Teacher Reflection Paper

There are many different types of attachments that I have observed in the Magnolia classroom. Some are attachments to the children’s personal belongings and others are attachments to people, such as the teachers. Growing out of these attachments is good for the children’s social-emotional development.

The information gained during this assignment was insightful, and the information will be useful in my future classroom. When conducting my teacher interviews both of the teachers spoke of how crucial it is for new teachers to understand the importance of pre-assessing students and the importance of continued assessment of students throughout the year. According to the answers from the teacher interviews, the data collected throughout the assessment process is the best way for teachers to determine how to group students. For example, Miss. Phillips states, “When analyzing data for say my kindergarten reading group I may group students based on who has one to one, comprehension, fluency, high-frequency words, and meaning when reading.” On the other hand for math Miss. Phillips states, “…I generally use my standards and then group based on abilities of one-to-one counting, number recognition, numeral writing, addition/subtraction, etc. I use assessments to analyze the data and even regroup students as I need to for both math and reading.” Furthermore, when Mrs. Haynes was asked the same question she responded with, “Having heterogeneous groups for math and literacy workstations is very beneficial. Students are able to model and demonstrate work for other students. This allows students to potentially work independently, while teachers pull small groups (for guided reading, guided math and guided writing).”

The instructional setting I work within is set in a rural community, northeast of Indianapolis, IN. This community is made up of mostly farmers and factory workers, so the majority of the students are in the “free and reduced” system for tuition and lunches.

Throughout the courses of ELED 4311 and ELED 4312, my knowledge of science had definitely changed in a positive way from the beginning of the course up until now. With the help and guidance from Dr. Wong, Professor Gokus, and Professor Donze, I was exposed to a variety of activities that I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Not only will I be teaching science, but I can also collaborate it with other subjects such as math, reading, writing, and social studies.

An affluent stable community in the middle of southwest Minneapolis surrounds the students at Southwest High school. The school promotes community and cultural reflection across all classes. In observing a teacher in this school I found they are very passionate for the multicultural curriculum as well as offering many opportunities for students to use critical thinking across all subjects.

Over the years, I have worked closely with children in various settings from babysitting to the actual classroom, and each time I gain new understanding of children which has allowed me to grow more patient about their behavior. Additionally, I must add that most of the children I have worked with have all come from low Socioeconomic status families which has been proven to be the cause of major behavioral issues. The way I have witnessed the behavior of these children be managed varies between each of the locations. Some teachers and caretakers are quite harsh in their discipline while others are much too passive. In essence, as learned in the Environment and Programs as well as the Discipline and Limits unit, there are several key elements that determine the behavior of children in the classroom. As it relates to Preston Taylor Ministries, behavior management is sometimes ineffective especially when dealing with certain children; however, for the most part, I believe this center handles behavior in an efficient manner.

Nick is a high school senior who spends the majority of his time preparing for tests. He plans to attend college at Ball State University. Nick believes that he will be successful with handling money when he moves out of his parents’ house because he just received a 100% on his math test. Throughout the last few months of high school, Nick’s teacher attempts to prepare him for the transformation from high school to college. His teacher informs him that studying for tests within high school may not have prepared him to face the physical world. Specifically, she informs Nick that studying in high school may be different or more difficult to handle due to specific situations that deal with money throughout life (Handling taxes, bank accounts, work, etc.). What type of learning is Nick’s teacher emphasizing?

On October 31, 2017, I observed at P.S. 45 and was truly bewitched by the entire experience (and not just because it was Halloween!). Antecedent to this observation, I first met class 3-213 the week prior, when they had a substitute teacher. In contrast to their roaring and uncontrollable performance at that time, one could clearly distinguish their significant change in behavior with Mrs. Diaz in the room. Mrs. Diaz is able to control the class with just the sound of her voice or snap of her fingers. It was exhilarating to see how well-behaved and attentive the children were to her. Additionally, my cooperating teacher was extremely helpful and even thoroughly explained to me her methods on classroom management. Mrs. Diaz informed me that she is rather stern with the children and continuously uses positive reinforcement throughout the day. Due to their drastic change in behavior and return to normalcy, I was able to witness Mrs Diaz us key instructional strategies and techniques.

To begin the Faculty assignment I first started by trying to email professors using the faculty information document provided. Of all the specialties available under the Business degree, management and marketing most interested me. This is due to the fact that I have an ample amount of experience working in restaurants. Often while performing tasks such as endlessly sweeping floors, scraping gum off tables, talking down agitated customers and so on, I found my mind wondering. Aside from thinking about how much I was utterly and wholly adoring my tasks, I thought about what it would be like to run the establishment. I wondered what it would be like to manage others and plotted ways in which I could improve upon my manager’s skills in the area of management. Because of my curiosity for management I really wanted to speak with someone who is knowledgeable in the area. After sending a few emails to multiple instructors and not receiving any reply I decided it was time for a face to face interview.

In the classroom that I am observing my teacher teaches government and econ. On Friday September, 22nd I observed an econ class where the teacher said he was going to use his brother as an example for a credit card debt work sheet that he put up on the projector screen. The sheet used the highest possible interest rate (23%). The teacher than gave the students the formula to calculate how much interest would be paid on a sum of money. In this example the teacher said his brother was fifty five thousand dollars in debt. The teacher then asked the students to find how much interest his brother would have to pay. At this point in the class a few of the students moved quickly to remove their calculator from their backpacks and worked to figure the equation and give the teacher a correct answer. One student who we will name Jane gave the teacher an answer. The teacher then asked the class if they thought Jane had given the correct answer they all nodded their heads in agreement. The teacher then told Jane good job and moved to the next question. Before the teacher could explain the next question a student we will name Rick asked why the interest rate was so high. To which the teacher replied “well Rick in your case when you get you first credit card your interest rate will be close to this amount” to which Rick replied why is that. The teacher then explained how credit worked and that interest rates were based off of your credit and how likely you are to pay back a loan. The

This reflection focuses on ELCC Standard 4.1, due to the fact that I had to collaborate with administration, teachers (regular and special education), board members, facilities, parents, and students in order to develop a topic, plan, and carry out a Parent University. After discussing topics with my mentor, we decided that the topic for this Parent University should be the new PowerSchool Unified Classroom Program. The purpose of getting this new PowerSchool program was to improving the overall educational experience for students and parents by having one program that parents, students, and teachers can use to access grades, attendance, discipline, and teacher websites/homework information. The district transitioned to PowerSchool Unified Classroom as a result of parents and students complaining about having to go to five different sites just to get homework (Moodle, Schoology, etc.). Parents and students can not only view all of these components, but this program also streamlines communication between the school and home. In order for the use of Unified Classroom to actually improve the educational experience, parents need to know how to use the program.

I chose to teach in a first grade class room for my self-observation because I have previously taught in first grade and thought that I would be familiar with the age group. Originally, I anticipated being able to use the curriculum with which I was also familiar. However, I ended up writing my own lesson plan outside of the given curriculum. This action would not be allowed on a normal basis at my school, but was allowed for a special occasion. I plan to organize this paper in a manner following the Emergent Literacy chapter in our text (Tompkins, 57-84) in order to provide structure. Under each heading, I will examine the successes and the failures.

When I arrived at the classroom with my guide teacher, the supervisor was already there. I helped to keep the class in silence in order to greet the students properly, some of the girls were talking and laughing too much and I asked them to be quiet, the three of us greeted the students before starting the class.

1. Since I was in a middle school setting, I was given the opportunity to observe multiple classrooms which a variety of different students. In my first class, I noticed that most, if not all students were African American. The ratio was 22:1, where about 18 of them were boys. The second class I went to, had a ratio of 19:1. The ethnicity in this class was again, mostly African American, with a few Hispanics and Caucasian. The third class represented a ratio of 20:1. The ethnicity was made up of mostly Hispanics, Caucasian, with 1 African American child. My final class ratio was 18:1, where most students were Hispanic and African American.

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