Student Reflection

The most important experience that has positively impacted my academic performance is being in AVID for the past 5 years. AVID is an acronym that stands for advancement via individual determination, a college preparatory class that helps prepare you for college, get organized, and set goals. I have been enrolled in AVID since 8th grade learning how to become a better student, improving study skills and the way I communicate with the students and teachers around me.

The first semester in 9th grade is usually very challenging and difficult to go through for many of us. Taking AVID as a freshman was also a challenging experiment to go through. From taking notes in all core classes, doing weekly reflections (D.L.L.), getting grade checks signed, organizing my binder, turing in all my assignments on time, I felt very overwhelmed at first. During the transition from a middle schooler to a high schooler, I felt pressured, but as I moved continued, I finally got into the habit of doing my work and turning them in on time. In my first semester as a freshman AVID student, I have improved in many different areas. Putting effort and time into the works I have done, I feel very accomplished.

Students grouped heterogeneously for most of the school day, but regrouped according to ability for one or two subjects, can improve achievement in those areas for which they are grouped.

Tracking or ability-based grouping, are these practices helping or hindering our students. According to Lee (2013), they are close cousins. Tracking is “the practice of assigning students at different academic levels to totally different classrooms or curricular programs, such as vocational or college-prep” (Goldstein, 2013, p.1). There is quite a bit of bad history with tracking. In the past when tracking was put into practice within education, it was used to separate students based on race, gender or class. Based on these parameters, students were put into different classes. Some classes focused on academics and others focused on vocational training. In today’s education, the word tracking has fallen to the wayside; however, ability-grouping

According to Gary Hopkins of Education World Magazine, "grouping students as a class by ability for all subjects doesn't improve achievement", however, "grouping

Once students are grouped, they generally stay at that level for their school careers, and the gap between achievement and levels becomes exaggerated over time. The notion that students' achievement levels at any given time will predict their achievement in the future becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Slavin, 1990). Wheelock doesn't dismiss all forms of ability grouping. For example, a group might be set up within a class to help students who are having difficulty with a specific skill, or a group might be formed to "pre-teach" a skill to a group of students who might have difficulty grasping a concept.

As part of the district’s goal to increase student engagement in the classroom, teachers are asked prioritize relationships when handling discipline rather than to use solely punitive measures. To support this initiative, the district has called upon Dr. JoAnn Freiberg from the State Department of Education. For the past two years, Dr. Freiberg has provided training to all administrators and any new teacher entering the district. The idea is to create the capacity amongst staff to use strategies that will allow students to recognize their wrongdoing and think about what they can do differently in future situations. This notion requires a shift in mindset away from simply punishing students every infraction.

This semester, I had the pleasure to serve more than 12 hours with Lacey Spring Elementary School in the Harrisonburg area. Lacey Spring placed me in a math and reading focused curriculum in which I got to work side by side with a third grade student named Josh. Josh was in Mrs. Lowe’s classroom. My first impression walking into the room was a sense of homeliness. Color, pattern, texture, and student work was prominently shown. Additionally, the school had excellent resources, such as laptops, that all students could utilize to further their learning.

Flexible grouping allows the teachers to use a variety of grouping options during the lesson; grouping can guide instruction. Within a flexible group, the following groups can be formed: learning cycle groups, cooperative groups, group investigation, and peer tutoring among others (Ward, 1987, p. 02). Research has proven

The past four years of high school have been full of change, development, and discovery. I have grown into a more conscientious, outgoing, and considerate young women who is now ready to face the next chapter in her life--college. My high school experiences-- challenging classes that have taught me to precisely express my thoughts, extracurricular activities where I am able to expand and express my ideas, and a social action trip in Chicago-- have helped shape my intellectual and personal outlook, creating a strong foundation for my career as a student at La Salle University.

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.

Today was a very interesting day in Mrs. Beach’s classroom. When I arrived, Mrs. Beach asked about how my lesson went last week and began to explain what today was going to look like. Since today was the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break, Mrs. Beach was using the entire school day as a catch-up day. During my entire observation, the students were working on missing assignments. The teacher has a small whiteboard at the front of the classroom with a list of the recent assignments that have been done in class. If students had not completed or turned in these assignments, their number would be written under the title of the assignment, indicating that it was incomplete. Many of these assignments were very simple and were having students practice their math and writing fluency; however, all of the students were working on publishing their Turkey writings. Some students were still in the rough draft stage of the writing process, but the majority of the students were working on their publications. With that being said, it was pretty challenging to help students on these assignments since they mostly involved copying a story or quick recall; therefore, I spent about a hour and fifteen minutes of my time walking around and taking notes about the things that the students were working on. There were a few times where a student had a question and I was able to answer it, but for the most part, many of the students were independent.

Here is a quote taken directly from the teacher’s webpage on the school website that can help get a better feel for the classroom setting I was in: “ I am a Special Education teacher working with students with moderate to severe disabilities in a specialized academic classroom at San Elijo Middle School. Within my program students are taught functional academic skills, communication skills, life skills, social development, vocational skills and skills that will help to enable them to become as independent as possible in their lives. Students in the class participate in a wide variety of experiences at San Elijo Middle School and are a part of the school community.”

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:

My student teaching provided me with was an experience that will best benefit me into my future teaching career.  I had the opportunity to teach in a 1stgrade classroom.  The class started out with 17 students, 5 girls and 12 boys, but one student moved away and the class size dropped to 16 students, leaving the class with 4 girls and 12 boys.  My cooperating teacher and the students accepted me into their classroom and were excited to have another teacher in the room.