The Importance Of Teaching A Past Lesson

This portfolio seeks to critically reflect on my engagement with the Teach First Leadership Development Program (TFLDP) and how the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) offered as part of the program has influenced my current and future classroom practice. The TFLDP is the official title given to the training program that all Teach First participants are expected to complete. The program is two years in duration, throughout which, participants are offered various forms CPD, all of which falls under three broad headings; Leading Self, Leading People and Leading Learning. In this assignment, I will focus on how, in conjunction with Teach First support staff and CPD opportunities, I have addressed two of the three key strands; Leading Learning and Leading people. The first strand I will focus on is Leading Learning. I will describe how I worked with my Leadership Development Officer and Educational Consultant to engage passive learners by introducing cooperative learning into the classroom, I will critically reflect on the progress we made towards the vision I created. Secondly, I will focus on how a session forced me to address the wider issues facing my students outside of the classroom and the work that I have done with the East Midlands Action Network (EMAN) to make progress towards providing Socio-economically disadvantaged children with enriching experiences.

Reflection means if when you are teaching and you notice something wrong you change it straight away, or for the next time. Practitioners should always be self critical of past lessons and picking out on not only the good parts, but also parts of a lesson that didn’t go so well. For example in order for the practitioners to improve in their practice they could prepare a reflective journal, this would help them by reflecting back on what they did in the perivious lesson and if an activity didn’t go so well the practitioner could think of different strategies of improving the activity or planning a different activity, but on the similar topic and also providing different recourses in order to improve the activity. Also practitioners and staff members should not assume that their work place will automatically inform them about new developments, changes and updates which affect their work, practitioners must be prepared to be active in maintaining their own knowledge base and to ensure that their practice is in line with current thinking and new theories. Practitioners could this by incorporating an awareness of the needs to update their knowledge constantly into all of their work and activities by using resources such as the internet, journals, and libraries or other professional development, e.g. training, and to check their awareness of new developments in their work and to work with other professionals e.g. there

In everything we do, even if it is our best performance, there is always room for improvement. It could not be different in a career such as teaching. Teachers are always self-reflecting to analyze and evaluate their own teaching methods in order to find out what works and what needs to improve. With this information in hand, teachers can come up with strategies to improve certain areas of their teaching. There are many tools teachers can use to self-reflect. As a teacher, I will continually evaluate the effects of my professional decisions and actions on students through self-reflective journals, video recordings, students’ formal and informal assessments, peer support, student and parent evaluation, and suggestion box.

The evidence for this task could be presented in the form of a written report or presentation. If a presentation is the form chosen to present the evidence, you must include a witness statement from the assessor/tutor and use the following points as guidelines:

Reflective. Outstanding teachers take time to reflect on their own practice and on student learning, asking themselves questions and really seeking to find the answers. Part of being reflective is using data to inform future teaching, really wrestling with the numbers and information we get from students about their learning so that we can modify our instruction to best suit their needs.

What evidence will you gather at the beginning of the lesson, during the lesson, and/or at the end of the lesson that will show the extent to which the students have made progress toward the academic learning objective(s)? Attach rubric or scoring guide as appropriate.

Change; it’s inevitable. It’s happening all around us at all times of the day, no matter if it is positive or negative. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, change is a significant part of the story line. Grant Wiggins wants nothing more than for things to change. He wants to run away from his job, his hometown Bayonne, Louisiana.

Yet, others consider that casual classroom interaction can also be a great trigger (Koshy, 2010). As a trainee teacher, I would argue that self reflection on our practice seems to primarily underline the difficult lessons and areas for improvement. As such, at this stage, I believe it is best to engage in a project that will inform the grey areas of our practice to support student progress. Yet, evidence informed practice should focus on the learning, without constantly obsessing on the problems. Beyond pupil progress, Koshy underlined a strong link between research from the teachers and improved « learner

In my opinion, implementing reflective practice approach to professional development in order to expand our knowledge is a challenge. This challenge involves teacher’s ability to “reflect on

I learned quickly that being an effective teacher is an art that takes time and devotion. Many times, teachers are not provided with the necessary materials in order to maintain the various learning styles in a classroom. It is up to the teacher to create an environment where students can succeed. This is a full time job, meaning that a teacher’s work is not done once they leave the school. A teacher must contribute a significant amount of time and effort in order to see positive results in the school and in his or her own classroom. After observing my cooperating teacher’s strategies and learning more about the profession, I knew that I was going in the right direction with my life. I took a significant amount of knowledge away from this experience and have continued to strive to be the type of educator that I was blessed to work with during this experience. .

My measurements of success are found in each and every student I teach. One of the most rewarding experiences I have had while student teaching, was watching a child’s face light up at the pivotal moment when they grasp a new concept or master a new skill. In fact, those “aha” moments are my motivators which feed my desire to look for better ways to ensure all students experience those same “aha” moments. As an effective teacher, I am determined and dedicatef to the continual process of researching, implementing, collecting and analyzing data to ensure I am improving upon the curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment used in my classroom. Learning is a never-ending process. The better skilled I become as a teacher, the better the learning experience I can provide for my students. Therefore, the more I actively research, implement, and reflect, the greater the opportunity for giving my students the education they deserve and hopefully, the inspiration to pursue their own lifelong love of learning.

The GTCNI have argued that, “Professional knowledge, by its very nature, is organic and, to an extent, evolutionary, reflecting a synthesis of research, experiences gained and expertise shared” (GTCNI, 2007:10). The GTNCI further reinforces this statement when it states that, “Teaching can never be reduced to a set of discrete skills to be mastered in some mechanical process of assimilation” (GTCNI, 2007:5). Teaching today has moved beyond the outdated view that the most important thing for a teacher was solely to have professional knowledge. Professional knowledge encompasses a range of different forms of knowledge such as knowledge on the curriculum and children and pedagogical knowledge e.g. how to manage a classroom amongst many other forms. Whilst this is still of great importance professional knowledge is of no use if you are not able to adapt this knowledge to meet the ever-changing dynamic situations that you will encounter in the classroom. This essay will examine how reflective practice can be unlisted by teachers to ensure that they are meeting the needs of their pupils as well as

There has been a rapid increase in the ides of critical reflective practice over the last few decades, (Gould, 2004). Before we look at the value and purpose of reflective practice, it is important to take in account ‘reflective practice’ carries multiple meanings from the idea of professionals engaging in self-analysis to that of engaging in critical dialogue with others. For example, with reference to teacher education, Larrivee, (2000) argues that reflective practice is fusing together personal beliefs and values into a professional identity whereby critical reflection can take place without staying trapped in unexamined assumptions and expectations of our professional practice. Therefore, from this, it can be concluded that as a teaching professional, it is important to develop reflections on ones’ professional and pedagogic knowledge to set aspirational goals for a continuing personal and professional development, in other words, it is a way of life.

According to the teachers’ standards (DfE, 2012) “teachers make the education of their learners their first concern, keep their knowledge up to date and are self-critical.” Therefore, this reflection practice will guide me towards the improvement on my lesson planning strategies and delivery. In addition, it will also make an enormous difference in my teaching and learning practice which is vital for teacher training.

When I think about teachers that I have had in the past, several different ones come to my mind. Each of these educators stands out in my mind for a variety of diverse reasons. Whether it is their sense of humor, their tactfulness, their love of the subject matter, their fanatical and sporadic behavior, or their yearning to be childish themselves, I can still remember at least one quality of every teacher I have ever encountered. Every one of these teachers conveyed subject material to their students just as they were educated and employed to do. However, I trust that every professional in the world has an abundance of opportunity for improvement; teachers could discover and improve themselves merely by having