Elementary School in Upper Darby, PA. To maintain confidentiality as I write about my field experience, I will be using pseudo-names for the teacher and children mentioned. My field teacher is Mrs. Williams, and her classroom is home to about eighteen to twenty diverse third grades in terms of socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. When I am in the classroom, I am fortunate to see the children’s unpacking routine as they enter the classroom which consist of removing necessary materials from their backpacks, taking down their chairs from their desks, and for some students, eating breakfast which they paid for through the school. After the students’ finish unpacking, Mrs. Williams tries to implement a form of morning meeting, although she cannot always do so depending on the behaviors of her students. Typically, however, she finds just enough time to go over news and announcements with her class. After morning meeting, the students have math instruction from 9:15 am until 10:25 am. After math, her students go to their specials class, and then off to lunch. In this paper, I will be analyzing one of Mrs. Williams math lessons, to see if her lesson meets the elements of a lesson.

1. Since I was in a middle school setting, I was given the opportunity to observe multiple classrooms which a variety of different students. In my first class, I noticed that most if not all students were African American. The ratio was 22:1, where about 18 of them were boys. The second class I went to, had a ratio of 19:1. The ethnicity in this class was again mostly African American, with a few Hispanics and Caucasian. The third class represented a ratio of 20:1. The ethnicity was made up of mostly Hispanics, Caucasian, with 1 African American child. My final class ratio was 18:1, where most students were Hispanic and African American.

Throughout the courses of ELED 4311 and ELED 4312, my knowledge of science had definitely changed in a positive way from the beginning of the course up until now. With the help and guidance from Dr. Wong, Professor Gokus, and Professor Donze, I was exposed to a variety of activities that I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Not only will I be teaching science, but I can also collaborate it with other subjects such as math, reading, writing, and social studies.

1. What was your experience as a student teacher? Did you find yourself getting attached to the children in the classroom? Were you skeptical in the beginning? As a student teacher, what was the most efficient advice you received from the former teacher? What was your biggest dilemma in student teaching?

When I consider my high school experience I think about the many social interactions, group dynamics, and relationship building that took place between me and all the other social actors at my high school.

With all of this in mind, you as the educator are able to understand your classroom and structure it in a way that it is beneficial to all students. Most of the time in my clinical setting the students are arranged in a strict manor. They must face towards the front of the classroom at all times. Even when it is time to partner up for activities they are extremely limited on how they can form groups. When structuring my classroom, I want to create an environment that is open to discussion. To keep students from feeling left out and to keep students from simply not wanting to participate, I plan on structuring the classroom in a circle instead of rows. This gives everyone an equal chance to voice their opinion and start a discussion.

I observed Ms. Bannon’s third-grade classroom that consists of twenty-three students in the Lower East Side Manhattan. Her classroom was very well organized with colorful labels, completed classwork a along the windowsill and the students’ desks were arranged in groups. The lesson I will be referring to is Mrs. Bannon’s lesson on finding the main idea in English Language Arts. The Common Core Standard Ms. Bannon used was ELA.RL.3.2, ELA.SL.3.2. Her lesson objective is to, “Identify and write the main idea of a story in one sentence. ”

I have learned so much in the fifteen weeks of this course about how children think. How my future students may think and how things can affect them. Such as poverty, trauma, learning abilities, primary language, and health issues, these are just the tip of the developmental iceberg. Students are exposed to so much before they can understand it and teachers need to be ready for anything they may bring in to the classroom.

Walking into the first two weeks of the EDU program I desired to experience what it would be like to be a future educator and have a grasp of how to help the molding of our youth and giving them the possibility to become future leaders. Doctor dresser was able to bring in a Concordia alumni who had just begun to experience his professional education, career and is teaching multiple different grade levels as a young teacher. When he first walked into the classroom my first impressions were that unfortunately he looked very inexperienced and unsure of what was to be expected of the lecture I thought to myself in the position of a younger student in his classroom this is a person I would not take seriously. He then proceeded to communicate

Students in classrooms complain of having to sit in classrooms all day. A story from ideas demco about changing the seating in classrooms is, “With 7 different types of seating available, it took about 2 ½ weeks for students to try all of them. After that time, I allowed students to “free choose” each day. It became obvious after the first several months that students could handle working with their friends, and we eliminated the signs. I had a few issues with students not being able to focus, but when I did, I simply asked the student to move to a new spot with his or her comfy seating. It wasn’t a problem because they couldn’t argue with my philosophy that students should be able to be comfortable and learn at the same time. I was able to get more teaching done, and the students were able to get more learning in, as they quickly got ready each day so as not to lose their choice spots. After the first month, the students were ready to eliminate even more desks. I asked if any students wanted to “desk/locker share” with a partner. This brought on a HUGE response. Pairs quickly formed, and students moved desk items into one space instead of two. We eliminated another 6–8 desks. Collaboration and neatness came into play for those sharing storage space. Desks were becoming a place to work instead of “homes” for individual students. We finally had only 6 desks out of the original 30 by mid to late September. I placed a tablecloth over these after we emptied them and gave the remaining students cubby bins. Now that all students had a bin on one of the bookshelves against the wall they no longer wanted the desks.”

This semester of co-teaching has been very eventful and eye opening. I not only learned about what I might find challenging about teaching, but also what I love about is as well. During my last lesson, while visiting with students, I was content as my role as a teacher for the first time in a while. I was more confident and comfortable and cared less about what the other teacher and students thought of me while I was working with students. During this lesson, I was also able to interact with most students one-on-one and explore their drawing and creativity with them, which was amazing. Working with this particular group of students really showed me how different students can be within one classroom setting as well, the good and the bad differences. Working with this particular teacher, I also learned about who I want to be as a teacher to my students and how your approach to teaching can either increase students’ educational success or it can hinder it.