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.

In the classroom I observe, there are 32 students equally broken up into sixteen boys and sixteen girls. Each one of these students has their own personal chrome book. A chrome book is like a mini laptop that the teacher can assign the students assignments and assessments. A chrome book can be used for any subject. Some example programs on the chrome book are type club, math, writing, educational YouTube, and dictionaries. I see the use of chrome books as a great technology used in the classroom. Back when I was an elementary school student, I did not have chrome books in my classroom. The first lesson I observed on a chrome book was a math lesson. The teacher assigned through her computer a particular practice assessment to the students. The students then clicked to open the assignment and began. I found this technology helpful because if a student was stuck on a question, there was a video tutorial for them to view specific to the question. In fact, there was a specific video tutorial for each one of the questions. At the end, students were able to see how they did immediately. They are able to see their progress toward the actual test coming up. The teacher was also able to see the class statistics overall, and statistics to each question. This let the teacher know what the class struggled with and what should be taught again. Chrome books definitely caught my attention. Technology grows everyday and schools have to keep up with the change. It is interesting to me, to see

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At the beginning of the Kindergarten class the class did their normal routine of calendar time. The teacher tells them to go to the carpet for calendar time and that gets them on task. They count the number of days they have been in school out-loud. They also count the days with straws and put them in a ones, tens, or hundreds pocket. The students also keep record of the number of days they have been in school with change. They count out change to the number of days they have been in school. They say how much each coin is worth and who is on it. Lastly, they add a gumball to their jar of gumballs and say how many they have in total. This is a normal everyday morning routine that involves math. TMPs 3 and 6 are used for this routine and SMPs 4, 6, and 8 are used during this time. This activity takes around thirty minutes everyday. I think doing this everyday has really benefited the students. A student found a dime outside and he brought it to me. He knew it was a dime, how much it was worth, and even the president that is on the dime SMP 6.

The most important resource is children. In order to fully tap that resource and allow children to gain the knowledge needed to perform to the best of their ability, and thus become effective, contributing members of society, competent teachers are needed in classrooms across the world. I hope to become a teacher, specifically for elementary-aged children, once I finish school; however, with all of the varying teaching methods educators across the world employ, I am curious to see which approaches to expanding young minds have been the most successful. Additionally, as a teacher, I would like to provide a creative environment for students that makes learning something students want to participate in, as opposed to a chore. Furthermore, because children all interpret information in different ways, I am interested in finding teaching methods that work for a majority of children.

When the students are learning about science in my field placement, the teacher has a set routine or schedule that they would follow. As I am observing my classroom, I have notice that the students would go to the science lab to be introduced to the science topic that we are learning. While the students are in the science lab, they are doing experiments that are very hands on. The science lab’s teacher would also introduce the students by connecting to their prior knowledge and have them explain their thinking. Since the students are very engaging in science lab, they enjoy attending the class because they get to learn something new every week.

Before I began this observation assignment for my SPED class I was nervous and a bit skeptical about how everything was going to be, because I have never observed an inclusion class. After my first day of observation I felt more confident about my career choice. In this reflection paper I will talk about the assignment and all the things I found interesting, important, and challenging. I will also talk about how I overcame the challenges, my misconceptions prior to observing, and how this field experience will affect my education environment. The last things I will talk about is how my future behavior will now be affected by what I learned and how this experience helped me better understand my personal and professional goals.

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