Mini Teaching Reflection - Private School Setting

This movie, The Classroom, which was very interesting to watch, discusses all that goes on in the school system, the good and the bad. But it also shows how things at home can affect the way the student acts during the school day. This movie definitely makes you look at students that act out differently, instead of punishing them maybe we should all look deeper into the issue and find a way for the student to thrive and use school as an outlet.

Fredrickson has for her students and her school is beyond anything I have ever seen both at Sartell – St. Stephen and Cornell University. Every day she comes to the high school between 6:00 and 7:30AM for staff meetings, student council/honor society meetings, or school events. She stays as late as 7:30 or 8:00PM to grade papers, organize and prepare for upcoming events, give busy students an extra time to makeup tests or assignments, and help struggling students. During this time, Mrs. Fredrickson works with a passion unparalleled by the most enthusiastic of teachers. There are very few who know how much time and effort Mrs. Fredrickson puts in to help others succeed, but it is this high level of commitment that makes her the best teacher in Sartell – St. Stephen and the best teacher I have had in my educational

In some aspects, the twenty minutes I spent microteaching felt like some of the most awkward twenty minutes of my life. In some of former other classes such as MAT223 (Intro to Secondary Mathematics Education) we had done assignments similar to this microteaching activity. I remember our group had the responsibility of teaching another form of proving Pythagorean Theorem. That was a beneficial activity because it gave us teachers in training the opportunity to get in front of the class and solidify a mathematical idea in front of "students". Unlike the MAT223 activity, the microteach activity is a more accurate and beneficial setting; at least that is how I felt while in front of the class.

First, when this class began I knew I would learn a lot of beneficial information throughout my career as well as my home life. As the class progressed it helped me see things about myself that I did not think was there. The book has helped me see things about my personality I did not think was there, but as the book ended it seems they were there all along. The class puts things in a perspective where you can hypothetically see yourself in at the workplace. It makes you think about different types of issues people experience daily and helps you learn how to handle them in a professional manner that is best for you, the customer, and the business. Sometimes we must go an extra mile to please people, but it is all about doing the right thing the first time and making people happy at the end of the day.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the vision of and values placed on inclusion of special needs students in a general education classroom by special education teachers as well as general education teachers and how they both can work together to create a shared sense of purpose. “Although scholars have long considered how leaders communicate visions and values to establish a sense of purpose, they have overlooked how these messages can be used to establish a shared sense of purpose, which is achieved when multiple employees possess the same understanding of the purpose of work” (Carton, Murphy, & Clark, 2014). Thus the workshop is recommended for special education teachers and general education teachers, however, special education supervisors and administrators are also invited to participate. “These workshops or clinics are most effective when they are in the teacher's subject area” (Professional Development for Teachers,” n.d.).

While all my courses at the University of Northern Iowa are important and have taught me a great deal, there are three classes I feel prepared me the most for student teaching and as a future teacher. One of these classes is Classroom Assessment. This course taught me how to create assessments that are as fair as possible and to relate them to the exact content that is being taught. I also learned to incorporate the eight multiple intelligences into assessment. Not all assessments have to be pencil and paper and they should not because some students cannot show their learned knowledge this way. One idea that was stressed in this course is that fair isn't always equal; this is something that has stuck with me ever since.

Throughout the semester, I had a chance to be able to work on all of my goals in almost every combination but still feel I can work on them more. Over the semester I have noticed a lot that I have worked on but still end up freaking out every chance when it came to executing the midterm and final.From taking Modern I my third time I wanted to able to gain insight from each time I took the course.This semester I felt like I took a different approach towards being able to grasp the material as well as having a clear focus what I needed and wished to work on. Evaluating over the course of the semester shows my goals that I wanted to As I continue with taking modern classes in the future there is something that I can always make progress on to keep on improving and be more confident.

In my position as a vice president of curriculum programs, I visit many diverse educational settings in public and charter schools, both large urban and small rural districts. Daily, I face issues of race, gender, culture, socioeconomic class, and disability. Because I work with diverse students and a multicultural workforce, my reflection regarding powerful social and cultural influences leads me to two different conclusions. The first is that many children in the schools I visit are disadvantaged. They are born into immigrant and transient families and live in communities that rank in the lowest socio-economic strata in the country.

2.    I am an activist. Walking into ETST 111 on the first day I was excited to critically analyze the history and repercussion of predominate movements that have undoubtedly affected the way in which society works today. Moreover, I was intrigued as to how my previous work as an activist will translate in my academic strives to understand what great movement building concepts are. The simple congregation of the class serves as a median to begin dialogue. I was curious to see how the structure of the class was going to mediate the aforesaid. In this part of the assignment, I will critically analyze how effective and ineffective the course structure, content, format, grading and decision-making process was for the class:

I felt that Mrs. Rosser’s educational philosophy was that she wanted to create a really amazing classroom community. I loved how she referred to all of her students as friends. An example to her calling all of her students friends, she would say, “Gather around friends!” Mrs. Rosser is one of the most positive teachers I have ever experienced. I honestly wish I would have had a teacher as positive as her when I was that age.

In Chapter three of the readings Atwell discusses the importance of setting the tone and establishing structure, organization, and routines during the first week of class. She explains that as a teacher a lot of time is put into preparation for the first week of school because she wants the students to leave excited about the class, the material and her as a teacher, which helps set the tone for the rest of the yr. In addition, she mentioned that it is equally important for her to establish “her role as a teacher, writer, reader of books, responder to literature, and a lover and unpacker of poems” (Atwell,2015). I believe that anybody that has ever worked with children, whether it be in the classroom or coaching sports would agree with her position about establishing a firm foundation and routine during the first week or the beginning of every week, because it will carry on throughout the course of the year or week. The last thing you as a teacher or coach want to do is to scare or intimidate the students, hurt their confidence, or make them dread coming to your class. I don’t think that’s any teacher’s real intension, although it happens all too often. Have you had an experience with a teacher who hurt your confidence or that made you dislike the subject or class? Unfortunately, I have had many teachers whom acted as though they just didn’t care about the students or our success, and that attitude from our teacher/leadership person truly does rub off on the students. I had one science teacher in high school, Miss Whitney whom was very abrasive yet passionate about the subject to the point of overcomplicating the assignments and confusing the students. I still dislike science to this day and I believe it stems from that experience. The unfortunate thing is that it only takes one bad experience for a student to shut down and withdraw from the classroom activities, so in my opinion it is very important for the teacher not only to care about the student’s success, but also recognize much like Atwell that they need to change the way they are doing things to get kids more engaged in the materials, and accept the fact that hands on enjoyment and fun activities are just as effective learning tools as traditional

As I am studying to become an elementary teacher, I am discovering new strategies and disciplines that have helped me become a more active learner and efficient educator. I admire the saying; we teach what we learn. From my elementary education program and classroom field experiences, I have learned that what might work for one student may not work for another. As a future educator, I believe it is essential to continue to fill my teacher toolbox with research, exploration, and application of new methods and approaches to find what best fits the needs of my students. If I discover an activity or strategy that has worked for me personally or has been scientifically proven to work, I am more open to implementing it

When the day to day tasks of a teacher becomes dull and not amusing, this is known as being in a rut. After countless assignments of rambling on about lazy teachers, the conciseness is that teachers give up because they lose their spark for education. Although this is not the main topic discussed in Linda Christensen’s “Introduction” to Teaching for Joy and Justice, it is necessary to tie lose ends up before continuing into further discussion. Yes, there are teachers that are lazy and only care about themselves, however, there are also teachers that care more about their students. These are the teachers that need to be talked about, because without them the whole educational system would be ruined.

There are many aspects to being a great teacher. Being a great teacher is not only based on academic success of the students, but they make you want to go to school. Teachers help shape the lives of the upcoming generations. How they affect the students affects the world. They play a big role in a student’s lives. One thing about teacher’s everyone should know is that especially on an elementary school level they need to think outside the box. They need to connect with their students and engage them in the activity. As a student, each child is taught by a number of teachers throughout their lives, influencing them in either a positive or negative way.

To learn this week’s material, answer the discussion post, program the programming assignment, and get a good grade on the self-quiz, I studied the learning material for almost 6 hours a day. I find if fun to sit down with the learning material, which was chapters one and two, and take notes during all my free-time.