Classroom Reflection

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

My time spent in the Clinical setting, so far, has been extremely inciteful as to how to become a better educator in a classroom setting. Through the data I collected I was able to connect Borich’s Seven Variables of learning to the students. By being in the clinical setting for nearly two months, I have been exposed to new ways of thinking when it comes to structuring a classroom and instructing a classroom. Within this reflection you will find out how I would better plan an effective lesson for the pupils in my future classroom. You will also discover what I will do about certain issues in the classroom and how I will address/fix them.

My advice to evoke the notion of “preparing prospective educators” for dealing with social justice in the classrooms, is to educate them on the diversity paradox that occurs throughout students’ lives in the real world. I believe that if prospective teachers are able to retain some form of knowledge regarding the types of students they will potentially deal with, they will began to produce strategies and tactics that aligns with their lifestyle needs. It is important as an educator to be able to connect with students on multiple levels. Reason being is that as educators, we would want to reach our students in a way that will motivate them learn. If current and prospective teachers are able to familiarize themselves with the society in which

When walking into Mrs. Fatones’ second-grade classroom one can almost feel the positive atmosphere from the smiling faces of the students. The classroom had a very traditional look to it. The rows were set up in aisles but each child had a partner except for one child who was considered the “trouble maker”. Mrs. Fatone preferred to use the chalkboard rather than the smartboard and her desk was directly in the front right corner overlooking the whole classroom. There were not many posters or work on display but on the right side of the wall was the “100 Board”. Every student that receives a 100 on a quiz or test, their work will be put up on the board. Mrs. Fatone stated “the students love this feature to the classroom because it gives them an opportunity to shine. I also see that it pushes students to try to do well on quizzes or test.” The 100 board enhances the physical environment because it gives students a sense of belonging and achievement.

While STEAM instruction relies on making authentic and engaging connections between the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, the implementation can look slightly different from classroom to classroom. The first video demonstrates how a STEAM unit can be incorporated in a single content: middle school science. The video shows students working collaboratively in groups to complete the assigned lab and asking questions as needed. The teacher is seen facilitating the activity, as she moves from group to group, addressing those questions, providing suggestions, and guiding students towards the completion of the activity. Although neither the problem nor the driving question of the lesson were explicitly stated or reiterated during the observed clip, the ‘lesson essential question’ and the ‘learning target’ posted on the board communicate and reinforce the objective of this lesson (e.g. students will identify minerals and explain why minerals are important). Thus, based on this and my observations of the teacher and students’ interactions, I predict that this lesson is focused on assessing how well students can identify minerals, as a way to introduce students to the characteristics needed for identifying and classifying rocks. This skill is especially important as students need to solve the problem scenario, which involves describing different types of rocks to assemble a group of “rock” musicians. As I was analyzing the video clip using the

The purpose of this analytical review was to observe two different classroom environments and examine the setting in relation to promoting collaboration as well as promoting high expectations for learning success. As I observed an inclusive classroom and a self-contained classroom for an entire school day, I witnessed many teaching approaches that worked well for students and benefitted their learning experience and success, such as station teaching. I also noticed approaches that did not work well and realized how important it is for co-teachers to plan effectively. Based on research based evidence and practices both classrooms will be compared and suggestions for improvement will be highlighted.

There were many ways to monitor students' understanding and achievement of the mastery objectives during my lesson. Students were continuously informed me about their learning and interpreting information through discussions, explanations, ans written work. These informal observations provided me with opportunities for instruction to be adjusted according to students' needs.

Working with students with special needs, teachers have the responsibility of protecting students’ right. Special education teachers are required to keep high standards and meet best practices. According to the Preliminary Credential Competency Checklist Historical and Legal Foundation 1.4 (2014), two of the best practices that are enforced in the special education field is to individualize education and evidence-based practice (p.1). Being a teacher in a special education classroom, there is a diverse level of learners and each student has an individual method of learning. The role of the teacher is to verify each student’s learning is being met. Individualizing a lesson by making accommodations or modification for them to learn the curriculum. Implementing evidence-based practice is using an educational method of learning that will support the student’s learning based on previous research. Using evidence-based practice in a special education classroom is a key component when a student or students need an intervention to support them in the academic area they are struggling. Special education teachers are responsible for meeting best practice standards for students’ academic learning.

This week’s reading continues to give context to what technology integration should be in the classroom. Roblyer equipped me with vocabulary for three types of web-based lessons: Interpersonal exchanges, Information collection and analysis and Problem-solving. While I may not use these phrases with teachers, I will be able to track my coaching in the types of experience I am bringing to the classroom. Currently, I am working with teachers that are collecting information. Teachers are enthusiastically, checking out computer carts for their students to do research on an historical event, a person, or a principal in science. However, reading examples given in the text such as Westward Expansion or Connecting Science Students with NASA Resources, I see that I am going to have the challenge of providing scaffolding from research to web-lessons.

I found the parent panel very informative – I loved being able to hear from parents about their opinions on important school related subjects such as new teachers, multicultural education, and homework. Personally, the most interesting aspect of the panel was listening to the parents speak about their thoughts on multicultural education. All four parents expressed that they did not see the importance of multicultural education being included in their child’s school curriculum. One parent explained that her daughter’s school has a culture night where families can come dressed up in clothing specific to their culture and bring ethnic food dishes. However, this parent said that she is fine with that being the only multicultural aspect in her daughter’s school. I found these statements interesting due to another class I am currently taking – ED 525 – whose sole purpose is the implementation of multicultural education into classrooms. In the class, the professor stresses how multicultural education is one the most important aspects of a school’s climate; I was surprised to hear from parents who did not agree.

Being a teacher, I want to ensure that my students know that even though we may have different back grounds and be different from others that we will all love and respect one another. I worked at a school once and they had things labeled throughout the whole school. Like for Bathroom they school had it labeled bathroom and Bano. Taking this Idea, I will use it for my classroom and label everything in both the English language and whatever language the child speaks.

In some aspects, the twenty minutes I spent microteaching felt like some of the most awkward twenty minutes of my life. In some of former other classes such as MAT223 (Intro to Secondary Mathematics Education) we had done assignments similar to this microteaching activity. I remember our group had the responsibility of teaching another form of proving Pythagorean Theorem. That was a beneficial activity because it gave us teachers in training the opportunity to get in front of the class and solidify a mathematical idea in front of "students". Unlike the MAT223 activity, the microteach activity is a more accurate and beneficial setting; at least that is how I felt while in front of the class.

Throughout this class, I have been able to rediscover a part of myself that has been hidden away since high school. When I decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa and become a Biology BS and a Biochem BS major, I in a way decided to put to death part of the old me that I liked. I was an entertainer, and this class has helped bring that out in me again.

While all my courses at the University of Northern Iowa are important and have taught me a great deal, there are three classes I feel prepared me the most for student teaching and as a future teacher. One of these classes is Classroom Assessment. This course taught me how to create assessments that are as fair as possible and to relate them to the exact content that is being taught. I also learned to incorporate the eight multiple intelligences into assessment. Not all assessments have to be pencil and paper and they should not because some students cannot show their learned knowledge this way. One idea that was stressed in this course is that fair isn't always equal; this is something that has stuck with me ever since.

Today was a very interesting day in Mrs. Beach’s classroom. When I arrived, Mrs. Beach asked about how my lesson went last week and began to explain what today was going to look like. Since today was the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break, Mrs. Beach was using the entire school day as a catch-up day. During my entire observation, the students were working on missing assignments. The teacher has a small whiteboard at the front of the classroom with a list of the recent assignments that have been done in class. If students had not completed or turned in these assignments, their number would be written under the title of the assignment, indicating that it was incomplete. Many of these assignments were very simple and were having students practice their math and writing fluency; however, all of the students were working on publishing their Turkey writings. Some students were still in the rough draft stage of the writing process, but the majority of the students were working on their publications. With that being said, it was pretty challenging to help students on these assignments since they mostly involved copying a story or quick recall; therefore, I spent about a hour and fifteen minutes of my time walking around and taking notes about the things that the students were working on. There were a few times where a student had a question and I was able to answer it, but for the most part, many of the students were independent.