Reflections and Self-Evaluation
Teacher AssistingI learned so much about how to relate to students and how to handle angry parents through communication with fellow staff members. Talking with my Cooperating Teacher, (CT), about these issues has been the best thing for me this semester. She is very open to sharing her view on these things and I take her views and determine my personal stance on them. In addition, our other CT, who helps co-teach 2nd and 3rd hour gives another outlook on education. As a special education teacher, she has taught me what it means for someone to have an IEP, how behavioral plans and 504’s work, and how to differentiate a lesson to help students who are lower functioning. Working with her has been a true honor and I am so privileged to experience this extra assistance while teacher assisting.
In the community I did my best to get myself out there and help. As a teacher it is so important to put your face out there with positive, service opportunities. The “In a Democratic Society” folder helped me to think about how I could take the next step in my teaching career and really impact those students around me. I took initiative to tutor students before school, talked constantly with them about upcoming events they were excited for, and created this relationship of mutual respect where both my students and I understand what is okay to say and what is pushing the limit. My CT voiced the importance of open communication not only between her and the students, but also between her and the parents and the administration. Putting all three parties in the know of what is happening in the classroom alleviates anxiety when going into observations and meetings with the principal, while allowing the students the opportunity to self-monitor their progress and where they stand on the grading scale. This experience as a whole has been very rewarding and helpful for me as a teacher assistant and I am sure it will continue to assist me as I begin to apply for jobs in the future. The Folio opened my eyes to realize how much I had accomplished thus far in the semester and taught me how to creatively and effectively organize the information I had gathered and used so it was easy for employers and other educators to view my work. Learning about these four different categories of teaching has helped me to become an even better educator and I cannot wait to use all of this knowledge when I head into my student teaching semester next year and the education field shortly following. I know the skills the Folio helped me develop will continue to help me challenge myself to becoming an even better teacher in the future. Throughout teaching there will always be room for
improvement, which is the beauty of the profession. I found that
analyzing what I had done within my classroom was very useful because it
provided me the opportunity to change the things that needed to be altered and
keep the things that were already working well for me.
My lesson plans all utilized technology through the use of computers and smart board technology. Formative assessments were given throughout each lesson through the use of whiteboard feedback, homework checks, discussion participation, and oral quizzing using note cards. Using these formative assessments I was able to assess where my students’ understanding was and form the rest of my questions and lesson around their competency. Learning how to evaluate my students is an ongoing challenge I face. During my student teaching semester I found that having on-line resources made evaluating students very easy. Students were able to check their homework on-line for correctness and I could simply check completeness. Additionally, students could take their quizzes and tests on-line and see their results instantly. For the materials students turned in paper copies for I was able to provide constructive feedback as indicated in the photos provided throughout my portfolio. My student teaching experience as a whole has been a very rewarding time. I learned many valuable lessons regarding ways to teach content, manage my classroom, and how to get more involved in school activities. I plan to use all of my acquired knowledge as I move into my future years as a teacher. Personally Working to Go from Student Smart to Teacher Smart
August 27, 2013 Describing myself has always been difficult for me since I have so many different pieces to who I am that it creates a bit of a mismatched puzzle of sorts. I am and have always been on the nerdy side, earning the title of Valedictorian for my High School class and then continuing on to achieve high grades while in the Honors College at Grand Valley, yet that is not my main characteristic. I am a huge athlete who comes from a family of soccer playing waterskiers. My family has always been involved in various sports and I am honored to say that I have played almost all of them with my family supporting me on the side lines. So, does that make me a family person? My best friends include all the members of my family, so it does seem logical. Yet, I am a very giving person who finds the most joy in helping others. I think this last attribute is how I found the teaching profession. I came to Grand Valley simply because I earned scholarship money and it would be affordable for me to attend. Once here I found a home and I will now always consider myself a proud Laker. Grand Valley allowed me to continue with my many passions in life. I was able to compete on the water ski team here, challenge myself academically, volunteer through my church and other organizations, while making lasting connections with my new friends. College taught me to follow my heart and do what I enjoy instead of what society tells me I should do. Originally, I was certain I would become a Pediatrician; however, I just could not let go of mathematics. I loved doing math and realized helping my classmates was one of my favorite parts of mathematics. I came to the conclusion that teaching mathematics would be the perfect job for me since I was already tutoring my fellow classmates for fun. It has been the best decision I have made thus far and I am so excited to finally be able to teach my own classroom of students. As a professional it is very important to know how to make students feel comfortable and I feel this is something that can always be developed. Being a Resident Assistant for three years has helped educate me on these issues and how to best address my students if a problem results due to differences in backgrounds of students. I am less educated on the educational reform that is currently underway. I hope to continue researching about this transformation since it will impact us all as future educators. Being more understanding of cultural differences and the changes in the education system will create a much more relaxed, friendly atmosphere. My long term plans involve continuing my education to become a successful teacher, work my way to become the principal of a middle or high school, and eventually become a professor of mathematics education at a university. Learning about the many educational issues is crucial for my dreams to become a reality. Without understanding the various backgrounds of my students, ways to incorporate technology within the classroom, and how to effectively interact with my students I will not have the skill set necessary for higher education. I personally hope to get a stronger understanding of my position as a teacher and plan to continue researching ways to improve myself on a personal as well as professional level into my future years. My desire to continually improve myself makes me realize this was the correct profession for me to choose. I continually look for ways to make a difference in the lives of my students. I know teaching involves more than helping my students earn high grades on their tests, but also includes helping them become successful citizens by helping improve their cultural competency. The bonus? I get to continue working with numbers. I am so excited for becoming a future educator and for my many upcoming years as a teacher that are yet to come. |
Student Teaching
Compiling these folders was quite an experience for me. When I originally began this mission I was nervous and apprehensive as to how it would turn out and if it would be beneficial in the long run to do it. Instead of the portfolio being a daunting task, as I originally expected, it became a creative, helpful, enjoyable one. In one of the personal development days we learned how to create an on-line portfolio. It seemed like a lot of work to me but the final result did not seem like something I could benefit from as a future teacher. However, as I began to build my digital portfolio I became more and more in love with the idea. This site provides so many options for portraying the material. Things such as videos, PowerPoints, and pictures can easily be added to the site and the viewer can scan through these to learn more about myself as an educator, which is very beneficial. I know this will give me an edge when applying for teaching jobs in the future.
Throughout the Geometry Exploration Unit there were things that went really well and there were also things that did not go as well as they should have. One learning goal students mastered was: 7. G. 1. Draw, construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them. Students did a great job drawing these shapes, as shown in their final assessments. They were very engaged while in class while learning about the various geometric figures and took readily to the exploration activities we did regarding constructing and describing the relationship between them. This was so successful because students found the topic interesting and engaging. When students truly enjoy what they are doing they are much more likely to learn that particular topic. I think a big component of this success was because of the exploration activity using Geometer's Sketchpad that worked with quadrilaterals. In addition, applying these shapes to real life and working with the prefixes of them helped students remember how to name them and properties associated with them. Both of these ways to teach, through exploration activities and in class discussions, will be things I will remember to continue using in the future because they were so successful. Unfortunately, not everything I taught went over well. One standard that students were least successful in was: 2. Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume. Students struggled particularly with finding the area of a triangle. I think this was a result of limited time spent discussing area in general. There were many days that I dedicated to discussing triangles and their properties so students had a great understanding of what type of triangle was which, but when it came to area the students tended to revert back to their original assumption that A = L x W. As many times as I explained to them that this formula found the area of a rectangle and a square, but not a triangle it still did not seem to register with them. I believe they learned this incorrect formula long ago and now have it drilled in their brains that this is the correct method. The biggest struggle of all is that now students are working with triangular prisms in class, trying to find the surface area of the figure. They understand the idea behind the surface area, but they do not know the area of a triangle, so thus get the surface area wrong every time. In the future if I notice that the majority of my class is struggling with a particular topic I plan to take the time and go back so that they get a strong grasp of the concept. I think that continually moving forward in the curriculum without students fully understanding the objectives will result in the students falling further and further behind in the long run. These are usually the students that tend to end up hating math, something I would be so sad to see happen. Something I would change to make my unit even stronger would be to have the project assigned at the start of the unit and then build the lessons around finishing this project. Having an end goal in mind would make the lessons more meaningful to the students and they would be more willing to listen when the different shapes and their areas were introduced since they would need to include these shapes in their final project. Since this would be a unit long project, each student would work on their own to create their dream room and the requirements would be a lot greater. Students would each have to calculate all of the different shapes throughout the unit and at the end they would combine all the results they determined to create their floor plan and a good reflection paper of their learning progress. I feel this would help them to see purpose in what they were doing in class and would make them more excited to learn the material. This experience as a whole has been very rewarding and helpful for me as a teacher assistant and I am sure it will continue to assist me as I begin to apply for jobs in the future. The portfolio opened my eyes to realize how much I had accomplished thus far in the semester and taught me how to creatively and effectively organize the information I had gathered and used so it was easy for employers and other educators to view my work. Learning about these three different categories of teaching has helped me to become an even better educator and I cannot wait to use all of this knowledge when I head into my student teaching semester next year and the education field shortly following. I know the skills the portfolio helped me develop will continue to help me challenge myself to becoming an even better teacher in the future. Questions related to my student teaching location, (Allendale High School, Michigan)
What do you notice about teacher initiative in the school you are teaching at? Is it apparent that the teachers are actively involved in student learning inside and outside of school hours? Would you change the way the school operates teacher involvement? At Allendale High School, (AHS), it is very apparent that teachers love being a part of the lives of their students. This involvement continues past the last hour of the day and into a variety of after school activities including sports teams, academic support, and service projects. It is very clear that teachers at AHS value this aspect of the students’ educational experience since all are very excited about the activity they lead and are encouraged by executive staff members to continue being involved. I would not change much about the way the school encourages teacher involvement. Dan Remenap, the principle at AHS, is very supportive of teacher involvement and encourages all members of the staff to participate with at least one after school function. This expectation is met and all teachers work hard to create a strong community within the high school. It was easy to assess how students were developing by having them write both an analysis paper and a reflection paper on the chapter project they created. Both used questioning techniques to make them think about the material on a deeper level and required them to express their understanding not only in oral discussions, but through writing as well.
Reflection is a crucial to the learning process of teachers. I found reflecting on the way to transfer from being a student to being a teacher was challenging, but very rewarding. Too often fellow classmates can pick out why a teacher is "good" or "bad," but not many are able to identify the reasons that particular teacher is effective/ineffective. I also analyzed student involvement in and out of the school. Some of my reflections are listed above, others can be viewed on my Twitter account also linked to this website. |