Reflection

Overall Reflection
This semester, I observed at a community college. The class is focusing
on grammar, reading and writing, observing time is 6 hours per week, that
means I have lots of time to listen and learn from my instructor, also reflect
on how to teach English.
I think I realized there are lots of things that we need to consider when
we are teaching students, especially, if your students are second language
learners. To begin with, learn about your student cultural information, where
are they from, what kind of values their country cherished, and think about
anything that can help the students to feel welcome and respected in your
class. Second, get to know your students’ linguistic skills, understand the
learning patterns of students, in what way can improve his or her language
skills most and how to help them to learn the second language well. Third, if
my students are come from different countries, I will use storytelling to help
them become familiar with each other, we can talk about the music or food
in their country, how to celebrate some holidays in their country and
anything they want to share with the classmates. The most important thing
we need to know about second language learners is that they need
professional guide during the whole process of learning. Because their native
language may totally different with the second language they are learning, if
a teacher is too focus on his or her own teaching without knowing the
cultural background of those students, that may cause some
misunderstanding of different culture. So, I will consider as much as I can to
know the different cultural background of my students in order to help them
to improve the level of their second language.
Also, this is a quote from my observation at the community college, I
have learned one of the most important qualities from my instructor. Once
she told me, “Some students may not be good at English, but we can find
other shinning qualities in them. During the class, I may teach students how
to use English, but after class, they may teach me how to become a good
person.” This is very true. We can always learn different things from other
people. Especially when we teach multi-cultural students. To be a good
teacher with humility, I should always stay humble and kind to my students.
Here, humility, which by no means carries the connotation of a lack of self-
respect, of resignation, or of cowardice, on the contrary, humility requires
courage, self-confidence, self-respect, and respect for others. This humility
will guide me to reach my goal of becoming the kind of teacher I wish I’d
had when learning English.
In conclusion, there will be more challenges for me in the future. The only
thing I need to keep in mind is that every challenge is an opportunity to build
my dream of teaching. Always be passionate in education, and keep learning
new things. Cherish everything that I’ve learned in this class, and explore
more in the future.

Teaching Simulation Lesson Plan

1. What went well? How do you know?
I think in my classroom; the most beautiful part is the interaction. During
the teaching simulation, students were assigned into different groups. They
shared different values, norms or traditions in their hometown, and we
learned so many different cultures from this class.
2. What didn’t go as planned?
In this class, I made a mistake. Two students’ worksheets were not printed
very well. So, during the activities, these two students cannot join us. At
first, I thought they were not pay attention to the class, but when I realized
the worksheet doesn’t work, I apologized and switched the worksheet.
3. What contingency plan did you employ?
I gave them new worksheet, also, I double checked the new one is right
and well-printed. After few minutes, everyone engaged in class activities.
4. What would you do differently next time?
 Next time, I will double check before class, to make sure everything is
smooth and clear.
5. Did your students meet the purpose and objectives for this lesson? What
is your evidence for each?
I think my students meet the purpose and objectives for the class. For
example, students can differentiate what is the difference between norms
and values, also, we learned lots of different cultures from each other.
6. What do your students need next? How do you know?
I think during the simulation class, I can’t really see the need in this class.
Because all the participants are my TESOL classmates. Their English is far
more advanced than ESL students. But I do need to give more explanations
on class activities.
7. What did you learn about your glows and grows as a teacher? What can
you do to work on your areas needing growth?
Glows: Last semester, I don’t really know how to create meaningful and
useful lesson plans. But now, I think I came up with good activities, also
my students like these activities.
Grows: I think I need to use more clear instructions to explain how the
class activities work. Sometimes, students are confused if the instruction
is not clear.
Lesson Plan #1
1. What went well? How do you know?
In this class, students’ interactive levels are very high. That week’s topic
was related with meat. Everyone was excited with food, and they were
willing to learn more about their health. Every activity is interactive.
2. What didn’t go as planned?
I think time management was the hardest part for me. During students’
group works, some of them may faster than other students. Or, some of
them cannot finish the task on time. It is always hard for me to stop them
or urge them.
3. What contingency plan did you employ?
When I am running out of the time, I will use the words or sentences to
letting student know time is up. For example, “ok, you have 1 more minute
to finish it”; “30 seconds to finish the last sentence”. And I found this is
very useful in class, because it gives students a sense of time frame.
4. What would you do differently next time?
Next time, I will try to put advanced students and intermediate students in
one group, and ask students to help each other during the group work.
5. Did your students meet the purpose and objectives for this lesson? What
is your evidence for each?
I think my students meet the purpose and objectives for the class. For
example, they send me emails of their homework before the class. Also,
we discussed the homework, students learned the reason why people are
doing meatless Monday. And they told me they learned lots of things
related with their health, which is very useful.
6. What do your students need next? How do you know?
I think when we watch the video, some students cannot quite follow the
speed. I can tell from their facial expressions. Also, some students wrote
down the new words, they asked me after the class.
7. What did you learn about your glows and grows as a teacher? What can
you do to work on your areas needing growth?
Glows: At the beginning of this semester, I was worried to teach students.
But now, I am confident and well-trained as a teacher.
Grows: I think I will try to use some videos which the speed and words are
easy to understand for all leveled students.
Lesson Plan #2
1. What went well? How do you know?
During my last lesson at the community college, we learned how to write
a conclusion. Students were practicing how to find topic sentence, main
idea of the whole passage, transition words, and write the concluding
 paragraphs. As college students, these are useful for their academic life.
Students said they gained confidence in writing essays.
2. What didn’t go as planned?
Some students can understand terms and examples faster than other
students. In this case, I need to come up with more explanations and
examples to explain. Sometimes, it is not easy to come up ideas in a short
period of time.
3. What contingency plan did you employ?
When I don’t really know the answer, I will ask students to discuss with
each other. Next, we will discuss the problem in the whole class.
4. What would you do differently next time?
Next time, I will prepare more and practice more before the class.
5. Did your students meet the purpose and objectives for this lesson? What
is your evidence for each?
I think my students meet the purpose and objectives for the class. For
example, students were capable write a well-designed concluding
paragraph; they were using the transition words, writing structures from
that day’ lesson. And I asked some students wrote their answers on the
blackboard, all of them did great jobs!
6. What do your students need next? How do you know?
Because my students are intermediate leveled students, and this is a
reading, writing, and grammar class. Through read their papers and
homework, I realized most of students’ grammar need to be practiced. So,
I think my students should have more grammar instructions in the future.
7. What did you learn about your glows and grows as a teacher? What can
you do to work on your areas needing growth?
Glows: At the beginning of this semester, I was worried to teach students.
But now, I am confident and well-trained as a teacher.
Grows: I think I still need to learn more basic knowledge in English.
I will ask some other experienced teachers in this field, maybe they have
good suggestions for me. Also, I want to have more lessons to teach, in this
way, I can practice these skills in a real classroom setting.