Classroom Reflection Paper

At first, I went to the website greatschools.org and my school Hilldale Elementary. Shockingly to my surprise the school was rated a “B”. It was surprising to me that the rating for the school was so high. Only one grade out of the school passed the standardized test out of third grade to fifth grade. Thinking to myself, I felt like that report had to be based off the parent’s perspective of the school. Observations such as those from parents are fine, I just don’t think that they depict schools well enough. I decided to go to schoolreportcard.org instead to get a more detail background of the school. This school alone has 774 students and only about 47 teachers. The school has 42% English Language Learners in it because school’s area is predominantly

Before I started this course I thought it was mostly going to be about the development of children and their psychology throughout their school years. Now I think that this course is about the education process for teachers and the students as a whole. What changed my mind so quickly was that the very first chapter was about what makes up a good teacher, from their degree to self regulation and decision making. In this course I learned how teachers handle different situations in the classroom like differences in students and testing students knowledge. Chapter 2 form the class textbook was about the cognitive development of children and that is where we learned about Piaget’s our stages and Vygotsky's two ideas. The development paper was based off of their theories, and I was able to choose a age range to focus on using Piaget’s and Vygotsky's ideas.

Interpersonal Conflict that are presented in the scenario are that Mr. Jones is having a difficult time with a certain student who is in special education. The issue is that Mr. Jones is unable to engage the student when teaching in the classroom. Mr. Jones is trying to find a solution where he can assist the child in becoming engaged academically and behavioral. In addition Ms. Claire, the assistance principal is not in favor of the other team member’s suggestions in resolving the conflict.

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).

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.

When I first picked this class I had in mind that I speak another language as well, I might be able to bring a different mindset to the class. I can say that the class was not what I picture or would have liked to be. I imagined more of setting where we discuss more languages and how they shape people and their culture.

Even as a native speaker, teaching something as complex as another language will always present certain challenges. During the course, and particularly during the observed teaching sessions, I learned several techniques and theories that I feel have greatly improved my ability to teach and control a classroom. More specifically I learned about the different aspects of teaching from lesson planning to classroom management. Furthermore, I gained knowledge of different teaching approaches and philosophies and was able to find out which ones worked best for me.

From my years in elementary school, middle school, and now high school, I have had many different teachers who have an impact on my life and my educational growth. There's one teacher though, who went above and beyond any other teacher I have had and that's why she had such a great impact on my learning ability.

During my visits to Metzler elementary, I was able to observe all the different grade levels and I was fortunate enough to be able to observe eight different teachers, which helped me better understand and see the different ways I could teach the children. While observing, I really enjoyed and gathered information that I feel make good lessons from two different teachers, which were the fifth and fourth grade teachers.

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.

The information gained during this assignment was insightful, and the information will be useful in my future classroom. When conducting my teacher interviews both of the teachers spoke of how crucial it is for new teachers to understand the importance of pre-assessing students and the importance of continued assessment of students throughout the year. According to the answers from the teacher interviews, the data collected throughout the assessment process is the best way for teachers to determine how to group students. For example, Miss. Phillips states, “When analyzing data for say my kindergarten reading group I may group students based on who has one to one, comprehension, fluency, high-frequency words, and meaning when reading.” On the other hand for math Miss. Phillips states, “…I generally use my standards and then group based on abilities of one-to-one counting, number recognition, numeral writing, addition/subtraction, etc. I use assessments to analyze the data and even regroup students as I need to for both math and reading.” Furthermore, when Mrs. Haynes was asked the same question she responded with, “Having heterogeneous groups for math and literacy workstations is very beneficial. Students are able to model and demonstrate work for other students. This allows students to potentially work independently, while teachers pull small groups (for guided reading, guided math and guided writing).”

The instructional setting I work within is set in a rural community, northeast of Indianapolis, IN. This community is made up of mostly farmers and factory workers, so the majority of the students are in the “free and reduced” system for tuition and lunches.

Over the years, I have worked closely with children in various settings from babysitting to the actual classroom, and each time I gain new understanding of children which has allowed me to grow more patient about their behavior. Additionally, I must add that most of the children I have worked with have all come from low Socioeconomic status families which has been proven to be the cause of major behavioral issues. The way I have witnessed the behavior of these children be managed varies between each of the locations. Some teachers and caretakers are quite harsh in their discipline while others are much too passive. In essence, as learned in the Environment and Programs as well as the Discipline and Limits unit, there are several key elements that determine the behavior of children in the classroom. As it relates to Preston Taylor Ministries, behavior management is sometimes ineffective especially when dealing with certain children; however, for the most part, I believe this center handles behavior in an efficient manner.

Since our group was the only physical education group in the class, I feel like our strength was the ability to bring energy to the classroom. We all did a great job at being energetic and keeping the students engaged in the lesson. We also did a nice job on our delivery and giving multiple medias for learning the material. I thought a strength of our planning and delivery was the activity in our lesson to apply the knowledge learned. As a group we did a good job at going through the rules and applying them 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