Reflective Lesson Reflection

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.

‘Reflective teaching should be personally fulfilling for teachers, but also lead to a steady increase in the quality of the education provided for children.’ Pollard (2008, P.4) Here Pollard is suggesting that reflecting on our own teaching experiences is not only important for the standard of education we provide, but also for our own benefit as it can be rewarding and very worthwhile to reflect on our practices. By reflecting on my own practices in SE1, it will enable opportunities to analyse strengths and weakness and how to improve for future practice, which will allow me to develop more as both a reflective and a professional teacher. This idea of reflection stems from Dewey’s (1910) cited in McGregor and Cartwright (2011) ideas where he suggests that there are three attributes which enables us to be reflective, them being ‘open-mindedness’, ‘wholeheartedness’ and ‘responsibility’. By taking responsibility for our own teaching and reflecting upon our actions, it allows us to be open-minded about changing and adapting to new ideas from what we have concluded from our reflections, which then allows us to fully engage with these new thoughts.

In 1933 John Dewey (1933) introduced his theories and concepts on how people think. He identified a number of different modes of thought including reflection. He saw reflection as an aspect of thought, a rational and purposeful act that is more then mere thinking. Dewey contrasted routine action with reflective action, laying the roots of reflective practice in teaching (Zwozdiak-Myers, 2012, p. 5). In his notion of reflective action he described a willingness to engage in self-assessment, which required flexibility, analysis and social awareness (Pollard, 2005, p. 13). His reflection described a willingness to consider different possibilities and the ability and desire to recognize various opinions (Zwozdiak-Myers, 2012, p. 5).

What I planned to do was to explain to the students that points, lines, line segments, rays, and planes are everywhere. They are the building blocks of geometry. Then, I went through my PowerPoint and explained what each of the figures are. I explained that a point has no dimensions and is a location on a plane. It is also represented by a dot. I went on and did the same thing for a line, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, intersecting lines, line segment, ray, and a plane. Throughout the lesson I went through the worksheet and showed the students how to draw, name/read, and write each one of them. After that we did the line song. I should them what each one was using my arms. Finally, I play the game Simon says. During the game, I kept saying Simon says, but then I did not to see if the students were listening. A couple of students were not, but then got the hang of it then. I changed my lesson a little bit by going out of order. I did the PowerPoint first, then did the worksheet, played a game, and then the coffee stirrers.

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

This learning experience supported the science content area physics. It provided the children with opportunity to collaborate as a group to work together to problem-solve. My focus for this lab was to build and construct ramps and pathways in the outside play yard. I implemented technology by letting the children watch a YouTube video about constructing ramps and pathways to generate new knowledge about the activity. They used marbles to travel down the ramps, while recycled bottles and PVC piping were used to make bridges and underpasses. I planned this lesson to connect to some of the children’s prior knowledge about using this type of track. When the children began using the tracks in the outside play yard they chose to put their ramps off landscaping rocks. This gave them the ability to secure the ramp at the top as well as the ability to build bridges and underpasses on the ground. This activity immediately ignited their language such as, “let me try this, I have an idea, what about this, how about if we do this” which demonstrated that the children were engaged in the inquiry process. The learning standards this activity supported was; 3.2 PK.B.1 Explore and describe the motion of toys and objects. AL.1 PK.A Explore and ask questions to seek meaningful information about a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

For my lesson, I used your instruction feedback to change the meat of my lesson. I kept your ideas because I really thought they would help my teaching go a lot smoother. I really liked how you choose the words beginning, middle, and end to describe to Ellie what I expected from her when comprehending what I read to her. I also thought that your wording was a lot better than mine. I thought that your feedback helped make my lesson become a lot stronger than it was before.

Over the next several pages I will discuss many aspects of education. This will include the role that I am employed, the demographics of the area I work in and specific responsibilities I have as a paraprofessional. I will explore the classroom setting I am in, including the relationship to my students, supervisors, and other disciplines within the educational system.

Reflecting on my past educational studies, how have the decisions that I have made in the past impacted on my educational journey? This is one of many questions that I have regarding my education that I will be focusing on in this paper, whilst a reflecting on my key moments during my educational journey in connection to analysing them according to the 3 domains of education.

To truly reflect on one’s own teaching, to collect information on what you do in the

One major drawback that Blatchford (2015) has with the idea of differentiation is ‘the fact that teachers have to do this for 30 students at once’ making ‘it even more difficult’. He further continues to express how you can have great experience in this field which reflects ‘purposeful practice’ but you still would not be able to ‘quite crack’ differentiation. In some ways, I agree with Blatchford as from my first placement, I too have felt the pressure of differentiating for the whole class. I always found myself altering my plans as just when I think I have the best plan for that teaching, another need will crop up, thus starting back at stage one. Additionally, I feel it gives the teachers the impression of feeling intimidated by the number of needs that they would need to measure for when planning.

While not every teacher teaches the exact same, there does exist a few, fairly common similarities between those I was able to sit in on. Of these commonalities, there were positives and negatives. Typically, one of the first things I noticed during observations of a “good” class was that from the moment students entered the room they knew what to do. Out of the ten observed classes, eight used some form of bell-ringer that was displayed before and during the ringing of the first bell. Yet, of these eight, only four classes successfully engaged in the bell-ringer. Of these three, there was only one that required the teacher’s full input, which came in the form of reading the question. Even still, the four classes that successfully started off the classroom’s time with learning did so out of routine. The two classes that did not use bell-ringers while I was observing did so voluntarily. One was because the students were to be engaged in a Science project within the class, and the other was because they were expecting to leave to take student yearbook pictures. Excluding the Science outlier, classes that did not start off with a bell-ringer or some form of question/activity at the bell tended not to transition as smoothly into lecture or the next planned activity.

The changes that I would have made during this unit would include not always assessing with worksheets and varying my instruction. I would have still used some of the worksheets that came with the book, but not after each lesson like I did. I would have liked to use various instructional strategies that would have got the students up and moving during the lesson and not just having to sit there for a majority of them. My student’s performance told me that I taught the material very well and in a way that they could understand. I say this because all of the students improved by at least 15 percent from their pre-test. Yes, my students achieved the level of growth that I expected them to after looking at the pre-test and then looking at their post-test after the unit. The explanation for this is take the students knew what was expected on them each day in class regardless of how the lesson was being taught. When I began teaching and the students were sitting up front on the floor I set expectations for them. If they didn’t follow these expectations I would ask them to move a magnet. In the beginning I would remind the students of the expectations and then after a while I would just say remember the expectations. By setting these right away it showed the student what I expected and left no room to say that they didn’t know what I expected of them. My strengths were presenting the material at a level that the students could understand and being able to be flexible with my

During my internship experience in my school, I had the opportunity of seating in a pre-conference and a post-conference with a new educator who was being formally evaluated. The steps that I took for the observation, reflection, and the sharing of the findings with the teacher are almost identical to what I experienced in my school. However, the evaluation process differs from teachers who are new to the system from those who have been teaching there for years. There is no feedback or expectation for growth for veteran teachers.

On December 5, 2017, I spent my fifth session with class 3-213. As a prospective student teacher, this day provided me with a plethora of information regarding questioning. For my first few weeks of observation, I focused on the differing forms of instructional planning, assessment, and interdisciplinary instruction. However, this week I listened carefully to the types of questions the teacher asked the students. Mrs. Diaz is truly a remarkable teacher, who carefully plans her questions to execute informal assessments. She uses these questions to measure student performance, while simultaneously stimulating collaborative and encouragement in the classroom. Based on this idea, Mrs. Diaz continuously asks questions throughout the duration