Classroom Reflection Paper

The amount and usage of technology around the world is constantly growing. Because of technological advances, more and more schools are opting into technology-based learning, even with students as young as preschoolers. Many teachers (and parents as well) trust that the increasing exposure to and implementation of this technology is helping children’s learning abilities when used responsibly (Sharkins et al., 2016, p. 437).

There are many different types of attachments that I have observed in the Magnolia classroom. Some are attachments to the children’s personal belongings and others are attachments to people, such as the teachers. Growing out of these attachments is good for the children’s social-emotional development.

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.

As the class of 2018 works towards their last months of high school, those who have aspirations to attend college will spend these last few months filling out endless applications, finding schools to take the SAT or ACT, and putting the machine that high school has forced us to become on overdrive. We will look back at all the long night and countless homework assignments that overlapped our obstacles. For some, the struggles encouraged them to quit trying. For others, the struggles provoked them. For the select few, the struggles are the reason we chose to strive.

To begin the Faculty assignment I first started by trying to email professors using the faculty information document provided. Of all the specialties available under the Business degree, management and marketing most interested me. This is due to the fact that I have an ample amount of experience working in restaurants. Often while performing tasks such as endlessly sweeping floors, scraping gum off tables, talking down agitated customers and so on, I found my mind wondering. Aside from thinking about how much I was utterly and wholly adoring my tasks, I thought about what it would be like to run the establishment. I wondered what it would be like to manage others and plotted ways in which I could improve upon my manager’s skills in the area of management. Because of my curiosity for management I really wanted to speak with someone who is knowledgeable in the area. After sending a few emails to multiple instructors and not receiving any reply I decided it was time for a face to face interview.

This reflection focuses on ELCC Standard 4.1, due to the fact that I had to collaborate with administration, teachers (regular and special education), board members, facilities, parents, and students in order to develop a topic, plan, and carry out a Parent University. After discussing topics with my mentor, we decided that the topic for this Parent University should be the new PowerSchool Unified Classroom Program. The purpose of getting this new PowerSchool program was to improving the overall educational experience for students and parents by having one program that parents, students, and teachers can use to access grades, attendance, discipline, and teacher websites/homework information. The district transitioned to PowerSchool Unified Classroom as a result of parents and students complaining about having to go to five different sites just to get homework (Moodle, Schoology, etc.). Parents and students can not only view all of these components, but this program also streamlines communication between the school and home. In order for the use of Unified Classroom to actually improve the educational experience, parents need to know how to use the program.

For this assignment I was unable to ask the teachers at my normal school setting questions due to them being on vacation all this week. That being said I asked one of my favorite teachers who works at the high school I go to. This teacher's name is Claire Hickman, she is the art teacher at Bayshore High School. One of my questions asked how many years she has been in an inclusive learning environment and her answer was 13 years! That’s just 5 years short of my life time so I am sure I can learn a lot from her. I had also asked the overall composition of her classes she mentioned that each class had about 35 students ranging from grades 9 to 12. Of these 35 students 11 would be ESOL, 5 V.E. students, and 1 gifted student. I had even asked if she makes changes on her lesson plans depending on the type of student that are coming into her classroom she said yes. I asked her questions mainly pertaining to students who are ESOL and students who have disabilities. She is extremely open with her views and I knew she would make the perfect candidate to interview.

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.

As kids, most of us get up every morning dreading going to school. We beg our parents to let us stay home, and on occasion, fake sick just to get out of school for a day. There are many factors that attribute to making us want to stay home from school but as a teacher, I want to provide an atmosphere where students enjoy coming to my classroom. Kids should feel like they matter and are respected when they are learning in a classroom, and from the learning experiences that I have had and will gain in ECCO, I intend to provide an atmosphere where not only can they can flourish and thrive, but they are able to influence the world around them.

In the classroom where I am doing student teaching I have observed students utilizing a science notebook only three times in the school year so far. Some schools have clusters, while other schools integrate science into their curriculum through other subject such as reading and writing. According to one teacher, the students receive science instruction through STEM, which creates more of a focus for her teaching in social studies instead of science. At my assigned school, the students receive instruction in their native language in science one day and social studies the next. Most teachers put a lot of planning into ELA and math, but not a lot of planning into the science lessons that are part of the curriculum. Part of my belief that science isn’t taught at the same level as other subjects is that teachers don’t feel confident enough when it comes to different science topics.

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

Meet Joe. Joe is bored in class. Joe feels the need to grab the classes attention when he's bored in class. Joe chooses to drum his pencils on his desk when he wants to grab attention. The class begins to drum along disregarding what the teacher is saying when they hear Joe. The teacher begins to get frustrated and loses focus of what she is saying because the whole class is drumming. The teacher yells for the students to be quiet due to her frustration. A girl in the back begins to cry because her teacher yelled. The class laughs at the girl because she is crying. The classmates start to run around their seats because they are laughing. They run into each other and get bloody noses because they are running around. The