Teachlive Reflection

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.

For the TeachLive conference I received scenario #1. The goal of the experience was for Ms. Mcgowan to be aware that her son received a detention due to rude behavior and attitude and to schedule a date and time for him to serve the detention. This did not take place. I did not bring up the detention nor did we schedule a date and time for the detention. What worked in the conference is I showed concern for Sean. What did not work was I allowed Ms. McGowan to deter me from focusing on Sean because of defending my teachers by assuring her that I would look into her concern of Sean being humiliated. I also interrupted Ms. Mcgowan to deter her rampage about Mr. Ferguson from escalating and focus our conference back to Sean.

For my unit 4 Live Presentation, I chose a topic dear to my heart and something that I take a very high interest in. In this reflective essay, I will be sharing with you my experiences in a behind the scenes look of my presentation. I will explain my process of preparation including how I picked my topic, the purpose, resources and my outline. I will also be sharing the creation of my visuals; what software I used and how my presentation looked. As well as, how I felt in the actual live recording of my presentation. During this analyzation, I too will be showing myself areas I need to improve in.

‘Reflective teaching should be personally fulfilling for teachers, but also lead to a steady increase in the quality of the education provided for children.’ Pollard (2008, P.4) Here Pollard is suggesting that reflecting on our own teaching experiences is not only important for the standard of education we provide, but also for our own benefit as it can be rewarding and very worthwhile to reflect on our practices. By reflecting on my own practices in SE1, it will enable opportunities to analyse strengths and weakness and how to improve for future practice, which will allow me to develop more as both a reflective and a professional teacher. This idea of reflection stems from Dewey’s (1910) cited in McGregor and Cartwright (2011) ideas where he suggests that there are three attributes which enables us to be reflective, them being ‘open-mindedness’, ‘wholeheartedness’ and ‘responsibility’. By taking responsibility for our own teaching and reflecting upon our actions, it allows us to be open-minded about changing and adapting to new ideas from what we have concluded from our reflections, which then allows us to fully engage with these new thoughts.

On the morning on September 29th, 2017, uncertainty, anxiety, and excitement were three of the best words to portray my emotions. I was uncertain of what my role within the classroom would be and how the students would receive my presence; I was anxious to commence this new experience and put my classroom knowledge to the test to further my education; But, most of all, I was excited to meet the students that would ultimately begin my long career in making a difference in kids’ lives through education.

Today at my placement, I noticed a different kind of interaction my teacher was having with his students. Instead of focusing on academics or connecting with the student, the teacher was trying to monitor the language, attitudes, and dialogue that happened in the classroom space. The interaction happened before the first period started. There was a student at the teacher's desk getting help with an essay and two other students talking a few feet away. One of the students who was talking made a comment that one of his female African American teachers was horrible because she did not know how to teach or speak. Though the student did not directly say the teacher did not know to teach or speak, the emphasis he placed on the teachers race and the explanation, “she does not speak well but I guess she cannot help that”, made it clear that he meant that the problem was because she was female and African American. My cooperating teacher upon hearing the comment stopped helping the student he was with and turned to the student calling him out saying that the student was being, “Racist, sexist, and a jerk”. They had a brief discussion about how what the student said was inappropriate and that he should try talking to this teacher if he needs help. Overall, the incident was not that intense with the student simply walking away afterward and it ended quickly, but it made me realize this was the first time I had seen a teacher address a student who was looking down on a specific group of

Being a teacher, I want to ensure that my students know that even though we may have different back grounds and be different from others that we will all love and respect one another. I worked at a school once and they had things labeled throughout the whole school. Like for Bathroom they school had it labeled bathroom and Bano. Taking this Idea, I will use it for my classroom and label everything in both the English language and whatever language the child speaks.

I came into this class having lived in a developing country for most of my life. In India, I had worked with organizations that that were both for-profit and non-profit. Some stated their social impact focus, while others did not. Even fewer could actually substantiate their claims, and in the the midst of it all, impact measurement was almost an afterthought.

During my internship experience in my school, I had the opportunity of seating in a pre-conference and a post-conference with a new educator who was being formally evaluated. The steps that I took for the observation, reflection, and the sharing of the findings with the teacher are almost identical to what I experienced in my school. However, the evaluation process differs from teachers who are new to the system from those who have been teaching there for years. There is no feedback or expectation for growth for veteran teachers.

With the new requirements of this lesson in adding a focal point in the arts, I feared this would produce a challenge for my host teacher’s students. She had warned me on their lack of ability to deal with change as a group. In trying to balance time for an art piece, my plans were to add a small group activity and make a page of their portfolio apart of the assessment. I believe most of the students understood the lesson, but many only seemed to understand parts of the directions alone, and I think that inhibited their quality of work for the pretest, post test, and activity.

After reviewing my selected article, taking notes and reviewing my old notes, the author's goal has remained consistent. I noticed that although the author gives brief accounts of what his peers experienced, the main focus is to emphasize how his experience is a big part of the reading. The author's use of words like "I", "I'm", and "I've", place further emphasis on his main goal of getting the reader to recognize his main ideas. Throughout the article, the author also provides the reader with distinct dialogue between the teacher, his classmates, and himself. While reading, I noticed that the author points out how the teacher seemingly spares no expense of being strict on any students, with the author stating that she "belittled" anyone, regardless of their background. However, the author personalized the article by explaining how the teacher would use his work as examples in the classroom.

“During our last lesson we learned about how the built environment affects health. Today we will continue to learn about health disparities and what you can do to advocate for a solution to a health issue in Washington, DC.”

To truly reflect on one’s own teaching, to collect information on what you do in the

As I was reading “The Lesson” there was nothing that hit me to the core or something that really stood out to the point where I was in disbelief. Something that came close to it was probably the fact that Harper and Thanh left to a an island for the wedding of a friend when their baby from a surrogate could possibly come at any moment. This was a little surprising because it felt like they weren’t too excited about their baby that they are expecting even though they are paying for it, so it was surprising that they left. It is like paying for college, but not going to class. If I was in their shoes, I would not go anywhere, I just wouldn’t be able to do that, I would be too excited and anxious waiting for my son. Then the fact that the

I thought that the mother of Chante made this presentation very beneficial. She was unique and helpful because she was honest. I grew up not having much experience with disabilities as well. So, I could imagine how uneasy it must have felt to learn that your child has a disability. I really enjoyed how honest she was, she admitted that at first, she was very angry about it. She did not pretend that everything was okay as a lot of parents probably would have. I also was very interested in her transformation on her views of her daughter that she shared. I thought that it was intriguing how she thought that she would cover up Chante’s disability with a clean face, pretty clothes, and nice hair. But once she actually gave birth to Chante she realized that her priority was not Chante’s appearance. She was more concerned about making sure her child would live throughout the night. Lastly, I enjoyed the fact that she brought up the fact that she was in denial about Chante’s ability. It brought to my attention that as a future teacher, even though it may be easier for me to accept that some children will need alternative classrooms, it may not always be easy for the parent to accept this.