Teacher Reflection

Since my time at Sparks Elementary I have only been able to observe two routines that my mentor teacher has done with the other 3rd grade teacher’s. To start off the morning, Mr.Locklear meets his class in the cafeteria to greet them before the day get’s started. The teachers then instruct the student’s to set their backpack’s in their designated area and take the materials needed for their first rotation of class. When the student’s have set there belonging’s down, the teacher’s line up the students in the middle of the common area, where the student’s will be lead to their special’s classes like Music, P.E and Art. While the student’s part take in special’s, Mr. Locklear takes care of any last minute assignment’s or note’s he need’s before he start’s teaching his first class. He also take’s part in a weekly meeting the 3rd grade teacher’s conduct to go over any announcement’s or strategies. Once the student’s come back from special’s, Mr.Locklear starts off his math lesson with Mrs. Sanchez classroom. As soon as the student’s enter the class, they are instructed to take out their journal’s and engage with what the teacher is teaching for the first 10 minutes of class. In those first few minutes of class Mr. Locklear introduces the topic or objective that the students will be learning and engages them to participate in the examples he places on the permithian board. He then has the student’s break up into group’s to do their daily math station’s. While some student’s do

A third consideration I gained from this course was regarding my beliefs about young students being exposed to issues about of race, privilege, and power. Prior to our class, I did not think it was appropriate for elementary students to discuss, address or explore topics about race, stereotypes, biases, and privilege. However, my feelings have changed because I realized I was underestimating the power young children in the classroom. Wolpert (1998) argues that young children are very much aware of racial differences. The literature on multicultural and cultural responsive (Gay, 2002; Souto-Manning, 2013) elaborate about student voices in the classroom. In fact, it is through this exploration that I recognized how as an educator I could wield the power and privilege. My beliefs that young children could not engage in anti-bias curriculum or racial issues encourage me to ignore suck topics them in the classroom. However, not anymore because I believe there is great positive power in making these conversations visible in my classroom. I plan to engage students in anti-bias conversations because it is through these experiences that “children learn to be proud of themselves and of their families, to respect human differences, to recognize bias, and to speak up for what is right” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 1).

According to Global Game Changers all kids dream of becoming superheros with the power to save their cities from seemingly unstoppable forces of evil. However, they maintain that in today’s society one doesn’t need to run faster than the speeding bullet, have x-ray vision or possess superhuman strength to change the world. “You just need compassion.” (GlobalGameChangers.com) I couldn’t agree more! Any teacher worth his salt understands that this compassion training must begin in the elementary years. (Ideally kids come to school with this training already already begun by parents; realistically, it isn’t always that way.)Compassion along with a solid foundation of basic academic and life skills is the recipe for personal, community and global success. Elementary students are tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, construction workers and even teachers. Our future generations will depend on these very students. This paper will explore how a teacher can make and mold a student into responsible, contributing citizen.

Scenario: I’m teaching a third-grade class of 20 total students. The class consists of the following population:

Question 1. How do you make work more meaningful to your students? What motivators are you currently using with your students? Examine the climate in your classroom. What would you change to make it better?

How were students welcomed when they entered the classroom? How did the teacher generate atmosphere overall? Would you do it differently?

On December 5, 2017, I spent my fifth session with class 3-213. As a prospective student teacher, this day provided me with a plethora of information regarding questioning. For my first few weeks of observation, I focused on the differing forms of instructional planning, assessment, and interdisciplinary instruction. However, this week I listened carefully to the types of questions the teacher asked the students. Mrs. Diaz is truly a remarkable teacher, who carefully plans her questions to execute informal assessments. She uses these questions to measure student performance, while simultaneously stimulating collaborative and encouragement in the classroom. Based on this idea, Mrs. Diaz continuously asks questions throughout the duration

On September 25, 2017, I was unable to participate in class due to an infection. However, I was able to observe and evaluate the others in class. This opportunity allowed myself to view the students’ body alignment, challenges, and the ability of picking up phrases. Not only did I observe the students, but I tried to imagine myself in the space and wonder what would have been difficult for me.

Pa Xiong’s classroom is room 118 and a couple others that she shares. Room 118 is the Special Education (SPED) classroom. In this room she works with seniors. It is supposed to be CP (college prep) time, but they treat it more like a Resource period. This happens because these students need more help in keeping their grades up than they do anything else. There is always a teacher and a para in this room incase a student comes down to the classroom seeking assistance or support they will find it. Ms. Xiong also has a ninth grade resource class. This class takes place in an eighth grade science classroom. During this class I sit down with a different student every week and we work on getting caught up on their benchmarks (online quizzes worth about ten points each) in any subject. She also has a co-taught English Language Arts class.

2) Describe a time when you were on a team that was dysfunctional in some regard. How did you address the situation? (Teamwork)

This term, Nina has made noticeable improvements to stay focused during classroom discussions. Despite her best efforts, Nina still finds it difficult to follow instructions, learn specialist vocabulary, locate and join words together to form meaningful utterances. Furthermore, her language and communication difficulty extend to interactions in collaborative tasks, group work and social situations where she struggles to use social language, such as ‘turn-taking’ and to consider what others say. Due to such communication and interaction difficulties, she requires a lot of support and structured activities to help with her learning.

In the mornings between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:45, I had the opportunity to help out in Ms. Foy’s third grade class at Oak Ridge Elementary School. There is one teacher to 26 students in the class. The students, eight and nine year olds, work on Language Arts when I arrive to the classroom. Later they have snack and math. I take one student at a time to a table to read a fluency card to ask them questions about what they read. I also spend five minutes at a time with them to do subtraction flashcards. The classroom is set up so that every student has their own desk that are all in groups. There are posters on the walls and artwork that the students have made.

At Rolling Green, many areas are used for gym classes now. The temperature recently just rose to the mid-60s. Before the temperature rose, students would participate outside on the schools tennis court, around the baseball diamond, and sometimes the old soccer field. Now, students are participating in the small gym towards the middle of the school building. This helps make it easier for students who didn't dress for the cold weather stay warm. As well as not fully protecting students, but avoiding possibility for children to get sick due to extreme climate change. In this reflection, I will give a brief description of the physical arrangements in the physical education classroom inside. I will then give a description of routines and procedures. Next, I will talk about one of the instructors grouping strategies and activities that stuck out to me the most. Finally, I will speak about one change I would make, and why I would make that change.

This lesson took place at Lawton Elementary, which sits in Oviedo, FL. The second grade class is predominately Caucasian with a few minorities. In the class, there are 11 girls and 7 boys. The class gets along with one another fairly well. I chose this lesson because the topic was aligned with the timeline of the school’s math book and framework. Furthermore, I wanted to try to add art into the math curriculum because there’s a misconception that the arts cannot be integrated into the math curriculum. I liked this lesson because it seemed like a fun way for students to become creative and to visualize a math symbol in a different way. I like that students can view something in multiple perspectives and views.

The first thing you saw when you walked into the classroom was the daily schedule. I started to observe Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 11:00 A.M. There schedule looked like the following. Math From 11:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M, reading from 11:30 A.M. to 12:00 P.M., Recess/Lunch from 12:00 P.M. to 12:55 P.M., Vocabulary from 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M., I/E Time from 2:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M., Relaxation/Free Time from 3:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. Since the children in this class have both learning disabilities or behavioral issues, many tasks were louder than most classrooms. The three teachers did the best they could to keep the energy of the class positive even when children are screaming and crying. They had