Reflection On Classwork

Prior to taking this class, my only real experience with writing consisted of text messages, e-mails, and employee appraisals. Influenced largely by the casual nature of social networking, I never took the time to reflect on my inability to communicate clearly and professionally via the written word. Given the relative success I experienced after dropping out of high school, I never really developed an appreciation for higher education. I worked primarily with my hands and didn’t understand the need to seek colligate writing skills. I planned to make my living off of the skills of my trade and had no intentions of expanding my career opportunities with needless classes. Now that I am in my thirties and lead a large military workforce, I am

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.

My time spent in the Clinical setting, so far, has been extremely inciteful as to how to become a better educator in a classroom setting. Through the data I collected I was able to connect Borich’s Seven Variables of learning to the students. By being in the clinical setting for nearly two months, I have been exposed to new ways of thinking when it comes to structuring a classroom and instructing a classroom. Within this reflection you will find out how I would better plan an effective lesson for the pupils in my future classroom. You will also discover what I will do about certain issues in the classroom and how I will address/fix them.

Dee asked the students how the Pythagorean Theorem related to area. Students caught on to this pretty rapidly by responding that in some situations they may need to find a missing side of the triangle before being able to find area. After completing the warm-up, Dee projected the answers to the homework on the board and asked if there needed to be clarification on any of the problems. For the introduction of the current day’s lesson, Dee projected the powerpoint presentation on the board. This included the lesson essential question. She asked the students to recall what they had learned the previous day and related it to what they were to be learning today. During the lesson Dee stressed to the students that titles, like the Segment Addition Postulate, had high importance. Students took notes on a notes packet while following along with the lesson. Dee walked through examples with the students in using the Segment Addition Postulate. She also stressed that, “part + part = whole.” Students then worked with Dee, “we do,” in order to solve additional examples. After this, students were told to practice the remaining examples in the notes packet either on their own or with a

Before taking this class I never liked my English classes more specifically writing essays for them. I didn’t understand much of how to use strategies while writing essays and focuses little on learning it. By taking this class and using the strategies that I was provided with it made taking this class easy and enjoyable while writing analytical essays. I was willing to put in the effort and do my part in order to get a good grade in this English class and it worked. I feel that my performance in an English class has improved significantly.

I walked around the room to help them and keep them on task. One student was struggling on finding the asymptote of an equation. He had graphed the equation and knew it had a slant asymptote, but didn't know how to find it. I told the student he needed to use long division to figure it out. I decided to do an example on the board for all of the students since the others said they didn't remember how to do that. One student in the class who did remember how to find these helped his classmates, which I thought was very

I have enjoyed this class so much and have learned a lot as well. Many ideas, concepts, techniques have stood out to me. The first thing would be how I can still apply and develop the ability to write in preschool and kindergarten students. Many of the ideas and concepts can be simplified for younger students to begin to build a good foundations for writing. Writing Power and POW-TREE are great ways to get students excited about writing. They are also great ways to teach students about how to write and to write in an effective way.

I then handed it back that following day prior to starting the new lesson and as a class and as a next step, we reviewed their assessment and the homework that was given. Together as a class we went over the questions that students had a hard time on, which in the day 3 assessment was problem 4. I wrote the problem on the white board and I had Shane and Enzo come up to the board to show the class how they completed their problem. Before I had them come up to the board, I asked them if it would be okay to use their answers to share with the rest of the class. They both agreed to it, but Shaanza did not because she was embarrassed, which is perfectly fine. Then as a class, we went over how they solved their problem and what went wrong. We even used the sentence frame mentioned above and it worked really well for students to start and use academic language when they were speaking. Shane and Enzo were excited that they were able to share their answers with the rest of the class and to hear that their classmates had the same misconceptions. This was a boost in their confidence, which is especially beneficial to Shane. Then on my own, I brought up how Shaanza (not saying her name) solved he problem because I also wanted to address this misconception and as a class we discussed how this is not a correct

Due to time, the student’s opportunity for free exploration was cut short, which forced, at times, the students to get detracted from the task at hand. Additionally, depending on the future practicum lesson plan objective, I would like to highly consider completing the practicum in small groups, opposed to the large group of twelve children. Splitting into smaller groups will offer students more of an opportunity to learn at their own pace, decreasing the amount of pressure they feel from students who have already completed the task at hand. More so, having smaller groups will decrease the chance for students to copy one another’s work; forcing the students to make the connections for themselves, connecting a mental image of the manipulative to the mathematical topic. Finally, for future practicums, if the topic and manipulatives allow, I would have the students document their discoveries on a more guided worksheet. For this particular practicum, the students were to record their findings on a blank piece of paper. Due to the fact that the blank piece of paper did not offer any guidance or instruction for specific documentation from the students, many did not record their findings. Suppling a more guided worksheet might help students record their findings, in turn helping them learn and recognize the points of the lesson, and help us, as instructors, better assess the students complete understanding of the practicums lessons

Facilitating the class discussion was a new and unique opportunity. While every week we read each of our classmates’ discussion board posts and reply to many of the posts, leading the class discussion required a deeper level of analysis by asking more questions and providing more facts in order to create a further discussion and engaging our classmates in this. Organization and attention are required to lead a discussion, plus as described by Laurie and Courtenay on their reflection, it requires to fully comprehend the literature and lectures for the week, as well as encourages and requires the student’s leading the discussion to expand their knowledge beyond the information provided.

The lesson was effective and showed student learning by seeing their responses. The students’ ability was measured by the questions they answered correctly. It showed the students learned the content circle time taught. After circle time, all of the students left and another student arrived. He was given some free time. Another boy arrived a little after and I worked with him to create a giant fire truck puzzle. I used this time to get to know the boy better and work on some speech with him. When the students came back from encore, Miss. H had them complete a Johnny Appleseed worksheet. I walked around and discussed apple facts. It was neat seeing what each of the students had to contribute. Miss. H and I utilized questioning and discussion techniques (Domain 3B) to assist the students in higher order thinking processes. The class then split into two groups, where they worked on vocabulary and grouping vocabulary. Upon completing groups, the students went to homeroom for social studies. The students then had lunch and recess. Mr. Altman, the assistant teacher, had everyone sit down after recess. He read to them a chapter from Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

There were two things that I was highly pleased with in regard to my second lesson. I showed a short video at the beginning of the class, it was a funny song about regrouping. All of the kids started laughing and dancing, even my host teacher started laughing. I loved seeing the students be engaged and enjoy the short song. It was easy for me to talk about the objective of the lesson after this song because the students were already engaged and the song related directly to the objective. The other aspect of the lesson that I was very pleased with was when I had individual students come up to the board to solve problems and then I would ask the other students if they agreed or understood. When I asked them, I had them either put a their hand on their head or their finger on their nose. The students seemed to enjoy this as well as it was a visual way for me to see who understood and who did not.

Today was our first lesson. I was amazed by the idea that homework does not necessarily needed. I am very curious how we can teach without it. How will the parents respond to this idea? In addition, it seems that it is important for children to understand that there are consequences for their choices. This way they will learn to make the right choices. As their teachers, we have the responsibility not only to give them knowledge, but also to give them tools for life.

I can say with a high degree of confidence that AP Upper-Mid English has been unlike any other English course that I have taken during my academic career. Put plainly, the material and in-class instruction of the class is revelatory in every sense of the term, and, overall, the organization and matter of the course was exceptional. In terms of the organization of the course as a whole, I believe that the English Department was able to successfully distill all of the dominant aspects of learning that an English class epitomizes into the relatively short period of time that school is in session. In my experience, I have found the class to be organized and structured competently. The schedule, curriculum, and writing assignments were easy to understand and I felt as though I exited the classroom every class feeling as if I accomplished what I had to for that day and I had a definite grip on what to expect for the next class. That being said, I think it is also imperative for me to mention that the course was not overly constricting or overly-structured either -- the schedule had enough malleability to accommodate for impromptu activities. For instance, when Bob Levy, an acclaimed journalist for the Washington Post, visited Taft, our class used our period to have a invigorating conversation with him about the future of Internet Privacy, a conversation that I think was instructive and, in all likelihood, prepared me for the AP Exam just as much as the traditional class that we

Teaching can be a challenge, you never know what to expect and each classroom will be unique. However, you will always have to be prepare for teaching in a situation you may not be comfertable with. Educating students and practicing proper knowledge on subjects such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability are vital in creating a safe and respectful classroom for all. School is often looked upon as a place of security for students and it is our job as teachers to help maintain that status.