Classroom Reflection Paper

During the month of November, I became our school’s acting testing coordinator. Our testing coordinator was in an accident and went out on medical leave. She was suddenly out for an undetermined amount of time and with a severe concussion was unable to remember what she completed and what she did not. During her absence, there were two assessments and a survey that needed to me completed. These assessments included SAT 10, FFT (Teacher Survey) and MAP-R. This was a very demanding experience.

Over the Fall Break vacation, I decided to conduct my field experience at CC Spaulding Elementary School. I had the opportunity to work with Ms. Sarah Ashley and Mrs. Williams’ Pre-K class. I had previously shadowed with Ms. Ashley, so she was eager to welcome me back. Over the days, I got myself acquainted with her students to make them comfortable with my presence. Luckily, they welcomed me in with no hesitation.

On October 26th I observed at Park Elementary in Munhall, Pa. The school is from kindergarten to 4th grade. Park Elementary was the same Elementary school I attended and the second-grade classroom I chose to observe was the same classroom that I sat in ten years ago taught by the same teacher. I chose to observe Park Elementary because the school and the teachers are who inspired me to become an elementary school teacher. The classroom was very colorful and organized. The walls were covered with decorations such as calendars, months, star student, alphabet, and number lines. The lesson I observed was a second-grade mathematics lesson and language arts. Classroom sizes are 25-30 students per classroom. The lesson was making numbers using ones, tens and

On November 14, I shadowed Mrs. Spielmann, a second grade teacher at West Central Elementary School. I arrived at the school at 8:00 but she was in a meeting so I didn't go to her room until 8:25. When I went into the room she told me that when the students first came in they would do their morning duties. As the students came in they were telling me stories about their families. Some of the things they did right away was eat a snack, do milk count, mark if they read 20 minutes, and get ready for whatever station they were going to first. Mrs. Spielmann had a group of students that she would do a station with and the rest of the students moved from one station to another. I went around and asked them questions about what they were doing. One station was a geography station. They had a worksheet they had to fill out about the capitals and states. I helped them with any of the questions they needed. Another station was a spelling station. They had to transfer their spelling words onto the worksheet and then add up how many points the word was worth. I spent most of my time at this station explaining how to do the worksheet. Once they figured out how to do it they would show me their answers and they would be so happy that they got it right. It was interesting to see what made them excited and how happy they were to get the answer right. Another

In this particular class, the students were very independent as a whole. The teacher ran a free flowing class so the children were very chaotic a time. The students were learning about 911 safety and most of the activities were based on that topic. Children had the opportunity to create safety signs or work in the block are where they built a lay out of a town. It was also a student’s birthday so they had the opportunity of creating a birthday card or making jewelry out of beads and string for their friend, and then their family. When they completed either of those task they were asked to go into the carpet area and read a book.

Before doing activities, the teacher would demonstrate what should be done physically and verbally. When talking about the flowers that were brought into the classroom, the teacher modeled how to hold the flowers gently and would ask the children to repeat the names after she said them. The teacher also asked if there were any questions before doing the activities. The teacher also asked which children would prefer to do the first activity (the worksheet) first since it was done in small groups. More than 4 children raised their hands and the teacher helped the student’s converse and figure out who would do it

When I reach a roadblock in schoolwork; a long, complex project due the next day, numerous tedious packets resembling Einstein’s scratch work, or reading assignments of preposterous lengths, my mother recounts a common incident from me and my sibling’s early years in public school.

I observed and analyzed the design and delivery of an instructional unit in a Montessori school setting. I observed a classroom of grades 1-3 two times from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. at the Kennebec Montessori school. I was asked to sit quietly and to not interact with the children so I could get a realistic view of the class day and the children would pursue their chosen work.

For my assignment, I observed a 5th grade classroom at a Title 1 Elementary School. It was 1:30 pm. on a Thursday in mid-September, and they had just come back inside from recess. There were 21 students in the class. Classroom rules and expectations were clearly displayed inside the doorway. The students’ desks were arranged in clusters of 4. Some children, seemingly those with behavioral issues, were isolated and sat at single desks located at the back of the room. Students were scrambling around to grab their white board and markers and get ready for their math lesson. The teacher gave them a countdown to get settled down and back to their desks. The students had been learning how to add and subtract with decimals. She made them aware that this math lesson was going to be a continuation of that, but this time with money. The students seemed to be excited about that. The teacher turned on an overhead, where she had several word problems. She read one problem at a time aloud. A timer was set for the students to work their problem out on their white board. When the timer sounded, the students all raised their white board to display their answer to the teacher. The teacher provided the correct answer and called on one student to explain how to solve the problem. She reminded the rest of the class to pay attention to the student so that they can understand how to work the problem. Most students were respectful and listened.

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.

Although I have had many different types of teachers, there are two that stick out more than any others. The first was my third and sixth grade teacher. She was the best teacher I ever had. The second was my seventh grade teacher. She was the worst I think a student could have had. Both, these teachers had very different teaching styles and very different out looks on teaching. To be an effective teacher the teacher must respect the student and be willing to go the extra mile to help the students learn all they can. In this paper, I will discuss the effectiveness of these two teachers and how their teaching styles differed.

My objectives in practicum this fall semester was to use developmentally appreciate practices, recognize and use effective classroom management strategies and develop and implement appropriate activities. This school year was my first time working in an infant and toddler classroom. During my time working in the classroom, I accomplish a lot beyond my goals I created.

I observed how Mrs. Terry had separated her 8 students into two groups. One group is of students who have gotten the key concept of the subject right on, while the other group still may need a little help on certain subjects. At the beginning of class they start with learning numbers. The number today was 4. They had learned the number 4 by seeing what the number looks like, how to pronounce the number, and then they traced the number both in the air with their fingers and on paper with a pencil. Then they also demonstrated how to count all the way to 50 by using different physical motions for every group of 10 numbers. After working with the number 4 they moved right along to the letter and color of the day. Today’s letter was P and the color was purple. When learning the letter instead of just identifying it with the name they sounded it out. They used cards with pictures and used the p sound to determine if what was shown in the picture had started with P or not. The students learn their colors by singing color songs and listing different items that are the same color.

Considering the being ginning of the lesson, the directions are very clear and can be easily followed by a kindergartner. Every student knows that they are too try their best and try to finish as much of the assignment as they can. All of the learning objectives are addressed. If the rules are violated the students paper is taken away and they are to put their heads down, and wait for the teacher to come by and talk to them and get a better understanding of why they were not allowed to participate. The situation is very obvious is it almost a routine, every time a student is in trouble she always explains to them what they did wrong and if they have a full understanding.

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