Julia E.

Chupp April 24, 2006 ED 490

ED 490 Reflection Paper

The experiences and opportunities I have had during my student teaching experience have been priceless. I have learned so much about students, teaching, planning, and so much more that will help me in my future career as a secondary education teacher. There were many meaningful experiences in both of my placements that are worth reflecting on (I will do most of that in my reflection of candidate competencies). Each day I learned something new in my student teaching experience and I was constantly making adjustments to my daily lesson plans. As time progressed through my first period class, I would jot down what I needed to do differently in my next class. Sometimes that would simply be writing directions on the board. Other times while lecturing I found that I would have to stop and explain a concept that I thought that the students would surely be familiar with but were not. Some days, in the beginning, it was taking a more firm approach with the classes to get them to see me as a true authority figure. I was also excited and frustrated to see the progress, or lack thereof, of students. Several times I used a pre-test to see the ideas students were familiar and not familiar with on the topic we were about to study. After going through those and deciding which areas to emphasize according to what the students already knew or did not know, I would make lesson plans accordingly. While teaching the information I would informally assess student learning through oral questioning and pop quizzes to make sure students

were learning the content. When I got to the formal test at the end, some students did very well while others did quite poorly. While I felt that I had done all that I could, I also felt that I had failed my students in some way. After talking with Mr. Raines, I realized that part of the problem was that I did not call on individual students to answer questions and asked questions to the class in general. Because of this, when I used oral questioning as an informal assessment, it was not an accurate assessment. During this experience I feel that my philosophy of education has not changed that much. As I was reading back through what I had written two years ago, I was amazed at how many of my opinions are still true today after completing my student teaching. My philosophy was broken down into three different topics. The first topic is to establish a positive learning environment where students feel comfortable to be themselves and learn in their own way. The second topic is certain understandings and values that I want my students to leave my classroom with at the end of the year that allows them to appreciate history, see historys relevance to today, and respect their teachers and classmates. I now realize that my goal of having all of my students have some kind of respect for their teachers and classmates may be more difficult to achieve than I had originally hoped. The final topic is on assessment and using the state and national standards to guide lesson plans. I still feel strongly about these things that are discussed in more detail in my teaching rationale, but unfortunately I feel less optimistic today that when I wrote that paper. Reading through it I thought how nave it sounded. It would be wonderful if I could make it come true. No matter how difficult it may seem to obtain, the ideas I set forth in my rationale will be a part of my goal of becoming a successful teacher.

As a teacher candidate, I have had the opportunity to teach many lessons and interact with teachers, parents, students, and co-workers and reflect on these events. By reflecting on my student teaching experiences I have been able to identify both strong and weak areas in the eight UAH competencies. I found it somewhat difficult to identify two of my strongest and weakest areas because there were several competencies in which I have both strengths and weaknesses. However, I feel that my strongest competencies are reflective practitioner and student enabler while my two weakest competencies are content expert (as far as how I present the information) and leader and professional (as far as involvement). While I feel a sense of accomplishment when reflecting on my strong points, I also feel this same sense while looking back on my weak points because I was able to recognize my weak points and improve on them. A reflective practitioner is a person who reflects on lessons, theories, and practices to find the best fit for themselves and their classroom and uses feedback from their cooperating teacher, university supervisor, and principals. As a reflective practitioner, I was able to do these things to aid in making my time at both the middle school and high school as productive and positive as I possibly could for my students, my cooperating teacher, and me. There were numerous times during my student teaching where I was able to reflect on a lesson, event, or action I had taken and immediately make adjustments in order to improve. While the ninth graders were studying the causes of the French Revolution, I broke the students into groups and each group was assigned a different class or group of people at the time. They were then asked to write a brief speech to explain the views of their group and present it to the class to help them better understand the different ideas

that led to the revolutionary mood at the time. The students did a wonderful job with their speeches but I lost control of the class by not giving more specific expectations to the class. After realizing something needed to change and listening to what Mr. Raines had to say, the rest of the day went much more smoothly. After that class I told everyone else that I expected them to respect their classmates while they were talking and there would be no yelling, hooting, etc. as occurred in the first class. These were all things that students knew already, but they simply needed a firm reminder and explicit instructions to complete the assignment and get the most out of it. I was also able to obtain valuable information form a project I did with my students at the middle school that will be helpful in the future. My eighth grade student were responsible for creating a project that demonstrated the particular topic they were assigned. Each group was given a different topic such as What they Ate to research and present to the class to help them learn about the Middle Ages. The students were also responsible for a brief paper and a visual aid. I was able to learn several things from this project. Once again, I needed to more clearly tell my students what I was expecting of them. They all had a rubric on how they would be graded, but I did not include a section on the actual presentation. Some students did a wonderful job presenting what they had found to the rest of the class, but there were some who read from a paper for a couple of minutes. I feel that students should have the skills that allow them to speak in front of a group of people and get their ideas across and that is why, in the future, I will explain to my students why and how they are to present oral presentations in the classroom. Especially in a classroom setting where students are presenting for several

days, you can lose valuable classroom time if things are not done right. I will also have

students take notes on what their classmates are saying so that the information sticks with them better. Finally I will give more feedback after the presentation and ask them more questions about what they left out that was important. I have noted several changes in this lesson plan that I will do differently in the future to get the most out of classroom time and student time at home spent on the project. Being a reflective practitioner is an important part of life and being a teacher. We must learn from both the good and the bad in the hopes of improving as a teacher and the lives of our students. While it is sometimes hard to admit to the silly or stupid mistakes we make, it is better to fix the problems than simply ignore them. In my quest for becoming the best teacher I possibly can, I will continue to be a reflective practitioner to better myself and the quality of education I provide to my students. A student enabler is a teacher who can recognized and respect that students are different and have different needs and works to make instruction varied to meet all needs and to make the classroom a welcoming place to learn. This is another area that I feel that I show strength in. It is obvious that all students are different and therefore learn differently, and it would be silly to treat them otherwise. I implemented a variety of teaching methods during my student teaching in order to reach as many students as I could. Throughout my student teaching experience, I used a variety of teaching methods. Some days I used power point presentation. Unfortunately our world today is so fastpaced. Students are use to watching television where things fly on and off screen within seconds. Although power point presentations should not be a distraction from the lesson being taught, teachers can appeal to the modern-day students who are bored by old

technology. While this seems silly, I do believe that on some level, using modern technology is more appealing to some students. Another method I used during my student teaching experience was critical thinking. Some students had trouble with some of the critical thinking assignments that I gave while others dove into them with excitement. While learning about the Enlightenment at the high school, I provided my students with five quotes, each from a different Enlightenment thinker, and asked them to create an interpretive drawing using one of the quotes. Some of my students sat there staring at me with confused looks on their faces and others could not wait for me to finish the instructions. I helped those who were having difficulty to understand what they were to do and impressed with the results I got from them. Some students, like me, prefer the traditional outline on an overhead method. That has always served me best, so I used this method as well. Students claimed that they did not know how to take notes, but they soon learned. This was of course boring to some, but in my attempt to appeal to all of my students, it served its purpose and the students learned from it. My favorite method of all was the use of graphic organizers. It took students a little time to catch on, but they took off with it later on. My seventh grade students had already completed a project on the European countries but I still had to teach them. After a day of lecture and power point, I decided that the kids and I had enough. The next day I went to the board and drew the graphic organizer and let the kids fill it in for themselves while I guided learning. They absolutely loved it and so did I. In using this method, I was able to make learning fun for all of us and the students got so much out of it.

One of the most important things to me is that students feel that my classroom is a welcoming and comfortable place to learn and do not feel threatened in any way. I truly saw that in my two seventh grade classes. When my co-op teacher was out of the room, the students opened-up so much more and were not afraid to express their opinions on a topic or ask questions. I feel that a lot of that comes from the teacher and her attitude towards students and their opinions. After years of teachers who did not value their opinion or criticism from classmates that is allowed in the classroom, many students are embarrassed to speak out in class and that is simply wrong. I did everything I could to make my students believe in themselves and their opinions, even if it was different from others. Along with my strengths, I also have weaknesses. While I would not say that I am not a leader and professional or content expert, the description I had did not match up with my behaviors. Because of this, I have had to analyze these two competencies to see where I had gone wrong and what I could do to fix it. The reason that I feel that content knowledge is one of my weaker point is not because I am not familiar with the information that I am teaching, it is in how I present and connect the material I am teaching. I feel that during my assignments I was able to improve on this weakness, but I still have more work to do. I found that while I was teaching, I would get so into what I was talking about I would not try and connect what I was talking about to other historical events or events that are occurring today. This would make the information I was giving my students more relevant to them instead of simply presenting foreign and what they sometimes consider boring information. By better connecting what I am teaching with other events and what is currently happening

in the lives of my students, I feel that they will have a better understanding of and remember better what I am presenting to them. While I list this as a weakness, it is something I feel that I improved on throughout my student teaching experience and will easily be able to turn it into a strength. A leader and professional is a teacher who shows professionalism by becoming part of the school and is punctual, dependable, enthusiastic, and responsible toward all aspects of teaching. I feel that I meet many of these qualities, but am lacking in some areas. Becoming a part of the school and being involved in school-related activities after school hours was not one of my strong points. I can make excuses like I have a family and live so far away it was too difficult, but no one wants to hear excuses. While at the high school I did get more involved than at the middle school. My teacher was the cheerleading coach, involved with special Olympics and the annual beauty walk and I participated in all of these. I did not attend any middle school events. I feel that I could have gotten a better grasp on my students by seeing them outside the classroom. I could have then incorporated what I had seen outside the classroom in the class to motivate and relate to students better. I am also guilty of not being very enthusiastic some days. I let the people around me (especially my cooperating teacher) and my mood influence my actions so days and get me down. That is something that I need to work on. I need to work on not letting my attitude be affected by the negative attitude of others. I remember a particular day where things had been really bad and my precious seventh graders came in and cheered me up instead of me cheering them up! I felt so horrible that I had set that kind of example for

them. If I am not at my best how can I expect them to be at their best while they are in my classroom? I learned a great deal during my student teaching experience that will benefit me in the future. I was able to observe the kind of teacher I do not want to be and the kind of teacher I will strive to be. I was also able to reflect on my lesson and the evaluations completed by my cooperating teacher, supervisor, and myself to make adjustments that were implemented immediately or will be in the future. While I struggled some days and thrived the next, I was able to learn from every moment I was observing, teaching, planning, and reflecting. I only hope that through all of these experiences I can one day become the kind of teacher who inspired me to choose this as my lifes work.