Whitney Mae Brown 1 Teacher Work Sample

Reflection, Self Evaluation & Professional Development

Whole Class The class did well adjusting to change of the student teacher taking over the daily lessons and activities. Behavior discipline was the biggest impact of change during the semester. The class had many behavior dispositions at the beginning of the year. Once I began taking over the classroom, the students began to test their limitations. I reached out to change the behavior problems by putting in place a five step token system. The students were aware of rewards and consequences of losing or gaining a token throughout the day. The students did a great job adjusting and learning how to respect and follow the new behavior system. Behavior distractions decreased daily. By the end of the student teaching experience, the class had less than half of the classroom behavior problems. At the beginning of the semester, I noticed my class was a very active class and needed many hands on activities. I changed my lessons over time to include movement and engagement activities to help the students learn from a kinetic perspective. The kids began to not only learn at a higher level but they also began to enjoy learning and were eager to be involved. For example, I had a lesson planned out that involved the students looking at an array and forming a multiplication sentence. This was not a hard assignment but to encourage engagement from all of the students I changed the lesson into a group project. Tables divided the students into groups. Each group was assigned a spokesman, investigator and reporter. These jobs assignment were assigned just for organization. Each group had to move

around the room and find an array to use. There were many arrays set up over the room. The students enjoyed this activity. They did very well at moving around and investigating they task before them. I am glad I changed the activity into a project because the students were able to investigate and work while moving around. I took advantage of my out going personality and high energy level to engage and motivate my students. I worked hard on making sure the students stayed on task but also enjoyed the lessons. A lot of my lessons involved using the students to model how to do a problem by using the SMARTboard. Also students love to use technology. When writing in class, I would allow the students to write from different perspectives. This might be writing a story from a dogs view or even Ms. Browns. The students enjoyed doing this and were able to use their creative minds. One of the instructional modes I employed in class was working with small groups. After even math lesson, I met with three groups to discuss the lessons and also review the students work. This was a great way to have one on one time with the students and make sure they knew I cared about their work and performance. I also took advantage of modeling and demonstrating all of my lessons. I used the SMARTboard in every lesson to make sure the students could see how to perform an operation or write a story. Students need to be modeled in front of to know what the teacher expectations are. I am a very interactive teacher. I think it is very important to get to know my students and their personal characteristics. I spent time at recess jumping rope and teaching the students how to throw a football. It was also important for the students to know I am a fair teacher. Every student has the same rights as others. Now some

Whitney Mae Brown 3 Teacher Work Sample

of the students lost rights due to behavior problems but I always provided a way for the students to earn their rights back. In the future, I would like to change my relationship with students by promoting more interactions between student and teacher. I would like for the students to learn more personally about me. This might teach the students to view the teacher in a different perspective. I value the teacher as the authority but I think students would relate more to a calmer mentor program. I dont expect to be the students to view me as a friend only but I think if they respected me more as a friend, then they would respect my opinion more. Three Individual Students Lauren Mac is one of the highest students in the class. Lauren Macs success can be explained by her hard work ethic. Lauren Mac has high expectations for her class work and expect to do her best. She also has very involved parents that take a lot of interest in her school. They have set very high expectations for Lauren Mac and expect her to preform very well. Lauren Mac also is a very competitive student who wants to perform higher than her peers. For example on lesson five post assessment, Lauren Mac scored in the medium of the class and this richly upset her. Kevin is on a general and average level in the class. Kevin is however not the brightest in math. Kevin was a transfer from a private school in Greenwood and was behind in math. When I selected Kevin, I thought he would stay on an average level but throughout the assessments he went from top to bottom and vise versa. Kevin is a child in a single mother home. His mother is very involved and constantly at the school looking for resources to help Kevin. Kevin is all energy and needs to be

moving and actively engaged in all lessons. If I could reteach these lessons, I would have Kevin as the model student and at the front of the room. He needs to have attention on him and motivation from other students would highly impact him. Lucas was selected as one of my low students. Lucas has an IEP and receives extended resources. He was in a self-contained classroom last year and was placed in a general education room this year. He showed great success and improvement over the year. I watched Lucas climb from the lowest student to an average student. I believe his lack of success comes from a divorce home and domestic violence home. His mother was in jail throughout half of the semester and this really effected his learning environment. If I could go back, I would have spent extra time with Lucas to build his confidence. I also would have helped him make friends that would help build him up and not tear him down. I also would have loved to take him into another classroom to extend resources without him feeling discouraged. Professional Development One professional development goal I have developed a desire for is high education. I worked along side a teacher for 28 years and her knowledge of teaching and how to teach amazed me. I left the classroom everyday knowing I need to learn more. Every year the students are changing and it is the teachers responsibilities to educate themselves so they can be an effective teacher to the next generations. The second development goal is the need for mentoring feedback and influence. The best way to learn is through your peers. This past year as a student teacher, I received so much positive feedback from my cooperating teacher and principals. This was a great influence for me and helped me learn from my mistakes

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and even receive influence on situations that I was not aware of at first. As a teacher, I will strive to find someone that can provide me with positive and effective feedback.