Clinical Practice 1 Reflection
The experience
of a student in my class is a positive one. In my class it is important to
incorporate some comedy throughout the lesson to keep the students focused and
a little entertained throughout the class period. Sometimes this included
making some jokes about a particular topic that we might have been discussing
or perhaps an interesting side comment that might pique some of the interests
of my students. Another topic of entertainment, and one that I was careful to
use, was to focus on a particular comment or action that a student might have
made, with some sarcastic comments directed toward the class as a whole. Also, if there was a particular modern
connection that I could make towards the current content, I would point it out
so that students would be able to possibly develop some personal connections.
Each student was expected to
participate at some point during my CP1, and the students usually had the choice
of volunteering, or if someone had not joined in on a discussion, random
assignment often drew an interesting response from them. I am a supporter of
interactive learning between the students, and any reading assignments for the
class were usually conducted in-class in a group setting, which would then be
expanded upon by discussion questions that the student groups answered together
and then presented to the class as a whole. During these discussions, or during
other times when a student was voicing their opinion, then there was an
expectation of respect between the other students. Usually this was upheld by
the class, but every once in a while I had to enforce the expectations of the
classroom.
Overall, discipline was not too
much of a problem. If a student was disruptive, it usually only took one verbal
warning and they settled down. If there was a group of students that spoke or
acted out of turn regularly, I had no problem moving them to separate seats in
the class. I enforced the management plan of the class that my Co-Teacher and I
had talked about, and on one particular instance I had to write referrals for
two students who had run out of the class several minutes before the bell had
wrung. This was one of the few serious
infringements of the classroom rules. I had developed a positive rapport with
the students in the class. The students knew that they could come to me just as
much as my Co-Teacher in terms of asking for help or in understanding the
content information.
Moving between classes during the
day was a simple affair. My site is on a four by four schedule, so there was
usually and eight or so minute passing period for the students to make it to
their next class. After the first period, the students will have a slightly
longer passing period so that the students could have a nutrition period. The school’s lunch period took place after
the second period, where the students usually spent time in the quad area of
the campus, or maybe spent time in a favorite classroom for club meetings. In terms
of what classes the students took, this often varied compared to a more
traditional school setting because of the four by four schedules. From what I gathered
from the students and teachers, the students would usually have either an
English, history, and maybe 2 electives one semester, then science and math the
next semester, or one humanities and one science or math class together along
with electives.
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Quote from the text/video
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What it means
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Deeper thinking
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“L-Directed aptitudes – the sorts of things measured by the Sat and deployed
by CPAs – are still necessary. But they’re no longer sufficient.” (Pink, 27)
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Measured hard facts and routines, while still important to the
workforce and life decisions, are no longer are as important in today’s
society as they were even ten to twenty years ago. There is a larger growth
in the use of right brain thinking that is necessary to promote a positive
growth in industry and education.
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As Pink explains, the 20th century greatly relied on individuals
who largely relied on their left brain’s skill to develop and build upon
information that the individuals had gathered, and work on it in individual
pieces. Now, with this new age of Conceptualism, there is a greater need of individuals
who can not only look at all of the small pieces, but put them together in a
larger picture that can be worked with.
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“In an age of abundance, appealing only to the rational, logical, and
functional needs is woefully insufficient.” (Pink, 34)
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There are so many options for individuals that have access to them. To
make one choice is to look at a possibility of picking from a dozen or more
possible answers. From this, there is more that must be presented to a potential
buyer or decision maker than just “can it get the job done” because we know
there are so many things out there that can get it done. However, the buyer
is going to be looking at the options in terms of aesthetics – does this
particular option look or feel more appealing to me than any other.
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I see this quote in context of those who do the hiring for different
school districts. When presented with 4 possible candidates for a teaching
position, are they going to pick the teacher who knows how to do the job and
that’s it? Or are they going to pick the candidate who not only knows how to
teach, but can do it with a particular flair that will ensure that the
students are learning, as well as having other skills or qualifications that
have them outshine the other candidates?
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“Employers demand workers who can think critically and solve
problems. As a result, future prosperity will require greater worker
investment in post-secondary education and training. The current U.S.
education and training system offers a variety of ways in which workers can
obtain the skills valued by employers.” (Jobs of the Future, 4)
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With the economy in its current situation, employers are looking for
individuals who have an effective set of skills that becoming more and more
necessary in today’s workforce. They are expecting any new employees to be
able to look at a particular situation, depending on the occupation, and
analyze a particular problem and then be able to solve it with whatever
resources are available to them.
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I feel that there has been a worry about the skills that students
have mastered once they complete high school. With such a strong focus on
standardized testing, there have been concerns that important skills such as
critical analysis and problem solving may have been left behind because of
the focus on test scores. If employers
are looking at a workforce that might not have as much practice with these
skills as previous generations, then there is a growing worry about having
the right person for the job. It shows that the development of important
professional and personal skills in the high school setting must be stepped
up, or we might be putting our students at a disadvantage when they actually
become part of the workforce.
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“…[O]ccupations requiring higher educational attainment are projected
to grow much faster than those with lower
education requirements.” (Jobs of the Future, 15)
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The proportions of industries that require more than a high school
education have been exponentially growing over the last several decades. This
means that high school students have to be educated as well as encouraged to
be able to go on to post-secondary educational settings so that they could
find a place in this growing job market. The market for jobs just requiring a
high school education are not growing nearly as fast, so it pushes the
workforce to try and develop themselves so that they could try and enter te
post-secondary education job market.
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We, as educators, have to push our students to do than what is just
expected of them to pass. We have to not only teach them important information;
we also have to help them develop important personal and professional skills
that could help them in a post-secondary educational setting. By helping them
to learn these skills, then the students will have more courage and self-confidence
to push them to attend college or vocational school sites. We need to push
our students to excel so that they can find a place for themselves in an
economy that requiring a higher base level of education.
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Journal 3
I feel
that I am pretty aware of the needs of my students in the 21st
century. I am not that old, and fairly recently graduated from college, so I feel
that the disconnect between myself and my students right now is pretty small. I
understand that there are multiple levels of needs for my students right now. In
terms of environment, I know that my students need a location where they feel
safe in order to learn effectively. They also need plenty of time for social
development. While this does not mean they get to talk all they want in my
class, I do want them to the have the opportunity for them to discuss with
their peers the academic information that they are learning so that they can
increase their communication abilities. Another important need for the students
is the time to develop important life skills that will be handy outside of the
classroom. These skills include being able to critically analyze, problem
solve, paraphrasing information, and being able to communicate effectively with
their peers.
In terms
of gaps between myself and my students, I feel that the obvious one would be comprehension
of the material. For many of the students, this is their first time learning
this information, so I would have to understand that they might not know
everything about the topic, even though I might assign them something to learn
about it. It is also important to realize that they might not have the same
skill levels as I did when I was a high school student. I read a lot when I was
younger, so I could go through any in-class or homework reading and be able to
deal with any worksheets pretty easily, but I have to remember that many of my
students might not have that same level of reading comprehension for whatever
particular reason.
I also
have to remember that I went through college, and developed the important
annotation and paraphrasing skills when it came to taking notes, so I have to
remember that when I develop lectures or powerpoints. I have to make it clear
what bit of information it is that I want my students to focus on, so I cannot
just give them a slide filled with words and expect them to pull out the big
idea unless I help them do it. I also have to be careful about relying on
students to draw the same conclusions that I expect them to, and that they
might need a little coaching along when it comes to helping them to develop
their own ideas.
Access to
technology is another area that I might have to be conscious of when I make
assignments or activities for the students to complete on their own. If I am
working at a school in a lower SES community, I have to be aware that there
might be students whose families might not have access to pieces of technology
or be able to have the time to create really in-depth projects because of needs
at the home. That is one thing that I would really like to be aware of in terms
of my students: how much free time do they actually have after school? If there
are major, unavoidable impediments to being able to complete work at home, then
I have to ensure that those students are not let behind in the class. I did not
have a job during high school or had a lot of family that needed my help, so do
not have too much experience with that, but I did have friends who had these
situations and often found getting homework done a struggle.
Academic Philosophy and Practice Paper
Introduction
Through my experiences so far as a Teacher Candidate,
I have already seen that there are many different styles of teaching. Right now
my personal objective through all of the observations that I have made is to
pick and choose all of the positive, effective aspects of what makes a ‘good’
teacher. At my first CP site, Canyon Crest Academy, I was able to see many
different teaching styles that focused more on student-focused activities and
learning, since classroom management was not too large of a factor for many of
the teachers that I observed. My second CP site, Orange Glen, has already
provided me with several different forms of classroom management as well as
other strategies for the classroom. However, I have seen so many different
examples, positive and negative, of different teaching styles, classroom
management, learning environments, and creating an atmosphere for learning and
development for the students. By writing this paper, I hope to collect some of
the best practices that I have seen so far and further develop my own personal
philosophy on education and how I will present this teaching style and the
content to my students in and out of the classroom.
Physical, Social, and Emotional Factors for the Students
The classroom has been, and I feel always will be, a
location where students not only develop academically, but also in diverse ways
based on their physical, social and emotional needs. I want to teach in the
high school level, so obviously this is a very important, and some might say
traumatic, period in the life of a teenager, where many changes are going on
not only in their bodies but also their minds. The physical changes that students
are going through at this time are as wide and varied as the students
themselves. They are just coming into the beginnings of adulthood, with changes
being wrought throughout their bodies. This can cause quite a bit of confusion
for the student, and sometimes they might get lost. While it might not be my
exact job to be educating them on physical development, I can still provide
them with some calming words and pieces of advice that might keep them from
driving themselves crazy! I would want to reassure them that what they are
going through, while it might not be as specific to the individual, has been
experienced by every single adult they have met, and that their friends are
going through it as well. I also understand that the students have a great deal
of energy during this time in their lives, and I want to utilize this. Instead
of having the students sitting still in their desks, I would have them move
about the classroom, rotating through different learning groups. I would also
have them perform different role-playing activities, so that they could be able
to move around the classroom as well as being academically involved.
In terms of social development for our students, I do
not want to even remember some of the events and issues that I went through as
a student in high school, let alone how those situations might be exacerbated
by modern social networking. However, no matter how hard a teacher might try to
keep their students’ social lives out of the classroom; it is going to happen
no matter what. What I would want to do is to turn these moments into
opportunities for personal development and education. I want my students to be social in the
classroom, however, I want to place in the context of academic learning and
important skill development. As Daniel Pink has focused on in A Whole New Mind, there is a major
growth in employers wanting prospective employees in having strong analytical
and problem solving skills (2005). As an example of this cooperative learning
and skill development, I would have the students work together in the class and
develop their academic vocabulary. I usually accomplished this through having
the students work together to complete readings from the textbook or from a
document. Once they have completed the reading, I would have several discussion
questions based on the readings that the students would then answer in small
groups. Once the small groups have finished speaking, I would then have the
class come together and we would talk about what they learned as a whole. I
found that this greatly improved the students’ comprehension of the
information, and they would perform better on any following assessments. The
students develop their academic vocabulary while at the same time be able to
critically analyze the text for information. By having students work in this
context and similar activities, I feel that I am helping them to develop
important skills that will help the students be better prepared for the
workforce that they will be joining soon after graduating.
The emotional development of students in the
classroom is especially important during this period of their lives, and I feel
that it is my duty to help them develop personal self-confidence and a sense of
security. One of the larger projects that my students had to complete last
semester incorporated research, creativity, and a presentation in front of the
classroom. While the research and creative portion of the assignment was not a
problem for most of my students, I knew from discussions and observations that
I had with several of them showed that they did not feel too comfortable with
speaking in front of the class. To help them prepare themselves, and to develop
a sense of self-confidence, I had the students give portions of their
presentations in small groups of their peers. This helped many of the students
not only prepare how they were going to present their information, but also
helped them with feeling nervous about standing in front of the classroom. It
is also important to realize that this period of a student’s life is fraught
with insecurities and worries about a feeling of safety. I understand the need
for the students to feel that they are in a safe location in my classroom. If
the students do not feel safe, how do I expect them to be able to concentrate
about learning when they are more focused on whether they might be attacked for
some personal reason by other students? I want it be made clear that my class
is a safe location where the students know that respect will an important
factor. Through this, I want my students to know that they can be who they
choose to be, and be able to focus on their learning.
Learning Environment
The location in which the learning takes place, and
the items that fill that space, are a large factor in determining the
effectiveness of teaching. One of the factors that influence learning is the
way that the desks in the class are set up. So far, many of the classes that I
have seen have straight rows of desks, and can limit the mobility of the
teacher in the classroom. While I know that a big factor for this is the number
of students in the classroom, what I would like to have are pods, or maybe
larger tables, where groups of students can easily work together in cooperating
groups. While it might make test-taking a little tricky, I feel there are
plenty of ways of handling this, but the benefits of having the students being
able to easily cooperate on activities would outweigh the negatives. What
objects are on the walls and situated around the class will also have an impact
on the students. While it is important that the room has character, I do not
want to have my walls cluttered with too many things that might distract my
students. Since I would be teaching different history classes, maps,
presidents, and important political and social figures and documents would be
on my walls, as well as academic books that show that this is a place of
learning. I would also make sure to have symbols of unity, all-inclusiveness,
and respect around the classroom, to increase the feeling of safety for the
students and to promote a feeling of being part of a community. I would also
make sure to include items that focus on what it is we have been learning
about. Whether this includes word walls or pieces of work that the students
have completed about the unit, they will be there to help reinforce what the
students have learned and to assist them with retaining the information.
While all of this focuses on the physical aspects of
the classroom, it is also important that I focus on the intangible aspects of a
classroom. While I would like to include items in the classroom that promote
inclusiveness and equitable learning, I also have to model that thinking in my
own actions. Classes are made up of diverse students, and a “teacher must
demonstrate the importance of each member of the classroom community having a
shared purpose to ensure equal access to the information being provided to the
class” (Baldwin, Keating, Bachman, 2006). This means that I as a teacher must
make sure that each student has an equal opportunity to partake in the
learning. There are many ways of ensuring this happens, from different
opportunities for students to participate or be able to present their learning
through different formats. The main focus is that the students understand that
they are all part of a community while in this learning environment.
Expectations
The expectations that I have for my students are
two-fold based on their behavior and their participation in the classroom. The
behavior of the students, and especially the teacher, make up a major portion
of any class, and it is imperative that I hold my students and myself to a
certain standard. The first class day of a new school year will more than
likely be devoted to developing a set of classroom rules that we will all be
held responsible to. While this will be a list of rules and etiquette that we will
develop together, there are several concepts that I will make sure to have on
that list. Greatest of all will be respect. This includes students to teacher,
teacher to students, and student to student. I would make it very clear that
students are to show respect to their peers at all times, whether it is when a
student raises their hand to answer a question to having respect for a student
based on their personal background. Racism, sexism, and prejudice will not be
tolerated in my classroom. This means that I would have to hold the students to
these standards, admonishing them if they interrupt their peers or if they
offend them with a comment or action. It would also mean that I would have to
model this proper behavior myself, and to make sure that I would not make a
comment that might hurt somebody.
Participation would be the next major issue that I
would focus on for my classroom expectations. One major tenet that I would have
would be for every student to participate at least several times throughout
each unit. This will be a valuable expectation to have, since it will help me
to see which students can demonstrate an understanding of the material that we
have been covering, as well as give the students a chance to practice using the
information that we have covered. How they participate might take different
forms, such as raising their hands to answer questions in a class discussion to
actively participating in group projects that I might assign. If I see a
student not taking an active role in one of these situations, then I will
ensure that they begin to so. While this might not end up with me calling them
out, I would try to give them an opportunity to prepare themselves, such as
telling a student that I will come back to them at a later point in the class
and ask them a question. This ensures that the student can prepare themselves
to participate without being put too much on the spot. During CPI, I often
employed this technique with a particular group of students. They understood
the information that they were covering, it is just that they did not feel
compelled to participate. I would ask them to answer a discussion question, and
if they did not want to answer at the moment, I would tell them that they
either could ask a peer or would inform them that I would come back to them
later in the class and that they would have to participate.
These two main expectations, respect and
participation, would also be maintained when they are outside of my classroom.
I want to help my students to develop a personality of respect that goes beyond
the walls of the classroom and be something that they can take with them out
into their community. Once they graduate high school, I want my students to be
respectable individuals who have a positive role and impact on society, and
that they would model what positive action and thought to their peers. In terms
of participation outside of the classroom, I expect my students to complete
whatever assignments that are given to them. There is only so much time in each
day for the class, and I want to utilize it as best as possible. Sometimes this
might mean I will have them finish assignments or readings at home, and my
expectation would be that they finish them in a timely manner so that they
could contribute to the next class.
Classroom Management
As a beginning teacher, classroom management is
probably the biggest topic that I will be struggling with during my first few
years. Because of the time frame of starting observations and student teaching,
I have not had too much of an opportunity to see what the first couple of days
in a classroom look like or the experiences that a teacher might have in that
time period. However, I have been able to find that issues with classroom
management can “be traced to a clash between the teacher assuming a more
traditional authoritarian role and the students wanting to be able to control
some aspect of their role in the classroom” (Baldwin, Keating, Bachman, 2006).
It is during this initial period of the class that it is paramount the teacher
asserts themselves with a set of classroom rule and expectations that he will
hold the students and their self to. As I stated in my expectations section,
respect and participation will play a large role in my style of classroom
management. However, there will be some basic, but very important facets of
management that I will use to make sure that the class periods run smoothly.
One
aspect of this will be to follow my school’s disciplinary plan. Most notably, I
will probably try and handle as many issues in-house as possible. The use of
verbal warnings for the first and second infractions of the class rules, along
with a risk of a call home on the second warning, will usually be enough to
handle minor issues. If the student continues to be disruptive, then I will
contact the parents of the student, and document the infraction for later use
if necessary. If the student is constantly tardy or absent, then an assignment
of a Saturday school or after-school detention will be appropriate. In the case
of constant disruptions, volatile situations, or major infractions of school or
class rules, then I will write a referral for the student. This will be a
last-choice option, as I would like to keep the issues between myself and the
student, but if they are constantly disruptive or could endanger my students,
then I will take the harsher measure. My greatest goal in terms of classroom
management would be to have the students so invested in their class community
that they would uphold the rules without me having to get involved. There were
several times when this occurred last semester, where the students would quiet
their peers or get them refocused without me intervening.
In
terms of strategies that I have observed and employed, I feel that sometimes
all that is needed is silence. In one occurrence last semester, I was in the
middle of a lecture when two students were talking amongst themselves and not
paying attention. I simply stopped talking and stared at the students. Very
quickly the rest of the class caught on, as well as the two students, and they
focused pretty quickly. I know that this will not work in every situation, and
there have been times when I have called an offending student by name and asked
them to please focus. In another instance, it was obvious that two students
were not going to focus if they remained next to each other, so I simply had
one of them swap desks to another area of the classroom. Probably the harshest
measure I had to do during CPI was to write referrals for two students. This
was not my normal class, but I had been in the class many times to help out
since it was directly after my main class. My Cooperating Teaching was out for
the day and there was a substitute present. Before the bell rang for the class
to be over, two students who had a history of infractions left the class early
as students were packed up for the end and standing near the door. I saw people
step out of the classroom, and so did a quick attendance check to see who had
left, as well as confirming it with students by the door. I made a note of it
one the sub’s class report, and when we next met my Co-Teacher told me that I
would be writing referrals for them. My Co-Teacher backed me up through the
whole process, and it was an important learning experience for me in terms of
management. The greatest strategy that I
know for classroom management, however, is if all the students respect each
other and uphold each other to the rules, then there are few times when I as
the teacher would need to intervene.
Meeting the Needs of All Students
Besides
being able to teach the content of class to the students, meeting their
particular educational needs is probably the second most valuable aspect of
being an educator. If I am not able to provide the material in such a way that
the students are able to comprehend it, how can I expect them to be able to
demonstrate mastery of the material? One important aspect of teaching my
students is my cultural understanding of their backgrounds. As a teacher, I
must appreciate “how [my students develop] their own cultural competence, their
own understanding of how they perceive and interact with the world, and, most
importantly, their own actions in the classroom” (Keating, Baldwin, Bachman,
2006). By doing this, and appreciating my students as they go through this
developmental process, I can build a better rapport with them. With this
rapport, I can better develop a working relationship with them, and hopefully
this will enable the students to open up with me and let me know what issues
they might have. I can then use this information to better develop my teaching
for the class and help them with their educational issues.
Besides
building a cultural perspective and personable relationship with the students,
there might be specific educational or developmental concerns that I should be
made aware of to assist my instruction. This is mostly focused on students who
might have a 504, IEP, be identified as an English Language Learner, or might
be gifted. In these cases, there are many strategies and resources available to
me that can ensure that I properly instruct them. For students with a 504, I
will have the results of the SST meeting, which I will be sure to have
attended, to help me plan accordingly to ensure the success of the student. For
students designated as having a disability, I will have access to their IEP and
the Special Education/Academic Support staff to assist me in properly planning
effective differentiation strategies for the students. In example, one student
I had last semester was diagnosed with OCD. Some of the differentiation
strategies that were developed for the student included writing only in pen
since he would often erase his work and restart, limiting his ability to
complete in-class assignments on time, preferential seating near the front of
the classroom to limit distractions, extra time for assessments, as well as
being enrolled in an Academic Support class with Special Educational
instructors. By implementing the differentiation strategies developed in the
student’s IEP and by cooperating with the Academic Support staff, the student
was much more successful in the classroom.
Another
important group to focus on for meeting the needs of students is the English
Language Learners. At my CPI site, there were not many ELLs, so I did not have
too much experience with working with that particular group. My CPII site,
however, has a very large identified ELL population, and I look forward to
applying all that I have learned about SIOP and SDAIE strategies to help my
students learn. Currently I have many ELL students in my three history classes,
ranging from Intermediate to Advanced based on their CELDT scores. For the
coming semester, I am already planning on using many of the strategies that I
have learned in class and from speaking to the ELD staff. These activities
include group readings, read alouds in class, quick writes, and word banks. I
will also work with the school’s ELD staff and coordinate with them in
developing language development lessons.
Journal Response 5
Looking back
at my teaching from last semester, there are several needs that I observed
about my students, some of which surprised me. Some of the needs that I was not
too surprised about was the students' want for as much social time as possible.
Obviously, there was only so much of this that I could allow without it
negatively impacting the class. However, I tried to incorporate multiple
opportunities for the students to work with each other, but in an academic
framework. I had the students complete readings for the class in small groups,
which then had a discussion question component where the students could develop
their academic vocabulary and be able to describe the information in relative
terms. Once these small groups were completed, we then would come together as
class and discuss them as a whole group. I also understood the needs of my
students to not just have the information presented to them, such as in a
lecture, as this would only serve one style of learning. There were different
activities that also focused on the visual, verbal, and psycho-motor styles of
learning. One of the needs that surprised me was an issue of hunger for several
students in my class. My first school site is what one might call a 'wealthy'
school, and I believed that almost all of the students would not have to worry
about. However, I learned that there were several students who, because of the
work schedules of their parents, did not usually have time to eat breakfast in
the morning. I would often bring a small box of Cliff Bars with me to school,
to ensure that they at least had something in their stomachs at the beginning
of the day. I was also surprised at the constant need that the students had
about being able to have access to their grades as soon as possible. I soon
learned that this was a major focus for many of the students, and especially
the parents, to be able to check their updated grades as soon as an assignment
was completed.
I feel that
I understood the needs of my students from my first site fairly well. A large
part of this was due to the fact that I honestly did not graduate from high
school all that long ago compared to the teachers that I was working with. I
understand the social and emotional components of that age pretty well. I also
think that this is partly due to the fact that they are still needs that I want
met even to this day.
Probably the
largest negative response I had from teaching had to do with the hunger of my
students. I do not want to sound naive, as I understand that there are many
different situations for students and their families, but I understand that it
would be almost impossible to get a student who is hungry to be able to focus
on their studies. It really gets to me that there are students out there who,
because of the events of their lives, are coming to their schools with nothing
in their stomachs. How is a student supposed to learn if their stomach is
rumbling in class and all that they are thinking about is food?! I have felt
hungry in classes before, especially if it was the class before lunch, and I
would have trouble just paying attention to the teacher. And this is when I
actually had breakfast in the morning. I do not know what it feels like to go
possibly a whole day without a meal, but I can imagine that there would be
little else on their mind except when the next time they might eat would be. I
know that there are programs out there to help students with free/reduced
lunch, but even then there are students unable to take advantage of these
programs because of extenuating circumstances.
I will
start off with saying that my experience this semester was very different from
the last. Overall, it was a very positive one. It was interesting that, when I preparing
to leave my school site last semester, that I received some comments from my
Co-Teacher as well as other teachers that I would have a very different experience
at my current site. Some of them were not exactly positive, but I knew that I would
only make those calls for myself once I started going to Orange Glen.
I have learned some great teaching techniques, with examples form classroom management, to teaching strategies, to different styles of activities that I will include in my future teaching. Probably the area that I needed the most experience in was the classroom management, since last semester I did not have to worry so much about it. Now, in this semester, I have developed my own system for discipline and control for the class. A lot of this is based on the rapport that I have been able to develop with the students in my different classes. For the most part, just a quick word with an offending student takes care of most situations. However, there have been several events that have required me to be more forceful, and in a few cases actually write up a referral for several students.
Another area of experience that I have developed is in working around a testing schedule. This is definitely something that I didn’t have to worry about last semester. Leading up to the CSTs, there were several moments where I had to cut down what would be full length units into smaller, several day activities. This was done in the hopes that my students would receive a broad base of information that would at least prepare them for taking the exams. This has had another effect in planning instruction for after the CST. I have taken this time as an opportunity to develop smaller projects-based learning for my students. They learn the content while it is being presented in projects that have the students using learning to increase their analytical skills.
This semester, I have also had a greater sense of activity in working with teachers on the administrative side of education. This has included attending more staff meetings that have the teachers developing their Professional Learning Communities, as well as interactions with the administration of the school. Bringing in my experiences from last semester as well as this one, I felt that I was able to add my opinion to several of these meetings, and the teachers were happy to receive a fresh perspective from outside of the current community.
I am looking forward to the last weeks of CPII by trying to make them entertaining for my students as well as to increase my experience and resources. I am also looking forward to the months following the program and the job searching that will occur. I plan on asking my Co-Teachers for their opinions on both interviews and the initial period of teaching for when I get hired.
CPII Reflection
I have learned some great teaching techniques, with examples form classroom management, to teaching strategies, to different styles of activities that I will include in my future teaching. Probably the area that I needed the most experience in was the classroom management, since last semester I did not have to worry so much about it. Now, in this semester, I have developed my own system for discipline and control for the class. A lot of this is based on the rapport that I have been able to develop with the students in my different classes. For the most part, just a quick word with an offending student takes care of most situations. However, there have been several events that have required me to be more forceful, and in a few cases actually write up a referral for several students.
Another area of experience that I have developed is in working around a testing schedule. This is definitely something that I didn’t have to worry about last semester. Leading up to the CSTs, there were several moments where I had to cut down what would be full length units into smaller, several day activities. This was done in the hopes that my students would receive a broad base of information that would at least prepare them for taking the exams. This has had another effect in planning instruction for after the CST. I have taken this time as an opportunity to develop smaller projects-based learning for my students. They learn the content while it is being presented in projects that have the students using learning to increase their analytical skills.
This semester, I have also had a greater sense of activity in working with teachers on the administrative side of education. This has included attending more staff meetings that have the teachers developing their Professional Learning Communities, as well as interactions with the administration of the school. Bringing in my experiences from last semester as well as this one, I felt that I was able to add my opinion to several of these meetings, and the teachers were happy to receive a fresh perspective from outside of the current community.
I am looking forward to the last weeks of CPII by trying to make them entertaining for my students as well as to increase my experience and resources. I am also looking forward to the months following the program and the job searching that will occur. I plan on asking my Co-Teachers for their opinions on both interviews and the initial period of teaching for when I get hired.
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