Personal Reflection

I am very pleased that I was placed at Roosevelt High School and with a cooperating teacher that was able to truly step back and offer advice only when asked. It allowed me to make my own mistakes and develop my voice and methods as a teacher. I feel as though I effectively used it as a testing ground for my ideas on classroom management and content delivery while still giving a meaningful experience to students. Through the process, I have gained numerous modular tricks that I can employ where needed, found effective ways to deliver content over the long term, and have changed some fundamental parts of how I want to teach. In my opinion, classroom management and engaged students are the base of the pyramid in effectively delivering content to students. I have found in previous experiences that specific tricks or Jedi mind tricks can be employed to do this effectively. They do not significantly modify my view of teaching as a whole, but rather add tools to my repertoire. I had plenty of opportunity to test old tricks and try new ones during the semester. For example, how I deal with disruptive students in a nonconfrontational way or get students to do what I want without directly asking. One trick I found particularly useful is isolating a chronically disruptive student to remove their audience. Another is the use of in class competitions to both engage and challenge high achieving students. For a more advanced student who will get an A even if they put in minimal effort, recognition of their success beyond their peers is a useful way to push them to a level they might have neglected if left to themselves. A trick that I have always used, but found validated in this experience, is the strength of having a rapport with students. I think this pre-empted many disruptions and the students with whom I had a poor rapport tended to be the most disruptive. The rapport also greatly assisted in engaging students. After identifying a student who was consistently spaced out or not mentally present, I would make a point to engage them 2-3 times per day until they knew that they could not get away with being anonymous any longer. In at least a couple cases, this proved very effective and caused the student to take a more active role in the class. I learned from my college classes that students will pack up with 30 minutes left if they think they can get away with it. I established classroom rules about when you are seated, when you pack up, etc not because I want to micromanage them, but because it facilitates students being able to focus on a task. Finally, I really liked planning by week in the sense of having lecture in the beginning and activities at the end. I think this matches the natural flow of energy in the class and predicting how boisterous a class will be proved to be very effective in delivering lessons. In regards to content delivery, I believe writing is fundamental to success in social sciences. I spent a significant amount of time teaching students how to write a paragraph using the format of topic sentence, 3 supporting details, and a conclusion. I feel the format forces students to think about and analyze the information they are writing about. I found writing paragraphs on videos, readings, or concepts to be an effective way to delivering content. Every student in every class I taught this semester now writes paragraphs, essays, or papers using this format. Once the expectation was put in place, lesson planning became significantly easier because I could have students (and the students expected it) write a paragraph on whatever we had read or done. This is definitely something I plan to use in the future because I think it is such an important skill to have and it makes it much easier to deliver content. I already knew that having a clear plan and executing it decisively is key to success, but learned it again firsthand as I almost crashed and burned. The few times that I was slightly unsure of where I

wanted to go in a lesson or let students dictate where I went ended up being near total train wrecks. This is a leadership thing that I already knew, but was reminded how much students will take a mile if I give them an inch. Also, the smarter the class, the more this is a danger, because astute students will pick up very quickly when I lack a clear plan or am susceptible to coercion and try to capitalize on it. I counter this by planning, but also by being mindful of my demeanor and acting decisively. There are at least two fundamental aspects of how I teach that I want to change. I know that one of my strengths is the ability to give a good lecture. I know I have a tendency to lean on this teaching method and I consciously allowed myself to this semester in order to not overload my brain. In the future, I definitely intend to design more group, collaborative, and role play like activities. The student centered activities I did do turned out very well and students did have significant content gains from them. However, designing an effective student centered activity is extremely time consuming and requires me to have a flash of inspiration (which occurs once or twice a month for me). Eventually, I want student centered activities to be my primary method of content delivery with lectures in support. I think as I become more comfortable with the more basic aspects of teaching, my brains computing power will be freed up to integrate more and more of these type of activities into my curriculum effectively. Finally, there were some students in my classes that seemed to be so behind or so unable to accomplish basic tasks that I really was not sure what to do with them. These students will probably finish the class with a 30% or lower. Even in retrospect, I really dont know what I would have done differently enough to get them to pass. I think perhaps part of the issue is structural and these students have just not been identified as needing additional resources yet. Perhaps as I gain experience with managing the class better, more of my time will be freed up to push these students more. However, I am not sure I could have gotten them to pass even if I had 51 minutes a day to work 1 on 1 with them. For example, one student is unable to communicate verbally due to anxiety and I have to give him sticky notes with instructions. Unfortunately, he mostly disregarded my instructions and barely turned anything in. I have yet to see any writing from him, which leads me to believe he is well below grade level in reading and writing. If I spent more time on him, Im sure he would have done better and probably gained something from it, but still would not have passed. With these students, my hope is that I can still provide something for them, although it was disheartening to feel so helpless as they failed to meet the standard. As a whole, my student teaching experience gave me new modular tricks, confirmed some methods of content delivery, and gave me enough of a foundation to start taking my curriculum to the next level. I am particularly grateful for being left mostly to my own devices because I learned a lot and now have confidence that I can effectively run a classroom by myself. Although I did have a few things that really did not go my way with students, I was able to salvage the situation from disaster and take a lesson away from it. I am personally happy with the experience because it proved my own expectations of the profession; there is never a dull day, there is always room to try something new, and interacting with students (even if they were being pests) was always fun.